History leaves no doubt: Birthright citizenship was never up for debate
On Friday, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear challenges to President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship. The 14th Amendment automatically makes all babies born on American territory citizens. Trump’s effort to overturn the traditional reading of the constitutional text and history should not succeed.
Ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment provided a constitutional definition of citizenship for the first time. It declares that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” In antebellum America, states granted citizenship: they all followed the British rule of jus soli (citizenship determined by place of birth) rather than the European rule of jus sanguinis (citizenship determined by parental lineage). As the 18th-century English jurist William Blackstone explained: “the children of aliens, born here in England, are, generally speaking, natural-born subjects, and entitled to all the privileges of such.” Upon independence, the American states incorporated the British rule into their own laws.
Congress did not draft the 14th Amendment to change this practice, but to affirm it in the face of the most grievous travesty in American constitutional history: slavery. In Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), Chief Justice Roger Taney concluded that slaves — even those born in the United States — could never become American citizens. According to Taney, the Founders believed that Black Americans could never become equal, even though the Constitution did not exclude them from citizenship nor prevent Congress or the states from protecting their rights.
SCOTUS TO REVIEW TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER ON BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP
The 14th Amendment directly overruled Dred Scott. It forever prevents the government from depriving any ethnic, religious or political group of citizenship.
The only way to avoid this clear reading of the constitutional text is to misread the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Claremont Institute scholars (many of whom I count as friends) laid the intellectual foundations for the Trump executive order; they argue that this phrase created an exception to jus soli. Claremont scholars Edward Erler and John Eastman argue that “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” requires that a citizen not only be born on American territory, but that his parents also be legally present. Because aliens owe allegiance to another nation, they maintain, they are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States.
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The Claremont Institute reading implausibly holds that the Reconstruction Congress simultaneously narrowed citizenship for aliens even as it dramatically expanded citizenship for freed slaves. There is little reason to understand Reconstruction — which was responsible for the greatest expansion of constitutional rights since the Bill of Rights — in this way.
This argument also misreads the text of “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Everyone on our territory, even aliens, falls under the jurisdiction of the United States. Imagine reading the rule differently. If aliens did not fall within our jurisdiction while on our territory, they could violate the law and claim that the government had no jurisdiction to arrest, try and punish them.
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Critics, however, respond that “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” must refer to citizen parents or risk being redundant when being born on U.S. territory. But at the time of the 14th Amendment’s ratification, domestic and international law recognized that narrow categories of people could be within American territory but not under its laws. Foreign diplomats and enemy soldiers occupying U.S. territory, for example, are immune from our domestic laws even when present on our soil. A third important category demonstrates that “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” was no mere surplusage. At the time of Reconstruction, American Indians residing on tribal lands were not considered subject to U.S. jurisdiction. Once the federal government reduced tribal sovereignty in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it extended birthright citizenship to Indians in 1924.
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The 14th Amendment’s drafting supports this straightforward reading. The 1866 Civil Rights Act, passed just two years before ratification of the 14th Amendment, extended birthright citizenship to those born in the U.S. except those “subject to any foreign power” and “Indians not taxed.” The Reconstruction Congress passed the 14th Amendment because of uncertainty over federal power to enact the 1866 Act. If the amendment’s drafters had wanted “jurisdiction” to exclude children of aliens, they could have simply borrowed the exact language from the 1866 act to extend citizenship only to those born to parents with no “allegiance to a foreign power.”
We have few records of the 14th Amendment’s ratification debates in state legislatures, which is why constitutional practice and common-law history are of such central importance. But the few instances in which Congress addressed the issue appear to support birthright citizenship. When the 14th Amendment came to the floor, for example, congressional critics recognized the broad sweep of the birthright citizenship language. Pennsylvania Sen. Edgar Cowan asked supporters of the amendment: “Is the child of the Chinese immigrant in California a citizen? Is the child born of a Gypsy born in Pennsylvania a citizen?” California Sen. John Conness responded in the affirmative. Conness would lose re-election due to anti-Chinese sentiment in California.
Courts have never questioned this understanding of the 14th Amendment. In United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), the Supreme Court upheld the citizenship of a child born in San Francisco to Chinese parents. The Chinese Exclusion Acts barred the parents from citizenship, but the government could not deny citizenship to the child. The court declared that “the Fourteenth Amendment affirms the ancient and fundamental rule of citizenship by birth within the territory, in the allegiance and protection of the country, including all children here born of resident aliens.” The court rejected the claim that aliens are not within “the jurisdiction” of the United States. Critics respond that Wong Kim Ark does not apply to illegal aliens because the parents were in the United States legally. But at the time, the federal government had yet to pass comprehensive immigration laws that distinguished between legal and illegal aliens. The parents’ legal status made no difference.
