While many presidential hopefuls continue to sit on the sidelines of a brewing 2024 race, the latest fundraising efforts of rumored Republican contenders reveal who may be gearing up for a run soon. 

Former President Donald Trump is the only announced Republican presidential candidate thus far, though a long list of rumored candidates show signs of interest in the GOP nomination. 

That includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Govs. Larry Hogan of Maryland and Asa Hutchison of Arkansas, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Govs. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire and Kristi Noem of South Dakota and former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.

The former president brought in roughly $9.5 million in the six weeks following his campaign announcement on Nov. 15 — a smaller haul than the $11.8 million raised through his fundraising entities during the six weeks leading up to his presidential launch. The deflated numbers substantiate some claims that the Trump campaign is off to a slow start in 2024.   

In December of last year, the Trump campaign revealed to Fox that MAGA Inc., the super PAC supporting Trump’s 2024 run, was sitting on $55 million in cash on hand — though most of the funds came by way of a massive transfer from Trump’s Save America political committee.  

DeSantis raised a record-shattering $200 million during the 2022 cycle for his re-election bid last year — the most raised by any gubernatorial candidate in American history. The Florida governor had roughly $90 million in cash on hand at the close of his campaign leading to further speculation over his presidential ambitions.

Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former ambassador to the United Nations, reported $2 million in cash on hand at the end of last year through her super PAC Stand for America. Haley is expected to announce her presidential campaign on Feb. 15th at an event in her home state, according to sources close to the Haley team.

Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina built up a sizable war chest through his super PAC, the Opportunity Matters Fund. The group reported more than $13 million in cash on hand ahead of 2023. The senator will be in South Carolina and Iowa, key early states in the nomination process, as part of a listening tour series later this month. 

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who won re-election last fall, tapped several national fundraisers this week to join his newly formed PAC, Hardworking Americans, that will support other GOP candidates and boost his national profile in the process. Kemp is expected to attend a Republican donor conference, organized by veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove, later this month. Haley, Pence, and Scott will also be in attendance, according to a Politico report. 

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu recently created his Live Free or Die committee, a 501(c)(4) organization often formed by presidential hopefuls exploring donor interest ahead of a potential run. Sununu’s home state hosts the first contest of the Republican primary in 2024, giving him instant name recognition early on in the nomination process. 

Mike Pompeo’s super PAC, Champion American Values, reported $1.6 million in cash on hand at the close of 2022. Pompeo, who served as secretary of state in the Trump administration, has been making the rounds on national television and media to promote his new book – a common precursor to launching a bid for the White House. 

On the Democratic side, there are no announced presidential candidates in the 2024 race thus far. President Biden has still not announced his re-election intentions, though he is expected to run for a second term.  

Border Patrol agents apprehended two illegal immigrants and a smuggler after they spotted a damaged SUV with a shredded tire ‘driving erratically’ on the road near the besieged southern border, according to a border patrol official.

Agents in the Tucson Sector spotted the rental vehicle on Sunday, and noticed that it had a flat tire and ‘significant damage.’ Images of the vehicle show the car had a shredded tire and parts of the car falling off.

In a statement, Sector Chief John Modlin said the female driver eventually slowed down, before jumping out of the moving vehicle and running off, leaving her human cargo on the driverless SUV.

One of the migrants is said to have managed to stop the careering vehicle, before being arrested along with the other migrant. Agents also eventually nabbed the smuggler — a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, who now faces criminal charges.

The wild scene is the latest instance of human smuggling caught by authorities at the southern border. Coyotes frequently attempt to recruit U.S. citizens to smuggle in illegal immigrants seeking to evade Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Last week Fox News obtained video of two boys, ages 15 and 12, who wrecked their vehicle after vaulting onto a highway as they attempted to evade law enforcement while smuggling an illegal immigrant into Texas.

The driver was being chased by Texas troopers and lost control of the vehicle due to the wet road conditions, hit an embankment, went airborne and hit IH-35.

Video obtained by Fox News shows the boys calling for help from the wreckage and officers smashing the windows to get them out. Authorities said that the illegal immigrant being smuggled was located in the vehicle with ‘incapacitating injuries’ and transported to a hospital.

News outlets owned by the Chinese Communist Party say President Biden has only managed to make the U.S. military look weaker by pitting fighter jets against a surveillance balloon and an unknown ‘object,’ and cast China as the responsible party in the relationship while blaming the U.S. for holding a ‘hysterical’ position on China.

‘The Joe Biden administration’s handling of the Chinese balloon case last week was meant to showcase the United States’ strategic strength amid fierce attacks by Republicans and the low approval ratings of U.S. official,’ said an op-ed that appeared in China Daily, the country’s largest news outlet. ‘But instead it has shown to the world how immature and irresponsible — indeed hysterical — the U.S. has been in dealing with the case.’

