Following unrelenting criticism from the United Nations, the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is once again being targeted by NGOs, even as it delivered its 155 millionth meal to Gazans on Saturday.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF has launched ads criticizing GHFMeta’s Ad Library shows that in August it ran several Facebook ads targeting the foundation. One ad read ‘This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing.’ Another said, ‘In MSF’s 54 years, rarely have we seen such levels of systemized violence.’

Both allegations are taken from an Aug. 6 article on MSF’s website in which General Director Raquel Ayora describes accounts received from patients reportedly injured around GHF sites. Ayora says aid seekers claimed to have witnessed ‘children shot in the chest while reaching for food. People crushed or suffocated in stampedes. Entire crowds gunned down at distribution points.’ 

GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay called MSF’s accusations, ‘false and disgraceful,’ saying that it is ‘amplifying a disinformation campaign orchestrated by the Hamas-linked Gaza Health Ministry. They know better. By repeating these lies, they’re not aiding civilians, they’re aiding Hamas.’

‘No civilians have ever been shot at any of our distribution sites,’ Fay told Fox News Digital.

Fay said that ‘Nearly every day, Nasser Hospital issues false reports to the media of civilians killed near our sites, based solely on testimony from others. Not a single MSF doctor has ever witnessed an incident near our sites. Any conflict between Israel and Hamas, sometimes several kilometers away, the Gaza Health Ministry falsely links to GHF.’

In response to questions about whether MSF employees have witnessed injuries or deaths at GHF sites firsthand, a spokesperson told Fox News Digital that, ‘MSF has documented the impacts of violence and chaos at GHF sites in Gaza, based on firsthand accounts of our personnel and patients at two clinical sites, as well as a body of medical data.’

MSF declined to respond to questions about how much money it has spent on ads targeting GHF, or whether it has advocated for medical care for Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. 

The MSF spokesperson added, ‘For the past 22 months, humanitarian organizations working in Gaza and the West Bank have consistently faced baseless and inaccuratesmear campaigns.’

Though there is growing outcry about purported violence near GHF sites, reporting from the United Nations indicates that there were twice as many deaths surrounding humanitarian aid convoys (576) as there were deaths around GHF sites (259) between July 21 and Aug. 18. 

A U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs update from August states there were 1,889 deaths near aid sites between May 27 and Aug. 18, 1,025 ‘near militarized distribution sites’ and 864 ‘along convoy supply routes.’ As of July 21, U.N. News reported there were 1,054 deaths at food distribution sites, with 766 near GHF sites, and 288 near U.N. and humanitarian aid convoys.

The U.N. Human Rights Office did not respond to a request for confirmation of these figures by press time. 

Amid tensions between GHF and humanitarian aid organizations, Fay said that GHF nonetheless provided support to MSF in early August after it requested help to ‘safeguard their medical aid from the elements.’ A GHF post on X from Aug. 7. showed what it said were pallets of MSF aid in GHF care. MSF did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request to confirm that they asked GHF for assistance with their supplies. 

When GHF staff were brought to Nasser Hospital after a Hamas attack in June that killed eight, they did not receive care from MSF staff, according to Fay.

A GHF employee’s written statement provided to Fox News Digital describes how wounded workers were taken to Nasser Hospital, where doctors refused to treat them. The witness said survivors were placed in a courtyard, where hospital staff incited others to beat them. One GHF employee was reportedly stabbed.

‘Three more GHF staff died due to their lack of treatment by Nasser Hospital. MSF doctors work there, yet claim they weren’t aware of the situation,’ Fay said.

In an Aug. 25 report following the Israeli bombing of Nasser Hospital, MSF said that it ‘has been operational in Nasser since before the conflict escalated in October 2023, providing trauma and burn care, physiotherapy, neonatal and pediatric services, and treatment for malnourished children, among other critical services.’

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies has reported multiple times since October 2023 that Hamas fighters have been operating out of Nasser Hospital. On Aug. 26, FDD senior research analyst Joe Truzman shared photos on X of two Hamas summonses that reportedly ordered individuals to come to Nasser Hospital for questioning.

