The NASA astronauts who were stranded at the International Space Station were stuck in space for so long because the Biden administration lacked ‘urgency’ in securing their return to Earth, according to the White House press secretary.

Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Suni Williams launched from their Boeing Starliner spacecraft in June 2024 for a mission set to last only eight days. But when the spacecraft encountered technical issues, NASA decided it was unsafe for it to arrive back on Earth with the astronauts on board.

As a result, Wilmore and Williams remained stranded at the International Space Station — until Tuesday when they parachuted down to Earth, off the coast of Florida. 

‘These two incredible astronauts were only supposed to be up there for eight days, but because of the Biden administration’s lack of urgency, they ended up spending nine months in space,’ press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday at the White House. ‘Joe Biden’s lack of courage to act boldly and decisively was a big reason why Butch and Suni did not make it back until yesterday. But President Trump doesn’t waste time.’

A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Leavitt said that after taking office in January, Trump directed SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to hash out a plan to rescue the astronauts with NASA. Wilmore and Williams returned to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon capsule. 

Musk issued his congratulations to the SpaceX team and NASA for successfully pulling off the rescue, and also thanked Trump for prioritizing the mission.

‘Thanks to the excellent work of the SpaceX team working with NASA, the astronauts are now safely home,’ Musk said Tuesday during an exclusive interview on ‘Hannity.’ ‘And so congratulations to the SpaceX NASA teams on excellent work.’  

Musk, who is also heading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), previously said in an interview with Hannity in February that he had offered to work with the Biden administration to return the astronauts, but that his offer was rejected for ‘political reasons.’ 

Wilmore said in an interview in March that he trusted Musk’s assessment of the situation, although he said he did not know the nature of the private discussions. 

‘I can only say that Mr. Musk, what he says, is absolutely factual… I believe him,’ Wilmore said March 4 during an in-orbit press conference, according to the New York Post.

Still, Wilmore said he wasn’t involved in the discussions, and so he couldn’t personally verify what the conversations entailed. 

‘We have no information on that, though, whatsoever,’ Wilmore said. ‘What was offered, what was not offered, who it was offered to, how that process went. That’s information that we simply don’t have.’

The judicial branch has been behaving ‘erroneously,’ according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, after several judges have blocked various executive orders from President Donald Trump.

‘I would like to point out that the judges in this country are acting erroneously,’ Leavitt said in a Wednesday news briefing. ‘We have judges who are acting as partisan activists from the bench.’

On Saturday, Judge James Boasberg of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order halting the Trump administration from deporting migrants allegedly part of the Tren de Aragua gang under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The law permits deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing.

However, flights carrying the migrants continued to El Salvador, and Leavitt said Sunday the order had ‘no lawful basis’ since Boasberg issued it after the flights departed from U.S. airspace.

Meanwhile, Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment in a social media post Tuesday, prompting Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare statement condemning Trump’s remarks. 

Specifically, Roberts said that ‘it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision’ for more than two centuries. 

In response, Leavitt said Wednesday that the Supreme Court needs to ‘rein in’ judges who are behaving as ‘partisan activists’ and are ‘undermining’ the judicial branch, while also asserting that Trump does respect Roberts. 

Efforts to oust Boasberg also have been launched in Congress. For example, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, unveiled an impeachment resolution against Boasberg on Tuesday, claiming that Boasberg was ‘guilty of high crimes’ in a post on social media. 

‘It’s incredibly apparent that there is a concerted effort by the far left to judge shop, to pick judges who are clearly acting as partisan activists from the bench in an attempt to derail this president’s agenda,’ Leavitt said. ‘We will not allow that to happen.’ 

Leavitt said that while flights to deport illegal immigrants to El Salvador are currently not scheduled, the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign will continue as litigation continues on this case. 

‘We don’t have any flights planned specifically, but we will continue with the mass deportations,’ Leavitt said. ‘And I would just like to point out that the judge in this case is essentially trying to say that the President doesn’t have the executive authority to deport foreign terrorists…That is an egregious abuse of the bench.’ 

