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EXCLUSIVE: House GOP report alleges $20B green grants enriched Biden allies
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FIRST ON FOX: Republicans from the House Oversight Committee released a report outlining what they allege are conflicts of interest, financial mismanagement and oversight failures associated with a Biden-era green energy grant program that sent $20 billion to just 8 different nonprofits.
The money stems from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which budgeted roughly $27 billion to advance clean energy and «environmental justice» under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). An undercover recording of a former Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) political appointee, who described disbursements made through GGRF as akin to tossing gold bars off the Titanic at the end of Biden’s term, was cited by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in February when he announced that the agency would be looking into the matter. Republicans are currently trying to claw back the funds, which they claim were rushed out the door at the end of the Biden administration with little oversight and steered toward Democratic allies.
«Today’s report from the House Oversight Committee exposes the Biden administration’s sweeping green energy scheme, designed to funnel tens of billions in taxpayer dollars to enrich Democratic allies and fund partisan, politically motivated projects,» House Republican Oversight Chairman James Comer told Fox News Digital. «Americans deserve better than this green energy scam disguised as environmental justice, and Oversight Republicans will continue to hold the Biden administration accountable to ensure the EPA operates as intended and that taxpayer dollars are spent transparently, responsibly, and in the best interest of the American people.»
EPA HEAD BLASTS BIDEN-ERA DECISION TO ‘STRANGULATE’ ENERGY SECTORS ‘OUT OF EXISTENCE’
A new report from Oversight Republicans says Biden’s EPA turned a $20B clean energy fund into a slush pile for political allies. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
The EPA terminated most of these grants after the Trump administration took office, but the move was met with legal pushback from Democrats. However, last week, a federal appeals court judge struck down a lower court’s ruling that blocked the Trump administration’s move to freeze the funds, arguing the administration was acting in accordance with its role to provide «proper oversight» of how funds are distributed.
The EPA has referred the matter to the agency’s inspector general. The Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation are also running concurrent investigations, the EPA has indicated. However, up to this point, no criminal wrongdoing has been uncovered.
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., declined to comment on the matter. Additionally, several other top ranking Democrats, including the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., did not respond to requests for comment.
However, in an Aug. 11 letter to Zeldin signed by several ranking Democrats, including Clarke, they accused Zeldin of «lying» about the Inflation Reduction Act funding.
«Time and again, you have boasted about the unlawful activities EPA is conducting under your leadership without any credible evidence to justify your actions,» the letter stated.
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While there may not be any criminal wrongdoing alleged thus far, the picture painted by the investigation by House Oversight Republicans shows the Biden administration «turned the Environmental Protection Agency into a vehicle for rewarding political allies, all while risking the stability of our energy infrastructure,» according to Comer.
«Today’s report from the House Oversight Committee exposes the Biden administration’s sweeping green energy scheme, designed to funnel tens of billions in taxpayer dollars to enrich Democratic allies and fund partisan, politically motivated projects,» Comer added.
President Joe Biden speaks at the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretive Center and Preserve in Palo Alto, California, Monday, June 19, 2023. Biden talked about climate change, clean energy jobs and protecting the environment. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The report released by Oversight Republicans details how committee staff reviewed «tens of thousands» of documents produced by the GGRF awardees in question. The documents also included EPA materials for reviewing and awarding the GGRF funds, among other records.
The report shows how the EPA judged the applicants using a scoring system that awarded points for different parts of the nonprofits’ proposals. For example, flawless «financial risk management» awarded a total of 85 points, while flawless «legal and compliance risk management» could provide an applicant up to 40 possible points. Meanwhile, the EPA weighted «equity and environmental justice» the same way it did «financial statements» and more than it weighted good «governance» or «legal and compliance risk management,» among other categories.
«By doing so, the EPA all but ensured that the grants would go to President Biden’s political allies. All awardees of the GGRF had ‘climate equity’ or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in place or committed to putting equivalent policies in place,» the House Oversight report argues. «EPA criticized multiple applicants because their targeted reductions in emissions were too low. In other cases, the EPA staff complained that there was not enough ‘environmental justice’ expertise represented in leadership or on the boards of the nonprofits. The Biden EPA insisted on climate equity metrics over merit.»
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After receiving their scores, the program provided a «reconciliation process» for EPA staff to discuss their assessments and adjust their scores, according to the Oversight report. The ultimate decision was then passed to a single «selection official» who made the final determination.
