A trio of key Trump administration officials — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt — are in the midst of facing their first majorforeign policy test in their high-profile admin roles after Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iran and President Donald Trump weighs involving the U.S. in the conflict. 

The trio ascended to their roles with widespread fanfare among many MAGA conservatives, though many critics just months ago questioned if their prior careers prepared them for what was to come. The current flaring tensions with the Islamic Republic could be the final arbiter of which side was correct. 

‘President Trump leads from the front, and he has assembled a highly-qualified, world-class team that has helped him achieve numerous foreign policy accomplishments this term,’ White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox Digital on Wednesday when asked about the trio’s test on Iran. ‘The American people trust the President to make the right decisions that keep them safe, and he has empowered his team to meet the moment and advance his foreign policy goals.’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 

Secretary Hegseth was one of Trump’s more controversial nominees among critics, as Democrat lawmakers and left-wing pundits slammed Hegseth as unqualified for the job.

‘This hearing now seems to be a hearing about whether or not women are qualified to serve in combat. And not about whether or not you are qualified to be secretary of defense,’ Illinois Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth said during Hegseth’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee in January. ‘And let me just say that the American people need a secretary of defense who’s ready to lead on day one. You are not that person.’ 

‘Is Pete Hegseth truly the best we have to offer?’ asked Democrat Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, ranking member of the committee. 

Hegseth battled against claims he would lower previous standards for the secretary of Defense and that his vows to strengthen the military could be bluster once he was in the role and juggling oversight of the entire military. 

‘As I’ve said to many of you in our private meetings, when President Trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense,’ he said in his opening statement during his confirmation hearing. ‘He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser focused on warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness. That’s it. That is my job.’ 

Hegseth was confirmed to the role after Vice President JD Vance issued a tie-breaking vote when Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell joined Democrats in voting against the confirmation. 

Hegseth is an Ivy League graduate and former National Guard officer who was deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay during his military career, which began in 2003. He is also the recipient of a handful of military awards, including two Bronze Stars. He appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday and was pressed about the Israel–Iran conflict. 

‘They should have made a deal,’ Hegseth said. 

‘President Trump’s word means something — the world understands that,’ Hegseth said, referring to Trump’s repeated pressure on Iran to make a deal with the U.S. on its nuclear program as the conflict spiraled. 

‘And at the Defense Department, our job is to stand ready and prepared with options. And that’s precisely what we’re doing,’ Hegseth continued. 

He did not reveal if the U.S. would assist Israel in the ongoing strikes on Iran, but that the Pentagon is in the midst of preparing options for Trump. 

Any potential U.S. involvement in the strikes could pull the country into war against Iran. 

‘I may do it, I may not do it,’ Trump said Wednesday on whether he would order a strike on Iran. ‘I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.’

Hegseth was among high-profile Trump officials who joined Trump in the White House’s Situation Room as the president and his team closely monitor the flaring conflict. 

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard 

Director of National Intelligence Gabbard is another Trump official who faced an intense confirmation hearing as critics argued she was unqualified for the role. 

Gabbard is a former Democrat who served in the U.S. House representing Hawaii from 2013 to 2021, a former member of the House Armed Services Committee and an Iraq war veteran. However, she had never held a formal position within the intelligence community before serving as director of national intelligence. 

Ahead of her confirmation, Gabbard’s critics slammed her as lacking the qualifications for the role, questioning her judgment over a 2017 meeting with then-Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, labeling her as sympathetic toward Russia, and balking at her previous favorable remarks related to former National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

‘Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience and the Constitution of the United States,’ she said during her confirmation hearing. ‘Accusing me of being Trump’s puppet, Putin’s puppet, Assad’s puppet, a guru’s puppet, Modi’s puppet, not recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters.’ 

She ultimately was confirmed in a 52–48 vote. 

Gabbard’s March testimony before the Senate dismissing concerns Iran was actively building a nuclear weapon is back under the nation’s microscope after Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iran. Israel’s strikes were in direct response to Israeli intelligence showing Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a short span of time. 

Trump was asked about Gabbard’s testimony while traveling back to Washington Monday evening from the G7 summit in Canada, and the president said he did not ‘care’ what Gabbard had to say in previous testimony, arguing he believes Iran is close to building a nuke. 

‘You’ve always said that you don’t believe Iran should be able to have a nuclear weapon,’ a reporter asked Trump while aboard Air Force One on Monday. ‘But how close do you personally think that they were to getting one?’ 

‘Very close,’ Trump responded.

‘Because Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence community said Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon,’ the reporter continued. 

