Senate Republicans are marching forward with a massive funding package to avert a partial government shutdown, despite Senate Democrats doubling down on their resistance to the Homeland Security funding bill.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Tuesday teed up a key test vote for the six-bill package for Thursday. The move allows Senate Republicans time to hash out a deal with Senate Democrats, who are demanding several restrictions on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Republicans are eager to find a middle ground that doesn’t involve modifying the current funding package, given that doing so would almost guarantee a government shutdown and jeopardize funding to several other federal agencies, including the Pentagon.

But Democrats aren’t willing to budge, for now, until the DHS bill is stripped and sidelined.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she spoke with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday, but wouldn’t reveal details of the conversation.

Collins, whose home state is also a target of Noem’s and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), noted that there were already bipartisan restrictions and reforms baked into the current DHS funding bill, like $20 million for body cams and numerous reporting requirements that, if not met, would halt money flowing to immigration operations.

But more could be done if needed.

‘I think there might be a way to add some further reforms or procedural protections, but those discussions are ongoing and really involve [Thune],’ Collins said.

Senate Democrats’ rapid unity against the bill came on the heels of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis over the weekend. Roughly two weeks before that, Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in her vehicle.

‘I understand how this has changed the conversation, but I still think if there are things the Democrats want in the Homeland bill or addressed in the context of the situation, that they ought to make those clear and known and see to what degree the administration may be able to address them,’ Thune said. ‘So I would prefer that there be a way that we keep the package together.’

But Senate Democrats appear ready to reject any executive action taken by the administration or President Donald Trump on the matter. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., argued on the Senate floor that the five other funding bills were got go, but that the ‘Senate must not pass the DHS budget as currently written.’ 

‘And it must be reworked to rein in and overhaul ICE to ensure the public’s safety,’ Schumer said. ‘The fix should come from Congress. The public can’t trust the administration to do the right thing on its own.’

Even if Senate Democrats are successful in their gambit and halt the DHS funding bill, the agency is still flush with billions in taxpayer dollars following Republicans’ passage of President Donald Trump’s signature ‘big, beautiful bill’ last year.

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said during a virtual press conference that given that reality, Democrats ‘have to try no matter what.’

‘Look, if [Noem] doesn’t need the money, then she doesn’t need the money, but we can still have some legitimate restrictions on how these people are conducting themselves,’ Gallego said.

The other reality is that lawmakers are fast running out of time to concoct a solution by the Jan. 30 deadline.

Thursday’s vote, if successful, would tee up several hours of debate on the funding package in the Senate, eating away at valuable time and pushing final passage of the spending bills right to the midnight deadline.

The pressure created by the deadline and Democrats’ sudden reversal from just days before has Republicans scrambling.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, is set to be a key figure in any deal that emerges, given that she helped bring an end to the previous shutdown last year.

She told reporters that a ‘government shutdown does not help anyone,’ but noted that what the path forward will be ‘is yet to be determined.’

‘We’re really going to have to put our heads together and figure out how we can make meaningful adjustments that would allow us to move these bills,’ Britt said. ‘And so that’s what we are looking for.’

A Minnesota fraud scandal is a ‘canary in the coal mine’ for how easily swindles can seep into government systems — including election administration — Republican election attorney Justin Riemer told Fox News Digital. 

‘What you’ve seen happen in Minnesota and now similar fraudulent schemes in other states, this should be very much a canary in the coal mine for other governmental processes,’ Riemer told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview in January. ‘Which would include our voter registration and election processes. And it’s not somehow immune to the type of corruption that we’ve seen in Minnesota and in other places.’

Riemer leads Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE), a legal nonprofit that fights court efforts from a ‘well-funded network of activists’ working to ‘undermine elections and democracy.’ He previewed that RITE is readying an investigation into Minnesota’s election system to see if it has potentially faced fraud similar to the sweeping multiyear, COVID-19-era schemes currently under scrutiny. 

Riemer framed Minnesota as an early test case for broader concerns he believes are building ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, particularly around noncitizen registration and voting safeguards. 