MSF did not respond to questions about GHF employees failing to receive care or whether its staff at Nasser Hospital were aware of Hamas’ operations at the site.

In an online statement about the incident, MSF said it ‘has seen no credible evidence that healthcare was refused by Ministry of Health or other medical staff.’ The group also said ‘MSF staff have not been present in the emergency department of Nasser Hospital since 2024.’
 

On Saturday, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced a new initiative to provide medical care to Gazans through a program with Samaritan’s Purse.

In a statement on X, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that in addition to treating wounds, injuries and infections, it was also helping pregnant women.

Senate Republicans are getting closer to changing the upper chamber’s rules to allow for a slew of President Donald Trump’s lower-level nominees to be confirmed, and they’re closing in on a revived proposal from Democrats to do it.

The hope among Republicans is that using a tool that Senate Democrats once considered would allow them to avoid turning to the ‘nuclear option,’ meaning a rule change with a simple majority vote.

‘The Democrats should support it, because it was their original proposal that we’re continuing on,’ Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital. ‘And I wouldn’t be surprised if they won’t. This historic obstruction by the Democrats is all playing to their far-left liberal base, who hate President Trump.’

Republicans met throughout the week behind closed doors to discuss their options and have begun to coalesce around a proposal that would allow them to take one vote to confirm a group of nominees, also known as ‘en bloc,’ for sub-Cabinet level positions.

So far, the only nominee to make it through the Senate with ease was Secretary of State Marco Rubio in January. Since then, various positions throughout the bureaucracy have stacked up and have not received a voice vote or gone through unanimous consent — two commonly-used fast-track procedures for lower-level positions in the administration.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that before Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was in charge of the Democrats, ‘this was always done in a way where, if you had some of the lower-level nominees in the administration, those were all voted en bloc, they were packaged, they were grouped, they were stacked.’

‘This is the first president in history who, at this point in his presidency, hasn’t had at least one nominee clear by unanimous consent or voice vote,’ he said. ‘It is unprecedented what they’re doing. It’s got to be stopped.’

And the number of nominees on the Senate’s calendar continues to grow, reaching 149 picks awaiting confirmation this week. The goal would be to make that rule change before lawmakers leave town for a week starting Sept. 22.

The idea comes from legislation proposed in 2023 by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Angus King, I-Maine, and former Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. Republicans are eyeing their own spin on it, such as possibly not limiting the number of en bloc nominees in a group or excluding judicial nominees.

Republicans would prefer to avoid going nuclear — the last time the nuclear option was used was in 2019, when then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., lowered debate time on nominees to two hours — but they are willing to do so, given that Democrats haven’t budged on their blockade.

They may only be making a public display of resistance, however.

‘Democrats privately support what Republicans are talking about,’ a senior GOP aide familiar with negotiations told Fox News Digital. ‘They’re just too afraid to admit it.’

Sen. James Lankford, who worked with Thune and Barrasso over the recess to build a consensus on a rule change proposal, told Fox News Digital that his Democratic colleagues acknowledged that they’ve ‘created a precedent that is not sustainable.’

‘But then they’ll say, ‘but my progressive base is screaming at me to fight however I want to. I know I’m damaging the Senate, but I got to show that I’m fighting,’’ the Oklahoma Republican said.

‘We feel stuck, I mean, literally,’ Lankford continued. ‘Some of my colleagues have said, ‘We’re not the ones going nuclear. They’re the ones that are going nuclear.’’

Klobuchar told Fox News Digital that she appreciated the prior work she’s done with Lankford on ‘ways to make the Senate better’ but wasn’t ready to get behind the GOP’s version of her legislation.

‘When I proposed that, it was meant to pass as legislation, which means you would have needed bipartisan votes, and the reason that’s not happening right now is because the president keeps flaunting the law,’ she said.

Not every Senate Democrat is on board with the wholesale blockade, however.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told Fox News Digital that lawmakers should all behave in a way in which administrations, either Republican or Democratic, get ‘those basic kinds of considerations’ for nominees.

