Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro tore into John Bolton for ‘profiteering off America’s secrets’ on Tuesday after the FBI raided his home last week in a reported classified document probe.

‘I served with Bolton, and he was far too frequently a loose cannon, bent on bombings and coups — Doctor Strangelove with a mustache,’ Navarro, who also advised Trump on trade during his first term, wrote in an op-ed for The Hill.

‘He agitated for airstrikes, pushed regime-change fantasies, and obsessed over military solutions when diplomacy was working. Then, instead of honoring executive privilege and confidential debate, Bolton acknowledged that in writing his memoir he relied on the ‘copious notes’ he had conspicuously taken inside the White House.’ 

Bolton published a book in 2020, The Room Where it Happened, reportedly receiving a $2 million advance for a tell-all of his time in the Trump administration. He served as Trump’s national security advisor starting in 2018 but fell out with the president and left the position in 2019. 

Navarro accused Bolton of ‘sharing information about Oval Office conversations and national security that should have stayed secret — either by law or under executive privilege.’

‘That isn’t service. That isn’t patriotism. That’s profiteering off of America’s secrets.’

Navarro noted that Bolton had described confidential U.S. deliberations on how to fracture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s control and prompt military defections. 

‘That kind of blueprint isn’t something you hand to the public — or to Maduro’s intelligence services.’

He noted that disclosing national defense information without authorization could violate U.S. code. 

‘If evidence is found and indictments made, Bolton may one day go to prison for shredding that Constitution, defying executive privilege, and trampling safeguards meant to protect America’s security,’ Navarro said. ‘If that happens, Bolton won’t be remembered for his book tour. He’ll be remembered for the sequel he writes in prison.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to a spokesperson for Bolton for comment. 

Navarro spent four months in prison last year after being convicted of contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas from the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack.

The FBI executed a search warrant on Bolton’s home and office on Friday. 

Democrats have also fumed about Bolton’s book: when the former national security advisor refused to serve as their star witness during the first Trump impeachment related to Ukraine, they accused him of saving the juicy details for his memoir. 

In June 2020, Judge Royce Lamberth found Bolton had ‘likely jeopardized national security by disclosing classified information in violation of his nondisclosure agreement obligations.’ 

He’d submitted the 500-page manuscript for a national security review, but when the review wasn’t completed in four months, he ‘pulled the plug on the process and sent the still-under-review manuscript to the publisher for printing,’ according to the judge. 

Lamberth allowed the book to hit the shelves because ‘the horse is already out of the barn‘ – the book’s excerpts had already been leaked and 200,000 copies had been shipped.

I asked Donald Trump the question. Everyone asked Donald Trump the question.

Would he engage in retribution in a second term?

And we all got the same answer: He’d be too busy for that. His only retribution would be success.

Well, if Trump is not engaged in turning government against his political enemies, he’s doing a pretty good imitation of it.

Now, hardball politics is as old as the republic. The founders engaged in it. Abe Lincoln engaged in it. And you think LBJ never got his way by threatening to pull a grant or two for a congressman’s pet projects?

Look, one thing I’ve learned covering Trump for decades is that he loves to fight. In New York, back in the day, he would do battle with the likes of Ed Koch and Leona Helmsley, the ‘Queen of Mean.’

When his divorce from Ivana became a tabloid sensation, Trump got on the phone with me to discuss why his proposed settlement was really generous.

We see that fighting instinct today when the president goes after not just Democrats but fellow Republicans who defy him, or won’t back his proposals – a number of whom have announced their retirements rather than lose a primary to a Trump-backed challenger.

We see that Trump-against-the-world approach with his crackdown on D.C. crime  which, despite the home-rule issues, is being welcomed by some liberals (publicly and privately) because folks are scared in a city that can’t even stop teenage carjackings.

The next target is Chicago, which also has a Black mayor, with the Washington Post reporting that there has been weeks of secret planning to send thousands of National Guard troops there. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has denounced this as an effort to spread fear, and sometimes it seems like the president is at war with urban America.

