President Donald Trump has seen recent setbacks in his polling numbers on many issues, but one bright spot in surveys has been his aggressive approach to Venezuela, including taking out drug cartel boats. But there is another purpose at work here, one that may help to end the war in Ukraine.

What is important to understand is that Venezuela is a client state of Russia, as is Iran, and as was Syria until the recent overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. One by one, Trump has been proving that against American might, Putin cannot keep his sketchy global friends safe.

‘Russia’s track record with allies like Iran, Syria, and now Venezuela reveals a familiar pattern,’ Peter Duran, adjunct senior fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told me. ‘The Kremlin will make lavish statements of support, but provide minimal backing when real threats emerge to its clients.’

Noting how thin PUtin is stretched by the war in Ukraine and U.S. sanctions, Duran said ‘keeping Maduro in power is a bridge too far for Moscow if President Trump presses the issue.’

One can almost see Trump’s main Ukraine negotiator, Steve Witkoff, saying to a Russian counterpart, ‘How’s your boy Maduro, doing? Seems to be having a tough time. I wish we could help …’

While Putin has been murdering Ukrainians and maintaining the largest European land war in generations, Trump has been weakening Russian global power. Syria is making nice with America, Iran has been de-nuclearized and now that leaves Venezuela.

In recent weeks, Russian cargo planes have been seen flying into Venezuela. Nobody is ever quite sure if they are there to bring supplies, or perhaps at some point, to airlift Maduro to an early retirement in Moscow, where al-Assad now resides.

It is a very telling situation, because the entire reason that Putin invaded Ukraine was that he believes it falls under Russia’s sphere of influence. Yet, without putting a single soldier in combat, the United States has marshalled support for Ukraine that has stymied the Russian dictator.

For almost four years now, Putin has sent his own armies into a meat grinder, employed North Korean mercenaries and expended more treasure than seen in all the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies combined. It’s been little avail in terms of breaking the stalemate.

Compare that with America’s situation regarding Venezuela. We could take out Maduro tomorrow and there’s not a damn thing Putin could do about it.

In fact, this week’s new National Security Strategy statement from the Trump administration doubles down on a Monroe Doctrine-like policy of putting the Western Hemisphere first and foremost in our security goals.

But rightfully putting our own backyard first does not mean that Trump or America are exiting from the global stage. In fact, much the opposite is true.

Trump understands the global chess board. He knows that, while direct conflict with Russia could lead to global war, picking off the Kremlin’s rogue client states around the edges is fair game, and puts pressure on the center of that board.

‘President Trump’s big stick approach to Venezuela recalls Theodore Roosevelt’s approach to the region. Instead of gunboat diplomacy, Trump is deploying supercarrier diplomacy,’ Duran told me. ‘A quiet retirement abroad is the best option for Maduro before options narrow further. Putin won’t be able to save him.’

Trump has put Putin in an incredibly tough position here. If the dictator remains dedicated to his fantasy of reclaiming all of Ukraine to restore the USSR, he risks the United States undermining his allies and clients across the globe.

Russia may be faced with the choice of regaining what it believes is its territorial integrity at the price of no longer being a global superpower.

Trump is proving again, as he once told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that he holds all the cards. At the moment, he is playing them masterfully, tightening the noose around Russia as its geopolitical allies are knocked off one by one.

At last week’s cabinet meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Trump’s foreign policy as transformational, ‘because for the first time in a long time we have a president who basically puts America at the forefront of every decision we make in our in relations with the world.’

In Venezuela, the Department of War is indeed playing offense, as Trump promised, but the opponent isn’t really Maduro, it’s Putin, who may soon find out that another of his pariah allies is off the board forever.

A teenage girl who spent her final years advocating for young people battling cancer is forever memorialized in history, thanks to a key bill passed by the House of Representatives.

Mikaela Naylon was just 16 when she died five years after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who helped lead the landmark legislation that became her namesake, said Mikaela spent much of that time fighting to give fellow children a chance to survive cancer.

He told Fox News Digital that he viewed childhood cancer patients as ‘the best advocates’ for their cause, calling them his ‘better angels.’

‘Mikaela was a great example of that,’ McCaul said. ‘She was very sick. She’d just undergone radiation and chemotherapy. She wasn’t feeling very well, and I could tell. But she still made the effort to come to Washington, to go to members’ offices and advocate for the legislation.’

