President Donald Trump blamed his hoarse voice on a tense discussion with a foreign nation who attempted to renegotiate the terms of their trade deal. 

Trump sported a raspy voice during a meeting with the White House’s task force on the FIFA World Cup 2026, prompting a reporter to ask if he felt alright.

‘I feel great. I was shouting at people because they were stupid about something having to do with trade and a country, and I straightened it out, but I blew my stack at these people,’ Trump told reporters Monday.

When pressed about which country, Trump did not specify which nation sparked his ire and only said that he wasn’t pleased.

‘A country wanted to try and renegotiate the terms of their trade deal,’ Trump said. ‘And I wasn’t happy about it.’

When asked again which country, Trump said: ‘Why would I say that to you?’

The U.S. has engaged in trade talks with a number of countries in recent months, including Japan, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia. Additionally, Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea in October, where the two hammered out some negotiations on trade between the two countries.

For example, Trump said he agreed to cut tariffs on Chinese imports by 10% — bring down the rate from 57% to 47% — because China said it would work with the U.S. on addressing the fentanyl crisis.

Likewise, Trump said that he would not impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods that were expected to kick in Nov. 1. Trump threatened the steep hike after China announced in October it would impose export controls on rare-earth magnets, which he said China had agreed to postpone by a year.

Afterward, Trump said that a broader trade deal between the two countries would be signed in the near future.

‘Zero, to 10, with 10 being the best, I’d say the meeting was a 12,’ Trump told reporters after meeting with Xi. ‘A lot of decisions were made … and we’ve come to a conclusion on very many important points.’

China’s military buildup has reached what a new congressional report calls a ‘war footing,’ with hundreds of new missile silos and expanding nuclear capabilities that could erode America’s long-standing deterrence edge in the Indo-Pacific.

China has built roughly 350 new intercontinental missile silos and expanded its nuclear warhead stockpile by 20% in the past year, part of a sweeping military expansion that the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission says could strain U.S. readiness to counter Chinese aggression.

The commission’s 2025 annual report to Congress says Beijing’s rapid nuclear buildup, combined with new artificial intelligence-driven warfare systems, is transforming the People’s Liberation Army into a force ‘capable of fighting and winning a war against the United States’ — even without matching U.S. nuclear numbers.

According to the report, China has unveiled an AI-powered electronic warfare system capable of detecting and suppressing U.S. radar signals as far as Guam, the Marshall Islands and Alaska, and is now deploying 6G-based platforms across its armed forces.

The report says China unveiled a new 6G-based electronic warfare platform in mid-2025, capable of coordinating radar jamming and signal interception across long distances. The system reportedly uses high-speed data links and artificial intelligence to synchronize attacks on U.S. and allied radar networks — a preview of what Beijing calls ‘intelligentized warfare.’

 At a military parade in Beijing this September, China for the first time displayed a full nuclear triad — missiles launchable from land, air and sea.

The commission warns these advances, paired with China’s political crackdown and economic leverage, could allow Beijing to act ‘quickly and decisively in a crisis,’ shortening the time the U.S. and its allies would have to respond to aggression.

The commission is urging Congress to require the Pentagon to conduct a full audit of U.S. readiness to defend Taiwan, warning that Washington may no longer meet its legal obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act. The report calls for a classified and unclassified assessment of whether U.S. forces could ‘resist any resort to force or coercion’ by China — even in a scenario where the United States is also facing simultaneous aggression from Russia, Iran or North Korea.

Read the report below. App users: Click here

A war over Taiwan, the commission cautions, could wipe out up to 10% of global GDP — a shock on par with the 2008 financial crisis — and carry a ‘cataclysmic’ risk of nuclear escalation and wider conflict in the Indo-Pacific.

China now holds around 600 nuclear warheads. The Pentagon has assessed China is aiming to own 1,000 by 2030. 

The report further warns that China’s economic coercion is compounding the threat, pointing to Beijing’s dominance in foundational semiconductors, rare earth minerals, and printed circuit boards. It says these dependencies could leave the United States ‘reliant on its rival for the backbone of its modern economy and military.’

Among 28 recommendations, the commission calls for Congress to bar Chinese-made components from U.S. power grids, create a unified economic statecraft agency to enforce export controls, and reaffirm diplomatic backing for Taiwan — including its partnership with the Vatican, one of Taiwan’s few remaining formal allies that Beijing has sought to isolate through church diplomacy.

