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Democrats want to remove a provision of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA) before reopening the government, but Republicans argue the line item they want removed is allowing California to use a “loophole” to draw down funds from the federal government to help pay for the state’s ballooning cost of healthcare for illegal immigrants.

The White House released a memo on Wednesday during the first day of the government shutdown fight indicating Democrats want to repeal Trump reforms in his “big, beautiful bill” that aimed to close this alleged backdoor tactic. However, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office and left-leaning health policy experts insist claims that California is using this tactic are not true.

“When Democrats say, as they keep saying, that there is no federal money or any taxpayer money going for illegal immigrant healthcare because it’s illegal and barred by federal law, it’s simply not true,” said Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host now running to replace Newsom as governor of California. 

Hilton claimed that California has been using a complex Medicaid provision known as a “provider tax” to obtain matching federal dollars, which then gets pooled into the money used by the state to pay for its healthcare offered to undocumented immigrants.

WHITE HOUSE MEMO SAYS DEMOCRATS’ PLAN COULD SPEND $200B ON HEALTHCARE FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

“If [federal dollars] are funding non-emergency healthcare for ineligible immigrants, the sole cause is provider taxes,” Michael Cannon, a health policy expert at the CATO Institute told Fox News Digital. 

Cannon, however, suggested Republicans shot themselves in the foot by choosing only to limit the scope of eligibility around provider tax funds in the OBBBA, saying no more could go to states providing illegal immigrants healthcare, and they should have just quashed them altogether. 

“What they did was that Republicans preserved the ability of states to use provider taxes to fund healthcare for undocumented immigrants using Medicaid,” he argued.

However, Newsom’s office insisted to the Los Angeles Times that the claim California is utilizing a provider tax “loophole” to fund illegal immigrant healthcare is simply not true. It is effectively impossible to make a determination one way or the other because states do not keep records on how provider tax funds from the federal government are spent. 

“This is false — CA does not do this,” Gardon said in a one-line email to the LA Times. Newsom’s office did not reply to Fox News Digital’s request for comment in time for publication.

FED AUDIT, EMERGENCY MEDICAID UNDERCUT DEMS ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HEALTH COVERAGE 

Other healthcare policy experts agree as well that this is not happening.

“The so-called California loophole references a provision in the law that ends a waiver of the uniformity requirements for provider taxes. This provision has nothing to do with using federal funds to pay for care for undocumented immigrants,” Jennifer Tolbert, a healthcare expert at the nonprofit healthcare research organization KFF. 

“But the White House makes the claim that California uses the money they get from the provider tax to pay for care for undocumented immigrants.” 

Chris Pope, a health policy expert from the Manhattan Institute, argues California is also using emergency care claims to draw down even more funds to help pay for its ballooning cost of being the first state in the nation to offer comprehensive healthcare coverage for anyone regardless of their immigration status. 

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Federal law does not permit federal funds to be used for non-emergency medical care for illegal immigrants, but it does not prohibit them from being used for emergency care for these folks.  

“The enormous and open-ended discretion Medicaid gives states to claim federal funding makes it hard for the feds to ensure that the program’s expenditures are reserved for its intended purposes,” Pope wrote in an Op-Ed for the New York Post Friday. “Until that changes, the Democratic claim that federal money isn’t being used on illegal immigrants is simply not true.”

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein on Friday signed “Iryna’s Law,” which increases checks on criminals getting out on bail and prohibits cashless bail for some violent crimes and most repeat offenders following the stabbing death of a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte light-rail train in August. 

Stein, a Democrat, has said he doesn’t like every part of the bill that was passed by the Republican-controlled state Legislature, which also looks to restart executions in North Carolina, but he signed it because it “alerts the judiciary to take a special look at people who may pose unusual risks of violence before determining their bail. That’s a good thing.”

Iryna Zarutska, 23, was killed on Aug. 22, and Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., who had been arrested more than a dozen times, including an armed robbery charge for which he served five years in prison before the fatal train stabbing, has been charged with first-degree murder.