The Mikaela Naylon Give Kids A Chance Act is aimed at expanding children’s access to existing cancer therapy trials, as well as incentivizing development of treatments and solutions for pediatric cancer.

It reauthorizes funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support pediatric disease research through fiscal year 2027, and extends the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) ability to expedite review of drugs aimed at helping certain pediatric illnesses.

‘It’s probably one of the most rewarding things I’ve done is to not only draw awareness to childhood cancer by forming the [Childhood Cancer Caucus] and then having an annual summit, but to be able to pass legislation that results in saving children’s lives. I don’t think there’s anything more important than that,’ McCaul said.

His bill passed the House unanimously on Monday, with both Republicans and Democrats speaking out in strong support for the legislation.

Mikaela’s family was in attendance to watch both its passage and the speeches lawmakers gave in favor of it.

‘Nothing will take the place of her. But it helped fill kind of a void, an emptiness they have right now. And they’re very proud of that, that her legacy is carried on through this legislation,’ McCaul, who also gave the Naylon family a tour of the U.S. Capitol, said.

Mikaela’s parents Kassandra and Doug, and her brother Ayden, told Fox News Digital that she had ‘faced every day with hope, purpose and a fierce determination to make the world better for the kids who would come after her.’

‘She believed that all children, no matter how rare their diagnosis, deserve access to the most promising treatments and a real chance at life. This legislation reflects that mission,’ the Naylon family told Fox News Digital.

They thanked McCaul as well as Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., for championing the bill, as well as advocacy groups who also helped shepherd it forward.

‘Their commitment ensures that Mikaela‘s voice, and the voices of so many brave children like her, will forever be heard in the halls of Congress,’ the family said.

The Senate is quietly winning the battle over states’ abilities to craft their own artificial intelligence (AI) regulations, but there is still a desire to chart out a rough framework at the federal level. 

The issue of a blanket AI moratorium, which would have halted states from crafting their own AI regulations, was thought to have been put to bed over the summer. But the push was again revived by House Republicans, who were considering dropping it into the annual National Defense Authorization Act. 

However, Republicans in the lower chamber have pulled back from that push, even as the White House has pressed Congress to create a federal framework that would make regulations more cohesive across the country. 

A trio of Senate Republicans, Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who banded together to block the original proposal, cheered the provision’s apparent rise from the grave.

Hawley told Fox News Digital that it was good news that the provision would not be included in the defense authorization bill, but warned that ‘vigilance is needed, and Congress needs to act.’

‘I mean, for everybody out there saying, ‘Well, Congress needs to act and create one standard,’ I agree with that,’ he said. ‘And we can start by banning chat bots for minors.’ 

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee, initially pushed for a moratorium to be included in Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill. His position on the issue has been to unchain AI to give the U.S. a competitive edge against foreign adversaries like China.

But that attempt was nearly unanimously defeated over the summer and stripped from the bill. And Cruz hasn’t given up.

‘The discussions are ongoing, but it is the White House that is driving,’ Cruz told Fox News Digital. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged that getting the moratorium into the defense authorization bill would be difficult earlier in the week.

‘That’s controversial, as you know,’ Thune said. ‘So, I mean, I think the White House is working with senators and House members for that matter to try and come up with something that works but preserves states’ rights.’

Trump declared last month that the U.S. ‘MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes,’ and argued that over regulation at the state level was threatening the investment, and expected growth, of AI. 

The White House reportedly drafted an executive order that would have blocked states from regulating AI that would have withheld certain streams of federal funding from states that didn’t comply with the order, and enlisted the Department of Justice to sue states that crafted their own regulations.

So far, Trump has not taken action on the order. 

Blackburn, who was the leading player in thwarting Cruz’s previous attempt to assert an AI moratorium into Trump’s marquee tax bill, also wants some kind of federal framework, but one that is designed to ‘protect children, consumers, creators, and conservatives,’ a spokesperson for Blackburn told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

‘Senator Blackburn will continue her decade-long effort to work with her colleagues in both the House and Senate to pass federal standards to govern the virtual space and rein in Big Tech companies who are preying on children to turn a profit,’ the spokesperson said.

And Johnson, another key figure in blocking the moratorium earlier this year, argued to Fox News Digital that it was an ‘enormously complex problem. It’s my definition of a problem.’ 

But unlike his counterparts, he was more skeptical about Congress producing a framework that he would be comfortable with.

