While the debate over President Donald Trump’s cuts to facilities and administrative costs associated with federally funded research grants rages on, one expert in the field of medicine says he sees a clear way forward. 

Dr. David Skorton, president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges, has had a wide-ranging career spanning government, higher education and medicine. He now runs a national association that oversees all Medical Doctorate-granting schools in the country, and about 500 academic health systems teaching hospitals. Skorton told Fox News Digital that while he does not agree with Trump’s blanket cuts, the current status quo needs changing. He cited over-regulation as a reason why facilities and administrative costs have gotten so ‘wildly expensive.’ 

He also said that transparency from research institutions could help create better awareness of how taxpayer dollars are being used to support those institutions that have become the bane of critics who say they are stockpiling taxpayer dollars for their own benefit. 

‘In some cases, more than one agency will develop regulations, and the researchers have to answer to all of those different agency regulations. We should be able to harmonize those things and come out with a more thoughtful approach to reducing some of the regulatory burden,’ Skorton said. He added that, in turn, researchers will be able to spend more time doing what they do best, research, which in the long run will mean greater results for the public.   

‘It would also mean that the costs would go down because the additional personnel, the additional things that are necessary to keep track of things for these regulations, that would also go down,’ Skorton pointed out.

Skorton said that the impact of reducing over-regulation will be two-fold: it will improve the current research environment and show that there is room for collaboration to reduce overhead costs while not threatening new research. In particular, he pointed to research involving human or animal subjects, which Skorton said is often riddled with regulatory requirements that, while important, could be streamlined.  

Skorton added that the AAMC was ‘very hungry’ to work with the administration on improving this framework, noting that ‘we’re not here to claim that the status quo is perfect, and we want to defend it, but the idea of very quickly knocking down the facilities and administrative costs to what felt like an arbitrary number to many of us, 15%, will cause research to be reduced.’

The AAMC president said there is an onus on research institutions as well to better educate folks about where their taxpayer dollars are going when they are utilized by federally funded research programs.

‘For every dollar that we get at universities, medical schools, et cetera, for research from the NIH or some other science agency, for every dollar another half dollar, roughly, is contributed by the institution,’ Skorton pointed out. ‘That’s something that maybe people don’t realize, and why would they, because we have to be more clear in making that visible, that we already contribute a lot to the research.’

Fox News Digital spoke to medical experts who have supported Trump’s blanket cut to administrative and facilities costs, and they argue that reducing this price burden on the federal government will increase the availability of new research grants, while getting rid of financial bloat that universities have been able to take advantage of at the taxpayers’ expense.

One of the doctors who shared their thoughts, Dr. Erika Schwartz, echoed calls for reform to the current structure, similar to Skorton.  

‘While infrastructure support is necessary, there’s room for more efficient cost management. A reformed funding model could redirect more resources to direct research activities while maintaining essential support services,’ Schwartz said. ‘This could potentially increase the number of funded research projects and accelerate medical breakthroughs, ultimately benefiting patients more directly.’

A judge in Washington state has issued a temporary restraining order over President Trump’s executive order that withholds federal funding to health care providers who prescribe youth puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or who perform surgeries for gender dysphoria. 

Judge Lauren King, in the Western Washington District Court, issued the order on Friday. 

It comes after a federal judge in Maryland issued a similar temporary retraining order this week. 

Several states emboldened by President Donald Trump’s executive orders are moving to introduce bills banning transgender medical care for minors, and one legal expert believes it’s a ‘continuation’ of the success other states have achieved in the last several years fighting against the Biden administration.

‘You go back to 2020, when Idaho became the first state to pass a save women’s sports law, and in 2021, Arkansas was the first state to protect kids from dangerous gender transition, drugs and surgeries,’ Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Matt Sharp told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘And since that time, we’ve had over 25 states pass both of those laws, plus other measures to protect women’s privacy and safety and schools or women’s shelters or correctional facilities.’

‘So, what we are seeing is truly the continuation of incredible work by state legislatures and others to address the concerns of gender ideology and make sure that women and children in their states are not being harmed by it,’ he said.

So far this year, several states have introduced or considered legislation to ban transgender medical procedures for minors. More than two dozen states already have laws in place restricting such procedures. 

Alabama recently passed a bill in the Senate aiming to legally define gender based on one’s biological sex, in line with Trump’s ‘two sexes’ declaration. Georgia’s state Senate also passed a bill this week that would cut state funding for transgender surgical treatments, extending to both minors and adults. The bill aims to block state funds for state employee and university health insurance plans, Medicaid, and the state’s prison system.

