NationalWatch

FIRST ON FOX: Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, Democrat Sen. John Fetterman and others are teaming up on legislation to codify oversight on foreign countries buying American farmland.

The bipartisan Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure (AFIDA) Improvements Act seeks to implement recommendations published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in January 2024, which found the AFIDA was ill-equipped to combat foreign ownership of American agricultural land. 

“American farmland should remain in the hands of American farmers and ranchers, not foreign adversaries,” Ricketts of Nebraska shared first with Fox News Digital. “The neighbors who feed us should benefit from land ownership, not Communist China. Food security is national security.”

The bill, also co-sponsored by Sens. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, John Cornyn of Texas, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska introduced legislation, requires AFIDA reporting for foreign persons holding more than one percent interest in American agricultural land.

GOP GOVERNOR HOPEFUL PUSHES ANTI-CHINA POLICY AFTER YEARS OF CHINESE INVESTMENTS

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., proposed bipartisan legislation on Thursday to increase oversight on foreign countries buying American farmland.  (Getty Images)

“Over the past several decades, China has been buying up American farmland in an attempt to infiltrate our agriculture supply chains. Food security is national security, and we cannot give the CCP a foothold,” Tuberville said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

SENATE REPUBLICANS LAUNCH EFFORT TO BAN CHINESE NATIONALS FROM BUYING LAND IN US

The AFIDA Improvements Act aims to increase information-sharing between the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It also requires updates to the AFIDA’s handbook and establishes a deadline for USDA to set up an online AFIDA system. 

The bill’s House sponsor, Bacon, told Fox News Digital that “having actual processes in place will strengthen the security of our nation in the event nefarious foreign agents, such as the CCP, try to purchase agricultural lands within our nation.” 

A tractor collects bales of hay during a heatwave outside Elgin, Texas, on Wednesday, July 20, 2022. 

Based on the GAO’s recommendations, the bill seeks to update the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 to better equip the USDA to combat foreign adversaries’ ownership of American agricultural land.

Under AFIDA, foreign entities must disclose to the USDA transactions of American agricultural land. 

Foreign investors own over 40 million acres of agricultural land in the United States, and between 2010 and 2021, Chinese ownership of American agricultural land increased from 13,720 acres to 383,935 acres, according to the USDA. 

The AFIDA Improvements Act is the latest attempt by Congressional Republicans to track foreign ownership of American farmland and strengthen national security. It was first introduced by Bacon and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., in 2024. 

China owned around 350,000 acres of farmland across 27 states as of last year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture

China’s national flag flutters on Pingtan island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in southeast China’s Fujian province on December 11, 2024.  (Adek Berry)

The movement to ban China from buying U.S. farmland located near military bases has been gaining steam in the Senate this year. The PASS Act, led by Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., has the backing of Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and would prevent any entity from a “covered country,” which includes China, North Korea, Russia and Iran, from purchasing agricultural land near military bases or sensitive sites. 

Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Katie Britt of Alabama, proposed The Not One More Inch or Acre Act, earlier this year to ban China from buying U.S. land entirely. 

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On the presidential campaign trail in 2024, President Donald Trump indicated he would ban China from buying American farmland. 

The Senate passed an amendment with bipartisan support in 2023 that would ban China, Russia, North Korea and Iran from buying American farmland and agricultural businesses, but it did not become law. 

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report. 

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday in favor of seven U.S. gun manufacturers who were sued by the Mexican government over allegations they aided and abetted illegal gun sales to Mexican cartels.

The high court’s decision in Smith & Wesson Brands v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos was unanimous, finding that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a statute that protects gun makers from lawsuits, did not include exceptions that gave the Mexican government the ability to sue.

“The kinds of allegations Mexico makes cannot satisfy the demands of the statute’s predicate exception,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court.

Kagan noted the exceptions in the law would allow a lawsuit against the gun makers if they “proximately caused” Mexico harm.

SUPREME COURT TO CONSIDER LAWSUIT AGAINST US GUN MANUFACTURERS

AR-15 rifles are displayed for sale at a gun show in 2017.  (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)

“Mexico’s complaint, for the reasons given, does not plausibly allege such aiding and abetting,” Kagan wrote. “So this suit remains subject to PLCAA’s general bar: An action cannot be brought against a manufacturer if, like Mexico’s, it is founded on a third party’s criminal use of the company’s product.”

The justices concluded that the “proximate cause” standard meant the U.S. manufacturers could not be sued when the complex commerce pipeline goes from them to wholesalers, distributors, rogue retail dealers, straw purchasers, smugglers, and then to the Mexican cartels.

The case came before the high court during a delicate time for both countries, politically and diplomatically.

The Trump administration has pushed the Mexican government to better patrol its border to block drugs and migrants from entering the United States, while Mexican officials have demanded the U.S. stop military-style firearms from ending up in Mexico – fueling the very drug crisis both sides seek to end.

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During the proceedings, attorneys for Mexico, which has strict gun sale restrictions, argued the country should be allowed to file a $10 billion civil suit in U.S. courts. 

The gun makers countered that their standard business practices were being unfairly targeted and that they had no awareness that their products have been illegally transported into Mexico.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday sounded the alarm on alleged Transportation Security Administration (TSA) “corruption,” accusing a longtime Democratic senator of lobbying the Biden administration to have her husband removed from a watchlist despite him allegedly flying with a “known or suspected terrorist.” 

New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s husband, William “Billy” Shaheen, “traveled with a known or suspected terrorist three times in a single year,” DHS said in a statement. 

The Trump administration on Wednesday cited evidence “detailing the politicization of TSA’s watchlisting program under the Biden administration.” DHS says that evidence includes discovered documents, correspondence and timelines that clearly highlight the Biden administration’s “inconsistent application of Silent Partners Quiet Skies and watchlisting programs, circumventing security policies to benefit politically aligned friends and family at the expense of the American people.”

DHS claims Sen. Shaheen “directly lobbied” former TSA administrator David Pekoske. Pekoske afterward allegedly “gave repeated, explicit direction” to exclude the senator’s husband from the Silent Partner Quiet Skies list. Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Shaheen’s office, but they did not immediately provide a response to the allegations.

GABBARD SLAMS ‘POLITICALLY MOTIVATED’ SURVEILLANCE AS EFFORT TO ‘INTIMIDATE’ HER FOLLOWING CRITICISM OF HARRIS

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Kevin Cramer at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada, on May 23, 2025. (Justin Tang /The Canadian Press via AP)

“Pekoske granted Billy Shaheen a blanket Silent Partners Quiet Skies exemption despite Shaheen flying with a Known or Suspected Terrorist on three occasions,” DHS said Wednesday. “All the while, Tulsi Gabbard, and many other Americans, were placed on the Silent Partners’ Quiet Skies list with little to no visibility, awareness, explanation or oversight.” 

President Donald Trump tapped Gabbard as his director of national intelligence during his second term. 

The Trump administration claims Billy Shaheen “was hardly the only high-profile individual that was placed on this exclusion list,” which also allegedly included members of foreign royal families, political elites, professional athletes, and journalists. 

DHS said Billy Shaheen’s “blanket exemption has since been revoked.” 

“It is clear that this program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration – weaponized against its political foes and to benefit their well-heeled friends,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “This program should have been about the equal application of security, instead it was corrupted to be about political targeting. The Trump Administration will restore the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans, including aviation screening.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen greets Education Secretary Linda McMahon before a Senate Appropriations hearing, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FEDERAL AIR MARSHALS SURVEILLED TRUMP CABINET MEMBER GABBARD IN 2024, RAND PAUL SAYS

DHS said the program has for far too long “yielded little to no measurable security impact and lay at the expense of the American traveler.” 