‘I’m not a real fan of this place,’ Johnson said. ‘And I think we’d be far better off if we passed a lot fewer laws. I’m not sure how often we get it right. Look at healthcare, look at how that’s been completely botched.’ 

‘What are we gonna do with AI? Hard to say, but we just don’t go through the problem-solving process,’ he continued. ‘And again, I’m concerned, the real experts on this have got vested interests. Whatever they’re advising is, can you really trust them?’

President Donald Trump ordered a sweeping federal review of every childhood vaccine recommendation in the United States Friday, just hours after a CDC advisory committee voted to end its long-standing guidance for infants to receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, calling the rule unnecessary for healthy newborns.

‘Today, the CDC Vaccine Committee made a very good decision to END their Hepatitis B Vaccine Recommendation for babies, the vast majority of whom are at NO RISK of Hepatitis B, a disease that is mostly transmitted sexually, or through dirty needles,’ Trump wrote.

The president also critiqued what he sees as a vaccine schedule that requires ‘far more than is necessary.’

‘The American Childhood Vaccine Schedule long required 72 ‘jabs,’ for perfectly healthy babies, far more than any other Country in the World, and far more than is necessary,’ the president added. ‘In fact, it is ridiculous! Many parents and scientists have been questioning the efficacy of this ‘schedule,’ as have I!’

Trump announced he signed a memo directing HHS to ‘fast track’ the current American vaccine schedule.

‘I have just signed a Presidential Memorandum directing the Department of Health and Human Services to ‘FAST TRACK’ a comprehensive evaluation of Vaccine Schedules from other Countries around the World, and better align the U.S. Vaccine Schedule, so it is finally rooted in the Gold Standard of Science and COMMON SENSE!’ Trump wrote.

Trump closed his message by reiterating his support for his HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., writing, ‘I am fully confident Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the CDC, will get this done, quickly and correctly, for our Nation’s Children.’

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

This is a developing story, check back later for updates.
 

The Federal Aviation Administration this week told airlines it will investigate whether they complied with orders from the Trump administration during the record-long government shutdown to cut flights.

The orders came in November after the shutdown had been going for a month and airports were facing shortages of air traffic control workers.

The emergency order affected 40 major airports in the U.S. and fluctuated between cuts of 3% to 6% for each airline before the shutdown ended on Nov. 12.

In a letter sent Monday to U.S. airlines, the FAA warned that they could face $75,000 fines for each flight over the allotted limit during the shutdown.

Airlines have 30 days to prove they complied with the required cuts.

Air traffic controllers, like most other government workers, weren’t paid during the 43-day shutdown, and many missed work, sparking safety concerns.

The FAA lifted the restrictions Nov. 16, four days after the shutdown ended.

Despite the shutdown still being in effect Nov. 14 — when 6% flight cuts were required — only 2% of flights were actually cut, according to Cirium, a flight analytics firm.

The cuts also had a major financial impact on airlines, with Delta reporting that it lost $200 million between Nov. 7 and Nov. 16 when the order was in effect.

More than 10,000 flights were canceled in the U.S. during the nine-day period.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump ordered a sweeping federal review of every childhood vaccine recommendation in the United States on Friday just hours after a CDC advisory committee voted to end its long-standing guidance for infants to receive the Hepatitis B vaccine at birth, calling the rule unnecessary for healthy newborns.

‘Today, the CDC Vaccine Committee made a very good decision to END their Hepatitis B Vaccine Recommendation for babies, the vast majority of whom are at NO RISK of Hepatitis B, a disease that is mostly transmitted sexually, or through dirty needles,’ wrote Trump.

The president also critiqued what he sees as a vaccine schedule which requires ‘far more than is necessary.’

‘The American Childhood Vaccine Schedule long required 72 ‘jabs,’ for perfectly healthy babies, far more than any other Country in the World, and far more than is necessary,’ the president added. ‘In fact, it is ridiculous! Many parents and scientists have been questioning the efficacy of this ‘schedule,’ as have I!’

Trump announced he signed a memo directing HHS to ‘fast track’ the current American vaccine schedule.

‘I have just signed a Presidential Memorandum directing the Department of Health and Human Services to ‘FAST TRACK’ a comprehensive evaluation of Vaccine Schedules from other Countries around the World, and better align the U.S. Vaccine Schedule, so it is finally rooted in the Gold Standard of Science and COMMON SENSE!’ Trump wrote.

