EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Andy Barr is endorsing former President Trump, telling Fox News Digital that Americans ‘must rally behind’ him to ensure ‘strong leadership both at home and abroad.’ 

Barr, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital on Monday about his endorsement.

‘I can not sit idly by while Joe Biden and his disastrous policies continue to erode what makes America the greatest country in the world,’ Barr said. ‘Since Biden took office, we have seen record-high illegal immigration at the Southern Border, 40-year high inflation, and threateningly weak foreign policy that has invited aggression from our adversaries.’

However, Barr said, ‘despite all of this, Democrats and the ‘mainstream media’ are doing everything they can to ensure Joe Biden remains president.’

‘Donald Trump is the only candidate who can defeat Joe Biden and reinstate an America First agenda,’ he said.

Barr, reflecting on the Trump administration, said Americans ‘paid less at the pump and the grocery store.’

‘American families’ incomes rose, and their small businesses flourished,’ he said, adding that none of those developments were ‘coincidences.’

‘They were a direct product of Trump’s low-tax, pro-economic growth policies,’ he told Fox News Digital, saying Biden’s policies have ‘resulted in the opposite.’ 

‘As Kentuckians and Americans, we must rally behind a leader who understands the importance of strong leadership, both at home and abroad,’ he said. ‘That is why, to protect our country and ensure prosperity, I am endorsing Donald J. Trump for President of the United States.’ 

Trump is dominating the 2024 Republican primary field. A new Fox News poll released over the weekend also showed that if the election were held today, Trump would beat President Biden by four points in a head-to-head match-up. 

Meanwhile, a source close to Barr told Fox News Digital that should a Senate seat become open for 2026, the congressman could be ‘a serious contender.’

‘Barr is a prolific fundraiser and a skilled legislator who would be a formidable ally for the America First agenda in the Senate,’ the source told Fox News Digital.

That source said Barr’s early endorsement of Trump ‘could preview a closer working relationship’ between Barr and Trump in the coming years.

Only one-third of Americans gave President Biden a thumbs up on the job he is doing in the White House, according to a new national public opinion survey.

The president stands at 34% approval in a Monmouth University poll released on Monday, with 61% giving Biden a thumbs down on his job performance.

The president’s approval is at an all-time low in Monmouth polling since Biden took over the White House nearly three years ago.

Americans questioned in the survey gave the president particularly low marks for his handling of immigration (26%) and inflation (28%).

‘The Biden administration keeps touting their infrastructure investments and a host of positive economic indicators. Those data points may be factual, but most Americans are still smarting from higher prices caused by post-pandemic inflation. This seems to be what’s driving public opinion,’ Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, highlighted. ‘There is political danger in pushing a message that basically tells people their take on their own situation is wrong.’

Murray spotlighted that ‘there is certainly an element of partisanship in how people frame their own financial situation, which is based in part on who occupies the White House. But even a good chunk of Biden’s Democratic base wish he’d start paying more attention to their top priorities than he is now.’

The approval rating is a key indicator of a president’s performance, clout and popularity and is a closely watched metric, especially when an incumbent in the White House seeks a second term. The 81-year-old Biden is running for re-election in 2024.

The release of the Monmouth poll comes two weeks after the president stood at 37% approval – an all-time low – in a Wall Street Journal survey. However, a new Fox News national poll released on Sunday indicated Biden’s approval rating at 43%.

Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during his first six months in the White House. However, the president’s numbers started sagging in August 2021 in the wake of Biden’s much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan and following a surge in COVID-19 cases that summer, mainly among unvaccinated people.

The plunge in the president’s approval was also fueled by soaring inflation – which started spiking in the summer of 2021 and remains to date a major pocketbook concern with Americans – and the surge of migrants trying to cross into the U.S. along the southern border with Mexico. 

Biden stands far below where his three most recent two-term predecessors – former Presidents Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama – stood at this point in their presidencies, as they successfully ran for re-election. The only recent president whose approval ratings were nearly as negative as Biden’s current numbers was his most recent predecessor, former President Trump, who was defeated by Biden in the 2020 election.

Biden once held the upper hand over Trump in 2024 rematch surveys, but Trump began enjoying an advantage over his successor in the White House in most polls starting in October.

On Sunday, as he was leaving his re-election campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, the president was asked by reporters why he was down to Trump in the latest surveys.

‘You’re reading the wrong polls,’ Biden replied.

