China’s influence on the Panama Canal poses ‘acute risks to U.S. national security,’ Sen. Ted Cruz is warning Tuesday, alleging the Chinese Communist Party has taken a ‘militaristic interest’ in the vital global shipping passage. 

The Texas Republican told lawmakers during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation hearing that President Donald Trump recently has highlighted two key issues — ‘the danger of China exploiting or blocking passage through the canal’ and ‘the exorbitant costs for transit.’  

‘Chinese companies are right now building a bridge across the canal at a slow pace so as to take nearly a decade. And Chinese companies control container ports at either end. The partially-completed bridge gives China the ability to block the canal without warning and the ports give China ready observation posts to time that action,’ said Cruz, who is the chairman of the committee. 

‘This situation I believe poses acute risks to U.S. national security,’ he added. 

‘Meanwhile, the high fees for canal transit disproportionately affect Americans because U.S. cargo accounts for nearly three quarters for canal transits. U.S. Navy vessels pay additional fees that apply only to warships. Canal profits regularly exceed $3 billion dollars,’ Cruz continued. ‘This money comes from both American taxpayers and consumers in the form of higher costs for goods.’ 

Cruz’s comments come as newly sworn-in Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Panama for his first international trip as the nation’s top diplomat, Fox News has learned.  

Trump said during his inauguration speech last week that ‘China is operating the Panama Canal’ and ‘we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.’ 

Panama is denying the Chinese influence, with President José Raúl Mulino saying that ‘There is no presence of any nation in the world that interferes with our administration,’ according to the Associated Press.

However, Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Louis Sola testified Tuesday that ‘Since 2015, Chinese companies have increased their presence and influence throughout Panama. 

‘Panama became a member of the Belt and Road Initiative and ended its diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Chinese companies have been able to pursue billions of dollars and development contracts in Panama, many of which were projects directly on or adjacent to the Panama Canal,’ he told lawmakers. ‘Many were no bid contracts, labor laws were waived, and the Panama and Panamanian people are still waiting to see how they’ve been benefited. 

‘It is all more concerning that many of these companies are state-owned and in some cases even designated as linked to the People’s Liberation Army,’ Sola added. ‘We must address the significant growing presence and influence of China throughout the Americas and in Panama specifically.’ 

Cruz also said during the hearing that the Chinese Communist Party has taken a ‘militaristic interest in the canal’ and that ‘Panama has emerged as a bad actor.’ 

‘Panama has for years flagged dozens of vessels in the Iranian ghost fleet, which brought Iran tens of billions of dollars in oil profits to fund terror across the world,’ Cruz said. 

‘We cannot turn a blind eye if Panama exploits an asset of vital commercial and military importance, and we cannot stay idle while China is on the march in our hemisphere,’ he concluded. 

Fox News’ Nick Kalman and Bradford Betz contributed to this report. 

The Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) went on a memo blitz Monday, sending at least three letters to federal agency leaders on directives stretching from return to office instructions to pausing federal grants, copies of the memos obtained by Fox News Digital show. 

President Donald Trump’s administration already has issued a handful of directives aimed at federal agency heads since he took office Jan. 20, including ordering agency chiefs to shutter diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices, which was followed by another memo to begin terminating DEI chiefs. 

On Monday, the OMB, an executive office that evaluates agency programs and handles the president’s budget, and OPM, an independent agency that serves as the federal government’s human resources department, issued memos on Monday to further move federal agencies in line with the president’s vision of government. 

Return to office plans 

A joint OMB and OPM memo sent Monday regarding return to office plans outlined that agency heads have until Feb. 7 to provide a plan on returning staff schedules to full-time in-person work. 

Agencies must ‘prepare plans to expeditiously implement’ the memo and submit their plans ‘for review and approval by no later than Friday, February 7th at 5:00pm EST,’ the memo, obtained by Fox News Digital, states. 

The directive, addressed to ‘heads of executive departments and agencies,’ detailed that agency chiefs must craft plans that include details such as how they will ‘revise telework agreements for all eligible employees,’ as well as ‘provide timelines for the return of all eligible employees to in-person work as expeditiously as possible, including the date that the agency will be in full compliance,’ and ‘describe agency’s process for determining exceptions based on disability, qualifying medical condition, and or other compelling reason.’

