WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance said he feels ‘very empowered’ by President Donald Trump, telling Fox News Digital that there is ‘complete trust across the senior team,’ and ‘good synergies’ in ‘service of a common vision.’ 

Vance sat for an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital Wednesday in his West Wing office inside the White House. 

The vice president reflected on his role as vice president, which, notably, is not limited to a specific portfolio, but rather a broad role touching on foreign and domestic policy issues and more.

‘Obviously, the president makes decisions. And what’s so good about the team that we have, both on the economic side, but also on the foreign policy side, is the president gives directives, and each person has their role in fulfilling those directives, and there is complete trust across the senior team,’ Vance explained to Fox News Digital. ‘It’s kind of empowering, because you don’t have to constantly check in — you don’t have to micromanage some of these things.’  

Vance told Fox News Digital that he spoke to Secretary of State Marco Rubio Tuesday, after not having spoken to him ‘for four or five days before then.’ 

‘It’s kind of nice to just know that you’ve got the secretary of State working on his stuff, the Department of Defense secretary who’s working on his stuff, and I’m, of course, working on my stuff,’ Vance said. ‘And then we all come back; we update the president; we go from there.’ 

But Vance said it is ‘a very fluid and dynamic situation.’ 

‘I think that will certainly continue over the next 100 days — over the next four years,’ Vance said. ‘But I think what enables it — what makes it possible — is that people actually trust one another.’ 

Vance told Fox News Digital that the president ‘has full faith in his team.’ 

‘And it just makes it very easy to actually work successfully when you’re not constantly checking in and you’re not constantly, you know, dealing with the bureaucracy,’ Vance said. ‘You can just go and do your job.’ 

Vance told Fox News Digital that he, as vice president, feels ‘very empowered by the president.’ 

‘I was talking to Secretary Rubio about this yesterday, and I think Marco Rubio feels very empowered, and there’s just this sense that the President both likes and trusts his senior team, and so he’s able to govern effectively,’ Vance explained. ‘The president is dealing with a million different things, but it’s a lot more digestible when you can give directives to your team and say, ‘Go and do this.’ And that’s what’s happening on the economic side. It’s what’s happening on the national on the national security side.’ 

‘And obviously, because I’m the vice president, I have a more global view of this, but it’s really an amazing thing to see, because there’s just a lot of good synergies that, you know, I don’t know if the president had the first administration — I don’t know if any president has had in prior administrations — where there was such great confidence in the team.’ 

‘You read stories about, you know, Kamala Harris’s portfolio, or you read stories about other vice presidents, about, even Dick Cheney’s portfolio, where there was this dynamic of, there were turf battles, and one person was trying to say, ‘This is what I work on, and this is what you work on, and don’t step on my territory,’’ Vance explained. ‘There’s just none of that.’ 

Vance added: ‘Because our territory is what the president has told us that we have to get done, and we don’t mind sharing that territory if it’s in service of a common vision, which it is.’ 

Meanwhile, when asked for highlights of the first 100 days of the Trump administration, Vance pointed to his first foreign trip in February to France to discuss artificial intelligence.

‘A lot of people were very excited about American leadership in AI, but then, of course, we gave a speech heard around the world at Munich where I thought — it’s just one of the things you can do with this office is say things that need to be said,’ Vance told Fox News Digital.

‘And I thought it needed to be said that some of our European allies have gone backward on free speech, on religious expression, on border control, and in the same way that President Trump is trying to change that dynamic in the United States of America, I think it would behoove our European friends to do the same.’

Another highlight, Vance said, was visiting Eagle Pass, Texas.

‘That was another highlight, because there was a sense of — and I don’t mean this negatively — almost boredom at Eagle Pass because the Border Patrol agents were showing me photos of these places that were just overwhelmed by illegal immigrants and now — you can’t see anybody.’

Vance reflected on ‘visualizing the drop in just a few short weeks of a 95% reduction in illegal immigration, and the fact that these guys felt like they didn’t have as much to do.’

