Vice President JD Vance is amplifying his message for next year’s midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their congressional majorities.

Vance, speaking at a major conservative summit this weekend, pointed to the Democrats and predicted that Republicans ‘are gonna kick their ass next November.’

The comment from the vice president on Sunday sparked immediate chants of ‘USA’ from the crowd at the annual AmericaFest conference by Turning Point USA, the influential and politically powerful conservative group.

The annual gathering was Turning Point’s first since co-founder and conservative champion Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September.

Vance and Charlie Kirk were close friends, and the vice president, who credits Kirk with his political rise, appeared to blame ‘far left’ Democrats and their agenda for his death.

‘If you miss Charlie Kirk, do you promise to fight what he died for? Do you promise to take the country back from the people who took his life?’ Vance asked the crowd.

While President Donald Trump remains the top draw, Vance is expected to play a large role on the campaign trail next year on behalf of fellow Republicans and his address at Turning Point, as well as his speech in battleground Pennsylvania a week ago on the issue of affordability, are likely to be an appetizer for things to come in 2026.

‘The VP will be playing a big role on the trail next year,’ a source close to the vice president told Fox News Digital.

But pointing to the president’s and vice president’s anything but stellar poll numbers, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) argued, ‘Here’s the reality J.D. Vance and Trump are unwilling to face: Americans give them record-low approval ratings for failed leadership that has led to massive layoffs, skyrocketing prices, and economic uncertainty.’

‘Every stop on the White House’s midterm campaign tour reminds Americans of how Republicans have made life harder. One year into the Trump-Vance administration, their 2024 coalition is unraveling because they have betrayed their own voters to give tax breaks to billionaires,’ DNC rapid response director Kendall Witmer emphasized in a statement to Fox News Digital.

While Vance has yet to say anything publicly on whether he’ll launch a 2028 campaign to succeed the term-limited Trump, he is considered by many on the right to be the president’s heir apparent to eventually take over the MAGA mantle.

And the conference, which drew tens of thousands of MAGA supporters, kicked off on Thursday with Charlie Kirk’s widow backing Vance in 2028.

Ericka Kirk, who took over the reins of Turning Point after her husband’s murder, said, ‘We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,’ in 2028. ‘Forty-eight’ refers to the number of the next president.

Vance, at the top of his speech on Sunday, thanked Kirk for her ‘kind words of support for this administration and for me personally.’

The backing of the vice president by Kirk and Turning Point, which is particularly influential among younger conservatives and whose political arm has built up a powerful grassroot outreach operation, could give Vance a major boost should he decide to run for president in the 2028 election.

Although Vice President JD Vance might not agree, many observers saw his barn burner of a capstone speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest this weekend in Phoenix as the first major moment of the 2028 presidential election. But was Vance crowned as the nominee? It’s complicated.

Anna, in her 30s and a longtime AmFest attendee, was all in on Vance after the speech.

‘I live in Florida and I love Gov. DeSantis, but he is too right wing for the whole country,’ she told me.

Paul, in his 50s and attending his first TPUSA event, sounded a similar sentiment, saying, ‘Who else is there? I don’t see why we wouldn’t just stick with what is already working.’

Almost everyone I spoke to, and I spoke to a lot of people, shared this view. The exception was Kelli, who is 55 and fiercely proud that her two kids in their 20s have remained staunch conservatives in bright blue Seattle. She likes Vance, but said, ‘I think he has to earn it. We need a real primary.’

Something unique is happening here.

After the 2022 midterm disaster for the Republicans, I asked GOP voters who supported both Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis if they wanted everyone to go all in for their guy or if they wanted a fight. Everyone chose the latter, but that isn’t true today.

It isn’t so much Vance himself who is garnering near universal support at AmFest, it is the Trump administration, the team the president has assembled. More so than any presidential election since Vice President Al Gore ran in 2000, this is shaping up to be a race for a third term.

In the English language, we don’t have a lot of pleasant-sounding words for a small group of people who maintain power. Utterances like ‘regime’ and ‘cabal’ come off negative, but there is nothing undemocratic about this idea, it’s just a bit untraditional.

In an age in which Congress can’t pass a resolution to tie its own shoes, many voters are looking to the executive branch for consistency and continuity.

I asked Vance himself about this theory and if he saw himself as running for a third Trump term.

‘Honestly, it feels disloyal to even talk about 2028,’ he said. ‘We’re not even a year in! But yes, I am very much on the team. It’s one of the reasons I think the 2028 talk is so premature.’

‘Consider this hypothetical: If an opportunity is presented that would make Marco Rubio look good, be great for the administration, and wouldn’t really involve me (at least publicly), what do I do?’ Vance continued. ‘If I’m optimizing for 2028, I try to kill the opportunity. If I’m optimizing for the country, for the administration, and to be a good human being, we do it.’