According to DHS’s timeline of events, Billy Shaheen was a “TSA Random Selectee” on his flights from Boston Logan International Airport to Washington-Reagan International Airport and then from Washington Dulles International Airport back to Boston on July 20, 2023. “Billy Shaheen was flagged for the first time as Co-Traveler with a Known or Suspected Terrorist (KST),” DHS said. 

Shortly after his trip, Sen. Shaheen’s office “made an inquiry to TSA about the senator’s husband receiving enhanced screening on these two flights,” DHS said.

He was flagged a second time as a co-traveler of a known or suspected terrorist again on Oct. 18, 2023, and Sen. Shaheen afterward met with Pekoske about her husband “being on a watchlist,” according to DHS. 

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, Kevin Cramer and Peter Welch participate in a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa on May 23, 2025. (Justin Tang /The Canadian Press via AP)

“TSA did not disclose any information on watchlisting,” DHS noted. 

On Oct. 20, 2023, Nancy Nykamp, then-assistant administrator for intelligence and analysis, approved Billy Shaheen to be added to the “Secure Flight Exclusion List.” That means he was “excluded from any future TSA Random Selectee designation, and Rules-based Selectee designation, such as Quiet Skies, Association Based Rule Selectee designation, or Silent Partner Selectee designation,” according to the Trump administration. Nykamp notably departed TSA in March 2025. 

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DHS said TSA Legislative Affairs communicated with Nykamp on Oct. 24, 2023, and referred to the action taken to add Shaheen to the Secure Flight Exclusion List.

Billy Shaheen stayed on the Secure Flight Exclusion List for 18 months until current TSA leadership removed him. 

Shaheen, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced in March that she is not seeking re-election in 2026, but her daughter, Stefany Shaheen, just last week announced that she’s running for a key House seat. 

FIRST ON FOX: A top NAACP official in Cleveland, Ohio was captured on video explaining how her organization will be giving “justice” awards to school board members in the state who openly defy the Trump administration’s federal push to ban DEI in schools. 

“We have some school board members all over the country, but especially in Ohio, we have school board members who understand what their job is and that’s to put students first and so some school board members in Ohio have defied that, what I call, an immoral suggestion from the president, to sign anti-DEI, anti Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion directives,” Meryl Johnson, NAACP Cleveland education committee chair, said during a Teach Truth Day of Action briefing earlier this month in Zoom footage obtained by Ohio.News.

“And so at our Teach Truth Day of Action, we’re calling it a finding joy teach-in, we are going to be giving what we call Guardian of Justice Awards to school board members who stood up and said no, we’re not signing that. Who believe that their students are the most important thing and that they are going to look out for their students because that’s their job.”

Several school districts in Ohio have joined districts across the country in signing a statement to the federal government stating that they are not complying with “illegal DEI practices,” Fox News Digital previously reported, likely assuring they are not at risk of losing federal funding as part of Trump’s executive orders prohibiting DEI. Other districts have not and are being praised by the NAACP for that action. 

HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS IN TAX MONEY GOES TO CONTRACTS FOR DEI GROUPS, WATCHDOG FINDS: ‘TOTAL RACKET’

The Cleveland NAACP is giving awards to school board members who oppose Trump’s anti-DEI regulations (Getty)

The NAACP will host, along with the Zinn Education Project, its Teach Truth Day of Action on June 7 and as part of its promotion of the event, has advertised the award given to “Ohio school board members who refused to sign the anti-DEI pledge.”

“So, I’m wearing the pin now,” Johnson said on the Zoom call. “I hope you can see it, it’s the Guardian of Justice award. We’re going to be giving awards to school board members along with a certificate. So long we have three districts that are going to be showing up, including Cincinnati, Shaker Heights school district, and the Cleveland Heights, University Heights district. They are going to come to our event on June 7, and we’re going to hold onto the awards and as we continue to hear from more school board members we will mail them their Guardian of Justice Awards and certificates.”

“We want to encourage people, don’t be intimidated, don’t be afraid, okay? We have a democracy to protect and it’s our job to do that.” 

Fox News Digital reached out to the NAACP and Zinn Education Project for comment.

“As a mother, an attorney, and Ohioan, I am appalled by this disturbing new video showing Meryl Johnson, a representative of the NAACP Cleveland, openly encouraging school board members to defy a binding executive order aimed at eliminating divisive DEI mandates from our classrooms,” attorney Mehek Cooke told Fox News Digital. 

‘LOVE BREAKING RULES’: RED STATE DEAN OUSTED AFTER ADMITTING ON HIDDEN CAM SHE WAS SECRETLY PUSHING DEI

“This is not just reckless—it’s a direct attack on our children’s future.”

The Trump Department of Education has warned state education departments in all 50 states that they must remove diversity, equity and inclusion policies or risk losing federal funding if not in compliance with Trump’s previous executive orders.

​In January, Trump issued the “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” executive order, which prohibits K-12 schools from teaching materials considered anti-American or promoting “gender ideology” and critical race theory. The order mandates that law enforcement investigate educational institutions suspected of promoting such content and criminally prosecute educators who assist in the social transition of minors.

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“Defying federal law puts critical funding—like Title I for disadvantaged students and IDEA for children with disabilities—at serious risk,” Cooke told Fox News Digital. “That money isn’t political, it’s essential. It keeps the lights on in struggling schools, pays for reading intervention, and supports the very students DEI ideologues claim to protect. Pulling that rug out just to virtue signal is sheer negligence in my book.”

“This isn’t about equity—it’s about control. And playing politics with children’s education is a guaranteed path to generational failure. It’s time to hold every defiant district accountable: strip their funding, notify parents, and demand a return to academics—not activism—in our schools.”

Elon Musk’s diatribe against President Donald Trump‘s “one big, beautiful bill” continued Wednesday as Senate Republicans embarked on their own course to tweak and reshape the gargantuan legislative package.

The former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) rehashed a similar talking point from his takedown of a previous House GOP government funding bill in December, which, after his input, was gutted and reworked.

The nation’s debt sits at over $36 trillion, according to FOX Business’ National Debt Tracker.

GOP SENATORS EXPRESS ‘CONCERNS,’ ‘SKEPTICISM’ OVER TRUMP’S SPENDING BILL AFTER MUSK RANT

Elon Musk, left, and President Donald Trump. (Getty Images)

“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman,” Musk said among a flurry of posts on X. “Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.”

Though Musk’s continued tirade against the bill sent House Republicans into a tizzy, on the other side of the Capitol, senators were busy hashing out the finer points of the legislation.

This time around, Musk, who just ended his four-month tenure as a special government employee rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, may not have the same level of impact, given that senators want their chance to shape the bill.

“I mean, if Elon was going to give me advice on how to get to the moon, I’d listen,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. “You know, if he was going to give me advice on how to raise several billion dollars from other billionaires, I’d listen.”

“But… he doesn’t govern, you know, and so, to be honest, Elon, he’s not that big a factor,” he continued. “I know he’s a glamorous sort of celebrity, but he’s not a big factor.”

ELON MUSK WARPATH AGAINST TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ RATTLES HOUSE GOP

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, right, accompanied by President Donald Trump, speaks to members of the media as they depart a House Republican meeting at the U.S. Capitol on May 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Cramer’s comments came after Senate Republicans heard from the chairs of the Senate Banking, Armed Services and Commerce committees on how they would approach their respective portions of the megabill in a closed-door meeting.

