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Trump overhauls US arms sales to favor key allies, protect American weapons production

New policy requires assessment based on US production impact

By Morgan Phillips
Fox News

Published February 6, 2026 5:00pm EST | Updated February 6, 2026 5:02pm EST

FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order requiring the government to assess foreign weapons sales based on their impact on U.S. production capacity for key systems and to favor allies whose defense investments and strategic importance align with U.S. national security priorities.

Under the order, obtained first by Fox News Digital, the Departments of War, State and Commerce are instructed to ensure that U.S. arms transfers support weapons systems deemed most operationally relevant to the National Security Strategy, reinforce critical supply chains, and prioritize partners that have invested in their own defense and occupy strategically important regions.

The administration argues that past arms transfer policy allowed foreign demand to shape U.S. production decisions, contributing to backlogs, cost overruns and delivery delays that left both the U.S. military and its allies waiting years for critical equipment.

“The America First Arms Transfer Strategy will now leverage over $300 billion in annual defense sales to strategically reindustrialize the United States and rapidly deliver American-manufactured weapons to help our partners and allies establish deterrence and defend themselves,” according to a White House fact sheet.

TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY BLUEPRINT DECLARES ‘ERA OF MASS MIGRATION IS OVER,’ TARGETS CHINA’S RISE

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order requiring the government to assess foreign weapons sales based on their impact on U.S. production capacity for key systems and to favor allies whose defense investments and strategic importance align with U.S. national security priorities.(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

A central goal of the order is to speed up a foreign military sales process that defense officials and industry leaders have long criticized as slow and overly bureaucratic. The order directs federal agencies to identify ways to streamline enhanced end-use monitoring requirements, third-party transfer approvals and the congressional notification process — steps the administration says have contributed to years-long delays in delivering U.S. weapons overseas.

The order also creates a new Promoting American Military Sales Task Force charged with overseeing implementation of the strategy and tracking major defense sales across the government. In a move aimed at increasing accountability, the administration says agencies will be required to publish aggregate quarterly performance metrics showing how quickly defense sales cases are being executed.

The strategy also signals a shift in how the United States prioritizes its partners. The order directs the government to favor countries that have invested in their own defense and occupy strategically important regions, effectively tying arms sales decisions more closely to U.S. military planning and geographic priorities.

The administration argues that past arms transfer policy allowed foreign demand to shape U.S. production decisions, contributing to backlogs, cost overruns and delivery delays that left both the U.S. military and its allies waiting years for critical equipment.(U.S. Air Force/Mauricio Campino/Handout via Reuters)

HEGSETH SAYS DEPARTMENT OF WAR ‘WILL BE PREPARED TO DELIVER’ WHATEVER TRUMP WANTS FOLLOWING IRAN WARNING

Other partners could face longer timelines or lower priority if their requests do not align with U.S. strategic or industrial objectives. While the order does not name specific countries, it reflects an effort to focus limited U.S. production capacity on allies viewed as most critical to executing the National Security Strategy.

The order also instructs the War, State and Commerce departments to “find efficiencies in the Enhanced End Use Monitoring criteria, the Third-Party Transfer process, and the Congressional Notification process.”

Congress will likely be watching how the administration implements the order, especially provisions aimed at speeding both oversight of U.S. weapons once they are sold abroad and the process for notifying lawmakers about major arms deals. Lawmakers have argued those steps help prevent misuse of U.S. weapons, even as they have criticized delays that slow deliveries to allies.

The order directs the government to favor countries that have invested in their own defense and occupy strategically important regions, effectively tying arms sales decisions more closely to U.S. military planning and geographic priorities.(Julian Abram Wainwright/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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The order follows a series of recent defense-related executive actions taken by Trump. In January 2026, he signed an order directing defense contractors to prioritize production capacity, innovation and on-time delivery over stock buybacks and other corporate distributions.

That built on an April 2025 order aimed at improving speed and accountability in the foreign military sales system, as well as a January 2025 order focused on modernizing defense acquisitions and reducing red tape across the defense industrial base.

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TrumpRx: See the 43 drugs available on the Trump administration’s new discounted drug site

February 6, 2026 / 5:01 PM EST / CBS News

President Trump’s new TrumpRx online platform is a key part of his plan to help lower drug costs for consumers, with some polls showing two-thirds of Americans report high health care costs as their chief financial concern.

Here’s what to know about TrumpRx, which launched Thursday and which the White House said in a fact sheet will provide “immediate relief” to patients across the U.S.

