A federal appeals court on Friday granted the Trump administration’s motion to extend a stay allowing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to continue operating at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Last week, a federal judge in Maryland ruled efforts to halt USAID functions were likely unconstitutional, ordering its reinstatement.

A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, on Tuesday issued a stay, temporarily blocking the judge’s order that prohibited DOGE from working with USAID. It also barred biopharmaceutical executive Jeremy Levin from leading the agency.

Friday’s decision extends the stay until the appeal is resolved.

A group of 26 unidentified current and former USAID employees or contractors alleged the Trump administration unlawfully canceled government contracts, placed USAID personnel on administrative leave, reduced the force of employees and contractors, closed the headquarters and took down the website, violating the U.S. Constitution’s appointments clause because Elon Musk acted as DOGE administrator without being properly appointed. 

They also claimed dismantling USAID infringed on Congress’ responsibilities, according to court documents.

The Trump administration fought the claims, alleging Musk acts as a senior advisor to the president, and actions at USAID were carried out by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as USAID’s acting administrator, who then designated Peter Marocco as deputy administrator. 

USAID subsequently, and in accordance with President Donald Trump’s executive order, established an internal DOGE team led by Lewin, according to court documents.

Actions the employees and contractors alleged were unconstitutional were within both agency discretion and the president’s authority to direct foreign policy, the administration argued.

The district court granted the employees and contractors’ requested preliminary injunction, blocking DOGE from operating at USAID, finding the administration ‘likely’ violated the Constitution, and the pause was in the public interest. 

It later clarified Lewin, who led the USAID DOGE team prior to the injunction, could no longer do his job as chief operating officer at USAID and declined to grant any modifications. 

The Trump administration appealed the district court’s preliminary injunction and the denial of its motion for clarification or modification. It also filed an emergency motion to stay the injunction pending the appeal.

U.S. Court of Appeals Circuit judges Arthur Marvin Quattlebaum Jr. and Judge Paul V. Niemeyer found Friday that Musk and DOGE ‘made a strong showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of the appeal, that they will be irreparably injured absent the stay,’ according to court documents.

Further, Quattlebaum and Niemeyer found the stay ‘favors the public interest.’

The ruling marked the third temporary win Friday for the Trump administration at the federal appeals court level.

President Donald Trump promised that ‘bad things’ would happen to Iran if the regime does not come to the table for nuclear negotiations. 

‘My big preference is that we work it out with Iran, but if we don’t work it out, bad things are gonna happen to Iran,’ the president said Friday. 

Iran is enriching uranium to 60%, just shy of the 90% weapons-grade. Experts say it could have a nuclear weapon within weeks if it were to take the final steps to building one. 

In response to U.S. sanctions threats, Iran showed off a sprawling underground tunnel system replete with missiles, launchers, engines and other advanced weapons. 

A video released this week by state media shows two Iranian military leaders, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri and IRGC Aerospace Force Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, riding in a vehicle through long, weapons-packed tunnels that Tehran has dubbed ‘Missile City.’ 

The 85-second clip, which has not been independently verified, is set to menacing music and suggests that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps stands ready to respond to threats of an attack from the U.S. and Israel. 

‘Iran’s ballistic missile force remains the largest in the Middle East,’ said Behnam Taleblu, fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. ‘This is all part of the regime’s deterrent strategy to cement the idea of any conflict with Tehran being a costly and protracted one.’ 

The move comes as U.S. is bolstering its forces in the Middle East. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently sent a second aircraft carrier, the U.S. Navy’s USS Carl Vinson, to join the USS Harry S. Truman‘s carrier strike group, whose deployment was also extended. 

The U.S. also recently deployed two B-2 stealth bombers to the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, a warning to Iran and Yemen’s Houthi militia. The planes are capable of carrying 30,000-pound ‘bunker buster’ bombs and are now situated within range of Iran. 

Weeks ago, Trump wrote a letter to Iran urging the regime to engage in talks on its nuclear program. 

Kamal Kharazi, the top foreign policy adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Thursday that the regime would engage in ‘indirect’ talks, according to local news reports.

‘The Islamic Republic has not closed all the doors and is willing to begin indirect negotiations with the United States.’ 

‘Our policy is to not negotiate directly while there is maximum pressure policy and threats of military strikes,’ foreign minister Abbas Aragchi explained. ‘But indirect negotiations can take place as they have in the past.’

