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EXCLUSIVE: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have come to an agreement to permit ICE to access taxpayer information to locate illegal immigrants subject to deportation. 

The Trump administration filed a memorandum of understanding late Monday with a court to create guardrails and a process for ICE requests to the IRS to further investigations of criminal illegal immigrants who have failed or refuse to leave the United States 90 days after a judge has issued a final order of removal. 

“The Internal Revenue Service and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement have entered into a memorandum of understanding to establish a clear and secure process to support law enforcement’s efforts to combat illegal immigration,” a Treasury Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

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“The bases for this MOU are founded in longstanding authorities granted by Congress, which serve to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans while streamlining the ability to pursue criminals,” the statement said. “After four years of Joe Biden flooding the nation with illegal aliens, President Trump’s highest priority is to ensure the safety of the American people.”

A senior Treasury Department official said the illegal immigrants have been given due process but have overstayed 90 days post a judge’s removal order. 

The MOU outlines a process to ensure that sensitive taxpayer data information is protected while allowing law enforcement to pursue criminal violations, the official said. 

The Treasury Department is committed to protecting the privacy of law-abiding taxpayers, but a criminal exception obligates the agency to assist law enforcement, the senior official said. 

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A draft agreement reported last month by the Washington Post said it would limit ICE to confirm the addresses of illegal immigrants who have final removal orders.

The deal would allow ICE to submit the names and addresses of illegal immigrants to the IRS, who could then cross-check those immigrants’ tax records and provide the immigration agency with current address information.

Some veteran IRS officials have expressed concerns, arguing that the narrow exception was meant only for criminal investigations and not for immigration enforcement. They also worry that the policy will hinder tax collection from illegal immigrants, who are still subject to federal taxes despite being in the country illegally.

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The agreement comes as President Donald Trump has continued to ramp up the deportation effort he promised on the campaign trail, while attempting to use every available resource in order to aid immigration authorities. 

Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee contributed to this report. 

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the State Department called out practices under the Biden administration that required diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts to account for 20% of performance evaluations for foreign service officers.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the reforms of the Biden administration’s DEI policies “important and historic.”

“Now our incredible Foreign Service Officers will be evaluated on true merit, not on arbitrary immutable characteristics,” he wrote on X.

Rubio shared a post from DOGE, which noted that under the policy, diplomats were assessed on whether they avoided “gendered adjectives” or “faint praise.”

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The department shared PowerPoint slides providing examples of phrases to avoid.

One of the slides gave descriptive phrases that can unintentionally influence a reader. It then gave examples of gendered adjectives like, “Dr. Sarah Gray is a caring compassionate physician” vs. “Dr. Joel Gray has been very successful with his patients.”

Faint praise was also discouraged. One example the slide provided was, “S/he worked hard on projects that s/he was assigned” or “S/he has never had temper tantrums.”

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The slides discouraged using first names for women or minorities and titles for men, as well.

Additionally, as DOGE pointed out in its post, the slides asked local organizations to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) programs, training and lectures as well as annual DEIA awards ceremonies.

The foreign service officers were also encouraged to set race and gender quotas on embassy speaking panels and other diplomatic events.

TRUMP’S DOGE TARGETS BLUE STATES WITH MASSIVE CUTS IN ‘DIVISIVE’ DEI CONTRACTS

“Working with DOGE, [Secretary Rubio] has ended this discrimination and restored merit to the foreign service,” DOGE wrote.

The elimination of the DEIA requirement on performance evaluations for foreign service officers comes a week after the Trump administration slashed $15 million from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in the form of DEI grants to align with DOGE and President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at eliminating DEI from the federal government.

The grants include $6.7 million to the California State Library to enhance equitable library programs and $4 million to the Washington State Library for diverse staff development and incarcerated support. 

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A $1.5M DEI grant to the Connecticut State Library system to “integrate social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion” into their daily operations is also being cut along with $700,000 for a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit to study “post-pandemic DEI practices” in American children’s museums that would formulate “enhanced equity-focused strategies.”

Trump’s DOGE efforts have saved the American taxpayer $140 billion, according to its website, which represents about $870 saved per taxpayer.

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The Trump administration says it has slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in DEI contracts, including at least $100 million at the Department of Education.

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

Two key bills backed by President Donald Trump are set to get a vote this week after advancing through the House Rules Committee on Monday evening.

The No Rogue Rulings Act (NORRA Act) by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., would limit district court judges’ ability to issue orders blocking Trump policies nationwide. The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is aimed at requiring proof of citizenship in the voting registration process.

