NationalWatch

Four months into his second tour of duty in the White House, President Donald Trump’s approval ratings remain slightly underwater.

The president stands at 46% approval and 54% disapproval in a new national survey by Marquette Law School. And Trump is at 42% approval and 52% disapproval in a Reuters/Ipsos poll. 

Most, but not all, of the latest national surveys place the president’s approval rating in negative territory, with a handful indicating Trump is above water.

Trump has aggressively asserted executive authority in his second term, overturning longstanding government policy and aiming to make major cuts to the federal workforce through an avalanche of sweeping and controversial executive orders and actions, with some aimed at addressing grievances he has held since his first term.

TRUMP’S APPROVAL RATINGS ARE UNDERWATER, BUT DEMOCRATS FACE RECORD-LOW POLLING NUMBERS

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office on May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump started his second administration with poll numbers in positive territory, but his poll numbers started to slide soon after his late-January inauguration.

But two issues where the president remains at or above water in some surveys are border security and immigration, which were front and center in Trump’s successful 2024 campaign to win back the White House.

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Trump stands at 56% approval on border security and 50% approval on immigration in the Marquette Law School poll, which was conducted May 5-15.

But Trump’s muscular moves on border security and immigration, which have sparked controversy and legal pushback, don’t appear to be helping his overall approval ratings.

“Immigration is declining now as a salient issue,” said Daron Shaw, who serves as a member of the Fox News Decision Team and is the Republican partner on the Fox News poll.

Shaw, a politics professor and chair at the University of Texas, said “immigration and especially border security are beginning to lose steam as one of the top-three issues facing the country. Republicans still rate them fairly highly, but Democrats and independents, who had kind of joined the chorus in 2024, have moved on and in particular moved back to the economy as a focal point.”

Pointing to Trump, Shaw added that “when you have success on an issue, it tends to move to the back burner.”

Contributing to the slide over the past couple of months in Trump’s overall approval ratings was his performance on the economy and, in particular, inflation, which were pressing issues that kept former President Joe Biden’s approval ratings well below water for most of his presidency.

Trump’s blockbuster tariff announcement in early April sparked a trade war with some of the nation’s top trading partners and triggered a massive sell-off in the financial markets and increased concerns about a recession.

President Donald Trump announces the implementation of tariffs on countries across the globe during a White House event on April 2, 2025. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

But the markets have rebounded, thanks in part to a truce between the U.S. and China in their tariff standoff as Trump tapped the brakes on his controversial tariff implementation.

Trump stood at 37% approval on tariffs and 34% on inflation/cost of living in the Marquette Law School poll. And he stood at 39% on the economy and 33% on cost of living in the Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted May 16-18.

Doug Heye, a longtime GOP strategist and former RNC and Bush administration official, pointed to last year’s election, saying, “The main reason Trump won was to lower prices. Prices haven’t lowered, and polls are reflecting that.”

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“With the exception of gas prices, there hasn’t been much of a reduction in prices,” Shaw said.

“Prices haven’t come down, and it’s not clear that people will say the absence of inflation is an economic victory. They still feel that an appreciable portion of their money is going to pay for basic things,” he added. “What Trump is realizing is that prices have to come down for him to be able to declare success.”

A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from firing two Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on Wednesday.

Trump fired all three Democratic members of the five-person board in February, resulting in two of them filing a lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton found that allowing unilateral firings would prevent the board from carrying out its purpose.

Walton wrote that allowing at-will removals would make the board “beholden to the very authority it is supposed to oversee on behalf of Congress and the American people.”

The oversight board was initially created by Congress to ensure that federal counterterrorism policies were in line with privacy and civil liberties law.

‘ACTIVIST’ JUDGES KEEP TRYING TO CURB TRUMP’S AGENDA – HERE’S HOW HE COULD PUSH BACK

President Donald Trump attempted to fire all three Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

“To hold otherwise would be to bless the President’s obvious attempt to exercise power beyond that granted to him by the Constitution and shield the Executive Branch’s counterterrorism actions from independent oversight, public scrutiny, and bipartisan congressional insight regarding those actions,” Walton wrote.

Trump’s firings left just one Republican on the board. The third Democratic member had just two days left in her term when she was removed, and she did not sue the administration.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION GUTS INSTITUTE OF PEACE OF ‘ROGUE BUREAUCRATS’ AFTER DOGE STANDOFF IN GOVERNMENT OFFICE

The two plaintiffs, Travis LeBlanc and Edward Felten, argued in their lawsuit that members of the board cannot be fired without cause. Meanwhile, lawyers for Trump’s administration argued that members of other congressionally created boards do have explicit job protections, and it would therefore be wrong for Walton to create such protections where they are absent.

“The Constitution gives President Trump the power to remove personnel who exercise his executive authority,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields told the Associated Press. “The Trump Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”

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The plaintiffs also argued that their firings left just one member on the board, a Republican, and that falls short of the quorum required for the board to function.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: Alexis Nungaray, the mother of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, whose murder authorities say was at the hands of two illegal immigrants suspected to be Tren de Aragua gang members, told Fox News Digital that renaming a local wildlife refuge in her daughter’s honor would mean “the world” to her family.

Jocelyn Nungaray was sexually assaulted and strangled to death, allegedly by two Venezuelan illegals, Franklin Jose Pena Ramos and Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, who were let through the southern border during the Biden administration. Her body was found tied up in a bayou in Houston.

Since her daughter’s murder, Alexis Nungaray has become a vocal advocate for increased border security and a supporter of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Nungaray said the tragic manner of Jocelyn’s death “takes away [from] who she was as a person.” However, she said that the renaming of a 39,000-acre wildlife refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast preserves Jocelyn’s memory for what she loved in life. 

TRUMP HONORS LIVES OF LAKEN RILEY, JOCELYN NUNGARAY WHILE CELEBRATING STRIDES ON SECURING BORDER

Jocelyn Nungaray; a view of the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge in Texas (Nungaray family | Norman Welsh via Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge website)

Trump issued an executive order on March 5 renaming the former Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Houston to the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, have since introduced bills to enshrine Trump’s executive order into law, making it more difficult for a future president to change the name of the refuge back. The Senate has already passed the bill, and Babin is working to pass it in the House.

Babin told Fox News Digital that his bill to codify Trump’s renaming of the refuge after Jocelyn is receiving bipartisan support and that he expects it will be passed by the House soon and be immediately signed by the president.

“This is a beautiful place. And if we name it after her, I think we will preserve her legacy,” he said.

“The main thing we need to remember is that this can never be allowed to happen again,” he added. “We get this thing in law, codified, no future president can ever undo this. And so, we will have a memory of what happens when you have bad policies that can create a system that will allow this to happen to innocent people like Jocelyn.”

TEXAS LAWMAKERS SEEK TO GET FEDERAL REIMBURSEMENT FOR BIDEN-ERA BORDER CONTROL EXPENSES

Rep. Brian Babin told Fox News Digital that his bill to codify Trump’s renaming of the refuge after Jocelyn is receiving bipartisan support and that he expects it will be passed by the House soon and be immediately signed by the president. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

Nungaray said the effort to rename the refuge “touches every part of my heart and my family’s heart.”

“Everyone who knew Jocelyn knew she loved animals so much, knew she loved nature, wildlife,” explained Nungaray. “She truly loved all animals and all creatures, and she wanted every animal to have a place to call home.”

“Knowing that this national wildlife refuge is a place for a bunch of wild animals that travel through the country, and it is somewhere that they can call home, and it is somewhere that they can find a place of safety for them. I just know it would absolutely mean the world to her to know she has something in honor of her in that nature.”

She said that seeing the signs going up around Houston bearing her daughter’s name is “bittersweet.” 

TEXAS GANG MEMBERS SENTENCED FOR HUMAN SMUGGLING AFTER HIGH-SPEED BORDER CHASES

“I went out there to just go see what it was about, what it was like, and the amount of peace I felt just being there, it was just so pure and so peaceful,” said Alexis Nungaray. “Immediately I thought Jocelyn would love this. She would love to be out here.” (Norman Welsh via Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge website)

“I went out there to just go see what it was about, what it was like, and the amount of peace I felt just being there, it was just so pure and so peaceful,” said Nungaray. “Immediately I thought Jocelyn would love this. She would love to be out here.” 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

“She wasn’t just a 12-year-old girl who was strangled and left in a bayou of water,” Nungaray went on. “She was a very creative, talented, free-spirited 12-year-old girl.” 

Smiling, Nungaray added that Jocelyn “was very quirky” and “an old soul.” She liked dressing in 1990s-style cargo jeans and Converse and loved listening to music from as far back as the 1940s and 1950s.

“She was very different and unique. She was an amazing friend,” said Nungaray.

TED CRUZ MOCKS ‘CRAZY TOWN’ DEMS AS MARYLAND SENATOR GETS DEFENSIVE ABOUT ADVOCACY FOR ALLEGED MS-13 MEMBER

Nungaray told Fox News Digital that she “will always advocate for her and be her voice and stand up for better border control and immigration laws. Because I know one-million percent Jocelyn’s death should have been preventable.” (Getty Images)

Nungaray said she is very grateful to Trump for both his support and for “keeping his promises” regarding immigration enforcement.

