Rosie O’Donnell has been sparring with President Trump since 2006, and now the frequent Trump critic has confirmed she fled the country after his return to the Oval Office. 

The comedian said she is living in Ireland and is in the process of applying for Irish citizenship.

‘It’s been pretty wonderful, I have to say,’ the 62-year-old said in a video on TikTok. ‘And the people have been so loving, so kind and so welcoming. And I’m very grateful.’ 

O’Donnell said she left the country Jan. 15, five days before President Trump’s inauguration. 

‘Although I was someone who never thought I would move to another country, that’s what I decided would be the best for myself and my 12-year-old child,’ she explained. 

O’Donnell disagrees with Trump not only politically. The two have also been involved in a feud since 2006 after she criticized him on ‘The View’ about his decision to be lenient toward a Miss USA winner who had been accused of drug use and other bad behavior. 

Trump responded to the criticism by calling O’Donnell a ‘real loser.’ 

At the time, he said of Miss USA Tara Conner that he is a ‘believer in second chances. Tara is a good person. Tara has tried hard. Tara is going to be given a second chance.’ 

The pair continued to spar back and forth, with O’Donnell telling People magazine in 2014 their feud involved the ‘most bullying I ever experienced in my life.’

O’Donnell stepped up her Trump critiques during his first presidential run and win, jokingly telling Seth Meyers in 2017 that she spends ‘about 90% of my working hours tweeting hatred toward this administration.’

The actress even came up in a 2015 Republican primary debate when Trump was asked about having called women disparaging names like ‘fat pigs’ and ‘slob,’ and he answered, ‘Only Rosie O’Donnell,’ to laughter. 

‘I’m trying to find a home here in this beautiful country, and when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that’s when we will consider coming back.’

— Rosie O’Donnell

Trump also brought up O’Donnell during last year’s election when he told a crowd at the October Al Smith dinner that ‘The View’ had gotten ‘so bad’ that showrunners ‘really need to bring Rosie O’Donnell back.’ 

The ‘Now and Then’ star stayed engaged during the election, frequently posting videos on TikTok, including an especially fiery one on Thanksgiving when she warned people, ‘You can’t forget what he’s capable of. … This is not a sane person. This is a madman. You gotta get ready for what’s coming.

‘When democracy falls, fascism takes its place.’ 

Aside from all of her political reasons for leaving the U.S., O’Donnell says she and her daughter are ‘happy’ in Ireland and enjoy exploring the country. 

‘I miss my other kids,’ she added of her five grown children. ‘I miss my friends. I miss many things about life there at home. And I’m trying to find a home here in this beautiful country. And when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that’s when we will consider coming back.’

The ‘A League of Their Own’ star added that it’s ‘heartbreaking to see what’s happening politically and hard for me personally as well. The personal is political, as we all know.’

She added that she was ‘sorry’ to her fans who were worried about her and missed her. 

‘I just felt like we needed to take care of ourselves and make some hard decisions and follow through and now, as we’re getting settled, I was ready to post this and tell everybody what’s going on.’ 

‘The Flintstones’ star said she encourages everyone to ‘stand up, to use their voice, to protest, to demand that we follow the Constitution in our country and not a king, not a man and we don’t have cruelty as part of our governing style.

‘Protect your sanity as much as you can and try not to swim in the chaos if possible, but I know it’s nearly impossible when you’re there in the middle of it.’

The comedian said she thinks about the U.S. every day, and ‘I am hoping that we can turn things around. I’m counting on you, all of you, to do what’s right. And I think deep down inside we all know what that is.’ 
 

The House Freedom Caucus could force a vote on a bill to strip Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, of his committee assignments if Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., does not announce a punishment for the Democrat that conservatives see as sufficient.

‘He will see what he deems appropriate, and then if that’s adequate, that’s fine,’ House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital. ‘If not, then we likely will file our privileged resolution to strip him of his committees.’

Freedom Caucus members told Fox News Digital that the group was in touch with Johnson’s office about the issue.

The conservative caucus threatened to file a resolution to remove Green from all committees last week after his disruption during President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress. 

The protest got the Texas Democrat thrown out of the House chamber minutes after the address began.