After that meeting, members of the Senate Finance Committee, which will handle the tax portion of the package, met with Trump later to shore up support for the tax package.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R.-Kan., said that the president’s main message during the meeting was to “pass the damn bill” with as few changes as possible. When asked if Trump seemed concerned about Musk’s impact on the bill’s fate, the lawmaker said “absolutely not.”  

“It was almost laugh— more of a laughing conversation for 30 seconds,” he said. “It was very much in jest and laughing, and I think he said something positive about Elon, appreciating what he did for the country.”

ELON MUSK POSTS ‘KILL BILL’ MEME IN LATEST PUSH TO NIX TRUMP’S BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL

House Speaker Mike Johnson, left, said he was “surprised” by Elon Musk’s criticism of the “big, beautiful bill.” (Associated Press)

Congressional Republicans intend to use the budget reconciliation process to skirt the Senate filibuster, meaning they do not need Senate Democrats to pass the package. However, they do need at least 51 Senate Republicans to get on board.

The Senate’s shot at tinkering with the reconciliation package comes after months of deliberations and negotiations in the House that culminated in a package that Trump has thrown his full support behind.

Some lawmakers want higher spending cuts to the tune of $2 trillion, others want a full rollback to pre-pandemic spending. Then there are pockets of resistance solidifying around cuts to Medicaid and green energy tax credit provisions baked into the House’s offering.

Among the green energy provisions on the chopping block are electric vehicle tax credits. Speculation has swirled that their proposed demise could be the driving force, in part, behind Musk’s anger toward the bill.

“Any senator with a brain sees Elon’s comments for what they are, a CEO worried about losing business,” a Senate Republican source told Fox News Digital. “The only reason he’s causing a fuss is because we’re getting rid of pork that benefits his electric car company.”

Musk had been pushing for deeper spending cuts until his new demand that the bill be nuked. Currently, the House GOP’s offering sets a goal of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade that, coupled with expected growth, would help offset the roughly $4 trillion price tag of making the president’s first-term tax cuts permanent.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, engaged with some of Musk’s posts on Tuesday and appeared to agree with the tech billionaire’s position that the bill had to go further to cut spending.

“I think most of what he’s saying is he would like it to do more and be more aggressive to try to address the debt and deficit problem,” Lee said.

However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found in its latest report that the bill would only cut $1.3 trillion, reduce revenues by roughly $3.7 trillion and add in the neighborhood of $2.4 trillion to the deficit.

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Some lawmakers who had found common ground with Musk’s earlier anger with the “big, beautiful bill” still found a common ally on the second day of his rant.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., reiterated to Fox News Digital that he shared Musk’s “skepticism” of the bill. He would not say whether he agreed that congressional Republicans should start from scratch, but noted that his main objection to the bill was a plan to increase the nation’s debt limit by $5 trillion.

“My main goal is to say, take the debt ceiling and make it a separate vote, and then vote on a separate bill, and then there’s still a need for less spending,” he said. “But I would be very open to supporting the bill if we had more spending cuts and the debt ceiling was a separate vote.”

Former President Joe Biden doubled down on his use of an autopen on Wednesday, insisting that he was in control of the White House during his term in office.

President Donald Trump ordered an investigation into Biden’s administration, alleging that top officials used autopen signatures to cover up the former president’s cognitive decline.

“I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” Biden said in a statement.

“This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations,” he added.

EXCLUSIVE: COMER HAILS DOJ’S BIDEN PROBE AS HOUSE INVESTIGATION HEATS UP

President Joe Biden defended his administration’s use of autopen signatures and insisted he was in control of his White House on Wednesday. (Nicole Neri/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to open investigations into top Biden officials on Wednesday, arguing they may have conspired to deceive the public about his mental state and exercised presidential authority through use of the autopen.

TRUMP SAYS BIDEN DIDN’T FAVOR HIS ADMIN’S LAX BORDER SECURITY POLICY, SUGGESTS AUTOPEN PLAYED A ROLE

Trump wrote in a Wednesday memo that the U.S. president has a tremendous amount of power and responsibility through his signature. Not only can the signature turn words into laws of the land, but it also appoints individuals to some of the highest positions in government, creates or eliminates national policies and allows prisoners to go free.

President Donald Trump pointed to the power a U.S. president can wield with his signature alone. (GETTY IMAGES)

“In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,” Trump wrote. “This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”

“Given clear indications that President Biden lacked the capacity to exercise his Presidential authority, if his advisors secretly used the mechanical signature pen to conceal this incapacity, while taking radical executive actions all in his name, that would constitute an unconstitutional wielding of the power of the Presidency, a circumstance that would have implications for the legality and validity of numerous executive actions undertaken in Biden’s name,” he added.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., right, is demanding three high-ranking staffers in former President Joe Biden’s White House appear for transcribed interviews on their suspected roles working “behind the scenes” to “cover-up” the former president’s significant mental decline during his term. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File and Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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House Republicans, led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, launched an investigation earlier last month aimed at determining whether Biden, who was in declining health during the final months of his presidency, was mentally fit to authorize the use of the autopen. Comer said last week he was “open” to dragging Biden before the House to answer questions about the matter if necessary. 

Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: Smarter, not harder, is the theme Congress should follow to pass tax relief in its budget efforts, according to the top Republican running in one of only two gubernatorial races this year.

Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, seeking to succeed term-limited Gov. Glenn Youngkin, unveiled her “Axe the Tax” framework, identifying consensus areas where people across the political spectrum can support it.

Her plan would end taxes on tips in Virginia, mirroring President Donald Trump’s policy proposal and seeking to give a break to residents in a state known for its nightlife and tourist meccas like Alexandria, Williamsburg, Virginia Beach and Roanoke.

Food service workers, personal service workers, hospitality and other gratuity-based industry employees would pay 0% statewide under her plan, which she said gives working families a break they’re clamoring for on both the state and federal levels.

WINSOME EARLE-SEARS ANNOUNCES VA GOV BID TO BUILD ON YOUNGKIN RECORD: IT’S ‘ALL ABOUT BUSINESS’

It also repeals the automobile tax and vehicle-based property taxes, which residents of 27 out of the 50 states pay.

“The ‘Axe the Tax’ plan is rooted in a simple truth: Working Americans shouldn’t be punished for earning a living or driving to work,” Sears told Fox News Digital in exclusive remarks.

“Conservatives in Congress get that, and they should follow Virginia’s lead. … Real working families deserve to keep more money in their pockets, and, as governor, I’ll make sure they do.”

TOP DEMS CLAIM 51K PEOPLE WILL DIE ANNUALLY FROM ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’

Sears said ending taxes on tips on a national and state level recognizes that a tip is a “recognition of great service,” not another avenue for the government to take its share.

With most middle-class people either working service industry jobs and/or owning a car, Sears said her initial tax plan is evidence that a surgical approach is what is needed to properly address what the people are asking for, rather than trying to do too much at once.

“Virginia’s economy is powered by a thriving service sector and thousands of hardworking commuters made up of families like mine,” Sears said. “Tip earners are stretched to the limit. Working parents depend on their cars, not a METRO line, to get through the day. This isn’t just Virginia’s story. It’s the reality for families across the country.”

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Respecting the political process and “actually listen[ing] to people” and responding in kind is how a politician should lead, she said.

Like Congress, where Republicans hold narrow majorities in both chambers and have often seen similarly closely split governance, the “Axe the Tax” plan includes provisions that “prove you can work within a divided chamber and still put taxpayers first,” Earle-Sears said.

“Virginia is leading the way.”

Democrats in Florida face an uphill climb as they work to win the governor’s office in next year’s elections.

