NationalWatch

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., forced a name change for President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” moments before the legislative package passed the upper chamber of Congress. 

While Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., was chairing the Senate, Schumer raised a point of order against lines three to five on the first page of the legislative proposal that said, “SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ‘’One Big Beautiful Bill Act.'” 

Schumer argued the title of the bill violated Section 313 B1A of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, or what’s commonly referred to as the “Byrd Rule.” 

SENATE PARLIAMENTARIAN OKS BAN ON PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERAL FUNDING IN TRUMP MEGABILL

Ricketts said the point of order was sustained, meaning that text will be stricken from the bill. 

“This is not a ‘big, beautiful bill’ at all. That’s why I moved down the floor to strike the title. It is now called ‘the act.’ That’s what it’s called. But it is really the ‘big ugly betrayal,’ and the American people know it,” Schumer told reporters. “This vote will haunt our Republican colleagues for years to come. Because of this bill, tens of millions will lose health insurance. Millions of jobs will disappear. People will get sick and die, kids will go hungry and the debt will explode to levels we have never seen.

“This bill is so irredeemable that one Republican literally chose to retire rather than vote yes and decimate his own state,” Schumer added, referring to Sen. Thom Tills, R-N.C.

Asked whether he hoped to irritate Trump by changing the name of the bill, Schumer responded, “I didn’t even think of President Trump. I thought of the truth. This is not a beautiful bill. Anyone who loses their health insurance doesn’t think it’s beautiful. Any worker in the clean energy industry who loses their job does not think it’s beautiful. Any mom who can’t feed her kid on $5 a day doesn’t think it’s beautiful. We wanted the American people to know the truth.”

The Senate narrowly passed Trump’s $3.3 trillion spending package by a 51-50 vote on Tuesday after an all-night voting session. 

Vice President JD Vance was the tiebreaking vote. No Senate Democrats crossed the aisle to support the legislation. Tillis and Republican senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine opposed the megabill. 

Democrats condemned the bill’s passage, including Schumer’s fellow New Yorker, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. She has not confirmed a primary run. 

“JD Vance was the deciding vote to cut Medicaid across the country,” the progressive “Squad” member wrote on X. “An absolute and utter betrayal of working families.” 

CONGRESS MUST RECONCILE KEY DIFFERENCES IN BOTH VERSIONS OF TRUMP’S SIGNATURE BILL 

Vance championed the bill as securing “massive tax cuts, especially no tax on tips and overtime. And most importantly, big money for border security.” 

“This is a big win for the American people,” the vice president wrote. 

He also approved an assessment by longtime GOP operative Roger Stone.

“The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects Trump’s reconciliation bill would add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade by extending the president’s tax cuts that he first implemented in 2017. In fact, federal revenues spiked after the 2017 Trump tax cuts just like they did after Reagan and JFK implemented across-the-board tax cuts,” Stone wrote.

“The deficit is caused by excess spending which the administration is addressing in a series of recision bills. PS the CBO is always wrong.” 

Despite initial reservations, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted in favor of the legislation after Republicans added Alaska-specific provisions to curry her favor. 

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The bill now heads back to the House for final approval. Congress must reconcile differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill, namely on Medicaid. Republican leaders are aiming to get it to the president’s desk by Friday, July 4.

Senate Republicans coalesced to pass President Donald Trump‘s colossal “big, beautiful bill” early Tuesday morning. 

Senate Republican leaders and the White House have pitched the legislative behemoth as a means to turbocharge the economy, root out waste, fraud and abuse in a slew of federal programs, and to make crucial investments in defense and Trump’s border and immigration priorities. 

SENATORS ENTER MARATHON VOTE-A-RAMA AS TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ DEADLINE BARRELS NEAR

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have bashed the bill as a deficit-ballooning monstrosity that would boot millions of Americans from their healthcare and rollback key Medicaid, food nutrition assistance and green energy provisions ushered in by the Obama and Biden administrations. 

So what’s in Trump’s bill? Below, Fox News Digital breaks down key proposals in Senate Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill.”

Tax cuts

The bill seeks to permanently extend Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which a House GOP memo from earlier this year said would avoid a 22% tax hike for American families at the end of this year.

It also includes tax cuts specifically tailored to the middle and working-class, like allowing people to deduct taxes on up to $25,000 of tipped wages. That deduction would begin to phase out for people making $150,000 per year or $300,000 as a married couple.

The Senate bill would also allow people to deduct up to $12,500 in overtime pay under the same income guidelines. Both the tipped and overtime wage deductions would be available through 2028.

Another temporary tax break through 2028 would allow people to deduct interest paid on their car loans.

For seniors aged 65 and older, the bill would give an additional $6,000 tax deduction through 2028.

SALT

The legislation increases the current cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions, a benefit primarily geared toward people living in high-cost-of-living areas like New York City, Los Angeles and their surrounding suburbs.

The current SALT deduction cap would be raised to $40,000 for five years, before reverting down to $10,000 – where it stands now – for the subsequent five years.

Blue state Republicans fought for the increase, arguing it’s an existential issue for a bloc of lawmakers whose victories were decisive for the House GOP majority. However, Republicans from redder areas have criticized SALT deductions as giveaways to high-tax states as a reward for their progressive policies.

DEM DELAY TACTIC ENDS, DEBATE BEGINS ON TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

Medicaid

Medicaid cuts have proven the biggest pain point among Republicans, though many of the changes that have been proposed are widely popular. Cuts to the widely used healthcare program account for roughly $1 trillion, according to recent analyses from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The CBO found that under the Senate GOP’s plan, nearly 12 million Americans could lose their health insurance.

Stricter work requirements have been the crown jewel for the GOP. The bill would require ​​able-bodied, childless adults between the ages of 18 and 64 to work at least 80 hours a month to maintain their benefits, or by ​​participating in community service, going to school or engaging in a work program.

However, there are more divisive changes, like tweaks to the Medicaid provider tax rate. The rate change would, year-by-year, lower the provider tax in Medicaid expansion states from 6% to 3.5%. The plan was tweaked to comport with Senate rules and now starts in fiscal year 2028.

Just ahead of the bill’s passage in the Senate, Republicans doubled a rural hospital stabilization fund pushed for by lawmakers concerned that the changes to the provider rate would shutter rural hospitals around the country. 

That fund was boosted to $50 billion, half of which will be distributed through grants, in chunks of $10 billion each year. 

Republicans also removed a ban on Medicaid benefits funding transgender healthcare, largely because it would not have complied with Senate rules.

SNAP

Senate Republicans’ bill also includes cuts to the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.

Like tweaks to Medicaid, Republicans pushed for work requirements for SNAP for able-bodied, working-age adults between the ages of 18 and 64 years old, and for parents with children over the age of 7.  

The bill would also shift some of the cost burden of the program from the federal government to the states.

Currently, the federal government covers the costs of SNAP, but states with a higher payment error rate would cover a greater share of benefit costs.

If the error rate is 6% or higher, states would be subject to a sliding scale that could see their share of allotments rise to a range of between 5% and 15%.

However, in last-minute deal-making, Senate Republicans delayed SNAP work requirements for states that have a payment error rate of 13%, like Alaska, or higher for one whole year. 

SENATE REPUBLICANS RAM TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ THROUGH KEY TEST VOTE

Debt limit

The bill raises the borrowing limit on the U.S. government’s $36.2 trillion national debt by $5 trillion.

A failure to raise that limit – also called the debt ceiling – before the U.S. government runs out of cash to pay its obligations could result in a downgrade in the country’s credit rating and potential turmoil in financial markets.

Trump has made it a priority for congressional Republicans to deal with the debt ceiling and avoid a national credit default. A bipartisan agreement struck in 2023 suspended the debt ceiling until January 2025.

Multiple projections show the U.S. is poised to run out of cash to pay its debts by sometime this summer.

HOUSE LEADERS EYE WEDNESDAY VOTE ON TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ AS SLEEPLESS SENATE DRUDGES ON

Defense and border spending 

While the bill cuts spending on Medicaid and other domestic programs, it includes billions of dollars in new funding for defense programs and federal immigration enforcement.

