In the end, Disney and ABC had absolutely no choice but to rehire Jimmy Kimmel.

The reason the late-night host is returning to the air tonight is that this whole thing has been an utter PR debacle for ABC, and more personally for Disney chief Bob Iger, who even got whacked by his predecessor as CEO, Michael Eisner, accusing him of bowing to ‘out-of-control intimidation.’

I don’t think I’m going out on a limb in saying that Iger’s reputation is shattered forever.

The company became the poster child as a high-profile opponent of free speech — a deadly label for a news organization like ABC.

So the ‘indefinite’ suspension is over.

I could sniff that things were moving in this direction when I learned the two sides were talking. And when Disney asked Kimmel for a second meeting the other day, I knew the only question was which day he’d be back.

Let’s revisit the dumb and inaccurate comment that got Kimmel in trouble. And remember, like Stephen Colbert, he is so vociferously anti-Trump that he surrendered half his audience:

‘We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.’  

First, it was beyond tone-deaf, with feelings rubbed so raw over Charlie Kirk’s assassination. And the killer is not ‘MAGA,’ just another crazed lunatic who said he was acting out of ‘hatred’ for Kirk, but also sympathetic to gays and transgender people like his roommate and romantic partner.

At the same time, there was pressure from the FCC, with Chairman Brendan Carr blundering by saying he would act on Kimmel if ABC didn’t. Even Carr’s allies, like Ted Cruz, said he sounded like a mob boss by declaring ‘we can do it the easy way or the hard way.’

Nice little network you got here – be a shame if anything happened to it. Carr walked it back the next day.

What Kimmel said wasn’t the worst thing ever uttered on the air, and maybe in a month it would have passed unnoticed. But not so soon after the targeted assassination.

With that kind of blatant government pressure, ABC caved and took Kimmel off the air as he was about to tape last Wednesday’s show – and was said to be preparing an even tougher monologue about the Kirk killer. Again, he failed to read the electronic room.

It was downhill from there.

For anyone who believes in free speech – and that includes some Democrats who don’t agree with Kirk on just about anything–Disney and ABC were now the enemy.

Howard Stern, Kimmel’s closest friend – their families vacation together – said yesterday he had canceled his Disney+ subscription, as did Robin Quivers. After conferring with Kimmel, he said on his first live show since the suspension:

‘When the government says, ‘I’m not pleased with you, so we’re going to orchestrate a way to silence you,’ it’s the wrong direction for our country. It isn’t good.’

Stern called the suspension ‘horrible’ and ‘outrageous’ for such a ‘big talent… You can’t support this kind of a move. I don’t care whether you like Jimmy or not. It’s about freedom of speech. If ABC wanted to fire Jimmy because they didn’t like him, or he had low ratings — they didn’t want to fire him. They’re being pressured by the United States government. We can’t have that, not if we’re going to have a democracy.’

Howard has an awful lot of followers on Sirius XM that would take their cue from him. 

Some 400 celebrities signed an ACLU letter calling this ‘a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation.’ These include Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Robert De Niro, Jane Fonda, Selena Gomez, Tom Hanks, Olivia Rodrigo, Ben Stiller, Jamie Lee Curtis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Keaton, Regina King, Diego Luna, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Natalie Portman, Maya Rudolph, Martin Short and Kerry Washington.

This is the kind of thing that Hollywood really cares about, the bold-faced names.

Kimmel is said to be concerned about the jobs of dozens of producers, staff members and contractors who would lose their livelihoods if the show was deep-sixed.

Disney made a point of saying in its statement that Kimmel was suspended because ‘we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.’ But ‘thoughtful’ conversations led to Jimmy’s return.

Whether you like Kimmel or not, no company can withstand that kind of pressure, even if it goes against the wishes of Donald Trump, who celebrated the suspension.

Now here’s the challenge Kimmel and Disney/ABC faced.

The suits had already been urging Kimmel to tone down the attacks against Trump. But Kimmel, who has hosted the program since 2003, and parlayed that into Oscars-hosting gigs, has always insisted on his independence. He’s arguably the most famous face at the network.

