Vice President JD Vance stopped short of confirming a 2028 White House run during an appearance on My View with Lara Trump Saturday night, but he acknowledged the possibility—noting if he does his job well, ‘the politics will figure itself out.’

Vance, whose resilience amid an upbringing marked with family turmoil and economic hardship won over the nation, said he ‘doesn’t like thinking about’ a potential presidential bid and insisted his attention remains on his current role.

‘If we do a good job in 2025 and 2026, then we can talk about the politics in 2027,’ Vance said. ‘I really think the American people are so fed up with folks who are already running for the next job, seven months into the current one.’

The second-in-command added if he ends up running, he knows he will have to work for it.

‘There are a lot of great people,’ Vance said. ‘If I do end up running, it’s not going to be given to me—either on the Republican side or on the national side. I’m just going to keep on working hard. … [This] may be the most important job I ever had, outside of being a father to those three beautiful kids. So I’m going to try to do my best job, and I think if I do that, the politics will figure itself out.’

When asked specifically about potential 2028 Democratic candidates, he noted most of them ‘obviously have very bad records.’

Vance mainly focused on discussing his own ticket, praising President Donald Trump’s relentless work ethic and trusting leadership style and explaining the president ‘doesn’t have an off switch.’

‘Sometimes, the president will call you at 12:30 or 2 a.m., and then call you at 6 a.m. about a totally different topic,’ Vance said. ‘It’s like, ‘Mr. president, did you go to sleep last night.’ … What’s made this so much fun is the president, all the time, just saying, ‘JD you go and do this,’ or ‘JD you go and talk to these leaders about this particular issue.’ That ability to delegate and trust his people has been really amazing.’

The deadly U.S. strike in the Caribbean this week is being cast by experts as the latest move in a broader campaign to dismantle Iran and Hezbollah’s growing narco empire in Venezuela.

U.S. officials say Tren de Aragua works closely with the Cartel of the Suns — a network of Venezuelan military elites long accused of moving cocaine in collaboration with Hezbollah.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital that ‘President Trump has taken numerous actions to curtail Iran’s terrorist proxies like Hezbollah, such as sanctioning senior officials and financial facilitators. The President has proven that he will hold any terrorist group accountable that threatens the national security of our country by smuggling narcotics intended to kill Americans.’

Brian Townsend, a retired DEA special agent, told Fox News Digital, ‘This was a decisive blow against narco-terrorists,’ and said Hezbollah’s role is rarely visible but essential, ‘They don’t get their hands dirty. Instead, they launder and provide networks to help cartels send money through the Middle East. Simply, they take a cut from the drug trade, which then funds their operations in the Middle East.’

Townsend added that Hezbollah has become ‘a main finance and money launderer for narco-terrorism groups like Tren de Aragua,’ ensuring that when cocaine moves, Hezbollah-linked facilitators are often processing at least part of the proceeds.

Dani Citrinowicz, a senior fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Hezbollah’s reach depends heavily on the region’s Lebanese diaspora. ‘Most of the Shia diaspora, at least in Central and South America, is Lebanese,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘Hezbollah is the connector between the diaspora and Iran.’

Citrinowicz said the group uses family ties, language and community institutions to cement its influence across Latin America. ‘They appoint imams, fund religious centers and control educational programs … through these networks, Hezbollah can interact with local cartels, sell drugs, and channel the profits back to Lebanon through elaborate schemes.’

He said this role as a connector makes Hezbollah indispensable to Iran’s strategy in the Western Hemisphere. ‘The connection starts and ends with enmity towards the West in general, specifically to the United States,’ he said. ‘As long as Maduro is there, the Iranians will be there. But if Maduro goes, Iran will lose the most important stronghold of its activity in Latin America.’

Townsend stated the partnership works for both sides. ‘Iran’s partnership with Maduro enables Hezbollah to operate in Venezuela. Iran gets to safely operate, through Hezbollah, in the West without prosecution, and Maduro and his officials get paid well. Ultimately, Iran uses and exploits Maduro. Maduro doesn’t care — he and his friends benefit financially.’

Both experts pointed to state complicity as the key enabler. ‘Under Maduro and Chávez, Venezuela has become a major transshipment hub for Colombian cocaine,’ Townsend said. ‘There have been several indictments in the U.S. and Treasury OFAC designations that tie senior government officials directly to the use of state infrastructure — ports, air bases, even military convoys — to move massive shipments of cocaine. Cartel of the Suns, high-ranking military officers, run and protects these shipments. Who launders all of this drug money? Hezbollah.’

