Taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries remain a vulnerable issue for the Democratic Party that most voters oppose, according to a recent survey by the American Principles Project (APP) targeting likely midterm voters.

‘We wanted to help educate Americans, but mostly legislators, about where Americans or how Americans feel about funding for gender identity programs, specifically in healthcare services, especially in light of Congress deliberating on spending and doing the reconciliation bills and all of that,’ Terry Schilling, APP executive director, told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘We want to make sure that they knew just how unpopular these programs are to fund by tax dollars.’

The survey, conducted in early April with 1,500 respondents, found that 43% of people who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the last election are against using taxpayer money to fund gender transition procedures, including surgeries and hormone treatments. 

‘That was a little bit higher than we typically see for Democrat voters,’ Schilling said. APP is a socially conservative nonprofit advocacy group.

During the last few months of President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, his administration released high-budget ads targeting transgender women in women’s sports that may have helped move the needle with swing voters, with one ad famously proclaiming ‘Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you.’

The ad focused on Harris’ track record of ushering in sex change procedures for incarcerated people in California.

The survey found that nearly 66% of Americans don’t think the federal government should be funding gender transition procedures, including puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries. The survey did not differentiate between minors and adults.

‘The higher ups, like the elected officials in the Democratic Party, are going the other way, and it’s not going to work out well for them,’ Schilling said. ‘Democrats are in a really tough spot. They have to choose between 20 to 30% of the base, which supports paying for gender transitions and surgeries with tax dollars, or the swing voters, which swing voters do not want at all.’

In 2021, former President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to expand anti-discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity, including in healthcare. He also reinterpreted Title IX to ensure those same protections applied within educational settings.

The administration supported state-level initiatives, such as Colorado’s inclusion of transgender treatments in its essential health benefits, under the Affordable Care Act.

‘I think that the more Donald Trump’s been talking about it and bringing attention to it, the more people are going to the Republican side on the issue,’ Schilling said.

Another question of the survey asked respondents, ‘If the November 2026 general election for U.S. Congress was held today, and you knew that the Democratic candidate supports allowing federal tax dollars to pay for gender transition procedures, including puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries, would you vote for the Republican or Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress?’

Fifty-two percent of respondents said they would vote for the Republican candidate, while 39% said they would back the Democrat.

Trump has clamped down on ‘radical gender ideology’ since taking office, cutting all federal funding for gender transition surgeries for minors and through public healthcare. He has also banned biological males from competing in women’s sports and mandated that transgender individuals serve according to their biological sex in the military.

Pete Marocco, the official who oversaw the dismantling of USAID, has now parted ways with the agency. 

Marocco, who served in the Defense, State and Commerce departments, was known as a conservative firebrand with a deep skepticism of foreign aid. His tenure sparked fierce protests on Capitol Hill and drew sharp criticism from Democrats, who celebrated his exit but said questions remain about the future of U.S. foreign aid.

‘Pete was brought to State with a big mission to conduct an exhaustive review of every dollar spent on foreign assistance,’ a senior administration official said of the departure. ‘He conducted that historic task and exposed egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars. We all expect big things are in store for Pete on his next mission.’

After President Donald Trump merged USAID with the State Department, Secretary Marco Rubio named Marocco acting deputy administrator of the agency, and he went to work whittling down the $40-billion, 10,000-employee USAID office. 

‘I continue to serve President Trump just as enthusiastically as I did last week, last month and last year,’ Marocco told Fox News Digital of his departure. ‘He is a once-in-a-lifetime leader of a movement for change to our government and to restore American greatness.  President Trump has the swamp on the run so we should intensify the fight.’

Of the agency’s 6,000 programs, only about 900 will now continue to operate, Rubio said on a podcast with Donald Trump Jr. last week.

In the past, USAID did not adhere to State Department authority and ‘did whatever they wanted,’ according to Rubio. 

In a March 19 op-ed for RealClearPolitics, Marocco argued that U.S. foreign aid has ‘created a global welfare state, committed unwelcome political interventions, encouraged unsustainable international labor unions (communism), made countries less capable of thriving in the modern global economy, and funded international organizations that spite our great country.’

Marocco learned he would no longer be employed at the State Department late last week, sources told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. 

USAID is now being run by a DOGE official. 

Democrats celebrated the departure of Marocco. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, ranking member of the State and Foreign Operations subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, said Marocco brought ‘chaos to USAID, reckless and unlawful policy to the State Department, and dismantled long-standing U.S. foreign policy.’

‘With his exit, serious questions still remain about the influence he leaves behind and whether or not Secretary Rubio plans to take actions that advance the mission and credibility of the United States,’ Schatz added. 