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President Trump is entitled to ask the court to overturn Wong Kim Ark. But his administration must persuade the justices to disregard the plain text of the Constitution, the weight of the historical evidence from the time of the 14th Amendment’s ratification and more than 140 years of unbroken government practice and judicial interpretation.
A conservative, originalist Supreme Court is unlikely to reject the traditional American understanding of citizenship held from the time of the Founding through Reconstruction to today.
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Accused Apalachee High School shooter appears in court with markedly changed appearance
Accused Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray appeared in court on Tuesday looking almost unrecognizable from his infamous booking photo.
In his mugshot, then-14-year-old Gray had shoulder-length dyed blond hair, but the now-15-year-old had a more clean-cut look in court on Tuesday. He had slicked-back dark hair and wore glasses, a collared shirt, a quarter-zip and khakis.
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Attorney Aisha Broderick, who was appointed to represent Gray in October, reportedly told the judge that a medical evaluation of Gray was still not complete, according to CBS News. She said the assessment, which is expected to be finished by the end of February, would help guide the defense. CBS News added that Gray’s next hearing is scheduled for March 18, 2026.
Gray is accused of carrying out a shooting at Georgia’s Apalachee High School on Sept. 4, 2024, in which he allegedly killed four people and wounded nine others. The teachers killed were Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students were Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14.
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In October 2024, Gray was indicted on 55 criminal offenses, including four counts of felony murder in the shooting. His father, Colin Gray, was also indicted for 29 counts, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct.
The older Gray faces up to 180 years in prison if convicted, while his son could get up to life in prison, according to the New York Post, which noted that Colt, who is a minor, is not eligible for the death penalty.
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In 2023, prior to the shooting, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office visited the Gray household multiple times and had flagged the younger Gray as a person of interest leading up to the shooting after a May 2023 report of an online threat to shoot up a middle school that he attended. Police investigated the threat and spoke with the father and son on May 21, 2023, at their home.
Trump ally allegedly attacked by inmates after prison officials ignored safety pleas
A Colorado county clerk convicted in a pro-Trump 2020 election denial scheme was threatened and attacked in prison, her lawyer says.
Tina Peters, 70, is serving a nine-year sentence on state charges in Colorado. Her attorney, Peter Ticktin, says she has been violently attacked by fellow inmates on three separate occasions. Ticktin made the claim in a Saturday letter addressed to President Donald Trump, who has expressed keen interest in the case.
“About 6 months ago, Mrs. Peters was threatened with harm. Her life was threatened by a group of inmates, to stab her and to kill her. This was reported to the FBI and DOJ, which had agents interview her. She was moved to a different unit,” Ticktin wrote.
“In the new unit, she was attacked by other prisoners three times in different locations where guards had to pull inmates off of her,” the letter continued. “There is actually a safe unit where inmates who do not cause problems can be assigned. She has applied to be put into that unit but was denied six times without a valid reason.”
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Ticktin went on to argue that Trump has the power to pardon Peters despite her being convicted of state-level crimes.
“The reason that many pundits opine that you have only the power to grant pardons for federal offenses is that we all understand the ‘United States’ to be the federal government of our country,” he wrote, referring to the text of the pardon power in the Constitution.
“We have one country, and it is called the ‘United States,'” he added before making a lengthy argument about the phrasing of the pardon power.
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Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison after a state jury convicted her of participating in a scheme to breach the Mesa County voting systems following the 2020 elections. Peters filed a lawsuit seeking her release earlier this year, arguing that her free speech rights had been violated, but Judge Scott Varholak rejected the move on Monday.
Peters is the only Trump ally to face prison time for 2020 election denial, and she has received significant support from the president.
“Tina is an innocent Political Prisoner being horribly and unjustly punished in the form of Cruel and Unusual Punishment. This is a Communist persecution by the Radical Left Democrats to cover up their Election crimes and misdeeds in 2020,” he wrote on Truth Social in May. “The same Democrat Party that flies to El Salvador to try to free an MS-13 Terrorist, is cruelly imprisoning, perhaps for life, a grandmother whose brave and heroic son gave his life for America.”