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“I support immigration, but I say there’s just a right way and a wrong way to do it,” she explained. “He’s protecting the people, and he’s taking consideration to the people, us the citizens and making sure we’re safe and our kids are safe, women are safe, that we’re all safe in our communities.”

“We’ve still got a long way to go,” she went on. “But I will always advocate for her and be her voice and stand up for better border control and immigration laws. Because I know one-million percent Jocelyn’s death should have been preventable.”

Protesters affiliated with several leftist groups, including the People’s Action Institute, flooded a Capitol Hill office building in Washington on Wednesday as the House prepared to vote on the “big, beautiful” budget bill backed by President Donald Trump.

Capitol Police have responded to several protests over Medicaid cuts that disrupted activities in Capitol office buildings over the last several weeks.

On Wednesday, protesters affiliated with the People’s Action Institute shut down a hallway in the Longworth House Office Building as part of a protest against cuts to Medicaid in the budget bill.

In a video obtained by Fox News Digital, protesters could be seen blocking a hallway and shouting, “We got the power,” while raising their fists. Many protesters held signs reading “Medicaid Cuts Kill.” 

TRUMP SAYS GOP IS UNIFIED AS HE DELIVERS ‘PEP TALK’ FOR ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

Protesters demonstrate inside a U.S. Capitol office building Wednesday as Congress prepares to vote on a budget bill backed by President Donald Trump. (Fox News Digital)

Capitol Police quickly cleared the protesters from the building; there appeared to be no arrests.

Democrats have been shining a spotlight on portions of the budget bill that restructure Medicaid, the nearly 60-year-old federal government program that provides health insurance for roughly 71 million adults and children with limited income.

The cuts to Medicaid, being drafted in part as an offset to pay for extending Trump’s 2017 tax cut law that is set to expire this year, include a slew of new rules and regulatory requirements for those seeking coverage. Among them are a new set of work requirements for many of those seeking coverage.

Wednesday’s protest was not the only one that has disrupted activity in the Capitol office buildings this month. Fox News Digital reported on Medicaid protesters disrupting a budget markup by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on May 13.

Video taken by Fox News Digital of the protests showed Capitol Police attempting to gain control of the situation, shouting repeatedly, “If you’re not getting arrested, then go!”

HOUSE GOP UNVEILS MEDICAID WORK REQUIREMENTS IN TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

Demonstrators calling for the preservation of Medicaid funding are removed from the House Energy and Commerce markup of the fiscal 2026 budget resolution in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on May 13, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

The video also shows a woman in a wheelchair being removed from the committee chamber while screaming, “They want to kill the disabled, they want to kill the sick, they want to kill the veterans who have fought for us.”

Amid the chaos, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., spurred on the crowds, saying, “Keep fighting, stay strong, we’re not going to let them take away healthcare. You are leading the way. Thank you very much.”

In response to criticism about disrupting activity in the congressional office buildings, Unai Montes-Irueste, a spokesperson for the People’s Action Institute, told Fox News Digital that “Medicaid cuts kill. Nothing is more disruptive than death.”

Montes-Irueste said “there is no congressional district in the country that supports ripping healthcare coverage away from Medicaid recipients so that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg can buy new yachts.”

CAPITOL POLICE ARREST PROTESTERS DISRUPTING BUDGET MARKUP AS CORY BOOKER THANKS THEM FOR DEFENDING MEDICAID

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks during a protest against the GOP’s funding plan on the steps of the House of Representatives on April 27, 2025. (Pete Marovich/Getty Images)

Despite the accusations that Republicans want to cut Medicaid, Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told Fox News Digital this month that “Republicans are ending waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid so the most vulnerable get the care they need.”

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Hudson said that “Democrats are lying to protect a broken status quo that lets illegal immigrants siphon off billions meant for American families. We’re strengthening Medicaid for future generations by protecting taxpayers and restoring integrity.”

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the budget bill sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the timing dependent on passage of a rules resolution from the House Rules Committee.

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

Marco Rubio told Fox News that far-left Democrats espousing regret over voting to confirm him as secretary of state is likely just “confirmation” that he is doing a good job.

Democrat Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen told Rubio during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing yesterday that he “regret[ted] voting” to confirm him as secretary of state after indicating as much on “Fox News Sunday” in March. Rubio shot back at the hearing that Van Hollen’s regret just proves he is doing a good job, and he subsequently told Fox News that the same goes for other Democrats who are expressing regret over their nod of approval to him earlier this year when he was confirmed by the Senate 99-0.

“In some cases, depending on … whoever you’re talking about and what they stand for, the fact that they don’t like what I’m doing is a confirmation I’m doing a good job,” Rubio said. “That’s how I feel about it.”

ADAM SCHIFF TELLS EPA’S LEE ZELDIN HE’LL CAUSE CANCER AFTER SHOUTFEST: ‘COULD GIVE A RAT’S A–‘

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said during a Senate hearing Tuesday that he regretted voting to confirm Marco Rubio as secretary of state. (AP | Reuters)

A growing number of Democrats are coming out against Rubio despite voting to confirm him, with the bulk of the criticism describing him as a sell-out to the Trump administration.

“I don’t recognize Secretary Rubio,” Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., added during the Tuesday Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing with Van Hollen, noting that in the past she had viewed him as “a bipartisan” and “pragmatic” person. 

“I’m not even mad anymore about your complicity in this administration’s destruction of U.S. global leadership. I’m simply disappointed,” Rosen said.

DEMS WARN HOUSE REPUBLICANS WILL PAY PRICE AT BALLOT BOX FOR PASSING TRUMP’S ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’

Last week, Democrat Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz lamented that Rubio has aligned himself “so closely” with President Donald Trump.

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is one of several Democrat senators who have said they are disappointed with Marco Rubio’s performance as secretary of state after voting to confirm him to the role. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

“President Trump’s narrow and transactional view of the world is not news to anybody. But what is genuinely surprising to me is that Secretary Rubio is aligning himself so closely with it,” Schatz said during a live event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations last week.

“This is someone who, up until four months ago, was an internationalist. Someone who believed in America flexing its powers in all manners, but especially through foreign assistance,” Schatz continued. “And yet, he is now responsible for the evisceration of the whole enterprise. He’s a colleague. I voted for him. We talk all the time. But what I’m trying to understand is: What happened?”

Schatz noted that he hopes to see Rubio “reemerge, reassert himself and save the enterprise.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., left, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev. (Getty Images | Fox News)

Rubio’s supportive stance on Trump’s foreign aid cuts, his defense of the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his alleged lack of action to help get him back to the U.S., his approach to the Russia-Ukraine war, and Rubio’s decision to pull visas from foreign college students in the U.S. for stoking anti-Israel sentiment on university campuses are all issues Democrats have pointed to for why they regret voting to confirm Rubio.

The secretary’s alleged role in bringing white South African refugees to the U.S. was also something for which Rubio was chastised by Democrats during his Tuesday testimony on Capitol Hill.

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“I think a lot of us thought that Marco Rubio was going to stand up to Donald Trump,” Democrat Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said in March during an interview on CNN. “Marco Rubio has not, and that’s been a great disappointment to many of his former colleagues in the Senate.”

Singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen continued his criticism of President Donald Trump Wednesday by releasing a six-track digital extended play (EP) that included his political rants while performing in Manchester, United Kingdom, last week.

“The Boss” included four songs on the 31-minute EP, “Land of Hope & Dreams.” The songs included “Land of Hope and Dreams,” “Long Walk Home,” “My City of Ruins” and “Chimes of Freedom.”

All four songs were recorded live May 14, 2025, when Springsteen publicly lambasted Trump.

During his intro to “Land of Hope and Dreams,” Springsteen said it was great to be back in Manchester, calling on the “righteous power of art, of music, of rock and roll, in dangerous times.”

KID ROCK CALLS OUT BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’S ANTI-TRUMP RANT ON EUROPEAN TOUR, SAYS IT WAS A ‘PUNK MOVE’

Bruce Springsteen launched into a political rant against President Donald Trump while performing in Manchester, England, last week. (Getty Images)

“In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,” he said. “Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring.”

Springsteen went on another political rant against Trump and the U.S. government before the E Street Band kicked into the song “My City of Ruins.”

“There’s some very weird, strange and dangerous s— going on out there right now,” Springsteen told the British crowd. “In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now. In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction and abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. 

TRUMP CALLS SPRINGSTEEN ‘HIGHLY OVERRATED’ AFTER ROCKER LABELS HIM ‘TREASONOUS’ OVERSEAS

Bruce Springsteen performs during the first night of “The Land of Hopes and Dreams” tour at Co-op Live May 14 in Manchester, England. (Getty Images)

“This is happening now,” he added. “In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers. They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society. They’re abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom.”

Springsteen also accused the government of defunding American universities that “won’t bow down to their ideological demands.”

“They’re removing residents off American streets and, without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons,” he said. “This is all happening now. A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government. They have no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American. 