The bill provides $25 billion to build a Golden Dome missile defense system, similar to Israel’s Iron Dome. It would also include $45.6 billion to complete Trump’s border wall, and $4.1 billion to hire new border agents.

The bill would also surge an additional $45 billion to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement for the detention of illegal immigrants.

An additional $15 billion would be directed toward modernizing the U.S. nuclear triad and $29 billion for shipbuilding and the Maritime Industrial Base.

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Immigration fees

Several new provisions were included in the bill that hike, or create, fees for migrants who are seeking asylum, a work permit or are apprehended, among others.

Among the list of new fees is a new, $100 fee for those seeking asylum. That becomes an annual fee for every year that the asylum application remains pending. There is also a new, $1,000 minimum fee for immigrants granted temporary entry into the U.S. on the grounds of “humanitarian or significant public interest.”

For migrants caught trying to illegally enter the country through a port of entry, a new minimum $5,000 fee would come into play. There is another new $5,000 fee for migrants that are arrested after being ordered to be removed.

There are also new fees of between $500 and $1,500 for migrants whose immigration status is changed by a judge, or who appeal for a status change.

Then there is a new, $30 Electronic Visa Update System fee for certain Chinese nationals. They also have to maintain biographic and travel information in the country online. 

USAID will no longer send foreign assistance across the globe, with the State Department taking over any such programs that President Donald Trump’s administration wishes to continue, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday.

Rubio made the announcement in a Tuesday statement, saying USAID had for decades failed to ensure the programs it funded actually supported America’s interests. The State Department will take over foreign assistance programs beginning July 1, he said.

“Beyond creating a globe-spanning NGO industrial complex at taxpayer expense, USAID has little to show since the end of the Cold War. Development objectives have rarely been met, instability has often worsened, and anti-American sentiment has only grown,” Rubio wrote.

“This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end. Under the Trump Administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests. As of July 1st, USAID will officially cease to implement foreign assistance. Foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies—and which advance American interests—will be administered by the State Department, where they will be delivered with more accountability, strategy, and efficiency,” he continued.

‘FIRED ME ILLEGALLY’: EMOTIONAL EX-USAID EMPLOYEES LEAVE BUILDING WITH BELONGINGS AFTER MASS LAYOFFS

The move comes after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gutted USAID as part of Trump’s effort to remove waste, fraud and abuse from the federal government.

The agency came under fire for many funding choices, including allocating $1.5 million for a program that sought to “advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities” and a $70,000 program for a “DEI musical” in Ireland.

As a result, Rubio announced on March 11 that the State Department had completed a six-week review and would cancel more than 80% of USAID programs — cutting roughly 5,200 of USAID’s 6,200 programs.

RISCH URGES ‘TOP TO BOTTOM’ USAID SPENDING REVIEW AFTER WASTE, FRAUD EXPOSED

Democrats have blasted the Trump administration’s efforts to trim foreign aid programs, and many activists have protested the plans. Actress Charlize Theron lashed out at the administration on Monday.

“The world feels like it’s burning because it is,” Theron said at the annual Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Program Block Party, according to Variety.

“Foreign aid cuts brought HIV and AIDS programs in my home country of South Africa to an absolute standstill,” Theron said. “All of this is not just detrimental, it’s dangerous. People will lose their lives. Many have already, unfortunately, and at a frightening rate. It’s absolutely heartbreaking to see this kind of unnecessary suffering.”

Theron also criticized recent immigration raids in Los Angeles and claimed that women and LGBTQ people are also under threat of “being erased.”

“Here in Los Angeles, in the U.S. and across the globe, we are moving backwards fast. Immigration policy is destroying the lives of families, not criminals. Women’s rights are becoming less and less every day, queer and trans lives are increasingly being erased, and gender-based violence is on the rise. This isn’t just policy, it’s personal. F— them,” she said.

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Theron emphasized, however, that there is hope in “standing up, organizing, protesting, voting and caring for each other, and refusing to accept that this is the new normal.” She touted her charity as an example.

Fox News’ Diana Stancy and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report

An Iran-linked cyber group is threatening to release a trove of emails it claims to have stolen from top Trump officials and allies. 

The hackers previously released a batch of stolen emails to the media during the 2024 campaign. 

Under the pseudonym Robert, the hackers first told Reuters they had roughly 100 gigabytes of emails from White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump confidante Roger Stone, Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan and Stormy Daniels, the porn star who claims to have had an affair with Trump. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi called the hack an “unconscionable cyberattack” and said government agencies would work to “protect the officials targeted by this rogue group.”

FBI INVESTIGATING IRAN STRIKE LEAKER, LEAVITT SAYS: ‘THEY SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE’

FBI Director Kash Patel added in a statement, “Safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the president’s mission is a top priority.”  

“Anyone associated with any kind of breach of national security will be fully investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Marci McCarthy, spokesperson for the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency, called Iran’s threat “an effort to distract, discredit and divide.” 

“These criminals will be brought to justice,” she said in a statement. “Let this be a warning to others there will be no refuge, tolerance or leniency for these actions.”

“A hostile foreign adversary is threatening to illegally exploit purportedly stolen and unverified material in an effort to distract, discredit and divide. This so-called ‘cyber attack’ is nothing more than digital propaganda, and the targets are no coincidence. This is a calculated smear campaign meant to damage President Trump and discredit honorable public servants.” 

Last summer, at the height of the 2024 election, Iranian-linked hackers sent material stolen from the Trump campaign to individuals associated with the Biden campaign and to U.S. media organizations. In an indictment in September, the Biden Justice Department accused three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps of being behind the leak. 

In May, the hackers behind “Robert” signaled to Reuters they would not be leaking any more documents. “I am retired, man.” 

However, the group reached back out after Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran’s nuclear sites. They said they were organizing a sale of the stolen communications and asked Reuters to publicize it.

AMERICANS VULNERABLE TO CYBERATTACKS, LONE WOLF THREATS IN WAKE OF IRANIAN AIRSTRIKES: FORMER FBI AGENT

U.S. cyber officials warned on Monday that U.S. companies and critical infrastructure operators may still be in Iran’s crosshairs. Experts have suggested Iran may be looking for non-military ways to punish the U.S. for its strikes. 

“Despite a declared ceasefire and ongoing negotiations towards a permanent solution, Iranian-affiliated cyber actors and hacktivist groups may still conduct malicious cyber activity,” U.S. agencies said in an advisory. 

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The new threat comes as Trump insists he is not speaking to Iran and has offered them nothing for nuclear negotiations. He has said Iran’s facilities were “totally obliterated.” 

Fox News’ David Spunt contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: The No. 2 House Republican is dismissing Elon Musk’s attacks on President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” after the tech billionaire once again jumped into the public fray over the legislation.

“His criticism has been consistently off-base,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital on Monday. 

“You know, this is a bill that will create millions of jobs. And, you know, you go back and look at what happened in 2017 when we lowered rates and created a good atmosphere to create jobs, then we saw millions of jobs get created. And we’re at the point again today where the economy is waiting for this bill.”

Musk, who criticized the House version of the bill before appearing to back off, has launched another tirade against the legislation this week while it’s being pushed through the Senate.

SENATE REPUBLICANS RAM TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ THROUGH KEY TEST VOTE

“It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS, that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!! Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,” Musk posted on X.

But Scalise told Fox News Digital, “We’re moving fast to get it done because of the positive impacts it will have on our economy.”

The Senate is expected to pass the legislation sometime Wednesday, after which it is poised to move back to the House of Representatives.

An earlier version passed the House in late May by just one vote, but the two chambers must now sync up to get a bill on Trump’s desk by the Fourth of July.

Two sources told Fox News Digital on Tuesday morning that House GOP leaders are still planning for a 12 p.m. House Rules Committee meeting to advance the bill.

The House Rules Committee is the final gateway before most legislation gets a chamber-wide vote.

That could tee up a procedural vote on the bill as early as Wednesday morning, and final passage by Wednesday evening or Thursday.

