Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that the mineral deal, sought by President Donald Trump, is ‘not the main topic on the agenda’ for the meeting set with the Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. 

‘I wouldn’t prejudge tomorrow about whether or not we have a minerals deal,’ he told reporters on board a flight to Saudi Arabia. ‘It’s an important topic, but it’s not the main topic on the agenda.

‘The minerals deal is on the table that’s continuing to be worked on – it’s not part of this conversation, per se,’ he said, noting that Tuesday’s meeting in Jeddah can be considered successful even without securing such an agreement.

‘It’s certainly a deal the president wants to see done, but it doesn’t necessarily have to happen tomorrow,’ Rubio added. 

The Ukrainian delegation is set to include Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential office, Andrii Sybiha, minister of foreign affairs, Pavlo Palisa, colonel of armed forces of Ukraine and an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who was not only involved in initial talks with Russia following its February 2022 invasion, but who also survived a poisoning attack after a peace meeting in March that year. 

Rubio will meet with the delegation in the city of Jeddah around noon local time on Tuesday.

‘The important point in this meeting is to establish clearly their intentions, their desire, as they’ve said publicly now, numerous times, to reach a point where peace is possible,’ Rubio said, adding that he will need to be assured that Kyiv is prepared to make some hard decisions, like giving up territory seized by Russia, in order to end the three-year war. 

‘Both sides need to come to an understanding,’ he said. ‘The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine, and obviously it will be very difficult for Ukraine, in any reasonable time period, to sort of force the Russians back all the way to where they were in 2014. So the only solution to this war is diplomacy and getting them to a table where that’s possible.

 ‘Then we’ll have to determine how far they are from the Russian position, which we don’t know yet either. And then once you understand where both sides truly are, it gives you a sense of how big the divide is and how hard it’s going to be,’ Rubio explained. ‘I’m hoping it’ll be a positive interaction along those lines.’

Steve Witkoff, special envoy to the Middle East who has increasingly been involved with the talks regarding Ukraine and Russia, told Fox News’ Dana Perino on ‘America’s Newsroom’ Monday morning, that the Trump administration has ‘gone a long way’ to ‘narrow the differences’ when dealing with Moscow and to get it to the negotiating table – though he did not go into detail. 

Witkoff suggested relations with Ukraine began to once again improve after Zelenskyy sent Trump a letter in which he apologized for the Oval Office exchange that went sour late last month after he refused to sign a mineral deal and angered the Trump administration – resulting in a series of explosive outbursts on live TV. 

While a mineral deal is unlikely to be achieved this week, according to Rubio, he said he hopes that with a successful meeting in Jeddah, he can secure the resumption of aid to Ukraine, though he did not detail if this would include the defensive aid the Trump administration halted, despite Russia’s continued bombardment against Ukrainian targets, or the intelligence sharing which the U.S. also stopped following the Oval Office showdown. 

‘The pause in aid broadly is something I hope we can resolve,’ Rubio said. ‘I think what happens tomorrow will be key to that.’

Rubio also said that Russia will see its own consequences if it doesn’t agree to negotiate on ending the war in Ukraine, including additional sanctions. 

‘It should be clear to everyone that the United States has tools available to also impose costs on the Russian side of this equation,’ Rubio said. ‘But we hope it doesn’t come to that. 

‘What we’re hoping is that both sides realize that this is not a conflict that can end by military means,’ he added. 

On Friday, in a posting on the Truth Social platform, Trump threatened Russia with ‘large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions and Tariffs,’ until a ceasefire and peace settlement are reached.  

A former Iraqi refugee pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State group, according to the Justice Department. 

Abdulrahman Mohammed Hafedh Alqaysi, 28, pleaded guilty to creating and developing logos for ISIS’ media wing, known as the Kalachnikov team, and sending hacking videos and instructions to ISIS members between 2015 and 2020, the Justice Department announced Friday. 

He also pleaded guilty to providing stolen credit card information and creating fraudulent identity documents for the designated terrorist group. 

Alqaysi, currently a legal permanent resident in Richmond, Texas, will remain in custody until his June 5 sentencing. He faces up to 20 years behind bars and up to $250,000 in fines. 

The guilty plea comes after the Trump administration has moved to crack down on the vetting of refugees. For example, President Donald Trump signed executive orders in January suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and ramping up vetting of refugees ‘to the maximum degree possible,’ particularly those ‘from regions or nations with identified security risks.’

One of the orders, known as the Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program, instructs Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to admit refugees to the U.S. on a ‘case by case basis’ if the alien does not pose a national security threat to the U.S.