Boasberg has requested the Trump administration provide more details regarding the timing of the flights departing U.S. soil, when they left U.S. airspace, and when they landed in El Salvador, among other things. The Trump administration has until Thursday to respond. 

Trump has signed more than 90 executive orders since returning to the White House in January, spurring more than 125 lawsuits against his administration. Additionally, the odds of impeaching a judge are slim, as it would require 67 senators to vote for a conviction. Currently, Republicans only have a majority of 53 lawmakers in the upper chamber. 

Trump told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in an interview Tuesday that he has never defied a court order — and wouldn’t — but that the judicial system is full of ‘crooked’ judges. 

‘No, you can’t do that,’ Trump said about defying court orders. ‘However, we have bad judges. We have very bad judges. These are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think at a certain point, you have to look at what do you do when you have a rogue judge.’

Other recent legal losses for the Trump administration include U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes blocking Trump’s executive order to bar transgender individuals from serving in the military.

Reyes wrote in her 79-page opinion released Tuesday that the ban ‘is soaked in animus.’ The injunction takes effect on Friday, providing a window for the Trump administration to appeal the order. 

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report. 

A federal judge ruled in favor of the Trump administration on Wednesday, after a government-funded nonprofit organization filed a lawsuit protecting itself from ‘ongoing destruction’ from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The U.S. Institute for Peace (USIP) filed a request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on Tuesday, claiming that DOGE had committed ‘literal trespass and takeover by force…of the Institute’s headquarters building on Constitution Avenue.’

The organization also accused the anti-waste initiative of ‘ongoing destruction of the Institute’s physical and electronic property.’

‘Defendants have been and are at this minute engaged in conduct that will cause the Institute irreparable harm that will prevent the Institute from performing any of its lawful functions and is likely to utterly destroy it,’ the lawsuit stated.

In a decision on Wednesday, Judge Beryl Howell motioned to deny the USIP’s request for a TRO.

‘I think there is confusion in the complaint that make me uncomfortable,’ Howell said.

‘I would say I am very offended by how DOGE has operated in the Institute in treating American citizens…. but that concern about how this has gone down is not one that can sway me in the consideration of factors for TRO, which is emergency relief, which is exceptional,’ she continued.

Howell, who was appointed as a senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2024, also said she was ‘particularly concerned about plaintiffs’ likelihood of success.’

‘Two of the most important tests, likely to succeed on the merits and likely to suffer irreparable harm, are just a stretch here,’ Howell added. 

USIP, an independent institution funded by Congress, was established in 1984 under the Reagan administration. Its goal is to ‘[protect] U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad,’ according to its website.

‘Our work helps keep America safe, reducing the risk that the United States will be drawn into costly foreign wars that drive terrorism, criminal gangs and migration,’ the agency’s website reads. ‘We help make America stronger by projecting U.S. influence and bolstering partner countries in regions destabilized by China and other U.S. adversaries.’

USIP had infamously not complied with President Donald Trump’s February executive order to pull back the ‘scope of federal bureaucracy,’ refusing to reduce its size to the statutory minimum listed in the order.

As such, the Trump administration fired 11 of its 14 board members last week, leaving only Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Defense University President Peter Garvin.

Howell’s decision came shortly after the White House told Fox News Digital that the Trump administration had gutted USIP of ‘rogue bureaucrats.’ 

‘Rogue bureaucrats will not be allowed to hold agencies hostage,’ White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a Tuesday statement. ‘The Trump administration will enforce the president’s executive authority and ensure his agencies remain accountable to the American people.’

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

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., was gifted a silver-plated beeper during a visit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the lawmaker praised Israel’s covert operation in which it detonated pagers last year worn by Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. 

Fetterman repeatedly has voiced support for Israel while breaking with the Democratic Party, which has been critical of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, and has demanded that Hamas return all the hostages the terror group took on Oct. 7, 2023. 

He was visiting Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem this week when he reiterated his support for the Jewish state. 

‘Hamas does not want peace. I unapologetically, 100% stand with Israel, and demand the release of all remaining hostages,’ he wrote Tuesday on X. ‘Sending this from Israel.’

