‘I am going to exert my powers’: Trump warns DC over violent youth gangs
President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to federalize Washington, D.C., calling for local minors and gang members over the age of 14 to be prosecuted as adults, after a famed former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee was allegedly beaten in the nation’s capital.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said local youth and gang members are “randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released.”
Along with the post, Trump shared a photo of a bloodied man on the street.
Multiple sources told Fox News Digital the person in the photo shared by the president is Edward Coristine, the teenager known as “Big Balls,” who previously worked for DOGE.
Sources told Fox News Digital Coristine was violently attacked late Sunday or early Monday.
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“The most recent victim was beaten mercilessly by local thugs,” Trump wrote. “… Perhaps it should have been done a long time ago, then this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime. If this continues, I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Former DOGE head Elon Musk weighed in on X, sharing more of the story.
“A few days ago, a gang of about a dozen young men tried to assault a woman in her car at night in DC,” Musk wrote. “A @Doge team member saw what was happening, ran to defend her and was severely beaten to the point of concussion, but he saved her. It is time to federalize DC.”
When speaking with reporters Tuesday night, Trump said, “Either they’re going to straighten their act out in terms of government and in terms of protection, or we’re going to have to federalize and run it the way it’s supposed to be run.”
The president said it appears criminals are “not afraid” of the police, because “nothing ever happens to them.”
“Washington, D.C. must be safe, clean, and beautiful for all Americans and, importantly, for the World to see,” he wrote in the post. “If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore.”
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The most recent attack came after a House staffer in May was the victim of an armed carjacking in Navy Yard.
The same month, affiliate FOX 5 D.C. reported that a large group of teens took over a Navy Yard park, leading to several arrests and one hospitalization.
In July, congressional intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, 21, a 16-year-old boy and a woman were shot in what appeared to be a drive-by shooting. Tarpinian-Jachym later died.
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In April, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was walking to the Navy Yard Metro Station when his staff member told him a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority police officer had been stabbed in the face.
The Metropolitan Police Department, U.S. Capitol Police and White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Woody Allen’s note reportedly exposes life inside Epstein’s Manhattan mansion
Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse was akin to “Castle Dracula,” Woody Allen allegedly typed out in an undated letter reportedly sent to the convicted sex offender.
Allen, 89, allegedly gave the note to Epstein in 2016 for his birthday, according to documents obtained by the New York Times.
The “Annie Hall” director praised the late financier for his ability to connect a myriad of “interesting people” at his lavish dinner parties, which Allen claimed he regularly attended with his wife Soon-Yi.
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Allen allegedly wrote that he “always” accepted an invitation to an event at Epstein’s palatial digs, a seven-story, 21,000-square-foot abode in the heart of New York City.
“Being neighbors, my wife Soon-Yi and I have been invited for dinner many times,” Allen allegedly wrote. “Always accept, always interesting. Wide variety of interesting people at every dinner just about. Politicians, scientists, teachers, magicians, comedians, intellectuals, journalists, an entymologist, a concert pianist.”
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“Anyhow, it’s always interesting and the food is sumptuous and abundant. Lots of dishes, plenty of choices, numerous desse[r]ts, well served. I say well served – often it’s by some professional houseman and just as often by several young women reminding one of Castle Dracula where Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place. Add to this that Jeffrey lives in a vast house alone, one can picture him sleeping in damp earth.”
Allen described one particularly satisfactory meal, where he and Soon-Yi dined among a “list of accomplished types.”
“But back to the food. Dependably a fine dinner but this was not always the case,” Allen wrote. “In fact, the first time we came over it was a very different story. We were invited with a list of accomplished types, men and women in journalism, in TV, even royalty. We were ushered up to the living room where everyone sat around prior to dinner being served and chatted. No drinks were served. You could get one if you asked for one. That should have been the first clue.”
He continued, “When the meal was put out downstairs it was meager (sic). So meagre (sic) my wife the ones sitting next to her kept mumbling, is this it? Is this all we’re getting? After I leave I may have to go to a restaurant. We didn’t want to say anything when we came the next time but my wife did say in that tactful way she has, there is going to be more food, isn’t there? Under her badgering the situation gradually improved and subsequent dinners offered buckets of Chinese food ordered from a local restaurant and placed on a buffet where one could get in line and help one’s self.”
“It all seemed odd for a man of substance who entertained many illustrious guests often. Under contined (sic) badgering by my wife arrangements were made for food to be cooked at home and served. She had to explain the order in which things come out. Not the main course and then the appetizer but the other way around.