The underlying motivation is crucial: Trump believes that the Democrats waged ‘lawfare’ against him for four years. There is no evidence that President Biden ordered such efforts, but Trump is convinced that the multiple investigations against him–as in the Stormy Daniels case–were part of a grand scheme to knock him out of the race.

And he has a point. Look at the outrageously illegal fine that Judge Arthur Engoron hit him with in the civil fraud case brought by New York AG Letitia James: $354 million, since grown to $515 million.

This was so blatantly unfair that an appellate court just threw it out as a violation of the Eighth Amendment, barring cruel and unusual punishment. James is appealing, and the court didn’t toss the whole case–the ‘fake’ case, says Trump–but a half-billion-fine over real estate valuations seems pathetically unfair.

But when Trump cried foul, the media reaction was there he goes again, attacking every judge who disagrees with him. But Trump was right about Engoron.

The Trump DOJ, by the way, is now investigating Tish James for allegations of mortgage fraud.

So what the press sees as Trump going after his opponents is, in his eyes, just basic payback, an attempt at getting even.

Having said that…

‘I just watched Sloppy Chris Christie be interviewed on a ratings challenged ‘News’ Show…on ABC Fake News,’ ‘This Week’ hosted by George Stephanopoulos.
‘Can anyone believe anything that Sloppy Chris says? Do you remember the way he lied about the dangerous and deadly closure of the George Washington Bridge in order to stay out of prison, at the same time sacrificing people who worked for him, including a young mother, who spent years trying to fight off the vicious charges against her. Chris refused to take responsibility for these criminal acts. For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again?’

Christie, a onetime ally, was Trump’s harshest Republican critic during the campaign. As for the 2013 scandal known as Bridgegate, it was thoroughly investigated and two top Christie aides were convicted, but the Supreme Court, while blasting the conduct, overturned those convictions.

It’s worth pointing out that the decision to close some lanes on the George Washington Bridge, which created traffic chaos, was the governor’s attempt to strike back at a Democratic mayor who refused to endorse him.

‘Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,’ wrote one of the convicted aides in a remarkably succinct message.

‘I always thought he got away with murder,’ Trump told reporters yesterday.

Having watched the Sunday shows, the president unloaded on two networks:

‘Despite a very high popularity and, according to many, among the greatest 8 months in Presidential History, ABC & NBC FAKE NEWS, two of the worst and most biased networks in history, give me 97% BAD STORIES. IF THAT IS THE CASE, THEY ARE SIMPLY AN ARM OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND SHOULD, ACCORDING TO MANY, HAVE THEIR LICENSES REVOKED BY THE FCC. I would be totally in favor of that because they are so biased and untruthful, an actual threat to our Democracy!!!’

He added that ABC and NBC should be paying ‘Millions of Dollars a year in LICENSE FEES…Crooked ‘journalism’ should not be rewarded, it should be terminated!!!’

Now networks shouldn’t lose their licenses just because the president doesn’t like their coverage. Maybe they should be paying more for use of the airwaves, but that should apply to all networks; so far they’ve played by the rules.

Trump and John Bolton have been at each other’s throats since the president fired the national security adviser. There was a criminal investigation over Bolton’s 2020 book that Trump tried to stop, but it was cleared for publication.

I take Trump at his word that he didn’t know in advance about the FBI raid on Bolton’s Bethesda home. But twice in the days leading up to the raid, Trump was slamming him online for criticizing his efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war..

‘Very unfair media is at work on my meeting with Putin. Constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton, who just said that, even though the meeting is on American soil, ‘Putin has already won.’ What’s that all about?’

After the raid, Trump called Bolton a ‘low-life’ and a ‘sleazebag’ who suffers from ‘major Trump Derangement Syndrome.’

But two things can be true at once. Trump prosecutors had to show convincing evidence to a special court to get the search warrant approved. So it’s possible that Bolton did hang on to some classified documents.

After the raid, Trump posted that Bolton was among the ‘stupid people’ who were making it ‘much harder’ for him to end the war by ripping his approach to Putin.

I’ve known John Bolton for years–he used to be a Fox contributor–and I’m surprised he’s made no comment. There was just a little wave at the press pack when he returned home.

Next up: Wes Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor.

