Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said his department will ‘be prepared to deliver whatever this president expects’ following a warning to Iran about its nuclear program. 

Hegseth made the remark Thursday during a Cabinet meeting, one day after President Donald Trump told Iran that ‘time is running out’ to strike a deal. 

‘They should not pursue nuclear capabilities. So we will be prepared to deliver whatever this president expects of the War Department, just like we did this month,’ Hegseth said before describing the Jan. 3 U.S. military operation that captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. 

‘No other military in the world could have executed the most sophisticated, powerful raid, not just in American history, I would say, in world history. What those men did going downtown, another country, the most secure place in the most secure base in the middle of the night without anybody knowing until those simultaneous bombs dropped three minutes before the helicopters dropped. No other country could coordinate that,’ Hegseth continued. ‘No other president would have been willing to empower those warriors that way to be that effective.’

‘And that sends a message to every capital around the world that when President Trump speaks, he means business. And we are reestablishing deterrence at the War Department,’ Hegseth also said. 

The secretary of War also told the Cabinet that Trump has had to ‘rebuild the perception of America’ during his second term. 

‘And at the Department of War, that meant reestablishing deterrence. What happened in Afghanistan. What happened in Ukraine, a war that never would have occurred. What happened on Oct. 7 in Israel — never would have happened under President Trump. So as a result, we’re having to rebuild how our enemies perceive us,’ he said. ‘And when President Trump said, ‘We’re not getting a nuclear Iran, you won’t have a nuclear bomb,’ he meant it. And we sent those B-2s halfway around the world, and they never noticed.’

‘When you said, Mr. President, we’re securing the border, the military was proud to do their part alongside Homeland Security to do that. Same thing with Iran right now, ensuring that they have all the options to make a deal,’ Hegseth added. 

In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump said, ‘A massive Armada is heading to Iran.’ 

‘It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose. It is a larger fleet, headed by the great Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela. Like with Venezuela, it is, ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary. Hopefully, Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal — NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS — one that is good for all parties. Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!’ the president warned.

‘As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’ he added. 

Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report. 

House Republicans are breaking fundraising records as they build resources to defend their razor-thin majority in November’s midterm elections.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which is the campaign arm of the House GOP, on Friday highlighted its robust fundraising last year, as well as ‘record’ hauls by House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer.

The fundraising surge is much needed, as Republicans face a rough political climate due to persistent inflation, which is fueling President Donald Trump’s negative approval ratings. And as the party in power in the nation’s capitol, the GOP is also up against traditional political headwinds in the midterms.

The Trump administration and Republicans are also facing political backlash following the fatal shootings this month by federal enforcement agents of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota who were protesting the government’s unprecedented crackdown on illegal immigration.

Democrats, meanwhile, are energized following their ballot box successes last year as they rebound from their 2024 election setbacks and need a net gain of just three House seats in the midterms to capture the majority.

The NRCC showcased that it raked in $117.2 million last year, their best-ever off-election year haul other than 2021, when Democrats controlled the White House and Congress. The fundraising figures were first reported by Axios.

The committee also highlighted that Johnson brought in over $82 million for House Republicans in 2025, the most money ever raised in one year by a House speaker.

The NRCC also noted that Scalise’s $35.5 million haul marked his strongest off-year fundraising performance, and that Emmer brought in nearly $30 million, a record.

And the committee also noted that the Congressional Leadership Fund and the American Action Network, the top two outside political groups aligned with the House GOP, combined raked in a record $136 million.

‘House Republicans are building an unprecedented war chest because voters are buying what we’re selling. We’re all in on growing the majority, and our fundraising numbers prove we have the resources to win across the map,’ NRCC Spokesman Mike Marinella emphasized in a statement to Fox News Digital.

The rival Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has yet to announce their fourth quarter fundraising figures.

But DCCC spokesperson Justin Chermol highlighted, ‘No amount of money can rescue this hopeless, directionless, and extreme House Republican majority.’

House conservatives are mounting a push that could extend the looming partial government shutdown if the Senate does not accept a key election integrity measure backed by many on the right.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital on Thursday evening that she and a ‘handful’ of House Republicans are pushing to get the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act added to the spending compromise that’s expected to pass the Senate and be sent to the House on Friday.

The legislation, which was introduced by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and passed the House in April 2025, would require proof of citizenship in the voter registration process.

‘I know for a fact that if the SAVE Act is a standalone vote in the Senate, just like every other good piece of legislation, it’s going to die,’ Luna told Fox News Digital.

She declined to say how many House GOP lawmakers supported her effort but said, ‘It’s definitely a number that’s big enough to completely halt all floor proceedings.’

