Secretary of State Marco Rubio early Tuesday said that the U.S. and Qatar were on the verge of finalizing a defense cooperation agreement as he framed the Middle Eastern ally as the ‘only country in the world’ positioned to mediate between Israel and Hamas. 

The secretary’s comments came as he was leaving Jerusalem, where he had met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The meeting took place against the backdrop of Israel’s airstrikes on Hamas leaders in Qatar last week, as well as its intensifying bombardment of Gaza City. 

Rubio, who is now heading to Qatar for a quick visit, acknowledged Doha’s anger over the Israeli airstrikes, telling Fox News during an exclusive interview in Jerusalem: ‘We understand they’re not happy about what happened.’ 

Speaking to reporters, Rubio reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to Qatar as an ally, saying Doha can play a ‘key role’ in ensuring the terrorist group Hamas is ‘disarmed as a threat.’ 

‘We think Qatar can play a very key role in that. So, we’re going there. We have a close partnership with the Qataris,’ Rubio said before adding, ‘In fact, we have an enhanced defense cooperation agreement, which we’ve been working on and we’re on the verge of finalizing.’ 

Rubio said that if any country in the world could mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas, ‘Qatar is the one.’ 

‘They’re the ones that can do it. Now, I don’t know if they can after what happened, but I think they could. If anyone can, they can. There’s no other country in the world that can play that role. And we hope they can,’ Rubio said. 

The secretary warned that the window for diplomacy with Hamas was narrowing, saying, ‘We don’t have months anymore … We probably have days, maybe a few weeks.’ 

‘So, it’s a key moment – an important moment,’ Rubio said. ‘And again, our preference, our number one choice, is that this ends through a negotiated summit where Hamas says, ‘We’re going to demilitarize. We’re no longer going to pose this threat. We’re going to disband. We’re going to release every single hostage.’’ 

The Pentagon is not backing down from its quest for consequences for those who celebrate Charlie Kirk’s killing, even as Democrats warn the move is ‘un-American’ and violates free speech protections.

The controversy underscores a clash between military discipline and First Amendment rights, with top Pentagon officials arguing that celebrating the killing of an American political figure is unacceptable conduct for service members — while Democrats counter that the crackdown risks punishing constitutionally protected speech.

‘Hunting down and prosecuting service members for their individual political beliefs is dangerous and un-American,’ Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., a former Army Ranger, wrote on X.

‘We must condemn political violence AND allow peaceful speech that doesn’t impact the chain of command.’

War Secretary Pete Hegseth and his team see it differently.

‘We will not tolerate military or civilian personnel who celebrate or mock the assassination of a fellow American,’ Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesperson, told Fox News Digital in a statement.

‘Every service member and civilian at the Department takes an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Those in our ranks who rejoice at an act of domestic terrorism are unfit to serve the American people at the Department of War.’

Already, Army Col. Scott Stephens was suspended following posts purportedly belonging to him that praised the killing. 

‘The death of Charlie Kirk in Utah was tragic. However, we can take comfort in the fact that Charlie was doing what he loved best — spreading hate, racism, homophobia, misogyny, and transphobia on college campuses,’ one post read.

Another Army Reserves officer was suspended over the weekend.

‘A monster died today,’ one post allegedly belonging to Maj. Bryan Bintliff, who went by ‘Bryan Harlow’ on social media, read. ‘It’s sad Charlie’s kids are traumatized for life, but it’s not a sad thing that he’s dead.’

Kirk was shot and killed on Wednesday in Orem, Utah, while speaking to college students at Utah Valley University.

The Pentagon isn’t the only one rooting out those with distasteful commentary on the killing: the State Department has announced it would be scanning social posts to revoke visas of foreign nationals who do the same.

‘We shouldn’t be bringing people into this country. We should not be giving visas to people who are going to come to the United States and do things like celebrate the murder, the execution, the assassination of a political figure, we should not and if they’re already here, we should be revoking their visa,’ a senior State Department official told Fox News in an exclusive interview.

‘Why would we want to bring people into our country? They’re going to engage in negative and destructive behavior? It makes no sense.’

An FBI evidence specialist testified Monday that Ryan Routh’s black Nissan Xterra was cluttered with clothing, tools and handwritten notes — and appeared as though someone had been living in it — when she searched it the day after his arrest.

FBI Special Agent Cindy Barrois, an Evidence Response Team leader in the Miami Field Office, said the Xterra’s back seats were folded down with what looked like a mattress.

