Former Attorney General Bill Barr said Friday that former President Donald Trump’s presidency would be a ‘horror show’ if he were re-elected because his former boss lacks the ‘discipline’ as well as the ‘ability for strategic thinking’ needed to get things done.

‘It is a horror show, you know, when… he’s left to his own devices,’ Barr said in remarks at the City Club of Cleveland in Ohio on Friday.

‘If you believe in his policies, what he’s advertising is his policies, he’s the last person who could actually execute them and achieve them,’ Barr said to a reporter who asked if Trump is fit to be president again.

The reporter noted that some voters say they want Trump re-elected for his policies and are willing to overlook his mistakes as president in his last term.

‘He does not have the discipline,’ Barr replied. ‘He does not have the ability for strategic thinking and linear thinking or setting priorities or how to get things done in the system.’

‘And, and so you may want his policies. But Trump will not deliver Trump policies,’ Barr said.

‘He will deliver chaos, and if anything lead to a backlash that will set his policies much further back than they otherwise would be.’

According to recent Fox News polling, Trump is the favored candidate for the Republicans in 2024, even ahead of popular Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has yet to announce his candidacy but is widely rumored to be considering a run.

Barr served as attorney general under Trump from 2019 to 2020. He was also attorney general during the George H. W. Bush administration.

The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) mocked Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday, calling her a ‘clown’ as Title 42’s expiration date looms.

‘In 6 days the massive crush of illegal aliens coming through our border will make the last 2 years look like amateur hour,’ the Border Patrol Union wrote in a Twitter post.

Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allows the swift expulsion of illegal immigrants from the U.S., will expire on May 11 and tens of thousands of migrants are expected to seek entrance into America after it is lifted. 

‘Biden doesn’t have one clue about how to contain what he’s unleashed. He has a clown running DHS and a worse clown as VP. Watch what happens,’ NBPC said in an effort to draw attention to the ongoing crisis at the southern border.

Harris, who was appointed to lead efforts at the southern border as the Border Czar, has only visited the southern border once since taking office in 2021, despite the ongoing migrant surge into the U.S.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources revealed that they had encountered over 8,000 migrants a day border-wide in the first few days of May. However, the Department of Homeland Security warns that this number could nearly double after Title 42 expires, reaching up to 14,000 migrant encounters a day.

As concerns grow over the multitude of individuals expected to enter the U.S. after the policy ends, President Joe Biden ordered 1,500 active duty troops to guard the southern border.

Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, facing a potentially historic migrant surge once the Title 42 public health order ends in less than a week, made a final plea for migrants not to attempt to cross into the U.S. illegally — telling them they are being ‘deceived’ by smugglers.

‘The border is not open,’ Mayorkas said. ‘It has not been open, and it will not be open subsequent to May 11th. And the smugglers who exploit vulnerable migrants are spreading misinformation. They are spreading false information, lies in a way to lure vulnerable people to the southern border and those individuals will only be returned.’

Mayorkas spoke in Brownsville, Texas alongside Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz just days before the Title 42 order will expire on Thursday.  The public health order was implemented in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and millions of migrants have been rapidly expelled back to Mexico under the order for public health reasons. In March, 46% of all encounters resulted in a Title 42 expulsion.

With the order ending, there are widespread fears of a new border surge as migrants, believing they are more likely to be released into the U.S., flood to the border — with numbers already growing in areas like near Brownsville, where authorities are seeing a surge in Venezuelan single adults.

On Friday, Mayorkas said he ‘[does] not want to understate the severity of the challenge we expect to encounter.’

But he continued his claim that migrants who enter the U.S. illegally will be removed from the country, and pleaded with them not to try.

‘To the individuals themselves, who are thinking of migrating: Do not believe the smugglers. Please access the official government publications. Please access the official government Information on the Department of Homeland Security website for accurate information,’ he said.

‘Because you are being deceived, and you are risking your lives and your life savings only to meet a consequence that you do not expect at our southern border,’ he said.

The administration has been ramping up its preparations, including deployment of 1,500 troops to the southern border this week — as well as the establishment of migrant processing centers across Latin America and other agreements with Mexico to take back non-Mexican illegal immigrants.

The administration is also putting into place an asylum rule that, in theory, would make migrants ineligible for asylum if they cross the border illegally and fail to claim asylum at a country through which they have already traveled. However, Mayorkas has stressed that the ‘presumption of ineligibility’ is rebuttable — suggesting that the exemptions could be used liberally.