“I’ve always said failure’s not an option because, you know, there have been many times where the bill could have fallen apart. And it didn’t, because we always stayed focused on getting it done,” Scalise said. “And that’s that’s where all the focus needs to be right now.”

But the Senate’s various modifications to the bill have angered both moderate and conservative Republicans. 

DEM DELAY TACTIC ENDS, DEBATE BEGINS ON TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

Moderates are wary of the Senate measures that would shift more Medicaid costs to states that expanded their programs under Obamacare, while conservatives have said those cuts are not enough to offset the additional spending in other parts of the bill.

“We’re having a lot of conversations with our members, and we are following what changes are being made to the bill because some could help fix some of those issues,” Scalise said.

“We’re definitely aware of the concerns from our members. But there are a lot of other members that do want to get this bill passed for the president and recognize that the bulk of what we sent over to them is still intact.”

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Asked if he was optimistic about the timeline as of early Monday evening, Scalise said, “The plan is still to bring members back and have votes as early as Wednesday morning.”

The legislation is a 940-page bill advancing Trump’s agenda on taxes, the border, defense, energy, and the national debt.

Fox News Digital reached out to Musk for comment via email to Tesla.

President Donald Trump warned that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is a “monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,” after tech billionaire Elon Musk intensified his attacks on Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” 

“DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible?” Trump told the media Tuesday morning as he departed for a trip to the Florida Everglades to visit a new migrant detention center. “He gets a lot of subsidies. But, Elon was very upset that the EV mandate is going to be terminated.” 

His response followed a question regarding whether he would deport Musk, who is originally from South Africa. Trump responded, “I don’t know, we’ll have to take a look.”

Trump previously told the media in June that his relationship with Musk changed when the president began discussing plans to eliminate the electic vehicle mandate, which would affect Musk’s signature electric company, Tesla. Trump signed a trio of congressional resolutions on June 12 ending California’s restrictive rules for diesel engines and mandates on elective vehicle sales, with Trump celebrating that his signature “will kill the California mandates forever.”

“When you look at it … not everybody wants an electric car,” Trump continued in his remarks regarding Musk on Tuesday morning. “I don’t want an electric car. I want to have maybe gasoline. Maybe electric, maybe a hybrid. Maybe some day a hydrogen. You have a hydrogen car, it has one problem: it blows up.” 

REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS STAND FIRM AGAINST MUSK’S ‘KILL THE BILL’ ASSAULT ON TRUMP’S AGENDA

Musk shot back in response to a video clip of Trump’s remarks Tuesday morning that he would not continue escalating the feud “for now.”

“So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now,” Musk posted X. 

Musk intensified his feud with former close ally Trump this week in a political warning to lawmakers that he will work to unseat them if they vote in support of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

“Anyone who campaigned on the PROMISE of REDUCING SPENDING , but continues to vote on the BIGGEST DEBT ceiling increase in HISTORY will see their face on this poster in the primary next year,” Musk posted to X Monday evening. 

The message was accompanied by an image of Pinocchio sitting on fire and the caption, “LIAR Voted to increase America’s DEBT by 5,000,000,000.00”

Musk previously served as a special government employee with the Trump administration to help lead DOGE, frequently attended Cabinet meetings and joined Trump during public events. Musk’s tenure with DOGE wrapped up at the end of May, as negotiations over the “One Big Beautiful Bill” intensified in Congress. 

The budget reconciliation bill, if passed, will advance Trump’s agenda on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt. The legislation is currently before the Senate. 

Musk found himself aligned with a handful of Republican lawmakers, like Kentucky’s Sen. Rand Paul, who have spoken out against the legislation, arguing it would increase the debt ceiling by $5 trillion. 

Musk’s post threatening to primary Republicans who vote in support of the legislation was followed by a late-night Truth Social message from Trump suggesting, “DOGE take a good, hard, look” at how government subsidies assist Musk-owned businesses such as Tesla and SpaceX. 

“Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!” Trump posted after midnight Tuesday.

The post continued, “Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate. It is ridiculous, and was always a major part of my campaign. Electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one.”

‘HE’S NOT A BIG FACTOR’: TRUMP’S SENATE ALLIES DISMISS ELON MUSK’S CALLS TO ‘KILL THE BILL’

Trump added in comment to the media from the White House Tuesday morning that Musk is “upset is that he’s losing his EV mandate.”

“He could lose a lot more than that,” Trump added. “I can tell you right now.” 

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

Musk first remarked in May that he was “disappointed” Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” passed the House, arguing it “undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” before publicly working to rally Republican lawmakers to “kill the bill” in messages posted to X. 

“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman,” Musk said amid a flurry of similar posts June 4. “Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.”

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

Musk had kept his criticisms of the legislation quiet in recent days, including posting messages in support of the Trump administration as anti-ICE riots raged in Los Angeles in June. Musk reignited his criticisms of the bill Monday as the July 4 deadline to pass the “big beautiful bill” looms over Washington this week. 

“It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!! Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,” Musk posted to X Monday afternoon. 

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“What’s the point of a debt ceiling if we keep raising it?” Musk asked in another post early Tuesday morning. Adding in another: “All I’m asking is that we don’t bankrupt America.”

Many senators failed to get their amendments across the finish line during the chamber’s vote-a-rama on Monday, leaving the future of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” uncertain.

Two key failures came from Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, with the former proposing a plan that would have boosted funding for rural hospitals and the latter calling for further cuts to Medicaid. 

Collins and Cornyn were far from the only lawmakers who had amendments fail, however. Here are some details on some of the unsuccessful efforts, plus one that succeeded with nearly unanimous support.

AMERICANS WEIGH IN ON TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’: POLLS

Rural hospital funding

Collins’ amendment would have doubled funding for rural hospitals from $25 billion to $50 billion over the next 10 years, and it would have allowed a larger number of medical providers to access the funds.

“Rural providers, especially our rural hospitals and nursing homes, are under great financial strain right now, with many having recently closed and others being at risk of closing,” Collins said prior to the vote. “This amendment would help keep them open and caring for those who live in rural communities.”

Collins said the bill was something of an olive branch to Democrats, who had criticized the cuts to Medicaid involved in the megabill. Her amendment would also have raised tax rates for individuals who make more than $25 million per year and couples who make more than $50 million.

SENATORS ENTER MARATHON VOTE-A-RAMA AS TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ DEADLINE BARRELS NEAR

“They’ve complained repeatedly about the distribution in this bill, of Medicaid cuts hurting individuals, rural hospitals, and tax cuts being extended for people who are wealthy, and yet when I tried to fix both those problems, they took a very hypocritical approach,” Collins said.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., argued Collins’ amendment was merely putting a “Band-Aid on an amputation.”

Expanded Medicaid cuts

Cornyn was joined by Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and John Barrasso, R-Wyo., in pushing an amendment cutting an additional $313 billion in Medicaid funding on Monday.

The trio said they were pushing to limit the growth of Medicaid, and they had been confident the adjustment would pass. All three were seen entering Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office on Monday as it became clear the amendment lacked support.

The base bill already cuts some $930 billion in funding for Medicaid, leading many of the trio’s colleagues to balk at further cuts.

“It just seems like we’ve taken it as far as I’m comfortable taking it,” said Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.V., regarding trims to Medicaid.

Boosting deductibles for teachers

Kennedy had proposed an amendment that would have allowed teachers to deduct $600 in school supplies that they pay for out of pocket each year.

The proposal ultimately failed in a 46-54 vote.

SENATE REPUBLICANS RAM TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ THROUGH KEY TEST VOTE

Child tax credit enhancement

Bennet proposed an amendment that would have increased both the amount and availability of the child tax credit included in the megabill, but it failed to garner enough support.

The Senate rejected Bennet’s proposal in a 22-78 vote.

Clearing the way for state AI laws

One amendment that did succeed was a measure that killed a provision in the bill that would have placed a 10-year moratorium on state AI regulations.

The original version of the bill would have forced states to choose between enforcing AI regulations or accepting federal funding to expand broadband internet access. Sens. Edward Markey, D-Ma., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., joined Sen. Maria Cantwell in sponsoring the amendment.