That op-ed, which also appeared in the People’s Daily — another state-owned media source — said Biden’s unpopularity in the U.S. and pressure from Republicans to get tough on China is what prompted Biden to ‘overreact’ to the balloon incident.

‘The U.S. should have dealt with the balloon case in a calm and responsible way without letting it being hijacked by the bitter domestic partisan politics because a conflict between the two countries would spell disaster for the entire world,’ the op-ed said.

That op-ed appeared on the same day that the U.S. shot down a so-far unidentified object, which prompted Chinese hardline publication Global Times to accuse Biden of staging a ‘juvenile farce’ in the skies in order to look tough on China.

‘Less than a week after a U.S. fighter jet fired a missile and brought down a Chinese balloon, an utterly harmless civilian airship designed for meteorological use, the US shot down an unidentified object around Alaska on Friday at the order of President Joe Biden,’ an op-ed in that paper said. ‘Stuck in typical partisanship and ‘political correctness,’ orders from the White House are getting laughably juvenile.’

The Global Times column said it seems clear that Biden shot down the second object quickly after being criticized for taking its time with the first object. It also accused the administration of trying to make the U.S. military look formidable by taking on what China insists are civilian airships.

‘The U.S. did make a strong case that the F-22 is invincible, when its enemy are balloons,’ it said. ‘Unfortunately, this is the way the US propagandizes – bragging about shooting down balloons.’

‘Is US strong or weak? It looks pretty damn tough in the face of balloons, civilian airships, and other innocuous objects. But in the face of real battlefield, U.S.’ choice is to exhaust others,’ it added, in an apparent reference to America’s support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia.

Despite China’s effort to focus on partisan fighting within the U.S., Republicans and Democrats in the House voted unanimously this week to condemn China for sending at least one and possibly other balloons and other vessels into U.S. airspace.

Both parties have said it is China that is provoking the U.S., not the other way around, and have said together that China’s word is not to be trusted. In January, a both parties voted to create a new committee to pay closer attention to China, after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said that the ‘era of trusting communist China is over.’

This week, Democrats also had harsh words for China for trying to downplay its routine intrusion into U.S. airspace.

‘China says it reserves the right to retaliate against America for the temerity of shooting down their spy balloon over our territory,’ said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif. ‘This arrogance should not surprise us. It is the fruit of decades of China successfully pushing us around and getting away with murder.’

‘This balloon has woken up the American people, and it should wake us up to the far greater things that China has done,’ Sherman added.

House and Senate Democrats this week introduced a bill that would force the Supreme Court to adopt a code of conduct for justices, a step they say is needed to restore trust in the conservative majority court that has eroded because of recent Republican actions.

‘The word unprecedented is starting to lose its meaning as we see more and more questionable behavior from justices,’ said Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga. ‘And public trust and confidence in the Supreme Court is at an all-time low.’

Another Democratic sponsor, Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, pinned that eroding trust on a series of Republican actions and decisions over the last few years, some of which helped the GOP secure a 6-3 conservative majority on the court.

‘This loss of trust didn’t happen overnight but has grown out of an increasingly partisan confirmation process that started with Mitch McConnell refusing to give Merrick Garland a hearing or a vote, extends to the clear conflict of interest posed by Ginni Thomas’s work and advocacy and includes last year’s leak of the extremist anti-choice draft opinion,’ Cicilline said.

In 2016, with President Obama in the White House and after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, Senate Majority Leader McConnell, R-Ky., argued that the Senate almost never filled Supreme Court vacancies during election years. McConnell refused to move Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, which allowed incoming President Trump to fill that seat and two others during his presidency.

Cicilline’s mention of Ginni Thomas, Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife, is an apparent reference to the discovery that she sent texts urging the Trump administration to fight the results of the 2020 election. Thomas later told the House Jan. 6 Committee she regretted sending those texts, but Democrats have argued Justice Thomas should recuse himself from election-related cases.

Some polls have shown a drop in trust among voters in the Supreme Court as it has grown more conservative and released rules such as last year’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and leave it to states to regulate abortion.

The Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act, or the SCRET Act, seeks to address this broad set of issues that have been raised mostly by Democrats.

It would require the court to adopt a code of ethics and publish it online and would put in place detailed standards that outline when a judge must recuse himself or herself from cases. For example, recusal would be required in cases involving parties that pushed to confirm a justice and if the justice, a spouse or minor child received income, gifts or other considerations within the last six years.

It would also impose a ‘clear duty for the judge/justice to know’ when they or their family stands to gain financially from a case that’s before them.