I played a small role in this last year by asking Trump about Kimmel after the Oscars, and the candidate slammed him, escalating their feud. Jimmy even took a swipe at me (horrors).

So perhaps with a wink and a nod, Kimmel has now agreed to tone things down a tad and the brass has agreed to let him basically say what’s on his mind.

Jimmy Kimmel is the only clear winner in this.

Everyone else – Disney, Bob Iger, Brendan Carr, ABC – is unmistakably a loser and will forever be branded, fairly or otherwise, as cowardly opponents of free speech.

And hey, ratings for tonight’s show should be through the roof. 

President Donald Trump will highlight the ‘return of American strength’ in his second administration during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, while delivering ‘blunt’ and ‘tough talk’ about the ‘failures of globalism,’ a White House official told Fox News Digital.

The president is scheduled to deliver his first address of his second administration at the UN General Assembly in New York City Tuesday just before 10 a.m.

A White House official gave Fox News Digital an exclusive preview of the president’s address.

‘President Trump has effectively restored American strength on the world stage,’ a White House official told Fox News Digital. ‘His historic speech at the United Nations General Assembly will highlight his success in delivering peace on a scale that no other president has accomplished, while simultaneously speaking bluntly about how globalist ideologies risk destroying successful nations around the world.’

The president is expected to highlight his successful efforts to negotiate peace around the world—specifically, Armenia and Azerbaijan; Thailand and Cambodia; Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; among others.

The president is also expected to highlight his strikes against narcoterrorists from Venezuela.

Earlier this month, a U.S. military strike blew apart a Venezuelan drug boat in the southern Caribbean, leaving nearly a dozen suspected Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists dead. And last week, the president announced that the U.S. military had carried out its second kinetic strike on Venezuelan drug trafficking cartels.

Also last week, the president announced that he ordered a lethal strike on a vessel allegedly linked to a designated terrorist organization conducting narcotrafficking in the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility. That strike left three narcoterrorists dead.

‘Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage en route to poison Americans,’ Trump posted to his Truth Social announcing the strike.

The president is also expected to highlight his ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ which marked the largest B-2 operational strike in history and represented the United States’ move to deliver a decisive blow against Iran’s nuclear program back in June.

Trump’s historic precision strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites hit their targets and ‘destroyed’ and ‘badly damaged’ the facilities’ critical infrastructure—an assessment agreed upon by Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Israel, and the United States.

Trump is also set to detail his work to ‘deliver historic peace deals in decades-long conflicts,’ the official told Fox News Digital.

Meanwhile, the president’s speech will also feature ‘some blunt, tough talk about the failures of globalism.’

‘This will include the global migration regime, energy and climate, and how these ideologies pushed by globalists are on the verge of destroying successful nations,’ a White House official told Fox News Digital.

The president is also expected to discuss America’s position as a ‘defender of western civilization.’

‘As the president delivers peace in major conflicts around the world, what has the United Nations been doing?’ the official said.

After his speech at the United Nations, the president is expected to have meetings with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; the president of Argentina, Javier Milei; and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The president is also scheduled to have a multilateral meeting with leaders from Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.  

Jurors in Fort Pierce, Florida, are expected to begin deliberations Tuesday on the federal criminal charges brought against Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at his golf course in Florida last year.

Routh, who has been representing himself in the federal criminal trial, ended his defense after less than a day on Monday. He called only three witnesses, and told U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that he would not be taking the stand to testify in his own case, a notion he had previously considered. 

Both the prosecution and defense formally rested their cases at 2:20 p.m., and Cannon ordered the court to reconvene for closing arguments Tuesday at 9 a.m.

Prosecutors and Routh will take turns presenting their closing arguments to jurors, followed immediately by jury deliberations, Cannon said, before instructing the jury on the deliberation process.

Cannon instructed jurors to consider whether prosecutors met the standard for conviction on each of the five federal charges against Routh. The 59-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all counts, which include attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and multiple firearms offenses.