“The Senate came together tonight to say that we can’t just run over good state consumer protection laws,” Cantwell said Monday. “States can fight robocalls, deepfakes and provide safe autonomous vehicle laws. This also allows us to work together nationally to provide a new federal framework on Artificial Intelligence that accelerates U.S. leadership in AI while still protecting consumers.”

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The Senate passed the amendment in an overwhelming 99-1 vote.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., was the sole vote opposing the measure.

Former Texas Rep. Colin Allred is making another run for the U.S. Senate after the Democrat lost to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz just eight months ago.

Allred is looking to challenge for the seat of Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who is facing his own challenge from within the Republican Party from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Allred announced his return to the political arena with a campaign video released Tuesday, in which he took shots at both Cornyn and Paxton, describing them as “too corrupt to care about us and too weak to fight for us.”

A former NFL linebacker and attorney, Allred retold the story of how he went undrafted in the NFL but worked hard enough to eventually turn pro and buy his mom a house.

TEXAS AG KEN PAXTON ANNOUNCED RUN FOR US SENATE

“The truth is you shouldn’t have to have a son in the NFL to own a home,” Allred said.

“Everything is backwards,” he continued. “Folks who play by the rules and keep the faith just can’t seem to get ahead. But the folks who cut corners and cut deals — well, they’re doing just fine.”

Allred pledged to run on an “anti-corruption plan.”

“I know Washington is broken,” he said. “The system is rigged. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In six years in Congress, I never took a dime of corporate PAC money, never traded a single stock.”

TEXAS DEM ALLRED SAYS HE OPPOSES ‘BOYS IN GIRLS’ SPORTS’ DESPITE PAST OF ALLOWING IT, FIGHTING PARENTAL RIGHTS

Allred’s announcement comes just eight months after he lost by nearly 9 percentage points to Cruz. That race was one of the most expensive in the country last cycle, with Democrats spending more than $130 million trying to unseat Cruz.

Allred played four seasons in the NFL, all with the Tennessee Titans, after being undrafted out of Baylor University. He entered Congress by flipping a Republican district in Dallas in 2018.

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Former astronaut Terry Virts also entered the U.S. Senate race as a Democratic candidate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Senior Democratic Party officials vowed Monday to “fight tooth and nail” to keep in place federal campaign spending limits up for Supreme Court review this fall — describing the GOP-led effort to repeal the limits as unprecedented and dangerous ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review the case, National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, taking up a challenge filed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and on behalf of two Senate Republican candidates, including now-Vice President JD Vance, following the 2022 elections.

In a statement Monday, the Democratic campaign groups vowed to fight back against what they characterized as the GOP’s attempt to “sow chaos and fundamentally upend our campaign finance system, which would return us to the pre-Watergate era of campaign finance.”

SUPREME COURT TO HEAR REPUBLICAN CHALLENGE THAT COULD SHAKE UP US ELECTIONS

At issue are federal spending limits that restrict the amount of money political parties can spend on behalf of certain candidates — and which Republicans argue run afoul of free speech protections under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

A decision from the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority could have major implications on campaign spending in the U.S., further eroding the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, a law Congress passed more than 50 years ago with the aim of restricting the amount of money that can be spent on behalf of candidates.

That law, and subsequent amendments, restricts the amount of money that political parties can funnel into certain campaigns.

Senior Democratic Party officials described the GOP-led effort Monday as the latest effort by Republicans to claw back campaign spending limits and erode some 50 years of federal election law.

“Republicans know their grassroots support is drying up across the country, and they want to drown out the will of the voters,” DCCC chair Suzan DelBene, DSCC chair Kirsten Gillibrand, and DNC chair Ken Martin said in a joint statement Monday. 

The case is almost certain to be one of the most high-profile cases heard by the Supreme Court this fall.

Adding to the drama is the involvement of the Trump-led Justice Department, which said in May that it planned to side with the NRSC in the case — putting the Trump administration in the somewhat unusual position of arguing against a law passed by Congress.

JUDGES V TRUMP: HERE ARE THE KEY COURT BATTLES HALTING THE WHITE HOUSE AGENDA

Justice Department officials cited free speech protections as its basis for siding with the NRSC, which they said represents “the rare case that warrants an exception to that general approach” of backing federal laws.” 

Meanwhile, the Democratic groups sought to go on offense with their message, describing the GOP efforts as the latest iteration of a decades-long effort to “rewrite” election laws in ways that benefit the party. They cited another Republican-led challenge to campaign spending limits brought more than 20 years ago, in Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. FEC. 

That challenge was ultimately rejected by the high court, DNC officials noted.

“To date, those efforts have failed at every turn, ensuring a stable, predictable campaign finance structure for party committees and political candidates across the country,” DNC officials said. 

JUDGES V TRUMP: HERE ARE THE KEY COURT BATTLES HALTING THE WHITE HOUSE AGENDA

Meanwhile, Republican officials praised the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the case, which they described as helping the GOP ensure they are in “the strongest possible position” ahead of the 2026 midterms and beyond.”

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“The government should not restrict a party committee’s support for its own candidates,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C. who chair the NRSC and NRCC, respectively, said Monday.

“These coordinated expenditure limits violate the First Amendment, and we appreciate the court’s decision to hear our case,” they added.

President Donald Trump is cheering on the GOP’s landmark spending and tax cut bill, as it faces judgment day in the Senate.

“ONE GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL, is moving along nicely!” the president wrote in a social media post hours before the Senate on Monday began to take a slew of votes on the Republican-crafted measure.

The bill, which the president is insisting pass Congress and reach his desk by this Friday, July 4, is stuffed full of Trump’s campaign trail promises and second-term priorities on tax cuts, immigration, defense, energy and the debt limit. 

It includes extending his signature 2017 tax cuts and eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay, providing billions for border security and codifying his controversial immigration crackdown.

SENATOR’S ENTER VOTE-A-RAMA ON TRUMP’S MASSIVE BUDGET BILL

However, many of the latest national surveys indicate that Americans are far from thrilled with the measure.

By a 21-point margin, voters questioned in the most recent Fox News national poll opposed the federal budget legislation (38% favored vs. 59% opposed), which passed by the House of Representatives by just one vote last month.

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING 

The bill was also underwater in national surveys conducted this month by the Washington Post (minus 19 points), Pew Research (minus 20 points) and Quinnipiac University (minus 26 points).

As Democrats attack the bill, they’re highlighting the GOP’s proposed restructuring of Medicaid — the nearly 60-year-old federal program that provides health coverage to roughly 71 million low-income Americans. Additionally, Senate Republicans increased cuts to Medicaid over what the House passed.

DEMOCATS’ DELAY TACTIC ENDS, DEBATE BEGINS ON TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

The changes to Medicaid, as well as cuts to food stamps, another one of the nation’s major safety net programs, were drafted in part as an offset to pay for extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which are set to expire later this year. The measure includes a slew of new rules and regulations, including work requirements for many of those seeking Medicaid coverage.

Meanwhile, Republicans criticize Democrats opposing the bill for voting to increase taxes on most Americans.

About half of respondents questioned in the Fox News poll said the bill would hurt their family (49%), while one quarter thought it would help (23%), and another quarter didn’t think it would make a difference (26%).

Sixty percent felt they had a good understanding of what is in the measure, formally known as the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, and while those voters were more likely to favor the legislation than those who are unfamiliar with it, more still think it will hurt rather than help their family (45% vs. 34%).

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The latest surveys all indicate a wide partisan divide over the measure.

According to the Fox News poll, which was conducted June 13-16, nearly three-quarters of Republicans (73%) favored the bill, while nearly nine in ten Democrats (89%) and nearly three-quarters of independents (73%) opposed the measure.

Fox News’ Dana Blanton contributed to this report.

As the Senate continued to inch closer to finalizing President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the president took to social media early Tuesday to warn that a failure to come to an agreement would end in the largest tax increase in history.

The message came after lawmakers had been in a marathon “vote-a-rama,” for several hours, submitting amendments to the megabill from either side of the aisle.  