It’s been more than three decades since a Democrat won a gubernatorial election in the Sunshine State. You have to go all the way back to Democrat Gov. Lawton Chiles’ 1994 re-election.

But former Rep. David Jolly, when asked how the Democrats could end their losing streak, told Fox News Digital, “It’s been even longer since we had an affordability crisis like we’re experiencing right now. That’s how.”

Jolly, who, as a Republican a decade ago, won election and re-election to Congress, on Thursday announced his Democrat candidacy for governor in the 2026 race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis.

THIS TOP TRUMP ALLY APPEARS TO BE GEARING UP FOR A GUBERNATORIAL RUN IN A KEY STATE

Former Republican Rep. David Jolly (Getty Images)

“We have an affordability crisis in Florida driven by an insurance crisis that continues to worsen in the face of complete neglect by Tallahassee. We have abandoned public education, and we’ve allowed corruption to run rampant. It’s time for a change,” Jolly said in a statement.

And in his Fox News interview, Jolly argued that the state’s affordability crisis has “largely been caused by Republican neglect that I don’t believe Republicans will address and that our campaign will.”

REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS CAMPAIGN CHAIR REVEALS ELECTION BATTLE PLAN

Jolly, who left the Republican Party seven years ago and became an independent and a cable news political analyst on MSNBC, pointed to the GOP’s voter registration advantage in Florida.

“Let’s be honest about the math,” he said. “There aren’t enough Democratic votes in Florida for a Democratic governor to just win with their own party. We have to build a coalition that includes independents and commonsense Republicans. But here’s the good news, it’s already there.”

Former Republican Rep. David Jolly of Florida, who is now running for Florida governor in 2026 as a Democrat, holds a town hall in Coral Gables, Florida on May 25, 2025. (David Jolly campaign)

Jolly, pointing to the recent town halls he’s been holding ahead of his campaign launch, said, “Republicans are turning out. Independents are coming out. There’s a perfect storm for legacy Republicans right now. We have an affordability crisis in Florida that’s hitting every family, every voter, every walk of life, and it doesn’t care what your partisan affiliation is, Republican, Democrat or independent.”

“This is a race much like you’ve seen with Andy Beshear in Kentucky and Steve Bullock in Montana, a coalition for change can win next November. But that coalition is going to have to be led by today’s Democratic Party,” he added.

The mentions of GOP-dominated Kentucky’s current Democrat governor and red-state Montana’s former Democrat governor were intentional. Jolly recently hired as an adviser Democrat political strategist Eric Hyers, who helped steer Beshear and Bullock’s successful campaigns.

Four years ago, former governor and former Rep. Charlie Crist, another Republican-turned-Democrat, was trounced by DeSantis as the conservative governor cruised to re-election by 19 points.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Jolly highlighted that Crist (who defeated Jolly as the then-congressman ran for re-election in 2016) quickly transitioned from Republican to Democrat.

“It was transactional for running for office. He would always say, ‘I didn’t leave the party. The party left me,'” Jolly noted.

“David Jolley left the party,” he said. “I’ve grown. I’ve changed.”

“Over the last 10 years, my values haven’t changed,” Jolly said. “This is very important. When I was a Republican in Congress, I supported marriage equality, gun control, climate change, campaign finance reform. Republicans didn’t want me. Democrats didn’t need me, but those values were already there then. I am a person of deep faith. I grew up a preacher’s kid in a Christian church. I belong to a Christian church today.”

But Florida Republicans predict Jolly will become the latest in a line of defeated Democrat gubernatorial candidates.

“It’s good to know Never Trumper and failed MSNBC analyst has found his true home in the irrelevant @FlaDems,” Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power said after Jolly joined the Democratic Party. “I welcome him to run for Governor, the nearly 40% of the electorate that voted for @CharlieCrist deserve an equally bad choice this cycle.”

Making the Democrats’ climb to win back the governor’s office next year even steeper is last month’s announcement by state Sen. Jason Pizzo, the former state Senate Democrat leader, to run for governor as an independent. Weeks earlier, Pizzo argued the Florida Democratic Party was “dead.”

“I have enormous respect for Jason Pizzo. He followed his political conviction, just as I did. I disagree with his decision,” Jolly said.

But Jolly also said, “Jason was right when he said you’ve got millions of disaffected independent voters” and added that “my job as the Democratic candidate, and perhaps the Democratic nominee, is to build a coalition that says [to] those independent voters, ‘We want you in this coalition.’”

Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida is interviewed by Fox News Digital ahead of his 2026 campaign kickoff for governor in Bonita Springs, Fla., on March 28, 2025. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

In the race for the Republican gubernatorial primary, Rep. Byron Donalds appears to be on an early glide path to the nomination as speculation of a possible bid by first lady Casey DeSantis cools.

Donalds enjoys the support and endorsement of Florida’s most famous resident: President Donald Trump.

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“This race is not about Donald Trump. You’ll never hear me talk about Donald Trump. It’s about the affordability crisis and how Republicans in Tallahassee have created it,” Jolly said.

But Jolly argued that “Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are the scene-setters for an earthquake-of-a-change election environment in the state of Florida, because if voters in Florida are demanding change, I’m not sure they could look at Trump’s endorsed candidate in Byron Donalds and see change. If it’s Casey DeSantis, you’re not seeing change. You’re seeing the third term of Ron DeSantis.”

Elon Musk’s tirade against President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” has forced House Republicans to scramble to respond on Wednesday.

GOP lawmakers who had spent months praising Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts are now working to avoid a war of words with the tech billionaire as he calls on them to scrap months of work in favor of a new budget reconciliation bill.

“He didn’t make it any easier for the bill,” Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. 

He noted that the bill also had its opponents in the Senate, where at least three fiscal hawks are calling for deeper cuts than the recent version passed by the House, which rolls back roughly $1.5 trillion in federal spending over 10 years. Fitzgerald questioned, however, what Musk’s endgame was.

SCOOP: HOUSE GOP MEMO HIGHLIGHTS REPUBLICAN WINS IN TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he was “surprised” by Elon Musk’s criticism of the “Big Beautiful Bill.” (Associated Press)

“If it was to truly kill the bill, then – I get it, he’s not an elected official – but you never really make such a bold statement without having a Plan B, and clearly, there’s no Plan B,” he said.

House GOP lawmakers have for the most part, however, appeared in agreement on Musk ultimately having little impact on their actions. 

“I don’t think he carries the same kind of gravitas that he did,” Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., said.

Another House Republican told Fox News Digital, “When he’s not standing by the president’s side, he doesn’t have the same weight.”

Congressional Republicans are working to pass a mammoth bill advancing Trump’s priorities on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt via the budget reconciliation process.

Reconciliation allows the party in power to totally sideline opposition – in this case, Democrats – to pass a sweeping piece of fiscal legislation by lowering the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51.

But there are rules and limitations for what can be included in the budget reconciliation process. House GOP leaders say they will seek to codify spending cuts identified by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) via the annual congressional appropriations process.

That has not stopped Musk from unleashing his fury against the bill over the money it could add to the already $36 trillion-and-counting federal debt.

“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL,” Musk wrote on X, among other posts.

President Donald Trump is pushing Republicans to pass his agenda (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

The Tesla founder made a veiled threat against lawmakers’ seats as well, “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”

House GOP leaders and the White House, meanwhile, have closed ranks around the bill.

“I want Elon and all my friends to recognize the complexity of what we’ve accomplished here. This extraordinary piece of legislation – record number of savings, record tax cuts for the American people and all the other benefits in it,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters in response to Musk.