A verdict in the case could come as early as Tuesday or Wednesday, pending the length of the closing arguments and the deliberation time needed. If convicted, Routh could face a maximum of life in prison.

The closing arguments come after Routh rested his case after just hours of presenting arguments to jurors. He called only three witnesses, and did not introduce new evidence.

His ‘pro se’ defense starkly contrasts with the prosecution’s, which spent nearly two weeks carefully and extemporaneously making its case against Routh to a jury in Fort Pierce, Florida.

In that span, jurors heard from 38 witnesses and reviewed hundreds of exhibits — text messages, call logs, bank records, and cellphone data — linking Routh to the alleged gun purchase and placing him near Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach in the weeks before the alleged attempted assassination.

Shortly before the defense rested, Cannon asked Routh if he had any more motions for acquittal. He said he did not.

Nasry Asfura has won the 2025 Honduras presidential election, delivering victory for the right-of-center National Party of Honduras (PNH) and shifting the political landscape of Central America. 

The 40.3% to 39.5% result in favor of Asfura over Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla arrived after the vote-counting process had been delayed for days by technical glitches and claims by other candidates of vote-rigging. Rixi Moncada, the candidate of the ruling LIBRE party, came in a distant third.

The results of the race were so tight and the ballot processing system was so chaotic, that about 15% of the tally sheets, which accounted for hundreds of thousands of ballots, had to be counted by hand to determine the winner.

Two electoral council members and one deputy approved the results despite disputes over the razor-thin difference in the vote. A third council member, Marlon Ocha, was not in a video declaring the winner.

‘Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down,’ Asfura said on X after the results were confirmed.

The head of the Honduran Congress, though, rejected the results and described them as an ‘electoral coup.’

‘This is completely outside the law,’ Congress President Luis Redondo of the LIBRE party said on X. ‘It has no value.’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Asfura on X, saying the U.S. ‘looks forward to working with his administration to advance prosperity and security in our hemisphere.’

Initially, preliminary results on Monday showed Asfura, 67, had won 41% of the ballot, inching him ahead of Nasralla, 72, who had around 39%.

On Tuesday, the website set up to share vote tallies with the public experienced technical problems and crashed, according to The Associated Press.

With the candidates only having 515 votes between them, a virtual tie and site crash saw President Trump share a post on Truth Social.

‘Looks like Honduras is trying to change the results of their Presidential Election,’ he wrote. ‘If they do, there will be hell to pay!’

By Thursday, Asfura had 40.05%, about 8,000 votes ahead of Nasralla, who had 39.75%, according to Reuters, with the latter then calling for an investigation.

‘I publicly denounce that today, at 3:24 a.m., the screen went dark and an algorithm, similar to the one used in 2013, changed the data,’ Nasralla wrote on social media, adding 1,081,000 votes for his party were transferred to Asfura, while 1,073,000 votes for Asfura’s National Party were attributed to him.

Asfura, nicknamed ‘Tito,’ is a former mayor of Tegucigalpa and had entered the race with a reputation for leadership and focus on infrastructure, public order and efficiency.

His win ended a polarized campaign season, with one of the defining moments of the contest being Asfura’s endorsement by Trump.

‘If he [Asfura] doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad,’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Nov. 28.

Before the start of voting Nov. 29, Trump also said he would pardon former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who once led the same party as Asfura. Hernandez is serving a 45-year sentence for helping drug traffickers.

In the end, the election saw the defeat of centrist former vice president of Honduras, Nasralla and left-wing Moncada, 60, who served under President Xiomara Castro. 

Moncada, a prominent lawyer, financier and former minister of national defense, focused on institutional reform and social equity.

Nasralla, a high-profile television personality turned politician, mobilized a base but fell short of converting his popularity into a winning coalition.  

He was focusing on cleaning up Honduran corruption. The Honduran presidential race was also impacted by accusations of fraud.

In addition to electing a new president, Hondurans voted for a new Congress and hundreds of local positions.

