Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said a state law requiring a photo ID to vote being upheld in court is a “huge win for election security.”

“Missouri proved today how to handle radical activists that come into a state with secure elections and try to undermine them through the legal process,” Bailey said in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital.

Bailey added that this was a huge victory for the Show Me State.

“We went to court, we put on the evidence, and radical activists working to undermine our elections FAILED. This is a HUGE win for election security,” Bailey said in a post on X. 

Elon Musk also shared his approval and praise for Missouri’s court ruling.

“Congratulations AG Bailey! Now we need this nationwide,” Musk wrote in a post on X.

The Missouri court’s decision to uphold the voter ID law came after heavy criticism from groups arguing that such requirements could disenfranchise voters.

However, Bailey’s office successfully presented evidence supporting the law’s necessity and effectiveness in maintaining the integrity of the voting process. The court’s ruling confirmed that the voter ID law does not impose a burden on voters.

Missouri also provides free non-driver’s licenses for voting for those who do not already have a driver’s license or have a current license. The health department’s Bureau of Vital Records provides free birth certificates to those seeking their first non-driver’s license in order to vote if the applicant does not have a current driver’s license.

“There is not a severe burden on the right to vote as the State has gone to great lengths to help voters obtain IDs,” Bailey wrote in a previous court brief.

In October 2022, Cole County Presiding Judge Jon Beetem had already rejected a lawsuit brought by the Missouri League of Women Voters, NAACP and two voters challenging a law passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature making it mandatory that voters show photo identification to cast a regular ballot. Under the 2022 law, people with a valid government-issued photo ID are still able to submit provisional ballots, which will be counted if they return later that day with a photo ID or if election officials verify their signatures.

Republicans said the goal of the 2022 law was to deter voter fraud, but the plaintiffs in the case argued the legislation placed unconstitutional hurdles on voting, suppressing turnout.

Before the 2022 midterm elections, it was acceptable for Missourians to present a voter registration card, a student identification card, a bank statement or utility bill or a valid driver’s license to cast their ballots in the state.

The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that 36 states request or require identification to vote, of which at least 20 ask for a photo ID.

Other Republican-led states are moving in the same direction as Missouri, which could serve as the blueprint for national policy.

“I’m proud that Missouri will continue to lead the nation in defense of election security,” Bailey said. 

Critics argue that such requirements are an overreaction that could disenfranchise eligible voters.

A Missouri state court on Monday upheld a state law banning child mutilation, following a brief two-week trial challenging the legislation.

“The Court has left Missouri’s law banning child mutilation in place, a resounding victory for our children. We are the first state in the nation to successfully defend such a law at the trial court level,” state Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a statement. “I’m extremely proud of the thousands of hours my office put in to shine a light on the lack of evidence supporting these irreversible procedures. We will never stop fighting to ensure Missouri is the safest state in the nation for children.”

The ruling in Cole County coincides with the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming review of U.S. v. Skrmetti, a case in Tennessee set to address the constitutionality of the state’s ban on transgender surgical procedures and medications for minors. The decision in this case could jeopardize the future of so-called “gender-affirming” care for minors nationwide.

The Missouri court rejected the argument by the plaintiffs – Emily Noe on behalf of her minor child – stating that “Any person – including a minor – would be able to do anything from meth, to ecstasy, to abortion as long as a single medical professional was willing to recommend it.”

The court also noted that such arguments have been routinely dismissed by courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

The law, enacted in 2023, has been the subject of legal challenges from trans minors, their families and health care providers. It prevents medical providers from performing trans surgeries and administering hormone treatments such as puberty blockers to people under 18.

After Monday’s ruling, Missouri became the first state to uphold a ban on such procedures at the trial court level.

President-elect Trump also vowed on the campaign trail last year to outlaw “gender-affirming” procedures on minors and allow medical providers to be prosecuted. There are currently 26 states that have enacted laws or policies that ban or restrict trans surgeries and treatments for minors, while 24 states and the District of Columbia allow it and/or have passed “shield” laws to protect access to it. 

