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A week after President Donald Trump urged Sydney Gruters to run for an open GOP-held congressional seat in Florida, the former executive director of the state’s New College Foundation and wife of Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Joe Gruters declared her candidacy.

“As a working mother of three, I see firsthand how much pressure rising prices are putting on families across Southwest Florida,” Sydney Gruters said as she launched her campaign on Thursday. “From groceries and gas to housing and insurance, too many families, seniors and veterans are being stretched thin. I’m running for Congress to protect our conservative values and fight for the people of this district and give them a strong voice in Washington.”

With Trump’s support, Gruters is considered the clear frontrunner to succeed retiring longtime GOP Rep. Vern Buchanan, her former boss, in Florida’s right-leaning 16th Congressional District, which stretches from Tampa’s eastern suburbs south to Bradenton. Republicans currently control the House 218-214 and will be defending their fragile majority in this year’s midterm elections.

Trump, in a social media post on March 24, emphasized that Gruters would “fight tirelessly.”

RNC CHAIR BETS ON ‘SECRET WEAPON’ TO DEFY MIDTERM HISTORY, PROTECT GOP MAJORITIES

“Should she decide to enter this Race, Sydney Gruters has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, SYDNEY, RUN!” the president declared.

While her husband, a Florida state senator and top Trump supporter in the Sunshine State, is well known nationally as he steers the RNC, the 44-year-old Sydney Gruters is well known in her district and very familiar with Congress.

SCOOP: HOUSE GOP CAMPAIGN ARM LAUNCHES ‘MAGA MAJORITY’ PROGRAM TO BOOST TRUMP-ALIGNED CANDIDATES

Gruters served as Buchanan’s operation director for a decade (2007-2017) and later as district director to GOP Rep. Greg Steube (2019-2023) in the neighboring 17th Congressional District.

In-between her two congressional stints, she served in Trump’s first administration as state director for Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Department of Agriculture.

Prior to launching her congressional campaign, Gruters finished up her tenure as vice president of advancement and executive director of the New College Foundation.

Gruters took her position at the smaller liberal arts state college in Sarasota soon after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis installed a conservative board of trustees at the school. The one-time progressive-minded college subsequently created a classical education curriculum, which emphasizes liberal arts and Western teachings. Last autumn, the college was among the first to sign on to Trump’s education compact, which offers schools federal funding for backing his education priorities.

As she launches her congressional bid, Gruters is also backed by Maggie’s List, a political group that works to elect conservative women to Congress.

Three other Republicans, as well as three Democrats, are also running to succeed Buchanan.

Joe Gruters, in a statement to Fox News Digital, said he’s “incredibly proud of Sydney as she launches her campaign, and it’s an honor to see her earn President Trump’s support. As always, the RNC remains neutral in Republican primaries, so any support I offer will be purely in my personal capacity.”

Trump won 57% of the vote in the district in his 2024 presidential election victory. And Buchanan grabbed nearly 60% of the vote as he won re-election. But the seat may be refigured ahead of this year’s midterms, as the GOP-dominated Florida legislature meets in a special session later this month to deal with congressional redistricting in the red-leaning state.

Business

Hershey to resume using chocolate in most products; Reese’s grandson may taste sweet victory

The grandson of the inventor of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, who has publicly criticized The Hershey Company for tinkering with the classic formula in its spinoff products, appears to have gotten some sweet revenge.

The candy company has announced that it will return to using “classic milk and dark chocolate recipes” in all its Reese’s and Hershey’s products by 2027.

“If this is true, the people who deserve the credit are the loyal fans who were alarmed by what Hershey was doing,” Brad Reese told NBC News on Wednesday. “But I am seeing a lot of red flags here. I think what Hershey is trying to do here is change with PR narrative.”

Reese, whose demands that Hershey stop skimping on chocolate went viral in February, said he trusts his taste buds more than he trusts the company that produces iconic candies that bear his family name.

“If something like the Valentine’s Day Reese’s Mini Heart still doesn’t taste like real milk chocolate next year, I’ll know they’re lying,” he said.

Hershey CEO Kirk Tanner made the announcement on Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg.

“We’re going to make some small investments to really align the portfolio to what the brand stands for,” Tanner said. “That consistency is important across the brand.”

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups have been made with the same ingredients since 1928 — milk chocolate and peanut butter.

