Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., called President Donald Trump an “unhinged lunatic” in a Monday post on X, advocating for him to be ousted from office.

“This is not ok. Invoke the 25th amendment. Impeach. Remove. This unhinged lunatic must be removed from office,” she asserted.

The left-wing lawmaker made the comments while sharing a screenshot of the president’s controversial Easter Sunday Truth Social post threatening attacks against Iranian power plants and bridges.

TRUMP WARNS IRAN HE MAY STRIKE ‘EVERY POWER PLANT’ AS DEADLINE TO REOPEN HORMUZ NEARS

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F—in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah,” Trump wrote in the post, referring to the Strait of Hormuz. 

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., warned in a Monday post on X, “Threatening to target power plants and other non-military targets is not strength. If those words become orders to destroy civilian infrastructure with no valid military purpose, it’s hard to see how they would not violate the laws of armed conflict. America leads best with strength, discipline, and professionalism. Illegal orders to make civilians suffer would be a black mark on our military and our country.”

MARK KELLY PRESSED ON WHETHER HE WOULD REFUSE ORDERS IF HE WAS STILL IN UNIFORM

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., declared in a Sunday post on X, “President Trump’s profanity-laden Easter threat to attack Iran’s civilian infrastructure—power plants and bridges—are the words of a frustrated and immoral madman. Many experts agree that such attacks would be war crimes under international law. To our military leaders, remember this: You are legally required to refuse orders to commit war crimes.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., characterized Trump’s comments as “the ravings of a dangerous and mentally unbalanced individual,” asserting in a Sunday post on X, “Congress has got to act NOW. End this war.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment early Tuesday morning.

‘GOD IS GOOD’: INSIDE THE HIGH-RISK US MISSION TO SAVE A WOUNDED AIRMAN SHOT DOWN IN IRAN

During remarks on Monday, Trump indicated the U.S. has “a plan … where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again. I mean complete demolition by 12 o’clock.”

“We don’t want that to happen,” he said.

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The White House tore into Democrat activist and failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Monday after she argued President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to rein in mail-in voting was “patently illegal.”

“Has Stacey Abrams conceded the multiple elections she lost yet or is she still pretending to be Governor?” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. “Election integrity has always been a top priority for President Trump, and the American people sent him back to the White House because they overwhelmingly supported his commonsense election integrity agenda.”

The comment was in response to Abrams, who said during an appearance on MS NOW over the weekend that Trump’s order would disenfranchise voters, resurfacing long-held tensions with the president amid his latest push to enhance voter security ahead of the midterms. Abrams previously ran for Georgia governor twice and refused to formally concede her 2018 election. 

“It is patently illegal, and it is entirely in the playbook of voter suppression that Republicans, including Donald Trump, have been using for the last decade or so,” Abrams said.

STACEY ABRAMS TOUTS 10 STEPS TO AUTOCRACY, SAYS ‘DO NOT LET PROPAGANDA WIN’

Trump’s order, called “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” directed the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration, in coordination with state leaders, to create a list of citizens, and then directed the U.S. Postal Service to only deliver mail-in ballots to people on the list.

“The president will do everything in his power to defend the safety and security of American elections and to ensure that only American citizens are voting in them – that’s only controversial for Democrats like Stacey,” Jackson added.

Abrams founded Fair Fight Action after her 2018 loss to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, saying Georgia’s election system suppressed voters. The group was later ordered to reimburse the state more than $200,000 in legal costs after an unsuccessful lawsuit. 

Separately, Abrams-linked advocacy groups have faced campaign-finance and nonprofit-compliance scrutiny, including a Georgia Ethics Commission case involving the New Georgia Project and a 2025 IRS complaint targeting Fair Fight Action.

Abrams has since criticized Republican-led voting initiatives at the federal and state level as relics of the Jim Crow era and designed to disenfranchise racial minorities.

“The Constitution gives to the states the authority to determine how elections are held,” Abrams said. “What the Republican regime is upset about is that democracy has been working.”

Trump criticized Abrams as far back as 2018 over her stance on voting, accusing her of wanting “illegal aliens to vote.” Abrams “opposed requiring proof of American citizenship at the ballot box,” Trump said at the time.

Trump has long argued that noncitizen voting, which is illegal, is a widespread problem in U.S. elections. In addition to his executive order, Trump has urged Congress to pass the SAVE Act before the 2026 elections to impose a physical identification requirement on people registering to vote, though it lacks the needed support from Democratic senators to advance in the upper chamber.

While the White House has framed Trump’s executive order as an effort to bolster election integrity, Abrams and other critics argued it intruded on state authority and would unfairly suppress votes.

