
Republican senators move to block Somalia funding until allies pay 'fair share'
FIRST ON FOX : Fox News Digital has learned that the U.S. could withhold funding for the war against Islamist terror in Somalia until Europe, the African Union (A.U.) and the United Nations (U.N.) pay more of their "fair" share toward the cost of striking out and keeping the peace in the conflict-torn country.
These plans to "prohibit" the use of U.S. funds are key details, shown first to Fox News Digital, of a new bill to be introduced by three prominent Republican senators.
In line with President Donald Trump's administration's widespread moves to tighten fiscal controls in the U.S. and overseas, Sens. Jim Risch, R-Idaho., Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., are to introduce "the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) Funding Restriction Act of 2025."
This is "to safeguard U.S. taxpayer funds and hold the U.N. and A.U. accountable in African peace operations," Risch told Fox News Digital.
The bill also seeks to mandate the U.S. to oppose any U.N. Security Council action which enables such funding.
The East African country of Somalia has been wracked for decades by attacks and insurgency from Islamist terrorists, both from ISIS and the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab. In just the past five weeks, U.S. Africa Command reported that it has carried out four airstrikes; three against ISIS terrorists and one against al-Shabaab. At least one of these strikes, the command stated, was against multiple targets.
Chairman Risch told Fox News Digital, "The Trump Administration has taken decisive action to counterterrorist groups across Africa, and I'm very supportive."
However, officials from the European Union, according to Risch, plan to skew payments for the AUSSOM peacekeeping and stablization operation more toward the U.S.; in other words, make the U.S. pay more than it should, he said.
"At the U.N., our European partners are looking to skirt their financial commitments to AUSSOM in Somalia by switching to a new imbalanced funding mechanism that pushes the burden on Americans," he stated.
"We can't let that stand," Risch continued. "This bill will prohibit U.S. contributions to AUSSOM under this new funding scheme, until the A.U. and the U.N. can prove that they are using the funds they have responsibly, and prevent Americans from being locked into perpetually funding a broken system."
Risch said, "President Trump has ushered in a new era of American foreign policy where American taxpayer dollars will be used only to secure a safe and prosperous America. For far too long, our allies have taken America for a ride, and profited off of America paying the lion's share for global security. Europe must continue to shoulder this burden."
The other two senators sponsoring the bill, Cruz and Scott, also serve on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Scott told Fox News Digital, "The United States will not allow our tax dollars to be exploited by the U.N. while our partners refuse to pay their fair share, much less for a mission that fails to spend these dollars responsibly or transparently. I am proud to join my colleagues on the AUSSOM Funding Restriction Act to ensure Americans' interests are put first, and their tax dollars spent wisely."
The specific aims of the bill that have been shown to Fox News Digital are:
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Atlantic
32 minutes ago
- Atlantic
The White House Is Delighted With Events in Los Angeles
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The administration's decision to federalize 4,000 California National Guard forces, contrary to Governor Gavin Newsom's wishes, and to dispatch 700 active-duty Marines to the Los Angeles area, marks a break with decades of tradition under which presidents have limited their use of the military on American soil. If there are any internal misgivings about busting through yet another democratic norm, they haven't surfaced publicly. Indeed, officials at the White House told us they are satisfied with the way the L.A. confrontation has unfolded. They believe that it highlights their focus on immigration and law and order, and places Democrats on the wrong side of both. One widely circulated photo—showing a masked protester standing in front of a burning car, waving a Mexican flag—has been embraced by Trump supporters as a distillation of the conflict: a president unafraid to use force to defend an American city from those he deems foreign invaders. 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Whereas National Guard troops assist citizens after natural disasters and have the advantage of knowing the communities they serve, active-duty forces are primarily trained to 'see the enemy and neutralize the enemy,' said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'When you're dealing with U.S. citizens, no matter what they're doing, that's not the right mindset.' 'This is not Fallujah,' Bowman added. 'This is Los Angeles.' Juliette Kayyem: Trump's gross misuse of the National Guard This morning, Hegseth made his first congressional appearance since his bruising confirmation process, appearing before a House committee. His tone with Democrats was at times combative. When Representative Betty McCollum, a Minnesota Democrat, asked the defense secretary what the cost of the California deployment would be, he declined to provide a figure and instead pivoted to criticism of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for the state's response to the violence that followed Floyd's killing in 2020. (Military officials said later they expected the Los Angeles deployment, as envisioned, to cost roughly $134 million.) 'If you've got millions of illegals, you don't know where they're coming from, they're waving flags from foreign countries and assaulting police officers, that's a problem,' Hegseth told lawmakers. Trump, for his part, told reporters that anyone who tries to protest at the Saturday parade celebrating the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army will 'be met with very big force.' 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'We don't know who would get blamed but no one wins if that happens,' one senior aide told us. 'No one wants to see that.' Hegseth's support for using active-duty troops in Los Angeles stands in contrast to what his predecessor did in 2020. At that time, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, scrambled to block Trump's desire to employ active-duty forces against the demonstrators protesting racial violence. The president had mused about shooting protesters in the legs, Esper wrote later. To satisfy his boss while also avoiding a dangerous confrontation, the defense chief called active-duty forces from Fort Bragg to Northern Virginia but sought to keep them out of the fray. Tom Nichols: Trump is using the National Guard as bait In his 2024 book The War on Warrior s, Hegseth described how his experience as a D.C. Guardsman in 2020 crystallized his views about the divide between military personnel and what he saw as the degenerate protesters who were lobbing bricks and bottles of urine at the citizen soldiers. When the D.C. Guard was again summoned seven months later, to help secure the 2021 inauguration following the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Hegseth was told to stand down because fellow Guardsmen suspected that one of his tattoos was a sign of extremism. (Hegseth has maintained it is part of his Christian faith.) Hegseth was angered by his exclusion and resigned from the Guard. That experience remains with him as he attempts to reshape the military, and its role in society, in line with Trump's worldview. As he has written: 'My trust for this Army is irrevocably broken.'


New York Post
33 minutes ago
- New York Post
Biden admin evacuated 55 Afghans on terror watchlist to US during botched withdrawal: DOJ watchdog
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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Arizona governor vetoes bill banning teaching antisemitism, calls it an attack on educators
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