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Trump’s agenda, DOGE cuts loom large in Virginia special election to fill vacant House seat
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FAIRFAX, VA – He’s not on the ballot, but President Donald Trump is smack in the middle of Tuesday’s special congressional election in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.
The federal jobs cuts implemented by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), crime and immigration, transgender policies, and even the push to release the Justice Department’s files on the late convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein are also in the spotlight as voters cast ballots in the Fairfax County anchored district.
James Walkinshaw, the Democratic Party nominee, told Fox News Digital the sweeping and controversial agenda Trump pushed during his first eight months back in the White House will have a «real impact» on the special election in Virginia’s left-leaning 11th Congressional District.
Republican nominee Stewart Whitson also says Trump’s in the campaign spotlight because of a «lot of the great policies that he’s been championing.»
TRUMP NOT ON BALLOT BUT FRONT-AND-CENTER IN 2025 ELECTIONS
The winner will succeed the late longtime Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, who died in June after a battle with cancer.
The Republicans currently control the House 219-212, with three seats controlled by Democrats vacant, as well as one held by the GOP. And if Walkinshaw tops Whitson in a district Republicans haven’t won in nearly two decades, it will further narrow the GOP’s fragile House majority.
In a district that’s home to tens of thousands of federal workers and contractors, many voters have been affected by the DOGE implemented job cuts and layoffs.
FOUR KEY SENATE SEATS THE GOP AIMS TO FLIP IN NEXT YEAR’S MIDTERM ELECTIONS
«Folks in Northern Virginia and Fairfax are feeling the impact of the Trump policies. And I like to say we’re kind of on the leading edge of the Trump economy here. Everybody in Fairfax knows someone, probably someone on their street, maybe the parent of their kid’s soccer team, who has lost their job because of DOGE or the Trump policies,» Walkinshaw said on Election Day eve.
Walkinshaw, a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors member who previously served as Connolly’s chief of staff, argued that «if the Trump policies continue, tariffs, the so-called big, beautiful bill, that’s going to be the case all around the country. So I think we’re on the leading edge of that. And I think voters tomorrow are going to send a statement about that.»
Campaign signs for Republican Stewart Whitson and Democrat James Walkinshaw, are seen on Sept. 8, 2025, in Fairfax County, Virginia, on the eve of a special election in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News )
Whitson, an Army veteran and former FBI special agent who oversees federal affairs for a conservative think tank, told Fox News digital that «the people in our district who have lost their job or who are worried about losing their job, they don’t need empathy. They need solutions.»
He said Walkinshaw is «claiming he’s going to fight President Trump and fight the administration. And my pitch to voters in our district is: is that going to help? Is that going to help improve the situation? The answer is no.»
«We need someone to represent the people in our district who can work with any administration, whether it’s Republican or Democrat,» Whitson emphasized.
Pointing to federal workers and contractors who lost their jobs, he said, «I want to find a way to get them back in. I also want to find other economic opportunities for them as well.»
While Trump isn’t very popular in the district — the president won just 31% of the vote in his White House re-election last year – Whitson said that Trump’s polices «center on… common sense.»
President Donald Trump, seen in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025, isn’t on the ballot in Tuesday’s special congressional election in Virginia, but his agenda is dominating discussions on the campaign trail. (Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
And taking aim at Democrats, he argued, «People in our district are realizing that the radical left has just pushed so far away from common sense… the radical policies they’re pushing on our kids behind closed doors, the reckless soft on crime policies that are making us less safe. These are issues that are important to our voters.»
Whitson, pointing to the ongoing battle over allowing transgender children to use public school bathrooms in some Fairfax County schools, targeted Walkinshaw.
«My opponent believes it is a civil right for men who identify as girls or women to go into our girls’ locker rooms and watch them change. I think this is all backwards,» Whitson charged. «I think it is a civil right for girls and women when they see a female sign on a bathroom that they know they can go in there and be safe. And again, this just comes back to common sense. I’m a father with five kids. Three of those kids are daughters.»
Walkinshaw charged that Whitson has «been really obsessed with how maybe 1% of the kids in our schools use the bathrooms, and what I hear from folks in our community, and what I’m focused on is how 100% of our kids can succeed in the classrooms. So the threats to pull federal funding, the dismantling of the Department of Education, threatens the performance of our kids in the classrooms, and that’s what I’m focused on.»
