FIRST ON FOX: Texas Rep. Lance Gooden, a Republican, led a letter with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and committee colleague Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., to the CEO of United Way Worldwide (UWW) demanding answers on federal grant money reportedly going to free services for illegal immigrants.

The Republicans sent the letter to UWW President and CEO Angela Williams regarding the reports of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) using federal grant money to give illegal immigrants free food, services, shelter and transportation.

The lawmakers wrote the U.S. ‘is experiencing the worst border crisis in our nation’s history’ as a ‘direct result’ of President Biden and his administration’s ‘actions.’

Gooden, Jordan and McClintock cited the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) over 5 million illegal immigrant encounters since Biden took office and the release of nearly 2 million illegal immigrants ‘pursuant to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy.’

‘A major cause of this crisis is the incentive created by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) using DHS grant funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),’ the lawmakers wrote. ‘United Way Worldwide is the designated charity to execute funding decisions made by the National Board for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP).

‘While Americans suffer the consequences of chaos at the southwest border caused by the Biden Administration, the United Way and dozens of local charities and governments are receiving millions of taxpayer dollars to provide free food, lodging, and transportation for illegal aliens to be released anywhere they want in the United States.’

The Republicans noted that, according ‘to FEMA guidance, federal funding can even be awarded without any documentation or receipts’ and warned that, amid ‘this crisis, there is also an increased risk of fraud, misuse, and abuse of funds because, due to current policies, FEMA is unable to ensure that humanitarian relief funds are not being wasted.’

The lawmakers demanded that UWW turn over documents and information regarding a trove of topics, including the ‘total dollar amount in grants and contracts organizations have received (separated by funding source) from federal, state, and local government agencies.’

It also seeks a ‘list of affiliates that are providing assistance to foreign nationals outside the United States who are traveling to the United States without authorization allowing them to be admitted, and the dollar amounts each affiliate or subrecipient has received from your organization to provide such assistance.’

UWW did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The lawmakers’ latest letter comes after they sent correspondence to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas seeking information, communications and documents related to federal funding awards to NGOs for food, lodging and transportation of migrants since January 2021. In the letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, the lawmakers note the ongoing crisis at the southern border, which is now into its third year. 

The crisis has been exacerbated in recent days by the expiration of the Title 42 public health order. Agents have encountered over 10,000 migrants a day across multiple days.

In anticipation of that shift, DHS announced that more funding to NGOs, including an allocation of $332 million via the Emergency Food and Shelter Program to ‘assist communities receiving noncitizens released from custody as they await the outcome of their immigration proceedings.’

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed reporting.

Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos is speaking out after the long-anticipated report from Special Counsel John Durham revealed he repeatedly denied any possible collusion well before the FBI opened its doomed Trump-Russia investigation.

Durham’s report last week determined that the FBI opened its years-long ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ investigation into alleged collusion between former President Trump and the Kremlin based on ‘raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence,’ and that it ‘reflected a noticeable departure from how it approached prior matters involving possible attempted foreign election interference plans aimed at the Clinton campaign.’

On page 252 of the report, Durham claimed the FBI recorded meetings between Papadopoulos and undercover employees, and that Papadopoulos repeatedly denied any Russian assistance to the Trump campaign, saying such activity would be ‘illegal’ and ‘treason.’

Papadopoulos also made repeated denials about the campaign’s involvement with the WikiLeaks disclosures of hacked DNC emails, but his words were dismissed as ‘weird’ and ‘rehearsed,’ the report said. Thus, his denials of collusion were not included in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant applications to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, Durham’s report said. 

Papadopoulos told Fox News Digital the revelation in the report ‘is the primary example of the problems surrounding the FBI leadership in 2016 – and that have continued to the present.’

‘You have a ‘target,’ me, who is explicitly saying that any work or ‘collusion’ with Russia is treason, and that I have no idea what this informant is talking about. Yet, this and other exculpatory information is intentionally withheld from the FISA court so that the FBI can continue their pre-determined plan to sabotage the Trump campaign,’ Papadopoulos said.

‘As Durham stated clearly there was absolutely no basis to launch an investigation, let alone to continue one,’ he added.

Durham argued in his report that while ‘the exclusion of the Papadopoulos statements in the Page FISA application may have been sufficient to meet a negligence standard,’ it was ‘insufficient to bring criminal charges against any FBI or Department personnel.’

