President Donald Trump’s executive order ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government has returned financial power to the people, OJ Oleka, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, told Fox News Digital. 

Oleka said there’s a ‘new sheriff in town’ and that Trump is ‘making good’ on his promise to eliminate DEI by shifting financial policies ‘away from the left and back to the center,’ empowering state financial officers and building trust with the American people. 

‘We know that when companies focus on business, their business does better. If their business does better, shareholders make more money, their employees have a better quality of life within their business and their consumers get a better product,’ Oleka told Fox News Digital at the State Financial Officers Foundation conference in Orlando, Florida. 

Oleka said focusing on financial returns and merit-based incentives over DEI or environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies creates ‘more money for shareholders, better culture in the office for employees and better products for consumers and customers,’ exactly what state financial officers have been asking for. 

‘The American people want every individual to succeed,’ Oleka said. ‘They want people to succeed on their merit, on their ability, on their skill. It’s very important to us as Americans. But what they don’t want is for people to get preferences just because of some political ideology.’ 

He said there are misconceptions about DEI ‘because people hear diversity, equity and inclusion, and they think, ‘Well, those are good things. I support diversity. I want people to be included, and people should have the resources that they need.’

‘To be very clear, when we’re talking about DEI, we’re saying that DEI is trying to provide racial or gender preferences for people based on past grievances. It effectively has nothing to do with merit or looking at somebody’s skill for a job or for an opportunity.’ 

Equal opportunity is giving people access to create their own opportunities, to try to be as successful as they can be with their skills, ability and merit, according to Oleka. 

Oleka explained that DEI is subjective because it prefers ‘folks based on what you think is important, based on your own politics.’

‘It’s bad to say, from a company’s perspective, ‘Let’s just hire people based on race, based on gender,’ as opposed to skill and ability,’ Oleka said.

‘It’s bad because it can harm the performance of what that company actually does with their business responsibilities. That matters to our financial officers because they invest in a lot of these companies. It’s their job as fiduciary leaders to make sure that the pensions that they invest, the public funds that they invest by virtue of their positions, are actually done so by companies and with funds where the returns are going to be high.

‘We can’t guarantee that the returns are going to be as high as they can be if the companies aren’t even focusing on their specific mandate, on their responsibility. Instead, they’re focusing on their politics and trying to force an ideology or social agenda through their businesses. That’s not what business is for.’ 

Oleka said his experience as someone with a Ph.D. in higher education who is also the son of Nigerian immigrants informs his rejection of political ideology or agendas in government-funded programs, including in public education, because these policies don’t improve students’ learning experience or academic performance. 

‘That doesn’t actually contribute to kids’ learning,’ Oleka said. ‘It doesn’t contribute to human flourishing. There really is no reason why people’s taxpayer dollars should be spent on that.’

Oleka told Fox News Digital the Orlando conference was critical to reminding state financial officers across the country they are not alone in pushing back against DEI and ESG policies that were promoted by former President Joe Biden’s administration. 

‘It goes back to what I think most Americans believe. Their state government is closer to them than the federal government,’ he said. ‘As a result, state leaders should have more power, as it relates to their finances, than the federal government, and what a state leader should do with that power is give it back to the people.’

By empowering state financial officers to focus on financial returns and fiduciary duty instead of ideology and politics, Oleka said more Americans are incentivized financially. 

‘It’s important that we have that same kind of leadership in the White House at the state level, making good on their promise to bring a Golden Age to America and to each state,’ he said. 

President Donald Trump made the surprise announcement this week that the U.S., after weeks of intense strikes, will halt all bombing campaigns on the Houthis in Yemen – but experts have warned the Iran-backed group will not sit idle. 

In Trump’s Tuesday announcement from the Oval Office, he claimed the Houthis ‘just don’t want to fight…and we will honor that. We will stop the bombings.’

The president would not say who provided him with this confirmation by the terrorist network, which for years has attacked U.S. and allied ships in the Red Sea in a major threat to freedom of navigation, but in a laugh following the question, he replied that it came from a ‘very good source.’

Less than two hours later, Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, the foreign minister of Oman, took to X to say, ‘Following recent discussions and contacts conducted by the Sultanate of Oman with the United States and the relevant authorities in Sana’a, in the Republic of Yemen, with the aim of de-escalation, efforts have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides.’

‘In the future, neither side will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping,’ he added. 

The post suggests that Oman, which has also played an intermediary in the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, was heavily involved in securing the ceasefire.

However, a new report obtained by Fox News Digital ahead of the president’s surprise announcement warns that the Trump administration must remain vigilant against major security threats posed by the Houthis and the international actors supporting the terrorist network.

The report, dubbed ‘The Houthi Challenge: Forging a Strategy to Defeat the Iran-Backed Terror Group in Yemen’ by Ari Heistein for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and research fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, highlighted that it is not only Iran that have helped facilitate the Houthi operational capabilities. 

While Tehran has backed the Houthis since at least 2014 – and possibly as early as 2009 during the war in Yemen – through training and advanced weapons like ballistic missiles, Oman has also played a role by allowing the group to operate from its territory and serving as a key smuggling route for Iranian arms.

Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the current executive director of the FDD, called Oman’s role in negotiations between Washington and Middle East adversaries ‘outrageous.’ 

‘To hold them up as responsible intermediaries when they are in fact hosting the very group that we’re trying to dismantle, there’s very little logic [in] this position,’ he told Fox News Digital.

The report found that Iranian arms are smuggled into Yemen through the port of Hodeidah – which was targeted in a series of Israeli strikes on major infrastructure in and around the Houthi-controlled capital of Sana’a this week – but also through smaller ports or overland through Oman.

