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Mortgage rates hit highest level in a year amid persistent inflation fears

July 30, 2026 / 3:18 PM EDT / CBS News

Mortgage rates in the U.S. hit their highest level in a year on Thursday as renewed tensions in the Middle East and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision this week fanned inflation concerns.

The rate on a conventional 30-year mortgage averaged 6.66% in the week ending July 30, the highest level since July 2025, according to data from Freddie Mac.

Inflation can drive up mortgage rates, which tend to track the bond market, particularly the 10-year Treasury yield. Those yields jumped after the Fed on Wednesday left its benchmark interest rate unchanged.

Despite that decision, three members of the central bank’s rate-setting panel voted for a rate hike, fueling concerns that the Fed could eventually raise rates. Investors also appeared to question Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh’s commitment to raising interest rates to bring consumer prices under control.

New government data released on Thursday shows the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation slowed in June, a hopeful sign, although inflation remains stubbornly above the central bank’s 2% annual target.

“While it’s unclear if or when the central bankers might raise the funds rate, there’s plenty of concern that inflation’s running unchecked,” Kate Wood, a lending expert at NerdWallet, told CBS News in an email. “Between that and Iran, we’re seeing Treasury yields surge, and mortgage rates are being dragged up along with them.”

Rate hikes ahead?

Deutsche Bank expects the Fed to raise rates twice this year by a total of 0.50 percentage points, which would bring the federal funds rate to between 4% and 4.25%.

Mortgage rates are also drifting higher amid concerns that fighting in the Middle East could accelerate inflation, as shipping disruptions in the region push up oil and fuel prices.

“Because oil remains the primary channel through which the Iran conflict feeds inflation, a de-escalation and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz remain the clearest path back toward lower rates,” Realtor.com senior economist Anthony Smith said in an analysis.

Hopes for a peace deal have unraveled as Iran and the U.S. continue to exchange strikes. The conflict appeared to expand to Egypt on Wednesday after drone strikes caused two natural gas vessels to catch fire in Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta.

Democratic Rep. Garcia says GOP Sens. Cornyn and Tillis are doing ‘the right thing’ with Blanche nomination

2026-07-30 1:06 PM EDT / CNN

By Wolf Blitzer, CNN

Published 1:06 PM EDT, Thu July 30, 2026

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/30/politics/video/cnn-sitroom-blitzer-california-robert-garcia-acting-attorney-general-todd-blanche-john-cornyn-thom-tillis

Democratic Rep. Garcia says GOP Sens. Cornyn and Tillis are doing “the right thing” with Blanche nomination

California Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia joins CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to discuss the stalled confirmation of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, saying he hopes they are able to “end” the process with their votes.

1:49 • Source: CNN

Trump threatens to yank his own AG nominee as GOP revolt grows

July 30, 2026 12:12pm EDT / Fox News

Trump says he will resubmit Blanche’s name after GOP Sens Cornyn and Tillis leave office next year

By Alex Miller, Adam Pack, Fox News

Senate resumes Todd Blanche confirmation hearing amid fiery testimony

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche faces renewed scrutiny during his Senate confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill.

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President Donald Trump is taking a hardball tactic against Republican rebels demanding concessions for their vote to confirm Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

After Blanche’s confirmation hearing was postponed late Wednesday night, Trump took to Truth Social Thursday morning to excoriate the two key holdouts on the Senate Judiciary Committee standing in the way of his personal lawyer becoming the nation’s top prosecutor: Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C.

Trump threatened to withdraw Blanche’s nomination until both are out of office next year.

TRUMP AG PICK BLANCHE STALLED AS KEY REPUBLICANS REFUSE TO BUDGE

President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 16, 2026.(Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

“Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it! He has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time,” Trump said. “However, John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this Great Nominee, who will remain, in any event, as Acting.”

“Remember, both Cornyn and Tillis voted for Merrick Garland, and others, too numerous to mention,” he continued. “I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office.”

While Trump did thwart Cornyn’s re-election bid by backing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as the Republican nominee, Tillis opted to retire on his own volition last year after raging over Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

DEMS REJECT TRUMP’S TOP SPY PICK AFTER DEMANDING REPLACEMENT, LEAVING COUNTER-TERROR TOOL IN AIR

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6392459672112

Cornyn shrugged off the threat almost immediately. Both he and Tillis are in pursuit of explicit, written proposals to modify the settlement deal reached between the IRS and Trump and his family earlier this year.

“POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis,” Cornyn said on X.

Negotiations are still ongoing, but so far the duo have not gotten specifically what they want to permanently kill the now-defunct, nearly $2 billion anti-weaponization fund and a rewrite of Trump’s audit immunity baked into the settlement deal.

And there’s no guarantee that the Senate would be more accepting of Blanche next year, either, given that Republicans have more seats in danger than Senate Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that waiting until 2027 is “a calculation they’ll have to make.”

“The best answer to this is to figure out how to answer, to resolve, the questions that Tillis and Cornyn have,” Thune said. “And I think there’s a way to do that, and then let’s get him confirmed. That would be my take. But, I mean, I’ll defer to whatever the White House, the president decides what they’re gonna do.”

DOZEN GOP REBELS FAIL TO PERMANENTLY KILL TRUMP’S CONTROVERSIAL $2B FUND

Trump says he will resubmit the acting attorney general’s name after GOP Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., leave office next year.(Getty Images)

Trump could leave Blanche as acting attorney general for some time, similar to how former President Joe Biden left former acting Labor Secretary Julie Su in the role from 2023 to the end of his presidency. But that also comes with its own time limit.

Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, a cabinet-level official can stay in an acting role for 210 days. That timer resets if there is a pending nomination in the Senate. If Trump were to formally withdraw his nominating paperwork, the clock would start over.

If Trump were to formally yank Blanche from consideration on Thursday, he would be allowed, under law, to stay as acting attorney general until late February.

Tillis and Cornyn’s argument isn’t necessarily against Blanche, either. The problem lies with the administration and resistance to their demands, specifically for him putting a permanent end to the anti-weaponization fund. Tillis feared that “there is somebody who wants to enable it,” and that in doing so it would harm Republicans’ chances in the midterm elections.

“Look, I’ve said I’m not a no [on Blanche],” Tillis said. “I’m still working on getting this done, and I’m still optimistic that we will.”

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Meanwhile, their resistance and demands are what caused Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to postpone Blanche’s confirmation hearing scheduled for Thursday morning. Without their support, he wouldn’t be able to make it to the Senate floor.

Grassley said after Trump’s threat that Blanche was “well qualified, and I want to get him approved.”

“I think that right now I’m concentrating on the next few days to get this nomination through, and I’m not going to consider anything else,” Grassley said.

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

Pulte expected to temporarily overlap with his replacement as intelligence chief

2026-07-30T17:27:14.942Z / CNN

By Kristen Holmes

Updated 1 hr ago

Updated Jul 30, 2026, 3:02 PM ET

PUBLISHED Jul 30, 2026, 1:27 PM ET

Bill Pulte, the acting director of national intelligence, arrives before President Donald Trump holds an event to honor the 2025 World Series champions in the Rose Garden of the White House, on July 23, 2026.

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte will not immediately leave his office after his more permanent replacement, Jay Clayton, is sworn in, according to a source familiar with the matter. Instead, the two men’s tenures at the top of the office will overlap for at least two weeks.

Clayton, who was confirmed by the Senate earlier this week, is expected to be sworn in as director of national intelligence next week, according to the source. Pulte is expected to stay in the office for at least two weeks after that, the source said, cautioning that the timeline could shift.

Pulte made a case to President Donald Trump directly that he wasn’t finished with the job and wanted to stay on to complete what he had set out to do, multiple sources told CNN. The combative and controversial housing executive, who had no prior national security experience, has made sharp staffing cuts to the intelligence community and played a role in declassifying certain documents related to Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020.

While Trump likes Pulte and was happy with his performance, including the staffing cuts, one source said the president also was fond of Clayton and understood that there was a desire to get him in the role quickly — including by senators who had initially balked at Trump’s decision to tap Pulte for the acting role.

US officials familiar with Pulte’s tenure previously suggested to CNN that he did not have enough time to accomplish all his goals tied to declassifying certain material. The declassification project largely fell to the conservative commentator John Solomon, who became a special government employee earlier this summer.

Pulte and CIA Director John Ratcliffe got into a heated dispute last week over the scope of redactions in the documents the White House planned to release related to foreign interference in the 2020 election, according to four sources familiar with the exchange. Pulte argued to make more of the text public, according to those sources, and both parties raised their voices.