During an appearance on ‘Fox News Tonight,’ Papadopoulos hailed Durham’s report as a ‘profound indictment’ on the U.S. intelligence community, telling host Will Cain that ‘heads have to roll’ for putting the country through years of unfounded Trump-Russia collusion allegations.

‘I feel ecstatic,’ he said. ‘My wife and I have been celebrating all day today because this really didn’t just tarnish my image. It also tarnished my wife’s image who really stuck with me through this entire saga from beginning until end, So I’m a very lucky guy.’

Former President Jimmy Carter is doing well at his Georgia home, where he has been under hospice care for three months, his family said.

Carter, 98, remains in good spirits with former First Lady Rosalynn, 95. The two host members of their family receive updates on The Carter Center’s humanitarian work around the world, and enjoy regular servings of ice cream grandson Jason Carter said.

‘They’re just meeting with family right now, but they’re doing it in the best possible way: the two of them together at home,’ Jason Carter told The Associated Press during an interview Tuesday.

The younger Carter added: ‘They’ve been together 70-plus years. They also know that they’re not in charge. Their faith is really grounding at this moment. In that way, it’s as good as it can be.’

Carter, the longest-lived U.S. president, announced in February that he would be receiving end-of-life care at his modest, one-story house in Plains, where they lived when he was first elected to the state Senate in 1962. The announcement came because the former president was in and out of the hospital several times earlier this year.

After the Carter family announced the former president would be forgoing further medical intervention, people began sending well-wishes and tributes, Jason Carter said.

‘That’s been one of the blessings of the last couple of months,’ Jason Carter said following an event Tuesday honoring the patriarch. ‘He is certainly getting to see the outpouring, and it’s been gratifying to him for sure.’

It also prompted attention to the global humanitarian work the couple has done since co-founding The Carter Center in 1982.

Jason Carter said his grandfather also continues to enjoy peanut butter ice cream.

And, despite the presidential couple’s fame, Jason Carter said they were ‘just like all of y’all’s grandparents.’

‘I mean, to the extent y’all’s grandparents are rednecks from south Georgia,’ he laughingly added. ‘If you go down there even today, next to their sink they have a little rack where they dry Ziplock bags.’

Andrew Young, who was appointed Carter’s U.N. Ambassador in 1977, told The Associated Press that he visited the Carters ‘a few weeks back.’

He was ‘very pleased we could laugh and joke about old times,’ said Young, 91.

Young, who also served as an aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement, praised Carter’s push for unity and said he believed ‘that the world can come to Georgia and show everybody how to live together.’

Jimmy Carter will turn 99 this year. He was born on October 1, 1924

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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An advocacy and think tank organization issued a travel advisory to California and Minnesota after lawmakers passed legislation to override out-of-state parental rights. 

The American Principles Project (APP) is warning parents across the United States of the possibility of their parental rights being stripped away as recent legislation in California and Minnesota move to give state family courts the power to take temporary emergency jurisdiction over a minor coming into the state to access sex-change drugs or surgical procedures, regardless of if the minor is traveling from another state.

‘Parents will do anything to protect our children. To lose your child and be powerless to prevent harm from coming to them would be any parent’s worst nightmare. Yet today, families traveling to California or Minnesota could be at risk for that awful scenario actually playing out — losing custody of their kids to an industry that aims to sterilize and mutilate their bodies,’ APP President Terry Schilling said in a statement. ‘It is frightening, and enraging, to think such anti-family policies have taken hold here in the United States.’

‘It is frightening, and enraging, to think such anti-family policies have taken hold here in the United States.’

— Terry Schilling, The American Principles Project President

‘While we have seen great strides throughout the country by lawmakers fighting back against this agenda, we must still be realistic about where things stand. Right now, parents traveling to both these states with their children run a very real risk of having their families ripped apart,’ Schilling added.

In September, California lawmakers passed Senate Bill 107 that established the state as a refuge for transgender children and their families. The bill was introduced earlier this year by state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat. 

‘California must stand with LGBTQ kids and their families, especially when they’re under attack across the country,’ Wiener said in a statement. ‘Parents should never be separated from their kids or criminalized for simply allowing them to be who they are.’

In April, Minnesota lawmakers passed similar legislation that would establish the state as a ‘trans refuge’ for children who are seeking transgender medical procedures but who may be denied ‘gender-affirming care’ in other states.

In a party-line 68-62 vote, the Minnesota House passed HF 146, which had been introduced by Rep. Leigh Finke of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Finke is the state’s first transgender lawmaker. The Minnesota Senate passed the legislation by a vote of 34-30 on Friday, April 21.