“The biggest risk for Americans right now is that we see these as piecemeal, and we don’t recognize it’s part of a pattern,” Abrams said. “This is step 10 in an authoritarian playbook. You end democracy.”

JAMES CARVILLE TELLS EX-CNN HOST HE’S WORRIED TRUMP WILL TAMPER WITH 2026 MIDTERM ELECTIONS

Abrams also alleged that the executive order would serve to create a master list of voters, effectively usurping state control over voter registration lists and federalizing elections.

“The creation of a database … should terrify all of us,” Abrams said. “That is an attempt to do national surveillance.”

In addition to Abrams’ criticisms, roughly two dozen states and voting rights groups filed lawsuits seeking to block the executive order, arguing Trump’s directives violated the Constitution by encroaching on states’ authority to administer elections.

Fox News Digital reached out to an Abrams representative for comment.

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ROME, GA — Republican congressional candidate Clay Fuller says that Tuesday’s special election runoff in Georgia is “extremely crucial.”

Fuller is facing off against Democrat Shawn Harris in the race to fill the seat in Georgia’s solidly red 14th Congressional District — in the northwest part of the state — left vacant when MAGA firebrand Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene stepped down at the beginning of January. Greene quit Congress with a year left in her term, after a bitter falling out with President Donald Trump.

The special election, held on the same day as a state Supreme Court contest in battleground Wisconsin, comes as Republicans cling to a razor-thin 218–214 majority in the House. The GOP cannot afford any surprises or allow the Democrats to pull an upset in the special election, in a district Trump carried by a whopping 37 points in his 2024 presidential victory.

“We need the reinforcements,” Fuller, a local district attorney and a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard who’s served in the Air Force since 2009, emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the runoff election, as he pointed to the GOP’s fragile majority. “I think the voters in Georgia 14 understand that, and they’re looking forward to sending a MAGA America first fighter up on Capitol Hill to support that agenda.”

PRIMARY PAUSE, POLITICAL FIRESTORM: HIGH-STAKES ELECTIONS THIS MONTH TAKE CENTER STAGE

Asked if he was concerned that MAGA supporters would sit out what may be a low turnout election since the president is not on the ballot, Fuller said voters “would crawl through glass to make sure they have a representative up there that fight for them and fight for President Trump, and that’s why we’re going to have the votes pouring out on April 7.”

TRUMP HITS CAMPAIGN TRAIL IN KEY BATTLEGROUND AS RACE TO REPLACE MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE HEATS UP

Harris, a cattle farmer who spent four decades in the military and retired as an Army brigadier general, needs the support of crossover Republicans in order to pull off an upset.

“I am a Democrat, but I’m not tied to the party,” Harris highlighted as he spoke with Fox News Digital. And Harris argued, “My opponent, Clay, cannot say that. He actually sold his soul to President Trump.”

Harris, pointing to surging gas prices fueled by Trump’s military attack on Iran, said when voters “go to the polls, they will have to stop at the pump, and that’ll be the last thing they think about before they go and vote. And they’re going to say, ‘You know what, Shawn Harris is the only one that’s talking about bringing down costs, Shawn Harris is the only one saying, ‘I’m going to stand up for the people here in Northwest Georgia, period.’”

“We will win this war militarily. However, if we don’t watch it and be clear with the American people, based on these gas prices and diesel prices, we could actually lose this war politically.”

Harris said he “will support President Trump on things like the…southern border.” But he added “when it comes to things like…a forever war. Send me. I will push back.”

Fuller said that “the voters in Georgia-14 support the president in this endeavor. They understand that the Iranian regime was a long term threat to our national security…they understand that President Trump is making the world safer, and they understand that there may be short term pain at the gas pump, and they’ll expect those prices to drop as soon as this conflict is over.”

Harris grabbed 37% of the vote, with Fuller at 35% amid a field of 17 candidates, including 12 Republicans, in the first round of voting in early March. Since no candidate topped 50%, Harris and Fuller advanced to Tuesday’s runoff.

The congressional seat — which stretches from Atlanta’s outer suburbs to the state’s northwest borders with Alabama and Tennessee — was left vacant when Greene quit Congress with a year left in her term, after a very public falling out with Trump mostly over her push to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.

While Greene remains popular among Republicans in the district, Fuller said the voters he’s talked with on the campaign trail “are focused on the fights of the future, not anything that had happened in the past.”

Asked if he’s talked with Greene, Fuller said he “reached out to Rep. Greene, had conversations with her and got advice on the district, and I’ll keep those conversations confidential.”

Harris, who as a first-time candidate lost to Greene by nearly 29 points in her 2024 re-election, emphasized that “I’m not running against Marjorie Taylor Greene anymore,” and that his name “carries more weight than any other name in this district.”