He was most recently released in January on a misdemeanor charge.

RANDOM BLUE CITY STABBING DEATH FUELS NEW BAIL BILL AS ‘ACTIVISTS’ RIPPED FOR LACK OF CRIME CRACKDOWN: EXPERT

“Finally, we are getting dangerous criminals off our streets so we can make sure no one else suffers the heartbreak that Iryna Zarutska’s family endured,” Charlotte-area Republican state Rep. Tricia Cotham, who was involved with the legislation, said in a news release. 

Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have blamed Zarutska’s death on Democrats, accusing them of being soft on crime. 

“The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killer’s knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail, including Former Disgraced Governor and ‘Wannabe Senator’ Roy Cooper,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the attack. 

The violent stabbing sparked outrage, especially after security video showing the attack was released. 

“We can and must do more to keep people safe,” Stein said in a video posted to social media on Friday. “When I review public safety legislation that comes to my desk, I use one simple test: Does it make people safer?” 

He said that “Iryna’s Law” alerts the judiciary to take a special look at who could warrant an “unusual” risk for violence before determining their bail. 

NORTH CAROLINA DEM SAYS ‘NO CORRELATION’ BETWEEN CHARLOTTE TRAIN ATTACK AND ACCUSED KILLER’S REPEATED RELEASES

“That’s a good thing and why I have signed it into law.” 

But, he said he had criticisms of the law, including that it focuses more on a defendant’s ability to post bail rather than the threat they pose, and “more alarming,” he added that a last-minute amendment to the bill that “aims to bring about execution by firing squad in North Carolina. It’s barbaric.”

The last execution in North Carolina was in 2006. 

He stressed that he wouldn’t allow firing squads while he’s governor. The bill doesn’t specifically mention firing squads. 

He said he was also troubled by the bill’s “lack of ambition or vision. It simply does not do enough to keep you safe.” 

The governor said he wanted the legislature to pass his comprehensive bill that would add more police officers on the streets, violence prevention measures like keeping kids out of gangs, and would attempt to make sure that people who are violent or mentally ill don’t have access to guns via background checks. 

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“Iryna’s Law” prohibits cashless bail for some violent crimes and for most repeat offenders; it limits the discretion magistrates and judges have in making pretrial release decisions; allows for the state chief justice to suspend magistrates and requires more defendants to undergo mental health evaluations. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump said Friday that anyone who burns the American flag “will be immediately arrested” and face a one-year prison term, citing his Aug. 25 executive order on flag desecration.

“To ICE, Border Patrol, Law Enforcement, and all U.S. Military: As per my August 25, 2025 Executive Order, please be advised that, from this point forward, anybody burning the American Flag will be subject to one year in prison,” Trump posted on Truth Social Friday evening.

“You will be immediately arrested. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

VETERAN BURNS AMERICAN FLAG IN FRONT OF WHITE HOUSE ON DAY OF CONTROVERSIAL TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER

The executive order itself stopped short of creating new penalties, directing the Justice Department to prioritize cases under existing laws “to the maximum extent permitted by the Constitution.”

Supreme Court rulings in Texas v. Johnson (1989) and United States v. Eichman (1990) held that flag burning is protected speech. Trump’s statement goes further, setting up potential legal battles if arrests are pursued.

JONATHAN TURLEY: TRUMP’S BOLD FLAG-BURNING CRACKDOWN SETS UP BIG FIGHT DOWN THE ROAD

Trump has long pushed to punish flag desecration, and the latest post sharpens his law-and-order message as the government shutdown continues.

“President Trump will not allow the American Flag, a special symbol of our country’s greatness, to be used as a tool to incite violence and riots that jeopardize the safety of everyday Americans,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. “President Trump will always protect the First Amendment, while simultaneously implementing commonsense, tough-on-crime policies to prevent violence and chaos.”