President Trump closed his message by reiterating his support for his HHS Secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr., writing ‘I am fully confident Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the CDC, will get this done, quickly and correctly, for our Nation’s Children.’

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

This is a developing story, check back later for updates.
 

The Trump administration is being urged to go on offense and make sure the next United Nations chief is aligned with U.S. and Western values and doesn’t kowtow to what critics say is an increasingly anti-American institution.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ tenure ends Dec. 31, 2026. The former socialist prime minister of Portugal’s tenure has been beset with major wars and crises that have led to accusations of bias against him, especially when it comes to Israel. 

Experts agree the Trump administration needs to keep a close handle on who is best to serve the interests of the U.S.

Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices, told Fox News Digital, ‘As long as the United States continues to make the mistake of being the largest bankroller of the United Nations and in keeping U.N. headquarters (some call a fifth column) a stone’s throw from our financial capital, it ought to care deeply about who leads the organization.’

Jonathan Wachtel, a former director of communications and a senior policy advisor at the United States Mission to the United Nations to U.S. ambassadors Nikki Haley and Kelly Craft, said, ‘Since its inception, the United Nations has been a frontline of the Cold War, and today it is increasingly a frontline of hostility toward the United States.

‘As the Security Council prepares for its mid‑2026 straw polls, we face the stark reality that Russia and China can veto any candidate who reflects our values, even as they work to undermine U.S. foreign policy and erode Western principles. The next secretary‑general must … be a leader with backbone and conviction to champion the ideals on which the U.N. was founded, and the United States has long stood — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for as many people as possible.’

With just over a year to go for the selection process, member states have begun to nominate candidates who best fit their national interests. 

Brett Schaefer, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital that of the candidates named thus far, few would be considered acceptable to the U.S. 

‘The announced and rumored candidates … are, for the most part, either U.N. insiders or on the left side of the political spectrum,’ Schaefer said. ‘It’s hard to say that the U.S. would be willing to support any of them at the current stage.’

As electioneering gets underway, Hugh Dugan, former National Security Council special assistant to the president and senior director for international organization affairs, told Fox News Digital, ‘After campaigns and a series of straw pulls and eliminations of candidates, members of the Security Council will present the U.N. General Assembly with a preferred candidate for their formal acceptance late next year.’

Dugan said that custom would indicate that the next secretary-general should come from Latin America. He also emphasized that there is an appetite to appoint a woman after 15 years of calls for a female secretary-general.

‘If they really are to take the helm of a suffering, more or less irrelevant and unmanageable organization like this, they’re going to have to show up as managers,’ Dugan said.

In the midst of the election’s ‘three-ring circus,’ he said, there are six candidates who have officially been named and an additional eight who are considered possible contenders for the role.

The declared candidates

Seemingly the most palatable candidate for the U.S. of those declared is the current head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi of Argentina. An Argentine diplomat, Grossi has been dealing with Iran’s ambition to develop nuclear weapons while also working to prevent a nuclear disaster in Russia’s war against Ukraine. 

Schaefer said Grossi is ‘probably the most acceptable among the candidates that have been listed so far’ given the ‘great deal of courage’ he has shown in his role at the IAEA.

Others include former Bolivian Vice President David Choquehuanca. A member of the Movement for Socialism, Choquehuanca once expressed his disdain for Western thinking after his election as Bolivia’s foreign minister. 

Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet was the U.N. high commissioner for human rights between 2018 and 2022. U.N. Watch said that, in this role, Bachelet often condemned Israel and the U.S. but ‘turned a blind eye to widespread violations by China, Turkey, North Korea, Cuba, Eritrea’ and others.

According to Schaefer, it is ‘extraordinarily unlikely that [Bachelet] would receive support from the U.S.’ given her political leanings and her ‘remarkable lack of bravery in the conduct of her position as the high commissioner for human rights.’

Former Vice President of Costa Rica Rebeca Grynspan, who headed the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), had recommended regulation as a means ‘to address the deepening asymmetries’ of international finance.

Schaefer said Grynspan would not ‘be an ideal candidate from a U.S. perspective’ because her 30-year U.N. career makes her a ‘consummate insider’ who would likely be unwilling ‘to shake up the system.’

The field is rounded up by two outside candidates, Colombe Cahen-Salvador, a left-wing political activist and co-founder of the Atlas Movement, and Bruno Donat, a joint Mauritius-U.S. citizen and official at U.N. Mine Action Service.

