The White House reiterated Thursday that the U.S. will not send a delegation to the upcoming G20 conference in South Africa, calling reports claiming the opposite ‘fake news.’ 

President Donald Trump said earlier in November that U.S. officials would skip the annual conference, which brings together 19 nations to discuss global economic stability and development, over South Africa’s reported human rights abuses. 

Media reports and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, however, have claimed that the U.S. will send a delegation to the summit, which begins Saturday. 

When approached for comment on claims the U.S. backtracked and will send a delegation, a White House official said such claims were ‘fake news.’ 

‘This is fake news. The chargé d’affaires in Pretoria will attend the handover ceremony as a formality, but the United States is not joining G20 discussions,’ a White House official told Fox News Digital Thursday. 

Trump wrote on Truth Social Nov. 7,  ‘Afrikaners (People who are descended from Dutch settlers and also French and German immigrants) are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated. No U.S. Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue.’ 

Ramaphosa, speaking Thursday at a G20 event in Johannesburg, told delegates and media, ‘We have received notice from the United States, a notice where we are still in discussions with them, about a change of mind about participating in one shape, form or other in the (G20) Summit.

‘So, the discussions are still ongoing, it’s come at a late hour before the summit begins, so it needs to engage in those type of discussions to see how practical it is, and what it finally really means.

‘In a way, I see this as a positive sign, very positive, because, as I’ve often said, boycott politics never works.’ 

Ramaphosa later said if the U.S. does not take part, it is ‘outside the tent.’

He added, ‘The United States needs to be here, so it’s pleasing to hear that there is a change of approach, and so we are still discussing how that will manifest.’  

Fox News Digital reached out to Ramaphosa’s office for a response to the White House official’s statement Thursday but did not immediately receive a reply. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt added during Thursday’s news conference that ‘there is not a shift’ of plans to attend. 

‘The United States is not participating in official talks at the G20 in South Africa,’ she said. ‘I saw the South African president running his mouth a little bit against the United States and the president of the United States earlier today, and that language is not appreciated by the president or his team.

‘The ambassador or the representative of the embassy in South Africa is simply there to recognize that the United States will be the host of the G20,’ Leavitt continued. ‘They are receiving that send-off at the end of the event. They are not there to participate in official talks despite what the South African president is falsely claiming.’ 

Ramaphosa lashed out at Trump from the sidelines of a G20 event Thursday, reportedly saying, ‘We will not be bullied. We will not agree to be bullied by anyone.’

Trump had a fiery Oval Office moment with Ramaphosa in May when he confronted the South African president over claims White Afrikaner South African farmers were being slaughtered in the nation. The White House played video footage for Ramaphosa and his cohort that showed white crosses marking alleged graves lining a road in South Africa. 

‘Now this is very bad. These are burial sites right here. Burial sites — over a thousand — of White farmers,’ Trump said during the tense Oval Office moment. ‘And those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross. And there is approximately a thousand of them. 

‘They’re all White farmers. The family of White farmers. And those cars aren’t driving. They are stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed. And it’s a terrible sight. I’ve never seen anything like it. On both sides of the road, you have crosses. Those people are all killed.’ 

‘Have they told you where that is, Mr. President? I’d like to know where that is. Because this I’ve never seen,’ Ramaphosa then asked Trump. 

‘I mean, it’s in South Africa, that’s where,’ Trump responded. 

‘We need to find out,’ Ramaphosa said.  

That same month, the State Department announced that the U.S. was welcoming South African refugees who were victims of ‘government-sponsored racial discrimination’ in their homeland. 

The South African government has slammed the Trump administration’s refugee efforts, arguing claims of White genocide in the country have been discredited. 

‘The South African Government wishes to state, for the record, that the characterisation of Afrikaners as an exclusively white group is ahistorical. Furthermore, the claim that this community faces persecution, is not substantiated by fact,’ the South African government said in a statement on Nov. 8 in response to Trump’s Truth Social post announcing the U.S. would skip the summit. 

China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Argentina’s Javier Milei are also skipping the summit but are sending delegations in their place, The Associated Press reported. 

Fox News Digital’s Paul Tilsley, Morgan Phillips and Greg Norman contributed to this report. 

Congressional Democratic leaders warned Thursday that President Donald Trump’s posts accusing several Democrat senators of sedition, ‘Punishable by DEATH,’ would encourage political violence against lawmakers.

Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social that six congressional Democrats featured in a viral video calling on members of the military and intelligence community to refuse to carry out ‘illegal’ orders from higher-ups was ‘really bad, and Dangerous to our Country.’

