Greenland’s leadership is pushing back on President Donald Trump as he and his administration call for the U.S. to take control of the island. Several Trump administration officials have backed the president’s calls for a takeover of Greenland, with many citing national security reasons.

‘We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,’ Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement Friday night, according to The Associated Press. Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory and a longtime U.S. ally, has repeatedly rejected Trump’s statements about U.S. acquiring the island.

Greenland’s party leaders reiterated that the island’s ‘future must be decided by the Greenlandic people.’

‘As Greenlandic party leaders, we would like to emphasize once again our wish that the United States’ contempt for our country ends,’ the statement said.

Trump was asked about the push to acquire Greenland on Friday during a roundtable with oil executives. The president, who has maintained that Greenland is vital to U.S. security, said it was important for the country to make the move so it could beat its adversaries to the punch.

‘We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,’ Trump said Friday. ‘Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.’

Trump hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House on Friday to discuss investments in Venezuela after the historic capture of President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.

‘We don’t want to have Russia there,’ Trump said of Venezuela on Friday when asked if the nation appears to be an ally to the U.S. ‘We don’t want to have China there. And, by the way, we don’t want Russia or China going to Greenland, which, if we don’t take Greenland, you can have Russia or China as your next-door neighbor. That’s not going to happen.’ 

Trump said the U.S. is in control of Venezuela after the capture and extradition of Maduro. 

Nielsen has previously rejected comparisons between Greenland and Venezuela, saying that his island was looking to improve its relations with the U.S., according to Reuters.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday that Trump’s threats to annex Greenland could mean the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

‘I also want to make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. Including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,’ Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2.

That same day, Nielsen said in a statement posted on Facebook that Greenland was ‘not an object of superpower rhetoric.’

White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller doubled down on Trump’s remarks, telling CNN in an interview on Monday that Greenland ‘should be part of the United States.’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed Miller about whether the Trump administration could rule out military action against the Arctic island.

‘The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States,’ he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order blocking U.S. courts from seizing Venezuelan oil revenues held in American Treasury accounts.

The order, titled ‘Safeguarding Venezuelan Oil Revenue for the Good of the American and Venezuelan People,’ states that any court attempt to seize the funds would pose an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat’ to U.S. national security and foreign policy.

It also states that the funds remain the sovereign property of Venezuela and are not assets available to private creditors or judgment holders.

The order says the United States will hold the funds ‘solely in a custodial and governmental capacity,’ not as a commercial participant.

It was issued to prevent private creditors from using U.S. courts to seize the funds before the administration determines how they will be used.

The funds are held in U.S. Treasury accounts on behalf of Venezuela’s government and its state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., and are derived from oil sales and related transactions.

Trump signed the order on Friday, the same day that he met with nearly two dozen top oil and gas executives at the White House. 

The president said American energy companies will invest $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s ‘rotting’ oil infrastructure and push production to record levels following the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

The U.S. has moved aggressively to take control of Venezuela’s oil future following the collapse of the Maduro regime.

Trump has framed the effort as part of a broader push to reshape Venezuela’s oil industry following the collapse of the Maduro regime, with U.S. companies expected to play a central role.

‘I hereby plead incompetence and stupidity.’

That’s probably the best defense that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz can offer if he is criminally charged in the shocking multi-billion-dollar taxpayer ripoffs that grow larger by the day.

Given his earned reputation, his excuse of incompetence would be credible.

Nearly every social service program receiving federal dollars was fleeced by fraudsters right under Walz’s nose, including child nutrition, daycare, healthcare, housing, and autism aid. Most of the perpetrators were Somalians who comprise a powerful voting block that the governor treasures like gold.

Walz was repeatedly warned of the swindles as far back as 2019 when he first took office. Instead of stopping the scams and prosecuting the grifters, he indulged them by establishing a culture of permissible fraud.

The scandal has already claimed Walz’s political career, forcing him to abandon his bid for re-election. But if he reckoned that quitting would somehow shield him from legal culpability, he is mistaken. There is mounting evidence that Walz was willfully complicit, deliberately refusing to expose or pursue the monumental thefts and, instead, launching aggressive measures to scuttle any legal scrutiny and criminal consequence.  

The governor’s own state workers at the Department of Human Services issued a blistering statement blaming him as 100% responsible. Witnesses say he retaliated against whistleblowers and schemed to discredit the well-documented fraud reports.