What is TrumpRx?

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The White House said Trumprx.gov gives consumers “direct access to dramatically lower prices” on dozens of commonly used medications. The website doesn’t let users buy drugs directly, but rather directs people to drugmakers’ sites, where they can fill their prescriptions.

TrumpRx notes it only “displays discounted drug pricing offers” and does not sell medication directly to consumers.

“It’s a portal where someone can check if they can find a cheaper price, direct-to-consumer, from a drug manufacturer,” Kaye Pestaina, vice president and director of KFF’s patient and consumer protections program, told CBS News. “It’s not a storefront.”

To purchase a discounted medication, TrumpRx tells users to follow the instructions for each drug offer on the platform.

Who can use TrumpRx?

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Anyone can use TrumpRx, provided they have a prescription. For now, however, the platform doesn’t accept insurance and is limited to patients who buy medications out of their own pocket.

“At this time, TrumpRx discounted pricing is only available for cash-paying patients,” the platform notes.

As a result, spending on drugs through TrumpRx won’t count toward a consumer’s insurance deductible.

Still, cheaper, direct-to-consumer options could benefit uninsured Americans, people with high deductibles and patients whose medications aren’t covered by their insurance

“You should not be buying drugs anymore, going forward, without at least checking to see if those medications are available at these discounted prices,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Thursday.

By contrast, Pestaina noted that consumers might also be able to find lower drug prices through their own health insurance. “It might be a good thing for some people, but for most folks they are paying less through insurance,” she said.

Exceptions to that might include GLP-1 medications for weight loss, where TrumpRX could lead to savings, Pestaina noted. “Your employer might not cover these kinds of drugs, or there could be limitations.”

For example, the White House fact sheet said TrumpRx offers Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pills for as little as $149 a month, down from $1,349. Consumers can also realize major savings on drugs used to treat infertility, according to the Trump administration.

Mr. Trump has urged Congress to pass “The Great Healthcare Plan,” which he introduced in January to lower health insurance costs. The proposal would “enable coverage of TrumpRx.gov purchases under health plans” and reduce medical insurance costs, according to the White House.

What drugs are offered?

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Consumers can currently access 43 different drugs through TrumpRx for a range of conditions. For instance, users seeking fertility drugs can get an 83% discount on Gonal F, a medication containing a follicle-stimulating hormone, according to the platform.

“Fertility drug pricing could benefit a lot of people, because they aren’t typically covered by insurance, and TrumpRx offers discounts,” Merith Basey, CEO of Patients for Affordable Drugs Now, a patient advocacy group, told CBS News.

Late last year, the White House struck deals with more than a dozen drugmakers to participate in the coupon-like program, including AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly Genentech, Merck, Pfizer, and others.

The White House said it plans to strike deals with more drugmakers, expanding the list of discounted drugs available through TrumpRx.

The 43 drugs on offer, along with the advertised discounts:

• Abrilada pen (autoimmune) — TrumpRx price: $207.60
• Airsupra (respiratory) — TrumpRx price: $201
• Azulfidine Tabs (rheumatology) — TrumpRx price: $99.60
• Azulfidine En Tabs (rheumatology) — TrumpRx price: $130.80
• Bevespi (respiratory) — TrumpRx price: $51
• Cetrotide (IVF) — TrumpRx price: $22.50
• Chantix (smoking cessation) — TrumpRx price: $106.20
• Cleocin (antibiotic) — TrumpRx price: $94.35
• Colestid (cholesterol) — TrumpRx price: $127.91
• Cortef (inflammation) — TrumpRx price: $45
• Cytomel (thyroid) — TrumpRx price: $6
• Diflucan (antifungal) — TrumpRx price: $14.06
• Duavee (women’s health) — TrumpRx price: $30.30
• Estring (women’s health) — TrumpRx price: $249
• Eucrisa (dermatologic) — TrumpRx price: $158.48
• Farxiga (diabetes, cardiovascular) — TrumpRx price: $181.59
• Genotropin (human growth hormone) — TrumpRx price: $89.67
• Gonal F (fertility) — TrumpRx price: $168
• Insulin Lispro (high blood sugar) — TrumpRx price: $25
• Levoxyl (hypothyroidism) — TrumpRx price: $35.10
• Lopid (cholesterol) —TrumpRx price: $39.60
• Medrol (inflammation) —TrumpRx price: $3.15
• Ngenla (human growth hormone) — TrumpRx price: $2,217
• Nicotrol (smoking cessation) — TrumpRx price: $271.16
• Ovidrel (fertility) —TrumpRx price: $84
• Ozempic Pen (diabetes, weight loss) — TrumpRx price: $199
• Premarin (women’s health) — TrumpRx price: $99
• Premarin Vaginal Cream (women’s health) — TrumpRx price: $236.65
• Prempro (women’s health) — TrumpRx price: $98.84
• Pristiq (antidepressant) — TrumpRx price: $200.10
• Protonix (heartburn) — TrumpRx price: $200.10
• Tikosyn (cardiovascular) — TrumpRx price: $336
• Toviaz (bladder control) — TrumpRx price: $43.50
• Vfend (antifungal) — TrumpRx price: $306.98
• Viracept (antiviral) — TrumpRx price: $607.20
• Wegovy (weight loss) — Pen TrumpRx price: $199
• Wegovy Pill (weight loss) — TrumpRx price: $149
• Xeljanz (rheumatology) — TrumpRx price: $1,518
• Xigduo Xr (diabetes) — TrumpRx price: $181.59
• Zarontin (anticonvulsant) — TrumpRx price: $71.10
• Zavzpret (migraine treatment) — TrumpRx price: $594.84
• Zepbound (weight loss, sleep apnea) — TrumpRx price $299
• Zyvox (antibiotic) — TrumpRx price: $122.74