Possible candidates

Though they have not been officially named by a member state, Dugan listed several other officials that are likely to be nominated in the coming months. Many come from the left of the political aisle and are unlikely to get the backing of the Trump administration. 

Jacinda Ardern is a former prime minister of New Zealand who resigned from the role but is considered ‘a global icon of the left.’ Schaefer noted that Ardern’s prior resignation is not ‘a ringing endorsement’ of her capability to take on the demanding role of secretary-general.

Mexico’s former top diplomat, Alicia Bárcena, has 14 years of experience as the head of the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. She is the secretary of environment and natural resources. 

Other names include María Fernanda Espinosa, formerly defense and foreign minister of Ecuador; Nigeria’s Amina Mohammed, U.N. deputy secretary‑general; Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund since 2019 of Bulgaria; and former head of the U.N. Development Programme Achim Steiner of Germany.

‘A long list of anti-American secretaries-general, topped off by the profoundly hostile Antonio Guterres, have done enormous damage to America’s international relations, fueled antisemitism on a global scale and gravely diminished global peace and security,’ Bayefsky said.

‘We take a back seat in this election at our peril.’

The Senate is gearing up for a vote on extending expiring Obamacare premium subsidies, but a tense debate over restrictions on taxpayer-funded abortions is proving a major roadblock on the path to a bipartisan healthcare solution. 

Broadly, lawmakers in the upper chamber do not want to see the subsidies expire by the end of the year, given the political ramifications and expected leaps in healthcare premiums that would come should they lapse. 

But Republicans demand that Hyde Amendment protections, which prevent taxpayer dollars from funding abortions, be added to an extension of the subsidies. Senate Democrats view that as a non-starter. 

‘It’s a sticky situation,’ Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., told Fox News Digital.

The Hyde Amendment was first enacted in 1976, and has routinely been added to funding bills in the years since to ensure that federal dollars don’t prop up abortions. The issue has become a political third rail in the ongoing healthcare debate. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged that it was a tricky situation and how difficult carving a path forward on extending the subsidies would be. 

‘Well, I think dealing with Hyde is a big issue,’ Thune said. ‘And so, obviously, for both sides we’ll have to figure out how to make that work, and we’ll see on that. I don’t know the answer.’

The Senate is set to vote on Senate Democrats’ subsidy proposal next week, which comes after Thune’s guarantee that there would be a vote in his bid to end the government shutdown last month. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., unveiled Democrats’ proposal on Thursday, which would largely be a clean extension of the subsidies for three years. Republicans have panned it as unserious, and the legislation is expected to fail. 

‘Republicans have spent more time kicking low-income people off health insurance and raising costs for those who stay covered, than on doing anything to lower premiums,’ Schumer said. ‘They’ve riddled their plan with poison pills that would ban abortion nationwide.’

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital that the underlying framework of Obamacare comports with Hyde Amendment restrictions but that Democrats were insisting that the enhanced premium subsidies, which were passed during the COVID-19 pandemic under former President Joe Biden, not be covered by the abortion language, 

‘We have never, ever agreed to taxpayer funding of abortions in the Republican Party. We’re not going to start now, and they know that,’ he said. ‘So it may very well be, unfortunately, that that might be their reason for not wanting to do anything on health care because they think it’s a really good midterm election issue.’ 

Key negotiators that helped end the shutdown on both sides of the aisle are still trying to find a bipartisan solution, but talks have virtually ground to a halt over issues with the Hyde Amendment protections.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, was one of the Senate Democratic caucus members that crossed the aisle to end the shutdown. He told Fox News Digital he wouldn’t comment on the Hyde Amendment back and forth, but he cast a grim outlook on how bipartisan talks were going. 

‘I don’t know if progressing is a word I would use,’ King said. ‘I would say that they are ongoing, and we’ll see if we can find some resolution.’ 

The Obamacare subsidies were a driving force behind Senate Democrats’ shutdown posture, and with the public unveiling of their proposal, it has some Senate Republicans wondering what the government shutdown was even for.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala, who was one of main figures in building a bipartisan bridge to reopen the government, told Fox News Digital that it was clear Schumer wanted to use healthcare as a ‘political issue in an election.’  

‘Looking at it that way, I mean that you would care more about making sure that taxpayers have to fund abortions than you do about these subsidies shows you their priorities are clearly, in my opinion, out of whack,’ Britt said.