Both the acting director of OMB, Matthew J. Vaeth, and OPM acting director, Charles Ezell, issued the memo. 

The directive comes after Trump railed against federal employees working from home years after the pandemic and social distancing mandates ended. On his first day in office, Trump issued a presidential action calling on federal agencies to terminate remote work. 

Executive branch department and agency heads ‘shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary,’ the Jan. 20 presidential action read. 

Pausing federal grants and loans in effort to end ‘wokeness’ 

The OMB issued another memo on Monday that pauses all federal grants and loans, out of an effort to end ”wokeness’ and the weaponization of government,’ and to promote ‘efficiency in government.’ 

‘Federal agencies must temporarily pauseall activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,’ the memo, obtained by Fox Digital reads. 

The pause takes effect at 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday. 

The memo explained that out of the $10 trillion spent by the federal government in fiscal year 2024, $3 trillion was allocated to ‘federal financial assistance, such as grants and loans.’

‘Career and political appointees in the Executive Branch have a duty to align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities,’ the memo states. ‘Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing, ending ‘wokeness’ and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again.’ 

The memo was sent to all heads of executive departments and agencies by Vaeth. 

‘The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,’ it adds. 

Agency chiefs are required to submit ‘detailed information on any programs, projects or activities subject to this pause’ to the OMB by Feb. 10 for review. 

New federal employee classification 

Agency leaders were directed in another memo sent Monday by OPM to review government positions that could be moved to the Trump administration’s new ‘schedule policy/career’ federal employee classification. 

Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office focused on federal employees who hold sway over policy decisions, as part of an effort to ‘maintain professionalism and accountability within the civil service,’ which Trump’s order said was ‘sorely lacking.’ 

The executive order created a new ‘schedule policy/career’ federal employee classification, which will work to remove civil protections from federal employees in ‘policy-influencing’ positions, making the individuals more vulnerable for termination. 

Trump’s executive order creates a new classification ‘for positions that are of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy- advocating character (policy-influencing positions) and filled by individuals not normally subject to replacement or change as a result of a Presidential transition. Such career positions will be rescheduled into Schedule Policy/Career,’ the memo stated. 

The memo states that agency leaders have until April 20 to craft a plan on positions that would shift to the new classification. The 90-day period for review began on Jan. 20, when Trump signed the executive order. 

‘Agencies have 90 days to conduct a preliminary review of positions and submit petitions, with an additional 120 days to finalize their review and submit any remaining petitions,’ the memo reads. ‘Agencies may, and are encouraged to, submit such petitions on a rolling basis.’ 

: Dozens of top former intelligence officials are urging members of the Senate to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, saying she will ‘begin undoing the gross politicization that has come to characterize intelligence bureaucracies,’ Fox News Digital has learned. 

Former White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, Navy SEAL veteran and member of the intelligence community Erik Prince and more than four dozen other former intelligence officials penned a letter to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., on Monday, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital. 

‘We, the undersigned former intelligence and national security officials, urge members of the United States Senate to confirm Tulsi Gabbard to serve as President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence,’ they wrote. ‘Her service as DNI will begin undoing the gross politicization that has come to characterize intelligence bureaucracies, which has been to the great detriment of the freedom and security of the United States and its citizens.’ 

The officials said Gabbard’s experience ‘more than qualifies her for this important position.’ 

Gabbard is a military officer with more than 20 years of service and multiple combat deployments. She also served in the U.S. House of Representatives for eight years and served on numerous national security committees. 

The officials said Gabbard was ‘an outspoken champion for America’s warriors and for our cherished constitutional freedoms.’ 

‘In both these roles, she experienced first-hand how intelligence, when used as intended, provides critical support to America’s military and political leaders,’ they wrote. ‘When intelligence was abused, Lt. Col. Gabbard spoke up and insisted on safeguards.’