FOX NEWS POLITICS NEWSLETTER: NO LOVE LOST BETWEEN TRUMP AND ‘THE BOSS’

Bruce Springsteen performed in Manchester, England, last week. (Getty Images)

“The America that I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real and, regardless of its faults, is a great country with a great people,” Springsteen added. “So, we’ll survive this moment.”

The crowd responded with applause when Springsteen continued to pontificate his stance on the current administration.

The comments went viral last week, and Trump responded by slamming Springsteen and calling him “highly overrated” Friday.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN IGNORES QUESTION ABOUT TRUMP FEUD WHILE SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS: VIDEO

President Donald Trump has caught continued criticism from rocker Bruce Springsteen. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country.

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“Sleepy Joe didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing, but Springsteen is ‘dumb as a rock,’ and couldn’t see what was going on, or could he (which is even worse!)? This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”

Springsteen declared last year that “I’ll be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz” in the presidential election. Harris lost the race to Trump.

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman, Lindsay Kornick and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has been hard at work this week meeting with as many factions within the House GOP as possible to quell concerns ahead of a chamber-wide vote on President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

Managing a razor-thin House majority isn’t easy in the best of times, but negotiating the vast tax-immigration-energy-defense-debt limit bill has revealed both old and new fractures within the Republican Conference.

Fox News Digital took a look at what the key factions have been looking for.

HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS HEADING TO WHITE HOUSE AFTER DELAY PLAY ON TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

Trump is pictured in front of the US Capitol Building, surrounded by fencing in Washington, D.C., on Friday, January 17, 2025.  (Fox News Digital/Trump-Vance Transition Team)

Conservative fiscal hawks

The House Freedom Caucus and their allies have been pushing the bill to go further on curbing Medicaid’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) expansion, and implementing work requirements for able-bodied Americans on the government healthcare program sooner than the current bill’s 2029 deadline.

There’s broad consensus among Republicans on needing work requirements for able-bodied Americans on healthcare, but cutting too deeply into the Obamacare-era expanded population has some moderate GOP lawmakers worried.

The conservatives have consistently argued that they are only seeking to reshuffle the program to make it more available for vulnerable people who truly need it, including low-income women and children.

That same group has argued in favor of a total repeal of President Joe Biden’s green energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – a push that has pitted them against Republicans whose districts have businesses that benefitted from those subsidies.

DEMS WARN HOUSE REPUBLICANS WILL PAY PRICE AT BALLOT BOX FOR PASSING TRUMP’S ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’

US Capitol Building at sunset on January 30th, 2025  (Fox News Digital)

Blue state tax critics

Moderate Republicans in California, New York, and New Jersey have been taking a stand on raising the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap.

SALT deduction caps primarily benefit people living in high-cost-of-living areas like New York City, Los Angeles, and their surrounding suburbs.

Republicans representing those areas have argued that raising the SALT deduction cap is an existential issue — and that a failure to address it could cost the GOP the House majority in the 2026 midterms.

Several of the Republicans vying for higher SALT deduction caps have pointed out that their victories are critical to the party retaining control of the House in 2024.

SALT deduction caps did not exist before Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which notably instilled a $10,000 ceiling for married and single tax filers.

That cap has been received positively by the majority of Republicans, however – and those in lower-tax, GOP-controlled states have dismissed the push for a higher SALT deduction cap as an unearned reward for Democratic states with high-tax policies.

Republicans in places like Tennessee and Missouri have argued it was their tax dollars subsidizing wealthier, blue-leaning areas’ tax breaks. Blue state Republicans, meanwhile, have contended that they send more tax dollars back to the federal government which in turn helps pay for lower-tax states.

President Donald Trump, center, is joined by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., left, as he departs the Capitol following a meeting with the House Republican Conference, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.) (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Inflation Reduction Act hopefuls

There is some overlap between Republicans looking for more modest cuts to the IRA and those seeking a higher SALT deduction cap – but not completely.

Republicans in swing districts in Arizona and Pennsylvania have argued that upending those tax credits now would harm businesses in their districts that had begun changing their operations already to conform to those new tax breaks.

In March, 21 House Republicans signed a letter urging their colleagues to preserve the green energy tax credit.

“Countless American companies are utilizing sector-wide energy tax credits – many of which have enjoyed broad support in Congress – to make major investments in domestic energy production and infrastructure for traditional and renewable energy sources alike,” they wrote.

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But conservative fiscal hawks pushing for a total repeal said in their own letter that the U.S.’ growing green energy sector was the product of government handouts rather than genuine sustainable growth.

“Leaving IRA subsidies intact will actively undermine America’s return to energy dominance and national security,” they said. “They are the result of government subsidies that distort the U.S. energy sector, displace reliable coal and natural gas and the domestic jobs they produce, and put the stability and independence of our electric grid in jeopardy.”

Fox News’ Peter Doocy has some unique insight on former President Joe Biden as questions continue to persist about whether there was a coverup to hide his declining mental state while serving as commander-in-chief. 

Doocy, a senior White House correspondent, posted multiple videos to X on Wednesday showing him questioning Biden and the White House about the then-president’s cognitive decline. 

“I have some unique insight on President Biden, having dedicated six years of my life to covering him,” he wrote. “If you are wondering why nobody asked about his mental fitness, and why nobody asked if White House staffers were covering up his decline… then you weren’t paying attention.”

WASHINGTON POST URGES CONGRESS TO ACT TO PREVENT ANOTHER COVER-UP OF PRESIDENT’S HEALTH AMID BIDEN REVELATIONS 

Jake Tapper’s new book, “Original Sin,” alleges that President Biden was experiencing memory lapses as early as the 2020 campaign. (Demetrius Freeman/Washington Post via Getty Images)

In one video, Doocy is seen questioning Biden about Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report that concluded that one of the reasons Biden wasn’t charged for his handling of classified Obama-era documents found in his former office and at home was because he was a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

“I’m well-meaning and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing. I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation,” Biden replied.

Doocy then asked how bad Biden’s memory was and would he be able to continue to serve as president. 

“My memory is so bad, I let you speak,” Biden shot back. 

Much of the media has been criticized for its reluctance to question Biden or the White House about his health concerns. The former president’s health is once again in the headlines after CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson’s new book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” was released on Tuesday.

The book alleges that Biden’s inner circle concealed his cognitive decline for years and was released just days after news broke that Biden had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.

In one instance, during a news briefing, Doocy questioned then-White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about a campaign event in which Biden was present. 

“At a fundraiser this week, President Biden told donors about how Charlottesville inspired his campaign, and according to the pool, a few mins later he told the story again nearly word for word. What’s up with that?”

CBS NEWS REPORTER SAYS WSJ’S ‘COURAGEOUS’ 2024 REPORT ON BIDEN’S DECLINE SHOULD HAVE WON THE PULITZER

“What I can tell you is, and I’m going to be careful not to talk about it because this was a campaign event,… the president was making very clear why he decided to run in 2019,” Jean-Pierre responded. 

In another briefing, Jean-Pierre said Biden was making a “light-hearted joke” and “speaking off the cuff” when she was asked by Doocy about Biden’s remarks that his “health is fine. It’s just his brain.”

In another video, Jean-Pierre was asked about Biden’s gaffe when he appeared to mix up French President Emmanuel Macron with François Mitterrand, the former president of France who died in 1996.

“How is President Biden ever going to convince the three-quarters of voters who are worried about his physical and mental health that he’s OK even though in Las Vegas he told a story about recently talking to a French president who died in 1996?”

WALL STREET JOURNAL CALLS OUT TAPPER FOR SNEERING AT PAPER’S STORY ABOUT BIDEN’S DECLINE

“I’m not even going to go down that rabbit hole with you,” she replied. 

Doocy also asked if Biden had been tested for Parkinson’s Disease or dementia following his disastrous debate performance against then-candidate Donald Trump.

“What we shared with you was comprehensive, but he’s had a full physical. We’ve shown the results of those this past three years,” Jean-Pierre said. “We showed it just four months ago, and it is in line with what we have done, similar to President Obama, similar to George W. Bush. We are committed to continue to be transparent. We are committed to continue to show the results of those physicals, and look, it’s the president’s medical team that makes a decision.”

In another briefing, Jean-Pierre was questioned about why Biden was treated by White House staffers “like a baby.”

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“No one treated the president of the United States, the commander-in-chief, like a baby,” she replied. “That’s a ridiculous claim.”

Fox News Digital’s Kristine Parks contributed to this report.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday that the Trump Gold Card, which makes it possible for any foreigner to buy a visa for $5 million, will be available online within weeks.

Lutnick was a guest at Axios’ streamed event, Building the Future, Wednesday, where he was interviewed by company co-founder Mike Allen about several topics, including President Donald Trump’s offering of a Gold Card.

In March, Trump said the Gold Card would go on sale “very, very soon,” explaining it would be like a green card, “but better and more sophisticated.” He said the newest path to citizenship in the U.S. would allow the “most successful job-creating people from all over the world to buy a path to citizenship.”

Allen asked Lutnick when the $5 million Gold Card would be available, and Lutnick said he expected a website called trumpcard.gov to be up and running in about a week.