‘That’s not the resistance,’ he said. ‘I just think that’s kind of unhelpful to just move forward. I mean, you can oppose people like the big ones, whether it’s [Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.] Kennedy or others.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

President Donald Trump has been racing at breakneck speed to keep all his campaign promises. Yet he has only four months left to fulfill his vow to halve electricity prices by the end of his first year. Fighting against the fallout of the Biden administration’s harmful anti-fossil fuel agenda, the president faces stiff headwinds. The only way the president can meet his self-imposed deadline is to change course quickly, reject Biden’s mistakes and unlock the potential of every available electron.  

So far, the trend lines aren’t looking good. In the last year, electricity prices have risen twice as fast as inflation, and the Energy Information Administration estimates that retail electricity prices will continue to outpace inflation through next year, with residential prices surging between 13% to 18% higher than in 2022. 

Though, traditionally, consumers have been much more concerned about gas prices — a number they see projected on highway signs and experience firsthand multiple times a month at the pump — the experience of electricity price spikes instead of the promised price cuts will risk diminishing Trump’s popular support. 

What’s worse, these price hikes will arrive before the midterms, when Trump will be battling to retain his slim congressional majorities. 

The current price hikes aren’t Trump’s fault. Instead, he inherited a market with increasing and unprecedented energy demand coupled with the fallout from the Biden administration’s harmful policies to phase out fossil fuels. 

Technological innovations like cloud and quantum computing, crypto mining, electric vehicle adoption, streaming services and, most of all, AI data centers, all have tremendous energy demands, which drive electricity prices higher. Rand estimates global AI data centers alone will need 327 GW of energy by 2030. To put that into perspective, the entire state of California used 86 GW of energy in 2022. 

In the face of rising demand, the Biden administration embarked on an aggressive program to curtail legacy energy production. The Biden EPA imposed new emissions restrictions that effectively forced the retirement of coal and natural gas power plants and manipulated regulations across agencies to hem in traditional fuel sources. 

If these Biden-era policies didn’t cause the current electricity price spikes, they at least allowed today’s demand-induced price increases to hit consumers unabated. 

Trump now has to deal with a crisis not of his own making. With his firm commitments to win the AI race, advance crypto and reshore energy-intensive manufacturing such as semiconductor production, Trump can only keep electricity prices in check by massively increasing supply to meet rising demand. 

Unfortunately, his administration appears to be repeating the same mistakes as Biden’s, just colored with a different ideology. 

Where the Biden administration cut energy supplies by attacking fossil fuel production, the Trump administration is limiting alternative and renewable energy sources. 

The One Big Beautiful Bill rescinds tax incentives for renewables, while the administration has advanced multiple orders and rules that limit clean energy, from halting offshore wind leases to curbing solar tax credits. 

‘Drill, baby, drill’ is a great energy policy, but it’s not enough by itself. While America produced nearly enough energy from fossil fuels (86.3 quads) to supply our nation’s entire energy consumption (93.59 quads) in 2023, the fact is, we need alternative energy sources just to meet current demands. When the future requires even more energy, the necessity for alternative energy will only increase. 

The cheapest way to put more electrons into the power grid immediately is to erect significantly more solar and energy storage infrastructure, coupled with natural gas peaker plants that can be rapidly turned on during peak hours. 

In the medium term, America needs to increase nuclear energy production, build more energy infrastructure like electric transmission lines and natural gas pipelines, and construct geothermal power plants while deploying grid-enhancing technology, improving demand response and increasing energy efficiency. With the growing adoption of solar and EVs, the United States can even create an aggregated network of residential, virtual power plants that only draw energy in low-use times while feeding energy back into the grid when it’s needed most. 

If these Biden-era policies didn’t cause the current electricity price spikes, they at least allowed today’s demand-induced price increases to hit consumers unabated. 

The point is, every energy source and efficiency measure must be deployed if we have any hope of keeping prices in check. 

President Trump can’t be blamed for the current rise in energy prices. But he could be blamed down the road if his administration continues to limit supply by favoring one source of energy over others. At the end of each month, most consumers don’t care where their energy comes from; they only care that it’s cheap. 

