The White House pulled the plug on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of polygraph tests to root out leakers, according to a report.

Patrick Weaver, a current adviser to Hegseth, alerted high-ranking administration officials that he could soon have to submit a polygraph test, the Washington Post reported. That prompted a call to Hegseth to drop the lie detector tests.

Weaver, who has previously held roles on the White House’s National Security Council and in the Department of Homeland Security during President Donald Trump’s first administration, took offense to the potential measure.

The investigation to identify leakers within the Department of Defense began in late March with a memo from Joe Kasper, then Hegseth’s chief of staff.

‘Recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications with principals within the Office of the Secretary of Defense demand immediate and thorough investigation,’ Kasper wrote in the March 21 memo.

‘The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy,’ Kasper added.

The White House and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

The revelation is the latest controversy at the Pentagon, which earlier this year endured the ‘Signalgate’ scandal. Discussions about military action between Hegseth and a group of top Trump officials were leaked, despite being conducted on the encrypted app.

Then-national security advisor Michael Waltz assumed ‘full responsibility’ for the misstep of including the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg on the Signal chat alongside Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Hegseth.

In the aftermath of the accidental leak to a journalist about impending U.S. military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, Trump has remained firmly in Hegseth’s corner, offering public support.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed speculation that he could be the Republican Party’s 2028 presidential nominee, instead throwing his support behind Vice President JD Vance.

‘I thinkJD Vance would be a great nominee if he decides he wants to do that,’ Rubio said during an interview with Lara Trump that aired on the Fox News Channel Saturday.

Rubio also described Vance as one of his ‘closest friends in politics.’

He went on to commend Vance’s performance as vice president during the segment on ‘My View with Lara Trump’ and made clear he is satisfied with his current role in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.

‘I want to do this job as long as the president allows me to,’ Rubio added. 

Trump appointed Rubio to serve as the nation’s top diplomat shortly after defeating then–Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Rubio, previously a Republican senator representing Florida, was among the first confirmed to Trump’s Cabinet.

‘I believe that if I am able to be here, through the duration of this presidency, and we get things done at the pace that we’ve been doing the last six months, I’ll be able to look back at my time in public service and say I made a difference, I had an impact, and I served my country in a very positive way,’ Rubio told Trump.

‘And I would be satisfied with that as the apex of my career,’ he added.

A lawmaker in the conservative House Freedom Caucus is launching his campaign to be governor of South Carolina.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who came to Congress in 2017, kicked off his Palmetto State bid with a Rock Hill campaign rally on Sunday.

‘I am running for governor to shake things up, clean up Columbia, and finally take down the corrupt political establishment once and for all,’ Norman is telling voters, according to prepared remarks obtained by Fox News Digital. ‘I owe nothing to the lobbyists. I owe nothing to the Columbia bureaucratic elite. My allegiance is to you, the people of South Carolina.’

As part of his campaign platform, Norman is promising to establish a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) ‘commission’ in the state ‘that roots out waste, fraud, and abuse.’

Norman is also running on the promise of fixing South Carolina’s infrastructure, implementing term limits for state lawmakers, tort reform, and pledging to ‘let the people vote on judges.’

Currently, a majority of state judgeships in South Carolina are decided by the General Assembly. Some positions, including magistrate judges, are appointed by the governor.

Norman is also promising ‘to use the bully pulpit to bring my case directly to the people’ and to ‘use the veto pen.’

His campaign speech also touches on socially conservative goals like advocating for school choice, and restricting school bathrooms by gender at birth.

‘And if that all doesn’t work, I’m telling you now that any so-called ‘Republican’ RINO legislator that doesn’t stand for reforms the people are calling for doesn’t deserve to be in office and we’ll beat them in Republican primaries if that’s what it takes,’ Norman’s speech says.

Norman is joining a crowded Republican primary field with his Sunday announcement. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Sen. Josh Kimbrell are also in the race.

Meanwhile, Norman’s House colleague, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., is also said to be considering a campaign for governor.

And in a state that President Donald Trump won by nearly 20 points in 2024, the commander-in-chief’s endorsement – both in the primary and general election – will likely be critical.

Norman pointed out in his speech that both he and Trump have a background in real estate; both men led development companies that were founded by their fathers.

‘We need business leaders – people who have signed both the front and the back of a paycheck. Folks who have built something, taken risks, made money, and yes, lost money too,’ Norman said. ‘Thankfully, we have a great businessman – and fellow developer – back in the White House! Just look what a difference President Trump has made in six months.’