Whitson has also been trying to link Walkinshaw to Zohran Mamdani, the socialist candidate who rocked the political world in June by winning the Democratic Party mayoral nomination in New York City.
Listing Walkinshaw’s record and his proposals, Whitson charged, «This is someone who has a history of supporting a lot of the exact same type of policies that Mamdani is supporting. And so I’ll let voters… draw the comparison.»
Asked about the comparison, Walkinshaw said during his four months on the campaign trail this summer, «not a single voter has asked me about the New York mayor’s election. I don’t care what happens in the New York mayor’s election. I care what happens to folks right here in the 11th District.»
Republican congressional candidate Stewart Whitson is linking Democrat James Walkinshaw, his opponent in Tuesday’s special election, to Democratic Party mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani of New York City (pictured). (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
But what Walkinshaw says he has heard about on the campaign trail is the push by both Democrats and Republicans for the Justice Department to release files related to the federal investigation of Epstein, who died in prison six years ago while awaiting federal charges related to sex trafficking.
«One of these things that I hear from Democrats, independents and a lot of Republicans and conservatives who believed Donald Trump when he said there was a cover-up of the files during the Biden administration. They took him at his word, and now they’re wondering if he was lying. So yeah, it comes up, and it comes up across the political spectrum,» Walkinshaw said.
And if he wins Tuesday’s election, Walkinshaw said he will immediately sign a discharge petition by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. The petition, which is currently just a few votes shy of passing, calls on the House to vote to urge the Justice Department to release the files.
«I absolutely will sign it,» he said. «I think the American people deserve to know. I want to know what the Trump administration, if anything, is covering up. And right now, the discharge petition is the vehicle to do that.»
Whitson argued that «my opponent’s really late to the game on this,» and that «months ago I called for a complete disclosure of all the records from Epstein files.»
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Whitson pointed to his years as a federal law enforcement officer in declassifying documents, and charged that Walkinshaw was using the issue as a political weapon.
«How long has this case been going on, and now he finally wants to reach on those records. And so what does that mean? It means he doesn’t care about these victims at all. He’s using the pain and the suffering that they experience to try to get political gain,» he argued.
Fox News’ Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.
donald trump,democratic party,republicans elections,house of representatives,elections,2025 2026 elections coverage,virginia,doge,jeffrey epstein,zohran mamdani
Los ataques
Trump dice que Ucrania podría tener que ceder territorio para la paz
Residentes cerca de su edificio de apartamentos, alcanzado por un ataque con drones rusos, en medio del ataque de Rusia contra Ucrania, en la ciudad de Shakhtarske, en la región de Dnipropetrovsk, Ucrania. Foto ReutersINTERNACIONAL
Donald Trump acusó a Gustavo Petro de ser un líder narco y suspendió toda ayuda financiera a Colombia
El presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, acusó este domingo a su homólogo colombiano, Gustavo Prieto, de ser “un líder del narcotráfico” y anunció el fin de la ayuda financiera a Colombia por su supuesta inacción en la lucha contra este flagelo.
“El presidente colombiano Gustavo Petro es un líder del narcotráfico que incentiva la producción masiva de drogas, tanto en campos grandes como pequeños, por toda Colombia. Se ha convertido, con diferencia, en el mayor negocio de Colombia, y Petro no hace nada para detenerlo, a pesar de los pagos y subsidios a gran escala de EE.UU.”, indicó Trump en Truth Social.
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La acusación coincidió con el anuncio de un nuevo ataque estadounidense a una embarcación supuestamente de narcotraficantes en el Caribe y que el Pentágono vinculó al Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) de Colombia.
“A partir de hoy, estos pagos, o cualquier otra forma de pago o subsidio, dejarán de hacerse a Colombia. El propósito de esta producción de drogas es la venta masiva de productos a Estados Unidos, causando muerte, destrucción y estragos”, añadió el mandatario estadounidense.
Además, amenazó con que si Petro no cerraba “estos campos de exterminio de inmediato”, Estados Unidos “se los cerrará”.
