President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.) office focused on aviation is facing heightened scrutiny for hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes that were not disclosed in official ethics documents obtained by Fox News Digital. 

Jeffrey Anderson, a retired Delta Air Lines captain and U.S. Navy veteran, was nominated to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization in July 2025. The International Civil Aviation Organization is a U.N. office based in Canada that is charged with overseeing international aviation standards, including issues related to safety, navigation and environmental protection. 

The administration has backed him as ‘highly qualified’ for the role and a ‘great choice to represent the President’s America First foreign policy agenda in the international aviation community,’ in a statement to Fox News Digital in 2025 as his tax issues and past support of Democrats came to light. 

The role is a Senate-confirmed post, with Anderson’s nomination sitting before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

Now, Anderson has signed his ethics agreement and disclosure forms, but mentions of the now-paid off liens are not included, Fox News Digital found.  

Fox News Digital obtained Anderson’s IRS Certificates of Release of Federal Tax Lien that show he and his wife had multiple federal tax liens stemming from tax years 2013–2019, with unpaid assessed balances totaling approximately $426,000. The liens were related to ‘small business/self employed’ taxes, according to the documents. 

A federal tax lien is ‘the government’s legal claim against your property when you neglect or fail to pay a tax debt,’ according to the IRS. 

The liens, filed in two Georgia counties, were not released until October 2025 after payment was fulfilled. One IRS Certificate of Release of Federal Tax Lien shows liens tied to the 2012–2018 tax years totaling $354,791.63 and later released on Oct. 15, 2025, according to the documents obtained by Fox Digital. A second release shows a lien tied to tax year 2019 totaling $71,313.11 and released Oct. 29, 2025. 

Anderson’s Public Financial Disclosure Report, called OGE Form 278e, however, only lists a single mortgage in the liabilities section — not any disclosures of federal tax liens or IRS liability, according to the documents obtained by Fox News Digital. The OGE Form 278e does detail boilerplate and detailed information on Anderson’s assets, past employment and income. 

The Office of Government Ethics’ guidance for OGE Form 278e instructs filers to report liabilities over $10,000 owed at any time during the reporting period.

Anderson signed the OGE Form on Aug. 14, 2025, according to the document obtained by Fox News Digital. 

Anderson’s OGE Form 278e and a separate ethics document sent by Anderson to the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser were added to the Office of Government Ethics’ system tracking financial and ethics disclosures Sept. 21, 2025, Fox News Digital found. 

Fox News Digital repeatedly reached out to the State Department, specifically inquiring why Anderson did not disclose the liens on the liabilities section of the OGE 278e, if he filed an amended financial disclosure to add any IRS liability or lien after the initial filing, and when the administration was first notified of the liens.  

The ICAO ambassador operates under the authority of the secretary of state when confirmed.

‘We support the president’s nominee and look forward to having him confirmed,’ a State Department spokesperson told Fox Digital of Anderson Wednesday. 

A review of other nominees listed on the OGE disclosure database shows individuals have amended their ethics disclosures amid the vetting process. Anderson’s file does not reflect any public amendments to his initial disclosures. 

Public financial disclosure is a core piece of the nomination vetting process. Federal ethics rules and guidance generally require nominees to disclose major outstanding liabilities during the reporting period. 

Nominees for Senate-confirmed ambassador posts typically are cleared through a multistep White House process that can include FBI background checks and federal ethics review of financial disclosures, with the State Department helping compile and process the nomination package before it is formally sent to the Senate.

‘Everyone has setbacks. That’s not the problem,’ a former Trump official told Fox Digital about the matter. ‘The problem is lying to Congress and misleading President Trump. Jeffrey Anderson stiffed the IRS for more than $426,000, carried federal tax liens for years, then tried to slip through Senate confirmation by hiding them on a sworn disclosure. Federal tax liens aren’t optional, and they don’t magically disappear.’

The former official added that most ‘Americans don’t just come up with half a million dollars to make a scandal vanish,’ while arguing ‘Anderson’s record of donating to anti-Trump politicians’ tees up a nomination that will collapse on itself. 

ICAO ROLE HAS GONE UNFILLED FOR YEARS 

Anderson’s nomination to serve in the office follows years of it sitting dormant of U.S. leadership. The role was last filled by former ambassador, famed pilot Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, who stepped down in 2022. 

