The Pentagon is deploying the USS Gerald R. Ford to the Middle East, creating a rare two-carrier presence in the region as tensions with Iran rise and questions swirl about possible U.S. military action.

The Ford will reinforce the USS Abraham Lincoln already operating in theater, significantly expanding American airpower at a moment of heightened regional uncertainty.

While officials have not announced imminent action, the dual-carrier presence increases the Pentagon’s flexibility — from deterrence patrols to sustained strike operations — should diplomacy falter.

The largest aircraft carrier in the world

The Gerald R. Ford is the largest and most advanced aircraft carrier ever built.

Commissioned in 2017, the nuclear-powered warship stretches more than 1,100 feet and displaces more than 100,000 tons of water. It serves as a floating air base that can operate in international waters without relying on host-nation approval — a key advantage in politically sensitive theaters.

Powered by two nuclear reactors, the ship has virtually unlimited range and endurance and is designed to serve for decades as the backbone of U.S. naval power projection.

How much airpower does it carry?

A typical air wing aboard the Ford includes roughly 75 aircraft, though the exact mix depends on mission requirements.

Those aircraft can include F/A-18 Super Hornets, stealth F-35C Joint Strike Fighters, EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jets, E-2D Hawkeye early warning aircraft and MH-60 helicopters.

In a potential conflict with Iran, several of those platforms would be central. 

The F-35C is designed to penetrate contested airspace and carry out precision strikes against heavily defended targets. The Growler specializes in jamming enemy radar and communications — a critical capability against Iran’s layered air defense systems. 

The E-2D extends surveillance hundreds of miles, helping coordinate air and missile defense.

Together, they give commanders options ranging from deterrence patrols to sustained strike operations.

Built for higher combat tempo

What separates the Ford from earlier carriers is its ability to generate more sorties over time.

Instead of traditional steam catapults, it uses an electromagnetic aircraft launch system, or EMALS, allowing aircraft to launch more smoothly and at a faster pace. The system is designed to reduce stress on jets and increase operational tempo.

The ship also features advanced arresting gear and a redesigned flight deck that allows more aircraft to be staged and cycled efficiently.

In a high-intensity scenario — particularly one involving missile launches or rapid escalation — the ability to launch and recover aircraft quickly can be decisive.

How it compares to the Lincoln

While both the Ford and the Abraham Lincoln are 100,000-ton, nuclear-powered supercarriers capable of carrying roughly 60 aircraft to 75 aircraft, they represent different generations of naval design.

The Lincoln is a Nimitz-class carrier commissioned in 1989 and part of a fleet that has supported decades of operations in the Middle East. The Ford is the Navy’s next-generation carrier and the lead ship of its class.

The key difference is efficiency and output. 

The Ford was built to generate a higher sustained sortie rate using its electromagnetic launch system, along with a redesigned flight deck and upgraded power systems. In practical terms, both ships bring substantial strike capability — but the Ford is designed to launch and recover aircraft faster over extended operations, giving commanders greater flexibility if tensions escalate.

How it defends itself

The Ford does not sail alone. It operates as the centerpiece of a carrier strike group that typically includes guided-missile destroyers, cruisers and attack submarines.

Those escort ships provide layered air and missile defense, anti-submarine protection and additional strike capability.

The carrier itself carries defensive systems including Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles, Rolling Airframe Missiles and the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System — designed to intercept incoming threats at close range.

That defensive posture is especially relevant in the Middle East.

Iran has invested heavily in anti-ship ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, armed drones, naval mines and fast-attack craft operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Gulf region presents a dense and complex threat environment, even for advanced U.S. warships.

Why two carriers matter

With both the Ford and the Lincoln in theater, commanders gain more than just added firepower. Two carriers allow the U.S. to sustain a higher tempo of operations, distribute aircraft across multiple areas, or maintain continuous presence if one ship needs to reposition or resupply.

Dual-carrier deployments are relatively uncommon and typically coincide with periods of heightened regional tension.

The timing — as negotiations with Tehran continue — underscores the strategic message. Carriers are often deployed not only to fight wars, but to prevent them.

By positioning both ships in the region, Washington is signaling that if diplomacy falters, military options will already be in place.