“We worked on the bill for almost 14 months. You can’t go back to the drawing board, and we shouldn’t. We have a great product to deliver here.”

But Musk’s comments appear to have created a difficult political situation for some fiscal hawks who aired concerns about the bill before ultimately voting for it after GOP leaders made some last-minute changes tightening Medicaid work requirements and green energy subsidy cutbacks.

MIKE JOHNSON, DONALD TRUMP GET ‘BIG, ‘BEAUTIFUL’ WIN AS BUDGET PASSES HOUSE

“I wish [Musk] had been cheering from the stands before we had the vote, that would have helped us, but we are where we are,” House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., who fought for more conservative changes, told reporters.

He side-stepped a question on whether he was worried about election threats from Musk.

“I’m going to be – I hope that Elon continues to stay in this fight because I’m philosophically aligned with him, with his effort to try to balance this budget,” Burlison said.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, meanwhile, said he believes Musk is wrong but conceded his opinion mattered to at least part of the GOP base.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said Musk has ‘created a bigger challenge’ ((Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images))

“The challenge is, he’s a he’s a credible guy, and he’s done, a patriotic service,” Arrington said, referring to DOGE. I just think he’s just wrong about his comments that mischaracterize the one big, beautiful bill.”

“So to say that it’s a problem or that it has created a bigger challenge for us, is true. Because he’s got a big voice, he’s got a big audience. And more importantly, it’s a credible voice. But he’s wrong on this issue.”

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Conservative Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., said, “I would have preferred that he not go the direction that he went…maybe it was to encourage Congress to get on the ball with these rescissions packages that are coming.”

The White House, meanwhile, has stood by the bill.

“The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

President Donald Trump‘s “big, beautiful bill” is projected to increase the debt by $3 trillion, with interest, or $5 trillion if made permanent, according to estimates. 

An estimate of the House-passed bill by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects it would add more than $2.4 trillion to primary deficits before interest over 10 years, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonprofit public policy organization.

As of Wednesday, the national debt, which measures what the U.S. owes its creditors, was $36.2 trillion, and the national deficit, which occurs when the federal government’s spending exceeds its revenues, was $1 trillion, according to the Treasury Department. 

The massive spending package being considered by a Republican-controlled Congress aims to address a number of issues, including tax policy, border security and immigration, defense, energy production, the debt limit, and adjustments to SNAP and Medicaid.

TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ FACES RESISTANCE FROM REPUBLICAN SENATORS OVER DEBT FEARS

The White House launched a new website tabulating how much the “big, beautiful bill” is anticipated to save Americans. A public policy group estimates the bill would increase the debt by trillions of dollars, based on estimates by the Congressional Budget Office. (White House)

“Based on CBO’s estimate, the House-passed bill includes roughly $5.3 trillion of tax cuts and spending partially offset by $2.9 trillion of revenue increases and spending cuts,” a CRFB statement said. “Most significantly, the policies put forward by the Ways & Means Committee would increase deficits by $3.8 trillion, on net, while the policies in the Energy & Commerce title would reduce deficits by $1.1 trillion. With interest, the bill would add nearly $3.0 trillion to the debt through 2034 – or $5.0 trillion if various temporary provisions are made permanent.”

“OBBBA (One Big Beautiful Bill Act) would add far too much to the debt as written and could lead to far more fiscal damage than reported if temporary provisions are extended as intended,” the group said. 

It noted that the bill would boost near-term inflation, increase interest rates, add unnecessary complexity to the tax code as well as weaken market confidence and slow long-term economic growth.

It urged the Senate to make the bill “more responsible.”

PRICE TAG ESTIMATE FOR HOUSE GOP TAX PACKAGE RISES TO $3.94T

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Monday said he is still opposed to President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” despite discussions with him. (Getty Images)

Despite the bill passing in the House, some lawmakers have voiced opposition to the legislation, most notably Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. 

“We have never raised the debt ceiling without actually meeting that target,” Paul told reporters this week. “So you can say it doesn’t directly add to the debt, but if you increase the ceiling $5 trillion, you’ll meet that. And what it does is it puts it off the back burner. And then we won’t discuss it for a year or two.”

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Top Democrats recently said the bill would cause the deaths of an estimated 51,000 Americans due to changes to the federal healthcare system and the broader reconciliation legislation. Also against the bill is Elon Musk, Trump’s former head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House.

A federal appeals court refused to grant the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) request to put a temporary halt on a district judge’s preliminary injunction last week, preventing the Trump administration from moving ahead with plans to dismantle the department.

Washington, D.C., and two states previously requested the court to halt the announced DOE and Trump administration’s planned Reduction in Force (RIF) of half of the remaining employees at the DOE, as well as the closure of the department.

The dismantling was announced on March 11, 2025, and two days later, the Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump and others were sued in the District of Massachusetts.

Following suit, five labor organizations and two school districts did the same.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ASKS SCOTUS TO APPROVE DEI-RELATED EDUCATION CUTS

The plaintiffs requested the court for an injunction against the transfer of certain functions out of the Department, which Trump announced on March 21.

The District Court merged the two cases, and after reviewing the factual findings, issued an order to place a stop on the president’s actions.

The Trump administration appealed the decision and requested a temporary stop to the district court’s order, but on Wednesday that request was denied.

WASHINGTON AG JOINS COALITION SUING TO BLOCK TRUMP’S ORDER TO DISMANTLE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing in ceremony for interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro in the Oval Office of the White House on May 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump has announced Pirro, a former Fox News personality, judge, prosecutor, and politician, after losing support in the Senate for his first choice, Ed Martin, over his views on the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.  (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“What is at stake in this case, the District Court found, was whether a nearly half-century-old cabinet department would be permitted to carry out its statutorily assigned functions or prevented from doing so by a mass termination of employees aimed at implementing the effective closure of that department,” the court of appeals wrote. “Given the extensive findings made by the District Court and the absence of any contrary evidence having been submitted by the appellants, we conclude that the appellants’ stay motion does not warrant our interfering with the ordinary course of appellate adjudication in the face of what the record indicates would be the apparent consequences of our doing so. The appellants’ motion for a stay is denied.”

Republican senators, in April, introduced the “Returning Education to Our States Act” after Trump signed an Executive Order to close the DOE in March.

If passed, the bill would redirect portions of the department to other federal agencies, such as the Departments of Interior, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Labor, Defense, Justice and State.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SIGNIFICANTLY DISMANTLED IN NEW TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER

Education Secretary Lina McMahon announced the department would cut nearly 50% of its workforce. ((Getty Images/Reuters/Fox News Digital))

“The Department of Education was created to collect education data and advise state and local organizations on best practices,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, told Fox News Digital at the time. “Since then, it has grown into an oversized bureaucracy that dictates one-size-fits-all policies, standards and practices for students across the nation.”

The bill came amid widespread support among Republicans to eliminate the agency, including the current sitting Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, who detailed her “vision for eliminating the Department of Education” in a Fox News op-ed. 

McMahon and Rounds recently held a meeting where the “Returning Education to Our States Act” was discussed. 

DEM AGS SUE OVER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION LAYOFFS

In addition to eliminating the agency, the legislation would also make key changes to education compliance requirements, making it so that schools would no longer be required to administer standardized tests to identify struggling schools (CSI and TSI). The bill would also allow schools more autonomy to set teacher certification standards and professional development plans.

The executive order issued by President Donald Trump directs the department to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities,” but it takes an act of Congress to formally abolish the department.

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The Republican-led bill could potentially accompany President Donald Trump’s executive order and campaign promise to reshape the American education system as it heads to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions for debate.