Trump shot back, ‘I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.’

When Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee in March, she delivered a statement on behalf of the intelligence community that included testimony that Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon. 

‘Iran’s cyber operations and capabilities also present a serious threat to U.S. networks and data,’ Gabbard told the committee on March 26. 

The intelligence community ‘continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003,’ she said. She did add that ‘Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.’

‘Iran will likely continue efforts to counter Israel and press for U.S. military withdrawal from the region by aiding, arming and helping to reconstitute its loose consortium of like-minded terrorist actors, which it refers to as its axis of resistance,’ she warned. 

However, as critics picked apart Gabbard’s past comments, the White House stressed that Gabbard and Trump are closely aligned on Iran. 

A White House official told Fox News Digital Tuesday afternoon that Trump and Gabbard are closely aligned and that the distinction being raised between Gabbard’s March testimony and Trump’s remarks that Iran is ‘very close’ to getting a nuclear weapon is one without a difference. 

The official noted that Gabbard underscored in her March testimony that Iran had the resources to potentially build a nuclear weapon. Her testimony in March reflected intelligence she received that Iran was not building a weapon at the time but that the country could do so based on the resources it amassed for such an endeavor. 

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt 

Leavitt is the youngest press secretary in U.S. history, assuming the role at age 27. 

Some liberal critics, such as Joy Behar of ‘The View,’ attempted to discount her appointment when she was first tapped by Trump, and she has since emerged as a Trump administration firebrand during her routine White House press briefings. 

Though Leavitt has overwhelmingly been praised by supporters of the president for her defense of the administration and repeated fiery exchanges with left-wing media outlets during briefings, her tenure has overwhelmingly focused on domestic issues. 

Leavitt has kept the nation updated on issues such as mass deportation efforts, Trump’s ongoing list of executive orders affecting policies from transgender issues to electric vehicles, national tragedies such as the terror attack in Boulder targeting Jewish Americans and Trump’s wide-ranging tariff policy that affects foreign nations. 

Though the administration entered office with a war raging between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the ongoing war in Israel after Hamas attacked the country in 2023, the Israel–Iran conflict provides Leavitt with her first major international crisis that could include U.S. involvement. 

Leavitt’s highly anticipated first press briefing since Israel launched its preemptive strikes is scheduled for Thursday. 

A judge slapped two men who pleaded guilty in connection with a voting fraud scheme with tougher prison sentences than the government had even requested.

‘In the court’s view, there are very few crimes in our federal code which are more serious than what you have committed,’ Judge Harvey Bartle III scolded former Millbourne Borough Council vice president Md Nurul Hasan, according to Votebeat. ‘What you have done is undermine our democratic process.’

Hasan pleaded guilty to charges after engaging in an election fraud scheme while he was running for mayor in 2021, but the plot to subvert the will of voters did not even work — Hasan still lost the mayoral race.

‘The defendants’ efforts to steal the election for defendant MD NURUL HASAN were ultimately unsuccessful, as defendant HASAN still lost the general election by a vote of approximately 165 to 138,’ the indictment declares.

According to a U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania press release, ‘Hasan … pleaded guilty in April to all 33 charges against him — one count of conspiracy, 16 counts of giving false information in registering to vote, and 16 counts of fraudulent voter registration. He was sentenced to 36 months in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $3,300 special assessment.’

That prison time exceeds the government’s request for 18 to 24 months of imprisonment.

Hasan resigned from the council earlier this year after he entered his plea, according to the Delaware County Daily Times.

Former council member MD Rafikul Islam, who ‘pleaded guilty in April to all seven charges against him — one count of conspiracy, three counts of giving false information in registering to vote, and three counts of fraudulent voter registration,’ has been ‘sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison, one year of supervised release, $1,000 fine, and a $700 special assessment.’

That prison time exceeds the government’s request for zero to six months of imprisonment.

The federal judge with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania was nominated by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, according to the Federal Judicial Center.

Md Munsur Ali — who is currently listed online as a member of the Millbourne Borough council — has also pleaded guilty in the case.

He is slated to be sentenced next week, according to the press release.

‘Ali, a member of the Millbourne Borough Council, pleaded guilty in April to all 25 charges against him — one count of conspiracy, 12 counts of giving false information in registering to vote, and 12 counts of fraudulent voter registration. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26,’ the release notes.

A Senate fiscal hawk doesn’t believe Republicans can hit their own self-imposed timeline to pass President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill.’

Senate Republicans are racing against the clock to finish work on their version of the president’s colossal bill after the House GOP advanced its offering late last month. 

