One week after Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., demanded answers from the Department of Defense about why a ‘child-friendly’ drag show was being hosted at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, the show was abruptly canceled.

‘HUGE VICTORY,’ Gaetz wrote on Twitter. ‘Drag shows should not be taking place on military installations with taxpayer dollars PERIOD!’

A drag show initially scheduled for June 1 — in celebration of Pride Month — organized by the Nellis LGBTQ+ Pride Council, was canceled, the group confirmed on Facebook.

‘The Nellis LGBTQ+ Pride Council is saddened to inform you that we are no longer able to host our annual Pride Month Drag Show on Nellis AFB.’ The group said it ‘received notification that the DoD has directed Commanders not to host Drag events on military installations.’

The cancellation came after Gaetz ‘demanded answers’ from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, the lawmaker highlighted on Twitter.

On May 23, Gaetz wrote a letter to Milley and Austin ‘demanding immediate answers on why these drag shows are still occurring’ despite their testimony in March that the Defense Department did not support or endorse such shows, he said.

The two leaders said at the time that they were not aware such events were still happening on military bases.

‘I’m demanding immediate answers on why these drag shows are still occurring despite Austin and General Milley testifying that they should not be happening,’ Gaetz wrote on Twitter, sharing the letter.

In the letter, Gaetz reminded Austin and Milley of their testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on March 29, where they expressed their disapproval of such performances.

‘On March 29, 2023, during the House Armed Services Committee hearing on the ‘FY24 Defense Budget Request,’ I questioned you about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs within the Department of Defense (DoD). I find it completely unacceptable that DoD is using taxpayer dollars to fund DEI programs that are divisive in nature. DoD resources should be used for mission-essential operations, not diverted toward initiatives that create cultural fissures within our service ranks,’ Gaetz wrote in the letter dated May 23.

He added, ‘When I highlighted specific cases of drag queen story hours and drag shows occurring on U.S. military bases, shockingly, you indicated you were unaware that such events are taking place. However, I am pleased to know you do not support these drag events and agree with me that they should not be happening.’

‘To aid you in executing the agreed-upon elimination of DoD-funded drag events, I have enclosed supplementary documents that further highlight the DoD’s pervasive and persistent use of taxpayer dollars for drag events,’ the Republican continued.

He also included questions about the respective instances, requiring answers to the House Armed Services Committee so it could conduct ‘further oversight of this matter.’

The letter then highlighted the June 2023 Nellis drag show as well as a similar event hosted at Nellis the year before, on June 17, 2022.

‘Under what authority does a commander approve, host, and fund burlesque shows on a military base utilizing taxpayer funding?’ Gaetz asked, referencing a drag show hosted at the Nellis Club during which time Colonel Josh DeMottis was the commander.

The letter also highlighted past events like one that took place on May 27, 2022, at the Ramstein Air Force Base, located in Germany; and, one on July 30, 2022, at the Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia.

The May event was canceled, but Gaetz inquired in the letter: ‘Prior to its cancelation, how many service members were diverted from their normal duties to help plan, organize, and facilitate the drag queen story hour?’

The June 1 event was going to feature RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 5 star CoCo Montrese, according to its advertisement.

According to NBC News, the decision to cancel the event came directly from Austin and Milley, the latter of which was visibly agitated when he was informed about the event.

A drag show was hosted at Nellis Air Force Base each of the past two years, including 2021 and 2022.

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The president of Mexico is continuing to wage what he has called an ‘information campaign’ against Republicans in the U.S., urging Hispanics not to vote for them due to their policies on immigration and fentanyl — but the Biden administration has so far stayed quiet on the apparent election meddling by the southern neighbor.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador muscled his way into the 2024 presidential debate last week after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his candidacy and promised to shut down the border with Mexico.

Lopez Obrador accused DeSantis of pushing ‘anti-immigrant’ policies and urged Hispanics not to vote for him.

‘I hope the Hispanics of Florida wake up and don’t give him any votes, that they don’t vote for those who persecute migrants, those who don’t respect migrants,’ he said.

Those remarks are not an isolated instance however, and appear to be part of an ‘information campaign’ he announced in March, after Republican lawmakers suggested potential military action to take out the drug cartels pumping out fentanyl and sending it to the U.S.