La respuesta de Gustavo Petro
El mandatario colombiano reaccionó en X y aseguró que su par estadounidense “está engañado” por sus asesores.
“Le recomiendo a Trump leer bien a Colombia y determinar en qué parte están los narcos y en qué parte están los demócratas”, añadió.
El presidente colombiano, Gustavo Petro (Foto: REUTERS/Yves Herman)
Washington retiró el mes pasado a Colombia la condición de país aliado en la lucha contra el narcotráfico. Se trata de una certificación por la que recibía cientos de millones de dólares de Estados Unidos.
Colombia es el país sudamericano que más ayuda financiera recibe de Washington, según datos del gobierno estadounidense, con más de 740 millones de dólares desembolsados en 2023, el último año del que se dispone de información completa.
Leé también: Israel bombardeó el sur de la Franja de Gaza tras un presunto ataque de Hamas y peligra el acuerdo de paz
La mitad de estos pagos se destina a la lucha contra las drogas. El resto apoya programas humanitarios y alimentarios.
“Yo respeto la historia, la cultura y los pueblos de los EEUU. No son enemigos míos (…) El problema es con Trump, no con los EEUU”, dijo Petro.
Esta decisión se produce además en medio del “conflicto armado” que Estados Unidos declaró recientemente contra el narcotráfico, y que incluyó el bombardeo de hasta seis supuestas embarcaciones de narcotraficantes en el mar Caribe.
El despliegue de Estados Unidos en el Caribe, que comenzó en agosto bajo la justificación de combatir el narcotráfico cerca de las costas de Venezuela, incluye el empleo de aviones y naves por parte del país norteamericano.
Sin embargo, causó una tensión creciente entre Washington y el Gobierno de Nicolás Maduro, que ve la operación como el preludio de un posible ataque contra el país.
Nuevo ataque en el Caribe
La acusación se conoció en momentos en que Estados Unidos llevó a cabo otro ataque contra una embarcación presuntamente cargada de drogas en aguas internacionales, en el que murieron tres “narcoterroristas”, dijo el secretario de Defensa estadounidense, Pete Hegseth.
El ataque, perpetrado el viernes, tuvo como objetivo una embarcación afiliada a la guerrilla colombiana ELN que “navegaba por una ruta conocida de narcotráfico y transportaba cantidades sustanciales de narcóticos”, dijo Hegseth en X.
No especificó dónde se produjo el ataque, pero indicó que la embarcación operaba en una zona supervisada por el Comando Sur, que opera las operaciones militares estadounidenses en Latinoamérica.
Este es el último ataque estadounidense conocido desde que en agosto Washington desplegara buques de guerra en aguas internacionales del Caribe con el argumento de frenar el tráfico de drogas hacia Estados Unidos.
(Con información de AFP y EFE)
Colombia, Donald Trump, Gustavo Petro
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New York City organizers embedded in the global intifada to destroy the state of Israel moved Friday to join the controversial «No Kings» protests planned for today, despite the peace deal reached between Israel and Hamas.
«UAW Labor for Palestine» and «NYC Labor for Palestine» quietly posted a call-to-action for the «Palestine Labor Solidarity Contingent» to meet Saturday at 11 a.m. at Duarte Square between Grand Street and Canal Street in lower Manhattan and then flow into the #NoKings protests planned to protest President Donald Trump.
They’re not alone. Around the country, anti-Israel blocs are slotting themselves into the «No Kings» protests as a «Palestine Contingent» and «Socialist Contingent,» positioning their messages «front and center,» as Seattle activists put it, «from Providence to Palestine.»
‘NO KINGS’ ORGANIZER DISCOURAGES VIOLENCE FOLLOWING COAST-TO-COAST ARRESTS
Washington, Aug. 16 — Protesters gathered in Dupont Circle and marched to the White House to oppose President Donald Trump’s federalization of the Washington police department and the deployment of federal agencies and the National Guard. (Fox News Digital/Emma Woodhead) (Fox News Digital/Emma Woodhead)
The alignment underscores a strategic pivot in the global intifada’s next phase, experts say, carrying the anti-Israel message into any high-energy civic protest, even after Hamas agreed to a ceasefire by linking «Free Palestine» to domestic fights like ICE, police and «fascism.»