Starting next year, Tanner said candies inspired by the originals — like the “mini Reese’s cups and shapes,” as well as the Reese’s Fast Break candy bar — will also be made with real milk chocolate instead of a chocolate compound coating.

In addition, all the classic Hershey’s chocolate bars will also be made with “pure milk and dark chocolate,” he said. And Hershey is “enhancing” the Kit Kat candy bar “for a creamier taste and texture.”

In all, the company said the shift from chocolate compound coatings to the real thing will affect less than 3% of the Reese’s products and a tiny portion of Hershey’s products.

And Hershey is “on track” to remove all artificial colors from its products by the end of next year, the company said.

Tanner, in the Bloomberg interview, also insisted that the switch back to real chocolate was in the works long before Reese went public with his complaints.

“Right when I started with the company, we did a deep dive across our portfolio,” said Tanner, who joined the firm in August 2025.

Reese scoffed at that claim from Tanner.

“You know when this became an issue?” he asked. “Valentine’s Day. This has been going on since Valentine’s Day.”

Reese began taking Hershey to task after discovering that the company had replaced the milk chocolate with a chocolate-flavored coating on some of its Reese’s-inspired products, like the Valentine’s Day Reese’s Mini Hearts.

Infuriated, Reese posted a link to a letter of complaint he wrote to Todd Scott, who does the corporate branding for Hershey, on his LinkedIn page.

Reese invoked the name of his grandfather H.B. Reese, who created the iconic peanut butter cup in 1928 and started a candy company that produced them until 1963. Hershey has been making them ever since.

“My grandfather,” Reese wrote, “built REESE’S on a simple, enduring architecture: Milk Chocolate + Peanut Butter.”

But Hershey, he wrote, has replaced the original formula “with compound coatings and Peanut Butter with peanut-butter style cremes across multiple REESE’S products.”

That letter went viral.

Hershey insisted that the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were made the same way they had always been. But the company also conceded that, as it expanded its “Reese’s product line,” it had tinkered with the original recipe.

Right now, the Reese’s Mini Eggs that are a staple at Easter celebrations do not contain milk chocolate, according to their labels.

Neither do Reese’s Pieces, which were introduced in 1978 and became a sensation after they were featured in the 1982 movie “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”

In response to an NBC News request for a full list of Reese’s and Hershey’s products that will return to using “classic milk and dark chocolate recipes,” the company released a statement that reiterated much of what Tanner said earlier.

“The core recipes for our Hershey’s chocolate bars and Reese’s peanut butter cups have not changed,” it said in part.

Business

A global jet fuel shortage is raising the cost of air travel

American flyers still smarting from interminable airport security lines are about to get another shock.

A looming global jet fuel shortage is expected to hike the cost of air travel and reduce flight schedules, as airlines look to offset rising prices.

On Monday, JetBlue announced it was raising baggage fees, citing “rising operating costs.”

“While we recognize that fee increases are never ideal, we take careful consideration to ensure these changes are implemented only when necessary,” the carrier said.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said costs to passengers have already been increasing. Data from flight information group OAG shows average airfares in the past week reached $465, the highest price point for the same period since at least 2019.

“We have to raise prices to deal with higher fuel prices,” Kirby acknowledged at a company event last week in Los Angeles. In a subsequent memo, he added: “It may be a challenge to continue passing through much of the increased fuel price if oil stays higher for longer.”

The rising prices are the latest example of the economic fallout from the war with Iran. Analysts have started warning that the full toll has only begun to be accounted for as the global economy absorbs the loss of critical energy exports out of the region due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and damage to other key energy infrastructure sites in the region. On Tuesday, U.S. gasoline prices hit $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 amid surging oil prices. Major stock indexes, meanwhile, have fallen by nearly 10% since the start of the war.

In the case of air travel, the industry is facing jet fuel prices that have surged 85% in the U.S. since the day before the war began in February, according to data from Argus published by the industry group Airlines for America. On Monday, they hit a record $4.62 a gallon.

Most U.S. carriers no longer hedge fuel costs, said Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group. So they are forced to pass on some costs to passengers.

While U.S. carriers largely source jet fuel domestically, countries in Asia and Europe that are more reliant on Middle East stocks have begun signaling they are taking unprecedented measures to conserve jet fuel. In South Korea, carriers have requested that the government help redirect fuel stocks bound for export back to local markets.