A Senate cosponsor of the bill, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said these and other changes in the bill would help assure people there are checks in place against the ‘special interests … spending millions to try to rig the judiciary in their favor.’

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., added that the possibility of justices being influenced by lobbyists at social engagements is another reason for Congress to step in and require a code of conduct.

‘Recent events at the court — whether it be the unprecedented leak of a draft opinion, speeches given at closed-door events with parties to ongoing cases in front of the court or public appearances with political figures — all point to the need for a defined code of ethics,’ he said.

Republicans are reacting after the U.S. military shot down a ‘high-altitude airborne object’ on Saturday, saying that the U.S. is facing an ‘unprecedented’ challenge

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a tweet that an ‘unidentified object’ over Canadian airspace was shot down.

‘I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace,’ Trudeau tweeted. ‘@NoradCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object.’

NORAD said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Saturday that it identified a ‘high-altitude airborne object’ over Northern Canada.

‘Military aircraft are currently operating from Alaska and Canada in support of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) activities,’ the statement said. ‘NORAD confirms that we have positively identified a high-altitude airborne object over Northern Canada.’

‘While we cannot discuss specifics related to these activities at this time, please note that NORAD conducts sustained, dispersed operations in the defense of North America through one or all three NORAD regions,’ the statement added.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said in a statement that the U.S. military has been working to eliminate this ‘unprecedented challenge.’

‘I once again commend our military, particularly the active duty and guard forces in Alaska, who have literally been working around the clock for weeks tracking and eliminating this unprecedented challenge,’ Sullivan tweeted.

Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., said the Biden administration needs to explain why two small objects were shot down, while the Chinese spy craft flew over America last week.

‘Can the Biden Admin please explain why they shot down two relatively small ‘objects’ over Alaskan and Canadian airspace this week, but allowed a known Chinese Spy balloon to collect and transmit data about our country for a week before it was brought down?’ Rosendale asked.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, urged ‘maximum transparency’ after the ‘object’ was shot down.

‘I again commend the excellent mission execution by our military men and women from the 11th Air Force and the Alaska Air National Guard, as well as the leadership at Alaska NORAD and NORTHCOM, in taking this object down,’ Murkowski said. ‘As we learn more about these objects, I will continue to encourage maximum transparency so that Alaskans have the greatest possible understanding of what they are and what we are doing, on the front line of our nation’s defense, to take them safely out of the sky.’ 

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said on Fox News that the Biden administration knows what these ‘objects’ are that are being shot down.

‘Any suggestion that the administration does not know what these objects are is an absolute lie. There’s no way that an F-22 pilot or any other fighter pilot is going to shoot an object in U.S. airspace or nearby without knowing what that is, or getting clearance once they do identify what that object is. So once again, congress is being kept in the dark right now,’ Mace said.

The U.S. military shot down an ‘object’ that was flying in territorial waters over Alaska on Friday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said during a press briefing.

Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

The Pentagon issued a statement Saturday revealing details about how an unidentified object was shot down by the U.S. military over Canada on Saturday.

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement that President Biden authorized NORAD to work with the Canadian government to shoot down a ‘high-altitude airborne object’ on Saturday after a call with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

According to the Pentagon, NORAD detected the object over Alaska late Friday evening and monitored the object over U.S. airspace with the assistance of the Alaska Air National Guard and was ‘tracking it closely and taking time to characterize the nature of the object. 

‘Monitoring continued today as the object crossed into Canadian airspace, with Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joining the formation to further assess the object,’ the statement said. .

A U.S. F-22 Raptor was used to shoot down the object in Canadian airspace using an AIM 9X missile, according to the statement. 

‘As Canadian authorities conduct recovery operations to help our countries learn more about the object, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be working closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,’ the Pentagon said.

The White House released a readout of the call between Biden and Trudeau shortly after the Pentagon’s statement that said the president ‘has been continually briefed by his national security team since the object was detected.’

‘Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of their militaries, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau authorized it to be taken down,’ the readout said. ‘President Biden authorized US fighter aircraft assigned to NORAD to conduct the operation and a US F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory in close coordination with Canadian authorities.’

The statement from the Pentagon came shortly after Trudeau announced on Twitter that he had authorized the object to be shot down and after NORAD confirmed to Fox News Digital it was monitoring the ‘high-altitude airborne object.’

The object of unknown origin became the third object to be shot down by a United States owned F-22 raptor in the last week.

On Friday, the U.S. military shot down an unknown object over the northern coast of Alaska that landed on frozen water and is in the process of being recovered by the military.

The previous Saturday, the United States military shot down a Chinese spy craft off the coast of South Carolina that had floated down from Alaska, into Montana, and across the United States.