Retired federal judge who wrote anti-Trump op-ed reportedly faced misconduct inquiry before resigning

Mark Wolf accused the White House of an ‘assault on the rule of law’

By Alex Nitzberg
Fox News

Published February 6, 2026 2:43pm EST | Updated February 6, 2026 2:45pm EST

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Mark Wolf, who in November retired from his post as senior judge with the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, was the subject of an inquiry into alleged misconduct that was nixed due to his resignation, NPR reported, citing a source familiar with the probe.

Wolf, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985, pointed to President Donald Trump last year in an opinion piece explaining his reason for stepping down from the judiciary.

“My reason is simple: I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom. President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment. This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench,” he asserted in the piece.

REAGAN-APPOINTED JUDGE RESIGNS IN PROTEST OF TRUMP, WARNS OF PRESIDENT’S ‘ASSAULT ON THE RULE OF LAW’

Mark L. Wolf, Senior Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, on May 17, 2023, in Washington, D.C.(Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence, for me, is now intolerable,” he wrote.

In a Nov. 24, 2025, order, Chief Judge David Barron of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit noted that a former law clerk of a district judge had alleged misconduct.

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President Donald Trump arrives for the world premiere of “MELANIA” at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026.(Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“I conducted a limited inquiry … which included lengthy oral interviews of the subject judge and the former law clerk, respectively, review of the written summary of these interviews, several conversations with the subject judge, and review of a number of written submissions from the subject judge,” Barron wrote.

“The interviews were conducted by designees who are experienced in such investigations,” a footnote clarified.

“However, further ‘action on the complaint is no longer necessary because of intervening events,’ and, accordingly, the complaint is concluded pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 352(b)(2),” Barron noted.

BLACKBURN DEMANDS INVESTIGATION INTO JUSTICE JACKSON OVER GRAMMY APPEARANCE APPLAUDING ANTI-ICE RHETORIC

Mark L. Wolf, Senior Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, on May 17, 2023, in Washington, D.C.(Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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The website of Todd & Weld LLP indicates that Wolf is senior counsel. Fox News Digital reached out on Friday to request a comment from the retired judge.

“Chief Judge Denise J. Casper notes that ‘Judge Wolf has served on this Court with distinction for over four decades,’” a November press release about Wolf’s retirement from the federal court stated.

Alex Nitzberg is a writer for Fox News Digital.

Super Bowl fans warned to keep drones at home with flights banned over big game

February 6, 2026 / 5:35 PM EST / CBS News

As fans from around the country descend on California to watch the New England Patriots take on the Seattle Seahawks in Sunday’s Super Bowl, officials are telling them to leave their drones at home.

The police chief in Santa Clara, where this year’s big game will be played, said authorities are prepared to shoot down a drone, if necessary.

Unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones, can be easily purchased online and are increasingly popular with hobbyist drone pilots, including sports fans who want to film their favorite events.

But the risks posed by drones are real, whether a hobbyist drone malfunctions and falls into the stands or a bad actor uses a drone to drop something into the stadium.

