President Donald Trump is hosting an event at the White House Wednesday to tout how ‘Clean Beautiful Coal,’ he says, is America’s most reliable and affordable energy source.

The president will be joined by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum for Wednesday’s event, which is set to begin at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in the White House’s East Room.

The White House told Fox News Digital Tuesday that a number of governors and members of Congress were also invited to attend the event. 

‘Beautiful, clean coal is critical to ensuring American families and businesses have the energy they need, while simultaneously driving down electricity costs across the country,’ White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital. ‘President Trump’s commonsense approach is unleashing America’s most reliable and affordable energy source, saving thousands of good-paying jobs, and turning the page on Joe Biden’s energy crisis.’ 

The event is set to highlight how coal is a ‘reliable and affordable energy source that keeps the lights on during times of peak demand,’ the White House said.

The president is set to sign the ‘Strengthen the United States National Defense with America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Power Generation Fleet’ executive order Wednesday during the event — a new initiative for the Department of War to purchase electricity from coal-powered plants.

That order directs Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to enter into power purchasing agreements with coal-fired power plants to ensure that the Department of War has reliable power to strengthen the U.S. grid.

Also during the event, the president will announce that the Department of Energy will award funds to five coal plants to recommission and upgrade facilities in West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and Kentucky. 

A White House official told Fox News Digital that will be the first of ‘many more announcements’ related to awarding funds to coal plants across the nation.

‘Since the President has returned to office his relentless support for the coal industry has been felt,’ a White House official told Fox News Digital. ‘Coal production is up, new mines have been (opened), existing mines are being expanded, coal plants are continuing to run, and NEDC is working with a few companies to help build new coal generation units — which hasn’t happened since 2013.’

The official pointed to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which logged that during the first two quarters of 2025, an additional 12.2 million tons of coal were produced than in the first two quarters of 2024, representing a 5% increase year-over-year.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed the event, saying the president ‘will discuss how Clean Beautiful Coal is not only keeping the lights on but also driving down the cost of electricity across our country.’

Also during the event, the Washington Coal Club is set to name Trump the ‘Undisputed Champion of Coal.’

The event comes after the Trump administration, in January, reinstated the National Coal Council, comprised of dozens of stakeholders from energy firms, utilities, governmental and tribal interests, saying that no industry affects Americans’ lives more.

The council is now chaired by Peabody Energy CEO Jim Grech and Core Natural Resources Chairman Jimmy Brock. The council cut its was reinstated four years after then-President Joe Biden dissolved the decades-old consortium.

It also comes after the Energy Department announced $625 million would be put toward reinvigorating the U.S. coal industry in response to Trump’s executive order calling for such, and another directive to ‘strengthen the reliability and security of the U.S. energy grid.’

Wright’s office said in a release that the administration has saved more than 15GW of coal-powered electricity, in part through relaunching the council.

In July 2025, a DOE analysis found that the loss of coal-fired power plants would make grid reliability unsustainable, while also finding that 100GW more peak-hour supply is needed by 2030.

Fox News’ Charles Creitz contributed to this report. 

Russia has reportedly agreed to abide by the limits of a nuclear arms pact it reached with the U.S. years ago after the agreement expired last week — as long as Washington does the same.

The New START Treaty’s expiration, which occurred on Feb. 5, leaves the nations with the two largest atomic arsenals with no restrictions for the first time in more than a half-century, The Associated Press reported. The expiration has fueled fears of a possible unconstrained nuclear arms race.

In September, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would abide by the nuclear arms deal for another year after its expiration date as long as the U.S. followed suit, the AP reported. However, President Donald Trump has said he wanted China to be part of a new pact, something that Beijing has rejected, according to the AP.

‘Rather than extend ‘NEW START’ (A badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social upon the treaty’s expiration.

In response to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the now-expired treaty, the White House pointed to the president’s Truth Social post.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke to lawmakers about the treaty, saying Moscow would ‘act in a responsible and balanced way on the basis of analysis of the U.S. military policies,’ the AP reported.

Lavrov added that ‘we have reason to believe that the United States is in no hurry to abandon these limits and that they will be observed for the foreseeable future.’

‘We will closely monitor how things are actually unfolding,’ Lavrov said. ‘If our American colleagues’ intention to maintain some kind of cooperation on this is confirmed, we will work actively on a new agreement and consider the issues that have remained outside strategic stability agreements.’

The New START Treaty was signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, and was entered into force on Feb. 5, 2011. 

The treaty gave the U.S. and Russia until Feb. 5, 2018, to meet the central limits on strategic offensive arms. The treaty caps each side at 700 deployed ICBMs, SLBMs and nuclear-capable heavy bombers; 1,550 deployed warheads; and 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers and bombers. The parties were then obligated to maintain the limits as long as the treaty remained in force, which it did until last week.

The expiration of the treaty comes just after a meeting involving U.S. and Russian officials in Abu Dhabi. Axios previously reported that the two nations were closing in on a deal to observe the treaty for at least six months after its expiration. The outlet added that during the six-month period there would be negotiations for a new deal.

The State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Israel formally joined the Board of Peace on Wednesday ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House.