Additional legislation is being considered in California, AB-957, to require family courts to ‘strongly consider that affirming the minor’s gender identity is in the best interest of the child if a nonconsenting parent objects to a name and gender marker change to affirm conform to the minor’s gender identity.’

This bill would require the court to strongly consider that affirming the minor’s gender identity is in the best interest of the child if a nonconsenting parent objects to a name and gender marker change to affirm conform to the minor’s gender identity.

Schilling is encouraging parents to get informed and get organized, warning that, ‘the left is aiming to enact similar policies at the federal level and in all 50 states.’

‘The left is aiming to enact similar policies at the federal level and in all 50 states. The only way to stop them is to make sure more Americans are informed about their plans and to defeat them electorally,’ Schilling told Fox News Digital. ‘The good news is that most voters oppose the left’s anti-family agenda, but parents must continue to make their presence felt in politics to ensure anti-family forces do not ultimately succeed.’

‘The left is aiming to enact similar policies at the federal level and in all 50 states.’

— Terry Schilling, The American Principles Project President

Schilling’s shared that there are legislators on both the federal and state levels working to fight for parental right. 

‘While more still needs to be done, it’s good to see at least some legislators are making an attempt to fight back on behalf of parents,’ Schilling said. 

In March, the Republican-majority in Congress passed the Parents Bill of Rights which, among other things, moved to dictate school’s to notify parents on the schools’ transgender student policies.

The legislation would require schools to inform parents if a school allows transgender students to participate in sports that don’t match the gender a student was given at birth. It would also require schools to tell parents if transgender students are allowed to use bathrooms that don’t correspond with the gender a student was given at birth.

Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed several new bills into law, including a ban on transgender treatments for children and legislation regarding the use of pronouns in schools. 

One of the bills signed by DeSantis, SB 254, prohibits anyone under age 18 from undergoing sex-reassignment surgeries or taking prescription-based cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria. The bill would also make permanent a state rule banning Medicaid from reimbursing people of all ages who undergo the procedures.  

‘This will permanently outlaw the mutilation of minors. It will outlaw the surgical procedures and experimental puberty blockers for minors,’ he said prior to signing SB 254. ‘It will also require any adults receiving these surgeries to be informed about the irreversible nature and about the dangers of the procedures. It will give the courts temporary jurisdiction to intervene and halt procedures for out-of-state children.’

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo and Greg Norman contributed to this report.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., consistently claimed there was strong evidence of collusion between Russia and former President Donald Trump, but those statements were contradicted by the release of Special Counsel John Durham’s report on the Trump investigation.

‘In our investigation, we saw strong evidence of collusion – the Republicans now are choosing to bury it,’ Swalwell told CNN in March 2018, eventually clarifying that he believed there is ‘clear collusion.’

Durham’s report on his investigation, released this month, showed otherwise, as it concluded intelligence agencies had no ‘actual evidence of collusion’ to justify their launch of the Trump-Russia investigation. These findings added to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report in 2019 that concluded there was no evidence the Trump campaign engaged in a criminal plot to collude with the Russians to influence the 2016 election.

Swalwell, though, continued to push the collusion narrative in his media appearances from 2018 to 2019.

‘It’s always smelled like collusion,’ he told Politico in November 2018. ‘It doesn’t smell less like collusion. It smells more.’

The Durham report concluded the Department of Justice and FBI ‘failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law’ as it launched an investigation premised on ‘raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence.’ 

‘In particular, there was significant reliance on investigative leads provided or funded (directly or indirectly) by Trump’s political opponents,’ the report stated. ‘The Department did not adequately examine or question these materials and the motivations of those providing them, even when at about the same time the Director of the FBI and others learned of significant and potentially contrary intelligence.’

Swalwell cited internal investigations from Democrats on the intelligence committee to claim Trump had direct involvement in collusion with the Russians. 

‘There’s circumstantial evidence that [Trump] colluded,’ he told MSNBC in March 2019. ‘The president knew the Russians were seeking to help him. So he went out as a candidate and invited them to hack more.’

These claims were never proven, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., removed Swalwell from the committee once Republicans took control of the House this year.

Swalwell’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Two Black Kansas lawmakers, one Democrat and one Republican, are taking aim at their state’s Democratic governor after she torpedoed a project that would restore and develop a significant portion of the Underground Railroad. 

