Former Vice President Kamala Harris revealed in her upcoming book, ‘107 Days,’ that then-President Joe Biden rattled her right before she went head-to-head with then-candidate Donald Trump on the debate stage.

Biden reportedly called Harris as she sat in a hotel room preparing for the only debate of her abbreviated campaign. He apparently wanted to wish her luck — and to scold her.

The then-president said, ‘My brother called. He’s been talking to a group of real power brokers in Philly,’ according to an excerpt of the book in The Guardian. He then allegedly asked if Harris was familiar with several people related to the matter, which she was not.

‘His brother had told him that those guys were not going to support me because I’d been saying bad things about him. He wasn’t inclined to believe it, he claimed, but he thought I should know in case my team had been encouraging me to put daylight between the two of us,’ Harris wrote in the book, according to an excerpt of the book in The Guardian.

Biden then went on to talk about his past debate performances, leaving Harris confused, ‘angry and disappointed,’ according to The Guardian. She was upset that her boss had called before a critical moment in her political career and made ‘it all about himself.’ Harris added that Biden was ‘distracting me with worry about hostile power-brokers in the biggest city of the most important state.’

Then-first gentleman Doug Emhoff apparently noticed his wife was in distress and advised her to ‘let it go’ before facing off against Trump.

While Harris avoided criticizing Biden during her campaign, she has used her upcoming book to shed light on the tensions between them as she took his place as the Democratic presidential nominee. Harris’ book is set to hit shelves on Sept. 23, but it has already sparked conversations about the 2024 election cycle.

In another section, Harris said while ‘it’s Joe and Jill’s decision’ became a mantra ahead of the 2024 election cycle, she said it was ‘recklessness,’ rather than ‘grace,’ according to an excerpt released by The Atlantic.

”It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized. Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision,’ Harris wrote.

Harris also revealed in her book that then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was her ‘first choice’ as running mate, not Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. However, she said it was ‘too big of a risk’ because the campaign was ‘already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man.’

Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Heavey and Greg Norman contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda is a bold roadmap for American renewal, aggressively implementing conservative ideas to drive economic growth and energy self-sufficiency. It’s squarely focused on delivering for what Trump terms the ‘forgotten Americans’ — the working men and women whose interests have long been ignored by elites from both political parties. This agenda is exactly what Trump ran on last year. Yet today, a group of Democrat trial lawyers are trying to short-circuit Trump on issue after issue — working to achieve through lawfare what they failed to at the ballot box.

Weaponizing the law against political opponents — known as lawfare — is most commonly associated with the actions of the FBI against President Trump during the Obama and Biden years. We now see this playbook being used by activist attorneys to systematically block key elements of the Trump agenda from being enacted – all while collecting big legal fees.

Most recently, lawfare has come for an executive order Trump signed in August that aims to democratize access to alternative assets in 401(k) plans. The EO aims to allow the 90 million-plus everyday Americans who save for retirement through traditional 401(k) plans to invest in assets typically reserved for the wealthy and well-connected – namely, private equity and cryptocurrencies. These investments have regularly outperformed the public stock market and help diversify investors’ portfolios, which many believe are too heavily exposed to the ‘Magnificent 7’ Big Tech stocks. This is why major investors like large state pension funds tend to hold around one-third of their assets in private market investments.

The order directs the Department of Labor (DOL) to reexamine fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and propose rules that could include a legal safe harbor for plan sponsors choosing to include high-quality alternative investment options. A few days later, the DOL rescinded Biden-era language that had discouraged such options, opening the door for American savers to these asset classes, which are typically limited to so-called ‘accredited investors,’ with high income and net worth.

Yet trial lawyers are already plotting lawsuits to cancel this reform before it can start, and aim to win a big payday in doing so. As a prominent plaintiffs’ lawyer stated recently to Bloomberg Law: ‘I would joke and say that I hope employers add alternative investments, because I have some kids I need to put through college.’ Indeed, unless the Trump administration insists on strong rulemaking and clear safe harbor in place, these lawyers plan to use the court system to extract multimillion dollar settlements that benefit themselves, while denying average Americans the wealth-building tools that have long been reserved for the elite.