‘There’s some Republicans that are just straight-up coming out saying, ‘We’re going to basically be with Luna, and we will not be voting for any piece of legislation, specifically on these appropriations, that does not include the SAVE Act because of the fact that we know it’s not going to survive in the Senate,” Luna said.

Rep. William Timmons, R-N.C., who is also backing the effort, told Fox News Digital, ‘If the Democrats can play this game and shut the government down yet again, I think that we need to hold their feet to the fire.’

‘The American people want us to do our job. Government shutdowns are terrible, and so if [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.] is going to shut the government down, I think it’s appropriate to…say this is your shutdown, and here’s the way to reopen,’ Timmons said.

The push could cause complications in the House, which is expected to consider the Senate’s federal funding compromise early next week.

Senate Democrats walked away from a bipartisan deal to fully fund the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2026 amid fallout over President Donald Trump’s surge of federal law enforcement in Minneapolis.

Federal officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in the Midwest city during separate demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown. In response, Democrats threatened to hold up a massive federal funding bill that also includes dollars for the departments of War, Labor, Health and Human Services, Transportation and others unless funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was stripped out.

The deal reached would fund all but DHS through Sept. 30, while funding DHS with a two-week extension of current spending levels to give Congress time to hash out a compromise that would include stricter guardrails on immigration enforcement agencies under the department’s purview.

With some conservatives already complaining about the deal, it’s likely that Democratic support will be needed to pass the legislation back in the House.

It’s not clear if attaching the SAVE Act to that package will alienate Democrats, however.

On the other side, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will need nearly all Republicans to move in lockstep for the package to survive a procedural hurdle called a ‘rule vote.’ It’s a House-wide test vote of sorts that allows for debate and final consideration of a measure, but normally falls along party lines.

Luna would only need a small group of Republicans to tank the rule, which could extend the partial shutdown that’s already expected to happen beginning Feb. 1.

House GOP leaders could sidestep the rule vote altogether, however, by putting the bill up under suspension — a mechanism for fast-tracking legislation in exchange for raising the threshold for passage from a simple majority to two-thirds.

‘I don’t think that they would do that. I mean, that would be really problematic for them,’ Luna said.

But if successful, the bill would have to be sent back to the Senate for another vote.

The Senate has a deal to fund the government, but Republican anger over the nature of the deal, earmarks and what changes could come to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) derailed its progress Thursday night. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and President Donald Trump agreed to strip out the much-maligned DHS funding bill from a broader, six-bill funding package, and instead fund the agency with a two-week continuing resolution (CR), while lawmakers haggled over tweaks to the bill. 

Even though there is a deal backed by the White House that has key Democratic buy-in, there will still be a partial government shutdown this weekend, given that the House must weigh in on the package. 

Toward the end of the night, Republicans had blasted through hold after hold, amendment request after amendment request, but one lawmaker stood in the way: Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Without his buy-in, the package couldn’t move forward.

Graham told reporters as he walked into Thune’s office late Thursday night that the package was a ‘bad deal.’ 

He was angered by the treatment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Graham argued that ICE agents ‘are not infallible, but I appreciate what they’re doing. I’ve never been more offended than I am right now by what’s being said about these folks.’

Graham was just one of many Senate Republicans who were not unified in their view of the deal or the underlying original package, which failed a key test vote Thursday afternoon — seven Republicans joined all Senate Democrats to spike it.

Once the deal crystallized and Trump publicly announced his support of it, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and his leadership team went to work trying to quell resistance among their ranks Thursday night, but to no avail. 

‘Tomorrow’s another day, and hopefully people will be in a spirit to try and get this done tomorrow,’ Thune told reporters as he left the Capitol Thursday night.

Typically, when a package like the Trump-backed proposal is rushed to the Senate floor, it goes through what’s known as the hotline process in the Senate. That allows lawmakers to weigh in with approval, concerns, requests for amendments or, in some cases, outright block the package from moving forward. 

Sources familiar with Senate Democrats’ planning told Fox News Digital that as of Thursday night, their side of the aisle had not started the process as they waited for Senate Republicans to figure out their next move.

Part of the DHS funding bill included a repeal of a controversial provision that allowed senators whose phone records were subpoenaed during former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost probe to sue for up to $500,000 for each infraction.

Graham has been a strong proponent of the provision, scuttling several attempts by Senate Democrats to repeal it over the last few months. 

When asked if his hold was related to its expected repeal, Graham said no and noted that he had reached an agreement with the Senate Ethics Committee that wouldn’t allow him to financially gain from a lawsuit.

‘We can find out a way forward, but not this way,’ Graham said.