‘They’ve definitely opened up opportunities for noncitizens to register. And honestly, there’s times where noncitizens are being unwittingly registered,’ Riemer said, before pointing to an instance that unfolded in 2025 in the Last Frontier State — Alaska. 

 ‘It’s happened in Alaska, actually, where you have two noncitizens who, by no fault of their own, were registered through some sloppy state automatic voter registration process, which essentially sucks in anyone that goes to the DMV into the registration system without any sort of voluntary registration on the part of the noncitizen,’ he said. 

The election attorney argued that the fastest-moving battles are increasingly being fought in court — including disputes over voter roll maintenance, documentary proof of citizenship requirements and ballot deadlines.

‘Look at what the Supreme Court is reviewing right now,’ Riemer said, pointing to litigation challenging whether states can accept ballots that arrive after Election Day. He also cited ongoing legal fights involving state efforts to remove noncitizens from voter rolls and require documentary proof of citizenship.

‘There are also various cases winding their way through the courts on state efforts to remove noncitizens and to require documentary proof of citizenship,’ he continued. ‘So I think a lot of the action you’re going to see is going to be in the courts.’

RITE says its mission is to defend state election laws in court and prevent what it calls efforts to dilute the votes of eligible citizens.

Riemer told Fox Digital that Democratic-aligned legal groups are a major force opposing stricter election rules, describing them as heavily funded and aggressive in litigation.

‘The boogeyman is the left-wing lawyers and interest groups that are funded by basically unlimited amounts of money that sue a state for doing anything that increases the integrity of their elections,’ he said. ‘They claim that some of these laws disenfranchise or suppress the vote. But they have a very hard time proving that in court. But I would point to the left-wing lawyers and to the donors who fund them with essentially unlimited amounts of money to file ridiculous and frivolous lawsuits.’

RITE points to recent court wins it says strengthened election safeguards, including a federal ruling in Maryland requiring public access to certain voter-roll maintenance records under the National Voter Registration Act. The group also assisted in cases in Colorado and Pennsylvania that preserved mail-ballot authentication requirements, including signature verification and envelope-signature and dating rules.

‘RITE is out there fighting to stop these things from happening,’ he said. ‘We’re out there fighting in the courts to try and make sure that states, especially those who are unwilling, are being forced to perform more checks at the front end, because the registration process is really where it all begins. And states need to be doing more than they are.’ 

On the national level, President Donald Trump’s administration has made it easier for states to verify voter eligibility, notching some wins in the Republicans’ election integrity battle ahead of the midterms. 

‘The Trump administration has really emphasized election integrity as a priority,’ he said. ‘And one of the big things I would point to is what they have done to allow states to verify the citizenship of those who are registering to vote. They’ve opened up databases at the Department of Homeland Security that state election officials can use to determine whether or not voters on their registration lists are actually citizens or otherwise eligible to vote. That’s been key.’ 

The Minnesota fraud case unfolding in the Twin Cities has continued since December 2025, when it hit the nation’s radar in earnest that officials were uncovering hundreds of millions of dollars in state-administered funds allegedly lost to fraud that could exceed $9 billion. 

The investigations have been underscored by federal immigration law enforcement presence in the Twin Cities, which has led to violent protests and two fatal shootings of Americans by federal police officials. 

A pair of Senate Republicans are demanding that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem lose her job in the wake of a pair of fatal shootings in the midst of the agency’s immigration operations in Minnesota. 

Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., are no strangers to being critical of the Trump administration, and have again broken from their party in calling for Noem to either step aside or be fired by President Donald Trump. 

They join several Senate Democrats who have demanded accountability for the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good in the midst of DHS’ immigration operations in Minneapolis, Minn. It also comes as Senate Democrats are threatening to shut the government down in their bid to sideline the DHS funding bill. 

When pressed on whether Noem should resign, Murkowski noted that she voted for her confirmation last year.

‘I think the President needs to look at who he has in place as the Secretary of Homeland Security. I would not support her again, and I think it probably is time for her to step down,’ she said. 

Trump on Tuesday said that Noem was doing a ‘very good job.’ When asked if she would be stepping down, he said ‘no.’ 