Retired Army Col. Bill Edwards, who runs counter-drone training at Washington, D.C.-based tech company ENSCO, expects people will try to fly drones at the big game.

“We have to expect it at every major event that’s happening in the country,” Edwards said in an interview.

The view from the 50-yard line is seen inside Levi’s Stadium ahead of Super Bowl LX on Feb. 4, 2026, in Santa Clara, California. Don Juan Moore/Getty Images

To get ahead of the issue, the Federal Aviation Administration has issued a ban on all drone flights over the Super Bowl, which has been classified by the federal government as a top special event that merits extensive interagency support.

The FAA says it is collaborating with the FBI to detect, track and assess unauthorized drone activity, and drone operators who fly them in restricted airspace without authorization face fines of up to $75,000, confiscation of their drone and federal criminal charges.

Law enforcement agencies working on Super Bowl security use layers of responses and mitigation efforts for drones.

“Everything from ground intercept teams to contact the pilot on the ground to redirecting it, landing it or even shooting it down depending on the circumstances,” Santa Clara Police Chief Cory Morgan said.

Technological advancements to drones made overseas during the Russia-Ukraine war and conflicts in the Middle East pose new challenges to law enforcement.

Edwards, who trains such police departments as the New York Police Department on drone threat mitigation, points to fiber-optic drones that can evade detection by radar systems as a particular concern.

“It’s promulgating the technology’s capability 20 years into the future — now,” he said. He also said, “The threat level has increased a hundredfold.”

Purported ransom note for Savannah Guthrie’s mom demanded payment in bitcoin. Could it be tracked?

February 6, 2026 / 5:38 PM EST / CBS News

The disappearance of “Today” show co-hostSavannah Guthrie’s mother,Nancy Guthrie, includes a tantalizing clue: an apparent ransom note thatdemanded payment in bitcoin.

The note, which is being taken seriously by investigators, included a deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday, although it didn’t specify a time zone. If the payment wasn’t made, the note specified another deadline of Monday, investigators said Thursday.

The demand for bitcoin raises questions about whether the cryptocurrency could be used to hide a kidnapper’s identity, given the financial product’s semi-anonymous nature. Experts tell CBS News that law enforcement officials can track down information about the people or organizations behind crypto transactions, increasing the chances that the ransom demand could produce possible leads in the Guthrie case.

All bitcoin transactions are recorded and monitored on the public blockchain, which is similar to a bank ledger. To conduct a transaction, a user must also have a bitcoin wallet with an alphanumeric address, which stores private keys for authorizing transfers and public keys for receiving funds.

Those pieces of information — a blockchain transaction and a bitcoin wallet — can offer a starting point for law enforcement to track down a bad actor, said Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, which helps track crypto fraud and crimes, and a former Department of Justice and Treasury official who investigated financial crimes.

“Every transaction in bitcoin is logged on an open public ledger, and it’s immutable, meaning it’s there forever,” Redbord told CBS News. “We’re able to track and trace every transaction to and from that address in order to potentially identify the holder of the wallet address.”

Not untraceable

---

Blockchain analyses can examine whether that wallet has been used for illicit activity in the past, or if the account is associated with ransomware or other cybercrimes, he noted. They can also examine which other addresses are sending funds to the wallet in question, and then build out a map to help track the identity of the bad actor.

“It’s a common misconception that crypto, including bitcoin, is totally anonymous and untraceable, but it’s actually the exact opposite of that,” said Madeleine Kennedy, vice president of communications at Chainalysis, which makes apps and software for blockchain investigations, including tracking crypto crimes.

That means the blockchain may be able to provide more information to investigators than other valuables often used to pay ransoms, including art, diamonds or even cash, Redbord said.

“Our law enforcement customers regularly tell us they would much rather follow the money in crypto than in cash,” Kennedy added.

What “know your customer” laws can tell you

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Once the owner of a bitcoin wallet goes to a crypto exchange — such as Binance or Coinbase — to cash out the cryptocurrency, law enforcement can gain even more information, experts said. Crypto exchanges in the U.S. are subject to the same “know your customer” laws, which are anti-money laundering regulations requiring a financial institution to collect customer information.

That data includes a customer’s full legal name, birth date and home address, which is usually collected through a user’s government ID,according to Coinbase.