Some states are still rebelling against Trump’s orders. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, vetoed a bill this week that would have prohibited state funds from being used on gender transition treatments and procedures on minors and allow civil actions against healthcare providers conducting such treatments. 

Despite Trump’s executive orders, Democratic attorneys general from 15 states – California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin – issued a joint statement this month doubling down on their support for transgender procedures for minors.

The executive orders, signed in late January, include a reinstatement of the ban on transgender troops in the military, a ban on federal funding for sex changes for minors and a directive requiring federal agencies to recognize only ‘two sexes,’ male and female, in official standard of conduct.

‘What these executive orders represent is a 180-degree turn from that, rather than the federal government trying to push this dangerous ideology and being an adversary of states and their efforts to protect women and girls, you know, have an ally at the federal government,’ Sharp, who filed one of the first state cases against a Connecticut policy allowing men to compete in women’s sports in 2020, said.

Sharp described Trump’s executive orders as a ‘return to normalcy.’

‘What we saw starting a new Obama administration and continuing in the Biden administration, I think was trying to erase sex and replace it with the concept of gender identity,’ he said. ‘And I think Americans have seen that. They’ve seen the harm that’s caused to countless young women, to young children, pushed to do irreparable damage to their bodies through these gender transition drugs and surgeries to even families who have had their rights violated by policies that were hiding information, lying to parents about a child who was experiencing distress over their sex and gender.’

While the Trump White House has made its stance on gender-related issues clear, the U.S. Supreme Court will determine a critical ruling this summer on whether the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, which guarantees equal treatment under the law for individuals in similar circumstances, prevents states from banning medical providers from offering puberty blockers and hormone treatments to children seeking transgender surgical procedures. 

In a speech to European leaders, Vice President JD Vance said the continent’s recent censorship activities were a bigger threat to its existence than Russia. 

‘The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China. It’s not any other external actor,’ he said in an address at the Munich Security Conference. 

‘What I worry about is the threat from within the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.’

Vance called out former European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who said in January that if the right wing German AfD party were to win elections in Germany, the results could go the way of Romania.

‘These cavalier statements are shocking to American ears,’ said Vance. 

‘For years we’ve been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defense of democracy. But when we see European courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard.’

Romania annulled the results of its December presidential election, because President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence reports alleging a Russian influence campaign on social media to the benefit of Calin Georgescu, the dark horse candidate who won the most votes. 

‘You can believe it’s wrong for Russia to buy social media advertisements to influence your elections. We certainly do. You can condemn it on the world stage, even. But if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with.’

The vice president even called out the organizers of the Munich conference, who he said had ‘banned lawmakers representing populist parties on both the left and the right from participating in these conversations.’

The conference barred the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the newly formed left-populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) for what MSC chair Christoph Heusgen described as a rejection of the conference’s principle of ‘peace through dialogue.’  Heusgen said the tipping point was when lawmakers with the parties walked out of the room as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was addressing German parliament last June. 

‘To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation,’ who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election.’

He then said Europe had forgotten the lessons of the Cold War and the Soviet Union’s censorship policies. 

‘Within living memory of many of you in this room, the Cold War positioned defenders of democracy against much more tyrannical forces on this continent. And consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents, that closed churches, that canceled elections,’ Vance said. 

‘Unfortunately, when I look at Europe today, it’s sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners. I look to Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest the moment they spot what they’ve judged to be ‘hateful content’ or to this very country where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as part of ‘combating misogyny on the internet.’’

‘Most concerning,’ according to Vance, is the United Kingdom. 

‘The backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.’

Vance recounted Adam Smith Connor, who was found guilty in October of breaching the local government’s Public Spaces Protection Order, after he stood outside an abortion facility nearly two years ago with his head bowed in silent prayer.

‘ I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one-off, crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person. But no,’ said Vance.

The U.K. law suggests that those within the buffer zone of 200 meters of an abortion clinic cannot attempt to influence someone’s decision to access an abortion. Those who are in homes within the buffer zone cannot hang signs outside or shout anti-abortion messages that could be heard in range of the clinic. 

Vance also called out Sweden, where Danish activist Rasmus Paludan was sentenced to four months in prison for burning copies of the Quran. 

‘Sweden’s laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact, ‘grant,’ and I’m quoting, ‘a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief,’’ said Vance. 