The Financial Times reported Monday that the U.K. was also facing an acute shortage, with no Britain-bound cargoes visible on the water as transit through the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked. Some foreign carriers have begun charging fuel surcharges of as much as $150.

As overseas carriers begin looking to alternative supply bases, the cost for a global commodity like jet fuel rises across the board.

“It shocks the entire mechanism,” said Jaime Brito, an executive director at Oil Price Information Service consultancy.

President Donald Trump commented on the jet fuel shortages Tuesday morning, though he did not mention their impact on U.S. travelers.

“All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Airlines are also signaling capacity cuts to cope with rising costs. United will drop about 5% of planned flights in mostly “off-peak periods” — like red-eye and midweek routes — during the second and third quarters of 2026 to further mitigate the cost increases.

“We’re certainly going to be nimble in terms of capacity to make sure that supply and demand stay in balance,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said at a JPMorgan conference earlier this month.

Kyle Potter, executive editor of the Thrifty Traveler, said most carriers have quietly been raising airfares since the Iran war began. He said airlines typically move in droves when making pricing decisions, so it is likely that other carriers may also soon begin raising baggage fees or seek other forms of ancillary revenue. Potter noted that unlike airfares, revenues from these fees are not subject to federal excise taxes.

As a result, the fees — unlike airfares — are unlikely to come back down assuming jet fuel prices recover.

Representatives for five other major U.S. carriers did not respond to a request for comment.

The acute fuel price increase comes as air travel demand has remained steady, with January and February ticket sales at or near records. While investors have taken airline stocks down some 25% since the start of the Iran war, Kirby said that customers appear willing to keep booking thanks to healthy demand even if airfare rises.

“The number of wealthy Americans who are traveling is bigger and wealthier than ever, and that is what much of the airline industry is relying on right now,” Potter said. “And that means they’re more immune to higher fees, higher fares and just getting turned off by negative news about travel.”

Business

Stocks have their worst quarter since 2022, raising doubts about Trump’s economic playbook

Stocks surged Tuesday, with the S&P 500 closing up 2.9% while the Nasdaq rose 3.8% and the Dow gained 1,125 points.

But this very good day capped off what was a very bad month for U.S. equities. The S&P 500 fell 5.09% in March, and the Nasdaq Composite declined 4.75%.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow, Iranian controlled waterway through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil typically transits every day, weighed heavily on markets throughout the month.

Tuesday was also the end of the first quarter of the year, one when the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted their worst annual starts since 2022, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine rocked markets.

For the first quarter, the S&P 500 dropped 4.6% and the Nasdaq declined 7.1%.

Oil prices, meanwhile, soared over the past month, driving up the cost of fuel and triggering a domino effect of higher prices around the globe.

Brent, the international oil benchmark, posted its largest monthly percentage increase ever, after having risen more than 60%. The price of U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil also soared in March, climbing more than 50% in its biggest one-month gain since 2020.

For millions of drivers in the U.S., the increases manifest as higher prices for gas. And here, too, the past month was remarkable. The average price of unleaded gasoline hit $4 per gallon Tuesday, up more than 34% in just four weeks.

But it’s not just gas prices that hit U.S. households this month.

More than half of all adults in the U.S. own stocks, often via their retirement accounts and the broader funds those managed accounts invest in. Most of the time, market moves up and down don’t swing the value of those kinds of diversified retirement accounts.

But March was a different story.

“Stocks have been following the lead of oil prices at an unprecedented rate over the last several weeks, and if the U.S. just walked away from the Middle East with the Strait still blockaded, energy markets would likely remain incredibly supply-constrained, keeping prices high,” analysts at Bespoke Investment Group wrote Tuesday.

“The longer prices are high and supplies are limited, the worse it’s going to be for the global economy and ultimately stock prices,” they added.

The wild market swings of the second Trump administration are in sharp contrast to how Donald Trump said the markets would react if he were elected to a second term in 2024.

“There are many people that are saying that the only reason the Stock Market is high is because I am leading in all of the Polls, and if I don’t win, we will have a CRASH of similar proportions to 1929,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in May 2024 as he campaigned for the presidency.