“Republicans, the One Big Beautiful Bill, perhaps the greatest and most important of its kind in history, gives the largest Tax Cuts and Border Security ever, Jobs by the Millions, Military/Vets increases, and so much more. The failure to pass means a whopping 68% Tax increase, the largest in history!!!,” he posted.

AMERICANS WEIGH IN ON TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’: POLLS

There is currently no end in sight as Republican leaders are searching for ways to garner support for the bill while simultaneously fighting proposed amendments from Democrats who are opposing it.

GOP leaders have a narrow margin and cannot afford to lose more than three Republican senators as two, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has already indicated that they oppose it.

Tillis announced that he would not be seeking reelection after President Trump made threats of a campaign against him.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said Republicans are “figuring out how to get to the end game,” but an end to the vote-a-rama has been predicted to come well into the middle of the night.

SENATORS ENTER MARATHON VOTE-A-RAMA AS TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ DEADLINE BARRELS NEAR

The bill, if passed, will enact Trump’s domestic tax and spending agenda that includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, according to the latest CBO analysis. 

The package would also roll back billions in green energy tax credits threatening wind and solar investments, according to Democrats.

Billionaire Elon Musk, who until a few weeks ago led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), took to social media late Monday, lashing out at Republicans as “the PORKY PIG PARTY!!” for including a provision, he argued, would raise the nation’s debt limit by $5 trillion.

Trump fired back at Musk on Truth Social, threatening to turn DOGE on its former leader. 

“Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate. It is ridiculous, and was always a major part of my campaign. Electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one. Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!” the president wrote. 

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The bill will also impose $1.2 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and food stamps and make sign-up eligibility more rigorous and change federal reimbursements to states. It will also provide a $350 billion infusion for border and national security to include deportations.

Donald Trump must be feeling pretty powerful.

He’s even demanding that Israel cancel the criminal trial of Bibi Netanyahu.

By any objective analysis, whether you like the president or not, he has been on an incredible winning streak for the last two weeks. Everything seems to be breaking his way.

And as he racks up these victories, from the powder keg of the Middle East to the staunchly conservative Supreme Court, he seems to grow bigger and stronger, like some comic book superhero, and then zap his next adversary.

TRUMP SLAMS BIBI OVER CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS, DENOUNCES CABLE CHANNELS OVER SKEPTICISM

By hitting Iran’s nuclear sites with 30,000-pound bombs – even as we debate the impact – Trump took a risk that stunned the world.

With media liberals and Democrats still in full resistance mode, the coverage has been largely negative, but that doesn’t matter. Since his days as a New York developer, he has been boosted by critical coverage because that drives the news agenda and gets everyone chattering about his preferred topic. 

But telling another country to drop criminal charges against its leader is a whole new level of what his native city calls chutzpah.

Trump posted the following: “It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu. He is a War Hero, and a Prime Minister who did a fabulous job working with the United States to bring Great Success in getting rid of the dangerous Nuclear threat in Iran.”

Netanyahu is in “the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back,” and Trump wonders how the Israelis could force him “to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING.”

TRUMP PRESSURES ISRAEL TO END GAZA CONFLICT AS HE EYES ABRAHAM ACCORDS EXPANSION

As Axios points out, Netanyahu is charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust:  

“He’s accused of accepting more than $200,000 in gifts from wealthy businessmen, and of granting regulatory benefits worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a telecom tycoon in exchange for favorable news coverage.”

The trial has dragged on for four years, thanks to Netanyahu’s delaying tactics, and there was this war thing that intervened. 

So now Trump has called for the trial to be cancelled or Netanyahu granted a pardon – and done it quite openly. 

Imagine if a foreign head of state urged this country to drop charges against a major political figure. But Trump doesn’t play by everyone else’s rules.

Another Trumpian tactic is to make a big move immediately after a major uproar, when the public and press barely has time to digest the previous controversy. 

So the president cut off trade talks with Canada to protest its taxation of major American tech companies such as Amazon and Google. This involves revenue they earn from online marketplaces, data and social media involving Canadian users.

Before the weekend was out, Canada caved and rescinded the taxes. It’s another case of Trump’s tough-guy negotiating tactics getting instant results.

The not-so-beautiful budget bill in the Senate is another classic case. Elon Musk – did you really think he’d stay quiet for long? – calls it “utterly insane” and “political suicide for the Republican Party.” The CBO says it would add $3.3 trillion to the deficit over a decade. The Senate measure would also make deep cuts in Medicaid, which Trump has vowed to protect. 

Here’s the point: One of the loudest Republican critics is Sen. Thom Tillis, who has been voting against a bill he says would betray the president’s promise to protect those on Medicaid. Trump has trashed him, saying he will recruit a challenger to oust him from the Senate in next year’s primary. 

The next day, literally, Tillis announced that he would not run for reelection. 

So Trump can save his money. He knocked out the North Carolina lawmaker with a couple of postings. 

And then there’s the Supreme Court.

By ruling that local judges cannot issue nationwide injunctions, the court has immensely increased the power of Trump and the executive branch. The 6-3 decision came in the birthright citizenship case, though not on the merits, and tore down one of the last guardrails against unchecked presidential power.

It applies to Democratic presidents too, though far more of these injunctions – 40 – have been brought against Trump just in the opening months of his second term. Joe Biden faced 14 in the first three years of his term.

These injunctions – which have always seemed unfair to me, on both sides – also extend Trump’s winning streak in the high court. He has, after all, appointed three of the six justices that make up the conservative majority.

JOHN YOO: TRUMP SCORES HISTORIC WIN AS SUPREME COURT REINS IN LOWER COURTS’ OVERREACH

And that’s not all. SCOTUS ruled that parents with religious objections can pull their children out of public school classrooms when books with LGBTQ themes are being taught.

In yet another decision, the court upheld a Tennessee law banning some forms of transition surgery for transgender youths. Trump has ordered transgender members of the military to leave the service.

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES

Sonia Sotomayor read two blistering dissents from the bench, especially in the birthright citizenship case: “Today’s decision is not just egregiously wrong, it is also a travesty of law…No right is safe.” 

Trump has made clear that he will use expanded powers to be even more aggressive than in the past. Throw in his pressure tactics and funding freezes against elite law firms and Ivy League universities and you have an emboldened president even more determined to stick it to his opponents and detractors.

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Of course, even Trump has his limits. The effort to derail Netanyahu’s corruption trial was destined to fail. 

Oh wait.

An Israeli court yesterday canceled this week’s hearings on diplomatic and national security grounds, based on classified information provided by the prime minister and the Mossad spy agency. 

Coincidence?

A deal that had been reached between Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, over how states can regulate artificial intelligence has been pulled from President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill.

The collapsed agreement would have required states seeking to access hundreds of millions of dollars in AI infrastructure funding in the “big, beautiful” bill to refrain from adopting new regulations on the technology for five years, a compromise down from the original 10 years.

It also included carveouts to regulate child sexual abuse material, unauthorized use of a person’s likeness and other deceptive practices.

Blackburn announced Monday night that she is withdrawing her support for the agreement.

TRUMP WARNS OF ‘WHOPPING 68% TAX INCREASE’ IF SENATE FAILS TO PASS HISTORIC BILL

“For as long as I’ve been in Congress, I’ve worked alongside federal and state legislators, parents seeking to protect their kids online, and the creative community in Tennessee to fight back against Big Tech’s exploitation by passing legislation to govern the virtual space,” Blackburn said in a statement to Fox News.

“While I appreciate Chairman Cruz’s efforts to find acceptable language that allows states to protect their citizens from the abuses of AI, the current language is not acceptable to those who need these protections the most,” she continued. “This provision could allow Big Tech to continue to exploit kids, creators, and conservatives.”

Blackburn added: “Until Congress passes federally preemptive legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act and an online privacy framework, we can’t block states from making laws that protect their citizens.”

When asked about Blackburn pulling her support for the compromise, Cruz told Punchbowl News the “night is young.”

ELON MUSK SAYS US IS RULED BY ‘PORKY PIG PARTY’ AS TRUMP DEFENDS HIS VISION AGAINST FORMER ALLY’S CRITICISM

But Blackburn appears to now be co-sponsoring an amendment with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., that would completely pull the AI moratorium from the bill.