The Monmouth University poll was conducted Nov. 30-Dec 4, with 803 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.

Nothing exemplifies America’s tech industry dominance in the global economy more than the meteoric rise of what is now being called the ‘Magnificent Seven’ stocks — Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. These companies single-handedly account for nearly all the gains in the stock market this year. They — which is to say we, as American shareholders who own them — have a net worth of nearly $10 trillion.

Think about it. None of these gazelles are Japanese, German or Chinese. All seven are American companies. They are globally dominant. They are innovators nearly unrivaled in human history. Amazingly, you would think their best years are behind them, like an aging baseball player. No. They are getting stronger, not weaker.

As a consequence, they are keeping the 401(k) and retirement plans owned by more than 100 million Americans in the green.

These are the General Motors, Standard Oil, J.P. Morgan and U.S. Steel of the 21st century.

Yet, here’s the mystery. In Washington and among the political class, instead of being lionized for their amazing products, they are like Rodney Dangerfield: they get no respect. Worse, Democrats, Republicans and federal regulators have their carving knives out for them. 

Apparently, making a profit, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and adding trillions of dollars of consumer welfare are now nefarious pursuits in America where, to paraphrase Calvin Coolidge, the business of America is supposed to be business. Or, to put it in more modern terms, as Jerry Maguire would say, ‘Show me the money!’ These powerhouses have certainly done that.

Many Democrats want to break up Big Tech companies because they are too dominant. They don’t seem to understand that it’s far preferable to be dominant than inferior. There is also a teeny-weeny problem with the accusation that these firms engage in monopolistic behavior. Every one of them has substantially lowered prices for consumers — in cellphones, in social media interactions, in the cost of products delivered right to your door, laptop computers and artificial intelligence. Or how about gaining instant access to almost any information you want? Google puts virtually the entire Library of Congress at your fingertips — and astonishingly for free. The villains!

Even more absurd is the claim that the multitrillion-dollar size and influence of these companies is squeezing out the smaller entrepreneurial companies that dare compete with them. That happens sometimes. But the bigger impact of these behemoths is to breathe life into literally thousands of startups that attract capital based on the dream that five years from now, they will be acquired at 20 times their current value by, say, Microsoft or Meta.

Then there are those on the Right who want to tether the Magnificent Seven because they don’t like their leftist politics or the suppression of conservative voices on their platforms. I share their concerns, but it’s a free country, and they own the products and megaphones. There are plenty of alternatives if you don’t like their public policy positions.

Congress is intent on killing the Google — er, the goose — that lays the golden eggs. Apparently, they’d rather have us all be poorer and buy our cellphones and search engines and robots from China or India.

One of the ironies of calling America’s tech giants the Magnificent Seven is that in the 1960 movie of that title, five of the seven are killed in the last scene.

In this age of Mach 5-speed innovation, that could eventually happen to Google and Apple — and sooner than you think. It’s not easy to remain the king of the hill. These companies have stayed erect by constantly innovating and giving customers more for less. But when they get knocked down to Earth, let’s hope it’s because of the forces of free market competition, not government regulators trying to fix something that surely ain’t broke.

Here’s the final irony of this war against the Magnificent Seven. If the politicians do succeed in driving these epic American companies to their knees, there will be a hullabaloo about how America is losing its tech dominance. Then the knuckleheads in Washington will start passing out billion-dollar taxpayer subsidies to the very companies they now set out to impede and destroy.

Former President Donald Trump is leading President Biden among young voters by a 13-point margin, according to the latest Fox News Poll.

Forty-one percent of respondents under 30 said they’d vote for Trump, 77, in the 2024 general election while 28% said they’d vote for Biden, 81. Those under 45 years old also favored Trump, with 41% saying they’d vote for Trump versus 31% who’d cast their vote for Biden.

Trump is also more popular among women voters at 41% to 34% for Biden, according to the poll, which interviewed 1,007 registered voters randomly selected between Dec. 10 and Dec. 13.

The polling results come as the Trump campaign is targeting young voters and widening its support among GOP voters. On Saturday, Trump made a stop at the University of New Hampshire and railed against Biden’s economy and the migrant crisis at the southern border.

According to a USA Today report that interviewed Republican and Democrat college students outside the rally, some young voters agreed that Biden’s handling of the economy and foreign affairs were critical issues heading into the 2024 election.

Trump keeps gaining ground in the Republican presidential nomination contest as fewer than one third of GOP primary voters now back all his rivals combined, the survey also found.

