President Donald Trump joked that his administration could end the separation of church and state on Thursday, saying they are ‘bringing religion back to our country.’

Trump made the statement during a speech at the White House celebrating the National Day of Prayer. He touted the White House’s faith office and its leader, Paula White.

Trump began by thanking White for serving in her role as senior advisor to the faith office, remarking that his other advisors had questioned the move. ‘They said separation of church and state, they told me. I said let’s forget about that for one time. We said, really? Separation? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I’m not sure,’ Trump said.

‘But whether there’s separation or not, you guys are in the White House where you should be, and you’re representing our country,’ he continued. ‘We’re bringing religion back to our country.’

Trump signed an executive order establishing a White House Faith Office in early February.

The new office is meant to ’empower faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship to better serve families and communities,’ according to a White House statement.

The office plans to coordinate with other agencies on training for religious liberty and on elevating grant opportunities for non-profit faith-based entities, community organizations and houses of worship. It will also collaborate with the Department of Justice on identifying constitutional religious liberty protections. 

The order came just one day after Trump signed another aimed at creating a task force to identify ‘anti-Christian bias.’

The White House said this ‘Task Force to End the War on Christians’ will comprise members of the president’s Cabinet and key government agencies, and the order seeks to ‘end the anti-Christian weaponization of government.’ 

President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and other staffers are out at the National Security Council, sources confirmed to Fox News. 

Democrats quickly reacted to the news during a press conference Thursday afternoon.

‘I’m not surprised that there is turmoil after the Signal gate fiasco, but I think there’s a lot more. In the words of the late and great John McCain, there’s more shoes to drop off the centipede,’ Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, told Fox News. 

‘Mike Waltz has left the chat,’ the former Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn, said on X, in a nod to Waltz accidentally adding The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal chat where war plans were reportedly discussed. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told Fox News on Thursday that the Trump administration ‘should fire him, but they’re firing the wrong guy.’

‘They should be firing Hegseth,’ Schumer said before adding, ‘Everyone knew that Hegseth was the wrong guy for DOD, given his background, given his attitude towards women, but given the fact that he had no experience and had never shown an ability to run an organization.’

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Waltz should step down and agreed with Schumer that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who reportedly shared war plans in a second Signal chat with family members, should be fired by the Trump administration. 

‘The Trump administration is the most incompetent administration ever assembled, particularly as it relates to the defense and national security apparatus. Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified secretary of defense ever. He’s got to go. And if he doesn’t have the dignity to resign, Trump should fire him. Now the National Security Advisor is out. He’s the first person to leave. He will certainly not be the last,’ Jeffries told Fox News. 

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who is a Navy combat veteran, also shifted blame to Hegseth, telling Fox News that the ‘most toubling’ part of the Signal controversy wasn’t ‘accidentally putting a journalist on there,’ but ‘sharing incredibly sensitive information about a strike off of an aircraft carrier, putting pilots at risk.’

‘I think they fired the wrong guy,’ Kelly added. 

Sources told Fox News that Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong are out, with additional names likely to come. Democrats on Thursday said they would not be the last. 

The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich, Tyler Olson, Kelly Phares and Monica Oroz contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday establishing a presidential commission on religious liberty. 

Trump unveiled plans for the new commission during a National Day of Prayer event at the White House and signed it later in the event. 

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will serve as the chairman of the commission, Trump said from the White House Rose Garden. 

‘The last administration attacked people of faith for four years,’ Patrick said Thursday. ‘There’s a saying that no one should get between a doctor and a patient. I think we would say no one should get between God and a believer. No one should get between God and those seeking him.’

The Religious Liberty Commission will compose a report evaluating threats to religious liberty in the U.S., ways to enhance religious freedom and examine the history of American religious liberty, according to a White House fact sheet on the executive order. 

The report will address issues including parental rights in religious education, school choice, attacks on religious places of worship, and free speech issues for religious organizations, according to the fact sheet. 

‘Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, faith has not been pushed aside,’ Paula White-Cain, who leads the White House’s faith office, said at the prayer event. ‘It has been brought back to where it always belongs, and that is center.’ 