‘Starting today we are going to start an information campaign for Mexicans who live and work in the United States and for all Hispanics to inform them of what we are doing in Mexico and how this initiative by the Republicans, in addition to being irresponsible, is an offense against the people of Mexico, a lack of respect for our independence, our sovereignty,’ he said.

‘And if they do not change their attitude and think that they are going to use Mexico for their propaganda, electoral, and political purposes, we are going to call for them not to vote for that party, because it is interventionist, inhumane, hypocritical, and corrupt,’ Lopez Obrador said, later adding that Mexico would be insisting that ‘not one vote’ goes to Republicans from Mexicans and Hispanics.

In July 2022, he also targeted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and said that Mexico is ‘going to ask our countrymen there that they don’t vote for that candidate or party.’

However, the Biden administration has so far not engaged with the remarks publicly, despite the apparent meddling in U.S. elections by a foreign government. Neither the State Department nor the White House responded to multiple requests for comment on the matter from Fox News Digital.

Lopez Obrador has also taken swipes at American lawmakers when appealing for help from the Chinese Communist regime in stopping fentanyl, which is created in Mexico using Chinese precursors.

‘Unjustly, they are blaming us for problems that in large measure have to do with their loss of values, their welfare crisis,’ he wrote. ‘These positions are in themselves a lack of respect and a threat to our sovereignty, and moreover they are based on an absurd, manipulative, propagandistic and demagogic attitude.’

The Mexican leader has also made bizarre claims that fentanyl is not made in Mexico — when it is primarily made in Mexico from Chinese precursors before being transported into the U.S. across the land border.

Meanwhile, diplomatic tensions were on display between the two countries in March when the Mexican military seized an American construction company’s facility. Mexican President Lopez Obrador had accused the company of trying to extract minerals from Mexico without the required permits and ship them to the U.S.

FIRST ON FOX—Republican Congressman Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., will introduce legislation Thursday to prohibit universities that ‘authorize antisemitic events on campus’ from participating in student loan and grant programs.

The ‘‘Stop Antisemitism on College Campuses Act’’ was proposed in response to a recent controversial CUNY Law School commencement speech, where the speaker, student Fatima Mousa Mohammed, accused the U.S. military and Israel of ‘indiscriminate’ murder, and asked students to join a ‘revolution’ against Zionism, capitalism and racism.

Mohammed said that Israel ‘continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshipers, murdering the old, the young, attacking even funerals and graveyards’ and encourages ‘lynch mobs to target Palestinian homes and businesses as it imprisons its children.’

The speech drew bipartisan backlash from progressives like Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., who called the address ‘anti-Israel derangement syndrome,’ and former New York Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin, who said that taxpayer money should be pulled from the college for ‘raging antisemitism.’

Lawler is calling for CUNY to ‘face stiff penalties if they continue to let hate have a home’ through his bill, which would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to add that an institution cannot ‘authorize, facilitate, provide funding for, or otherwise support’ antisemitism. 

‘No college or university should receive a single dollar of federal education funding if they peddle in the promotion of antisemitism at an event on their campus.’ -Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.

‘CUNY should be ashamed of itself for allowing this ridiculous antisemitism to permeate on its campus,’ he added. ‘Stopping antisemitism dead in its tracks is critical for supporting our Jewish communities in New York.’

Jeffery Lax, a law professor at the university, told Fox News’ Trace Gallagher Wednesday on ‘Fox News @ Night,’ ‘In my 20 years of doing this, this is the worst, most disgusting commencement speech I’ve ever heard.’

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of New York and New Jersey tweeted, ‘We are appalled to see such an egregious display of hostility toward ‘Zionists’ (which is how many Jews see themselves) and Israel in CUNY Law’s commencement address. This is yet another example of the harm Jewish students experience on campus.’

The pro-Israel American campus group tracked 18 incidents since 2015 on CUNY law school campus where students or faculty spoke out against Israel.

According to the Jewish Virtual Library, 36 states have adopted laws, executive orders, or resolutions designed to discourage boycotts against Israel. Many, but not all of these laws have been designed to limit or discourage Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) groups on college campuses.

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Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday picked a longtime ally who oversaw Texas’ elections in 2022 to temporarily serve as attorney general following Republican Ken Paxton’s historic impeachment on allegations of misconduct and crimes.