Billionaire donor George Soros is reportedly funding many of the organizations leading the «No Kings» protests, like Indivisible, whose co-founders, Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin, received a $3 million two-year grant last year from Soros’s Open Society Foundations for «social welfare activities.» Details about the «Palestine Contingent» weaving into the «No Kings» protests raises new questions about the way big Democratic donors like Soros are funneling nonprofit dollars into a professional protest industry that is fractious, divisive and partisan, potentially in violation of tax and nonprofit laws.
‘NO KINGS’ MOVEMENT AND WHAT IT WANTS: INSIDE THE MESSAGE DRIVING SATURDAY’S NATIONWIDE PROTESTS
Anti-Israel protesters demonstrate in NYC on Oct. 5, 2024, ahead of the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. (Adam Gray for Fox News Digital)
Behind the emotion and patriotic imagery of the protests, a Fox News Digital investigation revealed that the movement’s polished «pro-democracy» branding masks a coordinated network of Democratic tax-exempt nonprofits and labor unions, political action committees, coalitions and for-profit protest consultants that include some of the most virulent activists against Israel, including self-declared socialist groups like the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Democratic Socialists of America and Students for a Democratic Society.
According to a public database of the protest’s organizers, compiled by the Pearl Project, a journalism initiative, the protest’s «partners» include 265 mostly nonprofit organizations, including some anti-Israel groups, like Jewish Voice for Peace, exploiting their nonprofit benefits to wage a political war against the sitting president. Their nonprofit status shields them from paying taxes on most of their total annual revenues of $2.9 billion, even while they engage in partisan work they aren’t supposed to be doing. Critics say they are allegedly skirting, if not violating, tax and nonprofit laws. Event organizers didn’t return requests for comment.
«They call it ‘No Kings,’ but what they’ve built is an empire of tax-exempt organizations doing the Democratic Party’s work on the taxpayer’s dime,» said Jennica Pounds, a computer scientist who runs a platform, DataRepublican.com, following the money on these organizations. «They are using every excuse in the book, from immigration to Israel, to rage-bait America. There is nothing ‘charitable’ about their professional protest enterprise, and they should be investigated for fomenting so much hate in America behind the shield of ‘charity work.’»
People march during a «No Kings» movement protest in Los Angeles, California, on June 14, amid ongoing demonstrations against a series of federal immigration raids. (David McNew/Getty Images)
Already, Trump has said that he has directed the Justice Department to investigate possible violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has opened an investigation that follows the money to anti-Israel groups, including some of the groups who will be bringing their protest signs to the «No Kings» demonstrations.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital, «The Trump administration and the Republican Congress are committed to countering this network of left-wing violence.»
Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson called the protests a «hate America rally.» Indeed, on June 14, at the «No Kings» protest in Philadelphia, activists from the «Palestinian Contingent,» including activists from the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Democratic Socialists of America, hissed as a woman sang the national anthem.
«Booooo! Boooooo!» they yelled, covering their faces in keffiyehs, carrying Palestinian flags and heckling bystanders, «Zionist!»
Pro-Palestine protestors wave flags throughout midtown Manhattan in New York City on Friday, November 17, 2023. The demonstrators marched through the city to demand a ceasefire from Israeli troops within Gaza. (Stephen Yang for Fox News Digital)
While organizers insist the movement transcends party lines, its structure tells a different story.
The protest network’s official «partners» include 24 Democratic political action committees that make no secret of their partisan agenda, dedicated to electing Democratic politicians. Among them are the mega-organizing groups Indivisible Action, Hollywood Democrats and the Democratic National Committee’s Washtenaw County Democratic Party in Michigan, Westside Democratic Headquarters in Los Angeles, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club in northern California, 504 Democratic Club and College Democrats of America.
«They call it ‘No Kings,’ but what they’ve built is an empire of tax-exempt organizations doing the Democratic Party’s work on the taxpayer’s dime.» — Jennica Pounds, of DataRepublican.com
The motto of Field Team 6, another political action committee, is «Register Democrats. Save the World.» However, those PACs are just one layer of a much larger partisan infrastructure.