‘But if they don’t have that much to do, that means we’re doing the American people’s business,’ Vance said. ‘And just seeing that so crystal clear — a connection between Donald Trump’s policies and the end of the border crisis — just good things for the American people.’

‘It was a very cool day,’ he said. ‘I also got to ride in a helicopter.’

The Senate Finance Committee hearing to consider Rodney Scott’s nomination to be commissioner of Customs and Border Protection began with fireworks from the panel’s top Democrat.

Scott was lambasted by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon over a controversy involving a person who died in CBP custody in 2010. The criticisms prompted a Tuesday letter from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

‘The Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is like the point guard for everything the U.S. government does at our borders,’ Wyden said at the start of the hearing on Wednesday. 

‘A person who holds this job should have deep experience with both customs and with protecting our borders, along with unimpeachable judgment. Today’s hearing is to determine whether Rodney Scott possesses that experience, along with the strength of character to be trusted with one of the most important jobs in the federal government,’ he said, claiming Scott ‘falls short.’

The Democrat then delved into details of the detention and death of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, who was allegedly beaten while in CBP custody in 2010 when Scott was a top official in the San Diego office.

Wyden claimed Scott’s office ‘taped over the only video copy’ of the man’s death and tampered with evidence, citing court documents.

He then referenced a letter he sent to Noem seeking documents on the Rojas incident.

That request spurred Noem to write a scathing response to the Oregon Democrat, calling out ‘the minority’s uninformed account of Mr. Scott’s alleged role in the 2010 investigation of the death of Mr. Anastasio Hernandez Rojas [which] was infuriating and offensive to read.’

‘This response seeks to correct the record and clarify that Mr. Scott is a dedicated and honorable public servant,’ she said, adding, ‘Your account alludes to the Committee’s erroneous impression that Mr. Scott was present at the unfortunate series of events leading to Mr. Hernandez Rojas’ death, or that Mr. Scott presided over CBP’s investigation into Mr. Hernandez Rojas’ death.’ 

‘Contrary to what your letter describes, Mr. Scott did not impede any investigation, nor did he take steps to conceal facts from investigators.’

‘Mr. Scott’s twenty-nine years of service at the U.S. Border Patrol provides him with the hands-on experience to oversee one of the world’s largest – and most important – law enforcement agencies. 

‘President Trump rightfully prioritizes border security and recognizes the need for effective leadership at CBP. Mr. Scott is highly qualified for the job at hand, and the President made an excellent choice in nominating him for this position.’ 

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, later offered Scott an opportunity to respond to Wyden.

Scott said he was not involved in the detention of Rojas, nor was he in the vicinity when it happened. 

Asked about a controversial subpoena in the case, he said it was for information gathering and to seek medical records for Rojas since he died in federal custody.

‘Absolutely not,’ Scott later answered when asked if he interfered in that investigation at all.

‘Secretary… Noem responded to the request and cited official investigations and statutes to note that Mr. Scott’s ministerial work following the death – including authorizing a subpoena to request medical records that were provided to the San Diego police department – was in accordance with his duties, the law and professional standards,’ Crapo said in criticizing the allegations.

Warning: This article contains graphic and disturbing accounts from Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The body of Viktoria Roshchyna, 27, was one of 757 bodies of mostly Ukrainian soldiers returned to Kyiv on Feb. 14, 2025, and reportedly bore unmistakable signs of torture after more than a year in Russian captivity. 

Roshchyna, who was described as a determined journalist, was captured by Russian forces while reporting behind the front lines in a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine in August 2023.

While her body was returned with hundreds of others, she was reportedly one of the few whose name was not provided, instead a tag attached to her shin read ‘unidentified male.’

According to a report by the Washington Post, her head had been shaved, burn marks were evident on her feet, a rib was found to have been broken, and there were possible traces of electric shock. 

An investigation into her detention and death confirmed that some of her organs were missing in what some reports suggested was a move to conceal the extent of her torture, including her brain, eyes and part of the trachea.

Yurii Bielousov, head of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office war crimes department, which led the investigation into her death, told Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda that there were signs she had also been strangled.