On energy, President Trump made a decisive move with his executive order unleashing American energy, encouraging exploration on federal lands, eliminating burdensome electric vehicle mandates, revoking outdated climate-related directives, and streamlining permitting processes. Yet, environmental trial lawyers have mounted a fierce counteroffensive, using lawfare to hold up these vital changes, resulting in delays that keep energy prices higher, stifle job growth in America’s heartland, and prolong reliance on America’s adversaries for energy resources.  

The pattern continues with Trump’s drive for a smaller, more efficient federal workforce. In March, he signed an executive order to address workforce efficiency, instructing agencies to terminate collective bargaining agreements – some of which were signed in the final days of the Biden Administration to hamstring President Trump. Labor union lawyers have deployed lawfare to preserve the entrenched system and challenge the order in multiple federal courts, securing court stays. Their efforts delay essential efficiencies, perpetuating a bloated federal workforce that drains taxpayer dollars and slows government responsiveness.

This well-coordinated effort shows the threat to Trump’s agenda from those trying using the courts to override the will of the American voter. These trial lawyers, motivated by both ideology and profit, seek to accomplish through the courts what they couldn’t in the 2024 election: Stop Trump at any cost. Our movement’s challenge is to fight back, reclaiming policy-making from the courts and restore it to the people’s representatives.

President Donald Trump renewed his criticism against former President Joe Biden and his administration over the use of an autopen to sign off on important orders — including pardons — during Biden’s tenure in the White House. 

Trump has railed against Biden’s use of the autopen for months, claiming thousands of pardons Biden signed were void and that the former president did not know what documents he was signing through the automated device. 

‘It was illegally used. He never gave the orders,’ Trump told reporters Thursday during a trip to the U.K. ‘He never told them what to do. And I guess the only one he signed, or one of the few he signed, was the pardon for his son.’

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

A White House official previously told Fox News Digital that Trump uses his hand signature for every legally operational or binding document. Even so, Trump has admitted that he uses an autopen for letters. 

Meanwhile, Biden’s chief of staff issued final approval for multiple high-profile preemptive pardons during Biden’s final days in office, the New York Times reported in July. 

Although Biden reportedly made the decision about the pardons in a meeting, Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients is the one who gave final approval for the use of the autopen — at least in the case of former chief medical advisor to the president, Anthony Fauci, and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, the Times reported. 

Even so, Biden told the Times that he made every clemency decision of his own accord. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s comments come as Zients is slated to appear before the House Oversight Committee Thursday for its probe into Biden’s mental acuity. Part of that investigation is also examining if the former president was fully cognizant of clemency orders and executive actions he signed using the autopen. 

Biden granted a total of 4,245 acts of clemency during his administration, 96% of which were granted during his final months in office between October 2024 and January 2025, according to the Pew Research Center. 

An autopen is a machine that physically holds a pen and follows programming to imitate a person’s signature.

Unlike a stamp or a digitized print of a signature, the autopen has the capability to hold various types of pens, from  a ballpoint to a permanent marker, according to descriptions of autopen machines for sale online. 

Fox News’ Liz Elkind contributed to this report. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in a letter on Saturday that ‘all’ Epstein files have been released consistent with Section 3 of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The letter addressed to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member Dick Durbin, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin was obtained by Fox News Digital.

‘In accordance with the requirements of the Act, and as described in various Department submissions to the courts of the Southern District of New York assigned to the Epstein and Maxwell prosecutions and related orders, the Department released all ‘records, documents, communications and investigative materials in the possession of the Department’ that ‘relate to’ any of nine different categories,’ the letter read.

The letter includes a list of more than 300 high-profile names, including President Donald Trump, Barack and Michelle Obama, Prince Harry, Bill Gates, Woody Allen, Kim Kardashian, Kurt Cobain, Mark Zuckerberg and Bruce Springsteen.

The letter adds, ‘No records were withheld or redacted ‘on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”

The document outlines the broad range of Epstein-related materials the Justice Department says are encompassed, including records concerning Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell; references to individuals—up to and including government officials—connected to Epstein’s activities; and documents tied to civil settlements and legal resolutions such as immunity deals, plea agreements, non-prosecution agreements, and sealed arrangements. 