If true, Walz’s aberrant actions run dangerously close to criminal behavior involving cover-ups and obstruction.  

Nine federal agencies, including the FBI, are now working to unravel the full breadth and depth of the colossal cons.  The Department of Justice (DOJ) has sent scores of investigators and lawyers to Minnesota to prosecute the web of fraud and deceit.

They will inevitably weigh whether Walz should face criminal charges himself.

Possible Federal Charges

There are several federal statutes to consider. 18 USC 371 makes it a crime to conspire with others to defraud the government. At present, there is no known evidence that Walz directly participated in the scams themselves or accepted money.

However, if he plotted to cover up the fraud by impairing, obstructing or defeating efforts to bring the fraudsters to justice, the conspiracy statute is applicable. So, too, are the various obstruction of justice laws.

There is also 18 USC 2, the aiding and abetting statute where accomplices are treated the same as the main perpetrators. That law gave rise to the ‘willful blindness doctrine’ recognized by our courts.

An example is a businessman who intentionally ignores or turns a blind eye to his partner’s money laundering, resulting in charges against both. Similarly, a public official such as Walz can be indicted for deliberate inaction where he has a clear duty to act.

Finally, 18 USC 3 is relevant whenever concealment occurs. Whoever knows that a crime has been committed but ‘hinders apprehension, trial or punishment,’ is guilty of accessory after the fact. That bears a striking resemblance to what Walz is accused of doing.

All of this invites the question of the governor’s motive. If not money, how did he stand to benefit by suppressing the avalanche of fraud? That’s the easy part. Votes.

Walz, together with liberal elites and their media handmaidens, have long dismissed the rumors and reports of Somali-engineered fraud as ‘racist.’ Apparently, in Minnesota it is politically incorrect to enforce the law against immigrants from that particular East African country. It’s just not fashionable.

God forbid that putting criminals behind bars might lose electoral support. It’s chic to turn the other cheek.

So, the Somalian fraudsters were gifted a ‘get-out-of-jail’ free card, courtesy of the governor and his cronies. Walz, in turn, secured their votes. It was a nifty quid pro quo, but with an alternate currency —votes. As protection rackets go, it was slick.   

That cozy arrangement is manifested in a recently uncovered audio recording of a 2021 conversation between Walz’s Attorney General Keith Ellison and Somali hustlers who were soon after convicted of scamming millions of dollars. They were heard leaning hard on the AG to ‘protect’ them in exchange for support and campaign donations.  

Ellison eagerly capitulated but now denies any wrongdoing. He returned the cash.           

Walz’s Incompetence Defense

It is too early to know whether a criminal case will be filed against Minnesota’s beleaguered governor. The U.S. Attorney and DOJ lawyers are still digging through the mountains of evidence.

However, as noted above, the only tenable defense Walz may be able to conjure up is incompetence and stupidity. It is something that jurors might readily accept.

After all, ineptitude became the governor’s calling card. He infamously conceded his own buffoonery in the 2024 Vice Presidential debate when he called himself a ‘knucklehead.’ He was such a gaffe factory that the Kamala Harris campaign squirreled him away from the media.     

Walz achieved the impossible. He made his running mate look like a genius. His bizarre on-stage antics were constant fodder for mockery. Baffling verbal goofs, such as boasting that he had ‘become friends with school shooters,’ left voters scratching their heads or snickering.  

A series of demonstrable lies about his military service and his peculiar treks to China only compounded the impression of a man who is either a serial fabricator or not right in the head. Maybe both are true.  

And who can forget his epic bungling of the George Floyd riots in 2020. He radicalized the tragic death, thereby ginning up the ensuing violence. As Minneapolis burned, Walz dithered. Afterwards, he blamed the looting and torched buildings on systemic racism.

So, it’s not a stretch to imagine that an indictment alleging Walz was wittingly complicit in his state’s massive welfare fraud scandal might be met with a defense of ‘misfeasance’ (careless or incompetent execution of a lawful duty) to combat the incriminating evidence of ‘malfeasance’ (a deliberate, unlawful act).   

It’s a distinction that can mean the difference between conviction and acquittal.