Shortly after he was re-elected in 2024, Trump was asked whether he believed market indexes were good barometers of his performance in office. “To me … all of it together, it’s very important,” he told CNBC.

But during the first 14 months of his second term, U.S. markets have faced some of the sharpest drawdowns in history.

In February and March of last year, Trump’s sweeping tariff policies roiled the market, pushing the S&P 500 into its seventh-fastest correction of all time. A correction is when a stock or an index declines 10% from its most recent record high.

Just over a year later, the S&P 500 isn’t far from doing it again. As of Tuesday’s closing bell, the index had tumbled 6.7% from its most recent high in January.

As oil prices rise, stocks typically fall given that higher oil prices typically lead to higher prices across a number of industry sectors over the long run.

Already, inflation is on the rise around the world. On Tuesday morning, eurozone inflation came in at 2.5%, from 1.9% the month before, according to the European Central Bank.

On Tuesday, the Nikkei 225 in Japan recorded its worst month since 2008. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 index posted its worst month since 2022.

Two near-corrections in just over a year illustrates just how volatile the administration’s policies have been for markets.

Still, since Trump took office for a second time, the S&P 500 is up 8%, although last year global stocks far outpaced the broad U.S. index.

In 2025, global stocks as measured by the MSCI ACWI ex USA index rose nearly 30%, while U.S. stocks rose just 16%. Global stocks haven’t beaten American equities by that much during the first year of a presidential term since 1993, according to data from Bloomberg.

In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly touted the Dow’s recent 50,000 milestone as a sign that the markets are doing well in his presidency.

“You know, it’s sort of crazy, I hit 50,000 on the Dow,” Trump said at an investment conference in Florida on Friday. “People said that wouldn’t be possible within four years.”

“And then we hit 7,000 on the S&P,” Trump added. “People said that’s even harder than hitting 50,000 on the Dow.”

As of Tuesday, the Dow had plunged more than 3,600 points since it hit 50,000, a drop of nearly 7.5%.

Business

Republican leaders announce two-track plan to end the DHS shutdown

WASHINGTON — House and Senate Republican leaders jointly announced a plan Wednesday that they said would end the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security that caused major airport delays.

“In the coming days, Republicans in the Senate and House will be following through on the President’s directive by fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a statement.

The two leaders were vague about the exact plan, but it appears to closely resemble the Senate’s preferred path from Friday.

Johnson and Thune heavily implied that it would be for the Senate to, once again, pass a bill it approved unanimously last week, which it could try to do as early as Thursday.

It would fund all of DHS except ICE and Customs and Border Protection, which Democrats won’t agree to fund without reforms to immigration enforcement operations. Those two agencies already have separate funding.

House Republican leaders trashed that bill and rejected it Friday, but they now appear ready to back down and accept the Senate plan. They would have to vote to pass it through the House.

GOP leadership had no immediate comment on the timing for a vote. Both chambers are scheduled to be on recess until April 13.

Then Republicans would fund ICE and CBP in a separate party-line “budget reconciliation” bill that could bypass a filibuster and get approved without any Democratic votes. The timing for that is even less clear.

Johnson and Thune said the “two-track” plan would “fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited.”

A White House official told NBC News that the administration supports the Johnson-Thune plan.

Earlier Wednesday, President Donald Trump called on Republicans to pass the party-line bill “no later than June 1st.” He threw the earlier plans to reopen DHS into chaos last week when he declined to comment on the Senate bill, which led House Republicans to reject it.

DHS has been shut down for more than a month, with employees for the TSA, FEMA and other agencies going for weeks without pay. Trump signed an executive order last week to pay TSA employees, but the legality and length of that plan are murky. Thousands of civilian Coast Guard employees and other DHS workers are still not being paid.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., slammed Republicans for having “derailed a bipartisan agreement” for days, “making American families pay the price for their dysfunction.”

“Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered. We were clear from the start: fund critical security, protect Americans, and no blank check for reckless ICE and Border Patrol enforcement,” he said Wednesday. “We were united, held the line, and refused to let Republican chaos win.”

On Friday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said, “House Democrats are prepared to support the bill to end the Trump-Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, make sure TSA agents are paid, stand up for FEMA and for the Coast Guard, for our cyber security professionals, and stop inconveniencing Americans.”