Additionally, Vice President JD Vance voiced concerns about the vetting process for refugees in January, and said in an interview with CBS anchor Margaret Brennan that the U.S. shouldn’t ‘unleash thousands of unvetted people into our country.’ 

Specifically, Vance pointed to an Afghan national arrested in October 2024 on charges of conspiring to conduct a terrorist attack on Election Day on behalf of ISIS, according to the Justice Department. 

‘I don’t agree that all these immigrants, or all these refugees have been properly vetted,’ Vance told Brennan. ‘In fact, we know that there are cases of people who allegedly were properly vetted and then were literally planning terrorist attacks in our country. That happened during the campaign, if you may remember. So, clearly, not all of these foreign nationals have been properly vetted.’

A spokesperson for Vance did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital about Alqaysi’s guilty plea. 

Fox News’ Julia Johnson and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report. 

On the eve of his 50th day back in office, President Donald Trump is touting that America is ‘back.’

Trump, seven weeks into his second tour of duty in the White House, highlighted in an interview this weekend on Fox News’ ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ that he and his administration were moving ‘at a very rapid pace.’

’50 WINS IN 50 DAYS: President Trump Delivers for Americans,’ the White House touted in an email release on Monday, as it touted Trump’s accomplishments some of them controversial — since his Jan. 20 inauguration.

But the most recent national polls indicate Americans don’t have such a rosy view of the Trump presidency, and are divided on the job he’s done so far.

Trump’s approval ratings were underwater in three surveys – from Reuters/Ipsos, CNN and NPR/PBS/Marist – which were conducted ahead of the president’s address last week to a joint-session of Congress. It was the first major primetime speech of his second administration.

But Trump’s approval ratings were in positive territory in other new polls.

And Trump, who has long kept a close eye on public opinion polling, took to social media on Monday to showcase his ‘Highest Approval Ratings Since Inauguration.’

While Americans are split on Trump’s performance, the approval ratings for his second term are an improvement from his first tour of duty, when he started 2017 in negative territory and remained underwater throughout his four-year tenure in the White House.

But there’s been a bit of slippage.

An average of all the most recent national polls indicates that Trump’s approval ratings are just above water. However, Trump has seen his numbers edge down slightly since returning to the White House in late January, when an average of his polls indicated the president’s approval rating in the low 50s and his disapproval in the mid 40s.

‘Keep these numbers in perspective. The numbers he’s averaging right now are still higher than he was at any point during his first presidency,’ veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse told Fox News.

And Newhouse emphasized that Trump’s Republican ‘base is still strongly behind him.’

Daron Shaw, a politics professor and chair at the University of Texas, also pointed to Trump’s rock-solid GOP support.

‘He never had support among Democrats in the first administration, but he also had some trouble with Republicans,’ Shaw, who serves as a member of the Fox News Decision Team and is the Republican partner on the Fox News Poll, spotlighted. ‘That’s one acute difference between 2017 and 2025. The party’s completely solidified behind him.’

The president has been moving at warp speed during his opening seven weeks back in the White House with a flurry of executive orders and actions. His moves not only fulfilled some of his major campaign promises, but also allowed the returning president to flex his executive muscles, quickly putting his stamp on the federal government, making major cuts to the federal workforce and also settling some long-standing grievances.

Trump as of Monday had signed 89 executive orders since his inauguration, according to a count from Fox News, which far surpasses the rate of any recent presidential predecessors during their first weeks in office.

Those moves include a high-profile crackdown on immigration, slapping steep tariffs on major trading partners, including Canada and Mexico, and upending the nation’s foreign policy by freezing aid to Ukraine and clashing with that country’s president in the Oval Office.

‘He has flooded the zone with his policies and he’s thrown Democrats into disarray,’ Newhouse said.

And pointing to lackluster favorable ratings for the Democratic Party, Newhouse highlighted that Trump’s ‘numbers may be slightly slipping, but it sure as heck hasn’t gone to the Democrats.’

While he’s in a better polling position than during his first term, Trump’s approval ratings are lower seven weeks into his presidency than any of his recent predecessors in the White House.

Shaw noted that neither Trump nor former President Joe Biden ‘started out with overwhelming approval. This is not like the honeymoon period that we historically expect presidents to enjoy…. Historically, the other side gives you a little bit of leeway when you first come in. That just doesn’t happen anymore.’

Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low- to mid-50s during the first six months of his single term as president, with his disapproval in the upper 30s to the low- to-mid-40s. 

However, Biden’s numbers sank into negative territory in the late summer and autumn of 2021, in the wake of his much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan, and amid soaring inflation and a surge of migrants crossing into the U.S. along the nation’s southern border with Mexico.