Trump’s support stands at 69% in the primary race. That’s up seven points since November and 26 points since February.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis receives 12% support (down 1 point since November), former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley gets 9% (-1), businessman Vivek Ramaswamy at 5% (-2), former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 2% (-1) and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson with 1% (steady).

In hypothetical general election matchups against Biden, Haley is ahead by six points, Trump is up by four (though neither advantage is statistically significant) while DeSantis and Biden are tied. As recently as August, Biden was narrowly ahead of all three of them.

CLICK HERE FOR TOPLINE AND CROSSTABS

The Fox News Poll, conducted under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for all registered voters, and plus or minus 4.5 points for Democrat primary voters and 5 points for Republican primary voters.

Fox News’ Dana Blanton contributed to this report.

Hunter Biden was photographed Monday afternoon shopping in Delaware with his father, President Biden, just days after he defied a congressional subpoena to attend a closed-door deposition.

Hunter and the president together visited a jewelry store in Greenville, Delaware, and, hours earlier, were spotted at St. Joseph’s on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware, for mass. The president’s embattled son has faced heavy criticism and calls to be held in contempt of Congress in recent days after he refused last week to sit for the deposition requested by House investigators.

‘Hunter Biden today defied lawful subpoenas and we will now initiate contempt of Congress proceedings,’ House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a joint statement on Dec. 13. ‘We will not provide special treatment because his last name is Biden.’

‘As our committees were today prepared to depose Hunter Biden, he chose to make a public statement on Capitol Hill instead where he said his father, Joe Biden was not financially involved in his family’s business dealings,’ they continued. ‘Exactly how was Joe Biden involved? Evidence shows Joe Biden met with Hunter’s business associates and his name was at the center of the family business strategy.’

Hunter ultimately refused to sit for the deposition in a press conference last week, where he accused Republican lawmakers of attempting to ‘dehumanize’ him and embarrass his father. The younger Biden said his father had never been financially involved in his business dealings, including his work with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings or Chinese firms.

And after he defied the subpoena, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters President Biden and first lady Jill Biden were ‘proud’ of their son for ‘continuing to rebuild his life.’ The White House has repeatedly said that President Biden did nothing wrong and had no knowledge of his son’s business dealings.

Later that evening, the House voted along party lines to formalize its impeachment inquiry into the president over his family’s business dealings. 

Since taking control of the House, Republicans led by Comer have pursued a sprawling investigation into the Biden family and whether the president participated in questionable deals Hunter was involved in. The probe gained momentum this month after Comer released subpoenaed bank records showing an entity owned by Hunter had made ‘direct monthly payments to Joe Biden.’

In addition, in June, the House Ways and Means Committee, which has also participated in the investigation, released 2017 messages in which Hunter Biden excoriated Chinese business partner Henry Zhao for not fulfilling a ‘commitment’ and said his father was sitting beside him.

‘I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,’ Hunter Biden wrote in a WhatsApp message to Zhao, the CEO of Beijing-based asset management firm Harvest Fund Management, on July 30, 2017, according to documents released by House Republicans.

Days after that message, on Aug. 4, 2017, Chinese firm CEFC Infrastructure Investment wired $100,000 to Hunter Biden’s law firm Owasco, according to a 2020 report published by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Days later, on Aug. 8, 2017, CEFC Infrastructure Investment sent $5 million to Hudson West III, a firm Hunter Biden opened with Chinese associates.

And the 2020 Senate report revealed that, beginning on Aug. 14, 2017, Hunter Biden initiated a string of 20 wire transactions from Owasco to Lion Hall Group, a consulting firm linked to President Biden’s brother, James Biden, and his wife, Sara. The transactions continued through Aug. 3, 2018, and totaled $1.4 million.

The payments between Hunter Biden and his father, which Comer released earlier Monday, were sent from an account linked to Owasco.

Last week, Fox News Digital reported that a bank investigator raised concerns about Hunter Biden’s receipt of an additional $5 million wire from a Chinese company in August 2018 to his bank account, Hudson West III.

Hunter Biden transferred $400,000 to his Owasco PC account. Funds were then transferred to a business account belonging to James Biden and later transferred to a personal account belonging to James Biden and Sara Biden.

Comer claims they used those funds to then cut a check to Joe Biden for $40,000. That check was labeled as a ‘loan repayment.’