After Congress returns from Thanksgiving break in December, they will have just weeks to approve continued government spending past the Dec. 20 deadline. 

In floor remarks last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said, “When the Senate returns after Thanksgiving, senators can expect a very busy few weeks to finish our work before the end of the year.

“Both sides must continue working together to keep the government open beyond the Dec. 20 deadline.”

“Letting the government shut down just before Christmas would be asinine, plain and simple, and nobody wants that to happen,” he said. “Well, there may be a few in the other chamber who do, but they’re a distinct minority.”

While nearly all the appropriations bills have passed through committee and are ready to be voted on, Schumer hasn’t brought any to the floor. His office has not answered questions from Fox News Digital about whether he will in the time that Congress has left. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has noted Schumer’s inaction on individual appropriations bills, suggesting its likely that lawmakers will ultimately put forward a short-term stopgap spending bill into next year. This would be preferable to some Republicans, who would like the GOP and the incoming Trump administration to contribute to a spending bill as soon as possible. 

If appropriations measures are passed during this Congress while Democrats control the Senate and President Joe Biden is still in office, Republicans will have much less leverage in influencing bills that will dictate the entire rest of the 2025 fiscal year. 

A short-term spending bill, known as a Continuing Resolution (CR), would give Republicans much more authority much earlier. But it’s unclear whether Democrats will let this happen and those who have discussed the forthcoming deadline have expressed an expectation of a large appropriations bill known as an omnibus, or smaller groups of spending bills known as minibuses. 

However, some Republicans have vocally opposed this type of bill. In fact, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, penned an open letter to the American people recently, warning them that their representatives and senators are poised to push through a large, omnibus bill ahead of Christmas. He urged people to call lawmakers and urge them not to. 

If Congress does not pass some form of stopgap bill or appropriations package prior to Dec. 20, the government will enter into a partial shutdown until they do so.

The union representing members of the Democratic National Committee launched a GoFundMe to raise money for staffers who were abruptly laid off last week – prompting backlash from those still on the DNC payroll who have described the cuts as a “betrayal” of party values.

The GoFundMe created by the DNC union seeks to raise $25,000 to assist staff impacted by the layoffs following their losses in the 2024 election. 

Members of the DNC staff union said on the fundraising page that the abrupt wave of layoffs had included two-thirds of DNC staffers, who were let go with little notice and with “no severance.”

In a public statement, the union blasted DNC leadership for the layoffs, which they described as “callous” and “short-sighted” – and which they noted extended to employees who were previously told their positions at the DNC would be safe after Election Day. 

“We are heartbroken to see our colleagues – who dedicated countless hours to electing Democrats up and down the ballot – depart under these circumstances, and we are furious with DNC leadership for failing to provide severance to those affected,” DNC staff union organizer Jill Brownfield wrote on the GoFundMe page. 

“Every cycle, political organizations scale up to meet the demands, and as the cycle comes to a close, it’s a tough reality of our industry that we must part with talented, hardworking staff,” a DNC spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

Officials also stressed that the DNC had met the terms of the Collective bargaining Agreement (or CBA) that was negotiated. 

“While the DNC has met the terms of the union agreement negotiated by the CBA, we share the entire DNC family’s frustration and continue to provide resources to all members of the team to support them in this transition,” the spokesperson added. 

DNC union officials said the GoFundMe proceeds will “directly aid” staff members hit by the layoffs, including single parents and workers expecting children, and will be “distributed equally to any laid-off member who opts in to receive funds.”

“We hope these funds can soften the economic blow for those impacted.”

The fundraising effort comes less than a week after the DNC announced its wave of layoffs Wednesday night. 

The cuts were met with scathing criticism by current DNC employees and union members. 

“The DNC’s senior leadership has chosen to leave loyal staff scrambling to cover rent, medical expenses and childcare costs,” the union’s statement read.

They also called on Democratic Party leadership to offer severance to every permanent employee who was laid off, and to address the remaining staff “honestly and transparently” about how to move forward. 

