A federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden struck down a key initiative of the Trump administration’s deportation effort Wednesday. Judge Brian E. Murphy of the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that the Trump administration can’t deport illegal immigrants to third countries, which are nations other than their native soil. Instead, federal authorities must attempt to remove the illegal immigrant to their home country or another country approved by an immigration judge, Murphy said in the 81-page ruling. “It is not fine, nor is it legal,” Murphy wrote of the deportation policy. “This new policy — which purports to stand in for the protections Congress has mandated — fails to satisfy due process for a raft of reasons, not least of which is that nobody really knows anything about these purported ‘assurances.’ Whom do they cover? What do they cover? Why has the Government deemed them credible? How can anyone even know for certain that they exist? These are basic questions that the Constitution permits a person to ask before the Government takes away their last and only lifeline.” Murphy ruled that illegal immigrants must have “meaningful notice” before they’re deported to a third country so they have the opportunity to share if they fear persecution or torture there. “These are our laws, and it is with profound gratitude for the unbelievable luck of being born in the United States of America that this Court affirms these and our nation’s bedrock principle: that no ‘person’ in this country may be ‘deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,’” Murphy wrote. “The simple reality is that nobody knows the merits of any individual class member’s claim because Defendants are withholding the predicate fact: the country of removal,” he wrote. The Trump administration has shipped off illegal immigrants to countries like Eswatini, Rwanda, Ghana, El Salvador, and South Sudan, as part of the strategy. The government has 15 days to appeal the order, which exempts border crossers who are to face “expedited removal.” The Supreme Court previously ruled in June against Murphy’s previous order that prevented the Trump administration from deporting illegal immigrants to third countries. As a result, the Trump administration was able to deport a group of eight illegal immigrants with rap sheets to South Sudan, where none of them held citizenship. The group of deportees had criminal convictions in the United States and deportation orders, according to the Associated Press.

Vice President JD Vance announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration would withhold nearly $260 million in Medicaid funding for the Democrat-controlled Minnesota state government following the state’s massive fraud scandal. Vance, who was tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the administration’s anti-fraud crackdown during the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, said that Minnesota must prove that it “takes its obligation seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money.” According to Vance, the Trump administration is withholding reimbursements for Medicaid services that Minnesota already paid for out of the state budget. “What this means is that first of all, the providers on the ground in Minnesota have actually already been paid,” Vance said at a press conference alongside Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “What we’re doing is we’re 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.” Minnesota state leaders, including Democratic Governor Tim Walz were informed of the Trump administration’s move, according to Oz, who said the federal government will hold the Medicaid payments until Minnesota properly addresses the fraud. “If Minnesota fails to clean up the systems, the state will rack up $1 billion of deferred payments this year,” Oz said. Oz assured reporters that the Medicaid funding freeze would not “hurt” Minnesota residents, since the state’s budget has a “rainy-day fund” to cover the lapse in funding. “If providers and beneficiaries are worried about getting their money and services, please call your governor. These are services the governor has already paid for. We are just not reimbursing the state,” Oz said, adding, “This is not a problem with the people of Minnesota, it’s a problem with the leadership of Minnesota and other states who do not take Medicaid preservation seriously.” Vance has zeroed in on 14 state programs in Minnesota, which include autism service providers and medical service transports that the administration believes is rife with fraud. The Trump administration is giving Walz 60 days to respond to its letter informing the state government of its freeze on Medicaid funding. The vice president called out so-called services in Minnesota that have received millions in taxpayer dollars only to make fraudsters rich. Federal prosecutors recently uncovered a massive fraud scheme in Minnesota that has resulted in dozens of convictions so far. Minnesota’s “Feeding Our Future” program received federal funds and claimed to distribute meals to hungry children during the COVID pandemic but allegedly never did so. The vast majority of those charged in the fraud scheme were of Somali descent. Vance said on Wednesday that the administration also found that a Minnesota program that was supposed to help kids with autism “has made a number of people rich, not by providing services to needy children, but by allowing fraudsters to take money that ought by right go to American citizens and to American families.” Dr. Oz said at the White House press conference that the new Trump administration effort would be the “largest anti-fraud effort of its kind” in the history of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Oz said that a fraud scheme in Minnesota pays mothers around $1,000 to falsely enroll their children as autistic and then Medicaid is billed for millions of dollars in “services that were never rendered.” “These schemes disproportionately involve immigrant communities,” Oz added. “They’re able to organize efforts, and sometimes they don’t understand what’s going on. And ultimately, it diverts resources away from kids who truly have autism.” Daycare and learning centers linked to Somali immigrants in the Minneapolis area have also come under scrutiny for suspected fraud after independent journalist Nick Shirley posted a 42-minute video in December that showed him visit numerous daycares that have received state funding, but don’t appear to be serving any children.