Tillis, who has made a habit of going after Trump officials in the last several months and accusing them of giving the president bad policy advice, was more biting in his assessment of Noem’s performance, and extended that breakdown to White House Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who similarly accused Pretti of being a domestic terrorist. 

He charged that ‘people like Noem are squandering’ Trump’s ability to codify policy and open the door to a discussion on immigration reform — something both sides of the aisle have desired for some time. 

‘I don’t know if it’s lost yet, but if it is an opportunity lost, I put it squarely on the shoulders of people like Noem and Stephen Miller,’ Tillis said. ‘Those two people told the president, before they even had any incident report whatsoever, that the person who died was a terrorist. I mean, that is amateur hour at its worst.’

When asked about Noem’s choice to label Pretti as a domestic terrorist, Murkowski said that the DHS head has an ‘obligation to control these situations that are under her jurisdiction, and she has not done so.’ 

Murkowski contended that accountability in the situation goes all the way to the top rung of leadership. 

‘I think you have a secretary right now who needs to be accountable to to the chaos and some of the tragedy that we have seen,’ Murkowski said. 

And Tillis, when asked if Noem should be removed from her position, said ‘100%,’ but stopped short of supporting impeachment. 

‘I’m not going to get into impeachment,’ Tillis said. ‘I think it should be a management decision. She needs to go.’

Fox News Digital reached out to DHS.

President Donald Trump paused during a restaurant stop in Iowa after a patron asked if he could pray for him ahead of the president’s remarks near Des Moines.

Video shared on X by White House aide Margo Martin shows the moment unfolding inside the Machine Shed restaurant, where a man from the crowd addressed Trump directly.

‘Can I pray for you real quick?’ the man asked.

‘Absolutely! Come on. Let’s go,’ Trump replied, bowing his head as the man began to pray.

The brief prayer thanked God for the president and asked for wisdom, discernment, peace and protection, as others in the restaurant joined in.

‘Lord God, we give thanks for this president,’ the man said during the prayer, ‘Lord, thank you for him and the potential. Thank you for continuing wisdom, we pray for discernment. Pray for hope, we pray for more peace, Lord.’

The prayer from the restaurant patron drew several ‘Amens’ from the surrounding crowd.

The unscripted moment occurred as Trump made a stop at the Iowa restaurant before heading to deliver a speech in the Des Moines area to kick off his 2026 midterm campaign.

The video shows patrons standing nearby as the prayer concluded, followed by applause and words of praise: ‘Amen, praise God.’

The White House has recently shared a national invitation to prayer and spiritual re-dedication ahead of the United States’ 250th anniversary. 

In a statement released by the administration, Trump encouraged Americans to pray for the nation and its people, saying the country has long been ‘sustained and strengthened by prayer.’

Trump added that as the nation prepares to mark 250 years since its founding, Americans should ‘rededicate ourselves to one nation under God.’

The White House was contacted for additional context on the stop and the timing of the visit.

Sen. Ted Cruz called for the U.S. to arm Iranian protesters Tuesday as unrest continues inside the nation and Iran-backed militias issued threats against Washington.

‘We should be arming the protesters in Iran. NOW,’ Cruz wrote in a post on X.

‘For the Iranian people to overthrow the Ayatollah — a tyrant who routinely chants ‘death to America’ — would make America much, much safer,’ the Texas Republican added.

Cruz was responding to another post from Tehran Bureau, which cited a source inside Iran detailing what was described as a rapidly deteriorating situation on the ground as security forces continued to crack down on demonstrations.

‘From trusted source in Tehran: Tell all of your friends [abroad] — everyone you know: there is absolutely nothing else we can do here inside Iran,’ the post read.

‘They are killing people in such ways, they’ve descended upon people so brutally, they’re attacking us in such ways… We’ve lost so many lives that no one dares go out anymore. They shoot directly with bullets. They kill outright. And even after killing, they come and behead you, and do countless other violent things to you,’ it continued.