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The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

FIRST ON FOX: A new seven-figure ad in Virginia’s governor’s race is drawing comparisons to the infamous Willie Horton spot of 1988 amid record early voting in the Old Dominion State.

The ad, produced by the American Principles Project, attacks Democrat Abigail Spanberger over transgender policies and warns of the dangers of biological men in women’s spaces. It comes as early voting tops 146,000 ballots in the first week, more than twice the pace of 2021 according to data from the Virginia Public Access Project.

The spot points to Richard Cox, a Tier III sex offender in Arlington County who has been charged multiple times with exposing himself in girls’ locker rooms. The ad says Spanberger’s record and her opposition to Governor Glenn Youngkin’s guidelines for transgender students would let it happen again. It accuses her of putting radical ideology ahead of safety for young girls.

“The case of sexual deviant Richard Cox preying upon young girls in Virginia is enraging to any decent person – but not to Abigail Spanberger,” Terry Schilling, founder of the American Principles Project said to Fox News Digital. “She refuses to condemn Richard Cox at all.”

SPANBERGER DEFENDS ABORTION AD CRITICIZING SEARS AFTER BERNIE WARNS AGAINST HIGHLIGHTING ISSUE

“She’s avoided answering any and all questions about it and the answer is obvious – because this situation is only possible because of Spanberger’s radical transgender policy agenda. Cox has been a repeat offender for over 30 years! He was allowed to enter women’s private spaces where little girls are vulnerable and no one stopped him,” Schilling added. 

“If Abigail Spanberger is elected Governor of Virginia, she will repeal all protections for women in Virginia and put even more young girls in danger. The reason we are spending $1 million on this ad is because every Virginia voter should know that Abigail Spanberger will endanger their daughters,” Schilling said.

APP has run similar ads in other battleground states, positioning itself as a defender of families and warning against policies it claims “confuse[s] young children about changing their gender.” By airing the ad now, APP hopes to frame Spanberger as out of step with Virginia voters before Election Day.

ELON MUSK WADES INTO VIRGINIA TRANSGENDER BATHROOM CLASH, SAYS DEM GOV CANDIDATE WRONGLY ‘BLAMING’ TRUMP

The strategy echoes the famous Willie Horton ad of 1988 which linked Democrat Michael Dukakis to the convicted murderer who committed rape and assault while on weekend furlough from a Massachusetts prison. George H.W. Bush went on to defeat Dukakis by seven points nationally, and the ad became a defining example of how the GOP can use crime to win races.

Spanberger has voted for the Equality Act in Congress and opposed Youngkin’s guidelines, but local school boards control locker room access. Her campaign has tried to keep the focus on the economy and her own record in Washington. 

“Convicted sex offender Richard Cox is a predator who should be in jail — and that’s exactly where he is,” a spokeperson for Spanberger’s campaign told Fox News Digital. “Abigail is a parent of three daughters in Virginia public schools and a former federal law enforcement officer who went after child predators — nothing is more important to her than the safety of Virginia’s kids. As Governor, Abigail will work with state and local law enforcement officers to keep Virginia kids safe and make sure sex offenders are prevented from preying on children and prosecuted for their crimes.”

Cox remains in custody at the Arlington County jail on multiple pending charges, according to the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office inmate database.

“Abigail Spanberger’s policies enabled Richard Cox to prey on women and girls. No amount of political damage control can erase that record,” Schilling said in response to the Spanberger campaign to Fox News Digital. “Spanberger is too dangerous to lead Virginia. As Governor, Spanberger will repeal Gov. Youngkin’s recent executive order barring males from female private spaces.”

Republicans argue that safety and cultural issues are resonating more deeply with parents across the state, particularly after Youngkin’s win in 2021, which many linked to parental rights in education.

Polling shows Spanberger with a lead, but the numbers suggest a competitive race. A Washington Post Schar School poll taken in late September showed her at 55 percent to Republican nominee Winsome Sears at 43. With Republicans casting about half of the first week’s early ballots, the race is one of the most-watched in the nation. 