They’ve been jabbing each other back and forth, which is fine. But then the president posted this:

‘Governor Wes Moore of Maryland has asked, in a rather nasty and provocative tone, that I ‘walk the streets of Maryland’ with him. I assume he is talking about out of control, crime ridden, Baltimore? As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk.’ Wes Moore’s record on Crime is a very bad one.’.

There’s more: 

Trump ‘offered’ to deploy troops to Baltimore – which has a serious crime problem – after which he would accept Moore’s invitation to meet him on the streets.

Then came the threat: ‘I gave Wes Moore a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge. I will now have to rethink that decision???’

Moore has been rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge since a reckless and out-of-control tanker destroyed it early last year. And for the record, Congress approved the funds as part of a package during the final stretch of the Biden administration.

But put that aside. Who would be hurt if Trump carried out this threat?

Millions of people in Maryland who rely on the bridge, or whose jobs are tied to commerce in that region.

So Trump is openly suggesting to use the official power of government to withhold funds that would hurt ordinary citizens. That is more troubling than the punching and counterpunching with Bolton and Christie. 

For what it’s worth, I don’t think Trump would actually do it. It’s a brushback pitch.

While Trump may view himself as evening the score, one day Democrats will occupy the White House again. They would feel fully justified in going after their opponents as payback for the way they were targeted for investigation. And the endless cycle continues.

Donald Trump said 600,000 Chinese students would be allowed into the U.S. to study at colleges amid ongoing trade talks with China.

Speaking at the White House Monday, the president’s announcement signals a potential thaw in U.S.-China relations after escalating tariffs and restrictions on Chinese students.

‘I hear so many stories that we’re not going to allow their students,’ Trump told reporters.

‘We’re going to allow their students to come in. It’s very important, 600,000 students. It’s very important. But we’re going to get along with China,’ he added.

Trump’s student visa offer comes against the backdrop of trade talks with the Chinese government.

Earlier this year, the administration imposed a 145% tariff on all Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to retaliate with a 125% tariff on U.S. exports.

Negotiators in Geneva agreed in May to pause additional levies, but Trump has continued to warn of further penalties.

Last week, he floated a 200% tariff on Chinese-made magnets, citing what he described as Beijing’s ‘monopoly’ over the global market.

‘I don’t think we’re going to have a problem with that,’ Trump told reporters.

‘China, intelligently, went and they sort of took a monopoly on the world’s magnets. It’ll probably take us a year to have them,’ he said.

Currently, about 270,000 Chinese students are enrolled in U.S. universities.

In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced plans to ‘aggressively revoke’ visas for Chinese nationals, particularly those tied to the Communist Party or sensitive research fields.

Trump has since shifted tone, telling reporters in June that he has ‘always been in favor’ of welcoming students from China.

Trump’s remarks on admitting Chinese students came ahead of a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.

When he was asked about a possible summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he sounded positive. He said he would like to meet him this year.

‘As you know, we’re, we’re taking a lot of money in from China because of the tariffs and the different things. It’s a very important relationship,’ Trump said. ‘It’s a much better relationship economically than it was before with Biden. But he allowed that. They just took him to the cleaners.’

The House Oversight Committee took significant steps to widen its probe into Jeffrey Epstein on Monday, including subpoenaing the late pedophile’s estate.

Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., sent a letter to attorneys representing Epstein’s estate, requesting a slew of documents by Sept. 8.

‘The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is reviewing the possible mismanagement of the federal government’s investigation of Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell, the circumstances and subsequent investigations of Mr. Epstein’s death, the operation of sex-trafficking rings and ways for the federal government to effectively combat them, and potential violations of ethics rules related to elected officials,’ Comer wrote.

‘It is our understanding that the Estate of Jeffrey Epstein is in custody and control of documents that may further the Committee’s investigation and legislative goals. Further, it is our understanding the Estate is ready and willing to provide these documents to the Committee pursuant to a subpoena.’

Comer also announced that the committee would hear from Alexander Acosta, a former Trump administration labor secretary who also served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida when Epstein entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the federal government in 2008.

Acosta is appearing before the committee for a closed-door transcribed interview on Sept. 19. He was not compelled via subpoena. 