A U.S. Marine Corps veteran with a master’s degree in international humanitarian law from the University of Oxford, Marocco worked in USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives in 2020 and was the subject of a 13-page memo posted in the agency’s ‘dissent channel,’ in which employees warned that ‘operational capacity and strategic efficacy have been and continue to be rapidly degraded’ under his leadership.

The memo said Marocco had wanted to personally approve all expenditures over $10,000 for the office with a budget of $225 million.

‘He has leveraged once-routine administrative processes to reopen previously-approved plans, interrogate and redirect country programs, halt movement on programs, procurements, and people, and inject uncertainty into daily operations and office planning,’ the memo said. ‘Intervention is urgently needed.’ 

Police arrested a 25-year-old man for allegedly sending threatening messages to director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and her husband.

The DOJ announced the arrest of Aliakbar Mohammed Amin on Monday, saying he had sent threatening text messages to Gabbard between March 29 and April 1.

The threats included Amin allegedly writing, ‘You and your family are going to die soon’ and ‘I will personally do the job if necessary.’

‘Death to America means death to America literally, Tulsi is living on borrowed time,’ another text read.

‘The home you two own in Texas is a legitimate target and will be hit at a time and place of our choosing,’ another said.

‘Prepare to die, you, Tulsi, and everyone you hold dear. America will burn,’ Amin allegedly wrote in another text.

‘Threatening to harm public officials is a criminal act that cannot be excused as political discourse,’ Acting U.S. Attorney Richard S. Moultrie, Jr. said in a statement regarding the arrest.  ‘Our Office, in coordination with our law enforcement partners, will vigorously prosecute individuals who commit these acts of violence.’

Police apprehended Amin in Lilburn, Georgia, on April 11. He faces charges of transmitting interstate threats to injure Gabbard.

‘The FBI sees all threatening communications as a serious federal offense. We will employ every investigative tool and resource available to identify those responsible and ensure they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,’ said Paul Brown, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. ‘Let this arrest serve as a clear warning: if you engage in this kind of criminal behavior, you will be caught and you will go to prison.’

Federal agents say they also discovered similar threats allegedly made by Amin in social media posts, including an image depicting a firearm pointed at a photograph of Gabbard, and a second image of a firearm pointed at a photograph of Gabbard and her husband.

Federal agents recovered a firearm while executing a warrant to search Amin’s home.

Read the full criminal complaint below

President Donald Trump on Monday once again reiterated that Iran must abandon any hope of obtaining a nuclear weapon as the U.S. prepares for more talks in less than a week.

‘Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon,’ Trump told reporters from the Oval Office while sitting alongside the president of El Salvador. 

‘Iran wants to deal with us, but they don’t know how. They really don’t know how,’ Trump continued. 

The president confirmed the U.S. will hold more talks with Iran next Saturday in Italy, one week after the first talks began in Oman. 

Details of the discussion remain nil, though they were seen as a launching point as Washington tries to negotiate with Tehran to end its nuclear program. 

Iranian state media reported that Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi ‘briefly spoke’ together during the two-hour meeting, which suggests Tehran viewed the discussions positively given their initial refusal to hold ‘direct’ talks.

The White House similarly described the talks as ‘very positive and constructive,’ though it also conceded that ‘very complicated’ issues remain unresolved. 

Trump has said negotiations with Iran need to happen ‘very quickly’ but he has not provided a specific timeline on how long he will allow the diplomatic process to be carried out before he turns to military options.

The president has repeatedly threatened to ‘bomb’ Iran should it not stop its ambitions to develop a nuclear weapon. 

But the extent that the U.S. intends to shut down Tehran’s nuclear program also remains unclear as some call for complete disarmament as Iran also continues to advance its missile programs. 

‘I’ll solve that problem. It’s almost an easy one,’ Trump told reporters while comparing the end of Iran’s decades-long ambitions to develop a nuclear weapon to the challenge of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.

‘I think Iran could be a great country as long as it doesn’t have nuclear weapons,’ Trump said. ‘If they have nuclear weapons, they’ll never get a chance to be a great country.’

While a court ordered the U.S. government to pursue ‘steps to facilitate the return’ of a Salvadoran man removed from the U.S. last month, the Justice Department asserted that federal courts do not have the authority to dictate to the executive branch how to handle foreign relations and that the order only requires removal of ‘domestic obstacles’ that would hinder the man’s ability to return to the U.S.

The legal wranglings concern Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland, but was removed from the U.S. last month.