Citrinowicz emphasized Iran’s investment in Venezuelan power structures. ‘The enhancement is illustrated by several aspects: first and foremost, the military cooperation, especially Iranian factories building UAVs for the Venezuelan army, and constant Quds Force flights from Iran through Africa toward Venezuela,’ he said. ‘Iran is also teaching Venezuela how to bypass sanctions and has invested billions into the economy.’

Experts say Washington’s best leverage lies in choking the finances. ‘We need to aggressively target and choke these financial networks,’ Townsend said. ‘The priority is to attack the financial and logistical networks, indict everyone we can and pressure Maduro. If we can cut off the financial arteries, the cocaine won’t be as profitable.’

Citrinowicz agreed that the strike fits into a broader effort. ‘By weakening Maduro, the U.S. weakens the Iranian presence in Latin America and weakens Iran’s ability to threaten U.S. soil,’ he said. ‘The best way to weaken Venezuela is also to aim against the Iranian presence over there.’

For Washington, experts say Hezbollah’s narcotics empire in Venezuela is no longer just a regional problem. It is increasingly being treated as a direct threat to America’s security at home.

Senate Republicans are getting closer to changing the upper chamber’s rules to allow for a slew of President Donald Trump’s lower-level nominees to be confirmed, and they’re closing in on a revived proposal from Democrats to do it.

The hope among Republicans is that using a tool that Senate Democrats once considered would allow them to avoid turning to the ‘nuclear option,’ meaning a rule change with a simple majority vote.

‘The Democrats should support it, because it was their original proposal that we’re continuing on,’ Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital. ‘And I wouldn’t be surprised if they won’t. This historic obstruction by the Democrats is all playing to their far-left liberal base, who hate President Trump.’

Republicans met throughout the week behind closed doors to discuss their options and have begun to coalesce around a proposal that would allow them to take one vote to confirm a group of nominees, also known as ‘en bloc,’ for sub-Cabinet level positions.

So far, the only nominee to make it through the Senate with ease was Secretary of State Marco Rubio in January. Since then, various positions throughout the bureaucracy have stacked up and have not received a voice vote or gone through unanimous consent — two commonly-used fast-track procedures for lower-level positions in the administration.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that before Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was in charge of the Democrats, ‘this was always done in a way where, if you had some of the lower-level nominees in the administration, those were all voted en bloc, they were packaged, they were grouped, they were stacked.’

‘This is the first president in history who, at this point in his presidency, hasn’t had at least one nominee clear by unanimous consent or voice vote,’ he said. ‘It is unprecedented what they’re doing. It’s got to be stopped.’

And the number of nominees on the Senate’s calendar continues to grow, reaching 149 picks awaiting confirmation this week. The goal would be to make that rule change before lawmakers leave town for a week starting Sept. 22.

The idea comes from legislation proposed in 2023 by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Angus King, I-Maine, and former Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. Republicans are eyeing their own spin on it, such as possibly not limiting the number of en bloc nominees in a group or excluding judicial nominees.

Republicans would prefer to avoid going nuclear — the last time the nuclear option was used was in 2019, when then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., lowered debate time on nominees to two hours — but they are willing to do so, given that Democrats haven’t budged on their blockade.

They may only be making a public display of resistance, however.

‘Democrats privately support what Republicans are talking about,’ a senior GOP aide familiar with negotiations told Fox News Digital. ‘They’re just too afraid to admit it.’

Sen. James Lankford, who worked with Thune and Barrasso over the recess to build a consensus on a rule change proposal, told Fox News Digital that his Democratic colleagues acknowledged that they’ve ‘created a precedent that is not sustainable.’

‘But then they’ll say, ‘but my progressive base is screaming at me to fight however I want to. I know I’m damaging the Senate, but I got to show that I’m fighting,’’ the Oklahoma Republican said.

‘We feel stuck, I mean, literally,’ Lankford continued. ‘Some of my colleagues have said, ‘We’re not the ones going nuclear. They’re the ones that are going nuclear.’’

Klobuchar told Fox News Digital that she appreciated the prior work she’s done with Lankford on ‘ways to make the Senate better’ but wasn’t ready to get behind the GOP’s version of her legislation.

‘When I proposed that, it was meant to pass as legislation, which means you would have needed bipartisan votes, and the reason that’s not happening right now is because the president keeps flaunting the law,’ she said.

Not every Senate Democrat is on board with the wholesale blockade, however.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told Fox News Digital that lawmakers should all behave in a way in which administrations, either Republican or Democratic, get ‘those basic kinds of considerations’ for nominees.