About one-third, or 79 groups, behind the «No Kings» protests hold 501(c)(3) status, meaning their donors receive tax deductions while the groups face strict restrictions to do «charitable» work, not political work. They are supposed to be nonpartisan. Yet most have clearly stated political agendas.
On its donation page, one of the protest partners, «Build the Resistance,» states a partisan mission to «fight against autocracy, fascism, and donald [sic].» Donations go to Oil and Gas Action Network, a 501(c)(3) that reported $1.9 million in revenues in its last tax filing.
Another 100 are 501(c)(4) political nonprofits that may do limited lobbying but still cannot devote themselves primarily to political work. Meanwhile, 24 are 501(c)(5) labor union nonprofits, like the labor unions marching against Israel in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, that also have limits on the amount of political work they can do.
«No Kings» protests against the Trump administration are expected to be held in cities nationwide on Oct. 18, 2025. (Ringo Chiu/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s clear that the protests are all about politics. The protest’s own internal online «toolkit» mentions Trump 12 times and describes the mobilization explicitly as a direct stand against «the Trump administration,» «Trump and his enablers,» «President Trump’s authoritarian takeover» in a partisan-centered campaign.
In Rhode Island, the «Free Palestine Contingent» activists will march «FROM PROVIDENCE TO PALESTINE» to «FIGHT FASCISM! FIGHT GENOCIDE.» It connects the battles against ICE law enforcement officers and the battles of Palestinians, noting, «Military occupations and ICE violence are wreaking havoc in Black and brown communities in D.C., L.A., Chicago — and here in Providence. On the streets of U.S. cities, the same weapons and surveillance technologies the Israeli military has used to devastate Gaza are being used in escalated ways against us. What we allow fascists to do in Palestine, they will do to the entire world — and it is our duty to resist them and fight for a free Palestine.
In northern California, activists at «Bay Area Labor 4 Palestine» and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 announced yesterday, «The fight for a liberated Palestine is not over and cannot be ignored,» over a graphic for the «No Kings» protest. They instructed followers to «Bring flags, signs, keffiyehs and art» to the «No Kings» march in Oakland, Calif., at Wilma Chan Park off Jackson Street.
In New York City, the «Palestine Labor Solidarity Contingent» said its message would be very specific: «STOP ARMING ISRAEL! FUND OUR COMMUNITIES, NOT GENOCIDE & OCCUPATION! END ICE, MILITARY & POLICE TERROR…HANDS OF VENEZUELA!»
People march in the «No Kings» protest along Fifth Avenue on June 14, 2025, in New York, New York. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Across the country, in Washington state, activists from «Seattle Against War» yesterday celebrated local organizers adding an anti-Israel activist, Tariq Ra’ouf, to the official #NoKings speaker lineup, noting it will be a «great opportunity for us to support the demands of Palestinians from the belly of the beast!»
The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s local chapter in Syracuse, N.Y., posted a similar poster with the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, which has Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as its political candidate in New York City.
In Charlotte, N.C., the local chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation put out a call to members to assemble at 10 a.m. tomorrow for the local #NoKings protest at First Ward Park: «JOIN THE PALESTINE CONTINGENT @ THE ‘NO KINGS’ RALLY…MEET AT THE PLAYGROUND.»
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Pro-Palestine protestors wave flags as they arrive in Manhattan after marching across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City on Saturday, December 19, 2023. Demonstrators began at the Brooklyn Museum, walking to midtown Manhattan to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. (Stephen Yang for Fox News Digital.)
With local partners, including the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Jewish Voice for Peace, activists at the Party for Socialism and Liberation noted that, post-ceasefire, they will «continue to fight for a free Palestine.» Some of the groups in the Palestine Contingent are part of the wider network of publicly acknowledged partners of the protests, like 50501.
In Eugene, Ore., activists with the Party for Socialism and Liberation are rallying members to meet the «Socialist Contingent» at the corner of Mill Road and Eighth Avenue to «march for a free Palestine» and get ICE officers «OUT of our communities.»
In Portland, a local Palestinian American activist announced, «The Nakba Is Still Not Over!» in a reference to the «humiliation» over the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. She summoned activists to the «No Kings» protests: «‼️SHOW UP FOR PALESTINE‼️»
us protests,donald trump,politics
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