To be completely clear, Vance told me flat out he is not thinking about 2028. But his remarks did suggest, I think correctly, that one way or another, it will be the Trump administration and its policies and priorities that will be on the ballot in 2028, not some new vision.

Aside from his position as No. 2 on the Trump team, the other reason that Vance seems to have the inside track for 2028 is the enthusiasm that young conservative voters have for him.

There were teenagers lined up at 4 a.m. to see Vance. I have a teenager, and getting him out of bed before 10 a.m. on a Sunday is a miracle, but the kids love their vice president, there is just no denying it.

We’re a long way from 2028, and there are a lot of dominoes that still have to fall. But as it approaches, it will be the entire Trump administration not just defending its record in the presidential race, but asking to stay in power.

Trump has brought the conservative movement to the mountaintop, in sight of the promised land. Is JD Vance the man who can take it there? Only time will tell, but if you ask almost anyone at AmFest, the answer is a resounding yes.

Former President Bill Clinton’s spokesman is calling on the Department of Justice to release any remaining documents related to the former president and Jeffrey Epstein following the DOJ’s document release Friday. 

‘We call on President Trump to direct Attorney General Bondi to immediately release any remaining materials referring to, mentioning, or containing a photograph of Bill Clinton,’ a statement from Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña on Monday reads. 

‘This includes, without limitation, any records that may exist and are subject to disclosure under the Act (Public Law 119–38 enacted Nov. 19, 2025), including grand jury transcripts, interview notes, photographs, and findings by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (as referenced under oath to Congress by President Trump’s first-term Attorney General),’ it continued. 

Clinton’s office said that the DOJ’s partial release of Epstein-related documents Friday allegedly shows ‘someone or something is being protected.’ President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan law in November that required the Department of Justice to release all ‘unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials’ within 30 days of Trump’s signature. 

‘The Epstein Files Transparency Act imposes a clear legal duty on the U.S. Department of Justice to produce the full and complete record the public demands and deserves,’ Ureña continued.

‘However, what the Department of Justice has released so far, and the manner in which it did so, makes one thing clear: someone or something is being protected. We do not know whom, what or why. But we do know this: We need no such protection.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ Monday afternoon regarding the new statement from Ureña. 

The Friday Epstein drop included a handful of photos of Clinton, including him swimming shirtless, posing with music icons such as Michael Jackson, and other redacted photos showing the former president with unidentifiable individuals. 

When asked about the photos when they initially dropped, Ureña directed Fox Digital to a statement he posted to X.

‘The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton,’ he wrote Friday. ‘This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever. So they can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be. Even Susie Wiles said Donald Trump was wrong about Bill Clinton.’

Ureña said there are ‘two types of people’ involved in the Epstein scandal: those who did not know of Epstein’s crimes and cut him out of their lives upon his conviction and a second group of people who ‘continued relationships with him after’ his crimes came to light.

‘We’re in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that,’ the Clinton spokesman continued. ‘Everyone, especially MAGA, expects answers, not scapegoats.’ 

Files that included victims’ names, child sex abuse materials, classified materials or other materials that could threaten an active investigation were allowed to be withheld or redacted by the DOJ, per the transparency law. 

The Trump DOJ released thousands of files related to the Epstein investigations throughout the years, with the department expected to release additional documents in the coming days. Democrats have slammed the DOJ and Trump over the slow release of the documents following the president signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law. 

‘The law Congress passed is crystal clear: release the Epstein files in full so Americans can see the truth,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schummer said in a press release Monday, teeing up litigation against the administration over the release. ‘Instead, the Trump Department of Justice dumped redactions and withheld the evidence — that breaks the law. Today, I am introducing a resolution to force the Senate to take legal action and compel this administration to comply.’

Epstein was a well-connected financier with a lengthy Rolodex of billionaires and celebrities who floated in and out of his orbit across the years. He was convicted of sex trafficking minors in 2008 and served just more than one year of incarceration, which also included a controversial work-release arrangement under a plea agreement. 

He was arrested again in 2019 on charges of sex trafficking before he was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell by suicide. 

MAGA supporters have claimed that Epstein kept an alleged ‘client list’ of high-profile names that he used to blackmail individuals in a web of sex trafficking and crimes. The Department of Justice announced over the summer, however, that there was ‘no incriminating ‘client list” of prominent individuals involved in an alleged sex trafficking scheme, nor that Epstein blackmailed anyone on such list. 