The officials said that ‘in contrast to the many former senior intelligence officials who politicized their profession and disgraced themselves by running misinformation operations to undermine the President of the United States—such as by signing the infamous Biden laptop ‘Russian disinformation’ letter or appearing on partisan programs to knowingly mislead the public with false claims of inside knowledge and access to classified information—Lt. Col. Gabbard stood up for truth, integrity, and following the facts.’ 

The officials said those are ‘precisely the values necessary for the leader of the intelligence community.’ 

‘As former collectors, analysts, consumers, and enablers of intelligence, we support Lt. Col. Tulsi Gabbard to lead the IC,’ they wrote. ‘She has the integrity, and moral courage, to restore objectivity and professionalism to the nation’s intelligence agencies.’ 

The letter comes as Gabbard has come under scrutiny from some senators who have been critical of her intelligence experience. 

But allies of Gabbard have defended her record, and said it is critical that someone with ‘fresh eyes’ and ‘without bias’ lead the intelligence community. They also have argued that Gabbard knows, firsthand, the consequences of inaccurate intelligence, given her service in the War on Terror. 

‘She has seen the true cost of war,’ a source close to Gabbard’s confirmation process told Fox News Digital. 

‘It is a strength, not a weakness, that she doesn’t have direct prior intel agency experience,’ the source continued. ‘She has been a consumer during her time deployed overseas — but not having direct agency background is a strength as she will come in with clear eyes and no bias to the intel community which needs to regain the trust of the American people and not be used as a political tool weaponized against them.’ 

Gabbard’s confirmation hearing with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is scheduled to take place Thursday morning. 

Trump has argued that Gabbard will bring a ‘fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights and securing Peace through Strength.’ 

The director of national intelligence leads the U.S. intelligence community, which includes overseeing the National Intelligence Program and advising the president on security matters. 

Gabbard has served as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves since 2021, after previously serving in the Hawaii Army National Guard for about 17 years. She was elected to the U.S. House representing Hawaii during the 2012 election cycle, serving as a Democrat until 2021. She did not seek re-election to that office after she entered the 2020 White House race. 

Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022, registering as an independent before becoming a member of the GOP in 2024 and offering her full endorsement of Trump amid his presidential campaign. 

Gabbard has received the support of dozens of national security officials, and in December received endorsements from more than 250 veterans, including high-profile names such as retired Gen. Michael Flynn and former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller.

A transgender inmate receiving taxpayer-funded medical treatments has launched the first lawsuit against the Trump administration and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order that puts an end to medical transgender treatments for federal prisoners.

Trump’s executive order, titled ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,’ prohibits federal funds from being ‘expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.’ The order also declares there are only ‘two-sexes.’

The unnamed inmate, who goes by ‘Maria Moe’ in court documents and is represented by GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders and National Center for Lesbian Rights and Lowenstein Sandler LLP, has been on medical hormones since they were a teenager and has not been housed in a men’s facility since their conviction. 

Once Trump signed the executive order, Moe was transferred to a men’s prison facility, and BOP records changed the sex from ‘female’ to ‘male,’ the complaint says.

The lawsuit, first reported by Reuters, claims Trump’s executive order will lead to transgender women ‘who are incarcerated in federal prisons’ being ‘unlawfully transferred to men’s facilities and denied medically necessary healthcare.’

‘If Maria Moe is transferred to a men’s facility, she will not be safe,’ the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Sunday, claims. ‘She will be at an extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence, and sexual assault. She may be subject to strip searches by male correctional officers.’

‘She may be forced to shower in full view of men who are incarcerated. And she will predictably experience worsening gender dysphoria,’ the complaint continued.

Moe is claiming Trump and the BOP are violating the Fifth and Eighth Amendments and claims they are ‘at imminent risk of losing access to the medical care she needs to treat her gender dysphoria.’

Prior to Trump’s reversal of BOP gender dysphoria policies, the BOP began funding transgender surgical procedures for transgender inmates in December 2022, with Donna Langan – formerly known as Peter Kevin Langan – becoming the first federal prisoner to undergo transition on the taxpayer dollar. Langan was convicted in 1997 for involvement in a series of armed bank robberies across the Midwest during the 1990s. Langan was a leader of the Aryan Republican Army, a White supremacist group that carried out these robberies to fund their activities, according to court documents.