John Scott, who stepped down as Texas Secretary of State last year, takes over as the state’s top lawyer on an interim basis while Paxton awaits a trial in the state Senate that could result in his permanent removal. The trial is set to begin no later than Aug. 28.

Paxton was impeached last weekend by the Texas House of Representatives, triggering his immediate suspension from office.

Abbott has kept silent about Paxton in the week since House Republicans began impeachment proceedings. The governor announced Scott’s appointment in a statement that did not mention Paxton or comment on the accusations against him.

‘John Scott has the background and experience needed to step in as a short-term interim Attorney General during the time the Attorney General has been suspended from duty,’ Abbott said.

Scott has been a trusted hand of Abbott’s for more than a decade. He served as a state litigator when Abbott was attorney general, and when Abbott’s pick for secretary of state in 2019 was derailed after a bungled review of voter rolls, the governor turned to Scott instead.

At the time, the appointment alarmed voting rights groups over Scott’s brief stint as a member of President Donald Trump’s legal team that challenged the 2020 election results. Scott withdrew from the case after only a few days and has said he does not dispute that President Joe Biden won the election.

Paxton weathered years of scandal and maintained his party’s support to win three statewide attorney general’s races before the vote in the Republican-controlled House abruptly swept him from power.

The vote came after a monthslong House investigation into the attorney general that resulted in 20 charges alleging sweeping abuses of power, including obstruction of justice, bribery and abuse of public trust.

Paxton has criticized the impeachment as an attempt to ‘overthrow the will of the people and disenfranchise the voters of our state.’ He has said the charges are based on ‘hearsay and gossip, parroting long-disproven claims.’

Texas’ senators will serve as ‘jurors’ in Paxton’s upcoming trial — one of whom could be his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, who has not said whether she will participate in the proceedings.

During his yearlong stint as Texas’ election chief, Scott was tasked with trying to give voters confidence about election results and the ability to cast a ballot after Republicans passed a sweeping new voting law. Those efforts got off to a bumpy start during Texas’ first-in-the-nation primary as voters struggled to navigate new mail voting requirements, resulting in counties throwing out nearly 23,000 mail ballots.

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Former Vice President Mike Pence is speaking out against the decision by Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers to welcome an LGBTQIA+ group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at the team’s annual Pride Night.

The former vice president, taking to Twitter on Wednesday, said that Dodger’s decision to honor the group after it rescinded its original invitation was ‘deeply offensive.’

Pence, who’s expected to launch a 2024 Republican presidential campaign next week, expressed his opinions as he retweeted a Fox News Digital story regarding the controversy.

‘Having been raised in a Catholic family, the Dodgers decision to invite the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a hateful group that blatantly mocks Catholicism, to their event next month is deeply offensive,’ Pence wrote on Twitter. ‘Last summer the MLB moved their All-Star Game out of Georgia over a lie about voter ID and now they are apologizing and welcoming anti-Catholic bigots back to Dodger Stadium with open arms.’

The former vice president, a social conservative who’s long been a champion to evangelical voters, argued that ‘the MLB should not be apologizing to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, they should be apologizing to Catholics across America. America’s pastime should respect the faith of every American no matter what.’

The MLB team announced that it would be honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of ‘queer and trans nuns,’ during a June 16 event, but quickly received backlash from religious groups for the decision given the history of anti-Catholic messaging and shocking performances.

The team said last week it would no longer be honoring the group during the upcoming LGBTQ event.

‘Given the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the sisters’ inclusion in our evening, and in an effort not to distract from the great benefits that we’ve seen over the years of Pride Night, we are deciding to remove them from this year’s group of honorees,’ the Dodgers said last week.

The next day, LA Pride announced it would no longer be participating in the event. 

The Dodgers reversed their decision five days later and welcomed the group back.

The Dodgers also received backlash from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and religious advocacy group CatholicVote for allowing the group to participate in its festivities.

Longtime Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, said this week he disagrees with his team’s move.

The Dodgers’ decisions on the anti-Catholic group come amid a trend of well-known companies being called out for sponsoring individuals with controversial viewpoints and lifestyles.

Bud Light recently came under fire for teaming up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, and individuals nationwide began boycotting the brand as a result of the campaign.