“In time she bullied him into putting a few flowers in the middle of the table to make it look mildly warm and inviting. This took time and a number of corrections but his meals have been tweaked into some sense of normal, civil, dining. The large phone and computer at his right hand does take some of the relaxed home-cooking atmosphere out of it but but one can’t have everything – not at Castle Dracula.”
Representatives for Woody Allen did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Allen and Soon-Yi met when Allen was in a relationship with Soon-Yi’s adoptive mother, Mia Farrow. The two began a relationship despite their 35-year age difference. Allen was accused by his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow, of sexual abuse. Allen has denied the allegations.
Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019, one month after his arrest on federal charges for sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. He had previously pleaded guilty to prostitution charges as part of a plea deal, and served 13 months in a Palm Beach jail.
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His accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking. Maxwell was recently transferred to a lower-security facility, Federal Prison Camp Bryan, in Texas.
FPC Bryan, which is home to roughly 600 female inmates convicted of non-violent crimes, serves as a minimum-security prison that also houses Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star, Jen Shah.
Her defense team told the Supreme Court Tuesday that it opposes a judge releasing grand jury transcripts in her sex trafficking case after the Trump Department of Justice moved to unseal them.
Maxwell’s attorneys wrote in court papers that the unsealing would jeopardize her appeal to the Supreme Court and that their client could not take an “informed position” since the court had declined to let her defense team see the transcripts in advance.
The move by Maxwell, while expected, adds to the obstacles the DOJ must overcome to release grand jury transcripts from Epstein’s and Maxwell’s cases. The department had requested the material after President Donald Trump called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to do more to assuage public outcry about the DOJ’s initial decision last month to withhold any further information about Epstein’s case.
Trump, who was among the many high-profile figures in Epstein’s social circle, had previously brushed off growing calls from MAGA supporters to unveil more information about Epstein’s case after the late financier was accused in 2019 of engaging in sex trafficking and sexual abuse of underage women.
But a renewed public focus on Trump’s relationship with Epstein prompted the president to shift his stance and claim that while some of the files were fabricated by Democrats, the DOJ should release what it could.
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Social media erupts after House Dem says her Guatemalan pride is more important
Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois was widely criticized on social media this week over a clip where she said her pride as a Guatemalan comes before her pride of being an American.
“I’m a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American,” Ramirez declared in Spanish at the second annual Panamerican Congress in Mexico City over the weekend.
The comment drew outrage on social media, including from many conservatives, suggesting the congresswoman’s allegiance is misplaced.
“Are you comfortable with this?” GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah posted on X.
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“Well, okay then,” actor James Woods posted on X. “Hasta la vista…”
“Imagine saying that while serving in the U.S. Congress,” GOP Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York posted on X. “The Democrat Party no longer even pretends to put America first. Embarrassing.”
“Any person who values any other country over America does not belong in Congress,” conservative commentator Charlie Kirk posted on X. “Period.”
“The anger over Ramirez is not about how she defines herself, but about what it is to be an American,” Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley posted on X. “It is a shared identity, an article of faith that defines us all.”
The comment drew the attention of the Department of Homeland Security, which posted on its social media page a quote from former President Theodore Roosevelt in response.
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“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism… Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul,” the post said. “Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.”
“Shocking to hear a member of Congress openly state her loyalty to another country,” Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy posted on X. “If your primary allegiance is to a different nation, then you shouldn’t be allowed to make laws that bind Americans. That’s not controversial, it’s obvious.”
“She should be arrested, denaturalized, and deported,” conservative commentator Matt Walsh posted on X. “It shouldn’t even be controversial to say this. It’s obviously what should happen in cases like this.”
Ramirez, who sits on the House Committee on Homeland Security, also accused the U.S. of prioritizing “imperialism, militarization, conquest, control, competition in its attempt at domination.”
On her website, Ramirez, the child of immigrant parents, said her husband is in the country illegally and that she is the only congressional lawmaker “in a mixed-status marriage, and fights for the rights of DREAMers like her husband, Boris, and for comprehensive immigration reform.”
Ramirez defended her comments in a statement released by her office.
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“Honoring my Guatemalan ancestry only strengthens my commitment to America,” the statement said. “That is the truth I carry with me always. And it is a truth that many Americans carry with them.”
“Anyone who denies our claim on this country simply because we dare to honor our diverse heritage and immigrant roots only exposes how fragile and small-minded their own idea of America really is.”
Redistricting battle heats up as illegal immigrants in census sparks concerns
The redistricting battle across the country is bringing renewed attention to how the census counts people who are non-citizens, and if people here illegally are inflating the statistics that ultimately decide congressional seats and the Electoral College.
Texas is looking at redistricting, as blue states like California are eyeing the possibility of also redistricting to counter any potential Republican seat additions.