Should Walz find himself in the dock sometime soon… don’t be surprised if he portrays himself as a blockhead who was intellectually incapable of grasping the obvious.

Minnesota jurors who know the governor would understand completely.

A federal judge Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from stopping subsidies on childcare programs in five states, including Minnesota, amid allegations of fraud.

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, a Biden appointee, didn’t rule on the legality of the funding freeze, but said the states had met the legal threshold to maintain the ‘status quo’ on funding for at least two weeks while arguments continue.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it would withhold funds for programs in five Democratic states over fraud concerns.

The programs include the Child Care and Development Fund, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and the Social Services Block Grant, all of which help needy families.

‘Families who rely on childcare and family assistance programs deserve confidence that these resources are used lawfully and for their intended purpose,’ HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said in a statement on Tuesday.

The states, which include California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, argued in court filings that the federal government didn’t have the legal right to end the funds and that the new policy is creating ‘operational chaos’ in the states.

In total, the states said they receive more than $10 billion in federal funding for the programs. 

HHS said it had ‘reason to believe’ that the programs were offering funds to people in the country illegally.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the lawsuit, called the ruling a ‘critical victory for families whose lives have been upended by this administration’s cruelty.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to HHS for comment.

FBI veteran Christopher Raia has been named co-deputy director of the federal law enforcement agency, the bureau confirmed Friday to Fox News Digital.

Raia, who runs the bureau’s New York City field office, will move to Washington, D.C., and begin his job on Monday serving as co-deputy director with Andrew Bailey.

Raia’s elevation comes after Dan Bongino announced he was leaving the position and returning to ‘civilian life.’ His last day on the job was Jan. 3.

Bongino was a conservative commentator and podcaster before President Donald Trump nominated him for the position.

‘It’s been an incredible year thanks to the leadership and decisiveness of President Trump,’ Bongino wrote on X Saturday. ‘It was the honor of a lifetime to work with Director [Kash] Patel, and to serve you, the American people. See you on the other side.’

Bongino made the announcement he was leaving last month, thanking Trump, Patel and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi ‘for the opportunity to serve with purpose.’

Bongino and Bondi had previously clashed over the release of the Epstein files, and a source told Fox News over the summer he had considered resigning over the Justice Department’s handling of the situation.

Bongino didn’t give a reason for his resignation less than a year after he started as deputy director, but Trump said last month the 51-year-old ‘wants to go back to his show.’

President Trump sported a unique accessory at the White House on Friday, a custom lapel pin depicting what he called a ‘happy Trump.’

The president wore the small pin, which appeared to be a cartoon-style depiction of Trump in a navy suit and red tie just beneath his customary American flag lapel pin, while meeting with oil and gas executives in the East Room of the White House.

Fox News’ Senior White House Correspondent Peter Doocy noticed the accessory and asked the president about it. 

‘I see the American flag lapel pin,’ Doocy said. ‘What is the other lapel pin?’

Trump explained that the pin was a gift.

‘Somebody gave me this. You know what that is? That’s called a ‘happy Trump,” the president said, holding up the pin. 

‘And consider the fact that I’m never happy. I’m never satisfied. I will never be satisfied until we make America great again. But we’re getting pretty close.’

Trump added, ‘Somebody gave it to me. I put it on.’

The lighthearted moment quickly gained traction on social media, with users on X praising the pin and the president’s sense of humor.

‘Trump is wearing a ‘Happy Trump’ pin today,’ one user wrote, alongside laughing emoji. ‘How can you not love this guy?’

‘Where can I get a happy Trump pin?’ another asked.

‘Only our wonderful President Trump! He is wearing a ‘Happy Trump’ pin because he says he’ll never be happy until America is Great Again…but we’re getting close! Hilarious!’ a third user wrote.

The exchange came as Trump hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House Friday to discuss investment in Venezuela after the U.S. military’s successful capture of the nation’s dictatorial president, Nicolás Maduro.

The lineup of oil companies included Chevron, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Continental, Halliburton, HKN, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Trafigura, Vitol Americas, Repsol, Eni, Aspect Holdings, Tallgrass, Raisa Energy and Hilcorp.

Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum also attended the meeting. 

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump briefly paused his meeting with nearly two dozen oil executives Friday afternoon to walk over to a window at the White House to check out updates on the ballroom’s construction.