Biden’s approval ratings stayed underwater throughout the rest of his presidency.

‘He just got crippled and never recovered,’ Shaw said of Biden.

There are some warning signs for Trump.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll indicated that just one in three Americans gave the president a thumbs-up on his handling of the cost of living.

Shaw emphasized that inflation, the issue that helped propel Trump back into the White House, remains critical to the president’s political fortunes.

‘If prices remain high, he’s going to have trouble,’ Shaw warned.

CALGARY, Alberta – The Calgary Petroleum Club is exactly what you would expect: dark wooden walls, fine decor, and rugged-looking wealthy men in jackets with no ties who can probably buy the whole West Virginia town where I live. This is where I met up with Gary Mar, a businessman and former government official, to see how President Donald Trump’s tariffs are impacting Canadian politics.

Mar served from 2007-2011 as minister-counselor of the Province of Alberta to the United States of America, and still has a hand in national politics.

I wanted to know about the surge in support that the Liberal Party, which chose Mark Carney as its new leader this week, has experienced since President Trump began launching tariffs, and how Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre can respond as the Canadian election heats up. 

‘There are two ballot issues,’ Mar said. ‘First, who is best able to deal with President Trump, and second, who is best able to run the economy?’ Obviously, the tariff situation, or as Canada calls it, the trade war, colors both of these issues.

Mar said the key is ‘to understand Trump’s motives for the tariffs,’ and he offered four possibilities: Increase U.S. manufacturing, generate revenue for tax cuts, balance the trade deficit, and/or create leverage for non-trade issues, in this case fentanyl coming over the Canadian border.

As a former diplomat, Gary found the fourth use of tariffs most objectionable, but what he was really asking was, what does Trump want or need from Canada to make this stop? In the absence of an answer to this question, Poilievre is in a dicey situation.

Ever since Conservative Party leader offered support to the anti-vaccine-mandate trucker protest in Ottawa in 2022, he has been viewed in Canada as aligned with Trump. But today, Trump is public enemy No. 1, and Poilievre’s party has bled 20 points in the polls in two months.

Carney and Liberals are already showering the Canadian airwaves with ads tying Poilievre to the U.S. president.

I asked Mar if Poilievre would be better off politically today if Trump were to praise or insult him. He didn’t even hesitate, saying ‘it would be better if Trump insulted him.’

Somehow, this Conservative leader and would-be prime minister has to find a way to be frenemies with Trump, like the younger brother who doesn’t take any guff from the older, to show he can work with Trump while also defending Canadian honor against a U.S. president threatening his proud nation’s sovereignty.

This is because everyone in Calgary, including Mar, has told me that Canadian nationalism, until recently almost an anachronism, is at levels they have never seen before. Trump’s constant trolling about making Canada the ’51st state’ is undoubtedly another factor.

The election, at soonest, will take place sometime in April. If the tariff issue is resolved quickly, it will free Poilievre up to campaign on the issues he wants to focus on, and I ran smack into one of them accidentally in Calgary on Sunday.

As I turned the corner amid a morning constitutional, I saw about 40 or 50 mostly women, with signs demanding Canada no longer allow biological men in women’s prisons. There I spoke with Heather Mason, who was incarcerated when the policy allowing men was introduced. 

Mason, and all of the other women there, had a clear message: ‘It has to stop.’ Poilievre agrees, and has publicly stated he will ban men from women’s prisons. 

These are the kinds of issues that conservatives in Canada, like their cousins to the south, want to focus on. But with tariffs sucking all the news oxygen out of the media, they can’t.

To be sure, Trump’s job is not to win elections for conservatives in Canada, it is to do what is in the best interest of the American people. But surely, on some level, America’s interest is tied to a good, functioning relationship with our closest trading partner to the north.

The scuttlebutt in the Great White North is that Liberals want a new election ASAP. They feel like they have the mojo, so the sooner, the better. Politically they want this trade war, as they put it, raging as Canadians cast their ballots.

‘There are two things that increase Canadian nationalism, war and sports, and we have both,’ Mar quipped, referring to the ‘trade war,’ and the USA vs Canada hockey rivalry’s revival.

In that kind of environment, Poilievre may need to punch back at Trump, but in a friendly way, the way brothers do. But that is a very fine line to walk. How he manages that challenge could define U.S. Canadian relations for a very long time to come.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will close several more offices within its agency as part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to downsize the government, the acting administrator Janet Petro informed employees in a memo Monday.

Petro said the ‘phased reduction in force’ is ‘occurring in advance’ of this week’s deadline for federal agencies to inform the government of their layoff plans. 