Ex-Victoria’s Secret mogul Les Wexner’s lawyer was caught on a hot mic jokingly threatening to ‘kill’ him if he continued giving long answers to questions during his deposition on Jeffrey Epstein by the House Oversight Committee.

The moment was caught after the committee released its full, nearly five-hour deposition of 88-year-old Wexner as part of its ongoing probe into Jeffrey Epstein’s network.

Several hours into the deposition, while Wexner was giving a particularly long-winded answer, Wexner’s attorney leaned over to him and whispered in his ear, ‘I’m going to f—ing kill you if you answer another question with more than five words, okay?’

Both Wexner and his attorney laughed after this statement, indicating Wexner understood it as a joke. The lawyer proceeded to instruct Wexner to ‘answer the question,’ laughing more.

Shortly before this exchange, the attorney had urged Wexner to ‘answer the question,’ saying, ‘I’m sure we all appreciate the stories, we’re just trying to answer questions that they actually want answered,’ referring to the House committee.

The Oversight Committee heard from Wexner, a billionaire fashion mogul best known for his work in revolutionizing the Victoria’s Secret store chain, about his involvement with Epstein, whom Wexner characterized as strictly a business associate rather than a close friend.

Despite being named a co-conspirator in a recently uncovered FBI document from 2019, Wexner said that he has never been directly contacted by either the FBI or the Department of Justice. He maintained his total innocence during the deposition, saying, ‘I was naïve, foolish, and gullible to put any trust in Jeffrey Epstein. He was a con man. And while I was conned, I have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide. I completely and irrevocably cut ties with Epstein nearly twenty years ago when I learned that he was an abuser, a crook, and a liar.’

The committee stated it was releasing the full deposition with ‘no spin,’ saying, ‘The American people deserve to see the testimony for themselves—transparency matters.’

Wexner is the founder of L Brands, formerly called The Limited, through which he acquired well-known companies Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works, Express, and Abercrombie & Fitch, among others. He is no longer associated with Victoria’s Secret. He was one of Epstein’s first major clients as a financial advisor, with Epstein being granted power of attorney over Wexner’s vast wealth. Wexner also sold his Manhattan townhouse to Epstein, which was later discovered to be one of the locations where federal authorities accused Epstein of abusing young women and girls under 18.

Despite this, Wexner stated that he always kept his relationship with Epstein as strictly professional, saying, ‘I don’t think I ever went to lunch, or dinner, a movie or had a cup of coffee with Jeffrey,’ adding, ‘My focus was on my business and on community.’

Wexner said he severed ties with Epstein in 2007 after learning of an investigation and discovering that Epstein had misappropriated funds from him and his family. He said a substantial amount of the money was returned. 

Wexner also testified that he was not aware of Epstein ever staying at a guesthouse on his New Albany, Ohio, estate, where Maria Farmer is said to have been abused by Epstein and associate Ghislaine Maxwell. He maintained that he only had knowledge of Epstein staying at a nearby neighbor’s residence. Pressed on whether he denies Farmer’s testimony that she was abused on his property, he stated, ‘I never met her, didn’t know she was here, didn’t know she was abused.’

He categorically denied any knowledge of either Epstein or Maxwell arranging women for prominent individuals. He also categorically denied ever having a sexual encounter with anyone introduced by Maxwell and Epstein or having any sexual relationship with Epstein himself.

He further denied any sexual contact or knowledge of another prominent Epstein victim, Virginia Giuffre.

Wexner was also asked about his knowledge of Epstein and President Donald Trump’s relationship. He said that he does not think they were friends, but said Epstein ‘held him out as a friend.’

Committee members also questioned Wexner on a note he wrote in a birthday book to Epstein in which he drew breasts with the caption, ‘Dear Jeffrey, I wanted to get you what you want, so here it is … Your friend, Leslie.’

Wexner confirmed that he wrote the note but dismissed it, saying, ‘He was a bachelor, so I drew a pair of boobs as kind of a joke, offhandedly, I would say.’

Wexner is the fourth person appearing before the House Oversight Committee in its Epstein probe.

Fox News Digital’s Liz Elkind contributed to this report.

