Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr. will attend events in the coming months for Turning Point USA, the influential conservative youth organization co-founded by their close friend, the late Charlie Kirk.

The news, first reported by Axios, was confirmed to Fox News Digital on Tuesday morning by a source close to both the vice president and Trump Jr., the eldest son of President Donald Trump.

Kirk, the co-founder of the politically potent conservative youth organization, close ally and outside advisor to the president and vice president and media star, was shot and killed earlier this month while speaking at a college campus event at Utah Valley University.

The source close to both Vance and Trump Jr. said they ‘were so personally close to Charlie that they are determined to do right by him and continue to work closely with Turning Point.’

Vance accompanied Kirk’s widow Erika on Air Force two to transport Charlie Kirk’s body from Utah back to their hometown of Phoenix, Arizona.

A few days later, the vice president guest-hosted Kirk’s highly popular podcast. 

Both Vance and Trump Jr., as well as the president, also spoke at Kirk’s memorial service in Arizona.

‘I would expec to see both of them turn up at TPUSA events over the next several months and long after that,’ the source said of Vance and Trump Jr. ‘They understand that Turning Point is now Charlie’s political legacy, and they both want to help grow it to be bigger and more influential than ever.’

Turning Point USA’s political arm was successful in driving up the youth vote for Trump and Republicans in last year’s election, when the GOP won back the White House and control of the Senate and held onto its House majority. 

And Trump’s political team wants to make sure Turning Point USA, now under the leadership of Erika Kirk, remains well funded and politically potent ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday aimed at improving ways to identify and treat pediatric cancers using artificial intelligence. 

Specifically, the executive order instructs the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission to work with the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy to employ AI on how to use it to diagnose and treat childhood cancers and identify new cures. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spearheads the MAHA Commission. 

The president was joined in the Oval Office by Kennedy, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, Director of the National Institutes of Health Jay Bhattacharya and others. 

The president signed the order surrounded by children, many who have survived cancer themselves. 

The president said that in signing the order the U.S. is adding another $50 million to the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative.

‘I’m also directing the federal government to fully utilize artificial intelligence to supercharge pediatric cancer research,’ Trump said. ‘It’s pretty amazing what’s happening.’ 

The president added, ‘I want to just say that we’re going to defeat childhood cancer once and for all.’

Trump’s initiative in his first term establishing the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative has laid the groundwork for utilizing AI to administer clinical research and patient care to address pediatric cancers in the U.S., according to the White House.

The effort has collected a host of information over the years, including tracking molecular characteristics and genetic information of childhood cancers that has already been organized in a ‘vast’ database. 

‘Leveraging this data infrastructure, researchers will deploy artificial intelligence to improve clinical trials, sharpen diagnoses, fine tune treatments, unlock cures, and strengthen prevention strategies using artificial intelligence, researchers will be able to, for example, build scalable models to predict how a child’s body responds to therapies, letting doctors forecast cancer progression and minimize treatment side effects, delivering better treatments that save more lives,’ Michael Castillo, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told reporters earlier Tuesday. 

The executive order also will bolster funding for the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative, which is housed within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

‘It’s a $50 million investment in the immediate future that we’re announcing today. But there will be more investments to come as we start to implement this’ executive order, a White House official told reporters. 

As a result, the executive order also will be a funding call for research proposals related to the application of AI in childhood cancers, the official said.

‘This is just a tremendous kind of application area where we have existing data sets, a lot of existing work that’s been done over the past six years in this area,’ a White House official said. ‘And it’s something that’s ripe for both scientific exploration and direct impact to the lives of these children.’ 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s budget request calls for cutting funding from $7.2 billion to $4.5 billion for the National Cancer Institute within the National Institutes of Health for fiscal year 2026. 

However, the White House pushed back on characterizations that the administration was seeking to cut cancer research funding, and said the budget for the next fiscal year is ‘still being worked out.’ 

Government funding is set to expire at midnight — or else a lapse in funding will trigger a government shutdown. 

Pediatric cancer is the leading cause of death by disease after infancy in children, according to the National Cancer Institute. However, survival rates are on the rise. 

The five-year survival rate for children between the ages of zero to 19 years old is currently more than 83%, up from the 1970s rates of 58% for children aged 14 and under and 68% for children between the ages of 15 and 19, according to the agency. 

The Interior Department announced Tuesday it is testing autonomous lawnmowers on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in an effort by the Trump administration to use artificial intelligence to ‘boost operational efficiency.’

In an order obtained by Fox News Digital, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said AI will ‘drive smarter decision-making, boost operational efficiency, and better deliver on our core mission of advancing American energy dominance, protecting our natural resources, partnering with Tribal Nations, and enhancing internal services.’ 

The Interior Department is working with a private company, the name of which was not shared, to develop its AI technologies for use by the agency. 

Video shared with Fox News Digital shows a demonstration of the AI-controlled lawnmowers on the National Mall, each carrying an American flag. Visitors scanned a QR code on the technology to view a map tracking their progress.

In the video, Jeff Gowen, division manager of the National Park Service’s Technical Services Division, said the new machines will ‘allow us to get more work done with the same amount of people.’

Gowen added that six AI-controlled lawnmowers are being tested at six national parks with a grant provided by the National Park Foundation. 

‘Wild time to be alive,’ he said.

In his order, Burgum said AI will strengthen relationships with state and tribal lands while pushing federal agencies to adopt AI faster and more responsibly.

‘To fully unlock the potential of AI, we must scale intelligently, govern responsibly, and enable our workforce to lead with confidence and clarity,’ he said. ‘As AI becomes more accessible to the DOI workforce, it offers real opportunities to modernize how we serve, strengthening coordination with stakeholders, including State and Tribal partners, across the Nation’s lands.’