If Harris loses but holds Fuller’s margin to the mid-teens or less, national Democrats will argue the election is the latest in nearly 15 months since Trump returned to the White House in which they overperformed.

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

The ballot box brawl in Northwest Georgia isn’t the only electoral showdown on Tuesday. There’s also a state Supreme Court election in battleground Wisconsin.

While officially a non-partisan contest, state Supreme Court elections in Wisconsin have become extremely partisan in recent years.

With the court’s majority on the line in last year’s contest, outside money poured in and out-of-state door knockers blanketed Wisconsin. One of the biggest spenders was Trump ally Elon Musk, who headlined a rally days before the election and donned a cheesehead hat worn by fans of the Green Bay Packers.

Democrats won that election by a larger-than-expected margin and currently hold a 4-3 majority on Wisconsin’s highest court.

With a conservative justice retiring, the majority isn’t at stake in this year’s election, although if state Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor, a former democratic state representative, wins, liberals would expand their majority on the high court to 5-2.

If Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar, a conservative, wins or keeps the margins close, the GOP may claim a moral victory.

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A Democratic candidate in a crucial Senate battleground showdown is taking plenty of incoming fire from his primary rivals as well as the Republican contender in the race as he prepares to team up on Tuesday with a controversial far-left online streamer.

Abdul El-Sayed, the 2018 Michigan Democratic gubernatorial runner-up who is backed by progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as he seeks his party’s 2026 Senate nomination, is scheduled to hold campus rallies at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University with Hasan Piker, as well as with progressive Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania.

Piker, a potent progressive influencer, could help boost El-Sayed in a competitive and combustible Democratic Senate nomination race thanks to his millions of younger, progressive social media followers on YouTube, Instagram and X.

But the appearance at the campus rallies by Piker — who once said “America deserved 9/11,” and who critics argue is antisemitic due to his sharp criticism of the Israeli government and the downplaying of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel — is alarming to many Democrats.

BERNIE-BACKED DEMOCRATIC SENATE CANDIDATE IN KEY RACE TAKES INCOMING POLITICAL FIRE

El-Sayed’s top two rivals for the nomination have blasted his scheduled appearance with Piker, which was announced less than two weeks after a man rammed his truck into a Michigan synagogue, wounding a guard in what authorities said was a targeted act of domestic terrorism against the Jewish community.

“It is unacceptable for a candidate wanting to represent all Michiganders to campaign with Hasan Piker, a person who is unapologetic about a career of making hurtful and anti-Semitic comments,” Rep. Haley Stevens said in a statement. “With all that’s at stake in this election, we should be focused on the challenges Michiganders are facing and how to fight for them.”

And State Senator Mallory McMorrow, in an interview with the Jewish Insider, called Piker “somebody who says extremely offensive things in order to generate clicks.”

SANDERS-ENDORSED SENATE CANDIDATE KNOCKED FOR ALLEGED FLIP-FLOP TO ‘HAVE IT BOTH WAYS’ ON KEY ISSUE

“That is not somebody that you should be campaigning with at a moment when there is clearly a lot of pain and trauma across our state,” McMorrow added. “You don’t fan the flames and stoke division just to get attention.”

El-Sayed, Stevens and McMorrow will face off in an early August primary.

It’s not just El Sayed’s Democratic nomination rivals who are criticizing his decision to team up with Piker.

Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and the Anti-Defamation League have charged Piker is antisemitic and Matt Bennett, a leader of the well-known moderate Democratic group the Third Way, slammed El-Sayed as a “disgrace to the Democratic Party.”  

Former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, who’s on a glidepath to the GOP Senate nomination in Michigan for a second straight cycle, told Fox News Digital in a statement, “If you would have told me a few years ago that Democrat frontrunners would campaign with known antisemites, I would’ve thought you were crazy. But one thing Abdul continues to prove, there’s no limit to how far left Democrats will go.”

WHO IS HASAN PIKER? MEET THE FAR-LEFT STREAMER WHO IS STIRRING UP CONTROVERSY ONLINE AND DIVIDING DEMOCRATS

“From calling to defund the police and make Michigan a sanctuary state, to attempting to abolish private healthcare, and now campaigning with an antisemite who claimed ‘America deserved 9/11,’ one thing that’s for certain: Abdul and the Democrats are too radical for Michigan,” Rogers argued.

In the wake of the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack that incited Israel’s war with Gaza, Piker described Hamas, a terrorist organization, as the “lesser of two evils” in the conflict.

Once, when asked if he supported terrorism, Piker answered by saying, “No, I don’t. I don’t support the state of Israel, and I don’t support the state of the United States of America.”

He also faced backlash for praising the “brave” “mujahideen” who injured Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, who lost an eye in Afghanistan.