It also includes information on organizations and networks allegedly linked to Epstein’s trafficking and financial operations across corporate, nonprofit, academic, and governmental spheres, as well as internal DOJ emails, memos, and meeting notes reflecting decisions about whether to charge, decline, or pursue investigations.

The documents also cover records addressing potential destruction or concealment of relevant material and documentation surrounding Epstein’s detention and death, including incident reports, witness interviews, and medical examiner/autopsy-related records.

The letter adds, ‘No records were withheld or redacted ‘on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”

‘Any omissions from the list are unintentional and, as explained in the previous letters to Congress, a result of the volume and speed with which the Department complied with the Act,’ the letter states. ‘Individuals whose names were redacted for law-enforcement sensitive purposes are not included.’

The letter says the redaction process was ‘extensive’ including consultation with victims and victim counsel, to redact ‘segregable portions’ that contain information identifiable to victims, such as medical files that could jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, or depict/contain images of death, physical abuse, or injury. 

‘Any omissions from the list are unintentional and, as explained in the previous letters to Congress, a result of the volume and speed with which the Department complied with the Act,’ the letter states. ‘Individuals whose names were redacted for law-enforcement sensitive purposes are not included.’ 

The State Department announced on Saturday that it was halting all visitor visas to individuals from Gaza while it reviews the issuing process.

‘All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days,’ a post on X from the State Department read.

Neither the State Department nor Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented on what triggered the sudden review.

In June, the Trump administration began cracking down on vetting for visa applicants. This involved the introduction of a ‘comprehensive and thorough’ review of all applicants’ ‘online presence.’

‘Every visa adjudication is a national security decision. The United States must be vigilant during the visa issuance process to ensure that those applying for admission into the United States do not intend to harm Americans and our national interests, and that all applicants credibly establish their eligibility for the visa sought, including that they intend to engage in activities consistent with the terms for their admission,’ the State Department said at the time.

Earlier this month, France suspended evacuations from Gaza after a Palestinian student allegedly shared a social media post with an image of Adolf Hitler that called for killing Jews.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told France Info radio that the woman ‘must leave the country’ and that she ‘has no place’ in France.

‘No evacuation of any kind will take place until we have drawn the necessary conclusions from this investigation,’ Barrot said in the interview. He also vowed there would be a probe into how the Palestinian woman was able to get a student visa.

The student, later identified as Nour Attaalah, left France for Qatar after the incident.

As of Jan. 1, 2025, the population in Gaza had dropped by 6% since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, according to Reuters, which cited the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). The outlet noted that this includes approximately 100,000 Palestinians who fled the enclave.

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department. 

President Donald Trump closed out his 30th week in office of his second term with a high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday in Anchorage, Alaska, in an attempt to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. 

The two did not reach a peace agreement, but Trump said that the meeting was a success and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit the White House in Washington Monday. 

‘It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,’ Trump said in a Saturday post on Truth Social. 

If the meeting in Washington with Zelenskyy goes well, Trump said that a trilateral meeting between the U.S., Russia and Ukraine will be scheduled. 

Trump described the meeting with Putin as ‘very warm,’ and said that he believed a deal was imminent. 

‘I can tell you, the meeting was a very warm meeting,’ Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an exclusive interview. ‘You know, he’s a strong guy, he’s tough as hell on all of that, but the meeting was a very warm meeting between two very important countries, and it’s very good when they get along. I think we’re pretty close to a deal. Now look, Ukraine has to agree to it.’

Here’s what also happened this week: 

Crime crackdown 

On Monday, Trump announced he would activate approximately 800 National Guard troops and would take over the Metropolitan Police Department to address crime in Washington. The move came after Trump already bolstered federal law enforcement presence in the nation’s capital Saturday. 

‘I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in Washington, D.C.,’ Trump told reporters at a Monday press conference. ‘And they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly.’

Trump initially suggested federalizing Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department and dispatching National Guard troops to address crime in Washington Aug. 6 in response to the assault of a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer. 

Although a temporary federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department is warranted for emergency situations, Washington officials filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s move Friday. 