When President Donald Trump announced ‘TrumpRx’ in early February, a weight I’ve carried my entire adult life suddenly lifted from my shoulders. The website offers life-saving medications at much lower prices than normal, based on the president’s promise to give Americans the same prescription drug costs as patients in other developed countries. I can personally attest that such equal treatment — a policy known as ‘most favored nation’ pricing — is urgently needed for people who struggle with chronic disease.

I’ve had debilitating asthma since I was a child. I’ve been able to manage it thanks to a prescription drug which blocks lung inflammation and keeps my airways open. The few times I’ve gone off the medication, I’ve ended up in the emergency room, unable to breathe. That nearly happened four years ago in what I thought was the worst possible place — on the other side of the world, unable to contact my doctors or go to my pharmacy.

My family and I were in Italy, on a trip to honor my mother. She had recently been diagnosed with cancer and my brother and I scheduled the trip in between her chemo treatments, when she would be well enough to travel. She had always wanted to go there with us. But in our rush to get two families and three little kids packed, I accidentally grabbed a nearly empty inhaler.

I realized my mistake a few days into the trip, when I looked at the inhaler and saw that I only had two doses left. I wasn’t just worried about my health, though, of course, that was paramount. I worried how I’d afford the drug if I even found it in Italy.

I’ve organized my professional life around access to insurance that covers my medication, given its longstanding retail price $600 for a month’s supply. For 25 years, I’ve grappled with denied coverage letters, premium tier prescription charts and the constant worry that we would have to cut back on necessities to get my medication. At the time, in Italy, I was already paying a few hundred dollars a month for the drug — a lot, but a bargain compared to its normal price.

But I had no choice. I had to get my medication. After a few minutes of searching, I found an Italian pharmacy across town. I walked there immediately, trying to control my racing thoughts of what might happen. I knew that if I couldn’t get the drug, I couldn’t get safely back to the U.S.

Fifteen minutes later, in tears I walked out, drug in hand. It cost me only 30 euros or about $35.

At first, I was both relieved and grateful. But by the end of the day, I was scratching my head. Why was it $600 in the U.S. while Italians could get it for next to nothing? In the days that followed, I discovered that the answer is beyond complicated.

It’s affected by everything from a lack of price transparency to the meddling of middlemen who jack up costs. It’s also true that foreign countries have been negotiating the prices of prescription drugs for decades, forcing Americans to cover the enormous cost of pharmaceutical development while they pay far below market prices.

Whatever the reason, the system doesn’t work for Americans. Brand name prescription prices in the U.S. are more than four times higher than prices in other wealthy countries. As many as 18 million Americans have struggled to buy the prescriptions they need in recent years.

I’m now using a generic version of the drug that costs significantly less. But that doesn’t change the fact that I, like many other Americans with chronic disease, have paid through the nose for decades on end, only to find the medication I needed in Italy for what seemed like pennies.

I wasn’t just worried about my health, though, of course, that was paramount. I worried how I’d afford the drug if I even found it in Italy.

Trump is fighting to fix this broken system. Before launching TrumpRx, he reached 16 deals with pharmaceutical companies to charge most-favored-nation prices. As a lifelong conservative, I’m typically uncomfortable with this kind of government intervention in the market. But other countries have already intervened and people like me have paid the price.

If pharmaceutical companies need the extra money, they should take it up with other countries that negotiated them down first. Then they could recoup their costs on the backs of others, not simply by charging more in the U.S. Bottom line, there’s no good reason why 340 million Americans should pay so much more than hundreds of millions of people who live in Europe and Asia.

I will always be grateful that my medication was so affordable in Italy back in 2022. It may very well have saved my life. But I’m even more grateful that President Trump is finally lowering prices for every American here at home.

President Donald Trump announced that former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a White House event marking the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, as attendees at one point broke into chants of ‘four more years.’

‘Ben’s getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom,’ Trump said. ‘It’s the highest award you can have outside of the Congressional Medal of Honor.’

Trump said Carson would receive the nation’s top civilian honor at a future ceremony, telling him, ‘Ben, I’ll be seeing you back here pretty soon. I think you’re going to get the award.’

The announcement came as Trump mixed tributes and cultural references with policy and political claims including criminal justice reform, crime reduction and border enforcement while hosting what he described as ‘many exceptional African American leaders and patriots’ at the White House.