Russia did not confirm until April 2024 that it had detained the journalist, and in October 2024 it sent a letter to her father, Volodymyr Roshchyna, telling him she had died in captivity.

Her body was marked by Russian officials with an abbreviation ‘SPAS,’ which reportedly means ‘total failure of the arteries of the heart,’ a designation that Russian authorities may have used to fabricate an official cause of death.

‘The condition of the body and its mummification have made it impossible to establish the cause of death through the forensic examination,’ Bielousov told reporters involved in the investigation.

Roshchyna’s parents have requested additional testing to be carried out.

After her capture, Roshchyna was held at a police station in the city of Energodar near the Zaporizhzhi nuclear power plant, where, according to the investigation, Russian forces set up a ‘torture chamber’ and subjected captives to severe beatings and electric shock.

It is believed Roshchyna endured electric shock applied to her ears. 

Roshchyna was then transferred to Melitopol days later where she was held until the end of 2023 and is also believed to have endured significant torture. 

By the beginning of 2024, she was reportedly transferred along with other prisoners to a pre-trial detention center known as ‘No. 2’ in Taganrog, a city in southwest Russia near the Ukrainian border and which has been likened to a concentration camp. 

The investigation referred to the site ‘as one of the most terrifying for Ukrainian prisoners’ and confirmed that neither lawyers nor international organizations such as the Red Cross or United Nations observers have been allowed into this detention center.

Roshchyna reportedly went on a hunger strike before she was transferred to a hospital, revived to an extent and then sent back to the detention center.

She was intended to be returned to Ukraine in September 2024, but the exchange never happened for unknown reasons. Roshchyna was then reported to have died while in a convoy, but where she was headed remains unclear.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed in a Cabinet meeting that the Biden administration’s State Department kept dossiers on Americans accused of serving as ‘vectors of disinformation,’ including a file on an unidentified Trump administration official. 

‘We had an office in the Department of State whose job it was to censor Americans,’ Rubio said during Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting with Donald Trump. ‘And, by the way, I’m not going to say who it is. I’ll leave it up to them. There’s at least one person at this table today who had a dossier in that building of social media posts to identify them as purveyors of disinformation. We have these dossiers. We are going to be turning those over to these individuals.’ 

Vice President JD Vance interjected, asking, ‘Was it me or Elon? We can follow up when the media is gone,’ and drawing laughter from the Cabinet. 

‘But just think about that. The Department of State of the United States had set up an office to monitor the social media posts and commentary of American citizens, to identify them as vectors of disinformation,’ Rubio continued. ‘When we know that the best way to combat disinformation is freedom of speech and transparency.

‘We’re not going to have an office that does that.’ 

Rubio appeared to be referring to an office within the State Department previously known as the Global Engagement Center, which he officially shuttered earlier in April. 

When announcing a massive reorganization of the State Department, the Global Engagement Center engaged with media outlets and platforms to censor speech it disagreed with, Rubio said. The center has been accused by conservatives of censoring them. 

Journalist Matt Taibbi, for example, previously reported that the center ‘funded a secret list of subcontractors and helped pioneer an insidious — and idiotic — new form of blacklisting’ during the pandemic, Fox Digital reported in 2024. 

He added that the Global Engagement Center ‘flagged accounts as ‘Russian personas and proxies’ based on criteria like, ‘Describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,’ blaming ‘research conducted at the Wuhan institute,’ and ‘attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA.’’ 

Though Rubio did not identify which Trump official the Biden administration kept a dossier on, Elon Musk has previously railed against the Global Engagement Center. 

‘The worst offender in US government censorship & media manipulation is an obscure agency called GEC,’ Musk posted to X in January 2023. That was more than a year before Musk endorsed Trump in the 2024 presidential race and became a fixture of the administration in his temporary role with the Department of Government Efficiency. 

‘They are a threat to our democracy,’ Musk added.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for additional details on which Trump official was targeted but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Former President Barack Obama established the small office in 2016 through an executive order aimed at coordinating counterterrorism messaging to foreign nations before it expanded its scope to also include countering foreign propaganda and disinformation, State Department documents show.