But ultimately, Pulte backed down and began to defer to Ratcliffe, the sources said.

It’s difficult to measure how deep Pulte’s staffing cuts went. Current and former officials alike say the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has been deeply degraded. Pulte announced on Tuesday a fifth and “near final” round of firings, claiming in a post on X that the dismissals had cumulatively axed “approximately 30%” of staff at the top spy agency; his predecessor Tulsi Gabbard had previously announced that she planned to cut the workforce, then around 2,000 people, by 40%. CNN was not able to independently confirm those figures.

But even those who support the agency broadly cautioned against hysteria about the depth of the cuts.

For some critics, the far deeper concern with Pulte beyond his inexperience was whether he would weaponize sensitive intelligence against the president’s critics. As Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, he helped facilitate mortgage fraud investigations against the president’s top political opponents.

This story was updated with additional context.

CNN’s Katie Bo Lillis and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.

Father of Georgia school shooter sentenced to 15 years in prison

July 30, 2026 6:03 PM UTC Updated 1 hour ago / Reuters

Colin Gray, 54, the father of Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, 14, who is charged as an adult with four counts of murder in the deaths of Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, enters the Barrow County courthouse for his first appearance, in Winder, U.S., September… Read more

July 30 (Reuters) – A man who gave his troubled son the rifle he used to kill four people at a Georgia high school was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years in prison, ​the culmination of the state’s first case in which a parent was convicted of ‌second-degree murder for a mass shooting committed by his child.

Colt Gray, 16, was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Tuesday for the 2024 school shooting by a Barrow County Superior Court judge. Two days later, the same judge ​sentenced his 55-year-old father, Colin Gray, to far less than the 80 years prosecutors had ​requested.

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Judge Nicholas Primm noted that none of the charges underlying Colin Gray’s conviction ⁠entailed mandatory prison time while acknowledging the “immeasurable heartache” his negligence had caused.

“The loss here is profound,” ​Primm said, following tearful testimony by several relatives of those killed in the shooting. “But I still have ​to distinguish your acts from the malignant heart and the acts that Colt Gray committed.”

Colin Gray is the latest U.S. parent to be prosecuted for a mass shooting committed by a child — an emerging legal strategy employed by prosecutors in ​a bid to tackle the epidemic of gun violence in U.S. schools.

Months before Colt Gray’s shooting, ​the parents of a Michigan teenager who shot and killed four classmates were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in ‌prison after ⁠being convicted for manslaughter.

In that case, a jury found Jennifer and James Crumbley guilty of not securing guns in their home and of ignoring signs that their son was mentally disturbed.

Colin Gray’s defense attorney on Thursday urged the judge to give his client a sentence of 10 years in prison and ​10 years in probation, ​arguing the Michigan parents ⁠had more advance notice of their son’s problems and noting that Gray was the first parent in the state to be charged for a child’s ​mass shooting.

“We would ask the court not to make Georgia the national ​outlier in this ⁠first case of its kind, against a defendant whose warnings came with less and whose efforts were more,” Hobbs said.

Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith rejected Hobbs’s claim that Colin Gray had little warning of ⁠his son’s ​violent plans, showing the judge a replica of a bedroom ​wall on which Colt had created a shrine to the gunman behind the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in ​Parkland, Florida.

The risk was “staring him in the face every day,” Smith told the judge.

Reporting by Julia Harte

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Florida AG threatens Fauci investigation after Senate hearing

July 30, 2026 12:59pm EDT / Fox News

Uthmeier cited revelations from Rand Paul showing Fauci privately estimated a far lower COVID death rate than he testified

By Robert McGreevy, Fox News

Fauci pleads Fifth Amendment in Senate hearing, faces contempt vote

Dr. Anthony Fauci pleaded the Fifth Amendment over 100 times in a Senate hearing, leading Senator Rand Paul to accuse him of lying and destroying public records related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Paul advocates for holding Fauci in contempt of Congress.

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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said he will be opening up an investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci, former National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director, following Fauci’s explosive decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment right and not answer any questions during a congressional hearing Wednesday.

“Fauci’s lack of candor to Congress is unbelievable. My office is launching an investigation into Dr. Fauci. It’s past time we get the truth of what happened during COVID,” Uthmeier wrote in a Wednesday post on X.