‘Their words cannot be allowed to stand,’ Trump said. ‘SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? President DJT.’

He later posted, ‘SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!’ and reposted a user who wrote ‘HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD.’ 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor that Trump was explicitly calling ‘for the execution of elected officials. This is an outright threat, and it’s deadly serious.’

‘Every time Donald Trump posts things like this, he makes political violence more likely,’ Schumer said.

‘When Donald Trump uses the language of execution and treason, some of his supporters may very well listen,’ he continued. ‘He is lighting a match in a country soaked with political gasoline.’

And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in a joint statement with his House Democratic leadership team, condemned Trump’s ‘disgusting and dangerous death threats against Members of Congress’ and urged House Republicans to follow suit.

‘We have been in contact with the House Sergeant-at-Arms and the United States Capitol Police to ensure the safety of these Members and their families,’ Jeffries said. ‘Donald Trump must immediately delete these unhinged social media posts and recant his violent rhetoric before he gets someone killed.’

Trump’s posts, and the response from Congress’ top Democrats, come after a video featuring Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Reps. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., Jason Crow, D-Colo., and Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., went viral for calling on military service members to refuse to follow unlawful orders.

Republicans and members of the Trump administration pounced on the video, with some demanding that the lawmakers provide specifics.

The video came on the heels of rising questions among lawmakers about the legality of President Donald Trump’s authorization of strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, and in the wake of the administration’s deployment of the National Guard to blue cities across the country.

It also follows an uptick in political violence in the country over the last few years, notably two attempted assassinations against Trump, the assassination of Charlie Kirk and a dramatic increase in threats against members of Congress.

Fox News Digital reached out to each of the six congressional Democrats and the White House for comment but did not immediately hear back.

The United States and Russia have drawn up a plan to end the bitter fighting in Ukraine, which would require major concessions from Kyiv.

Exactly what all the concessions that would be made of Ukraine were not clear, but some include demands Moscow has repeatedly made since the start of the 2022 invasion of its neighbor, according to The Associated Press, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Included in the framework would be the halting of attacks from Russia. 

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff has been quietly working on the plan for a month, receiving input from both Ukrainians and Russians on terms that are acceptable to each side, a senior U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity told Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump has been briefed on the plan and supports it, the person said. The official said both sides, not just Ukraine, would have to make concessions. 

‘President Trump has been clear since day one that he wants the war between Russia Ukraine to end, and he has grown frustrated with both sides for their refusal to commit to a peace agreement. Nevertheless, the President and his team never gives up, and the United States has been working on a detailed and acceptable plan for both sides to stop the killing and create a durable, lasting peace.’ said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Under the terms of the proposal, which could still be changed, Ukraine would cede territory to Russia and abandon certain weaponry, according to the person who had been briefed on the contours of the plan.

It would also include the rolling back of some U.S. military assistance.

Russia would take control of the entire eastern Donbas region. Russian President Vladimir Putin has listed the capture of the Donbas as the key goal of the invasion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly ruled out ceding territory to Russia. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said officials will ‘continue to develop a list of potential ideas’ for ending the war based on input from both sides. 

‘Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas,’ he wrote on X late Wednesday. ‘And achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions.’

On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that ‘there are no consultations per se currently underway’ with the U.S. on ending the war in Ukraine. 

‘There are certainly contacts, but processes that could be called consultations are not underway,’ he told reporters.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Bryan Bedford announced Thursday that hundreds of air traffic controllers and technicians who worked during the government shutdown will receive bonus checks.

TheDepartment of Transportation (DOT) said in a statement that 776 air traffic controllers and technicians will be awarded $10,000 for their ‘patriotic work to ensure the safety of the skies during the Democrats’ 44-day government shutdown.’

‘These patriotic men and women never missed a beat and kept the flying public safe throughout the shutdown,’ Duffy said in a statement. ‘Democrats may not care about their financial well-being, but President Trump does.’

The secretary added, ‘This award is an acknowledgment of their dedication and a heartfelt appreciation for going above and beyond in service to the nation.’

DOT said checks would only be sent to workers who maintained perfect attendance during the recent shutdown and that the payments should arrive by Dec. 9, in time for the holidays.

‘I am profoundly proud and grateful for the air traffic personnel who worked during extraordinary operational challenges to keep the National Airspace System (NAS) running safely during the longest government shutdown,’ Bedford said in a statement. ‘Their dedication represents the highest levels of public service.’