‘It appeared the vehicle was lived in,’ she said. 

In court Monday, she displayed six cellphones collected from the SUV, Routh’s expired Hawaii driver’s license, a valid U.S. passport and handwritten notes — including a list with ‘pipe,’ ‘C-clamp,’ ‘blanket,’ ‘pillow,’ ‘tape,’ ‘paint,’ ‘green poncho’ and phone numbers. 

Another note listed flight options to Mexico and Colombia under the name ‘Bryan Wilson.’ A separate Bank of Hawaii paper read, ‘Make tourniquet.’

Routh is on trial representing himself for federal charges filed against him for allegedly attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump exactly one year ago on Sept. 15, 2024. 

Barrois testified in court Monday the vehicle was ‘not organized,’ and included food, tools, gloves, a disposable tablecloth and a .45-caliber cartridge casing in the glove box. Photos shown to jurors included the passport in the driver’s area, multiple phones and where they were found, and a close-up of the .45 casing. 

She also pointed to alleged stickers on the Xterra that appeared to have been blacked out with spray paint, showing drip marks. Items presented in court from the SUV included a red Harbor Freight flashlight, an Akaso camera battery, a black metal rod like those used in chain-link fences, multiple pairs of work gloves, a black mask, poncho and zip tie in a Ziploc and a large quantity of orange earplugs.

Prosecutors also walked jurors through receipts they say place Routh in Palm Beach County, Florida, for weeks: cash overnight-parking slips from a Marathon gas station in South Bay, Florida, dated Aug. 14 (eight nights), Aug. 21 (six nights), Aug. 29 (six nights), Sept. 5 (six nights) and Sept. 12 (four nights), plus local receipts from Dollar Tree, Family Dollar and McDonald’s. 

Jurors also saw two unopened cans of Vienna sausages and a 56-ounce SunnyD bottle allegedly found in the car, along with a SunnyD receipt. Barrois said North Carolina and Ohio license plates were recovered under the driver’s seat; a North Carolina registration in the glove box listed Routh’s daughter, Sara Ellen Routh.

Routh, representing himself, asked whether some items ‘could have been in there for years’ and why one photo showed the .45-caliber casing in the glove box and another did not. For the first time in the trial, the prosecution came up after Routh’s cross-examination to ‘re-direct’ the witness with further questioning.

Routh also said there were dress clothes in the SUV and referenced a note that read, ‘If you need this car moved text,’ listing numbers for ‘Sarah’ and ‘Oran.’

Later, FBI Evidence Analysis Request Coordinator Erin Farais testified about items removed from the SKS rifle. She said a fingerprint was found on tape from the gun but did not identify whose it was.  

When Routh asked whether removing tape affected scope accuracy testing, Judge Aileen Cannon told jurors, ‘This case isn’t about how accurate the gun shoots.’

Court staff told media that trial exhibits will be made public only after the proceedings conclude. 

Routh also told the judge he hadn’t decided whether to call his son, Oran, to the witness stand. Judge Cannon noted ‘a lot of work’ had gone into arranging his transport. 

Prosecutors said additional FBI forensic witnesses — including a firearms/toolmark examiner — were slated to follow.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Monday blocked President Donald Trump from immediately firing Lisa Cook from her role on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the latest in a high-stakes court fight that is almost certain to be quickly appealed to the Supreme Court.

The 2-1 ruling from Judges Gregory Katsas, Michelle Childs, and Brad Garcia keeps in place a lower court order handed down last week by U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, which reinstated her to her role on the Fed’s Board of Governors.

Judge Cobb said in the preliminary injunction last week that Trump’s attempt to fire Cook likely violated the Federal Reserve Act and Cook’s due process protections. That decision prompted the Trump administration to appeal the case to the higher court for emergency relief.

‘When Governors by misconduct or gross neglect erode the foundations of such confidence, the President acts properly and lawfully by removing them,’ Justice Department attorneys said in appealing the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C.

The 2-1 ruling from the appeals court is a near-term blow to the Trump administration. It comes after Trump announced on social media last month that he would be firing Cook from her position on the independent Fed board due to allegations of mortgage fraud.

Cook’s lawyers immediately sued Trump over his attempt to remove her far before the end of her 14-year tenure, arguing that he did not have sufficient cause to do so. Cook has denied any wrongdoing.