Trump opened the event by noting, ‘we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Black History Month.’

He then addressed the death of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, saying, ‘I wanted to begin by expressing a sadness that the passing of a person who was. I knew very well Jesse was a piece of work. He was a piece of work. But he was a good man.’

‘I just want to pay my highest respects to Reverend Jesse Jackson,’ Trump added, calling him ‘a real hero,’ and saying ‘he really was special, with lots of personality, grit and street smarts.’

Trump introduced HUD Secretary Scott Turner and brought Carson to the front of the room, noting Carson had recommended Turner. Carson praised Turner’s role in opportunity zones, saying ‘he was really the driving force behind the Opportunity zones,’ and described Trump’s approach as ‘public private partnerships, and had everybody with skin in the game.’

Moments later, Trump returned to Carson and elaborated on the award.

‘It’s better because, you know, a lot of people get the Congressional Medal of Honor, and they’re not around,’ Trump said. ‘But it’s the highest award [for] a civilian.’

After remarks from Leo Terrell whom Trump thanked, saying, ‘Leo, that was very good,’ the crowd assembled broke into a chant of ‘four more years.’

Later, while listing Black artists and athletes, Trump singled out rapper Nicki Minaj.

‘I love Nicki Minaj. She was here a couple of weeks ago.’

‘So beautiful,’ he added, before saying, ‘and she gets it. And more importantly, she gets it.’

Trump connected Wednesday’s celebration to a broader national moment, saying, ‘Black History Month is really all about American history,’ and referencing upcoming America250 programming.

The President outlined a series of policy accomplishments for the black community, saying he ‘single handedly secured record long term funding for’ historically Black colleges and universities and reiterated, ‘we got criminal justice reform done,’ adding, ‘Nobody thought it can be done.’

Trump tied those policies to electoral performance, saying, ‘it’s no wonder that in 2024, we won more African-American votes than any Republican president in history.’

Trump also cited economic indicators, saying, ‘Earlier this month the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 50,000 for the first time ever,’ and adding, ‘The S&P broke 7000.’

‘More Americans are working today than at any time in American history,’ he said, before stating, ‘Since I took office, African American employment has increased by 182,000.’

The president also promoted a tax proposal, inviting a small business owner from Arkansas to speak. She told the audience, ‘no tax on tips has been amazing blessing for me.’

Trump later pivoted to crime and border enforcement, arguing ‘we need order,’ and claiming, ‘Washington DC is amazing. It was a crime capital. It was a horror show a year ago. It was really dangerous. And now it’s one of the safest cities anywhere in the country.’

‘We have the lowest murder numbers in 125 years since 1990,’ he said, adding, ‘just one year ago, we had the absolute worst border that we’ve ever had, and now we have the safest border that we’ve ever had.’

He also said he had ‘deployed the National Guard to bring back safety to Memphis and to New Orleans and Washington,’ calling the Guard ‘incredible.’

Johnson credited Trump with the First Step Act, saying, ‘President Trump did something historic in his first term. He signed the First Step act into law,’ and adding, ‘Over 40,000 individuals have come home to their families early.’

Trump closed by calling the gathering ‘a very special group of people,’ and said, ‘So happy Black History Month, happy black history year, and happy black history century.’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reportedly been holding secret talks with the grandson of Raul Castro, the former President of Cuba. 

The talks between Rubio and Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro are bypassing official Cuban government channels, Axios reported. 

‘Our position — the U.S. government’s position — is the regime has to go,’ a senior official told the news outlet. ‘But what exactly that looks like is up to [President Trump] and he has yet to decide. Rubio is still in talks with the grandson.’

‘I wouldn’t call these ‘negotiations’ as much as ‘discussions’ about the future,’ the official added.

Earlier this month, Cuban despot Miguel Díaz-Canel warned his country is ‘close to failing’ as the U.S. shuts off commercial valves vital to its survival, such as fuel and food, followed by nearly 70 years of one-party communist rule.

Cuba’s power grid is failing, hospitals are short of necessary supplies and garbage has piled up on the streets. 