Reuters contributed to this report.

A group of 19 Democrat-led states and Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over a declaration that aims to restrict gender transition treatment for minors.

The lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; and its inspector general comes after the declaration issued last week described treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and gender surgeries as unsafe and ineffective for children experiencing gender dysphoria.

The declaration also warned doctors they could be excluded from federal health programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, if they provide these treatments to minors.

The move seeks to build on President Donald Trump’s executive order in January calling on HHS to protect children from ‘chemical and surgical mutilation.’

‘We are taking six decisive actions guided by gold standard science and the week one executive order from President Trump to protect children from chemical and surgical mutilation,’ Kennedy said during a press conference last week.

HHS has also proposed new rules designed to further block gender transition treatment for minors, although the lawsuit does not address the rules, which have yet to be finalized.

The states’ lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Eugene, Oregon, argues that the declaration is inaccurate and unlawful and urges the court to prevent it from being enforced.

‘Secretary Kennedy cannot unilaterally change medical standards by posting a document online, and no one should lose access to medically necessary health care because their federal government tried to interfere in decisions that belong in doctors’ offices,’ New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the lawsuit, said in a statement.

The lawsuit claims the declaration attempts to pressure providers into ending gender transition treatment for young people and circumvent legal requirements for policy changes. The complaint said federal law requires the public be given notice and an opportunity to comment before substantively amending health policy and that neither of these were done before the declaration was released.

The declaration based its conclusions on a peer-reviewed report that the department conducted earlier this year that called for more reliance on behavioral therapy rather than broad gender transition treatment for minors with gender dysphoria.

The report raised questions about standards for the treatment of transgender children issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and brought concerns that youths may be too young to give consent to life-changing treatments that could result in future infertility.

Major medical groups and physicians who treat transgender children have criticized the report as inaccurate.

HHS also announced last week two proposed federal rules — one to cut off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that offer gender transition treatment to children and another to block federal Medicaid money from being used for these procedures.

The proposals have not yet been made final and are not legally binding because they must go through a lengthy rulemaking process and public comment before they can be enforced.

Several major medical providers have already pulled back on gender transition treatment for youths since Trump returned to office, even those in Democrat-led states where the procedures are legal under state law.

Medicaid programs in just under half of states currently cover gender transition treatment. At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or banning the treatment, and the Supreme Court’s decision this year upholding Tennessee’s ban likely means other state laws will remain in place.

Democrat attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Washington state and Washington, D.C., as well as Pennsylvania’s Democrat governor, joined James in the lawsuit.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump is expected to approve a proposed deal this week that would ensure TikTok in the United States is majority-owned by American investors and keep user data in a ‘trusted’ cloud in the U.S., a senior White House official told Fox News Digital.

The White House official said that under the new deal, U.S. operations will be run by a new joint-venture company, with its current parent company, ByteDance, holding less than 20% of the stock, as required by law.

‘The administration looks forward to finalizing this deal with all stakeholders,’ the official told Fox News Digital. ‘President Trump is expected to sign an Executive Order later this week to approve the proposed deal.’

The new U.S.-based joint-venture company is expected to be majority-owned by American investors and operate in the United States by a board of directors with national security and cybersecurity credentials.

The board of directors is expected to consist of seven members— a majority of which must be U.S. citizens based in America. A senior White House official told Fox News Digital that one member, who would not be eligible to serve on the data security committee or as board chairman, will be appointed to the board by ByteDance.

The official told Fox News Digital that, under the deal, Oracle, one of the nation’s leading technology companies, will be TikTok’s trusted security provider in partnership with the United States government.

Oracle would work to independently monitor and assure the safety of all TikTok operations in the United States—specifically regarding data security across the TikTok platform.

The official told Fox News Digital that Oracle’s data security would include source code review, algorithm retaining, application development and deployment, and more.

The official also stressed that Americans’ data will be securely stored in the United States without any access for China.

Americans’ user data will be stored in a trusted, secure, and purpose-built cloud environment in the U.S., run by Oracle, according to the official.