“Law enforcement can send a subpoena to a cryptocurrency exchange where they know the funds went and say, ‘Hey, we need to know more about the user of this address — what is their name, what is their birthday, what is their Social Security number, their phone number, what email did they use to set up the account’,” Redbord told CBS News.

He added, “When you can really catch them is when they’re trying to move funds through a cryptocurrency exchange.”

One question is whether law enforcement will be able to act fast enough to trace the money before it’s transferred out of a crypto exchange and disappears, experts said. Criminals could also possibly transfer the crypto to an illicit exchange that doesn’t follow “know your customer” regulations.

“The challenge is that bad actors can move faster than ever, and it really becomes this race to the off-ramps in cases like this,” Redbord said.

Edited by Alain Sherter

Congressional Republicans pan Trump, White House for ‘racist’ Truth Social post | Fox News

By Alex Miller, Brooke Singman | Fox News
Published February 6, 2026 10:56am EST | Updated February 6, 2026 2:28pm EST

President Donald Trump took down an inflammatory post from Truth Social that depicted the Obamas as monkeys after a wave of backlash from some of the president’s top allies on Capitol Hill.

The post first appeared on Thursday night and went under the radar until Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the lone Black member of the Senate GOP, demanded Trump take it down.

The post in question depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys or apes.

[REPUBLICANS WARN DEMOCRATS’ ICE REFORM PUSH IS COVER TO DEFUND BORDER ENFORCEMENT]

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., called out President Donald Trump for a post on Truth Social that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys, calling it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Scott said. “The President should remove it.”

His reaction opened a floodgate of responses from other congressional Republicans, who didn’t buy the White House’s initial explanation for the video.

“This is totally unacceptable,” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said on X. “The president should take it down and apologize.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote the post off as a “meme” that was part of a video depicting Trump as the king of the jungle from “The Lion King.”

[SCHUMER, JEFFRIES MEND RIFT, PRESENT UNITED FRONT ON DHS REFORMS AS DEADLINE NEARS]

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters and members of the media at Mar-a-Lago on Feb. 1, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla.(Al Drago/Getty Images)

“Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this,” Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., said in a post on X. “The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize.”

Still, it took several hours for the post to be removed.

A Trump advisor told Fox News Digital that “the president did not see the video before it was posted.”

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said on X, “This content was rightfully removed, should have never been posted to begin with, and is not who we are as a nation.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., similarly called on Trump to take the post down.

[THUNE BLASTS JEFFRIES, SCHUMER AS ‘AFRAID OF THEIR SHADOWS’ AS DHS FUNDING FIGHT HEATS UP]

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks at a press conference with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii., following the passage of government funding bills, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2026.(Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Racist. Vile. Abhorrent. This is dangerous and degrades our country — where are Senate Republicans? The President must immediately delete the post and apologize to Barack and Michelle Obama, two great Americans who make Donald Trump look like a small, envious man,” Schumer said on X.

The post has since been removed, and a Trump advisor told Fox News Digital that “the president did not see the video before it was posted.”

Scott and Trump have shared a warm relationship since he ran and ultimately dropped out of the Republican presidential race last year.

He now chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm tasked with keeping Republicans’ thin majority in the upper chamber and expanding it during the 2026 midterm cycle.

Scott has rarely bucked Trump, positioning himself as a top ally to the president — he was on the short list of possible vice presidential picks before Trump ultimately tapped then Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio.

However, he has recently broken with the president on the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Scott, who also chairs the Senate Banking Committee, said during an interview with Fox Business earlier this week that he didn’t believe Powell had committed a crime during his testimony to the committee last year.

[CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP]

“I found him to be inept at doing his job, but ineptness or being incompetent is not a criminal act,” Scott said.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

House Republican Mark Amodei announces retirement, says it’s ‘the right time’

Nevada congressman chairs Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee as DHS faces funding deadline

By Jasmine Baehr, Paul Steinhauser
Fox News

Published February 6, 2026 4:00pm EST

Mark Amodei, R-Nev., announced Friday he will retire from Congress at the end of his term, saying after 15 years of service, “it is the right time for Nevada and myself to pass the torch.”

Amodei said he will complete his current term, which runs through January 2027, and framed the decision as a personal milestone rather than a political one.

“Serving the people of Nevada has been the honor of my lifetime,” Amodei said in a statement released via X. “Nobody is prouder of our Nevada Congressional District than me. Thank you for the honor.”

Amodei said he entered Congress “to solve problems” and to ensure that “our State and Nation have strong voice in the federal policy and oversight processes,” adding, “I look forward to finishing my term.”

Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., speaks during a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. Amodei announced Friday he is retiring from Congress.(Pete Kiehart/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The veteran lawmaker represents Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, which covers the northern half of the state and includes Reno, the district’s largest city. The seat leans Republican and, prior to Friday’s announcement, was rated Solid Republican by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Nevada’s other three congressional districts are held by Democrats and are considered more competitive.

Amodei has consistently won re-election by wide margins. He defeated his Democrat challenger by 19 points in 2024 and won the 2022 midterm election by 22 points. President Donald Trump carried the district by 14 points in 2024.

On Capitol Hill, Amodei chairs the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, a role that places him at the center of funding decisions for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). His retirement announcement comes as DHS faces another looming funding deadline, with current funding set to expire in just over a week.

Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., announced Friday he is retiring from Congress.(Pete Kiehart/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Amodei is the latest House Republican to announce plans to leave Congress ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

In his statement, Amodei did not reference the political landscape or the upcoming election cycle, instead emphasizing gratitude and continuity through the remainder of his term.

“Every achievement worth doing began with listening to Nevadans and fighting for our values,” he said. “After 15 years of service, I believe it is the right time for Nevada and myself to pass the torch.”

Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., speaks with Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., during a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security hearing.(Pete Kiehart/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Amodei was first elected to Congress in 2011 and has served continuously since, building a reputation as a reliable conservative vote in the lower House.

His announcement sets the stage for an open-seat contest in Nevada’s 2nd District in the upcoming midterm elections.

“Republicans are confident this deep-red seat will remain Republican, just as it always has been,” NRCC Spokesman Christian Martinez told Fox News Digital. “Nevadans value common sense, accountability, and strong conservative leadership and that’s exactly what Republicans will continue to deliver.”

Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this reporting.

Jasmine Baehr is a Breaking News Writer for Fox News Digital, where she covers politics, the military, faith and culture.

States’ mistrust of Trump’s fraud crusade could hinder fight against foreign influence in elections, federal officials fear

Updated Feb 6, 2026, 4:08 PM ET | Published Feb 6, 2026, 3:00 PM ET | CNN

By Sean Lyngaas, Evan Perez

An election worker examines a ballot at the Clackamas County Elections office May 19, 2022, Oregon City, Ore.

Gillian Flaccus/AP/File

State and local election administrators’ growing suspicion of the Trump administration’s motives has triggered concerns among some federal officials that distrust of even routine moves by the FBI could hinder cooperation with states and give an opening for US adversaries trying to influence elections.

An FBI official this week sent a standard email to top state election officials inviting them to discuss how federal agencies could help with securing the midterms.

The email, reviewed by CNN, said the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, US Postal Investigative Service and other agencies wanted to speak with election officials about what support they could provide for the midterm elections. It’s a message that has gone out numerous times in the years since Russia’s 2016 influence campaign as the feds have looked to offer security resources for election administrators.

But this email, the existence of which was first reported by Crooked Media, came a week after the FBI executed a search warrant at the elections office of Fulton County, Georgia, and seized ballots related to the 2020 election — a move that alarmed many election officials. And it came amid Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s move to study voting machines for security vulnerabilities as she tries to support President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 contest was stolen from him.

Trump has also sparked alarm by saying he wants Republicans to “take over the voting, in at least … 15 places” and “nationalize” elections — comments for which his administration has given shifting explanations.

The Fulton County search and cuts to federal election security efforts in the second Trump administration have led to an “erosion of trust” between some election officials and the federal government, said one Republican election official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The Fulton County search “raises concerns among a lot of election officials,” the Republican added.

United States Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks on the phone while standing at the edge of a truck loading bay after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed a search warrant for the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in relation to the 2020 election, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter, in Union City, Georgia, U.S. January 28, 2026.

Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters

That’s a problem for the FBI. Any disruption in the security coordination between states, the bureau and other federal agencies, means foreign intelligence services will have an advantage if they try to shape or disrupt the elections, one U.S. official told CNN.

The first Trump administration built up a big federal security structure for tracking and defending against foreign influence on elections. But the second Trump administration has severely curtailed it, closing centers dedicated to countering foreign influence at the FBI and in Gabbard’s office.

Heading into the midterms, there is widespread concern among current and former officials that the US government’s willingness to combat foreign efforts to shape elections has waned, CNN has reported.