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More ads are expected as the campaign heats up and voters in Virginia send in record numbers of early ballots. The final weeks of the race will show whether the tough on crime playbook still rings true nearly four decades after Willie Horton. Early voting ends on November 1. 

The Earle-Sears campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said immigration authorities will enforce the law at Super Bowl 60 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, before criticizing the NFL, which she said was “so weak.”

Noem was speaking with Benny Johnson on “The Benny Show” when she was asked about Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican reggaeton artist slated to perform in the halftime show and the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Bad Bunny, a three-time Grammy winner whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, said last month he would not perform in the United States during his upcoming tour due to concerns about potential ICE raids at the shows.

BAD BUNNY’S ICE COMMENTS RESURFACE AS NFL FANS DEBATE SELECTION OF SUPER BOWL LX HALFTIME SHOW PERFORMER

“I have the responsibility to make sure everybody who goes to the Super Bowl has the opportunity to enjoy it and to leave safely. That’s what America’s about,” Noem told Johnson. “We’ll be all over that place.”

Noem said those attending big game should be law-abiding Americans “who love this country.”

Johnson asked Noem about the decision to have Bad Bunny perform, given his views on ICE.

“They suck, and we’ll win,” Noem said of the NFL. “God will bless us, and we’ll stand and be proud of ourselves at the end of the day. And they won’t be able to sleep at night because they don’t know what they believe.

“They’re so weak. We’ll fix it.”

NOEM WARNS OF ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ THREAT LEVEL FOR ICE AGENTS, BLAMES ‘LIES’ FROM DEMOCRATS

Earlier in the week, Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski warned ICE agents would be present at the game.

“There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally,” Lewandowski said on “The Benny Show.” “Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you and apprehend you and put you in a detention facility and deport you. Know that this is a very real situation under this administration, which is contrary to how it used to be.”

Bad Bunny has frequently criticized ICE raids and ICE agents.

“But there was the issue of — like, f—ing ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about,” he told i-D last month.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to the NFL for comment.

Progressive candidate for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District Kat Abughazaleh, during a protest outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Friday, accused Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of perpetrating “crimes against humanity,” prompting DHS to strike back at the Gen Z activist.

A viral video of an ICE agent shoving Abughazaleh to the ground outside the Broadview ICE facility on Sept. 19 has become a flash point in the divisive debate over President Donald Trump’s deportation rollout, as Republicans celebrate the crackdown on illegal immigration while Democrats reject ICE’s “unlawful and racist orders.”

“Dishonest, desperate and demonizing law enforcement to try to get 5 minutes on MSNBC and some fundraising cash,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital in a statement after Abughazaleh criticized Noem during a press conference on Friday. 

“Kristi Noem is here right now to ensure that her crimes against humanity continue unimpeded,” Abughazaleh told her fellow protesters outside Broadview. “We are here to make sure that does not happen. So let us in, give us justice and tear this gate down.”

ICE CHIEF FIRES BACK AT CHICAGO-AREA MAYOR, CITES ‘VIOLENT RIOTERS’ AFTER WEEKS OF BROADVIEW UNREST

Abughazaleh introduced herself on Friday as “one of hundreds of people who have been brutalized by ICE while protesting the inhumane conditions” at Broadview, which she described as a “war zone” where the government is “waging war on peaceful protesters.”

SPECIAL AGENT SLAMS ‘DANGEROUS’ TREND OF DEMOCRATS USING ICE AS CAMPAIGN PROPS

McLaughlin accused Abughazaleh of putting “law enforcement at risk” in her pursuit to “obstruct justice” before she was shoved to the ground two weeks ago. 

“You can not say you are against political violence while celebrating American civilians getting beat up by masked federal agents,” former DNC vice chair David Hogg said in response to the video of an agent shoving Abughazaleh to the ground. 