Sullenberger gained widespread applause in 2009, when the US Airways pilot landed Flight 1549 on the Hudson River after a bird strike disabled both engines and saved 155 people — an event known as the ‘Miracle on the Hudson.’

Anderson’s nomination has been dragging since July 2025, with it returned to the president on Jan. 3, 2026 under Senate Rule XXXI, a technical rule, and Trump resending Anderson’s nomination to the Senate days later. 

Anderson’s nomination has received pushback from the Air Line Pilots Association, a union that represents nearly 80,000 pilots across the U.S. and Canada, arguing his ‘only’ qualification was supporting an effort to raise the mandatory pilot retirement age. 

The union opposes increasing the mandatory retirement from 65 years of age to age 67, arguing it ‘would leave the United States as an outlier in the global aviation space and create chaos on pilot labor, and international and domestic flight operations,’ the group’s statement in July 2025 read.

International aviation rules prohibit airline pilots older than 65 from flying. Some global airline groups have called on the International Civil Aviation Organization to consider raising the international pilot retirement age to 67, citing staffing pressure and that retaining veteran pilots would only bolster airline safety. 

Anderson also has had close financial ties to Democrats and other politicians frequently hostile toward Trump and his policies, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

‘Jeffrey Anderson isn’t a Trump Republican at all; he’s a liberal sleeper who slipped through the cracks of PPO (Presidential Personnel Office),’ a former Trump official told Fox Digital of Anderson’s political donations and tax history in August 2025. 

Anderson made a handful of small-dollar donations to Republican Nikki Haley during the 2024 campaign cycle, when the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. ran against Trump, whom she slammed as ‘unhinged’ while on the campaign trail before dropping out of the race and endorsing Trump as the GOP nominee for president. 

The former pilot also donated to the former Democratic opponent who tried to unseat then-Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in the 2024 cycle, according to donation filings previously reported by Fox News Digital. Anderson’s political donations to Democrats stretch back years, including in 2017 when he donated to Democrats, such as former House candidate Dan Ward in Virginia and former Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon.

Texas Republican Rep. Troy Nehls, who serves as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation, told Fox Digital in August 2025 that Anderson will help usher in ‘the Golden Age of aviation’ if confirmed. 

‘Mr. Anderson served as a naval aviator and has more than three decades of experience as a pilot for Delta,’ Nehls said in August. ‘He is, without a doubt, qualified to represent the United States of America at ICAO, where his first-hand experience with the aviation industry will play a crucial role in advancing President Trump’s mission of ushering in the Golden Age of aviation.’

‘I am fully supportive of President Trump and his America First agenda. I have been fully vetted by the White House and appreciate the approval of the President, House Aviation Chair Troy Nehls and House T&I Chair Sam Graves, among others. I look forward to advancing American interests as the next Permanent Representative to ICAO,’ Anderson wrote in a direct message on LinkedIn to Fox Digital in August 2025, while adding that Trump is seeking to ‘move effectively forward in a space negligently left vacant by Biden.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the timeline of disclosure but did not receive a reply.

Fox New Digital reached out to Anderson for comment on the timeline of the tax liens and ethics filings but did not receive a reply.

South Korea’s espionage agency, the National Intelligence Service, informed lawmakers Thursday that it thinks North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s teenage daughter is near to being set apart as the regime’s future leader, The Associated Press reported.

Kim is the third generation of men in his family to rule North Korea.

In a closed-door briefing, NIS officials said they are closely monitoring whether Kim’s daughter — believed to be named Kim Ju Ae and around 13 years old — appears with him before thousands of delegates at the upcoming Workers’ Party Congress, said lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun, who attended the meeting.

‘In the past, (NIS) described Kim Ju Ae as being in the midst of ‘successor training.’ What was notable today is that they used the term ‘successor-designate stage,’ a shift that’s quite significant,’ Lee noted, according to the outlet.

In 2023, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service indicated to lawmakers that the North Korean leader and his wife probably had an older son as well as a younger, third child of unknown gender, according to The Associated Press.

North Korea is one of the world’s few nuclear-armed nations, making it a unique threat on the global stage.