Langan’s gender transition followed years of advocacy and legal action, including a landmark settlement in 2021, when the BOP agreed to provide gender transition surgery to Cristina Nichole Iglesias, who was convicted in 1994 for threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction against British officials.

In the past year, multiple lawsuits have been filed over the denial of gender transition treatments for incarcerated individuals. Autumn Cordellioné, a transgender woman serving 55 years in Indiana for the murder of their 11-month-old stepdaughter, sued the state for refusing to conduct transgender surgery.

In April 2024, the Biden administration’s Department of Justice sued Utah’s Department of Corrections, alleging it created unnecessary barriers to gender dysphoria treatment for inmates.

In September 2024, Reiyn Keohane, a transgender woman imprisoned in Florida, filed suit against the state’s Department of Corrections. Keohane alleged officials violated the Eighth Amendment for discontinuing hormone therapy and access to female clothing and grooming products, despite Keohane’s prior diagnosis and treatment for gender dysphoria.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Moe’s attorneys, the White House and BOP.

American officials in Mexico have issued the highest-level travel warning amid increased gun battles, kidnappings and IEDs in a town that sits on the Texas border. The State Department has put the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, which sits across the border from McAllen, Texas, under a ‘Level 4: Do not travel’ advisory.

‘As a precaution, U.S. government employees have been ordered to avoid all travel in and around Reynosa and Rio Bravo outside of daylight hours and to avoid dirt roads throughout Tamaulipas,’ the consulate wrote in a statement.

Authorities are urging Americans to avoid dirt roads, not to touch unknown objects near or on roads and to plan travel during daylight hours. Additionally, Americans are advised to notify family and friends of their whereabouts ‘for your safety.’

The State Department’s Level 4 warning indicates that there is a ‘greater likelihood of life-threatening risks.’ Additionally, the department warns that the U.S. government ‘may have very limited ability to provide assistance, including during an emergency’ to Americans in areas under its highest-level advisory.

‘The Department of State advises that U.S. citizens not travel to the country or to leave as soon as it is safe to do so. We advise that you write a will prior to traveling and leave DNA samples in case of worst-case scenarios,’ the State Department’s website reads.

Last year, McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos told Fox News Digital that the American people were ‘exhausted’ by lawmakers ‘just kicking the ball’ on immigration.

Illegal immigration played a major role in the election, with both President Donald Trump and his opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, making trips to the border.

Since taking office, President Trump has made major changes to US immigration policy and leaders in his administration are taking action. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined an immigration enforcement raid in New York City on Tuesday.

Noem posted footage and images of the raid, saying that ‘Criminal alien with kidnapping, assault & burglary charges is now in custody – thanks to [ICE.] Dirtbags like this will continue to be removed from our streets.’

A DHS spokesperson said the dawn operation targeted ‘murderers, kidnappers, and individuals charged of assault and burglary.’

Earlier this month, then-incoming border czar Tom Homan reiterated Trump’s pledge to ‘run the biggest deportation operation this country has ever seen,’ adding that it would focus on ‘public safety threats.’

While Tamalipas, Mexico, remains under a Level 4 advisory, there are several parts of the country that are under lower-level advisories. The State Department keeps an updated interactive map on its website to help Americans understand risks when planning international travel.

House Republicans are set to hear from Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday, the second day of their annual issues conference, as they work to chart a path forward on plans for a massive conservative policy overhaul.

GOP lawmakers have chosen sunny South Florida for their annual retreat. In a sign of President Donald Trump’s enduring influence on his party, the three-day event is being held at the commander in chief’s golf course and resort in Doral. 

It is not clear yet what Vance is expected to say, but a copy of the lawmakers’ schedule for the week obtained by Fox News Digital suggests the discussion will primarily focus on the budget reconciliation process. 

Republicans have been negotiating for weeks on how to use their razor-thin majorities in the House and Senate to pass massive conservative policy changes through the reconciliation process.

By reducing the threshold for Senate passage from 60 votes to a 51-seat simple majority, reconciliation allows a party in control of both congressional chambers to enact sweeping changes, provided they are relevant to budgetary and fiscal policy.