They also called on Democratic Party leadership to offer severance to every permanent employee who was laid off, and to address the remaining staff “honestly and transparently” about how to move forward. 

As of this writing, the fund had raised $15,453 out of its total goal of $25,000. 

President-elect Trump began endorsing fellow Republicans this week to replace members of Congress who have vacated their seats to join his Cabinet. 

The endorsements come amid fears that the party’s razor-thin majority in the House – the size of which still remains undetermined – could be in jeopardy as a result of Trump’s selections from the lower chamber.

Trump threw his support behind two Floridians, former GOP state Sen. Randy Fine and the current chief financial officer for the Sunshine State, Jimmy Patronis Jr., both of whom are considering runs for Congress, according to the president-elect. 

Fine would run in Florida’s 6th Congressional District, a seat that is currently held by Trump’s pick to be his next national security adviser, Rep. Michael Waltz. Patronis would run in Florida’s deep-red 1st District, previously held by former Rep. Matt Gaetz. Gaetz resigned from Congress after Trump nominated him to be attorney general, but allegations of sexual assault and other improprieties prompted Gaetz to withdraw his name from the running. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Trump, however, has not endorsed anyone to replace Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., the GOP House conference chair, whose solidly red seat in upstate New York will also be up for grabs if she is confirmed by the Senate to be the Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations. 

Republicans in the House of Representatives are on track to have somewhere between a one- and three-vote majority once the few outstanding races are called. There are three races remaining that still need to be called, two in California and one in Iowa. 

The balance of power in the House currently sits at 219 seats for Republicans and 213 for the Democrats. Republicans must hold 218 to retain their majority.

While Waltz, Stefanik and Gaetz’s seats all sit in Republican strongholds, lawmakers have nonetheless signaled concern, particularly, because the ensuing special elections could likely occur within the first weeks or months of Trump’s term and potentially stymie Trump’s ambitions for his first 100 days in office.

“I know he’s already pulled a few really talented people out of the House – hopefully no more for a little while until special elections come up, but it shows you the talent that we have and the ability we have,” Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., said last week during a press conference.Scalise is House majority leader. 

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., similarly said he did not believe Trump would pluck any more members from the House for his administration, adding that he and Trump broached the topic in discussions. 

“President Trump fully understands and appreciates the math here, and it’s just a numbers game. You know, we believe we’re going to have a larger majority than we had last time. It’s too early to handicap it, but we are optimistic about that,” Johnson said. “But every single vote will count, because if someone gets ill or has a car accident or a late flight on their plane, then it affects the votes on the floor. So, I think he and the administration are well attuned to that. I don’t expect that we will have more members leaving, but I’ll leave that up to him.”

Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital that the president-elect “is 100% committed” to working with House leadership, including Speaker Johnson, “to maintain the House GOP majority and immediately get to work in January” to implement the policies that voters elected him on.

The conservative satire outlet the Babylon Bee is calling out X’s rival platform Bluesky for repeatedly censoring its posts and arbitrarily labeling them “intolerance.”

Babylon Bee editor-in-chief Kyle Mann told Fox News Digital that Bluesky’s decision to censor their content is a “chilling reminder” of what the social media landscape would look like if Elon Musk had not bought Twitter.

The Babylon Bee was suspended from Twitter in 2022 for posting a satirical article calling Adm. Rachel Levine, a Biden administration Cabinet member and a transgender woman, the “man of the year.”

Twitter flagged the post as violating its rules regarding “hateful conduct” and suspended the Babylon Bee’s account until they deleted their tweet, which the outlet refused to do. The Babylon Bee’s account remained suspended by Twitter until Musk reinstated it after he gained control.

Now, two years later, the Babylon Bee is facing a similar dilemma on Bluesky, which was created by Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey and is widely seen as a direct competitor to X.

Bluesky has a similar layout to X but operates on an “authenticated transfer protocol” that creators say allows users more control over what content they access than platforms that operate on a single algorithm.

Bluesky’s website states that “our online experience doesn’t have to depend on billionaires unilaterally making decisions over what we see” and “on an open social network like Bluesky, you can shape your experience for yourself.”

