As President Trump begins his promised crackdown on illegal immigration, his administration is sending a stark warning to public officials who refuse to enforce federal law.
Local officials who harbor illegal aliens could face prosecution, Trump adviser Stephen Miller warned.
"The law is clear that harboring an illegal alien, smuggling an illegal alien, obstructing law enforcement, obstructing an official proceeding and a conspiracy to violate the rights of Americans, all of these and many more are criminal statutes," Miller told Fox News' Jesse Watters on Wednesday.
Hundreds of aliens have already been arrested, including sex offenders and other violent criminals.
"The initial immigration raids have already arrested and removed some of the most vicious criminals in this country, including child pornography cases, homicide cases, sexual assault attacks on children," Miller said.
"This is just the very beginning in the effort to liberate this country from the migrant criminal threat. In the coming days, you're going to see a massive scale-up in enforcement activities all across the country to dismantle this criminal network."
Within hours of returning to the White House on Monday, President Trump issued a series of sweeping orders restricting mass immigration - from declaring a national emergency at the border to suspending asylum.
The Trump administration has also lifted restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), empowering agents to make arrests at schools, churches, and other locations forbidden by past administrations.
Democratic states and localities have pledged to shield aliens from deportation, but the Trump administration is warning that such obstruction won't be tolerated.
The Justice Department issued a memo instructing federal prosecutors to target state and local officials in so-called "sanctuary" jurisdictions who interfere with federal immigration enforcement.
“Indeed, it is the responsibility of the Justice Department to defend the Constitution, and accordingly, to lawfully execute the policies that the American people elected President Trump to implement,” acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said.
Miller warned that "no one is above the law, not illegal aliens, and not anyone who may choose to illegally harbor those aliens."
"With respect to sanctuary cities overall, they are going to be flooded by federal law enforcement to find and remove these criminal threats," Miller said.
"The law of this nation is being restored by President Trump. The sovereignty of this nation is being restored by President Trump, and the cartels are being designated as terrorists, and they are going to be sent packing."
Kamala Harris is reportedly turning against her husband as she broods on her crushing election loss.
As the career politician contemplates her next move, she is sizing up whether Doug Emhoff will be a plus or a minus for her future ventures. According to some in her circle, Harris believes Emhoff is "dead weight" for her ambitions, the Daily Mail reported.
Emhoff caused headaches for Harris' presidential campaign after he was forced to own up to cheating on his first wife with his children's nanny. An ex-girlfriend of Emhoff's also accused him of forcefully slapping her in public.
"He comes up, turns me around by my right shoulder," the woman told Daily Mail.
"I'm completely caught off guard, I'm not bracing, I'm in four-inch heels, wearing a full-length gown and it's between 2-3am. He slaps me so hard I spin around, and I'm in utter shock."
Emhoff denied the assault, but the charges about his treatment of women clashed awkwardly with his image as a male feminist advocate - and Harris' appeals to female voters.
Harris had never run for office outside of liberal California, and she proved wobbly on the national stage, frequently dodging basic questions about her views and plans for the country. But that hasn't stopped Harris from searching for scapegoats for her crushing loss to Donald Trump.
"There's plenty of blame to go around as far as Kamala is concerned and Doug has his share," a source told Daily Mail.
"Doug did Kamala no favors during the election – frankly, he looked like a hypocritical a** after the bombshells that he had got his child's nanny pregnant while married to his first wife and assaulted his ex-girlfriend on the heels of his 'I am woman' crusade."
Harris has continued to appear with Emhoff for official events, including President Trump's second inauguration, where Harris sat stony-faced through Trump's scorching indictment of his predecessor's administration.
While she struggles to put on a happy face in public, Harris is preoccupied with her political recovery, creating tensions in her marriage.
Harris is no stranger to transactional relationships. Before her political rise as a prosecutor in California, she became known as the girlfriend of a much older man - former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown.
"I see the signs that all is not hunky dory in the Harris household," the source told the Daily Mail.
"It's not like she hasn't had men help further her political career before," the person added.
"But what does Doug do for her now?"
It's widely speculated that Harris is considering a run for governor of California in 2026, or another presidential run in 2028.