“What the f— is wrong with this dude? Didn’t he go to war and like literally lose his eye because some mujahideen — a brave f—ing soldier—f—ed his eye hole with their d—?” Piker said.

El-Sayed has repeatedly stood his ground in defending his appearances with Piker. The candidate noted that Piker was allowed by Democrats to stream at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“It’s about speaking to a broader audience,” El-Sayed said last week in an appearance on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”

El-Sayed emphasized that “just because you invite somebody to campaign with you, or you’re engaging with them does not mean that you agree with them…. Every day, 30,000 people and counting tune in to Hassan’s stream. A lot of folks who don’t watch Fox News, they don’t watch CNN, they don’t watch MSNBC.”

The Senate race in Michigan is one of a handful in this year’s midterm elections that will determine if the Republicans hold their 53-47 majority in the chamber. Michigan, where Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring, is one of the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s (NRSC) top targets as they try to not only hold onto their seats, but also possibly expand their majority.

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Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signaled his political career may not be over, telling Sean Hannity he still has “more to give” just under three months after leaving office.

“I have more to give. I just do. The one year of campaigning and the four years of running, so five years, went by in five seconds. It was amazing,” Youngkin said on the “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” podcast.

In the full episode, debuting Tuesday, Youngkin sat down with the Fox News host to discuss his time in office, as well as what things have been like since his term expired in January.

NEW POLL REVEALS SPANBERGER’S POPULARITY IS PLUMMETING AMID BACKLASH OVER GERRYMANDERING

“Every morning [when I was governor], I woke up literally bounding out of bed, ready to roll, and that was the most purposeful I’ve ever felt in my whole life.“

Youngkin oversaw a range of conservative measures passed in the state, including a push to ensure age-appropriate curriculum in public schools.

SPANBERGER SIGNALS LEFT BENT AFTER CENTRIST CAMPAIGN; GOP LEADER WARNS OF ‘FAIRFAXING THE REST OF VA’

He also pushed for tax cuts, including efforts to reduce the state’s grocery tax, rolled back COVID-19 restrictions early in his tenure and emphasized tougher public safety policies.

His time in office concluded earlier this year, when Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration succeeded his.

“I’ve been out of office for six weeks. I took [my wife] Suzanne on vacation, which she so deserved. She’s been amazing. I think she’s one of the best first ladies in America,” he said.

“But six weeks has felt like six years… You’re chomping at the bit.”

While Youngkin stopped short of outlining specific plans for the future, his comments suggest he is keeping the door open to a return to public office.

Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz contributed to this report.

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In a scene that unfolded like a Hollywood script, hundreds of American troops descended into the rugged mountains of southwestern Iran on Saturday to rescue a wounded airman who spent nearly two days hiding from Iranian forces. 

What followed was a high-stakes combat search-and-rescue mission deep inside Iran, with U.S. forces racing to locate and extract the wounded officer before Iranian troops could reach him, deploying a large contingent of special operations forces and aircraft into hostile territory.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe compared the mission to find the downed airmen to finding “a grain of sand in the desert” in a news briefing Monday.

In total, the U.S. sent in more than 150 aircraft, President Donald Trump Monday, which took on “very, very heavy enemy fire” during the rescue operation. Several different teams: Navy SEALs, Air Force Special Operations, Army Special Operations Aviation, search and rescue and combat medics, also took part.

US PILOT RESCUED FROM DOWNED F-15E FIGHTER JET IN IRAN, SEARCH FOR SECOND CREW MEMBER ONGOING

“This was an incredibly dangerous mission, an incredibly dangerous undertaking,” Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said Monday at the White House press briefing. 

One of the two crew members was flown to Landstuhl regional medical center in Germany, typically the first stop for U.S. soldiers wounded in combat zones, and the other is being flown there Monday, a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News.

As the rescue unfolded Easter Sunday, the pilot radioed a brief message to help U.S. forces identify him: “God is good,” officials said.

Here’s a look at how the scene unfolded. 

Friday — The shoot down and the first rescue 

A U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet was shot down over Iran Friday, according to U.S. officials. Both the pilot and the weapons systems officer ejected from the aircraft. 

The aircraft was operating as part of ongoing U.S. combat operations over Iran when it was shot down.

While details of the incident were not immediately clear, Iranian state media released images of an ejection seat and debris that appeared consistent with an F-15E. Iran initially claimed it had downed a more advanced F-35 stealth fighter, but U.S. officials later confirmed the aircraft was an F-15 Strike Eagle. 

The F-15E Strike Eagle is a two-seat fighter jet flown by a pilot and a weapons systems officer, who manages targeting, sensors and weapons. The aircraft is designed for both air-to-air combat and deep strike missions against ground targets, allowing it to operate far inside enemy territory.

