Politics
Trump reveals 'very first actions' he'll take as president during Ohio rally, hammers Biden's border policies
Former President Trump visited Ohio on Saturday, where he barnstormed for businessman Bernie Moreno, a Republican seeking to win his state’s primary to run against Democrat Sherrod Brown for U.S. Senate.
During his rally in the Dayton suburb of Vandalia, Trump repeatedly mentioned illegal migrants surging across the border, violent migrant crime, and the death of University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.
“Not one more American life should be lost to migrant crime. We can’t have another Laken,” the 2024 Republican presumptive nominee said in his remarks, in which he also repeatedly blamed President Biden’s policies for allowing millions of migrants, including, “violent gang members and gangsters” into the U.S. “When I’m President of the United States, we will demand justice for Laken on day one. My administration will terminate every open border policy of the Biden administration.”
He added: “The fastest way to reverse every single Biden disaster is to very simply just put me back in office.”
TRUMP HEADING TO OHIO WITH HIS GOP CLOUT ON THE LINE IN CONTENTIOUS REPUBLICAN SENATE PRIMARY
Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks on Saturday during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Vandalia, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump’s trip comes three days before Tuesday’s GOP Senate primary, when Moreno will face state Sen. Matt Dolan, and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
On the Ohio Senate race, Trump called Moreno a “hero” and “a winner” and urged voters to elect him to replace the “radical left Democrat Sherrod Brown.”
“Ohio needs to defeat your horrendous radical left, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who pretends he’s my best friend. He pretends he’s my best friend, then he goes radical left all the time,” Trump said before a large crowd. “If you listen to his commercials, he sounds like he’s running with Trump. He’s not. He’s not with me.”
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Bernie Moreno, Republican candidate for Senate, in December. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio (Maddie McGarvey/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The U.S.-Mexico border was a focus of Trump’s Ohio speech, as was Biden’s border policies which he criticized as allowing violent migrants to enter the U.S.
“We’re going to fix it again,” Trump said of the border. “Among my very first actions will be to stop the invasion of our country and send Joe Biden’s illegal aliens back home.”
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Trump also took issue with Biden apologizing last week for using the word “illegal” to describe Riley’s alleged killer during the State of the Union speech.
“They have a new term for people coming into our country,” the former president said of the Biden administration. “They call them ‘neighbors.’”
The line was an apparent reference to a recent White House handout that referred to illegal immigrants as “newcomers.”
“One week ago, I met with the family of a 22-year-old nursing student, Laken Riley, who was brutally murdered in Georgia last month while out on a morning run,” the former president said Saturday. “She was so badly beaten up, unrecognizable. Laken’s killer was set loose into the United States through Joe Biden’s program of releasing military-age males into our community after they’ve illegally crossed our southern border.”
Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks Saturday during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Vandalia, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
He added: “Laken Riley would be alive today if Biden had not unleashed his savage attack on America. And that’s what he’s done. But instead of apologizing to Laken’s family, Joe Biden apologized to the killer for calling him illegal. He shouldn’t have done that.”
“We believe that Laken’s killer is an illegal alien criminal. He is an illegal monster. He should never have been in our country,” Trump said.
He also specifically addressed members of the notoriously violent MS-13 Mexican gang, who have crossed into the U.S.
“If you can [even] call them people. I don’t know if you call them people. In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion, but I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say,” Trump chided.
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Trump’s speech also took repeated swipes at Biden, who the former president called “a great threat to our democracy.”
“Remember this, Joe Biden is a great threat to our democracy,” Trump told the thunderous Dayton crowd. “He’s a tremendous threat to our democracy. His incompetence is the number one reason. Also, he uses the Justice Department, the FBI, to go after his political opponent, which happens to be me.”
Supporters of former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump listen as he speaks Saturday in Vandalia, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
“There’s never been a president so bad,” Trump said of Biden. “There’s never been anything like it. He’s incompetent, he’s crooked.”
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The former president urged people to go out and vote Tuesday, and again in November to elect him and other Republicans.
“But with your vote, we’re going to take back the Senate. We’re going to win Ohio in November. We’re going to win by a lot,” Trump said.
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak Saturday at a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Vandalia, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
During the speech, Trump had a notable issue with the wind affecting his teleprompters. He used the moment to swipe Biden again.
“We can give a non-teleprompter speech,” he persisted. “Isn’t it nice to have a president that doesn’t need to use a teleprompter?”
Trump then summarized his 2024 campaign pitch with four priorities: Seal the border, stop inflation, drill for oil, and prevent World War III.
Moreno, an immigrant who arrived in the U.S. legally from Colombia, and later became a successful Cleveland-based businessman and luxury auto dealership giant, was endorsed by Trump in December.
The winner of the GOP primary will face off in November against Brown, who is the only Democrat to win statewide in Ohio over the past decade. The seat is contested as Republicans seek to win a majority in the U.S. Senate.
Democrats control a slim 51-49 majority, but Republicans have a favorable Senate map in 2024, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs.
