作者： root

沈泽玮：当赖清德喊“中国大陆”

发布/2026年2月26日 05:00

台湾总统赖清德（台上左五）星期二（2月24日）在海基会举行的“2026大陆台商春节活动”上致词时，在两岸方面用了“中国”、“中国大陆”、“大陆”三种称呼。 （自由时报）

台湾总统赖清德用“中国大陆”称呼海峡对岸，被敏感的台媒捕捉到，上了新闻版面。

台独倾向者一般以“中国”直呼对岸，凸显“中国”与“台湾”为两个不同政治实体，甚至是两个“平起平坐的对等国家”，即地图上的雄鸡和鸡腿棒毫不相干。以“中国大陆”或“大陆”称呼，则符合《中华民国宪法》或《两岸人民关系条例》对两岸关系的定义。

台媒报道，赖清德星期二（2月24日）在海基会举行的“2026大陆台商春节活动”上致词时，在两岸方面用了“中国”、“中国大陆”、“大陆”三种称呼。这与他过去在总统就职演说和“双十”演说中直呼“中国”不太一样。

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Clinton accuses GOP voter bill of targeting married women — Republicans call it ‘nonsense’

Trump urged Republican lawmakers to pass the SAVE Act

By Brooke Singman
Fox News
Published February 25, 2026 3:21pm EST

Hillary Clinton is claiming that Republican voter legislation will make it harder for married women to vote — an assertion GOP lawmakers and officials already say they’ve debunked.

“You didn’t have to listen to Trump’s rambling speech last night to know that Republicans are trying to make it harder for millions of Americans to vote—especially married women,” Clinton posted on X Wednesday. “They’ve already made it clear. Time to fight back.”

Clinton was referring to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.

The president called on Congress to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which would tighten election rules and require voters to present a photo ID at the polls and proof of U.S. citizenship.

Hillary Clinton is claiming that Republican voter legislation will make it harder for married women to vote — an assertion GOP lawmakers and officials already say they’ve debunked.(Mandel Ngan/Getty Images)

The president said the legislation is critical in order to stop “illegal aliens and other unpermitted persons from voting.”

Congressional Democrats have panned the SAVE Act as a tool of voter suppression — saying it’s a bill that allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to monitor Americans’ voter information and create barriers for married women to vote, among several other claims.

The bill would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, mandate states to actively verify and remove noncitizens from voter rolls, expand information sharing with federal agencies, including DHS, to verify citizenship, and create new criminal penalties for registering noncitizens to vote.

President Donald J. Trump delivers the first State of the Union address of his second term to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026.(Kenny Holston /Pool via Reuters)

But Clinton isn’t alone — other House Democrats earlier in February also similarly claimed that the legislation would leave married women unable to vote unless they changed their birth certificates to match other government-issued ID.

REPUBLICANS SHRED ‘NONSENSE’ DEM CLAIMS AGAINST TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID BILL

But Republicans say they’ve already addressed the claim and debunked it.

“This is absolute nonsense, and we specifically allow for a provision to make sure that no one can possibly be left behind,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who led both the SAVE Act and SAVE America Act in the House, said, while arguing Democrats were “really reaching” for criticism.

“If a woman tried to register to vote with different names on her birth certificate and driver’s license,” Roy said, “we literally put in the statute that all you have to do is sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury that, ‘I am that person. This is my birth certificate… and this is my driver’s license that is reflecting my married name.’”

The bill does list a birth certificate as one way voters can confirm their identity. It does not specify a last-name match requirement.

Voters can use “a certified birth certificate issued by a state in which the applicant was born… (that) includes the full name, date of birth and place of birth of the applicant” to supplement other forms of identification.

President Donald Trump delivered the longest-ever State of the Union address on Feb. 24, 2026.(Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

Among other forms of valid paperwork, voters can also display a passport, a REAL ID or a military identification card to prove their citizenship.

Conservative legal group The Federalist Society presented a breakdown of the bill, which explicitly says that Americans who have changed their names — because of marriage or otherwise — are “not prevented from voting.”

“The bipartisan federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is commanded by the SAVE Act to establish guidelines for states to accept supplementary documents — for instance, a marriage license — to prove citizenship when a voter’s birth certificate and current name do not match,” the group’s page reads. “Those on the Left who claim that the SAVE Act will disenfranchise millions of married women are simply wrong; they ought to read the bill’s text and see that it provides mechanisms to ensure that this does not happen.”

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Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.