The announcement came after President Donald Trump previously floated the idea of rewarding controllers who remained on the job, writing in a post on Truth Social last week, ‘For those Air Traffic Controllers who were GREAT PATRIOTS, and didn’t take ANY TIME OFF for the ‘Democrat Shutdown Hoax,’ I will be recommending a BONUS of $10,000 per person for distinguished service to our Country.’

‘For those that did nothing but complain, and took time off, even though everyone knew they would be paid, IN FULL, shortly into the future, I am NOT HAPPY WITH YOU,’ Trump added.

On Nov. 13, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem handed out $10,000 bonus checks to Transportation Security Administration TSA agents at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport who continued working during the shutdown.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

The chair of the House Republican campaign arm says the Democrats’ sweeping victories in this month’s 2025 elections are a ‘wake-up call’ for GOP voters.

And Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, who’s chairing the National Republican Congressional Committee for a second straight election cycle, said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital that he wants President Donald Trump ‘out there on the trail’ in next year’s midterm elections, when the party defends its razor-thin House majority.

Democrats won the only two races for governor this year, in New Jersey and Virginia, by double digits, and also scored big wins in ballot box showdowns in battlegrounds Georgia and Pennsylvania and left-tilting New York City and California.

Plenty of Republicans have discounted the Democrats’ high-profile victories, since they mostly occurred in blue-leaning states, since they mostly occurred in blue-leaning states.

Hudson noted the top elections took place in ‘Democrat states,’ but added, ‘I think our big takeaway as Republicans is the Democrats were energized. They turned out at record levels. Republicans turned out in normal levels.’

‘I think there’s a wake-up call there to conservatives and Republicans who are happy with the direction of the country. They’re glad President Trump’s back in the White House. But if they want to keep this momentum going, they’ve got to show up and vote,’ he emphasized.

Many of Trump’s MAGA supporters are considered low-propensity voters, who head to the polls only when Trump is on the ballot. But Trump won’t be on the ballot in the 2026 midterms.

Hudson, who noted that ‘House Republicans are very closely aligned with President Trump, and we’re supporting his agenda,’ said that ‘we want him out there on the trail, campaigning with our candidates. I think he brings a lot of energy.’

Pointing to ‘a lot of folks who don’t vote when he’s not on the ballot,’ Hudson said, ‘I don’t need all of them to show up, but I need some of them. And so having President Trump out there will be a big benefit for us.’

Those requests for the MAGA motivator are already coming in to the president’s political team.

Matt Van Epps, the Republican nominee in next month’s special congressional election for a vacant GOP-held House seat in Tennessee, has asked for Trump to campaign in person with him ahead of the Dec. 2 election.

Democrats were laser-focused on affordability on the 2025 campaign trail.

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said his party’s candidates met ‘voters at the kitchen table. . . . From New Jersey and Virginia and New York, to Georgia and beyond, Democrats ran campaigns relentlessly focused on costs and affordability.’

And Martin emphasized the 2025 elections were a preview of things to come in next year’s midterms.

‘In ‘26, we’ll do it again. We’ll run a National Coordinated Campaign to win races up and down the ballot to provide a check on the out-of-control Trump administration and its Republican rubber stamps,’ he argued.

Hudson, pointing to former President Joe Biden, said ‘there are challenges out there with the economy, because Biden broke it, and House Republicans, working with President Trump, are going to fix it, and we’re working very hard to do that. ‘

‘Certainly, we could always improve the way we communicate with our voters about it,’ he added. ‘But we are laser focused on the issues that matter to them. You know, it’s the cost of things, it’s the security in their neighborhood, it’s a secure border. We are very focused on that, and we’ve delivered a lot of things that are going to make their lives better.’

And looking ahead to next year, he added, ‘come tax season, a lot of families are going to be really happy to see they’ve got a lot more take-home pay, and that’s because of Donald Trump and House Republicans.’

Hudson, in step with fellow Republicans, aimed to link Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a socialist who pushed a far-left platform on the campaign trail this year, to House Democrats who may face challenging re-elections next year.

‘The entire Democrat Party has shifted to the left. This is Mamdani’s party now,’ Hudson charged. ‘And every single House Democrat needs to answer for his policies, and they need to let their constituents know, do they stand with Mamdani or not?’

The power in power, which nowadays is clearly the Republicans, traditionally faces political headwinds in the midterm elections.

And Hudson was interviewed as two new national polls indicated Democrats with the upper hand in the 2026 battle for the House majority.

But Hudson said: ‘The only number I’m concerned about is three. We have three Republicans in seats Kamala Harris carried.’