‘We’re gonna ask what Mike Johnson wants to do moving forward. We talked about a lot of things, but different people had different thoughts. But I guess what weighed on our minds is, he said he’s going to do it again,’ Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital. ‘My one thing, that kind of action needs consequences.’

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., said, ‘There’s all sorts of options, and I don’t think any of them have been decided upon yet.’

Green was censured in a 224 to 198 vote on Thursday morning after repeatedly disrupting the beginning of Trump’s primetime speech.

He shouted, ‘You have no mandate to cut Medicaid!’ at Trump and shook his cane in the air as the president touted Republican victories in the House, Senate and White House. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after giving a warning, had Green removed from the chamber

The 77-year-old Democrat was unrepentant, posting on X on Thursday afternoon, ‘Today, the House GOP censured me for speaking out for the American people against [Trump’s] plan to cut Medicaid. I accept the consequences of my actions, but I refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice.’

But members of the House Freedom Caucus want to go further, floating everything from fining Green to making good on their resolution threat.

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital he didn’t want to give the Green issue ‘any more oxygen’ but suggested a suitable punishment would be stripping the Texas lawmaker of any seniority privileges. 

‘No seniority on offices, no seniority on parking spots, on committees – all of that,’ Burlison described.

Meanwhile, Green’s House Democratic allies briefly plunged the House floor into chaos after the censure vote. They crowded Green as he stood ready for Johnson to read out the censure, another formal part of the process, and sang ‘We shall overcome.’

Johnson was forced to pause House floor proceedings after trying and failing multiple times to call the Democrats to order.,

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., another Freedom Caucus member, filed a resolution in response to strip all the offending Democrats from their committees.

Harris and Clyde signaled the current discussions with leadership were focused on Green alone, however.

‘No one [else] waved a cane at the president and didn’t accept…having a censure resolution read without interruption,’ Harris said.

Clyde added, ‘And nobody else had to be thrown out.’

Johnson, for his part, confirmed in an interview on Fox News on Friday that he was in talks with the House Freedom Caucus on a punishment for Green.

‘I talked to Freedom Caucus members and other Republicans who are deeply concerned about this,’ Johnson told ‘Outnumbered.’ ‘They say we have to restore control one way or the other and there need to be real consequences, and it’s something that we’ll be looking at early next week.’

Green currently serves on the House Financial Services Committee, where he is the top Democrat on the subcommittee for oversight.

Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Johnson and Green for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Democratic New York Rep. Tom Suozzi said Tuesday that there is a catastrophe brewing for the country’s aging population, and he wants to do something about it.

Alongside Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, Suozzi introduced the ‘Well-Being Insurance for Seniors to be at Home Act’ on Tuesday, which seeks to help more of the country’s increasingly older population obtain long-term home care insurance.

‘Currently, 10,000 Americans every day are turning 65-years-old,’ Suozzi told reporters during a press call on Tuesday, and, in five years, 6,000 Americans will turn 85 every day. Suozzi also noted that right now, only about 4% of seniors are covered by long-term care insurance.

‘One of the main causes of people becoming homeless — new homeless people — is turning 80 years old, because a lot of people are becoming destitute as they get old, and they face what are called, ‘Their inability to conduct daily activities of living,” Suozzi said. ‘And right now, very few people have long-term care insurance, and people will end up going into nursing homes. And not only can the nursing homes not handle this volume of people, but the Medicaid system will go bust, and two thirds of the people in America that are in nursing homes are paid for with Medicaid.’

In addition to the increasingly growing senior population in the U.S., Suozzi also cited societal factors that are making it harder for aging and disabled seniors to receive the at-home care they need. One is the fact that Americans are having fewer kids, so there will be fewer of them to take care of their aging or disabled parents. Another was the fact that kids are increasingly moving to other parts of the country away from their parents, again increasing the burden for seniors to figure things out on their own.