古来塑料厂大火空污 五校数千学生停课至周五

发布时间 / 来源：2026年2月26日 05:15 / 新明日报

柔佛古来新港这家塑料厂星期二（2月24日）发生严重火灾。消防局直到星期三（25日）晚间仍未完全灭火。图为当局星期三以挖土机挖开火场底层的塑料灭火，并防止复燃。 （取自柔佛州消防局脸书）

柔佛古来一家塑料厂星期二（2月24日）发生严重火灾。大火延烧超过一天后，至星期三（25日）晚间仍未扑灭。火灾引起的空气污染则造成近70名学生身体不适，当局因此下令五所中小学数千名学生立即停课。

据柔佛州消防局官方脸书发布的信息，古来新港亚依淡路一间塑料厂星期二下午发生大火。当局立即调派古来、士乃及士姑来共三所消防局的39名人员前往灌救。

古来新港亚依淡路一间塑料厂星期二（2月24日）下午发生大火。当局立即调派古来、士乃及士姑来共三所消防局的39名人员前往灌救。（取自柔佛州消防局脸书）

消防员在星期二晚间大致控制火势继续蔓延，但工厂的塑料残骸仍在高温下持续闷烧，消防员因此必须继续在现场灌救。

据初步调查，工厂约八成建筑已遭焚毁。具体经济损失与起火原因则有待进一步调查。

据初步调查，大火已经烧毁柔佛古来新港这家塑料厂至少八成建筑。具体经济损失与起火原因则有待进一步调查。（取自柔佛州消防局脸书）

柔佛州负责房屋及地方政府事务的行政议员（州内阁部长）莫哈末嘉福尼星期三晚间发文告说，大火仍未完全扑灭。这是因为灾场的塑料属于易燃物，柔佛州消防局的消防泡沫无法应付需求而必须向外州求援。

莫哈末嘉福尼也是巫统古来武吉柏迈区州议员。他说，马六甲消防局支援25桶消防泡沫，以及布城消防局提供30桶消防泡沫后，灭火行动随即进入最后阶段。

他指出：“目前的重点是扑灭残馀火势，以及仍在燃烧的橡胶原物料与塑料堆。这需要使用消防泡沫才能确保火势完全熄灭并防止复燃。”

火灾发生时适逢当地降雨，大量黑色烟尘与雨水混合后，在古来21哩、北干那那及乌鲁槽一带降下罕见“黑雨”。

不少居民在面子书发布贴文申诉，雨水带有明显黏性与黑色油渍，造成不少停放在屋外的轿车及住家外墙都遭殃。

古来人民公正党武吉峇都区州议员张善深星期三发文告说，大火造成附近地区空气污染，造成大古来国小和大古来国小二校的68名学生身体不适。

他说，古来县教育局已经指示这两所学校，以及附近新港华小、大古来华小和大古来宗教学校的五校数千名学生立即居家学习至星期五。

Trump admin halts Medicaid payments to Minnesota over fraud claims

By Adam Cancryn
27 min ago
PUBLISHED Feb 25, 2026, 6:36 PM ET

CNN

The Trump administration is withholding more than $250 million in Medicaid funds from Minnesota, claiming widespread fraud as it escalates a pressure campaign on the state’s Democratic leadership.

Vice President JD Vance announced the extraordinary move on Wednesday, blaming Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for failing to adequately police the safety-net program and warning the pause would continue until the state submitted an acceptable plan for targeting its misuse.

“We are stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government until the state government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American taxpayer,” Vance said.

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The administration’s crackdown comes a day after President Donald Trump vowed during his State of the Union address to take a hard line on fraud, claiming without offering specifics that it has grown rampant across several states.

Vance, who Trump put in charge of a new anti-fraud task force, said Wednesday that Minnesota was the first of several anticipated states that would be targeted as part of the effort. The administration is also putting a nationwide freeze on new companies’ abilities to seek Medicare payments for durable medical equipment, such as canes and walkers, while it investigates suspected fraud in the program.

“Across the board, these crimes are becoming a major source of fraudulent activity,” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz said.

The halt to Medicaid payments for Minnesota represents just the latest effort to pressure the state over the last several months, after conservatives surfaced a widespread social services fraud scheme that caught the attention of Trump and his aides.

The scandal prompted the administration to surge immigration forces into the state, a weekslong offensive that led to the fatal shootings of two US citizens.