President Trump has reassigned career Justice Department agents, including one high-ranking official who pushed for the shocking FBI raid of Mar-A-Lago.
At least 15 high-ranking DOJ officials have been reassigned to less influential positions, the Washington Post reported. The shuffle is part of Trump's promised overhaul of the DOJ and his effort to end the weaponization of government.
The officials were reassigned, rather than fired, to work around legal protections for career employees, the Post reported. These individuals could decide to resign rather than accept being moved to less desirable posts.
The reassignments reflect Trump's desire to shift the DOJ's focus away from politics and toward national priorities, like immigration enforcement.
As an example of that, Deputy Assistant Attorney General George Toscas was moved to Trump's newly created Office of Sanctuary Cities Enforcement. Toscas, a veteran of the DOJ's national security division, played a crucial role in orchestrating the FBI's controversial raid of Trump's home in 2022.
At the time, there was initial disagreement between the FBI and DOJ about whether a raid was justified. Toscas chewed out FBI officials who supported a voluntary search, telling them he did not "give a damn about the optics" of raiding a former president's home.
"You and your leadership seem to have gone from cautious to fearful,” Toscas reportedly wrote in an email to the former head of the FBI Washington Field Office, Steven D’Antuono.
Toscas also told D'Antuono that he was “way out of line on substance and form" for opposing the raid.
Months after his home was searched, Trump - who was a candidate for the presidency at the time - was charged by the Biden Justice Department with improperly retaining classified documents. The case was eventually withdrawn by prosecutor Jack Smith after Trump's re-election win in the fall.
For Trump and many Americans, the raid of Mar-A-Lago exemplifies the overreach and weaponization of the Biden Justice Department. The raid has even elicited some pointed criticism from Trump's normally reticent wife Melania Trump, who called it a "warning to all Americans."
Trump's nominee to lead the Justice Department, Pam Bondi, is a longtime Trump loyalist and former Florida attorney general who has echoed his criticism of government weaponization.
In one of his boldest moves since reclaiming the presidency, Trump pardoned nearly all of the 1,500 January 6th defendants, effectively ending the largest DOJ probe in history with one stroke.
Meanwhile, Trump's Justice Department has warned that state and local officials could face prosecution if they refuse to carry out Trump's immigration orders.
As she returns to the spotlight, First Lady Melania Trump can expect moral support from her little-known older sister.
Ines Knauss, 56, has kept a low-profile for some 20 years, but she has played a significant role in the lives of Melania and her son, Barron, the Daily Mail reported.
Melania's older sister was the maid of honor at Melania's wedding to Donald Trump and was last pictured at Mar-A-Lago in 2005. Knauss was not pictured at the funeral of her mother, Amalija, when she passed away last year.
"Melania and Ines are very close and since Melania's mother died, Ines and their father are probably the two people Melania trusts the most," an insider familiar with the first lady's thinking told the Daily Mail.
A photographer who worked with Melania in her former modeling career described Knauss as "really polite and very mellow."
The Slovenian-born sisters have a close bond, as Melania shared with readers in her best-selling memoir released last year, which mentions Ines some 30 times.
"Ines was more than just a sister to me; she was a guiding light who illuminated my path and inspired me to reach for the stars," Melania wrote.
Melania's return to the White House has prompted fresh public fascination in one of the most elegant, and elusive, of First Ladies.
Known to have a close-knit family, Melania has long prioritized parenting her son Barron, but there are indications she will embrace a more public role in her second turn as First Lady. In addition to her memoir, Melania is releasing a documentary about her life on Amazon Prime later this year.
“I just feel that people didn’t accept me maybe … And I didn’t have much support,” she recently told Fox News. "Maybe some people, they see me as just a wife of the president, but I’m standing on my own two feet, independent. I have my own thoughts. I have my own yes and no. I don’t always agree what my husband is saying or doing. And that’s OK.”
Melania's evolution was apparent during her husband's inaugural ceremony Monday, where she cut a bold figure, donning a black boater hat that concealed her eyeline.
The look projected a strong aura of self-possession as Melania prepares for a return to public life.
"The look said ‘I’m flawless and in control,’ and it showed that she’s going to do things her way this time — she won’t look back," fashion journalist and historian Nancy MacDonell told PageSix.