Vance’s speech had veered away from what European leaders had been expecting to hear – details on President Donald Trump’s plan for peace between Russia and Ukraine and how to strengthen the NATO alliance.

‘I’m sure you all came here prepared to talk about how exactly you intend to increase defense spending over the next few years, in line with some new target,’ said Vance.

‘I’ve heard a lot about what you need to defend yourselves from, and of course that’s important. But what has seemed a little bit less clear to me, and certainly I think to many of the citizens of Europe, is what exactly it is that you’re defending yourselves for.’

The vice president went on: ‘What is the positive vision that animates this shared security compact that we all believe is so important? And I believe deeply that there is no security If you are afraid of the voices, the opinions and the conscience that guide your very own people.’

‘The crisis this continent faces right now, the crisis I believe we all face together, is one of our own making. If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you.’

The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has released the names of the three hostages set to be freed Saturday, including American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen, following days of concern that a ceasefire deal with Israel could collapse. 

Russian-Israeli Alexander Troufanov and Argentine-Israeli Yair Horn, who along with Dekel-Chen were abducted by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023, will also be released on Saturday, which will mark 497 days in captivity.

Dekel-Chen is the second American to be released by Hamas since President Donald Trump re-entered office, following the release of Keith Siegel on Feb. 1. 

International concern over the stability of the ceasefire reached new heights after Hamas threatened not to release any more hostages – in direct violation of the agreement – after it claimed that Israel had violated the treaty by not facilitating the transport of humanitarian aid and targeting Palestinians in airstrikes. 

Trump then said on Monday that Israel should cancel the ceasefire agreement if Hamas did not hand over all remaining hostages, not just the three slated to be released on Feb. 15 under the ceasefire agreement. 

Concern mounted when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday also called on Hamas to release hostages come Saturday, but did not specify whether he meant all hostages or the three previously agreed to. 

‘The Israeli formal position is that we have an agreement that should be fulfilled,’ retired IDF Major General Yaakov Amidror confirmed on Thursday during a discussion hosted by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA).

‘We don’t [want to] shake the boat by adding [Trump’s] demand,’ he said. ‘The question is, will Hamas fulfill the agreement from its side and release the three hostages? 

‘I think Hamas is not going to take the risk now when this is the mood in Washington,’ Amidror added. ‘But we don’t know.’ 

Just 16 of the 33 hostages scheduled to be released during the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire have been freed. 

Following the first week of the rocky agreement, which saw the release of seven hostages, three hostages per week were slated to be released under terms agreed to by Hamas and Israel. The final 14 hostages will be released together on Feb. 22, marking the final week of the first phase.

The IDF has assessed that at least eight of the hostages slated for release in the first phase have been killed while in Hamas captivity, though the number could be higher as the fate of Shiri Bibas and her two young boys – Ariel, who was four years old when he was abducted alongside his brother Kfir, who was nine months old – remains unconfirmed by the IDF. 

Hamas has claimed they were killed by an Israeli airstrike, though the IDF has said it does not have evidence to support this. 

Mediators were supposed to start to negotiate terms for the release of the remaining 65 hostages earlier this month, though Amidror said he does not believe they has officially begun. At least 26 of those slated for release in the second phase are assessed to have been killed. 

In recent weeks, the hostages have confirmed fears that they were tortured, interrogated and starved during their time in Hamas captivity. And the state of the hostages released last week sparked an outcry as many pointed out the similarities in appearance of the three men to images of those who survived the Holocaust.

Five other Americans remain in captivity, including Edan Alexander, 19, an IDF soldier and the only remaining American still assessed to be alive, though he is not slated for release until the second phase of the ceasefire. 

IDF soldiers Itay Chen, 19, and Omer Neutra, 22, are believed to have been killed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and their bodies continue to be held alongside Gadi and Judi Haggai, who were also killed during the terrorist attack near their kibbutz. 

Siegel, 65, thanked Trump for his help in securing his release but urged him to ensure that the ceasefire is upheld and said, ‘Your leadership and strength will ensure the agreement is honored by all sides – that is what will allow all . . . hostages to return home to their families,’ he added. 

Democrats will likely ‘waste millions’ of dollars battling President Donald Trump’s executive orders and actions in court with little success to show for it, according to University of California, Berkeley law professor John Yoo. 

Trump ‘will have some of the nation’s finest attorneys defending his executive orders and initiatives, and the Democrats will waste millions of dollars losing in court,’ Yoo, the former deputy assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday when asked whether there are efforts of ‘lawfare’ against Trump in his second administration. 