The DOJ previously reported that the evidence shows Epstein did in fact commit suicide, which contradicted speculation on social media that Epstein was murdered in his jail cell in 2019, which set off criticisms among Trump supporters to release further documents on the case, with Democrats joining those calls while invoking questions about Trump’s relationship with Epstein. 

Trump has slammed the calls as part of a ‘Democrat hoax’ while defending that he ‘threw him out’ of Mar-a-Lago after he ‘stole’ employees from the private club in his falling out with Epstein in the 2000s.

Fox News Digital reached out the Department of Justice Monday afternoon regarding Urena’s latest statement, but did not immediately receive a reply.

A former conservative lawyer-turned-vocal critic of President Donald Trump is jumping into the crowded Democratic primary to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y.

George Conway, who was previously married to Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, filed to run in New York’s 12th Congressional District on Monday.

The Manhattan-based district is considered a safe blue seat. Nadler, who served in Congress since 1992, announced in September of this year that he was stepping down amid pressure on older Democrats to make way for a new generation.

Conway was once known in Washington, D.C., as one of the lawyers who worked on Paula Jones’ case when she sued then-President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment.

He also championed conservative causes as a member of the Federalist Society, a right-wing law society.

But in recent years, Conway has made a name for himself as a vehement Trump critic, even while his wife worked as a senior advisor in his White House. George and Kellyanne Conway announced their divorce in March 2023.

Conway was also a founding member of the Lincoln Project, a Republican group that has taken out advertisements and championed causes in direct opposition to Trump.

A document on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) website shows that Conway registered a principal campaign committee on Monday based in New York City.

What appears to be a campaign website listed on the form, GeorgeConwayForCongress.com, is not yet active as of early Monday afternoon.

The registration also notes he is running in the Democratic primary, which is shaping up to be a crowded race. 

At least 12 people have shown interest in the seat so far. Among the most prominent candidates is Jack Schlossberg, the 32-year-old grandson of John F. Kennedy.

Cameron Kasky, an organizer for the anti-gun group March For Our Lives, is also one of the candidates alongside New York State Assembly members Micah Lasher and Alex Bores.

ABC News legal analyst Jami Floyd and New York City council member Erik Bottcher have also filed to run.

Fox News Digital reached out to the emails associated with Conway’s FEC filing for further comment but did not immediately hear back.

China has reportedly loaded more than 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles into three newly constructed silo fields near its border with Mongolia and shows little interest in arms control talks, according to a draft Pentagon report seen by Reuters.

The assessment underscores Beijing’s accelerating military buildup, with the report saying China is expanding and modernizing its nuclear forces faster than any other nuclear-armed power. Chinese officials have repeatedly dismissed such findings as attempts to ‘smear and defame China and deliberately mislead the international community.’

The Pentagon declined to comment when contacted by Fox News Digital about the Reuters report.

Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump said he may pursue denuclearization discussions with China and Russia. The Pentagon report, however, concluded that Beijing does not appear inclined to engage.

‘We continue to see no appetite from Beijing for pursuing such measures or more comprehensive arms control discussions,’ the report said.

According to the assessment, China has likely loaded more than 100 solid-fueled DF-31 intercontinental ballistic missiles into silo fields near the Mongolian border. While the Pentagon had previously disclosed the existence of the silo fields, it had not publicly estimated how many missiles had been placed inside them.

China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The report did not identify potential targets for the newly loaded missiles and could change before it is formally submitted to Congress, U.S. officials said.

China’s nuclear warhead stockpile remained in the low 600s in 2024, reflecting what the report described as a slower production rate compared to previous years. Still, Beijing is on track to exceed 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.

China says it adheres to a nuclear strategy of self-defense and maintains a no-first-use policy. But analysts say Beijing’s public messaging increasingly contradicts that restraint.

‘For a country that still advocates a policy of ‘no-first use,’ China has become increasingly comfortable showcasing its nuclear arsenal, including parading its nuclear triad together for the first time in September,’ said Jack Burnham, a senior research analyst in the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Burnham said Beijing’s rejection of arms control talks reflects the pace of its weapons construction. ‘China has no interest in locking in a long-term strategic disadvantage, and every intention of building an arsenal on par with its perceived place in the world, alongside and potentially eventually ahead of the United States,’ he said.

The report also warned that China expects to be able to fight and win a war over Taiwan by the end of 2027. Beijing claims the self-governed island as its own territory and has never ruled out the use of force.

China is refining options to seize Taiwan by ‘brute force,’ including long-range strikes up to 2,000 nautical miles from the mainland that could disrupt U.S. military operations in the Asia-Pacific, the report said.

The findings come as the 2010 New START treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, approaches expiration. The treaty limits both sides to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads.