The report also claims that the disbursement review process was «full of contradictions.» It says documents showed EPA officials had concerns about the groups receiving the funds related to overly optimistic projections for financial benefits or emissions reductions, lack of access to private capital, high uninsured cash balances, and lack of transparency. Simultaneously, in other documents, the EPA justified the GGRF recipients as entities «with track records, staff, risk management policies, and other programmatic capabilities,» according to the House Oversight report.
One of the groups under scrutiny, Climate United Fund, was established for the purpose of utilizing the GGRF, according to the Oversight report. The report points to claims from EPA staff indicating the group is «a new-entity purpose built for the execution of our program plan and does not have a robust reporting history.»
Climate United, reported just $95,557 in assets for fiscal year 2023 but received $6.97 billion from the EPA, representing a 7,293,980% increase in reported assets since 2023, the Oversight report points out.
Other groups also saw similarly significant increases.
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Power Forward Communities received $2 billion as part of the GGRF disbursements. The group, not established until after the Biden administration announced the GGRF application process, reported just $100 in assets in its first and only tax filing – meaning that following the $2 billion GGRF award, the entities’ assets increased 2,000,000,000%, according to the House Oversight report.
«These tired allegations distract from the fact that EPA’s illegal funding freeze will drive up energy costs for hardworking Americans across the country. When household bills are skyrocketing, Congress should be focused on deploying cheap, clean energy technologies rather than resurfacing false claims,» Brooke Durham, a spokesperson for Climate United told Fox News Digital when reached for comment. «Climate United welcomes the opportunity to explain our work and the benefits of the NCIF program to Congress, federal agencies, and to the public.»
The spokesperson also noted that while the Climate United coalition – which is made up of three separate organizations – is new, the organizations that make it up are not.
«The organizations that make up Climate United have been investing in communities for over 30 years, and are experts in the capital markets who have collectively managed more than $30 billion in institutional and public funds,» Durham said. She added that the group was proud to tout a 946.5 point evaluation score by the EPA out of a possible 1050 points, which Durham noted was among the highest of all the awardees.
Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters Building in Washington, D.C. (Getty)
Power Forward declined to comment. However, the group’s CEO, Tim Mayopolous told CBS News last month that the GGRF award process «was a highly structured, competitive process that the United States government went through.»
EPA ADMINISTRATOR LEE ZELDIN OPENS UP ABOUT DEREGULATION: WE HAVE A GREAT TEAM HERE
«The organizations that are part of our coalition that actually do this work – they have been around collectively for nearly a century, and they have invested or disbursed over $100 billion of capital into communities all over America over those years,» Mayopolous added. «We’re not inexperienced people.»
Climate United, along with some of the other groups in question, are also under fire for allegedly inflating their executives’ salaries and travel benefits in proposed budgets. The CEO’s salary at Climate United was slated to be over $500,000, and at Power Forward $800,000, with an increase to over $900,00 in a year. One group produced a budget that paid its executive staff of seven employees a total of $24,862,419 over three years, according to the report.
Meanwhile, conflicts of interest, which Zeldin has described as «blatant,» were also laid bare in the report. The director of the GGRF selected by the Biden White House was a former policy director at the group that wanted to pay their executive staffers close to a combined $25 million over three years, according to the report. The report says the director had to recuse himself from the award process because of the conflict.
Republicans from the House Oversight Committee say a Biden-era green energy grant program was used to reward political allies of President Joe Biden.
At Climate United, the group currently staffs a former Biden climate advisor who worked during the last two years of the former president’s term. Their board makeup while pursuing the GGRF award also had ties to the Obama administration. However, Durham contested the implication that there were conflicts of interest, telling Fox News Digital that no staff or board members at Climate United helped with the design of the program, or the selection of the award recipients.
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Power Forward’s GGRF application process was also accused of being led by Democrat allies in the Republican Oversight report. Power Forward was founded by executives at nonprofit Rewiring America, co-founded by top Obama administration advisors, the report states. It also claims that Power Forward had planned on awarding Rewiring America with nearly $500,000,000.
«The nonprofits receiving awards are littered with connections to Biden Administration staff and allies. The executives and board members at some of the GGRF’s awardees even helped write the policies that created the GGRF and are now benefitting from exorbitant salaries provided by taxpayers,» the House Oversight report states.
«The GGRF was a huge step for the Left in realizing the Green New Deal. The program is a National Green Bank that will flood the economy with billions in taxpayer dollars to fund partisan projects regardless of whether they merit investment or not.»