After the crew ejected and aircraft went down, rescue beacons went off, which send out a radio or GPS signal, officials said Monday at the press briefing, and U.S. forces quickly launched a combat search-and-rescue mission, deploying rescue helicopters into Iranian territory to recover the downed pilot. 

“We flew for seven hours in daylight over Iran to get the first pilot, and we flew seven hours in the middle of the night to get the second,” War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday. 

The pilot was rescued later that day, within hours of the shoot down, in what Trump described as a daylight operation.

Rescue helicopters, including HH-60W Jolly Green II aircraft, came under Iranian small-arms fire as they moved in to extract the pilot, according to U.S. officials. Crew members aboard the helicopter carrying the pilot were injured, but the aircraft was able to fly safely out of Iranian territory.

An A-10 Thunderbolt II providing close air support for the rescue effort was also hit by enemy fire, according to U.S. officials. The aircraft was damaged, and the pilot later ejected over Kuwaiti airspace and was recovered.

Caine said the A-10s were flying in the “Sandy” role — a mission focused on protecting downed airmen and guiding rescue forces into hostile territory. 

“A Sandy has one mission, get to the survivor, bring the rescue force forward and put themselves between that survivor on the ground and the enemy,” Caine said Monday. 

“While this was ongoing and out in front of them, the Sandy flight of A-10s and other remotely piloted aircraft, drones and other tactical aircraft were violently suppressing and engaging the enemy in a close-in gunfight to keep the objective area,” he said. 

Saturday — The hunt for the weapons system officer (WSO) 

While the Pentagon remained tight-lipped about the mission, Iranian state media blasted images from the crash and called on civilians to join in the search for the second crew member, an Air Force colonel, according to Trump.  

The Pentagon has not publicly released the names of the crew members, a standard practice while operations are ongoing. Both airmen have been recovered and are receiving medical care at a U.S. military facility, according to officials. 

Iranian state media urged civilians to help locate the missing crew member and offered a reward for his capture, while Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces launched a search in the region.

The weapons systems officer, a colonel with SERE training, was using his survival and evasion training to stay one step ahead of Iranian forces. He reportedly climbed 7,000 feet up a ridge and remained hidden there for nearly 48 hours, a senior defense official told Fox News. 

“He was injured quite badly,” Trump said during a news briefing Monday. “He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds.”

The colonel hid in a mountain crevice while the CIA launched a deception campaign to convince the Iranian regime they had already located him and were moving him to the ground for exfiltration. While the Iranians were confused and uncertain of what was happening, the agency used its specialized capabilities to locate the American airman, a senior administration official told Fox News.

AIRMAN RESCUE SHOWS U.S. CAN PENETRATE ENEMY TERRITORY ‘ANYWHERE’ IN IRAN, FORMER PENTAGON OFFICIAL WARNS

Trump said the American aviator was being “hunted down” by enemies who were “getting closer and closer by the hour.” 

The U.S. used MQ9 Reaper drones to protect the area around where the U.S. believed the airman was hiding and fired on anything that came close to that area and any area where U.S. forces were operating, an administration official told Fox News. 

“At the president’s direction, we deployed both human assets and exquisite technologies,” Ratcliffe said, calling it “a daunting challenge, comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert.”

At the same time, the U.S. launched strikes on nearby areas to keep Iranian forces away.

“We executed multiple large scale strikes in the surrounding area using every tactical jet in the U.S. inventory + B-1 Bombers to keep him safe,” a senior U.S. official said. 

In between the rescue of the pilot and the rescue of the weapons officer, U.S. forces flying B2 bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri dropped “bunker buster” massive ordnance penetrator bombs on an IRGC headquarters, a senior defense official told Fox News.

Sunday — The final rescue

At the right moment, Trump said, he directed the military to send dozens of heavily armed aircraft to rescue the crew member, who the president said is “seriously wounded” but will recover. 

When the colonel finally made radio contact to coordinate the pickup, he sent the message: “God is good.” 

U.S. officials were not sure it was him at first. Trump told Axios they feared it was a trap. But those who knew the colonel said he was a man of deep faith. 

Rescue helicopters, including HH-60 Pave Hawk aircraft, came under Iranian small-arms fire during the extraction, sources told Air and Space Forces magazine. 

U.S. forces established a remote airstrip inside Iran to support the rescue. 

“This was not much of a runway,” Trump said. “This was a farm, not a runway.” 

Problems with two other transport planes prompted U.S. forces to blow them up rather than leave them behind in Iran, according to The Associated Press.

