NationalWatch

President Donald Trump responded to the sudden return of Salvadoran illegal and alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying, “he’s a bad guy” and that the courts will “show how horrible this guy is.”

Trump appeared unbothered by Abrego Garcia’s return on Friday afternoon, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that the Department of Justice made the decision and that soon the world will see how “horrible” a person he is.

Trump expressed confidence in the DOJ and its case against Abrego Garcia.

“The DOJ made a decision,” he said, adding, “I think their decisions have been very, very good.”

‘THE FIVE’: DEMS, LIBERAL MEDIA HAVE SOME ‘BIG QUESTIONS TO ANSWER’ AFTER KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA CHARGED 

“Maybe they just said, ‘Look, all of these people, these judges, they want to try and run the country.’ A local judge trying to run the country,” said Trump. “The man has a horrible past, and I could see a decision being made, bring him back, show everybody how horrible this guy is.”

The president said, “Frankly, we have to do something because the judges are trying to take the place of a president that won in a landslide. That’s not supposed to be the way it is. So, I can see bringing him back. I could see. He’s a bad guy.“

The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old illegal alien who was living in Maryland, to a high-security prison in his home country back in March on the grounds that he is a member of the violent MS-13 gang.

Soon after his deportation, Democrats jumped to advocate for Abrego Garcia’s release and return to the U.S., arguing that he was a wrongly deported “Maryland man.”

DEM IMMIGRATION TALKING POINTS FIZZLE AS DARK PICTURE OF ABREGO GARCIA EMERGES

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday that Abrego Garcia, 29, has landed in the United States and is set to face federal charges for human smuggling and conspiracy.

“Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice,” Bondi said. “A grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee returned a sealed indictment charging him with alien smuggling and conspiracy.”

According to the indictment, Garcia played a “significant role” in a human smuggling ring operating for nearly a decade. Bondi described him as a full-time smuggler who made more than 100 trips, transporting women, children, and MS-13 gang-affiliated persons throughout the United States.

Fox News Digital obtained Tennessee Highway Patrol bodycam footage from a 2022 traffic stop where troopers pulled over Garcia for speeding. Inside his vehicle were eight other men, raising immediate suspicions. “He’s hauling these people for money,” one trooper said.

WATCH: AG BONDI DETAILS ‘VERY SERIOUS CHARGES’ FACING KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA

Troopers found $1,400 in cash and flagged Garcia in the National Crime Information Center, which returned a gang/terrorism alert. ICE was called but never responded.

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Though Democrats have also pushed a narrative that Abrego Garcia is a “family man,” court records show Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed a protective order against her husband in August 2020. The order said their shared son and stepchildren needed protection from Abrego Garcia, accusing him of verbal and physical abuse against her and mental abuse against her children. 

Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who led the charge among Democrats to push for Abrego Garcia’s return, released a statement after news of the return broke, saying, “For months the Trump Administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution. Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States.”

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

When Donald Trump ran for president for the first time, he campaigned on reducing the national debt, referring to himself at the time as “the king of debt” and telling voters he would pay off the nation’s multi-trillion-dollar debt in 8 years.   

“I’m the king of debt. I’m great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me,” Trump said during an interview with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell in the lead up to the 2016 election. “I’ve made a fortune by using debt, and if things don’t work out I renegotiate the debt. I mean, that’s a smart thing, not a stupid thing.” 

“We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt,” Trump said a few months prior on the campaign trail during an interview with The Washington Post. When asked how long it would take, Trump responded: “I would say over a period of eight years … The power is trade. Our deals are so bad.” 

SENATE WEIGHS TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ AS POLICY GROUP BACKS CBO, PROJECTS $3 TRILLION DEBT INCREASE

The nation’s ever-rising debt is once again a focus for Trump, as GOP defectors over his “big, beautiful bill,” have largely staked their concerns around arguments that the Republican Party’s new spending package will increase the national debt and deficit too much, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating it will add roughly $3 trillion over the next decade.

The debt currently stands at more than $36.2 trillion according to Fox Business’ U.S. National Debt Tracker.

Elon Musk, who has cemented his stance in recent days against the Trump-endorsed spending package – leading to a highly-publicized feud between the two leaders – has argued that bill “undermines” the work he did while leading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) because it does not cut spending enough.

“This immense level of overspending will drive America into debt slavery!” Musk declared early on Wednesday in a post on X, shortly after he called the bill a “disgusting abomination.”

TRUMP’S ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’ NEEDS A ‘FAT SHOT’ TO END OUR DANGEROUS DEBT ADDICTION

Shortly thereafter, Musk referenced an X post from GOP Utah Sen. Mike Lee, which argued that “the accrued interest on the national debt now exceeds $1 trillion a year.” This is more than the country spends on defense annually, Lee’s post added. “And yet Congress continues to add to the debt at an astounding rate of $2 trillion per year—with our national debt growing faster than our economy.”

In another X post from Musk, in the lead up to his feud with Trump this week, he succinctly described the U.S.’s $36.2 trillion debt as “scary.”  

Even before the highly publicized feud between Musk and Trump over the contentious GOP spending package, Musk called the rising national debt “terrifying” and lamented “America is headed for de facto bankruptcy very fast.” 

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“President Trump is the first president in modern history to seriously tackle the waste, fraud, and abuse in our bloated government. He has already trimmed billions in astonishingly mindless government spending across the administration, and now he is spearheading The One, Big, Beautiful Bill – which will be the largest deficit reduction in decades,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said to Fox News Digital in a statement Friday afternoon.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who has led the party’s advocacy for suspected gang member Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, is celebrating his return to the U.S., saying, “This is not about the man, it’s about his constitutional rights.”

“For months, the Trump administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution,” Van Hollen asserted in a statement sent to Fox News Digital via email.

“Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States.”  

Van Hollen was the first of several Democratic lawmakers to fly to visit Abrego Garcia after he was deported to a high-security prison in his home country, El Salvador, in March.

FEDERAL JUDGE DELIVERS ONE-TWO PUNCH TO TRUMP IN ABREGO GARCIA CASE

Abrego Garcia, 29, has been returned to the U.S. and is facing charges in a sealed federal indictment in Tennessee for alleged conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain and unlawful transportation of illegal aliens.

Though many Democrats claim Abrego Garcia is an innocent man who was wrongly deported, the administration has pointed to considerable evidence he is a member of the MS-13 gang.

Abrego Garcia allegedly moved illegal immigrants from Texas to interior states in what prosecutors say was an organized operation stretching back years. 

He has also been accused of being a member of the violent Salvadoran gang MS-13. According to court records filed by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, he also allegedly physically abused her on multiple occasions.

AG BONDI DETAILS ‘VERY SERIOUS CHARGES’ FACING KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA 

Since Abrego Garcia’s deportation to his home country, Van Hollen has advocated for his return.

After Fox News Digital asked Van Hollen in May whether he was aware of the domestic violence allegations against Abrego Garcia before he went to visit him in El Salvador, the senator became defensive, saying, “What I said here was these issues need to be litigated in the courts.”

In a statement Friday, Van Hollen doubled down on that sentiment, saying, “As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man. It’s about his constitutional rights, and the rights of all.

“The administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.”

TENNESSEE BODYCAM OF ‘MARYLAND MAN’ TRAFFIC STOP SHOWS TROOPERS’ HANDS TIED DESPITE SMUGGLING CLUES

Despite the gravity of his alleged crimes, returning Abrego Garcia to the U.S. has become a major cause for the Democratic Party.

