President Donald Trump, joined Thursday by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, announced that his administration is rescinding a 2009 determination that classified greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels as a threat to public health, a designation that has underpinned federal climate regulations for more than a decade.
Trump described the move as a historic rollback of federal rules and predicted sweeping financial relief for Americans.
Trump called the repeal “the single largest deregulatory action in American history” and said it would “save American consumers trillions of dollars.”
Speaking from the Roosevelt Room at the White House, the president sharply criticized the original policy, which was adopted during the Obama administration, arguing that it harmed the domestic auto sector and increased costs for drivers.
“We are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding, a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and massively drove up prices for American consumers,” Trump said in the White House Roosevelt Room.
He added that the repeal takes effect immediately and extends beyond the original finding itself to other related emissions standards enacted over the past decade.
“Effective immediately, we are repealing the ridiculous endangerment finding and terminating all additional green emission standards imposed unnecessarily on vehicle models and engines between 2012 and 2027 and beyond.”
According to Trump, undoing the policy could reduce the price of new vehicles by thousands of dollars. He also took aim at certain automotive features that he said were mandated as a result of emissions rules.
“Under the endangerment finding, they forced the hated start-stop feature onto American consumers, which unnecessarily shuts off a car’s engine. When you stop at a red light, in other words the engine goes off. That’s great,” Trump said.
Zeldin echoed the president’s remarks, characterizing the action as a major pushback against expansive federal authority.
Zeldin said that the Republicans were scrapping the “holy grail of federal regulatory overreach.”
{Matzav.com}As President Donald Trump moves to remove large numbers of migrants — including hundreds of thousands with criminal records — national crime figures are falling rapidly, yet several major media outlets say there is no clear connection between the two trends.
On Wednesday morning, Axios posted on social media, “Crime plunges in major cities despite Trump’s crackdown rhetoric,” alongside a report questioning the cause of the decline.
“The bottom line: Experts aren’t sure why violent crime continues to fall,” the article stated.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back forcefully, accusing the outlet of ignoring what she described as an obvious explanation.
“This ridiculous framing is why Americans don’t trust the media,” she said, adding:
President Trump securing the border, mobilizing federal law enforcement to arrest violent criminals, and deporting the worst of the worst illegal aliens is EXACTLY what’s driving the massive drop in crime.
Political commentator Scott Jennings also mocked the Axios framing, writing, “Funny way of saying: ‘Crime went down under Trump.’”
Axios later deleted its original social media post and replaced it with a revised version that read, “Violent crime dropped sharply across America’s biggest cities in 2025, according to new data reviewed by Axios.”
Trump administration officials have been outspoken in tying stricter immigration enforcement to improved public safety. Border chief Kristi Noem, speaking on The Bongino Show, credited the president’s policies for historic declines in violent crime.
Under the leadership of @POTUS Trump, the murder rate has plunged to a 125-year low — with especially steep drops in cities where the @dhsgov law enforcement undertook targeted immigration enforcement and crime prevention operations. Our nation has also experienced a steep decline in fentanyl deaths, which have dropped over 30 percent … We are not going back to how things used to be!
Earlier this year, on January 14, the White House released a statement titled “Mass Deportations Are Improving Americans’ Quality of Life.” The document argued that removing illegal migrants has contributed not only to lower crime rates but also to reduced housing costs and stronger wages and employment figures.
Despite those claims, several mainstream outlets have continued to question whether immigration enforcement is responsible for the drop in violent crime. At the same time, Republican candidates have highlighted enforcement data compiled under Noem to showcase arrests and deportations within their own districts.
The scope of the administration’s efforts was detailed in an internal Department of Homeland Security document leaked to CBS earlier this week. The document indicated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement made roughly 400,000 arrests of migrants — both criminal and non-criminal — during Trump’s first year back in office.
… 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in President Trump’s first year back in the White House had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security document obtained by CBS News
…
The document lists 2,100 arrests of those with homicide charges or convictions; 2,700 arrests of those with robbery offenses; and 5,400 arrests involving individuals charged with or convicted of sexual assault. Another 43,000 arrestees are listed as having assault charges or convictions. About 1,100 had kidnapping charges or convictions and 350 had arson offenses listed.
Meanwhile, the Axios report accompanying the earlier tweet appeared to minimize any clear link between deportations and declining crime figures.
“The bottom line: Experts aren’t sure why violent crime continues to fall,” wrote the Axios reporter, who has publicly advocated for expanded migration.
The article itself cited new national data:
The big picture: The report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) shows declines across every major violent-crime category in 2025 compared to 2024. It features data from 67 of the nation’s biggest police departments, and confirms other studies on last year’s declines.
• Cities report that homicides overall fell 19%.