Gov. Laura Kelly axed the project, which had been championed by Democratic state Rep. Marvin Robinson, after Robinson sided against the governor on key votes involving abortion and transgender athletes. Kelly used her veto to nix the project from the state budget.

The project would have received $250,000 in the next state budget for drafting a state plan to develop and make restorations to the Quindaro Ruins in Kansas City, Kansas, which Robinson represents. Quindaro was a town and a station on the Underground Railroad that helped enslaved people escape to Canada.

Robinson told Fox News Digital in an interview that Kelly’s veto was ‘cruel.’

‘To me, it was like cruel and torture, I don’t know so much about payback and all the other unfortunate terms that people used,’ Robinson said, questioning how the funding almost made its way through before it was abruptly halted by the governor.

Despite the ‘mean things that were being done during the legislative session, many by the Democrats, mostly by the Democrat-elected legislators in the House,’ Robinson told Fox News that it ‘wasn’t bigger than God.’ One of Robinson’s fellow Democrats had referred to him as a ‘house Negro’ for siding with Republicans on key votes.

Kansas Republican state Rep. Patrick Penn, who, like Robinson, is Black and helped secure the funding for the Underground Railroad project, was scathing in his rebuke of Kelly and other Democrats in the state.

‘Diversity of thought exists in the Black community just like every other. No other race has the expectation placed upon them by White liberal elites that we line up and vote for Democrats like the Black community does,’ Penn told Fox News Digital in a video interview. ‘Such bigoted expectations are both unfortunate relics of a small-minded past and simply unconscionable.’

‘Marvin Robinson, as a new state representative, has been nothing but the most integrity-filled, the most caring and gentle, and the most passionate for his people here in the House 35th District,’ he continued. ‘He cares about their vision, their values, and he votes accordingly.’

‘He understands that the Quindaro Ruins, the site and the burial grounds and everything, is a good Kansas story because it tells the story of how this state was created in 1861. It’s a free state to stand against the tyranny of racism and slavery, and that’s his passion,’ Penn added of Robinson.

‘Democrats owned Marvin’s great, great-grandfather down in Texas, so it’s no small idea that they think that they own his vote in the Kansas legislature, as well,’ Penn added. ‘Marvin showed them standing tall that they absolutely do not.’

Kelly told lawmakers in her veto message last week that the Quindaro site is a ‘fundamental piece of Kansas history,’ but noted that Republicans added the money to the budget during their final days in session this year. Kelly said the idea had not been vetted, and her veto will stand because lawmakers have adjourned for the year.

‘Advocates should work through the proper channels to seek funding for this measure and ensure that it receives the recognition it deserves,’ Kelly wrote in her message. She gave virtually the same statement to Fox News Digital when asked for comment, noting her administration ‘recognizes the importance of this culturally significant site’ and that she ‘will support efforts to elevate this fundamental piece of Kansas history and honor the surrounding community.’

Robinson told Fox News Digital that he has not spoken with Kelly since she axed the funding from the state budget, insisting she ‘had the right to do what she did.’

‘I feel kind of sorry for her because what it reflected was a very mean-spirited, almost unbelievable depth of misunderstanding’ the importance and significance of the Quindaro Ruins, Robinson said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

There’s roughly a week until the U.S. government could become short of money because it can’t borrow to fulfill all of its obligations, and the partisan disagreement over whom would be to blame for any possible economic fallout reflects the broad divide between Republicans and Democrats over raising the debt limit. 

Asked whom the American public would hold responsible if a deal isn’t reached in time, GOP lawmakers told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that the blame would certainly lie at President Joe Biden and the Democrats’ feet. Most pointed to House Republicans’ recently-passed Limit, Save, Grow Act as evidence that the GOP did its part to avert any debt crisis.

Democrats, meanwhile, accused House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his conference of holding the debt limit ‘hostage’ and pointed out that it was Congress’ constitutional obligation to act on the debt ceiling, rather than Biden’s. 

‘President Biden waited 97 days to speak with Kevin McCarthy about this debt ceiling stuff, so if anything untoward happens, this is 100% the Biden-Schumer shutdown,’ said Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Asked if he believes Americans would feel the same way, he added, ‘I think if more media outlets report it honestly like you’re doing, they would, if they’re told the truth.’

Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern, R-Okla., maintained that McCarthy and Biden would reach a deal before the government runs out of cash, declaring, ‘First and foremost, we’re going to pay our debts. We always have, we always will, so I think that’s the headline.