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“Colorado must end this unjust incarceration of an innocent American,” he added.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, has vowed not to pardon Peters as part of a deal with Trump, saying he would not participate in “any scheme to prevent her from being held accountable under Colorado law.”
Read the full letter from Peters’ lawyer below (App users click here)
ICE arrests illegal alien sex predator, college student despite admin interfering: DHS
A small private college in Minneapolis is at the center of controversy after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused staff members of impeding ICE operations in order to protect an illegal alien student who the department says is also a registered sex offender.
On Monday night, DHS, responding to a local news report, said on X that ICE agents arrested Jesus Saucedo-Portillo, a criminal illegal alien and registered sex offender with a prior conviction for driving while impaired.
That arrest was hindered when a school administrator teamed up with campus security and attempted to prevent ICE agents from doing their job.
Saucedo-Portillo is an undergraduate student at Augsburg University in Minneapolis.
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“Our officers told the school Administrator and campus security that ICE had a warrant for the illegal alien’s arrest. The school Administrator told ICE officers they were violating university policies,” the statement said. “Our officers informed them that federal law supersedes any University policy and that if campus security would not stop blocking the law enforcement vehicle from exiting, they would be obstructing justice.”
Despite the warning, the administrator refused to back down and ordered campus security to block the ICE vehicle, according to DHS.
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“Our officers followed their training to use the minimum amount of force necessary to clear the area and successfully arrested this criminal illegal alien,” the statement finished.
In an interview with Minnesota Public Radio, Augsburg President Paul Pribbenow corroborated that Saucedo-Portillo is a student and claimed that the arrest was “illegal” and that ICE did not have a warrant.
He also said ICE agents drew their weapons on a group of staff and students who had gathered near the incident. The students then called campus security, which “set off a protocol for when ICE is on campus.”
He also praised students who participated in the anti-ICE action.
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“We’re proud of [students] for the fact that they did that, despite the kind of hectic and traumatic nature of the event itself,” Pribbenow told the news outlet.
He also reportedly said that no staff or students violated the code of conduct at the Evangelical Lutheran affiliated school.
Augsburg officials did not return multiple requests for comment.
Government waste forces farmers to destroy good eggs as prices soar, senator says
FIRST ON FOX: A Senate Republican wants to lower the costs of eggs by loosening certain regulations as the nation deals with growing affordability concerns.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., plans to introduce a bill that would tweak federal egg-handling rules to allow more to enter the market in a bid to lower prices of the household staple.
Cotton’s bill, the Lowering Egg Prices Act of 2025, first obtained by Fox News Digital would update federal egg-handling rules to make it easier for surplus broiler hatching eggs — fertile eggs originally intended for broiler chicken production — to be diverted into the food supply as pasteurized liquid egg products.
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“Arkansas consumers have paid higher egg prices and faced egg shortages because of bureaucratic red tape that forces farmers to throw out hundreds of millions of usable eggs each year,” Cotton said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “My bill will cut these excessive regulations and lower egg prices.”
The legislation would require that the Food and Drug Administration, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, rewrite its egg rules so that eggs intended to be hatched could also enter into the food supply as a liquid egg product, effectively creating a regulatory glide path to bolster the number of eggs in the supply chain.
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Egg prices had steadily inched upward late last year into earlier this year, reaching record highs by March of more than $6 per dozen eggs. But the cost of eggs has since been steadily dropping, thanks in part to efforts by President Donald Trump and his administration to combat the effects of avian flu.
If the virus is detected in a hatchery, the entire flock is generally killed to halt its spread. Doing so can put a dent in the supply chain, and cause prices to creep up.
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Trump ordered the USDA earlier this year to dump $1 billion into a plan to bolster the egg supply chain against avian flu, with a focus on biosecurity measures, farmer relief, vaccine research and increasing imports.
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There were a spate of lawsuits against egg producers for alleged price fixing this year and notably, the Trump administration sued the state of California for allegedly going against federal law and increasing egg prices with red tape.
But egg prices have trended downward since the record highs earlier this year. According to the USDA’s most recent egg markets overview, egg prices during the first week of December dropped overall, save in some markets like California. Large white eggs, for example, dropped by roughly 17% to an average of $1.91 per dozen egg.
Actress plots TV comeback while marriage crumbles, experts say it’s the perfect time
As Lori Loughlin continues to navigate life post-Varsity Blues scandal and recent marriage woes, the “Full House” alum is taking back her wholesome image with a highly-anticipated return to Hallmark.