Iran's regime was rocked by a successful assassination attempt that took out two judges on the Supreme Court.
The assailant entered the court in Tehran Saturday morning and killed Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghiseh. The motive of the shooting is unclear, but the victims were both high-ranking clerics in the country's repressive, theocratic regime.
The assailant was said to have shot himself dead as police were in pursuit. He did not have a case before the court, according to the judiciary's media center.
Reports on the attack are murky. One account said the assailant was a court staffer, while the court's own Judiciary Media Center described him as an outside infiltrator.
"This morning, an armed infiltrator at the Supreme Court carried out a premeditated assassination targeting two brave and experienced judges renowned for their fight against crimes against national security, espionage, and terrorism," the Judiciary Media Center said.
"As a result of this terrorist act, two dedicated and revolutionary judges—steadfast in their defense of public security—were killed."
Additional suspects "were identified, summoned or arrested and investigations of them have begun," Asghar Jahangir, a spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, told state media.
The assassinations are a rare example of targeted violence against Iran's clerical elite, who have governed the country with an iron fist for decades.
Both of the victims in the attack are high-profile judges known for cracking down on the Iranian opposition. In particular, both men are said to have played a role in the 1988 mass execution of political dissidents in the group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK.
In a 2017 interview, Rezini justified the "death commissions" as necessary to secure Iran after the conclusion of the brutal Iran-Iraq war, in which MEK sided with Iran's western neighbor.
“Our friends and I who are among the 20 judges in the country, we did our best to ensure the security of that time and the years after and from then, we guaranteed that the hypocrites (the MEK) could never become powerful in this country,” he reportedly said.
Razini survived a previous assassination attempt in 1999 and Mogheiseh was sanctioned in 2019 by the first Trump administration for his role in cracking down on dissent.
“He is notorious for sentencing scores of journalists and internet users to lengthy prison terms,” the U.S. Treasury said at the time.
Iran is expected to face more pressure with the return of President Trump, who pursued a hardline policy against Tehran during his first term.
The Iranian regime has been rocked by occasional large protests from citizens dissatisfied with the status quo.
The most recent wave of demonstrations, in 2022-2023, led to a government crackdown in which hundreds were killed.
With President-elect Donald Trump returning to power this week in grand fashion, many of those in Washington D.C. who opposed him or are otherwise not in alignment with his vision for America are already throwing in the towel.
According to USAToday, one of those people was IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, who informed employees at the agency that he will resign the day Trump takes office, which is on Jan. 20.
Werfel's resignation was definitely strategic, as it technically prevented Trump from removing him from office.
The IRS commissioner still had three years left as his term as the head of the U.S. tax agency.
Werfel resigned because Trump has already indicated that he wants former Republican lawmaker Billy Long from Missouri to head the agency.
Had Werfel not tendered his resignation, he undoubtedly would have been fired by Trump, which wouldn't have looked great on his resume.
USAToday noted:
Werfel, in a letter to agency staff obtained by the Wall Street Journal said that if he had tried to remain in office during Long's confirmation process, it would have been "hard to predict what type of distractions this unprecedented scenario would create."
Notably, IRS commissioners typically do not have to worry about being fired, and the transition between presidents usually do not affect them. The last time an IRS commissioner pulled the same move was after Bill Clinton took over in 1993.
The IRS has only two political appointees, one being the commissioner and the other being the chief of counsel.
USAToday added:
The commissioner and chief counsel are the agency's only political appointees, and a 1998 reform bill established five-year terms for IRS commissioners in an effort to keep politics out of tax enforcement. Every president since the 1998 reform − to include Trump in his first term − retained the serving IRS commissioner.
Users across social media weighed in on Werfel's resignation announcement.
"I hope the Trump Administration gets rid of the IRS, the federal income tax, and the Federal Reserve! please please!" one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Putting themselves in timeout one after another before Daddy Don pulls up with the belt. Pro tip - it won't save you."
Long, like most of Trump's nominees, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate.
President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony for his second, non-consecutive term in the White House was set to be a star-studded, unforgettable celebration.
While that's still the case, many of those who thought they were lucky enough to attend the gathering found out this week that their luck ran out, as forecasted extremely cold weather forced organizers, and the president-elect himself, to move the event indoors.