Trump officials had previously warned that they were considering deferring payments over fraud concerns, but Wednesday’s announcement marks their first effort to unilaterally halt federal funding that is due to the state’s Medicaid program.

Vance dismissed questions about the administration’s legal authority, saying he was “quite confident” about their ability to withhold the money, but declined to offer details.

The vice president was also vague about the criteria that Walz would need to meet to secure the release of the funding, or how quickly the administration was prepared to resume its payments. Oz indicated that in order to restore funds, Minnesota needs to verify that service providers are indeed tending to people with a genuine need for the programs.

“We need to know that the providers actually are the real providers. Oftentimes, there’s no person that you can associate with the treatment itself,” Oz said, adding states also need to ensure the providers aren’t “already in trouble for doing bad stuff.”

“There’s a whole slew of tools that we can use, including checking before you pay the bill, that the bill is legitimate,” he added. “That prepayment review is incredibly important.”

Oz said they’ve imposed a 60-day deadline on the Walz administration to respond.

Kit Maher contributed to this report.

No English content available

Meet the man Trump picked to pursue his war on fraud at the Justice Department

By [Hannah Rabinowitz]

Updated 1 hr 17 min ago

Updated Feb 25, 2026, 5:48 PM ET

PUBLISHED Feb 25, 2026, 4:32 PM ET

[Image_1]

Colin McDonald

Colin McDonald/LinkedIn

The morning after President Donald Trump declared a “war on fraud” during his State of the Union address, senior Justice Department prosecutor Colin McDonald told the Senate Judiciary Committee and said he would steadfastly follow the department’s tradition to focus only on the evidence.

“I am a career federal prosecutor,” McDonald said. “I follow the facts; I apply the law — those are the two considerations that come into play for me.”

His comment paraphrased a promise that’s core to the Justice Department, cited constantly by attorneys general under both Democratic and Republican administrations. But it didn’t directly address what he was asked: Whether McDonald, who is tapped to run a new DOJ division tasked with rooting out fraud, would follow an order from Trump to prosecute one of his own perceived enemies.

“You are now placed in a highly politicized division,” one of the Democratic senators on the committee, Mazie Hirono, warned. “We already know that the president considers the Department of Justice to be his law firm, Pam Bondi to be his lawyer. You are down the chain and I don’t see how you sit there and tell us that you are going to be independent, as much as you might want to be.”

The Trump administration has made allegations of widespread fraud a main focus of their prosecution efforts, as well as a political tool to criticize Democratic officials. Most notably, the administration has focused on a wide-ranging fraud scandal in Minnesota that prosecutors estimate could total more than $9 billion in stolen funds. The president has specifically laid blame at the feet of Democratic officials for allowing the state to become a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”

McDonald’s career was relatively low profile until he moved with his wife and five children to Washington, DC, one year ago, leaving his decadelong post at the federal prosecutor’s office in California’s Southern District to work in Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office. There, his work focused on everything from law enforcement issues to co-chairing the so-called Weaponization Working Group.

In January, Trump announced on Truth Social his nomination of McDonald as the “first ever Assistant Attorney General for National FRAUD Enforcement, a new Division at the Department of Justice, which I created to catch and stop FRAUDSTERS that have been STEALING from the American People.”

The new division was under scrutiny before McDonald was even nominated. The Justice Department already has multiple offices that investigate criminal and civil fraud cases, leading some lawmakers and legal experts to question whether creating the new division is necessary.

And Vice President JD Vance told reporters in early January that the role will be like that of a special counsel, but “run out of the White House under the supervision of me and the president United States,” which experts said would run afoul to longstanding department efforts to stay separate from political interference.

Vance, who Trump said in his speech would lead the “war on fraud,” said Wednesday that the effort would be a “whole government approach” that included other federal departments, including the Treasury Department.

McDonald tried to ease concerns of duplicate efforts during the hearing Wednesday, saying that his office would be “complementary” of the department’s preexisting fraud sections and would initially focus on cases that involved abuses of Medicaid and SNAP funds — both of which are alleged to have taken place in Minnesota. He also pointed to a Justice Department organization chart that showed he would report directly to Bondi and Blanche, and pledged to work with federal, state or local partners “regardless of political party.”

None of the senators asked McDonald Wednesday what role Vance’s would play in his office’s efforts. The vice president said at an event later in the day that McDonald “impressed a lot of people. He certainly impressed me.”

McDonald’s attempts to appear non-political largely fell on deaf ears among Senate Democrats, who continued to push him to say definitively that he would not listen to prosecutorial demands from the president.

