White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered words of wisdom to young women across the nation from the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday evening, urging them to ‘stay strong, speak the truth,’ and believe in themselves. 

Leavitt sat down for a fireside chat hosted by former White House communications director Mercedes Schlapp, who served during the first Trump administration. 

Schlapp said young women across the country admire Leavitt, who is the youngest White House press secretary in United States history and are inspired by her. 

Schlapp asked Leavitt what her message to young women is. 

‘Stay strong, speak the truth and don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t achieve your dream, or you can’t get to that next step. Just believe in yourself,’ Leavitt said. 

‘Because there will be a lot of people who don’t believe in you—who cast doubt on you, who talk bad about you,’ Leavitt said. 

‘Screw ‘em,’ she said, drawing laughter and applause from the CPAC audience. ‘It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.’ 

Leavitt, 27, served in the first Trump administration as a White House press aide. She then worked for Rep. Elise Stefanik, and later launched her own campaign for New Hampshire’s 1st congressional district in 2022. Leavitt served as national press secretary for the 2024 Trump campaign. 

But Leavitt also praised the ‘amazing’ women working in the second Trump administration. 

‘Look at the White House and look at the exceptional Cabinet President Trump has put together,’ Leavitt said. ‘While we don’t care about identity politics…the president has appointed Susie Wiles, our first female chief of staff in United States history; Brooke Rollins heading up as our secretary of agriculture—look across the entire Cabinet. There are incredible women—Linda McMahon, leading the Department of Education—the list goes on and on.’ 

‘The White House is full of working women,’ she continued. ‘In fact, I was going up the staircase in the West Wing today and saw two of my female colleagues, both of whom are pregnant having babies this year and they are working and they are saving America because President Trump believes in the best people for the job—the brightest people for the job.’ 

Leavitt is also a new mother to a seven-month-old baby boy. 

‘It is the best thing ever,’ Leavitt said of being a mother.

When asked why she is doing what she is doing, Leavitt replied: ‘For him and for all of the other children in this country.’ 

‘We have a country to save,’ Leavitt said. ‘I want my son to grow up in a free and patriotic America that we can be proud of.’ 

A federal judge on Friday granted a preliminary injunction over parts of the Trump administration’s executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

The injunction largely blocks the sections of President Donald Trump’s orders that seek to end federal support for programs deemed to be DEI-related, and prevents the Trump administration from canceling contracts that they believe promote diversity, equity or inclusion. 

U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson in Baltimore, a Biden nominee, ruled that parts of the executive orders likely violate the Constitution and free speech.

‘The harm arises from the issuance of it as a public, vague, threatening executive order,’ Abelson said in a hearing this week, adding that it would discourage businesses working with the government from openly supporting DEI. 

The ruling comes after the city of Baltimore, the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United – which represents restaurant workers – sued the Trump administration over the executive orders, calling them presidential overreach and anti-free speech. 

‘Ordinary citizens bear the brunt,’ attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint. ‘Plaintiffs and their members receive federal funds to support educators, academics, students, workers, and communities across the country. As federal agencies make arbitrary decisions about whether grants are ‘equity-related,’ Plaintiffs are left in limbo.’

They argued that Trump was encroaching on Congress’ powers in order to champion his personal beliefs. 

‘But the President simply does not wield that power,’ they wrote in the complaint. ‘And contrary to his suggestions otherwise, his power is not limitless.’

Trump signed an order on his first day in office directing federal agencies to terminate all ‘equity-related’ grants or contracts. He signed a follow-up order requiring federal contractors to certify that they don’t promote DEI. 

The Trump administration argued in a Wednesday hearing that the president was only banning DEI programs that violate federal civil rights laws. 

‘What’s happening is an overcorrection and pulling back on DEI statements,’ attorney Aleshadye Getachew said in a hearing. 

A second federal lawsuit was also filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday targeting Trump’s DEI executive orders. The new complaint was filed by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Lambda Legal on behalf of nonprofit advocacy organizations. 

The lawsuit is aimed at Trump’s executive orders: ‘Ending Radical and Wasteful DEI Programs and Preferencing,’ ‘Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,’ and ‘Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.’ 

White House spokesman Harrison Fields said both lawsuits represented ‘nothing more than an extension of the left’s resistance,’ adding in a statement to the New York Times that the administration was ‘ready to face them in court.’

‘Radical leftists can either choose to swim against the tide and reject the overwhelming will of the people, or they can get on board and work with President Trump to advance his wildly popular agenda,’ Fields said.

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration is ‘pretty close’ to striking a deal with Ukraine for rights to access its natural resources in exchange for the United States’ billions of dollars in support for the country against Russia. 

‘You know, I think they want it, and they feel good about it,’ Trump told reporters on Friday in the Oval Office after the swearing-in ceremony of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. ‘And it’s significant. It’s a big deal. But they want it, and it keeps us in that country. And they’re very happy about it.