‘By illegally declaring a takeover of MPD, the Administration is abusing its temporary, limited authority under the law,’ Washington Attorney General Brian Schwalb wrote in a Friday X post. ‘This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it.’

Smithsonian review

The White House sent a letter to the Smithsonian Tuesday, announcing it would conduct a review of its museums and exhibits leading up to the 250th birthday of the United States in 2025.

‘We want the museums to treat our country fairly,’ Trump told reporters Thursday. ‘We want their museums to talk about the history of our country in a fair manner, not in a woke manner or in a racist manner, which is what many of them, not all of them, but many of them are doing.’

‘Our museums have an obligation to represent what happened in our country over the years. Good and bad,’ Trump said. ‘But what happened over the years in an accurate way.’ 

The White House said in a letter Tuesday the review would involve examining social media, exhibition text and educational materials to ‘assess tone, historical framing, and alignment with American ideals.’ 

‘This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions,’ the letter said.

The Smithsonian told Fox News Digital it would coordinate with the White House, Congress and its governing Board of Regents on the matter. 

‘The Smithsonian’s work is grounded in a deep commitment to scholarly excellence, rigorous research and the accurate, factual presentation of history,’ the Smithsonian said in a statement.

Sen. Lindsey Graham warned that the U.S. mission in Venezuela must end with Nicolás Maduro removed from power, arguing that leaving the embattled leader in place after a major U.S. show of force would be a ‘fatal mistake to our standing in the world.’

‘If after all this, we still leave this guy in power… that’s the worst possible signal you can send to Russia, China, Iran,’ Graham, R-S.C., told reporters after a classified all-senator briefing with War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Trump administration officials did not say whether a series of narco-strikes in the Caribbean could escalate into direct strikes against Venezuelan territory or a broader campaign to oust Maduro. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told Fox News Digital the briefing was ‘absent of specificity and detail’ and left ‘more questions than answers.’

‘I want to reassert, again, you cannot allow this man to be standing after this display of force, and I did not get a very good answer as to what happens,’ Graham said. ‘What I want is some clarity going forward. Is that in fact the goal?… If it’s not the goal, it is a huge mistake.’

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said he heard from briefers that there is a ‘very good process of determining if something’s a target or not’ before striking narco-trafficking boats, but the administration did not clarify its broader strategy toward the Maduro regime. 

‘Right now the focus has been on the boats,’ Bacon said. ‘I don’t know what we’re doing yet with Venezuela writ large.’

Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said the classified session also failed to address core questions. 

‘I actually think that was, for me, more of an exercise in futility. I really have no answers. Really didn’t gain anything more than what the public already has gotten,’ he said. He added that there was ‘really no conversation about why… we got 15,000 troops there,’ arguing the deployment ‘doesn’t seem to be just about narcotics trafficking.’ 

Meeks said briefers provided ‘no real rational decision or real answers’ about whether the U.S. is preparing for ‘a war in Venezuela,’ raising what he described as a pressing war powers issue. He said he plans to bring forward legislation this week addressing the recent strikes ‘in the Pacific, in the Caribbean’ as well as any potential move by Trump ‘to go into Venezuela.’

Rubio told reporters the mission is ‘focused on dismantling the infrastructure of these terrorist organizations that are operating in our hemisphere, undermining the security of Americans, killing Americans, poisoning Americans.’

Hegseth told reporters the War Department would not release video footage of the Sept. 2 narco-strikes — in which Adm. Frank Bradley ordered a ‘double tap’ strike to kill survivors — to the public. The video will instead be shown to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.

Graham dismissed the footage as ‘the least of my concerns’ but said he urged Hegseth to release it so Americans could ‘make your own decisions.’

Hegseth and Rubio’s briefing came as the U.S. undertakes its largest military buildup in the region in decades: 15% of all naval assets are now positioned in the Southern Command theater. Graham cited the deployment as evidence that anything short of Maduro’s removal would undermine U.S. credibility. 

‘It got, yeah, 15% of the Navy pointed to this guy,’ he said.

Graham also pointed to historical precedent, arguing the U.S. has acted similarly when confronting hostile or destabilizing regimes. 

