War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that some cartel drug traffickers operating in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility have halted narcotics activity following recent U.S. military strikes in the Caribbean.

‘WINNING: Some top cartel drug-traffickers in the @SOUTHCOM AOR have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean,’ Hegsth wrote in a post on X.

Hegseth credited President Donald Trump with directing the military actions, calling the effort a lifesaving deterrent.

‘This is deterrence through strength. @POTUS is SAVING American lives,’ he wrote.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina praised the military action, writing on X, ‘Well done @SecWar and to all under your command. We must continue to verify and monitor. We can’t trust drug cartels.’

The Trump administration has been pursuing a policy of conducting deadly attacks against vessels of alleged ‘narco-terrorists.’

SOUTHCOM announced a strike that killed two on Thursday.

‘On Feb. 5, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Two narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed,’ Southern Command noted in a post on X.

The film ‘Melania,’ a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump, made nearly $8 million on its opening weekend, making it the highest-grossing documentary in a decade. It’s a huge win for the first lady and a crushing defeat for those rooting against her.

The director of ‘Melania,’ Brett Ratner, has previously helmed Hollywood blockbusters such as ‘Rush Hour’ and ‘X-Men: The Last Stand.’ The fact that Ratner is already an established brand in Hollywood is noteworthy. During the first Trump term, it would have been unlikely that a Hollywood director would take a chance on a documentary about Melania Trump. Ratner still took a risk making the film, because Hollywood is traditionally lockstep on politics and quick to cut off anyone who steps outside the line. It’s easier to make a film like this in 2026 than it was in 2017, but only marginally so.

The film is a soft-focus look at Melania Trump’s life as first lady, offering a glossy, feel-good glance into what people normally don’t get to see inside the private first lady’s life. Still, it wouldn’t have mattered what was in the film — the media would have hated it anyway.

The reviews in the mainstream press aren’t so much scathing as personal. Variety called the film a ‘cheeseball infomercial of staggering inertia,’ while The Guardian noted it was ‘dispiriting, deadly and unrevealing’ and ‘unredeemable.’

In the film, it’s true we see Melania in her beautiful outfits and flawless makeup, but we also see her as the woman behind the man.

In one scene in the film, Melania advises the president to include the word ‘unifier’ in his inaugural speech. On Jan. 20, as he said the words, ‘My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be: a peacemaker and a unifier,’ the president turned around to look at his wife. Of course, Melania wants her husband to be both a peacemaker and a unifier. She is rooting for him to succeed because it helps us all. A vicious media refuses to concede that she may want what is best for the country.

The film portrays a marriage where the first lady cares about her husband, worrying about his security on Inauguration Day and expressing relief when festivities are moved indoors. This portrayal flies in the face of the frequent commentary claiming the marriage is in name only. Why would the first lady care about her husband’s safety if she’s only in the union for glory or money? The New York Times counted how many days Melania has spent in the White House during this term, and Trump biographer Michael Wolff has claimed, without evidence, that they are separated. This film answers those accusations and rumors directly, in Melania’s own words.

In a 2018 interview with ABC, Melania was asked about her marriage and said, ‘I know people like to speculate and media like to speculate about our marriage. It’s not always pleasant, of course. But I know what is right and what is wrong and what is true or not true.’

She does, and she shows it in this film.

On the review site Rotten Tomatoes, the film ‘Melania’ is setting another kind of record: the largest discrepancy between the scores of film reviewers and filmgoers in the site’s history. It makes sense, since most of the reviewers went into the film with a rating in mind, whether or not they actually enjoyed the movie. The people who spent their money to go watch their first lady on the screen were going to be more honest, even if some were swayed by their enthusiasm for their president.

The media has three more years of the Trump administration and Melania Trump. They can stop having outbursts about the first lady and give her a fair hearing — something more than half the country would commend. Or they can continue to descend into irrelevance, as everyone knows even their panning of a film will be political. The choice is theirs.

As indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran started on Friday in Oman, remarks from Vice President JD Vance earlier in the week questioning the absence of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei from talks have raised a core dilemma for Washington — the person with ultimate authority in Tehran is not sitting at the negotiating table.