A 2025 U.S. Intelligence Community Annual Threat Assessment stated, ‘Kim remains committed to increasing the number of North Korea’s nuclear warheads and improving its missile capabilities to threaten the Homeland and U.S. forces, citizens, and allies, and to weaken U.S. power in the AsiaPacific region, as evidenced by the pace of the North’s missile flight tests and the regime’s public touting of its uranium enrichment capabilities.’

‘Russia is increasingly supporting North Korea’s nuclear status in exchange for Pyongyang’s support to Moscow’s war against Ukraine,’ the assessment noted.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., blocked Senate Republicans’ attempt to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the rest of the year, teeing up a likely shutdown.

The upper chamber tried and failed to pass the original DHS funding bill Thursday, testing Senate Democrats’ resolve as the deadline to fund the agency approaches Friday.

The bill failed largely along party lines, save for Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who joined Republicans in their attempt to fund DHS. 

Senate Democrats have demanded a stringent list of reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They weren’t persuaded by border czar Tom Homan that operations in Minneapolis would be drawn down as negotiations continue.

‘The administration doesn’t actually want to reform ICE,’ Schumer said. ‘They never do it on their own. That is why we need — we are fighting for — legislation to rein in ICE and stop the violence.’

It was a déjà vu moment from months earlier, when Thune repeatedly tried to peel Democrats away from Schumer during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history but failed to break their blockade.

Failure to send the full-year DHS funding bill to President Donald Trump’s desk leaves Congress with few options as the midnight Friday deadline looms. 

The Senate is now expected to take another shot at preventing a partial shutdown with a short-term extension of DHS funding. Republicans are eyeing at least four more weeks of funding for the agency, though that plan is also expected to fail.

Still, negotiations are ongoing in the background, and Thune said there was some progress despite Democrats continuing to publicly reject Republicans’ offers.

‘They’re posturing right now, I think,’ Thune said. ‘But I do think the progress has been real. I think the concessions on the part of the administration have been real.’

Senate Democrats received the legislative version of Republicans and the White House’s counteroffer Wednesday night, but many said it was ‘not sufficient.’ Several Democrats leaving a closed-door meeting Thursday morning said a deal remains out of reach.

‘We’re still looking at it, but no, not today,’ Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said. ‘They have not addressed most of our major concerns at all.’

Murray signaled Democrats would present their own counterproposal to the White House, a sign negotiations are ongoing, though likely not fast enough to avert a shutdown.

Lawmakers are facing the Friday deadline as both chambers prepare for a weeklong recess. Several members of the House and Senate are expected to travel to Germany for the annual Munich Security Conference.

While Thune said a deal could still be within reach, he indicated lawmakers may leave Washington while talks continue.

‘But, you know, until then, I don’t know if there’s any point keeping people around here and sitting around doing nothing,’ he said.

In the face of President Donald Trump’s concerns about Arctic security and his calls for the U.S. to acquire Greenland, NATO has launched a security effort called ‘Arctic Sentry.’

‘Still, in the face of Russia’s increased military activity and China’s growing interest in the High North, it was crucial that we do more, which is why we have just two hours ago launched Arctic Sentry,’ NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said during remarks on Wednesday.

‘Initially, it will bring together exercises like Denmark’s Arctic Endurance and Norway’s Cold Response,’ he noted. 

Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that he had a ‘very productive meeting’ with NATO’s Rutte.

‘We have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region. This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations,’ Trump wrote at the time.

In a statement provided to Fox News Digital on Thursday, a White House official said, ‘The Arctic is a critical region for U.S. national security and the economy. As an Arctic nation, the United States will pursue its security and economic interests and ensure safety, stability, and prosperity in the face of growing competition from China and Russia.’

A Wednesday press release from Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe noted, ‘Allied Command Operations (ACO), which is responsible for the planning and execution of all NATO exercises, activities and operations, began Arctic Sentry today.’

‘The preparations for Arctic Sentry provided NATO planners with full visibility of Allied nations’ activities in the Arctic and High North. Moving forward, ACO will use Arctic Sentry to cohere these actions into one overarching operational approach to Allies’ increasing activities, which will enhance NATO’s presence there,’ the press release notes. 

‘These activities include, among others, Denmark’s Arctic Endurance, a series of multi-domain exercises designed to enhance Allied ability to operate in the region, and Norway’s upcoming exercise Cold Response, where troops from across the Alliance have already begun to arrive,’ the release states.