President Donald Trump wrapped up the week Friday signing an executive order to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. 

The executive order gives the green light to use the name ‘Department of War’ as a secondary title for the Department of Defense, along with terms like ‘secretary of war’ for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to a White House fact sheet.

The order also calls for Hegseth to propose both legislative and executive actions to permanently cement the title as the U.S. Department of War.

Additionally, a White House official told Fox News Digital that implementing the order would mean making alterations to public-facing websites and office signage at the Pentagon. For example, one change on the horizon is renaming the public affairs briefing room the ‘Pentagon War Annex,’ the official said, noting other longer-term projects also will emerge. 

The U.S. previously used the Department of War title for its military agency until 1949, but modified it to the Department of Defense to align with multiple reforms included in the National Security Act of 1947.

Trump signaled in late August the change might happen. 

‘Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War,’ Trump told reporters Aug. 25. ‘Then we changed it to Department of Defense.’

Here’s what also happened this week:

War on cartels

Trump also announced that the U.S. military strike against an alleged drug-laden Venezuelan boat in the southern Caribbean killed 11 suspected Tren de Aragua narco-terrorists Tuesday. 

Trump shared a video on social media Tuesday depicting the strike against the Venezuelan vessel, just days after he authorized sending three U.S. Navy guided missile destroyers to enhance the administration’s counternarcotics efforts in the region.

‘You had massive amounts of drugs,’ Trump told reporters Wednesday about the recent strike. ‘We have tapes of them speaking. It was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people. And everybody fully understands that fact. You see it, you see the bags of drugs all over the boat and they were hit.’

‘Obviously, they won’t be doing it again. And I think a lot of other people won’t be doing it again. When they watch that tape, they’re going to say, ‘Let’s not do this.’ We have to protect our country, and we’re going to. Venezuela has been a very bad actor.’

After the deployment of the destroyers, Maduro said Venezuela was ready to respond to any attacks and said the ship’s presence in the region was ‘an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.’

‘In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela,’ Maduro said during a Monday press conference. 

Meanwhile, the Pentagon confirmed Thursday that two Venezuelan aircraft buzzed a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters. 

‘This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations,’ the Defense Department wrote in a statement posted to X. ‘The cartel running Venezuela is strongly advised not to pursue any further effort to obstruct, deter or interfere with counter-narcotics and counter-terror operations carried out by the U.S. military.’

Space Command HQ move 

Trump also unveiled plans Tuesday to move Space Command’s headquarters from Colorado to Alabama — putting an end to the controversy about where the command would be based. 

Space Command has been operating out of Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but Trump long has backed moving the command’s headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama. But in 2023, former President Joe Biden announced that the command would remain based in Colorado. 

‘The U.S. Space Command headquarters will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama, forever to be known from this point forward as Rocket City,’ Trump told reporters Tuesday.

Just over a year ago, Matthew Thomas Crooks nearly blew off President Trump’s head at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Only by the grace of God did Crooks’ bullets miss their target by millimeters because President Trump had turned his head ever so slightly to look at an immigration chart. Crooks did manage to murder a rallygoer and seriously wound two others before the Secret Service killed him. Just under a year ago, Ryan Wesley Routh took his shot at President Trump, establishing a sniper’s nest at the Doral golf course where he knew the president would play later that day. Routh was a hole ahead of Trump when Secret Service agents spotted him. A gun battle followed, and Routh escaped, yet he was captured 50 miles away. He now sits in jail awaiting trial before Aileen Cannon, a superb federal judge.

While Cannon epitomizes the gold standard of the federal judiciary, Obama-appointed D.C. Chief District Judge Jeb Boasberg represents the garbage standard. Throughout the January 6 saga, Boasberg had no problem keeping defendants—even nonviolent ones—locked up before their trials, in part based on social media posts. He let off disgraced former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith with probation after Clinesmith had altered an email to secure a surveillance warrant against former Trump campaign official Carter Page. Boasberg claimed that Clinesmith would receive punishment from the disciplinary authorities (the D.C. Bar) in the form of possible disbarment; yet, Clinesmith kept his license. Then, Boasberg made clear early in the second Trump administration that he was itching for a fight, expressing his baseless concern to Chief Justice John Roberts that President Trump and his subordinates would violate court orders.