So far, each of the 10 Senate committees has unveiled a portion of the bill and are fine-tuning each chunk to conform with Senate rules and address concerns among varying factions in the conference.

Republican leaders are gunning to put the package on the floor next week, ahead of a scheduled recess for Independence Day, but Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., believes there is enough resistance against the bill to torpedo that timeline.  

‘I think we have enough people that are saying, ‘No, we’re not going to proceed to the bill prior to July 4.’’ he said. ‘We need more time, but I think our efforts now are concentrated.’

Johnson has long been pushing for far deeper cuts in the package, far beyond the goal of $1.5 trillion set in the House’s offering and the pursuit of $2 trillion in cuts in the Senate’s package to begin putting a major dent in the nation’s deficit.

The lawmaker’s remarks came during a press call where he debuted his 31-page report on the GOP’s quest to ram the president’s agenda through Congress. 

The report offered a variety of scenarios of the deficit and growth impacts the Republicans’ plan could have based on varying levels of compound annual growth rates that varied from over 2%, 3% and 4%. 

The report was meant to be a thumb in the face of the Congressional Budget Office’s findings on the bill and overall state of federal spending and deficits. But it also rejected the arguments made by Republican leaders and the White House in its pursuit of showing the reality of the nation’s fiscal health and the effect the ‘big, beautiful bill’ could have on it. 

Ron Johnson acknowledged the sentiments of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Trump that the spending cuts achieved in the House product were unprecedented but countered that ‘we’ve faced an unprecedented level of spending increase’ since the pandemic.  

‘You can argue about the twigs and leaves on the forest floor, but I’m forcing everybody to take a step back and look at the look at the forest,’ Ron Johnson said. ‘It’s blazing, and we got to put this forest fire out.’

There are others with varying concerns, including the addition of a debt-ceiling hike and proposed changes to Medicaid, who could form a multi-faceted coalition to tank the bill.

Thune can only afford to lose three votes if he hopes to pass the bill, given that the nature of the budget reconciliation process skirts the filibuster and that Democrats have been iced out of the process thus far.

Ron Johnson noted that he hoped Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wouldn’t put the full bill on the floor next week because ‘I really think it’ll be voted down.’

‘If we do vote it down, I don’t want anybody to interpret it as a slap in the face of either Leader Thune or President Trump,’ Ron Johnson said. ‘It’s just saying, ‘Guys, we need more time. The ball has been in the Senate court for two weeks.’

Johnson has been a proponent of breaking up the megabill into two or three chunks, rather than tackling it all in ‘one fell swoop.’ However, he acknowledged there would need to be some kind of mechanism that would allow lawmakers to have ‘at least two, if not three, bites at the apple.’

‘I understand this process is to kind of jam everybody, but let’s not do what Nancy Pelosi did and say, ‘Hey, got to pass this bill to figure out what’s in it,’’ he added. ‘Let’s know fully what’s in it. Let’s do as President Trump asked. … He wants the Senate to make a better bill.’

Lawmakers are debating what role Congress should play as the White House weighs its options in Iran. 

Does the legislative body have sole power to declare war, or should that power be ceded to the president?

The back and forth comes as President Donald Trump mulls whether to join Israel in its campaign against Iran or continue pushing for a diplomatic end and return to the negotiating table to hammer out a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.

Helping to ignite the arguments on Capitol Hill are a pair of resolutions in the Senate and House that would require debate and a vote before any force is used against Iran. The measures are designed to put a check on Trump’s power and reaffirm Congress’ constitutional authority.

Senators on both sides of the aisle are divided on whether they believe they have sole authority to authorize a strike against Iran or if Trump can do so on his own volition. A predominant argument is that the entire point of supporting Israel is to prevent the Islamic Republic from creating or acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Israel has been successful in taking out a few pieces of infrastructure that were key to that mission but has yet to do real damage to the highly-fortified Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant and would likely need help from the U.S. to crack through the layers of rock shielding the site.

‘The Constitution says the prerogative to declare war, the power to declare war, is solely from the Congress,’ Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, told Fox News Digital. ‘It can’t originate from the White House. There is no constitutional authority for the president to bomb anyone without asking permission first.’

The Constitution divides war powers between Congress and the White House, giving lawmakers the sole power to declare war, while the president acts as the commander in chief directing the military.

Then came the War Powers Act of 1973, which sought to further define those roles and ensure that the president has to give Congress notice within 48 hours of the deployment of troops who can only be deployed for 60 days. Notably, Congress has not formally declared war since World War II.