The landmark case is the first attempt by a sitting president to oust a Federal Reserve governor ‘for cause,’ and it is almost certain to be kicked to the Supreme Court for review. 

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

Former Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., wanted Republicans to win the Senate last year in order to prevent Democrats’ pursuit of ‘raw political power.’

In his new book, ‘Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense,’ set to be released on Tuesday and obtained by Fox News Digital, the former West Virginia Democrat-turned-Independent ripped into his ex-political party, tore into former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and blasted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., while lauding the relationship that he had with President Donald Trump.

Manchin made waves when he and former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who also left the Democratic Party to become an Independent, bucked Schumer and voted against the move to nuke the Senate filibuster in 2022.

He recalled that vote in his book and the pressure he felt from Schumer and Senate Democrats to fall in line on that and other key votes during Biden’s presidency.

Manchin accused Schumer of wanting a vote he ‘could broadcast to the radical left to prove his loyalty’ and said the then-Senate majority leader didn’t actually believe that getting rid of the filibuster was the right thing to do, but rather to fulfill his ‘only priority’ of maintaining control of the Senate.

‘Because of what I knew — and what I had seen firsthand — I wanted Republicans to win the Senate majority in 2024,’ Manchin wrote. ‘I believed it was the only hope for preserving the Senate as an institution. I truly believed that, if in power, Republicans would uphold the filibuster, the last guardrail preventing total partisan rule.’

‘Schumer and the Democrats had already shown their hand — eliminating the filibuster would have been their first order of business,’ he continued. ‘They had no interest in protecting the Senate’s role as the deliberative body. They only cared about raw political power.’

The quest to end the filibuster is also why Manchin wouldn’t endorse former Vice President Kamala Harris in her run against Trump.

‘She knew this was the Holy Grail and the only hope we have to preserve any bipartisanship and maintain our democracy,’ Manchin said.

He also outlined an early fight he had with Biden where, when Democrats were trying to ram through the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in the early months of his presidency in an evenly-divided Senate, Manchin rejected it.

Biden ripped into Manchin for standing in the way of an early victory.

‘As the drama began, I got a call from the president, and was he hot,’ Manchin wrote. ”If you kill this f— bill, I will never speak to you again,’ he promised. Anyone who knows Joe Biden —­ and I have known him for a very long time —­knows he’s got a very bad temper. He calls it his ‘Irish.’ I call it unfortunate. But if he was going there, so was I.’

”Your actions are reckless,’ I spat back. ‘You’re sending a f—­ check to everyone. And if you missed anyone, it was only by mistake.’’

The legislation ultimately passed after a compromise was reached, but Manchin noted that he later regretted ‘capitulating on the American Rescue Plan.’

He also described having a far better relationship with Trump, who he considered a fellow ‘outsider,’ than Obama, and noted that Obama reached out to him twice during his entire presidency: once after he won re-election to the Senate in 2012 and again in 2015 to persuade him from voting against his nuclear deal with Iran.

‘From the start, President Trump had an open line of communication with me. I spoke to him more in the first two years of his presidency than I did to President Obama during all eight years of his time in office,’ Manchin said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Schumer, Obama and Biden for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

The White House is seeking additional security funds from Congress for the executive and judicial branches as it navigates the aftermath of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Fox News Digital has learned. 

The White House has requested an additional $58 million in security funding for the executive and judicial branches from Congress, a spokesperson for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget confirmed Monday to Fox News Digital. 

The additional security funds would be added to a continuing resolution, the spokesperson said. A temporary spending bill will need to pass by the end of the month to keep the government open — or else the government could face a shutdown Sept. 30 when funds expire. 

Punchbowl News was the first to report the security funding request. Additional details on the funds were not immediately available. 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Kirk, 31, was killed after he was shot in the neck during a stop on his American Comeback Tour Wednesday at Utah Valley University. The assassination comes roughly a year after two attempts to take President Donald Trump’s life.

In July 2024, 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Trump from a rooftop during a campaign rally. One of the eight bullets shot sliced Trump’s ear. 

The gunman also shot and killed Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter, father and husband attending the rally, and injured two others. 

Likewise, Ryan Routh was apprehended and charged with attempting to assassinate Trump at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September 2024. Routh is currently on trial after being charged with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, among other things. 

Nicholas John Roske, 29, pleaded guilty in April to attempting to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in June 2022, according to the Justice Department. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. Secret Service is ushering in a series of changes in response to the assassination attempts against the president, and already is operating at an incredibly heightened state as a result, according to former agents. 