The commission will include leaders from ‘diverse’ religious backgrounds, clergy members, legal experts, academics and public advocates, the fact sheet said. 

Additionally, these leaders will provide guidance to the White House on policy and legislative solutions to advance religious liberty. 

Among those serving on the commission are American TV personality and author Phillip McGraw, known as Dr. Phil, who has his own television show. McGraw appeared at the White House Thursday during the prayer event. 

Trump previously stood up a White House Faith Office, as well as a task force at the Justice Department focused on eliminating anti-Christian bias. 

This is a breaking news story and will be updated. 

President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor is sounding the alarm about the Justice Department’s proposal to break up Google’s illegal monopoly on online search, saying in a letter to White House leaders that the government’s proposal is overly broad and poses ‘drastic’ and far-reaching national security risks. 

In a letter to the White House National Security Council, obtained by Fox News Digital, Trump’s former national security advisor, Robert O’Brien, argued that the Biden-era DOJ framework is in ‘direct conflict’ with Trump’s policy priorities, and risks hobbling U.S. competition with China in a high-stakes race to develop new and advanced technology. 

The U.S., he said, ‘now finds itself in a literal ‘technology race’ – as significant and critical to our nation’s strength, and the Trump Administration’s objectives, as the ‘arms race’ of the past century,’ O’Brien said.

‘To prevail, the U.S. must maintain and expand its global leadership in key technologies.’ 

The letter was sent to White House national security advisor Mike Waltz before he was ousted from his role Thursday along with his deputy, Alex Wong, in the wake of the Signal controversy earlier this year. It was not immediately clear who Trump planned to install as his replacement. A copy was also sent to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. 

News of the letter, first reported by Fox News Digital, comes as lawyers for the Justice Department and Google continue to spar in federal court over how far Google should go to break up what a judge ruled last year to be its illegal monopoly on online search.

O’Brien in his letter said the plans proposed by the Biden-era DOJ would cripple Google’s ability to compete or innovate on the global stage – undermining U.S. leadership on cutting-edge technologies, such as AI and quantum computing, in its race against China, and presenting grave new economic and national security risks. 

DOJ’s Antitrust Division is ‘aggressively pursuing the misguided policies of the prior Biden Administration and its European-like approach to crippling our nation’s largest and most robust technology companies,’ O’Brien said.  ‘By ignoring their enormous value to our country’s strength, the Antitrust Division is seeking, through draconian remedies, to import European-style regulatory restrictions and prohibitions at home here in the Google Search case.’

He also urged the Trump-led Department of Justice to review the framework to restructure Google’s search engine and amend it in a way that would still allow the company to compete.

‘Splitting Google into smaller companies and forfeiting its intellectual property would weaken U.S. competitiveness against the giant, state-backed Chinese tech companies, since, separated entities would lack the enormous resources needed,’ O’Brien said.

‘Experts in multiple fields critical to national security confirm these basic principles and loudly address the concern that handcuffing our high-tech powerhouses would undermine U.S. leadership and superiority in these key technologies, and risk ceding the world’s technology leadership to China,’ he said.

The letter comes as Google and the Justice Department continue to spar in federal court in a so-called ‘remedies hearing’ to break up what U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled last summer was Google’s illegal monopoly in the online search engine space.

The two sides presented the court with starkly different plans for how they believe Google should go about resolving its monopoly – the first successful antitrust lawsuit brought by the U.S. against a major tech company since U.S. v. Microsoft in 2001. 

Justice Department lawyers said Google should be required to sell off its Chrome browser, share years of its consumer data with competitors, and potentially sell Android, Google’s smartphone operating system.

Their proposed framework also includes requirements that Google be required to disclose its consumer data and search information with other companies, including rivals located outside the U.S., for the next 10 years. 

They told the court these steps could also stop Google from obtaining a monopoly in the AI space – acknowledging that technology is going to evolve, and therefore remedies must ‘include the ability to evolve alongside it as well.’

Google has proposed a much narrower remedies plan, including options for shorter contracts with browser companies, like Apple and Mozilla; new contracts with Android, and other important steps they said would make the landscape more competitive. 