In the interview, Vance said, ‘It’s a very weird country to conduct diplomacy with, when you can’t even talk to the person who’s in charge of the country. That makes all of this much more complicated… It is bizarre that we can’t just talk to the actual leadership of the country. It really makes diplomacy very, very difficult,’ he said on Megyn Kelly’s podcast.

The Supreme Leader has no equals

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, has served as Iran’s supreme leader since 1989 and remains the country’s highest political and religious authority, with ultimate control over military, security and strategic decisions. That concentration of power means any diplomatic outcome must ultimately pass through him.

Sina Azodi, the director of the Middle East Studies Program at George Washington University, told Fox News Digital that Khamenei’s authority stems from direct control over Iran’s core power centers. ‘He is very powerful because he is the commander in chief of the armed forces and appoints the heads of the IRGC, the Artesh (conventional military), the judiciary and other important institutions.’

Azodi added that protocol and hierarchy also explain Khamenei’s absence from negotiations. ‘Iranians are very adamant about diplomatic protocols — that since other countries don’t have the equivalent rank, he does not participate in any negotiations because his ‘equal’ rank does not exist,’ Azodi said. ‘Even when foreign heads of state visit him, there is only the Iranian flag, and foreign flags are not allowed.’

Iranian sources familiar with internal discussions described Khamenei as operating from a legacy mindset at this stage of his life. ‘The supreme leader sees the confrontation with Washington as defining his historical role and believes Iran can retaliate against U.S. interests in the region. Khamenei is not focused on personal risk and views strategic confrontation as part of preserving his legacy,’ a Middle Eastern source speaking on the condition of anonymity told Fox News Digital.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that Khamenei remains the decisive figure in Iran’s system even as the regime faces pressure at home and abroad.

‘He wields great influence in Iran but also exercises the greatest veto in Iran’s political hierarchy’

‘He wields great influence in Iran but also exercises the greatest veto in Iran’s political hierarchy,’ Ben Taleblu said.

He added, ‘The Iranian strategy… is to raise the cost of war in the thinking of the adversary,’ he said, describing a system that signals willingness to talk while simultaneously preparing for confrontation.

He warned that ‘regimes that are afraid and lethal and weak can still be dangerous,’ and said Tehran may believe threatening U.S. assets could deter a broader war even if such escalation risks triggering a stronger American response.

‘Very difficult to say what Khamenei’s mindset is, but I think that he, along with other senior officials, think that the current conflict is not an isolated phenomenon but rather the continuation of the June 2025 conflict and the recent protests, which he called ‘an American coup,’’ Azodi told Fox News Digital.

‘I think that he thinks that the U.S. is definitely after a regime change and that needs to be resisted at all costs,’ he added.

Inside Iran, frustration with Khamenei has become increasingly visible, according to a journalist reporting from within the country.

‘What people want more than anything else is for Khamenei to die… I hear it every day, everywhere I go — why doesn’t he die?’ the journalist told Fox News Digital.

‘He is perceived as God’s representative, while leaders of enemy states are viewed as representatives of Satan, which is why he never meets with them.’

‘You just open the Twitter of Iranians… the tweet is, why don’t you die? And everybody knows who we are talking about. So a nation is waiting for him to die.’

The journalist said many Iranians no longer believe political reform is possible and instead see generational change as the only turning point.

Iranian journalist in exile, Mehdi Ghadimi, told Fox News Digital that, ‘The Islamic government considers itself obligated to enforce Islamic law across the entire world. They harbor hatred toward Iranians and Jews, whom they regard as enemies of Islam,’ he explained, ‘In such a structure, the leader is seen as more than a political ruler; he is perceived as God’s representative, while leaders of enemy states are viewed as representatives of Satan, which is why he never meets with them. If dialogue or compromise were to take place, his sacred image would collapse in the eyes of his supporters.’

