Energy Secretary Chris Wright has outlined eight ‘Day 1 Priorities’ he aims to accomplish, several of which he laid out in his inaugural address at the Energy Department headquarters Wednesday. 

Wright, the CEO of Colorado oilfield services company Liberty Energy, said he will prioritize refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), modernizing the U.S. nuclear stockpile, streamlining federal permitting for energy development, and abiding by the mantra: ‘Advance energy addition, not subtraction.’

In his remarks at the department’s building near Pierre L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C., Wright spoke about his childhood love of science and how that focus led him to pursue work in the field.

Wright said he met President Donald Trump about a year ago, and the two businessmen connected over their support for unleashing American energy prowess and highlighting how U.S. energy dominance positively affects many other aspects of life.

Wright said Trump had a ‘simple vision’ that ‘energy is good and that we need more’ of it, particularly domestically-sourced.

‘So we just connected. And he asked me, ‘Would you be secretary of energy?’ And I said, ‘Boy, if I’m asked to serve my country, I don’t have to think about that one.”

He called the Energy Department the gem of the American government and said he has long been entranced by contemporary advancements in the field, from German chemist Otto Hahn splitting the atom in 1938 to Adm. Hyman Rickover creating the first nuclear-powered machines in submarines.

‘I want to better energize our country, strengthen our country, advance science… and get the politics out of all of this.’

‘Energy is not political: it is the basic infrastructure that allows us to live great lives, to allow whatever our dream is, whatever our vision is,’ he said.

Wright added that there is no such thing as clean or dirty energy, and that in reality, there is ‘no free lunch’ when it comes to the byproducts of the production process: ‘It’s about tradeoffs.’

Other ‘day one’ priorities Wright has outlined include a return to ‘regular order’ on liquefied natural gas exports.

Wright has been a longtime advocate of hydraulic fracturing – famously going as far as drinking fracking fluid to prove environmentalist critics wrong about its effect on nature.

Pennsylvania and North Dakota are epicenters of fracking, while New York retains the subterranean resources to do so but is under a statewide ban.

Wright has also pledged to strengthen the power grid’s reliability and security.

There have been blackouts occasionally in recent years from overtaxed grid areas, notably in California around 2001. 

There have also been security threats to energy transmission, including from a Catonsville, Maryland, woman who conspired to destroy the region’s power grid.

Then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said Sarah Beth Clendaniel ‘plotted to disable the power grid around the entire Baltimore region’ in 2018, after becoming acquainted with a Florida man who espoused White supremacist ‘accelerationist’ ideologies.

Under Wright’s tenure, the Energy Department also plans to promote home appliance affordability and choice – a break from the Biden administration’s efforts to restrict usage of gas stoves.

Former President Joe Biden also spent part of the nation’s SPR in what critics called a bid to assuage energy price spikes for political purposes. Wright said he would promote the refilling of the SPR, as well as modernize the U.S. nuclear stockpile, Fox News has learned.

As LGBT advocates and medical organizations challenge the Trump administration’s ban on transgender treatments for minors, legal expert Sarah Marshall Perry of the Heritage Foundation warns that this lawsuit is just the ‘tip of the iceberg,’ driven by ‘faulty interpretations,’ with more legal battles expected in the coming months.

‘This is a $5 billion a year industry,’ Perry said. ‘I would not expect what I like to call the gender ghouls to go quietly into that good night, they are going to suddenly be faced with a devastating reckoning on exactly where their bottom line lies.’

‘If they want to fight for private insurance coverage through Cigna or Blue Cross Blue Shield, that’s entirely their prerogative,’ Perry said, adding that these companies have ‘very big lobbying presences’ to pursue coverage through private insurers.

‘There is a reason that this type of so-called medical care proliferated, and that’s because they had governmental cover,’ she said.

The lawsuit was filed in Baltimore federal court and seeks an immediate injunction to delay the implementation of President Donald Trump’s executive order from last week.