Robert Cosby Jr., who is the son of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Mary Cosby, has died at the age of 23. TMZ broke the news on Wednesday that Cosby Jr. died on Monday, but did not immediately reveal his cause of death. His parents, Mary and Robert Cosby Sr., told the outlet in a statement: “Our beloved son Robert Jr. has been called home to the Lord. Though our hearts ache, we take comfort in God’s promise and in knowing he is finally at peace. We are grateful for your prayers and trust in the Lord to carry us through this time of sorrow.” The outlet noted that police responded to a possible overdose, but so far, that information is unconfirmed. Cosby Jr. was seen on the popular reality show and discussed his substance abuse issues there, per Deadline. In a Season 5 episode, the reality star said he used Xanax, Adderall, acid, “Molly,” and cocaine. He also confessed to his mother that he had thoughts of suicide and self-harm in the past. “You’re the only reason I didn’t kill myself,” he told his mom in one episode. His mother replied, “You have to know I love you more than anything, more than anything in this world. I think I love you more than dad — don’t ever tell [him] I said that. But you’re my friend, you’re my son, you’re my gift. God gave you to me. You’re the only thing that ever made me happy. Before I had you, I was never happy. You came, and you were so real. You [were] everything I hoped [for] in a person.” Cosby Jr.’s wife, Alexiana Smokoff, filed for divorce in November 2025 following accusations of domestic violence and a restraining order. These all stemmed multiple domestic incidents, including one at Smokoff’s parents’ house, leading to more than a dozen charges being filed against Cosby Jr., several of which he pleaded guilty to. The divorce was finalized earlier this year.  “Real Housewives” executive producer Andy Cohen responded to Cosby Jr.’s death on Threads, writing, “Devastatingly sad news out of SLC. This is every parent’s worst nightmare. My heart is broken for Mary, and I am sending all my love to her and Robert Sr.”

The day after President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address, the hosts of ABC’s “The View” first made it clear that they were not impressed with him, but then reserved some of their sharpest critiques for Democrats like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who “gave him his moment.” Cohost Joy Behar complained that the whole thing had made her “furious and scared,” adding that she was “physically ill from it and more nauseous than usual watching him.” WATCH: Sunny Hostin whines about Trump using the term ‘illegals’ to accurately describe illegals and falsely claims everyone had stopped using it before Trump came along. She also complains that Democrats even attended the address because they looked bad: “That saying that people are… pic.twitter.com/zqUlybiz1c — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 25, 2026 Sunny Hostin, a former federal prosecutor, began her review by complaining that the president insists upon using the term “illegal” when referring to people who have entered the United States illegally. “That saying that people are illegal, illegal aliens. That really matters,” she said. “We haven’t used that term for so long. Now it’s back in vogue. You are not illegal as a human being just because you’re undocumented, and so that for me, that felt dehumanizing to our immigrant population.” Hostin then recalled a conversation from the day before — when Behar argued that Democrats should boycott the speech entirely to avoid giving Trump the appearance of legitimacy — and said that although she’d disagreed at the time, watching the president speak had changed her mind. “Someone like Ilhan Omar, who fiercely is protective of Minnesotans and Somalians in particular, she gave him that moment that he wanted when the Democrats wouldn’t stand because he was calling people illegal aliens, they didn’t stand, and he called them crazy. They gave him all these moments,” Hostin complained. “They were used as props. It was disgusting.”