‘China’s rapid military and economic mobilization shortens U.S. warning timelines,’ the report concludes, warning that without a coordinated response, America’s deterrence posture ‘risks falling short’ against Beijing’s expanding capabilities.

The U.N. Security Council on Monday adopted a U.S.-backed resolution to end the Gaza war and deploy an international stabilization force after Ambassador Mike Waltz urged members to support what he called ‘a bold, pragmatic blueprint’ born from President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan.

In an address to the council, Waltz described Gaza as ‘a hell on earth’ after two years of conflict, saying the resolution offered the world a chance to replace ‘rubble where schools once stood’ with ‘a path to peace.’ The measure passed 14–0, with two abstentions — including Russia — and was adopted.

‘Voting yes today isn’t just endorsing a plan,’ Waltz said. ‘It’s affirming our shared humanity. A vote against this resolution is a vote to return to war.’

The plan, developed through U.S.-led diplomacy with Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan, and Indonesia, establishes a multinational stabilization force to secure Gaza, oversee demilitarization and protect civilians as Israel gradually withdraws.

Waltz said many of the peacekeepers will come from Muslim-majority nations, including Indonesia and Azerbaijan.

He credited Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff with brokering the deal, which has already produced what he called ‘tangible results’ — a holding ceasefire and the release of 45 hostages by Hamas. Waltz said the United States remains committed to ensuring the return of the remaining hostages still believed to be held in Gaza.

‘This resolution charts a path for Palestinian self-determination after the Palestinian Authority completes key reforms,’ Waltz said. ‘It dismantles Hamas’s grip and ensures Gaza rises free from terror’s shadow — prosperous and secure.’

Following the vote, Waltz thanked Council members for what he called ‘a historic and constructive resolution’ and praised the coalition of nations that supported Trump’s plan.

He said the Board of Peace, which will be led by the president, ‘remains the cornerstone of our effort’ to rebuild Gaza and establish accountable local governance.

The board will coordinate humanitarian assistance, oversee reconstruction, and support a technocratic Palestinian committee responsible for day-to-day administration while the Palestinian Authority implements its reforms. Waltz said the stabilization force will ‘dismantle terrorist infrastructure, decommission weapons, and maintain the safety of Palestinian civilians.’

‘The path to prosperity requires security first,’ Waltz said. ‘Security is the oxygen that governance and development need to live and thrive.’

Russia abstained from the vote after circulating a rival draft. Waltz said hesitation and delay would only ‘cost lives,’ adding that ‘every day without this force, aid trucks lie idle, children starve, and extremists regroup.’

Trump praised the U.N. Security Council’s passage of the Gaza peace resolution Monday, calling it ‘one of the biggest approvals in the history of the United Nations.’

In a post on Truth Social, Trump congratulated world leaders and said the creation of the Board of Peace, which he will chair, represents ‘a moment of true historic proportion.’

Trump said the board will include ‘the most powerful and respected leaders throughout the world’ and pledged to announce additional members in the coming weeks. He thanked both Security Council members and partner nations — including Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Turkey, and Jordan — for backing the plan.

‘This will go down as one of the biggest approvals in the history of the United Nations,’ Trump wrote. ‘It will lead to further peace all over the world and is a moment of true historic proportion.’

Trump’s message echoed the themes laid out by Waltz, who credited the president’s leadership and diplomacy for uniting regional powers behind the peace initiative.

‘President Trump’s historic 20-point plan marks the beginning of a strong, stable, and prosperous region,’ Waltz said. ‘Under President Trump’s bold leadership, the United States will continue to deliver results alongside our partners to make lasting peace a reality.’

House Republicans are cautiously supportive of a bipartisan bill aimed at forcing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all its files on Jeffrey Epstein’s case after President Donald Trump gave the bill his stamp of approval on Sunday night.

GOP lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital Monday evening said they would vote for the bill and were optimistic their colleagues would as well — though many of them said they still had concerns about how it was written.

It comes after Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who had been against the bill but pushing parallel transparency efforts in Epstein’s case, said he hoped it would undergo material changes when it reached the Senate to give more protection for innocent people whose names may appear in the files against their wishes.

‘I have real concerns about the discharge language in the House draft,’ Johnson said. ‘But I do have some comfort that, I think if and when it’s processed in the Senate, that they’ll be able to correct some of those concerns, if we have the protection of victims and whistleblowers and all the rest.’