Earlier Friday, another Maryland Democrat, Rep. Glenn Ivey, who also made a trip to El Salvador to advocate for Abrego Garcia, used his X account to promote an event to continue the “critical conversation on the fight to return those who are wrongfully imprisoned in El Salvador.”

Ivey claimed Abrego Garcia’s case is “part of a much larger crisis — and we must not look away.”

ABREGO GARCIA’S WIFE BEGGED JUDGE FOR PROTECTION ORDER, SAYING ‘HE SLAPPED ME’: AUDIO

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Ivey also asserted that the Trump administration “defied the Supreme Court and misled the American people for months, saying they could not bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States under any circumstances, knowing that they had the power to do so all along.

“I went to El Salvador and advocated for Kilmar’s return because he was entitled to due process under our Constitution. Kilmar will now get his day in court. I hope he receives the fair trial that he is guaranteed.”

Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland’s lone Republican congressman, responded to the news of Abrego Garcia’s return with disgust, posting on X, “What a waste of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Bringing an already deported illegal alien criminal back to the US to be housed in a US jail at taxpayer expense so he can stand trial and then be deported back to his homeland.”

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Fox News Digital also reached out to representatives Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., Maxwell Frost, D-Fla. and Robert Garcia, D-Calif., all of whom have made trips to visit Abrego Garcia in prison. 

A day after the White House held a farewell press conference for SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to highlight his efforts as outgoing leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), President Donald Trump suddenly pulled Musk ally Jared Isaacman as his pick for NASA administrator.

While the White House released a May 30 video chronicling Musk’s contributions to DOGE and several X posts thanking him and listing various “DOGE wins,” the gestures were some of the last, final public actions of goodwill between Trump and Musk. 

On Saturday, Trump announced in a social media post he was pulling the nomination for Isaacman, a commercial astronaut and founder and CEO of payment processing company Shift4 Payments after “a thorough review of prior associations.” 

Trump also said he would unveil a “new Nominee who will be Mission aligned, and put America First in Space.” 

MUSK CONFIDENT DOGE WILL SAVE $1 TRILLION AS GOVERNMENT COST CUTTING CONTINUES

Isaacman’s affiliations with Musk include being an investor in SpaceX, in addition to leading two private spaceflight missions with SpaceX, including Inspiration4. The 2021 Inspiration4 mission was the first time an all-civilian crew orbited Earth. 

Isaacman addressed his pulled nomination in an episode of the “All-In Podcast,” which is hosted by four venture capitalists and covers business, technology and society, that dropped Wednesday. Specifically, Isaacman said he received a call from the White House May 30 notifying him his nomination wouldn’t advance because the White House had “decided to go in a different direction.” 

DOGE STAFFING SHAKEUP AS ELON MUSK HANGS UP HIS HAT, WHITE HOUSE CONFIRMS

Isaacman said he suspected his ties to Musk were part of the decision, noting the call came the same day Musk’s tenure with DOGE concluded. 

“I don’t need to play dumb on this,” Isaacman said in the podcast. “I don’t think that the timing was much of a coincidence, that there were other changes going on the same day.

“There were some people that had some axes to grind, I guess, and I was a good, visible target.” 

Tensions between Musk and Trump continued to escalate after Musk’s departure as a special government employee May 30 and Isaacman’s withdrawn nomination the following day. 

Although Musk previously told CBS News in an interview clip released May 27 that he was disappointed by the House’s passage of Trump’s massive tax and spending package, the “big, beautiful bill,” because it would increase the federal deficit, Musk’s attacks on the measure ramped up exponentially after Trump rescinded Isaacman’s nomination. 

Specifically, on Tuesday, Musk labeled the measure a “disgusting abomination” and followed up by urging the American public to contact lawmakers to “KILL the BILL” in an X post Wednesday.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday that Trump was aware of Musk’s position on the bill and that it didn’t change the president’s stance on the measure. And Trump did not mince words Thursday as tensions between the two men reached a boiling point. 

Trump said Musk was irritated with provisions in the bill that would cut an electric vehicle tax credit that benefits companies like Tesla. He also suggested Musk may suffer from “Trump derangement syndrome,” a term used to describe deeply negative reactions to the president. 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS: THE BUDGET CUTS MUSK COULDN’T COMPLETE AND WHAT’S NEXT FOR DOGE

“I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people,” Trump said in the Oval Office during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. 

“He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden, he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate because that’s billions and billions of dollars, and it really is unfair.”

Trump also specifically mentioned Isaacman’s nomination, claiming Musk recommended Isaacman for the role. But Trump voiced concern about Isaacman’s ties to the Democratic Party. 

“He wanted and rightfully, you know, he recommended somebody that he, I guess, knew very well. I’m sure he respected him, but to run NASA,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “And I didn’t think it was appropriate. And he happened to be a Democrat, like, totally Democrat. And I say, you know, look, we won. We get certain privileges. And one of the privileges is we don’t have to appoint a Democrat. NASA is very important.”

Trump then said he “understood” why Musk was upset over the pulled nomination.

The White House directed Fox News Digital to Trump’s comments Thursday and Isaacman’s previous donations to Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. 

Isaacman told the “All-In Podcast” he doesn’t think his past political donations to Democrats were a factor in his pulled nomination, and that he identifies as “right-leaning.” 

Isaacman and Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Trump and Musk continued to trade barbs Thursday. At one point, Musk urged the removal of the “disgusting pork” included in Trump’s tax and spending bill. He also said it was “false” that he was shown the measure “even once.” 

Musk even went so far as to say Trump wouldn’t have won the 2024 election if it weren’t for Musk’s backing. Meanwhile, Trump accused Musk of going “CRAZY” over cuts to the EV credits and said Musk was “wearing thin.” 

Although Politico reported that Trump and Musk were slated to speak Friday over the phone, Trump shut down speculation of a call between the two. 

“No. I won’t be speaking to him for a while I guess, but I wish him well,” Trump said, according to CNN. 

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 “I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem,” Trump said.

Despite Musk’s departure, White House officials have said DOGE’s efforts to address waste, fraud and abuse will continue, and Trump and cabinet members will oversee DOGE. The agency is expected to formally shut down July 4, 2026. 

A Salvadoran national deported under President Trump is now on his way back to the United States as an accused criminal, according to court documents obtained by Fox News.

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 29, is charged in a sealed federal indictment out of Tennessee with conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain and unlawful transportation of illegal aliens.

Abrego Garcia allegedly moved illegal immigrants from Texas to interior states, in what courts say was an organized operation stretching back years. 

DEPORTED ALLEGED GANG MEMBER ABREGO GARCIA ‘WILL NEVER BE ON AMERICAN STREETS AGAIN,’ DHS SAYS

Children were among those allegedly trafficked. The indictment, filed under seal last month, includes two felony counts.

Fox News Digital obtained Tennessee Highway Patrol bodycam footage from a 2022 traffic stop where troopers pulled over Garcia for speeding. Inside his vehicle were eight other men, raising immediate suspicions. “He’s hauling these people for money,” one trooper said.

Troopers found $1,400 in cash and flagged Garcia in the National Crime Information Center, which returned a gang/terrorism alert. ICE was called, but never showed up.

This development comes after controversy erupted in March when Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador, a move many politicians on the Left claimed was unjust. 

KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA SUSPECTED OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN REPORT OBTAINED BY FOX NEWS

However, according to the Trump administration, Abrego Garcia’s deportation stemmed from MS-13 affiliations. His lawyers dispute the gang connection.

ABC reports that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been in direct contact with El Salvador’s president Bukele to coordinate Garcia’s return to U.S. custody.