The former legislation is a response to Trump’s ongoing standoff with judges paralyzing his agenda, while the latter is a bill that the president and his allies have long pushed for.

Issa’s bill is slated to get a vote on Tuesday afternoon, while Roy’s is expected on the House floor Thursday morning.

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That’s provided they pass a procedural hurdle known as a “rule vote.” A simple majority of House lawmakers is needed to pass a “rule” to allow for debate and eventual House-wide votes on legislation.

The House Rules Committee, the final gatekeeper before most legislation reaches the entire chamber, advanced a “rule” combining Issa and Roy’s bills with two financial regulatory measures that are also due for a vote this week if the rule passes.

Both pieces of legislation were slated to get House votes last week, but a showdown over an unrelated measure on proxy voting for new parents in Congress wound up paralyzing the chamber floor on Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the House’s first votes of the week.

“The Committee on Rules made efforts to protect this body from a take-it-or-leave-it, all-or-nothing proposal to impose proxy voting, which, while limited, would take us down the slippery slope and return us to the rampant abuse of unlimited proxy voting for members on both sides of the aisle that we witnessed when the Democrats imposed the practice during the COVID era, yet the body felt otherwise,” House Rules Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said at the outset of Monday’s meeting.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the committee, said during his opening statement, “A supposedly pro-family party worked to block a simple, commonsense policy that supports working moms in Congress. It was a move that was unprecedented, and thankfully, a majority of members in our chamber pushed back.”

SENATE GOP PUSHES TRUMP BUDGET FRAMEWORK THROUGH AFTER MARATHON VOTE SERIES

“When he lost the vote, Speaker Johnson sent everyone home, blaming the few Republicans who had the guts to take a stand for family values,” McGovern said.

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With the matter resolved, both the rule vote and both measures themselves are expected to pass with little drama.

It’s likely a different matter in the Senate, however, where both bills would need help from at least some Democrats to meet the body’s 60-vote threshold for advancement.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced $51 million in cuts from the U.S. African Development Foundation, which included hundreds of thousands of dollars for marketing shea butter and pineapple juice, as well as mango drying facilities.

DOGE made the announcement on X, highlighting several initiatives the money was put toward.

For instance, $229,296 was used to market 100% organic shea butter in Burkina Faso; $246,217 was spent on mango drying facilities in the Ivory Coast; and $239,738 was spent on marketing pineapple juice in Benin.

The department also said $99,566 was spent to increase yogurt production in Uganda; $84,059 was spent on a business incubator for spa and wellness entrepreneurs in Nigeria; $50,000 was spent to train farmers how to grow dragon fruit in Senegal; and $48,406 was spent on a WhatsApp marketing chatbot in Kenya.

DOGE HELPS COAST GUARD SAVE NEARLY $33M BY ELIMINATING ‘INEFFECTIVE IT PROGRAM’

DOGE, led by Elon Musk, is a temporary organization within the White House created via executive order earlier this year.

President Donald Trump tasked the organization with optimizing the federal government, streamlining operations and slashing spending and gave the agency 18 months to do it.

DOGE SLASHES BILLIONS MORE IN EXPENSES FOR PROGRAMS LIKE PERUVIAN CLIMATE CHANGE AND GENDER EQUITY IN MEXICO

Late last month, DOGE shared that it had terminated 113 contracts valued at $4.7 billion, including a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) consulting contract valued at $145,000 for Peru climate change activities.

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The funding that was canceled also included $10 million for “gender equity in the Mexican workplace,” $12.2 million for “worker empowerment in South America” and $6.25 million for “improving respect for workers’ rights in agricultural supply chains” in the countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

The department has canceled numerous diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at federal agencies, consulting contracts, leases for underused federal buildings and duplicate agencies and programs.

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As of Monday, DOGE claims on its site that it has saved Americans $140 billion, or about $870 per taxpayer.

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he plans to undergo a physical examination on Friday, marking his first annual physical in his second administration.

Trump announced the plans in a Truth Social post, noting that the exam would take place at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Trump was treated for COVID-19 at the same hospital in 2020.

“I am pleased to report that my long scheduled Annual Physical Examination will be done at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Friday of this week,” the Republican wrote. “I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!”

Trump’s stamina and physical health have been a center of attention since his July 13 assassination attempt, which he miraculously survived. At the time, Dr. Marc Siegel noted that Trump showed an “adroitness.”