The congressional candidate, who went viral earlier this year for questioning why it’s controversial that illegal immigrants should have access to taxpayer-funded healthcare, demanded on Friday for “transparency” from DHS pertaining to “what is happening behind those boarded-up windows.”

“Over the last month, we have watched as ICE operates with impunity in Chicago,” Abughazaleh said. “They destroy homes, kill our neighbors, and disappear hundreds in the name of unlawful and racist orders, and all roads of their crimes lead here to Broadview.”

Abughazaleh said the ICE facility, which Noem herself visited on Friday amid another anti-ICE protest outside its gates, is a processing facility and should not hold people for more than 12 hours at a time. 

“We have heard reports of people being held for days or weeks at a time, without beds or hot meals or access to hygienic facilities,” she said. “We’ve heard of grandmothers and pregnant women sleeping on concrete floors of dozens of men in a single cell. I watched as detainees were marched into a van in the very same clothes they were detained in, and we have no idea how long they were there.”

Abughazaleh on Friday demanded elected officials are granted access to inspect the facility. 

Gov. JB Pritzker, D-Illinois, long considered to harbor 2028 presidential ambition, in a statement on Friday accused Noem of “snatching up families, scaring law-abiding residents, violating due process rights, and even detaining U.S. citizens.”

Pritzker said Noem “should no longer be able to step foot inside the State of Illinois without any form of public accountability.”

McLaughlin quickly fired back on Friday, telling Pritzker to “grow up and start protecting the people of your own state.”

“Federal law enforcement has to be here because JB Pritzker refuses to do his job and has allowed violent illegal alien criminals to terrorize Illinois communities for years,” the DHS Assistant Secretary said. 

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Illinois State Police armed with riot gear were on the scene for crowd control on Friday as dozens of protesters gathered outside the Broadview ICE facility. 

Fox News cameras were rolling as more than a dozen protesters were arrested by federal agents. 

Fox News’ Patrick McGovern contributed to this report. 

Hamas on Friday announced it agreed to release all Israeli hostages, dead or alive, as part of President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, Reuters reported.

Leaders also indicated they were prepared to enter mediated negotiations to finalize the deal, according to the report.

The announcement came hours after Trump issued a public warning to the terrorist group, noting its leaders would be “hunted down, and killed” if the remaining Israeli hostages were not released by Sunday night.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

Top Republican officials appear to be at odds with each other over how to portray the fallout from the ongoing government shutdown.

Senate Democrats are still refusing to budge from their demands for Obamacare subsidy extensions to be included in a short-term federal funding bill, so it is likely the government will stay shut down at least until next week.

It has given President Donald Trump and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) wide discretion over what agencies and project operations will look like, as well as the federal workforce.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has sought to portray those decisions as difficult tasks for Trump and OMB Director Russ Vought, particularly the administration’s push to permanently lay off federal workers the longer the shutdown goes on.

HERE’S WHAT TRUMP WANTS TO DO TO RESHAPE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DURING THE SHUTDOWN

Johnson told Fox News Digital in an interview earlier this week that Trump is “very bothered” by the position Democrats have put the government in and is concerned about its lasting impact on Americans. 

He also told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on Thursday that Vought is in an “unenviable” position, and while there “could be some good that comes out of it, if we limit the size and scope of government” that “it is not a job that he relishes.”

And while Trump has heaped blame on Democrats for the shutdown’s impact on Americans, he’s struck a different tone when discussing its political fallout in recent days.

Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday that he would meet with Vought “to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut.”

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump continued. “They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Johnson also gave an emphatic defense of Vought during House Republicans’ lawmaker-only call with the OMB director Wednesday, Fox News Digital was told.

The speaker cast the impending federal layoffs as a difficult position for Vought to be in, and one that Democrats placed him in by refusing the GOP’s funding plan.

“Russ is not the grim reaper,” Johnson said, Fox News Digital was told.