TRUMP VOWS TO REFUND, DEPORT ANY ‘UNSAVORY’ IMMIGRANTS WHO TRY FOR CITIZENSHIP UNDER POTENTIAL ‘GOLD CARD’

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Axios Wednesday President Donald Trump’s offering of a Gold Card visa for $5 million will be available online in the coming weeks. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“The details of that will come soon after, but people can start to register. And all that will come over a matter of the next weeks — not month, weeks,” Lutnick said.

He also shared a story about a recent “great dinner” in the Middle East with about 400 people.

During the dinner, Lutnick said, he had his phone out when one of the senior leaders walked by and asked why his phone was out.

“I go, ‘I am selling him cards,’” Lutnick said. “So, basically everyone I meet who’s not an American is going to want to buy the card if they have the fiscal capacity.”

TRUMP CONTINUES TO PUSH ALTERNATIVE TO CONTROVERSIAL VISA AMID CONCERNS ABOUT CHINESE INFLUENCE

President Donald Trump holds the $5 million Trump Gold Card as he speaks to reporters on board Air Force One April 3. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

He acknowledged that not everyone will be able to afford a Gold Card, but it will be available to those who can afford to help America pay off its debt.

“Why wouldn’t they want a plan B that says God forbid something bad happens, you come to the airport in America and the person in immigration says, ‘Welcome home.’ Right? As opposed to, ‘Where the heck am I going if something bad’s happening in my country,’” Lutnick continued. 

He noted that everyone will be vetted for a card, adding those who come in with $5 million for a visa are going to be “great people who are going to come and bring businesses and opportunity to America. And they’re going to pay $5 million.”

Lutnick offered one more hypothetical scenario, saying if 200,000 people purchase the Gold Card for $5 million, that’s $1 trillion.

TRUMP TOUTS $5 MILLION ‘GOLD CARD’ AS NEW PATH TO CITIZENSHIP

President Donald Trump (Associated Press)

“Remember, we get 280,000 visas per year now for free, not counting the 20 million people who broke into this country for nothing under Biden,” Lutnick said. “And, so, I want you to think about that. We give it away for free and said Donald Trump’s gonna bring in a trillion dollars for what purpose? To make America better. And it makes perfect sense to me.”

TRUMP’S ‘GOLD CARD’ VISA COULD INVITE FRAUD, NATIONAL SECURITY RISKS: EXPERT

Trump has previously touted his plan before to attract the world’s wealthiest to become U.S. citizens, though it comes at a time when he is both clamping down on illegal migration and as universities are increasingly in the spotlight amid soaring school costs and crippling student loans. 

After Trump’s announcement in March, Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, warned it could invite fraud.

Howard Lutnick says the Trump Gold Card will be available online soon. (Anegla Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

“Any immigration benefit draws fraud. … People are willing to do anything and say just about anything to come to the U.S.,” Ries told Fox News Digital. 

In an interview in February with Fox News’ Chief Political Anchor Bret Baier on “Special Report,” Lutnick said all candidates will be “deeply vetted.”

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“These are vetted people,” Lutnick told Baier. “These are going to be great global citizens who are going to bring entrepreneurial spirit, capacity and growth to America. If one of them comes in, think of the jobs they are going to bring with them, the businesses they are going to bring with them, and they are going to pay American taxes as well. So, this is huge money for America.”

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” could be headed for a House-wide vote as soon as Wednesday night after its approval by a key committee in an 8-4 vote.

The House Rules Committee, the gatekeeper for most legislation before it gets to the full chamber, first met at 1 a.m. Wednesday to advance the massive bill in time for Speaker Mike Johnson’s Memorial Day deadline for sending it to the Senate.

The panel adjourned shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday after all four Democrats voted against the measure and all present Republicans voted for it. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, was the lone lawmaker to miss the vote.

Proceedings crept on for hours as Democrats on the committee repeatedly accursed Republicans of trying to move the bill “in the dead of night” and of trying to raise costs for working class families at the expense of the wealthy.

WHITE HOUSE URGES IMMEDIATE VOTE ON GOP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson shakes hands with then-President-elect Donald Trump onstage at a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on November 13, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Democratic lawmakers also dragged out the process with dozens of amendments that stretched from early Tuesday well into Wednesday.

Republicans, meanwhile, contended the bill is aimed at boosting small businesses, farmers, and low- and middle-income families, while reducing waste, fraud, and abuse in the government safety net.

In a sign of the meeting’s high stakes, Johnson, R-La., himself visited with committee Republicans shortly before 1 a.m. and then again just after sunrise.

But the committee kicked off its meeting to advance the bill with several key outstanding issues – blue state Republicans pushing for a raise in state and local tax (SALT) deduction caps, and conservatives demanding stricter work requirement rules for Medicaid as well as a full repeal of green energy subsidies granted in former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

A long-awaited amendment to the legislation aimed at fixing those issues debuted around 9 p.m. on Wednesday evening.

HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS HEADING TO WHITE HOUSE AFTER DELAY PLAY ON TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

Speaker Mike Johnson must navigate his perilously slim majority to pass President Trump’s agenda (Getty Images/Fox News Digital illustration)

The amendment would speed up the implementation of Medicaid work requirements for certain able-bodied recipients from 2029 to December 2026, and award states that did not follow Obamacare-era expansion plans with more federal dollars.

It would also end a host of green energy tax subsidies by 2028 if they did not demonstrate relatively quick return on investment.

Democrats, meanwhile, accused Republicans of hastily trying to change the legislation without proper notice.

Johnson told Fox News Digital during his Wednesday 1 a.m. that he was “very close” to a deal with divided House GOP factions.

Returning from that meeting, Johnson signaled the House would press ahead with its vote either late Wednesday or early Thursday.

But the legislation’s passage through the House Rules Committee does not necessarily mean it will fare well in a House-wide vote.

A pair of House Rules Committee members, Roy and Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and were two of the conservative House Freedom Caucus members who had called for the House-wide vote to be delayed on Wednesday.

A general view of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington February 28, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Reed (REUTERS/Jason Reed)

Meanwhile, the White House bore down hard on those rebels, demanding a vote “immediately” in an official statement of policy that backed the House GOP bill.

Several of those fiscal hawks were more optimistic after a meeting at the White House with Trump and Johnson, however.

Republicans are working to pass Trump’s policies on tax, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt all in one massive bill via the budget reconciliation process.

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Budget reconciliation lowers the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, thereby allowing the party in power to skirt the minority — in this case, Democrats — to pass sweeping pieces of legislation, provided they deal with the federal budget, taxation or the national debt.

House Republicans are hoping to advance Trump’s bill through the House and Senate by the Fourth of July.

House Republicans believe they are close to passing Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill.

After the meeting at the White House, with the president and members of the Freedom Caucus, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) suggested that the House could vote in the overnight on the Big, Beautiful Bill. 

But it quickly became apparent that was a physical – and parliamentary – impossibility. 

GOP REBEL MUTINY THREATENS TO DERAIL TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ BEFORE KEY COMMITTEE HURDLE

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) later introduced a “manager’s amendment” to make final changes to the bill. Those alterations were designed to coax holdouts to vote yes. 

It’s now likely that the House debates the bill in the early hours of Thursday with a vote in perhaps the late morning. 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks at a press conference with other members of House Republican leadership in Washington, DC, United States, on May 20, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

But Democratic dilatory tactics could further delay passage of the bill. 

It’s possible Democrats could engineer protest votes to “adjourn” the House. Calls to “adjourn” hold special privileges in the House and require immediate consideration.

A USER’S MANUAL TO WHERE WE STAND WITH THE ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) could also take advantage of a special debate time on the floor to “filibuster” the measure. Top House leaders from both parties are afforded what’s called the “Magic Minute.” That’s where they are allotted a “minute” to speak on an issue. But the House really allows them to speak as long as they wish out of deference to their position. Then-House Minority Leader and future Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) set the record for the longest speech in November, 2021, delaying considering of former President Biden’s “Build Back Better” Act. McCarthy spoke for eight hours and 32 minutes.

The US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Sunday, May 18, 2025. (Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ FACES CRUCIAL HOURS AS JOHNSON COURTS FREEDOM CAUCUS

The House Freedom Caucus seems much more satisfied with the upcoming changes to the bill. Especially after the meeting with the president.

But here is the main reason the House wants to move this as quickly as possible:

Republicans don’t want the bill to fester. Problems develop the longer this sits out there. So when you think you have the votes, you put it on the floor and force the issue. There could also be attendance problems later on Thursday or beyond.

Rep. Mike Lawler (left) and Rep. Thomas Massie (right) said President Donald Trump on Tuesday did not convince them to vote for his “big, beautiful bill” in its current form.  (Getty Images)

This subject has been jawboned to death for weeks. Johnson said weeks ago he wanted this passed by Memorial Day. So Johnson – and President Trump – want GOPers who are skeptical or holdouts to put up or shut up. You do that by putting the bill on the floor and requiring a vote.

That said, it’s possible the GOP leadership might not have the votes ahead of the actual roll call vote. So calling a vote applies pressure on those holdouts. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) used to “grow” the vote on the House floor. In other words, they would start the vote – not having all the ducks in order – and then “grow” the vote during the actual roll call and cajoling or twisting arms. The same may happen today.

