The Pentagon has suspended participation in all think tank events until further notice, departing from a history of dialogue with Washington’s civilian national security realm.

The move is an attempt ‘to ensure the Department of Defense is not lending its name and credibility to organizations, forums and events that run counter to the values of this administration.’

‘Going forward, no DOD official will attend events by America Last organizations that promote globalism and hate (President Donald Trump),’ Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson wrote on X. 

In the future, the Defense Department (DOD)’s Office of Public Affairs will conduct a ‘thorough vetting’ every time an official is invited to a conference to decide whether the event advances Trump’s agenda.

Such security events often are funded by foreign governments or defense contractors and serve as a space for such players to push a message or a product they sell to key officials and for defense officials to put out a message of their own from the U.S. government. 

The move comes after the Pentagon yanked its officials from participation in the Aspen Security Forum — a gathering of defense-minded industry leaders and researchers. 

Wilson had said the secretary’s office believed that event ‘promotes the evil of globalism, disdain for our great country, and hatred for the President of the United States.’

Several top military officials had been scheduled to speak at the event. 

Historically, defense secretaries have participated in defense conferences and think tank events like the Munich Security Conference or the Reagan Defense Forum.

Hegseth skipped out on the Munich Security Conference but attended the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in May.  

Aspen previously told Fox News Digital, ‘For more than a decade, the Aspen Security Forum has welcomed senior officials – Republican and Democrat, civilian and military – as well as senior foreign officials and experts, who bring experience and diverse perspectives on matters of national security. We will miss the participation of the Pentagon, but our invitations remain open.’

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., exuded confidence as she declared to Gen Z activists at the Voters of Tomorrow summit that the Democrats would take back the House in 2026.

‘We have no doubt that we will win the election with the House of Representatives,’ Pelosi said, eliciting applause from the crowd. She then responded to the cheers by once again saying ‘No doubt.’

The longtime California lawmaker also said she was confident that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., would be speaker of the House after the 2026 midterms.

While Pelosi was confident about the Democrats’ chances, she also emphasized the need for preparation. The former House speaker credited early preparation for the Democrats’ victories in 2006 and 2018 to early preparation, saying that 2026 could be the same. 

‘It’s important to be strong in the year in advance, because that’s when the troops line up. We have our messaging, we have our mobilization, we need the money to do it, but they go only next to a school to hold up the most important part: the candidate,’ she said.

However, Pelosi sees another element as being key to Democrats’ victory: bringing down President Donald Trump’s approval rating. The former House speaker called Trump’s current numbers ‘terrible.’

‘By October — certainly by November, but by October, we will have — with the help of so many people working — we’ll have taken what’s his name’s numbers down,’ Pelosi said.

A recent Fox News Poll found that 46% of voters approve of Trump’s performance, while 54% disapprove. That’s exactly where things stood last month, and better than at this point 8 years ago when 41% approved.

The Voters of Tomorrow summit boasts a lineup of high-profile speakers alongside Pelosi, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and David Hogg. Both Harris and Raskin are set to address the group virtually.

Fox News’ Dana Blanton and Victoria Balara contributed to this report.

A House GOP lawmaker is entering the race to become South Carolina governor on Friday, his campaign confirmed to Fox News Digital.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, is expected to kick off his campaign with an event in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on Friday.

As of Friday morning, his non-congressional X account had been changed to say, ‘Ralph Norman for Governor.’

He’s a fiscal hawk on the House GOP’s rightmost flank, where he’s joined other like-minded colleagues in upending leaders’ legislative agenda at times in the name of pushing for more conservative policy wins.

Norman is joining a crowded Republican primary field with his new gubernatorial bid. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Sen. Josh Kimbrell are also in the race.

Meanwhile, Norman’s House colleague, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., is also said to be considering a campaign for governor.

‘We wish Congressman Ralph Norman the best of luck today as he announces his run for Governor,’ Mace said in a statement on X.

Norman previously ran the Warren Norman Company, a commercial real estate development business started by his father.

Before being elected to Congress via special election in 2017, Norman served in the South Carolina state House from 2009 to 2017.

A longtime ally of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Norman was the only House Republican to formally endorse her before Haley dropped out of the race, after which Norman emphatically backed President Donald Trump.

He told Fox News Digital of his endorsement in January 2024, ‘When I supported Nikki Haley, I had the respect of Donald Trump to call him, and I told him what I was gonna do, and I decided I was going to do it.’

Norman has been a vocal supporter of Trump since Haley’s exit. He was most recently at the White House earlier this week with other House Republicans for a reception celebrating their legislative successes.

Earlier this year, he was part of a group of conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus forcing last-minute changes to the president’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ that they said fell more in line with what Trump actually wanted.

Current South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, also a close Trump ally, is term-limited at the end of 2026.

The president’s endorsement will likely play a decisive role in the Palmetto State’s GOP primary.

President Donald Trump said Friday that former President Barack Obama ‘owes me big’ following the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling. 

Trump on Tuesday claimed that Obama was the ‘ringleader’ of Russiagate, calling for him to be criminally investigated amid new claims that members of his administration allegedly ‘manufactured’ intelligence that prompted the Trump–Russia collusion narrative. Obama has denied the allegations, with a spokesperson for him describing them as ‘bizarre.’