The California State Legislature’s LGBTQ Caucus is poised to honor a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the controversial group at the center of a backlash engulfing the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who identify as a group of ‘queer and trans nuns,’ are known for mocking Christian beliefs, including holding an annual ‘Foxy Mary’ and ‘Hunky Jesus’ contest, pole dancing on crosses, and using the saying, ‘Go forth and sin some more!’

Michael Williams, a member of the group known as ‘Sister Roma’ who runs a podcast covering pornographic movies and LGBTQ issues, is on the honoree list for the California Senate’s upcoming Pride recognition night. 

‘For more than three decades, Sister Roma has been one of the most outspoken and globally recognized members of San Francisco’s Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,’ the LGBTQ Caucus’ announcement said.

‘Honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group whose sole mission is to sexualize nuns and mock Jesus, reveals the true depth of hatred California’s elected officials have for the millions of Catholics residing in the state,’ Mark Trammell, the executive director of the Center for American Liberty, told Fox News Digital. 

Despite the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence recently facing serious backlash from religious advocates who refer to the group as a ‘blatantly perverted, sexual and disgusting anti-Catholic hate-group,’ the California lawmakers proceeded to extend an invitation to one of its members for the June 5 event.

‘It’s disgusting that the California Senate is choosing to honor an anti-Catholic hate group. Would Democrats still embrace this group if they mocked Jews or Muslims? Bigotry and discrimination against any religious group are wrong and have no place being honored in the State Capitol,’ California Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

The Dodgers recently came under fire after announcing their plan to honor the L.A.-based branch of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence with the ‘Community Hero Award’ before their June 16 game.

After Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and religious groups like CatholicVote voiced their concern over the award, the team announced it would no longer be honoring the group at the Pride event ‘given the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the sisters’ inclusion in our evening.’ 

Just days after their decision to uninvite the group, the Dodgers apologized to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and reinvited them to the event, an announcement that garnered even more backlash from the religious community and players within the baseball league. 

‘I am disappointed to see the Sister’s [sic] of Perpetual Indulgence being honored as heroes at Dodger Stadium. Many of their performances are blasphemous, and their work only displays hate and mockery of Catholics and the Christian faith,’ Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen said in a statement after the announcement.

Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw also responded to the decision to reinvite the group: ‘This has nothing to do with the LGBTQ community or Pride or anything like that. This is simply a group that was making fun of a religion, that I don’t agree with.’

Members of the group, formed on Easter Sunday in 1979, are known for attending left-wing protests dressed up in mock nun outfits to advocate for anti-Catholic messaging, including on abortion.

The LGBTQ Caucus didn’t immediately return a request for comment. 

Fox News’ Scott Thompson contributed to this report.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis drew laughs from an audience in Iowa after hitting back against criticism from former President Donald Trump on his record as Florida governor.

‘He used to say how great Florida was,’ DeSantis told a reporter following a speech Tuesday night on the campaign trail in Iowa. ‘Hell, his whole family moved to Florida under my governorship. Are you kidding me?’

The Florida Republican’s comments drew a loud laugh from the crowd.

‘Look, I’m going to respond to attacks,’ DeSantis added.

‘I mean, if you say Cuomo did a better job with COVID than Florida did — first of all, that’s not what he used to say. Six months ago he would have never said that, right?’

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Trump, who recent Fox News polling shows holds a substantial lead on DeSantis among GOP primary voters, has criticized DeSantis for weeks over his record in Florida, including attacks that DeSantis says are ‘delusional.’

‘He’s been attacking me by moving left,’ DeSantis said last week.

‘Remember, I left that decision up to the Governors!’ Trump, who moved his primary residence to Florida in 2019 after living there part-time for decades, posted on Truth Social. ‘For COVID Death Rates Per State, Ron, as Governor of Florida, did worse than New York.’

‘In Education, Florida ranks among the worst in the Country and on crime statistics, Florida ranked Third Worst in Murder, Third Worst in Rape, and Third Worst in Aggravated Assault,’ Trump said. ‘For 2022, Jacksonville was ranked as one of the Top 25 Major Crime Cities in the Country, with Tampa and Orlando not doing much better…’

DeSantis returned to Iowa for the first time as a declared presidential candidate this week for two days of campaigning while Trump is also headed to the state on Wednesday afternoon to campaign at various events, including a sit-down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity for a town hall in Clive, Iowa, which will air on the Fox News Channel at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.