In 2024, lawmakers did not approve new funding for the office in the National Defense Authorization Act, and it was scheduled to terminate Dec. 23, 2024. The Biden administration, however, shuffled staffers and rebranded the office. It became the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub in the waning days before Trump’s inauguration, the New York Post reported in January. 

‘I am announcing the closure of the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI), formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC),’ Rubio said in an April 16 statement announcing the office’s closure. 

‘Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,’ he wrote. ‘This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America. That ends today.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and dozens of his bicameral colleagues addressed reporters on the Capitol steps Wednesday, blasting President Donald Trump’s first 100 days.

Schumer, flanked by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and others, said Trump failed the nation predominantly via his tariff agenda and purportedly cozying up with ‘dictators.’

‘Donald Trump’s first 100 days can be defined by one big F-word: failure,’ Schumer said.

‘Failure on the economy, failure on lowering costs, failure on tariffs, failure on foreign policy, failure on preserving democracy, failure on helping middle-class families.’

‘Today’s new economic news showed that Donald Trump is running the American economy the way he ran his family business into the ground,’ claimed Schumer, who grew up in Brooklyn, where Trump’s father’s real estate empire was based.

Schumer claimed Trump turned nations against the U.S. and drove them into China’s arms, saying former economic allies now see China as a better partner in that regard.

The Democratic leader later called Trump a ‘would-be dictator’ and claimed he wants to be ‘king’ of America.

‘[W]e Democrats … around the country will fight him at every turn,’ Schumer said.

Later, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., rose to the podium to cries of ‘preach-preach-preach’ from fellow Democrats. Warnock is the pastor at Martin Luther King Jr.’s church in Atlanta.

‘We are witnessing an all-out assault on our Constitution, an all-out assault on our norms and our values, an assault on the pocketbooks of ordinary people,’ Warnock said.

‘But, in a real sense, an assault on the spirit of the American people. They are trying to convince us that our neighbors are our enemies. We should know better than that by now, and we do.’

Clark also lambasted the GOP, claiming congressional Republicans are ‘choosing their careers … over that of their constituents.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Senate GOP leadership for comment.

The Senate failed Wednesday to pass a resolution rejecting President Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff agenda, as several Republicans signaled beforehand they favored halting the relatively new levies, and Vice President JD Vance was called in to break an ensuing procedural tie.

The disapproval resolution failed 49-49, with three Republicans joining all Democrats present in attempting to throw a wrench in Trump’s tariff plans.

After that, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., put forward a motion to reconsider the resolution, then moved to table – or kill – the initial motion, which procedurally would prevent Democrats from forcing such a vote again.

That vote also deadlocked, but after about 80 minutes, Vice President Vance cast a tie-breaking vote in his dual role as president of the Senate.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., had introduced the resolution to end Trump’s ‘national emergency’ as a ‘privileged’ one – meaning it would require a vote regardless of the upper chamber being in Republican hands. The House, however, has signaled it is not inclined to pursue the same.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., split from the rest of the GOP and sought to end the national emergency that backs the tariffs. Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., did not vote. 

Whitehouse was reportedly on a plane back from South Korea and wouldn’t make the gavel, according to Providence’s CBS affiliate.

Before the vote, there was chatter about key absences that could swing the vote one way or another, as key tallies are all about the math.

One tariff critic told reporters earlier Wednesday that the disapproval motion sent ‘the message I want to send’ that tariffs must be more ‘discriminatory.’

‘It’s not perfect, I think it’s too broad,’ Collins said, according to Politico.

In remarks on the Senate floor earlier in the day, Paul, – one of the most vocal opponents to tariffs and proponents of free trade – who suggested conservatives may want to reconsider their support for the tariffs.

‘You know, there was an old-fashioned conservative principle that believed that less taxes were better than more taxes,’ Paul said.

‘That if you tax something, you got less of it. So that if you place a new tax on trade, you’ll get less trade.’