Uthmeier expanded on his decision in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital.

FAUCI PLEADS FIFTH WITH ‘ZERO LEGAL JUSTIFICATION’ AS CRITICS ERUPT AND DEMAND CONTEMPT CHARGES

James Uthmeier spoke at the National Conservative Convention on Sept. 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C.(Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

“In light of recent reports exposed by Senator Rand Paul, we will investigate any and all potential violations of Florida law involving Anthony Fauci,” Uthmeier told Fox News Digital.

“Our inquiry will focus on what Fauci knew, when he knew it, and how he misled the American people. We will examine the physical and monetary harms to Floridians that may have resulted from his deceptions and determine whether his conduct exposes him to liability under state law,” Uthmeier’s statement concluded.

Uthmeier cited revelations published by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., which revealed internal notes Fauci wrote on government computers during his time at NIAID.

FAUCI’S NEWLY RELEASED COVID DIARIES REVEAL BIZARRE FIXATION ON FAME AS PANDEMIC DEATHS MOUNTED

Former NIH Director Anthony Fauci listens during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on July 29, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Fauci declined to answer questions, asserting his Fifth Amendment right.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The internal notes, which Paul and others have taken to referring to as Fauci’s “diary,” suggest Fauci appeared to publicly overstate the death rate from COVID-19 compared to what he wrote privately.

“Former CDC Director Tom Frieden called me this AM and we discussed various aspects of the outbreak,” Fauci wrote on Feb. 8, 2020.

“He and I are on the same page in thinking tht [sic] this is acting like a bad influenza in its transmissibility and that the denominator is much greater than 34,867 (above) making the case fatality rate (CFR) more like 0.2-0.3 % rather than 2.0%,” Fauci’s entry concluded.

However, a month later, in congressional testimony to the House Oversight Committee on March 11, 2020, Fauci pegged the mortality rate at 1%.

“I think if you count all the cases of minimally symptomatic or asymptomatic infection, that probably brings the mortality rate down to somewhere around 1%, which means it is 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu,” he testified.

Anthony Fauci declined to testify in a Senate committee hearing on his role in the U.S. response to COVID-19, invoking his Fifth Amendment right.(Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

When called to testify on the revelations before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Fauci exercised his Fifth Amendment right and refused to answer legislators’ questions 111 times.

Uthmeier is not the only Republican to take aim at the former COVID czar in light of the revelations.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Wednesday that Fauci should be held in congressional contempt for refusing to answer questions despite receiving a presidential pardon.

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“I think Anthony Fauci has had contempt for Congress and contempt for the American people for decades,” he said. “His diary shows that he deliberately lied to the American people over and over and over again.”

Paul, for his part, said his committee will vote on whether to hold Fauci in contempt next week.

Afghan woman plans to fight DOJ efforts to deport her over allegation she is an “alien terrorist”

July 30, 2026 / 3:06 PM EDT / CBS News

A court-appointed lawyer for an Afghan woman and U.S. permanent resident whom the Justice Department alleges is an “alien terrorist” vowed Thursday to vigorously fight the government’s efforts to deport her, telling a federal judge that the entire legal process is unfair and unconstitutional.

In the first-ever test case before the secretive and never-before-used Alien Terrorist Removal Court, federal public defender Matthew Farley accused the Justice Department of violating Nazira Haji Zada’s due process rights.

He asked the judge to immediately release his client — a request the judge denied — but the issue is expected to be reviewed at a subsequent detention hearing.

“This entire scheme is in violation of due process and unconstitutional,” Farley told U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen, the chief judge of the Alien Terrorist Removal Court.

Farley said the case represents “a runaround to bringing a criminal case” because it relies on a lower evidentiary standard to prove whether she is a non-citizen terrorist who can be deported under the law.

Thursday’s hearing marked the first time the Alien Terrorist Removal Court has ever convened since it was first created in 1996. It was set up to deport noncitizens who could not be removed by the traditional legal process because the information about their cases was classified and could not be made public for national security reasons.

It is so new that it lacks even an electronic filing system — a fact the judge acknowledged as she called for patience while the court staffers work to stand up the infrastructure for the court, which she noted has been “dormant and untested for three decades.”