‘There’s really no argument for why he couldn’t obey the Constitution,’ Paul said. ‘Now, my hope is that he won’t do it, his instincts for restraint would prevail.’

Fox News reached out to the White House for comment.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., disagreed with Paul and said he believed Trump had the ability to authorize a strike but acknowledged it was ‘mixed’ and ‘clouded’ when factoring in the War Powers Act.

‘It’s clear that both Congress and the president have a role to play,’ he said. ‘But if you’re suggesting, should the president come to Congress first making that decision, it’s conditioned upon what year you want Congress to make a decision. Sometimes it takes us months, even years, to get nothing done.’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters he believed Trump was ‘perfectly in his right to do what he’s done so far’ and reiterated that the ultimate goal was to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.

Senate Republicans have found an unlikely ally among Democrats in Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who has vehemently advocated for Israel while his party has wavered.

Fetterman told Fox News Digital he did not believe a strike on Iran was ‘starting a war,’ echoing Thune’s sentiment that ‘we have a very specific mission to destroy the nuclear facilities. That’s not a war. That is a necessary military … exercise to destroy a nuclear facility.’

And Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital ‘it’s never been ruled’ whether the War Powers Act was constitutional, but he noted that the act still gave the president the authority to act as commander in chief.

‘I think it’s pretty much an irrelevant point if President Trump decides to aid Israel with some military action with those bunker-busting bombs,’ Johnson said. ‘It’s well within the timeframe of him coming under some kind of congressional action.’

Still, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who introduced his war powers resolution Monday, believed the measure was gaining momentum among his colleagues.

Kaine told Fox News Digital that, as events have developed, it made the ‘urgency’ of his resolution more apparent. He also expected it would get a vote in the Senate sometime next week. He argued that some Republicans would ‘very much want to be in the middle of hostilities with Iran.’

‘But the interesting thing is, they’ve never introduced a war authorization because their constituents would say, ‘Are you nuts?’’ he said. ‘And, so, they would like the president to do it, but they wouldn’t want to do it themselves.’

When asked if that was a move to shift blame elsewhere, Kaine said, ‘They think it will, but it won’t.’ 

President Donald Trump appears to be downplaying talk that some of his long-loyal MAGA supporters are breaking with him over the possibility that the president will order a military strike on Iran.

This amid the nearly week-long daily trading of fire between the Islamic State and Israel, America’s top ally in the Middle East.

‘My supporters are more in love with me today, and I’m more in love with them, more than they even were at election time,’ the president said when asked about a GOP rift between some of his most vocal supporters of his America First agenda, and more traditional national security conservatives.

The president, speaking to reporters on Wednesday on the South Lawn of the White House, added: ‘I may have some people that are a little bit unhappy now, but I have some people that are very happy, and I have people outside of the base that can’t believe that this is happening. They’re so happy.’

Asked if he would order an attack on Iran to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, the president said, ‘I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran’s got a lot of trouble.’

The prospect of Trump jumping into the incredibly volatile situation in the Middle East is causing plenty of consternation among some of his top political and ideological allies, and creating divisions within MAGA – a rare moment for a movement that’s been firmly supportive of Trump since his 2016 White House campaign.

Some top MAGA voices over the past week have argued against any kind of U.S. military involvement with Israel against Iran, arguing it would contradict Trump’s America First policy to keep the nation out of foreign wars. And they say it would repeat the move more than two decades ago by then-President George W. Bush to attack Iraq, which Trump had long criticized on the campaign trail.

Among those speaking out have been conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a top Trump House ally.

Also voicing concerns while remaining firmly supportive of the president are Charlie Kirk — the conservative host and MAGA-world figurehead who leads the influential Turning Point USA — and Steve Bannon, a prominent MAGA ally and former top adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign.

But there’s been plenty of support for Trump, and for attacking Iran, by other top MAGA world voices.

Also defending Trump this week was Vice President JD Vance, who is a top voice in the America First, isolationist wing of the party.

Vance, speaking to both sides, highlighted Tuesday in a social media post that ‘people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy.’

But Vance stressed that Trump ‘has earned some trust on this issue.’ 

And the vice president added that ‘having seen this up close and personal, I can assure you that he is only interested in using American military to accomplish the American people’s goals. Whatever he does, that is his focus.’

Trump, speaking with reporters on Wednesday afternoon, said: ‘I don’t want to get involved either, but I’ve been saying for 20 years, maybe longer, that Iran can not have a nuclear weapon.’