‘Going out into the streets is literally suicide. It’s not about bravery anymore. It’s madness. You go out and they shoot you point-blank. They don’t even ask why you came. They just kill you,’ the post continued. ‘There is absolutely no way for us to gather unless we had weapons, unless we were armed like them. Otherwise they have weapons everywhere.’

According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, activist groups estimate that more than 6,000 people have been killed in Iran, with additional cases still under review.

The protests began in late December amid widespread anger over economic hardship, political repression and corruption, according to reports.

Cruz’s post came after armed militias aligned with Iran warned the U.S. they would retaliate against any American attack on the Islamic Republic, as the Trump administration moved forces into the region.

Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq said it was prepared for ‘total war’ if the U.S. attacked Iran, according to The Associated Press.

Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, the group’s leader, said the ‘enemies’ of the Islamic Republic would face ‘the bitterest forms of death.’

‘You will taste every form of deadly suffering, nothing of you will remain in our region, and we will strike terror in your hearts,’ the statement read.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthis also threatened to restart attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, releasing a video Monday showing a ship engulfed in flames, captioned: ‘Soon,’ The Associated Press reported.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, President Donald Trump said Iran appeared to be seeking negotiations with the U.S. amid the growing military buildup, telling Axios, ‘They want to make a deal. I know so. They called on numerous occasions. They want to talk.’

The USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in the Middle East on Monday as unrest inside Iran continued to escalate.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Sen. Ted Cruz for comment.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will publicly testify on the Trump administration’s policy in Venezuela Wednesday morning after vowing to lawmakers that no more military action was expected in the region. 

Rubio’s return to the Hill, an increasingly frequent occurrence in recent months, comes after he, President Donald Trump, administration officials and Senate Republican leadership successfully killed a bipartisan push to rein in the president’s war authorities in Venezuela. 

His scheduled appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday at 10 a.m. comes just weeks after he helped to convince two lawmakers, Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to flip their votes and back the administration. 

Both were concerned about boots on the ground in Venezuela and Congress’ constitutional authority to weigh in on the matter.

They were convinced by Rubio and the administration that no further military action would take place, and that if it were, President Donald Trump would come to Congress first. 

Young said at the time that the effort, spurred by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., was ultimately just a messaging exercise that never would have survived in the House, nor evaded a veto from Trump. 

‘I had to accept that this was all a communications exercise,’ Young said. ‘I think we [used] this moment to shine a bright light on Congress’ shortcomings as it relates to war powers in recent history.’

Rubio also wrote to Senate Foreign Relations Chair James Risch, R-Idaho, to spell out that the administration would clue in Congress should any future military action take place in the region.

‘Should there be any new military operations that introduce U.S. Armed Forces into hostilities, they will be undertaken consistent with the Constitution of the United States, and we will transmit written notifications consistent with section 4(a) of the War Powers Resolution (Public Law 93-148),’ he said.

However, Rubio’s appearance before the panel comes on the heels of unrest stateside following another fatal shooting in Minnesota, where Alex Pretti was killed in the midst of a Department of Homeland Security-led immigration operation in Minneapolis.

While he won’t have to answer for that situation, it has drastically shifted the Senate’s attention over the last several days. 

It also follows Kaine’s vow to file several more war powers resolutions against Trump, specifically against action in Greenland, Iran and elsewhere. 

Kaine believed that he could take advantage of cracks that formed in Republicans’ unified front earlier this month, when five joined all Senate Democrats to advance his resolution to require any future military action in Venezuela would need Congress’ approval.

‘The way cracks grow is through pressure and the pressure campaign that I sort of decided to launch by use of these privileged motions,’ Kaine said after his initial push failed. 

‘I’m going to file every one I can to challenge emergencies, to challenge unlawful wars, to seek human rights reports, arms transfers if they’re wrong,’ he continued.

A cohort of Senate Republicans plans to launch a targeted task force aimed at tackling fraudsters in the wake of the Minnesota fraud scandal.

Republican members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced that they would form a task force dedicated to rooting out fraudsters abusing federal funding.

The seven-member panel will be led by HELP Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., who has cranked up efforts in recent weeks to crack down on fraud, particularly in Minnesota.