President Trump’s State of the Union address last night went a whopping one hour and 48 minutes. But the moments that mattered most happened when President Trump humiliated the Democrats. Or more precisely, when they humiliated themselves. The content of President Trump’s speech was not really the centerpiece of the night. President Trump, as I’ve said many, many times before, is a politician who does one thing very well and one thing not so well. What he is great at doing is making it hard to vote for his political opponents. In fact, he makes it very hard to vote for his political opponents. He is excellent at shredding the people who face him down. But when it comes to making himself more popular, that’s more challenging. And so where Trump shines is in those moments when he can put in stark relief his own agenda and the agenda of the people who oppose him. This is where Trump is simply masterful. And last night, he did something I’ve never seen a president do before during a State of the Union address or really ever in a public address: He used the Democrats’ opposition to him, their anger at him, against them. He jiu-jitsued them in a masterful way. President Trump knew for a fact that when he gave the State of the Union address, we would see the same spectacle we’ve seen before in years past. He would say something, Republicans would stand up and cheer, and Democrats would sit there and do nothing. They would sit on their hands at the very least. In recent years, of course, Democrats have done more than that. Last year, during his State of the Union address, Democrats were dressed in white, color-coordinated to demonstrate that President Trump hated women or some such nonsense. They yelled at President Trump from the gallery. They heckled him. They jeered at him. They did all the things that were unthinkable when we were growing up. When representative Joe Wilson from South Carolina yelled, “You lie” at Barack Obama in 2009, it created a national firestorm. Now, we basically have people throwing rotten eggs at the president from the Democratic side of the aisle, and it’s considered perfectly normal. But Trump knew what he was walking into. He knew how the Democrats would act — they would be incredibly performative, they would be obnoxious. What he did was to take positions that are 80/20 positions. He said things that are easy to understand for the American people and that unify Americans. And then he pointed at the Democrats over and over and over and said, why aren’t you clapping? Why aren’t you cheering? Why aren’t you standing up in unity? Democrats hated George W. Bush, despised him. But when it came to the State of the Union address, they were politically savvy enough to understand that if George W. Bush said something that was generically good, they should stand up and clap. They were politically savvy enough to understand that if the camera’s on you and the president says, “America is great,” you should probably stand up and clap, even if you don’t like that particular president. Democrats have lost their minds thanks to Trump Derangement Syndrome, and so they have decided that it is more worthwhile for them to sit flat on their butts, while the president does unifying and obvious things. Trump knew they were going to do this, and he decided to use that tactic against them. This is where it helps that the President of the United States really understands TV. The president is a visual creature. He understands innately where to put cameras and how to light things. And if you’ve ever watched tape of the president in an interview, he will tell people in the room how to relight him from particular angles and where the camera should be placed for best effect. He knew this was a great stage for him, and he also knew that the cameramen in the wings were going to be focusing on Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who made absolute fools of themselves last night. If you’re the GOP looking for campaign ads, the president provided an enormous number of them for Republicans all across the country last night — as Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar screamed at him for saying baseline rational things, or as Democrats put on their sourest faces as he stated things such as “boys are not girls.” Democrats sat there — while the president paid tribute to actual, honest-to-God American heroes — because they couldn’t bring themselves to stand up if President Trump so much as uttered their name. The genius of what Trump did last night had very little to do with his policy discussion. Usually, the State of the Union address is a long list of policies, and it gets pretty boring. But last night, the president focused heavily on people in the gallery, which was smart because it allowed him to demonstrate that he is sympathetic toward human beings. More importantly, it made Democrats look unsympathetic toward human beings. If a Democratic president calls out an American hero in the wings, or somebody whose daughter was murdered, and pays homage to that person, it doesn’t matter if the president’s a Democrat — you get up and clap. Obviously, Trump knew they weren’t going to do it. And so he played that for its full effect. The shot over the bow from the president was when he overtly — in the middle of the speech — challenged the Democrats to stand in solidarity with Americans and not in solidarity with illegal immigration. Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to do it. Brilliant. Optically, it was a smart thing to do. Politically, it was a very smart thing to do. Trump found the tool to use against the Democrats, and he used it over and over and over again. That is going to hurt Democrats. Because in the end, what people remember are moments when the nature of the opposition is made crystal-clear. And no one, no one, does it better than Trump.