The legislation is coming to the House floor on Tuesday afternoon via a mechanism called a discharge petition led by Rep Ro. Khanna, D-Calif., and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. The latter has found himself at odds with both Johnson and Trump on several key issues this year.

A discharge petition allows a bill to get a House-wide vote against leaders’ wishes, provided the petition gets support from most lawmakers in the chamber — which in this case, it did last week.

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., a Trump ally who is running for governor in Florida, said he would vote for the bill but shared Johnson’s concerns.

‘Number one, Congress has never released criminal files ever in the history of Congress. Two, there are victims, and I know we’re supposed to be trying to do what we can to sanitize their names or cover their names or redact their names, but you know, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be foolproof,’ Donalds said.

‘You could have victims that don’t want to be released, be identified, and then they have to go relive this again. What about those women? What if those women have kids now? What if those women have husbands now and they don’t want to go through this? So I think there’s a reason why political bodies don’t release criminal files.’

Donalds said he would vote to release the files, however, to move past this chapter and help victims get closure.

‘It’s become such a huge distraction here on Capitol Hill. And I do want to see justice for those victims, if they were abused,’ he said.

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Fla., said, ‘I’m gonna vote in favor of it, but it’s not perfect, and there’s a lot of things that need to be addressed.’

‘Transparency is key. My district needs transparency. The president has nothing to hide, but things that need to be fixed, have to be fixed in the Senate,’ Pfluger, who pledged to support the bill before Trump’s blessing, said.

Rep. Erin Houchin, R-Ind., said she had similar concerns ‘from the start.’

‘Once it goes to the Senate, if the Senate believes they need to have broader or, you know, bigger protections, then I think that’ll be up to the Senate to decide, but I’m ready to vote this out of the House and send it over to the Senate and get moving on it,’ Houchin said.

A member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., questioned whether such a move by Congress could get in the way of the DOJ’s active probes into Epstein.

‘I have concerns as well. I mean, you have the Department of Justice investigations taking place. Are we inadvertently interfering?’ he posed.

Ogles said, however, that he believed most House Republicans like himself would back the bill.

‘With the president coming out in support of it, I think that sends a clear message that he’s not afraid of what’s in it, the Democrats should be,’ he said.

Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., similarly said he believed Trump’s support alleviated some difficulties for Republicans.

‘I think it releases any angst they might have when we’re voting for it,’ McCormick said. ‘I think most people will vote for it, I don’t think it’s going to be a controversial bill at all.’

Houchin told Fox News Digital, ‘I think he moved the needle tremendously, just to say, you know, let’s have a vote on it and let’s stop talking about it.’

But Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., disagreed that Trump’s support had a significant effect on shifting the tide.

‘I mean, maybe a little bit, but I think people were largely there anyway,’ Fry said. ‘We talked about this on the campaign trail, The guy was a total dirtbag, did unspeakable atrocities on women in our country, and the public wants closure…this has been the most transparent Congress and administration on this subject in the country’s history.’

Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday night, ‘House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax.’

It appeared to lead to Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, who notably said he would oppose the measure on Friday, changing his mind as of Monday night. He told reporters ‘everybody’ would vote in favor of the bill and pointed out, ‘Donald Trump made a decision.’

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., who was leading the Johnson-backed probe into Epstein, appeared similarly resigned on Monday.

‘At this point, I just think the best thing to do — there’s so much media frenzy and curiosity about this, and you know, the survivors act like they want everything to come out. I want everything to come out….any other villains in this, we’ll try to figure out what we can,’ he said.

And Massie told reporters that same evening that he would be open but cautious about any changes to his bill in the Senate.

‘If the Senate wants to improve this bill without limiting the disclosure, that would be fine by me. But if they try to monkey it up, I think those senators are gonna get in front of a freight train and be in a lot of trouble with their supporters,’ he warned.

Massie told Fox News Digital of Johnson’s concerns, ‘He needs to be for it or against it. I think he’s going to vote for it, so he must think there’s more good than bad.’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has not yet said what he would do if the bill passed the House on Tuesday.

The House Freedom Caucus is rallying behind one of its own members’ push to impeach U.S. District Judge James Boasberg.

Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, introduced an impeachment resolution against Boasberg last month for his role in Arctic Frost, a code name for ex-special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into President Donald Trump and the 2020 election.