‘There’s a lot of people becoming senior citizens right now because the baby boomers, there’s less kids available to take care of them, and the kids that are alive don’t necessarily live where their parents live. So we’ve got this big perfect storm brewing, and Medicaid will never be able to solve this problem,’ according to Suozzi. ‘And nursing homes — there’s just not enough nursing homes. There’s not enough money to pay for the nursing homes for all these people. So my legislation is designed to try and encourage the private sector to create long-term care insurance that is affordable.’

Known by its acronym, WISH, Suozzi and Moolenaar’s new bill seeks to create a federal ‘Catastrophic Care Fund’ that will help cover some of the cost-burden of long-term care. The goal is to encourage private insurers to develop and market affordable and accessible long-term care insurance, which, overtime, they have ceased providing more broadly. The reason, Suozzi said, is it was just not profitable enough for them, as most seniors with long-term care insurance were outliving their expected life terms and costing insurance companies a lot of money as a result.

Suozzi likened his new plan to Medicare Part B, another similar cost-sharing program that has pushed insurers to incentivize customers to enroll. Seniors would be able to benefit from the newly created fund on a tiered basis, according to each person’s income level.

The Democrat lawmaker pointed out how the WISH Act will help reduce the cost burden of federal healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which can help pay for the fund. He also suggested a payment plan involving an increased income tax shared by both employees and employers, but Suozzi noted that plan was unlikely to get the GOP support necessary. Another potential payment option for the new long-term care fund could stem from reforms to Social Security, the congressman added.

Besides the ‘perfect storm’ that is brewing for seniors, a second storm is also brewing on Capitol Hill right now in regard to how to fund the federal government. Republicans are ramping up reconciliation efforts and, as part of that framework, they are looking for roughly $800 billion in Medicaid cuts. While the Wish Act could help lower the amount of necessary cuts during reconciliation, Suozzi said he feared it was too tight of a window to get enough lawmakers on board. 

‘I guess there’s an argument that it could go in there, if we could demonstrate between now and then that it’ll be a big savings in Medicaid,’ Suozzi told reporters. ‘I see this is taking the full term of getting people educated about the issue, getting more people interested in the issue, and getting senior advocacy groups and private insurers to advocate on behalf of this idea. So it’s not going to happen on its own. It will have to be part of something bigger, but not, I think, until we’ve educated people about the seriousness of the issue.’

Rep. Ashley Hinson and Sen. Pete Ricketts are rolling out a bicameral bill with bipartisan support that would secure agriculture supply chains in the United States from vulnerabilities and potential Chinese Communist Party exploitation, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Hinson, R-Iowa, will introduce the Securing American Agriculture Act in the House of Representatives, while Ricketts, R-Neb., will introduce the measure in the Senate. 

The Securing American Agriculture Act would require the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to conduct an annual assessment to identify supply chain vulnerabilities, domestic production gaps and potential CCP exploitation. 

It also would direct the secretary of Agriculture to recommend ways to strengthen U.S. reliance and reduce China’s influence in the industry to mitigate potential threats. 

The bill would ensure that the USDA accurately accounts for U.S. dependence on China for critical agricultural inputs and guarantee access for American producers. 

‘China has intentionally captured a significant market share of America’s agricultural inputs — which is vital to our food supply chain — ceding leverage to our top adversary,’ Hinson told Fox News Digital Tuesday. ‘Iowa farmers have told me firsthand that if China decides to shut off U.S. access to these critical inputs, our food production would be in jeopardy. I’m proud to reintroduce this bipartisan bill that exposes and counters China’s grip on agricultural inputs to strengthen domestic manufacturing and food security.’ 

Hinson added: ‘Plain and simple: We should bring our agriculture supply chain home.’ 

And Ricketts told Fox News Digital Tuesday that ‘Communist China’s strategic control over crucial sectors of our food and agricultural supply chains poses a serious national security threat.’

‘Losing access to key inputs could reduce productivity, increase food prices and undermine food security,’ Ricketts told Fox News Digital. ‘My bill will bolster and protect these supply chains and reduce our reliance on foreign adversaries.’

The bill is also supported by House China Committee Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., who said the bipartisan bill is ‘a critical step forward in protecting our nation’s food supply and farmers from foreign adversaries, including the Chinese Communist Party, who threaten our agricultural security.’ 