‘I expect that Trump will ultimately prevail on two-thirds or more of his executive orders, but the Democrats may succeed in delaying them for about a year or so,’ Yoo said. 

The Trump administration has been hit by at least 54 lawsuits in response to Trump’s executive orders and actions since his inauguration on Jan. 20. Trump has signed at least 63 executive orders just roughly three weeks into his administration, including 26 on his first day alone. 

The executive orders and actions are part of Trump’s shift of the federal government to fall in line with his ‘America First’ policies, including snuffing out government overspending and mismanagement through the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), banning biological men from competing in women’s sports and deporting thousands of illegal immigrants who flooded the nation during the Biden administration. 

The onslaught of lawsuits come as Democratic elected officials fume over the second Trump administration’s policies, most notably the creation of DOGE, which is in the midst of investigating various federal agencies to cut spending fat, corruption and mismanagement of funds.

A handful of Democratic state attorneys general and other local leaders vowed following Trump’s election win to set off a new resistance to his agenda, vowing to battle him in the courts over policies they viewed as harmful to constituents. Upon his inauguration and his policies taking effect, Democrats have amplified their rhetoric to battle Trump in the courts, and also to take the fight to ‘the streets.’

‘We are going to fight it legislatively. We are going to fight it in the courts. We’re going to fight it in the streets,’ House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in January of battling Trump’s policies. 

‘Our biggest weapon historically, over three years alongside the Trump administration, has been the bully pulpit and a whole lot of legal action, so my guess is it will continue,’ New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said the day after Trump’s inauguration. 

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said at a protest over DOGE and its chair, Elon Musk, earlier in February, ‘We are gonna be in your face, we are gonna be on your a–es, and we are going to make sure you understand what democracy looks like, and this ain’t it.’

The dozens of cases come after Trump faced four criminal indictments, on both the state and federal level, in the interim of his first and second administrations. Trump had railed against the cases — including the Manhattan trial and conviction, the Georgia election racketeering case, and former special counsel Jack Smith’s election case and classified documents case — as examples of the Democratic Party waging ‘lawfare’ against him in an effort to hurt his re-election chances in the 2024 cycle. 

Yoo, when asked about the state of lawfare against Trump now that he’s back in the Oval Office, said the president’s political foes have shifted from lawfare to launching cases to tie up the administration in court. 

‘I think that what is going on now is different than lawfare,’ he said. ‘I think of lawfare as the deliberate use by the party in power to prosecute its political opponents to affect election outcomes. The Democrats at the federal and state level brought charges against Trump to drive him out of the 2024 elections.’ 

‘The lawsuits against Trump now are the usual thrust and parry of the separation of powers,’ Yoo explained. ‘The Democrats are not attacking Trump personally and there is no election. Instead, they are suing Trump as President to stop his official policies. 

Yoo said the Republican Party also relied on the courts in an effort to prevent policies put forth during the Obama era and Biden administration, including when President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010, or his 2012 immigration policy, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Republicans also challenged the Biden administration in court after President Biden attempted to forgive student debt through executive action in 2022.

‘Turnabout is fair play,’ Yoo said of groups suing over various administrations’ executive actions or policies.  

‘What makes this also different than the law is that now Trump controls the Justice Department,’ he added, explaining that Democrats will spend millions on the cases, which will likely result in delays for many of the Trump policies but will not completely thwart the majority of them. 

A handful of the more than 50 lawsuits have resulted in judges temporarily blocking the orders, such as at least three federal judges issuing preliminary injunctions against Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked on Wednesday during the press briefing whether the administration believes the courts have the authority to issue such injunctions. Leavitt appeared to echo Yoo that the administration will be ‘vindicated’ in court as the cases make their way through the judicial system. 

‘We believe that the injunction actions that have been issued by these judges, have no basis in the law and have no grounds. And we will again, as the president said very clearly yesterday, comply with these orders. But it is the administration’s position that we will ultimately be vindicated, and the president’s executive actions that he took were completely within the law,’ Leavitt said, before citing the ‘weaponization’ of the court systems against Trump while he was on the campaign trail. 

‘We look forward to the day where he can continue to implement his agenda,’ she said. ‘And I would just add, it’s our view that this is the continuation of the weaponization of justice that we have seen against President Trump. He fought it for two years on the campaign trail — it won’t stop him now.’