During an exchange of gifts, Fetterman gave Netanyahu a framed news article about an effort to memorialize Netanyahu’s brother, the fallen Israeli soldier Yoni Netanyahu, in Philadelphia, where Netanyahu lived as a teenager, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

The fallen prime minister’s brother is considered a hero in Israel after he was killed in the 1976 Israeli raid in Entebbe, Uganda during the rescue of 102 hostages taken by German and Palestinian terrorists in a plane hijacking.

Netanyahu then reciprocated with his gift.

‘What can I give a man who has everything? How about giving him a beeper?’ Netanyahu said. ‘This is a silver-plated beeper. The real beeper is, like, one-tenth the weight. It’s nothing, but it changes history.’

The beeper references Israel’s September 2024 operation in which it detonated pagers used by members of Hezbollah in Lebanon, killings dozens of people. 

‘When that story broke, I was like, ‘Oh, I love it, I love it.’ And now, it’s like, thank you for this,’ Fetterman responded. 

The operation came before Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, and weeks ahead of an Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon. That conflict ended in a ceasefire in late November.

In February, Netanyahu also gifted a gold-plated pager to President Donald Trump. 

Following a year of significant setbacks in the Middle East for Iran with its proxy forces flagging in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria, Tehran is leaning on its influence over the Houthi terrorist group in Yemen to carry out its offensive aims. 

According to findings obtained by sources embedded in Tehran who are affiliated with the Iranian resistance group called the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, not only are some of Iran’s most senior military officials in its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) involved in Houthi decision-making, but Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has his thumb on the deadly group. 

President Donald Trump’s recent threats against Tehran over its sponsorship of the Houthis are supported in the report, which claims well-placed sources have confirmed that one of the most senior commanders in the IRGC’s Quds Force – the elite branch of the Iranian military – is ‘directly commanding Houthi activities.’

Khamenei, according to the report compiled by the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and first obtained by Fox News Digital, personally supervises all Houthi ‘political and military affairs’ that are first approved by his regime.

‘According to reports received from within the IRGC, Khamenei has personally emphasized the importance of Houthi attacks and the necessity of sending weapons and equipment for the Houthis to IRGC commanders and regime officials,’ the report said. 

The weakening of Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’ amid the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria has increasingly pushed Tehran to lean on its proxies in Iraq and Yemen.

More than 100 attacks on commercial shipping vessels have been committed by Houthi forces since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, which sparked responses from surrounding terrorist networks, including Hezbollah.

The exchange of missile and drone fire by both the Houthis and U.S. forces escalated this week when the terrorist network threatened to renew strikes on Israeli vessels after Jerusalem cut off humanitarian aid headed for the Gaza Strip this month.

President Trump responded by vowing ‘overwhelming lethal force’ until the Houthi attacks ceased and warned Iran that it would be held ‘fully accountable’ for any attacks.

‘[IRGC Brig. Gen. Abdolreza] Shahlai is in charge of all military, political, and economic matters related to the regime’s intervention in Yemen, including all Houthi operations and attacks,’ the report said, noting his close ties to the former commander of the Quds Force who was killed by then-President Trump’s order in Iraq in 2020, Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani had the blood of hundreds of American soldiers on his hands. 

The report also found that the Iranian Embassy in Yemen is currently under ‘full control’ of the Quds Force.

While it is not necessarily unheard of for intelligence operatives to work out of embassies abroad, the report said it could find no evidence that any personnel from Iran’s Foreign Ministry were in its embassy in Yemen.

The Iranian Embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions. 

‘The mullahs’ regime is the root cause of war and instability in the region, sustained through repression at home and the export of terrorism and conflict abroad,’ Ali Safavi, a member of the NCRI’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News Digital. ‘The only viable solution to the Iranian crisis is the regime’s overthrow by the Iranian people.’

‘A decisive international policy toward Iran must recognize and support the legitimacy of the Iranian resistance, proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist entity, activate the U.N. Security Council snapback mechanism and endorse the Resistance Units’ fight against the regime,’ he added.