However, there has been some disagreement for weeks over how to package the GOP’s priorities. Senate Republicans have pushed for breaking the package up into two bills in order to score early victories on border security and energy policy, while leaving the more complex issue of tax reform for a second bill.

House Republican leaders, however, are concerned that the heavy political lift that passing a reconciliation bill entails would mean lawmakers run out of time before they can extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which expire at the end of this year.

Vance has not publicly said which approach he favors. 

Trump, who previously called for one ‘big, beautiful bill,’ was less committed to the strategy during his own remarks to House Republicans in Florida on Monday night.

‘Whether it’s one bill, two bills, I don’t care,’ he said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said he wants the House to have passed a reconciliation bill by early spring. 

Carl and Marsha Mueller, the parents of ISIS murder victim Kayla Mueller, offered their full endorsement of Kash Patel for FBI director, after years of building a personal relationship with the Trump administration nominee. 

‘He loves his country. He loves the people of this country,’ Marsha Mueller told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview via Zoom on Monday morning. ‘To us, you know, he is a person that we would go to for help. And he is so action oriented.’ 

‘Just like Trump,’ Carl Mueller added to his wife’s comments on Patel’s action-motivated personality.

The Muellers wrote a letter this week to Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., of the Senate Judiciary Committee, offering their full endorsement of Patel to serve as director of the FBI under the second Trump administration. 

Their daughter Kayla was abducted by terrorists while leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria, in 2013, when she was assisting with humanitarian efforts amid the country’s bloody civil war. She was held hostage for 18 months, when she was believed to be repeatedly tortured and raped by ISIS militants, including then-ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. 

She was killed in 2015 — with her parents speaking to Fox Digital just days ahead of the 10-year anniversary of her death, on Feb. 6. 

Patel served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council during the first Trump administration, which put him in the Mueller’s orbit when he assisted in overseeing the military operation to eliminate ISIS chief al-Baghdadi in 2019. 

‘We would like to add our voices to those in support of Kash Patel’s nomination to be the director of the FBI,’ the Mueller’s letter to Senate lawmakers and obtained by Fox News Digital reads. ‘Any family who has lived through such an experience will know the value of dedicated, compassionate law enforcement officials.’ 

‘Because we have watched him at his work over time, and because we have personal experience of his dedication, we know that Kash Patel is such a person,’ the letter continues. ‘We continue to see in him a genuinely kind, thoughtful, action-oriented man who focuses on what is true and right and just. He loves our country and our citizens and wants the best for us all. He wants our country to be the best it can be.’ 

Patel personally has been at the Muellers side over the past five years, they told Fox News Digital. He has stood out from the crowd as a federal government employee who sincerely cares for Americans who are suffering and will pick up the phone ‘night or day’ to speak with them following the tragic loss of their daughter. 

‘I’m confident if I texted him right now, he would get back to me before this interview is over,’ Carl Mueller said. 

Patel previously served as a public defender in Florida’s Miami-Dade area, as well as a Department of Justice official during the Obama administration, when he won awards for his prosecution and conviction of 12 terrorists responsible for the World Cup bombings in 2010. 

Patel hit the national radar during Trump’s first administration, including when he worked as a national security advisor and senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence under the leadership of then-Committee Chair Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.

The Muellers reflected on the first time they met with Patel at the White House nearly five years ago when he served on the National Security Council, and how he told them to contact him at any time with questions about their daughter or to just talk.

‘We actually met Kash — we were back in D.C. at the White House, and he actually came to us and found us. That’s the first time we met him and wanted us to go meet with him and National Security Advisor, [Robert O’Brien]. So that’s how we first came to meet him. So it’s been almost five years ago. And they wanted to sit down and talk with us about Kayla. And we told them that we were working, and we’re still working with, [former FBI agent] Ali Soufan. And they told us to continue to work with him and they would help in any way they could. And so that was our first meeting,’ Marsha Mueller said. 

In their letter endorsing Patel, the Muellers reflected on the nominee’s note to them encouraging them to reach out, which came as a departure from their treatment under the Obama administration, they said. 