‘Over the past week, hospitals across the country have abruptly halted medical care for transgender people under nineteen, canceling appointments and turning away some patients who have waited years to receive medically necessary care for gender dysphoria,’ the lawsuit reads. 

‘This sudden shutdown in care was the direct and immediate result of an Executive Order that President Trump issued on January 28, 2025 — Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation — directing all federal agencies to ‘immediately take appropriate steps to ensure that institutions receiving Federal research or education grants end gender-affirming medical care for people under nineteen (the ‘Denial of Care Order’).’

The group of plaintiffs claims executive orders are unlawful and unconstitutional, saying the Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse.

However, Perry argued that existing federal coverage for gender-related procedures for minors stems from a misinterpretation of the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, a decision that several federal courts have since ruled does not support such policies. 

‘Remember that we’re dealing with the vestiges of an administration that was all in on gender identitarianism and was manipulating federal case law to be able to push through policies that have already been struck down,’ Perry said. ‘I think the President is acting wisely in an anticipatory stance to make sure that the federal funding cap is turned off, while we can get some of these challenges through court and determine whether or not, first, if there is a parental right to these particularly controversial procedures.’

She said that a federal judge already ruled against former President Joe Biden’s re-interpretation of Title IX, referring to U.S. District Court Chief Judge Danny Reeves vacating the regulation in January, in which the previous administration had expanded sex discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity. 

Reeves ruled that Biden’s expansion contradicted the original intent of Title IX, stating that incorporating gender identity into the statute ‘eviscerates the statute and renders it largely meaningless.’

Perry noted that various federal statutes, including the Affordable Care Act’s anti-discrimination provisions, were ‘manipulated’ by the previous administration to advance gender identity policies and noted that courts have increasingly pushed back against these interpretations.

‘I think he is rightly acting in an anticipatory fashion,’ Perry said of Trump. ‘He is the chief enforcer of the law, and he has drawn a line in the sand, saying we’re going to cut the tap off until we find a way to get clarity on this, but in the meantime, we are not going to continue to fund the things that we know have catastrophic, devastating effects on minor kids.’

The lawsuit is the latest addition to those suing Trump over his gender-related executive orders. 

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.

A White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital they do not comment on pending litigation. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to weed out ‘radical gender ideology’ as one of his key administrative focuses.

The Supreme Court will also rule on a major case this term about a Tennessee law that will determine whether gender transition procedures can be banned for minors. 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report. 

Several Democratic lawmakers drew the ire of conservatives on social media after showing up at a rally against Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts and riling up the crowd with disparaging comments about the Tesla CEO, including calling him a Nazi.

‘Elon Musk is a Nazi nepo baby, a godless lawless billionaire, who no one elected,’ Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., said at a rally outside the Treasury Department where protesters were speaking out against DOGE.

‘Elon, this is the American people. This is not your trashy Cybertruck that you can just dismantle, pick apart, and sell the pieces of.’

At one point during her remarks, Pressley said, ‘We will see you in the court, in Congress, in the streets.’

‘Elon Musk is seizing the power that belongs to the American people,’ Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said while shaking her fist alongside Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. ‘We are here to fight back.’

‘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,’ Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said at the rally. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was also in attendance and told the crowd that Musk’s DOGE efforts are ‘taking away everything we have.’

‘God d—it shut down the Senate!’ Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., said. ‘WE ARE AT WAR!’

Conservatives on social media quickly pushed back on the comments, with some accusing Pressley of inciting violence.

‘These people are totally sane…,’ Greg Price, Trump ’24 deputy rapid response director, sarcastically posted on X along with a supercut of clips from the rally. 

‘THIS IS A CALL FOR VIOLENCE!’ video journalist Nick Sortor posted on X in response to Pressley. ‘The DOJ MUST investigate this!’

‘Rep Ayanna Pressley just called on her followers to agitate in the streets,’ LibsofTikTok posted on X. ‘Typical Democrat doing what they do best: Calling for violence and chaos.’