The controversial agreement, which Acosta signed off on, was concealed from more than 30 of Epstein’s underaged victims, according to The Miami Herald.

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to two state charges in Florida of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution, avoiding more severe federal charges. He ended up serving 13 months in county jail with the benefit of a work-release program, made confidential settlements with some victims, and registered as a sex offender. 

It also allowed co-conspirators to avoid charges – a major point of contention during his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s federal trial in late 2021. It’s also the basis of Maxwell’s appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn her guilty verdict.

Documents subpoenaed by Comer include all entries in a book compiled by Maxwell for Epstein’s 50th birthday, Epstein’s will, and information on the non-prosecution agreement.

Information is being sought on Epstein’s financial transactions, call and visitor logs, and ‘any document or record that could reasonably be construed to be a potential list of clients involved in sex, sex acts, or sex trafficking facilitated by Mr. Jeffrey Epstein,’ according to a copy of the subpoena viewed by Fox News Digital.

An attorney for the executors of Epstein’s estate told Fox News Digital they were reviewing the subpoena. ‘As the Co-Executors have always said, they will comply with all lawful process in this matter, and that includes the Committee’s subpoena,’ the attorney said.

The House Oversight Committee sent a flurry of subpoenas regarding Epstein earlier this month, kicking off a bipartisan investigation into the late pedophile.

Comer sought depositions from former FBI directors Robert Mueller and James Comey, ex-attorneys general Bill Barr and Loretta Lynch, as well as former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Barr testified last week.

The subpoenas were directed via a bipartisan vote during an unrelated House Oversight subcommittee hearing on illegal immigrant children in late July.

Renewed interest in Epstein’s case has gripped Capitol Hill after the DOJ’s handling of the matter spurred a GOP revolt by far-right figures.

The DOJ effectively declared the case closed after an ‘exhaustive review,’ revealing Epstein had no ‘client list,’ did not blackmail ‘prominent individuals,’ and confirmed he did die by suicide in a New York City jail while awaiting prosecution.

Democrats seized on the discord with newfound calls for transparency in Epstein’s case, spurring accusations of hypocrisy from their Republican colleagues.

Indeed, the bipartisan unity that the investigation was kicked off with quickly disintegrated after the first witness, Barr, was deposed last week.

Reps. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., and Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who attended part of Barr’s deposition, left the room roughly halfway through the sit-down and accused Republicans of insufficiently probing questions during their allotted time to depose Barr.

Comer, who argued those accusations were baseless, implored Democrats not to politicize a bipartisan investigation.

Divisions deepened after Comer said Barr had no knowledge of, nor did he believe, any implications of wrongdoing on President Donald Trump’s part related to Epstein.

House Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., who was not in the room, released a statement after the deposition, claiming Barr did not clear Trump.

After his home was raided by the FBI last week, former national security advisor John Bolton unleashed a blistering critique of President Donald Trump’s Ukraine policy, claiming it is marked by ‘confusion, haste and disarray.’ 

‘Collapsing in confusion, haste, and the absence of any discernible meeting of the minds among Ukraine, Russia, several European countries, and America, Trump’s negotiations may be in their last throes, along with his Nobel Peace Prize campaign,’ Bolton wrote in an op-ed published days after federal agents carried out search warrants on his home and office.

Bolton said Trump’s attempt to fast-track a peace deal was ‘inevitably’ doomed, arguing the Alaska summit with Putin on Aug. 15 was arranged at a pace ‘almost surely unprecedented in modern history.’ 

He blasted Trump’s abrupt reversal after the meeting — backing off new sanctions on Moscow and scrapping demands for a ceasefire in favor of a ‘final agreement’ — as proof of chaotic diplomacy.

The former U.N. ambassador also pointed to contradictions inside the administration, noting Trump told Ukraine it must strike inside Russia even as the Pentagon blocked Kyiv from doing so. The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday the Pentagon had been blocking long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMs, from reaching Ukraine. 

Meanwhile, allies such as India, Bolton wrote, were left ‘hanging out to dry’ under new 50% U.S. tariffs while Russia and China skated free.

‘His efforts over the last two-plus weeks may have left us further from peace and a just settlement for Ukraine than before,’ Bolton concluded.