Loughlin, who is gearing up to reprise her role as Abigail Stanton in Hallmark’s “When Calls The Heart” after a seven-year hiatus, has had a rough few years both personally and professionally — including a two-month stay in prison for her involvement in the college admissions scandal and a separation from her husband of nearly 28 years, Mossimo Giannulli.
Despite the setbacks, however, experts said Loughlin could make a strong comeback. And the timing is perfect.
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“Cancel culture has eased up in recent years and, depending on the offense, audiences have become much more forgiving,” Steve Honig, founder of The Honig Company, told Fox News Digital. “More and more we are seeing celebrities weather storms and bounce back. There is also some truth to the old adage that time heals all wounds, and Loughlin has been off-the-grid for some time now.”
“Her bread and butter is wholesome family entertainment and that’s her ace in the hole. She needs to stick to what she knows and where she has a successful history.”
“Loughlin’s return to her original roots is a smart move on her part, and fortunate for her that her previous employer is willing to have her back,” Honig continued. “She was very well-established in her genre and going back to it will reinforce her pre-scandal image and help ingratiate her with her core audience.”
“Her bread and butter is wholesome family entertainment and that’s her ace in the hole,” he added. “She needs to stick to what she knows and where she has a successful history.”
Doug Eldridge, founder of Achilles PR, said Loughlin has been granted empathy in a way, due to her relatability.
“We are a nation based on second chances. We love the comeback story and we’ve always embraced the underdog. Loughlin fits both roles,” said Eldridge.
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“She was caught, convicted, and spent two months in jail,” he continued. “Most Americans turn on the news and see rampant insider trading in the halls of Congress, or violent criminals walking the streets due to cashless bail. Yet, here was a woman who did everything possible to give her children a competitive advantage, and she was paraded around and made an example of.”
While Eldridge made it clear that it doesn’t make her decisions “any less wrong,” it’s about perception.
“From a public relations standpoint, once the initial dust settled, the average American could relate to her actions,” he said. “Granted, they couldn’t afford a half-million-dollar bribe like she did, but the desire for our children to do better than we did is a common thread in American society. Empathy goes a long way.”
“Second chances and underdogs are making a comeback,” he added.
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In 2020, the actress served two months in prison, completed 150 hours of community service and paid a $150,000 fine after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges stemming from making payments to William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind of the scam, to get her daughters, Isabella and Olivia Jade, into the University of Southern California.
In April 2024, Loughlin spoke with First For Women about forgiveness and moving forward.
“Every day, we’re met with different obstacles. But, for me, it’s like that song says, ‘I get knocked down, but I get up again,’” she said in the outlet’s cover story. “Nobody said life was going to be a breeze; we all make mistakes, but the important thing is to persevere.”
“For me, it’s just persevering and, as an actress, I hear ‘no’ a lot, so I just have to be myself and persevere and try not to let in negativity,” she continued. “My advice is to just keep moving forward. Everyone has good times and bad times. That’s life. I think you just have to pick yourself up. Nobody said life was going to be a breeze. There’s beauty in life, but there’s also hardship in life.”
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While she did not directly address the scandal, she spoke about asking for forgiveness.
“Actually, I try to be a forgiving person. I’m not one to hold onto stuff. Stuff happens to everyone. We’ve all been in positions to ask for forgiveness, but to ask for it, you have to learn and know how to give forgiveness, too,” Loughlin said.
“My family wasn’t one to hold grudges. I didn’t grow up in a household where if you made a mistake, you weren’t forgiven,” she continued. “No one is perfect, we all make mistakes. So I was always told to let stuff go. And I think, for your own health, you have to let things go because you can’t hang on to negativity. Life’s too short.”
Amid her reflections, Loughlin was dealing with her own marital struggles behind closed doors.
In October, Loughlin separated from her husband of nearly 28 years, Mossimo Giannulli.
“Lori and Mossimo are living apart,” Loughlin’s rep, Elizabeth Much, told Fox News Digital. “There are no legal proceedings underway.”
A source told People magazine that the last few years for the couple “put a strain on their marriage.”
“Things have never been the same” after the pair “weathered the college admission fallout and the prison sentences together,” the source said.
Though devastating, the personal struggle won’t make much of an impact on her return, said Eldridge.
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“In terms of her divorce, the impact will likely be negligible,” he said. “Sadly, over 50% of marriages in the United States end in divorce; of those, 72% are initiated by women. Until you’ve had to live through it, most people are numb to it. As such, this won’t move the needle with viewers.”