The DHS chief announced the distribution of an additional $332 million in funding to NGOs and local governments to aid migrants released from custody. 

Mayorkas also highlighted what DHS intends to be a greater use of penalties under the traditional Title 8 authorities to expel migrants who enter illegally — which include a five-year re-entry bar and criminal prosecution. 

‘So the consequence is going to be more severe. And what we will do, what we will do is remove individuals who do not qualify for relief under the standard that will be set by the rule that we will have finalized by May 11th,’ he said.

‘We have a plan, we are executing on that plan,’ he said, before repeating his calls for Congress to take action on fixing what he has called a ‘broken’ immigration system.

So far, Mayorkas has not assured lawmakers on the Hill. Multiple Republican senators have called on President Biden to reverse course on Title 42, while a bipartisan coalition of senators introduced legislation to grant DHS a Title 42-esque authority for two years.

Meanwhile, agents are already seeing a surge at the border, with CBP sources telling Fox News that they have seen 8,000 encounters a day in the first days of May — even before the order has lifted.

Fox News’ Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.

Gov. Tony Evers ordered a special election Friday to fill an open Assembly seat representing Milwaukee’s northern suburbs.

Republican Dan Knodl represented the 24th Assembly District from 2009 until last month, when he won a special election to fill a state Senate seat left vacant after longtime Republican incumbent Alberta Darling retired in November.

Evers issued an executive order setting a special election for Knodl’s seat on July 18, with a primary set for June 20 if necessary. Candidates could begin circulating nomination papers Friday. They must turn them in to the state elections commission by May 23.

A historical marker in Concord, New Hampshire, dedicated to former U.S. Communist Party chairwoman Elizabeth Gurley Flynn has come under Republican scrutiny for its potential connotations.Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Commissioner Sarah Stewart claims that such markers are not necessarily meant to be commemorative, but instead to illustrate broad historical significance. Stewart noted that ‘many potentially controversial’ markers appear throughout the Granite State.’We are the ‘Live Free or Die’ state,’ Republican Executive Councilman Joe Kenney said. ‘How can we possibly promote her propaganda, which still exists now through this sign in downtown Concord?’

A historical marker dedicated to a New Hampshire labor activist who championed women’s rights and was a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union — but who also joined the Communist Party and was sent to prison — has draw objections from Republican officials and scrutiny from the governor.

Known as ‘The Rebel Girl’ for her fiery speeches, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was born in Concord in 1890. A green and white Historical Highway Marker dedicated to her, one of 278 across the state, was unveiled Monday near her birthplace.

In addition to her rights activism, the marker also says she joined the Communist Party in 1936 and was sent to prison in 1951. She was one of many party members prosecuted ‘under the notorious Smith Act,’ the marker says, which forbade any attempts to advocate, abet or teach the violent destruction of the U.S. government.

Flynn later chaired the Communist Party of the United States and she died in Moscow during a visit in 1964, at age 74. She was cremated, and her ashes were taken on a ‘flower-decked bier’ to Red Square during a funeral tribute, according to Associated Press accounts at the time.

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu is calling for a review of the state’s historical marker program.

‘This is a devout communist,’ said Joseph Kenney, a Republican member of the Executive Council, at a regular meeting Wednesday. ‘We are the ‘Live Free or Die’ state. How can we possibly promote her propaganda, which still exists now through this sign in downtown Concord?’

David Wheeler, a Republican who’s also part of a five-member Executive Council that votes on state contracts and Sununu’s department appointees, said he wanted the council to have more oversight of the historical marker process.

Sarah Stewart, the commissioner for the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, said at the meeting that the marker program is very popular ‘because it’s initiated at the local level. There is no state top-down effort to populate the state with historical highway markers.’

There are ‘many potentially controversial’ markers, Stewart said. ‘The purpose of them is not to commemorate heroes. The purpose is to provide a snapshot that the local community feels is of historic value.’

Any person, municipality or agency can suggest a marker as long as they get 20 signatures from New Hampshire residents. Supporters must draft the marker’s text and provide footnotes and copies of supporting documentation, according to the state Division of Historical Resources. The division and a historical resources advisory group evaluate the criteria.

The sign was approved last year by the Concord City Council following a recommendation from the marker program, which is jointly administered by the Historical Resources Division and the Transportation Department. It currently stands at the edge of a parking lot near the county courthouse.

Flynn is ‘one of the most significant radical leaders of the twentieth century,’ the marker’s supporters said in a letter to City Council last year. The sign also notes Flynn’s support for women’s voting rights and for access to birth control.