‘Democrat lawmakers are losing their minds now that their USAID scam is exposed,’ conservative influencer Paul Szypula posted on X. ‘Pressley needs to be censured for inciting violence.’

‘Making Jasmine Crockett the face of your party is certainly a choice and one I highly encourage,’ Red State writer Bonchie posted on X.

‘Rep. Jasmine Crockett is totally unhinged,’ conservative commentator Ben Kew posted on X. 

‘A screeching Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren says Elon Musk is ‘seizing power from the American people’ by not allowing congress members to waste taxpayer money,’ Collin Rugg, co-owner of Trending Politics, posted on X. ‘I knew Trump’s 2nd presidency would be good but didn’t realize it would be this good.’

‘This sounds like a call for insurrection to me,’ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted on X in response to McIver. ‘CC: @TheJusticeDept @FBI.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the office of Reps. Pressley, Crockett and McIver.

The Democrat lawmakers have come out against Musk after he was granted access to a Treasury department called the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which disburses trillions in payments each year, including Social Security checks and federal salaries, through DOGE, which is tasked with reducing federal spending. 

‘The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups,’ Musk wrote on X in defense of his actions. ‘They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once.’

In a letter Tuesday to federal lawmakers, a Treasury Department official said a tech executive working with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will have ‘read-only access’ to the government’s payment system.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi was sworn in to lead the Justice Department on Wednesday, where the nation’s newly minted top prosecutor is expected to spend her first days dealing with a firestorm of reassignments, lawsuits and resignations from senior law enforcement officials, despite early efforts to urge calm and head off any fears of politicization.

Bondi was sworn in at the Oval Office Wednesday by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in front of an audience packed with her friends and family.

President Donald Trump, for his part, praised Bondi after the ceremony as ‘unbelievably fair and unbelievably good,’ and someone who he said will ‘restore fair and impartial justice’ at the department. 

‘I know I’m supposed to say, ‘She’s going to be totally impartial with respect to Democrats,” Trump told reporters, ‘and I think she will be as impartial as a person can be.’

Bondi’s nomination had earned praise both from Republicans and some Democrats for her composure and her ability to deftly navigate thorny and politically tricky topics and lines of questioning from some would-be detractors – putting her on a glide path to confirmation in the Republican-majority chamber.

Her nomination had also earned the praise of more than 110 former senior Justice Department officials, including former attorneys general and dozens of Democratic and Republican state attorneys general, who praised her experience and work across party and state lines.

Still, her swearing-in comes at a politically charged time for law enforcement agency. Just hours earlier, two groups of FBI agents filed separate lawsuits Tuesday seeking to block any public identification of employees who worked on Jan. 6 investigations, after the bureau complied with a request from Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove to obtain information from thousands of agents, or their supervisors, detailing their role in the sprawling investigation. 

Questions ranged from agents’ participation in any grand jury subpoenas, whether the agents worked or responded to leads from another FBI field office, or if they worked as a case agent for investigations. 

The plaintiffs said any effort to review or discriminate against FBI employees involved in the Jan. 6 investigations would be ‘unlawful and retaliatory,’ and a violation of civil service protections under federal law.

Bondi, a former Florida prosecutor and state attorney general, vowed repeatedly in her confirmation hearing last month to head up a Justice Department free from political influence or weaponization.

If confirmed, she told lawmakers last month, the ‘partisanship, the weaponization’ at the Justice Department ‘will be gone.’ 

‘America will have one tier of justice for all,’ she said. 

Still, her work will be cut out for her. 

Earlier Wednesday, a senior FBI official also emailed employees at the bureau seeking to head off concerns that they could be terminated or discriminated against in response to their role in the investigation. 

‘Let me be clear: No FBI employee who simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner with respect to January 6 investigations is at risk of termination or other penalties,’ this person said in an email shared across the FBI, and confirmed to Fox News. 