“If in fact the Constitution requires that the president take care that the laws be faithfully executed, it would be a dereliction of duty if they did not ensure that we stop this fraud,” Republican Sen. Ashley Moody eventually cut in. “Is that correct?”

“I agree with that, senator,” McDonald said.

This story has been updated with additional details.

李强：中德经济合作面远大于竞争面

发布时间：2026年2月26日 07:42 / 来源：联合早报

中国国务院总理李强（右八）2月25日下午在北京人民大会堂同德国总理默茨（左八）共同出席中德经济顾问委员会座谈会。 （中新社）

中国国务院总理李强说，中德经济、产业优势互补的基本格局没有变，合作面远大于竞争面，完全可以通过塑造良性的竞合关系，更好地携手发展。

据中新社报道，星期三（2月25日）下午，李强在北京人民大会堂同德国总理默茨共同出席中德经济顾问委员会座谈会。

李强说，过去一段时间以来，世界经济的不稳定不确定性总体在上升。中德作为世界两大经济体，通过持续紧密合作，既为各自发展拓展了空间，也为世界经济注入了动能。

他说，当前，世界经济仍然面临着较大挑战，单边主义、保护主义在一些国家和地区抬头甚至盛行，使国际经贸秩序遭到严重破坏。越是形势严峻，中德越应当加强合作。唯有合作，才是应对风险的最优解；唯有发展，才是保障安全的必选项。

李强说，目前中德经济都呈现回升向好势头。“十五五”时期，两国经贸合作将迎来更加广阔的空间。中德经济、产业优势互补的基本格局没有变，合作面远大于竞争面，完全可以通过塑造良性的竞合关系，更好地携手发展。

他建议，双方可以重点聚焦三个方面协同发力，实现更高水平的互利共赢。一是做强传统合作的基本盘。两国企业可以继续深耕机械、装备、化工等领域合作，加快业务本土化，不断提升韧性和效率。二是把握未来发展的新机遇。支持两国企业和科研机构推进创新资源双向流动，深入开展技术共研、平台共建、成果共享，还可以共同开拓第三方市场。三是营造投资兴业的好环境。中国将坚定不移扩大高水平对外开放，积极解决德国等外资企业合理诉求。希望德国政府提供开放、公正、非歧视的营商环境，让两国企业遵循市场原则开展合作与竞争。希望中德企业家既为推动两国经贸合作，也为增进双方沟通理解、促进双边关系稳定发挥重要作用。

吴政隆参加活动。60余位中德企业代表出席。

ICE arrested 261 DACA recipients over 10 months last year, document shows

February 25, 2026 / 4:57 PM EST / CBS News

Federal immigration agents arrested 261 beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, during the first 10 months of the second Trump administration, according to official U.S. government statistics that were shared with Congress and obtained by CBS News.

The statistics indicate the vast majority of DACA recipients taken into federal immigration custody during that period had criminal records.

The government figures provide the most comprehensive official accounting so far of how many DACA recipients, also known as “Dreamers,” have been swept up by President Trump’s nationwide deportation crackdown.

Those enrolled in the Obama-era DACA program came to the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas as children. They were granted temporary work permits and deportation protections after passing background checks and meeting several requirements, including coming to the U.S. before June 2007, not having serious criminal histories and graduating from an American high school or serving in the military.

In a letter to Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Department of Homeland Security said that between Jan. 1 and Nov. 19, 2025, ICE arrested 261 DACA beneficiaries and deported 86 of them. That timeframe includes the final 19 days of President Joe Biden’s term, though it is unclear how many of the arrests occurred under his administration, which rarely targeted DACA beneficiaries.

DHS letter on DACA arrests and deportations

DHS said in its letter that 241 — or 92% — of the 261 DACA enrollees taken into ICE custody had “criminal histories” outside of civil immigration violations. DHS typically considers pending criminal charges and convictions as criminal histories. The letter, signed by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, did not specify the severity of the alleged criminal records.

CBS News reached out to representatives for DHS, including to request more details on the nature of the charges or convictions of the DACA recipients identified as having criminal histories.

In a statement in response to the DHS letter, Durbin and fellow Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla and Mark Kelly called the arrests of DACA recipients “deeply troubling,” saying the detentions “disrupt families, harm communities, and inflict unnecessary social, emotional, and economic costs.”

The Democratic senators also questioned the criminal figures provided by DHS, noting they’re demanding more details.