If talks falter, the U.S. and Israel have floated the possibility of targeted strikes on underground nuclear facilities. 

In recent weeks, the Trump administration launched a series of offensive attacks on the Houthis in Yemen to send a message to Tehran, which supports them. 

‘Let nobody be fooled! The hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time. 

‘Iran has played ‘the innocent victim’ of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control,’ he continued. ‘They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, ‘Intelligence.” 

Federal law enforcement’s hands are tied now that the statute of limitations for prosecuting fraud in COVID-era unemployment programs has expired.

While Congress extended the statute of limitations for pandemic-era business relief fraud in 2022, the window to prosecute fraud in individual relief programs closed Thursday.

‘There’s huge amounts of fraud that law enforcement officials are still trying to track down,’ said Andrew Moylan, a public finance policy expert at the for-profit philanthropy group Arnold Ventures. 

‘Every day that goes by from today, we lose the ability to prosecute fraud day by day. That’s a huge problem, and this should be something that’s an easy fix for Congress.’

Despite opposition from 127 House Democrats, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the House passed a bipartisan bill earlier this month to extend the statute of limitations for pandemic unemployment fraud from five to 10 years. The move mirrored what lawmakers did for the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury and Disaster Loans program in 2022.

However, the Senate has yet to take up a companion bill needed to cement the extension, leading House lawmakers to call on their colleagues on Capitol Hill to make it a priority. 

‘We can’t afford to let these fraudsters get away with the largest heist of tax dollars in American history,’ Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, said Wednesday. ‘Not only do we have an obligation to taxpayers to recover as much of this money as possible — up to $135 billion — we also need to send a message that we will never falter in going after criminals who take advantage of our support for those in need. … There is no time to waste.’

According to estimates from the Government Accountability Office, as much as $135 billion in pandemic unemployment insurance programs was lost to fraud during the pandemic. So far, only $5 billion, or less than 4%, has been recovered. 

Between the Department of Justice and the Department of Labor, there are more than 2,500 uncharged criminal matters or ongoing field investigations related to COVID-era criminal unemployment fraud, according to a fact sheet released by Smith.

Unless the statute of limitations is extended by Congress, federal law enforcement will be unable to prosecute these cases.

Moylan noted the majority of unemployment fraud during COVID stemmed from ‘loopholes’ so big ‘you could drive a truck through’ them in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. 

‘They didn’t have strict enough paperwork requirements, and, so, basically anybody could apply for it and just attest that they were engaged in self-employed activity … and claim significant amounts of unemployment benefits in the process,’ Moylan said. He also pointed out how people were applying for financial assistance under the names of dead people or prison inmates.

‘In California, about a billion dollars worth of fraud was facilitated by making claims on behalf of prisoners in prisons in California,’ he said.

This month, GOP lawmakers, including Smith, called on their Senate colleagues to take up the House’s legislation to extend the statute of limitations related to pandemic unemployment fraud.

When asked why he thought the Senate had not yet taken up a bill to extend the statute of limitations for pandemic unemployment fraud, Moylan posited that it was ‘an attention span thing.’

‘This hasn’t been top of mind the way that nominations have been in the first part of the year for the Senate, or budget resolution, or now tax conversations, or, you know, whatever the scandal of the day may be,’ Moylan said.

‘Those are the things that seem to dominate proceedings in the Senate. We now are in a situation where, if they don’t act soon, we’re going to lose the ability to prosecute more fraud in this program.’

Denmark on Friday found itself in President Donald Trump’s crosshairs. Trump appears to be honing in on what his administration is now arguing is a failure by Copenhagen to protect Greenland from Russian and Chinese aggression.   

Speaking to American soldiers from the U.S.’s Pituffik Space Base in northwest Greenland, Vice President Vance said, ‘Denmark hasn’t done a good job at keeping Greenland safe.’

‘What we think is going to happen is that the Greenlanders are going to choose, through self-determination, to become independent of Denmark,’ Vance explained in a more toned-down approach from Trump’s previous statements. ‘And then we’re going to have conversations with the people of Greenland from there.’

The vice president’s answer was in response to questions from reporters as to what lengths Trump would go to, to acquire Greenland despite strong resistance within the arctic nation to become a part of the U.S. as the president has previously signaled is his ambition.

‘We do not think that military force is ever going to be necessary,’ Vance continued. ‘And because we think the people of Greenland are rational and good, we think we’re going to be able to cut a deal, Donald Trump-style, to ensure the security of this territory, but also the United States of America.’