‘There was also this idea that you didn’t do taxation without representation. That idea goes not only back to our American Revolution, it goes back to the English Civil War as well. It goes back probably to Magna Carta,’ he said of the phrase, which for some time was the District of Columbia’s official slogan, given its lack of full-vote representation in Congress.

Paul said the Constitution forbids taxation being implemented in a way that circumvents Congress and laid out why he thought that was the case today.

‘An emergency has been declared, as the Senator from Virginia remarked,’ he said. ‘Everywhere, there’s an emergency everywhere. Sounds like an emergency everywhere is really an emergency nowhere.’

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., had previously balked at Trump’s tariffs on Canada, saying that while fentanyl proliferation is an emergency as the president declared, it is not one that is germane to Canada.

Reached for comment, the office of Sen. Mitch McConnell – Paul’s fellow Kentucky Republican – did not offer any further remarks after reports suggested he too is uncomfortable with Trump’s tariff agenda.

Fox News Digital also reached out to Murkowski for comment in that regard.

Schumer commented on the ultimate result, saying Republicans ‘voted to keep the Trump tariff-tax in place. They own the Trump tariffs and higher costs on America’s middle-class families.’

Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump revealed Tuesday evening what he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed during their viral meeting at the Vatican when both were in attendance for the late Pope Francis’ funeral. 

‘I was telling him that it’s a very good thing if we can produce a deal, that you sign it, because Russia is much bigger and much stronger,’ Trump said Tuesday evening during a town hall hosted by NewsNation, which he participated in by phone.

The pair met face-to-face for the first time since their contentious Oval Office meeting in February, while both attended the papal funeral. Neither White House or Ukrainian officials gave many details on the nature or content of the talk, other than that it was ‘productive’ and ‘symbolic.’

‘We discussed a lot one on one,’ Zelenskyy posted on X following the viral meeting. ‘Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out. Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.’

Despite few details being released about the meeting, Trump did tell reporters over the weekend that part of the pair’s discussion revolved around the U.S. sending more weapons to Ukraine. 

‘He told me that he needs more weapons, but he’s been saying that for three years,’ Trump said. ‘We’re going to see what happens – I want to see what happens with respect to Russia. Because Russia, I’ve been surprised and disappointed – very disappointed – that they did the bombing of those places after discussions.’ 

While Trump did not divulge any further details about the meeting to reporters, the president did add that he thinks Zelenskyy will be willing to give up Crimea in order to secure a peace deal. Russia’s annexation of the current Ukrainian territory has been a major sticking point amid negotiations between the two warring nations, with Zelenskyy indicating he would not be willing to sign a deal that includes giving up the territory. 

President Donald Trump said public entitlements, such as Social Security and Medicaid, will not be touched in the GOP’s contentious new budget bill currently working its way through Congress, during a town hall Tuesday night hosted by NewsNation.

Earlier this month, the Republican-led House of Representatives approved $2 trillion in spending cuts. Those cuts did not include any slashes to Social Security, but it did pave the way for cuts to Medicaid. 

However, in the Senate, Republicans have proposed implementing just $4 billion in cuts, a fraction of what House Republicans have called for. Meanwhile, a number of GOP senators have also expressed hesitancy over making cuts to Medicaid, setting up a potential intra-party battle over the matter.

‘We’re not doing anything with entitlements,’ Trump told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo, who was moderating the event alongside Bill O’Reilly and sports commentator Stephen A. Smith.

‘If you look at Social Security – and by the way – I think I’m better to say this than anybody, because I did nothing with entitlements that would hurt people for four years. I could have done that. If I was going to do that, I would have done it, five years ago, six years ago or seven years ago. I’m not doing anything.’ 

However, Trump did say that he is undeterred from reforming public entitlements, like Medicaid, to ensure they are free of waste, fraud and abuse. 

‘There are a lot of illegal aliens that are getting Medicaid that shouldn’t be getting it. And nobody objects to taking people off Medicaid that aren’t allowed to be there,’ Trump added. ‘But we are doing absolutely nothing to hurt Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. Nothing at all.’

Republicans, who are using a process known as reconciliation to bypass a senate filibuster, are hoping to finalize their plans for a new budget by Memorial Day, according to media reports. However, the GOP must come to a deal on where to cut funding to pay for many of the tax cuts they want to provide. 