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Also, if the vote is a little shy of passage, Republican leaders could hold the vote open and then single out those Republicans who have either voted no or have not cast ballots. Then the leadership can really turn up the heat and accuse them of not supporting the president’s agenda. If push comes to shove, they can then have the President weigh in and use his powers to coax those holdouts to vote yes.

Here’s the long-term outlook: If the House passes the bill, this goes to the Senate. This will be a project which will consume most of June. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) wants this done by July 4. But the question is what the Senate actually produces. The House and Senate must be on the same page. If the Senate crafts a different legislative product, then this must return to the House to sync up. Either the House eats what the Senate put together. Or the House and Senate must blend their differing versions together into a single, unified bill. That could take most of July. Remember that this bill includes an increase in the debt ceiling. The Treasury says Congress must lift the debt ceiling by early August.

The Army on Wednesday said it is approaching its second phase of separation with service members experiencing gender dysphoria, an initiative that follows the Trump administration’s directive of prioritizing military excellence and readiness.

A new memo issued by Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll and obtained by Fox News Digital outlines two phases in the separation process, the first of which will be completed at the beginning of June.

The first phase, which ends June 6, allows service members who have been diagnosed with or have a history of gender dysphoria to identify themselves and volunteer to separate from the military branch, an Army spokesperson told Fox Digital.

An Army drill sergeant looks over recruits at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. The Army recently announced it would not allow transgender people to serve.  (U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood)

PENTAGON CEASES GENDER TRANSITION TREATMENTS AS IT MOVES TO BOOT TRANS TROOPS

Once a service member notifies an immediate commander, that commander will then notify a superior, initiating the separation process.

Soldiers who reached a threshold for years of service qualify for voluntary separation pay or double the pay a service member would get by separating from the Army for various reasons, the spokesperson said.

Transgender service members may not be given an honorable discharge if they are facing pending administrative action. (iStock)

HEGSETH BANS FUTURE TRANS SOLDIERS, MAKES SWEEPING CHANGES FOR CURRENT ONES

However, they will not qualify for separation pay if they have not reached the years of service, if there is pending administrative action against them or if they are facing Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) code infractions. 

In the case of pending administrative action against them, their discharge may also not be honorable.

The Army said those who volunteer for separation, but do not qualify, will still be separated and afforded benefits; they will only forfeit the additional separation pay, according to the spokesperson.

The first phase of the Army’s separation with transgender soldiers ends June 6. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

After the June 6 deadline for voluntary separation, the Army will enter the involuntary separation phase. 

In the second phase, “there will be means of identifying those who did not want to self-identify,” the spokesperson said.

HEGSETH ORDERS DEADLINE FOR TRANS SERVICE MEMBERS TO LEAVE MILITARY: ‘OUT AT THE DOD’

The spokesperson said soldiers’ records, prior to the new policy, reflected service members’ sex at birth.

Once they are identified, a separation process will begin.

Military veterans and their supporters protest against the Trump administration’s cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs and other changes affecting veterans outside the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis. (Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

TRANSGENDER SAILORS, MARINES OFFERED BENEFITS TO VOLUNTARILY LEAVE SERVICE OR FACE BEING KICKED OUT

“Regardless of potential outcome, every service member will be treated with dignity and respect, however this shakes out,” the spokesperson said.

Driscoll’s guidance comes after President Donald Trump issued an executive order Jan. 27, “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.”

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth heeded Trump’s executive order with a memo outlining what the Department of Defense needed to do to comply.

Sparks flew on Capitol Hill Wednesday as Education Secretary Linda McMahon faced off with Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., in a fiery exchange during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing in the latest clash over the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education.

The war of words began when Watson Coleman asked, “Do you believe that there is illegal discrimination against people who are Black or brown, and other types of discrimination in jobs and education in this country?”

“I think it still exists in some areas,” McMahon replied.

‘EDUCATORS WILL BE FIRED’: REPUBLICANS CHEER TRUMP ORDER DISMANTLING EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AS DEMS SEETHE

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon testifies before a House Committee on Appropriations’ subcommittee budget hearing on the Department of Education on Capitol Hill, Wednesday. (Rod Lamkey, Jr./AP Photo)

Watson Coleman pressed further: “Then can you tell me why the Office of Civil Rights and the Department of Education is being decimated?”

McMahon responded, “Well, it isn’t being decimated. We have reduced the size of it. However, we are taking on a backlog of cases that were left over from the Biden administration.”

Watson Coleman grew visibly frustrated and accused the administration of racial bias in immigration and education policies, saying its actions amounted to “favoritism and prioritization of white over color.”

In a blistering rebuke, Watson Coleman said, “Your rhetoric means nothing to me. What means something to me is the actions of this administration. I’m telling you, the Department of Education is one of the most important departments in this country. And you should feel shameful to be engaged with an administration that doesn’t give a damn.”

STUDENT LOANS, PELL GRANTS WILL CONTINUE DESPITE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT DOWNSIZING, EXPERT SAYS

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., attends the House Appropriations Committee Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

McMahon, remaining composed, replied, “I am the secretary of Education who has been approved to run this agency by Congress. And I was appointed by the president. And I serve at his pleasure under his mandate. So, therefore, the direction of his administration is what I will follow.”

The exchange came as part of a larger hearing in which McMahon laid out President Donald Trump’s 2026 education budget proposal, which calls for a $12 billion cut to the Education Department, a 15% reduction.

McMahon described her work as the department’s “final mission”: to wind it down and restore education oversight to states, parents and local educators.

“Let’s focus on literacy. What we’re seeing in those scores is a failure of our students to learn to read,” McMahon said. “We’ve lost the fundamentals.”

Chairman Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., praised McMahon’s approach, noting, “Despite $3 trillion in federal education spending since 1980, student achievement has not improved. The answer is not more money. It’s more accountability and local control.”

The plan consolidates 18 federal programs into a single $2 billion block grant to states. Democrats labeled the proposal as a backdoor effort to gut federal support for public schools.

On student loans, McMahon said the department has begun recovering repayments after years of Biden-era pauses and confusion.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon testifies before a House Committee on Capitol Hill, Wednesday. (Rod Lamkey, Jr./AP Photo)

“Since we restarted collections in May, we have recovered nearly $100 million,” she said.

She also defended staffing cuts and administrative restructuring, stating, “We’re delivering on all of our statutory requirements with fewer people and lower overhead.”

Republicans on the subcommittee shared their support for charter schools and school choice. McMahon, in agreement, pointed to a proposed $60 million increase in charter school funding.

“We’ve got about a million students on charter school waiting lists,” she said. “Parents should be deciding where their children can go to school and get the best education.”

Democrats also criticized McMahon for not defending early childhood education, particularly Head Start, even though the program technically falls under the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Every Head Start program in the country has three days of funding. That’s not someone else’s problem. It’s America’s children,” said Rep. Josh Harder, D-Calif.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon testifies before a House Committee on Appropriations’ subcommittee budget hearing on Capitol Hill, Wednesday. (Rod Lamkey, Jr./AP Photo)

McMahon responded, “The earlier we can start education, the better, but I don’t believe the federal government is responsible for everything. That’s where states can lead.”

The Trump administration also defended its position forcefully outside the hearing room.

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“On the topic of corruption, let’s not forget that the Department of Education was created by President Carter in an attempt to win voters,” Savannah Newhouse, Education Department press secretary, said in a statement to Fox News Digital following the exchange.

“Since then, we have spent over $3 trillion pretending the department is necessary as student learning outcomes have not improved,” she continued. “While the congresswoman from New Jersey basks in her five minutes of fame, the Trump administration is working to improve student outcomes and ensure American families have access to the quality education that they deserve.”

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…

-Trump confronts South Africa’s president with video on treatment of White farmers

-Florida Sen Moody rolls out measure to expedite removal of criminal illegal immigrants

-Justice Department begins dismissing Biden-era police lawsuits against Minneapolis and Louisville

China Sounds Alarm Over Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’

China is concerned by President Donald Trump’s proposal for a new U.S. missile defense system, called the Golden Dome, which is designed to protect against adversarial attacks on America.  

Golden Dome has a “strong offensive nature and violates the principle of peaceful use in the Outer Space Treaty,” Chinese Foreign Minister Mao Ning said Wednesday. 