‘It was actually after that first meeting when we met him, and he wrote us the note, and he said, ‘Please contact me at any time, day or night, with whatever questions you may have, or simply if you just need someone to speak with. I’ll always answer your call.’ And, you know, he’s kept every promise he’s ever made to us, as we knew we would from meeting him that first time,’ Marsha Mueller told Fox News Digital. 

The Muellers previously spoke out against the Obama administration’s handling of their daughter’s captivity in Syria, repeatedly saying she would not have been murdered if Trump was in office when she was taken hostage. Carl Mueller underscored the conviction in his interview on Monday, adding that the second Trump administration not only reopens lines of communication for his family, but extends hope to families around the country who have loved ones in the hands of terrorists. 

‘We didn’t want to forget to mention to the families of current American hostages that their chances of getting their loved ones home have exponentially increased with the Trump administration in there,’ Carl Mueller said. ‘As I said before, if Trump would have been in office, Marsha and I are convinced that Kayla would be home. And we feel that he will do everything to get current American hostages. So just a word of encouragement and hope for them, because we know that sometimes hope is all they have.’ 

Then-President Barack Obama offered his condolences to the family following Kayla’s death in 2015, vowing that the U.S. would bring the terrorists to justice.

‘She has been taken from us, but her legacy endures, inspiring all those who fight, each in their own way, for what is just and what is decent.  No matter how long it takes, the United States will find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible for Kayla’s captivity and death,’ Obama said at the time, just roughly four years before the Trump administration wiped out ISIS’s leader. 

Kayla Mueller’s remains have not been recovered, but the couple believes the second Trump administration reinvigorates efforts to bring her and other hostages who have been murdered back to the U.S. 

‘We believe [the Trump administration] will work closely with Ali Soufan to help us find Kayla and hopefully other hostages that were killed and bring them home as well,’ Marsha Mueller said, referring to a former FBI agent who has worked with the Muellers across the years following Kayla Mueller’s captivity and murder. 

Patel, if confirmed, will replace former FBI Director Christopher Wray, whom the Muellers also lauded as a compassionate man who has also helped their efforts across the years. Looking ahead to the next four years, they said they are ‘very fortunate and looking forward to more progress and finding Kayla through the Trump administration.’ 

Patel is set to join the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday as the final leg of his nomination process kicks off in earnest. Patel has been on Capitol Hill meeting with Senate lawmakers to rally support for his nomination, earning praise from conservative lawmakers such as Tennessee Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, as well as endorsements from key law enforcement groups, such as the National Sheriffs’ Association. Patel is expected to face an uphill battle overall to secure the nomination, as Democrats balk that he lacks the qualifications to lead the law enforcement agency and would politicize the agency.  

The Muellers explained that even when Patel was no longer serving in the first Trump administration, he met with the couple and other families suffering from losing a loved one to terrorist captivity. The Muellers were among family members who attended the trial of ISIS terrorist El Shafee Elsheikh, a member of the so-called ‘ISIS Beatles,’ who admitted to his involvement in and knowledge of Kayla Mueller’s captivity. 

Elsheikh’s trial was held in 2022, when he was convicted by a jury in the Eastern District of Virginia and sentenced to eight concurrent terms of life imprisonment for holding four American citizens, as well as British and Japanese nationals, hostage before their deaths. 

Patel joined the Muellers and other affected families during the trial, the couple explained, meeting them and ‘anyone that wanted to talk with him’ at their hotel and speaking to them for maybe an hour. 

‘It was not just the Americans that came down when we were sitting there with him,’ Marsha Mueller said. ‘Actually, people from other countries did, too, because … he was willing to sit and talk with us. I was really deeply touched by that.’

‘But, you know, there was no reason, he was not in government anymore. But yet it was still in his heart and soul for justice,’ she said. 

The couple reflected on the past decade, when they first learned their daughter was murdered, remarking that Obama administration officials ‘will have to live with’ their failure of not bringing the American citizen home before her death. 

Marsha Mueller also read her daughter’s letter to her family while she was held captive, including a portion of the note that was not widely reported. 