He continued, ‘For this reason, groups labeled as ‘moderate,’ ‘reformist,’ or ‘pro-Western’ are created so that the West can negotiate with them,’ Ghadimi added. ‘No one within the structure of the Islamic Republic thinks about anything other than defeating the Western world and establishing Islamic dominance globally. The diplomats presented to Western politicians as moderates are tasked with using diplomacy to buy time for Khamenei.’

The negotiations come amid heightened regional tensions, U.S. military deployments and unresolved disputes over Iran’s nuclear program and missile capabilities.

Regional analysts say that for the U.S., the central challenge remains unchanged. Diplomats can negotiate, but the final decision rests with one man — a leader shaped by decades of confrontation with the United States, focused on regime survival and determined to preserve his legacy even as Iran enters a new round of talks.

The Republican National Committee is upping its social media presence and following President Donald Trump’s lead by officially launching a TikTok account, marking a strategic shift for the party as it continues to look to connect with younger voters.

The RNC’s plan to make an impact on the digital front lines involves the official launch of @Republicans on TikTok, which is designed to engage a critical demographic, voters under 30 who may not follow traditional political news but rely heavily on social media for information.

The move comes at the same time polling from Pew Research shows that 63% of Americans aged 18-29 use TikTok. The platform has become an essential battleground for reaching the next generation of voters.

Trump has credited TikTok with being a key part of his election victory in 2024.

‘I wasn’t a fan of TikTok, and then I got to use it,’ Trump said last fall. ‘And I became a fan, and it helped me win the election in a landslide.’

The data shows that TikTok was a valuable tool for Trump and his administration. Reuters reported he amassed roughly 3 million followers in just 24 hours after joining the platform and quickly began drawing tens of millions of views. 

In 2025, the White House joined TikTok and quickly gained traction, racking up 5 million followers and 80 million-plus likes as of early January. In addition to launching its own account, the RNC is encouraging Republican candidates across the country to follow its lead and join the platform to engage with voters and level the playing field in a space where Democrats have historically dominated. 

‘President Trump proved how powerful TikTok can be and took decisive action to secure this platform for American users,’ RNC Chair Joe Gruters told Fox News Digital. 

‘Our new account will deliver America First content directly to younger voters who get their news online, and we’re encouraging Republican candidates nationwide to do the same now that the platform is safe.’

Earlier this year, TikTok announced it reached a historic deal to launch a majority American-owned joint venture, a move guided by Trump and aimed at averting a potential U.S. ban on the popular social media app and hoping to alleviate concerns about China’s ability to influence Americans on the app.

‘I am so happy to have helped in saving TikTok! It will now be owned by a group of Great American Patriots and Investors, the Biggest in the World, and will be an important Voice,’ Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Gains by Trump and Republicans in courting younger voters helped the GOP win back the White House and the Senate and hold their House majority in last year’s elections.

Republicans will be hoping to repeat that success in the upcoming midterms as they attempt to hold onto a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives and a three-seat majority in the Senate despite historical trends suggesting Democrats have the advantage.

‘I think the President of the United States is our secret weapon. … He’s laser focused,’ Gruters said in a national digital exclusive sit-down interview with Fox News last month.

Pointing to Trump’s unprecedented agenda during his first year back in the White House, Gruters argued, ‘I think it’s going to pay huge dividends across the board, whether you’re running for governor, Senate, House or whether you’re running for a local seat.’

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be deposed by the House Oversight Committee at the end of this month.

Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., announced Hillary Clinton will sit for a closed-door transcribed interview on Feb. 26, and Bill Clinton will appear on Feb. 27 under the same terms.

Both interviews will be filmed, Comer’s press release said. 

It comes after weeks of back-and-forth between the former first couple and the House GOP-led committee about whether they would testify in the chamber’s probe into Jeffrey Epstein, and under what terms.

The Clintons were both facing contempt of Congress votes in the House this week if they did not agree to come to Capitol Hill for in-person interviews with the Oversight Committee.

Those votes were likely to succeed as well. Late last month, nine Democrats on the House Oversight Committee joined all Republicans in voting to advance Bill Clinton’s contempt of Congress resolution to a House-wide vote. Three Democrats voted to advance the resolution against Hillary Clinton.