Gill argued Boasberg acted in a partisan fashion when he signed off on subpoenas and gag orders related to the investigation, including subpoenas for phone records from several Republican legislators in Congress — the news of which was made public in documents released by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, this year.

But it’s not immediately clear whether the push to impeach Boasberg is strong enough to launch an actual pressure campaign on House GOP leaders.

‘It absolutely should be done,’ House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital last week. ‘I think this is levels above what we thought was going on. His bias is pretty clear, someone with that kind of bias cannot exist in the federal judiciary.’

But Harris signaled it would not be an issue the conservative group would pressure House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on anytime soon.

‘No, we have other issues as well. We’re concentrated right now on the fiscal issues,’ Harris said when asked if he would bring the issue to House leaders. ‘But we have discussed that, and there is broad support to impeach the judge.’

Still, his conservative caucus appears largely supportive.

‘I think there’s considerable movement over here, particularly in light of, actually the genesis here, Arctic Frost … the massive concerns we have with what the judge is doing — just making up facts out of thin air and assumptions based on motives that have no basis,’ House Freedom Caucus Policy Chairman Chip Roy, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who is also running for governor of South Carolina, told Fox News Digital, ‘I hope so,’ when asked if this impeachment push would be stronger than the last.

‘He’s so partisan. He’s one of the rogue judges that exist today,’ Norman said. ‘There are consequences for what he did.’

Meanwhile, Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., pointed out that he was one of the earliest supporters of impeaching judges who conservatives saw as casting overly partisan rulings in the Trump era.

‘I think a lot of these judges have gone way out of bounds and violated their oaths. I’m in support of it, yeah,’ he told Fox News Digital.

He was more cautious when asked if it would yield results. ‘I don’t tend to have confidence in anything around here until I see action taken. Talk is cheap,’ Crane said.

Gill was one of several House Freedom Caucus members to introduce impeachment resolutions against Boasberg this past spring, when he issued an order temporarily blocking Trump’s deportation flights to El Salvador. 

At the time, however, Johnson warned Republicans that impeachment was not the most practical way to curb ‘rogue judges’ — pointing out that removal would require support in the Senate that simply was not there.

Instead, House GOP leaders rallied around a bill by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., subcommittee chair of the House Judiciary panel’s subcommittee on courts.

That legislation, aimed at limiting the power of district court judges to issue nationwide injunctions, passed the House in early April but was never taken up in the Senate.

Issa himself cautioned against moving too quickly toward impeachment when asked by Fox News Digital last week.

‘We have a number of rogue judges, and I think before we talk about impeachment, with so many people seeing wrongdoing, both the House and the Senate need to hold appropriate hearings and evaluate just what the proper definition of good behavior is and whether not just one, but multiple judges, may have clearly violated that,’ Issa said. ‘I think that’s the right way to approach it.’

Issa said he was ‘looking at’ holding a hearing on the matter when lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill after Thanksgiving.

Fox News Digital reached out to the U.S. Courts system, which declined to comment for this story.

From new stealth bombers to AI-enabled drones, the U.S. and China are reshaping airpower for a Pacific showdown – each betting its technology can keep the other out of the skies.

The U.S. is charging ahead with its next-generation F-47 fighter, while China scrambles to catch up with jets designed to match the F-35 and F-22.

After a brief program pause in 2024, the Air Force awarded Boeing the contract in March for the F-47, a manned sixth-generation fighter meant to anchor America’s next air superiority fleet. The first flight is expected in 2028.

At the same time, the B-21 Raider, the stealth successor to the B-2, is deep into testing at Edwards Air Force Base. The Air Force plans to buy at least 100 Raiders – each built to survive inside heavily defended Chinese airspace.

The Pentagon is also betting on Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCAs – drones designed to fly alongside fighters as ‘loyal wingmen.’ Prototypes from Anduril and General Atomics are already in the air. Officials say CCAs will let one pilot control several drones at once.

China outpaces the rest of the world in the commercial drone market, but that doesn’t necessarily give it the advantage from a military perspective. 

‘I’m not sure that’s really true. In terms of high-end military drones that are really important to this fight, the U.S. still has a pretty significant edge.’ said Eric Heginbotham, a research scientist at MIT’s Center for International Studies. 

He pointed to the Air Force’s stealth reconnaissance platforms – the RQ-170 and RQ-180 – and upcoming ‘loyal wingman’ drones designed to fly with fighters as proof that the U.S. still leads in advanced integration and stealth technology.