Historical markers run the gamut, telling stories about the last living Revolutionary War soldier, poets and painters who lived nearby, long-lost villages and contemporary sports figures.

‘We’re going to review the whole process,’ Sununu said at Wednesday’s meeting.

‘I completely agree with the sentiment here,’ the governor said, adding, ‘It’s the state marker. You can’t say we don’t have any responsibility in terms of what it says and where it goes.’

Stewart, the natural and cultural resources commissioner, sent a letter Thursday to Concord’s mayor saying the city can ‘reevaluate your approval of this marker,’ New Hampshire Public Radio reported. Mayor Jim Bouley did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment Friday.

One marker from 2011 that was brought up during Wednesday’s meeting celebrates the 50th anniversary of the ‘Betty and Barney Hill incident,’ during which the couple reported a close encounter with a UFO. Their experience was described in a best-selling book, a television movie, and numerous speaking engagements.

‘The UFO one I’m gonna live with,’ said Kenney, the Executive Council member. ‘That’s a funny story.’

A first-term Democratic congressman representing Wall Street has become one of Congress’s most prolific stock traders, and recently sold shares in a troubled California bank just days before the stock plummeted in value.

Rep. Dan Goldman, who represents a congressional district that includes Lower Manhattan’s Financial District in New York City, sold up to $15,000 in shares of PacWest Bancorp on March 6, according to his financial disclosures. The sale came just two days before the stock of the Beverly Hills-based bank holding company plummeted in value as investors fled from small and mid-sized banks amid news of Silicon Valley Bank’s pending failure. 

PacWest’s stock was valued at $27.40 when Goldman sold his shares but dropped to about $5.75 as of Friday, entering a freefall after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on March 10.

‘The timing doesn’t look good, and that’s for sure,’ Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette of the Project on Government Oversight told the Washington Examiner. ‘It’s just another reason why the practice of members of Congress trading stocks is so problematic.’

The PacWest trade is one of hundreds that Goldman has made during his short time in Congress, where he has quickly becoming one of the most prolific stock traders. Goldman made more than 500 trades worth between $10 million and nearly $31 million since being sworn in as a congressman in January, his disclosure forms reveal.

Goldman, a multimillionaire and heir to the Levi Straus & Co. fortune, sits on the Committee on Homeland Security and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. While in those positions, he bought up to $50,000 in Northrop Grumman, one of the country’s biggest defense contractors, as well as up to $15,000 each in weapons manufacturers Raytheon Technologies and L3 Harris Technologies.

Goldman’s office told Fox News Digital that the congressman doesn’t manage his own stock trades and backs legislation to ban federal lawmakers from trading stocks.

‘Congressman Goldman is not involved in trading stocks in his portfolio, which is managed entirely by an investment adviser, with whom he has had no discussions about any stock trades since entering Congress,’ said Goldman spokesperson Simone Kanter. ‘The congressman supports legislation to prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks and immediately initiated the complicated process of entering into a blind trust upon entering Congress.’

Goldman is hardly alone in trading stocks as a member of Congress, even if he’s doing so at a higher rate.

Last Friday, Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., disclosed that she sold up to $15,000 in shares of First Republic Bank stock on March 16, and then bought up to $15,000 in JPMorgan stock shares on March 22. The congresswoman told the Daily Caller that her ‘account is managed independently by a money manager who buys and sells stocks at his discretion.’

Stock trading is a bipartisan pastime in Congress not just confined to Democrats. Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, sold up to $15,000 in First Republic Bank shares on March 16, when shares traded around $34 per share. They now sit at $0.35 per share.

Perhaps the member of Congress most notorious for her stock activity is Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who’s been long criticized for her husband’s profitable trades in companies she has worked to subsidize.

Critics argue that lawmakers can use their positions in Congress to profit from insider trading, in part since they have the ability to influence policies that can help or hurt certain companies and industries. Goldman’s frequent stock trading and close proximity to Wall Street may make him especially susceptible to such criticism.

Members of Congress are increasingly supporting legislation banning lawmakers from trading stocks. Last month, senators introduced a bill that would prohibit Congress from buying or selling stocks and mandate divestment or holdings to be placed into a blind trust.

The issue of banning stock trading has created unusual alliances in Congress. Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., teamed up to introduce legislation that would similarly ban lawmakers, their spouses, and dependents from trading stocks.