For now, the only option on the table is Democrats’ proposal. Republicans are still trying to land on what exactly they want to do with the Obamacare issue. Funneling subsidy money into Healthcare Savings Accounts rather than to insurance companies has become a strong contender, but Senate Republicans still haven’t made their play call. 

‘I think that, my assumption is, if this is what they’re going to do next week, when it fails, then we will have a serious conversation about a real solution,’ Thune told Fox News Digital. ‘We haven’t decided yet exactly what we’re going to do, but what that signals though, evidences, is they’re just not serious.’

The leader of the House GOP’s largest caucus is rolling out a plan to scale back Obamacare while giving Americans the option to open new health savings accounts (HSAs) named after President Donald Trump.

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, is filing legislation on Monday called ‘The More Affordable Care Act,’ he told Fox News Digital.

States would be allowed to opt out of major facets of Obamacare, formally called the Affordable Care Act (ACA), provided they had other systems in place for ensuring premiums were not hiked for high-risk patient pools. 

Those ‘waiver states’ would then be allowed to either run their own healthcare exchange platforms or oversee private company-run platforms, which Republicans argue will allow more choice in the healthcare marketplace in addition to the federal government’s options.

Federal dollars that currently go toward lowering the cost of insurance premiums in those states would be rerouted into personal HSAs for eligible enrollees called ‘Trump Health Freedom Accounts.’

The bill would also allow Americans to shop across state lines for healthcare plans, with any healthcare program run under a ‘waiver state’ needing to be easily available to people in other ‘waiver states.’

Rather than doing away with Obamacare altogether — something many GOP lawmakers have acknowledged may be an impossible task — the bill would seek to increase competition for people where the federal option is the only choice.

The legislation’s introduction comes as Republican lawmakers are scrambling for a solution to address rising healthcare premium prices, which could see millions of Americans pay significantly more for healthcare starting next year.

One of the most high-profile factors in that price cliff is Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic, but which are set to expire at the end of this year.

The majority of Republicans are opposed to extending those enhancements, arguing the COVID-era program only helped fuel skyrocketing health costs without addressing the core problem.

But Democrats and some moderate Republicans have viewed an extension as a key way to prevent healthcare from becoming unaffordable for millions of people.

House GOP leaders are working on a healthcare package that Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said could get a vote by the end of this month.

It’s not clear if Pfluger’s bill will be included in that package. But as the head of the House GOP’s de facto conservative think tank, he’s played a key role in advising Republican leadership in crafting their reforms.

A source familiar told Fox News Digital that they anticipated ‘significant interest’ from other House Republicans once the bill is introduced on Monday.

Meanwhile, Pfluger told Fox News Digital, ‘By establishing Health Freedom Accounts, we’re putting healthcare decisions back where they belong: in the hands of American families, not Washington bureaucrats. The American people deserve better than throwing more money at a failed system, and we’re delivering the commonsense solutions they expect.’

His bill is the House counterpart to legislation previously introduced by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., in Congress’ upper chamber.

Scott told Fox News Digital, ‘We don’t have to replace Obamacare, we keep exchanges, we keep protections for preexisting conditions – but we can add options for families, allowing them to shop across state lines, increasing transparency in health care, and giving any financial support to them directly through HSA-style Trump Health Freedom Accounts, so families can choose the care that fits their needs.’

The Trump administration is being urged to go on offense and make sure the next United Nations chief is aligned with U.S. and Western values and doesn’t kowtow to what critics say is an ever increasingly anti-American institution.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ tenure is set to end on Dec. 31, 2026. The former socialist prime minister of Portugal’s tenure has been beset with major wars and crises that have led to accusations of bias against him, especially when it comes to Israel. 

Experts agree the Trump administration needs to keep a close handle on who is best to serve the interests of the U.S.

Anne Bayefsky, director, Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust & president, Human Rights Voices, told Fox News Digital, ‘As long as the United States continues to make the mistake of being the largest bankroller of the United Nations, and in keeping U.N. headquarters (some call a fifth column) a stone’s throw from our financial capital, it ought to care deeply about who leads the organization.’

Jonathan Wachtel, a former director of communications and a senior policy advisor at the United States Mission to the United Nations to U.S. ambassadors Nikki Haley and Kelly Craft, said that, ‘Since its inception, the United Nations has been a frontline of the Cold War, and today it is increasingly a frontline of hostility toward the United States.’ 