China’s leap forward

China’s airpower modernization has accelerated as the U.S. reshapes its force. Beijing has zeroed in on three priorities – stealth, engines and carriers – the areas that long held its military back.

The Chengdu J-20, China’s flagship stealth fighter, is being fitted with the new WS-15 engine, a home-built powerplant meant to rival U.S. engines.

‘It took them a while to get out of the blocks on fifth generation, especially to get performance anywhere near where U.S. fifth gen was,’ Heginbotham said. ‘The J-20 really does not have a lot of the performance features that even the F-22 does, and we’ve had the F-22 for a long time.’

Meanwhile, China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, was commissioned this fall – the first with electromagnetic catapults similar to U.S. Ford-class carriers. The move signals Beijing’s ambition to launch stealth jets from sea and project power well beyond its coast.

Together, the J-20, the carrier-based J-35, and the Fujian give China a layered airpower network – stealth jets on land and at sea backed by growing missile coverage.

Chinese military writings identify airfields as critical vulnerabilities. PLA campaign manuals call for striking runways early in a conflict to paralyze enemy air operations before they can begin. Analysts believe a few days of concentrated missile fire could cripple U.S. bases across Japan, Okinawa and Guam.

‘The U.S. bases that are forward deployed – particularly on Okinawa, but also on the Japanese mainland and on Guam – are exposed to Chinese missile attack,’ said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ‘In our war games, the Chinese would periodically sweep these air bases with missiles and destroy dozens, in some cases even hundreds, of U.S. aircraft.’

Heginbotham said that missile-heavy strategy grew directly out of China’s early airpower weakness.

‘They didn’t think that they could gain air superiority in a straight-up air-to-air fight,’ he said. ‘So you need another way to get missiles out – and that another way is by building a lot of ground launchers.’

Different strategies, same goal

The two militaries are taking different paths to the same target: air dominance over the Pacific.

The U.S. approach relies on smaller numbers of highly advanced aircraft linked by sensors and artificial intelligence. The goal: strike first, from long range, and survive in contested skies.

China’s model depends on volume – mass-producing fighters, missiles, and carrier sorties to overwhelm U.S. defenses and logistics.

‘U.S. fighter aircraft – F-35s, F-15s, F-22s – are relatively short-legged, so they have to get close to Taiwan if they’re going to be part of the fight,’ Cancian said. ‘They can’t fight from Guam, and they certainly can’t fight from further away. So if they’re going to fight, they have to be inside that Chinese defensive bubble.’

Both sides face the same challenge: surviving inside that bubble. China’s expanding missile range is pushing U.S. aircraft farther from the fight, while American bombers and drones are designed to break back in.

The fight to survive

Heginbotham said survivability – not dogfighting – will define the next decade of air competition.

‘We keep talking about aircraft as if it’s going to be like World War II – they go up, they fight each other. That’s not really our problem,’ he said. ‘Our problem is the air bases themselves and the fact that aircraft can be destroyed on the air base.’

China, he warned, is preparing for that reality while the U.S. is not.

‘They practice runway strikes in exercises, they’re modeling this stuff constantly,’ Heginbotham said. ‘Unlike the United States, China is hardening its air bases. The U.S. is criminally negligent in its refusal to harden its air bases.’

Cancian’s war-game findings echo that vulnerability. He said U.S. surface ships and aircraft would likely have to fall back under missile fire in the opening days of a conflict.

‘At the initial stages of a conflict, China would have a distinct advantage,’ Cancian said. ‘Now, over time, the U.S. would be able to reinforce its forces, and that would change.’

Looking ahead

The Pentagon’s fiscal 2026–27 budget will determine how fast the U.S. can build out its F-47s, B-21s and CCAs – systems that will shape American airpower through the 2030s.

China’s rapid modernization is closing what was once a wide gap, but the U.S. still holds advantages in stealth integration, combat experience and autonomous systems.

‘The ability to protect our aircraft, whatever form those aircraft take, on the ground is going to be central to our ability to fight in the Asia theater,’ Heginbotham said.

‘Survivability is going to be key… The ability to protect and disperse your firepower is going to be central to whether we can really stay in this game.’

For decades, U.S. air dominance was taken for granted. In the Pacific, that advantage is no longer guaranteed. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Sunday that the Cartel de los Soles, a powerful criminal network tied to Venezuela’s top leadership, will be labeled as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). 