Cantwell had earlier said that the since-scrapped deal between Blackburn and Cruz would do “nothing to protect kids or consumers.”

“It’s just another giveaway to tech companies,” Cantwell said in a statement Monday. “This provision gives AI and social media a brand-new shield against litigation and state regulation. This is Section 230 on steroids.”

Blackburn is one of several Republicans who have expressed concerns about the 10-year ban on state AI regulation.

Last week, 17 Republican governors wrote a joint letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., calling for the pause to be scrapped completely.

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“AI is already deeply entrenched in American industry and society; people will be at risk until basic rules ensuring safety and fairness can go into effect,” the letter reads. “Over the next decade, this novel technology will be used throughout our society, for harm and good. It will significantly alter our industries, jobs, and ways of life, and rebuild how we as a people function in profound and fundamental ways.”

“That Congress is burying a provision that will strip the right of any state to regulate this technology in any way – without a thoughtful public debate – is the antithesis of what our Founders envisioned,” it continued.

Some House Republicans also said they do not support the AI provision, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who admitted she found out about it a few days after voting for Trump’s spending bill.

“Full transparency, I did not know about this,” Greene wrote on X. “I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there.”

FIRST ON FOX: The Trump administration is suing the city of Los Angeles, alleging that the policies interfere with federal immigration authorities from doing their jobs.

“Sanctuary policies were the driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in an exclusive statement.

“Jurisdictions like Los Angeles that flout federal law by prioritizing illegal aliens over American citizens are undermining law enforcement at every level – it ends under President Trump,” Bondi added.

‘SOCIAL CHAOS’: GOP, DEM LAWMAKERS SOUND OFF ON LOS ANGELES UNREST

The lawsuit says that the city is discriminating against federal authorities by treating ICE differently than other types of law enforcement.

The Department of Justice argues that the Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution prohibits this, so they are asking a judge to block the enforcement of the policies.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

“Sanctuary City laws and policies are designed to deliberately impede federal immigration officers’ ability to carry out their responsibilities in those jurisdictions,” the lawsuit filed on Monday stated. “The Los Angeles Ordinance and other policies intentionally discriminate against the Federal Government by treating federal immigration authorities differently than other law enforcement agents through access restrictions both to property and to individual detainees, by prohibiting contractors and sub-contractors from providing information, and by disfavoring federal criminal laws that the City of Los Angeles has decided not to comply with,” the lawsuit continues. 

ANTI-ICE RIOTS REVEAL THE LEFT HAS LEARNED NOTHING. IT’S JUST HANDED TRUMP A GIFT

“The Supremacy Clause prohibits the City of Los Angeles and its officials from singling out the Federal Government for adverse treatment — as the challenged law and policies do — thereby discriminating against the Federal Government. Accordingly, the law and policies challenged here are invalid and should be enjoined,” it added. 

Los Angeles faced protests and riots earlier this month as ICE conducted operations throughout the region, resulting in a legally challenged deployment of the National Guard by President Donald Trump. Mayor Karen Bass spoke out against the violence in the city at the time but said that Trump’s deployment of troops acted as an instigator. 

“Last Thursday, ICE entered our city and provoked the city by chasing people through Home Depots and car washes and showing up at schools and, today, showing up at emergency rooms and homeless shelters,” Bass said earlier this month.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SUES FOUR NEW JERSEY CITIES OVER SANCTUARY POLICIES

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“ICE intervened as a pretext to federalize the National Guard, and then, in the White House, the National Guard was complimented for the work that they did to keep peace in the city Saturday night. But I will tell you, the Guard didn’t even arrive here until Sunday. They used this as a pretext to send the U.S. Marines into an American city, which will target our own citizens,” the Democrat continued.

Fox News reached out to the city for comment, but they did not immediately respond. 

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to formally lift all sanctions on Syria on Monday afternoon. 

“The United States is committed to supporting a Syria that is stable, unified, and at peace with itself and its neighbors,” the order stated, while directing the secretaries of State, Commerce and Treasury to relieve sanctions and waive export controls. 

“This is in an effort to promote and support the country’s path to stability and peace. The order will remove sanctions on Syria while maintaining sanctions on the former president Assad or his associates, human rights abusers, drug traffickers, persons linked to chemical weapons activities, ISIS and their affiliates, and Iranian proxies,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. 

Trump is “committed to supporting a Syria that is stable, unified and at peace with itself and its neighbors,” Leavitt said. 

TRUMP’S GAMBLE IN NORMALIZING RELATIONS WITH SYRIA IN THE FACE OF IRAN: ‘HIGH-RISK, HIGH-REWARD’

Ambassador Tom Barrack, Trump’s envoy to Syria, called the new order a “tedious, detailed, excruciating process” of unraveling the sanctions that had been in place for decades on the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who oversaw a nation at civil war for more than a decade. 

Brad Smith, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said sanctions would remain “where appropriate,” including on Assad and his associates and any other destabilizing regional actors. 

Smith said the fall of Assad represented a “new beginning” for the Syrian people and Trump had decided U.S. sanctions “would not stand in the way of what could be a brighter future for the country.”

But he warned: “The United States will remain ever vigilant where our interests and security are threatened, and Treasury will not hesitate to use our authorities to protect us and international financial systems.”

Some sanctions will still need to be lifted by Congress, and others date to 1979, when Syria was designated a state sponsor of terrorism. The administration has not yet lifted that designation. 

Trump met last month with Syria’s new interim leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, during a Middle East visit. 

From having a $10 million bounty on his head to sitting down with the U.S. president, the turnaround of the Syrian leader has been remarkable.

Al-Sharaa’s group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Syrian militant organization founded as an offshoot of al Qaeda, overthrew Assad in March. 

TRUMP ASKS SYRIA TO JOIN ABRAHAM ACCORDS, NORMALIZE TIES WITH ISRAEL IN RETURN FOR SANCTIONS RELIEF

Al-Sharaa had been campaigning hard for a relationship with Washington and sanctions relief: he offered to build a Trump Tower in Damascus, détente with Israel, and U.S. access to Syria’s oil and gas. He worked to soften the image of HTS and promised an inclusive governing structure. 

U.S. sanctions have included financial penalties on any foreign individual or company that provided material support to the Syrian government and prohibited anyone in the U.S. from dealing in any Syrian entity, including oil and gas. Syrian banks also were effectively cut off from global financial systems. 

The new order comes as Israeli and Syrian officials are engaged in back-channel talks on a potential security and normalization deal. 

Israel and Syria have long been foes, and some Israeli officials worry that lifting all sanctions on Syria means giving up “leverage” to pressure them into a deal to normalize ties with Israel. 

To that point, one senior administration official shot back: “We have consistently said we’re not nation-building. It’s to Syria’s benefit to lean toward Israel.” 

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“The president ripped off the sanctions without any preconditions,” the official said. “Leverage is not what we’re interested in doing.” 

War between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has complicated any movement on normalization deals between Israel and its neighbors. But the official predicted: “There’s going to be peace in Gaza.” 

President Donald Trump is confident that democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani would “crush” New York City if he is elected mayor, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says.

Leavitt made the statement during a Monday press briefing while fielding multiple questions from reporters about Mamdani’s victory in the democratic mayoral primary.

Fox News’ White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Leavitt about recent calls for Mamdani to be deported, citing calls from one lawmaker who said Mamdani should be denaturalized.

“I haven’t heard him say that. I haven’t heard him call for that. But certainly he does not want this individual to be elected. I was just speaking to him about it and [Mamdani’s] radical policies that will completely crush New York City, which is obviously a city that the president holds near and dear to his heart,” Leavitt responded.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES SAYS NYC HOPEFUL MAMDANI NEEDS TO ‘CLARIFY’ HIS POSITION ON ‘GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA’

Leavitt went on to say that Trump would be willing to work with Mamdani if he is elected, though she predicted that the relationship would be difficult.

“Look, the president is always willing to work with everyone. He’s working with Democrats across the country, Democrat governors. And he said he’ll work with people on the far left. He works with Republicans. He works with people in the middle. He wants to do what’s right for America,” Leavitt said.