This March, Boasberg instigated the fight he had longed for when he illegally ordered planes full of Tren de Aragua terrorists and vicious MS-13 gang members to turn around after they had departed for Honduras and El Salvador. This was an ongoing military operation. The planes would have been in danger trying to fly back over the Gulf of America with minimal fuel. Additionally, there were not the appropriate security resources in place in the United States to deal with the return of hundreds of foreign terrorists and violent gang members, unlike the situation in El Salvador and Honduras where the proper resources were in place. The planes did not turn around, and Boasberg ‘found’ probable cause to hold administration officials in contempt. A D.C. Circuit panel reversed; yet, Boasberg, undaunted by the smackdown he had received, mused at a hearing about disciplinary proceedings against Trump Justice Department lawyers before the jurisdictions in which they hold law licenses.

This past week, Boasberg has outdone himself. Nathalie Rose Jones is a nutcase from Indiana who is staying in New York City. She thinks that President Trump is a Nazi and a terrorist, and she blames him for the deaths caused by the coronavirus. Earlier this month, Jones posted on Facebook that ‘I am willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disemboweling him and cutting out his trachea with [former] U.S. Representative] Liz Cheney and all the affirmation present.’ Jones then told the Secret Service that she would kill President Trump at ‘the compound’ (presumably the White House) if she had to and that she had a bladed object to accomplish her ghastly goal. The next day, law enforcement arrested Jones at a protest that had begun at Dupont Circle and wound up near the White House.

A magistrate judge correctly ordered Jones detained without bail. It is hard to imagine a clearer case of someone who poses a danger, but Jones found an ally: Boasberg. He decided to send Jones back to New York with an ankle bracelet, and he ordered her to see a shrink. Boasberg found the case hard because Jones had not brought a gun. Never mind that Jones had referred to a bladed object that she had somewhere ready to kill President Trump. Never mind that guns are easy to procure, even for convicted felons who are prohibited from possessing them by federal law. Never mind that Jones could have returned to the White House at any time after the day that she showed up without a gun. Francisco Martin Duran, a former Army sergeant, gave no warnings before he showed up at the White House early in President Clinton’s first term and fired off dozens of shots outside the gate. These maniacs often strike without warning, as Crooks and Routh also did. Jones has telegraphed what she wants to do to President Trump, and still it is not enough for Boasberg.

Boasberg has established a pattern of utterly horrific judgment. After his illegal order in March, Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas filed an article of impeachment. It is time to move forward with that article—and add to it based on the Jones farce, as well as the revelation of Boasberg’s grossly improper comments to Chief Justice Roberts. President Trump is only alive thanks to divine intervention; a millimeter and a millisecond could have changed the course of history.

Reckless robed partisans like Boasberg, however, do not appear to care about the danger the president faces.

Trump-deranged judge refuse to accept that he won the election, and they have put up roadblock after roadblock in an appalling effort to overturn the will of American voters. The disgrace of the Jones case is just the latest example. The time has come for the House to exercise its core Article I power and use a legal tool to curtail these judges: impeachment.

The deadly U.S. strike in the Caribbean this week is being cast by experts as the latest move in a broader campaign to dismantle Iran and Hezbollah’s growing narco empire in Venezuela.

U.S. officials say Tren de Aragua works closely with the Cartel of the Suns — a network of Venezuelan military elites long accused of moving cocaine in collaboration with Hezbollah.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital that ‘President Trump has taken numerous actions to curtail Iran’s terrorist proxies like Hezbollah, such as sanctioning senior officials and financial facilitators. The President has proven that he will hold any terrorist group accountable that threatens the national security of our country by smuggling narcotics intended to kill Americans.’