“Secretary Noem’s response to our letter claims that 241 of the 261 DACA recipients arrested had ‘criminal histories,’ without providing any further details,” they said. “DACA recipients go through strict background checks every time they renew this protection, and the Trump Administration has not hesitated to arrest immigrants with no serious criminal convictions and falsely label them the ‘worst of the worst.’”

The arrests and deportations of DACA recipients represent a significant increase from unofficial estimates by advocates about how many “Dreamers” had been arrested under Mr. Trump’s deportation campaign. But they also represent a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants with active DACA status.

As of the end of June 2025, roughly 516,000 Dreamers were enrolled in DACA, with the majority living in states like California, Texas, Illinois, Florida and New York, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.

DACA has been one of rare immigration programs created under a Democratic president that the second Trump administration has not yet moved to end, though the policy remains in legal peril.

Since taking office for a second time, Mr. Trump has moved swiftly to undo numerous Obama and Biden-era immigration policies, including by revoking the Temporary Protected Status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from crisis-stricken nations. But Trump administration officials, including USCIS Director Joseph Edlow, have declined to say publicly what they intend to do with DACA.

The first Trump administration tried to terminate DACA, arguing it was illegal. But the Supreme Court blocked that effort on technical grounds in 2020, allowing the policy to survive, though in a zombie-like form.

In recent years, federal courts in Texas and Louisiana have declared DACA — and the Biden administration’s efforts to codify the policy — illegal. But they have allowed current recipients to continue renewing their two-year work permits and deportation deferrals.

The Republican-led states challenging DACA’s legality, however, asked a federal judge in Texas last fall to order the Trump administration to gradually terminate the policy. It’s unclear when or how the judge will rule.

In its letter to Congress, DHS noted DACA is only a temporary protection that can be revoked.

“It comes with no right or entitlement to remain in the United States indefinitely. Aliens with certain criminal histories will not be considered for DACA,” DHS said. “Further, those who violate the terms are also subject to termination and removal.”

The high percentage of DACA arrestees with criminal histories, as outlined in the DHS letter, stands in sharp contrast with the lower criminality levels among the overall number of people taken into ICE custody under the second Trump administration.

In President Trump’s first year back in the White House, ICE arrested nearly 400,000 immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. According to an internal DHS document obtained by CBS News, less than 14% of arrestees had violent criminal records. Overall, 60% of those arrested by ICE over the past year had criminal charges or convictions, and about 40% did not have any criminal records, beyond civil immigration violations.

Trump administration defers $259M in payments until state proposes plan to stop welfare schemes

By Emma Colton
Fox News

Published February 25, 2026 5:55pm EST

Vice President JD Vance announced Wednesday that the Trump administration is temporarily halting Medicaid funding to the state of Minnesota, giving Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz 60 days to clean up how the state doles out funding.

“We have decided to temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money,” Vance said Wednesday in a press event attended by Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz.

The announcement comes after President Donald Trump railed against fraud in the Gopher State Tuesday evening in his State of the Union address. Minnesota has been rocked by alleged fraud surrounding social programs and welfare programs stretching back to the COVID-19 pandemic that investigators estimate could top $9 billion.

Trump pointed to his vice president as leading the administration’s “war on fraud” amid his State of the Union remarks.

[image_1]

Vice President JD Vance, alongside Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz, speaks about combatting fraud Feb. 25, 2026.(Oliver Contreras / AFP via Getty Images)

Vance explained Wednesday that “we are stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government until the state government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American taxpayer.”

The vice president continued that officials have verified that a program in Minnesota intended to provide after-school care to autistic children actually benefited fraudsters.

“A lot of people are getting rich off the generosity of American taxpayers,” Vance said. “But more fundamentally, and more importantly than that, it means that there are kids in Minnesota who deserve these services, who need these services, and they’re not going to those kids. They’re going to fraudsters in Minneapolis. That is unacceptable. And that’s the sort of thing that we’re cutting off with this action today.”

[image_2]

Sen. Joni Ernst named Gov. Tim Walz the recipient of her monthly “Squeal Award” for the sweeping Minnesota fraud scandal.(Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

Oz added that it is that the pause marks “the largest action against fraud that we’ve ever taken” at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, before launching into how the administration is deferring funds to the state.