Abrego Garcia was reportedly sent to the notorious CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador after deportation, despite a 2019 court order temporarily blocking his removal due to claimed fears of persecution. 

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The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News’ Adam Sabes contributed to this report.

A “big, beautiful” brawl erupted on social media Thursday as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk aired their grievances for all to see after months of working together to cut government waste. 

House Republicans rallied behind the president and continued to support Musk when discussing the fallout with Fox News Digital.

“Obviously, I have President Trump’s back. I don’t think that he should be impeached. Do I think that he was on the Jeffrey Epstein island? I don’t think so,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said, referring to Musk calling for Trump’s impeachment and suggestiong Trump was “in the Epstein files.”

Despite her defense, Luna admitted Musk is not a “terrible person,” and both men have made “great contributions” to the Republican Party. 

FETTERMAN DISSES DEMS FOR SUDDENLY EMBRACING MUSK AMID TRUMP FALLOUT

“I assure you he crossed the line on what he said about the sitting president of the United States today,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said of Musk’s allegations about Trump. 

‘GONE TOO FAR’: GOP LAWMAKERS RALLY AROUND TRUMP AFTER MUSK RAISES EPSTEIN ALLEGATIONS

But Roy joined Luna in defending Musk’s contribution to cutting government waste through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

“The bottom line is, we have a job to do. Elon is doing a great job in terms of the rescissions in terms of the DOGE cuts they identified, and I don’t disagree with him about our need to go find more spending cuts. I don’t. But you know, guys, keep it in the lines,” Roy added. 

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., praised Trump Thursday for saving the country. 

“What’s broken apart can be put back together, but you’ve got two strong personalities,” Norman said of Trump and Musk. 

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn, dismissed the men’s social media brawl, telling Fox News Digital, “They’re the two biggest dogs in the pound. They’re going to fight.”

“It’s going to settle down at some point,” Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, added. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed Musk’s tirade to Trump’s bill, which is focused on working- and middle-class tax relief and not benefiting Musk and his companies enough.

“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted. The president is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again,” Leavitt said.

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In the first of several posts targeting the bill, and then Trump directly, Musk said, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report. 

The White House and congressional Republicans have said that President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs would help pay for his mammoth tax bill, but tax experts say it depends on whether the president stays consistent.

Senate Republicans are in the midst of hashing out their plan to tweak and reshape the president’s “big, beautiful bill,” which includes Trump’s desire to extend and make permanent his first-term tax policies.

SENATE REPUBLICANS EYE CHANGES TO TRUMP’S MEGABILL AFTER HOUSE WIN

However, the tax portion of the bill alone is expected to cost roughly $4 trillion. And when factoring in spending cuts and other revenue and economic drivers, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found in a report earlier this week that, in all, the colossal legislative package would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.

The CBO, which has come under recent scrutiny from congressional Republicans unhappy with the scoring of the president’s “big, beautiful bill,” also found that Trump’s tariffs would reduce the deficit by $2.8 trillion over the same period.

Joe Rosenberg, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, told Fox News Digital that the reconciliation package’s potential impact on the debt is more concerning now than in 2017, due to higher debt levels and rising interest rates.

‘GONE TOO FAR’: GOP LAWMAKERS RALLY AROUND TRUMP AFTER MUSK RAISES EPSTEIN ALLEGATIONS

When Republicans were putting together the president’s original tax package, the national debt was roughly $20 trillion. Eight years later, that number has ballooned to over $36 trillion and counting. 

Rosenberg contended that if the CBO’s report were taken as is, then Trump’s tariffs would make the bill deficit neutral and then some. But the report assumed that the eye-popping sums that Trump’s tariffs could generate were based on whether they were permanent.

“I think what we’ve seen is that the tariff policy, again, seems to change day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute,” he said. “And the administration is a little bit inconsistent about whether they view tariffs as purely a revenue source versus essentially a negotiating tool.”

The report also found that in exchange for trillions in deficit reduction, household wealth would drop, and the economy would shrink each year over the next decade.

Tad Dehaven, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, argued that this factor—along with Trump’s tariffs being tied up in court over constitutional challenges and their shifting application—makes any projected benefits “extraordinarily unlikely.”

“Let’s pretend that these tariffs are going to remain in place for 10 years at some level delineated today. That’s a major tax increase, so whatever alleged benefit you’re receiving from the tax cut in the reconciliation package, it’s being offset by a tax increase,” he said. “And a rather economically inefficient one.”

TRUMP’S TARIFFS AND TAX CUTS ARE CRUSHING MAIN STREET AND MAKING MAR-A-LAGO ELITES RICH

Mike Palicz, director of tax policy at the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, scoffed at the CBO’s recent scoring, and lamented the agency as “a bunch of bean counters” that often miss the mark on key pieces of legislation, like the president’s original Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

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He argued that none of the outside noise should matter, telling Fox News Digital that “you cannot go out and explain to a normal person or business that their taxes aren’t increasing next year if the Trump tax cuts are allowed to expire.”

“That’s what the whole point of this exercise is, preventing the expiration of tax cuts, preventing the largest tax increase in American history,” he said. “And no conservative, no Republican, should think that you address the deficit by raising taxes.” 

Nearly a dozen ICE officials and a group of migrants deported to South Sudan by the Trump administration are currently being housed in a converted shipping container and face grave dangers to their physical health, according to a new court filing.

The filing, submitted by senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Mellisa Harper, cites a combination of blistering-high heat conditions, exposure to malaria and “imminent danger” of rocket attacks from terrorist groups in Yemen as threats to both the migrants and ICE officials. It comes after U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ordered the Trump administration to keep in U.S. custody a group of eight migrants who were deported to South Sudan without due process or the ability to challenge their removals to a third country.

He ordered they remain in U.S. custody until each could be given a “reasonable fear interview,” or a chance to explain to U.S. officials any fear of persecution or torture, should they be released.

But the filing makes clear that the migrants, and ICE officials, face dangers in the meantime. 

US JUDGE ACCUSES TRUMP ADMIN OF ‘MANUFACTURING CHAOS’ IN SOUTH SUDAN DEPORTATIONS, ESCALATING FEUD

According to Harper, ICE officials were not given anti-malaria medication prior to traveling to Djibouti – subjecting them to unknown levels of disease exposure in a war-torn region, where there has been an uptick in deadly clashes over resource scarcity, including cattle and access to potable water. The president of the country declared a state of emergency in certain parts of South Sudan just days ago. 

And even within the confines of the U.S. base, there are significant risks.

According to ICE’s submission, the migrants are being housed in a converted Conex shipping container at the U.S. military base in Djibouti, the only permanent military base the U.S. currently operates in Africa. Since their arrival, daily temperatures there have exceeded 100 degrees – searing conditions that they said make detention “of any length,” especially longer term. 

Nearby burn pits used by Djibouti to burn off trash and human waste form a giant “smog cloud” that hangs over the base for much of the day, exposing the group to unknown hazardous materials burned off under breezeless, blistering hot skies. 

Some ICE officers have started to sleep in N-95 masks for additional protection, Harper noted.

APPEALS COURT BLOCKS TRUMP ADMIN’S DEPORTATION FLIGHTS IN ALIEN ENEMIES ACT IMMIGRATION SUIT

“Within 72 hours of landing in Djibouti, the officers and detainees began to feel ill,” Harper noted, with symptoms such as coughing, difficulty breathing, and achy joints – though they lack the testing or medication necessary for treatment. 

Other, more imminent risks also remain.  

Upon arrival, ICE officials were notified by Defense Department officials of the “imminent danger” of rocket attacks from terrorist groups in Yemen, Harper noted, though ICE officers lack body armor or other gear appropriate in the case of an attack.