‘We have legal authority, in my view, to do in Venezuela what we did regarding Panama and Haiti,’ he said, recalling that in 1989 the U.S. ‘literally invaded Panama… took the president in power and put him in jail.’

He said he believes Trump intends a comparable outcome. 

‘Every indication by President Trump is that the purpose of this operation is to shut down the (Maduro) regime and replace it with something less threatening to the United States,’ Graham said.

Pressed on whether he meant regime change or lethal force, Graham replied: ‘I don’t care as long as he leaves.’

The public is now waiting to see whether the Trump administration will turn to direct strikes on Venezuelan territory as a means of pressuring Maduro to leave power — a step Graham argued is necessary for the operation to succeed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday outlined firm conditions for a ‘real peace’ ahead of a high-stakes meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday.

Zelenskyy posted to X following his call with Trump and then with European leaders, after Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska to try and bring about an end to the 3 ½ year war.

‘The positions are clear. A real peace must be achieved, one that will be lasting, not just another pause between Russian invasions,’ Zelenskyy wrote.

‘Killings must stop as soon as possible, the fire must cease both on the battlefield and in the sky, as well as against our port infrastructure. All Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians must be released and the children abducted by Russia must be returned.’

Zelenskyy wrote that thousands of Ukrainians remain in captivity and must all be released, while adding that pressure on Russia must be maintained while the ‘aggression and occupation continue.’

In a follow-up post, Zelenskyy warned of Russian ‘treachery’ that could lead to attacks in order to gain leverage amid ongoing negotiations.  

‘Based on the political and diplomatic situation around Ukraine, and knowing Russia’s treachery, we anticipate that in the coming days the Russian army may try to increase pressure and strikes against Ukrainian positions in order to create more favorable political circumstances for talks with global actors,’ he wrote. 

Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with Trump in the White House on Monday as the three nations try and bring an end to the bloodshed.

Trump wrote on Truth Social following the Putin meeting that he felt a peace agreement, rather than a ceasefire, was ultimately the best way to solve the war. Trump had been calling for a ceasefire ahead of his meeting with Putin. 

‘It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,’ Trump wrote.

He said if Monday’s meeting with Zelenskyy also goes well, a meeting will be scheduled with Putin and ‘potentially, millions of people’s lives will be saved.’

Zelenskyy’s visit will mark his first return to the Oval Office since February, when Trump berated him publicly for being ‘disrespectful’ during a remarkable press briefing, which led to the collapse of a U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal.

Though a peace agreement was not decided upon during the meeting on Friday, Trump described it as a successful meeting with ‘a lot of progress’ made. Putin expressed similar sentiments, adding the summit was a ‘constructive atmosphere of mutual respect.’

After his meeting with Putin, Trump also spoke to European leaders, who said they back Trump’s peace push but insist Ukraine must have ‘ironclad’ security guarantees to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The European leaders did not address whether a peace deal was preferable to a ceasefire.

‘It will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory. International borders must not be changed by force,’ a statement signed by various leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

‘No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries. Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine‘s pathway to EU and NATO.’

During an interview with Fox News before returning to Washington, Trump insisted the onus going forward might be on Zelenskyy ‘to get it done,’ but said there would also be some involvement from European nations.

Fox News’ Elizabeth Pritchett and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Congressional Democrats remained skeptical that any progress toward an end to the war in Ukraine would be made ahead of the meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The high-stakes meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, comes as lawmakers have grown anxious to see an end to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and with many ready to slap a bone-breaking sanctions package on Moscow and its allies unless Putin relents.

But Democrats are not so sure that Trump will yield results in his closed-door meeting with Putin, the first between U.S. and Russian leaders since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

‘I fear this meeting could once again end with America ceding ground to an autocrat who has spent his career undermining democratic values,’ Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and the top Democrat on the Senate Intel Committee, said.

He warned that there could be no concessions without Ukraine’s involvement, Russia’s withdrawal from Ukrainian territory and ‘enforceable guarantees’ for Ukraine’s security.

‘Anything less would be an invitation for further aggression from Moscow and every autocrat watching to see if the United States still has the backbone to defend the principles that have kept Americans safe since the Second World War,’ he said.  