The Trump administration has ratcheted up pressure on the communist-run island in recent weeks, following the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a Cuban ally. The administration has accused Havana of cozying up to U.S. adversaries and terrorist groups. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department. The White House referred Fox News Digital to press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s remarks on Tuesday, in which she said Havana needs to make serious changes. 

‘They are a regime that is falling,’ she said. ‘Their country is collapsing, and that’s why we believe it’s in their best interest to make very dramatic changes very soon. And we’ll see what they decide to do.’

President Donald Trump praised civil rights activist Jesse Jackson as a ‘real hero’ during a White House Black History Month event Wednesday, just a day after Jackson’s death.

‘I wanted to begin by expressing a sadness that the passing of a person who was. I knew very well Jesse was a piece of work. He was a piece of work. But he was a good man. He was a real hero,’ Trump said on Wednesday, earning cheers from the audience. 

Trump hosted leaders from the Black community at the White House Wednesday to honor Black History Month in February. He remarked as the event kicked off that there was a ‘sold-out crowd’ and that the upcoming White House ballroom would accommodate far more people. 

Trump had lamented Jackson’s death in a prior Truth Social post Tuesday, elaborating on Wednesday that the pair’s relationship got ‘better and better all the time.’

‘A lot of people you get to know, they get worse and worse. Jesse got better and better. But I knew him well long before becoming president, and he really was special, with lots of personality, grit and street smarts,’ Trump continued. 

Jackson, 84, died Tuesday. His cause of death has not been identified, but he had suffered from health issues including living with a rare neurological condition.

Jackson was a two-time Democratic presidential candidate, and longtime civil rights leader who joined Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s before his assassination, and was the founder of civil rights group, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. 

‘I will tell you, he was gregarious and someone who truly loved people and a force of nature, who is, somebody that we’re going to greatly miss. And on behalf of everyone here today, I know you join me in sending our condolences to the entire family,’ Trump continued. 

Wednesday’s event included celebrating the legacy of Black Americans, economic wins under the Trump administration, as well as Trump reigniting his 2025 announcement that former Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who served under Trump’s first term, would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  

‘Ben’s getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It’s the highest award you can have outside of the Congressional Medal of Honor,’ Trump said.

The president of a Florida insurance brokerage firm and the CEO of a marketing company were sentenced Wednesday to 20 years each in prison for leading a sprawling, $233 million Affordable Care Act fraud scheme that preyed on Florida’s most vulnerable residents — including homeless and jobless individuals and newly displaced hurricane victims — to pocket millions in unearned commissions.

Cory Lloyd, 46, of Stuart, Florida, and Steven Strong, 42, of Mansfield, Texas, were convicted of conspiracy and fraud for their roles in the scheme, which involved lying and falsifying government forms to obtain coverage for individuals and lying to or bribing would-be enrollees to sign up for plans even when they knew doing so would cost them their existing insurance coverage. In addition to their prison time, the pair were ordered to pay $180.6 million in restitution to their victims. 

Lloyd and Strong profited handsomely for years from the scheme, Justice Department officials said, using the proceeds to purchase luxury vehicles, an 80-foot yacht and an oceanfront home in the Florida Keys.

‘Preying upon medically compromised consumers to rob hundreds of millions of taxpayer-funded programs is evil and unforgivable,’ Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

‘Fraud schemes like this rob citizens and shake faith in our institutions. Today’s sentencing is the latest example of this DOJ’s commitment to fighting fraud nationwide,’ Bondi said.

An estimated 35,000 individuals were fraudulently enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans during the years-long scheme led by Lloyd and Strong, Justice Department officials with knowledge of the case told Fox News Digital. The two sought more than $233 million in fraudulent payments, including about $180 million in federal Affordable Care Act funding.

‘These defendants were sophisticated, licensed insurance brokers,’ Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement. 

‘They had everything and intentionally took advantage of people who had nothing. The message from these sentences is simple: Those who seek to line their own pockets with taxpayer dollars, victimize our most vulnerable and deplete federal programs will be held accountable.’

The two intentionally targeted people in the state who were experiencing homelessness and people experiencing mental health disorders, including addiction to opioids or other drugs, according to materials reviewed by Fox News Digital. 

Prosecutors said at trial that Lloyd and Strong conspired to circumvent federal income and eligibility verification safeguards. They also intentionally submitted Medicaid applications designed to trigger denials, allowing them to steer those same individuals into fully subsidized Affordable Care Act plans outside the open enrollment period, maximizing commissions year-round.

