President Donald Trump spearheaded major changes to the Kennedy Center Honors ahead of the highly anticipated awards ceremony. 

Founded in 1978, the Kennedy Center Honors recognize a handful of performing artists every year for their lifetime contributions to culture. The Kennedy Center Honors, which are presented by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., are considered the nation’s top lifetime achievement award for the performing arts.

After returning to the White House in January, Trump, 79, became chairman of the Kennedy Center board and has since undertaken efforts to reshape the honors program — pushing for a glitzier, star-studded celebration. 

In August, Trump announced this year’s lineup of honorees, which included country legend George Strait, Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone, rock band KISS, Broadway icon Michael Crawford and Grammy Award-winning singer Gloria Gaynor.

‘The 48th Kennedy Center Honorees are outstanding people, incredible, we can’t wait… in a few short months since I became chairman of the board, the Kennedy Center, we’ve completely reversed the decline of this cherished national institution,’ he said in his speech.

From overhauling the honoree selection process to unveiling a new medallion, here’s a breakdown of how the Kennedy Center Honors have been revamped under Trump. 

Trump-led selection process 

Since the Kennedy Honors’ inception, the honorees were chosen by a bipartisan committee that worked with the Kennedy Center’s artistic staff, the Board of Trustees, external arts advisors, and the Center’s president and Honors team. 

While U.S. presidents have historically participated in the ceremonial aspects of the Honors including hosting a White House reception and attending the gala, they typically have not been directly involved in the selection process. 

However, Trump said he played a major role in choosing the 2025 honorees during an August event at the Kennedy Center to announce the recipients. 

Though there was a Special Honors Advisory Committee that made recommendations, Trump appeared to confirm that he made the final choices.

When reporters asked Trump how involved he was in selecting the 2025 honorees, he responded, ‘I was about 98% involved… they all came through me.’

‘I turned down plenty, they were too woke,’ he continued. ‘I had a couple of wokesters. No, we have great people. This is very different than it used to be.’

While taking aim at the state of Hollywood awards shows, Trump took a swipe at the Oscars.

‘Look at the Academy Awards — it gets lousy ratings now, it’s all woke,’ he said. ‘All they do is talk about how much they hate Trump, but nobody likes that. They don’t watch anymore…’

Trump concluded his ‘very long answer’ by saying he ‘was very involved’ in the selection of the Kennedy Center Honorees.

New medallion

For 47 years, the medallion received by the honorees had remained unchanged. The Honors medal hung from wide satin ribbon in five bright rainbow colors that formed a V-shape around the honoree’s neck. 

The gold circular medallion was shaped like a starburst and featured an abstract representation of the Kennedy Center building and was handmade by the same family for nearly five decades. Throughout the awards show’s history, the medallions were handmade by the Baturin’s, a Washington D.C.- based family of artisans and metalworkers. 

In a press release issued on Tuesday, the Kennedy Center announced that the medallions ‘have been re-imagined and donated by Tiffany & Co.’

‘As the first American high jewelry house, Tiffany & Co. has played a defining role in American luxury culture for nearly two centuries – making them the ideal collaborator to design the Honors medallion,’ the press release continued. 

‘The brand-new medallion features a gold disc etched on one side with a depiction of the Kennedy Center. The building is flanked by rainbow colors representing the breadth of the arts celebrated when receiving the Honor. The reverse side bears the Honorees’ names in script above the date of the Medallion Ceremony, December 6, 2025. The medallion hangs from a navy-blue ribbon, a color associated with dignity and tradition.’

Massive governance shake-up ahead of the Honors

n February, Trump announced a major shakeup of the Kennedy Center leadership. He revealed that he had decided to immediately fire multiple Kennedy Center board members appointed by former President Joe Biden and other prior trustees, including the chairman, and fill that role himself.

Trump claimed he and the former chair David Rubenstein along with the ousted board members ‘do not share [the same] vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,’ according to his announcement on Truth Social.

‘We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!’ he added. 

Trump also criticized Kennedy Center programming, including drag shows, under the prior administration.

‘Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!’ Trump said on Truth Social. 

He later replaced the former members with 14 other members, including allies including second lady Usha Vance and ‘God Bless the USA’ singer Lee Greenwood. 

The new board elected Trump as chairman on Feb. 12. Trump dismissed long-serving Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter and appointed his ally Ric Grenell – who became the U.S.’s first openly gay cabinet member under the first Trump administration when he served as acting director of national intelligence – as interim executive director amid the board overhaul. 