‘The Secret Service now has to play at a level of enhanced security that they’ve never dreamed of before. I think (Secret Service Director Sean Curran) is doing a good job in leading that effort,’ Tim Miller, who served as a Secret Service agent during Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton’s administrations, told Fox News Digital Thursday. ‘But here’s the bad news for the Secret Service: They don’t have time. This threat is now. Can you imagine — they already shot our president once. Can you imagine if they’re able to kill him?’

Immediate changes to the agency following the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt included expanding the use of drones for surveillance purposes and introducing greater counter-drone technology to mitigate kinetic attacks, former Secret Service acting Director Ronald Rowe told lawmakers in December 2024. 

The Secret Service extended its condolences to the Kirk family, but declined to comment on any specific changes to Trump’s security detail following Kirk’s death. 

‘The safety and security of our protectees is the U.S. Secret Service’s top priority,’ a Secret Service spokesperson told Fox News Digital. ‘President Trump receives the highest levels of U.S. Secret Service protection and the agency adjusts our protective posture as needed to mitigate evolving threats.  Out of concern for operational security, we cannot discuss the means and methods used for our protective operations.’

Israel’s top military chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, is opposing a full military takeover of Gaza and urging adoption of the Witkoff plan, three senior sources told Fox News Digital amid mounting debate over the country’s next steps.

‘The chief of staff is standing by his professional judgment, based on the experience of this war,’ one former senior IDF official said. ‘In recent days he told the cabinet that while the IDF is prepared for a ground maneuver, the correct path is to reach a deal to save all the hostages and to enter negotiations. A maneuver now could endanger the hostages, as we saw in Tel Sultan.’

The Tel Sultan incident in Rafah in 2024 remains a turning point in Israeli decision-making. During that operation, Hamas executed six hostages, including American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, as Israeli forces closed in, underscoring the risks of a large-scale ground maneuver before negotiations are exhausted.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed that Israel’s goal ‘is not to occupy Gaza. Our goal is to free Gaza, free it from Hamas terrorists,’ arguing that seizing Gaza City is necessary because Hamas refuses to lay down arms. He has said this is the only way to secure the release of the roughly 48 hostages still held in Gaza.

But the former senior official told Fox News that military pressure has already brought Hamas back to the Witkoff framework of July 29. ‘The framework should be accepted, and Washington should understand the chief’s position as it was presented to the cabinet. Hamas is ready to stand by those conditions now. The chief of staff opposes military rule in Gaza and believes Israel should look ahead to the day after and draw a political solution accordingly. If necessary, the IDF can continue fighting after such an agreement.’

A spokesperson from the Prime Minister’s Office told Fox News Digital in response: ‘The Israeli cabinet decided to move forward with the operation plan presented by the chief of staff himself.’

A recent Politico report quoted a source described as ‘close to the president’s national security team,’ saying the Tuesday strike against Hamas’s leadership in Doha may have been an intentional move to hinder negotiations. ‘Every time they’re making progress, it seems like he [Netanyahu] bombs someone,’ the source said in the report.

The officials confirmed to Fox News Digital that both the IDF chief of staff and the Mossad director opposed the timing of the Qatar operation. ‘The plan was long in the works, but there was no reason to choose this specific timing instead of waiting to get Hamas’s response in the negotiations,’ one said, adding that ‘that decision, as well as the decision to continue the Gaza operation, go against professional echelon advice.’

A second source familiar with cabinet deliberations confirmed the chief of staff reiterated his position last Friday and again yesterday in both the Security Cabinet and the Foreign Affairs and Defense subcommittee. ‘He has made clear that the Witkoff plan is a good one,’ the source said, pointing to its terms: a 60-day Israeli withdrawal in exchange for the release of 10 live hostages and 15 bodies, with Israel free to resume fighting if Hamas violates the deal.

Maurene Comey, a longtime U.S. prosecutor who helped bring criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, sued the Trump administration Monday over her abrupt firing from the Justice Department. 

Comey had served at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York since 2015 before her ousting earlier this year. She called her termination unlawful, ‘politically motivated,’ and argued it stemmed largely from the fact that her father is former FBI Director James Comey.