According to ABC News, the move inside means that a long list of ticketed guests will not be able to attend the special event, causing some to be quite frustrated.
Trump will now be sworn in as the 47th president inside the Capitol Rotunda, which echoes what happened during Ronald Reagan's inauguration.
Trump broke the bad news to his ticketed guests in a Truth Social post, explaining that dangerously cold weather forced organizers to make the decision to move the event indoors, but highlighted the fact that the ceremony will still be epic, and TV audiences will enjoy the entertainment and proceedings.
"The various Dignitaries and Guests will be brought into the Capitol," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This will be a very beautiful experience for all, and especially for the large TV audience!"
"We will open Capital One Arena on Monday for LIVE viewing of this Historic event, and to host the Presidential Parade," Trump added. "I will join the crowd at Capital One, after my Swearing In."
ABC News noted:
Due to this change, the "vast majority of ticketed guests will not be able to attend the ceremonies in person," according to the Joint Inaugural Committee. "Those with tickets for the Presidential Platform and members of Congress will be able to attend in person."
The Joint Inaugural Committee statement added, "We strongly suggest people who are in Washington for the event attend other indoor events at indoor venues of their choice to watch the inauguration."
The outlet added:
In a statement, the U.S. Capitol Police said the ticketed outside areas on the West Front of the Capitol will be closed on Monday. The Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies working to secure the inauguration "will still have a heightened security posture with an increased law enforcement presence and layers of physical security," Capitol Police said.
Due to an extremely cold weather system setting up over the area on Jan. 20, it might be frustrating that the event was moved indoors, but obviously it's a necessary security precaution.
Temperatures are expected to be in the teens, and snow could fall, according to meteorologists.
The area could see some of the harshest winter conditions in the last four decades.
Regardless of the change of plans, Trump's inauguration will undoubtedly be one for the books.
A Republican, pro-Trump state senator from Georgia was arrested Thursday while trying to enter the House chamber.
Dramatic video showed 31-year-old Colton Moore being pushed to the floor as he fought to gain entry to Governor Brian Kemp's (R) state of the state speech. Moore was banned from the chamber last year for disparaging the late Speaker David Ralston, a Republican.
Moore's arrest comes after a long feud between Moore and Georgia Republicans including Kemp and Speaker of the House Jon Burns (R).
In a letter to Burns, Moore had warned he would attend Thursday's joint session of the General Assembly, calling Burns a "tyrant."
"I will NEVER back down," Moore wrote on X, sharing the letter. "I will ALWAYS speak the truth and represent the people of Northwest Georgia as their trusted America First Senator."
A scuffle ensued Thursday as Moore tried to enter the House chambers, only to be blocked by a doorman who appeared to push Moore to the ground.
"This is a joint session of the General Assembly. Your House rules do not apply," Moore said. "I'm going into the chamber."
Moore was arrested by state troopers and booked at the Fulton County jail on charges of willful obstruction of law enforcement officers, a misdemeanor.
Senator Colton Moore, who exposed and defeated corrupt District Attorney Fani Willis last year, has been arrested by the Anti-Trump Speaker of the Georgia House.
Colton is being held in the same Atlanta jail as President Trump.
We are working to ensure his expedient release.… pic.twitter.com/hRA2gM54FD
— Sen. Colton Moore (@realColtonMoore) January 16, 2025
Moore ruffled feathers last year when he opposed naming a building after former Speaker David Ralston, whom he called "one of the most corrupt Georgia leaders that we are ever going to see in my lifetime." Ralston was accused of using his position as Speaker to delay court cases in which he had an interest as a defense lawyer.
Speaker Burns called Moore's comments "some of the vilest that you can make about a good man" and banned him from the House chamber.
In 2023, Senate Republicans suspended Moore from the caucus for attacking Republicans who refused to impeach Fulton County DA Fani Willis over her prosecution of Donald Trump. Governor Kemp dismissed Moore's effort as a "grifter scam" and said Willis had done nothing to merit her removal.
Speaker Burns blamed Moore for the "unfortunate" incident that unfolded Thursday, but Georgia Republican chairman Josh McKoon condemned Moore's arrest and said he should have been admitted to the chamber.