‘It probably helps him a lot. Probably helps a lot. The immunity ruling, but it doesn’t help the people around him at all. But it probably helps him a lot,’ Trump said Friday. ‘He’s done criminal acts, there’s no question about it. But he has immunity, and it probably helps him a lot… he owes me big, Obama owes me big.’ 

The intelligence community did not have any direct information that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help elect Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, but, at the ‘unusual’ direction of then-President Barack Obama, published ‘potentially biased’ or ‘implausible’ intelligence suggesting otherwise, the House Intelligence Committee found, according to a Fox News report earlier this week.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had declassified a report prepared by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence back in 2020.

The report, which was based on an investigation launched by former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., was dated Sept. 18, 2020. At the time of the publication of the report, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was the chairman of the committee.

The committee focused on the creation of the Intelligence Community Assessment of 2017, in which then-CIA Director John Brennan pushed for the inclusion of the now-discredited anti-Trump dossier, despite knowing it was based largely on ‘internet rumor,’ as Fox News Digital previously reported.

According to the report, the ICA was a ‘high-profile product ordered by the President, directed by senior IC agency heads, and created by just five CIA analysts, using one principal drafter.’

‘Production of the ICA was subject to unusual directives from the President and senior political appointees, and particularly DCIA,’ the report states. ‘The draft was not properly coordinated within CIA or the IC, ensuring it would be published without significant challenges to its conclusions.’

The committee found that the five CIA analysts and drafter ‘rushed’ the ICA’s production ‘in order to publish two weeks before President-elect Trump was sworn-in.’

In a statement Tuesday, Obama denied Trump’s ‘bizarre allegations’ that he was the Russiagate ‘ringleader.’

‘Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,’ Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement. ‘But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one.’ 

‘These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,’ Obama’s spokesman continued. ‘Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.’ 

Gabbard later told ‘Jesse Watters Primetime’ on Wednesday that there were ‘deep state obstacles’ to releasing her information about the Trump-Russia collusion investigation and that some people within the intelligence community (IC) didn’t want it to ‘see the light of day.’

‘There are a lot of deep state actors still here within Washington. President Trump wants us to find the truth. I want to find that truth. The American people deserve the truth, and they deserve accountability,’ she said.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report. 

Senate Democrats have begun to ramp up their push for the full release of documents related to the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, while Senate Republicans have tried to focus their attention elsewhere.

‘The story Republicans hoped would quietly fade is growing louder by the hour,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor.

Schumer has led the charge among Senate Democrats in demanding more transparency on the Epstein issue, and has used the drama in recent weeks as a political cudgel to go after congressional Republicans and the White House.

His remarks come after a recent Wall Street Journal report alleged that President Donald Trump’s name appeared in the documents surrounding Epstein, and that he was told by the Justice Department about it before publicly saying he was not among the untold number of names within the documents.

Trump also ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to ‘produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony’ on the matter, and top Justice Department official Todd Blanche met with Epstein accomplice Ghislane Maxwell in Florida on Thursday to discuss the late pedophile and alleged sex trafficker.

‘It has the stench of a cover-up,’ Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital. ‘The only right outcome here is to release and disclose all the files. There should be no secret meetings or secret deals.’

However, the Epstein saga has not had near the effect in the Senate as in the House, where House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sent lawmakers home early this week for a monthlong break after some Republicans and Democrats joined forces in their calls to bring the so-called Epstein files out in the open.

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, have downplayed the issue, arguing that Congress has far less power to obtain the information than the Justice Department does.

Sen. Ron Johnson, who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, told Fox News Digital that he does not like ‘duplicating efforts,’ but noted that he is still curious to know more information about the Epstein documents.  

‘I’m like every American who knows anything about this – I’m curious,’ the Wisconsin Republican said. ‘It doesn’t make any sense to me, starting back with his original trial and very light sentence. But I think there are far more important things to worry about.’

Senate Democrats are trying to force the issue, however. Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., again tried to introduce a non-binding resolution that called on Bondi to release all files related to Epstein, and the move was again blocked by Sen. Markwaye Mullin, R-Okla. 

Gallego said that the White House continues to make the issue ‘political theater,’ something that began on the campaign trail.

‘They fed this monster, and now they have to figure out the solution to what the American public is asking for, which is, you know, resolution and answers to their questions,’ he said.

Mullin, however, introduced his own resolution that comported with the president’s order for state and federal courts to release all Epstein documents surrounding the criminal investigation and prosecution against him. But when Gallego offered to combine the two, he objected, and accused him of turning the issue into a ‘political football.’

‘One, in this particular case — in a lot of cases — we’re not willing to stretch the truth to tell something that’s not accurate,’ Mullin said. ‘We want to be accurate with what we’re telling the American people. And the truth is, what can Congress do?’

So far, Mullin’s resolution is the only action offered by Senate Republicans in the ongoing Epstein saga. When asked if he would be interested in bringing the resolution to the floor for a vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said ‘obviously there is some interest in taking action on it, and we’ll see how intense that feeling is.’

Still, some Republicans want to focus their efforts elsewhere.

‘I hope we don’t waste our time on that,’ said Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. ‘We’ve got enough to do.’