Under the deal, Oracle will create a secure cloud with perimeter controls and gateways to protect and house all U.S. user data. Officials said data flows will be controlled by machine learning and other technologies.

‘Foreign powers, like China, will not be able to access U.S. user data,’ the official said.

As for TikTok’s algorithm, the official told Fox News Digital that it would be ‘secured, retrained, and operated in the United States outside of ByteDance’s control.’

The senior White House official said that the TikTok algorithm in the United States will be separate from ByteDance’s control and will be controlled entirely by the new joint-venture.

‘The algorithm will be retrained from the ground up and protected by Oracle to ensure Americans’ data is safeguarded and foreign influence is removed,’ a senior administration official told Fox News Digital.

The official said ByteDance will first create a duplicate copy of the TikTok algorithm and then lease it to the joint-venture. Oracle is then expected to operate, retrain, and continuously monitor the U.S. algorithm to ensure content is free from improper manipulation or surveillance.

‘By leasing the duplicate algorithm, TikTok will be able to continue operating in the United States without disruption to users,’ the official said. 

Meanwhile, TikTok will remain a globally interoperable platform for U.S. users. The deal preserves the interoperability of TikTok, which ensures U.S. users can safely view TikTok content from around the world ‘with the confidence that their user data is secure in the United States.’

‘The deal will not interrupt the user experience,’ the official said.

As for harmful content on the platform, the U.S. joint-venture will operate independently of TikTok in other nations and will police harmful content through its terms of service.

The Trump administration is touting the new deal, saying ‘all Americans will be able to safely enjoy the same global TikTok experience and view content from around the world with the confidence that their data is secure in the United States.’

The official told Fox News Digital that preserving TikTok’s business will generate $178 billion in economic activity in the United States over the next four years and will sustain ‘thousands of U.S. jobs and businesses.’

As for the timing of the joint-venture, the president is expected to sign an executive order to finalize the deal later this week. That order will delay enforcement of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act for up to 120 days.

The deal comes after months of negotiations after Congress, last year, enacted a law signed by then-President Joe Biden that banned TikTok and other apps controlled by foreign adversaries. After it survived a Supreme Court challenge, the law took effect on Jan. 19, 2025, though it allowed a 90-day extension.

The app was banned amid national security concerns over the Chinese government’s access to user data and its ability to serve as a platform for foreign influence operations.

TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, refused to sell the social media platform and after President Trump took office, he issued an initial 75-day delay in enforcing the law.

Trump then provided another 75-day extension in April – when a dispute over tariffs derailed a pending deal on TikTok’s divestment – followed by a 90-day delay in June that was due to expire last week.

Grief mingled with resolve Sunday afternoon as friends, family and conservative heavyweights gathered at a packed State Farm Stadium in Arizona to honor the life of Charlie Kirk. 

From emotional tributes to playful stories, to spiritual calls and political pledges, here are the top moments from his memorial service: 

1. President Donald Trump calls Charlie Kirk a ‘martyr for American freedom’ 

President Donald Trump concluded Kirk’s memorial service with remarks honoring the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder, intertwining themes of politics and Christianity.

‘Our greatest evangelist for American liberty became immortal,’ Trump said of Kirk. ‘He’s a martyr for American freedom,’

The president credited Kirk for helping him win the 2024 election by inspiring young voters across the country. 

Trump also described the moment when his staff told him that Kirk was shot during a TPUSA event. He said that he was in the middle of a meeting in the Oval Office and called the revelation ‘surreal.’

‘He didn’t deserve this and our country didn’t deserve this,’ Trump said, adding that Kirk’s assassination was an attack on American democracy. 

Trump has survived two assassination attempts.

The president said he would soon honor Kirk at the White House with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Following his remarks, he shared the stage with Kirk’s widow, Erika, and hugged her while ‘America the Beautiful’ played across the stadium.

