President Donald Trump threatened ‘very severe consequences’ for Russia if President Vladimir Putin doesn’t agree to end the war in Ukraine after their meeting in Alaska on Friday. 

Trump issued the warning Wednesday as he is preparing for a sit-down with Putin in Anchorage. 

‘Yes, they will. There will be consequences,’ Trump said in response to a reporter’s question on the topic. The president then refused to elaborate on what the punishment would be. 

‘I don’t have to say. There will be very severe consequences,’ he added. 

Trump later appeared to cast doubt on whether he could convince Putin to stop bombing Ukrainian civilians. 

‘I’ll tell you what. I’ve had that conversation with him. I’ve had a lot of good conversations with him then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home or a rocket hit an apartment building, and people are laying dead in the streets,’ Trump said. 

‘So, I guess the answer to that is no, because I’ve had this conversation. I want to end the war. It’s Biden’s war, but I want to end it. I’ll be very proud to end this war, along with the five other wars I ended. But, I guess the answer to that is probably no,’ Trump continued. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said Wednesday that there is ‘no sign’ that Russia is preparing to end the war in Ukraine. 

‘At present, there is no sign that the Russians are preparing to end the war. Our coordinated efforts and joint actions – of Ukraine, the United States, Europe, and all countries that seek peace – can definitely compel Russia to make peace,’ Zelenskyy said on X. 

President Donald Trump indicated Wednesday that he would meet with the top congressional Democrats ahead of the looming government funding deadline, but said he didn’t believe it would go well.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate are currently away from Washington, D.C., in their respective districts and states, but the Sept. 30 deadline to prevent a partial government shutdown will be just a handful of weeks away when they return after Labor Day.

And there is a brewing tension between Republicans and Democrats over just how the looming government funding fight will shake out.

Trump, during a press conference where he announced a slate of Kennedy Center honorees, said he would meet with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., before the deadline.  

‘But it’s almost a waste of time to meet, because they never approve anything,’ Trump added.

‘I don’t believe anybody is capable of making a deal with these people,’ he continued. ‘They have gone crazy.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer and Jeffries for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Lawmakers must pass the dozen spending bills needed to fund the government to avert a partial shutdown, but that process, known as regular order, has not happened in decades.

While Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has made clear he wants to pass spending bills, and the Senate did indeed pass a trio of funding measures before leaving town, Congress will likely again turn to a short-term government funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR).

However, any CR must pass muster with Senate Democrats, given that the legislation has to pass through the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold.

And congressional Democrats have a bitter taste left in their mouths after Republicans rammed through Trump’s $9 billion clawback package, which included deep cuts to NPR, PBS and foreign aid. They warned that any more attempts to claw back congressionally approved funding on a partisan basis could doom government funding negotiations.

Ahead of the vote to pass three spending bills in the Senate, which included funding for military construction and Veterans Affairs, agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the legislative branch, congressional Democrats vowed that they would play ball – as long as the appropriations process was bipartisan.

‘We all want to pursue a bipartisan, bicameral appropriations process,’ Schumer said at the time. ‘That’s how it’s always been done, successfully, and we believe that, however, the Republicans are making it extremely difficult to do that.’

Earlier this year, Schumer briefly flirted with a government shutdown. However, he eventually relented and voted with Republicans to keep the lights on in Washington, and in the process ignited a firestorm within his own party over his ability as leader of the Senate Democratic caucus.

President Donald Trump has pledged to protect and preserve Social Security, and I am honored to lead the agency as Commissioner at such a pivotal moment. My vision is straightforward: a Social Security Administration that is easier to access, faster to respond, and better prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow. That vision is rooted in our commitment to public service and grounded in the belief that government can and should work for everyone.

Since taking office, I have focused on modernizing operations; investing in our workforce; eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse; and improving how we serve the public, whether online, over the phone, or in person. 

Social Security is not a program of the past; it is a promise to future generations. 

We have expanded our digital tools to provide more services from the convenience of people’s homes. We have taken steps to reduce wait times, enhance security, and make it easier to navigate our programs. All the while ensuring we pay benefits accurately to those who are eligible to receive them.

We have also added support and removed roadblocks for our frontline employees with updated tools, technology, and processes, so they can deliver efficient, accurate, and compassionate service to the American people every day.