He also cast himself as a disruptor who helped move ‘the needle by making our budget more conservative,’ in reference to the House Freedom Caucus’s push to move Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ to the right.

And while the group was successful in doing that in the House, the Senate watered down several of those wins during its time considering the bill. The Senate version ultimately passed the House, with Norman and other Freedom Caucus members voting in support.

‘Some say I have earned a reputation of being uncompromising, always trying to make a bill more conservative,’ Norman’s speech says. ‘Well folks, I’ll take that as a compliment and I am proud of it.’

As a member of Congress, Norman sits on the House Committee on Financial Services, House Budget Committee, and House Rules Committee.

A longtime ally of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Norman was the only House Republican to formally endorse her before Haley dropped out of the race, after which Norman backed Trump.

He told Fox News Digital of his endorsement in January 2024, ‘When I supported Nikki Haley, I had the respect of Donald Trump to call him, and I told him what I was gonna do, and I decided I was going to do it.’

It’s worth noting, however, that Norman had been a vocal supporter of Trump since Haley’s exit – and unlike other House Freedom Caucus allies, he did not incur Trump’s wrath for his loyalty to Haley.

He was most recently at the White House earlier this week with other House Republicans for a reception celebrating their legislative successes.

The South Carolina gubernatorial general election will take place in November 2026.

President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a trade deal between the U.S. and European Union on Sunday.

The announcement came moments after the two had addressed the media, agreeing that the likelihood of an agreement was about 50-50. Von der Leyen said the negotiations had taken some ‘heavy lifting,’ but the two leaders agreed they were happy with the result.

‘We are agreeing that the tariff straight across for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of 15%,’ Trump said.

‘So we have a tariff of 15%. We have the opening up of all of the European countries, which I think I could say were essentially closed. I mean, you weren’t exactly taking our orders. You weren’t exactly taking our agriculture,’ he added, addressing von der Leyen.

Von der Leyen said Europe will also purchase $150 billion worth of U.S. energy as part of the deal, in addition to making $600 billion in other investments into the U.S.

Trump and von der Leyen had sounded unsure of whether a deal would be reached even as they spoke to the press in Scotland on Sunday.

‘We look forward to talking to see if we can do something,’ Trump had said of the negotiations. ‘We’ve had, a very good relationship over the years, but it’s been a very one-sided transaction, very unfair to the United States.’

Responding to a reporter’s question, von der Leyen agreed with Trump that there must be a ‘rebalancing’ of the bilateral trade, which is worth billions of dollars.

‘It is about rebalancing,’ von der Leyen said as she sat next to Trump. ‘You can call it fairness, you can call it rebalancing. We have a surplus and the United States has a deficit, and we have to rebalance it.’

President Donald Trump blasted the European Union for not providing aid to Gaza on Sunday, adding that Israel must ‘make a decision’ about how to handle the region with Hamas still holding hostages.

Trump made the comments while meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland. He said that the U.S. has given millions in aid to Gazans, but claimed there has been no assistance from European countries.

‘We gave $60 million two weeks ago for food for Gaza, and nobody acknowledged it. Nobody talks about it. And it makes you feel a little bad when you do that. And, you know, you have other countries not giving anything. None of the European countries, by the way, gave – I mean, nobody gave but us and nobody said, gee, thank you very much. And it would be nice to have at least a thank you.’

Trump went on to note that a deal needs to be made between Israel and Hamas to end the war and return the last remaining hostages to Israel, despite many of them being dead.

‘But we have a lot of bodies, and the parents want those bodies as much as they would want their child if that child were alive,’ Trump said of the hostages and their families.

He suggested that Hamas is reluctant to make a deal for the final hostages because they feel it would be ‘the end for them’ if they lose leverage against Israel.

‘You know, they had a routine discussion the other day and all of a sudden they hardened up. They don’t want to give them back. And so Israel is going to have to make a decision,’ Trump said.

The meeting comes as the IDF highlighted its efforts to deliver aid into Gaza after restricting the flow in recent months.

Israel is now conducting airdrops for aid throughout the region, and the IDF says it conducted 28 drops in a matter of hours on Sunday.

‘Let me be clear: Israel supports aid for civilians, not for Hamas. The IDF will continue to support the flow of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,’ an IDF spokesperson said, claiming Israel transferred roughly 250 trucks full of aid into Gaza this week.