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Sospechaba que su marido la engañaba, revisó su computadora y descubrió un horror inimaginable
La historia criminal del mundo sería distinta si los delincuentes fueran fieles a sus parejas. Son muchos los crímenes que se terminan develando porque la pareja del delincuente, con los celos como ariete y el despecho como motor, denuncia a su cónyuge ante las autoridades.
Por estos días la principal noticia local en Marruecos es un caso judicial que acaba de tener sentencia. Una sentencia severa. Veinte años de prisión para un médico prestigioso, un psiquiatra que es identificado con las iniciales S.I. Fue encontrado culpable de violación, explotación sexual, trata de personas y suministro de drogas ilegales. Sus víctimas eran mujeres, todas pacientes suyas.
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El doctor tenía organizado un viaje a París con su esposa, celebrarían su aniversario de bodas en tierras francesas. Pero a último momento él no viajó, adujo problemas laborales. Un aumento de casos en su clínica psiquiátrica, la imposibilidad de abandonar a sus pacientes. Su esposa terminó yendo sola a París pero al regreso puso en marcha su venganza. La mujer sospechaba que el marido le era infiel pero lo que encontró tras su pesquisa excedió cualquier cosa que hubiera imaginado. Logró ingresar a la computadora personal y al teléfono del doctor y halló una serie de videos de contenido sexual. No se trataba de una mera infidelidad. Los videos registraban orgías con muchos participantes, hombres y mujeres, que mantenían relaciones hetero y homosexuales. La mujer identificó de inmediato las sedes de la mayoría de esos encuentros: su hogar y el consultorio de su marido.
La legislación de Marruecos continúa siendo híper conservadora en lo que respecta a las costumbres y libertades sexuales. Todavía está prohibido que parejas compartan la misma habitación de hotel si no están legalmente casadas, las relaciones extramatrimoniales tienen penas de prisión efectiva (un año para solteros y dos para casados o para quien tuviera relaciones con alguien casado) y tres años de cárcel para los que mantengan relaciones homosexuales.
El psiquiatra, ante el aluvión de pruebas y la evidencia incontrastable, no pudo negar su participación en los hechos. (Foto: AP)
Aprovechando las normas marroquíes, con los videos como prueba, la esposa se presentó ante los tribunales y pidió que su marido fuera juzgado por dos cargos: el adulterio y la conducta desviada -tal como rotulan allí a las relaciones homosexuales.
Sin embargo, cuando las autoridades se interiorizaron en el caso, la acusación se agravó considerablemente.
El hombre fue detenido en junio del año pasado cuando se descubrió que la mayoría de las mujeres que participaban en esas orgías filmadas eran sus pacientes.
Muy pronto aparecieron otros videos y se descubrió que los encuentros no sólo se dieron en el domicilio del doctor mientras su esposa viajaba por París. Hubo en su auto, en la clínica en la que trabajaba y hasta en un riad (casa tradicional con varias habitaciones alrededor de un patio con una fuente) situada en la medina, el corazón de Riad. Según la justicia, el médico drogaba a sus pacientes y las entregaba a otras personas para que tuvieran sexo con ellas. (Foto: Pixabay)
En las propiedades del psiquiatra, los investigadores encontraron grabaciones, fotos, drogas, prescripciones médicas adulteradas, lubricantes y juguetes sexuales.
Las mujeres, sus pacientes, habían acudido a él por problemas de adicciones y/o de salud mental. Él les suministraba cocaína, heroína y alucinógenos. No sólo en ocasión de las fiestas sexuales: lo hacía a lo largo de semanas para poder disponer de ellas cuando quisiera. Si alguna objetaba algo, él le decía que las sustancias eran parte de un tratamiento más largo que las iba a sanar para siempre. Alguna de ellas denunció que debido a la adicción en la que fue metida por el médico debió vender su departamento por los deudas que había contraído con los dealers. Algunas grabaciones muestran que en las consultas médicas también abusaba de las pacientes mientras aducía que los besos, tocamientos y penetraciones eran parte de la terapia programada.