Politics

Trump says he’s considering pulling US out of NATO over Iran war stance

President Donald Trump said he is strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO over the alliance’s refusal to join his administration’s efforts in the Iran conflict, according to a report.

“I was never swayed by NATO,” Trump told The Daily Telegraph in an interview published Wednesday.

The president, long a critic of the military alliance, which has been pivotal in maintaining global order since World War II, said reconsidering the matter was “beyond consideration.”

“I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way,” Trump told the British outlet.

MORE KEY US ALLIES BLOCK MILITARY FLIGHTS AS IRAN WAR RIFT WIDENS WITH TRUMP

The comments come after European nations reportedly rejected Trump’s request that allies send warships to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply travels. Iran has threatened or moved to restrict access to the strait in reaction to the U.S. offensive against Iranian targets, raising concerns about global energy markets and economic stability.

“Beyond not being there, it was actually hard to believe. And I didn’t do a big sale. I just said, ‘Hey,’ you know, I didn’t insist too much. I just think it should be automatic,” Trump said.

“We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine. Ukraine wasn’t our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them. They weren’t there for us.”

TRUMP WARNS NATO OF ‘VERY BAD’ FUTURE IF ALLIES DON’T HELP SECURE STRAIT OF HORMUZ

The president also criticized the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not participating in the conflict.

“You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work,” Trump said.

Responding to the president’s comments, Starmer said Britain is “fully committed to NATO,” calling it “the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen.”

Starmer told reporters that “whatever the pressure on me and others, whatever the noise, I am going to act in the British national interest in all the decisions I make.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Politics

Swing-district Democrat faces backlash after vulgar late-night post targeting Trump, doubles down

Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., sparked an online frenzy after launching an expletive-filled, late-night rant against President Donald Trump in protest of his plans to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

“So f—ing f—ed up. I’ll pray they f— him to his face,” Lee wrote shortly before 1 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday.

“Sorry, I say f— a lot these days,” Lee, 59, added.

Lee, a four-term House lawmaker, made the crude remarks in response to a story from The Associated Press reporting that Trump planned to visit the court to listen to Wednesday’s case about his birthright citizenship order.

TRUMP BLASTS OMAR, TLAIB AS ‘LUNATICS,’ SAYS ‘SEND THEM BACK’ AFTER SOTU PROTESTS

Democrats have widely opposed Trump’s effort to end automatic birthright citizenship for children born in the United States whose parents are illegal immigrants or those taking advantage of the birth tourism industry.

“Either Democrat Rep. Susie Lee was blackout drunk when she tweeted this or it was a staffer posting from her account,” conservative commentator Steve Guest wrote in response.

“Mentally deranged psycho!” conservative personality Eric Daugherty said on social media.

Amid the backlash, Lee deleted the tweet on Wednesday morning with little explanation.

When asked for comment, a spokesperson for Lee referred Fox News Digital to a statement posted on Lee’s personal social media account.

“Clearly my language touched a nerve — my nerve was touched by the attacks on our Constitution and its separation of powers,” Lee wrote. “I took an oath to protect and defend it.”

OMAR SHOUTS ‘YOU ARE A MURDERER’ AND ‘LIAR’ AT TRUMP DURING STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

Lee’s social media outburst comes as the Nevada Democrat has sought to brand herself as a bipartisan lawmaker. Trump notably won Lee’s suburban Las Vegas district by less than one point in 2024 and national Republicans view the battleground seat as a top flip opportunity.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), House Republicans’ campaign arm, slammed Lee’s expletive-filled post aimed at the president.

“Democrat Susie Lee has become Nevada’s fool, more focused on vulgar outbursts than doing the job she was elected to do,” NRCC spokesman Christian Martinez said in a statement. “Hitting delete doesn’t clean up her mess, it just proves she knows how embarrassing it is.

The Trump administration has argued that the purpose of the 14th Amendment was to grant citizenship to American slaves and their children, not the descendants of illegal immigrants or those living in the United States temporarily.

“I have listened to this argument for so long, and this is not about Chinese billionaires, or billionaires from other countries who all of a sudden have 75 children or 59 children in one case, or 10 children becoming American citizens. This was about slaves,” Trump told Fox News’ Peter Doocy in the Oval Office on Tuesday regarding the case.