The IDF argues the reports about starvation in Gaza were a false campaign promoted by Hamas, but hunger is spreading across the region after the United Nations and the IDF previously failed to reach an agreement about aid distribution, Fox News’ Trey Yingst reported. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Sunday that Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell deserves a life sentence, rejecting the idea of a potential pardon for the convicted sex trafficker.  

In an appearance on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ Johnson was asked if he supported a pardon for Maxwell, but the speaker emphasized that the decision ultimately belongs to President Donald Trump. 

‘I think 20 years was a pittance,’ Johnson said of Maxwell’s time behind bars. ‘I think she should have a life sentence, at least. I mean, think of all these unspeakable crimes.’ 

‘I mean it’s hard to put into words how evil this was and that she orchestrated it and was a big part of it, at least under the criminal sanction, I think is an unforgivable thing,’ Johnson added, acknowledging that federal prosecutors identified more than 1,000 victims, many of whom were underage. ‘So again, not my decision, but I have great pause about that as any reasonable person would.’ 

While leaving the White House on Friday en route for Scotland, Trump was asked if he considered a pardon or clemency for Maxwell. The president left the door open, responding: ‘I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.’

Johnson said he supports the position of the president, the FBI and the Justice Department that ‘all credible evidence and information’ be released, but emphasized the need for safeguards to protect victims’ identities. As for Maxwell, she was questioned by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche at federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, for two consecutive days last week. Her lawyer told reporters she answered questions on about 100 potential Epstein associates as she angles for clemency. 

‘That’s a decision of the president,’ Johnson said of a potential Maxwell pardon. ‘He said he had not adequately considered that. I won’t get in front of him. That’s not my lane. My lane is to help direct and control the House of Representatives and to use every tool within our arsenal to get to the truth. I’m going to say this as clearly and plainly and repeatedly as I can over and over. We are for maximum disclosure. We want all transparency. I trust the American people. I and the House Republicans believe that they should have all this information to be able to determine what they will. But we have to protect the innocent. And that’s the only safeguard here that we’ve got to be diligent about, and I’m insistent upon doing so.’ 

Johnson criticized a petition for the release of all the Epstein files brought by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-W.Va., and Ro Khanna, D-Penn., as ‘reckless’ and poorly drafted, arguing that it ignored federal rules protecting grand jury materials and ‘would require the DOJ and FBI to release information that they know is false, that is based on lies and rumors and was not even credible enough to be entered into the court proceedings.’ 

The speaker said the petition also lacked safeguards for minor victims who were subjected to ‘unspeakable crimes, abject evil’ and who risk being ‘unmasked.’ Johnson said Massie and Khanna ‘cite that they don’t want child abuse, sex abuse information uncovered, but they cite the wrong provision of the federal code, and so it makes it unworkable.’ The speaker argued Republicans on the House Rules Committee are committed to a better drafted approach that will protect the innocent. 

Asked about a potential pardon for Maxwell, Massie told NBC’s Kristen Welker earlier in the program that it ‘would be up to the president, but if she has information that could help us, I think that she should testify.’ 

‘Let’s get that out there, and whatever they need to do to compel that testimony, as long as it’s truthful, I would be in favor of,’ Massie said. 

Khanna said he did not believe Maxwell’s sentence should be commuted and that he was concerned that Blanche was meeting with her. He said he agreed with Massie that Maxwell should testify but noted she has been indicted twice for perjury.

‘This is why we need the files. This is why we need independent evidence,’ Khanna said. 

Former President Barack Obama issued a rare statement weighing in on the hunger situation in Gaza on Sunday, suggesting aid must flow to Palestinians regardless of whether Israel can secure a hostage deal for now.

Obama made the statement on social media in reference to reporting from the New York Times stating that ‘Gazans are dying of starvation.’ Israel, which blockaded aid to Gaza earlier this year, has recently begun to airdrop aid resources into the region, and its leaders argue reports of starvation are a false campaign promoted by Hamas. Reporting from Fox News’ Trey Yingst has indicated that hunger is indeed spreading across the region, however.

‘While a lasting resolution to the crisis in Gaza must involve a return of all hostages and a cessation of Israel’s military operations, these articles underscore the immediate need for action to be taken to prevent the travesty of innocent people dying of preventable starvation,’ Obama wrote on X, providing a link to the Times.