Cracker Barrel CEO admits to tough turnaround after modern makeover misfires
Cracker Barrel warned during the company’s earnings call on Tuesday that its turnaround is moving at a slower pace than hoped after the company was mired in controversy over the summer after an attempted rebrand angered consumers.
Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Masino acknowledged that first-quarter results “were below our expectations amid unique and ongoing headwinds” that “our recovery will take time,” as the company’s teams work to regain momentum.
“As you are all aware, the past few months have been difficult for Cracker Barrel and for our 70,000 team members around the country. And while many of our guests are enjoying our improved food and guest experience, we certainly have more work to do to regain the trust and confidence of others who have been slower to return,” Masino said.
“This will take time, but we are executing a plan and are confident we will get back to the trajectory we saw in fiscal ’25,” she added.
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Masino said that, “Our unique circumstances during the first quarter were exacerbated by a difficult macro and industry backdrop that saw choppy traffic patterns.”
Cracker Barrel reported that sales were down 5.7% compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2025. It also had adjusted EBITDA of $7.2 million, while the same quarter in the prior fiscal year was $45.8 million.
“Our EBITDA was clearly impacted by our topline performance. But I also want to remind everyone that it included incremental costs related to advertising, marketing and our GM conference, which totaled approximately $14 million,” Masino explained.
“Traffic was down 1% in the first half of August and was down approximately 9% for the remainder of the quarter. We are taking decisive actions to return our performance to a positive trajectory,” she added.
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Masino said that Cracker Barrel is looking to improve its performance in three areas, with the first two centering “on our food and the guest experience and include evolving our operations and connecting with our guests through our menu, marketing and value proposition.”
The third area is “pursuing cost savings to improve profitability” through operational changes. Cracker Barrel plans to optimize its back-of-house initiatives by stepping up training and making leadership changes as part of phase 1 of its plan to improve food quality and consistency, simplify operations and deliver cost savings.
Masino noted that the fourth quarter was the first full quarter in which the phase 1 changes were rolled out. While those changes were “delivering meaningful savings, it became clear during the quarter that the new processes at scale made consistent execution more challenging for our operators and impacted the consistency of our food.”
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Cracker Barrel sparked controversy over the summer when it moved forward with a rebrand that involved removing the “old timer” from the company’s logo, as well as changes to the interior layout of the restaurants that have long included a general store.
The rebrand controversy emerged in late August, and Cracker Barrel reversed its rebranding plans less than a week after the backlash began.
Masino said in an interview last month with The Blaze’s Glenn Beck that she felt like she was “fired by America” over the controversial rebrand and ensuing backlash.
“I think a lot of people think that Doug and me and other people sit around and are like, ‘Let’s remodel Cracker Barrel.’ Nothing could be further from the truth,” Masino said. “The notion for some of that truly came out of the work that we were doing on how do we improve food and experience. When we were talking to our guests, they said, ‘Stores could be a little bit more comfortable. They’re real dark. I can’t read the menu.'”
She admitted that they “missed the mark” and said they feel remorse over the disappointment customers expressed.
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“We’re sorry that that’s what people feel. That was not the intent,” Masino said. “It hurts me, because I don’t people to be mad at Cracker Barrel. Our job is to make people love Cracker Barrel the way that our guests do, right? And so, even trying to invite new people in, it was always about how do we show them the magic that is Cracker Barrel.”
Study finds new Ozempic alternative sheds fat without muscle loss, may enhance strength
Scientists in Sweden have created a new pill designed to help the body burn fat and control blood sugar in a different way than popular GLP-1 drugs, like Ozempic.
While injectable GLP-1s work by suppressing appetite, this new treatment boosts metabolism in the muscles.
A study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University included both an early animal study and a human clinical trial with 48 healthy adults and 25 people with type 2 diabetes, according to a press release.
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The new oral medication was found to successfully control blood glucose, boost fat burning and retain muscle mass in animals, while getting high marks for tolerability and safety in humans.
It was also found to have fewer side effects than GLP-1s like semaglutides and tirzepatides, which are known to cause appetite loss, gastrointestinal distress and muscle wasting, the researchers noted.
The experimental medication uses a new form of beta-2 agonist that benefits muscle function while also avoiding overstimulation of the heart, which has been identified as a potential safety concern of older versions.
The findings were published this week in the journal Cell.