‘My supporters are for me. My supporters are America First and Make America Great Again. My supporters don’t want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon,’ the president added.

The current debate within the Republican Party wouldn’t have happened before Trump shook up and remade the GOP over the past decade.

Wayne Lesperance, a veteran political scientist and the president of New England College, highlighted that ‘the divide in the GOP can be traced to Trump’s promises to pull America back from its entanglements in the world.’

And Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist who served at the State Department during Trump’s first term, noted that ‘Donald Trump changed the direction of the Republican Party’ when it comes to American military engagements around the world. 

‘That gave him a new coalition and new political power. This new war in the Middle East is certainly threatening that coalition. While we are not yet involved in a war, chances of escalation are dramatically increased and that certainly has ramifications with the MAGA coalition,’ Bartlett warned.

Vice President JD Vance insists Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is still an essential team member in Trump’s ‘coalition’ after President Donald Trump said he ‘didn’t care’ what she’d previously told lawmakers about Iran’s nuclear threat. 

‘DNI Gabbard is a veteran, a patriot, a loyal supporter of President Trump and a critical part of the coalition he built in 2024,’ Vance said in a statement Wednesday to Fox News Digital. 

‘She is an essential member of our team, and we’re grateful for her tireless work to keep America safe from foreign threats.’

Vance and Gabbard have both historically been outspoken leaders of the non-interventionist camp making up the Trump administration. Both historically have backeda foreign policy doctrine that supports minimal interference with other nations’ affairs. 

By comparison, other, more hawkish members of Trump’s Cabinet, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have historically backed military intervention in foreign conflicts. 

Vance has publicly supported Trump as the administration contemplates next steps to address Iran, though. Vance said Tuesday that while those worried about foreign intervention are right to be concerned, Trump has ‘earned some trust on this issue.’ 

‘And having seen this up close and personal, I can assure you that he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people’s goals,’ Vance said in a Truth Social post Tuesday. ‘Whatever he does, that is his focus.’

Vance’s statement of support for Gabbard comes after Trump appeared to discount Gabbard’s March Senate Intelligence Committee statements, when she said she believed Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon. 

Gabbard told lawmakers in March the intelligence community assessed that Iran was ‘not building a nuclear weapon, and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003,’ she said. 

She did add that ‘Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.’

‘Iran will likely continue efforts to counter Israel and press for U.S. military withdrawal from the region by aiding, arming and helping to reconstitute its loose consortium of like-minded terrorist actors, which it refers to as its axis of resistance,’ she said during the March hearing. 

Additionally, Gabbard released a video June 10 in which she stated the world was ‘on the brink of nuclear annihilation.’ Politico reportedthat Trump told associates at the White House that Gabbard was out of line and believed the video was an attempt to prevent him from endorsing Israel attacking Iran.

Alexa Henning, Gabbard’s deputy chief of staff, said in a post on X Tuesday that Politico’s story was ‘total clickbait.’ 

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Monday he believed Iran was ‘very close’ to obtaining a nuclear weapon. When asked specifically about Gabbard’s March testimony, Trump stood firm in his assessment of Iran’s nuclear capabilities. 

‘I don’t care what she said,’ Trump said. ‘I think they were very close to having one.’

Still, an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement to Fox News Digital Wednesday that Gabbard and the president are aligned on Iran. 

‘Just because Iran is not building a nuclear weapon right now doesn’t mean they aren’t ‘very close’ as President Trump said on Air Force One,’ the official said. ‘POTUS and DNI Gabbard’s statements are congruent.’ 

Gabbard wasn’t invited to Camp David in Maryland to convene with other military officials and Cabinet members in June. However, she was in the White House’s Situation Room Tuesday as Trump kept an eye on updates in the Middle East.  

A White House official told Fox News Digital Tuesday that Trump and Gabbard’s views and statements on the matter are consistent with one another, noting that Gabbard said in March that she believed Iran had the capability to build a nuclear weapon. 

Trump told reporters Wednesday at the White House he hadn’t decided yet whether he would engage the U.S. in strikes targeting Iran but said that the coming days or the ‘next week is going to be very big.’ 

‘Yes, I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate,’ Trump told reporters Wednesday. ‘And I said, ‘Why didn’t you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction? Why didn’t you go?’ I said to people, ‘Why didn’t you negotiate with me two weeks ago? You could have done fine. You would have had a country.’ It’s very sad to watch this.’

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report. 

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a conservative fiscal hawk who refused to sign onto President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ is building an unlikely bipartisan coalition of lawmakers resisting the United States’ involvement in the conflict between Israel and Iran. 