‘America’s farmers are the backbone of our economy, and we must ensure they have the resources and safeguards needed to compete on a level playing field while securing our nation’s agricultural supply chains,’ Krishnamoorthi told Fox News Digital.

The bill is also supported by House China Committee Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich.; Rep, Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii; Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas; and Rep. Scott Franklin, R-Fla., among others. 

In the Senate, Democrat Sen. Elissa Slotkin; Republican Sens. James Risch, R-Idaho; Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V.; Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.; Mike Crapo, R-Idaho; Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.; Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb.; and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., also support the bill. 

Slotkin told Fox News Digital that ‘food security is national security.’ 

‘We need to treat threats to our food supply chain just like any other security risk,’ Slotkin said. ‘This legislation requires us to assess those risks so we can protect our food supply. Bottom line: We need to make sure America’s agriculture supply chain is secure and stays right here at home.’ 

Ukraine on Tuesday agreed to a preliminary proposal put forward by the Trump administration that called for a 30-day ceasefire contingent on Russia’s acceptance of the terms in a major step toward ending the brutal war.

But even if the Trump administration is able to get Moscow to the negotiating table and end the three-year war under a new treaty, which several security experts say Russian President Vladimir Putin is under no real pressure to do, can the Kremlin chief be trusted?

Russia under Putin has repeatedly violated formal international agreements intended to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty, chiefly from its former Soviet overlord.

These agreements include the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine agreed to relinquish its nuclear arsenal in exchange for assurances over its territorial integrity after its 1991 withdrawal from the Soviet Union, as well as the 1997 Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership by which Moscow and Kyiv agreed to respect one another’s existing borders. Both deals were first violated in 2014 when Putin seized Crimea and backed Russian separatist forces in the Donbas region. 

The 2014-2015 Minsk Agreements, though criticized as ‘weak,’ attempted to end Russia’s aggression in eastern Ukraine, an agreement that was never fully achieved and was again violated by Putin’s 2022 invasion. 

Some world leaders and security officials, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have cautioned that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is unlikely to be achieved in the near term and against Putin’s reliability in adhering to any international agreement without serious security commitments from the West.

‘The problem here is that the Russians only understand win-lose outcomes, which means that to prevent them from ever attacking Ukraine again, they must see themselves to be the losers in the war just as they did at the end of the Cold War,’ Michael Ryan, former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy and former acting assistant secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, told Fox News Digital.

Security officials interviewed by Fox News Digital argued that securing Ukraine’s future is not about ‘trusting’ Putin. It’s about actually putting Russia in a position where any future violations would hinder Moscow more than it could be enticed by unchecked opportunity.

‘Even if a deal is concluded, Russia will continue clandestine operations across the world to expand its footprint in terms of geopolitical influence,’ Rebekah Koffler, a former DIA intelligence officer, told Fox News Digital, noting the former KGB operative can be counted on to ‘continue election interference campaigns, cyber warfare, espionage and destabilization operations across the globe.

‘There’s no such thing as peace in Russia’s strategic military thinking. You are in a constant confrontation.’

Ryan argued a Trump-brokered peace deal needs to reflect on the lessons learned from previously failed agreements, like the post-WWI Treaty of Versailles, which arguably led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.

‘How to solve this conundrum? Just as we did after World War II … reconstruction of Ukraine must include economic reconciliation with Russia,’ Ryan said. ‘The Russians saw how we rebuilt the losing side in World War II Germany and Japan. They expected us to do the same for Russia after the Cold War, but we did not.  

‘We can’t make that same mistake if we want lasting peace for Ukraine and if we want to split Russia from China,’ he added, noting other adversaries are watching how the West handles this geopolitical hurdle.

There are numerous obstacles when it comes to the Trump administration’s attempt to negotiate with Putin, including arguments over occupied territory, international recognition of occupied lands, international aid and support for Ukraine, international confiscation of frozen Russian assets, Zelenskyy’s standing at home, the return of prisoners of war and the return of abducted Ukrainian children, according to Peter Rough, senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at the Hudson Institute.