‘Defendants understand ‘facilitate’ to mean what that term has long meant in the immigration context, namely actions allowing an alien to enter the United States. Taking ‘all available steps to facilitate’ the return of Abrego Garcia is thus best read as taking all available steps to remove any domestic obstacles that would otherwise impede the alien’s ability to return here,’ a DOJ court filing declared.

‘On the flipside, reading ‘facilitate’ as requiring something more than domestic measures would not only flout the Supreme Court’s order, but also violate the separation of powers. The federal courts have no authority to direct the Executive Branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner.’

Abrego Garcia has been accused of being an MS-13 gang member, but his legal challenge has denied that allegation.

‘On March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,’ according to a DOJ court filing.

Evan Katz, who identified himself as ‘Assistant Director for the Removal Division, within the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO),’ addressed the issue in a court filing.

‘Although Abrego-Garcia has an order of removal issued by an immigration judge, I understand that he should not have been removed to El Salvador because the immigration judge had also granted Abrego-Garcia withholding of removal to El Salvador. However, I also understand that Abrego Garcia is no longer eligible for withholding of removal because of his membership in MS-13 which is now a designated foreign terrorist organization,’ Katz declared. 

After the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland ordered the U.S. ‘to facilitate and effectuate’ Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., the Supreme Court called for the lower court to clarify the instruction.

‘The order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador. The intended scope of the term ‘effectuate’ in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority. The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs,’ the Supreme Court noted.

The lower court then called for defendants to ‘take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible.’

Abrego Garcia, whose wife is a U.S. citizen, is being held in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center.

‘It is my understanding based on official reporting from our Embassy in San Salvador that Abrego Garcia is currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador. He is alive and secure in that facility. He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador,’ Michael Kozak, senior bureau official in the bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs of the State Department, noted in a filing.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is visiting President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.

Poland’s foreign minister on Monday urged President Donald Trump to take steps to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continued war in Ukraine following another deadly strike that killed 34, including two children, on Palm Sunday.

‘I just want to say how appalled I am by the latest spate of Russian attacks on Ukraine,’ Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters ahead of the European Union’s foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.

‘Ukraine unconditionally agreed to a ceasefire over a month ago,’ Sikorski said. ‘The heinous attacks on Kryvyi Rih and Sumy are Russia’s mocking answer.’

Russia fired two ballistic missiles into Sumy’s city center Sunday, claiming it targeted a meeting of top Ukrainian military officials. The northeastern city lies about 30 miles from the Russian border. Moscow said 60 troops were killed but provided no evidence, and it remains unclear if any officials were among the 30 dead and 119 injured.

The attack came just over a week after Russia struck Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih, in what was the deadliest strike against children since the war began in an attack near a playground that killed 19 people, including nine children.

‘I hope that President Trump and his administration see that the leader of Russia is mocking their goodwill and I hope the right decisions are taken,’ Sikorski told reporters Monday. 

The attacks were met with a swift international rebuke from European leaders, with Germany’s chancellor-designate, Friedrich Merz, calling it a ‘serious war crime.’

Leaders from Lithuania made similar claims and summoned a Russian diplomat over the incident on Monday.

France’s foreign minister ahead of the top international talks called for tougher sanctions on Russia to ‘suffocate’ its economy and stop its war effort. 

Trump similarly condemned the attacks as ‘terrible’ but said he ‘was told they made a mistake.’ 

‘But I think it’s a horrible thing,’ he added.

Russian forces over the last month have dropped 2,800 air bombs on Ukraine, fired more than 1,400 drones – including 62 Shahed drones Sunday night – and levied some 60 other missiles of various types, according to The Associated Press. 

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele told President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Monday that he has 350 million Americans to ‘liberate’ by ending crime and terrorism in the United States. 

‘We know that you have a crime problem and a terrorism problem that you need help with. And we’re a small country, but we can help,’ Bukele said. ‘We actually turned the murder capital of the world — that was [what] the journalists called it – the murder capital of the world to the safest country in the Western Hemisphere.’ 

‘And I like to say that we actually liberated millions,’ Bukele said, with the line drawing praise from Trump. 

‘Mr. President, you have 350 million people to liberate,’ Bukele told Trump. ‘You cannot just, you know, free the criminals and think crime is going to go down magically, you have to imprison them so you can liberate 350 million Americans that are asking for the end of crime and the end of terrorism, and it can be done.’ 

Trump also referenced how the left has pushed for biological men to compete in women’s sports. 

‘Do you allow your men in women’s sports? Do you allow men to box women?’ Trump asked Bukele. 

The president of El Salvador remarked, ‘That’s violence.’ 

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.