Their lavish lifestyle contrasted starkly with that of the individuals they lied to and scammed. 

‘One of the really awful things about the case is that it’s not only a scheme that’s taking money from the elderly and the disabled and defrauding the taxpayers, but that it actually resulted in real harm to the patients as well,’ one Justice Department official said in an interview.

That harm included individuals losing access to life-saving treatments for opioid use disorders, mental health disorders and serious infectious diseases.

Text messages introduced at trial showed Strong and Lloyd discussing sending ‘street marketers’ into Florida hurricane shelters to recruit enrollees.

In one text exchange, Strong suggested sending their team of ‘street marketers’ into Florida hurricane shelters to recruit enrollees. Lloyd responded enthusiastically, stating, ‘It’s a killer idea, if we could pull it off!’

Prosecutors said the efforts were particularly harmful because they disrupted existing coverage plans and jeopardized access to treatment for serious conditions.

Many of the victims were experiencing homelessness or unemployment or qualified for Medicaid coverage — an insurance option for low-income or vulnerable populations that, in many cases, best suited their needs.

Jurors heard from a Jacksonville-based psychiatrist who treats homeless individuals and testified about the harm some of his patients suffered as a result of the fraud, which caused them to lose their Medicaid coverage.

This included an individual ‘living in the woods behind Walmart’ who was suffering from schizoaffective disorder, a person familiar with the case told Fox News Digital.

Like others, this individual had previously been enrolled in Medicaid, which covered the entirety of a $2,000 shot used to treat the schizoaffective disorder. Enrollment in an Affordable Care Act plan caused the individual to lose that coverage.

The sentencing comes as the Justice Department has moved aggressively to crack down on healthcare fraud, including through its ongoing ‘strike force’ program that operates across 25 federal districts and has resulted in criminal charges against about 5,000 individuals, according to information shared with Fox News Digital.

It also comes as the DOJ’s Health Care Fraud Unit secured the largest national healthcare fraud takedown in its history in 2025, officials said, charging more than $15 billion in alleged losses and forfeitures and returning more than $560 million to the public.

Justice Department officials noted the amount is ‘many, many, many times our annual budget.’

The debate over U.S. missile defense is increasingly focused on space, and defense experts argue that stopping threats in the earliest moments after launch could determine whether the homeland remains protected against Russia and China’s expanding arsenals.

At a policy discussion marking roughly a year since the rollout of the ‘Golden Dome’ homeland defense initiative, former senior defense officials said the United States can no longer rely primarily on deterrence and retaliation to shield the country from missile attacks.

‘I think geography is no longer’ a shield, former Air Force Undersecretary Kari Bingen said during a C-SPAN panel Friday. ‘There are different types of threats that can reach the homeland.’

The Golden Dome initiative stems from a January 2025 executive order signed by President Donald Trump directing the Pentagon to accelerate development of a next-generation homeland missile defense architecture. The order calls for integrating existing ground-based interceptors with advanced tracking networks, new space-based sensors and potentially space-based interceptors capable of detecting and defeating ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missile threats earlier in flight.

Administration officials have framed the effort as a response to rapid modernization by Russia and China. 

Russia has fielded new intercontinental ballistic missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles designed to penetrate missile defenses, while China has expanded its nuclear arsenal and constructed hundreds of new missile silos in recent years. 

Both countries have invested heavily in maneuverable reentry vehicles and countermeasures intended to complicate U.S. interception efforts.

Stopping missiles early

Supporters of a stronger space layer argue that intercepting a missile early in flight — before it can deploy warheads or countermeasures — simplifies the defensive challenge and reduces the strain on systems closer to U.S. territory.

‘It gives the ability to neutralize before they manifest here at home,’ missile defense expert Thomas Karako said, referring to space-enabled capabilities that could track and potentially intercept threats sooner in their trajectory.

Karako said there is ‘a compelling case’ for space-based interceptors ‘not just against nonnuclear attack but even limited nuclear attacks,’ arguing that raising the threshold for adversaries contemplating a strike strengthens deterrence overall.