Brian Townsend, a retired DEA special agent, told Fox News Digital, ‘This was a decisive blow against narco-terrorists,’ and said Hezbollah’s role is rarely visible but essential, ‘They don’t get their hands dirty. Instead, they launder and provide networks to help cartels send money through the Middle East. Simply, they take a cut from the drug trade, which then funds their operations in the Middle East.’

Townsend added that Hezbollah has become ‘a main finance and money launderer for narco-terrorism groups like Tren de Aragua,’ ensuring that when cocaine moves, Hezbollah-linked facilitators are often processing at least part of the proceeds.

Dani Citrinowicz, a senior fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Hezbollah’s reach depends heavily on the region’s Lebanese diaspora. ‘Most of the Shia diaspora, at least in Central and South America, is Lebanese,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘Hezbollah is the connector between the diaspora and Iran.’

Citrinowicz said the group uses family ties, language and community institutions to cement its influence across Latin America. ‘They appoint imams, fund religious centers and control educational programs … through these networks, Hezbollah can interact with local cartels, sell drugs, and channel the profits back to Lebanon through elaborate schemes.’

He said this role as a connector makes Hezbollah indispensable to Iran’s strategy in the Western Hemisphere. ‘The connection starts and ends with enmity towards the West in general, specifically to the United States,’ he said. ‘As long as Maduro is there, the Iranians will be there. But if Maduro goes, Iran will lose the most important stronghold of its activity in Latin America.’

Townsend stated the partnership works for both sides. ‘Iran’s partnership with Maduro enables Hezbollah to operate in Venezuela. Iran gets to safely operate, through Hezbollah, in the West without prosecution, and Maduro and his officials get paid well. Ultimately, Iran uses and exploits Maduro. Maduro doesn’t care — he and his friends benefit financially.’

Both experts pointed to state complicity as the key enabler. ‘Under Maduro and Chávez, Venezuela has become a major transshipment hub for Colombian cocaine,’ Townsend said. ‘There have been several indictments in the U.S. and Treasury OFAC designations that tie senior government officials directly to the use of state infrastructure — ports, air bases, even military convoys — to move massive shipments of cocaine. Cartel of the Suns, high-ranking military officers, run and protects these shipments. Who launders all of this drug money? Hezbollah.’

Citrinowicz emphasized Iran’s investment in Venezuelan power structures. ‘The enhancement is illustrated by several aspects: first and foremost, the military cooperation, especially Iranian factories building UAVs for the Venezuelan army, and constant Quds Force flights from Iran through Africa toward Venezuela,’ he said. ‘Iran is also teaching Venezuela how to bypass sanctions and has invested billions into the economy.’

Experts say Washington’s best leverage lies in choking the finances. ‘We need to aggressively target and choke these financial networks,’ Townsend said. ‘The priority is to attack the financial and logistical networks, indict everyone we can and pressure Maduro. If we can cut off the financial arteries, the cocaine won’t be as profitable.’

Citrinowicz agreed that the strike fits into a broader effort. ‘By weakening Maduro, the U.S. weakens the Iranian presence in Latin America and weakens Iran’s ability to threaten U.S. soil,’ he said. ‘The best way to weaken Venezuela is also to aim against the Iranian presence over there.’

For Washington, experts say Hezbollah’s narcotics empire in Venezuela is no longer just a regional problem. It is increasingly being treated as a direct threat to America’s security at home.

Vice President JD Vance stopped short of confirming a 2028 White House run during an appearance on My View with Lara Trump Saturday night, but he acknowledged the possibility—noting if he does his job well, ‘the politics will figure itself out.’

Vance, whose resilience amid an upbringing marked with family turmoil and economic hardship won over the nation, said he ‘doesn’t like thinking about’ a potential presidential bid and insisted his attention remains on his current role.

‘If we do a good job in 2025 and 2026, then we can talk about the politics in 2027,’ Vance said. ‘I really think the American people are so fed up with folks who are already running for the next job, seven months into the current one.’

The second-in-command added if he ends up running, he knows he will have to work for it.