Google officials argue DOJ’s proposal goes ‘miles beyond’ the relief that was ordered by Judge Amit Mehta in August, and warned that the government’s proposed framework would stifle competition, fail to regulate anticompetitive conduct, and hobble Google’s ability to attract new investments or innovate in key areas like AI and quantum computing.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified in court Wednesday that DOJ’s proposal, if adopted, would result in a ‘de facto divestiture’ of Google’s search engine that would allow companies to reverse-engineer ‘any part’ of its tech stack, which he noted is the result of decades of investment and innovation.

If that happened, he said, it could all but kill the nearly $2 trillion company by giving its IP away to its competitors.

‘It’s not clear to me how to fund all the innovation we do,’ he said, ‘if we were to give all of it away at marginal cost.’

O’Brien serves as the co-founder and partner emeritus of Larson LLP, a firm that has represented Google as special outside counsel in unrelated matters, though O’Brien himself has not been involved in any of those cases.

The Justice Department did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the letter from O’Brien, or whether the Trump-led DOJ had plans to amend its proposed framework in the Google remedies case. 

President Donald Trump tapped former national security advisor Mike Waltz for his administration’s ambassador to the United Nations after Waltz was ousted from the National Security Council office earlier Thursday. 

‘I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations,’ Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday. 

‘From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role. In the interim, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as National Security Advisor, while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department. Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’

Waltz posted to X shortly after Trump’s announcement that he was ‘deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation.’

Trump added in his post that Rubio will simultaneously serve as his interim national security advisor after Waltz left the role on Thursday. In 1973, then-President Richard Nixon made a similar move when he named national security advisor Henry Kissinger to also serve as secretary of state, State Department records show. 

Waltz and other National Security Council staffers were ousted from their office on Thursday in the most high-profile executive office exits of the second Trump administration. Trump’s announcement on naming Waltz as U.N. ambassador unfolded just hours after the news began circulating. 

The former national security advisor had been at the heart of the Signal chat leak debacle that unfolded in March, when the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine was inadvertently added to a group chat with high-profile Trump officials such as Waltz, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe discussing military strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Speculation had mounted for weeks that Waltz would be removed from his position amid the fallout of the chat leak, though the administration has maintained that no classified material was shared in the group chat and that the president had confidence in his National Security Council team. 

Ahead of Trump tapping Waltz for the new administration role, a handful of names had been floated for U.N. ambassador after Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., withdrew her nomination in March, including David Friedman, former U.S. ambassador to Israel; Ellie Cohanim, former deputy special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism at the State Department under the first Trump administration; and special presidential envoy Richard Grenell. Grenell said he was a ‘hard no’ on serving in the U.N. ambassador role ahead of Trump’s announcement. 

Trump announced Stefanik as his original choice for the role in November 2024, just days after his successful election against former Vice President Kamala Harris. The New York congresswoman, however, pulled her nomination last month as concerns mounted in Trump’s orbit that the GOP’s slim majority in the House would grow smaller in her absence. 

Concerns grew ahead of two special House elections in Florida on April 2, which ultimately saw both Republicans victorious, but with significantly slimmer margins than their GOP predecessors in their previous elections. 

Stefank told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in March that she bowed out of the confirmation process to serve as U.N. ambassador due to both the GOP’s margin in the House combined with the need for her to help combat Democratic ‘corruption’ in her home state of New York. 

‘It was a combination of the New York corruption that we’re seeing under Kathy Hochul, special elections and the House margin,’ Stefanik said on ‘Hannity’ in March. ‘I’ve been in the House. It’s tough to count these votes every day. And we are going to continue to defy the political prognosticators and deliver, deliver victory on behalf of President Trump and, importantly, the voters across this country.’

‘The president knows that. He and I had multiple conversations today, and we are committed to delivering results on behalf of the American people. And as always, I’m committed to delivering results on behalf of my constituents,’ she added. 

Trump announced on Truth Social that Stefanik withdrew her nomination to ‘remain in Congress to help me deliver Historic Tax Cuts, GREAT Jobs, Record Economic Growth, a Secure Border, Energy Dominance, Peace Through Strength.’