Bolton even went after Trump for releasing a photo of himself pointing his finger at Putin’s chest, drawing comparisons to  then-Vice President Richard Nixon’s finger-pointing during the famous kitchen debate with former Soviet Union prime minister Nikita Khrushchev. 

‘Why Trump wants to be compared to the only president who resigned in disgrace is unclear.’

Bolton was Trump’s national security advisor in 2018 and 2019, until the pair fell out. 

The FBI raid is reportedly linked to a probe of mishandling classified documents.

President Donald Trump touted his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said the two would meet ‘someday’ — just before a summit at the White House with South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung. 

During Trump’s first term in office, the president met with Kim on multiple occasions — including in Singapore in 2018, and then twice in 2019 in Vietnam and within North Korea — for denuclearization talks. 

‘I have very good relationships with Kim Jong UN, North Korea,’ Trump told reporters at the White House Monday. ‘I mean, a lot of people would say, oh, that’s terrible. No, it’s good. In fact, someday I’ll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me. We had two meeting — we had two summits. We got along great.’ 

‘I know him better than you do,’ Trump said. ‘I know him better than anybody almost, other than his sister. His sister knows him pretty well. No, I know him well. And I got along with him. You know, I’m not supposed to say I really like him a lot because if I do that, I get killed in the fake news media. But I got along with him very well.’ 

Denuclearization talks with Kim crumbled during Trump’s first administration when the president refused to get on board with Kim’s request for sanctions relief, in exchange for shuttering North Korea’s primary nuclear complex. 

While the current Trump administration has signaled ongoing interest in renewing denuclearization talks with North Korea, Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong said in July that pressure from the White House for North Korea to denuclearize would be interpreted as ‘nothing but a mockery.’

‘The recognition of the irreversible position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state and the hard fact that its capabilities and geopolitical environment have radically changed should be a prerequisite for predicting and thinking everything in the future,’ Kim Yo Jong said in a statement in July published by the North Korean state news agency KCNA. 

Meanwhile, Trump also took a shot at ally South Korea hours before Lee’s scheduled arrival at the White House — and weeks after the two agreed to a trade deal. 

‘WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there,’ Trump said in a social media post on Monday morning. 

Trump told reporters Monday morning his statements stemmed from media reports about raids on churches and on Osan Air Base in July. He told reporters he wasn’t sure how accurate the media reports were, but that he’d question Lee on the matter because he wouldn’t ‘stand for that.’ 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump vowed to sue over a Senate practice that allows a lawmaker to block his U.S. attorney and district court nominees, as the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee stood firm against doing away with the tradition. 

Trump homed in on the ‘blue slip’ tradition in the Senate, which effectively gives Senate Republicans and Democrats the ability to veto district court and U.S. attorney nominees in their home states. His desire to see the practice done away with comes as Senate Democrats have stood in the way of his nominees making their way through the upper chamber in a speedy fashion. 

‘We’re also going to be filing a lawsuit on blue slipping,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. ‘You know, blue slips make it impossible for me, as president, to appoint a judge or a U.S. attorney because they have a gentleman’s agreement. Nothing memorialized. It’s a gentleman’s agreement that’s about 100 years old, where if you have a president, like a Republican, and if you have a Democrat senator, that senator can stop you from appointing a judge or a U.S. attorney, in particular, those two.’ 

His decision to turn to the courts also comes after he targeted Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, over the weekend. He again demanded that Grassley do away with the practice. 

But over multiple posts on X on Monday, Grassley argued that without blue slips, none of Trump’s nominees would pass muster in the Senate.

‘A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not [have] the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t [have] the votes to get out of [committee],’ Grassley said. ‘As chairman I set [President] Trump noms up for SUCCESS NOT FAILURE.’

Trump argued that it was his constitutional right to appoint judges and U.S. attorneys, but the right had been ‘completely taken away from me in States that have just one Democrat United States Senator.’

‘This is because of an old and outdated ‘custom’ known as a BLUE SLIP, that Senator Chuck Grassley, of the Great State of Iowa, refuses to overturn, even though the Democrats, including Crooked Joe Biden (Twice!), have done so on numerous occasions,’ Trump said.  