Hern said ‘I do’ when asked if he feels Americans would blame the left for any repercussions of letting negotiations get down to the line in terms of timing, and knocked Biden for his recent trip to the G7 summit in Japan as talks went on. ‘When you look at the leadership that we have done in the House, doing our responsibility of passing a bill, the Senate hasn’t done their job, and the president was off gallivanting around the world when he could’ve been working to get this done,’ Hern explained.

Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., in charge of the RSC’s budget taskforce, shared a similar sentiment regarding the other side of the aisle. ‘Absolutely – they’re the ones who have been delaying the whole time, they’re the ones who want to keep spending, and continue to keep punting on responsibility for this enormous debt that this country’s incurred,’ Cline said.

‘Joe Biden’ was Rep. Byron Donalds’, R-Fla., point-blank answer when asked whom Americans will direct their anger at. ‘Because the one thing Joe Biden has been successful at is creating crises he cannot solve. He’s done it every single time,’ Donalds said. 

On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., simply told Fox News Digital when asked who would be to blame, ‘It’s Congress’ job, only Congress can raise the debt limit.’

‘It’s pretty obvious who to blame here – the extremist Republicans who control Kevin McCarthy. I mean, they’re the ones who made him go through 17 votes to get elected Speaker. They’re holding the country hostage,’ said Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass. ‘We didn’t like Donald Trump, we didn’t like his tax cuts. It’s created much of this deficit. And yet we raised the debt limit three times under Trump because it’s the right thing to do for the country.’

Asked if Americans would feel the same, Moulton said, ‘Look I hope they do, because that’s the truth.’

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., said public blame would fall on ‘anyone who is standing in the way of actually moving this forward and doing so quickly.’

‘We’re already way too close, we shouldn’t have been this close to a default,’ Crow said. ‘The Republicans and Speaker McCarthy in particular need to come to the table in good faith and get this done, because we can’t be playing games with the American economy and American workers.’

‘We have a Republican-controlled House, and it’s a Republican-controlled House that’s brought us to the brink,’ Crow added.

The South Carolina legislature passed a six-week ‘heartbeat’ abortion restriction Tuesday that is set to be signed into law by the governor. 

The ‘Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act’ passed in the state Senate on Tuesday after the House passed the bill a week prior. The bill allows abortions up until a fetal heartbeat is detectable, which is at roughly six weeks. Gov. Henry McMaster, R-S.C., vowed to sign the bill.

‘The General Assembly has handled this issue in a thoughtful, transparent and collaborative manner,’ McMaster tweeted after the bill passed. ‘Tonight, our state is one step closer to protecting more innocent lives. I look forward to signing this bill into law as soon as possible.’

Physicians who violate the soon law will have their medical license revoked by the State Board of Medical Examiners and could face jail time.

The bill includes exceptions for the life of the mother and fetal anomalies. In instances of rape an incest, access to abortion would be until up to 12 weeks.

The bill also states that biological fathers will be required by the law to pay child support at the conception of their child.

McMaster called an executive order for a special legislative session to pass new abortion framework. This came after Republicans failed to pass a near-complete abortion ban in April, then agreed on a six-week restriction.

Democrats in the state last week protested the bill the House with a 12-hour delay to proceedings. 

North Carolina passed a bill into law last week that allows abortion access up until 12 weeks. 

A mother whose 20-year-old daughter was murdered, allegedly by a suspected MS-13 gang member who had been released into the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor, gave an emotional plea to lawmakers on Tuesday to secure the southern border — warning that the crisis ‘is a safety issue for everyone living in the United States.’

‘For me, this is not a political issue. This is a safety issue for everyone living in the United States,’ Tammy Nobles, whose daughter Kayla Hamilton was killed last year, told lawmakers on a Judiciary Committee immigration subcommittee. ‘This could have been anyone’s daughter. Kayla wasn’t doing anything wrong, and she didn’t deserve to be murdered. I don’t want any other parents to live the nightmare I am living.’ 

‘I am her voice now, and I am going to fight with everything I have to get her story told and bring awareness of the issue at the border,’ she said.

Hamilton, who was autistic, was raped and killed in her mobile home last year. Earlier this year, police arrested an El Salvadoran 17-year-old who authorities said is linked to the MS-13 street gang and who was released into the U.S. into the custody of his aunt after being encountered at the border.