‘That’s not the resistance,’ he said. ‘I just think that’s kind of unhelpful to just move forward. I mean, you can oppose people like the big ones, whether it’s [Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.] Kennedy or others.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

Following unrelenting criticism from the United Nations, the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is once again being targeted by NGOs, even as it delivered its 155 millionth meal to Gazans on Saturday.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF has launched ads criticizing GHFMeta’s Ad Library shows that in August it ran several Facebook ads targeting the foundation. One ad read ‘This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing.’ Another said, ‘In MSF’s 54 years, rarely have we seen such levels of systemized violence.’

Both allegations are taken from an Aug. 6 article on MSF’s website in which General Director Raquel Ayora describes accounts received from patients reportedly injured around GHF sites. Ayora says aid seekers claimed to have witnessed ‘children shot in the chest while reaching for food. People crushed or suffocated in stampedes. Entire crowds gunned down at distribution points.’ 

GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay called MSF’s accusations, ‘false and disgraceful,’ saying that it is ‘amplifying a disinformation campaign orchestrated by the Hamas-linked Gaza Health Ministry. They know better. By repeating these lies, they’re not aiding civilians, they’re aiding Hamas.’

‘No civilians have ever been shot at any of our distribution sites,’ Fay told Fox News Digital.

Fay said that ‘Nearly every day, Nasser Hospital issues false reports to the media of civilians killed near our sites, based solely on testimony from others. Not a single MSF doctor has ever witnessed an incident near our sites. Any conflict between Israel and Hamas, sometimes several kilometers away, the Gaza Health Ministry falsely links to GHF.’

In response to questions about whether MSF employees have witnessed injuries or deaths at GHF sites firsthand, a spokesperson told Fox News Digital that, ‘MSF has documented the impacts of violence and chaos at GHF sites in Gaza, based on firsthand accounts of our personnel and patients at two clinical sites, as well as a body of medical data.’

MSF declined to respond to questions about how much money it has spent on ads targeting GHF, or whether it has advocated for medical care for Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. 

The MSF spokesperson added, ‘For the past 22 months, humanitarian organizations working in Gaza and the West Bank have consistently faced baseless and inaccuratesmear campaigns.’

Though there is growing outcry about purported violence near GHF sites, reporting from the United Nations indicates that there were twice as many deaths surrounding humanitarian aid convoys (576) as there were deaths around GHF sites (259) between July 21 and Aug. 18. 

A U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs update from August states there were 1,889 deaths near aid sites between May 27 and Aug. 18, 1,025 ‘near militarized distribution sites’ and 864 ‘along convoy supply routes.’ As of July 21, U.N. News reported there were 1,054 deaths at food distribution sites, with 766 near GHF sites, and 288 near U.N. and humanitarian aid convoys.

The U.N. Human Rights Office did not respond to a request for confirmation of these figures by press time. 

Amid tensions between GHF and humanitarian aid organizations, Fay said that GHF nonetheless provided support to MSF in early August after it requested help to ‘safeguard their medical aid from the elements.’ A GHF post on X from Aug. 7. showed what it said were pallets of MSF aid in GHF care. MSF did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request to confirm that they asked GHF for assistance with their supplies. 

When GHF staff were brought to Nasser Hospital after a Hamas attack in June that killed eight, they did not receive care from MSF staff, according to Fay.

A GHF employee’s written statement provided to Fox News Digital describes how wounded workers were taken to Nasser Hospital, where doctors refused to treat them. The witness said survivors were placed in a courtyard, where hospital staff incited others to beat them. One GHF employee was reportedly stabbed.

‘Three more GHF staff died due to their lack of treatment by Nasser Hospital. MSF doctors work there, yet claim they weren’t aware of the situation,’ Fay said.

In an Aug. 25 report following the Israeli bombing of Nasser Hospital, MSF said that it ‘has been operational in Nasser since before the conflict escalated in October 2023, providing trauma and burn care, physiotherapy, neonatal and pediatric services, and treatment for malnourished children, among other critical services.’

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies has reported multiple times since October 2023 that Hamas fighters have been operating out of Nasser Hospital. On Aug. 26, FDD senior research analyst Joe Truzman shared photos on X of two Hamas summonses that reportedly ordered individuals to come to Nasser Hospital for questioning.

MSF did not respond to questions about GHF employees failing to receive care or whether its staff at Nasser Hospital were aware of Hamas’ operations at the site.

In an online statement about the incident, MSF said it ‘has seen no credible evidence that healthcare was refused by Ministry of Health or other medical staff.’ The group also said ‘MSF staff have not been present in the emergency department of Nasser Hospital since 2024.’
 

On Saturday, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced a new initiative to provide medical care to Gazans through a program with Samaritan’s Purse.

In a statement on X, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that in addition to treating wounds, injuries and infections, it was also helping pregnant women.

One of former President Joe Biden’s top spokespeople dismissed the fallout from the former president’s disastrous June 2024 debate performance during a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee that lasted over five hours.