Vance said that Russia and China have been largely running unchecked in the area and ‘encroaching’ on Greenland without proper protection from Denmark. 

Though Greenland is an autonomous nation, it is still a territory of Denmark, which means Copenhagen oversees its security needs. 

Greenland does not currently have its own military and would no longer be protected by NATO if it left Denmark, as it would need to formally apply for NATO membership as an independent nation. 

‘There has been an expansion of the security footprint in the security interests of Russia and China. They’re doing what they believe is in their interest,’ Vance said. ‘The United States must do what I know is in our interest — which is to make sure that Greenland is safe. 

‘If Greenland doesn’t have self-determination, if the people of Greenland have their future controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, it’s not going to make their lives better off, and most importantly, it’s going to make American and world…security much, much weaker,’ he added.

Vance said he wants Greenland to have American weapons, not Chinese weapons, and that he believes a partnership could be secured once the arctic nation votes for independence from Denmark.

While some in Greenland have said they would be interested in securing a partnership with Washington that could include access to fishing lanes in exchange for defense guarantees, Trump has signaled that he may be more interested in the nation’s rare earth minerals and energy opportunities. 

However, Greenland, which is environmentally conscious, has previously blocked the EU from making deals to access those coveted resources. 

‘When the President says we’ve got to have Greenland, he’s saying this island is not safe,’ Vance said. ‘A lot of people are interested in it. A lot of people are making a play. 

‘Our message is very simple: Yes, the people of Greenland are going to have self-determination,’ he continued. ‘We hope that they choose to partner with the United States.

‘We’re the only nation on earth that will respect their sovereignty and respect their security, because their security is very much our security,’ Vance said. 

President Donald Trump’s executive order against paper straws that was signed in February is already beginning to ‘use all levers available’ to cut back on them.

Fox News Digital exclusively obtained a domestic policy council report outlining that the White House wants the Food and Drug Administration to look into the PFAS risk of paper straws and ‘consider restricting their use.’ It is also pivoting away from using straws in federal government cafeterias, stopping the purchasing of them in federal contracts across a variety of agencies, and having the United States Department of Agriculture ‘not promote the development or manufacturing of paper straws in the future.’

‘Paper straws are a laughable supposition. They are bad for the environment, they are unhygienic, they are expensive, they contain dangerous forever chemicals, and—as with most things advanced by the previous Administration—they do not work,’ the president wrote in a letter included in the report.

‘This is not rocket science—water and other drinks dissolve paper, rendering these straws useless for their sole purpose. A product of a fictitious yet frequently cited statistic, they are inefficient and wasteful. It is ludicrous that anyone saw fit to enforce their use and that these useless implements have infiltrated our marketplaces as much as they have. Among the many things that my Administration is having to roll back, this is among the most absurd,’ Trump continued.

The Executive Order came just months after the Biden administration announced plans in July to phase out single-use plastic in the federal government.

‘The Trump Administration has undone this weaponization of government and will use all available levers to bring back common sense, end the use of paper straws, and restore functional utensils for the American people,’ the report’s conclusion states, arguing not only that research does not back up the widespread use of paper straws, but also that it may ‘pose safety risks to children and people with disabilities.’

Blue states such as California and New York currently have laws in place limiting the use of single-use plastic straws in full-service restaurants, unless customers request them.

Democratic states have also touted the use of paper straws as a more environmentally friendly alternative. Trump has criticized them for years, writing in a 2019 social media post that ‘liberal paper straws don’t work.’

Fox News’ Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.

Vice President JD Vance refuses to mince his words with European allies. 

From blasting European nations on censorship issues, to publicly urging Ukrainian Vice President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to express gratitude for U.S. support during its conflict with Russia, Vance has secured his spot as a vocal advocate and messenger for the Trump administration’s ‘America First’ agenda. 

Now Vance has another opportunity to deliver the Trump administration’s gospel. He will be visiting Greenland Friday amid efforts from President Donald Trump to check off another foreign policy win for his administration and acquire the Danish territory. 

While, historically, vice presidents have resorted to the wings on foreign policy issues, that is not the case for Vance. He is in the foreign policy spotlight now.

‘He’s someone who’s not going to just sit by and stand back like Mike Pence did a lot of the times,’ a GOP source familiar with Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda told Fox News Digital Thursday. ‘He’s really taking the charge.’