"It was not only legally appropriate to admit him to today’s proceedings — it was simply the right thing to do," McKoon wrote.
Moore has also received support from Georgia Democrats, who say his rights were violated.
"While Colton Moore and I don’t agree on much, the Speaker nor the doorkeeper should be allowed to prevent him from representing the people of his district," Congresswoman Nikema Williams said in a statement.
A political saga at the Arkansas Supreme Court has taken another dramatic turn, with a staff member telling the Chief Justice to stay out of his office.
The Supreme Court changed its rules after Justice Karen Baker entered the office of administrative director Marty Sullivan when he wasn't there. The chief justice reportedly left the room in a "disheveled" state, something she denied.
Baker later wrote to the court's police chief and warned that "there better not be any footage going around" of the December incident.
In an email, Sullivan wrote to Baker on Monday, advising her to stay out of administrative offices pending an HR review.
“Per the recommendation of the report, I believe it is more than reasonable that you do not enter AOC offices or engage in direct contact or communication with AOC staff until the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission provides further instruction,” Sullivan’s email said.
Baker was elected Chief Justice in November, becoming the first woman in the role.
Within her first week on the job, she faced a power struggle with her fellow justices after she attempted a mass firing of court employees, including Sullivan and police chief Pete Hollingsworth.
The firing order was blocked by her colleagues, who accused Baker of overstepping her authority in an act of retaliation.
Baker held her ground, and blamed two of her former electoral opponents, who sit on the court, for the backlash.
“Notwithstanding the will of the people in selecting me to serve in this position, two of my opponents in the Chief Justice race that remain on the court are now attempting to take what the people would not give them by force,” the chief justice wrote.
Concerning Sullivan, Baker wrote that he entered an unethical, and illegal, employment contract with five of the justices that guaranteed him a job until 2032, totaling $1.6 million in pay over eight years.
Arkansas law prohibits employees from entering contracts in which they have a financial interest, Baker said, adding she is treating Sullivan's signature as his resignation.
Furthermore, Baker accused the five justices who entered the contract of trying to "commandeer" her authority to select her own director.
"If this were allowed to stand, I would not be permitted to perform my duties as constitutionally required of the Chief Justice for the eight years I have been sworn to serve."
The comedian Tony Slattery, known for his star turn on the British improv comedy series Whose Line Is It Anyway?, has died at the age of 65.
For several years in the 1990s, Slattery was a regular on the Channel 4 show before suddenly unraveling due to drug addiction and mental struggles. He died two days after suffering a heart attack.
"It is with great sadness we must announce actor and comedian Tony Slattery, aged 65, has passed away today, Tuesday morning, following a heart attack on Sunday evening," a statement on behalf of his partner Mark Michael Hutchinson said.
Along with Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, and Emma Thompson, Slattery was part of a generation of comedians that helped define British entertainment in the 80s and 90s.
Born into a working-class family, Slattery went to Cambridge University on a scholarship and joined the storied Cambridge Footlights comedy troupe.
Known for his fast wit, Slattery appeared on multiple seasons of Channel 4's Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which spawned an American adaptation hosted by Drew Carey.
In 1996, Slattery's career went into a sharp decline and tragically, never fully recovered.
"The overwork, no holidays, no taking a break, eventually you snap, you try to replace it with something. In my case, it was cocaine," he said in a 2019 interview.
"Then the booze came along, then the depression set in... I was drinking two bottles of vodka a day and doing 10 grams of coke."
There were other demons. In 2020, the openly gay comedian confessed to suffering sexual abuse at the hands of a priest during his childhood.
In a tribute to his friend, Stephen Fry lamented the "cruel irony" that Slattery had begun turning his life around when he passed away.
The comedian had recently launched a podcast and was performing live shows.
"A cruel irony that fate should snatch him from us just as he had really begun to emerge from his lifelong battle with so many dark demons. He had started live 'evenings with' and his own podcast series," Fry wrote.
"Lovely, at least, this past year for him to have found to his joyous surprise that he was still remembered and held in great affection."
Slattery also appeared in The Crying Game, Peter’s Friends and How to Get Ahead in Advertising and was nominated for an Oliver Award for best comedy performance for his role in Tim Firth’s Neville’s Island.