Tesla made an appearance on Capitol Hill Wednesday where the company was held up as one of several key American manufacturers during a bipartisan event on U.S.-made robotics.

Two Tesla humanoid robots were at the event, with onlookers crowding the machines as they struck various poses. 

They waved their arms at times, and held up hands with two fingers aloft on each in a Richard Nixon-like pose. At one point, a robot’s arm swung out and hit the rope dividing it from the crowd, briefly sending a security guard scrambling to fix it.

Outside of Washington, however, Tesla car dealerships have been targeted by progressive activists across the country. The automaker and tech company is getting singled out for acts of vandalism over its founder, Elon Musk, and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts in the Trump administration.

House select committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., suggested Tesla’s appearance at the bipartisan event showed Congress rising above partisanship.

‘The competition is with China, and we are united in winning that competition,’ Moolenaar told Fox News Digital at the event. 

He called Telsa ‘innovative,’ adding, ‘All the companies here have shown tremendous ingenuity, and we were pleased to highlight all of their efforts.’

The event featured bots from other events, including so-called ‘robot dogs,’ officially known as ‘Spot the Agile Mobile Robot’ by Boston Dynamics, and a similar machine by Ghost Robotics.

Moolenaar said Spot stood out to him in particular, as well as Tesla’s two robot humanoids that were present at the event.

‘It’s amazing technology, and what struck me was a lot of the same technology that’s in a vehicle is used in these humanoid robots,’ he said.

Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., another member of the committee, said the Tesla robots could have ‘unbelievable applications.’

‘Maybe in agriculture — a lot of our farmers are going out of business, can’t compete labor-wise, right? You get a couple of robots that can actually do very detailed farm work and drive the labor costs down, we’ll save the American farmer,’ Gimenez said.

He also accused Democrats outside the event of having their ‘hair on fire’ over Musk and criticized Tesla critics who have been vandalizing its car dealerships.

‘Some people have taken things to an extreme,’ Gimenez said. 

‘There is no need for putting down something that is advancing American technology and is going to be beneficial for America.’

The Trump administration has recently made moves to crack down on those vandals, with President Donald Trump himself threatening to jail protesters. The FBI, meanwhile, has commissioned a task force to look into the matter.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced it had terminated 113 contracts valued at $4.7 billion Tuesday, including a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) consulting contract for Peru’s climate change activities.

‘[Tuesday] agencies terminated 113 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $4.7B and savings of $3.3B, including a $145K USDA consulting contract for ‘Peru climate change activities,” the department posted on X.

DOGE also announced the Department of Labor had canceled $577 million in ‘America Last’ grants, totaling $237 million in savings.

The funding that was canceled included $10 million for ‘gender equity in the Mexican workplace,’ $12.2 million for ‘worker empowerment in South America’ and $6.25 million for ‘improving respect for workers’ rights in agricultural supply chains’ in the countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Also eliminated was $5 million to elevate women’s participation in the workplace in West Africa, $4.3 million to assist foreign migrant workers in Malaysia, $3 million to enhance Social Security access and worker protection for internal migrant workers in Bangladesh and $3 million for safe and inclusive work environments in the southern African country of Lesotho.

DOGE, led by Elon Musk, is a temporary organization within the White House created via executive order earlier this year.

President Donald Trump tasked the organization with optimizing the federal government, streamlining operations and slashing spending and gave the agency 18 months to do it.

The department has canceled numerous diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at federal agencies, consulting contracts, leases for underused federal buildings and duplicate agencies and programs.

As of March 26, DOGE claims on its site it has saved Americans $130 billion, or $807.45 per taxpayer.

DOGE critics contend the organization has too much access to federal systems and should not be permitted to cancel federal contracts or make cuts to various agencies.

Fox News Digital’s Eric Revell and Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.

A federal judge denied President Donald Trump’s administration’s efforts to ban transgender people from joining the military, which was set to go into effect Friday.

The Department of Justice has since filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia.

Washington, D.C.-based U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee, on Wednesday, denied the government’s motion to dissolve her order that prevents the military from denying transgender people the ability to enlist in the military.