In my first 100 days as Commissioner, SSA has made significant progress, improving customer experience: reducing the average wait time on the national 800 number from 30 minutes last year to single digits last month; implementing new phone systems to enable 90% of calls to be handled via self-service or convenient callbacks; shortening field office wait times by 30%; eliminating 29 hours of weekly downtime for my Social Security to allow 24/7 online management of benefits; decreasing Disability hearing wait times by 60 days, reaching historic lows; and, sending over 3.1 million payments totaling $17 billion to eligible beneficiaries five months ahead of schedule under the Social Security Fairness Act.

We have a clear path to achieving operational excellence and providing best-in-class service. Under President Trump’s leadership, I have charted a new course that strengthens service delivery and secures the integrity and efficiency of our systems. We are modernizing the underlying infrastructure that supports our work so that the agency is not only keeping up with the pace of change but leading the way in service innovation.

As we celebrate this 90th anniversary, we must also keep our eyes firmly on the future. Social Security is not a program of the past; it is a promise to future generations. 

Young Americans entering the workforce today deserve the same sense of security their parents and grandparents had. Maintaining that trust will require thoughtful innovation and a shared commitment to protecting the integrity and solvency of the program.

As we look to the century ahead, President Trump remains committed to ensuring that Social Security is as strong, effective, and enduring for our children and grandchildren as it has been for the generations before them.

The Democratic National Committee slammed Vice President JD Vance for fishing on a private lake with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy during Vance’s official trip to the United Kingdom. 

Republicans were quick to respond to what appears to be the latest in a series of attacks by Democrats against the vice president over outdoor activities and family outings Vance mixes in during his rigorous official travel schedule. 

The DNC War Room issued a press release Wednesday titled ‘VACATION VANCE AT IT AGAIN: Vance Fished ‘Illegally’ With UK Foreign Secretary While Americans Drown in Sky-High Costs.’ 

Vance and Lammy met at the foreign secretary’s official country residence, known as Chevening House, located south of London, on Friday for talks centered on the Israel-Hamas conflict and Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

They went fishing on the estate grounds before their scheduled meeting. Vance briefly joked to reporters that the ‘one strain on the special relationship’ he has with Lammy ‘is that all of my kids caught a fish, but the foreign secretary did not.’ The vice president soon delved into more serious topics, including telling reporters that, unlike the U.K., the United States has ‘no plans to recognize a Palestinian state’ given the ‘lack of a functional government’ in Gaza. 

Their meeting came a week before President Donald Trump’s upcoming high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. 

In its release on Wednesday, the DNC charged, ‘Vance is living it up on his summer holiday — on the taxpayers’ dime — all while working families face sky-high inflation and the largest cuts to health care and food assistance in American history.’ 

Kiersten Pels, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said in a statement to Fox News Digital, ‘The DNC’s donors are OK with funding press releases on a fishing rod license? They might want to pull their money out now before the last of it vanishes down the drain.’ 

U.K. outlets reported that Lammy did not buy a valid fishing license before the outing with Vance. In a statement to Sky News, the British Foreign Office said the secretary ‘has written to the Environment Agency over an administrative oversight that meant the appropriate licences had not been acquired for fishing on a private lake as part of a diplomatic engagement at Chevening House last week.’ 

The agency reportedly requires rod licenses for fishing of freshwater species in England and Wales for people 13 or above. 

During his visit to the U.K. last week, Vance also gave a brief address to U.S. troops stationed at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. 

The DNC claimed Vance spoke to troops ‘for only six minutes before returning to his $10,000 per week luxury Cotswolds manor.’

The release also took issue with Vance allegedly ‘using public resources’ earlier this month ‘so he could do boating on his birthday.’ 

‘Vance fished ‘illegally’ in the United Kingdom, potentially costing the foreign secretary a £2,000 fine. Vance even had former Chancellor George Osborne plan his vacation’s social agenda, including relaxing in the ‘Hamptons of the UK,’’ the release said.

The DNC further charged that Trump and Vance ‘ripped away health care from 17 million Americans, slashed food assistance for over 22 million families, and unleashed economic chaos on the American people —  all to give their billionaire friends and donors another round of massive tax handouts.’ 

‘While working families struggle to get by, it’s clear where Vance’s loyalties lie — and it’s not with them,’ the DNC wrote. 

The latest attack comes after Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential contender, bemoaned Vance’s recent visit to Disneyland with his children. 

‘Hope you enjoy your family time,’ Newsom wrote on social media. ‘The families you’re tearing apart certainly won’t.’

In response, Vance wrote, ‘Had a great time, thanks.’ 

Critics also attempted to paint Vance as entitled after the vice president’s security detail had an Ohio river’s water levels raised to accommodate a kayaking trip he and his family took to celebrate his 41st birthday. The U.S. Secret Service made the request to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers so that motorized watercraft and emergency personnel could operate safely.

