Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is taking heat from southern conservatives after she delivered a fiery speech in Montgomery, Alabama, last week, demanding that northern progressives “pull up to the South.”

Speaking at the “All Roads Lead to The South” rally May 16, the prominent “Squad” member claimed the U.S. was not a true democracy until the 1960s when the Voting Rights Act was passed, and took direct aim at the Supreme Court, accusing the high court under Chief Justice John Roberts of being “part of that long history of regression and repression in America.”

Ocasio-Cortez then issued a highly controversial call to action, demanding that “the North” travel to red states like Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi to fight what she described as political injustice.

She doubled down on social media following the event, writing, “If you’re not from these states, it’s time to pull up.”

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Her rhetoric was quickly slammed by conservatives on social media, with many pointing out the irony of the congresswoman urging people to “pull up” while she stood heavily protected during her speech behind bulletproof glass.

Conservative podcaster Todd Spears went viral with a TikTok reaction video that racked up 1 million views, mocking Ocasio-Cortez’s security setup.

“[Pull up] and do what? Help us get the boat off the trailer, like cut the grass, track a deer in the woods?” Spears said. “Roll up and do what exactly? Because you’re standing behind, like, pope glass in your own hometown. You come down here starting that s—, you better bring a tank. That’s not a good idea. You stay where you’re at.”

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Spears also criticized the divisive nature of her remarks, writing in the video caption that “AOC talking about the North ‘rolling up’ on the South and Alabama, like this is still the 1860s, is wild.”

“Maybe politicians should spend less time trying to divide Americans and more time fixing the mess we already have,” he added.

Another TikTok creator, Kei Bennett, whose video garnered more than 800,000 views, warned Ocasio-Cortez’s supporters not to take the bait.

“I want to issue a stern warning so you do not take her advice and pull up on Alabama,” Bennett said, jokingly citing local dangers ranging from wild hogs and bayou gators to locals who “will not hesitate to unite and get you the f— up out of here.”

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Bennett, who has more than half a million followers on the platform, warned the congresswoman’s followers that “down here in the South we don’t call cops, we call coroners,” adding, “Stay your a– up there, leave us alone. We ain’t bothering nobody.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Saturday that the United States and Iran have agreed on the basic terms of an agreement to end the two countries’ nearly three-month-long war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“An Agreement has been largely negotiated,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly. In addition to many other elements of the Agreement, the Strait of Hormuz will be opened.”

Iran’s state television network quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei as saying the draft pact will be a “framework agreement” that defers talks toward limiting Iran’s nuclear program until later. Trump did not mention the nuclear issue in his statement.

If that is the form the deal takes, it would represent at least a short-term concession from the president, who initially demanded a definitive end to Iran’s nuclear program as the price of peace.

Trump has also relaxed an earlier U.S. demand that Iran give up its right to enrich uranium and says he would be satisfied with a deal to “suspend” enrichment for 20 years.

Those signs of U.S. flexibility have raised alarm from Iran hawks, reportedly including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They say they fear Trump is so intent on restoring the flow of oil from the gulf that he might agree to a deal that falls far short of U.S. goals.

Mark Dubowitz, a leading critic of past agreements with Iran, said he worries that Trump might settle for “a foolish agreement” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“I’m concerned that the administration is looking to cut some ‘Phase One’ deal” in which Iran is given “significant sanctions relief in exchange for agreement to reopen the strait,” he said in an interview Friday. “I think that would be a foolish agreement. Iran would get real money, but they could continue to close the strait any time they wanted simply by making threats.”

Robert Kagan, a conservative foreign policy scholar at the Brookings Institution, wrote that a deal to reopen the strait while deferring the nuclear issue would amount to a U.S. “surrender.”

“On the present trajectory, Iran will emerge from the conflict many times stronger and more influential than it was before the war,” Kagan wrote in the Atlantic.

When the war began in February, Trump said he wanted not only to end Iran’s nuclear activities and destroy its ballistic missile program, but bring about regime change as well.