‘We always like Kayla to speak for herself. And there’s a quote out there that most people know, but they don’t know what she said after that quote, and if I can get through it, she said, ‘I’ve known for some time what my life’s work is, using my hands as tools to relieve suffering.’ But she went on to say, ‘that is my life’s work, but my family is my life.”  

‘That’s Kayla,’ Marsha Mueller said through tears. ‘She loved us. We love her. And we encourage her to go out and help all the people she could in this world.’ 

The Trump administration will hold its first White House press conference with newly minted press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday afternoon, White House officials confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

President Donald Trump has been on a media blitz since his inauguration on Jan. 20, including sitting down for his first White House interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity and speaking with the media as he traveled to states rocked by natural disasters, including North Carolina and California. Trump’s press secretary also has frequently joined media outlets for interviews since Trump was sworn in, but has not yet held a White House press briefing. 

Leavitt, 27, is the youngest press secretary in the nation’s history — unseating President Richard Nixon’s press secretary Ron Ziegler, who was 29 when he took the same position in 1969. Leavitt was a fierce defender of Trump throughout his hard-fought campaign against former Vice President Kamala Harris, and also made her own political mark with a congressional run in 2022. 

Leavitt served in Trump’s first administration as assistant press secretary before working as New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s communications director following the 2020 election. She launched a congressional campaign in her home state of New Hampshire during the 2022 cycle, winning her primary but losing the election to a Democrat. 

Leavitt picked up the torch of press secretary from the Biden administration’s chief spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre. 

Trump’s first week in office was a whirlwind of executive orders and actions as part of his mission to follow through on campaign promises, such as securing the border and removing diversity, equity and inclusion practices from federal offices. 

‘I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success,’ Trump said during his inaugural speech on Jan. 20. ‘A tide of change is sweeping the country. Sunlight is pouring over the entire world, and America has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before.’ 

Trump repeatedly has made himself available to the media since his inauguration — a departure from former President Joe Biden’s infrequent availability to the media — speaking to reporters for about 45 minutes on the evening of his inauguration and again speaking with reporters on Tuesday for another 30 minutes. 

Trump also sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday, where the pair discussed issues ranging from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to hurricanes and wildfires under the Biden administration and declaring that his return to the White House serves as evidence that policies from the ‘radical left’ do not work and were rejected by voters. 

‘I think it’s bigger. It’s bigger than if it were more traditional,’ he said on ‘Hannity,’ referring to serving two nonconsecutive terms. ‘I think we got there just in the nick of time.’

Dozens of senior officials in the U.S. agency that administers foreign aid were reportedly placed on leave Monday amid an investigation into alleged resistance to President Donald Trump’s orders.

At least 56 U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) officials were placed on administrative leave with full pay and benefits, Politico first reported. Several hundred contractors based in Washington and elsewhere were also laid off, a current and a former official told the Associated Press. 

These actions come after Secretary of State Marco Rubio, acting on Trump’s executive order, paused all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and USAID. The 90-day pause has halted thousands of U.S.-funded humanitarian, development and security programs worldwide and forced aid organizations to lay off hundreds of employees because they can’t make payroll.

According to the Associated Press, an internal USAID notice sent late Monday said new acting administrator Jason Gray had identified ‘several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the President’s Executive Orders and the mandate from the American people.’

‘As a result, we have placed a number of USAID employees on administrative leave with full pay and benefits until further notice while we complete our analysis of these actions,’ Gray wrote.

The notice did not say which of the dozens of executive orders Trump has signed since taking office the USAID officials were accused of violating, according to the AP.

The White House and USAID did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Those placed on leave were career officials who had served in multiple administrations, including Trump’s, the former USAID official told the AP.

Before those officials were removed from the job Monday, they were scrambling to help U.S.-funded aid organizations cope with the new funding freeze and seek waivers to continue life-saving activities, from getting clean water to war-displaced people in Sudan to continuing to monitor for bird flu globally, the former official said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has specifically exempted only emergency food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt from the freeze on foreign assistance.

Trump has criticized foreign aid and called for a review of U.S. aid programs to determine which put American interests first and which should be eliminated. 

The U.S. is the largest donor of aid globally. During fiscal year 2023, the U.S. dispersed $72 billion in assistance. It also provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.