2. Erika Kirk gives tearful speech honoring her late husband’s legacy, forgiving his killer 

Kirk’s widow, Erika, received a standing ovation ahead of her speech honoring her late husband’s legacy. She evoked scripture during her remarks and referred to her husband as ‘my Charlie’ and his death as a ‘total surrender’ to ‘God’s will.’

As she wiped away tears, Kirk shared with the crowd what she experienced in the hours following his death. ‘I saw the wound that ended his life,’ Kirk said, adding that she experienced ‘a level of heartache that I didn’t even know existed.’

Kirk, who was tapped to lead TPUSA, said her husband’s death has sparked a revival in faith. She galvanized the audience to go to church and to reconnect with Christ.

‘Being a follower of Christ is not easy, it’s not supposed to be,’ Kirk said, adding that she forgives the man who took her husband’s life. 

‘I forgive him because that is what Christ did,’ she said behind heavy tears.

Kirk, who is a mother of two young children, said she will miss her husband. 

‘I will miss him because our marriage and our family were beautiful,’ she said, adding, ‘and it still is.’

3. A crowd of who’s who of high-level political figures

In addition to TPUSA executives, conservative media giants and religious leaders, Kirk’s memorial service also included tributes from several high-ranking Trump administration officials. 

Vice President JD Vance credited Kirk, in part, for his current role in the Trump administration and vowed to support the TPUSA movement. 

‘You ran a good race, my friend, I love you,’ Vance said. ‘We’ve got it from here.’ 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were among some of Trump’s Cabinet that spoke at the memorial service. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Deputy Director of the FBI Dan Bongino, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business Administration, also were in attendance. 

Additionally, billionaire Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk was seen sitting next to Trump during part of the memorial service. 

4. Frank Turek shares a firsthand account of Kirk’s final moments

Christian author Frank Turek recounted witnessing Kirk’s final moments on the way to the hospital after the Sept. 10 shooting at Utah Valley University. 

‘Charlie’s been like a son to me,’ he said, noting that he was only a few feet away when Kirk was assassinated. 

Turek described running with the security team toward the SUV. 

‘No father would stand back and go, no, you just take my son. Take him. I’ll meet you at the hospital. I got into the back of the SUV,’ he said. ‘Charlie’s so tall, we can’t close the door,’ Turek explained, adding that the TPUSA security team drove ‘all the way to the hospital with the door open.’

He said that during the car ride he kept yelling, ‘Come on, Charlie! Come on! Come on!’ He said that he was looking down at Kirk when he realized that the 31-year-old husband and father had died. 

‘His eyes were fixed,’ Turek said. ‘He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking past me right into eternity. He was with Jesus already. He was killed instantly and felt absolutely no pain.’

5. Tens of thousands of people in one of the largest public services ever held

Approximately 90,000 people gathered for Kirk’s memorial service, TPUSA confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

About 70,000 mourners filled State Farm Stadium to capacity, while another 10,000 joined from overflow venues, including Desert Diamond Arena and other nearby viewing points. 

The turnout marked one of the largest public memorial services in recent years. 

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

President Donald Trump announced that Dr. Ben Carson will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, noting that there will be a ceremony at the White House to honor him.

‘Congratulations Ben. He didn’t know this. He didn’t know it. I hope he’s happy,’ Trump said after making the announcement at the conclusion of his remarks at the American Cornerstone Institute’s Founders’ Dinner on Saturday.

Carson, who founded the ACI, served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during Trump’s first term in office.

Carson, a former neurosurgeon, ran for president when Trump mounted his first successful White House bid, but ultimately dropped out and backed Trump in 2016.

ACI’s website states that ‘Dr. Carson is ensuring there is an organization fighting for the principles that have guided him through life, and that make this country great: Faith, Liberty, Community, and Life.’ 

Carson is supporting U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for re-election.

In a post on X earlier this month, Carson declared that Graham ‘has been a steadfast conservative leader for South Carolina and our nation and I’m pleased to endorse him for re-election.’

Carson was one of the people who spoke at the memorial service honoring slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Arizona on Sunday.