Instead, the nuclear talks have focused on narrower, more achievable goals: a “suspension” of nuclear enrichment for 20 years or less and removal or destruction of Iran’s highly enriched uranium, the essential ingredient for a nuclear weapon.

“A basic agreement shouldn’t be impossible to achieve,” said John W. Limbert, who worked on Iran policy at the State Department for three decades, and was one of the American hostages seized by Iranian militants in 1979. “The deal would be some kind of verifiable limits on the nuclear program in return for economic relief.”

“The fact that we’re talking about a suspension of all enrichment, and the question is whether it will be five years, 20 years or halfway in between — that’s important,” said Nate Swanson, an Iran expert who worked at the National Security Council under President Biden and Trump. “That sounds like you really have the basis for an agreement. … But don’t fool yourself to think that completely addresses the situation.”

Swanson said other issues, including Iran’s nuclear research and its advanced ballistic missiles, haven’t been addressed.

Despite signs of progress toward an agreement, the gaps between the two countries remain large.

Part of the problem is that both sides appear to believe they have won the war, said Danny Citrinowicz, a former Iran analyst at Israel’s defense intelligence agency.

Trump and other U.S. officials frequently assert that the United States has gained the upper hand by destroying Iran’s navy, air force and many of its missiles.

But the Iranians use a different scoring system, Citrinowicz said.

“Iran does not measure success the same way Washington often does,” he wrote in an email. “From Tehran’s perspective, simply holding firm in the face of American pressure can be framed as a win.”

“Tehran believes time is working against Trump politically and strategically,” he added. “Iran is prepared for prolonged confrontation; the United States, far less so.”

And even if a negotiated agreement is reached, the deals under discussion now won’t resolve all the conflicts between the two countries.

“An interim deal to buy time [is] probably where we end up,” Swanson said. “Buying time is not a bad thing. Ending a war is not a bad thing. But it’s not a comprehensive solution.”

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the indictment of two Minnesota defendants charged in what officials called the “largest autism fraud bust in American history.”

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted 55-year-old Shamso Ahmed Hassan and 25-year-old Hanaan Mursal Yusuf, slapping them with numerous counts of fraud and related charges for their alleged $46.6 million scheme to defraud Minnesota Medicaid’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) Program.

The indictment was part of a wider enforcement action taken by the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division that swept up 15 alleged fraudsters in indictments for schemes that targeted over $90 million in taxpayer funds.

“Today’s arrests represent the largest autism fraud bust in American history. This was not a paperwork error. It was not a technical violation. This was organized theft that exploited the most vulnerable children in America, deceived families, stole taxpayer dollars meant to help children with autism access legitimate care and support,” Kennedy Jr. said in a Friday news conference.

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Hassan was a shareholder in two autism centers, Smart Therapy Center and Star Autism Center, but she did not disclose her ownership to the Minnesota Department of Human Services as required by law, prosecutors said. Yusuf worked at the Smart Therapy Center and helped operate the center, including by submitting the businesses’ claims for Medicaid reimbursement, according to the indictment.

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The pair allegedly paid kickbacks to families to incentivize them to send their children to Smart Therapy Center and Star Autism Center so they could bill for autism-related services in their children’s names. They then billed Medicaid for services that were not rendered or were not reimbursable by Medicaid, according to the indictment.

Of the $46.6 million they filed for reimbursement, $21.6 million was paid out, per the indictment. The DOJ is seeking restitution for that money.

The pair “diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars of the fraud proceeds” to “their families’ personal use and benefit, including through real property purchases and transferring funds overseas, including to Kenya,” according to the indictment.

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The defendants were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and one count of money laundering. Yusuf was charged with five counts of healthcare fraud, while Hassan was charged with two.

“Every fraudulent autism diagnosis steals time, care, and resources from the children for whom this program was designed and who desperately need this care. Families with autistic children already face enormous challenges navigating therapies, specialists, and support systems. Fraud makes those barriers even steeper,” Kennedy Jr. said in the announcement.