The platform has seen a significant increase in users in the last several weeks, with 8 million people, many of whom are former X users, joining since Election Day. There are currently 22 million users on Bluesky, which is still considerably lower than X’s user base of over 500 million.

The Babylon Bee made its first post on Bluesky on Nov. 18. It posted the same Rachel Levine article that had gotten them suspended in 2022. The post was quickly flagged and hidden by Bluesky’s moderation service, which labeled it “intolerance.” Users can still see the post by clicking past the intolerance label.

The satire site’s creators have now tried reposting the article four times, with each attempt having a similar result.

According to Bluesky’s community guidelines, the platform bans “gender identity-based harassment” and anything “promoting hate or extremist conduct that targets people or groups based on their race, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, disability, or sexual orientation.”

Mann, however, said that “it’s ironic that the platform championing tolerance and freedom from Musk’s influence is itself so intolerant of differing views.”

He explained that the outlet “thought it was only fitting to debut the Bee’s account on Bluesky with the article that famously got us banned from Twitter” and that the result highlights the need for Musk’s prioritization of free speech on X.

“Bluesky’s censorship policies are eerily reminiscent of the status quo on Twitter before Elon Musk took over,” he said. “It’s chilling to think about what freedom of speech might look like right now in the United States if Musk hadn’t stepped up and freed us from the Twitter tyrants.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom is already planning on pushing back against President-elect Donald Trump’s policies derailing the current administration’s green energy push. 

President Joe Biden implemented a tax credit of up to $7,500 to incentivize the purchase of greener vehicles, but Trump is reportedly planning to ax the tax credit when he assumes office, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Newsom, in a statement Monday, revealed that he will offer the same EV rebate for Californians in the case that Trump gets rid of the credit.

“Consumers continue to prove the skeptics wrong – zero-emission vehicles are here to stay,” Newsom said in a statement. 

“We will intervene if the Trump Administration eliminates the federal tax credit, doubling down on our commitment to clean air and green jobs in California. We’re not turning back on a clean transportation future — we’re going to make it more affordable for people to drive vehicles that don’t pollute,” the governor added.

The Golden State EV credits would be funded by a relaunch of the Clean Vehicle Rebate Program, the state’s electric car incentive program that closed in November 2023, according to a press release from the governor’s office.

The announcement comes just one week ahead of Newsom’s emergency special session that he called after the election to bolster the blue state’s legal response to any future attacks from the incoming Trump administration.

However, Newsom has a long history of hitting back against Trump’s policies, having launched more than 100 lawsuits against the president-elect during his first administration alone.

FIRST ON FOX: Vivek Ramaswamy, who was recently tapped by President-Elect Trump to head the nascent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside tech billionaire Elon Musk, said there are several “low-hanging fruit” to weed out “a lot of waste” through executive action when Trump takes office.

“One of the low-hanging fruit areas is to look at areas under the executive branch, through executive action that we can actually put an end to a lot of the money that hasn’t been authorized by Congress, but it’s still being spent, a lot of the waste, fraud and abuse, even in entitlement programs that are resulting in a lot of frictional cost, and ultimately tame the administrative state itself back down to the size that would make our Founding Fathers proud,” Ramaswamy said on “Unmuted,” Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn‘s podcast.

Last week, both Musk and Ramaswamy took to X, formerly Twitter, to say they’ll also focus on defense spending cuts while heading up the DOGE advisory panel. 

“We need to strengthen our military by focusing on the effectiveness of our defense spending, rather than just reflexively increasing the magnitude,” Ramaswamy wrote.

DOGE will expire in July 2026, he noted, on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 

“I think it was Reagan who famously said there’s no such thing as a government program that doesn’t live, it’s the best evidence we have for eternal life,” Ramaswamy said. “And you know, I don’t think it has to be that way.” 

Blackburn added that she has introduced legislation to halt federal salary increases and hiring until recommendations from DOGE are implemented, as well as a bill to reform the federal workforce, advocating for a shift from tenure-based promotions to a merit-based system.