In Monday’s lawsuit, Comey’s lawyers said her firing violated ‘multiple provisions’ of the Civil Service Reform Act — a law designed to protect government employees, including career federal prosecutors — as well as the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

‘The politically motivated termination of Ms. Comey — ostensibly under ‘Article II of the Constitution’ — upends bedrock principles of our democracy and justice system,’ her lawyers argued, describing her removal as both ‘unlawful and unconstitutional.’

‘Defendants have not provided any explanation whatsoever for terminating Ms. Comey,’ her lawyers argued. ‘In truth, there is no legitimate explanation. Rather, defendants fired Ms. Comey solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both.’

The lawsuit asks that Comey be reinstated to the Southern District of New York, where lawyers noted her work earned multiple awards, promotions and internal recognition, including a recent performance review calling her work ‘outstanding.’

It also cites protections afforded to career federal prosecutors, including prior notification and the ability to challenge a removal.

In the years since Comey joined SDNY in 2015, her lawyers said, she had been assigned to prosecute some of the department’s most high-profile cases — including the criminal cases against Epstein, Maxwell, and others. Most recently, in May, she led the prosecution against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. 

Comey had been asked by the U.S. attorney’s office to lead a ‘major’ public corruption case just one day before she was fired, the lawsuit said, underscoring what her lawyers call the abrupt nature of her removal.

She was notified of her termination the next day in an emailed memo. The email did not list a cause or reason for removal, according to the lawsuit, though it made mention of ‘Article II,’ or the powers of the commander-in-chief.  

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton did not answer Comey when she pressed him for information on her firing, the lawsuit alleges. Instead, he told her, ‘All I can say is it came from Washington. I can’t tell you anything else.’

‘No other explanation was ever provided to Ms. Comey regarding the reason for her termination,’ her lawyers said. ‘Defendants had no lawful authority to terminate [the] plaintiff from federal service without adhering to the statutory protections afforded to her.’ 

They argued that this distinction should be taken to mean that Comey’s termination is ‘ultra vires,’ or beyond the scope of one’s authority — thus ‘without force or effect.’

‘The executive branch cannot use Article II to overrule Congress and remove career civil servants for perceived disloyalty,’ they added. ‘Such an act violates the Constitution’s fundamental Separation of Powers. It also violates the Bill of Rights, depriving Ms. Comey of protection under the First and Fifth Amendments.’

The Justice Department declined to comment on the lawsuit, which names the department, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, OPM, and the Executive Office of the President as defendants, among others. 

It comes amid a years-long, high-profile dispute between President Donald Trump and former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired during his first White House term in 2017, roughly five years into his 10-year tenure. 

In the years since Comey’s departure, the two have continued to be sharply at odds. Comey has emerged as an outspoken Trump critic, both in public and in his memoir, ‘A Higher Loyalty.’ Comey came into the president’s crosshairs again earlier this year after he posted what was viewed by Trump allies as a cryptic social media post online; he has denied knowledge of its true meaning.

Trump, for his part, has continued to assail Comey and probe his tenure at the FBI. Earlier this year, the FBI confirmed it had launched criminal investigations into Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan for allegedly making false statements to Congress. 

Details of the investigation were not immediately clear, and in the months since the FBI’s July announcement, there has been little information shared with the public about the nature or status of the probes.

The younger Comey was terminated about a week after the investigations were announced — a detail her lawyers highlighted in the lawsuit, which seeks her reinstatement and back pay.

In a farewell email sent to colleagues, Maurene Comey wrote, ‘If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain.’

 ‘Do not let that happen,’ she said.

A House Republican is demanding that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., be stripped of her committee assignments, accusing her of making disparaging comments toward Charlie Kirk after his assassination last week.

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., is introducing a resolution on Monday to remove Omar from her two current committees: the House Budget Committee and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

She is the top Democrat on the latter panel’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections.

It’s part of the continued fallout from Kirk’s killing in Utah during a college speaking event.

Republicans have responded forcefully to Democrats who they view as taking Kirk’s death lightly or dismissing it as a product of his conservative activism.

Omar, in particular, has faced backlash from the right over an interview with progressive news outlet Zeteo, where she criticized Kirk’s past commentary and Republicans’ reaction to the shooting. She accused Republicans of taking her words out of context, however, and she called Kirk’s death ‘mortifying.’

She told the outlet days after Kirk’s assassination that he previously ‘downplayed slavery and what Black people have gone through in this country by saying Juneteenth shouldn’t exist.’

‘There are a lot of people who are out there talking about him just wanting to have a civil debate,’ the ‘Squad’ member said. ‘There is nothing more effed up, you know, like, than to completely pretend that, you know, his words and actions have not been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so.’