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“I’ve been talking to emergency room doctors, vascular surgeons and trauma surgeons all over the country this morning, and nobody can remember a case like this,” he said. 

Months later, in November, Florida neurosurgeon Dr. Brett Osborn told Fox News Digital that Trump remained in good health.

“The fact that he attended 120 events in seven months, often multiple rallies in a single day in different states, is proof-positive that Trump has a tremendous amount of stamina, mentally and physically,” Osborn noted.

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But Democrats have disputed Trump’s health in the past, and members of the medical community have demanded Trump release his medical records. In an open letter from Oct. 13, over 230 doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals asked for a record release.

“On August 20, Donald Trump said he would ‘very gladly’ release his medical records. In the 55 days since, he has yet to do so,” reads the letter, signed largely by supporters of former Vice President Kamala Harris. “With no recent disclosure of health information from Donald Trump, we are left to extrapolate from public appearances.”

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“And on that front, Trump is falling concerningly short of any standard of fitness for office and displaying alarming characteristics of declining acuity,” the petition claimed.

Fox News Digital’s Melissa Rudy and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

Another leader and military veteran has thrown his name into the growing list of candidates in Michigan’s governor’s race to replace term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

On Monday, Republican Rep. John James, a Trump ally, announced he was launching his bid for governor, becoming the latest GOP candidate to jump in the primary. 

“I’m running for Governor of the great state of Michigan,” James shared in a statement on X. “This decision comes after deep reflection, prayer, and a conversation with my wife and children.”

James now joins the state’s Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt as the latest major Republican to jump into the gubernatorial primary, the Hill reported. Meanwhile, the candidates in the race for the Democratic primary include Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson, while Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is running as an independent. 

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“Faith and Family. God and Country. Service Before Self. Michigan First,” James posted in the announcement. 

James stated that “our state has suffered long enough” and says they are being held back by a “lack of strong, competent leadership.”

“For the past seven years, Michigan has been dominated by radical, out-of-touch policies that have hurt our families, our communities, and our economy,” James explained in his reasons for running for governor. 

James said that the state has lost over 300,000 manufacturing jobs since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which he equated to nearly a third of their industrial base, saying “that’s unacceptable.” 

“It’s time to get Michigan’s government out of fantastyland and back to common sense,” James wrote.  

“President Trump and I have been in each other’s corner through thick and thin for eight years-no reason that will end now. He’s doing his part to Make America Great Again, and I’ll do mine to bring prosperity and sanity back to Michigan,” James pledged.

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James was first elected to Congress in 2022, becoming Michigan’s first Black Republican member of Congress, and represents the state’s 10th Congressional District. 

James would also become the first Black governor of Michigan if elected. 

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He ran unsuccessfully for the Senate twice before, losing to Democrat Debbie Stabenow in 2018 and to Democratic Sen. Gary Peters in 2020.

“Make Michigan Great Again,” James wrote in a previous post on X, sharing a video from Rapid Response 47 about Flint, MI.

James served eight years of active duty military service as a Ranger-qualified aviation officer, according to his biography on the district’s website.

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Zach Bannon said that James’ announcement is good news for Republicans for continued growth in Congress. 

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“Republicans are well-positioned to hold Michigan’s 10th congressional district as we retain and grow our majority in Congress. Michiganders rejected the out of touch Democrats’ radical agenda in 2024, and they’ll do it again in 2026,” Bannon shared in a statement. 

Bannon noted that both President Trump and Rep. James won Michigan’s 10th district by over 6% in 2024.

Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has helped the U.S. Coast Guard save $32.7 million by eliminating an “ineffective IT program” known as the Logistics Information Management System (CG-LIMS), the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Fox News Digital.

“Another win for government efficiency at DHS!” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Monday. “Continuing the crucial work of DOGE, the Coast Guard eliminated an ineffective IT program, saving over $32 million and focusing its resources where they’re most needed to protect the homeland. The USCG continues to deliver on the President’s priorities, maximizing its efficiency while securing our borders and maritime approaches.”

Originally anticipated to begin operating in 2027 and reaching full capability in 2031, the CG-LIMS was expected to integrate existing and future capabilities with the Coast Guard while supporting operations.

As designed, CG-LIMS would have modernized the Coast Guard’s IT systems, which, according to the military branch’s website, would have gained increases in capabilities and resources while resulting in “substantial cost savings and improved integration of logistics” between the services.