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., accused Trump of previously ‘playing footsie’ with Putin, but noted that it appeared that the president’s disposition toward his Russian counterpart had shifted.

He added that last year, House Democrats and Republicans worked together to pass another military aid package for Ukraine, and likened it to a ‘Churchill or Chamberlain moment.’

‘We are either going to appease the dictator or we’re going to aggressively oppose the dictator,’ Jeffries said. ‘And as we saw with Chamberlain, appeasing the dictator never works.’

Trump himself sought to set expectations for the summit, telling Fox News Radio earlier this week that there would be a 25% chance that the meeting would end in failure.

And aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters that he wanted to ‘see a ceasefire rapidly.’

‘I don’t know if it’s going to be today, but I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today,’ he said. ‘Everyone said it can’t be today, but I’m just saying I want the killing to stop.’

The Trump administration has threatened to slap secondary tariffs on India, a major buyer of Russian oil, if the meeting did not go well. That comes after Trump gave Putin a 50-day deadline to reach a ceasefire agreement, which the president recently shortened to ’10 or 12′ days.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Intelligence Committee, told reporters that ‘people have been willing to give the White House and the president the benefit of the doubt.’

‘But if he doesn’t produce anything at this summit, after drawing red line after red line … there will be growing concern and a growing pressure to try and get something done,’ the New Hampshire Democrat said.

One area where many lawmakers in the upper chamber agree is the necessity for a sanctions package against Russia. Currently, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., have a bill in the works that would slap up to 500% tariffs on countries buying energy products from Moscow.

Blumenthal told MSNBC earlier this week if Trump stood firm and insisted on a ceasefire, Putin come to the table with European leaders and secure security guarantees ‘he has the makings of a potential agreement that could win him the Nobel Peace Prize.’

‘But my fear is that he will be the mercurial Donald Trump who allowed the deadline for sanctions to pass last Friday without any imposition of new levies on Russia, and that he will fail to adhere to those principles adopted yesterday by the European countries in their meeting,’ he said. 

As President Donald Trump greeted Russian President Vladimir Putin on the tarmac at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a B-2 stealth bomber soared overhead, flanked by four F-35 jets. 

Putin looked up at the sky as the planes buzzed overhead while he walked alongside Trump, and then made a comment to the U.S. president. 

The display was as much a symbol as it was a show of force—a pointed reminder of America’s military reach at the very moment the two leaders prepared to discuss the future of global security.

The dramatic arrival underscored the high-stakes nature of the Alaska summit, the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin since Trump’s return to the White House earlier this year. Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, situated just outside Anchorage, was chosen for its robust security, strategic location, and symbolic position—physically closer to Russia than Washington, D.C., yet firmly on American soil.

Onlookers in Anchorage and across social media quickly seized on the moment. Many called it an ‘insane flex,’ noting the B-2 bomber’s recent combat history.

Only two months ago, the stealth aircraft played a central role in U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, dropping bunker-buster bombs in a move that drew both praise and condemnation on the world stage.

The B-2 Spirit, built by Northrop Grumman, is one of the most advanced aircraft ever created—capable of penetrating dense air defenses and striking targets anywhere in the world without refueling. Its distinctive flying-wing design and radar-absorbent coating make it nearly invisible to enemy radar. 

With a range of over 6,000 nautical miles and the ability to carry both conventional and nuclear weapons, the B-2 serves as a critical component of America’s nuclear triad. Only 21 were ever built, and fewer than 20 remain in service, making any public appearance a rare and deliberate statement.

‘Absolutely incredible,’ wrote one X user. Another added, ‘Putin now knows what will be greeting him if he were to ever cross that line that should never be crossed.’

After the brief tarmac ceremony, Putin entered ‘The Beast’ alongside Trump. The heavily armored presidential limousine rolled past a row of American fighter jets lined up in silent formation, their presence another visual reminder of the stakes surrounding the talks.

The two leaders traveled to a secure meeting hall on the base, beginning discussions at about 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Trump has said he plans to ‘set the table’ during the meeting for a future summit that includes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But still, he told Fox News’ Bret Baier he ‘won’t be happy’ if Putin does not agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.