On Thursday evening, however, Trump shared an AI-generated video on Truth Social featuring Vought as a grim reaper-like character set against a parody version of Blue Oyster Cult’s song “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”

The video showed Vought walking through an office full of workers and through a hall of portraits featuring top Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

“Russ Vought is the reaper. He wields the pen, the funds and the brain,” the voiceover sings. “Dems, you babies, here comes the reaper.”

Johnson broached the different signals during a press conference on Friday, telling reporters that Trump does not take “great pleasure” in the shutdown’s disruptions but is “trolling the Democrats,” because “that’s what President Trump does.”

Asked to square those two points, Johnson said the mockery was exclusively aimed at Democrats.

“The effects are very serious on real people, real Americans. We support federal employees who do a great job in all these different areas. But what they’re having, trying to have fun with, trying to make light of, is to point out the absurdity of the Democrats’ position,” Johnson said.

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN SPARKS GOP PLAN TO PENALIZE LAWMAKERS WITH NEW SALARY TAX

“They’re using memes and all the tools of social media to do that. Some people find that entertaining. But at the end of the day, the decisions are hard ones. And I’m telling you, they’re not taking any pleasure in that.”

While Trump’s messaging can appear to undercut that of House GOP leaders’, it could also be a strategy to squeeze Democrats on two separate planes as they continue to resist Republicans’ federal funding strategy.

Republicans are pushing a relatively flat extension of fiscal year (FY) 2025 federal funding levels through Nov. 21 in order to give lawmakers more time to hash out a longer-term deal for FY 2026.

They’ve pointed out that it’s a similar measure to what Democrats have approved 13 separate times under former President Joe Biden.

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But Democrats, infuriated by being sidelined in the federal funding discussions, are withholding support unless Republicans include language extending Obamacare subsidies that were temporarily enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Republican leaders have signaled openness to discussing the credits, which expire at the end of 2025 without congressional action, but have said those talks are better kept separate from federal funding.

The White House did not immediately respond when reached for comment on Trump and Johnson’s messaging, but Fox News Digital did receive an automated reply that stated, “Due to staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown, the typical 24/7 monitoring of this press inbox may experience delays. We ask for your patience as our staff work to field your requests in a timely manner.”

“As you await a response, please remember this could have been avoided if the Democrats voted for the clean Continuing Resolution to keep the government open. The press office also cannot accommodate waves requests or escorts at this time. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” the message said.

President Donald Trump issued a blistering public warning to Hamas on Friday, saying the “ruthless” terrorist group will be “hunted down, and killed” unless they release the remaining Israeli hostages and reach an agreement by Sunday evening.

“They will be given one last chance,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “THIS DEAL ALSO SPARES THE LIVES OF ALL REMAINING HAMAS FIGHTERS!”

“We will have PEACE in the Middle East one way or the other. The violence and bloodshed will stop,” Trump added. “RELEASE THE HOSTAGES, ALL OF THEM, INCLUDING THE BODIES OF THOSE THAT ARE DEAD, NOW! An Agreement must be reached with Hamas by Sunday Evening at SIX (6) P.M., Washington, D.C. time.”

Trump said the United States, along with Israel and several wealthy Middle Eastern nations, have already agreed to a peace proposal. Failure to comply, he warned, would result in unprecedented military action against Hamas.

TRUMP’S PEACE DEAL COULD END THE WAR IN GAZA OR NETANYAHU’S CAREER

“Great, powerful, and very rich Nations of the Middle East, and the surrounding areas beyond, together with the United States of America, have agreed, with Israel signing on, to PEACE, after 3000 years, in the Middle East,” Trump wrote. “Every Country has signed on! If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas.”

TRUMP DELIVERS ULTIMATUM TO HAMAS: ACCEPT DEAL AND RELEASE HOSTAGES OR PAY THE CONSEQUENCES

“As retribution for the October 7th attack on civilization, more than 25,000 Hamas ‘soldiers’ have already been killed,” Trump continued. “Most of the rest are surrounded and MILITARILY TRAPPED, just waiting for me to give the word, ‘GO,’ for their lives to be quickly extinguished.” 