Trump declined to answer questions earlier this week over whether his administration would remove FBI employees involved in the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, telling reporters only that he believes the bureau is ‘corrupt’ and that his nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, will ‘straighten it out.’

And former Justice Department officials have cited concerns that the actions could have an incredibly chilling effect on the work of the FBI, including its more than 52 separate field offices, whose agents have decades of experience in detecting and responding to counterterrorism threats, organized and violent crime, drug trafficking, and more.

But one retired FBI agent urged calm, noting to Fox News that the acting director and deputy director of the FBI still remain in place. This person also stressed that the Jan. 6 investigation and the FBI personnel involved in investigating each case ‘fully followed Bureau and DOJ guidelines,’ and that violations of federal statutes were ‘proven beyond a reasonable doubt in federal courts of law.’

Attorney General Pam Bondi will issue several major directives on her first day leading the Justice Department, including orders to combat the weaponization of the legal system; make prosecutors seek the death penalty when appropriate; and work with the Department of Homeland Security to ‘completely eliminate’ cartels and transnational criminal organizations, Fox News Digital has learned.

Bondi was confirmed by the Senate Tuesday night as attorney general of the United States and was sworn in on Wednesday. 

Fox News Digital exclusively obtained memos outlining Bondi’s first-day directives, which will lay the groundwork for the Justice Department under her leadership. 

Bondi issued a directive regarding ‘zealous advocacy.’ Bondi said DOJ attorneys’ responsibilities include ‘aggressively enforcing criminal laws passed by Congress, but also vigorously defending presidential policies and actions on behalf of the United States against legal challenges.’ 

‘The discretion afforded Justice Department attorneys with respect to those responsibilities does not include latitude to substitute their personal political views or judgments for those that prevailed in the election,’ the memo states. 

‘When Justice Department attorneys refuse to faithfully carry out their role by, for example, refusing to advance good-faith arguments or declining to sign briefs, it undermines the constitutional order and deprives the President of the benefit of his lawyers,’ the memo continues. 

Bondi, in the memo, states that ‘any Justice Department attorney who declines to sign a brief, refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Trump administration, or otherwise delays or impedes the Justice Department’s mission will be subject to discipline and potentially termination.’ 

Bondi is set to establish the ‘Weaponization Working Group,’ which will review the activities of all law enforcement agencies over the past four years to identify instances of ‘politicized justice.’ 

The working group’s first reviews will include prosecutions against Trump led by former Special Counsel Jack Smith; Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg; and the civil fraud case brought against Trump and his family by New York Attorney General Letitia James. 

The working group will also review any potential prosecutorial abuse regarding Jan. 6, 2021; the FBI’s targeting of Catholic Americans; the Justice Department’s targeting of parents at school board meetings; and abuses Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE, Act. 

Meanwhile, Bondi also will end the moratorium on federal executions and order that federal prosecutors at the Department of Justice, including U.S. attorney’s offices, seek the death penalty when appropriate —specifically with a focus on violent drug trafficking crimes. 

Bondi also ordered that the Justice Department ‘re-evaluate instances of the prior administration electing not to seek the death penalty.’ 

Bondi also is expected to rescind any DOJ policies that are ‘not sufficiently in line with President Trump’s death penalty executive order.’ 

The move represents a major reversal from the Justice Department’s view of the death penalty under the Biden administration. In 2021, Biden allowed the DOJ to issue a moratorium on federal executions. 

In December 2024, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 criminals on federal death row, which President Donald Trump, in his executive order on the death penalty, described as the ‘most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death.’ 

Bondi said she is now also directing the Justice Department to achieve justice for the families of the victims of the 37 murderers that had their death sentences commuted. 

As for cartels, Bondi is directing the Justice Department to work closely with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal partners to ‘completely eliminate’ the threats of cartels and transnational criminal organizations. 