‘With a very tight Majority, I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat. The people love Elise and, with her, we have nothing to worry about come Election Day. There are others that can do a good job at the United Nations,’ he added. 

During Trump’s first administration, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former diplomat Kelly Craft served as U.N. ambassadors. 

Upon taking office, the 47th president made cuts to U.S. involvement with programs under the U.N.’s umbrella, including ending U.S. engagement with the U.N. Human Rights Council and banning funding for the U.N. relief agency for Gaza. 

‘I’ve always felt that the U.N. has tremendous potential,’ Trump said in February while signing the executive order that made cuts to U.S. involvement with U.N. groups. ‘It’s not being well-run.’

 ‘A lot of these conflicts that we’re working on should be settled, or at least we should have some help in settling them. But we never seem to get help. That should be the primary purpose of the U.N.,’ Trump continued. 

Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report. 

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) implemented a pause on research at one of the nation’s most highly secure research labs, following repeated safety incidents that a source familiar told Fox News Digital have been occurring since the Biden administration.

An HHS official confirmed the pause at Fort Detrick’s Integrated Research Facility, which conducts risky research on deadly infectious diseases like SARS-COV-2 and the Ebola virus, began Tuesday at 5 p.m. 

The facility, which is one of only a handful across North America, is part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and is located at the U.S. Army base Fort Detrick, outside Washington, D.C. The research there studies treatment and prevention of deadly, ‘high-consequence’ diseases such as Lassa Fever and Eastern equine encephalitis.

According to the HHS official who was willing to speak on the matter under the condition of anonymity, the pause stemmed from a lover’s spat between researchers at the facility, which resulted in one of the individuals poking holes in the other’s personal protective equipment (PPE). That individual has since been fired, the official indicated. 

The HHS official added that the incident is just the latest example of safety incidents at the high-risk laboratory, which they blamed on a poor safety culture at the lab enabled by the previous Biden administration.

‘NIH and HHS take the safety of our facilities and research very seriously,’ HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said. ‘As soon as we found out about this incident, we took immediate action to issue the safety pause until we can correct the safety culture at this facility.’

The latest incident, according to HHS, was preceded by a separate incident that occurred as recently as November.

The facility’s director, Connie Schmaljohn, was placed on administrative leave following the incident. The HHS official familiar with the matter indicated Schmaljohn did not report the incident up the chain of command immediately, causing a delay in remedying the matter.

During this temporary pause, all research at the facility will come to a halt and access will be limited to essential personnel. 

It is unclear how long the pause will remain in effect.   

The U.S. has not committed to participating in a fourth round of denuclearization talks with Iran this weekend despite reports to the contrary, according to the State Department. 

‘The United States was never confirmed to be participating in a fourth round of talks with Iran, which people had believed were Saturday in Rome,’ spokesperson Tammy Bruce said at a news conference Thursday. ‘We expect another round of talks will take place in the near future.’

The U.S. participated in talks with Iranian officials once in Rome and twice in Oman. Envoy Steve Witkoff is the lead negotiator for President Donald Trump’s desired deal that stops Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. 

Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi, whose nation is trying to help broker a deal, posted on X that the talks had been postponed for ‘logistical reasons.’ 

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said Tehran is still committed to getting to a ‘fair and lasting agreement.’

Iran seeks to have U.S. sanctions lifted, while the Trump team has insisted it will need verifiable proof Iran has stopped enriching uranium to lift any financial penalties. 

Trump has threatened to launch strikes on Iran if talks go sideways. 

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued an ominous threat to Iran over its backing of the Houthis.

‘Message to IRAN: We see your LETHAL support to The Houthis. We know exactly what you are doing,’ Hegseth wrote on X. ‘You know very well what the U.S. Military is capable of — and you were warned. You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing.’

A U.S. official described last week’s talks as ‘positive and productive.’ 

‘There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,’ the official said. ‘We agreed to meet again soon, in Europe, and we thank our Omani partners for facilitating these talks.’

‘This time, the negotiations were much more serious than in the past, and we gradually entered into deeper and more detailed discussions,’ Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said. ‘We have moved somewhat away from broader, general discussions, though it is not the case that all disagreements have been resolved. Differences still exist both on major issues and on the details.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.