Fox News Digital’s Preston Mizell contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead an investigation into whether certain individuals working for former President Joe Biden conspired to deceive the public about his mental state while also exercising his presidential responsibilities by using an autopen.

In a memo on Wednesday, Trump said the president of the U.S. has a tremendous amount of power and responsibility through the signature. Not only can the signature turn words into laws of the land, but it also appoints individuals to some of the highest positions in government, creates or eliminates national policies and allows prisoners to go free.

“In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,” Trump wrote. “This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”

He continued, saying Biden had suffered from “serious cognitive decline” for years, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently concluded that Biden should not stand trial, despite clear evidence he broke the law, because of his mental state.

EXCLUSIVE: COMER HAILS DOJ’S BIDEN PROBE AS HOUSE INVESTIGATION HEATS UP

President Trump called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to launch an investigation into whether former President Biden’s team used an autopen and covered up the former president’s cognitive decline. (Trump: Reuters / Autopen: AP)

“Biden’s cognitive issues and apparent mental decline during his presidency were even ‘worse’ in private, and those closest to him ‘tried to hide it’ from the public,” Trump said. “To do so, Biden’s advisors during his years in office severely restricted his news conferences and media appearances, and they scripted his conversations with lawmakers, government officials, and donors, all to cover up his inability to discharge his duties.”

Still, during the Biden presidency, the White House issued over 1,200 Presidential documents, appointed 235 judges to the federal bench and issued more pardons and commutations than any administration in U.S. history, Trump said.

The president wrote about Biden’s decision just two days before Christmas 2024, to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 most dangerous criminals on federal death row, including mass murderers and child killers.

TRUMP SAYS BIDEN DIDN’T FAVOR HIS ADMIN’S LAX BORDER SECURITY POLICY, SUGGESTS AUTOPEN PLAYED A ROLE

A new book describes President Joe Biden’s cabinet meetings as “scripted” and “uncomfortable.”  (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Care Can’t Wait Action)

“Although the authority to take these executive actions, along with many others, is constitutionally committed to the President, there are serious doubts as to the decision-making process and even the degree of Biden’s awareness of these actions being taken in his name,” Trump wrote. “The vast majority of Biden’s executive actions were signed using a mechanical signature pen, often called an autopen, as opposed to Biden’s own hand. This was especially true of actions taken during the second half of his Presidency, when his cognitive decline had apparently become even more clear to those working most closely with him.

“Given clear indications that President Biden lacked the capacity to exercise his Presidential authority, if his advisors secretly used the mechanical signature pen to conceal this incapacity, while taking radical executive actions all in his name, that would constitute an unconstitutional wielding of the power of the Presidency, a circumstance that would have implications for the legality and validity of numerous executive actions undertaken in Biden’s name,” he added.

TRUMP HAS NOT DIRECTED ADMIN TO DECLASSIFY BIDEN DOCS ON HEALTH ‘COVER-UP’

President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with U.S. President Joe Biden at Trump’s inauguration in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC (Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)

The memo goes on to call for an investigation that addresses if certain individuals, who are not named in the document, conspired to deceive the American public about the former president’s mental state and “unconstitutionally” exercised the president’s authority and responsibilities.

Specifically, Trump called on the attorney general’s investigation to look at any activity that purposefully shielded the public from information about Biden’s mental and physical health; any agreements between his aides to falsely deem recorded videos of Biden’s cognitive ability as fake; and any agreements between Biden’s aides to require false, public statements that elevated the president’s capabilities.

The investigation will also look at which policy documents the autopen was used for, including clemency grants, executive orders, and presidential memoranda, as well as who directed Biden’s signature to be affixed to those documents.

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Trump said last week that he thinks Biden did not really agree with many of his administration’s lax border security policies, instead suggesting that those surrounding the former president took advantage of his declining faculties and utilized the autopen to pass radical directives pertaining to the border.

House Republicans, led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, launched an investigation earlier last month aimed at determining whether Biden, who was in declining health during the final months of his presidency, was mentally fit to authorize the use of the autopen. Comer said last week he was “open” to dragging Biden before the House to answer questions about the matter if necessary. 

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, Capitol Hill and more Fox News politics content. Here’s what’s happening…

• Top Dems claim 51,000 people will die annually from the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ and its Obamacare freeze
• Federal judge delivers one-two punch to Trump in Abrego Garcia case
• Trump DOJ takes ‘unprecedented’ step admonishing foreign judge in free speech case centered on Rumble

Convicted Trump Tax Leaker Pleads the Fifth 

A man serving in prison for leaking President Donald Trump’s and thousands of others’ confidential tax records recently asserted his Fifth Amendment right to the House Judiciary Committee and declined to testify before the panel, Fox News Digital has learned.

A public defender wrote to the Republican-led committee on behalf of Charles Littlejohn, a former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) contractor serving out a five-year sentence in Illinois, that because Littlejohn was appealing his sentence, he did not have to testify before Congress.

“The testimony that you seek from Mr. Littlejohn directly implicates his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination,” the public defender wrote on Saturday. “Mr. Littlejohn validly exercises that Constitutional right in declining to testify.”…READ MORE

Former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn was seen Monday after a judge sentenced him to five years in prison for leaking the tax returns of former President Donald Trump and other wealthy people. (Fox News | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

White House

‘QUASI-TOTALITARIAN’: Vance compares Harvard to North Korea as he takes aim at school’s ‘ideological diversity’

‘GOOD CONVERSATION’: Putin tells Trump Russia will respond to Ukrainian attack on warplanes

World Stage

‘DECISIVE ACTION’: ICE arrests Russian national accused of being member of Al Qaeda

‘IGNORES’ HAMAS: Israeli officials object to expected UN Security Council ceasefire resolution

TOUGH ON CHINA: Trump says Xi is ‘very tough’ and ‘extremely hard to make a deal with’

Will the tariff truce with China give President Donald Trump a political bounce? (Fox News)

PUTIN’S PRICE TAG: Senate sanctions on Russia: bargaining chip for Trump’s negotiations with Putin or joker card

Capitol Hill 

BEHIND THE CURTAIN: Comer widens Biden ‘cover-up’ probe, seeks interviews with Anita Dunn and Ron Klain

MASSIE’S MOVE: Massie calls on Elon Musk to fund primary challenges against Republicans who backed Trump tax bill

REVOLVING DOOR: Fetterman dismisses questions as another top staffer reportedly jumps ship

Across America 

DEMS DENIED: US judge dismisses DNC election commission lawsuit, in a victory for Trump

BUDGET WATCHDOGS: Radical new DOGE transparency powers could hit Congress after Elon Musk exit

Elon Musk looks on as President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. (AP/Evan Vucci)

Get the latest updates on the Trump administration and Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

Nine Democratic candidates took the stage in New York City Wednesday for the first of two debates ahead of the June 24 mayoral primary, and the claws were out for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. 

Cuomo’s COVID-19 scandal was front and center just minutes into the debate as moderators asked the candidates how they would stand up to President Donald Trump if elected mayor.

The former governor dismissed the legitimacy of the Justice Department’s investigation into his alleged false congressional testimony about decisions made during COVID-19 when pressed by moderator Sally Goldenberg of Politico. 

“That’s the Trump line, the MAGA line, because this was during the Trump re-election,” Cuomo said when asked repeatedly whether he had a role in producing a contested COVID-19 report. 