The new filing could add pressure on the Trump administration to relocate the detainees and ICE officials in question. 

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

Murphy had stated in a previous order that migrants deported to South Sudan need not be held there, in a country where recent infighting and deadly conflict have displaced more than 150,000 people this year alone.

He said then that the government had mischaracterized his order, “while at the same time manufacturing the very chaos they decry.”

His order requires the Trump administration to keep the six deported migrants in South Sudan under the custody of U.S. officials for a length of time needed to carry out the so-called “reasonable fear interviews,” and make a determination over whether the migrants’ concerns are adequate.

“The court never said that defendants had to convert their foreign military base into an immigration facility,” Murphy wrote in that order. 

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“It only left that as an option, again, at defendants’ request,” he said then. 

It is unclear whether the government has plans to relocate the group. 

Claims that President Donald Trump dropped his well-regarded NASA nominee over Democratic donations don’t hold up, given his track record of appointing officials from across the political spectrum.

“Trump Is Said to Have Known About NASA Nominee’s Donations Before Picking Him,” read the latest headline from the New York Times about the president’s decision to pull Jared Isaacman’s nomination – as the firestorm continues over the spacewalking billionaire’s close ally Elon Musk’s coinciding break with the president.

Trump had known about many of his circle’s Democratic ties before Isaacson came on the scene, including his own history.

Until the Obama administration, Trump reliably donated to Democrats, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, then-Rep. Anthony Weiner, Hillary Clinton – all of New York – Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, and then-Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

YOU’RE HIRED, HERE’S WHO PASSED CONGRESS’ TRUMP CABINET TEST AND HOW STORMY THEIR HEARINGS WERE

Since then, however, Trump has taken an adversarial tack toward Obama and Democrats associated with him, including Hillary Clinton – though he still reserves kind words for former President Bill Clinton.

While many of Trump’s cabinet picks are former congressional Republicans, like Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins of Georgia and Secretary of State Marco Rubio of Florida, many also hail from the left or are known to donate to leftist causes.

Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is the most notable example, given his surname and namesake.

Kennedy, whose father was a New York senator, attorney general and a 1968 presidential candidate until his assassination, was a noted Democrat invested in environmentalism and other liberal causes.

His sister, Kerry, was first lady of New York during her marriage to Andrew Cuomo, while another sister, Kathleen, was lieutenant governor of Maryland under Gov. Parris Glendening – and his uncles, John and Edward, were two of the most famous Democrats in U.S. history.

GABBARD SPEAKS OUT AFTER LEAVING ‘WOKE’ DEMOCRATIC PARTY

But Kennedy and his supporters forged a political bond with Trump and propelled him into the presidency, finding common ground on vaccine risk awareness, dangerous aspects of America’s food processing and transparency of government officials, particularly in the health care sector.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was a Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who later left her party after repeated barbs from its thought-leaders like Clinton – who accused her of being a Kremlin asset.

And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remains in office and has been widely praised by fiscal conservatives for his decisions so far, while also having a history of Democratic donations.

Bessent donated to Obama, Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore, and was also head of Soros Fund Management’s United Kingdom office in the early 1990s. The company, led by George Soros and his son Alex, is often considered the most powerful financial force on the far left.

Treasury Secretary Howard Lutnick – one of the lead negotiators of Trump’s tariff and trade agenda – was also a Democratic donor while head of the financial firm Cantor-Fitzgerald.

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Lutnick’s donations have trended toward the GOP in recent years, and he has maintained a longtime friendship with Trump. On the Democratic side of the ledger, Lutnick historically supported the late Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, as well as Schumer and Clinton.

Lutnick has preferred pro-business and anti-regulation candidates and issues moreso than coming from a purely political point of view.

Isaacman, a New Jersey billionaire credited as the first private citizen to spacewalk, saw his May 31 nomination pulled this week after what Trump called “a thorough review of his prior associations,” which many, including in the media, believed referenced his history of Democratic donations.

Isaacman has donated to fellow Garden State-born astronaut Mark Kelly – now the senior Democratic senator in Arizona – as well as former Sen. Bob Casey, Jr., D-Pa., and a SuperPAC aligned with Schumer.

He also supported Rep. George Whitesides, D-Calif., a former NASA chief of staff and congressional freshman who upset a GOP-held swing district north of Los Angeles in 2024. 

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to block a lower court ruling that is keeping it from restructuring the Department of Education. 

“That injunction effectively appoints the district court to a Cabinet role and bars the Executive Branch from terminating anyone, even though respondents conceded that some other [reductions in force] would plainly be proper,” the SCOTUS filing reads.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Federal judges are continuing their pushback against the Trump administration by issuing orders blocking a number of actions, including the deportation of the family of Mohamed Soliman, who is facing a hate crime charge in the wake of a firebombing attack in Colorado. 

The rulings – some from judges appointed under the Biden administration – come after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that “President Trump had more injunctions in one full month of office in February than Joe Biden had in three years.” 

“The real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch, where district court judges in liberal districts across the country are abusing their power to unilaterally block President Trump’s basic executive authority,” Leavitt also has said. 

Here are seven cases in which federal judges ruled against the Trump administration this week: 

1. Deportation of Boulder attack suspect’s family is blocked, despite visa violations 

A Biden administration-appointed federal judge in Colorado on Wednesday halted the deportation of the wife and five children of Mohamed Soliman, the Egyptian national under federal investigation for the Boulder firebombing attack on Sunday. 

The temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher prevents federal immigration authorities from removing Soliman’s wife, Hayem El Gamal, and the couple’s five children from the country, at least for now. 

TRUMP FOE JUDGE BOASBERG RULES DEPORTED MIGRANTS CAN CHALLENGE REMOVALS, IN BLOW TO ADMINISTRATION 

The ruling will remain in effect until a scheduled hearing on June 13. It came after El Gamal’s friend, Susanna Dvortsin, sought emergency legal protection for the family and argued that they faced imminent deportation by the Trump administration without the opportunity to present their case in court.   

According to Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, citing sources, El Gamal and her five children have all overstayed their visas. However, an asylum application had already been submitted on their behalf by Soliman. 

2. Judge rules against Trump administration twice in Abrego Garcia case 

A federal judge granted a request Wednesday from more than a dozen major news outlets and publishers to unseal certain records in the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Salvadorian migrant and alleged MS-13 member who was deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March in what administration officials have acknowledged was an administrative error. 

Separately on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis granted a request from Abrego Garcia’s legal team to file a motion for sanctions against the Trump administration.  

The one-two punch from Xinis could give plaintiffs new ammunition to pursue more formal punishments against the Trump administration if officials are found to have been acting in bad faith or knowingly defying court orders. The Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. 

3. Effort to pull funding from local governments is slapped with a preliminary injunction 

A federal judge in Washington state on Tuesday granted Denver and other local governments a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s threats to withhold federal funding for transportation programs. 

Denver and dozens of other plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in May, claiming that the Trump administration’s threats to withhold an estimated $4 billion in critical federal grants exceed the Executive Branch’s authority and were thereby “unlawful and politically motivated funding conditions,” according to the injunction order. 

The judge ruled that the Trump administration likely violated the Separation of Powers doctrine, and that its threats to cut funding constitute harm. 

4. Trump administration ordered to restore funding to Clinton-era agency that gutted by DOGE 

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to restore millions of dollars in grant funding for AmeriCorps and to reemploy thousands of employees, ruling that the administration’s abrupt dismantling of the organization violated federal law.  