More mainstream-pop culture class of nominees 

The 2025 honorees including KISS, Gloria Gaynor, George Strait, Sylvester Stallone and Michael Crawford indicated a shift toward recognizing artists from more mainstream, pop culture fields rather than the cross-disciplinary lineups of prior years. 

During the first two decades after the Honors were founded, the recipients were mainly from the world of classical arts with some notable exceptions including actor James Cagney, actress Lucille Ball and film director Elia Kazan. 

In the mid-1990s, the Honors began expanding toward mainstream entertainment, honoring more pop musicians, rock artists, film and television actors and Broadway stars. The expansion accelerated through the 2000s and 2010s and into the 2020s.

In addition to mainstream artists, past honoree classes have always included representation from classical music, jazz, dance, opera or composition.  However, 2025’s lineup features no honoree from those disciplines, marking a first in modern program history.

The 2025 honorees chosen under Trump’s direction are entirely from rock, disco, country, film and Broadway.

In the Kennedy Honors Center’s August press release announcing the honorees, Grenell said, ‘For nearly half a century, this tradition has celebrated those whose voices and visions tell our nation’s story and share it with the world.’ ‘This year’s Honorees have left an indelible mark on our history, reminding us that the arts are for everyone.’

Trump will host the Honors 

At the August event to announce the honorees, Trump announced that he will host the Kennedy Center Honors gala, becoming the first president in history to host the event. 

‘I’ve been asked to host. I said, I’m the President of the United States. Are you fools asking me to do that? ‘Sir, you’ll get much higher ratings.’ I said ‘I don’t care. I’m President of the United States, I won’t do it.’ They said, ‘Please,” Trump told reporters.

Trump went on to say that his Chief of Staff Susie Wiles also asked him to host the Honors. 

‘I said, ‘OK, Susie, I’ll do it.’ That’s the power she’s got,’ he said. ‘So I have agreed to host. Do you believe what I have to do? And I didn’t want to do it, OK? They’re going to say, ‘He insisted.’ I did not insist, but I think it will be quite successful, actually.’ 

‘It’s been a long time. I used to host ‘The Apprentice’ finales and we did rather well with that,’ Trump added, referring to his long-running NBC reality competition show.

‘So I think we’re going to do very well, because we have some great honorees, some really great ones.’

During Trump’s first term, he and First Lady Melania Trump did not attend the Honors or host the traditional White House reception for the honorees.

In 2017, honorees including Norman Lear and dancer Carmen de Lavallade announced that they would not attend a White House reception hosted by Trump in protest.

The White House subsequently issued a statement that read: ‘The president and first lady have decided not to participate in this year’s activities to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.’

Trump and Melania also did not attend in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, the Honors were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and instead took place in May 2021, with a revamped format including smaller, socially-distanced and virtual tributes.

The 48th Annual Kennedy Center Honors will take place on Dec. 7 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and will air Dec. 23 on the CBS Television Network and on Paramount+

Kelsey Grammer thinks President Donald Trump is ‘one of the greatest presidents we’ve ever had.’

Earlier Saturday, Trump awarded the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medals in the Oval Office. After the ceremony, the State Department Kennedy Center Honors medal presentation dinner was held.

This year’s recipients include Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, Michael Crawford and the members of KISS.

Speaking to Fox News Digital ahead of the dinner, Grammer, who was accompanied by his daughter Faith, called Trump ‘extraordinary.’

‘I think he’s extraordinary. He’s one of the greatest presidents we’ve ever had. Maybe the greatest. There are some things he still wants to get done, and I think that’s terrific, but there was a big hill to climb,’ Grammer said.

‘I think he’s extraordinary. He’s one of the greatest presidents we’ve ever had. Maybe the greatest.’

— Kelsey Grammer

‘And we were left with some very interesting things going on,’ he concluded.

The ‘Cheers’ star also touched on Stallone being honored during this year’s ceremony and said he’s ‘over the moon’ about it.

‘I was on the selection committee, so I knew about it,’ he added. ‘He’s a force of nature. Sylvester Stallone has captured our imagination in several different roles and performed them beautifully.’

Grammer said it was ‘about time’ that Stallone was honored.

Strait spoke to Fox News Digital on the red carpet and said, ‘It’s a great honor’ to be recognized by the Kennedy Center Honors.