Explaining her presence at the Fulton County search, Gabbard has cited her foreign-focused responsibilities to justify her presence but has not provided any public evidence connecting Fulton County to any foreign threat.

“That horse has already left the barn,” the Republican election official said. “If there were credible evidence of actual foreign influence” in Fulton County, the US government would have previously disclosed it, the official added.

The FBI email “in theory, should be routine. And should be good,” said another source in the election community familiar with the FBI outreach. “But the administration and cabinet secretaries running things have created significant trust issues between federal and state authorities.”

Other sources in the election community told CNN that there was a risk of election officials — or commentators in the media — overreacting and crying wolf over a routine FBI email when there are so many other legitimate concerns over things like the Trump administration’s threats to federalize elections.

Don Palmer, a commissioner at the federal Election Assistance Commission, said the upcoming call with election officials is “an opportunity to introduce points of contact for the midterm election year and share information.”

There was “a wonderful level of familiarity” between federal officials and local and state officials in past election cycles as they worked together on security issues, said Stephen Richer, a former top Republican election official in Arizona’s Maricopa County who faced violent threats for saying the 2020 election was secure.

But now, Richer said, there are probably a “fair number” of election officials who view federal officials as potential “adversaries.”

CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.

Redistricting effort aimed at helping Republicans in midterms could cost them dearly in Virginia

February 6, 2026 / 2:56 PM EST / CBS News

President Trump’s Republican Party has gambled on redrawing Democratic-held congressional districts in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina to help boost conservatives’ chances at holding on to a narrow House majority in the 2026 midterm elections.This out of the ordinary mid-decade approach, however, may end up costing Republicans as many as four congressional seats in Virginia.

Democrats this week have prepared a harsh partisan gerrymander that could dramatically shift the commonwealth’s representation on Capitol Hill if it were to become law and be used in this fall’s elections.

“Today we are leveling the playing field,” Virginia Democratic state Sen. L. Louise Lucas said in a social media video. “These are not ordinary times and Virginia will not sit on the sidelines while it happens.”

Questions remain, however, about whether the larger endeavor will survive ongoing legal scrutiny. And it faces the challenge of needing quick voter approval in a part of the south that is by no means a blue sanctuary of statewide voters.

“This extreme proposal rigs the game before a single vote is cast,” GOP Virginia Congressman Rob Wittman, one of the four incumbents targeted by the proposal, said in a statement,

The move in Virginia serves as the latest escalation of a feud between Republicans and Democrats ahead of an election rife with the historical precedent that the incumbent president’s party tends to lose House seats in the midterms.

Mr. Trump and Republicans in Texas moved last summer to shift five Democratic-held seats and shape them to be more favorable to Republicans.

California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom then made a national case to redraw his state’s maps to counter what was happening in Texas. He succeeded in winning the approval by his state’s voters of a new map last fall that could effectively curtail any gains the GOP aims to make.

In the months that followed, Republicans in North Carolina and Missouri each took a Democratic district in their respective states and changed the boundaries to help improve the likelihood that a GOP contender would instead carry the seat this fall.

But what started out as a dire dynamic for Democrats, one in which GOP legislative leaders around the country flexed their political muscle to help an embattled president moving closer to lame-duck status, may only end up helping Republicans minimally, if at all.

A court-ordered redraw in ruby red Utah is expected to help Democrats pick up one seat from the GOP. Kansas Republicans’ pursuit of changing the district of the state’s lone Democratic congresswoman quietly failed. A bipartisan deal in Ohio averted a nightmare scenario for the left of a harsh Republican gerrymander. And to close out 2025, a majority of Indiana Senate Republicans sided against Mr. Trump and voted down overhauling the state’s only two Democratic congressional districts.

Virginia Democrats have been working for months to respond to the national redistricting standoff. But doing so requires buy-in from the public, since just a few years ago, 66% of voters passed a measure giving congressional drawing power to a bipartisan commission.

Democrats are now aiming for an April 21 special election in which voters would have the chance to sign off on a new constitutional amendment allowing the party to push through the partisan gerrymander released publicly this week.

But Democrats’ redraw hopes are in peril, after a Virginia judge in January rejected the push, citing the steps the party quickly took to try and get the change on the ballot.

As more legal maneuvering plays out, Virginia Democrats have continued to push forward on their plans, culminating in the release of this week’s map proposal.

Currently, six of Virginia’s congressional districts are held by Democrats and five are held by Republicans.