The move appears to be an escalation in Washington’s stance toward the Venezuelan government and could lead to military action against the Maduro regime. 

In a statement, Rubio confirmed the U.S. will formally designate the cartel as an FTO later this month.

The designation, which is to take effect Nov. 24, targets the criminal network allegedly led by Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and senior members of his regime.

According to the State Department, ‘Based in Venezuela, the Cartel de los Soles is headed by Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking individuals of the illegitimate Maduro regime who have corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary.’

‘Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela’s legitimate government,’ the statement read.

‘The Cartel de los Soles, in coordination with other terrorist organizations including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel, is responsible for terrorist violence across our hemisphere and for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe.’

The announced action is being taken under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorizes the State Department to designate foreign entities engaged in terrorist activity. 

The designation will become official once it’s published in the Federal Register.

The Cartel de los Soles had previously been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department under Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorism.

In an accompanying post on X, Rubio said:

.@StateDept intends to designate Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). Headed by the illegitimate Nicolás Maduro, the group has corrupted the institutions of government in Venezuela and is responsible for terrorist violence conducted by and with other designated FTOs as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe.

The statement came as President Trump reiterated that the U.S. was intent on stopping drug dealers and drugs filtering into the country.

‘We’re stopping drug dealers and drugs from coming into our country,’ Trump told reporters Sunday night.

‘And I actually told Marco and some of the people our secretary of state is doing a great job, by the way. I said, ‘Go to Congress and let them know we’re not letting drugs come through Mexico. We’re not letting them come through Venezuela,” he added.

Trump’s comments came just after he said that the government may be having discussions with Venezuela as well as confirming whether the new cartel designation would mean the U.S. government could now target Maduro’s assets or infrastructure.

‘It allows us to do that,’ Trump confirmed while mentioning talks with the Venezuelan leader.

‘We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out. They would like to talk,’ he said before adding, ‘We’ll see what happens.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of State for comment.

President Trump is calling on House Republicans to vote to release files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, insisting he has ‘nothing to hide’ and accusing Democrats of using the case as a distraction from GOP accomplishments.

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump urged House Republicans to vote in favor of releasing the documents, describing the controversy as a ‘Democrat hoax perpetrated by radical left lunatics.’

‘As I said on Friday night aboard Air Force One to the Fake News Media, House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown,” Trump wrote.

Trump pointed to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) previous release of thousands of pages of Epstein-related documents. 

He also noted that the agency is investigating possible ties between Epstein and ‘Democrat operatives’ including former President Bill Clinton, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

‘The House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!’ Trump said.

He added, ‘All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT, which is the Economy, ‘Affordability’ (where we are winning BIG!), our Victory on reducing Inflation from the highest level in History to practically nothing, bringing down prices for the American People, delivering Historic Tax Cuts, gaining Trillions of Dollars of Investment into America (A RECORD!), the rebuilding of our Military, securing our Border, deporting Criminal Illegal Aliens, ending Men in Women’s Sports, stopping Transgender for Everyone, and so much more!’

Trump also argued that if the Democrats ‘had anything,’ it would have surfaced prior to last year’s presidential election.

‘Nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive and, if the Democrats had anything, they would have released it before our Landslide Election Victory,’ Trump said. ‘Some ‘members’ of the Republican Party are being ‘used,’ and we can’t let that happen. Let’s start talking about the Republican Party’s Record Setting Achievements, and not fall into the Epstein ‘TRAP,’ which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday the DOJ would probe prominent Democrats after new emails revealed ties to Epstein.

In an X post Friday afternoon, Bondi said Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, would take the lead on the investigation.

‘Clayton is one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country,’ Bondi wrote in the post. ‘As with all matters, the Department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House, Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman and Larry Summers for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.

Americans have delivered the same message in the last two elections: make life affordable again. 

They are tired of working harder for less, while the cost of everything — from housing to education to insurance — keeps rising. The affordability crisis touches every household, and its biggest driver is the one Washington refuses to tackle seriously: healthcare. 

Healthcare now consumes nearly one-fifth of our economy. It is the largest single cost for employers, the fastest-growing burden on families, and the quietest drain on national growth. Every dollar businesses spend on bloated health costs is a dollar not available for higher wages, new jobs or investment. Every dollar families spend on premiums or out-of-pocket costs is a dollar they can’t use for savings, housing or opportunity. Until we fix healthcare, we can’t fix affordability. 