‘Today, I’m delighted to welcome almost two dozen of the biggest and most respected oil and gas executives in the world to the White House,’ he said. ‘It’s an honor to be with them. We have many others that were not able to get in. I said, ‘If we had a ballroom, we’d have over a thousand people.’

‘I never knew you had that many people in your industry. But here we are. And if you’re, in fact, if you look, come to think of it. Well, I gotta look at this myself,’ Trump said as he got up from his chair to peek out of a window in the East Room, looking out to where the ballroom is under construction.

‘Wow. What a, what a view. This is the door to the ballroom,’ he continued. 

Trump remarked that it was an ‘unusual time to look’ out in the ballroom, which earned chuckles, and then invited the ‘fake news’ to check out the progress. 

Trump announced in October 2025 that construction had begun on the ballroom after months of the president floating the planned project to modernize the White House. The project does not cost taxpayers and is privately funded, the White House reported.

Photos of the demolition crew dismantling the East Wing’s facade circulated on social media and in news reports in October 2025, sparking outrage from Democrats and other Trump critics who argued the president was ‘destroying’ the White House. 

Trump said Friday the construction is ahead of schedule. The White House said the ballroom will be ‘completed long before the end of President Trump’s term’ in 2029. 

‘We’re ahead of schedule in the ballroom and under budget. It’s going to be … I don’t think there will be anything like it in the world, actually. … This is, as you know, our biggest room, which would seat 100 for dinner, maybe, if you’re lucky, if you’re … nice and tight.

‘And the ballroom will seat many, and it’ll also take care of the inauguration with bulletproof glass, drone-proof ceilings and everything else, unfortunately, that today you need.’ 

The president repeatedly has remarked that the White House’s current rooms do not accommodate large crowds for dinners and other public events. 

Trump hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House Friday to discuss investment in Venezuela after the U.S. military’s successful capture of the nation’s dictatorial president, Nicolás Maduro, Saturday. 

The lengthy lineup of oil companies includes Chevron, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Continental, Halliburton, HKN, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Trafigura, Vitol Americas, Repsol, Eni, Aspect Holdings, Tallgrass, Raisa Energy and Hilcorp.

Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum also attended the meeting. 

‘The plan is for them (oil companies) to spend at least $100 billion to rebuild the capacity and the infrastructure necessary,’ Trump said during the meeting. ‘Venezuela has also agreed that the United States will immediately begin refining and selling up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil, which will continue indefinitely. 

‘We’re all set to do it. We have the refining capacity, (which) was actually based very much on the Venezuelan oil, which is a heavy oil, very good oil.’

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is demanding answers on the process of how the FBI determines code names for its investigations, after receiving records that show agents ‘renaming’ the Arctic Frost investigation into President Donald Trump, with the senator calling the move ‘anything but random.’ 

Grassley penned a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel raising questions on the process, after Patel’s team transmitted records the committee requested pertaining to the FBI’s Arctic Frost probe into Trump and the 2020 election.

Documents revealed that the investigation was first named Hyperbolic Frost and later changed to Arctic Frost.

‘In response to our document requests, your agencies produced a document that shows that edits were made to an early version of a draft Arctic Frost opening document,’ Grassley wrote. ‘This document has several handwritten edits, including the crossing out of the initial name of the investigation, ‘Hyperbolic Frost,’’ and renaming it ‘Arctic Frost.’’

Grassley said the document ‘calls into question the accuracy of the testimony’ former FBI Director James Comey gave to him during a May 3, 2017, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

‘At this hearing, I asked ‘Was the Clinton investigation named Operation Midyear because it needed to be finished before the Democratic National Convention? If so, why the artificial deadline? If not, why was that the name?’ Grassley shared.

Grassley was referring to ‘Midyear Exam,’ which was the FBI’s code name for the bureau’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

Comey replied: ‘Certainly not because it had to be finished by a particular date.’

‘There’s an art and a science to how we come up with code names for cases,’ Comey said at the time. ‘They assure me it’s done randomly. Sometimes I see ones that make me smile, so I’m not sure.’

Comey added: ‘But I can assure you that it was called Midyear Exam, was the name of the case. I can assure you the name was not selected for any nefarious purpose or because of any timing on the investigation.’

But Grassley said ‘the renaming of the Trump investigation from Hyperbolic Frost to Arctic Frost via handwritten notes is clearly anything but random.’