‘AOC is wrong a lot, she’d probably say the same thing about me, but she’s not corrupt,’ said Gaetz. ‘And I will work with anyone and everyone to ensure that Congress is not so compromised.’

Members of Congress reportedly traded $788 million worth of securities last year. According to an analysis by the popular stock-trading news site Unusual Whales, many lawmakers beat the stock market on total returns, despite Wall Street suffering its worst year since 2008.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is urging House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to keep the American people at the top of his mind when the Republican leader meets with President Biden to discuss the debt ceiling Tuesday.

‘He’s got to talk about what he’s trying to do for the American public,’ Scott told Fox News Digital when asked what advice he’d give McCarthy for next week. ‘This is not for you or me — I mean, except as citizens — it’s for every American. We’ve got to balance the budget, live within our means, get this inflation under control.’

Scott worked closely with House conservatives on their spending cut demands, some of which made it into House Republicans’ recently-passed debt limit bill that will be the subject of next week’s White House meeting.

Biden on Monday invited the four top members of Congress to the White House for a May 9 meeting. That invitation came days after House Republicans passed a bill aimed at raising the debt limit, either by $1.5 trillion or through March 2024. The bill also includes spending cuts estimated to have the federal government spend about $140 billion to $180 billion less on discretionary programs compared to the current fiscal year.

But Biden and Senate Democrats, led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have flatly refused to pair spending cut talks with raising the debt limit and insist the government’s borrowing limit should be increased without condition.

Scott pledged to do ‘everything [he] can to support’ McCarthy going into the meeting. 

‘I think it was a yeoman’s job to bring everybody together to get something done in the House, and so I think I’m going to do everything I can to help explain what he’s trying to do, why he’s trying to do it, and hopefully get Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden to start showing up,’ Scott said.

McCarthy’s debt limit bill has managed to unite the Senate’s Republican conference. Both conservative and moderate GOP lawmakers made clear they’re willing to let the speaker and the president lead negotiations, at least for now.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, instrumental in helping the U.S. avoid a near default in 2011, has said he will attend the May 9 White House meeting but indicated he too would take a back seat. 

‘It should be clear to the administration that the Senate isn’t a relevant player this time,’ McConnell told reporters this week.

Scott, who previously clashed with McConnell over the Senate GOP leadership race late last year, would not directly say whether he agreed with the Republican leader. But he did say GOP senators should be ‘active’ in supporting McCarthy.

‘Our job right now is do everything we can to promote what Kevin McCarthy did and push Chuck Schumer to bring that bill to the floor. And then let’s improve it,’ he said.

He pointed out that he led a press conference attended by more than a dozen senators Wednesday, where they firmly spoke in support of McCarthy’s debt limit bill and called on Biden and Schumer to come to the negotiating table. He made it clear they will not support the ‘clean’ debt ceiling increase that Democrats are seeking.

‘Every Republican senator ought to be active on this. It’s a big issue for the country. Yesterday, I led a group of 19 senators. We went out, and we did a press conference on the importance of doing everything we can to help Kevin McCarthy,’ Scott said.

Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., are introducing legislation that would temporarily allow for migrant expulsions at the southern border to continue after the Title 42 public health order ends next week — amid widespread concerns that the order’s expiration will lead to an overwhelming migrant surge.

The lawmakers say they intend to introduce a bill that would grant similar authorities to Title 42, which allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the southern border due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has been in place since March 2020.

It has been used by both the Biden and Trump administrations to expel migrants at the border and has become a central cog of border enforcement, and it is due to end on May 11 along with the COVID-19 national emergency. In March, approximately 46% of migrant encounters resulted in a Title 42 encounter. The looming end of the order has renewed fears of a new migrant surge on top of the existing high levels of migration that have been seen at the border over the last two years.

The legislative fix would not directly extend Title 42 as that is a pandemic-era public health order, but it would give the administration a temporary expulsion authority to mimic it.

Tillis told Fox News in an interview that ‘what we’re trying to do is make it as clean as possible, basically extending the current policy.’

‘The Biden Administration has failed to secure the border and the situation will get even worse once Title 42 is allowed to expire,’ he said in a separate statement. ‘It’s clear that Congress must immediately step in, and the bipartisan bill I’m introducing with Senator Sinema will help prevent the catastrophic fallout at the border we will soon see if no action is taken.’

‘Arizona border communities, law enforcement agencies, non-profits, and families are being left to manage a crisis they did not create. Our legislation gives the Administration time to actually implement a realistic, workable plan that will secure our border, protect Arizona communities on the frontlines (sic) of this crisis, and ensure migrants are treated fairly and humanely,’ Sinema wrote.