Vance and second lady Usha Vance, along with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, are poised to visit Pituffik Space Base in Greenland Friday, the Department of Defense’s northernmost military installation that houses Space Force’s 821st Space Base Group to conduct missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations. 

Vance’s departure from his predecessors and involvement in the foreign policy theater stems from a generational shift following the Global War on Terror, according to Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida. 

While former vice presidents Mike Pence and Joe Biden had no direct military experience, that’s not the case for the current cohort of foreign policy leaders at the White House. 

Vance, who served for four years in the Marine Corps and completed a deployment to Iraq, and Waltz, a former Army Green Beret who served four deployments to Afghanistan, are now calling the shots on foreign policy initiatives for the White House’s agenda. 

‘Like myself, Mike Waltz, and others, he served in the Global War on Terror and saw firsthand the damage of bad foreign policy,’ Mast, a combat veteran who lost both his legs during a deployment to Afghanistan, said in a Thursday statement to Fox News Digital. ‘Unlike other vice presidents, JD’s not afraid to go out there and talk about what he cares about — and what he cares about is putting America First.’

The Trump administration has accused Denmark of neglecting Greenland, and Trump has said that acquiring Greenland is critical for national security purposes as a strategic area in the Arctic. 

But leaders in Denmark and Greenland remain unequivocally opposed to Greenland becoming part of the U.S., although Greenland’s prime minister has called for independence from Copenhagen. 

Meanwhile, Denmark has come under scrutiny for its treatment of indigenous people from Greenland. A group of indigenous women from Greenland sued the Danish government in May 2024 and accused Danish health officials of fitting them with intrauterine devices without their knowledge between the 1960s and 1970s. 

Denmark and Greenland launched an investigation into the matter in 2022, and the report is expected for release this year. 

A senior White House official said in a statement to Fox News Digital that Denmark’s treatment of the people of Greenland will be a prominent aspect of the visit. 

‘Unfortunately, Danish leaders have spent decades mistreating the Greenlandic people, treating them like second-class citizens and allowing infrastructure on the island to fall into disrepair. Expect the Vice President to emphasize these points as well,’ the official said. 

Greenland is rich in natural resources, including oil and natural gas, and both Russia and China have bolstered their presence in the region in recent years. 

Mast also pointed out how European countries are now vowing to bolster defense spending as an example of Vance’s leadership. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put forth an $841 billion proposal March 4 for European Union nations to enhance defense spending. 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged in February to boost his country’s defense spending to 2.5% of its gross domestic value. That is an increase from the 2.3% the U.K. currently spends, and amounts to a nearly $17 billion increase.

As a result, Mast said that Vance’s approach is proving successful in lighting a fire under European allies to take action. 

‘He wants to make sure America is not being taken advantage of, or being taken for granted,’ Mast said. ‘We need a Europe that steps up and is an equal partner, because if you are not a partner, then you are a dependent. Europe needs to hear this tough talk, and it’s already working.’

Vance’s tough stance on Europe emerged recently when messages from a group chat discussing strikes against Yemen leaked on Monday, according to a report from the Atlantic. 

The group chat, which included White House officials like Waltz and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, outlined plans to strike Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Vance initially remained skeptical of the strikes, and in one message, he said: ‘I just hate bailing out the Europeans again.’ 

Vance has signaled such views publicly as well in recent appearances. At the Munich Security Conference in February, he laid out the Trump administration’s stance that Europe ‘step up in a big way to provide for its own defense,’ while also cautioning that Russia and China don’t jeopardize as great a threat to European nations as the ‘threat from within,’ in regard to issues like censorship and illegal immigration.

European leaders decried the statements, and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he interpreted the remarks as a comparison to ‘conditions in parts of Europe with those in authoritarian regimes.’

When Zelenskyy visited the White House in February, Vance also didn’t shy away from defending the Trump administration’s position. After Zelenskyy pointed out that Russian President Vladimir Putin has a history of breaking agreements and challenged Vance’s statements that the path forward was through diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine, Vance accused Zelenskyy of being ‘disrespectful.’ 

‘Do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?’ Vance asked at the Oval Office meeting. 

Vance declined to comment through a spokesperson when reached for a statement by Fox News Digital. 

Now, Vance is slated to exercise his foreign policy skills again with a trip abroad less than eight weeks after appearing in Munich and his spat with Zelenskyy. 

While it’s unclear whether the Trump administration will successfully take over Greenland, Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, predicted that Vance’s understanding of Trump’s America First agenda will shine through during the vice president’s trip to Greenland once again. 