“It had to do with the babies of slaves,” the president continued. “It didn’t have to do with the protection of multimillionaires and billionaires wanting to have their children get American citizenship. It is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s been so badly handled by legal people over the years.”

Politics

Trump, Bondi watch historic SCOTUS arguments as justices duel over birthright citizenship

The Supreme Court on Wednesday pressed lawyers for the Trump administration and the ACLU on so-called “birthright citizenship” protections in the U.S., part of a landmark court challenge that could upend more than a century of legal precedent and executive branch policy.

In Trump v. Barbara, justices are weighing the legality of the executive order Trump signed on his first day back in office. The order in question seeks to end automatic citizenship — or “birthright citizenship” — for nearly all persons born in the U.S. to undocumented parents, or to parents with temporary non-immigrant visas in the U.S.

As oral arguments kicked off, justices appeared somewhat skeptical of the Trump administration’s arguments, including its view of the 14th Amendment, and pressed the Trump administration’s lawyer, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, on the administration’s reading of the citizenship clause.

Chief Justice John Roberts told Sauer that he viewed one of the key arguments made by the Trump administration in its case as “quirky.”

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP’S BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP BAN FOR ALL INFANTS, TESTING LOWER COURT POWERS

“You obviously put a lot of weight on [the] ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ issue,” Roberts told Sauer. He noted the administration cited “children of ambassadors, children of enemies during a hostile invasion, children on warships. And then you expand it to a whole class of illegal aliens here in the country,” Roberts said. “I’m not quite sure how you can get to that big group from such tiny and sort of idiosyncratic examples.”

Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch also expressed skepticism during early questions and pressed Sauer on key issues of precedent, enforcement, and the text of the citizenship clause itself.

“We’re in a new world now,” Sauer said, noting that “some 8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who’s a U.S. citizen.”

“It’s a new world, but it’s the same constitution,” Roberts said in response.

As expected, arguments focused heavily on precedent set in the 1898 Supreme Court case, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which established birthright citizenship protections for persons “domiciled,” or born on U.S. soil.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh also appeared skeptical of the administration’s argument. He noted that Congress adopted the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which essentially mirrors the text of the 14th Amendment.

TRUMP TO BEGIN ENFORCING BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ORDER AS EARLY AS THIS MONTH, DOJ SAYS

Kavanaugh pointed to the INA and the precedent in Wong Kim Ark, noting: “One might have expected Congress to use a different phrase if it wanted to try to disagree with Wong Kim Ark on what the scope of birthright citizenship, or the scope of citizenship, should be.”

“I am not seeing the relevance as a legal constitutional interpretative matter,” he told Sauer, after a brief back-and-forth.

Justice Samuel Alito, for his part, appeared the most open to Trump’s argument.

He noted that the case brings to the forefront key questions on whether laws should be read as being limited only to situations lawmakers had in mind at the time of passage, or whether they should be applicable in future situations, even if unimaginable at the time.

“Scalia had an example that dealt with this situation,” Alito said, referring to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

“He imagined an old theft statute that was enacted well before anybody conceived of a microwave oven,” Alito said. “And then afterwards, someone is charged with the crime of stealing a microwave oven. And this fellow says, ‘Well, I can’t be convicted under this, because the microwave oven didn’t exist at that time.’”

“There’s a general rule there, and you apply it to future applications,” Alito said, to which Sauer emphatically agreed.

SUPREME COURT SIGNALS IT MAY LIMIT KEY VOTING RIGHTS ACT RULE

Trump’s executive order was immediately met with a flurry of federal lawsuits last year, and to date, no U.S. court has sided with the administration on the issue.

Trump himself attended Supreme Court oral arguments, making him the first sitting U.S. president to do so. Other administration officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, were also in the audience.

A ruling in Trump’s favor would represent a seismic shift for immigration policy in the U.S., and would upend long-held notions of citizenship that Trump and his allies argue are misguided.

It would also yield immediate, operational consequences for infants born in the U.S., putting the impetus on Congress and the Trump administration to immediately act to clarify their status.

A decision from the high court is expected by late June.

Politics

Former Virginia governor challenges Spanberger to debate her redistricting flip-flop

A top Republican predecessor of Gov. Abigail Spanberger challenged her to publicly debate the merits of the redistricting referendum she and Virginia Democrats so fervently support, as an anti-gerrymandering group he works with also fired off a letter to her in his stead.