Las víctimas que se animaron a presentarse declararon que fueron drogadas y que el doctor las hacía participar de una especie de ritual. Las hacía tocar la cítara, había siempre música regional de fondo y mientras el doctor las obligaba a desnudarse realizaba una especie de ceremonia litúrgica con largos parlamentos que simulaban una plegaria. Disfrazaba las orgías y las violaciones de liturgia. Cuando alguna de las mujeres se resistía o mostraba signos de dudas, el psiquiatra le decía que todo era parte del tratamiento y que no se preocuparan porque ese era un ámbito seguro. La esposa del médico revisó su computadora. Tenía videos de orgías con hombres y mujeres. (Foto: Pixabay)
Uno de los problemas que afrontó la investigación fue el temor de las víctimas. Nadie quería prestar testimonio. De las 10 víctimas identificadas -los investigadores sospechan que hubo más- sólo cuatro declararon y una de ellas lo hizo presionada por la fiscalía que si no se presentaba podía ser ella misma procesada.
Por un lado está el temor a la reacción posterior en una sociedad machista, la posibilidad cierta de que se les cierren muchas (o todas) las puertas en el futuro. A eso se le suma , la vergüenza natural de haber sido objeto de una agresión sexual. Por el otro, la incertidumbre de que un sistema jurídico patriarcal encontrara en algún momento del procedimiento un artilugio para dar vuelta la acusación y que sus testimonios se volvieran contra ellas y fueran acusadas de tener relaciones extramatrimoniales (delito de fornicación en el sistema legal marroquí). Otro factor: los agresores sexuales no suelen ser penados y cuando lo son reciben penas menores y al poco tiempo están en libertad convirtiéndose en un peligro para la vida de las denunciantes. Es como si los jueces marroquíes siempre encontraran un eximente o un atenuante para los agresores sexuales. Marruecos está conmocionado por la condena a 20 años de prisión por violación, explotación sexual, trata de personas y suministro de drogas ilegales a un prestigioso psiquiatra. (Foto: AP)
El diario El País de España en su crónica de este caso recuerda que hace pocos meses una abogada francesa denunció que fue abusada y violada luego de que la sometiera a una sumisión química por tres jóvenes hijos de empresarios poderosísimos en Marruecos. Cuando despertó al día siguiente se encontró con el pantalón mal puesto, la ropa interior desgarrada, lesiones en sus órganos sexuales y magulladuras en el resto del cuerpo. La denuncia provocó un gran escándalo. Los tres hombres adujeron que todo había sido consentido y que los cuatro participantes habían tomado alcohol y cocaína. Unos meses después la mujer retiró la denuncia, el caso quedó archivado y los tres hombres totalmente exculpados.
El caso del psiquiatra se presenta como una excepción o como un cambio radical en el panorama. Porque no sólo el médico fue encontrado culpable. Otras cinco personas fueron condenadas pero con penas más leves. El fotógrafo que registraba las orgías y que, al ser amigo del psiquiatra, también participaba de ellas recibió cinco años de prisión (reconoció que además de registrar los encuentros colectivos también tenía grabados actos sexuales entre él y el psiquiatra: eso agravó su pena). El dueño del Riad de nacionalidad belga y una de las administradores recibieron un año porque conocían la situación y de todas maneras facilitaron el lugar. El enfermero que conseguía las drogas fue condenado a dos años y también el hombre que prestaba su nombre para que le hicieran las recetas de las drogas legales (somníferos y ansiolíticos mayormente) que también les suministraban a las mujeres. El tribunal dictaminó que todas las penas, teniendo en cuenta la naturaleza de los hechos, deben ser de cumplimiento efectivo.
La justicia condenó al psiquiatra a 20 años de prisión decretando que el doctor había abusado de las mujeres aprovechándose de su posición profesional. (Foto: AP)
El psiquiatra, ante el aluvión de pruebas y la evidencia incontrastable, no pudo negar su participación en los hechos. Alegó que la denuncia de su esposa tuvo como único móvil la venganza porque él sospechaba sobre la paternidad del hijo que ella llevaba en la panza y que le había pedido que se realizara un examen de ADN. La mujer desmintió que alguna vez haya tenido lugar la solicitud de ADN. La defensa legal del doctor consistió en afirmar que los encuentros fueron consensuados y que todos los que participaron -puso especial énfasis en las mujeres- lo hicieron por decisión personal, dando su libre consentimiento. Negó haberles suministrado drogas pero decenas de testimonios, múltiples recetas médicas y evidencias requisadas en su casa y en el consultorio lo desmienten contundentemente.