In addition to the lawnmowers, Burgum said the Interior Department is already using AI for wildfire response and environmental reviews.

‘AI is reshaping how industries operate and government must not be left behind, and must adapt to private sector standards,’ he said in the order.

‘AI offers a strategic advantage across all facets of the Department’s mission, enabling an advanced workforce with well-trained employees to strengthen domestic resource development and operational efficiency, allowing for the best management of public lands,’ he added. ‘AI adoption shall be pursued in ways that strengthen Interior’s ability to serve the American people through safe, responsible, and outcome-oriented innovation.’

The lawnmowers come after the Trump administration released its ‘America’s AI Action Plan’ in July, a plan aimed at securing U.S. dominance in AI. The plan highlights AI’s role in economic competitiveness and national security.

‘Winning the AI race will usher in a new golden age of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security for the American people,’ the White House said.

Senate Democrats again blocked Republicans’ short-term funding extension Tuesday afternoon, further increasing the odds of a partial government shutdown and thousands of federal workers going without paychecks.

Democratic lawmakers in the upper chamber, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., banded together to vote against the GOP’s continuing resolution (CR), a move that marked the second time Democrats impeded the legislation’s progress this month.

Congress has until midnight Wednesday to pass a CR or else the government will shut down. However, the possibility of that happening became increasingly unlikely throughout the day as Republicans and Democrats huddled behind closed doors in separate meetings hours before the vote. 

The bill, which was passed by the House GOP earlier this month, failed on a largely party-line vote, 55-45. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the lone Republican to vote against the bill, while Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine, crossed the aisle to vote for the funding extension.

Democrats also tried to advance their own counter-proposal, but that bill was similarly blocked by Senate Republicans.

There is still time to avert a partial shutdown, but the window is closing fast. If Schumer and Thune are unable to find a path forward, it would mark the third shutdown under President Donald Trump.

When asked if he believed a shutdown was inevitable, Trump said, ‘Nothing is inevitable.’ 

‘But I would say it’s probably likely, because they want to give healthcare to illegal immigrants, which will destroy healthcare for everybody else in our country,’ he told reporters in the Oval Office. ‘And I didn’t see them bend even a little bit when I said we can’t do that.’ 

Shortly after the vote, however, the Office of Management and Budget released a memo that the appropriations for Fiscal Year 2025 would run out at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, making a shutdown official. 

‘It is unclear how long Democrats will maintain their untenable posture, making the duration of the shutdown difficult to predict,’ the memo read. 

Republicans want to pass a ‘clean’ short-term extension until Nov. 21 that would give appropriators time to finish spending bills, while Democrats want to extend expiring Obamacare premium subsidies, among multiple other demands.

But the chances of a deal materializing, particularly one that meets Democrats’ demands, are slim. Both Senate leaders traded barbs throughout the day, first on the Senate floor and then in back-to-back press conferences. 

Thune panned Democrats’ push for an extension to the expiring tax credits, which aren’t set to sunset until the end of this year, as well as their other demands to repeal the healthcare portion of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ and clawback canceled funding for NPR and PBS. 

Republicans argue that reversing the cuts from Trump’s megabill and undoing the public broadcasting rescission would amount to $1.5 trillion in spending tacked onto their short-term funding extension. 

‘These are things that they’re demanding as part of their so-called negotiation,’ Thune said. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, there isn’t anything here to negotiate.’

Schumer, however, countered that the decision to shut the government down was ‘in their court’ and charged that Democrats were working to solve the GOP’s ‘healthcare crisis.’

Still, despite scoring a meeting in the Oval Office with Trump and congressional Republican leaders, in addition to public guarantees from Thune and Republicans that Obamacare tax credits could be discussed after a shutdown was averted, Schumer demanded that Democrats be cut in on negotiations to craft a bipartisan bill. 

Earlier in the day, the top Senate Democrat commandeered a floor chart from Thune that showed how many times Democrats supported CRs under former President Joe Biden. He said that each time, Republicans were involved in the process. 

‘As leader, I sat down with the Republicans every one of those years and created a bipartisan bill. Their bill is partisan. They call it clean. We call it partisan. It has no Democratic input,’ Schumer said. ‘Thune never talked to me.’ 

President Donald Trump shared photos on Truth Social on Tuesday showing red ‘Trump 2028’ hats strategically displayed on the Resolute Desk during an Oval Office meeting with Democrat leaders Monday in hopes of fending off a government shutdown.

Trump’s post came late Tuesday, hours before Washington grappled with its first shutdown since 2018-19. 

‘The Trump administration wants a straightforward and clean CR [continuing resolution] to continue funding the government – the exact same proposal that Democrats supported just 6 months ago, 13 times under the Biden Administration,’ White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. 

‘But radical Democrats are shutting the government down because they want a nearly $1.5 trillion wish list of demands, including free health care for illegal aliens. The Democrat’s radical agenda was rejected by the American people less than a year ago at the ballot box, now they’re shutting down the government and hold the American people hostage over it.’

Vice President JD Vance warned, ‘I think we’re headed to a shutdown’ after Monday’s meeting. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at the time the sides ‘have very large differences.’ 

Late Tuesday, the Senate failed a last-ditch vote on extending funding and barreled toward a shutdown as the clock struck midnight on Oct. 1.

Trump posted the photos late Tuesday, a few hours before the shutdown was slated to begin. 

His campaign has sold ‘Trump 2028’ hats since earlier this year.

Democrat leaders downplayed the stunt. 

Schumer said Trump ‘can avoid a shutdown if he chooses to,’ while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., added, ‘we will not back down’ in defending healthcare and spending priorities.’

Trump presided over a 35-day government shutdown in 2018–19, the longest in American history, during his first term in office.