‘This is not our war. But if it were, Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution,’ Massie said in a social media post announcing the War Powers Resolution that he introduced with Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna of California on Tuesday. 

Massie, whom Trump threatened to primary during the House GOP megabill negotiations, invited ‘all members of Congress to cosponsor this resolution.’ By Tuesday night, the bipartisan bill had picked up 27 cosponsors, including progressive ‘Squad’ members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.

Across the political aisle, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., signaled her support, writing that Americans want an affordable cost of living, safe communities and quality education ‘not going into another foreign war.’

The bill’s original co-sponsors also include progressive Democrat Reps.Pramila Jayapal, Summer Lee, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, who called it unconstitutional for ‘Trump to go to war without a vote in Congress.’

The War Powers Resolution would ‘remove United States Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities in the Islamic State of Iran’ and direct Trump to ‘terminate’ the deployment of American troops against Iran without an ‘authorized declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military forces against Iran.’

Lawmakers who oppose the United States’ joining the escalating conflict in the Middle East have sounded off on the unconstitutionality of Trump striking Iran without congressional approval. Congress has the sole power to declare war under Article I of the Constitution. 

‘The American people do not want to be dragged into another disastrous conflict in the Middle East. I’m proud to lead this bipartisan War Powers Resolution with Rep. Massie to reassert that any military action against Iran must be authorized by Congress,’ Khanna said. 

The president told reporters on Wednesday morning that he is weighing whether to sign off on military strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities. 

‘Yes, I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,’ Trump said. 

Trump called for Iran’s ‘UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!’ on Truth Social on Tuesday, and said the United States won’t strike Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei ‘at least not for now,’ but signaled America’s ‘patience is wearing thin.’ 

On the sixth consecutive night of strikes between Israel and Iran, Iran warned that the United States joining forces with Israel would mean an ‘all-out war,’ as Israel bombarded sites overnight it says would have allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium, as well as attack Israeli forces.

Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and military leaders last week, which the Islamic Republic considered a ‘declaration of war’ and has since launched its own strikes against Israel. 

Thousands of American troops are based in nearby countries within range of Iran’s weapons, but Trump said on Wednesday that ‘we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran.’

The Jewish State targeted Iran’s nuclear capabilities after months of failed negotiations in the region and heightened concern over Iran developing nuclear weapons. 

But Ali Bahreini, Iran’s ambassador to Geneva, said Iran ‘will continue to produce the enriched uranium as far as we need for peaceful purposes,’ as Israel continues to target Iran’s nuclear capabilities. 

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the bill. 

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report. 

As lawmakers debate what role, if any, the United States should play in the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, progressive ‘Squad’ member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., made the curious claim that no one has ‘attacked’ the United States. 

‘No one is attacking or has attacked Americans. It’s time to stop dragging Americans into war and letting Israel once again get America involved in their chosen war. Stand up for the Americans who believed you wanted peace and don’t commit another generation of Americans into a costly war,’ Omar said in response to President Donald Trump. 

Trump called for Iran’s ‘UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!’ on Truth Social on Tuesday, and said the United States won’t strike Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei ‘at least not for now,’ but signaled America’s ‘patience is wearing thin.’ 

A Fox News Digital report published Wednesday morning refutes Omar’s claim that Americans have not been attacked, including extensive examples of Iran’s direct and proxy strikes on U.S. forces, support for terror groups and assassination efforts.

Omar’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s inquiry about the validity of her claim. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Monday that Trump remains an Islamic Republic target. ‘They want to kill him. He’s enemy No. 1.’

The Department of Justice announced charges against an Iranian citizen and two New Yorkers in November for their role in a murder-for-hire plot targeting multiple American citizens, including Trump. 

Iran bears responsibility for the deaths of 603 U.S. service members in Iraq between 2003 and 2011, according to a 2019 Pentagon report cited by the Military Times. That figure accounted for 17% of U.S. deaths in the country during the period. 

In 2022, surviving family members and victims won a case against the Islamic Republic of Iran, using the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to hold the regime accountable for its support of terror actors who killed or injured 30 U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the Long War Journal who testified in support of the victims, told Fox News Digital that ‘Iran’s support for the Taliban and al Qaeda and the impact it had on the deaths and injuries to American soldiers and civilians is incalculable.’

‘Iran provided money, weapons, training, intelligence, and safe haven to Taliban subgroups across Afghanistan, including in the heart of the country in Kabul,’ Roggio said.