La justicia condenó al psiquiatra a 20 años de prisión decretando que el doctor había abusado de las mujeres aprovechándose de su posición profesional, de la relación asimétrica que se da entre doctor y paciente, que había abusado también de la vulnerabilidad de las mujeres y que luego de drogarlas las había entregado a otras personas para que tuvieran sexo con ellas, lo que además configura el delito equivalente a la trata de personas y la explotación sexual. También lo penó por haber mantenido relaciones homosexuales.
Sólo el tiempo podrá determinar si a partir de este caso, los jueces mostraran firmeza ante los agresores sexuales.
Marruecos, Violación, orgías, cocaina, Sumario
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Iran’s ideological state: faith, fear and favors fuel its vast propaganda and patronage network
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When Benny Sabti was a child growing up in Iran, he remembers receiving an unusual prize at school. «For being an excellent student, I received a Persian translation of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler,» Sabti told Fox News Digital. «They translated Hitler’s book into Persian and distributed it to students.»
The experience stayed with him. Looking back, Sabti, now an Iran expert at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Israel, says it reflected a broader effort by Iran’s ruling clerical establishment to shape how young Iranians viewed politics, religion and the world around them.
Schools, mosques, workplaces and media all became part of an ideological ecosystem designed to reinforce loyalty to the regime. But critics of Iran’s leadership say religion itself was often not the ultimate goal.
«Faith for them is their tool,» Banafsheh Zand, an Iranian-American journalist and editor of the Iran So Far Away Substack, told Fox News Digital. «It’s not the end all to be all. It’s a tool that they can hide behind so that they can carry out all their criminalities.»
Primary school girls in traditional headscarves sit in a classroom, Tehran, Iran, Oct. 1, 1997. (Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)
Religion and power
The Islamic Republic was founded on the doctrine of velayat-e faqih, or «guardianship of the Islamic jurist,» which places ultimate political and religious authority in the hands of the country’s supreme leader.
But Zand argues that in practice the system functions less as a purely religious project and more as a mechanism of political control. «It’s more like a mafia,» she said. «They use faith in order to keep people down.»
According to Zand, ideology is reinforced through a mix of financial incentives and intimidation. «They tried by incentive and money and buying people,» she said.
Programs tied to the Basij, a militia affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have often provided benefits such as jobs, housing and education to families aligned with the regime.
«If you are poor and you join the Basij, they give you benefits,» Zand said. «But you have to go along with whatever it is that they offer you.»
Ideology embedded in daily life
Sabti says the Islamic Republic built a vast network designed to reinforce ideology in everyday life. «In banks, offices, public spaces and even in the bazaars, regime representatives walk between shops telling people it is time to pray and checking who is not attending,» Sabti said.
Mosques themselves are closely integrated into the political system. Friday prayer leaders often deliver sermons aligned with government messaging.
«There are 16 propaganda bodies in Iran,» Sabti said, describing a network of state institutions responsible for spreading the regime’s interpretation of Islam and the ideals of the Islamic Revolution.
Some institutions also focus on exporting that ideology abroad. «There is a university dedicated to converting Sunnis to Shiism,» he said. «They bring people from Africa and South America to Iran, convert them to Shiism and send them back to export the Shiite Islamic revolution.»
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A Persian-language edition of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Indoctrination in schools
Schools play a central role in the regime’s ideological system.
«Schools are heavily indoctrinated,» Sabti said. «In civil studies books, Islam was promoted as superior to all other ideologies.»
Religious messaging appears across the curriculum. «You cannot separate any school subject from Islam,» Sabti said. «Not history, not geography. Everything is mixed with ideology. The only thing missing was adding it to mathematics.»
For Sabti, the Mein Kampf episode symbolized the ideological environment students were exposed to. The message, he said, reinforced hostility toward perceived enemies and embedded a political worldview from an early age.
Ideology and hypocrisy
Sabti says the credibility of the system is also undermined by the behavior of Iran’s own elites. «You can see it in the second generation,» he said. «Their children live abroad while the elites live in palaces in Iran and in other countries. It is hypocrisy.»
Zand says ideology has always been reinforced by intimidation. «They make examples out of people in the most vicious possible way,» she said. «It’s fear and manipulation.»
According to Zand, that atmosphere of fear shapes daily life for many Iranians. «Everybody is afraid of the police,» she said. «Everybody is afraid of their neighbors.»
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School children sit together in a classroom while mask-clad and distanced apart from each other, with Iranian national flags on the desk of each, on the first day of school’s re-opening, at Nojavanan school in the capital Tehran on Sept. 5, 2020. (Photo by Atta Kenare / AFP / Getty)
An ideology losing its grip
Despite the regime’s extensive ideological machinery, Sabti believes many Iranians never fully accepted the worldview the government tried to impose.