Bondi plans to re-imagine charging priorities relating to those cases in order to ensure that law enforcement resources are focused on dismantling the foundational operational capacity of cartels, as opposed to just picking off low-level offenders. 

Here, the Justice Department is expected to temporarily suspend some ‘bureaucratic approvals and reviews’ in order to prioritize speedy prosecutions and captures of those accused of severe offenses like capital crimes, terrorism, or aiding the operations of cartels. 

Bondi said Joint Task Force Vulcan, which was created to destroy MS-13, and Joint Task Force Alpha, which was created to fight human trafficking, would be ‘further empowered and elevated’ to the Office of the Attorney General. Their missions are expected to expand—specifically Vulcan’s—with a new focus on destroying Tren de Aragua. 

Also on the cartel front, Bondi is directing the DOJ Office of Legal Policy to find legislative reforms to target equipment designed to make fentanyl pills and add Xylazine, a new deadly drug, to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. 

And as for illegal migrants, Bondi has directed the DOJ to pause all federal funding for sanctuary cities. 

Bondi has also directed the DOJ to identify and evaluate all funding agreements with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide support to illegal aliens. 

She is also directing litigating components of the Justice Department to investigate instances of jurisdictions that are impeding law enforcement, and directing they be prosecuted, when necessary. 

Meanwhile, Bondi will also create a new Joint Task Force on October 7 focused on holding Hamas accountable for its crimes against Jews during its terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The task force will also ‘achieve justice for victims and fight terrorist-led anti-Semitism.’ 

The task force on Oct. 7 will pursue criminal charges where applicable against Hamas; seek the arrest and extradition of Hamas leadership; and investigate anti-Semitism in the United States. 

Bondi is also directing the FBI to staff the joint task force with personnel ‘significantly experienced in investigating terrorism.’ 

Beyond those directives, Bondi is directing the DOJ to confirm the termination of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs at the department by March 15. She also is demanding the removal of all references to DEI in training programs—specifically ending the emphasis on race and sex-based criteria and refocusing hiring and promotion guidelines ‘solely on merit.’ 

Bondi will also work with the Department of Education to ensure that educational institutions receiving federal grants are adhering to ‘fair admission practices.’ 

Bondi, a longtime prosecutor and former Florida attorney general, has vowed not to use her position to advance any political agenda, testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee that ‘politics has to be taken out of this system.’ 

Bondi told lawmakers in January that the ‘partisanship, the weaponization’ at the Justice Department ‘will be gone.’ 

‘America will have one tier of justice for all,’ she said. 

Before Bondi was confirmed, Fox News Digital exclusively reported that the Trump Justice Department fired more than a dozen key officials who worked on former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team prosecuting Trump, after Acting Attorney General James McHenry said they could not be trusted in ‘faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.’ 

And Friday, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove issued a memo to the acting FBI director directing him to terminate eight FBI employees and identify all current and former bureau personnel assigned to Jan. 6 and Hamas cases for an internal review. 

After the directive, on Tuesday, a group of nine FBI agents filed a lawsuit seeking to block the public identification of any FBI employees who worked on the Jan. 6 investigations into the U.S. Capitol riots in an attempt to head off what they described as potentially retaliatory efforts against personnel involved in the probe.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called President Donald Trump’s proposal to ‘take over’ Gaza a ‘bold step’ toward restoring peace in the region.

‘Of course, the initial announcement yesterday, I think, was greeted with surprise by many, but cheered by, I think, people all around the world,’ Johnson said during his weekly press conference on Wednesday. 

‘Why? Because that area is so dangerous, and he’s taking bold, decisive action to try to ensure the peace of that region.’

Johnson also noted that conditions in Gaza needed to change in order to avoid another attack similar to Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants invaded southern Israel and killed more than 1,000 people. 

He stopped short of fully endorsing the action, however, and was later pressed again on whether he believed the U.S. should take control of Gaza.