By Roggio’s estimation, ‘Iran’s support for the Taliban was only rivaled by that of Pakistan. I would argue that Iran’s extensive support facilitated nearly every Taliban attack on U.S. personnel.’

In 2020, in attempted retribution for the murder of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran targeted two U.S. bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq with surface-to-surface missiles.

In 2022, the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., found that Iran likewise owed damages to the families and victims of 40 U.S. service members who were injured or killed in Iraq due to Iran’s support of terrorism in the country.

In 2023, Sayyed Issa Tabatabai, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative in Lebanon, admitted during an interview with the state-controlled Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that the Islamic Republic was involved in two 1983 bombings that killed Americans in Lebanon. 

The bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut resulted in the deaths of 63 victims, including 17 Americans. When two suicide truck bombs exploded at the barracks of multinational forces in Lebanon, 220 Marines, 18 U.S. Navy sailors and three U.S. Army soldiers were killed, and 58 French troops were murdered.

Between October 2023 and August 2024, Iranian-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq militias launched 180 attacks against U.S. forces in Syria, Iraq and Jordan. Throughout their ‘decades of experience,’ Roggio said, Iraqi militias ‘are estimated to have killed more than 600 U.S. service members.’

In January 2024, three Americans were killed, and 25 others were wounded in a drone attack on an outpost in Jordan near the border with Syria. Two Iranians, one of whom had dual U.S. citizenship, were charged in connection with the attack.

At the time of the attack, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Iranian proxies had ‘launched over 150 attacks on U.S. troops’ following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. 

Roggio reported that on June 14, Iranian-backed militias ‘launched three drones’ at Ain al Assad, a U.S. base in western Iraq. The drones were shot down before reaching their target. 

He said that the drone attack appeared to be an ‘unsanctioned strike by an unnamed Iranian militia. Unlike past attacks, no group has claimed credit, and there have been no follow-on strikes.’ He believes Iran ‘wants to keep the U.S. out of the fight, as the U.S. military has the capability to hit the underground nuclear facility at Fordow.’

President Donald Trump touted his poll numbers while speaking with reporters on the White House lawn Wednesday.

‘My approval rating is the highest it’s ever been,’ the president declared, pointing to a newly released national survey.

But five months into his second tour of duty in the White House, Trump’s approval ratings remain underwater in most, but not all, of the latest national polls conducted over the past three weeks.

An average of the most recent surveys suggests the president’s approval rating stands in the upper 40s, with his disapproval rating hovering slightly above 50%.

Trump has aggressively asserted executive authority in his second term, overturning longstanding government policy and aiming to make major cuts to the federal workforce through an avalanche of sweeping and controversial executive orders and actions, some aimed at addressing grievances he has held since his first term.

And the president, true to form, has been continuously grabbing headlines, including in the last two weeks for sending National Guard troops and U.S. Marines into Los Angeles in an effort to quell protests over ICE detentions and deportations of illegal migrants and over his mulling of the U.S. joining Israel in attacking Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump started his second administration with poll numbers in positive territory, but his poll numbers started to slide soon after his late-January inauguration. The president’s approval ratings sank underwater by early March and have remained in negative territory ever since in most national surveys.

Former President Joe Biden, whose single term in the White House is sandwiched by Trump’s two terms, enjoyed positive approval ratings in June 2021, five months into his tenure. 

However, Biden’s numbers sank into negative territory in the late summer and autumn of 2021, after his much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan and amid soaring inflation and a surge of migrants crossing into the U.S. along the nation’s southern border with Mexico.

Republican lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee admonished Democratic colleagues for boycotting and walking out of a Wednesday morning hearing examining former President Joe Biden’s health decline while he was in the Oval Office.

‘I will note that few of my Democratic colleagues are here today,’ Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn said Wednesday. ‘Thank you to Sen. Welch from Vermont for being here, leaving us with no other option than to take the boycott of this hearing as an admission of guilt for their role in this crisis.

‘We must not turn away from the search for answers, and it is not an overstatement to say that the future of our country could one day hinge on how we choose to act or not act on this very issue,’ Cornyn continued.

The Senate committee held a hearing Wednesday morning dubbed, ‘Unfit to Serve: How the Biden Cover-up Endangered America and Undermined the Constitution.’ 

Vermont Democrat Sen. Peter Welch and Illinois Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin did attend the start of the hearing, with Durbin abruptly walking out after describing the hearing as a distraction and accusing Republican colleagues of being ‘asleep at the wheel’ with other legal issues within the Trump administration due to their focus on Biden. 