ANDREW CUOMO THE BIGGEST TARGET AS NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL PRIMARY SHIFTS INTO HIGH GEAR

Andrew Cuomo, candidate for New York City mayor, during a Democratic mayoral primary debate in New York Wednesday, June 4, 2025.  (Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Cuomo said the Justice Department’s investigation is another example of the pandemic’s game of “political football.”

DOJ INVESTIGATING ANDREW CUOMO FOR ALLEGEDLY LYING ABOUT COVID DECISIONS, SOURCE CONFIRMS

“This is what Mr. Trump does, right? He started an investigation against me, against Kathy Hochul, against Sen. Chuck Schumer, against Hillary Clinton. This is one of his tactics,” Cuomo said. 

Also joining Cuomo on the debate stage Wednesday night were City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, city Comptroller Brad Lander, former city Comptroller Scott Stringer, former state Assemblyman Michael Blake from the Bronx, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie from Brooklyn, state Sen. Jessica Ramos from Queens and former hedge fund executive Whitney Tilson.

The winner of the Democratic Party mayoral primary will be seen as the overwhelming favorite to win November’s general election in the blue city. Early voting in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City begins June 14 and runs through June 22.

Cuomo is the clear polling and fundraising frontrunner in the Democratic primary given his name recognition and experience.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is running for re-election as an independent this year.  (AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who has found unlikely common ground with the Trump administration in efforts to combat illegal immigration, is running as an independent. The Justice Department made the unusual decision earlier this year to dismiss an indictment against Adams on federal corruption charges.

“I know how to deal with Donald Trump because I’ve dealt with him before,” Cuomo said on the debate stage. 

Cuomo touted his experience as governor, particularly in challenging Trump’s agenda during his first term as president. 

“I am the last person on this stage that Mr. Trump wants to see as mayor, and that’s why I should be the first choice for the people of this city to have as mayor,” Cuomo said. 

(Left to right): Democratic mayoral candidates Brad Lander, Jessica Ramos, Zellnor Myrie, Andrew Cuomo, Whitney Tilson and Zohran Mamdani participate in a Democratic mayoral primary debate at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Center studios in New York June 4, 2025. (Yuki Iwamura/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

When again pressed by the moderators and his competitors, Cuomo said he told Congress the truth about the number of nursing home deaths in New York during COVID-19, the basis of the Department of Justice’s investigation. 

“No, I told Congress the truth,” Cuomo said. “No, we did not undercount any deaths.”

Still, Cuomo refused to answer whether he was involved in the production of the contested COVID-19 report. 

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The former governor was grilled by Republican lawmakers last year about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. House Republicans subsequently recommended the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against him. They accused him of intentionally lying to Congress during the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the excessive number of nursing home deaths.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Greg Wehner contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a proclamation to student visas for foreigners seeking to study or participate in exchange programs at Harvard University, the move in the ongoing feud between the White House and the Ivy League school. 

The proclamation directs the State Department to “consider revoking” existing academic or exchange visas of any current Harvard students who meet certain criteria. 

“Admission into the United States to attend, conduct research, or teach at our Nation’s institutions of higher education is a privilege granted by our Government, not a guarantee,” Trump said. “That privilege is necessarily tied to the host institution’s compliance and commitment to following Federal law.  Harvard University has failed in this respect, among many others.”

The proclamation doesn’t apply to foreign nationals attending other universities’ Student Exchange Visa Program (SEVP) and exempts others whose entry is deemed in the national interest.

STATE DEPARTMENT NOW SCRUTINIZING ALL VISA HOLDERS ASSOCIATED WITH HARVARD

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation Wednesday to suspend student visas at Harvard University. (Getty Images)

Last month, the State Department said that it would begin scrutinizing all visa holders associated with Harvard University, not just student visa holders. The investigation is aimed at identifying potential security vulnerabilities or other abuses of the visa system.

Wednesday’s proclamation cited Harvard’s history “concerning foreign ties and radicalism.”

Harvard is suing the Trump administration over its attempts to reign in the university.  (Fox News)

“Harvard has failed to provide sufficient information to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about foreign students’ known illegal or dangerous activities, reporting deficient data on only three students,” it said. 

It said Harvard has also developed “extensive entanglements with foreign adversaries,” while receiving more than $150 million from China alone. 

In exchange, Harvard has “hosted Chinese Communist Party paramilitary members and partnered with China-based individuals on research that could advance China’s military modernization.”

TRUMP SAYS HARVARD’S FOREIGN STUDENTS ARE FROM COUNTRIES PAYING ‘NOTHING’ FOR THEIR EDUCATION

Pro-Palestinian protests at Harvard University.  (Getty Images )

The Trump administration has accused Harvard of failing to stamp out antisemitism on campus, among other issues.  

The proclamation said Harvard has seen a “drastic rise in crime in recent years while failing to discipline at least some categories of conduct violations on campus.”

Harvard officials have said the Trump administration is retaliating against the university with moves to freeze taxpayer-funded research grants, an attempt to revoke its ability to enroll international students, to end it’s tax-exempt status and to open an investigation into whether it discriminated against white, Asian, male or straight employees or job applicants.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Harvard for comment. 

President Donald Trump has signed a sweeping order blocking travel to the U.S. from nearly 20 countries identified as high-risk for terrorism, visa abuse and failure to share security information.

The new travel restrictions — announced under Executive Order 14161 — apply to nationals from 12 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen, all deemed “very high risk” due to terrorist activity, weak or hostile governments, and high visa overstay rates. 

TRUMP ADMIN MULLS NEW TRAVEL BAN, BUT NO DECISIONS MADE YET

President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Feb. 22, in Oxon Hill, Md.  (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Seven more countries, including Venezuela, Cuba, and Laos, face partial restrictions.

“President Trump is fulfilling his promise to protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors that want to come to our country and cause us harm,” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson to Fox News Digital. 

She called the restrictions “commonsense” and targeted at countries that “lack proper vetting, exhibit high visa overstay rates, or fail to share identity and threat information.”

In a video posted Wednesday night, President Trump said, “The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas. We don’t want them.”

TRUMP VISA POLICY ‘FAR MORE RESTRAINED’ THAN BIDEN POLICY TARGETING ISRAELIS THAT FLEW UNDER THE RADAR: EXPERT

President Donald Trump walks from the Oval Office to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, March 28, in Washington, D.C.  (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

“In the 21st century, we’ve seen one terror attack after another carried out by foreign visa overstayers from dangerous places all over the world,” he added. “Thanks to Biden’s open-door policies, today there are millions and millions of these illegals who should not be in our country.”

Trump said his first-term travel restrictions were “one of our most successful policies” and “a key part of preventing major foreign terror attacks on American soil.”

President Donald Trump speaks during an event on energy production in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Afghanistan, for example, has a student visa overstay rate of 29.3% and is controlled by the Taliban, a designated global terrorist group. 

Iran remains a state sponsor of terrorism and has refused cooperation with U.S. authorities. Libya, Somalia, and Yemen all lack functioning governments capable of issuing secure documents.

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“We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen those who seek to enter the United States,” Trump said.

“That is why today I am signing a new executive order placing travel restrictions on countries including Yemen, Somalia, Haiti, Libya, and numerous others,” he concluded. “We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm, and nothing will stop us from keeping America safe.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday that President Donald Trump had nominated two high-ranking military officials to lead the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and U.S. African Command (AFRICOM).

Trump nominated Navy Vice Adm. Charles B. Cooper II to be promoted to admiral and be assigned as commander of CENTCOM at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.

The president also nominated Air Force Lt. Gen. Dagvin R.M. Anderson to be promoted to general and assigned as commander of AFRICOM in Stuttgart, Germany.