The bill is also sponsored by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who accused the administration of having ‘failed to properly secure our southern border’ despite ‘ample’ notice of Title 42’s expiration.

‘The immigration crisis is only getting worse and our broken immigration system is ill-equipped to handle it,’ Manchin said in a statement. ‘Our bipartisan legislation creates a two-year temporary solution to prevent a complete collapse at our southern border. Now, our political leaders must put partisanship aside to finally secure our border, establish a reliable visa program and ensure the American Dream is possible to everyone who follows the law and is willing to work hard.’

The end of Title 42 has frequently drawn bipartisan concern about the potential for a massive surge at the border once it ends as migrants believe they have a better chance of entering the U.S. The administration has shared those concerns, with officials previously predicting up to 14,000 migrant encounters a day once the order ends.

The Department of Homeland Security has been putting measures in place that it believes will promote a more orderly process at the border — including expanding legal pathways, greater cooperation with Mexico on deportations and stiffening penalties for illegal entry. It has also proposed a rule that would, in theory, bar migrants from asylum eligibility if they enter illegally and have also failed to claim asylum at a country through which they have already passed.

The administration also announced this week that it is sending 1,500 troops to the border, although officials have said they won’t be engaging with migrants but acting in a supporting role to Customs and Border Protection.

The moves have done little to allay fears of a new surge, with numbers already increasing at the border this week. A group of Senate Republicans wrote to President Biden on Wednesday to urge him to reverse his decision about ending the order. But there is currently no sign that the order will not expire next week.

Tillis told Fox News that he doesn’t expect his legislation to be passed and on the president’s desk by the time the order ends.

‘If you just look at the way it’s going to play out, is this bill going to get out of the Senate, go to the House and go to the President’s desk before next Thursday? No,’ he said. ‘Is there going to be a growing sense that, if the President’s not going to put any other option on the table, that it’s going to be unsustainable, unsafe and politically unwise? Yes. So, we’ll start having those discussions in the next couple of weeks.’

The late pop superstar Prince will have a highway named after him in his home state, following a vote by Minnesota lawmakers Thursday.

The Senate vote was 55-5 to rename the highway that runs past Prince’s Paisley Park museum and studios. Among those watching was his oldest sister, Sharon Nelson. The bill passed the House unanimously last month on the seventh anniversary of Prince’s death, and now goes to Gov. Tim Walz, who is expected to sign.

Purple signs will soon go up along a seven-mile stretch of State Highway 5 in the Minneapolis suburbs of Chanhassen and Eden Prairie — designating it the Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway. Prince’s friends and fans are footing the bill, said the lead sponsor, Republican Sen. Julia Coleman, of Waconia.

‘Prince was a true genius, a visionary artist who pushed the boundaries of music and cultures in ways that will never be forgotten,’ Coleman told her fellow senators. ‘His influence can be heard in the work of countless musicians who came after him, and his legacy continues to inspire new generations of artists to this day.’

Paisley Park, where Prince lived and recorded, now draws visitors from around the world.

Paisley Park is also where Prince died on April 21, 2016, of an accidental fentanyl overdose at age 57. The 65,000-square-foot complex in Chanhassen is now a museum run by his estate as well as an event venue and recoding studio.

Sharon Nelson told reporters her brother’s music will live forever, and that his spirit ‘sneaks up on me sometimes.’ And she urged fans to take the tour and see his 3,000 shoes on display.

The idea to name the highway after Prince came three years ago from Mark Webster, a longtime friend of the star who works security at Paisley Park. He was among the fans who gathered at the Minnesota Capitol to celebrate the vote. He said they’ll find a date that works for fans soon for the signs to go up.

Prince’s birthday was June 7, but he didn’t celebrate birthdays because he was a Jehovah’s Witness.

The singer, songwriter, arranger and instrumentalist broke through in the late 1970s and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. He created hits including ‘Little Red Corvette,’ ″Let’s Go Crazy’ and ‘When Doves Cry,’ and sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Several years ago, Prince’s 1984 ‘Purple Rain’ was added by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.

After a six-year legal battle that consumed tens of millions of dollars, the Internal Revenue Service and the estate administrator put the value of his estate at $156.4 million. Since Prince died without a will, his six surviving siblings at the time of his death were designated as his heirs. The three youngest eventually sold most of their interests to the music company Primary Wave.