“And those are things that need to be enacted,” Blackburn said. “We are just so pleased that President Trump has said now’s the time. We’re so pleased that he has said that you and Elon are the people to make this happen.”

When announcing the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump said the panel would help his administration “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., recently announced a new subcommittee for the 119th Congress to correspond with the Department of Government Efficiency.

House Republicans are also jumping on the bandwagon to slash spending. Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., introduced a new bill last week – the “Decreasing Overlapping Grants Efficiently (DOGE) Act” – that would establish a system for cutting down on redundant government grants across multiple departments.

“It’s a big undertaking,” Ramaswamy said. “But I do think that if we bring the public along and even allow the public to participate in airing areas where they’re encountering government waste or bureaucracy and surface that we’re able to make this something that isn’t just top down, but also bottom up.”

Just weeks after Vice President Kamala Harris’ overwhelming loss to President-elect Trump in the 2024 presidential election, the White House released a memo that hailed the Biden-Harris administration as one of the most successful in history.

The memo shared on Monday highlighted how President Biden and Harris took office during the COVID-19 pandemic and a “reeling” economy, before going on to call their administration “one of the most successful administrations in history” which “will be leaving behind the best economy in the world.”

“Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’ leadership, 16 million jobs have been created, and we’ve gotten women and people of color back in the labor force at record rates,” the memo stated. “A record 20 million new business applications have been filed, and inflation is down to near pre-pandemic levels.”

The White House added that “our success” in these areas was due to “passing and implementing legislation that rebuilt our nation’s infrastructure, made the largest investment in climate action in history, lowered prescription drug costs, and spurred a manufacturing renaissance.”

The memo quotes unnamed “business leaders” calling the U.S. economy “among the best performing economies” in decades.

The latest jobs report released earlier this month, however, appears to show a different story.

The Labor Department report shows that just 12,000 jobs were created in October, far below estimates of up to 120,000 and were the lowest in four years. The unemployment rate was 4.1%, in line with expectations.

The cumulative effect of inflation has continued to weigh on many Americans.

The Labor Department’s inflation report for October found that the consumer price index — a broad measure of how much everyday goods like gasoline, groceries and rent cost — was up 2.6% from a year ago for the U.S. as a whole, in line with expectations as inflation ticked higher amid a broader cooling trend.

Days ahead of the presidential election, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt argued that “this jobs report is a catastrophe and definitively reveals how badly Kamala Harris broke our economy.”

On Election Day, the will of the American people was reflected in the vote totals and appeared to show a referendum on the policies of the Biden-Harris administration.

Trump beat Harris with a resounding 312 electoral votes to Harris’ 226, and with over 2 million more votes in the popular vote.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., referred to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul as “the new Joe Biden,” warning that Democrats could lose the 2026 gubernatorial election just like they lost the 2024 presidential contest.

“Kathy Hochul is the new Joe Biden. She may be in denial about the depth of her vulnerabilities as a Democratic nominee. A Democratic incumbent who is less popular in New York than Donald Trump is in grave danger of losing to a Republican in 2026 – an outcome not seen in 30 years,” the congressman said in a post on X.

“Waiting until it’s too late gave us a Republican President in 2024 and could give us a Republican Governor in 2026. Let’s avoid repeating history and avoid sleepwalking toward impending disaster and defeat,” he suggested.

Fox News Digital reached out to request comment from the offices of Hochul and Torres, but neither immediately responded.

Torres told Spectrum News NY 1 that he is considering a gubernatorial bid, and noted that he plans to do a “listening tour” beginning in December and January.

The congressman, who won re-election to the House of Representatives earlier this month, said in “mid-2025” he will make his “final decision.” 

The lawmaker has accused the “far left” of turning people off from the Democratic Party.

“Donald Trump has no greater friend than the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx,’” the congressman opined in a post on X earlier this month.

“There is more to lose than there is to gain politically from pandering to a far left that is more representative of Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than it is of the real world. The working class is not buying the ivory-towered nonsense that the far left is selling,” he added.