‘There are a lot of great people,’ Vance said. ‘If I do end up running, it’s not going to be given to me—either on the Republican side or on the national side. I’m just going to keep on working hard. … [This] may be the most important job I ever had, outside of being a father to those three beautiful kids. So I’m going to try to do my best job, and I think if I do that, the politics will figure itself out.’

When asked specifically about potential 2028 Democratic candidates, he noted most of them ‘obviously have very bad records.’

Vance mainly focused on discussing his own ticket, praising President Donald Trump’s relentless work ethic and trusting leadership style and explaining the president ‘doesn’t have an off switch.’

‘Sometimes, the president will call you at 12:30 or 2 a.m., and then call you at 6 a.m. about a totally different topic,’ Vance said. ‘It’s like, ‘Mr. president, did you go to sleep last night.’ … What’s made this so much fun is the president, all the time, just saying, ‘JD you go and do this,’ or ‘JD you go and talk to these leaders about this particular issue.’ That ability to delegate and trust his people has been really amazing.’

In 1947, the United States War Department became the Department of Defense, as our nation was entering what would be four decades of Cold War with the Soviet Union, and taking its place as a global superpower.

On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order bringing the original name back to the department created by George Washington in 1789. It brings with it a change that would have earned the hearty approval of our first president.

In the 78 years in which the United States has had a ‘Department of Defense,’ we never declared war a single time, but that didn’t stop thousands upon thousands of American soldiers from sacrificing their lives in Korea, Vietnam, and later, the Middle East.

During this time, the United States widely became known as the world’s policeman. Without actually declaring wars, we played a violent game of Twister across the globe, our Defense Department dipping its toes into conflicts across continents.

Too often, the role of our soldiers was not to kill the enemy, but to maintain order, and just as a police force is restrained from using total force against criminals, our military was too often simply not allowed to bring its full force to bear.

There is a fundamental and important difference between war and policing. Wars can be won, policing cannot. Policing is a never-ending struggle, and that is exactly what America’s military interventions felt like under the reign of the Department of Defense.

‘I want offense too,’ Trump has quipped about the name change. But what he really means is that he wants wars we can win, not endless nation-building boondoggles meant to maintain balance in a world full of conflagrations from Ukraine to Gaza.

Secretary of War, as he is now known, Pete Hegseth has made clear his priority is lethality, not just being a stick for diplomats to use. He wants an army, not a police force.

It was Carl von Clausewitz, the early 19th Century father of modern war, who defined military victory as compelling the enemy to do your will by destroying their desire and means to resist. That is something our military has not done in some time.

But that may be changing.

It was no accident that this cabinet-level name change occurred in the wake of the Trump administration blowing an alleged speedboat full of drugs and drug smugglers from Venezuela to smithereens.

Under the old rubric, that boat might have been stopped, its crew given Miranda rights. In other words, it would have been policed.

But does this mere police work actually work, per Clausewitz, to destroy the Venezuelan gangs’ and government’s will and means to flood our country with deadly drugs? It does not, it just maintains the status quo from the border to the graveyard.

But now, the next guys in line to jump aboard a drug-laden boat headed for Florida aren’t looking at possible jail time, in facilities all but run by their gangs. No, they are looking at a quick exit to eternity under the sea.

Likewise, Trump’s direct attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities sent a new message to the Ayatollah that if he goes too far, we will destroy him and his nation.

The Department of Defense, may it rest in peace, was a noble idea. It was launched in the spirit of ending war, not winning wars. It was meant to prop up democracies around the planet until all nations found the right and just path of freedom and capitalism.

It may have been worth a shot, but it just didn’t work, and that is why the Trump administration is returning to the original premise, that armies don’t exist to protect and serve the world, they exist to kill our enemies.

Not long after President Washington established the War Department, he would give a farewell address in which warned against engaging in foreign entanglements, and yet under the name Department of Defense, our military seemed to do little else.

President Trump is sending the message that the United States will no longer be defending itself through proportional half measures and never-ending peace missions. No, from here on out, the Department of War does not exist to contain or constrain our enemies, it exists, as it should, to destroy them.