‘If you raise the threshold for having enough capability to meaningfully invest in enemies … there’s goodness in there,’ he said.

Panelists emphasized that the objective is not absolute protection against thousands of intercontinental ballistic missiles, but improving the odds of defeating smaller or more limited attacks, including those that could involve large salvos or advanced countermeasures.

Threats are evolving

Melissa Dalton, a former senior Pentagon official, said missile and drone use has become increasingly normalized in recent conflicts, lowering the perceived threshold for employment.

‘They don’t respect the boundaries,’ Dalton said, noting the growing frequency of missile and drone attacks.

Bingen argued that the U.S. historically leaned heavily on the threat of retaliation to deter attacks but that changing technologies and adversary capabilities require a broader approach.

‘Americans would be surprised how reliant we have been on vulnerability and retaliation,’ she said.

Space and integration challenges

While space-based missile defense once drew skepticism due to cost and technical hurdles, Karako said advances in commercial launch and satellite technology have changed the feasibility calculus.

‘This is not the Soviet Union in the ’80s or the ’90s,’ he said. ‘The technology has evolved quite a bit.’

Still, experts acknowledged that integration — linking sensors, interceptors and command-and-control systems at machine speed — may be the most difficult challenge.

‘We have to remember this is a layered defense system,’ Bingen said. ‘We’re not asking the space layer to do it all.’

Participants also stressed that any major expansion of homeland missile defense will require bipartisan political support to endure through election cycles and shifting budget priorities.

‘If you don’t persuade people what it’s about, it will never be built,’ Karako said.

Officials have floated an aggressive timeline — including a three-year push to stand up initial capabilities — but the Golden Dome is still in early development, with much of the work focused on planning, prototypes and initial contracts. Significant technical and acquisition hurdles remain, particularly for any space-based interceptor layer, which defense officials acknowledge would take years to fully field.

The effort marks a broader shift in how the U.S. approaches homeland defense. Rather than relying mainly on midcourse interceptors and the threat of retaliation, Golden Dome is designed to push defenses earlier in a missile’s flight — and further into space — with the goal of stopping threats before they can deploy countermeasures or overwhelm existing systems.

: This was the kind of prison break officials say could have changed the region, and perhaps even the world, overnight.

Nearly 6,000 ISIS detainees, described by a senior U.S. intelligence official as ‘the worst of the worst,’ were being held in northern Syria as clashes and instability threatened the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the guards responsible for keeping the militants locked away and preventing a feared ISIS resurgence. U.S. officials believed that if the prisons collapsed in the chaos, the consequences would be immediate.

‘If these 6,000 or so got out and returned to the battlefield, that would basically be the instant reconstitution of ISIS,’ the senior intelligence official told Fox News Digital.

In an exclusive interview, the official walked Fox News Digital step by step through the behind-the-scenes operation that moved thousands of ISIS detainees out of Syria and into Iraqi custody, describing a multi-agency scramble that unfolded over weeks, with intelligence warnings, rapid diplomacy and a swift military lift.

The risk, the official explained, had been building for months. In late October, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard began to assess that Syria’s transition could tip into disorder and create the conditions for a catastrophic jailbreak.

The ODNI sent the official to Syria and Iraq at that time to begin early discussions with both the SDF and the Iraqi government about how to remove what the official repeatedly described as the most dangerous detainees before events overtook them.

Those fears sharpened in early January as fighting erupted in Aleppo and began spreading eastward. Time was running out to prevent catastrophe. ‘We saw this severe crisis situation,’ the official said.

According to the source, the ODNI oversaw daily coordination calls across agencies as the situation escalated. The official said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was ‘managing the day to day’ on policy considerations, while the ODNI drove a working group that kept CENTCOM, diplomats and intelligence officials aligned on the urgent question: how to keep nearly 6,000 ISIS fighters from slipping into the fog of war.

The Iraqi government, the official said, understood the stakes. Baghdad had its own reasons to move quickly, fearing that if thousands of detainees escaped, they would spill across the border and revive a threat Iraq still remembers in visceral terms.

The official described Iraq’s motivation bluntly: leaders recognized that a massive breakout could force Iraq back into a ‘2014 ISIS is on our border situation once more.’