“The project will heighten the risk of turning space into a war zone and creating a space arms race, and shake the international security and arms control system,” Mao said. “We urge the U.S. to give up developing and deploying global anti-missile system.”…READ MORE 

Trump, Golden Dome rendering and Xi  (Reuters/Getty)

White House

DIPLOMATIC RECKONING: Trump to meet leader of ‘out of control’ South Africa at White House

 ‘PROMISE KEPT’: Rising star takes victory lap after Trump DOJ rolls back massive Biden anti-police push: ‘Undo the damage’

‘CAPACITY FOR DENIAL’: Biden family misled public on Beau’s cancer diagnosis, new book says

President Joe Biden, left, and first lady Jill Biden arrive on Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

‘LOT OF QUESTIONS’: Harris, Becerra covered up Biden mental decline, California Democratic candidate for governor says

World Stage

CRITICAL AID: At least 82 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza as critical aid fails to reach Palestinians

WALKING THE FRONT LINES: Putin visits Kursk region for first time since booting Ukrainian forces from territory

‘STRETCHING’ THE SYSTEM?: Israel encircles 2 of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals, groups say

Capitol Hill

PRICE TO PAY: Dems warn House Republicans will pay price at ballot box for passing Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’

LEFT FLANK ASSIST: Trump and Cruz’ No Tax on Tips plan passes Senate with unexpected help from Dem

Left: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during a news conference on the U.S. Southern Border at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 06, 2024 in Washington, DC. Right:  Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he walks onstage for a campaign rally on Oct. 12, 2024 in Coachella, California (Left: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Right: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

ART OF THE DEAL?: House Freedom Caucus heading to White House after delay play on Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

‘STOPS THE MUTILATION’: Marjorie Taylor Greene pushes bill to punish those who perform gender transition measures on minors

‘IMMENSE SADNESS’: Virginia Democratic Rep Gerry Connolly dead at 75

‘CHARGES ARE ABSURD’: Dem Rep. McIver expected to make first court appearance after Newark incident

INCHING CLOSER: Speaker Johnson reaches tentative deal with blue state Republicans to boost cap on SALT deduction

Speaker Mike Johnson must navigate his perilously slim majority to pass President Trump’s agenda (Getty Images/Fox News Digital illustration)

‘EMBRACE A GOOD IDEA’: Senate unanimously approves $25,000 tax break for tipped workers

SURPRISE SUPPORT: Trump and Cruz’ No Tax on Tips plan passes Senate with unexpected help from Dem

CRUNCH TIME: White House urges immediate vote on GOP’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

Across America 

MEDICAL MISTRUST: US officials delayed warning public about heart inflammation risk from COVID shot: report

‘HEINOUS’: DHS exposes crimes by migrants deported to South Sudan as judge threatens to order their return

SAIL TO SNAG: No distress calls made from Mexican Navy tall ship that crashed into Brooklyn Bridge, Mexican Navy chief says

The Mexican Navy training ship that hit the Brooklyn Bridge sits moored in lower Manhattan on May 18, 2025 in New York City. Two people died and 19 others were injured after a Mexican Navy training ship hit the Brooklyn Bridge, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday.  (ANA FERNANDEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

BIDEN BACKLOG: Biden Ed Dept put priority on pronouns, left backlog of nearly 200 antisemitism complaints: official

CHANGE OF PLANS: Federal judge slaps hold on new Oklahoma immigration law

DOJ CRACKDOWN: DOJ investigating Andrew Cuomo for allegedly lying about COVID decisions, source confirms

CUSTODY BATTLE: Federal judge rules US must keep track of migrants deported to South Sudan during legal fight

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

The typically calm confines of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee were the site of several clashes Wednesday between Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Democrats on the panel adjudicating his annual budget request.

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., rattled off a list of cancers he claimed Zeldin’s actions at the agency could cause, remarking the New York Republican must be proud of how many regulations he’s slashed in such a short time. 

“Your legacy will be more lung cancer — it’ll be more bladder cancer, more head and neck cancer. There’ll be more breast cancer, more leukemia and pancreatic cancer, more liver cancer, more skin cancer, more kidney cancer, more testicular cancer, or colorectal cancer — more rare cancers of innumerable varieties. That will be your legacy. … My kids are gonna be breathing that air just like yours,” he said.

“If your children were drinking the water in Santa Ana, Mr. Zeldin… maybe you would give a damn,” he said after holding up a glass of water and claiming the EPA’s move toward streamlining its grants and expenditures will lead to a panoply of bad outcomes.

KASH PATEL ENRAGES SCHIFF IN CLINTONIAN BATTLE OVER THE WORD ‘WE’ AND A JANUARY 6 SONG

“You need the money for a tax cut for rich people because you’re totally beholden to the oil industry,” Schiff fumed, accusing Zeldin of unlawful termination of congressionally appropriated grants.

“You could give a rat’s a– about how much cancer your agency causes,” Schiff said, raising his voice as Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., banged the gavel to note his time was up.

Earlier in the hearing, Zeldin clashed with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., over grant reviews and claimed the administrator couldn’t “get [his] story straight.”

Whitehouse appeared to make the claim that the EPA was not individually reviewing each of the grants it was canceling and cited court testimony from Zeldin official Travis Voyles that he had conducted an “individualized review” as of February.

FLASHBACK: SCHIFF, WHO REPEATEDLY CLAIMED EVIDENCE OF RUSSIAN COLLUSION, DENOUNCES DURHAM REPORT AS ‘FLAWED’

Lee Zeldin, left, Adam B. Schiff, center, Sheldon Whitehouse, right (Getty Images)

“You guys are gonna have to start getting your story straight because there are three completely different statements, and they cannot all be true. It cannot be that Voyles personally himself conducted—”

“He did,” Zeldin cut in.

“… the review of 781 grants—” Whitehouse continued.

“He did; I did,” Zeldin cut in again.

“… and that [Deputy Administrator Daniel] Coogan saw to it that it was individually done,” Whitehouse said as the two men talked over each other.

After some more back-and-forth, Zeldin told Whitehouse that it must be a “crazy concept” for him to consider that more than one person could review the hundreds of grants in question and for more than one per calendar day.

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Zeldin said he and his EPA colleagues have been “busting their a–” to identify waste and abuse and that Whitehouse was only interested in scoring political points.

“I’m using the facts as your employees stated them,” Whitehouse claimed.

“We’re on it every single day, because we have a zero-tolerance policy towards wasting dollars,” Zeldin shot back.

“You don’t care about wasting money,” he went on, adding that he had promised committee member Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., at a prior hearing that he would make reviewing grants in this way a priority of his tenure. “I have to come back here in front of Sen. Ricketts today, and even though you don’t care about wasting tax dollars, Sen. Ricketts does.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., chair of the Committee on Environment and Public Works for comment, but did not hear back by press time.

FIRST ON FOX: Republicans outperformed Democrats on voter registration in four key battleground states between the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections, according to research by the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC). 

The bipartisan political consultant non-profit teamed up with analysts from Data Trust, a conservative organization, and Target Smart, which has aligned with Democrats in past election cycles. Compiling data from the 2020 and 2024 elections in Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Pennsylvania, the research suggests a national shift in voter registration toward the Republican Party.

“We wanted a bipartisan analysis because there are so many conventional wisdoms this election challenged,” Larry Huynh of Trilogy Interactive and Democrat AAPC Board President said. “The data was pretty clear that the Democrats were caught off guard with voter registration and turnout efforts and failed to mount a sufficiently compelling counter-effort to compete. We should all learn from this and take a deeper dive into our voter registration and turnout operations.”

AAPC unveiled the research this week during the 2025 Pollie Awards, a political communications awards program, in Colorado Springs, Colo. 

FOX NEWS VOTER ANALYSIS: HOW TRUMP REGAINED THE WHITE HOUSE

Yard signs are offered to supporters as they arrive for a campaign event with Republican vice presidential nominee U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) on Sept.25, 2024, in Traverse City, Michigan. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“The Trump campaign and the Republican Party deserve considerable recognition for their voter registration success and turnout efforts and the party should try to build on these successes,” Kyle Roberts of AdImpact and the incoming Republican AAPC Board President told Fox News Digital. 

BIDEN AIDE INTIMIDATED REPORTER INVESTIGATING FORMER PRESIDENT’S MENTAL DECLINE WITH ‘TACIT THREAT:’ BOOK

From 2020 to 2024, the bipartisan political analysis found the share of registered Democrat voters dropped in all four battleground states. Meanwhile, the share of registered unaffiliated and Republican voters increased in Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Pennsylvania, according to the data compiled by Data Trust and Target Smart. 

In three out of four of the states analyzed, unaffiliated voters accounted for the largest electoral increase. Democrats saw the largest electoral drop between 2020 and 2024 across the four battleground states, following the same trend as voter registration. 

Voter turnout across party lines dropped in three out of the four battleground states analyzed, the data revealed. And while Democrat turnout dropped more than Republican turnout in those three states, the difference was less than a percentage point in every state but Arizona. 

Data Trust and Target Smart also analyzed trends across demographic groups, including Black, Hispanic and rural voters. The overall increase in Republican registration, turnout and electoral growth was consistent across the demographic groups analyzed. 

Former President Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Bozeman, Montana, on Friday, Aug. 9.  (AP/Rick Bowmer)

President Donald Trump won all seven battleground states in 2024 – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Republicans maintained control of the House of Representatives and won back the Senate. 

70% of voters believed the country was on the wrong track and wanted change in the 2024 presidential election, according to Fox News Voter Analysis. The economy and immigration were top issues as Trump tied inflation to President Joe Biden’s administration and vowed to secure the border on his first day in office. 

As AAPC seeks to analyze Republicans’ inroads with swing state voters in 2024, Democrats are facing their own reckoning this week as a new book reveals the alleged “cover-up” of Biden’s cognitive decline. 

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris laugh as they view the fireworks on the National Mall from the White House balcony during a 4th of July event on the South Lawn of the White House on Jul. 4, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson’s book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” released on Tuesday, paints an unflattering picture of Democrats’ losses in 2024. 