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Because the new oral drug acts via a different mechanism than appetite-suppressing medications, it could be used alone or in combination with GLP-1s, the researchers noted.
“Our results point to a future where we can improve metabolic health without losing muscle mass,” said Tore Bengtsson, professor at the Department of Molecular Bioscience at Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, in the release. “Muscles are important in both type 2 diabetes and obesity, and muscle mass is also directly correlated with life expectancy.”
This medication has the potential to be of “great importance” for patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity, according to Shane C. Wright, assistant professor at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Karolinska Institutet.
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“Our substance appears to promote healthy weight loss and, in addition, patients do not have to take injections,” he added.
Dr. Trey Wickham, interim chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism at VCU Health in Richmond, Virginia, was not involved in the study but shared his reaction to the publication in the journal Cell.
“Our results point to a future where we can improve metabolic health without losing muscle mass.”
“This compound’s mechanism of action could address some specific metabolic concerns with previous weight reduction therapies, such as the loss of both muscle and fat tissue,” Wickham told Fox News Digital.
“Although the reported preliminary results are interesting, rigorous testing involving larger longitudinal trials are necessary to ensure human long-term safety and understand the potential role of this compound in the comprehensive, evidence-based treatment of obesity and diabetes.”
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The study had some limitations, the researchers noted, chiefly that the preclinical studies in mice fail to capture the “complex nature of these diseases” in humans.
Structural studies are needed to understand exactly how the drug works.
“Our phase 1 data show that compound 15 is well-tolerated; however, conclusive clinical efficacy data (on how the drug controls glucose metabolism) are currently still lacking.”
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Looking ahead, the company that developed the drug, Atrogi AB, plans to conduct a larger phase 2 clinical trial with a larger, more diverse population, including people with obesity.
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The study was supported in part by the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Society for Medical Research and the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
Uppsala University, University of Copenhagen, Monash University and University of Queensland all collaborated with the lead researchers.
Jewel posts bikini photos from beach vacation, fans call her ‘Benjamin Button’
Jewel is bringing the heat to the holiday season.
In a recent Instagram post, the 51-year-old country singer shared a few bikini photos from her vacation to the Caribbean island, Barbuda, captioning the post, “#Barbuda for a few days of sun before more winter snow.”
The first photo in the slideshow featured Jewel smiling at the camera with the wind blowing her hair back, as she stood on the beach in an animal-print bikini. The ocean waves can be seen crashing onto the shore behind her.
A second photo shows the singer in the same bikini, this time taking a mirror selfie in her hotel room. Other photos in the slideshow feature the food she ate and the picturesque ocean views.
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Fans raved over her toned physique, flooding the comments section with compliments for the singer.
“Fine 🍷 wine. 🔥🔥 You look amazing!” one fan wrote, while another added, “Are you sure you didn’t drink a youth serum… you just keep looking younger.”
“Geeez miss benjamin button over here just looking younger and younger with the years lol,” a third fan wrote. “You look happy and knowing your past , that’s most important. Wishing you the best.”
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Earlier this year, the singer, whose full name is Jewel Kilcher, received backlash after she performed at the MAHA Inaugural Ball with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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She took the stage for a surprise performance, singing an acoustic rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” which left Kennedy’s wife, Cheryl Hines, emotional, as she was seen wiping away a tear while Jewel performed.
Following her performance, many fans took to social media to share their disappointment in her choice to sing at the event, with one writing, “You are a huge disappointment. I was a fan for decades but now will never listen to your music again or pay any money to see you perform live.”
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“As many of you know, I am a mental health advocate. If there’s anything that I’ve learned in the past 20 years, it’s that mental health affects everybody’s lives across party lines,” Jewel said in response in an Instagram video. “I reached out to the last administration, spoke with the surgeon general about the mental health crisis that’s facing our nation. I don’t know if you guys know the stats, but it is bleak.”
She went on to say that “I believe I can help, and if I believe I can help, I have to try.” Jewel is involved in numerous nonprofit organizations aimed at improving the mental health crisis in America, including the Inspiring Children Foundation and Innerworld, both of which she co-founded.
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“If I wait to try until I agree 100% with the people that might be willing to help me, I’d never get off the bench. I don’t think that’s how activism works, waiting until everything’s perfect enough to participate,” she continued in her video to her fans. “It’s actually because things are so imperfect that we have to find ways to engage and to participate. And we have to act now. We cannot wait another four years.”
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