“The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies,” Trump said on social media.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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President Donald Trump touted the “historic” rescue of the downed F-15E airmen behind enemy lines and issued a warning to Iran to make a deal before Tuesday night’s 8 p.m. ET deadline or face being “taken out.”

“This is a rescue that’s very historic,” Trump told the White House press corps in a Monday news conference. “It’ll go down to the books.”

“Late Thursday night, an American F-15 fighter jet went down deep inside enemy territory in Iran while participating in Operation Epic Fury, where we’re doing unbelievably well. Well, at a level that nobody’s ever seen before.”

Trump quickly paused his hailing of the rescue to add a warning for Iran to come to peace.

TRUMP REVEALS IRAN MADE ‘SIGNIFICANT PROPOSAL’ AFTER ULTIMATUM, BUT ‘NOT GOOD ENOUGH’

“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said.

Trump continued to press Iran to come to a peace deal, hours after saying the offers thus far are “not enough,” and War Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed the heaviest bombing of Iran to date.

TRUMP SAYS IRAN ‘NO LONGER A THREAT’ AFTER 32 DAYS — OUTLINES NEXT PHASE OF US WAR

“By the way, per the president’s direction, [Monday] will be the largest volume of strikes since day one of this operation,” Hegseth vowed, taking the mic just before Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan “Raizin’” Caine. 

“Tomorrow, even more than today. And then Iran has a choice,” Hegseth added. “Choose wisely, because this president does not play around. You can ask Soleimani, you can ask Maduro. You can ask Khamenei.”

Trump, responding to a question from Fox News, noted there were military leaders warning against the dangerous exfiltration of the two airmen, citing the risks to a multitude of troops.

“There were military people, very professional, that preferred not doing it: These two were totally on board, which was very important,” Trump said, noting Hegseth and Gen. Caine. 

IDF CONFIRMS IRGC INTEL CHIEF KILLED; QUDS FORCE COMMANDER ALSO ELIMINATED IN STRIKE

“But, no, there were military people that said, ‘You just don’t do this; you don’t go into the heart of a very powerful military.”

Trump noted that “half the people are wearing uniforms” in Iran, exacerbating the challenges of extracting the American airmen.

“I was surprised somebody said it’s the only time it’s ever been done,” Trump continued. “I said, that’s not possible, but it is possible because you’re going into hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the path. I mean, look at some of the helicopters, how they got hit.”

Trump, in a moment that went from serious to lighter, asked Caine “how many” people conducted the rescue.

INSIDE THE DARING RESCUE OF AIRMAN BEHIND ENEMY LINES: HOW CIA ASSISTED WITH ‘DECEPTION CAMPAIGN’

“I’d love to keep that a secret,” Caine shot back.

“I’ll keep it a secret, but it was hundreds and hundreds of these people,” Trump said. 

“Hundreds of people went into this journey. Hundreds of people could have been killed. Forget about the equipment. A lot of equipment. Nobody cares of it. Hundreds of people could have been killed,” Trump added.

“So we had people that were within the military that said, ‘This is not a wise move,’” Trump said.

“And I understood that, but I decided to do it.”

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High-level sources have informed Fox News that during rescue efforts in Iran after a U.S. fighter jet was shot down, the commander of U.S. Central Command directed an attack against an underground Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters.

While the airman rescue was going on, CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper directed a strike on an IRGC headquarters in an underground facility near Tehran — it was done with B2 bombers, using Massive Ordnance Penetrators, the same weapon used last year in Operation Midnight Hammer, according to the sources. Fox News is told the headquarters was obliterated.

U.S. military B1 bombers (BONES) dropped a hundred 2,000-pound bombs during the rescue operations to keep Iranians away from the rescue area during the operation, according to a senior U.S. defense official.

A senior military source told Fox News, “we delivered the heat” on the IRGC.

RESCUE EXPERT SAYS MOST DANGEROUS MOMENT COMES AFTER ‘JACKPOT’ CALL IN RECOVERY BEHIND ENEMY LINES

CENTCOM noted in a press release that U.S. forces had rescued two service members after their F-15E was downed.

Fox News was told that the operation took place between the two rescues: Cooper ordered the B2s to fly round trip from Whiteman Air Force Base in the U.S. because they received time-sensitive intelligence about the location of a large number of IRGC commanders inside this underground bunker in Tehran, and the Massive Ordnance Penetrators, bunker buster bombs, were dropped by the B2 warplanes.

AIRMAN RESCUE SHOWS US CAN PENETRATE ENEMY TERRITORY ‘ANYWHERE’ IN IRAN, FORMER PENTAGON OFFICIAL WARNS

Following the rescues, President Donald Trump declared in a Truth Social post, “We have rescued the seriously wounded, and really brave, F-15 Crew Member/Officer, from deep inside the mountains of Iran. The Iranian Military was looking hard, in big numbers, and getting close. He is a highly respected Colonel. This type of raid is seldom attempted because of the danger to ‘man and equipment.’ It just doesn’t happen!” 