‘What is surprising is that China has now loaded only about 100 of the silos it has built recently,’ said Gordon Chang. ‘That’s an indication money is tight in the People’s Liberation Army.’

Chang warned against extending New START without Beijing’s participation. ‘This is no time for the U.S. to agree to an extension of the New START Treaty with Russia,’ he said. ‘Russia and China are de-facto allies, and they are ganging up on America. Without China in a deal — Beijing has flatly rejected every nuclear arms-control initiative of the U.S. —no treaty can be in America’s interest.’

Reuters contributed to this report.

A straw poll taken at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest this weekend revealed that conservatives are, as a spokesman described, ‘all in’ for Vice President JD Vance running for president in 2028. 

Asked who they would like to see as the Republican presidential nominee in 2028, the vast majority of respondents, 84.2%, answered Vice President JD Vance. Far behind Vance was Rubio at 4.8% and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 2.9%.

Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for TPUSA, told Fox News Digital that the poll portrays a clear picture of the state of the conservative movement. 

From the responses, Kolvet said it is clear that ‘the movement is all-in for JD Vance in 2028, winning the most support in the history of our poll.’

Kolvet explained,’There are bright dividing lines in the conservative movement right now, so we wanted to get clarity on where the base is on these hot-button issues in Turning Point Action’s official AmericaFest 2025 straw poll.’ 

‘We wanted to get a real read on where the base is at after Charlie’s assassination, and a few things really jump off the page,’ he said. 

The most popular Trump administration accomplishment amongst conference attendees was securing the border, with nearly 60% of respondents answering this, while 22.2% of respondents answered deportations.

Conference attendees also shared that winning the midterms and radical Islam are among their top concerns.

A wide margin believed that the conservative movement’s top priority in 2026 should be winning the midterms. Per the poll, 63.9% of AmFest attendees believed the conservative movement should be prioritizing winning the midterms, which would preserve Republicans’ majorities in the House and Senate.

The next highest priority, according to attendees, was voter integrity/voter ID at 9.3%. Other priorities were the affordability crisis at 8.1%, mass deportations at 5.3% and accountability for the deep state/lawfare at 4.2%.

Asked what the biggest threat is facing America, 31,008 responded ‘radical Islam.’ In close second was socialism and Marxism at 30,387. Third was mass migration, with 28,223 saying that is the greatest threat to America, and fourth was the economy and affordability at 27,315.

Related to mass migration, 89.5% of poll respondents said they would support a moratorium on new immigration into the United States.

Attendees were also questioned on their feelings about Israel. Over half, 53.4 percent, said they see Israel as ‘one ally out of many,’ while a third said they see Israel as America’s ‘top ally’ and 13.3 percent said they believe Israel is ‘not an ally.’ 

The poll also revealed what members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet are most popular and unpopular amongst the conference’s heavily conservative audience.

According to the poll, which was taken by Big Data Poll, the Trump Cabinet member with the strongest job performance approval rating amongst AmFest attendees is Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, as 83.3% of conference attendees voiced they strongly approve of him.

A total of 94.7% of AmFest attendees said they either strongly or somewhat approve of Hegseth.

As War secretary, Hegseth has been one of the most vocal Trump Cabinet members, with such actions as changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, expunging DEI from the military and targeting cartel drug boats in the Caribbean.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. received similarly high approval ratings from the AmFest attendees at 76.6% and 80.8%, respectively. Kennedy received the highest overall approval rating from AmFest attendees, with 96.8% saying they either strongly or somewhat approve of him.

The Cabinet member with the highest disapproval rating was U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom 13.4% of attendees said they strongly disapprove of and 15.6% said they somewhat disapprove. Despite this, most poll participants, 64.8%, still said they either strongly or somewhat approve of Bondi’s job performance in the Trump administration.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, another highly vocal and prominent Trump Cabinet member who has spearheaded the administration’s deportations and border security efforts, received broad approval with 90.1% of participants saying they either strongly or somewhat approve of her job performance.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy both received approval ratings in the 80s.

Poll participants had less to say about Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collin, with between 28 and 39% of respondents saying they were unsure about their job performance.

According to the poll, 88.3% of respondents self-identified as Republican and 94.7% identified as conservative.

Commenting on the poll, Kolvet said that conservatives ‘see Israel as an important ally of the United States despite so much chatter to the contrary’ and ‘they love the job that Secretaries Hegseth, Rubio, and RFK Jr. are doing, but they harbor skepticism about the DOJ.’ 

‘Above all,’ Kolvet said that conservatives ‘are laser focused on winning the midterms and fixing mass migration, which they clearly see as connected to the rise of radical Islam, socialism, and crime.’ 

He added that ‘it’s clear that immigration remains the key to energizing the base ahead of the midterms.’