‘This is a bold, a decisive move. And I think you have to do something to eradicate the threat to Israel. Here’s the problem – if you leave Gaza in its current form, there’s always a risk of another Oct. 7. There’s always a risk of proxies of Iran, all these terrorist organizations whose stated, openly stated goal is to eliminate Israel as a state,’ Johnson said.

‘So it just makes sense to make the neighborhood there safer. I think that’s logical. I think it follows common sense.’

Trump told reporters, ‘The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,’ during a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

‘We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all the dangerous unexplored bombs and other weapons on the site,’ he said.

Trump said it would ‘create economic development that would supply unlimited numbers of jobs’ and the U.S. would turn the war-torn region into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East.’

Johnson said he would discuss the matter during his own meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday.

In 1992, Francis Fukuyama penned his famous ‘End of History’ essay in which he argued that former President Ronald Reagan’s Cold War victory had ushered in an age in which free market democracies would flourish almost by osmosis with a light, guiding American hand.

Thirty-five years on, after 9/11, after watching Communist China become a global powerhouse and Russia grow more belligerent, it is obvious that this careful management of neo-liberalism has failed. What we need is a new beginning of history, starting with President Donald Trump.

Of course, we all see the stark difference between the vibrant Trump and his immediate predecessor, Joe Biden, the first commander in chief who looked less alive in office than his Disney animatronic in the Hall of Presidents. But it’s more than that.

Every president since Reagan has essentially been a caretaker for Fukuyama’s vision of a world order in which the U.S., as the undisputed leader, puts its interests last, confident that ‘our way of life’ will inevitably dominate the globe.

The Bushes, Clintons and Obamas did not shape the world so much as they sought to preserve the shape created by Reagan’s Cold War victory. Today, we need Trump to see foreign affairs with fresh eyes, and so he is.

On Tuesday evening, the president shocked the world, and maybe even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he was sharing a press conference, by suggesting that the United States should take over Gaza and turn it into the Riviera of the Middle East.

On the domestic political left, and internationally, the idea of American Gaza was met with scoffing scorn and incredulity. But given the horrible conditions under which those in Gaza live and the intolerable threat they pose to Israel, we must ask why that is.

The answer is that, while the global institutions which neo-liberals created and rely on would never agree to Trump’s Gaza solution, these are the same groups that have failed to secure peace in the Middle East for decades.

Is trying something new so crazy? After all, it is the terrorists who favor the slow and steady status quo of death and destruction. Why give it to them?

And it isn’t just in the Levant that Trump is making waves. Regarding strategically vital Greenland and the economically vital Panama Canal, the new Trump Doctrine is not just that American interests should come first, but that putting them first actually benefits the entire world.

In all fairness, it made some sense in 1992 to think that, as the world’s lone superpower, the United States should be magnanimous and put developing nations first. But somewhere along the line, that magnanimity turned to self-loathing. 

In all fairness, it made some sense in 1992 to think that, as the world’s lone superpower, the United States should be magnanimous and put developing nations first. But somewhere along the line, that magnanimity turned to self-loathing. 

Former President Obama took such a dim view of American moral power that he preferred our nation lead from behind.

Under these caretaker presidents, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was designed to burnish our reputation abroad, instead spent millions criticizing Western Colonialism and telling Africans they aren’t gay enough.

Reagan won the Cold War by keeping his eyes fixed on the aspirational America of the shining city upon a hill. Fukuyama mistakenly believed we had already achieved it and moved in.

Trump’s shining city on a hill may be a hotel and casino in Gaza, or a submarine base in Greenland. It might be freer passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But what it will not be is more of the same.

It was Nietzsche who wrote, ‘In the mountains, the shortest way is from peak to peak; but for that one must have long legs.’ For too long, American foreign policy has labored in the valleys of conflict and discord, always waiting for the safest and easiest way to climb out, never quite managing to.

Like Reagan, Trump knows how to walk from peak to peak and how to ignore the naysayers who say change is impossible. 