RETIRED F-16 PILOT SAYS RESCUED US AIRMAN’S SURVIVAL IN IRAN HIGHLIGHTS INTENSE EVASION TRAINING

“The second raid came after the first one, where we rescued the pilot in broad daylight, also unusual, spending seven hours over Iran. An AMAZING show of bravery and talent by all!” he said.

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Attorney General Pam Bondi’s departure last week was the latest in a series of high-profile firings or resignations of America’s top law enforcement officer, from a key Watergate figure to a well-respected attorney whose differences with the president became irreconcilable.

Former President George Washington appointed Founding Father and former Virginia Gov. Edmund Randolph the nation’s first attorney general in 1789, and in the years since, there have been dozens of successors, some lost to history and others more memorable.

Eliot Richardson and Richard Kleindienst — Nixon

Eliot Richardson, the secretary of defense at the time of the Watergate burglary, was named to succeed Attorney General Richard Kleindienst, who resigned amid the scandal after reportedly being pressured by a member of the Watergate “plumbers” to assuage the situation.

“Plumbers” was the moniker for the group accused in the burglary at the DNC headquarters, then located at the Watergate Hotel in Foggy Bottom, D.C. They were organized by CIA officer E. Howard Hunt and FBI agent-turned-future conservative talk radio star G. Gordon Liddy. The name purportedly came from the dual meaning of “leaks” — political versus pipes.

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Kleindienst was playing golf at Burning Tree in Bethesda, Md., in June 1972 when Liddy reportedly approached him to say that the Committee to Re-elect the President (Nixon’s committee) was involved in the burglary, according to an account from the UK Guardian.

Kleindienst reportedly told the G-man to get lost, and the federal investigation ensued as normal.

As the scandal raged on April 30, 1973, Nixon announced he had accepted the resignations of Kleindienst, and presidential assistants John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman — and fired White House Counsel John Dean — who has often called President Donald Trump’s tenure worse than that of his old boss.

“Mr. Kleindienst asked to be relieved as Attorney General because he felt that he could not appropriately continue as head of the Justice Department now that it appears its investigation of the Watergate and related cases may implicate individuals with whom he has had a close personal and professional association,” Nixon said in a public letter that day.

Richardson’s tenure began thereafter and ended with one of the most significant executive branch departures in history: the “Saturday Night Massacre.”

On October 20, 1973, Nixon ordered Richardson to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox shortly after Cox subpoenaed the Oval Office recordings. Richardson, who appointed Cox and reportedly pledged not to fire him without cause, refused and resigned.

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Nixon then asked Richardson’s deputy, William Ruckelshaus, to fire Cox, and he also resigned instead of carrying out the order.

Nixon then ordered Ruckelshaus’ deputy, Solicitor General Robert Bork, who is better known for his unsuccessful nomination to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan, to fire Cox. Bork did so and reportedly considered resigning but stayed on at the urging of his predecessors to ensure stability at the DOJ.

That November, an LBJ-appointed federal judge found that Cox’s firing had been unlawful.

Nixon himself ultimately resigned almost one year later on August 9, 1974.

Richardson’s legacy became that of a cabinet official who, in times of crisis, sacrificed professional status for personal integrity, as described by the Constitution Center and others.

Alberto Gonzales — G.W. Bush

Alberto Gonzales was one of President George W. Bush’s closest advisers, going back to his time as Texas governor. He was also the first Hispanic attorney general and the highest-ranking Hispanic cabinet official until Trump named Marco Rubio to secretary of state in 2025.

Gonzales ultimately resigned the top cop post in 2007 amid mounting bipartisan criticism of the DOJ’s firing of several U.S. attorneys and allegations that he was not forthright during congressional inquiries about whether politics played a role in the firings.

Bush lamented his friend’s resignation, saying “it is sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons.”

Gonzales faced mounting pressure and criticism amid the firings and regarding comments defending enhanced interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists.

He stated “I do not recall” or similar framings of the statement dozens of times during a contentious Senate hearing where he battled Republicans like Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter and Democrats including California’s Dianne Feinstein.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., later confronted Gonzales over his responses.

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“You’ve answered ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I can’t recall’ to close to a hundred questions. You’re not familiar with much of the workings of your own department. And we still don’t have convincing explanations of the who, when and why, in regard to the firing of the majority of the eight U.S. attorneys,” Schumer fumed, according to a transcript posted to the left-wing outlet DemocracyNow.