‘Our tax dollars are supposed to help American families, not line the pockets of fraudsters,’ Cassidy said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘HELP Committee Republicans are committed to rooting out this fraud and ensuring Americans’ tax dollars are used responsibly.’

The long-running, nearly six-year-long investigation into alleged fraud in Minnesota gained new attention and traction among Republicans and the White House earlier this year.

The scandal, in which federal prosecutors estimate that up to $9 billion was stolen through a network of fraudulent fronts posing as daycare centers, food programs and health clinics, has dominated the bandwidth of many in the GOP and spurred the Trump administration’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents into Minneapolis.

The majority of those charged, so far, in the ongoing investigation are part of Minnesota’s Somali population. The Trump administration has taken steps outside the deploying of ICE agents to target Somalis in the area, too, including ending protected status for the population and launching investigations into whether the fraudulent activity is connected to al-Shabab, a terrorist organization based in Somalia.

The task force will delineate its focus into three prongs: health, education and labor and pensions.

Those three subgroups will be led by Sens. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who will lead the health-focused section, Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Jon Husted, who will lead the education-focused group, and R-Ohio, Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., and Tim Scott, R-S.C., who will chair the labor-and-pensions-focused section.

But the task force’s announcement comes at a precarious time, as lawmakers hurtle toward what could be another government shutdown fueled in large part by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) actions in Minnesota. 

That situation comes after Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., signaled their plan to reject the DHS funding bill following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti on Saturday by a border patrol agent. Cassidy, along with a handful of other congressional Republicans, demanded that the incident receive a fulsome and thorough investigation. 

Still, Cassidy’s effort is not the first time he’s forayed into the Minnesota fraud scandal.

Earlier this month, the lawmaker led the entire Senate GOP in a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, demanding that he provide receipts on several issues, and warned that failure to do so could lead to several streams of federal money flowing to Minnesota drying up.

That effort was centered on several requests, like how often the state conducted on-site monitoring, inspections or investigative visits to childcare facilities that received federal dollars.

Senate Republicans specifically wanted examples of any information uncovered on fake children, false attendance records, over-billing, ineligible enrollments, and shell or fake business structures, among other demands from Walz.

Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado argued that a successful democratic transition for her country would rapidly transform the nation’s economy and reverse years of instability, reshaping the region’s political landscape.

Machado told the New York Post in an interview that such an outcome would define Trump’s foreign policy legacy, comparing it to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

‘The legacy to the world is going to be huge,’ she explained. ‘You’re going to have a prosperous Venezuela and the region.… If you make a comparison in history, this would mean for the Americas as much as the fall of the Berlin Wall had for Europe. It’s equivalent.

‘For the first time in history, you will have the Americas free of communism, dictatorship and narco-terrorism for the first time,’ she added.

Machado said she intends to return to Venezuela soon to help drive a democratic transition despite the risks she faces under the country’s current government.

‘I need to be there. I want to go back as soon as possible,’ Machado said.

Her planned return would come at a pivotal moment for Venezuela, as interim President Delcy Rodríguez leads a U.S.-backed transition following the removal of Nicolás Maduro.

Rodríguez, a close ally of Maduro, was sworn into office on Jan. 5 after U.S. forces ousted the ex-leader and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their compound in Caracas during a military operation.

The duo were flown to New York and arraigned in federal court on multiple charges to which they pleaded not guilty.

Rodríguez has since been working with the White House and has spoken with President Donald Trump by phone.

Machado, however, voiced deep reservations about Rodríguez’s leadership, warning that the transition risks falling short without a broader break from the Maduro-era government.

‘If Delcy Rodríguez stays, nothing truly changes,’ she told the Post. ‘There will be no rule of law, no trust, no stability. Venezuelans will not come home under a criminal.’

More and more brutal evidence of the Iranian regime’s crackdown on its own people is circulating online, as the true number of those killed in Iran’s protests remains hotly contested amid internet blackouts and state intimidation. Estimates range from the thousands confirmed dead to the tens of thousands feared killed, according to activists, media reports and medical data.