‘JD Vance was a great messenger for that agenda in the Oval Office exchange with Zelensky, in his speech in Munich, and I expect we’ll see it again during his trip to Greenland,’ Banks said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

Fox News’ Charles Creitz contributed to this report. 

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., a member of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, is confident his new bill to stop federal judges from making nationwide injunctions will stop them from ‘provoking a crisis.’

Earlier this week, the Missouri Republican debuted a measure to ‘stop nationwide injunctions.’

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Hawley explained, ‘I don’t think these judges have the authority to do that under the Constitution anyway, but they’re trying to and this legislation would make sure they can’t do it.’

The bill was rolled out in response to the slew of nationwide injunctions by federal district judges halting the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration. 

The number of such orders levied against Trump so far this term exponentially outweighs the number his predecessors saw. 

The courts have hit him with roughly 15 wide-ranging orders since he took office in January, more than former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden received during their entire tenures. 

Hawley said he has personally urged Senate Republican leadership to take up his bill. However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has not indicated any plans to do so. 

When asked previously by Fox News Digital if he had ideas for policy regarding the injunctions, or whether he believed Congress needed to act, Thune’s office did not provide comment. 

He noted to reporters earlier this week that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was examining the issue. ‘At the end of the day, there is a process, and there’s an appeals process. And, you know, I suspect that’s ultimately how it’s going to be ended,’ Thune said. 

Hawley believes it should be brought to the floor even with the risk of not overcoming the legislative filibuster’s 60-vote threshold. ‘If their views have changed, I’d love to hear the explanation for why they have suddenly changed in the space of four months,’ he said of Democrat senators, some of whom were critical of nationwide injunctions during the Biden administration. 

Hawley said he believed Trump would support his bill, given the president’s past public comments calling for ending nationwide injunctions.

‘Unlawful Nationwide Injunctions by Radical Left Judges could very well lead to the destruction of our Country! These people are Lunatics, who do not care, even a little bit, about the repercussions from their very dangerous and incorrect Decisions and Rulings,’ Trump recently wrote on Truth Social. 

‘STOP NATIONWIDE INJUNCTIONS NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,’ he added. 

Hawley slammed the judges for piling on orders, explaining ‘they’re just liberal judges who are fancy themselves, part of the resistance, who are willing to do whatever it takes to stop Trump.’

Vice President JD Vance refuses to mince his words with European allies. 

From blasting European nations on censorship issues, to publicly urging Ukrainian Vice President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to express gratitude for U.S. support during its conflict with Russia, Vance has secured his spot as a vocal advocate and messenger for the Trump administration’s ‘America First’ agenda. 

Now Vance has another opportunity to deliver the Trump administration’s gospel. He will be visiting Greenland Friday amid efforts from President Donald Trump to check off another foreign policy win for his administration and acquire the Danish territory. 

While, historically, vice presidents have resorted to the wings and allowed the president to take center stage on foreign policy issues, that is not the case for Vance. He is in the foreign policy spotlight now. 

‘He’s someone who’s not going to just sit by and stand back like Mike Pence did a lot of the times,’ a GOP source familiar with Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda told Fox News Digital on Thursday. ‘He’s really taking the charge.’

Vance and second lady Usha Vance, along with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, are poised to visit Pituffik Space Base in Greenland Friday, the Department of Defense’s northernmost military installation that houses Space Force’s 821st Space Base Group to conduct missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations. 

Vance’s departure from his predecessors and involvement in the foreign policy theater stems from a generational shift following the Global War on Terror, according to Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida. 

While former vice presidents Mike Pence and Joe Biden had no direct military experience, that’s not the case for the current cohort of foreign policy leaders at the White House. 

Vance, who served for four years in the Marine Corps and completed a deployment to Iraq, and Waltz, a former Army Green Beret who served four deployments to Afghanistan, are now calling the shots on foreign policy initiatives for the White House’s agenda. 

‘Like myself, Mike Waltz, and others, he served in the Global War on Terror and saw firsthand the damage of bad foreign policy,’ Mast, a combat veteran who lost both his legs during a deployment to Afghanistan, said in a Thursday statement to Fox News Digital. ‘Unlike other vice presidents, JD’s not afraid to go out there and talk about what he cares about — and what he cares about is putting America First.’

The Trump administration has accused Denmark of neglecting Greenland, and Trump has said that acquiring Greenland is critical for national security purposes as a strategic area in the Arctic. 