Still, there’s been a debate about whether to include a question asking to verify somebody’s citizenship on the census, and only use the citizen figures to determine congressional district and Electoral College numbers.
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Meanwhile, blue states and cities, particularly sanctuary jurisdictions, have faced major sweeps from federal immigration authorities, leading to questions about the number of illegal immigrants that could have been counted in the 2020 census, even though it was before the Biden-era border crisis.
The Office of Homeland Security Statistics reported in 2024 that there were roughly 2.6 million “unauthorized immigrants” living in California, and just over 2 million living in Texas as of 2022.
Many other states, like Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Arizona, also had numbers in the hundreds of thousands, according to the office’s estimates at the time.
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The “Equal Representation Act” was re-introduced in the Senate in June with heavy Republican support, which would add the question and leave out non-citizens from being counted in the apportionments, as they have a major political impact.
“It is unconscionable that illegal immigrants and non-citizens are counted toward congressional district apportionment and our electoral map for the presidency, which also heavily skews the seat count in the U.S. House of Representatives,” Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said in a statement in June on the legislation.
“While people continue to flee Democrat-run cities, desperate Democrats have back-filled the mass exodus with illegal immigrants so that they do not lose their seats in Congress or their electoral votes, hence artificially boosting their political power and in turn diluting the power of other Americans’ votes. I’m pleased to lead my colleagues in reintroducing this legislation that would require a citizenship question on the census and will ensure that only citizens are counted in congressional redistricting,” he added.
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“Most Americans would be surprised to learn that states with more illegal immigrants are awarded greater representation in Congress as a result. Addressing this perverse feature of reapportionment needs to be part of any discussion about redistricting reform going forward,” Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital in a statement.
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The argument from Republicans is that if people who are non-citizens and in the country illegally are being counted, it creates an artificially high number for representation. While there’s been discussion in the past, the millions of illegal immigrants that arrived in the country during the Biden administration brought the concern back.
A proposal from Rep. Chuck Edwards passed the House last year during the Biden administration, but it never became law and was brought back by the Republican this session.
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“But even if not a single illegal alien casts a vote, the mere presence of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is having a profound impact on the outcome of elections, skewing the representation of Americans,” Edwards said at the time.
“Mr. Biggs points out that the U.S. Constitution mandates that a census be carried out every ten years, where everyone who is present in the United States, regardless of their citizenship and immigration status, is counted. But the Constitution does not specify whether non-citizens or illegal aliens must be counted for the purpose of apportioning House seats,” he added.
Trump says he asked Bessent ‘last night’ if he wants to be Fed Chair
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent won’t be in the running to become the next chair of the Federal Reserve.
“He wants to stay where he is. I’ll take him off the — because I asked him just last night, ‘Is this something you want?’ ‘Nope. I want to stay where I am.’ He actually said, ‘I want to work with you,’” Trump said during a CNBC interview Tuesday morning. “He likes being Treasury secretary. He’s doing a really good job. We made the greatest trade deals in the history of our country. We had to because we were being ripped off by the world.”
Bessent previously downplayed rumors that he could be selected to replace current Fed Chair Jerome Powell next spring, telling FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo last month that he remains satisfied with his current job in the administration.
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However, he confirmed the administration has begun a “formal process” to select Powell’s successor, with the Fed chair’s term set to end in May 2026, amid rising tensions between Trump and Powell.
When asked about the timeline for announcing a new Fed chair, Bessent said it is “President Donald Trump‘s decision, and it will move at his speed.”
Powell has asserted he “will never, ever, ever leave this job voluntarily.” However, tensions between Powell, originally appointed by Trump in 2017, and the president have continued to rise, with the central bank’s interest rate decisions proving a particular point of friction. Trump wants interest rates cut, but the Fed hasn’t done so since 2024.
Last month, Trump told reporters at the White House that Powell is doing a “lousy job.”
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After the central bank left interest rates unchanged last week, Trump slammed Powell, calling him “TOO STUPID, & TOO POLITICAL, to have the job of Fed Chair” on Truth Social.
This marked the fifth consecutive meeting the Fed held its benchmark interest rate steady, citing uncertainty over the impact of tariffs on inflation and consumer prices as well as conditions in the labor market.
Chair Powell said at the post-announcement press conference that while inflation remains above the Fed’s 2% longer-run goal, the labor market is at roughly full employment, leaving the central bank in a good position to cut rates if economic conditions deteriorate.
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He also noted that tariffs appear to be increasing consumer prices and pushing inflation data higher, though it’s unclear what the long-term impact on the economy will be.