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly planning to focus heavily on two policy changes to boost natural energy production during his first days in office, according to a new report.

As his second-term agenda takes shape, the president-elect is eyeing immediate changes to current policies on liquefied natural gas (LNG) permits and oil and gas drilling leases, sources familiar with the transition plans told Reuters.

President Biden initiated a pause on new LNG export permits in January, a move which has been widely criticized by the oil community and bipartisan lawmakers in the House. The National Association of Manufacturers conducted a study on the ban that found nearly 1 million jobs would be threatened by the LNG pause over the next two decades if the restriction remains in place, Fox News Digital previously reported.

However, Trump reportedly “plans to go strong on the issue” of LNG exports when he assumes office, sources told Reuters.

The Republican president-elect plans to lift Biden’s pause and allow permits for new LNG exports next year, fulfilling a promise he made frequently while on the campaign trail.

Trump will also seek to increase lease sales for drilling along the coast, expedite permit approval, and expand drilling on federal land, the outlet learned.

The latest report comes as several of Biden’s climate-focused initiatives appear to be in jeopardy under the incoming Trump administration. 

Trump has talked for months about his plans to roll back Biden’s green policies, such as the tax credit for electric vehicle purchases. He also plans to withdraw from the Paris climate accord for the second time, expand fracking, and revive the Keystone XL pipeline, which was canceled on Biden’s first day in office. 

“It’s a breath of fresh air. We’re running on cloud nine,” former Keystone Pipeline worker Bugsy Allen said on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” on Sunday – amid news of Trump’s potentially reviving the pipeline that transported crude oil from Canada to the U.S.

“It will make a big difference as far as your energy cost, your food cost, your gas that you put in your cars. It is actually going to be the primary start of bringing everything … down for the American people that we have suffered so much in the last administration.”

An animal rights group will bombard the streets of D.C. with visceral cries of distressed turkeys and subliminal messages urging people to go vegan as the White House held the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon tradition on Monday.

The distressing animal cries and subliminal messaging are part of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) “Hell on Wheels” turkey truck, which has been traveling to 30 different states across the country since as early as October, stopping at grocery stores, busy downtown areas and eventually the presidential turkey pardon. The truck, which is intended to look like a realistic turkey transport truck covered with images of birds crammed into crates, was posted on Sunday evening outside the Willard Hotel, where the birds were housed ahead of the ceremony. On Monday, the truck set up shop outside the White House. 

“It’s a life-sized Turkey transportation truck, and it’s covered with images of real sickly turkeys. And if people listen very closely, they will hear a subliminal message to go vegan every 10 seconds. And that’s because we want people to listen closely and watch closely, because every turkey is an individual,” Amanda Brody, assistant manager in PETA’s international grassroots campaigns department, told Fox News Digital. 

“No one needs to eat meat, dairy or eggs to be healthy, and everyone can help stop this needless suffering by simply going vegan today or enjoying a vegan roast at their Thanksgiving dinner this Thursday.”

Earlier this month, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk sent a letter to President Biden urging the “lame duck president” to cancel what she described as the “wretched” turkey pardon tradition. Newkirk argued the tradition is “a humiliating meat-industry stunt that uses the White House as its public relations backdrop.”

“Turkeys are devoted parents who purr to their chicks, and whose skin changes color to express their emotions, yet in the meat industry, they’re treated as unfeeling objects, crammed into filthy sheds, and slaughtered, often while they’re still conscious,” Newkirk said Monday. “PETA’s ‘Hell on Wheels’ truck is sending a strong signal that it’s beneath the Oval Office to shill for the meat industry and appealing to the public to please give birds a break by choosing vegan this Thanksgiving and beyond.”

The history of the presidential turkey pardon is a little murky, with some believing it first began when President Abraham Lincoln granted “clemency” to a turkey in 1863. Others have suggested the tradition began much later with President Harry S. Truman. Meanwhile, according to NPR, the turkey pardoning tradition was formalized in 1989 by President George H.W. Bush.