‘Putin has officially annexed four Ukrainian oblasts as well as Crimea. But Moscow has yet to conquer any of the four entirely,’ Rough told Fox News Digital while traveling to Ukraine. ‘I can’t imagine that Ukraine will withdraw from the areas they control, having fought tooth and nail to defend those regions. 

‘I also doubt that the West will offer de jure recognition to the areas Moscow controls,’ he added. ‘So, Putin would have to swallow all of that in a peace deal.’

Each issue alone is a massive undertaking to negotiate, and while Ukraine this week may be outlining concessions it could make to secure a deal coordinated by the U.S., Putin is unlikely to do the same, according to Koffler, who briefed NATO years ahead of the 2022 invasion on Putin’s plans.

‘Putin is unlikely to make any concessions as he believes he is in a strong position,’ Koffler told Fox News Digital. ‘The disparity in combat potential dramatically favors Russia over Ukraine, which is out-manned and outgunned because Putin transitioned the Russian military and economy on a wartime footing seven years prior to the invasion of Ukraine.’

‘Putin believes he has prepared Russia to fight till the last Ukrainian and till the last missile in NATO’s arsenal,’ she added, echoing a January warning issued by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who said Russia’s defense industry output over a three-month period equates to what all of NATO produces an entire year.

‘Putin is highly unlikely to agree to a ceasefire because he doesn’t want to give a strategic pause to Ukraine, the U.S., and NATO to re-arm,’ Koffler said. ‘He doesn’t trust Washington. He doesn’t trust President Trump any more than we trust Putin. 

‘He trusts Trump even less than Biden because he could read Biden and predict his behavior. He cannot read Trump because Trump is unpredictable.’

The experts argued there are too many variables that could play out during negotiations that will determine whether Putin can be adequately held accountable or ‘trusted’ regarding future agreements.

Ultimately, Koffler said, Putin will not leave eastern Ukraine.

‘Ukraine has always been a red line for Putin, in terms of who has geopolitical control of it, Russia or the West. And he will continue to enforce this red line,’ she said. ‘The only way to ensure that Putin doesn’t invade another country is to make NATO strong again, beef up force posture, increase defense spending, secure its command-and-control networks and develop actual deterrence and counter-strategy that addresses every prong of Putin’s strategy.’ 

— The House GOP’s campaign committee is taking aim at congressional Democrats for voting against a measure to fund the federal government through Sept. 30 and avoid a government shutdown at the end of this week. 

The National Republican Congressional Committee is launching digital ads against 35 House Democrats who may face challenging or competitive races in the 2026 midterms, when the GOP aims to defend its fragile majority in the chamber.

The spots, shared first with Fox News Wednesday morning, are going up hours after the House, almost entirely along party lines, voted 217-213 to pass a Republican-crafted bill that cuts non-defense spending by roughly $13 billion, boosts defense spending by around $6 billion and gives President Donald Trump more leeway in how to spend the funds.

Thanks to heavy last-minute lobbying by Trump and his allies inside and outside the chamber, the House GOP didn’t need a single Democrat’s vote to pass the bill.

One Democrat, moderate Jared Golden of Maine, who represents a district carried by Trump the past three presidential elections, voted for the Republican measure.

And the one Republican to vote against the bill, far right Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, is being threatened by Trump and his allies with a possible primary challenge next year when he’s up for re-election.

The digital ads by the NRCC, which are identical for all the targets, will run online in the districts of Democratic representatives Josh Harder (CA-09), Adam Gray (CA-13), Jim Costa, (CA-21), Raul Ruiz (CA-25), George Whitesides (CA-27), Derek Tran (CA-45), Dave Min (CA-47) and Mike Levin (CA-49) of California; Darren Soto (FL-09) and Jared Moskowitz (FL-23) of Florida; Eric Sorensen (IL-17) of Illinois; Frank Mrvan (IN-01) of Indiana; Kristen McDonald Rivet (MN-08) of Michigan; Don Davis (NC-01) of North Carolina; Chris Pappas (NH-01) and Maggie Goodlander (NH-02) of New Hampshire; Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05) and Nellie Pou (NJ-09) of New Jersey; Gabe Vasquez (NM-02) of New Mexico; Dina Titus (NV-01), Susie Lee (NV-03) and Steven Horsford (NV-04) of Nevada; Tom Suozzi (NY-03), Laura Gillen (NY-04), Pat Ryan (NY-18) and Josh Riley (NY-19) of New York; Greg Landsman (OH-01), Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), and Emilia Syles (OH-13) of Ohio; Janelle Bynum (OR-05) of Oregon; Henry Cuellar (TX-28) and Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34) of Texas; Eugene Vindman (VA-07) of Virginia; and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) of Washington state.