‘We get our money back. They should have been signed long before we went in. They should have been signed by Biden. But Biden didn’t know too much about what he was doing. The war should have never happened, No. 1. When it did happen, it could have been settled. 

‘The first week or two weeks after that, it got bad. It got really bad, but it should have been, it should have never happened. And it should have been settled, and it could have been settled very easily at the beginning. Now it’s tougher, but we’ll get it settled.’

During his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday, Trump’s National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, said, ‘Here’s the bottom line: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term.’ 

Waltz also told ‘Fox & Friends’ this week that Ukraine should ‘tone down’ its criticism of Trump and ‘come back to the table’ to work out an economic deal with the U.S.

The deal for U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals is part of broader negotiations to end the war in Ukraine after Russia invaded the country in 2022. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News Wednesday Trump is creating a ‘win-win’ partnership between the United States and Ukraine with the deal days after meeting with Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

‘Part of my trip was to go and tell the Ukrainian people that we wanted an economic partnership with them,’ Bessent told Bret Baier on ‘Special Report.’ 

‘So, President Trump’s vision is [to] bring the Ukrainian people and the American people closer together economically, show the Ukrainian people that we support them, show the American people that the money that is going into Ukraine, that there is going to be a return, that there’s going to be a long-term partnership.’

The Trump administration is seeking to recoup the cost of aid sent to the war-torn country by gaining access to rare earth minerals like titanium, iron and uranium.

The delay also comes amid rising tensions between Trump and Zelenskyy as the U.S. works with Russian officials to broker a peace deal in the ongoing war. 

Trump argued on Fox News Zelenskyy has ‘no cards’ to negotiate leverage for a deal as the pair have publicly hurled insults at one another in recent days. 

‘I’ve been watching this man for years now as his cities get demolished, as his people get killed, as his soldiers get decimated,’ Trump told Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade.

‘I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards, and you get sick of it,’ he added. ‘You just get sick of it, and I’ve had it.’

Trump argued Zelenskyy is a poor negotiator, noting Bessent traveled to Ukraine last week to broker a mineral agreement, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, but said the pair ‘couldn’t even come close’ to a deal.

The president said the trip was dangerous for Bessent and a waste of time. 

The deal would have helped U.S. investment in the war-torn nation and also provided ‘the best security guarantee they could ever hope for,’ according to Waltz.

Fox News’ Bailee Hill contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump and his administration continued to advance negotiations with Ukraine and Russia his fifth week in office in an attempt to reach a peace deal to end the conflict between the two countries. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz met with Russian officials in Riyadh Tuesday to discuss ways to end the war, while U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg met with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv about a peace deal Wednesday. 

The meetings increased tension between the U.S. and Ukraine when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in Turkey that ‘nobody decides anything behind our back,’ claiming Ukraine wasn’t invited to the meeting between the U.S. and Russia. Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine won’t agree to a deal unless Ukraine is part of the talks. 

In response, both Trump and Zelenskyy exchanged barbs. Although Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Trump insinuated that Ukraine started the war and called Zelenskyy a ‘dictator.’ Meanwhile, Zelenskyy claimed Trump was dispersing Russian ‘disinformation.’ 

Even so, the Trump administration has defended its decision to meet with Russia, claiming it’s necessary to advance the negotiations. 

‘How are you going to end the war unless you’re talking to Russia?’ Vice President JD Vance said at the Conservative Political Action Conference near the nation’s capital Thursday. ‘You’ve got to talk to everybody involved in the fighting. If you actually want to bring the conflict to a close.’

Here’s what also happened this week at the White House:

Weeding out unconstitutional regulations

Trump signed an executive order Wednesday requiring federal agencies to assess regulations that could violate the Constitution as the administration seeks to cut red tape. 

Senior administration officials told Fox News Digital the order is first of its kind and an attempt to ensure the government isn’t weaponized against the American people. It will require agencies to submit a list to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) within the next 60 days of all regulations that could be unconstitutional.

OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will oversee the effort and examine federal agencies’ regulations. 

DOGE officials at federal agencies will compose an inventory of regulations that could violate the Constitution and deliver the list to OMB. After the 60 days, the OIRA will go through the list of regulations and make individual decisions on which are unconstitutional and will launch the process of repealing the regulations on a case-by-case basis. 

OIRA oversees executive branch regulations, while the newly created DOGE aims to eliminate government waste, fraud and spending.

Expanding IVF coverage 

Trump signed an executive order Tuesday requesting the Domestic Policy Council to examine ways to make in vitro fertilization, known as IVF, more affordable and accessible for Americans. 

‘Americans need reliable access to IVF and more affordable treatment options, as the cost per cycle can range from $12,000 to $25,000,’ the executive order said. ‘Providing support, awareness, and access to affordable fertility treatments can help these families navigate their path to parenthood with hope and confidence.’

The assistant to the president for domestic policy will provide policy recommendations with the goal of ‘protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment’ within 90 days. 

Ending taxpayer funding for illegal immigrants 

Trump also signed an executive order that ensures taxpayer benefits do not go toward illegal immigrants, in an attempt to better protect the interests of American citizens. 