She criticized Republican figures who have been going after Democrats for their rhetoric, adding, ‘These people are full of s—. And it’s important for us to call them out while we feel anger and sadness, and have, you know, empathy, which Charlie said, ‘No, it shouldn’t exist,’ because that’s a newly created word or something.’

‘Like, I have empathy for his kids and his wife and what they’re going through,’ Omar continued.

She later posted on X amid the backlash, ‘While I disagreed with Charlie Kirk vehemently about his rhetoric, my heart breaks for his wife and children. I don’t wish violence on anyone. My faith teaches me the power of peace, empathy, and compassion. Right-wing accounts trying to spin a false story when I condemned his murder multiple times is fitting for their agenda to villainize the left to hide from the fact that Donald Trump gins up hate on a daily basis.’

Carter told Fox News Digital, however, ‘Disparaging Charlie Kirk’s legacy, a God-fearing, honorable man, for boldly sharing his conservative beliefs is disgusting. The radical left has normalized meeting free speech with violence, and it must stop.’

‘No one who justifies the assassination of someone with different political views than them deserves to sit on a committee, and Ilhan Omar openly used language that incites violence toward her political opponents. Committees are for serious lawmakers, not hate-spewing politicians,’ he said.

Carter, who is currently running for U.S. Senate, sits on the House Budget Committee alongside Omar.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Minnesota progressive’s office for comment but did not hear back by press time.

President Donald Trump doubled down on his demand that European nations cease all energy purchases from Russia as he mulls his first sanctions on Moscow since re-entering office amid its war in Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters Sunday evening, Trump said European nations, especially those in NATO, are not doing enough to counter Russia, despite the new round of sanctions enacted by the EU last week. 

‘They’re not doing the job. NATO has to get together. Europe has to get together,’ Trump said. ‘Europe… they’re my friends, but they’re buying oil from Russia, so we can’t be expected to be the only ones that are, you know, full bore.’ 

‘Europe is buying oil from Russia. I don’t want them to buy oil,’ he continued, noting that the sanctions Europe has issued on Russia and Russian officials ‘are not tough enough.’

 ‘I’m willing to do sanctions, but they’re going to have to toughen up their sanctions commensurate with what I’m doing,’ Trump confirmed. 

While European nations have drastically cut their reliance on Moscow’s oil following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, they have not cut it off entirely – particularly nations like Hungary, Slovakia, France, Belgium and Spain, which are Europe’s top importers of Russian energy. 

Hungary – whose president remains friendly with Putin despite being a NATO nation – is Europe’s chief importer of Russian crude oil and pipeline gas, purchasing more than double any other European nation’s Russian energy imports.

France, which is the second-largest European purchaser of Russian energy, continues to import liquefied natural gas (LNG), which has largely bypassed EU sanctions, in part due to long-standing legally binding commitments.

These agreements mean Paris has committed to ‘take-or-pay’ contracts through the early 2030s or would face arbitration or penalties. Reporting suggests, however, that the LNG imports are not only slated for French consumption, but are also being passed on to third-party nations like Germany.

Last month, the EU’s Data Protection Authority confirmed that the bloc had imported nearly $5.2 billion worth of Russian LNG in the first half of 2025. 

Trump’s comments came just one day after he sent a letter to NATO that said he is ‘ready to do major sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO nations stop buying oil from Russia,’ according to a post he made on Truth Social. 

But when asked on Sunday about his plans to hit Russia with additional U.S. sanctions – which have not been expanded since the Biden administration – he suggested Europe might need to stop all LNG imports as well.

The president claimed that all Russian imports are supposed to be barred at this time and said, ‘The deal is, they’re not supposed – whether it’s natural gas or whether it’s cigarettes, I don’t care – they’re not supposed to be buying from Russia.’

The president didn’t expand on which deal he was referring to, and he didn’t comment on the U.S.’s $2.1 billion worth of Russian imports it has purchased in the first five months of 2025, largely consisting of enriched uranium, palladium and fertilizers. 

In addition, he called on NATO allies to hit China with ‘50% to 100% tariffs’ that he said would be withdrawn only after the war in Ukraine concluded – a rate which is currently higher than the 30% tariffs Washington has slapped on Beijing, though which could significantly expand given Trump’s recent threats to hit China with tariffs as high as 200%.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions regarding this reporting.