The targets of its noncitizen terrorist removal proceedings — including legal permanent residents — are not permitted to review the classified evidence against them. And unlike criminal proceedings, targets are barred from legally challenging how the evidence was collected by the government.

Green card holders like Haji Zada, who lives in Texas, have slightly elevated protections, such as the right to have the government appoint her counsel with a security clearance.

Haji Zada appeared in court on Thursday wearing a cream-colored head covering and relying on an interpreter to help her understand the proceedings.

Justice Department lawyers allege that Haji Zada, who has no criminal history and has never been charged with a crime of terrorism, helped “radicalize” her family members — including her then-teenage son and her son-in-law to support the Islamic State group.

Last year, her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, were convicted after each pleading guilty in a federal court in Oklahoma to purchasing two AK-47-style rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition from an undercover FBI agent as part of an alleged plot targeting the 2024 election in support of the Islamic State.

At the time of his arrest in 2024, Zada’s son was only 17. He was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to gun crimes when he was 18. Tawhedi pleaded guilty to terrorism and gun offenses.

In his sentencing memo, lawyers for the young Haji Zada portrayed him as a mere teenager who was only trying to fulfill the wishes of his older brother-in-law, and not as someone driven by radical ideology.

“He never promoted extremist views, sought out radical content, or communicated with any known recruiters. He took no independent steps to plan or advance violence, and there is no indication he understood the full scope of his brother-in-law’s scheme,” his lawyers wrote at the time.

Ericksen, who is based out of the federal district court in Minnesota and traveled to Washington, D.C., to preside over the hearing, pressed the government to give Haji Zada more details about the evidence against her during the hearing after Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Hayden O’Byrne initially only provided vague claims that the government had obtained classified information suggesting she was an “alien terrorist.”

Some of the court documents pertaining to the case were only made public late Wednesday night, though much of the evidence against her remains classified.

The FBI’s evidence, he said, shows she is a “supporter of Isis and has pledged loyalty to Isis.”

He added that she had covertly radicalized the family, all without her “unsuspecting husband” knowing.

Haji Zada’s attorney said he was concerned that the unclassified summary of the case provided to his client contained little more than two paragraphs of information, some of which merely reiterated things that are already available in the public record through her son’s criminal case in Oklahoma.

He also alleged that the government intends to prevent even him and his co-counsel from reviewing any of the classified evidence, “which I think is contrary to the statute,” he said.

Ericksen told the Justice Department that while she won’t yet rule on whether the government must provide access to the classified evidence, she intends to rely on the “working presumption that defense counsel is going to be able to review the classified information.”

She added that she will insist that the government disclose a “reason and rationale” for why certain pieces of information cannot be otherwise disclosed.

Thursday’s hearing had a few awkward moments that were perhaps fitting for a federal court that has never before convened in history. At one point, a phone inside the courtroom started ringing.

The court also grappled with feedback noise coming from one of its microphones, and the judge was not able to discuss possible dates for future hearings because she did not have access to her calendar in the courtroom.

She added that she believes that eventually, the court would establish an electronic filing system.

“I believe it will be on Pacer,” she said. “And I don’t believe we will be able to charge for it,” she added.

State Department announces Trump passports will be available throughout the US

2026-07-30 3:18 PM ET / CNN

By Jennifer Hansler

42 min ago

PUBLISHED Jul 30, 2026, 3:18 PM ET

A new limited edition US passport design featuring a photo of President Donald Trump to commemorate America’s 250th birthday on display at the State Department booth at the Great American State Fair on June 27, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Olivier Douliery/Abaca/Sipa USA

The US State Department will now offer passports featuring President Donald Trump’s image on the inside cover at special events across the United States.

The commemorative passports, which show a stone-faced Trump leaning over the Resolute Desk above his signature on the inside cover, were first announced in the spring and billed as limited editions to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary featuring “customized artwork and enhanced imagery.” The initial mock-up showed a different image of Trump.

The department began issuing the passports in early July to those who applied in person at the Washington, DC, passport agency.

“In response to overwhelming demand, the Department of State is making an additional 250,000 of the special commemorative passports available to the public,” the agency said Thursday. “Americans all across the country will now have the opportunity to apply for one of these additional special passports, known as the ‘Patriot Passport.’”

Americans will not automatically receive the commemorative passport.