«Over the years, the indoctrination has stopped working,» he said. «Most of the public does not truly believe it.»
Still, the Islamic Republic remains in power. «The regime maintains control through money, weapons and propaganda,» Sabti said.
Zand agrees the system never fully reshaped Iranian society. Many people, she said, complied outwardly simply to avoid punishment.
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Iranian school girls wearing angel wings hold flags and portraits of Iran’s supreme leaders, past and present, as officials and security forces mark the 37th anniversary of the day in 1979 that the father of Iran’s Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, returned from exile in France, at the shrine built to house his remains on Feb. 1, 2016 south of Tehran, Iran. (Scott Peterson/Getty Images)
«They won’t have a problem to transfer as long as they realize that the new Iran has no room for the violence and the horrifying characteristics of the Islamist regime,» Zand told Fox News Digital.
She said that beneath the surface, Iran’s cultural identity remained intact even after decades of pressure from the state.
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war with iran,terrorism,iran
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Noem reveals Trump will have ‘big agreement’ to announce at major summit with world leaders
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Kristi Noem will reportedly join President Donald Trump and 12 Latin American leaders at his resort in Florida for a «Shield of the Americas» summit Saturday after her ouster as the Secretary of Homeland Security and appointment by President Donald Trump to be special envoy for the new coalition of nations.
On Thursday, Trump announced Noem would be exiting her role as Homeland Security secretary and would be appointed a Special Envoy for the «Shield of the Americas,» a summit for which will be held at the president’s resort in Doral, Florida, on Saturday. The new coalition of 13 countries has been formed to advance strategies that will tackle mass illegal immigration, narco-terrorist gangs and cartels.
«After years of neglect, President Trump established the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere. His efforts have been a tremendous success – our southern border is secure, Latin American countries are working with us to defeat the cartels, and illegitimate dictator Nicolas Maduro is facing justice for his crimes in the Southern District of New York – ushering in historic economic cooperation with Venezuela,» said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly ahead of the summit.
«The President has successfully strengthened our relationships in our own backyard to make the entire region safer and more stable, and this weekend’s ‘Shield of the Americas’ Summit will encapsulate all of his work to Make America, and our partners, Strong Again,» she continued.
President Donald Trump greets Argentinian President Javier Milei at the White House in October. ( ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Members of Trump’s Cabinet, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, will also be at the Saturday summit.
The leaders from other nations who will be present are Argentina’s Javier Milei, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele Ortez, Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz Pereira, Costa Rica’s Rodrigo Chaves Robles, Panama’s José Raúl Mulino Quintero, and Trinidad and Tobago’s Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Chile’s Jose Antonio Kast, the Dominican Republic’s Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona, Ecuador’s Daniel Roy Gilchrist Noboa Azín, Guyana’s Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Honduras’ Nasry «Tito» Asfura, and Paraguay’s Santiago Peña.
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, April 14, 2025 (Al Drago for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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Noem confirmed Friday, speaking from Nashville, that she will be at the summit, according to the Associated Press. Noem reportedly added that the president will announce «a big agreement» detailing «how we’re going to go after cartels and drug trafficking in the entire Western Hemisphere.»
On Friday, Hegseth led a strategic conference in Doral with representatives of 17 different Caribbean, Central American and South American countries throughout the Western Hemisphere. During the conference, they signed a joint security declaration, reaffirming their commitment to peace and sovereignty in the region. According to a source familiar with the plans for the summit, the president plans to celebrate this achievement with attendees.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
«Secretary Noem helped usher in the most secure border in history, deported hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal aliens, and executed record-setting counter-drug operations against cartels. All of this great experience positions Noem well to ensure American preeminence in the entire Western Hemisphere in her new role as Special Envoy to the Shield of the Americas,» White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said. «This historic new security initiative, led by Secretary Noem, will advance cutting-edge strategies to defeat narco-terrorist cartels and stop illegal mass migration to make America and the entire Western Hemisphere safer.»
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On Thursday, Rubio said he looked forward to working with Noem as Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, and echoed the comments from the White House about her experience.
«Kristi has achieved incredible results as Secretary of Homeland Security and will be a tremendous asset in our effort to promote security and prosperity in the Western Hemisphere,» Rubio said on X after Trump named Noem to her new post.
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