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
new video loaded: Why Were These C.E.O.s in Beijing With Trump?
By Ana Swanson, Nour Idriss, Nikolay Nikolov and James Surdam
May 15, 2026
Politics
Senator John Kennedy introduces America to ‘Margaret,’ his elliptical trainer named after Thatcher
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Margaret Thatcher once ran Britain. John Kennedy’s “Margaret” mostly runs him into the ground.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., is going viral after posting a tongue-in-cheek workout video introducing followers to “Margaret” — his elliptical trainer named after former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — while wearing a red bandanna and speaking directly to the camera from his Louisiana carport.
“Hey X, I have somebody I’d like you to meet,” Kennedy says at the start of the minute-long video posted to social media Friday.
“This is Margaret. Margaret is my elliptical trainer. I named Margaret after Margaret Thatcher because both kick butt and take names.”
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Senator John Kennedy, R-La., posted the video showing his unconventional at-home workout routine with elliptical “Margaret” to social media channels Friday. (@SenJohnKennedy via X)
Kennedy goes on to explain that “Margaret” lives outside under the carport for three reasons: the machine is too heavy to move, his wife “won’t let” him bring it inside and because he enjoys getting in a workout during Louisiana summers.
The Senator said he enjoys working outside during Louisiana summers, a detail that drew disbelief from many viewers familiar with the state’s famously brutal heat and humidity.
“As you can see, Margaret, my elliptical trainer, is out here under my carport in Louisiana,” Kennedy says. “After Margaret kicks my butt, I look for air conditioning.”
The surreal, self-aware clip quickly drew thousands of reactions online, with users roasting Kennedy’s bandanna look while also praising the senator’s everyman personality.
SEN KENNEDY PRAISES FETTERMAN AS A ‘TOTAL BANGER,’ WHO ‘DOESN’T GIVE A DAMN’ ABOUT ANGERING LIBERALS
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., talks to reporters in the basement of the U.S. Capitol on July 31, 2025, as Senate lawmakers work to finish legislative business before the August recess. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“You are rocking the dadgum crap outta that bandana,” one user wrote. “I thought you were representing the Bloods for a minute. Tell Margaret I think she’s cute but evil.”
Others praised Kennedy’s personality and down-home delivery style.
“You are a gem to us normal folk Mr. Kennedy. Live long and prosper!” one supporter posted.
“Senator Kennedy is that kind of Southerner that makes you feel you’re sitting on the front porch having some bit of common sense enlighten you in that poetic Southern way,” another wrote.
The Louisiana Republican has long cultivated a folksy, humorous public image that often breaks through online with colorful one-liners and unconventional social media moments.
Sen. John Kennedy speaks before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 21, 2022. (J. Scott Applewhite/Reuters)
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Kennedy ended the video with a line that only added to the internet’s fascination.
“My work here is done,” he said. “And I can see myself out.”
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday turned down an appeal from Virginia Democrats whose new voter-approved state election map was canceled by the state’s Supreme Court.
The justices made no comment, and the legal outcome came as no surprise.
The U.S. Supreme Court has no authority to review or reverse rulings by state judges interpreting their state’s constitution — unless the decision turned on federal law or the U.S. Constitution.
But the Virginia ruling came as a political shock, particularly after 3 million voters had cast ballots and narrowly approved a new election map that would favor Democrats in 10 of its 11 congressional districts.
That would have represented an increase of four seats for Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Even worse for Democrats, the court setback in Virginia came a week after the Supreme Court’s ruling in a Louisiana case had bolstered Republicans.
In a 6-3 decision, the justices reinterpreted the Voting Rights Act and freed Republican-controlled states in the South to dismantle districts that were drawn to favor Black Democrats.
In the two weeks since then, the GOP has flipped seven districts in Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida.
The Virginia Supreme Court decision pointed to a procedural flaw that turned on the definition of an “election.”
To amend the state Constitution, Virginia lawmakers must adopt the proposal twice — once before a “general election” and a second time after the election. It is then submitted to the voters.
Last fall, Democrats proposed to amend the state Constitution to permit a mid-decade redistricting.
However, by a 4-3 vote, the state justices said the General Assembly flubbed the first approval because it took place on Oct. 31 of last year, just five days before the election.
By then, they said, about 40% of the voters had cast early ballots.
In defense of the Legislature, the state’s attorneys said the proposed amendment was approved before election day, which complies with the state Constitution.
But the majority explained “the noun ‘election’ must be distinguished from the noun phrase ‘election day.’ ”
It reasoned that because early voters had already cast ballots before the constitutional amendment was first adopted, the proposal was not approved before the election.
The dissenters said the election took place on “election day” and the proposal had been adopted before that time.
The state’s lawyers adopted that view in their appeal and argued that under federal law, the election takes place on election day.
But the Supreme Court turned away the appeal with no comment.
The result is that a state amendment that won approval twice before both houses of the Legislature and in a statewide vote was judged to have failed.
The state says it will use the current map, which had elected Democrats to the House in six districts and Republicans in five.
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