For those who wish to receive one, they can now apply for an in person appointment at a “250th Anniversary commemorative passport application event,” which are being held in August and September at agencies around the US.

They can also receive it if they get a standard passport in-person at the Washington, DC passport office.

This rendering of an American passport was posted to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account on Friday, June 26, 2026. The post read, “The U.S.A.’s New Passport, which says, ‘Welcome, but be good!’ President DJT.”

Donald Trump/Truth Social

For those who do not want one, they can apply online, mail in their application, apply at a US embassy or consulate abroad, or apply at an acceptance facility like a library or post office.

For those applying in-person in Washington, DC, they can opt for a large passport book, which uses the existing design without Trump.

Trump pushes F-35 sale to Turkey, but his own State Department says Erdoğan hasn’t met legal requirements

July 30, 2026 3:08pm EDT / Fox News

The dispute tests whether Trump’s ties with Erdoğan can overcome US law and concerns over Russia and Hamas

By Morgan Phillips Fox News

Amidst the NATO summit, President Donald Trump asserts the U.S. relationship with Turkey is ‘better than it’s ever been’ despite F-35 concerns. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns Turkey supports Hamas. Wall Street Journal’s Olivia Beavers details Republican discomfort with Trump’s stance, noting backchannel pushback against potentially shifting the Middle East’s balance of power.

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President Donald Trump has opened the door to selling Turkey the U.S.’ prized F-35 fighter jet, praising Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and promising to remove sanctions imposed over Ankara’s purchase of a Russian missile defense system.

But a State Department letter to Congress makes clear that Turkey has not taken the steps legally required to receive the advanced fighter.

“Turkey has not yet met these conditions,” the department said in the July 22 letter, first obtained by the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.

TRUMP COULD HAND PRIZED STEALTH JETS TO NATO ALLY ONCE SEEN AS ALLIANCE HEADACHE

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomes US President Donald Trump at Ankara Airport, who is paying an official visit to Turkey ahead of the 36th NATO Heads of State and Government Summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 07, 2026.(Dogukan Keskinkilic/Pool via REUTERS)

The letter said U.S. law prohibits the transfer of F-35 aircraft to Turkey until Ankara no longer possesses the Russian-made S-400 system or associated equipment, promises not to acquire it again and satisfies the remaining certification requirements established by Congress.

The finding came weeks after Trump stood alongside Erdoğan at the NATO summit in Ankara and said his administration would lift sanctions on Turkey and consider selling it the aircraft.

Asked about Turkey’s continued possession of the S-400, Trump said, “I have no concerns about anything having to do with Turkey.”

Trump described relations with Ankara as “better probably than it’s ever been,” said Turkey had been “much more loyal” than some other countries and called a potential F-35 sale “certainly something we will consider.”

Erdoğan said Turkey previously has been promised five aircraft and expressed confidence in Trump.

“I know that Mr. Trump always keeps his promises,” Erdoğan said, according to Reuters.

The dispute matters far beyond a single weapons sale.

Turkey is a pivotal NATO ally controlling access between Europe and the Middle East, but its ties to Russia and Hamas have fueled doubts in Washington about whether Ankara can be trusted with America’s most sensitive military technology. The outcome will test whether Trump’s personal relationship with Erdoğan can bring Turkey back into the Western defense fold — or whether Congress and national security concerns will block the deal.

WHO IS TURKEY’S RECEP TAYYIP ERDOĞAN? HOW NATO’S MOST UNPREDICTABLE LEADER KEEPS REINVENTING HIMSELF

A U.S. airmen watches an Air Force F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter aircraft approach for the first time on July 14, 2011 at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.(Samuel King Jr./U.S. Air Force)

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital on background that Trump “recognizes the strategic importance of Türkiye” and that his administration is encouraging Ankara “to resolve pending issues.”

“Türkiye is a valued NATO ally, and we continue to engage on all aspects of our important and multi-faceted relationship,” the spokesperson said.

James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and former special representative for Syria engagement, said Trump’s position reflects both his trust in Erdoğan and their cooperation on regional security issues.

“Trump is very much for this as he works well with Erdoğan and trusts him and has succeeded together on a host of security issues from Libya to Syria to Caucasus to Ukraine and PKK ceasefire with Ankara,” Jeffrey, now a distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute, told Fox News Digital.