Fatemeh Jamalpour, an Iranian journalist who has covered every major protest movement over the past two decades, said the latest crackdown represents a turning point in the regime’s use of force. ‘The regime’s level of violence has increased dramatically, and with the internet crackdown, it is difficult to know the true scale of the killing.’

‘The new thing I have seen in these protests, something we have not seen before, is that starting on the night of January 8, the regime issued shoot-to-kill orders to the IRGC, the Basij and the riot police, authorizing direct fire,’ Jamalpour told Fox News Digital.

‘In previous protests, military-grade weapons were used mainly in minority provinces such as Kurdistan and Baluchestan,’ she added. ‘This time they were used across the entire country… Health Ministry officials told us they ran out-of-body bags for the dead.’

The most widely cited baseline comes from the Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, a U.S.-based group that tracks deaths by name and location.

As of January 25, HRANA reported 5,848 people confirmed killed. Of these, 5,520 were protesters, 77 were children under 18, 209 were government-affiliated forces and 42 were non-protesters or civilians. The number of deaths still under investigation stands at 17,091.

The group has emphasized that its confirmed tally reflects only cases that could be independently documented, and that its overall figures are expected to rise as information continues to emerge.

According to The Associated Press, Iranian authorities have offered only one official count, 3,117, and have not updated it publicly in the last five days. Authorities have not released names, locations, or documentation to support that figure.

Beyond human rights tallies, a separate medical working paper reviewed by Fox News Digital suggests the death toll may be far higher.

The report by Munich Med Group, authored by professor Dr. Amir-Mobarez Parasta, compiles hospital-registered fatalities from multiple Iranian cities and applies what the author describes as a conservative extrapolation model to account for underreporting during the communications blackout.

Using that methodology, the paper estimates a nationwide death toll of approximately 33,130 people as of January 23. The author stresses the figure is not a verified count, but a lower-bound estimate based on partial medical data and stated assumptions.

Iran International published its own investigation, claiming it reviewed documents indicating that more than 36,500 people were killed during two days of protests on January 8 and 9 alone. The outlet said the documents were provided by sources inside Iran, but the claims have not been independently verified.

The wide gap between confirmed counts and higher estimates reflects not only the scale of violence, but also the conditions under which it occurred.

According to Jamalpour, despite the internet shutdown, doctors and medical workers attempted to document what they were seeing using limited satellite connections.

‘Many doctors and medical staff tried to send us their accounts and documentation through small Starlink connections,’ she said. ‘Medical workers say protesters were often shot in the head and neck, with intent to kill. Many were killed by multiple bullets. Some were shot from behind while trying to flee.’

Jamalpour said the victims she documented reflected a generation the regime appeared determined to crush. ‘Among the dead are children and a 67-year-old man, but most are young people under 30,’ she said. 

Jamalpour described the killing of Mehdi Khanmohammadi, a 67-year-old retired army colonel and pilot. ‘He was killed on Friday, January 9, in Saadat Abad by two bullets,’ she said. ‘In a video, his daughter stands over his lifeless body and says, ‘Can you open your eyes and wake up?’’

She said scenes like that have left the country in collective mourning. ‘These days, Iranians are in shock,’ Jamalpour said. ‘There is grief everywhere.’

At the same time, she warned that the crackdown is far from over. ‘Lawyers and human rights organizations are deeply concerned about more than 20,000 protesters who have been detained and are at risk of execution,’ she said.

Yet even amid the fear, Jamalpour said she hears something new inside Iran. ‘In my conversations from inside the country, I hear people’s hope for Trump’s help in freeing Iran,’ she said. ‘And a determination to change the regime, now intertwined with anger and grief.’

The Pentagon’s newly released National Defense Strategy warns that future wars may no longer be fought solely overseas, arguing the U.S. military must be prepared to conduct combat operations directly from the American homeland as adversaries gain the ability to strike the United States itself.

The strategy, released Friday evening, elevates homeland defense above all other missions, calling for expanded missile defense, counter-drone systems, cyber capabilities and long-range strike forces capable of launching decisive operations from U.S. soil. Pentagon planners describe a global threat environment that is faster, more dangerous and far less forgiving than in past decades.