For more than a decade, Google operated like a digital cartel, whether it was rigging markets, crushing small businesses, or silencing conservative voices with zero consequences. The company used its monopoly over online advertising to manipulate prices, dictate who can compete, and control who gets heard. But finally, we have a president and a Department of Justice with the spine to take Google on. And it’s not a moment too soon.

Recently, the DOJ dropped a bombshell: a sweeping proposal to rip apart Google’s monopolistic chokehold on the ad tech market. The plan? Force Google to sell its ad exchange, open-source its core auction system, and, if that doesn’t work, force the company to sell off its publisher ad server entirely. On top of that, the DOJ is demanding oversight and profit disgorgement to make sure Google doesn’t just rebuild its empire in the shadows.

This is not ‘regulation’ as some would have you believe. In fact, this is long-overdue antitrust law enforcement for the Big Tech giant which has run rampant in suppressing opposing voices to leftist causes.

For years, Google abused its monopoly power to destroy competitors and rig the system in its favor. It has been allowed to act with impunity, thanks in no small part to Obama’s pathetic antitrust amnesty, which allowed Big Tech to consolidate power without fear of consequences. That era of looking the other way while Silicon Valley crushed innovation and censored conservative political dissent is over.

This latest action from the DOJ is more than justified. It’s necessary. Google controls both sides of the digital advertising market, between the tools publishers use to sell ads and the exchanges advertisers use to buy them. It’s rigged and corrupt. And it’s exactly the kind of anti-competitive garbage that breaks capitalism and destroys the marketplace of ideas.

Let’s not forget who gets hurt the most: small businesses, independent media outlets, startups that are trying to build something new, and conservatives’ ability to speak freely. Google has systematically snuffed out anything it can’t control and punished anyone who dares to compete or disagree. Whether it’s demonetizing content or flat-out censoring dissenting voices, Google showed it doesn’t just want to win the market. It wants to control the narrative.

Now, with the rise of generative AI, the threat is even bigger. If Google is allowed to monopolize this space like it did with ads and search, it won’t just dominate markets. It will dominate the truth itself. They already manipulate what you see. With AI, they’ll manipulate what you think. That should terrify every freedom-loving American.

So yes, this crackdown is long overdue. But it’s not just about punishing Google. It’s about setting a precedent. It’s about restoring real competition. It’s about protecting American innovation, safeguarding our economy, and defending the principles that make America great, as President Trump says.

The DOJ’s proposed remedies are tough, but they can be tougher if necessary. No half-measures or easy exits. If Google is broken into pieces to restore fairness, then break it up, piece by piece. And if other Big Tech monopolists are watching, they better get the message: The era of consequence-free empire building is over. The Trump administration will ensure Big Tech’s monopolistic power is dismantled board by board, with the antitrust dream team of FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, FTC Commissioner Mark Meador, and Gail Slater, the DOJ’s assistant attorney general for antitrust.

We are not standing by while a handful of unelected tech oligarchs run this country from behind a curtain of code and censorship. Not anymore.

Break them up. Make it stick. And don’t stop until the free market is actually free from Google’s chokehold again.

‘He has to run because she can’t.’ 

‘She’ was Vice President Kamala Harris. ‘He’ was President Joe Biden. The message was clear: Biden had to run because his team didn’t believe she could. 

‘Then why did you pick her in the first place?’ I asked as I sank back into my seat on Brightstar, the first lady’s plane.   

Silence. Deflection. Business as usual. 

We were instructed to parrot one line — ‘No one runs for president for four years.’ That was the strategy. 

Harris’s forthcoming book, according to recently released excerpts, says what insiders whispered for years: the Biden bubble was full of bullies. The former vice president is finally saying the quiet part out loud. 

Biden won the most votes of anyone for president in our country’s history. But he never won the hearts and minds of the American people, and especially not of his own party. That fragile foundation collapsed fast.  