“But surely someone who holds these values and is quite literally a communist and condemns every value that makes this country great: common sense, law and order, low taxes, working hard, and earning your keep in this country. He’s against all of that. And I think the president would find it difficult to work with someone like that, if he is elected. I’m sure you’ll hear more from the president on that, but we’ll have to see. Hopefully, the voters of New York City choose wisely,” she finished.

Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, defeated establishment favorite and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and a crowded field of other candidates, in the Democratic mayoral primary last week.

Liberal podcast host Donny Deutsch called out Mamdani on Monday for refusing to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” during an appearance on MSNBC.

“I’m outraged that we have a candidate for mayor of New York, Mr. Mamdani, that cannot walk back or cannot condemn the words ‘globalize the intifada’ and his nuance of, ‘Well, it means different things for different people.’ Well, let me tell you what it means to a Jew — it means violence,” Deutsch said, citing the October 7 terrorist attacks, as well as the Boulder, Colorado, attacks.

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND URGES ZOHRAN MAMDANI TO DENOUNCE ‘GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA’ RHETORIC

“That’s the connotation. That’s the essence of it, and that’s what it means to Jewish people. And if any other group came forward and said, ‘You know these words are offensive to us. It means violence. It frightens us,’ I think there would be a response, but for some reason, if Jewish people find it offensive, it’s not offensive,” Deutsch continued. 

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Mamdani had several opportunities to condemn the “globalize the intifada” phrase during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, but he refused.

Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.

Elon Musk has not given up his criticism over what he sees as a lack of spending cuts in the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill,” insisting on his platform X on Monday “that we live in a one-party country” and threatening that if the bill passes a new “America Party” would be formed.

Musk’s criticism of the Republican spending package began before he even left the Trump administration as a special government employee heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). It continued following his departure, with Musk describing the bill as “pork-filled” and a “disgusting abomination” earlier this month. The billionaire entrepreneur has lamented that the bill could work to undo much of the work he accomplished with DOGE. 

“It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!” Musk wrote on X Monday afternoon as the Senate continued to consider the House-passed spending bill. “Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,” Musk added. 

ELON MUSK’S FORMER FRIEND WARNS EX-DOGE HEAD WILL DO ‘EVERYTHING’ TO DAMAGE TRUMP

In a separate post on X Monday evening, Musk doubled down on his claim that the U.S. is governed by a one-party system.

“They just pretend to be two parties,” he wrote, sharing a post alongside a graphic showing how much the national debt has steadily increased every year. “It’s just one uniparty in reality.”

Meanwhile, the billionaire entrepreneur threatened that “if this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day.”

“Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE,” Musk wrote Monday evening on X.

FLASHBACK: MUSK ACCUSED TRUMP, GOP LEADERS OF NOT WANTING TO CUT SPENDING — HERE’S WHERE THEY SAID THEY WOULD

Musk previously said he was “disappointed” in the spending bill because “it undermines” all the work his DOGE team was accomplishing to cut back on waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R–S.D., refuted Musk’s claim that the bill would upend all the work he did with DOGE, noting in an interview that “a lot of what Elon was working on was on the discretionary side of the budget, which [the “big, beautiful bill”] doesn’t touch.” 

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought clarified in an interview with The Blaze’s Glenn Beck that the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” cannot legally include cuts to discretionary spending — the very category targeted by Musk’s DOGE initiative, he noted. The bill includes discretionary spending instructions for defense and border security, but final approval still requires passage through the congressional appropriations process.

Earlier this month, after formally leaving his post in the Trump administration, Musk shared a social media post President Donald Trump posted in 2013, noting he was “embarrassed” at the time to be a Republican after the party extended the debt ceiling. Musk shared the former post and wrote: “wise words.” 

TRUMP CALLS ELON MUSK A ‘WONDERFUL GUY’ DESPITE INTENSE FEUD OVER ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

Several days prior, Musk referred to the Trump-endorsed “big, beautiful bill” as a “disgusting abomination.” He has also previously suggested the bill would kill jobs and raise taxes on renewable energy projects not yet even underway. The feud between Musk and Trump and his supporters of the bill escalated even further after Musk sought to link Trump to the Jeffrey Epstein child sex scandal in a now-deleted post.

When reached for comment about Musk’s complaints about the Trump-endorsed spending package, the White House pointed to the president’s comments over the weekend to Fox News Business. When asked on Sunday during an interview with Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo about his relationship with Musk since he left the White House, the president described Musk as a “wonderful guy.” Later, Trump described some of Musk’s post–White House behavior as inappropriate.

“I think he’s a wonderful guy. I haven’t spoken to him much, but I think Elon is a wonderful guy, and I know he’s going to do well always,” Trump said. “He’s a smart guy. And he actually went and campaigned with me and this and that. But he got a little bit upset, and that wasn’t appropriate.”

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“Why did he get upset? He just wasn’t getting what he wanted?” Bartiromo questioned.

“Look, the electric vehicle mandate, the EV mandate, is a tough thing for him,” Trump explained. “I would, you know, I don’t want everybody to have an electric car. You know, I campaigned on choice — you have — choice… not everybody should have that and not everybody wants that.”

Fox News’ Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.

U.S. Capitol Police arrested dozens of demonstrators inside the Capitol rotunda and outside Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., as members of the Senate continued to debate President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

The Associated Press said demonstrators were protesting the Republican tax and spending cut bill at two different sites.

One of the sites was the Capitol Rotunda, and the other was at an intersection near the U.S. Capitol Building.

U.S. Capitol Police told the AP those arrested face charges such as crowding, obstructing and incommoding.

CAPITOL POLICE ARREST MAN WHO DISRUPTED SENATE DEBATE ON TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’: ‘YOU PEOPLE ARE AWFUL’

Fox News Digital has reached out to U.S. Capitol Police for additional information about the arrests.

Images of the protests inside the rotunda showed demonstrators holding signs that read, “cuts to SNAP are policy murder.” One man participating in the demonstration had a shirt which read, “Poor People’s Campaign.”

ABOUT 60 PEOPLE ARRESTED AFTER VETERANS’ ANTI-ICE DEMONSTRATION IN WASHINGTON, DC, POLICE SAY

Outside the Capitol, some of the demonstrators carried black wooden coffins with red signs that read, “178,000 People In Florida Will Lose Medicaid,” “This Coffin Represents Policy Murder,” and “574,000 People in Florida Will Lose SNAP.”

Other coffins had signs representing similar numbers, but in states like West Virginia, Illinois and Kentucky.

WATCH: LEFTIST PROTESTERS FLOOD CAPITOL HILL OFFICE BUILDING AS ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL’ BUDGET BILL VOTE LOOMS

Several people who were demonstrating wore religious attire as well.

One of the groups at the protests was called Repairers of the Breach. In a statement obtained by the AP, the organization claimed to have led the effort, adding that the demonstration continues a tradition of nonviolent actions at the Capitol, confronting unjust policies and calling the nation to higher ground.

The protests come as Republican lawmakers sprint to meet a July 4 deadline to pass a massive piece of legislation to advance Trump’s agenda.

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The budget reconciliation bill, if passed, will advance the president’s agenda on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt. The legislation is currently in the hands of the Senate.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

Democratic New York City mayoral candidate and self-described socialist Zohran Mamdani is facing criticism over remarks made at a Young Democratic Socialists of America conference, where he urged attendees not to compromise on goals like “seizing the means of production.”

During the appearance — which was part of a 2021 YDSA winter conference — Mamdani, then newly elected to the New York State Assembly, lamented that many socialist principles remain outside the political mainstream.

“Right now, if we’re talking about the cancellation of student debt, if we’re talking about Medicare for all, you know, these are issues which have the groundswell of popular support across this country,” Mamdani says in a video to conference goers. “But then there are also other issues that we firmly believe in, whether it’s BDS or whether it is the end goal of seizing the means of production, where we do not have the same level of support at this very moment.”

NEW YORK MAYORAL HOPEFUL ZOHRAN MAMDANI SLAMS CAPITALISM ON CNN, CITES MLK TO DEFEND SOCIALISM

Mamdani went on to say that it was “critical” for people not to compromise on these less popular ideas, despite publicly asserting this week he is “not a communist.” 