‘While this will mean making difficult adjustments, we’re viewing this as an opportunity to reshape our workforce, ensuring we are doing what is statutorily required of us, while also providing American citizens with an efficient and effective agency,’ Petro wrote.

NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy; the Office of the Chief Scientist; and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility branch in the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity will be shuttered, in compliance with Trump’s executive order, ‘Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimization Initiative.’

Fox News Digital reached out to NASA to find out how many employees will be impacted by the office closures.

Agencies are required by Thursday to report to the Office of Personnel Management about their plans to downsize their workforce, as announced last month by Trump and Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

With hundreds left dead over the weekend under Syria’s new regime, Greek Foreign Minister Giorigios Gerapetritis warned Europe and the U.S. to ‘keep a close eye’ on the ruling Islamist group that is working to gain acceptance by the West. 

Syria contains a sizable population of Orthodox Christians, and Gerapetritis insisted the international community demand religious minorities be included in governance, or else leave sanctions in place. 

‘All ethnic and religious minorities should be included in the governance, rule of law,’ he told Fox News Digital in an interview conducted last week prior to the weekend’s violence.

‘The release of sanctions should take place mostly on a gradual basis. We need to see how it goes,’ he went on, adding that any lifting of sanctions should be ‘reversible.’ 

‘It is of the utmost importance that the U.S. and Europe are keeping a close eye on Syria. We need to encourage the new regime to stay close to international law.’ 

Days of clashes between those affiliated with Syria’s new governing force HTS and those loyal to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad have left hundreds of civilians dead. 

Death toll estimates have varied. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday more than 1,000 people had been killed, including 700 civilians. Another monitoring group, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, reported that government forces had killed 327 civilians and captured militants and Assad loyalists had killed 148. 

It was the bloodiest internal clash since Assad was ousted in early December.

Fighting began Thursday after Assad loyalists ambushed government forces in the Latakia province, and revenge killings left entire families, mostly of the Alawite sect of Islam, dead in their wake, according to the United Nations. 

‘We are receiving extremely disturbing reports of entire families, including women, children and hors de combat [surrendered] fighters, being killed,’ U.N. human rights commissioner Volker Türk said in a statement. ‘The killing of civilians in coastal areas in north-west Syria must cease, immediately.’

 Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said the fighting was part of ‘expected challenges’ and called for national unity. 

‘We have to preserve national unity and domestic peace; we can live together,’ he said. 

Russia and the U.S. asked the U.N. Security Council to meet privately on Monday to discuss the violence in Syria. 

Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham was founded as an al Qaeda offshoot but broke away from the group in 2016. In December, the Biden administration lifted a $10 million bounty on the head of al-Sharaa. 

The group has been trying to shake its extremist reputation and terrorist designation, with a smooth-talking al-Sharaa claiming he does not want Syria to become the next Afghanistan and he believes in education for women.

Gerapetritis also expressed ‘concern’ about Turkey’s Blue Homeland Doctrine, which has prompted incursions into Greek waters. The expression refers to Turkey’s maritime claims over large portions of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, in large part spurred by large deposits of natural gas off the coast of Cyprus. 

‘We are concerned, you know, the Blue Homeland doctrine is a doctrine that goes against international law,’ he said. ‘Greece has abided by international law, especially international law of the seas.’

Geraptetritis said relations between Greece and Turkey had improved in recent years – Turkish incursions of Greek airspace had ‘minimized’ and the two countries had coordinated on tackling illegal immigration. 

‘There must be a major step concerning the limitation of maritime zones. We’re not still there,’ he said. 

Greece and Turkey, both members of NATO, have had tensions for decades, though relations have improved in recent years. 

‘I have to emphasize the fact that Greece is a pillar of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the broader region.’

The foreign minister also boasted of Greece’s growing relationship with India, and views his nation as a gateway for India’s planned Middle East-Europe corridor. 

He framed it as a way to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative, where the CCP seeks access and influence across the globe by financing development and trade projects. 

‘This major, plan is, I think, an excellent project,’ said Gerapetritis. ‘In order to diversify the routes concerning transport, concerning data, concerning energy. We are very like-minded with the United States when it comes to foreign and security policy.’

China had swept in to help Greece financially during its public debt crisis, with Chinese companies investing billions in the nation at a time when most investors were spooked by its debt defaults. Now, Greece appears to be pulling away from that influence. 

‘It is our firm conviction that we need to develop alternative cooperation and alternative trade routes [to China].’

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., met with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) employees on Friday who were fired as a result of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) federal workforce reductions. 

CFPB has provided over $21 billion in consumer relief, according to the agency’s latest data from Dec. 3. 2024. Kaine accused Musk of targeting the CFPB with DOGE cuts for his own gain. 