While political commentators focus on what Democrats did wrong in 2024, AAPC’s new data reveals what Republicans did right on voter registration and turnout. 

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The Republican National Committee (RNC) opened “Black Americans for Trump” and “Latino Americans for Trump” offices across the battleground states in 2024, seeking to expand their reach among traditionally Democrat voting blocs. 

Over 160,000 volunteers joined the RNC’s “Protect the Vote” efforts on election integrity in 2024, which included more than 100 lawsuits and recruiting poll watchers across the country. Seizing on Republicans’ election distrust following Trump’s loss in 2020, the RNC built a coalition of supporters across the country that propelled voters to the polls and landed Trump a win in 2024. 

Vice President JD Vance’s suggestion this week that the U.S. could walk away from supporting Ukraine if peace talks with Russia stagnate could serve as catnip for the Kremlin, according to experts who say Russian President Vladimir Putin might choose to smother progress in hopes of getting America to wash “its hands of the war.”

While President Donald Trump has indicated that the U.S. may disengage from the negotiations as a last resort if they prove futile, Vance has taken the rhetoric a step further by saying the U.S. is definitely open to doing so. 

“We’re more than open to walking away,” Vance told reporters on board Air Force Two on Monday, just moments before a high-stakes phone call between Trump and Putin. “The United States is not going to spin its wheels here. We want to see outcomes.”

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cautioned that no one wins if the U.S. steps aside from the talks, except for Russia. 

“It is crucial for all of us that the United States does not distance itself from the talks and the pursuit of peace because the only one who benefits from that is Putin,” Zelenskyy wrote in a Monday post on X.

Vance’s remark about abandoning mediation between the two countries would only embolden Russia, even though a lack of U.S. involvement still wouldn’t give Putin everything he wants, according to John Hardie, the deputy director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Russia program, a nonprofit research institute based in Washington.

For the moment, Moscow still benefits from U.S. involvement in the talks because the Kremlin wants the U.S. to help advance a deal that benefits Russia and alleviates sanctions, Hardie said.

“But, for the Kremlin, the United States washing its hands of the war would be the next best outcome if it means an end or reduction to U.S. support for Ukraine, especially since President Trump may well move to normalize relations with Russia anyhow,” Hardie told Fox News Digital. “So the administration’s threat to walk away risks perversely incentivizing Kremlin intransigence. A better approach would be to ramp up the economic and military pressure on Russia if Putin continues to reject compromise.”

Russia still desires normalization with the U.S., which can only happen if the war ends swiftly and relatively amicably, said Peter Rough, a senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at the Hudson Institute think tank. 

“That reset in relations is a giant carrot the administration is dangling in front of the Kremlin,” Rough told Fox News Digital. “If the U.S. walks away because Russia will not make peace, however, then that carrot disappears as well.”

Rough noted that other administration officials besides Vance, including Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have mentioned the possibility of walking away from a deal, so Vance’s comments don’t necessarily reflect a huge change in policy. And it’s unclear right now what exactly stepping aside would mean.

“The purpose of those comments has been to impress on the Kremlin that U.S. patience is not limitless,” Rough said. 

Vance hasn’t shied away from issuing bold foreign policy statements since becoming vice president. From sparring with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office in February to appearing to counter Trump when Vance remarked in May that the war in Ukraine was far from over after Trump indicated a deal might emerge soon, Vance has been outspoken in a way most vice presidents haven’t been.

When asked for comment or if there were any concerns about Vance’s Monday statement, the White House referred Fox News Digital to Vance’s office. Vance’s office declined to provide comment when asked if his remarks would encourage Russia to sit the negotiations out and continue its attacks.

WHY ZELENSKYY KEEPS PUSHING NATO MEMBERSHIP EVEN THOUGH TRUMP SAYS IT’S NOT HAPPENING 

Vice President JD Vance talks to reporters inside Air Force Two at Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome on May 19, 2025.

‘Fundamental mistrust’

Vance has adopted an outspoken approach as vice president, starting off with his fiery February statements at the Munich Security Council in which he asserted that Europe needed to “step up in a big way to provide for its own defense.” 

That boldness has carried over into the Russia-Ukraine negotiations, where Vance has taken a proactive approach, at times appearing to be forging his own path.  

Vance and Rubio engaged in discussions to end the conflict in Ukraine with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Rome on Sunday, among other issues. Vance and Rubio also discussed the Trump administration’s efforts to end the war with Vatican prelate Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher on Monday. 

Aboard Air Force Two on Monday, Vance said the negotiations had reached “a bit of [an] impasse” between the two countries and that the conflict is not the Trump administration’s war to wage but rather belongs to former President Joe Biden and Putin. 

“There is fundamental mistrust between Russia and the West. It’s one of the things the president thinks is, frankly, stupid, that we should be able to move beyond,” Vance told reporters. “The mistakes that have been made in the past, but … that takes two to tango.”

“I know the president’s willing to do that, but if Russia’s not willing to do that, then we’re eventually just going to have to say … this is not our war,” Vance said. “It’s Joe Biden’s war, it’s Vladimir Putin’s war. It’s not our war. We’re going to try to end it, but if we can’t end it, we’re eventually going to say, ‘You know what? That was worth a try, but we’re not doing it anymore.'”

TRUMP INSISTS UKRAINE-RUSSIA PEACE DEAL IS CLOSE, BUT MISTRUST IN PUTIN LEAVES EXPERTS SKEPTICAL

President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time since their Oval Office spat in February. (Vatican and Ukraine Ambassador to Holy See)

Vance’s Monday statement came just before Trump was scheduled to speak with Putin, seemingly undercutting the high-leverage telephone call and also underscoring Vance’s influence over foreign policy matters in the White House. 

Specifically on Ukraine negotiations, Vance has remained outspoken, engaging in confrontation when Zelenskyy visited the White House in February. 

In that exchange, Vance accused Zelenskyy of being “disrespectful” after Zelenskyy pointed out that Putin has a track record of breaking agreements and countered Vance’s statements that the path forward was through diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine. 

President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky get into an argument in the Oval Office. (Getty)

“Do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?” Vance asked at the Oval Office meeting. 

Almost immediately after the U.S. signed a minerals deal with Ukraine on May 1, Vance said the war in Ukraine wouldn’t end in the near future, despite the fact that Trump indicated the previous week that an agreement was on the horizon. 

“It’s not going anywhere,” Vance told Fox News on May 1. “It’s not going to end anytime soon.” 

Still, he characterized the agreement as “good progress” in the negotiations. 

Trump’s talk with Putin

Trump and Putin spoke over the phone Monday to advance peace negotiations to halt the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv, just days after Russia and Ukraine met in Turkey to conduct their first peace talks since 2022. 

After the call, Trump said both countries would move toward a ceasefire and advance talks to end the war. 

Meanwhile, Trump has suggested continued U.S. involvement may not be a viable option moving forward, but he has been reticent about specifics on what would actually prompt him to walk away from the talks. For example, Trump said on May 8 in an interview with NBC News that he believes peace is possible but that the U.S. wouldn’t act as a mediator forever.

“Well, there will be a time when I will say, ‘OK, keep going, keep being stupid,” Trump said in the interview. 

“Maybe it’s not possible to do,” he said. “There’s tremendous hatred.”

Still, Trump signaled that the U.S. would take a backseat in the negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv after his call with Putin. 

“The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know the details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of,” Trump said in a Monday post on Truth Social. 

Trump has continued to distance the U.S. from the conflict, and he later described the conflict as a “European situation.” 

“Big egos involved, but I think something’s going to happen,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “And if it doesn’t, I’ll just back away and they’ll have to keep going. This was a European situation. It should have remained a European situation.”

Trump also doubled down on extracting the U.S. from the war, claiming it didn’t involve U.S. personnel. 

“It’s not our people, it’s not our soldiers … it’s Ukraine and it’s Russia,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday while hosting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

TRUMP SAYS HE COULD ‘WALK AWAY’ FROM RUSSIA-UKRAINE TALKS, CITES ‘TREMENDOUS HATRED’ ON BOTH SIDES

Vice President JD Vance and Foundation Council President Wolfgang Ischinger participate in a discussion at the Munich Leaders Meeting hosted by the Munich Security Conference in Washington on May 7, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, sanctions against Russia could ramp up in the event Russia fails to cooperate. 

“President Trump has made it very clear that if President Putin does not negotiate in good faith that the United States will not hesitate to up the Russia sanctions along with our European partners,” Bessent said Sunday in an interview with NBC. 

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Vance has previously said the concessions that Russia is seeking from Ukraine to end the conflict are too stringent but believes there is a viable path to peace and wants both to find common ground. 

“The step that we would like to make right now is we would like both the Russians and the Ukrainians to actually agree on some basic guidelines for sitting down and talking to one another,” Vance said at the Munich Leaders Meeting in Washington on May 7.

Russia’s demands include Ukraine never joining NATO and preventing foreign peacekeeper troops from deploying to Ukraine after the conflict. Russia is also seeking to adjust some of the borders that previously were Ukraine’s.

The White House is throwing its weight behind House Republicans’ version of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” on Wednesday, pressing lawmakers to vote on the measure “immediately.”