Sources believe the investigation’s title could hint at the probe’s intended target: Trump. 

Sources say ‘Arctic Frost’ is also the name of a variety of orange tree. Opponents of the president have mocked him and called him an ‘orange man.’ 

Grassley is asking that Bondi and Patel ‘produce all records relating to the naming of Operation Midyear Exam including former Director Comey’s emails.’

The records produced by the FBI this week also show handwritten notes discussing the subjects of the Arctic Frost investigation.

‘Subjects of the investigation include members of Donald J. Trump for President, INC., both identified and yet to be identified,’ the document reads.

Beside that paragraph is a handwritten note reading: ‘Add DJT.’

Grassley, along with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., have been investigating the origins of the Arctic Frost probe since July 2022.

The senators have made whistleblower records public that they say ‘have exposed how partisan FBI agents and Department of Justice prosecutors opened, approved, and advanced the investigation against President Trump and expanded its scope to other Republican groups and individuals.’

‘The recent records produced by the FBI contain even more damning evidence of the Biden administration’s unapologetic abuse of power during the Arctic Frost investigation,’ Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. ‘The American people deserve to know the full extend of Jack Smith’s massive partisan dragnet, which targeted law-abiding U.S. citizens.’ 

He added: ‘Chairman Grassley and I will continue to fight to ensure that the complete truth is revealed.’ 

A bipartisan cohort of senators is nearing a final plan to tackle rising healthcare costs, but the issue of more-stringent restrictions preventing taxpayer-funded abortions remains a major hurdle in the way to sealing the deal.

The working group, led by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, has held several meetings since dueling, partisan proposals to either extend or replace expired enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies failed late last year.

Now, they’re on the verge of unveiling their plan and have started sharing what exactly the rough framework would look like. But while selling the bones of the latest idea to tackle healthcare will be one thing, overcoming the issue of taxpayer-funded abortions will be another.

The Hyde Amendment, which dictates that taxpayer dollars can’t fund abortions, has proven a sticking point on both sides of the aisle. Senate Republicans argue that Obamacare doesn’t completely follow the law, while Senate Democrats contend that no modifications need to be made to the longstanding statute.

‘There’s no disagreement that there should not be federal funding for abortion,’ Moreno said. ‘Nobody on either side is wanting to relitigate that question. So we’re past that mountain. The next mountain is a dispute as to whether that is actually happening today through [Obamacare].’

‘A group of people, very good people, say that it is happening, and there’s a group of other people who have good people, too, that say it’s not happening,’ he continued. ‘So we have to resolve that.’

That wrinkle, in particular, was further amplified by President Donald Trump, who earlier this week urged that House Republicans ‘have to be a little flexible’ when it comes to the Hyde Amendment. That edict was met with backlash from Senate Republicans, who argued there was no room for flexibility on the issue. 

Moreno didn’t say whether the current plan addressed the Hyde issue, but he laid out what the skeletal framework that senators have built would look like.

It would play out over two years and act as more of a temporary fix than a permanent bridge, which Moreno noted would be crucial in selling the plan to his Republican colleagues.

‘That’s a key thing that I got to convince my colleagues to understand, who hate Obamacare, they hate the policy, and say, ‘Let’s take two years to actually deliver for the American people truly affordable healthcare and solve this problem for the people who are going to suffer as a result of not having these enhanced premium tax credits,’’ Moreno said. ‘They didn’t cause the problem, politicians caused that problem.’

Up front, their plan would extend the subsidies for two years and prolong the open enrollment period for the Obamacare marketplace until March 1.

During the first year, an income cap would be added, which was blown away when the subsidies were enhanced under former President Joe Biden, at 700% of the federal poverty level. There would also be a requirement of either a $5 or $60 minimum premium payment as a fraud prevention method. That would be coupled with a $100,000 fine for insurance companies that are ‘deliberately causing fraud, and signing [someone] up without their consent.’

In the second year, people would have a choice to either stick with the subsidies or switch their coverage plan in favor of a health savings account (HSA) — a key demand from Republicans and Trump.

Their plan would also reinstate cost-sharing reduction payments, ‘which, according to [Congressional Budget Office], would reduce premiums for everybody on the exchange by 11%,’ Moreno said.