• Robberies dropped about 20%.
• Aggravated assaults were down nearly 10%.
In a December 2024 article, the same reporter, Russell Contreras, had written: “Immigrants arrested for homicides accounted for less than 1% of ‘at-large’ arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the last six years, an Axios review found.”
Administration officials have also argued that deportations provide economic benefits beyond public safety. They contend that stricter immigration enforcement reduces certain consumer costs, including automobile expenses. During Joe Biden’s presidency, officials say, increased migration contributed to higher used-car prices and insurance premiums, driven in part by auto accidents, thefts, and parts-related crimes.
{Matzav.com}
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said Wednesday that he would back another round of U.S. military action against Iran, similar to Operation Midnight Hammer, if circumstances require it, declaring he would be “the one Democrat” willing to openly endorse such a move.
Speaking on Newsmax TV’s “The Record,” Fetterman made clear he supported the prior operation and would not hesitate to do so again under similar conditions.
“I absolutely was fully supportive and was cheering for that Midnight Hammer. And, now, if that’s required for a second round, I’ll be the one Democrat to absolutely say that’s entirely appropriate.”
Fetterman also expressed skepticism about Iran’s reliability in past diplomatic agreements, arguing that prior efforts failed to curb its nuclear ambitions. He pointed to enrichment levels reached under an earlier deal as a reason for concern.
“I don’t believe — you can’t really trust. The last time there was a treaty with Iran, they ended up with 900 pounds of just a step below…nuclear weapon-grade enrichment. So, that’s why — we demonstrated last year that we can hit them, we know where they are, and we have the capabilities to reach them. And now here we are again, and that’s why the prime minister’s here, because I think we’re all in lockstep to stand with Israel as our special ally, and that’s why I’m proud to stand with the prime minister and now with the president, too.”
The Pennsylvania senator further indicated that he would oppose any renewed effort in Congress to limit presidential war powers related to Iran, as he had previously.
“If they do bring up another Iranian war powers bill, I will vote no just like I did the first time they brought that up.”
{Matzav.com}
The individual believed to have abducted Nancy Guthrie made a string of clumsy mistakes that defy logic, according to a retired senior FBI official, who said the suspect’s actions suggest he was unlikely to be “a trained assassin.”
James Gagliano, a former supervisory special agent with the FBI, pointed to surveillance footage showing the suspect outside the Tucson home of Savannah Guthrie’s mother. He said the way the man handled and carried his holstered firearm stood out immediately — and not in a way that reflected experience.
“It does not look like a trained assassin or somebody who’s been doing this a long time,” he told “Fox & Friends” early Thursday.
Gagliano emphasized that the manner in which the weapon was positioned appeared unusual and inconsistent with professional training.
“I look at the gun, I’ve never ever seen somebody carry a weapon that way. I carried a weapon in the service of my country for 33 years. I have never seen somebody carry it that way,” the ex-FBI official continued.
Based on what he observed, Gagliano said the suspect’s equipment setup appeared poorly planned.
“This looks like it was thrown together either last minute or the person got a holster from one person and the weapon from somebody else.”
He also questioned why the suspect approached the front entrance of the residence, where he was captured on the homeowner’s doorbell camera, rather than using a less visible access point.
“There are multiple points of entry that you could get into very easily,” he said of the “Today” show host’s mom’s home in Tucson.
Gagliano described a rear entrance that, in his view, would have been far simpler to exploit without attracting attention.
“In the back of the house, there is a door that’s got like nine panel window panes in it, and you could have easily broken one panel, reached in your hand, unlocked the door and gone in with nobody noticing.
“So why did this suspect [go] to the front?” he asked.
“It really boggles the mind.”
Another potential break in the case emerged Wednesday, when The NY Post photographed authorities recovering a black glove in the desert area near Guthrie’s quiet neighborhood on the outskirts of Tucson. Gagliano said that item could prove decisive if it links back to the suspect.
“If the gloves come back to this person, if there’s DNA on it and they ultimately be the item that undoes him … who commits a crime, a violent crime, abducts somebody and then drops off clues 1.3 miles from the house?” he said.
He noted that the glove appears similar to the pair worn by the armed figure seen in video footage, and suggested it could provide critical forensic evidence as investigators race to locate the missing woman, who requires medication to survive.
“And why is that? Well, the DNA aspect. So you can pull off the trace fingerprints, hair, and fiber, any type of body fluids on it,” he said.
On Wednesday afternoon, The NY Post observed at least one member of the FBI’s Evidence Response team retrieving the glove from brush in the desert landscape near the Guthrie home.
Authorities declined to provide details when questioned about the possible evidentiary significance of the recovered item.
{Matzav.com}