An interim staff Judiciary committee report released Tuesday faulted the Biden administration for a failure to vet the suspect, calling it a ‘tragic example of the failure to enforce U.S. immigration law.’

‘Tragically, Secretary Mayorkas and his department missed key warning signs about the alien’s propensity for violence, which law enforcement officials investigating the murder later uncovered,’ the report says.

A DHS official told Fox News Digital that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reviews both biometric and biographic information for those encountered at the border against several federal agencies’ databases.

‘If we determine that the individuals pose a threat to national security or public safety, we deny admission, detain, remove, or turn them over to another agency for prosecution, as appropriate. We work closely with our interagency and international partners to detect and prevent people who pose national security or public safety risks from entering the United States,’ the official said.

At the hearing, Nobles paid tribute to her daughter.

‘She always kept her friends close and never forgot anyone. She was kind, caring, thoughtful and funny. She loved life and God. She showed the world that being yourself was okay, and you didn’t have to follow everyone else,’ she said.

She described in harrowing terms the night that Kayla was killed, describing how he allegedly used an iPod charger to strangle her before sexually assaulting her. He allegedly robbed her of her phone and $6.

She then spoke about how the U.S. needs to secure its southern border.

‘The United States government has to secure our border. We need to properly vet all border crossers. The government could have placed a phone call to authorities in El Salvador and found out that he was a gang member. But they didn’t,’ she said. 

‘If we had stricter border policies, my daughter would still be nothing will bring my daughter back, nor the pain, nor fix. I’m not having her here and I want to prevent this from happening to someone else’s child. This is about protecting everyone here in the United States.’

The testimony came during the third in a series of hearings held by Republicans on the committee on ‘Biden’s Border Crisis.’ Republicans have blamed the policies of the administration for the ongoing crisis at the border — including a greater use of ‘catch-and-release’ and reduced interior enforcement

Democrats and the administration have accused Republicans of failing to provide additional resources to secure ports of entry, and of refusing to work with Democrats on a ‘comprehensive’ immigration reform bill to fix what they say is a ‘broken’ immigration system.

Fox News’ Mitch Picasso contributed to this report.
 

The Trump campaign is mocking Ron DeSantis ahead of the launch of his presidential campaign, swiping at the Florida governor for his plans to announce on Twitter.

Sources told Fox News Digital that DeSantis will formally announce his 2024 presidential bid Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET during a conversation with Elon Musk on Twitter.

‘Announcing on Twitter is perfect for Ron DeSantis,’ a Trump adviser told Fox News Digital. ‘This way he doesn’t have to interact with people, and the media can’t ask him any questions.’

And Karoline Leavitt, the spokesperson for Make America Great Again Inc., slammed DeSantis’ plans to announce his campaign on Twitter as ‘one of the most out-of-touch campaign launches in modern history.’

‘The only thing less relatable than a niche campaign launch on Twitter, is DeSantis’ after party at the uber elite Four Seasons resort in Miami,’ Leavitt said in a statement. ‘Every day more and more Americans are realizing just how out of step Ron DeSantis is with their values and how unelectable he really is.’

‘From his votes to cut Social Security and Medicare, to his support of a national sales tax that would raise taxes on 90% of families and support of Obama’s TPP which sent jobs to China, to his vote against funding for President Trump’s wall – Ron DeSantis just isn’t ready to be President,’ she continued. ‘President Trump is ready on day one to turn our country around, reverse Biden’s disastrous policies and make America great again.’

Trump has previously taken aim at DeSantis as the Florida governor mulled a potential White House bid, nicknaming him ‘Ron DeSanctimonious.’ And early this year, the former president charged that the governor was a ‘RINO GLOBALIST’ and began referring to him as ‘DeSanctus.’

Pointing to his support for DeSantis in 2018, Trump argued that if the governor joined him in the 2024 Republican nomination race, ‘I do think it would be a great act of disloyalty because, you know, I got him in. He had no chance. His political life was over.’

DeSantis, despite being on the sidelines, has been considered a top 2024 contender, but former President Donald Trump remains the GOP favorite, polling far ahead of any other Republican candidate for the White House

Meanwhile, along with his expected announcement, DeSantis is expected to file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, which officially launches his GOP presidential campaign. His first national TV interview following the announcement will be with Fox News’ Trey Gowdy on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on ‘Fox News Tonight.’

As for Twitter, Trump uses his own social media platform, Truth Social. It is unclear if he will use Twitter during the 2024 campaign cycle.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Andrew Murray contributed to this report.