The directive requires federal agencies to determine if any federally funded programs are providing financial benefits to illegal immigrants and immediately take ‘corrective action’ so that these federal funds don’t bolster illegal immigration. Likewise, the order instructs agencies to implement stricter eligibility verification to ensure that these benefits don’t go to those in the U.S. illegally. 

The order did not identify specific benefits, and notes that illegal immigrants are largely barred from qualifying for welfare programs. However, the order states without providing evidence that past administrations have ‘repeatedly undercut the goals of that law, resulting in the improper expenditure of significant taxpayer resources.’

‘My Administration will uphold the rule of law, defend against the waste of hard-earned taxpayer resources, and protect benefits for American citizens in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans,’ the order states.

‘President Trump is committed to safeguarding Federal public benefits for American citizens who are truly in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans,’ a White House fact sheet on the executive order said.

Call it Sen. Tim Scott’s 55-seat strategy.

Scott, the conservative senator from South Carolina, told Fox News Digital soon after taking over late last year as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) he aimed to expand the GOP’s current 53-47 majority in the Senate.

And Scott, in a Fox News Digital interview this week on Capitol Hill, is standing by his goal.

‘One hundred percent. It’s my stretch goal,’ the senator reiterated. ‘The bottom line is, I believe that we can defend our current seats while adding at least two more seats to our numbers.’

Scott, who last month became the longest-serving Black senator in the nation’s history, launched a campaign two years ago for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination before dropping out and endorsing Donald Trump.

The senator, who was a top Trump surrogate on the campaign trail last year, emphasized that ‘the good news is, with President Donald Trump leading this country, the field is wide open, which means that we have more places to play, and the game is on.’

Scott added the NRSC needs ‘to focus on the mechanics of making sure that the Donald J. Trump brand is reflected in our candidates.’

Senate Republicans enjoyed a favorable map in the 2024 cycle as they flipped four seats from blue to red to win back control of the chamber.

But the party in power — clearly the Republicans right now — traditionally faces political headwinds in the midterm elections. Nevertheless, an early read of the 2026 map indicates the GOP may be able to go on offense in some key states.

Republicans will be targeting battleground Michigan, where Democratic Sen. Gary Peters recently announced he won’t seek re-election next year, as well as Georgia, another key battleground state, where first-term Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is considered vulnerable.

And in swing state New Hampshire, longtime Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has yet to say whether she’ll seek another term in the Senate when she’s up for re-election next year.

Days before Scott was interviewed by Fox News Digital, Democratic Sen. Tina Smith in blue-leaning Minnesota announced she wouldn’t run again in 2026.

‘Minnesota is an open seat. That’s a four-point state,’ Scott said as he pointed to Trump’s better-than-expected performance in the state in November’s presidential election.

‘We can actually make gains there and bring home another red seat in Minnesota for the first time in a long time,’ Scott predicted.

Asked about GOP recruitment efforts in Minnesota, Scott responded, ‘I’m pleasantly surprised. We’ve already talked to two very highly qualified candidates and more to come.’

Pointing to the current political landscape across the country, Scott touted that ‘we have a map that is wide open. All we need is time. Time is on our side right now. So, we’re excited about what’s going to happen over the next several weeks.’

But Republicans are also playing defense in the 2026 cycle.

Democrats plan to go on offense in blue-leaning Maine, where GOP Sen. Susan Collins is up for re-election, as well as in battleground North Carolina, where Republican Sen. Thom Tillis is also up in 2026. 

Scott acknowledges that the GOP will have to spend big bucks to defend those two seats, as well as in Ohio, where Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was appointed last month to succeed Vice President JD Vance in the Senate. Husted will run next year to finish out Vance’s term.

Pointing to a likely price tag of well over $1 billion in those three races, Scott acknowledged that ‘we need to continue to have strong fundraising numbers and support our candidates as we defend our seats.’

The NRSC recently announced a record $8.5 million in fundraising in January, which the committee says is its best ever off-year January haul.

Asked if the NRSC could keep up the pace, Scott said, ‘Absolutely we can. The good news is we’re already on pace for February to have another record-breaking month.’

And pointing to the president, Scott argued that ‘Trump brings a lot of enthusiasm. He made promises on the campaign trail, and now, as president, he’s keeping those promises. What does that convert to? Cash is king. People love a man who says what he’s going to do, he gets a job, he goes to work doing those things. It makes our job infinitely easier at the NRSC.’

In the 2022 election cycle, when the Republicans blew a chance to win back the majority, NRSC Chair Rick Scott of Florida was criticized for a hands-off approach in the GOP Senate primaries. 

Last cycle, NRSC Chair Sen. Steve Daines of Montana got involved in Senate Republican nomination battles.

Asked what he’ll do when it comes to contested GOP Senate primaries this cycle, Scott answered, ‘Whatever is in the best interest of the voters in each state, I will make a state-by-state decision on how we play and where we play.’