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman agreed to reinstate thousands of terminated AmeriCorps employees across 24 U.S. states and D.C., which sued the administration earlier this year over the steep cuts to the agency ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. 

FEDERAL JUDGE RULES AGAINST TRUMP ORDER HALTING SEX CHANGE PROCEDURES IN PRISONS 

She also ordered the Trump administration to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in congressionally approved funding for AmeriCorps programs, which were also slashed by DOGE earlier this year. 

5. Judge halts Trump administration’s moves to close Job Corps centers across nation 

A federal judge on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order that stops the Trump administration from closing Job Corps centers.  

The motion, filed by the National Job Corps Association, was to stop the Department of Labor’s closure of 99 Job Corps campuses nationwide, according to a news release. 

Job Corps was created by Congress in 1964 and allows 16- to 24-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds to obtain high school diplomas or an equivalent, vocational certificates and licenses, and on-the-job training. The program currently serves about 25,000 people at 120 Job Corps centers run by contractors. 

When the Department of Labor announced it was pausing Job Corps center operations, it said the program was not cost-effective, had a low graduation rate and was not placing participants in stable jobs. The department also said there had been thousands of instances of violence, drug use and security breaches at Job Corps centers. 

6. Judge tells ICE not to remove trans migrant seeking asylum from Washington detention facility 

A federal judge in Oregon on Tuesday issued an order barring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from removing a Mexican asylum seeker from a Washington detention facility, according to local reports. 

 The migrant, a 24-year-old transgender woman identified as “O-J-M” in court documents, was arrested outside a Portland courtroom on Monday and transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington.  

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio, a President Joe Biden appointee, also demanded that ICE provide the exact date and time of the removal from Portland and explain why it was deemed immediately necessary. 

7. ICE is prevented from detaining Columbia University student 

A federal judge on Thursday issued a fresh order blocking ICE from arresting Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Columbia University student whom the Trump administration is seeking to deport back to South Korea after she participated in an anti-Israel protest earlier this year, according to the Washington Post. 

The newspaper reported that federal agents first sought to detain Chung in March, yet were unable to locate her. She then sued to block them from doing so. 

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“This is a win not just for Yunseo and for the legions of people who stand up for Palestinians and oppose the daily atrocities in Gaza that our government underwrites, but also for freedom of speech and the rule of law in our country,” Ramzi Kassem, co-director of CLEAR, a legal nonprofit at City University of New York that is representing Chung, told the Washington Post. 

Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Cameron Arcand, Bill Melugin, Breanne Deppisch, Stephen Sorace, Pilar Arias, Michael Dorgan and Reuters contributed to this report. 

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said a thorough review of spending from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is warranted, following the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the agency.  

USAID was an independent agency to provide impoverished countries aid and offer development assistance, but the agency was upended since February when President Donald Trump installed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to oversee the organization amid concerns that USAID did not advance U.S. core interests. Since then, the agency has faced layoffs and is being absorbed into the State Department. 

This increased scrutiny on USAID spending is valid, according to Risch. 

“The amount of money that we’re spending on that has to be reviewed top to bottom,” Risch said during an event Wednesday at the Washington-based think tank the Hudson Institute.  

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

Risch said that several weeks into the Trump administration, he and others, including Rubio, evaluated a list of programs that detailed $3 million in funding for “promotion of democracy in Lower Slobovia.” According to Risch, the description didn’t provide enough information and items like these are totaling up to billions of dollars that must undergo review.

“Lower Slobovia” is a fictional place and a term used by Americans to describe an underdeveloped foreign country.

“We can do so much better, not only in how, how much money we spend, but how we spend it,” Risch said. “So, if you say, well, we’re eliminating this program, be careful you don’t say, ‘Oh, that means we’re walking away from human rights.’ Look, America is human rights. If America leads the way on human rights. We are the world standard on human rights. We have no intention of giving that position up.”

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) targeted USAID in its push to eliminate wasteful spending. The agency came under fire for many funding choices, including allocating $1.5 million for a program that sought to “advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities” and a $70,000 program for a “DEI musical” in Ireland.

‘HYSTERIA’: WHITE HOUSE SHUTS DOWN CONCERNS OVER USAID DOCUMENT PURGE

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

Fox News Digital was the first to report later in March that the State Department planned to absorb the remaining operations and programs USAID runs so it would no longer function as an independent agency. 

The move means eliminating thousands of staff members in an attempt to enhance the existing, “life-saving” foreign assistance programs, according to a State Department memo that Fox News Digital obtained.

NEXT US NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR? HERE’S WHOM TRUMP MIGHT PICK TO REPLACE WALTZ 

“Foreign assistance done right can advance our national interests, protect our borders, and strengthen our partnerships with key allies,” Rubio said in a March statement to Fox News Digital. “Unfortunately, USAID strayed from its original mission long ago. As a result, the gains were too few and the costs were too high.” 

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“We are reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens,” Rubio said. “We are continuing essential lifesaving programs and making strategic investments that strengthen our partners and our own country.”

Meanwhile, Democrats slammed the restructuring of the agency, labeling the move “illegal.” 

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s destruction and dismantling of USAID is not only disastrous foreign policy and counter to our national security interests; it is plainly illegal,” the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said in a statement in March. “Congress wrote a law establishing USAID as an independent agency with its own appropriation, and only Congress can eliminate it.” 

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk may speak to White House aides Friday in an effort to calm his ongoing feud with President Donald Trump, Fox News has learned.

Musk and Trump have been arguing over social media in recent days. The blowup came after Musk started “wearing thin” on Trump for about a month, Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy reported Friday.

White House aides told Doocy they are not expecting Trump and Musk to speak to each other today, but that Trump administration staffers might try to talk to Musk.

Doocy also reported that a red Tesla vehicle that Trump bought during a Tesla demonstration on the South Lawn of the White House grounds earlier this year is now expected to be given away or sold off. The vehicle with Florida tags, as of Friday, remains parked near the White House.

Musk made allegations Thursday that Trump was in the Jeffrey Epstein file.

“@RealDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files,” Musk wrote on X. “That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

Musk followed the post with another, saying, “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”

“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful BIll because it does not include the policies he wanted,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”

On Truth Social, Trump wrote Thursday that “Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!” Trump also said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Fox News’ Peter Doocy and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.

Former President Joe Biden only signed one pardon by hand during his final weeks in office, and it was his most controversial one. 

The Justice Department is reviewing the list of people granted pardons by Biden amid new concerns about his use of an autopen to automatically sign documents and concerns about his state of mind and mental acuity in his final months in office. 

Biden used his final weeks as commander in chief to grant clemency and pardon more than 1,500 people in what his White House described as the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president. 

HERE ARE BIDEN’S MOST CONTROVERSIAL PARDONS, MAINLY SIGNED USING AUTOPEN

Biden appears to have signed those final pardons, including preemptive pardons for members of his family, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley and members and staff of the House committee investigating Jan. 6. 

But the former president signed one by hand for his son. Biden pardoned his son Hunter in December 2024 after vowing to the American people for months he would not do so. 

Hunter Biden was found guilty of three felony gun offenses during special counsel David Weiss’ investigation. The first son was also charged with federal tax crimes over his alleged failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. 

Before his trial, Hunter Biden entered a surprise guilty plea. 

Former President Biden in December 2024 announced a blanket pardon that applies to any offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden “has committed or may have committed” from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024. 

“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” the former president said. 

“There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.

FLASHBACK: SPECIAL COUNSEL WEISS BLASTS BIDEN IN FINAL HUNTER PROSECUTION REPORT

“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision.” 