Spanberger, along with Senate and House leadership in Richmond, is squarely in the “Vote YES” camp when it comes to the April 21 public referendum to redraw the Old Dominion’s congressional districts in a way that would likely remove all but one GOP congressman from office.

Gov. George Allen, a Republican who served as governor from 1994 to 1998 between tenures in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, said in a statement that if the incumbent’s ideas are right, she should publicly defend them.

“Virginia voters expect a robust and transparent discussion of the issues. So, I am inviting Governor Spanberger to join me in a series of public debates to look Virginians in the eye and explain each side of this referendum vote,” Allen said.

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE RUNS THROUGH VIRGINIA AS COURT OKS HIGH-STAKES REDISTRICTING VOTE

“I am prepared to discuss why I oppose gerrymandering in Virginia and anywhere else in our nation.”

Allen, whose father was one of the then-Washington Redskins’ most successful coaches, said that people in Virginia are being “barraged” by political ads and that $28 million has been spent on commercials that “are at best misleading and designed to confused voters.”

“Let’s give Virginians the honest and transparent discussion of gerrymandering that they deserve,” he said.

In that regard, the group No Gerrymandering Virginia, which is being spearheaded by a bipartisan group of former Virginia lawmakers and officials including Allen, sent a letter requesting such to Spanberger’s office at the Capitol.

“If you’re confident that your ideas and your candidates are so great, then you ought not fear the people,” Allen told Richmond’s NBC affiliate.

He added that gerrymandering is a personal subject, as part of his impetus to run for governor came when Albemarle County — where he owned a “log house on a gravel road” — was split into several pieces during one such redrawing.

No Gerrymandering Virginia’s letter called the April 21 vote a “consequential moment for Virginia.”

GOP-LED COUNTIES PUSH BACK AGAINST DEMOCRAT’S REDISTRICTING CHARGE, TESTING VIRGINIA’S CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITS

“At its core, the referendum asks whether the commonwealth will maintain its commitment to fair representation or move toward a mid-decade gerrymandering approach that has already taken hold in other states,” the letter said.

“Virginians deserve the opportunity to hear a clear and direct debate on this question before they vote.”

“To that end, I would like to invite you to participate in a televised, live-streamed debate on the referendum. Former Governor George Allen has agreed to participate and would present the case against adopting the proposed maps. As you know, Governor Allen has long opposed gerrymandering, shaped in part by his experience being drawn out of his congressional district in the early 1990s, and he supported the 2020 constitutional amendment establishing Virginia’s current fair redistricting process.”

In a prior statement in February, Allen said mid-decade “gerrymandering” is wrong, no matter who does it.

“Texas was wrong. California was wrong. North Carolina was wrong. Virginians should stand up for principle like those in Indiana and South Carolina who said ‘No’ to this egregious gerrymandering their states,” he said, adding that the 2020 referendum that took power away from the assembly shows Virginia has “much better standards of fairness than this.”

Allen is joined on No Gerrymandering Virginia’s advisory council by former Virginia House Speaker William Howell, R-Stafford, former State Sen. Chap Peterson, D-Fairfax, and ex-Del. William Fralin, R-Roanoke.

Other recent Virginia officials have also lambasted the redistricting push, including ex-Gov. Glenn Youngkin and ex-Attorney General Jason Miyares.

Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger for comment.

In recent public statements defending the referendum, she said it is “temporary” and suggested she still supports the 2020 amendment otherwise.

Politics

Poll position: Where Trump stands among Americans as he faces the nation in primetime

President Donald Trump goes before the nation in prime time on Wednesday evening to deliver what the White House says is “an important update” on the war with Iran.

The president’s address comes amid the month-long attacks by the U.S. and Israel on Iran, which polls indicate are unpopular with many Americans, and a surge in gas prices as a direct result of the fighting have triggered a further slide in Trump’s standing in public opinion surveys.

The political implications are clear: The strikes on Iran and the erosion of the president’s approval ratings are warning signs for the GOP as Republicans ramp up to defend their slim House and Senate majorities in this autumn’s midterm elections.