At the end of history, one can only look backwards. Perhaps this is why we are a society of sequels and franchises rather than original stories, of old well-worn foreign policy paths, not new blazing trails.

At the beginning of history, all things are possible. There is no cynical past to foreclose on innovation and new ideas. 

Trump has no intention of managing the slow decline of America, nor simply standing athwart that decline yelling ‘Stop!’ No, for the first time in a long time, the American president sees new paths and visions for our nation, and under her leadership, for the entire world.

The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee slammed Democrats on the panel this week for their attempts to schedule a second confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s FBI director nominee, Kash Patel, describing the effort Tuesday night as a ‘delay tactic’ designed to stall Patel from taking the reins of the sprawling law enforcement agency. 

In a statement Tuesday night, Grassley criticized what he described as the ‘baseless’ attempt by Sen. Dick Durbin and other Democrats on the panel to push for a second hearing, noting that Patel testified for more than five hours before the committee and disclosed to the panel ‘thousands of pages’ of records, as well as nearly 150 pages of responses to lawmakers’ written questions. 

‘No one was convinced by the minority’s baseless efforts to mischaracterize and malign Kash Patel,’ Grassley said. ‘It’s additionally outrageous to assert that a nominee should come before the Senate to answer for government actions that occurred prior to their time at an agency.’

‘Further hearings on his nomination are unnecessary,’ Grassley concluded.

He said the committee still intends to vote on Patel’s confirmation as FBI director as early as next week.  

Grassley’s remarks – and his unrelenting support for Trump’s FBI director nominee – come after the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, urged Grassley to delay Patel’s confirmation vote Tuesday, citing what he described as ‘apparent falsehoods’ in Patel’s testimony last week, as well as the ‘recent removals and reassignments of FBI career civil servants.’

The letter, signed by all 10 Democrats on the panel, urged Grassley to delay Patel’s confirmation vote until Patel agreed to testify for a second time under oath about the recent removals and reassignments of FBI civil servants; and until DOJ agrees to provide the panel with volume two of former special counsel Jack Smith’s final report that refers or pertains to Patel’s testimony or actions, among other things.

‘Given the gravity of these matters, which bear directly on Mr. Patel’s integrity, his suitability to lead the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, and his regard for safeguarding classified information, we ask that the Chairman schedule an additional hearing for Mr. Patel to explain these matters in person,’ the Democrats said.

The letter – and Grassley’s swift dismissal of the effort – comes amid two new lawsuits from anonymous FBI agents that were filed separately this week. Both lawsuits sought to block any public identification of FBI employees who were involved in the Jan. 6 investigations into the U.S. Capitol riots after a list of agents involved and their roles was shared with DOJ leadership Tuesday afternoon in keeping with an earlier request from acting U.S. deputy attorney general, Emil Bove.

Both groups of FBI agents asked the court for emergency injunctive relief to block the names or identities of FBI agents involved in the Jan. 6 investigations from being shared, citing concerns that the probe or any retaliatory measures carried out as a result could have a chilling effect on the work of the FBI or spark retaliatory efforts inside the bureau. 

Lawyers for the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent’s Association, a voluntary professional association representing more than 14,000 active and retired FBI special agents, told reporters Tuesday night that they see the Jan. 6 request as a ‘prelude’ to potential adverse action or mass layoffs in the bureau, citing fears that agents name could be subject to threats, harassment or targeting either by the public or inside the bureau.

To date, there are no known plans to conduct sweeping removals or take punitive action against the agents involved.

One retired FBI agent also urged calm, noting to Fox News in an interview that the acting director and deputy director of the FBI still remain in place. 

This person also stressed that the Jan. 6 investigation and the FBI personnel involved in investigating each case ‘fully followed Bureau and DOJ guidelines,’ and that violations of federal statutes were ‘proven beyond a reasonable doubt in federal courts of law.’