Omani private banking institutions and businesses are also reportedly known to be ‘servicing the Houthi economy and even supplying the group with arms.’ 

‘More must be done to prevent bulk cash smuggling across the border between Oman and Yemen,’ Heistein found. ‘Muscat must begin to feel pressure from the international community to address a threat finance challenge that has gone unchecked for too long.’

The report breaks down the varied steps that need to be taken to effectively undermine and counter the Houthis as repeated military strikes by first, Saudi Arabia starting in 2015, then recently by the U.S. and Israel, have not significantly degraded the terrorist group.

Those steps include continued military action – similar to Israel’s recent strikes on Yemen’s Hodeidah port and Sana’a International Airport, which are expected to have far-reaching economic impacts and increase internal pressure on the Houthis. But military action alone isn’t enough; economic, diplomatic, and other soft power strategies are also needed to weaken the group, according to the report. 

The report also highlighted that the Houthis have utilized previous lulls in fighting with nations like Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Israel to regroup and rebuild. 

‘Compelling the Houthis to halt attacks on shipping is a meaningful achievement only if it is part of a broader, long-term strategy,’ Heistein told Fox News Digital. ‘However, if a Red Sea ceasefire becomes the centerpiece and endpoint of U.S. policy toward the Houthis, it risks empowering an increasingly dangerous regime to escalate and de-escalate at will.

 ‘Without a comprehensive approach to addressing the Houthi threat, the U.S. and its allies could soon be confronting a more dangerous, better-armed terrorist group,’ Heinstein warned. 

A bill aimed at cracking down on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its practice of forced organ harvesting passed with overwhelming support on Wednesday – though one House lawmaker voted against it.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was the lone Republican to oppose the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act, which passed 406-1.

‘It’s just another example of us trying to stick our nose in another country’s business and write their laws,’ Massie told Fox News Digital after the vote. ‘And at the end of the day, they’re gonna do what they’re gonna do, and it’s just sort of a virtue signal over here.’

Massie, a conservative libertarian, often votes against House bills that weigh in on another country’s affairs.

The Kentucky Republican pointed out that he opposed the legislation when it was up for a vote during a previous Congress.

But his pushback is also notable now given his status as an open critic of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and at times, of President Donald Trump. 

The bill was introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and would authorize the Secretary of State to deny U.S. passports and visitor visas to people involved in organ trafficking circles.

It would also call for sanctions on entities and individuals found to have participated in the gruesome illicit industry.

U.S. lawmakers have accused China of forced organ harvesting of its ideological opponents, including Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghur Muslims. 

President Donald Trump wants India and Pakistan to cease fighting and is open to helping both countries broker a peace agreement, following strikes from India against Pakistan early Wednesday. 

India launched missiles against at least nine sites ‘where terrorist attacks against India have been planned,’ according to India’s Defense Ministry. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military reported that the strikes killed at least 26 people — including women and children — and claimed the strikes amounted to an ‘act of war.’ 

‘Oh, it’s so terrible. My position is, I get along with both,’ Trump told reporters Wednesday. ‘I know both very well, and I want to see them work it out. I want to see them stop. And hopefully they can stop now. They’ve got a tit for tat, so hopefully they can stop now. But I know both. We get along with both countries very well. Good relationships with both. And I want to see it stop. And if I can do anything to help I will. I will be there as well.’

Tension between India and Pakistan escalated in April after a gunman killed 26 people who were primarily Indian Hindi tourists in the India-controlled portion of Kashmir. India pinned the blame on Pakistan, and a militant group India claims is affiliated with a Pakistani militant group ultimately claimed responsibility for the attack. 

After India’s Wednesday strikes, Pakistan said it shot down five Indian fighter jets, claiming that the move was justified given India’s actions. 

‘Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given,’ Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said. 

The Associated Press, Fox News’ Greg Wehner and Nick Kalman contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump revealed a new pick for surgeon general on Wednesday, saying he will now nominate Dr. Casey Means for the job.

‘Casey has impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials, and will work closely with our wonderful Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to ensure a successful implementation of our Agenda in order to reverse the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and ensure Great Health, in the future, for ALL Americans,’ Trump said late Wednesday afternoon in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. ‘Dr. Casey Means has the potential to be one of the finest Surgeon Generals in United States History.’

Means, a vocal ‘Make America Healthy Again’ proponent, played a significant role in helping shape the administration’s agenda surrounding health, alongside her brother, Calley Means. She is a Stanford-trained physician and has made a name for herself as a wellness influencer alongside her brother. In 2024, both Casey and Calley co-wrote a book about the chronic disease epidemic titled ‘Good Energy,’ and Casey is also the co-founder of a health-tech company called Levels.

Calley Means was previously tapped by the administration to serve as a top special advisor to Secretary Kennedy.

Trump previously announced he would nominate Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a former Fox News contributor, to be surgeon general.

It’s unclear why Nesheiwat’s nomination was pulled. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for more information. 

Trump added in his post that Secretary Kennedy ‘looks forward to working with Dr. Janette Nesheiwat in another capacity at HHS.’

Meanwhile, in a follow-up post on X, Nesheiwat also said she was ‘looking forward’ to continuing to support Trump while working closely with Secretary Kennedy ‘in a senior policy role.’ 

‘My focus continues to be on improving the health and well-being of all Americans, and that mission hasn’t changed,’ Nesheiwat concluded in her public social media remarks.  

Nesheiwat is the sister-in-law of recently fired National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, who the president indicated he will now be nominating to be the next ambassador to the United Nations after dropping his initial nominee, New York GOP Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.