‘As the Security Council prepares for its mid‑2026 straw polls, we face the stark reality that Russia and China can veto any candidate who reflects our values, even as they work to undermine U.S. foreign policy and erode Western principles. The next secretary‑general must… be a leader with backbone and conviction to champion the ideals on which the U.N. was founded and the United States has long stood — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for as many people as possible,’ he said.

With just over a year to go for the selection process, member states have begun to nominate candidates that best fit their national interests. 

Brett Schaefer, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital that of the candidates named thus far, few would be considered acceptable to the U.S. ‘The announced and rumored candidates… are for the most part either U.N. insiders or on the left side of the political spectrum,’ Schaefer said. ‘It’s hard to say that the U.S. would be willing to support any of them at the current stage.’

As the electioneering gets underway, Hugh Dugan, former National Security Council Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Organization Affairs, told Fox News Digital that, ‘After campaigns and a series of straw pulls and eliminations of candidates, members of the Security Council will present the U.N. General Assembly with a preferred candidate for their formal acceptance late next year.’

Dugan said that custom would indicate that the next secretary-general should come from Latin America. He also emphasized that there is an appetite to appoint a woman candidate after 15 years of calls for a female Secretary-General.

‘If they really are to take the helm of a suffering, more or less irrelevant, and unmanageable organization like this, they’re going to have to show up as managers,’ Dugan said.

In the midst of the election’s ‘three-ring circus,’ he said there are six candidates who have officially been named and an additional eight who are considered possible contenders for the role.

Declared Candidates:

Seemingly the most palatable candidate for the U.S. of those declared is the current head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi of Argentina. An Argentine diplomat, Grossi has been dealing with Iran’s ambition to develop nuclear weapons while also working to prevent a nuclear disaster in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Schaefer says that Grossi is ‘probably the most acceptable among the candidates that have been listed so far’ given the ‘great deal of courage’ he has shown in his role at the IAEA.

Others include: Former Bolivian Vice President David Choquehuanca. A member of the Movement for Socialism. Choquehuanca once expressed his disdain for Western thinking after his election as Bolivia’s foreign minister. 

Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet was the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights between 2018 and 2022. U.N. Watch said that in this role, Bachelet often condemned Israel and the U.S. but ‘turned a blind eye to widespread violations by China, Turkey, North Korea, Cuba, Eritrea,’ and others.

According to Schaefer, it is ‘extraordinarily unlikely that [Bachelet] would receive support from the U.S.’ given her political leanings and her ‘remarkable lack of bravery in the conduct of her position as the high commissioner for human rights.’

Former Vice President of Costa Rica Rebeca Grynspan, who headed the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD.) Grynspan had recommended regulation as a means ‘to address the deepening asymmetries’ of international finance.

Schaefer said Grynspan would not ‘be an ideal candidate from a U.S. perspective,’ as her 30-year U.N. career makes her a ‘consummate insider’ who would likely be unwilling ‘to shake up the system.’

The field is rounded up by two outside candidates, Colombe Cahen-Salvador, a left-wing political activist and co-founder of the Atlas Movement, and Bruno Donat, a joint Mauritius-U.S. citizen and official at U.N. Mine Action Service.

Possible Candidates

Though they have not been officially named by a member state, Dugan listed several other officials that are likely to be nominated in the coming months. Many come from the left of the political aisle, and are unlikely to get the backing of the Trump administration. 

Jacinda Ardern, a former prime minister of New Zealand, who resigned from the role but is considered ‘a global icon of the left.’ Schaefer noted that Ardern’s prior resignation is not ‘a ringing endorsement’ of her capability to take on the demanding role of secretary-general.

Mexico’s former top diplomat, Alicia Bárcena, has 14 years of experience as the head of the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. She is presently the secretary of environment and natural resources. 

Other names include: María Fernanda Espinosa formerly defense and foreign minister of Ecuador, Nigeria’s Amina Mohammed, U.N. deputy secretary‑general, Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund since 2019 of Bulgaria, and former head of the U.N. Development Programme Achim Steiner of Germany.

Bayefsky said that, ‘A long list of anti-American secretaries-general, topped off by the profoundly hostile Antonio Guterres, have done enormous damage to America’s international relations, fueled antisemitism on a global scale, and gravely diminished global peace and security. We take a back seat in this election at our peril.’