‘Aid must be permitted to reach people in Gaza. There is no justification for keeping food and water away from civilian families,’ he added.

President Donald Trump touted U.S. efforts to provide aid to Gaza when asked about the situation on Sunday. Meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the time, he stated that Europe has not provided aid to Gaza. He also said that Hamas is stealing much of the aid being sent to Palestinians, a claim Israel has put forward repeatedly.

‘When I see the children and when I see, especially over the last couple of weeks people are stealing the food, they’re stealing the money, they’re stealing the money for the food. They’re stealing weapons, they’re stealing everything,’ Trump told reporters.

‘It’s a mess, that whole place is a mess. The Gaza Strip, you know it was given many years ago so they could have peace. That didn’t work out too well,’ he added.

The IDF says it conducted 28 drops in a matter of hours on Sunday, in addition to transferring some 250 aid trucks over the course of the week.

‘Let me be clear: Israel supports aid for civilians, not for Hamas. The IDF will continue to support the flow of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,’ an IDF spokesperson said Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also pushed back on criticism of his regime, arguing that the United Nations has been falsely pushing claims of widespread starvation. He told the Jerusalem Post on Sunday that it has long been Israel’s policy to allow aid into Gaza so long as it did not benefit Hamas.

‘We’ve done this so far,’ Netanyahu told the paper. ‘But the U.N. is spreading lies and falsehoods about Israel. They say we don’t allow humanitarian supplies in, yet we do. There are secure corridors. They’ve always existed, but now it’s official. No more excuses.’

Artificial intelligence is no longer a niche tool for tech labs or science-fiction thrillers. It’s now the battleground where the future of American power, prosperity, and freedom will be decided. With the release of ‘Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan,’ the Trump administration is rightfully treating this moment as the 21st-century equivalent of the space race or the nuclear age. 

This bold strategy outlines over 90 policy actions that span three key pillars: Accelerating Innovation, Building American AI Infrastructure, and Leading in International Diplomacy and Security. Each of these pillars sends a clear message to the world: America intends to lead – not follow – on artificial intelligence. 

And we must. This is a race we can’t afford to lose. 

President Donald Trump’s AI plan: strong, strategic and patriotic 

The Trump administration’s plan does what Washington too often fails to do: it combines vision with action. From fast-tracking permits for critical data centers and chip fabrication plants, to expanding the skilled trades workforce needed to maintain those facilities, the plan hits both high-tech and firsthand realities. 

Crucially, the plan calls for exporting secure, full-stack American AI packages – hardware, software, models, applications and standards – to trusted allies. That’s smart policy. In a world where China exports authoritarian surveillance technology, America must counter with liberty-based alternatives. 

And most refreshingly, the plan defends free speech. It mandates that federal procurement contracts only go to developers of large language models that are free from ideological censorship. That’s a huge win for constitutional values in a time when Big Tech algorithms increasingly silence dissent. 

But here’s the hard truth: AI could also unleash chaos 

The optimism in this action plan is well-founded – but incomplete. As foreign policy analysts Matan Chorev and Joel Predd recently warned in their Foreign Policy article, the U.S. must also assume the worst about artificial intelligence – especially artificial general intelligence (AGI). That’s the version of AI that can perform at or above human levels across a wide range of tasks.  

Unlike nuclear weapons, AGI won’t announce itself with a mushroom cloud. It may slip quietly into our systems, our economy and even our military decision-making – without a clear warning shot. The nightmare scenario? A rogue AI, either built by an enemy nation or evolving beyond human control, triggering economic collapse or catastrophic warfare.  

That’s why the U.S. must not only pursue victory in AI, but vigilance. Planning for worst-case scenarios isn’t fearmongering – it’s common sense. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us what happens when leaders fail to prepare for known risks. With AI, we may not get a second chance.  

We need break-glass plans — now 

What happens if a U.S. company suddenly claims to have developed AGI and asks for national security protections – access to classified data, regulatory exemptions and federal backing? What if China gets there first?  

The Biden-era playbook of strategic ambiguity and global appeasement won’t cut it. America needs break-glass protocols: clear, tested plans to respond to AI emergencies – whether cyberattacks, misinformation campaigns or autonomous systems going rogue. 

This requires massive coordination across the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, our intelligence community and private industry. The federal government must build the analytical muscle to separate hype from real breakthroughs – and act fast when a threat emerges. 