‘Therefore, the only candidates that I can get confirmed for these most important positions are, believe it or not, Democrats! Chuck Grassley should allow strong Republican candidates to ascend to these very vital and powerful roles, and tell the Democrats, as they often tell us, to go to HELL,’ he continued.

Senate Democrats have indeed used the blue slip tradition

For example, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., used his blue slip privileges to nix Trump’s U.S. Attorney nominees for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

And Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats from New Jersey, used the blue slip to object to Alina Habba’s nomination to U.S. Attorney in the Garden State. Habba was tapped by Trump to serve in the role on an interim basis, but after her term expired, a panel of judges opted to not extend her position. 

A replacement was chosen but then fired by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Trump then withdrew his nomination for Habba and restored her interim status. 

‘Habba was withdrawn as the President’s nominee for New Jersey U.S. Atty on July 24,’ Grassley said. ‘[And] the [Judiciary Committee] never received any of the paperwork needed for the Senate to vet her nomination.’

Trump’s renewed ire comes after he singled out Grassley last month for not nixing the longstanding tradition, which is not a law, and demanded that he ‘have the courage’ to change the practice.

It also comes after Senate Republicans and Democrats failed to reach a deal on ramming through many of the president’s nominees before leaving Washington for all of August. 

Finding a pathway forward, including a likely change to the Senate’s confirmation process, is expected to be a top priority for Republicans when they return to the Hill after Labor Day. 

President Donald Trump on Monday threatened a lawsuit over the Senate’s century-old ‘blue slip’ tradition that he says makes it ‘impossible’ for him to appoint a judge or U.S. attorney.

Trump made the comments to reporters in the Oval Office while signing executive orders regarding the elimination of cashless bail policies.

‘We’re also going to be filing a lawsuit on blue slipping,’ Trump said. ‘You know, blue slips make it impossible for me as president to appoint a judge or a U.S. attorney because they have a gentlemen’s agreement that’s about 100 years old.’

The blue slip, which is the practice of having a state’s senators give their approval for nominees for positions in their state like federal judges and U.S. attorneys, is a long-standing tradition but not a codified law. Constitutionally, the president has the power to nominate while the Senate ultimately approves or rejects that nomination.

Trump said that ‘if you have a president like a Republican, and if you have a Democrat senator, that senator can stop you from appointing a judge or a U.S. attorney in particular.’

Trump’s frustration with the Senate’s blue slip practice isn’t new. In July, he called the tradition a ‘hoax’ and a ‘scam’ used by Democrats to block his nominees, and demanded that Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, stop supporting them.

Grassley has defended the century-old process, saying he views it as a norm worth preserving for balance and state input.

Trump on Sunday blasted the tradition, telling Grassley in a social media post that he should tell Democrats to ‘go to HELL’ over using blue slips to block his nominees.

In his first term, Trump was able to appoint 234 federal judges, including three Supreme Court justices and 54 appellate court judges. However, this term he has only confirmed five in the first seven months.

Fox News Digital’s Christina Shaw contributed to this report.

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee is again standing firm against President Donald Trump’s demand that Senate tradition be changed to ram through his district court and U.S. attorney nominees.

Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, came under fire from Trump again late Sunday night over the Senate’s ‘blue slips,’ a longstanding practice in the upper chamber that the president wants to be done away with.

A blue slip effectively gives Senate Republicans and Democrats the ability to veto district court and U.S. attorney nominees in their home states.

But Grassley argued in a response on X Monday that without blue slips, none of Trump’s nominees would pass muster in the Senate.

‘A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not [have] the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t [have] the votes to get out of [committee],’ Grassley said. ‘As chairman I set [President] Trump noms up for SUCCESS NOT FAILURE.’

Trump argued that it was his constitutional right to appoint judges and U.S. attorneys, but the right had been ‘completely taken away from me in States that have just one Democrat United States Senator.’

‘This is because of an old and outdated ‘custom’ known as a BLUE SLIP, that Senator Chuck Grassley, of the Great State of Iowa, refuses to overturn, even though the Democrats, including Crooked Joe Biden (Twice!), have done so on numerous occasions,’ Trump said.  