The NRCC says there’s a modest ad buy behind the digital spots.

‘House Democrats threw a tantrum at the expense of the American people, shutting down the government just to score political points. After months of failure, they’ve learned nothing and doubled down on their embarrassing dysfunction.’ NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said.

Democrats disagree.

‘The strong House Democratic vote in opposition to this reckless Republican spending bill speaks for itself,’ House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top Democrat in the chamber, told reporters after the vote.

And House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Pete Aguilar of California took aim at what he called a ‘partisan’ measure and emphasized that ‘we put up a strong vote in opposition of this bill because this hurts families.’ 

The Environmental Protection Agency is terminating $20 billion in grants awarded by the Biden administration for climate and clean-energy projects, Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Tuesday.

In a video posted to X, Zeldin said $20 billion in U.S. tax dollars were ‘parked at an outside financial institution in a deliberate effort to limit government oversight, doling out your money through just eight pass-through, politically connected, unqualified, and in some cases brand-new NGOs.’

The money has since been frozen, he said, noting that the Department of Justice and FBI are investigating.

The program, approved by Congress under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, was formerly known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund but is more commonly referred to as the green bank. Two initiatives, worth $14 billion and $6 billion, respectively, aimed to offer grants to nonprofits, community development banks and other groups for projects focusing on disadvantaged communities.

The eight nonprofits that were awarded the money included the Coalition for Green Capital, Climate United Fund, Power Forward Communities, Opportunity Finance Network, Inclusiv and the Justice Climate Fund. These organizations have partnered with various groups, including Rewiring America, Habitat for Humanity and the Community Preservation Corporation.

The EPA ‘just notified 8 recipients of $20 BILLION in Biden EPA ‘gold bars’ that their grants have been TERMINATED!’ Zeldin wrote on X.

In his video, Zeldin cited reports that Power Forward Communities, a group linked to Democrat Stacey Abrams, received $2 billion after reporting just $100 in total revenue the year before.

He also said the founding director of the EPA’s program allocated $5 billion to his former employer after working on the legislation that created the program from his role in the White House.

‘These two examples have only been the tip of the iceberg,’ Zeldin said. ‘I’m here to report back to the American people that, as of today, I have officially terminated these grant agreements entirely. Not only does the EPA have full authority to take this action, but frankly, we were left with no other option.’

‘This termination is based on substantial concerns regarding program integrity, objections to the award process, programmatic fraud, waste and abuse and misalignment with the agency’s priorities, which collectively undermine the fundamental goals and statutory objectives of the awards,’ he continued.

Zeldin said the ‘only way’ to reduce waste, increase oversight and meet the intent of the law as it was written is by terminating the grants. He said it is his ‘unwavering commitment’ to President Donald Trump, Congress and the American people.

‘The EPA will once again be an exceptional steward of your tax dollars. I will have it no other way,’ Zeldin said.

While issues at NASA grew under former President Joe Biden, the space agency prioritized embedding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives into its workforce, according to a new report from watchdog group OpenTheBooks.

Amid preparations for its Starliner capsule mission — which ultimately went awry, leaving two astronauts stranded in space — NASA spent more than $13 million on related efforts between 2021 and 2024. During the ongoing Starliner spaceship debacle, an Inspector General report highlighted even further shortcomings by the agency, particularly related to quality control around NASA’s efforts to return astronauts to the moon.

Simultaneously, while NASA was facing these mission-critical deficiencies, it was also reportedly taking substantial steps to embed DEI into agency practices through a variety of avenues, including grants, contracts, employee guidance, agency-wide strategic equity commitments, book talks and more.