“He knows how important this is to Erdoğan and all Turks and doesn’t want Ankara to turn to Russia or China for weapons,” he said.

Turkey was removed from the F-35 development program in 2019 after purchasing the S-400 from Russia. The United States imposed sanctions the following year under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.

U.S. officials have argued that operating the Russian system alongside the F-35 could allow Moscow to collect sensitive information about the stealth aircraft.

Jeffrey said Turkey would have to genuinely relinquish the S-400 but noted that the law does not specify exactly how.

“Certainly transferring to another country would meet the legal and technical requirement,” he said.

Sinan Ciddi, director of the Turkey Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, agreed that a third-country transfer could begin the process of restoring Turkey to the program. But he said Ankara would also have to provide guarantees that it would not again seek major Russian military equipment or maintain ties that could compromise the aircraft.

TRUMP BETS ON FORMER NATO TROUBLEMAKER AS TURKEY’S STRATEGIC VALUE SURGES

• Russia’s President Vladimir Putin meets with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan on October 23, 2024.(ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Reports have suggested the United Arab Emirates as a possible destination for the S-400. Ciddi said, however, that there is no confirmation Abu Dhabi would accept it.

The UAE would have to consider whether acquiring the Russian system could trigger U.S. penalties or jeopardize access to other American weapons, he said. Russia could also object to Turkey transferring the system without Moscow’s approval.

Jeffrey said Erdoğan is likely prepared to resist Russian pressure because the F-35 is both a prestige issue and an important military need for Turkey, whose air force relies heavily on F-16 aircraft.

Ciddi argued that resolving the S-400 dispute should not automatically clear the way for a sale.

“The S-400 issue that led to Turkey’s removal from the F-35 program is the floor, not the ceiling,” Ciddi said, pointing to Ankara’s relationship with Hamas, continued ties with Russia, use of Chinese telecommunications technology and tensions with U.S. partners including Greece, Cyprus and Israel as additional obstacles.

The State Department letter reflected the administration’s competing views of Ankara.

While reiterating that Turkey remains legally ineligible for the F-35, the department credited it with supporting US diplomatic efforts involving Russia and Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Gaza and counter-ISIS operations.

The letter said Turkey used its relationship with Hamas’ political leadership to help secure acceptance of Trump’s Gaza peace plan and advance the first phase of a ceasefire.

At the same time, it warned that Hamas continues to use financial channels operating from Turkish territory.

“Hamas’ use of informal financial networks and unlicensed exchange houses in Turkey to access funds remains a concern, and we are committed to disrupting these illicit financing streams,” the State Department said.

Jeffrey said those Hamas ties could generate opposition in Congress but may carry less weight with Trump because his administration has relied on Ankara in Gaza diplomacy.

Ciddi interpreted the letter not as a rejection of Turkey’s return, but as a signal that the administration is prepared to move forward if Ankara meets the legal requirements.

“I think the letter is trying to convey to Congress, ‘Look, once Turkey makes good on the legal requirements of the NDAA, we can proceed with the sale,’” he said.

Congress could still be the most significant obstacle. Lawmakers have prohibited the transfer while Turkey possesses the S-400, and a bipartisan group of 18 House members recently urged congressional leaders to block any sale under current conditions, according to Axios.

The issue also has regional implications. Israel reportedly has pressed Trump not to provide Turkey with the aircraft, amid fears that a sale could weaken Israel’s qualitative military edge as tensions between Erdoğan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deepen.

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F-35 fighter aircrafts fly over the White House during Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s visit in Washington, DC on September 3, 2025. Trump and Nawrocki discussed the flyover in memory of a Polish pilot who recently died in training, calling him a “legend.”(Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images.)

For now, the State Department’s message is clear: Trump may favor the sale, but Erdoğan must first surrender the Russian system that caused Turkey’s expulsion from the program.

The State Department and Turkish Embassy in Washington did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

What to know about the Fauci contempt vote

2026-07-30 3:39 PM EDT / CNN

By Adam Cancryn and Alejandro Cruz, CNN

What to know about the Fauci contempt vote

Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during his contentious Senate Homeland Security hearing Wednesday. CNN’s Adam Cancryn explains why Sen. Rand Paul has now scheduled a contempt of Congress vote and what that means for Fauci. Discover more videos, including live streams and exclusive storytelling, on our Watch page.

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