‘Therefore, the only candidates that I can get confirmed for these most important positions are, believe it or not, Democrats! Chuck Grassley should allow strong Republican candidates to ascend to these very vital and powerful roles, and tell the Democrats, as they often tell us, to go to HELL,’ he continued.

Senate Democrats have indeed used the blue slip tradition this year to block some of Trump’s picks for the bench as part of their broader log jam of his nominees.

For example, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., used his blue slip privileges to nix Trump’s U.S. Attorney nominees for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

And Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats from New Jersey, used the blue slip to object to Alina Habba’s nomination to U.S. Attorney in the Garden State. Habba was tapped by Trump to serve in the role on an interim basis, but after her term expired a panel of judges opted to not extend her position. 

A replacement was chosen but then fired by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Trump then withdrew his nomination for Habba and restored her interim status. 

‘Habba was withdrawn as the President’s nominee for New Jersey U.S. Atty on July 24,’ Grassley said. ‘[And] the [Judiciary Committee] never received any of the paperwork needed for the Senate to vet her nomination.’

Trump’s renewed ire comes after he singled out Grassley last month for not nixing the longstanding tradition, which is not a law, and demanded that he ‘have the courage’ to change the practice.

It also comes after Senate Republicans and Democrats failed to reach a deal on ramming through many of the president’s nominees before leaving Washington for all of August. 

Finding a pathway forward, including a likely change to the Senate’s confirmation process, is expected to be a top priority for Republicans when they return to the Hill after Labor Day. 

Gen. Michael ‘Erik’ Kurilla, the military officer who oversaw the execution of the Iran strikes in June, has retired from military service and has handed over the reins following three years leading U.S. troops in the Middle East. 

Kurilla, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, became commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in 2022, and oversaw planning and execution of at least 15 major combined combat operations, according to the command.

Among those, two occurred during his final months leading the command: Operation Rough Rider targeting the Houthis in Yemen in March and April, and Operation Midnight Hammer striking Iran nuclear sites in June.

Operation Midnight Hammer targeted Iranian nuclear facilities Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, and involved more than 125 U.S. aircraft, including B-2 stealth bombers, according to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. Likewise, a guided-missile submarine also launched more than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at key Iranian targets. 

‘General Kurilla is a bold, dynamic, and inspiring leader who strikes fear into the hearts of America’s enemies,’ Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a June statement to Fox News Digital. ‘He’s a warrior through and through who always puts his country, mission, and troops first. It has been an honor to serve alongside him in defense of our great nation.’

Kurilla spent an extensive amount of his career focusing on operations in the Middle East. From 2004 to 2014, the general oversaw conventional and special operations forces during consecutive tours that fell under the CENTCOM purview.

During that span of time, Kurilla completed tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Kurilla is known for his involvement in a Mosul, Iraq, firefight in August 2005, where he sustained multiple gunshot wounds. The encounter earned him a Bronze Star with valor and one of his two Purple Heart awards.

Notable figures who’ve previously led CENTCOM include former defense secretaries, retired Gen. Jim Mattis, who served during Trump’s first term, and retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, who served during former President Joe Biden’s administration.

As of early August, U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper is now leading CENTCOM, one of the U.S. military’s 11 combatant commands, with 21 nations in the Middle East in its area of operations — including Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Like Kurilla, Cooper is no stranger to the Middle East. Previous assignments include serving as deputy commander of CENTCOM and overseeing U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in the Middle East, where he spearheaded efforts to employ unmanned service vessels into the fleet. 

Cooper officially took over leading CENTCOM Aug. 8 during a change of command ceremony in Tampa, Florida, where CENTCOM headquarters are located. Kurilla’s retirement ceremony occurred on the same day, a spokesperson for CENTCOM confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

‘U.S. Central Command and the entire joint force have performed exceptionally well under the leadership of Gen. Kurilla, helping to bolster partnerships, increase lethality of U.S. forces, and defend Americans and civilians abroad,’ Cooper said in a Navy statement. ‘I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to lead America’s sons and daughters as we support the important mission of enhancing regional security and stability in the Central Command region.’