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CG-LIMS would also have been utilized on 245 cutters, 200 aircraft, 1,800 boats, shore-based systems, aids to navigation equipment and command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment.

But starting no later than May 1, 2025, all program activities regarding CG-LIMS will end.

According to the Coast Guard, the termination is the result of the program’s inability to deliver on its full requirements in the near future.

The $32.7 million saved will instead be used “to address emergent Coast Guard needs,” according to the military service. Personnel that worked on CG-LIMS will be “reassigned to fill critical personnel shortages” within the Coast Guard, it said.

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The Coast Guard said it will continue to search for alternatives to resolve gaps in IT logistics, and achieve the necessary functionality envisioned by the Service.

“The Coast Guard upholds a longstanding tradition of meticulous stewardship, driven by our talented, innovative and resourceful workforce,” Rear Adm. Mike Campbell, the Coast Guard’s director of acquisition programs and program executive officer, said. “The termination of the Logistics Information Management System acquisition program continues that legacy under Force Design 2028 (FD 2028). Through Force Design 2028, we are renewing our efforts to maximize efficiencies, identify cost savings and maximize the return on America’s investment in the Coast Guard.”

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FD 2028, the Coast Guard said, focuses on people, organization, contracting and acquisition, and technology. It is also described as a “once-in-a-generation” effort to investigate and transform the Coast Guard so it can adapt to the current and future environment.

EXCLUSIVE: Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen is asking the Department of Justice to scrap a report that could lead to intense federal oversight of the Phoenix Police Department.

In a letter to newly sworn-in Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, Petersen asked the DOJ to retract a report from the Biden administration about civil rights issues within the department. The report would essentially try to get the city of Phoenix to agree to high federal involvement through the DOJ.

The June 2024 report said that the department and the city “engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law,” including “excessive force” and discriminatory practices against minorities and homeless people.

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“The DOJ’s report contained a host of biased and inaccurate findings against the City’s Police Department, putting Phoenix on a path for a destructive and costly consent decree that would discourage our brave men and women in blue from reducing crime and protecting innocent Phoenicians. It would also have a tremendous impact on the agency’s ability to recruit and retain enough officers to service our communities report,” Petersen wrote.

Petersen argued that if the police department went under a consent decree with the DOJ, it would create similar challenges to what the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deals with now after coming under a consent decree in 2015, which is expected to exceed a $310 million price tag in the coming months, the Republican lawmaker argued.

“Former Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone, a Democrat, resigned from his position last year, in large part, due to frustration from the consent decree hanging over his office. He said, ‘I’ll be damned if I do three terms under federal court oversight, for a debt I never incurred, and not be able to serve this community in the manner that I could if you took the other hand from being tied behind my back. Because the future without law enforcement doesn’t look good,’” he said.

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He acknowledged that the department has pushed for reforms on their terms, saying that there should be accountability for issues with “rogue police agencies or officers,” but noted that this is not the way to go about it.

“In short, these consent decrees are nothing more than backhanded attempts to hijack police departments and bring them under the control of the federal government,” he added. “The consent decrees are unconstitutional and exploited by overreaching presidential administrations.”

Before being elected to the Senate, Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego used his official House office to write to the Biden DOJ voicing opposition to a consent decree in August.

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“I strongly urge DOJ to consider entering into a technical assistance letter with the City of Phoenix rather than continue to pursue a consent decree,” Gallego wrote. “While the DOJ raises several valid points in its findings report, both PPD and the City of Phoenix already welcome reforms to advance the mission to protect Phoenix’s residents from crime and safeguard their civil rights.”

While Biden was still in office, many progressives in the state argued that there should be federal accountability for the agency.

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“Phoenix PD needs federal oversight,” the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted in October 2024 following an incident in which officers allegedly severely mistreated a deaf, disabled Black man, Tyron McAlpin, who is now suing the city and the offices involved. His charges were scrapped, and the officers received a 24-hour suspension, according to Fox 10 Phoenix. 

The DOJ did not respond in time to Fox News Digital for comment.

The Maryland House of Delegates passed a bill that will prohibit agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) from entering sensitive locations without a warrant.

The legislation, Senate Bill 828, which will ban ICE agents from schools, libraries and churches unless the agency is able to obtain a warrant, passed the Democratic-dominated House of Delegates on a 98-39 vote. 

It now returns to the state Senate where, if approved as amended, it will proceed to Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s desk.

The bill comes as President Donald Trump has ramped up deportation efforts across the country, seeking to make good on a campaign promise that became central to his third bid for the White House.