But leaders in Denmark and Greenland remain unequivocally opposed to Greenland becoming part of the U.S., although Greenland’s prime minister has called for independence from Copenhagen. 

Meanwhile, Denmark has come under scrutiny for its treatment of indigenous people from Greenland. A group of indigenous women from Greenland sued the Danish government in May 2024 and accused Danish health officials of fitting them with intrauterine devices without their knowledge between the 1960s and 1970s. 

Denmark and Greenland launched an investigation into the matter in 2022, and the report is expected for release this year. 

A senior White House official said in a statement to Fox News Digital that Denmark’s treatment of the people of Greenland will be a prominent aspect of the visit. 

‘Unfortunately, Danish leaders have spent decades mistreating the Greenlandic people, treating them like second-class citizens and allowing infrastructure on the island to fall into disrepair. Expect the Vice President to emphasize these points as well,’ the official said. 

Greenland is rich in natural resources, including oil and natural gas, and both Russia and China have bolstered their presence in the region in recent years. 

Mast also pointed out how European countries are now vowing to bolster defense spending as an example of Vance’s leadership. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put forth an $841 billion proposal March 4 for European Union nations to enhance defense spending. 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged in February to boost his country’s defense spending to 2.5% of its gross domestic value. That is an increase from the 2.3% the U.K. currently spends, and amounts to a nearly $17 billion increase.

As a result, Mast said that Vance’s approach is proving successful in lighting a fire under European allies to take action. 

‘He wants to make sure America is not being taken advantage of, or being taken for granted,’ Mast said. ‘We need a Europe that steps up and is an equal partner, because if you are not a partner, then you are a dependent. Europe needs to hear this tough talk, and it’s already working.’

Vance’s tough stance on Europe emerged recently when messages from a group chat discussing strikes against Yemen leaked on Monday, according to a report from the Atlantic. 

The group chat, which included White House officials like Waltz and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, outlined plans to strike Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Vance initially remained skeptical of the strikes, and in one message, he said: ‘I just hate bailing out the Europeans again.’ 

Vance has signaled such views publicly as well in recent appearances. At the Munich Security Conference in February, he laid out the Trump administration’s stance that Europe ‘step up in a big way to provide for its own defense,’ while also cautioning that Russia and China don’t jeopardize as great a threat to European nations as the ‘threat from within,’ in regard to issues like censorship and illegal immigration.

European leaders decried the statements, and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he interpreted the remarks as a comparison to ‘conditions in parts of Europe with those in authoritarian regimes.’

When Zelenskyy visited the White House in February, Vance also didn’t shy away from defending the Trump administration’s position. After Zelenskyy pointed out that Russian President Vladimir Putin has a history of breaking agreements and challenged Vance’s statements that the path forward was through diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine, Vance accused Zelenskyy of being ‘disrespectful.’ 

‘Do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?’ Vance asked at the Oval Office meeting. 

Vance declined to comment through a spokesperson when reached for a statement by Fox News Digital. 

Now, Vance is slated to exercise his foreign policy skills again with a trip abroad less than eight weeks after appearing in Munich and his spat with Zelenskyy. 

While it’s unclear whether the Trump administration will successfully take over Greenland, Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, predicted that Vance’s understanding of Trump’s America First agenda will shine through during the vice president’s trip to Greenland once again. 

‘JD Vance was a great messenger for that agenda in the Oval Office exchange with Zelensky, in his speech in Munich, and I expect we’ll see it again during his trip to Greenland,’ Banks said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

Fox News’ Charles Creitz contributed to this report. 

Speaking from the Arctic as Vice President JD Vance prepared for his trip to Greenland to assess U.S. security concerns, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Washington’s ambitions for the Arctic nation had ‘nothing to do’ with Russia. 

‘In short, America’s plans in relation to Greenland are serious,’ Putin said Thursday during an address to Russia’s Arctic Forum in Murmansk. 

‘These plans have deep historical roots,’ he continued, according to a BBC report. ‘And it’s clear that the US will continue to systematically pursue its geo-strategic, military-political and economic interests in the Arctic.

‘As for Greenland, this is a matter for two specific countries,’ he added. ‘It has nothing to do with us.’

Putin’s comments coincided with remarks by President Donald Trump, who on Thursday doubled down on his ambitions for the Arctic nation despite international rebuke, and said, ‘We need Greenland for international safety and security. We need it. We have to have it.’