It’s not that Washington ignores healthcare — it’s that it thinks about it too narrowly. Politicians obsess over temporary subsidies, tax credits and program expansions that make insurance more expensive to subsidize but never make care itself more affordable. The current fight over extending COVID-era insurance subsidies is a perfect example. Even supporters of Obamacare now admit that the ‘Affordable’ Care Act turned out to be unaffordable. Their answer is to borrow more money to prop up a system that keeps getting worse. That is not reform — it’s surrender.

There are three truths both parties must face. 

First, the system is already too expensive and locked in a pattern that guarantees it will grow more unaffordable every year. 

Second, 60 years of bureaucratic control — public and private — have utterly failed to contain costs.

Third, we must build a new model that relies on patients, doctors and employers — not massive government and insurance-company bureaucracies — to achieve the change Americans want. 

That model is not theoretical — it already works in the rest of our economy. When people have access to clear prices and quality information before making decisions, competition drives innovation, choice and lower costs. Technology has made this possible in every industry, from travel to retail to manufacturing. If the same principles applied to healthcare, we could unleash that same power to lower costs and improve quality. 

Instead, our opaque, bureaucratic system hides prices and multiplies middlemen. The average family of four now spends roughly $27,000 a year on health insurance — about the cost of a new Chevrolet or Toyota every 12 months. Most families don’t see the full bill because their employer or the government pays much of it, but that just means their wages are smaller. Paying the equivalent of a new car every year just for coverage is why Americans list affordability as their top economic concern.

Worse, nobody knows what anything costs — not patients, not families, not even the self-funded employers who pay the claims for their plan members. Bills arrive months after care, after passing through a maze of third-party administrators, repricers and billing vendors. That secrecy fuels waste, fraud and frustration. It’s estimated that 30% to 50% of all healthcare spending is administrative rather than medical. In short, America’s healthcare system has more middlemen than medicine. 

And who benefits? Powerful interest groups, insurers, consultants and bureaucracies that profit from complexity and confusion. As Tom Cruise shouted in ‘Jerry Maguire’: ‘Show me the money.’ Behind the speeches and lobbyists defending this broken system are people determined to protect their share of a bankrupting status quo. 

Second, 60 years of bureaucratic control — public and private — have utterly failed to contain costs.

Politicians can’t fight every entrenched interest group — but millions of patients and doctors armed with real price and quality information can. Transparency gives power back to those who actually deliver and receive care. When they can see what things cost, they can make smarter choices, reward efficiency and hold wasteful players accountable. Transparency doesn’t just lower prices — it changes who holds the power.

That’s why President Donald Trump’s price-transparency executive order in his first administration was a genuine breakthrough. It required hospitals and insurers to publish negotiated prices and, through the No Surprises Act, directed officials to create Advance Explanations of Benefits (AEOBs) so Americans could know their costs before receiving care. Trump started the transparency revolution. Under the Biden administration, enforcement stalled, and patients never saw the full benefit. 

Now Trump has the chance to finish what he began — and make transparency permanent. 

The administration has the authority to act right now under his ‘radical transparency’ executive order issued earlier this year, the No Surprises Act, and existing Employee Retirement Income Security Act authority. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should immediately issue and enforce AEOB rules. The Department of Labor should guarantee employers access to complete claims and pricing data while protecting patient privacy. If the administration moves quickly, Americans could begin receiving AEOBs in 2026 — and Trump could rightfully claim a historic victory for transparency, competition and higher wages before the midterms. 

Congress should reinforce this effort by passing the bipartisan Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, led by Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall and Colorado Democrat Sen. John Hickenlooper. The bill secures employer access to data and ensures no third-party administrator can hide prices from the people who pay the bills. The executive branch can act today; Congress should make it permanent.

When every patient and employer can see prices, markets will clean out waste on their own. Transparency gives employers the power to negotiate directly with providers and patients the ability to choose wisely. Prices in the open create competition that middlemen can’t survive and costs they can’t hide. The ripple effect — lower costs, higher wages, more investment — will strengthen every part of the economy. 

If America truly wants to make life affordable again, healthcare transparency is where we start.

It’s bold. It’s achievable. And it’s the single biggest step we can take to restore prosperity for working families.   

Disclaimer: Gingrich 360 has consulting clients in the healthcare industry which may be impacted by changes to healthcare laws.