Weiss, who charged Hunter Biden, blasted the former president for pardoning his son, saying his characterizations of the yearslong probe were “wrong” and “unfairly” maligned Justice Department officials. 

Weiss, in the report, blasted the president’s decision to pardon and the press release to the public that “criticized the prosecution of his son as ‘selective,’ ‘unfair,’ ‘infected’ by ‘raw politics’ and a ‘miscarriage of justice.'”

“This statement is gratuitous and wrong,” Weiss wrote in his report. “Other presidents have pardoned family members, but in doing so, none have taken the occasion as an opportunity to malign the public servants at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations.” 

In another section of the report, Weiss noted that, in light of the presidential pardon, he “cannot make any additional charging decisions,” adding it would be “inappropriate” to discuss “whether additional charges are warranted.” 

TRUMP ORDERS ATTORNEY GENERAL TO INVESTIGATE BIDEN’S AUTOPEN USE AMID COGNITIVE DECLINE CONCERNS

“Politicians who attack the decisions of career prosecutors as politically motivated when they disagree with the outcome of a case undermine the public’s confidence in our criminal justice system,” Weiss wrote. “The President’s statements unfairly impugn the integrity not only of Department of Justice personnel, but all of the public servants making these difficult decisions in good faith.

“The President’s characterizations are incorrect based on the facts in this case, and, on a more fundamental level, they are wrong.” 

Biden’s use of an autopen for signatures is under investigation by Attorney General Pam Bondi. 

President Donald Trump directed Bondi to investigate whether certain individuals working for Biden conspired to deceive the public about his mental state while also exercising his presidential responsibilities by using an autopen.

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

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“In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,” Trump wrote. 

“This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”

He added that Biden has experienced “serious cognitive decline” for years, and the Department of Justice recently concluded Biden should not stand trial despite clear evidence he broke the law, because of his mental state.

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

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

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

• Supreme Court sides with Catholic charities in case involving religious tax exemptions 
• AOC backs rising progressive candidate in NYC Dem primary in push to defeat Cuomo
• Supreme Court sides with US gunmakers in case centered on Mexican cartel violence

Trump, Musk Escalate ‘Big, Beautiful’ Feud

Elon Musk and President Donald Trump’s feud about the “Big, Beautiful Bill” continued on Thursday when the tech billionaire responded to the president’s criticism in a post on X.

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. Such ingratitude,” Musk wrote in a post responding to Trump’s remarks about him.

While speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said that he was “very disappointed” by Musk’s vocal criticisms of the bill. The president claimed that Musk knew what was in the bill and “had no problem” with it until the EV incentives had to be cut…READ MORE

White House

DOGE REFUND: Federal judge orders Trump to restore funding to Clinton-era agency gutted by DOGE

ELON’S EVOLUTION: Elon Musk’s conservative evolution puts him at odds with Trump on key legislation

‘FEEL BAD’: ‘Sick puppy’ Tim Walz should never have been on Dems’ 2024 ticket, Trump says

SIGNATURE SCANDAL: Trump says Biden didn’t have ‘much of an idea what was going on’ as former president dismisses autopen probe

World Stage

‘DEAD AMERICANS’: Expert sounds alarm on CCP’s mission to ‘kill Americans’ after FBI makes shocking arrests

‘CHIEF ADVERSARY’: Chinese bioweapon smuggling case shows US ‘trains our enemies,’ ‘learned nothing’ from COVID

Capitol Hill

TURNABOUT TACTICS: White House highlights Pelosi hypocrisy after Schiff demands Trump admin financial, ethics docs

TAX WAR ERUPTS: Blue state Republicans threaten rebellion if Senate changes key provision in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

‘BAD ACTORS’: Ricketts, Fetterman team up for crackdown on China’s attempts to purchase US farmland

Across America 

JUDGE FORCES RETURN: Migrant deported to third country returned to US after Trump admin yields to judge’s order

‘SICKENING’: Homeland Security says Boston’s mayor comparing ICE agents to neo-Nazis is ‘sickening’

RECORD ROUNDUP: ICE breaks arrest record two days in a row under Trump’s new immigration directives

9-0 RULING: Supreme Court rules unanimously in favor of straight Ohio woman who claimed discrimination

CHAOTIC SCENES: False rumors of Minneapolis ICE raid spark protest as police decry ‘irresponsible’ info from elected officials

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

President Donald Trump’s sweeping new travel ban may prove more legally durable than its 2017 predecessor as immigration advocates prepare for a likely court battle they’re not expected to win.

Trump’s latest travel ban expands on the policy he imposed during his first term targeting seven Muslim-majority nations, a measure the Supreme Court upheld in a 5-4 ruling. Like its predecessor, the new order relies on the same immigration statutes but may rest on firmer legal ground this time.

Attorney Neama Rahmani, a California-based former federal prosecutor who specializes in immigration, told Fox News Digital he anticipated that immigration rights groups would likely sue over Trump’s new order.

“But they’ll lose,” he said, because “it’s stronger than the last ban.”

TRUMP BANS TRAVEL TO US FROM SEVERAL COUNTRIES TO ‘BLOCK DANGEROUS FOREIGN ACTORS’

Rahmani pointed to allegations that the last ban violated religious liberties because it singled out Muslims. This new one included “all sorts of countries,” Rahmani said. Trump imposed full or partial bans on 19 countries in his new proclamation, including Muslim-majority countries like Afghanistan and Iran but also non-Muslim-majority countries like Haiti, Venezuela, Eritrea and Burundi.

“You don’t have Trump saying that he’s imposing a Muslim ban. Those words during the campaign, and even after he was elected, were used against him,” Rahmani said, adding that the Supreme Court is also “slightly different” and a “better audience” for Trump this time around.

The 5-4 split in Trump v. Hawaii fell along ideological lines and came before Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, both Trump appointees, were confirmed to the bench.

Although the Supreme Court has historically given presidents wide latitude over foreign policy and national security, in 2017 the dissenting justices argued the ban amounted to unjustified religious animus disguised as national security.

“The Court’s decision … leaves undisturbed a policy first advertised openly and unequivocally as a ‘total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States’ because the policy now masquerades behind a façade of national-security concerns,” the dissent read.

SUPREME COURT TO DEBATE TRUMP RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP AND ENFORCEMENT OF NATIONWIDE INJUNCTIONS

Democrat lawmakers and immigration rights critics have argued that Trump’s new proclamation is rooted in bigotry.

Sarah Mehta, deputy director of policy and government affairs for immigration at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Fox News Digital in a statement that she believed it was designed to “further eviscerate lawful immigration pathways under the false guise of national security.”

“We saw the chaos that ensued from the first Trump administration’s Muslim ban, and this executive order will only build on that reign of terror to target people solely based on their nationality or religious beliefs,” Mehta said.

Trump said in his proclamation that the restrictions were necessary to prevent terrorist attacks and mitigate other public safety risks because the countries had unreliable screening and vetting processes. Additionally, some had a high occurrence of visa overstays or were uncooperative when it came to accepting their citizens back from the United States, Trump said.

Ilya Somin, who is one of the attorneys challenging Trump’s sweeping tariffs in the U.S. Court of International Trade, wrote in an op-ed that it would be “nearly impossible to challenge this new travel ban on the grounds that it is motivated by ethnic or other bigotry” because of the Supreme Court’s prior ruling.

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Somin floated the possibility of challenging the ban on other grounds, including the nondelegation doctrine, which puts limits on how much power Congress can transfer to the executive branch. He noted as an example that two courts have thus far shunned the president’s attempts to bypass Congress and take tariffs into his own hands.