Cyber defenses must be ‘attribution-agnostic’ 

Advanced AI attacks may not come with a digital return address. Whether an attack comes from Beijing, a terrorist network or a self-replicating algorithm, our cyber defenses must be able to detect, contain and recover without waiting for attribution. 

That means hardening critical infrastructure, isolating vulnerable data centers and ensuring military continuity of operations in a high-tech crisis. These aren’t science-fiction concerns – they’re strategic imperatives. 

The world needs American values — not just American technology 

The Trump administration’s emphasis on exporting U.S. technology to allies is critical – but we must also export American values. Freedom. Accountability. Innovation with restraint. Our allies want alternatives to China’s surveillance-driven tech regime. America can lead that coalition – but only if we speak as clearly about ethics as we do about engineering.  

David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto czar, put it plainly: ‘To win the AI race, the U.S. must lead in innovation, infrastructure, and global partnerships. At the same time, we must center American workers and avoid Orwellian uses of AI.’ 

He’s right. Victory in AI is not just about lines of code – it’s about preserving what it means to be human in an age of machines. 

Bold innovation, clear-eyed preparedness 

Winning the AI Race is a historic first step. It champions free markets, American jobs, national strength and liberty-based governance in the AI era. But we must not mistake ambition for immunity. 

America needs a dual-track strategy: drive innovation with urgency – and prepare for disaster with equal urgency. Our adversaries won’t wait. Neither will the technology.  

We can – and must – lead the world into the AI future. But let’s do it with eyes wide open, grounded in our values and ready for anything. 

To endorse, or not to endorse, that is the question for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as New York City and the nation wait to see if this top Democrat will throw his backing behind socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

According to Zany Zohran’s backers, this should be a no-brainer. After all, Mamdani won the primary fair and square, but given his far-left proposals like city-owned grocery stores, free buses, and replacing cops with social workers. Jeffries is rightfully wary.

This week, would-be Mayor Mamdani ran away to Uganda to let the heat die down over a guy who once said the state should control the means of production potentially governing Wall Street.

This Africa adventure gives Jeffries a little more time to decide whether to endorse, but not much. The moment is still coming.

What makes this choice so hard for Jeffries is that he knows better than anyone just how dangerous these Democratic Socialists can be. In fact, it’s the whole reason he is now in line for the speakership should Democrats retake the House.

In 2019 Jeffries replaced another New Yorker named Joe Crowley as chair of the Democratic Caucus in the House. The coveted spot in leadership was available because Crowley had suffered a shocking primary defeat at the hands of whom? A bartender named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In spite of the fact that AOC opened the door to power for Jeffries, he is actually much more of a Crowley than a Cortez. He might be the poster child for the old-school Democrat machine politician.

Jeffries was born and raised in Brooklyn, state college undergrad, masters in public policy from Georgetown, law degree from NYU, clerked with a federal judge, a decade of private practice, two years in the state assembly and now, Congress. That is how it used to be done.

Now, Hakeem Jeffries’ party is being overrun with theater kids who skirt through college and whose political training comes almost exclusively from far-left activist organizations and Marxist tracts, and they want him to sign off on it.

The political reality for Jeffries is that if he endorses Zohran, then this 33-year-old, who can be credibly called a communist, will be hung like a millstone around the neck of every Democrat running for the House.

Even moderate House Democrats who try to distance themselves from Mamdani and his parade of pathetic and stale socialist programs will be sharply and publicly reminded that the guy they want to make Speaker of the House endorsed a communist.

Nowhere is this more true than close to home in the suburban New York districts that Republicans swept in 2024 to keep their slim House majority. There is no path back to power that doesn’t flow through Long Island and Westchester.

Republican House candidates like incumbents Mike Lawler and Nick LaLota will absolutely make Mamdani a focal point of their campaigns, no matter who their actual opponents are.

There is no easy way out of this predicament for Jeffries. Either he refuses to endorse Mamdani, and sets off an angry civil war in his party, or he does endorse him, and watches Democrats’ chances to win the House and make him speaker diminish greatly.

For any party leader, herding the cats is a great challenge. It was for Nancy Pelosi, and it is for Jeffries. But the Mamdani question is bigger than managing normal ideological differences. Jeffries has to decide if he will, for the first time, usher actual communists into the Democrats’ tent.

Most of us were born at a time when Democrats still proudly called themselves the party of Jefferson and Jackson. Today, it is starting to look more like the party of Marx and Guevara. Can Hakeem Jeffries hit the brakes? Don’t count on it.