During the Oval Office ceremony, Trump called the honorees ‘incredible people’ who represent the ‘very best in American arts and culture.’

‘I know most of them, and I’ve been a fan of all of them,’ Trump said, according to the Associated Press.

‘This is a group of icons whose work and accomplishments have inspired, uplifted and unified millions and millions of Americans. This is perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class of Kennedy Center Honorees ever assembled,’ Trump continued.

During the ceremony, Trump appointed each honoree with a newly designed medal, donated and created by jeweler Tiffany & Co.

It’s a gold disc etched on one side with the Kennedy Center’s image and signature rainbow colors. The honoree’s name and the ceremony date appear on the reverse. 

The medallion hangs from a navy-blue ribbon, replacing the original large rainbow ribbon – adorned with three gold plates – that rested on the honoree’s shoulders and chest and had been used since the first Honors program in 1978.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that certain evidence linked to an ally of former FBI Director James Comey is off limits to the Justice Department in its efforts to prosecute the ex-director.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said the DOJ may not use information pertaining to Daniel Richman.

‘Upon consideration of Petitioner Daniel Richman’s Motion for Temporary Restraining Order, the relevant legal authority, and the entire present record, the Court concludes that Petitioner Richman is entitled to a narrow temporary restraining order to preserve the status quo while the Court evaluates his Motion for Return of Property and awaits full briefing and argument from the parties,’ the ruling reads.

The facts ‘weigh in favor of entering a prompt, temporary order to preserve the status quo now, before the Government has filed a response,’ it added.

Rosie O’Donnell is sounding the alarm about her ongoing fixation with President Donald Trump.

The 63-year-old, along with some of her friends and family, spoke to The Washington Post about her move to Ireland after Trump’s re-election last November, and one thing was made clear from the article. 

She ‘can’t resist’ speaking about Trump.

O’Donnell told the outlet she promised her therapist the Wednesday before Thanksgiving she would refrain from posting about Trump for two days.

It fell apart within hours.

A longtime friend, Jennifer Kopetic, was described as ‘annoyed’ when she told O’Donnell during a recent visit, ‘Roseann, you’ve got to detach. You’ve got to disconnect.’

She made another vow — three days this time — telling her 1.2 million Instagram followers she was ‘gonna try again to not give him a minute of me.’ However, she failed that attempt, too.

O’Donnell has said her emotional spiral began the moment Trump was elected.

‘I felt on the verge of crying … when he got elected,’ she previously told an Irish TV audience in March, explaining she feared a second term. 

The former talk show host said her concerns were personal. A lesbian mother of five — with her youngest, 12-year-old Clay, identifying as nonbinary and diagnosed with autism — O’Donnell feared what she saw as Trump-era hostility toward LGBTQ Americans and the potential gutting of federal support for special education programs.

The Washington Post reported that, during Trump’s first term, she channeled her anxiety into more than 200 angry digital portraits of the former president on her iPad, labeling him ‘Moron,’ ‘Loser’ and ‘Liar.’

That kind of ‘obsessed’ focus on Trump is exactly what convinced O’Donnell she had no choice but to leave the U.S.

Her brother Eddie, who is helping with her Irish citizenship application, called her move abroad ‘the best decision she’s made … honestly.’ 

O’Donnell made her recent remarks after she said the political stress she carries is spilling into her family — especially her daughter, who she said blames Trump for uprooting their lives.

‘My daughter is now saying, ‘Damn him. Damn Trump,’’ O’Donnell said during an appearance on ‘The Jim Acosta Show.’

According to O’Donnell, her daughter hit their table in frustration, shouting, ‘He made us move for our own safety … and now he’s destroying the country.’ 

O’Donnell acknowledged the difficulty of trying to keep her daughter shielded from the chaos while still being honest about why they left. 

‘She hears everything. She recognizes what’s going on,’ she said.

The comedian added she’s ready to step back from political combat.

‘Somebody can tap me out. … I did 22 years. I don’t need to do anymore.’

The White House wasted no time responding to O’Donnell’s renewed attacks.

‘Rosie O’Donnell clearly suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, and it’s better for the entire country that she decided to move away,’ White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital earlier this week.

O’Donnell moved to Ireland after claiming Trump threatened to strip her of U.S. citizenship. 

In October, she announced she was pursuing Irish citizenship, citing her grandparents’ roots and her desire for distance from American politics.

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.