‘The Joint Force must be ready to deter and, if called upon, to prevail … including the ability to launch decisive operations against targets anywhere — including directly from the U.S. Homeland,’ the strategy states.

‘More direct military threats to the American Homeland have also grown in recent years, including nuclear threats as well as a variety of conventional strike and space, cyber, electromagnetic warfare capabilities,’ it adds.

Russia and China both field intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the continental United States, while North Korea has tested long-range missiles that U.S. officials say are capable of hitting U.S. territory. Iran is not believed to possess intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching U.S. soil.

As a result, the Pentagon will prioritize President Donald Trump’s planned Golden Dome missile defense shield, with a focus on defeating ‘large missile barrages and other advanced aerial attacks,’ while also hardening military and key civilian infrastructure against cyber strikes. 

‘The United States should never — will never — be left vulnerable to nuclear blackmail,’ the strategy says, as it calls for continued modernization of the nation’s nuclear deterrent.

After years of focusing on a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific, the strategy makes clear the Pentagon will seek what it calls a ‘stable peace’ with Beijing, including expanded military-to-military communications.

‘We will also be clear-eyed and realistic about the speed, scale, and quality of China’s historic military buildup,’ the document says. ‘Our goal … is simple: To prevent anyone, including China, from being able to dominate us or our allies.’

Pentagon planners argue deterrence will rely less on confrontation and more on denying China the ability to win a fight outright, particularly in the western Pacific, by blocking attempts to dominate U.S. allies or control key maritime routes.

But China is not the only concern.

The strategy warns the United States could face multiple crises at the same time, with adversaries acting together or exploiting moments of distraction — raising the risk that conflicts overseas could overlap and reach the homeland early.

To manage that risk, the Pentagon is pressing allies to shoulder more of the burden. The strategy calls on European and Indo-Pacific partners to dramatically increase defense spending, freeing U.S. forces to focus on homeland defense and the most dangerous threats.

The document also sharpens the Pentagon’s focus closer to home, treating border security, drug trafficking and access to key terrain as core military missions. It calls for readiness to take decisive action against narco-terrorist groups and to protect strategic locations including the Panama Canal and Greenland.

Distance, the strategy argues, is no longer a shield. Long-range missiles, cyber weapons and drones now allow adversaries to reach the United States directly, compressing warning times and raising the risk that future wars could hit American soil early.

To keep pace, the Pentagon calls for a rapid rebuild of the U.S. defense industrial base, warning that America must be able to produce weapons and equipment at scale if it hopes to deter — or survive — a prolonged fight.

The strategy describes Russia as a serious but declining threat, warning Moscow still poses dangers through its nuclear arsenal and cyber, space and undersea capabilities, even as the Pentagon argues Europe is now capable of taking the lead in its own defense.

‘Russia will remain a persistent but manageable threat to NATO’s eastern members for the foreseeable future,’ the document says, noting Russia continues to modernize ‘the world’s largest nuclear arsenal.’ The strategy makes clear Washington expects NATO allies to shoulder far more responsibility, arguing Europe’s economic and military potential far outpaces Russia’s if allies invest accordingly.

On Iran, the Pentagon paints a picture of a regime weakened by recent U.S. and Israeli military action but still dangerous and unpredictable.

‘Iran’s regime is weaker and more vulnerable than it has been in decades,’ the strategy says, while warning Iran’s leaders ‘have left open the possibility that they will try again to obtain a nuclear weapon.’

The document stresses Tehran’s continued hostility toward the United States and Israel, noting Iran ‘has the blood of Americans on its hands,’ and emphasizes empowering allies, particularly Israel and U.S. partners in the Gulf, to deter Iran and respond decisively if American interests are threatened.

Iran regularly touts its ballistic missile arsenal as a central pillar of its deterrent and retaliatory strategy, showcasing new medium-range and ‘hypersonic’ systems and warning they can strike regional rivals and U.S. interests in the Middle East. 

China, meanwhile, has pushed back strongly against the U.S. Golden Dome missile defense initiative, accusing Washington of undermining global strategic stability and risking the weaponization of outer space.