Under the plan, four GOP congressional seats are targeted: Rob Wittman’s 1st District, Jen Kiggans, 2nd District, John McGuire 5th District and Ben Cline’s 6th District. Of those four, only Kiggans and Cline’s seats appear to have the potential to be competitive this year, while the other two would become comfortably blue. The new map unveiled this week would likely be among the most aggressive gerrymanders in the country, given Virginia’s recent partisan history.

Virginia is a purple state that has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate reliably since the 2004 election. But in the 2024 presidential election, Mr. Trump only lost the commonwealth by around six points.

It also may not end up being the last state to act before the midterms.

In Maryland, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore is trying to turn the state’s last GOP seat into an easy pickup for Democrats, but is in a standoff with the Democratic senate leader who opposes it.

Meanwhile, GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis and his fellow Florida Republicans are primed to try later this spring to potentially take away some of the state’s dwindling Democratic-held congressional seats.

Any changes, from Virginia and Texas to California and North Carolina, could prove to be critical in which party controls the House for the final two years of Mr. Trump’s presidency. Or they could end up being a footnote during a span of time where many political norms were discarded.

‘I did that’: Trump takes credit for a prisoner release that happened before he even ran for president

By Daniel Dale, 2 hr ago, PUBLISHED Feb 6, 2026, 3:55 PM ET

US President Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC on February 5, 2026.

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

At the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, President Donald Trump spoke from prepared remarks as he discussed the persecution of Mariam Ibrahim. Ibrahim was unjustly imprisoned and sentenced to death in Sudan in 2014, in a case centered on her Christian faith, until she was released that same year following a global outcry.

Trump correctly said: “Believers all over the planet rallied to Mariam’s cause, prayed for her protection, and successfully pressured for her release.”

But then the president appeared to ad-lib – and claimed that he was the one who got Ibrahim freed.

“I did that. I did that. I did that with one phone call, actually,” he said. “And she had such support, it was so easy. And when I explained it to the powers that be: ‘Yes, sir, we will do it right away.’ I just wish I knew earlier. But it’s a big world with a lot of people.”

For years, Trump has told fictional stories that feature unnamed people referring to him as “sir.” This was another one.

Ibrahim was released in 2014, during the Obama administration. Trump did not become president until January 2017. He was not even a presidential candidate until June 2015. There has never been the slightest indication that a private citizen in the US, a businessman and celebrity at the time, was the person who convinced Sudanese authorities to let her out of prison.

A former Obama administration official who served on the National Security Council in 2014 told CNN on Friday: “I neither had at the time nor have now any knowledge of Trump’s involvement whatsoever. It’d be very surprising if he were.”

Jack Jenkins, a reporter for Religion News Service, first raised skepticism about Trump’s story on Thursday.

Robert P. George, a Princeton University professor who is a prominent conservative legal scholar, said in a Friday email: “As Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2014, I advocated for Mariam Ibrahim. I do not recall Donald Trump being involved in the case or assisting our Commission’s efforts. Of course, he was not President at the time. Whether he was working privately outside our view, I cannot say. It is certainly possible.”

It is possible in theory. But even if Trump did contribute in some way to the international pressure campaign to achieve Ibrahim’s release – some way Trump’s White House team and congressional allies could not identify when invited to do so by CNN on Friday – that wouldn’t make it true that he personally got Ibrahim released with a phone call.

Trump didn’t tell this story at a 2019 event. The White House wouldn’t comment Friday

The White House did not respond to CNN’s Friday request to describe any Trump involvement in Ibrahim’s release. A Friday search of the LexisNexis database of news articles brought up hundreds of articles about the case but none that mentioned any Trump involvement.

When Ibrahim met Trump at the White House in 2019, at an event with fellow survivors of religious persecution, he did not publicly display familiarity with the case or tell the story about how he had supposedly singlehandedly secured her release. A member of his administration briefly summarized Ibrahim’s story for him, and Trump then told her, “We got you out, that’s good, that’s great.”

During a public conversation in 2020, Trump’s then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, a former congressman, spoke with a conservative activist about how they both look back proudly on their work to free Ibrahim – but neither of them said Trump had been involved too.

And when CNN reached out Friday to Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who was a vocal advocate for Ibrahim in 2014, to ask whether there was any truth to Trump’s story, he responded only by having an aide send along two web links to his own 2014 comments on the matter. He did not mention Trump in either link.

Attempts to contact Ibrahim for comment were unsuccessful.