‘The fact that the Trump administration would target these guys at the front end of a chainsaw massacre… Why are you going after these consumer protection advocates? It smells really bad. I mean, it makes it seem like it happened because Musk has some particular interest in gutting these regulators who are protecting everyday folks.’

In an interview with Fox News Digital following his meeting with former CFPB employees, Kaine said the CFPB saved ‘tens of thousands of Virginians’ from unfair or abusive financial practices. 

‘These folks are doing great work,’ Kaine said. ‘This is an agency that returned $21 billion to consumers who got ripped off. I know the Virginia statistics. It’s tens of thousands of Virginians who got relief because of the work that these folks did.’

Virginia has the second-highest number of federal civilian employees in the United States, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Kaine has been a vocal opponent of DOGE’s federal workforce cuts, holding town hall meetings to address concerns from his constituents. 

Kaine said Musk and DOGE are ‘hurting people to help themselves’ by promoting a government that yields a ‘huge giveaway to Elon Musk and people just like him.’

‘There’s just too much bubbling up about Musk trying to get a contract here with the Department of State, trying to displace a contract at the DoD, and maybe steer it toward either his own companies or companies that he’s close to. When you allow an unelected guy to just come with the chainsaw and have access to people’s… and look, they’ve released data that they shouldn’t release: sensitive data, classified data, names of people who did not authorize them to put their data out to the world. They’re engaging in behavior that’s hurting people… why? I think they’re hurting people to help themselves,’ Kaine said. 

Regarding the ongoing federal workforce firings, Kaine said: ‘They ain’t using a hatchet. They’re using a chainsaw.’ Kaine said Trump is relying on executive actions to dismantle government agencies because even congressional Republicans wouldn’t ‘go along with this stuff that he’s doing.’

‘He is not confident he could get even Republican majorities to go along with this stuff. He’s going to do what he can, because even these Republican majorities that seem completely cowed and submissive, with no backbone and no willingness to exercise a vocal cord that they have, he doesn’t think they will go along with this stuff that he’s doing,’ Kaine said. 

The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by the deadline of this article. 

Joe Valenti, a former CFPB term worker who met with Kaine on Friday, told Fox News Digital he was locked out of the CFPB office last month, received a stop-work order and then a termination letter with no severance. 

Valenti said consumer finance laws are ‘not necessarily being enforced’ by halting CFPB operations. 

‘The federal government is abdicating from its role in protecting working people from financial harms and that affects low-income constituents, like the people who I served at CFPB. It affects service members, affects veterans, seniors. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is one of the laws that CFPB would oversee and enforce. That goes back to World War I. If you don’t have a cop at the beat at all, what’s going on in the markets and what does it mean for people who are affected by market abuses?’ Valenti said. 

CPFB is one of several agencies that has been impacted by DOGE’s federal workforce reductions. Elon Musk posted on X on Feb. 7, ‘CFPB RIP,’ followed by a gravestone emoji. 

President Donald Trump has touted CFPB cuts, telling the Future Investment Initiative Institute Priority Summit on Feb. 19 that his administration ‘virtually shut down’ CFPB. 

‘We virtually shut down the out-of-control CFPB, escorting radical-left bureaucrats out of the building and locking the doors behind them. What they were doing was so terrible. Where they were spending the money was so terrible,’ Trump said. 

Trump confirmed to reporters in the Oval Office on Feb. 10 his plan to have the agency ‘totally eliminated.’ Trump said the CFPB was a ‘waste’ used ‘to destroy some very good people’ and it was a ‘very important thing to get rid of.’ 

A complaint filed last month by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) accuses Russell Vought, CFPB acting director and director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), of ‘preparing to conduct another mass firing, this time of over 95% of the Bureau’s employees.’

Vought ordered CFPB employees to halt agency operations unless otherwise approved on Feb. 10. Seventy-three newly hired ‘probationary employees’ and 70 to 100 ‘term employees’ were subsequently fired while around 200 contracts were canceled, according to the lawsuit and media reports. 

Three CFPB leaders were placed on administrative leave in early February, Fox News Digital confirmed. An agency spokesperson said CFPB’s chief legal officer, Mark Paoletta, placed Lorelei Salas, the CFPB’s supervision director, and Eric Halperin, the agency’s enforcement chief, and Zixta Martinez, the agency’s deputy director, on administrative leave.

There have been protests outside the CFPB headquarters in Washington since the firings, featuring Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, who initially proposed the agency. 

CFPB is an independent government agency intended to protect consumers from unfair financial practices in the private sector. It was created by President Barack Obama’s administration in 2010 following the Great Recession of 2008. 

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.