However, Somin conceded that the travel ban presents a higher hurdle than the tariffs case. While the Constitution explicitly gives Congress power over tariffs, Somin said, it “does not clearly” say which branch of government has jurisdiction over immigration restrictions.

As the once-strong alliance between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk rapidly disintegrates, the two titans are not only trading fire over the president’s “big, beautiful” tax cuts and spending bill.

Trump and Musk, who spent the first four months of the president’s second administration as a special White House advisor steering the recently created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), are also blasting each other over which one of them should get the credit for Trump’s decisive 2024 election victory.

The president, speaking with reporters Thursday, argued, “I think I would have won” even without Musk’s help on the campaign trail last year.

Musk, the world’s richest person and the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, went all in for Trump last summer and autumn.

MUSK UNLEASHES EPSTEIN CLAIM AGAINST TRUMP AFTER BEING BOOTED FROM DOGE 

He endorsed the GOP presidential nominee in July right after the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Musk became the top donor of the 2024 election cycle, dishing out nearly $300 million in support of Trump’s bid through America PAC, a Trump-aligned super PAC. Much of the money was used for get-out-the-vote efforts and ads in the crucial battleground states as Trump and Kamala Harris faced off for the presidency.

TRUMP SAYS HE’S ‘VERY DISAPPOINTED IN MUSK FOR OPPOSING ’BIGGEST TAX CUTS IN HISTORY’

Musk concentrated much of his efforts on Pennsylvania. 

He joined Trump for the first time on the campaign trail at an Oct. 5 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, then held five town halls in the Keystone State later in October.

And Musk set up a war room of sorts in Pittsburgh.

Trump, mentioning how Musk campaigned for him in Pennsylvania, pointed to his White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who was co-chair of Trump’s 2024 campaign.

The president noted that “Susie would say I would have won Pennsylvania easily anyway.”

Musk, apparently watching Trump’s comments in real time, quickly fired back on X, which Musk renamed after buying Twitter.

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk wrote. “Such ingratitude.”

MUSK-TRUMP ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL FEUD SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL

Tom Eddy, the GOP chairman in Erie County, a longtime crucial swing county in northwestern Pennsylvania, told Fox News that Musk “helped Trump significantly. I really think so. He had money and he had a name.”

But Eddy added that “my gut feeling would be that Trump is basically saying, ‘Look. I won the election. These people helped me, but I won.’ That’s what he’s trying to bring across.”

Veteran Republican strategist John Brabender, who served as a media consultant to the 2024 Trump campaign, told Fox News Digital that “Elon and many others played an important role in helping the president win states all across America.”

“But the bottom line is there’s only one constant and one person who is most responsible, by far, and that’s President Trump. That’s who people voted for,” Brabender added.

Longtime Republican consultant Dave Carney, a veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns over the past few decades, said the president and Musk are both right.

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Carney, who steered Preserve America, another top-spending Trump-aligned super PAC, told Fox News that Trump “might have won without the help, but you can’t underestimate how important that help was.”

Pointing to Preserve America, Musk’s America PAC and MAGA Inc, which was the main Trump-aligned super PAC, Carney said they all deserved “a tremendous amount of credit” and “just made it easier” for Trump to sweep all seven battleground states and win the White House.

Carney also highlighted the Musk-aligned super PAC’s “unprecedented field effort, mail and other communications … to turn out these low-propensity Trump voters.”

EXCLUSIVE: The White House is backing legislation to expedite the timeline for executing removal orders for illegal immigrants. 

The Rapid Expulsion of Migrant Offenders who Violate and Evade (REMOVE) Act, led by senators Marsha Blackburn, Ted Budd and Ted Cruz would give the Department of Justice a quick 15-day timeframe to finish “removal proceedings” after the process has “commenced.”

“Under Joe Biden’s failed leadership, we saw the largest wave of illegal immigration in our nation’s history, forcing communities across Tennessee and America to bear the consequences,” Blackburn said in a statement Thursday, when the bill was introduced.

“With a record number of illegal aliens now living in the United States, President Trump must have every tool necessary to remove them quickly from our country. Our REMOVE Act would require these illegal aliens to begin removal proceedings within 15 days of a Notice to Appear being served,” she added.

ICE TOUTS RECORD-BREAKING IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT DURING TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS

Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy, said the bill will help with the administration’s deportation goals, adding the administration is aiming for 3,000 arrests daily. Immigration and Customs Enforcement broke single-day arrest records Tuesday and Wednesday with well over 2,000 arrests. 

“Under the Biden Administration, the American people witnessed a full-scale invasion of our country that directly threatened our national security and sovereignty. With untold millions of illegal aliens in the U.S. due to Democrats’ open-border policies, we must take strong, decisive measures to remove those who have been ordered to be removed from the United States,” Miller, who’s also a Homeland Security advisor for the White House, said in a statement.

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE VOWS TRUMP ADMIN WILL ‘USE EVERYTHING’ IT CAN TO INCREASE NUMBER OF CRIMINAL DEPORTATIONS

“The REMOVE Act is critical legislation that will help us fulfill our mass deportation operation and get gang members, cartels, and violent criminals off the streets. Passing this legislation, in conjunction with the largest mass deportation investment in American history provided by our One Big Beautiful Bill, will ensure we permanently secure the border. Thank you to Senator Blackburn for her leadership.” 

Millions of people were estimated to have entered the country illegally during the Biden administration, including through the southern border.

‘PROMPT REMOVAL’: TRUMP DHS EXPANDS EXPEDITED DEPORTATION POWERS AS OPERATIONS RAMP UP

Federal authorities have stressed removing those with criminal convictions and ties to gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, which the administration designated as foreign terrorist organizations.

Others have been encouraged to self-deport before facing a potential arrest, and the federal government will pay for their exit flight and provide $1,000 after their exit from the United States is confirmed.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

During Trump’s first 100 days in office, over 65,000 illegal immigrants were removed from the country, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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“Now, President Trump is stepping in to restore order. I’m proud to stand with Senator Blackburn and my colleagues to fast-track the removal of those who have been ordered to be removed. It’s time we uphold the integrity of our immigration system to protect our nation,” Budd stated. 

A Pew Research Center poll from March indicated the majority of American adults back deportations of illegal immigrants to at least some extent, including 32% who back the removals of all of them, regardless of whether another crime was committed.

Republican senators John Cornyn of Texas and Roger Marshall of Kansas shared their thoughts on the sudden, escalating feud between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, with one senator saying Musk needs to realize “he’s not the CEO here.”

After denying “outlandish” Democratic claims that the Trump-backed “big, beautiful bill” would result in cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits if passed, Cornyn addressed whether he believes Trump is wise to threaten to cancel all of Musk’s companies’ government contracts.

Musk and Trump have been locked in an escalating war of words over their disagreement about the president’s proposed budget bill, which is being considered by the Senate.

In an X post Tuesday, Musk said: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.” 

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

Musk then asserted Thursday afternoon that Trump “is in the Epstein files” and “that is the real reason they have not been made public.”

Meanwhile, Trump has said Musk is “wearing thin” during his leadership at DOGE and asserted he “asked him to leave.”

“I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Trump said on Truth Social.

The president also said Thursday “the easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.

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

“I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”

Cornyn stopped short of criticizing either side, telling Fox News Digital Musk “has done a great service to the nation” and “I’m grateful to President Trump for bringing him on board and initiating DOGE.”

Even through Musk’s spat with the president, Cornyn said the Department of Government Efficiency is “going to now be a permanent part of our discussions up here.”

“Everybody believes, or understands, I should say, that the federal government is too big and too bloated and inefficient, and Elon and DOGE was very effective, I thought, at pointing out some of the most egregious examples of that,” the Texas Republican said.