My sources in Gotham, in both parties, the ones I trust the most, all think Jeffries will eventually, as quietly as possible, give his support to Mamdani. I’m not completely convinced, but it is the path of least resistance, which is a siren call for most politicians.

When and if Jeffries makes this cowardly choice, Republicans must be prepared to explain, quite clearly, to Americans that one of their major political parties, its oldest, in fact, has come to embrace communism.

For Hakeem Jeffries this is an existential choice, not just for his political future, but the future of his political party, and of our nation itself.

The Supreme Court has temporarily allowed President Donald Trump to fire numerous Democrat-appointed members of independent agencies, but one case still moving through the legal system carries the greatest implications yet for a president’s authority to do that.

In Slaughter v. Trump, a Biden-appointed member of the Federal Trade Commission has vowed to fight what she calls her ‘illegal firing,’ setting up a possible scenario in which the case lands before the Supreme Court.

The case would pose the most direct question yet to the justices about where they stand on Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, the nearly century-old decision regarding a president’s power over independent regulatory agencies.

John Shu, a constitutional law expert who served in both Bush administrations, told Fox News Digital he thinks the high court is likely to side with the president if and when the case arrives there.

‘I think it’s unlikely that Humphrey’s Executor survives the Supreme Court, at least in its current form,’ Shu said, adding he anticipates the landmark decision will be overturned or ‘severely narrowed.’

What is Humphrey’s Executor?

Humphrey’s Executor centered on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision to fire an FTC commissioner with whom he disagreed politically. The case marked the first instance of the Supreme Court limiting a president’s removal power by ruling that Roosevelt overstepped his authority. The court found that presidents could not dismiss FTC commissioners without a reason, such as malfeasance, before their seven-year terms ended, as outlined by Congress in the FTC Act.

However, the FTC’s functions, which largely center on combating anticompetitive business practices, have expanded in the 90 years since Humphrey’s Executor.

‘The Federal Trade Commission of 1935 is a lot different than the Federal Trade Commission today,’ Shu said.

He noted that today’s FTC can open investigations, issue subpoenas, bring lawsuits, impose financial penalties and more. The FTC now has executive, quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions, Shu said.

SCOTUS greenlights other firings

If the Supreme Court’s decision to temporarily allow two labor board members’ firings is any indication, the high court stands ready to make the FTC less independent and more accountable to Trump.

In a 6-3 order, the Supreme Court cited the ‘considerable executive power’ that the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board have, saying a president ‘may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf.’

The order did not mention Humphrey’s Executor, but that and other moves indicate the Supreme Court has been chipping away at the 90-year-old ruling and is open to reversing it.

The case of Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya gets closest to the heart of Humphrey’s Executor.

Where does Slaughter’s case stand?

Slaughter enjoyed a short-lived victory when a federal judge in Washington, D.C., found that Trump violated the Constitution and ruled in her favor on July 17.

She was able to return to the FTC for a few days, but the Trump administration appealed the decision and, on July 21, the appellate court paused the lower court judge’s ruling.

Judge Loren AliKhan had said in her summary judgment that Slaughter’s case was almost identical to William Humphrey’s.

‘It is not the role of this court to decide the correctness, prudence, or wisdom of the Supreme Court’s decisions—even one from ninety years ago,’ AliKhan, a Biden appointee, wrote. ‘Whatever the Humphrey’s Executor Court may have thought at the time of that decision, this court will not second-guess it now.’

The lawsuit arose from Trump firing Slaughter and Bedoya, the two Democratic-appointed members of the five-member commission. They alleged that Trump defied Humphrey’s Executor by firing them in March without cause in a letter that ‘nearly word-for-word’ mirrored the one Roosevelt sent a century ago.

Bedoya has since resigned, but Slaughter is not backing down from a legal fight in which Trump appears to have the upper hand.

‘Like dozens of other federal agencies, the Federal Trade Commission has been protected from presidential politics for nearly a century,’ Slaughter said in a statement after she was re-fired. ‘I’ll continue to fight my illegal firing and see this case through, because part of why Congress created independent agencies is to ensure transparency and accountability.’

Now a three-judge panel comprising two Obama appointees and one Trump appointee is considering a longer-term pause and asked for court filings to be submitted by July 29, meaning the judges could issue their decision soon thereafter.