Palestinians considered innocent were also advised to immediately move out of areas at risk of “potentially great future death.” Trump said those who relocate would be cared for by relief efforts.

TREY YINGST: HAMAS MUST ACCEPT TRUMP PEACE PLAN TO END WAR ONCE AND FOR ALL

Last week, Trump unveiled a 20-point peace plan aimed at resolving the ongoing conflict. If accepted, Israel could secure the return of all 46 remaining hostages.

The plan calls for an end to Israel’s military operations, the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip under a Palestinian governing body overseen by an international coalition led by the United States.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s acceptance of Trump’s plan could ultimately determine whether his government collapses or finds renewed support. 

Netanyahu’s party has become increasingly divided, with hard-right members threatening to topple his government over any concessions in the ongoing conflict with Hamas.

Netanyahu previously said during a joint press conference with Trump last week that Israel “will finish the job by itself” if Hamas continues to threaten the region.

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.

Former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., announced on Friday that she is mounting a comeback congressional bid more than a year after losing her Democratic primary to a more moderate challenger.

“St. Louis deserves a leader who is built different,” Bush announced in a video shared on social media. “That’s why I’m running to represent Missouri’s 1st District in Congress. We need a fighter who will lower costs, protect our communities, and make life fairer. I’ll be that fighter.”

The “Squad” member was ousted in the Democratic primary in Aug. 2024 by St. Louis County prosecutor Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo., who is a more moderate candidate and had the backing of pro-Israel groups that spent millions to unseat Bush. 

“I ran for Congress to change things for regular people,” Bush said in the campaign launch video. “I’m running again because St. Louis deserves leadership that doesn’t wait for permission, doesn’t answer to wealthy donors and doesn’t hide when things get tough.”

SPECULATION SWIRLS AS AOC IS RUMORED TO HARBOR 2028 ASPIRATIONS: ‘SAVVY POLITICIAN’

Bush was first elected to Congress in Nov. 2020, quickly joining the ranks of the progressive “Squad,” including Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who were elected in 2018. 

AOC STARS IN NEWSOM REDISTRICTING AD, URGING CALIFORNIANS TO ‘FIGHT’ TRUMP FOR DEMOCRACY

The Missouri progressive was re-elected in 2022, but she became the second member of the “Squad” to lose her Democratic primary last year after Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., also lost to a more moderate pro-Israel Democrat. 

Like Bowman, Bush had emerged in Congress as a vocal critic of the United States’ ties to Israel, calling Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack a “war crime” for “Israel’s collective punishment against Palestinians.”

“All across America, we see it,” Bush said. “Our rights rolled back, our history being rewritten, our lives on the line. The stakes for our community here have never been higher. I’m running because our district deserves someone ten toes down. For our families, for our wallets, for our safety, for our democracy, and for our bright future. St. Louis is built different, so am I, and so are we.”

Soon after President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Bush teased a congressional run to POLITICO. 

“The Squad will keep fighting,” she told the outlet. “The numbers will be lower for the 119th Congress, but they will keep fighting for people who have the greatest need. They’re not going to change their priorities and what they believe. The number of people in Congress on the team will just be smaller. But they’ve never been silent. Anyone who underestimates our power is severely mistaken, because we aren’t going anywhere, and I will always be Squad. I’m not going far.”

While the country shifted to the right in 2024, with Republicans securing control of the White House and Congress, the upcoming midterm elections will prove a litmus test for Trump’s sweeping second-term agenda. 

And Bush’s announcement comes as Republicans secured victories in their redistricting battles, picking up five additional Republican-leaning districts in Texas and one additional conservative-leaning congressional seat in Missouri. 

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Gov. Mike Kehoe, R-Mo., signed Missouri’s new map into law on Sunday as California Democrats seek to level the playing field with their own redistricting efforts. 

Bell’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.