‘In the last week alone, several events have demanded this committee’s immediate attention,’ Durbin said Wednesday. ‘The horrific assassination in Minnesota, the treatment of our colleague Sen. Padilla by federal agents in Los Angeles, and President Trump’s unprecedented deployment of the U.S. military in Los Angeles.

‘We should hear without delay from Attorney General Bondi and FBI Director Patel about what they are doing to address the unacceptable political violence in our country, including threats to Article III judges and justices, as well as members of Congress,’ Durbin said. ‘And we need to hear from the Homeland Security Secretary Noem about the treatment of our colleague, Sen. Padilla, and this administration’s mass deportation campaign against immigrants.’ 

Welch also left the hearing after declaring it would not benefit his constituents. 

There are 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including lawmakers such as Sens. Klobuchar of Minnesota, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Adam Schiff of California. The press secretary for Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats directed Fox Digital to Durbin’s initial participation in the hearing and his remarks when asked about GOP lawmakers arguing Democrats’ boycott of the hearing was an admission of guilt. 

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz seethed that Democrats and the media ‘lied’ and covered up Biden’s health decline, while slamming Democrats for their lack of participation. 

‘Not a single Democrat is here today because not a single one of them gives a d— about the fact that they lied to the American people for four years,’ Cruz said at the hearing. ‘They knew. Every one of them knew that Joe Biden was mentally not competent to do the job. The White House press secretary, she knew, when she stood in front of the American people and lied over and over and over again. And they’re not here because they can’t defend themselves. It wasn’t a surprise, for four years, the White House hid President Biden from Republican senators. Would not let him meet with us.’ 

Other Republicans railed against Democratic counterparts for skipping the hearing, such as Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmidt. 

‘Today, as we seek to answer this question, it is deeply disappointing, but not surprising, that most Democrats on this committee have chosen all but boycott the hearing and failed to call a single witness,’ Schmidt said at the hearing.’They have chosen to ignore this issue like they ignored President Biden’s decline. Their absence speaks volumes, an implicit admission that the truth is too inconvenient to face. By refusing to engage in this critical examination, they abdicate their responsibility to the American people. This de facto boycott is not just a refusal to participate. It’s a refusal to serve the American people who deserve answers about who was truly leading their government.

‘The title of the hearing, ‘Unfit to Serve,’ captures a sobering and undeniable truth,’ Schmidt added. ‘President Biden was mentally unfit to carry out the responsibilities of the most powerful office in the world. Given his mental incapacity, the American people deserve to know who was running the country the last four years.’

The hearing included testimony from three experts, including University of Virginia law professor John Harrison, conservative think tank Heritage Foundation fellow Theodore Wold, and a former White House press secretary from the first Trump administration, Sean Spicer. 

Concern over Biden’s mental acuity hit a fever pitch in 2024 as the election cycle heated up, when the then-president delivered a dismal debate performance against now-President Donald Trump in June. The debate opened the floodgates of criticism, including traditional Democrat allies calling for Biden to drop out of the presidential race after conservatives had already long argued that Biden’s mental acuity was slipping and he was unfit to serve as commander in chief.

Concerns over his health have continued after his presidential tenure ended, including with the revelation that the Biden admin frequently used an autopen to sign official presidential documents, the release of Biden’s interview with former Special Counsel Robert Hur, and Biden’s shock announcement in May that he had advanced prostate cancer.

The conservative Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project first investigated the Biden administration’s use of an autopen earlier in 2025 and found that the same signature was on a bevvy of executive orders and other official documents, while Biden’s signature on the document announcing his departure from the 2024 race varied from the apparent machine-produced signature.

Heritage fellow Wold testified before the committee and described the alleged cover-up of Biden’s declining health a ‘constitutional crisis.’

‘I will say the 25th Amendment. It’s a modern contrivance, but it still is consistent with the American Constitution, which assumes that officers of the United States will act virtuously and morally,’ Wold said. ‘And the idea that members of the Cabinet would go to the length of avoiding the Oval Office so as to abdicate their responsibility to verify the appropriateness of the president’s acuity or the ability to authenticate actions taken by the president. If that’s not a constitutional scandal, I honestly, I don’t know what would what would constitute such.

‘There could be the potential for crimes,’ he said. ‘But moreover, the 25th Amendment can only function in its sole mechanisms if people are actually willing to call a spade a spade.’ 

The U.S. Constitution’s 25th Amendment states that ‘whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.’ 

Biden’s Cabinet, other administration officials and Democrat lawmakers fiercely defended his health amid outcry from Republicans and others that Biden’s health had cratered and that he was likely unfit to serve as president.