‘It’s [an] island from a defensive posture and even offensive posture is something we need,’ he told radio host Vince Coglianese. ‘When you look at the ships going up their shore by the hundreds, it’s a busy place.’

Trump acknowledged he was unsure if the people of Greenland wanted to become U.S. citizens, but he said it was important to ‘convince them.’

Greenland’s citizens and leadership have repeatedly made clear they are not interested in becoming a part of the U.S. and are seeking full independence from Denmark. 

It is unclear if the vice president will be advancing Trump’s message while visiting the U.S.’ Pituffik Space Force base in northwest Greenland, but Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, quickly changed their itinerary earlier this week upon announcing the planned trip after Greenland’s leaders made clear the Vance’s were not issued an invitation – sparking a diplomatic uproar.

However, as Trump claims the Arctic nation is needed for U.S. security, Russian officials are now touting the idea that Washington and Moscow could expand economic cooperation in the Arctic. 

‘We are open to considering different investment opportunities that we can do jointly with the U.S., in certain sectors approved by the Russian government,’ Putin’s envoy for foreign investment and economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, said according to the BBC report, which also noted the Kremlin official has already been in ‘direct talks’ with the U.S.

‘We are open for investment cooperation in the Arctic. That could be in logistics, or other areas beneficial to Russia and to the U.S.,’ Dmitriev added. ‘But before deals can be done, the war in Ukraine needs to end.’

Russia has stalled U.S. attempts to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine by laying out conditions European nations have made clear they will not agree to, like lifting sanctions and booting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from office – which security experts have long warned is Putin’s chief aim to cement control over the former Soviet nation.

Putin reiterated this goal during his address from the Arctic and said, ‘We could, of course, discuss with the United States, even with European countries, and of course with our partners and friends, under the auspices of the UN, the possibility of establishing a transitional administration in Ukraine.’

It remains highly unlikely Ukraine or its European partners, including France and the U.K. who sit on the UN Security Council, will agree to Putin’s conditions. 

Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report. 

Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha are visiting Greenland on Friday, an island of less than 60,000 people that has become central to President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. 

The Vances are visiting Pituffik Space Force Base, where they will receive a briefing on Arctic security issues and meet with U.S. service members. 

‘The Vice President and Second Lady are embarking on a historic expedition with their visit to Greenland, where the vice president will emphasize the importance of bolstering Artic security in places like Pituffik Space Base,’ a senior White House official said. ‘Unfortunately, Danish leaders have spent decades mistreating the Greenlandic people, treating them like second class citizens and allowing infrastructure on the island to fall into disrepair. Expect the Vice President to emphasize these points as well.’ 

Usha Vance was originally slated to travel to Greenland without the vice president on a cultural trip to watch a dog sledding race. However, earlier this week the vice president opted to join, and the trip was shifted to focus on national security. 

Vance is the highest-ranking official to ever travel as far north as Pituffik, the White House said. 

Vance’s first trip abroad to Paris and Germany made waves for his tough talk on Europe, which iced over the U.S.’ relationship with some nations but precipitated a mobilization of funding by Europe for its own defense.

Trump has made it a mission to take over Greenland from Denmark in his second administration.

‘We need Greenland for national security and international security,’ he told reporters in the Oval Office. 

‘So we’ll, I think, we’ll go as far as we have to go,’ he continued. ‘We need Greenland. And the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark. Denmark has to have us have Greenland. And, you know, we’ll see what happens. But if we don’t have Greenland, we can’t have great international security.’

‘I view it from a security standpoint, we have to be there,’ Trump added. 

Greenland relies heavily on welfare from Denmark, which currently contributes around half of its annual budget, amounting to around $700 million per year. 

In January, in response to Trump’s stated ambitions, Denmark announced it would spend another $2 billion to bolster defenses on the island. 

The Trump administration has dangled billions for Greenland to invest in developing its natural resources – rare Earth minerals and oil and gas reserves. 

However, mining Greenland has proven notoriously difficult given that 80% of the island is covered in a sheet of ice. 

Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede earlier this week called the upcoming Vance visit ‘very aggressive American pressure against the Greenlandic community’ and called on European leaders to stand against it. 

Trump established the Space Force in 2019 as a way to defend against encroachment on America’s interests in Earth’s orbit. In recent years, China and Russia have stepped up their Arctic presence, investing in icebreakers, new nuclear submarines and rare Earth minerals.