A contempt of Congress vote would refer both Clintons to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal prosecution.

A contempt of Congress conviction is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum fine of $100,000 and up to a year in jail.

‘Republicans and Democrats on the Oversight Committee have been clear: no one is above the law — and that includes the Clintons. After delaying and defying duly issued subpoenas for six months, the House Oversight Committee moved swiftly to initiate contempt of Congress proceedings in response to their non-compliance,’ Comer said in a statement.

‘Once it became clear that the House of Representatives would hold them in contempt, the Clintons completely caved and will appear for transcribed, filmed depositions this month. We look forward to questioning the Clintons as part of our investigation into the horrific crimes of Epstein and Maxwell, to deliver transparency and accountability for the American people and for survivors.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Bill Clinton’s spokesman for comment.

The Clintons were two of 10 people subpoenaed for testimony before the committee as it probes the federal government’s handling of Epstein’s case. So far just two people subpoenaed by the committee, former Attorney General Bill Barr and ex-Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, have appeared in person.

Their attorneys wrote to Comer last month calling his subpoenas legally invalid and a violation of separation of powers, arguments the Kentucky Republican rejected.

‘President and Secretary Clinton have already provided the limited information they possess about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to the Committee. They did so proactively and voluntarily, and despite the fact that the Subpoenas are invalid and legally unenforceable, untethered to a valid legislative purpose, unwarranted because they do not seek pertinent information, and an unprecedented infringement on the separation of powers,’ the letter read.

The two sides then went back-and-forth discussing various terms as Comer continued to forge ahead with contempt proceedings.

Comer twice rejected offers for himself and Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the committee, to travel to New York with limited staff to interview Bill Clinton. 

Meanwhile, Democrats had accused Comer of pursuing the contempt charges for political motivations rather than to get closure for Epstein’s victims.

Bill Clinton was known to have a friendship with Epstein before his federal criminal charges and is among many high-profile names to appear in the trove of files being released on the late pedophile by the DOJ. But there has been no implication of wrongdoing by either of the Clintons as it relates to Epstein.

With a looming vote that could have set up an unprecedented criminal prosecution, the Clintons’ attorneys wrote to the committee on Monday, ‘[M]y clients accept the terms of your letter and will appear for depositions on mutually agreeable dates. As has been the Committee’s practice, please confirm the House will not move forward with contempt proceedings, as the Chairman stated in his letter this morning.’

President Donald Trump has signed legislation ending the partial government shutdown that started Friday at midnight. 

The legislation Trump signed funds agencies including the Department of War, the Department of State, the Treasury Department and others through the end of September and the end of the fiscal year. 

However, it only funds the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through Feb. 13, meaning Republicans and Democrats will be forced to work together to secure a longer-term funding plan for the agency. 

While the House had previously passed funding bills to keep the government open through the end of September, Democrats failed to get on board with the measures in response to Trump’s ramped-up immigration efforts in Minneapolis. 

DHS announced Operation Metro Surge in December 2025 to dispatch thousands of Immigration and Customs Control agents into the city. 

As a result, Senate Democrats refused to get behind the deal due to its funding for DHS after two Customs and Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a Department of Veterans Affairs ICU nurse, while he was recording federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis in January. 

Ultimately, the Senate passed the compromise spending measure Friday that would fund key agencies, but the House was out of session and couldn’t pass its version of the measure in time to prevent a partial government shutdown. The House ultimately passed the compromise deal Tuesday by a 217–214 margin.

The most recent shutdown comes on the heels of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history in fall 2025, where the government remained shuttered for more than 40 days in October and November 2025. 

On Nov. 12, 2025, Trump signed legislation that would continue to fund the government at the same levels during fiscal year 2025 through Jan. 30 to provide additional time to finalize a longer appropriations measure for fiscal year 2026.

A Senate Republican suggested Wednesday that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., had his feelings hurt by not being included in the Trump-Schumer deal to fund the government. 

The House passed the five-bill funding package, along with a two-week funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), on Tuesday. Jeffries and most House Democrats, save for 21, voted against it as the partial government shutdown entered its fourth day. 