Prior to the meeting, Trump touted the economy’s 3% growth in the second quarter, writing on Truth Social that it was “WAY BETTER THAN EXPECTED!” and added that, “‘Too Late’ MUST NOW LOWER THE RATE. No Inflation! Let people buy, and refinance, their homes!”
Police investigate woman’s death on boat docked at ritzy marina in early hours
A woman was found dead on a boat docked near the ritzy Montauk Yacht Club in New York early Monday morning.
The Suffolk County Police Department confirmed to Fox News Digital that Homicide Squad detectives were notified at approximately 4 a.m. on Tuesday morning after the woman’s body was discovered aboard a vessel off Star Island Road in Montauk, a high-end marina destination at the eastern tip of Long Island.
“Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives are investigating the death of a woman who was found on a boat docked off Star Island Road in Montauk on August 5,” the department said. “The woman’s cause and manner of death have yet to be determined.”
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A spokesperson for the Montauk Yacht Club, where the boat was docked, confirmed the incident but declined to provide further details.
“We are saddened to learn of the incident that took place,” the spokesperson said to Fox News Digital. “Our team is cooperating with law enforcement in their ongoing investigation and remains committed to the safety and well-being of our guests and staff. We have no further comment at this time.”
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Authorities have not released the woman’s identity, and it remains unclear whether foul play is suspected.
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The Montauk Yacht Club is a haven for summer tourism and upscale clientele. The Long Island hotel is oceanfront.
Pickpockets target American tourists with alarming tactics and sophisticated schemes
When it comes to traveling abroad, some people may be worried about their safety and want to keep their guard up.
In the “r/ParisTravelGuide” forum on Reddit, a traveler asked others for advice on pickpockets.
“My family will be traveling to Paris next month,” the person wrote. “It will be our first time visiting Europe, and we are very excited — but also a bit nervous.”
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The user added, “We tend to look quite innocent, and we’re worried we might be easy targets for pickpockets. We won’t have a tour guide and will be managing everything on our own.”
Others on the platform took to the comments section to share advice and their own experiences.
“Just know they target tourists,” wrote one person. “They only hang out in tourist areas and by your clothing it will be obvious you are not Parisian. They never bother me and I’ve never been robbed nor has a single person I know.”
Another user shared, “In the last 2 years, I’ve stopped two pickpockets in the subway. In one case, they were reaching into someone’s backpack and in the other for a phone in a loose back pocket. The strategy is to keep [your] items in places that are difficult to access.”
Said a different person, “Stay alert in touristy areas, keep your bag in front of you on the Metro, and avoid engaging with strangers who approach you (anyone).”
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One person wrote, “Be mindful. Carry bags that close, wear a cross-body bag, keep all zippers closed, don’t flash cash or jewelry. And if a stranger approaches you to hold something or offers to take your photo, walk away.”
Said yet another person, “I’m staggered how many tourists I see on the Metro with a backpack on. Makes it so easy for pickpockets to steal from them.”
A Redditor wrote, “The [number] of people I watched on their phones by the doors of the trains was staggering and does present an opportunistic grab-and-run scenario. Don’t do that.”
Each year some 2,000 Americans report their passports stolen or lost in Paris, according to the U.S. Embassy in France.
The Embassy and Consulate in France have a whole page dedicated to “Pickpockets in Paris.”
Travelers are advised not to bring along more than $50 to $60 in cash.
Says the site, “The first rule of thumb is don’t have anything more in your wallet than you are willing to lose.”
The embassy also advises bringing only one credit card or ATM card along and only one piece of identification.
Travelers are also advised not to bring along more than $50 to $60 in cash.
Tourist spots such as the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the Champs-Elysées are areas where visitors are most likely to be pickpocketed, according to the embassy.
“Americans in Paris should be particularly alert to thieves who commonly work near tourist attractions such as museums, monuments, restaurants, hotels, beaches, trains, train stations, airports, subways and target vehicles with non-local license plates,” the embassy cautions.
The embassy also discusses the different tactics pickpocketers use, whether on the street or on public transportation.
“Two or more people will approach you and ask for directions.”
If riding the Metro, the embassy says that “the most popular is the crush-and-grab. You will be swarmed by several people all trying to get on or off.”
“While they are pushing you, they are also picking your pockets,” notes the advisory.
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“Another trick is to grab the purse of someone sitting right by the door and to hop off just as the doors are closing.”
Pickpocketers most frequently use a distraction technique on the streets.
“Two or more people will approach you and ask for directions, try to sell you stuff or just crowd you. While you are occupied with one person, another is picking your pocket,” the embassy says.
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Travelers should also watch out for something getting spilled or thrown on them, as a criminal may offer to help clean up while another person picks your pocket.
The Consular Section of the Embassy has information on how to replace certain items which have been stolen or lost.