“The Administration strongly supports passage of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill
Act,” the White House said in a statement of Trump administration policy obtained by Fox News Digital.

“This bill implements critical aspects of President Trump’s budgetary agenda by delivering bigger paychecks for Americans, driving massive economic growth, unleashing American energy, strengthening border security and national defense, preserving key safety net programs for Americans who need them, while ending waste, fraud, and abuse in Federal spending, and much more.”

It comes hours after the conservative House Freedom Caucus called for a delayed vote amid continued disagreements over rollbacks to Medicaid coverage.

TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ PASSES KEY HOUSE HURDLE AFTER GOP REBEL MUTINY

President Donald Trump wants Republicans to pass his “big, beautiful bill” (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“I’m not sure this can be done this week. I’m pretty confident it could be done in 10 days. But that’s up to leadership to decide,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., told reporters.

The group is meeting with Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., at the White House on Wednesday afternoon in a bid to resolve differences.

Meanwhile, a White House official told Fox News Digital that the administration wants the House to vote on the bill at some point Wednesday.

HOUSE GOP TARGETS ANOTHER DEM OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF BLOCKING ICE AMID DELANEY HALL FALLOUT

House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris led his group in calling for a delay on the vote. (Getty Images)

“The One Big Beautiful Bill Act reflects the shared priorities of both Congress and the Administration. Therefore, the House of Representatives should immediately pass this bill to show the American people that they are serious about ‘promises made, promises kept,'” the new White House statement said. 

“President Trump is committed to keeping his promises, and failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal.”

The statement ended by affirming that Trump would sign the legislation into law if it got to his desk – a significant endorsement of House GOP leaders’ plans.

The bill itself is not yet finished, however. Republican leaders have signaled they are including additional provisions via a “manager’s amendment” that are expected to cover Medicaid work requirements and an amended state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap.

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House conservatives have been pushing for the bill to include more aggressive cuts to Medicaid – specifically the expanded population who became eligible under the Affordable Care Act – and a full repeal of former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its green energy subsidies.

Trump paid a rare visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday where he personally told House Republicans he wanted the bill passed as soon as possible.

The Freedom Caucus, meanwhile, has insisted that it is pushing to enact Trump’s campaign promises to the fullest possible extent.

Before President Donald Trump’s dramatic reveal of the “Golden Dome” missile defense project on Tuesday, the proposal wasn’t even on the radar of many lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Several senators told Fox News Digital they had received no briefing on the initiative’s costs – and some hadn’t heard of it at all.

“I don’t support blank checks. I haven’t seen the cost figures,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told Fox News Digital. 

Two senior members of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, one Republican and one Democrat, asked, “what’s Golden Dome?” in response to questions about the project Trump commissioned in January. 

CHINA ACCUSES US OF ‘TURNING SPACE INTO A WARZONE’ WITH TRUMP’S GOLDEN DOME MISSILE DEFENSE PROJECT

Trump has floated a $125 billion estimate and says it could be completed in three years by the end of his term. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque )

Trump’s sweeping plan – pitched as an American version of Israel’s Iron Dome – carries an ambitious price tag and timeline. He’s floated a $125 billion estimated cost and says it could be built in three years, by the end of his term. A government funding package moving through Congress, dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, includes $25 billion to jumpstart the project.

But defense experts and even some Republican allies anticipate the cost to be much higher. 

“This is not going to be a $25 billion or $35 billion project. It will likely cost in the trillions if and when Golden Dome is completed,” said Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., who announced plans to form a Golden Dome Caucus during a recent Washington Times defense industry event earlier this month. 

Sheehy warned that simply scaling up Israel’s Iron Dome to protect the U.S. is “a fundamentally different technological proposition.”

“The challenges don’t scale linearly with the size of Israel, which is the size of New Jersey,” he added.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated the project could cost around $500 billion – though some believe even that figure is likely too low.

CBO estimated that the space-based interceptors portion of the dome could cost at least $161 billion but up to $542 billion. But it didn’t account for any ground-based interceptors in that cost. 

“I’ve been 34 years in this business, and I’ve never seen an early estimate that was too high,” said Space Force chief of space operations Gen. Chance Saltzman. “We don’t always understand the full level of complexity until you’re actually in execution, doing the detailed planning.”

LASERS, SPACE RADARS, MISSILE INTERCEPTORS: DEFENSE LEADERS LAY OUT VISION FOR TRUMP’S ‘GOLDEN DOME’ PROJECT

Digitized concept design of Golden Dome demonstrates how the shield would utilize space-based interceptors to stop a missile.  (Lockheed Martin)

Some Republican lawmakers suggest the potential benefits outweigh the massive spending required.

“It might very well prevent a war,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-N.D., said. “When we talk about spending billions on defense, that is small compared to one single major war – not only in trillions of dollars, but in bloodshed.”

Once a missile is launched toward the U.S. homeland, the Golden Dome system aims to detect it, and orbital systems would aim to hit the missile during its “boost” phase, either with a laser or a kinetic interceptor. Otherwise, ground-based systems could deploy to knock it off its path.  

Others noted competing defense priorities.

“That’s gonna be a long, drawn-out process, and it’s gonna cost a lot of money,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. “Right now, we’re redoing our missile silos… we’re transitioning to different types of warfare. If we’re gonna do [Golden Dome], we do it the right way.”

Supporters of the plan argue that technological advances have dramatically lowered the cost of missile defense, enough to potentially flip decades-old strategic assumptions.

Chuck DeVore, a defense expert at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and former Reagan administration official, said the old logic – that it’s always cheaper to build offensive missiles than defenses – may no longer apply.

Golden Dome aims to protect against adversaries’ missiles, like this North Korean test ICBM above.  (KCNA via REUTERS  )

“That calculation is changing now,” DeVore said. “With low-cost orbit launches and inexpensive electronics, it may actually be less expensive to defend against nuclear missiles than to build them. If that’s the case, we’re at a truly revolutionary inflection point.”

DeVore also warned that traditionalists in the defense establishment may push back.

“You’re going to see people defending the status quo,” he said. “They’ll say we need that money for more conventional defense – more divisions, more jet fighters, maybe another aircraft carrier.”

Still, DeVore argued that a homeland missile defense system is overdue.

“The ability to truly defend the homeland and save American lives is better than mutual assured destruction – especially in an age of nuclear proliferation where we can’t always be sure where the threat is coming from.”

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Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., agreed on the project’s importance, even as he said he hadn’t been briefed on the cost and needs of the project. 

“I think it’s the most important thing we could do to keep our homeland safe.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with Rep. Brad Sherman during a House hearing on Thursday, telling the California Democrat that “this is not a game show” when Sherman demanded that he only answer questions with a “yes” or a “no.”

Rubio testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., fielding questions on foreign aid, nuclear proliferation in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the war in Ukraine and more. Sparks began to fly early on when Sherman questioned Rubio on a potential nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia.

“First, I will tell you that there has been no conversation about entering into one. For example, during the recent trip,” Rubio began before Sherman cut him off.

“I’ve got limited time,” the congressman interjected. “Either give me a yes or a no.”

RUBIO FIRES BACK AFTER DEM SENATOR SAYS HE REGRETS VOTING FOR HIM, SPARKING TENSE EXCHANGE

Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on U.S. President Donald Trump’s State Department budget request for the Department of State, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)

“Well, I’m going to give you my answer if you want my answer,” Rubio replied.

But Sherman cut Rubio off, stating that he was reclaiming his time.

“Well, reclaim your time. But it’s not a game show,” Rubio said. “I get to answer. These are complex questions.”

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., became contentious with Rubio during his line of questioning. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)

“Mr. Secretary, I’m reclaiming my time,” Sherman said. “The filibustering takes place in the Senate. Not here.”

“I’m not filibustering. I’m trying to answer your question,” Rubio replied.

Sherman then moved on to his next question, asking whether Rubio could assure Congress that the Trump administration would continue sanctions on Iran until they verifiably agree to abandon all nuclear enrichment.

“That’s a yes or no question,” Sherman told Rubio.

Rubio replied: “No, it’s not.”

RUBIO, KAINE CLASH ON SOUTH AFRICAN REFUGEES: ‘YOU DON’T LIKE THAT THEY’RE WHITE’

“Well, can you give me a yes or no? Should I go on to go on to the next?” Sherman asked.

“We believe that Iran should not be allowed to enrich uranium, correct,” Rubio answered. 

“You believe that?” Sherman asked.

“We believe that an acceptable deal with Iran is one in which they cannot enrich, because if they can enrich, they can weaponize,” Rubio said.

“I know why we don’t want – I asked you will we agree, will we continue the sanctions until they verifiably agree to get rid of enrichments.”

“Oh, you have nothing to worry about,” Rubio said. “The worry was the previous administration. This administration–” 

“Your refusal to give me an answer is loud and clear,” Sherman interjected before shouting over Rubio that he was reclaiming his time.

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The House hearing brought Rubio to testify on the State Department’s posture on protecting American interests. Throughout the hearing, Rubio asserted that any actions taken by the government must have measurable outcomes for the American people, specifically making the country safer, stronger or more prosperous.