Before his political career, Vance notably penned an autobiography, ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ which describes how he was raised by an opioid-addicted mother in Appalachia, joined the Marines and found success at Yale Law School. 

In a recent interview on ‘The Katie Miller Podcast,’ Vance revealed that reserving ‘sacred time’ with family allows him to balance his official duties with the duties of being a husband and father.  

‘It’s possible to do it even in my job,’ he said. ‘Yes, if like a war breaks out, then sometimes you have to cancel even the sacred time. But we’ve been pretty good about making sure that I have at least a couple of hours with my family every single day.’ 

The Trump administration is announcing the launch of a new tool it says will be instrumental in enabling agencies across the federal government to efficiently implement artificial intelligence at scale and take a major step forward rolling out the president’s ‘AI Action Plan.’

Trump’s U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) said on Thursday it has launched USAi, a tool the agency describes as a ‘secure generative artificial intelligence evaluation suite that enables federal agencies to experiment with and adopt artificial intelligence at scale—faster, safer, and at no cost to them.’

The agency says that the platform, available starting Thursday at 10 a.m. through USAi.gov, gives government users access to ‘powerful’ tools like chat-based AI, code generation and document summarization with the goal of ‘supercharging employee productivity.’

‘USAi isn’t just another tool, it’s infrastructure for America’s AI future,’ GSA Chief Information Officer David Shive explained. ‘USAi helps the government cut costs, improve efficiency, and deliver better services to the public, while maintaining the trust and security the American people expect.’

GSA Deputy Administrator Stephen Ehikian told Fox News Digital that this latest application is an ‘on ramp’ to A.I. that will be the ‘tip of the spear’ on the A.I. front similar to the way GSA previously implemented the cloud. 

The Trump administration rolled out its A.I. Action Plan in July after Trump ordered the federal government in January to develop a plan of action for artificial intelligence in order to ‘solidify our position as the global leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans.’ 

Trump has made U.S. A.I. growth a cornerstone of his administration, such as notching multi-billion deals with high-tech firms such as Oracle and OpenAI for the Stargate project, which is an effort to launch large data centers in the U.S, as well as a $90 billion energy and tech investment deal specifically for the state of Pennsylvania to make it the U.S. hub for AI. 

‘USAi means more than access—it’s about delivering a competitive advantage to the American people,’ GSA Deputy Administrator Stephen Ehikian said in press release.

‘The launch of USAi shows how GSA is translating President Trump’s AI strategy into action and accelerating AI adoption across government. USAi will put mission-ready tools directly into the hands of agencies to modernize faster, boost security, and lead globally.’

The A.I. Action Plan includes a three-pillar approach focused on American workers, free speech and protecting U.S.-built technologies. 

‘We want to center America’s workers, and make sure they benefit from AI,’ A.I. and crypto czar David Sacks told the media in July when details of the A.I. plan were made public. 

‘The second is that we believe that AI systems should be free of ideological bias and not be designed to pursue socially engineered agendas,’ Sacks said. ‘And so we have a number of proposals there on how to make sure that AI remains truth-seeking and trustworthy. And then the third principle that cuts across the pillars is that we believe we have to prevent our advanced technologies from being misused or stolen by malicious actors. And we also have to monitor for emerging and unforeseen risks from AI.’

Advancing the federal government’s use of A.I. and expanding employee access are core to the GSA’s efforts to fulfill Trump’s directive to preserve U.S. leadership in the global technology race, GSA Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum explained to Fox Digital in an interview earlier this month. 

‘As we kind of examined the President’s AI action plan, heard the call to action of, ‘Hey, this is a race, and we are going to win this race.’ From our perspective, all that meant, synonymously, was widespread adoption,’ he told Fox Digital of delivering AI to federal employees. 

The rollout of the USAi tool follows GSA announcing earlier in August that OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise is now available to all federal agencies to incorporate into their workflow at $1 per agency. The deal with OpenAI, the tech company behind ChatGPT, is part of GSA’s OneGov Strategy that aims to modernize ‘how the federal government purchases goods and services’ under the Trump administration. 

GSA also notched another deal with A.I. company Anthropic this month providing all three branches of government access to large language model Claude. 

Gruenbaum told Fox News Digital that Thursday’s announcement will be critical for agencies for creating efficiencies to help turn the federal workforce into ‘the most nimble, smart, efficient, agile, and agentically tech-forward workforce out there so that this country can continue to compete and win the AI race.’