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the official said, played a pivotal role in smoothing the diplomatic runway for what would become a major logistical undertaking.

Then came the physical lift. The official credited CENTCOM’s surge of resources to make the plan real on the ground, saying that ‘moving in helicopters’ and other assets enabled detainees to be removed in a compressed timeframe.

‘Thanks to the efforts… moving in helicopters, moving in more resources, and then just logistically making this happen, we were able to get these nearly 6000 out in the course of just a few weeks,’ the official said.

The SDF, he said, had been securing the prisons, but its attention was strained by fighting elsewhere, fueling U.S. fears that a single breach could spiral into a mass escape. Ultimately, detainees were transported into Iraq, where they are now held at a facility near Baghdad International Airport under Iraqi authority.

The next phase, the official said, is focused on identification and accountability. FBI teams are in Iraq enrolling detainees biometrically, the official said, while U.S. and Iraqi officials examine what intelligence can be declassified and used in prosecutions.

‘What they were asking us for, basically, is giving them as much intelligence and information that we have on these individuals,’ the official said. ‘So right now, the priority is on biometrically identifying these individuals.’

The official said the State Department is also pushing countries of origin to take responsibility for their citizens held among the detainees.

‘State Department is doing outreach right now and encouraging all these different countries to come and pick up their fighters,’ he said.

While the transfer focused strictly on ISIS fighters, the senior intelligence official said families held in camps such as al-Hol were not part of the operation, leaving a major unresolved security and humanitarian challenge.

The camps themselves were under separate arrangements, the official said, and responsibility shifted as control on the ground evolved. 

According to the official, the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian government reached an understanding that Damascus would take over the al-Hol camp, which holds thousands of ISIS-affiliated women and children.

‘As you can see from social media, the al-Hol camp is pretty much being emptied out,’ the official said, adding that it ‘appears the Syrian government has decided to let them go free,’ a scenario the official described as deeply troubling for regional security. ‘That is very concerning.’

The fate of the families has long been viewed by counterterrorism officials as one of the most complicated, unresolved elements of the ISIS detention system. Many of the children have grown up in camps after ISIS lost territorial control, and some are now approaching fighting age, raising fears about future radicalization and recruitment.

For now, the official said, intelligence agencies are closely tracking developments after a rapid operation that, in their view, prevented thousands of experienced ISIS militants from reentering the battlefield at once and potentially reigniting the group’s fighting force. 

‘This is a rare good news story coming out of Syria,’ the official concluded.

A Washington, D.C., grandmother who lost her grandson to gun violence delivered a fiery defense of President Donald Trump during a Black History Month celebration Wednesday at the White House.

Forlesia Cook’s grandson, Marty William McMillan Jr., was killed in 2017 at the age of 22. Cook has since spoken publicly about the loss, including testifying before Congress about his killing.

After Trump invited Cook to say a few words at the event, she used the moment to defend him, urging critics to ‘get off the man’s back.’

‘I love him, I don’t want to hear nothing you got to say about that racist stuff,’ she said. ‘And don’t be looking at me on the news, hating on me because I’m standing up for somebody that deserves to be standing for.’

Cook’s voice grew louder as she continued.

‘Get off the man’s back,’ she said. ‘Let him do his job. He’s doing the right thing. Back up off him.’

She ended her remarks by declaring, ‘And grandma said it.’

The East Room crowd erupted in applause and cheers.

Trump appeared to welcome the praise, joking that she should run for public office.

‘Wow, that’s pretty good,’ Trump said. ‘When is she running for office? Forlesia, when are you running for office? You have my endorsement.’

Cook also thanked Trump for calling the National Guard to the capital and praised his tough-on-crime approach.

‘One thing I like about him, he keeps it real, just like grandma,’ she said. ‘I appreciate that because I can trust him.’

The White House event marked the annual celebration of Black History Month.

Trump also addressed the death of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, saying, ‘I wanted to begin by expressing a sadness at the passing of a person who was, I knew very well, Jesse was a piece of work. He was a piece of work, but he was a good man.’

‘I just want to pay my highest respects to Reverend Jesse Jackson,’ Trump added, calling him ‘a real hero’ and saying, ‘he really was special, with lots of personality, grit and street smarts.’

The president also announced that former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.