Andrew Bates, who served as White House senior deputy press secretary and worked in Biden’s communications shop for nearly his entire term, said reactions to Biden’s debate against then-candidate Donald Trump were ‘overblown,’ according to a source familiar with his interview.

Bates ‘ultimately agreed with President Biden’s decision to drop out’ after viewing polling data the week Biden made his choice to drop his re-election bid, the source said.

A source close to Bates, however, said after he had time to process the then-president’s decision and a turn in public polling during the final week of Biden’s candidacy, he agreed Biden had made the right decision to withdraw.

He dismissed concerns about Biden’s age as a ‘polling problem,’ however, and wrote off Americans’ concerns about his age and abilities as the product of mainstream media and right-wing critics, according to the first source – similar to previous Biden allies in their closed-door interviews.

The former spokesman also described relatively infrequent interactions with Biden and allegedly said Biden only met with his press team a few times in a year.

‘He would see President Biden in person a little over once a month, but this could be anything from travel, going with him to the Hill or just seeing him in the hallway,’ the first source said.

But a former Biden White House staffer argued that the press secretary and the communications director were the default representatives of the press and communications team for daily meetings with the president.

Bates also allegedly told investigators he supported the sweeping, and controversial, pardon granted to Hunter Biden toward the end of the president’s term. 

The second source, however, said Bates told investigators that Biden conducted himself ‘honorably’ when asked whether any of his actions were done to benefit his son’s business dealings.

That pardon and the hundreds of other clemency orders signed by Biden are of particular interest to the House Oversight Committee.

Oversight Committee Republicans are investigating whether Biden’s top White House allies covered up signs of mental decline in the former president, and by extension, are looking into whether executive actions signed by autopen were executed with Biden’s full awareness and approval.

Biden himself told the New York Times recently that he made every clemency decision on his own.

His allies have also blasted the GOP-led probe as a partisan exercise.

During his opening statement, obtained by Fox News Digital, Bates defended Biden’s fitness for office while criticizing Trump’s own actions as president.

‘I was proud to support Joe Biden as President because we believe in the same values. In the White House, it was universally understood that Joe Biden was in charge. That is completely consistent with my personal experience with the President,’ Bates told House investigators, according to another source.

A House Oversight Committee spokesperson blasted Bates as ‘delusional’ and accused his opening statement of leaking to media before he read it in the room.

Fox News Digital reached out to Bates via his public relations firm Wolfpack Strategies, as well as his counsel, for further comment.

President Donald Trump on Friday signed his 200th executive order which authorized the Department of Defense to revert its name back to the ‘Department of War.’

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said the new name ‘sends a message of victory, a message of strength’ to the world.

‘It has to do with winning,’ the president went on. ‘We should have won every war. We could have won every war. But we really chose to be very politically correct or woke.’

‘We won the First World War, we won the Second World War, we won everything before that and in between. And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to the Department of Defense. So, we’re going Department of War,’ he added.

Trump said the name is ‘a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now.’

‘We have the strongest military in the world. We have the greatest equipment in the world. We have the greatest men. New factories of equipment, by far. There’s nobody to even compete,’ he said.

Turning to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump said while smiling, ‘I’d like to ask our, secretary of war, to say a few words.’

Hegseth thanked Trump for signing the order, saying, the name change restores the ‘warrior ethos’ to America’s military.

‘After winning a War for Independence in 1789, George Washington established the War Department and Henry Knox was his first secretary of war. And this country won every major war after that … 150 years after that, we changed the name after World War Two from the Department of War to the Department of Defense in 1947 and as you pointed out, Mr. President, we haven’t won a major war since,’ said Hegseth.

 ‘This name change is not just about renaming, it’s about restoring,’ said the secretary. ‘Words matter. It’s restoring, as you’ve gotten us to, Mr. President, restoring the warrior ethos, restoring victory and clarity as an end state, restoring intentionality to the use of force.’  

Hegseth pledged the War Department ‘is going to fight decisively, not endless conflicts. It’s going to fight to win, not to lose. We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct,’ he said, adding, ‘We’re going to raise up warriors, not just defenders. So, this War Department, Mr. President, just like America is back.’

The executive order calls for using the Department of War as a secondary title for the Department of Defense, along with phrases like ‘secretary of war’ for Hegseth, according to a White House fact sheet previously shared with Fox News Digital. 

It’s unclear if Congress, which has the authority to establish federal executive departments, will need to step in to issue final approval on the move. However, Trump expressed confidence the name will stick, saying, ‘We’re going with it, and we’re going with it very strongly … but we’ll put it before Congress.’

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy and Emma Colton contributed to this report.