In his testimony, Gonzales said U.S. Attorneys indeed serve at the pleasure of the president, and that the Justice Department makes “decisions based on the evidence, not whether the target is a Republican or a Democrat.”

“I know that I did not, and would not, ask for a resignation of any individual in order to interfere with or influence a particular prosecution for partisan political gain,” Gonzales said. “I also have no basis to believe that anyone involved in this process sought the removal of a U.S. Attorney for an improper reason.”

Bush nonetheless remained behind his pick, rebuking a “no confidence” resolution drafted by Schumer, Feinstein and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. as the controversy continued.

Ultimately, Gonzales announced on August 27, 2007, that he would be stepping down on September 17.

“Yesterday I met with President Bush and informed him of my decision to conclude my government service as attorney general… let me say that it’s been one of my greatest privileges to lead the Department of Justice,” Gonzales said in his resignation announcement.

“I have great admiration and respect for the men and women who work here. I have made a point as attorney general to personally meet as many of them as possible, and today I want to again thank them for their service to our nation.”

Jeff Sessions — Trump

Former Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions was the first in the upper chamber to endorse then-developer Donald Trump in his 2016 presidential bid.

The immigration enforcement hardliner and Trump loyalist, however, saw his relationship with the new president fray early in their term.

Sessions recused himself from the Trump-Russia investigation, citing his own campaigning for Trump amid reports he also met personally with Russian envoy Sergey Kislyak.

The recusal incensed Trump and led him to regularly bash Sessions in the press, and also to blame Sessions for the appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller III as special counsel in the Russia case.

Trump also faulted Sessions for declining to criminally pursue Hillary Clinton.

Sessions’ tenure ended the day after Republicans lost the House in the 2018 midterm elections, but left the Alabamian with a successful professional record in reversing Obama-era policies and cracking down on sanctuary city policies.

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But Trump’s firing of Sessions only further invigorated his Democratic critics, as New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker called it an “alarming development that brings us one step closer to a constitutional crisis.”

Booker claimed Trump fired Sessions because he was scared Mueller would “implicat[e]” him in the Russia investigation.

William Barr — Trump

Former Attorney General William Barr resigned from his second tenure as the nation’s top cop in December 2020, amid disputes over whether the prior month’s election had been subject to widespread fraud.

Barr, who previously served under President George H.W. Bush, appeared to irritate Trump when he told The Associated Press he had not seen “fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”

In announcing the departure, Trump tweeted that he had a “nice meeting” with Barr and that his relationship “has been a very good one; he has done an outstanding job.”

Barr also touted Trump’s first-term record amid what he called a “partisan onslaught” and “relentless, implacable resistance.”

In comments to NBC News in 2022 ahead of the release of his book “One Damn Thing After Another,” Barr said he told Trump at the White House that he understood the president was frustrated with him, and that he was willing to submit his resignation.

“Accepted,” Trump supposedly said, but the president himself reportedly claimed he asked for Barr’s resignation, not that the AG quit.

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“The absurd lengths to which he took his stolen election claim led to the rioting on Capitol Hill,” Barr said, while adding that Trump’s actions still wouldn’t reach the legal level of “incitement” as claimed by Democrats.

In his resignation letter, Barr applauded Trump’s ability to “weather” the Russia investigation and Democrats’ attempts to “cripple if not oust [the] administration,” and said the president restored the U.S. military and curbed illegal immigration.

Harry Daugherty — Harding and Coolidge

The first attorney general of the modern era to be ousted was Harry Daugherty, a member of President Warren Harding’s administration.

Daugherty was part of the so-called “Ohio Gang” of longtime Harding confidants from his home state.

Daugherty’s fall began amid the Teapot Dome Scandal — the most infamous incident prior to Watergate — which led to the imprisonment of Interior Secretary Albert Fall.

Fall was implicated in low- or no-bid oil leases at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, in 1923, and jailed for accepting bribes from energy companies.

Daugherty was later investigated for allegedly failing to prosecute people involved in Teapot Dome, and was allegedly implicated in a handful of other scandals, including being charged with conspiracy amid the sale of illegal liquor permits during prohibition.

He was also accused of influence peddling and members of the “Ohio Gang” were accused of selling government appointments.

Daugherty’s brother Mal was president of a bank, which was later closed by the state of Ohio after the Senate was unable to “pry” during its investigation into Attorney General Daugherty, according to a 1930 TIME report.

The sibling’s bank recorded “heavy withdrawals” during that time, which caught the attention of regulators in Columbus.

Harry Daugherty ultimately met his ouster after Harding died in office in August 1923.

New President Calvin Coolidge booted him from the DOJ over loss of public trust and refusal to turn over departmental records regarding alleged corruption.

Daugherty was never convicted.

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