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Marshall responded to the controversy by telling Fox News Digital, “We appreciate what Elon did for the government, but it’s time to move on.

“What Elon doesn’t realize is that he’s not the CEO here.

“Working for Congress, working for the people back home is so much different than being a CEO. [When] you’re a CEO, you tell people jump, they say, ‘How high do you got to go?’ But President Trump is working with a board.”

Marshall described the president’s role as “working with a board of a big business.”

“There’s 435 across the Capitol way here. There’s 100 in the Senate. We’ve all got opinions. And, right now, this bill, I think 90% of the folks up here, Republicans, thinks that it’s where it needs to be,” he said.

Though acknowledging “there’s opportunities for improvement” and “I agree with Elon that we’re still spending too much money, that we need more cuts, I’ve learned a long time ago to stay locked in on my goal. And I am locked in on getting this one big, beautiful bill across the line.”

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“I can guarantee you we’re not paying any attention to this little feud going on,” he concluded.

Regarding Democratic accusations that the bill will drastically cut Medicaid and SNAP benefits, Marshall said, “We’re going to do the right thing, but protect it for those who need it the most.”

He posited that the Medicaid system is rife with illegal aliens and other individuals using the program “fraudulently.”

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Addressing the rest of those not using the system fraudulently, the senator said, “We’re not going to take grandma out of the nursing home. We’re going to make sure that she has her Medicaid.

“Persons with disabilities, I will fight to keep their Medicaid for them, children as well. But, on the other hand, there’s probably 7 million healthy American men out there, working age, that really should be working and not on Medicaid, not on food stamps,” he added. “So, let’s help those people get a job.”

The Big, Beautiful Bill became the big, throbbing migraine for Congressional Republicans this week.

That’s thanks to the big, ugly brawl between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

It started Tuesday with a hangup between Congressional Republicans and Musk over the Big, Beautiful Bill. Musk characterized it as a “disgusting abomination.” He then turned on all 215 House Republicans who voted yes on the bill last month.

“You know you did wrong,” declared Musk.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., tried to call Musk to foam the political flames.

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“I called Elon last night. He didn’t answer. “But I hope to talk to him today,” said Johnson.

Surely the world’s richest man would have the bandwidth for the Speaker of the House.

But the hangup was only starting.

Rather than returning the Speaker’s call, Musk returned political fire. Not by phone. But on his own communication platform.

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

On X, Musk posted an iconic picture of Uma Thurman in a yellow jumpsuit, wielding a sword from a Quentin Tarantino movie poster.

“KILL the Bill,” read Musk’s caption.

Reach out and touch someone? How about reach out and call your senator or representative? 

Musk’s influence – and rapid pivot – frightened Congressional Republicans.

“To say that it’s a problem or that it has created a bigger challenge for us, is true,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington,” R-Tex. “He’s got a big voice. He’s got a big audience. And more importantly, it’s a credible voice. But he’s wrong on this issue.”

Still, Republicans weren’t budging as Musk demanded lawmakers craft a new piece of legislation.

“Elon, look,” said an exasperated Johnson. “We don’t have time for a brand new bill.”

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

The Speaker added that Congressional Republicans “can’t go back to the drawing board and we shouldn’t.”

The political contretemps started simmering as Republicans quickly became incensed with Musk.

“Give us some productive feedback that we can operate on. I can’t operate on platitudes,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., of Musk’s vague criticism about the size of the legislation and deficit spending. 

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, is one of the two House Republicans who voted no on the Big, Beautiful Bill last month.

“Part of the goal with Musk and conservatives like me that have had reservations about the bill is make it better,” said Davidson. “The disappointing thing is this bill does grow deficits in this Congress.” 

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was the other House GOPer who voted nay. He says Musk learned how Congress operates the hard way.

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“Trust was misplaced. And so I think he has a right to be upset with our leadership,” said Massie.

But Democrats suddenly made strange bedfellows with Musk. They viewed Musk’s opposition as an opportunity to help them sidetrack the legislation.

“He’s not my cup of tea, to put it mildly. But Republicans are already listening to him,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., of Musk.

But at least one Democrat called out his colleagues for their inconsistency with Musk.

“We’ve been dumping all over Musk and vandalizing Teslas,” said Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn. “And now suddenly, now we might be more back into him.”

This all came as the Trump Administration asked Congress to chip away at spending. Budget Director Russ Vought sent lawmakers a $9.4 billion “rescissions” request. This measure asks that lawmakers claw back money it already allocated.

“$9.4 billion is a teardrop in the ocean,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. “If we can’t get this now, then God help us on getting the true deficit numbers down.”

The rescissions plan targeted foreign aid and public broadcasting.

“You’ve sent us a rescission package worth $9 billion that goes after Big Bird and Cookie Monster,” lamented Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc., at a hearing with Vought.

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The Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Big, Beautiful Bill found that it adds $2.3 trillion to the deficit over a decade. But Republicans say those figures are wrong. The CBO also issued an analysis – specific to President Trump’s tariffs. The CBO projects a $3 trillion decrease in deficits over the next decade because of the tariffs. The CBO cannot evaluate the tariffs under the One Big, Beautiful Bill – because, well, they’re not part of the legislation. But, proponents of the One Big Beautiful Bill say that measure, coupled with the tariffs, decreases deficits by $500 billion over the next decade.

Some Republicans believe that the CBO estimate about the deficit is what set off Musk.

“I think their assumptions are wrong. We have long complained about it,” said Johnson.

But remember, this is the CONGRESSIONAL Budget Office. And REPUBLICANS run Congress.

“Why are you not getting the numbers that you want?” asked yours truly of the Speaker.

“They use a different scoring,” replied Johnson.

“Would you consider a rescission for the CBO in the legislative branch appropriations bill?” I followed up.

“I would,” answered Johnson.

But the CBO is the least of Johnson’s worries as the battle between the president and Musk went supernova on Thursday.

“What is the message you need to hear from him to make sure you are on the same page?” I asked Johnson of Musk – who still hadn’t connected.

“I just want to answer any questions Elon has and make sure he fully understands this is not a spending program,” said Johnson. 

“Do you think he just misperceives this?” I inquired. 

“I do,” said Johnson. 

Senate Republicans who are noes on the bill applauded Musk’s staunch opposition to the One Big, Beautiful Bill. 

“We both seem to be on the same wavelength and that we’re very, very skeptical,” said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. 

On Thursday afternoon, Musk argued that President Trump would have lost the White House and Democrats would control the House and Senate were it not for the $280 million he poured into the 2024 campaign.  

“He obviously played a positive role,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., another no on the bill. “He helped spend that much money. He attracted a lot of people.” 

But Democrats weren’t so sure of Musk’s political rainmaking. 

“It’s just crocodile tears that are being shed by Elon Musk,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass.

Democrats saw the breakup coming between the president and Musk. 

“It’s a divorce that was predictable, if not inevitable,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. 

Some Senate Republicans claimed they weren’t worried about Musk torching the bill – and even President Trump – on X. They believed the president wielded an inherent advantage over Musk in the ultimate “Twitter” cage match.

“President Trump has the biggest platform on Earth,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio.

It’s too early to tell if Musk’s incineration of the One Big, Beautiful Bill will hamper efforts to pass the legislation – especially with tight vote margins in the House and Senate.

“It’s not helpful,” conceded Mike Johnson. “But I don’t think it’s changed the trajectory in any way.” 

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But Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said Republicans stand at an unenviable crossroads.

“They have a choice of going against Trump or Musk,” said Burchett.