Netanyahu signed the document in the presence of Secretary of State Marco Rubio shortly before his scheduled talk with Trump, marking a diplomatic step as the two leaders prepare to discuss regional security and ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The prime minister said on X that while the talks would cover several issues, including Gaza, they would ‘first and foremost’ center on negotiations with Iran.

Leaders from 17 countries participated in the initial Gaza Board of Peace charter signing ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, in late January, including presidents and other senior government officials from Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Central and Southeast Asia.

Netanyahu was not present at the ceremony, where world leaders signed the founding charter alongside Trump, who was seated at the center of the stage.

His office, however, said he would accept Trump’s invitation to join the Peace Board, following earlier concerns he had raised about the makeup of the Gaza executive board, particularly the roles of Qatar and Turkey.

A handful of other countries were also invited by the White House to join, including Russia, Belarus, France, Germany, Vietnam, Finland, Ukraine, Ireland, Greece and China, among others. Poland and Italy on Wednesday said they would not join.

Netanyahu’s visit to Washington comes as the U.S. expands its military presence in the Middle East while talks with Iran remain ongoing.

Trump has deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and the USS Michael Murphy, a guided-missile destroyer, as his envoys meet with Iranian officials in Oman.

Other U.S. naval assets, including the USS Bulkeley, USS Roosevelt, USS Delbert D. Black, USS McFaul, USS Mitscher, USS Spruance and USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., are positioned across key waterways surrounding Iran, from the eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea to the Persian Gulf, and Arabian Sea.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said she received a criminal referral from the House Judiciary Committee alleging former CIA Director John Brennan lied to Congress, confirming the receipt during a hearing before the panel on Wednesday.

Bondi’s was responding to committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who directly asked the attorney general if Brennan would be indicted. The DOJ has for months been investigating Brennan and several others over the origins of the 2016 Trump-Russia probe.

‘What I can confirm is that we have received a referral from you, Chairman Jordan, to investigate John Brennan,’ Bondi said.

‘His attorneys have made some public statements, but the department is still bound, of course, by our longstanding policy of not discussing matters,’ Bondi said. ‘What I will say today I can’t confirm nor deny whether there’s a pending investigation, but what I will say [is] that no one is above the law. Weaponization has ended.

Jordan’s referral to the DOJ, sent in October, centered on Brennan’s testimony about the Steele dossier, a salacious document containing unverified, negative claims about Trump, and its role in an Obama-era Intelligence Community Assessment on Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.

The referral followed CIA Director John Ratcliffe also asking the DOJ to prosecute Brennan over broader conspiracy allegations.

A grand jury subpoenaed Brennan and former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, among others, as part of the DOJ’s investigation, Fox News Digital reported in November. The subpoenas originated from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, leading Brennan’s lawyers to accuse the DOJ of forum shopping for Republican-friendly judges.

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., chimed in after Bondi answered, alluding to comments Trump has made about targeting his pollical enemies.

‘If we want to know whether Mr. Brennan will be indicted, you should just ask the president,’ Goldman said.

Fox News asked Trump last summer about Brennan after reports first surfaced that the FBI was investigating him and several others involved in what Republicans have widely viewed as a politically motivated effort to undermine Trump’s 2016 election campaign and victory. Trump said at the time that ‘whatever happens, happens.’

‘I think they’re very dishonest people. I think they’re crooked as hell. And, maybe they have to pay a price for that,’ Trump said at the time.

Senate Democrats aren’t budging on their Homeland Security demands, and appear ready to again thrust the government into a partial shutdown as Republicans scramble to keep the lights on.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that he and Senate Democrats were prepared to reject a short-term funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) just days ahead of the funding deadline.

‘We’re 3 days away from a DHS shutdown, and Republicans have not gotten serious about negotiating a solution that reins in [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and stops the violence,’ Schumer said on X. ‘Democrats will not support a CR to extend the status quo.’

Congress has until Friday at midnight to fund the agency, and as the days go by, the odds of doing so are becoming increasingly slim.

Schumer’s edict comes as both sides of the aisle continue negotiations behind the scenes on a compromise bill to fund the agency.

Senate Democrats unveiled the legislative text of their 10-point proposal over the weekend, and for a time, Republicans were optimistic that talks were moving in a positive direction.

Now, Schumer and his caucus are at an impasse with Republicans and the White House. While President Donald Trump and his administration presented a counteroffer earlier this week, Democrats say it’s not enough.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., teed up the original DHS funding bill for another vote on Tuesday. That bill could be modified to be a CR, and Republicans are leaning toward a four-week extension to keep the agency open.

And he noted that the legislative text from the White House could be coming on Wednesday.

‘There’s going to be the legislative text coming over from the White House today,’ Thune told reporters. ‘But I think it’s, like I said, the White House is operating in good faith.’

Still, Democrats have dubbed the GOP’s counter, which has been kept under strict lock and key, ‘sophomoric talking points.’ However, several items from their proposal, like requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to obtain judicial warrants, demask, and have identification, are red lines for the White House and Republicans.

Whether the GOP can siphon off enough votes to avert a partial shutdown remains an open question, given the unified front Schumer and his caucus are presenting. And they will have a math problem of their own to contend with in trying to break the 60-vote filibuster.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday, ‘will be working from home this week,’ his office said in a statement.