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said it was because Jeffries was ‘butt hurt’ that he was not looped into the deal brokered between Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and President Donald Trump. 

‘He’s butt hurt that President Trump didn’t call him, too,’ Marshall told Fox News Digital. ‘But I think that’s on Schumer.’

Marshall described the scene in the Oval Office last week, where top-ranking Senate Republicans met with Trump as the funding deadline neared, and Senate Democrats were digging in deeper into their demands to renegotiate the DHS funding bill. 

‘The president says, ‘Get Schumer on the phone.’ They get Schumer on the phone. They broker a deal,’ Marshall said.

‘So really, it’s on Schumer that he agreed to this deal, really, before bringing Hakeem in,’ he continued. ‘And really it comes down to that Hakeem’s feelings are butt hurt, and to him, he’s fighting for his political life and really struggling.’

While the deal does fund 11 out of the 12 agencies under Congress’ purview, DHS remains an open question.

Senate Democrats, following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti during an immigration operation in Minneapolis, demanded that the bipartisan bill to fund the agency be sidelined in order to cram in more restrictions and reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

Turning to a two-week continuing resolution (CR) to further negotiate the bill has Republicans concerned that they will end up in the same position within the next few days, given the truncated timeframe to hash out major issues with one of the most politically perilous funding bills.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that negotiations with Senate Democrats would be carried out by Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who chairs the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. 

He acknowledged, however, that Trump would be the deciding factor. 

‘Ultimately, that’s going to be a conversation between the President of the United States and the Democrats here in the Senate,’ he said.

But Schumer insisted that Thune needed to be in on the negotiations. 

‘If Leader Thune negotiates in good faith, we can get it done,’ Schumer said. ‘We expect to present to the Republicans a very serious, detailed proposal very shortly.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer and Jeffries for comment.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stood in the way of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE) this week, claiming that it represents ‘Jim Crow’ segregation laws, leading many on social media to bring up his identical claim about a Georgia voting law that resulted in record Black turnout.

Schumer pushed back on a Republican plan to add the SAVE Act, which would require states to obtain proof of citizenship in-person when people register to vote and remove non-citizens from voter rolls, to the spending package being debated in Congress.

‘I have said it before and I’ll say it again, the SAVE Act would impose Jim Crow-type laws to the entire country and is dead on arrival in the Senate,’ Schumer said on Monday. ‘It is a poison pill that will kill any legislation that it is attached to… The SAVE Act is reminiscent of Jim Crow era laws and would expand them to the whole of America. Republicans want to restore Jim Crow and apply it from one end of this country to the other. It will not happen.’

Many on social media quickly pointed to Schumer previously calling a Georgia election integrity law ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ before the law resulted in record Black turnout in the 2022 state election.

‘Schumer used the same line to describe Georgia laws that indisputably expanded voter access back in 2022,’ commentator and writer AG Hamilton posted on X. ‘It’s incredibly offensive and unserious to pretend that every voting law equates to a renewal of Jim Crow.’

Many Democrats, from Schumer, to President Joe Biden, to failed Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, warned that the Georgia voter integrity law would be ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ and Major League Baseball even pulled its All-Star Game from Atlanta in 2021 amid public pressure.

Ultimately, the Georgia Secretary of State revealed that the law did not suppress turnout, but rather increased it, particularly among minority voters.

‘Chuck Schumer sounds like a broken record,’ Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead told Fox News Digital. ‘When Georgia passed a new voting law in 2021, Schumer labeled it ‘Jim Crow’ even though the state went on to see explosive turnout in 2022.’

Snead pointed to a University of Georgia poll after the 2022 election finding that 0% of Black respondents had a poor experience voting. 

Snead continued, ‘Now, Schumer is smearing the SAVE Act the same way because he has no legitimate excuse for opposing a law that makes sure only American citizens are voting—which more than 80% of Americans support. Schumer’s smears were false then, and they are false now.

‘Schumer and the Democrats keep trying to rig the rules of our elections by pushing failed, California-style election laws that invite chaos and fraud. That’s not what Americans want.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for comment.