Trump stood at 41% approval and 59% disapproval in the latest Fox News national poll, which was conducted March 20–23. The president’s negative 18-point margin was up from 14 points in the previous Fox News poll, which was conducted Feb. 28–March 2, as the strikes against Iran began.

FOX NEWS LIVE UPDATES ON THE U.S. WAR WITH IRAN

The president’s approval ratings stood in the upper 30s, with his disapproval in the upper 50s to low 60s, in the most recent national surveys from Reuters/Ipsos, AP/NORC, and Quinnipiac University. A CNN poll conducted March 26–30 and released Wednesday indicated Trump had a 35%-64% approval/disapproval rating.

An average of the most recent national surveys gauging the president’s standing puts Trump just above 40%, with his disapproval in the upper 50s.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLL SHOWS ON THE WAR WITH IRAN

While Trump’s base remains extremely supportive of the president and the war, much of the slippage is coming from within the GOP, specifically those who are considered non-MAGA Republicans.

“I do see in the last couple of surveys an edging down…close to a double-digit movement,” veteran Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who helps run the Fox News Poll with Democrat Chris Anderson, said, pointing to declining support for Trump among non-MAGA Republicans.

Fueling Trump’s decline appears to be the surge in gas prices.

The average price of gasoline in the U.S. topped $4 per gallon on Tuesday, according to national averages from AAA and GasBuddy, for the first time in four years.

FOX BUSINESS: GAS PRICES TOP $4 PER GALLON

The military attacks by the U.S. and Israel have resulted in the deaths of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials, and the decimation of the country’s military.

In response, Iran has targeted energy facilities with missile and drone attacks in a number of Persian Gulf nations. It has also made the Strait of Hormuz nearly impassable to commercial shipping, bringing roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply to a halt and sending global fuel prices sharply higher.

That has only exacerbated Trump’s polling woes when it comes to his performance on the economy, amid public dissatisfaction with high prices and the cost of living.

A spotlight on inflation helped fuel sweeping victories by Trump and Republicans in the 2024 elections, when they won back the White House and Senate and successfully defended their slim House majority.

DEMOCRATS TARGET TRUMP, GOP, OVER SURING GAS PRICES

But a laser focus on affordability by Democrats, amid persistent inflation, has fueled a slew of victories and overperformances in 2025’s off-year elections and in special elections in the more than 14 months since Trump returned to the White House.

According to the Fox News poll, 80% of respondents said they were concerned about gas prices, and 86% concerned about inflation and high prices. And the CNN survey spotlighted that the president’s approval rating for handling the economy sank to 31%, Trump’s lowest level ever in their polling.

The White House says the surge in prices is temporary.

“When Operation Epic Fury is complete, gas prices will plummet back to the multiyear lows American drivers enjoyed before these short-term disruptions,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Tuesday.

Leavitt emphasized that “President Trump remains committed to fully unleashing American energy dominance, lowering costs, and putting more money back in the pockets of hardworking American families.”

OIL HAS SURGED SINCE THE IRAN CONFLICT BEGAN, BUT GAS PRICES MAY NOT BE DONE RISING

The gas price surge is giving Democrats more political ammunition to target the GOP.

“BREAKING: National Gas Prices Skyrocket to $4 Per Gallon,” read the headline from an email Tuesday morning from the Democratic National Committee.

The House Democrats’ campaign committee last week launched digital ads showing prices at the pump rising and an image saying “D.C. Republicans Did That!” Sources say to expect another round of ads on gas prices in the coming weeks.

But Democrats have their own polling problems, as the party’s brand image has cratered to historic lows in a slew of polls over the past year.

Shaw, pointing to the so-called double-haters, voters who disapprove of both Trump and the Democrats, said that group hasn’t “really swung dramatically to the Democrats” as the midterms approach.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas emphasized in a recent Fox News Digital interview that, in his opinion, Trump’s “decision to launch this military action is the most consequential decision” of his presidency.

Such perceptions only increase what’s at stake when Trump addresses the nation in prime time.

“The American people want to hear what the off-ramp for the war is and when it will end,” Dan Eberhart, an oil drilling chief executive officer and prominent Republican donor told Fox News Digital.

Eberhart, who is supportive of the president, said: “Trump’s base is with him, but many ordinary Americans feel the war is unnecessary. Tonight is Trump’s opportunity to explain why this war matters to everyday Americans.”