The Biden White House was filled with its share of cartoonist characters out of a badly cast high school version of ‘West Side Story.’ They thought they were a ‘BFD’ because they had worked in a previous administration or because our campaign defied the odds and beat expectations. But they had no instincts for the shifting media and political landscape — and no instinct for politics as it is now lived and practiced in the age of Donald Trump.  

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi was more direct, ‘I’ve never been that impressed with his political operation,’ referring to Biden’s team.  

There was no pragmatic truth-teller, because no one admitted that we weren’t a movement. We swaggered like we’d won President Barack Obama’s mandate or his congressional majorities. We hadn’t. We lost 13 Democratic House seats on our way in. From the moment Biden won the nomination, no one ever wanted to admit the obvious: Democrats felt stuck with us, not inspired by us. 

Inside the White House, the Regina Georges of Biden’s circle ruled like mean girls and policed loyalty. Staff weren’t serving a president and first lady — they were serving a cult. You never knew when Regina was in charge or when the Bidens were. It was all blurred. 

Joe and Jill Biden were warm, decent, empathetic. But they enabled some of the nastiest and most mean-spirted people I’ve ever encountered in politics. That contradiction defines the Biden era.  

I believed in Joe Biden once. After hearing him and Jill deliver barnburner speeches at the 2018 Human Rights Campaign gala, I was convinced he was the champion to take on Trump. As someone who endured relentless bullying growing up, Biden’s words about standing up for LGBT youth resonated. I left determined to join his effort. 

One year later, Biden was in the race, and I was chief spokesperson to his very influential and active spouse.

In the summer of 2020, Jill reintroduced herself to the country while launching ‘Joey,’ her children’s book about young Joe Biden — a natural leader who stood up to bullies. 

‘School was where the bullies were.’ He stood up for himself and ‘also defended others from bullies,’ Jill wrote. 

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi was more direct, ‘I’ve never been that impressed with his political operation,’ referring to Biden’s team. 

‘We were expected to stand up to bullies,’ Valerie Biden Owens wrote in her memoir, ‘Growing Up Biden.’ 

Biden’s final mission, he said, was to save the country from Trump — who Democrats consider to be the ultimate bully. 

But bullies are everywhere, even among Democrats, and despite his brand — even around Biden. 

When I entered the fraught world of part-time punditry, there were times I questioned the strategic direction of the Biden reelection effort. When the economic message was ‘Bidenomics is working,’ I explained why it was an error and pushed alternatives. When the polls were bad, I said so. How could I say the sky is red when we all know it’s blue?  

‘It will always feel like friendly fire to them,’ MSNBC television host Nicolle Wallace warned me. ‘But all you have is your credibility,’ she emphasized.  

I wanted to be taken seriously, not just another robot regurgitating thoughtless talking points. I balanced my love for and personal loyalty to the Biden family with candid and thoughtful analysis. 

But the president’s bullies didn’t see it that way. To them, I had taken off the team jersey by pointing out missed opportunities and mistakes, so they came for me.    

The example they tried to make of me was meant to serve as a warning to any Democrat who raised concerns ahead of 2024. The same bullies who claimed to serve a president who despised bullies were sending me a message: shut up or we’ll humiliate you. 

In time, however, the roots of their insecurity would be revealed to the entire world on a debate stage, one tragic June night in Atlanta. Biden’s bullies and their intimidation tactics would crumble over the course of four long, hot, summer weeks — along with their credibility.  

Bullies don’t win. They implode.  

Biden’s bullies dragged him down — and tried to drag Harris with him. Now, they’re out for her — again.   

Recently, we saw a glimpse of that vindictiveness when a few of my former teammates reacted with ugly, and of course, blind quotes to the release of Harris’s book excerpts. 

Inside the White House, the Regina Georges of Biden’s circle ruled like mean girls and policed loyalty.

But so far, Harris isn’t bending. Not this time. She sees what I saw. What we all eventually saw. And she is standing up to them. 

As she launches her book tour on MSNBC’s ‘Rachel Maddow,’ I hope she continues to speak with unfiltered candor about her experience.  

Take it from this Democrat. She’ll sleep better at night.