Reyes presided over a hearing on March 21, when she requested the Department of Defense (DOD) delay its original March 26 deadline to enact the policy.

On March 21, the defendants in the suit, who include Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, filed a motion to dissolve the injunction blocking the Pentagon’s ban. The filing argued that the policy is not an overarching ban but instead ‘turns on gender dysphoria – a medical condition – and does not discriminate against trans-identifying persons as a class.’

The Trump administration further requested that, if the motion to dissolve is denied, the court should stay the preliminary injunction pending appeal.

The government cited new guidance issued March 21 that it expected to enact the policy if not for the ongoing litigation. The guidance clarified that ‘the phrase ‘exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria’’ solely applies to ”individuals who exhibit such symptoms as would be sufficient to constitute a diagnosis.”

Reyes said she wanted to allow more time for the appeals process. She also said she had previously allowed plenty of time to appeal her earlier opinion blocking the ban from going into effect.

On Wednesday, Reyes acknowledged that Military Department Identification Guidance (MIDI Guidance) is new, but the argument presented by the defense is not.

‘Defendants re-emphasize their ‘consistent position that the [Hegseth] Policy is concerned with the military readiness, deployability, and costs associated with a medical condition,’’ the judge wrote. ‘Regulating gender dysphoria is no different than regulating bipolar disorder, eating disorders, or suicidality. The Military Ban regulates a medical condition, they insist, not people. And therein lies the problem.

‘Gender dysphoria is not like other medical conditions, something Defendants well know,’ Reyes continued. ‘It affects only one group of people: all persons with gender dysphoria are transgender and only transgender persons experience gender dysphoria.’

She later noted that the opinion has generated a heated public debate, and, as the court predicted, the Trump administration will appeal.

‘This is all to the good,’ Reyes said. ‘But let’s recall that our service members make the debate and appeals possible. Their sacrifices breathe life into the phrase, ‘one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’ The Court, again, thanks them all.’

The legal challenge comes as the Supreme Court also considers a high-profile case dealing with transgender rights. 

The issue in the case, United States vs. Skrmetti, is whether the equal protection clause, which requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same, prohibits states from allowing medical providers to deliver puberty blockers and hormones to assist with a minor’s transition to another sex.

President Donald Trump sounded off on Truth Social early Thursday after Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was assigned to preside over a lawsuit lodged against several Trump administration officials and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

The Obama-nominated judge has also been presiding over a lawsuit challenging Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies act for authority to deport Venezuelan members of Tren de Aragua, which the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

‘How disgraceful is it that ‘Judge’ James Boasberg has just been given a fourth ‘Trump Case,’ something which is, statistically, IMPOSSIBLE. There is no way for a Republican, especially a TRUMP REPUBLICAN, to win before him. He is Highly Conflicted, not only in his hatred of me — Massive Trump Derangement Syndrome! — but also, because of disqualifying family conflicts,’ Trump asserted in a post.

‘Boasberg, who is the Chief Judge of the D.C. District Court, seems to be grabbing the ‘Trump Cases’ all to himself, even though it is not supposed to happen that way. Is there still such a thing as the ‘wheel,’ where the Judges are chosen fairly, and at random?’ he continued.

‘The good news is that it probably doesn’t matter, because it is virtually impossible for me to get an Honest Ruling in D.C. Our Nation’s Courts are broken, with New York and D.C. being the most preeminent of all in their Corruption and Radicalism. There must be an immediate investigation of this Rigged System, before it is too late!’

Trump called for Boasberg to be impeached earlier this month.

After calling him a ‘Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator,’ Trump declared in a post on Truth Social, which did not refer to Boasberg by name, ‘This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!’

The new lawsuit Boasberg has been assigned was brought by the self-described ‘watchdog’ group American Oversight.

Defendants named in the suit include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as dependents, along with the NARA.

‘Plaintiff American Oversight brings this action … to prevent the unlawful destruction of federal records and to compel Defendants to fulfill their legal obligations to preserve and recover federal records created through unauthorized use of Signal for sensitive national security decision-making,’ the suit declares.