TRUMP’S PICK FOR JOINT CHIEFS CHAIR DANIEL ‘RAZIN’ CAINE SET FOR SENATE GRILLING

Navy Vice Adm. Charles B. Cooper II has been nominated to command CENTCOM at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. (U.S. Navy)

According to the CENTCOM website, Vice Adm. Cooper built a career as a surface warfare officer, in which he served on guided-missile cruisers, guided-missile destroyers, aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships.

From land, he served in several executive, military assistant and special assistant roles for the White House, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, AFRICOM and the U.S. Pacific Fleet headquarters.

WHO IS DANIEL ‘RAZIN’ CAINE? AIR FORCE GENERAL TAPPED FOR TOP ADVISOR ROLE IN PENTAGON UPHEAVAL

Air Force Lt. Gen. Dagvin R.M. Anderson has been nominated to command AFRICOM in Stuttgart, Germany. (U.S. Air Force)

Cooper has also served as the principal U.S. Advisor to the Interior Minister of Afghanistan and Director of Surface Warfare Officer assignments.

Lt. Gen. Anderson currently serves as the director for Joint Force Development, Joint Staff at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

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He has flown the KC-135R, MC-130E, and U-28A operationally across the globe. Anderson’s career also includes commanding a special operations squadron, expeditionary squadron, operations group, special operations wing, and Special Operations Command, Africa.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint against Texas to block the state’s two-decade-old law that provides in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.

The complaint was filed Wednesday in the Northern District of Texas against the State of Texas and several Texas officials to get Texas to comply with federal requirements.

Under federal law, higher education institutions are prohibited from providing benefits to illegal aliens not offered to U.S. citizens.

The DOJ’s complaint aims to enjoin the enforcement of a Texas law requiring colleges and universities to provide in-state tuition rates for immigrants who maintain residency in Texas, regardless of whether they are in the U.S. legally.

TRUMP ADMIN SUES COLORADO, DENVER OVER ‘SANCTUARY LAWS,’ ALLEGED INTERFERENCE IN IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT

According to the DOJ, the laws in Texas “blatantly” conflict with federal law, putting them in conflict with the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said. “The Justice Department will relentlessly fight to vindicate federal law and ensure that U.S. citizens are not treated like second-class citizens anywhere in the country.”

The lawsuit was filed in response to two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump since returning to the Oval Office in January.

ATTORNEY GENERAL BONDI ISSUES STARK WARNING FOR ILLINOIS AND NY GOVERNORS TO ‘COMPLY’ WITH FEDERAL LAW

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks to reporters outside the White House in Washington, D.C.  (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

The executive orders were signed to ensure illegal immigrants cannot receive taxpayer benefits or preferential treatment.

One of the orders, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” ordered all agencies to “ensure, to the maximum extent permitted by law, that no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens.”

The other order, “Protecting American Communities From Criminal Aliens,” directs officials to “take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of State and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable, including State laws that provide in-State higher education tuition to aliens but not to out-of-State American citizens.”

TURLEY PREDICTS ‘FEROCIOUS’ COURT BATTLE, BUT SAYS TRUMP ADMIN HAS ‘STRONG CASE’ ON ICE DEPORTATIONS IN NY

The Justice Department filed a complaint against Texas to block the state’s law that provides in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Fox News Digital has reached out to Gov. Greg Abbott’s office for comment.

Widely known as the Texas Dream Act, the legislation being targeted by the Trump administration was introduced in February 2001, when federal courts ruled that a child’s immigration status should not prevent the child’s access to primary and secondary schools.

But when it came to higher education, federal immigration status could have prevented some children born outside the U.S. from getting a college education from a public institution because of higher rates charged to nonresidents.

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When children born outside the U.S. graduated from Texas high schools, those students were required by previous state law to pay a higher rate to Texas public colleges or universities, as if they were from out of state or were international students.

The legislation, signed by Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, June 16, 2001, removed federal immigration status as a factor in determining eligibility to pay in-state tuition at Texas public colleges and universities for students who graduate from a Texas high school and who meet the minimum residency, academic and registration criteria.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to provide all non-citizens deported from the U.S. to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador to be afforded the opportunity to seek habeas relief in court, and challenge their alleged gang status— the latest in a heated fight centered on President Donald Trump‘s use of the 1789 Alien Enemies Act to deport certain migrants.”

In short, the Government must facilitate the Class’s ability to seek habeas relief to contest their removal under the Act,” Judge Boasberg said in the order, filed late Wednesday afternoon. “Exactly what such facilitation must entail will be determined in future proceedings. Although the Court is mindful that such a remedy may implicate sensitive diplomatic or national-security concerns within the exclusive province of the Executive Branch, it also has a constitutional duty to provide a remedy that will “make good the wrong done.”

Notably, the order also includes Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Salvadorian migrant and alleged MS-13 member who was deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March in what administration officials have acknowledged was an administrative error. That case alone had touched off a heated court fight, which prompted intervention from the Supreme Court in April.

WHO IS JAMES BOASBERG, THE US JUDGE AT THE CENTER OF TRUMP’S DEPORTATION EFFORTS?
 

A split image of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, left, and U.S President Donald Trump, right.  Judge Boasberg will hear from Trump lawyers and plaintiffs in an amended Alien Enemies Act case on Wednesday, a high-profile hearing likely to spark fresh ire from Trump. Photos via Getty Images (Getty Images)

U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg made headlines earlier this year for granting the first emergency restraining order blocking the Trump administration from invoking a 1798 law to immediately deport Venezuelan nationals, including alleged members of the violent gang Tren de Aragua, in March. 

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He also ordered that plane carrying migrants removed by the law in question be “immediately” returned to the U.S., which did not happen.The Trump administration is currently facing multiple court challenges over those deportation flights it conducted in March under the Alien Enemies Act, which Judge Boasberg had ordered to be immediately returned.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

Less than a week after leaving his position as head of the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk is calling on Americans to urge their senators and representatives to “kill” the “big, beautiful” budget bill backed by President Donald Trump.

Musk has grown increasingly critical of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,, claiming that if passed, it would increase the U.S. budget deficit by $5 billion.

On Wednesday afternoon, Musk posted an image of the 2003 Uma Thurman movie “Kill Bill,” appearing to reference his call to nix the Trump-backed bill.

“We need a new bill that doesn’t grow the deficit,” Musk said on X. 

In another post, Musk urged: “Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.” 

TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ FACES RESISTANCE FROM REPUBLICAN SENATORS OVER DEBT FEARS

Musk has grown increasingly critical of Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill, claiming that if passed, it would increase the U.S. budget deficit by $5 billion. (Getty Images)

Musk said Tuesday afternoon that he “just can’t stand it anymore.”

“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk said. “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

Musk previously criticized the bill during an interview with CBS, noting he was “disappointed” in the spending bill because “it undermines” all the work his DOGE team was doing.

The bill passed the House in late May, ahead of Memorial Day, largely along party lines. However, two Republicans did vote against the measure, citing insufficient spending cuts and a rising national debt. GOP Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has also signaled he likely will not vote in favor of the bill in its current form, citing a debt ceiling increase that is a red line for him. 

TRUMP WARNS RAND PAUL HE’S PLAYING INTO ‘HANDS OF THE DEMOCRATS’ WITH ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ OPPOSITION

Elon Musk looks on as President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. (AP/Evan Vucci)

Trump has lashed out at Paul and others for opposing the bill, but so far he has taken a more measured approach to Musk’s criticism.

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“Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Tuesday afternoon briefing when asked about Musk’s most recent criticism.

“It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill and he’s sticking to it,” she said. 

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.