‘Guess what, boys? It’s game time. We’re here, and you’ve got mandatory spending sitting in front of you, and it’s Medicaid,’ Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told NBC News this week. ‘If they’re not going to vote for Medicaid reform, which is very much possible, and frankly, it’s our duty, then I want them to explain to me why they are for allowing the tax cuts to snap back in place. Because it’s the only math that will actually work. So anyone who is against Medicaid reform is for a tax increase.’

Meanwhile, centrist Republicans like Reps. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., and Don Bacon, R-Neb., have indicated to Speaker Mike Johnson that they will not vote for any GOP budget bill that proposes deep cuts to Medicaid.

Congress passed the REAL ID Act in 2005, a few years after the 9/11 attacks. The subsequent 9/11 Commission Report revealed many weaknesses in our national security, including the fact that hijackers Khalid Al-Mihdhar and Nawaf Al-Hazmi got California drivers’ licenses through a facilitator in San Diego. They probably used those to board the American Airlines plane they crashed into the Pentagon, killing 189 people.

International and domestic criminals and terrorists love ‘breeder documents’ (papers issued based on low evidence), which they can use to get better identification documents (IDs) like a passport, birth certificate, and Social Security card. That’s why for air travel and other serious business, all passengers should have identification based on information that has been verified, so we know who they really are.

After two decades of the government kicking the can down the road with one excuse after another, the deadline for needing a REAL ID to catch a domestic flight is up on May 7. This time, we need to keep it.

Over the past four years, former president Joe Biden and his Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas released at the border, paroled, or let sneak in over 10 million essentially unidentified aliens. Many had thrown away their ID or didn’t have any, so DHS took their word for who they were.

There was no way to do proper background checks in their home countries. Some of them turned out to be terrorists, rapists, and murderers here – and for all we know, they may have been before at home, if we had only known their real identities and records.

Many Americans were outraged over the last few years to see aliens at our interior airports checking in for domestic flights with only their Notice to Appear (NTA – the document they got at the border that tells them to show up in court for a deportation hearing). Some were flying on the taxpayer dime. Others were flown in the middle of the night to avoid public attention. Meanwhile, all of us had to carry proper documents that take time and money to get.

Most states will issue you a non-REAL ID license with less proof than the REAL ID version. For the real deal, you need some combination of documents such as a birth certificate, passport, Social Security card, and proof of residence. It’s not easy, but once you’ve done it in your home state, you don’t have to repeat the exercise when you renew.

Some of those holding non-REAL ID compliant drivers’ licenses are living in the U.S. illegally. Nineteen states plus Washington, D.C. have allowed people who claim residence there to get some version of a license even if they are illegal, arguing that it improves road safety.

For another two weeks, foreign nationals have a choice of showing a driver’s license, foreign passport, military ID, federal Employment Authorization Card, or even their Notice to Appear to get on a domestic flight. After May 7, they will need a passport or a state-issued drivers’ license that complies with federal REAL ID standards. Or there’s always the Greyhound.

Just as Leftists want men to self-ID into women’s spaces, they seem fine with unidentified foreigners self-declaring who they are before getting on a plane. I’m not. If we’re going to keep handing over our nail clippers thanks to the 9/11 hijackers, and taking off our footwear thanks to shoe-bomber Richard Reid, we can at least ask our fellow travelers to have a secure ID that is based on verified facts and not just their say-so.

The one exception that the Department of Homeland Security will make to the new REAL ID requirement is for foreigners booking a flight out of the country. With the border more secure than ever, that would mean they’d be self-deporting, unless they can qualify for a visa in the future.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News that ‘81% of air travelers hold REAL ID-compliant or acceptable IDs.’ The other 19% can get with the program.

Some on the American right, and Libertarians, don’t like the REAL ID requirement. But the rest of us will pay that small price to ensure safer skies and so we know that someone has verified the identity of the guy sitting next to us. Basic Economy is already rough enough without having to play human lotto every time you fly.