During President Donald Trump’s first term, he sought to root out DEI programs in the federal government, similar to his efforts today. Before ending his first term, in September 2020, Trump signed an executive order to combat race and sex stereotyping within federal government programs. His order was rescinded just a few months later by the Biden administration. During former President Joe Biden’s first few days in office, he signed several executive orders aimed at embedding the equity considerations Trump sought to get rid of in federal government programs.

Following Biden’s directives, NASA went full force at embedding these principles into its day-to-day operations, OpenTheBooks’ report illustrates. At the same time, NASA was preparing its Starliner capsule to transport two astronauts to the International Space Station for what was intended to be a week-long mission. Instead, due to multiple malfunctions with the rocket that carried them there, the astronauts were stranded in space for months. Elon Musk’s SpaceX was ultimately tapped to help bring the astronauts home, and they are expected to return sometime this month.

In 2021, the same year NASA’s Starliner capsule was undergoing test flights, NASA employees were engaged in a book talk about ‘open[ing] the lines of communication on anti-racism,’ alongside author Uju Asika. Asika, who was also invited back the following year, spoke to parents at NASA about her book, ‘Bringing Up Race: How to Raise a Kind Child in a Prejudiced World,’ in which she laments her ‘Eurocentric’ education in the U.K., ‘colonialism,’ and the results of the 2016 election. An earlier book talk at the space agency in 2020 included talks by infamous anti-racist scholar Ibram X. Kendi. 

Around the same time as Asika’s talks to NASA employees, the agency also unveiled its 2022-2026 ‘Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity Inclusion & Accessibility.’ Major goals of the plan included race and sex-based hiring and promotion initiatives. The same year, NASA unveiled its 2022 Equity Action Plan, which included new DEI-related contractor policies. Those policies, among other things, included ‘a requirement for contractors to provide a DEIA plan upon award to demonstrate commitment to diversifying their workforce.’ The Equity Action Plan also retooled NASA’s grant and procurement process, aimed at encouraging grant proposers to consider DEI principles, even when seemingly unrelated.

In 2022, employees were also provided guidance ‘for Supporting Gender Transition/Affirmation in the Workplace.’ The guidance encouraged employees to ‘be willing and available to collaborate with the transitioning employee on the development, implementation, and evolution of a Workplace Gender.’ It added that any ‘transitioning employees’ should be allowed to use the restroom, locker room, or other facility of their choice, and not compelled to use one that does not align with their choice.

In total, NASA spent at least $13 million on DEI-related programs under Biden, according to OpenTheBooks. One contract uncovered by the organization provided more than $2.3 million for a consulting group to help ‘incorporate and deeply engrain diversity, inclusion, equity, and accessibility in the culture and business’ at NASA. 

‘NASA’s mission is too risky to get distracted by identity politics,’ John Hart, CEO at OpenTheBooks, said. 

‘Newtonian physics and atmospheric reentry do not care about antiracism talks and gender ‘affirmation’ policies,’ Hart added. ‘NASA has an opportunity to take one small step toward fiscal responsibility and one giant leap toward common sense.’

Beyond the Starliner mission debacle that left two astronauts stranded in space, a report from the Inspector General last year detailed widespread quality control issues in NASA and contractor Boeing’s efforts to return astronauts to the moon. The report pointed out that workers on NASA’s Space Launch System program lacked sufficient experience, among other issues.

This week, the Trump administration began a ‘phased reduction in force’ at NASA, which included shuttering the agency’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility branch in the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity.

Acting NASA administrator Janet Petro said in a memo to employees at NASA this week that while the force reduction, which includes the closure of multiple offices, will mean ‘difficult adjustments,’ the agency is viewing it as an opportunity to ‘reshape’ its workforce and ensure it is ‘doing what is statutorily required … while also providing American citizens with an efficient and effective agency.’ 

‘NASA is committed to engaging the best talent to drive innovation and achieve our mission for the benefit of all,’ Cheryl Warner, a NASA spokesperson, told Fox News Digital when reached for comment. ‘As new guidance comes in, we’re working to adhere to new requirements in a timely manner. Our agency has complied with the requirements of executive orders and additional guidance from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.’