HEAVILY-REDACTED AUDIT FINDS MINNESOTA MEDICAID HAD WIDESPREAD VULNERABILITIES

“It’s going to be $259 million of deferred payments for Medicaid to Minnesota, which we’re announcing as I speak, to Governor Walz and his team,” Oz said. “That’s based on an audit of the last three months of 2025. Restated: a quarter billion dollars is not going to be paid this month to Minnesota for its Medicaid claims.”

“We have notified the state and said that we will give them the money, but we’re going to hold it and only release it after they propose and act on a comprehensive corrective action plan to solve the problem,” Oz said. “If Minnesota fails to clean up the systems, the state will rack up $1 billion of deferred payments this year.”

Walz has 60 days to respond to a letter Oz and the administration sent to Walz on the matter, Oz said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Walz’s office Wednesday afternoon for comment and has yet to receive a reply.

Oz continued that he believes Walz will take the matter seriously, and noted fraud is not exclusive to Minnesota, but also other states.

[image_3]

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz attends a press conference at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., on June 30.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“These schemes disproportionately involve immigrant communities,” Oz continued. “They’re insulated, they’re able to … organize efforts, and sometimes they don’t understand what’s going on.”

Vance added that the administration does not want to make this move, but it is needed due to Minnesota being “careless with federal tax dollars.”

“All we need the governor and the administration of Minnesota to do is something quite simple, which is to show that before you give Medicaid funds to somebody, you’re taking seriously whether they provided the services that they say that they’re providing,” the vice president said, calling the fraud a “disgrace.”

MINNESOTA DEMOCRATS DEMAND REPARATIONS FROM ICE AFTER LOSING $18 BILLION TO SOMALI FRAUD

Trump spotlighted the fraud in his State of the Union address Tuesday, underscoring that while Minnesota has taken the spotlight, schemes run deep in other states as well.

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President Donald Trump warned during his State of the Union speech about Iran’s nuclear program.(Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP)

“When it comes to the corruption that is plundering — it really, it’s plundering America — there’s been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer,” Trump said. “Oh, we have all the information.”

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“And in actuality, the number is much higher than that, and California, Massachusetts, Maine and many other states are even worse. This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation, and we are working on it like you wouldn’t believe,” he continued, before naming Vance as the administration leader taking on fraud.

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JD Vance spearheads ‘war on fraud,’ promises to root out taxpayer money ‘stolen’ by illegal immigrants

FBI’s head of congressional affairs stepping down, sources say

February 25, 2026 / 6:16 PM EST / CBS News

Marshall Yates, who led the FBI’s congressional affairs office, is departing from the bureau, multiple sources told CBS News.

Yates, a former Capitol Hill staffer, last year served as one of the FBI’s representatives on the Interagency Weaponization Working Group, which is composed of dozens of government officials from at least 12 different government offices who are tasked with carrying out President Trump’s quest for retribution against his political enemies, according to other sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Yates was one of several FBI employees assigned to the group.

He has also been involved with the Justice Department-led Weaponization Working Group on topics including the prosecutions of Jan. 6 rioters and the potential reinstatement of fired former FBI agents who have claimed they were removed during the Biden administration for complaints about COVID-19 protocols, the Jan. 6 cases and other issues, those sources said.

Yates’ last day is expected to be Friday, a source said. His departure was reported earlier by ProPublica.

A source familiar with Yates’ plans told CBS News he was stepping down to spend more time with family and is working to help find his replacement.

CBS News reached out to Yates for comment.

As the head of congressional affairs, Yates has been the key point person for discussions with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley.

Over the last year, Grassley has repeatedly released a series of documents related to the FBI’s investigation into President Trump, known as “Arctic Frost,” without redacting agent names.

After those names became public, the FBI went on to fire them.

Among them was Walt Giardina, a former agent who worked on investigations into Trump and his political allies.

Former Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll and other former senior officials have filed a lawsuit filed against the FBI, alleging that the then-head of the D.C. office begged FBI Director Kash Patel and Yates in a meeting not to disclose Giardina’s name to Capitol Hill, telling them that Giardina’s wife was dying of cancer and that doing so would also “trigger a torrent of online abuse and threats of violence.”

Giardina’s name was later released in records from Grassley’s office, and Giardina was fired.

Yates previously worked on Capitol Hill for Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who is locked in a war of words with the Justice Department over its handling of the release of the Epstein files.

He was also previously an aide to Congressman Mo Brooks and worked with the Election Integrity Network, a group spearheaded by Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who was involved in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Mitchell raised questions about ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, and participated in a call with Mr. Trump and the Georgia secretary of state, in which the president asked him to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state.