“It’s critical, the way that we organize, the way that we set up our — you know, set up our work and our priorities, that we do not leave any one issue for the other, that we do not meet a moment and only look at what people are ready for, but that we are doing both of these things in tandem,” Mamdani continues in his conference address. “Because it is critical for us to both meet people where they’re at and to also organize for what is correct and for what is right, and to ensure that, over time, we can bring people to that issue.”

On Monday, the video of Mamdani speaking at the 2021 YDSA conference began making the rounds on social media.

EX-NYC MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO SAYS THERE’S ‘A LOT OF EXAGGERATION’ OVER MAMDANI FEARS

“Mamdani’s socialism nomenclature is no joke or aspiration,” billionaire Bill Ackman said in response to the video as it began appearing on social media. “It is the business plan of a movement that he is leading and, for now, winning. Don’t rely on my summary. Listen to him speak his own words.”

“Mamdani smiles like a crocodile as he says his end goal is to elect more socialists and seize the means of production,” President Donald Trump’s crypto and artificial intelligence czar added in response to the video. “Democrats have become the party of the Luigi Left, Tesla Terrorism, and Crocodile Communists.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for a response to these criticisms but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Last week, Trump personally criticized Mamdani, who upset former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the NYC mayoral primary earlier this month, as a “100% communist lunatic.”

“It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line,” Trump wrote. “We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous.” Trump doubled down on the communist claim this week in an interview with Fox Business, adding that, if elected, Mamdani better “behave” or risk his city losing federal funding. 

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In response to Trump’s criticism of being a “communist,” Mamdani directly refuted the claim to NBC News over the weekend. 

“No, I am not,” Mamdani responded when asked point-blank by NBC’s Kristen Welker. “I have already had to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I’m from, who I am, ultimately, because he wants to distract from what I’m fighting for. And I’m fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower that he has since then betrayed.

“When we talk about my politics, you know, I call myself a Democratic socialist in many ways inspired by the words of Dr. [Martin Luther] King from decades ago, who said, ‘Call it democracy, call it Democratic-Socialism, there has to be a better distribution of wealth for all of God’s children in this country.”

The VOA is perhaps DOA.

At least that’s the interpretation of Kari Lake.

Lake ran unsuccessfully for governor of Arizona in 2022. She ran for the Senate in 2024 and lost.

So President Trump appointed Lake to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

KARI LAKE DECLARES US AGENCY FOR GLOBAL MEDIA ‘ROTTEN TO THE CORE,’ SETS 2026 SHUTDOWN GOAL: ‘A BOONDOGGLE’

The worst thing in broadcasting is dead air. And that may be the goal of Lake – a former Arizona TV news anchor.

“It’s really like a rotten piece of fish,” said Lake before a recent House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. “And it’s best to just scrap the whole thing and start over.”

She plans to edit the influence of VOA and other government media such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcast Networks.

“We need to modernize. I don’t think doing 1990s television is effective anymore,” said Lake.

The hearing marked the first time Lake testified before lawmakers since President Trump tapped her for the position. She told lawmakers that Chinese spies infiltrated the VOA’s Mandarin service. And Russian spooks nearly made the payroll at Radio Free Europe.

“This is not the voice of America. This is the voice of America’s enemies,” said Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky.

Democrats say curbing VOA silences the U.S. from transmitting news and truthful information into enemy territory.

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., was apoplectic at the Trump Administration’s plans to cancel many of the government’s radio and TV broadcasts abroad.

“My God. It’s the worst and most stupid thing that we could do in foreign affairs,” fumed Sherman. “That’s our soft power. That’s our effort to bring freedom of information and hopefully democracy to the entire world. That’s how we explain ourselves in dozens of different languages. And for them to gut it? In terms of our influence in the world, Voice of America and its sister broadcasters is more important than an aircraft carrier.”

EXCLUSIVE: KARI LAKE SAYS VOA’S PERSIAN NEWS SERVICE ‘RISING TO THE OCCASION’ AMID IRAN-ISRAEL CONFLICT

Sherman reiterated his concerns about diminishing soft power at the hearing, adding that changes to the VOA lineup may appeal to a special audience abroad.

“I think Putin would be very happy,” said Sherman about the Russian leader. “Bombs are powerful. Truth is more powerful.”

But it’s not just Democrats who fret about the static on the government airwaves.

Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., says unwinding Radio Free Asia cedes power to China and North Korea.

“We have let go of journalists that have spent decades building their credibility and trust with our audiences,” said Kim. “Without reporting from the outside world through VOA and (Radio Free Asia), most North Korean civilians only see the United States as the bad guy.”

Kim feared the U.S. couldn’t “win in the information domain.”

Lake recently canned 639 Global Media employees. She says her orders come from the top.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, asked what sort of “review” she did to pare back VOA and other services.

“What we’ve reviewed was an executive order March 14th by the man who’s in charge of the executive branch. Hs name is Donald Trump,” said Lake.

APPEALS COURT BACKS VOA OVERHAUL KARI LAKE SAYS WILL ‘MODERNIZE’ AGENCY: ‘HUGE VICTORY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP’

She then held up a photo of the president and showed it to lawmakers facing her on the dais.

Democrats contend that’s exactly the problem as the president and Lake try to redesign American government broadcasters.

“I see why Mr. Trump put you in this position. He doesn’t want a free press,” scolded Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Penn. “You are a propaganda machine for the Trump Administration.”

Democrats piled on.

“I’m also concerned about your ability to promote American democracy given your background backing dictators,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.

Other Democrats highlighted Lake’s controversial political history and how she questioned the results of both races.

“You have been sanctioned twice for providing false information to courts. Isn’t that true? Yes or no?,” asked Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., the former mayor of Phoenix.

“I was brave enough to fight our shoddy elections. And the courts have not caught up,” fired back Lake.

TRUMP ORDERS THE DISMANTLING OF GOVERNMENT-FUNDED, ‘PROPAGANDA’-PEDDLING MEDIA OUTLET

“The American people cannot believe a word you say,” said Stanton. “You lost, fair and square. Instead of conceding, you embarrassed yourself and our state by lying again and again for years, blaming everything under the sun for your loss except for your own toxic politics. You lie about that election to this very day.”

After Lake’s dual political losses, Stanton had a request of Lake.

“Will you do us all a favor and run it back and run again?” he asked.

Lake encountered more friendly questioning from Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich. He asked about potential messages U.S. Global Media could broadcast around the world.

“What do you think some of the most important stories and tenants about America that need to be told that haven’t been getting told?” asked Huizenga.

“I think that just the history of this country and what this country is about. Our freedoms. Our liberties. Our Bill of Rights,” stated Lake.

“Maybe the founding of our country?” suggested Huizenga.

“The founding of our country and especially this year with 250 years,” responded Lake, noting that July 4, 2025, is the semi-quincentennial of the U.S.

“That would seem to me a pretty big story to tell,” added Huizenga.

A BIG, BEAUTIFUL WEEKEND ON THE HILL: ‘EVERYBODY HAVING FUN YET?’

Congress commissioned VOA during the Cold War to beam news behind the Iron Curtain. But today, Republicans question its necessity. Especially when people now get news from their phone.

“Goddangit, it’s not very efficient,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn.

“It’s a relic,” declared Lake.

“Yes ma’am. It’s a Cold War relic,” agreed Burchett.

VOA fired dozens of staff in its Persian division. But restored some programming as tensions rose between Iran and Israel – culminating in the recent U.S. airstrikes. But the VOA’s Persian service used to broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Even though VOA bolstered some reporting amid the crisis, it was a fraction of the work the organization used to do.

“From my understanding the VOA operation is pretty much gone,” observed Kim at the hearing.

“No. It’s not gone. We’re doing what is statutorily required,” replied Lake. “The statutory minimum.”

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That means VOA and other services are but a husk. Congress will prepare spending bills for the entire federal government over the next three months. What lawmakers decide to do with funding for VOA and Global Media will foretell the future of the organizations. And if the microphones fall silent for good.