And he highlighted that Democrats have ‘thirteen sitting in seats Donald Trump won. They’ve got 21 more sitting in seats that Donald Trump barely lost. So there, there are only a few seats up for grabs this time, most of them are Democrat seats.’

The conservative movement has found itself in a season of confusion in recent weeks. Former friends quarrel, familiar institutions are in turmoil, and some voices, both new and old, on the right have begun to wonder aloud whether the United States should still stand with Israel. 

That question deserves a resolute answer, and the answer is this: for our security, for democracy in the Middle East and for the very destiny of our nation, America must stand with Israel.

Americans should always be open to debate how we spend our money abroad and whether our foreign policy truly serves national interest. The rising generation in particular demands rigorous answers beyond empty platitudes.  

But lately, it seems that something deeper, something darker, has driven those questions. After decades of conflict in the Middle East, some are tempted to embrace isolationism, to treat moral clarity as naïveté, and to spurn our allies as unwanted burdens under the strain of massive national debt. For others, it is nothing more than antisemitism.  

The acceptance of antisemitic voices on the left and the right, from the halls of Congress to social media, represents a vile and dangerous trend in American politics, and it must be forcefully opposed wherever it appears. There is no place in the conservative movement for antisemitism.

For nearly 80 years, the bond between the United States and Israel has been more than a diplomatic arrangement. It has been a covenant of free peoples who share the same ideals: faith in God, belief in human dignity and gratitude for the blessings of liberty. Israel’s survival has never depended on our charity; it has depended on our partnership, and that partnership has made America safer and paid dividends. 

Centuries before the founding of modern Israel, our Founding Fathers championed the return of the Jewish people to Israel and made special provision for the Jewish faith in America. George Washington assured Jewish Americans that the fledgling United States ‘gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.’ John Adams supported ‘the Jews again in Judea’ as ‘an independent nation.’ Elias Boudinot, the president of the American Revolution’s Congress, boldly suggested that ‘God has raised up these United States… for the very purpose of… bringing his beloved people to their own land.’ Even the famously thrifty Benjamin Franklin once opened his coffers to help a local Philadelphia synagogue weather financial difficulty.  

But the case for Israel is far more than historic.

Today, Israel stands as an oasis of democracy in a Middle East where dozens of its neighbors are Islamic states or still practice monarchy. It is a cruel irony that, in a world of 46 majority-Muslim nations, the presence of a single majority-Jewish nation is seen by many of Israel’s neighbors as one too many. Thirty-one countries still refuse to recognize Israel on their maps. Some of those would love nothing less than to see Israel wiped off the map altogether. And yet Israel persists.  

Thanks to Israel’s courage and the decisive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities by the United States, we no longer live under a nuclear sword of Damocles wielded by a regime that chants ‘Death to America.’ From the Stuxnet cyber operation that crippled Iran’s enrichment program, to Israel’s assistance with U.S. airstrikes, and to many heroic covert operations, Israel has repeatedly helped delay Tehran’s progress toward obtaining nuclear weapons. Those actions protected not only Jerusalem and Tel Aviv – they protected Washington, New York and every American city within reach of Iran’s hatred. 

That may not matter much to a segment of the New Right that confuses isolation for safety. But the rest of us know better. We understand what it would mean if the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism ever possessed nuclear weapons.  When Israel takes the fight to Iran’s terror network proxies like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Revolutionary Guard, it is not merely doing our bidding; it is doing what conscience and common sense require. It stands between civilization and chaos. Israel’s cause is our cause.  

When Israel succeeds, as it did in 2024 by decapitating Hezbollah’s leadership in a precision pager-bombing campaign, America is safer. The practical case for our alliance is clear.

Centuries before the founding of modern Israel, our Founding Fathers championed the return of the Jewish people to Israel and made special provision for the Jewish faith in America.

But the heart of American support is still a matter of shared values and faith. We stand with Israel because we believe in right over wrong, in good over evil, and in liberty over tyranny. Israel must be empowered to finish the fight against those who would harm her, terrorists who hide behind women, children, hospitals and holy places as they launch rockets indiscriminately into Israel. Peace and justice, within Gaza and without, require that Hamas be destroyed. 

In the end, Americans have always supported Israel because the very existence of this enduring nation bears witness to God’s faithfulness. And the support of millions of Americans throughout the generations has been built upon the ancient words recorded in Genesis where God promises to ‘bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’

For 250 years, America has been blessed like no other country in history. As we prepare to celebrate our blessings as a nation, I believe we must never forsake that promise or our cherished ally. If the world knows nothing else, let the world know this: America stands with Israel.