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Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.

A man with a lengthy criminal history who was previously on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hold is on the run after being accused of groping a 7-year-old Texas girl as she walked home from school. Carlos Jose Ayala Morales, 43, has been charged with felony attempted indecency with a child, the Houston Police Department said. He is accused of grabbing the girl Jan. 27 while she was on her way home from her elementary school, Fox Houston reported.

The City of Chicago recently shared a video of its “gift room” after a watchdog group accused Mayor Brandon Johnson of improperly accepting valuable gifts.On Wednesday, the city also announced new protocols for receiving gifts, along with a log and video of items currently inside its “gift room.”The transparency attempt comes after the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) accused Johnson of accepting valuable gifts and failing to report them.

President Donald Trump called the Department of Education a “con job,” saying he saw a report that the nation ranks 40th in the world in education but is No. 1 in cost per pupil.Trump spoke with reporters Wednesday afternoon from the Oval Office and was asked how soon he wanted the Department of Education (DOE) closed.”Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately. Look at the Department of Education. It’s a big con job,” he answered.

A federal judge restored President Donald Trump’s deferred resignation program for federal workers in a decision Wednesday.The deferred resignation program, also known as the administration’s “fork in the road” offer, asked government workers to stay or leave after Trump required them to return to their offices shortly after his inauguration.

It is said that talk is cheap. And that’s why House Republicans have done so much of it as they attempted to forge an internal agreement on a budget plan to slash taxes and cut spending. It is now the middle of February. House Republicans struggled to finalize plans for what President Donald Trump terms a “big beautiful bill.” Especially when you consider all of the talking Republicans did – among themselves – since the start of the year.

An Oregon congresswoman is determined to protect federal workers from possible retaliation by introducing new legislation that focuses on “federal workers who stand up against Elon Musk’s grotesque seizure of critical government agencies.

The White House has fired the inspector general of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Fox News has learned.USAID Inspector General Paul Martin was fired Tuesday, though rather than coming from USAID acting administrator and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the firing reportedly came from the White House Office of Presidential Personnel.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Tuesday that some Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) employees who worked on “mis-, dis-, and malinformation” were put on administrative leave.In a statement to Scripps News, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote CISA needs to “refocus on its mission,” starting with election security.

FIRST ON FOX: Three leaders at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) were placed on administrative leave Tuesday, Fox News Digital confirmed. The Office of Management and Budget’s Chief Legal Officer Mark Paoletta placed Lorelei Salas, the CFPB’s supervision director, and Eric Halperin, the agency’s enforcement chief, and Zixta Martinez, the agency’s deputy director, on administrative leave, a CFPB spokesperson told Fox News Digital Tuesday.

President Donald Trump has found an ally in the Senate, at least on his plan to stop creating new pennies.Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., came out in support of Trump’s latest proposal on Tuesday, calling it a “common sense move.” The Democrat represents a battleground state that both she and Trump won in 2024.

FBI records from the Mar-a-Lago classified documents probe will soon be released despite the dismissal of the case against President Donald Trump and his presidential immunity, according to a federal judge’s ruling Monday.In a court filing first obtained by Politico, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell found that the FBI must disclose more information related to the case by Feb. 20. The decision concerned a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case brought by journalist Jason Leopold.

The name change from the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America” began rolling out across the U.S. on Monday, just a month after President Donald Trump announced his intention to Americanize the name.On Monday, the FAA sent out a charting notice confirming that its systems were in the process of updating the name, in addition to updating the newly-named Mount McKinley in Alaska, formerly known as Denali.

President Donald Trump unveiled plans Sunday to halt production of the penny — but getting that initiative underway requires a few additional steps and possibly congressional approval. Additionally, while Trump said he instructed the Treasury Department to stop minting them due to their high costs, supporters of the penny claim it’s wiser to evaluate changes to the nickel instead.

FIRST ON FOX: The Justice Department is moving to dismiss federal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Fox News has learned. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sent a letter to the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) on Monday instructing the SDNY to drop the federal case against Adams and dismiss it without prejudice.

President Donald Trump said if Hamas does not return all hostages by noon on Saturday, he will call for the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to be canceled and “let all hell break out.” Trump made the comments after signing executive orders in the Oval Office Monday evening. When asked if he felt the ceasefire deal should be canceled, the president said that is “Israel’s decision.

A federal court on Sunday issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from sending three Venezuelan immigrants held in New Mexico to the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp as part of the president’s efforts to remove illegal immigrants from the U.S.Lawyers for the trio said in a legal filing that the detainees “fit the profile of those the administration has prioritized for detention in Guantánamo, i.e.

President Donald Trump announced plans to put a stop to producing pennies, which cost more than their value to make.”For far too long, the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”He added, “Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem called the FBI “corrupt” and appeared to accuse the bureau of leaking plans for “large-scale” immigration enforcement plans in the Los Angeles area.The LA Times published an article Friday that said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would lead the operation, focusing on those without legal status in the U.S.

President Donald Trump “100 percent” disagrees with a federal judge’s ruling on Saturday that bars the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the Treasury Department, he said during an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier.

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation declaring February 9th as “Gulf of America Day” as he flew over the recently renamed body of water on his way to make history at Super Bowl LIX on Sunday afternoon. “MOMENTS AGO ON AF1: President Trump signed a Proclamation declaring February 9th ‘Gulf of America Day’ while flying over the newly and appropriately named GULF OF AMERICA!” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced in a post on X.

Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought is now also the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he has directed staff to not issue any new rules, to suspend effective dates of all final rules and to stop any new investigations.Vought, also a Project 2025 author, was named acting director of the CFPB on Friday.

President Donald Trump said he has directed the Secret Service to give him “every bit of information” known about his two attempted assassins last summer during the presidential campaign, according to a report. “I want to find out about the two assassins,” the president told the New York Post Friday.

President Donald Trump decided Saturday to remove security clearances for several Democrats, including former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both of whom are vocal Trump critics, Fox News has learned. “Bad guy. Take away his passes,” Trump told the New York Post of Blinken, Biden’s Secretary of State.

One of the attorneys representing anonymous FBI agents suing the Department of Justice to block the public identification of agents who investigated Jan. 6 is a longtime anti-Trump lawyer who worked with House Democrats on President Donald Trump’s first impeachment. Norm Eisen is an attorney, CNN legal analyst and expert at the Brookings Institution public policy think tank who previously served as the U.S.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has taken a satirical jab at President Donald Trump’s effort to rename the Gulf of Mexico and annex Greenland. A straight-faced Pritzker released a choreographed video on Friday, with fake camera shutter clicks going off in the background, where he asserts that he is renaming Lake Michigan to “Lake Illinois,” poking fun at Trump’s recent executive order where he changed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday addressed events in Afghanistan, saying they created the perception of “American weakness.”While speaking to the Department of Defense and Pentagon workforce during a town hall on Friday, Hegseth said America “deserves to take accountability for” events in Afghanistan, the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, and the war that was unleashed in Ukraine.

Democratic attorneys general from 19 states have filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration over the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to sensitive, personal data belonging to Americans at the Treasury Department. The lawsuit claims the Elon Musk-run agency illegally accessed the Treasury Department’s central payment system at the Trump administration’s behest.