BLUE STATE SHERIFFS COMBINE FORCES TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST SANCTUARY LAWS

That effort has led to over 100,000 deportations between when Trump took office on Jan. 20 and the end of March, according to numbers provided to Newsweek, a number that was already over a third of the 271,000 deported during the final year of the Biden administration.

But Maryland lawmakers are putting a roadblock in front of that effort, with the state’s Democratic-controlled legislature arguing that ICE tactics have spread fear through local communities.

“People in my community have been afraid for far too long,” Democratic Delegate Karen Simpson told Fox affiliate WBFF. “I am thankful to everyone in this body who has voted for this so that we can get rid of 287(g) who has scared our community.”

The new legislation also incorporates Maryland’s House Bill 1222, which seeks to eliminate ICE’s 287(g) program from being used in the state. That program allows local law enforcement agencies to partner with ICE and assist in immigration enforcement efforts, including cooperating with ICE detainers that instruct local jurisdictions to hold illegal immigrants in jail until they can be apprehended by ICE for deportation proceedings.

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The legislation was opposed by Republican Delegate Kathy Szeliga, who told WBFF that the bill was nothing more than “fear mongering by the left” that is “stirring up the immigrant community.”

Szeliga was able to successfully add an amendment to the legislation that would ensure that criminal illegal aliens who are on the state’s sex offender registry would be turned over to ICE, though that provision would not go into effect until June 1.

The legislation will not return to the Senate, where Szeliga believes it will pass despite opposition to such amendments.

“I hear that the Senate doesn’t love the bill the way it’s been amended. But I believe that they will pass this bill,” Szeliga said.

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The Maryland Senate has until midnight tonight to vote on SB 828 before the Maryland General Assembly adjourns for the year. If passed, it heads to Moore’s desk.

Reached for comment by Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for ICE said the agency does not comment on legislation.

A group of universities, many of which receive significant federal funding, could soon rebel against President Donald Trump’s executive orders clamping down on progressive initiatives in public education, if campus activists have their way.

Members of a Rutgers University advisory board recently passed a resolution for establishing a “Mutual Defense Compact” to pool legal and policy resources of the member institutions within the Big Ten Academic Alliance in opposition to the Trump administration’s orders. The resolution calls on Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway to spearhead the effort and to “take a leading role in convening a summit of Big Ten academic and legal leadership to initiate the implementation of this Compact.”

One professor who spoke with Fox News Digital quipped in response that “the left has discovered free speech.”

“These are the same people who had who would punish other members of the university community for using the wrong pronouns for so-called microaggressions,” Dr. Kevin Jon Williams, a cardiovascular sciences professor at Temple University, told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

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“They banned conservative speakers and engage in violence to stop conservative speakers from coming to campus, they would rescind offers to prospective applicants who had been accepted based on someone finding something they had done maybe when they were 11 or 12 years old,” Williams said. “I mean, they were totally vicious and totally against any sort of freedom of expression.”

Williams was one of the professors the measure – formally titled the Resolution to Establish a Mutual Defense Compact for the Universities of the Big Ten Academic Alliance in Defense of Academic Freedom, Institutional Integrity, and the Research Enterprise – was initially sent to before it was passed by the Rutgers University Senate.

The resolution states that “recent and escalating politically motivated actions by governmental bodies pose a significant threat to the foundational principles of American higher education, including the autonomy of university governance, the integrity of scientific research, and the protection of free speech,” and as such, the “Trump administration and aligned political actors have signaled a willingness to target individual institutions with legal, financial, and political incursion designed to undermine their public mission, silence dissenting voices, and/or exert improper control over academic inquiry.”

The defense-compact resolution was drafted by the Big Ten Academic Alliance, an organization composed of more than a dozen universities of the Big Ten Conference, which includes both public and private institutions. Originally known as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the alliance was established to foster research collaboration and shared resources.

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“I don’t think they’re hypocrites, I think they’re liars,” Williams added. “I think what they’re doing is they’re hiding behind the cloak of free speech, which they do not believe in, to try to maintain their control over the university environment. It’s a ploy. It’s a strategy, and we should not take them seriously when they say that they’re interested in free speech, because they demonstrated that they are most certainly opposed to free speech.”

Under the proposal, participating universities would contribute to a shared defense fund to provide immediate support for what they determine are legal and political infringements. It’s unclear which universities in the Big Ten may support the resolution.

The resolution will also “be transmitted to the leadership of all Big Ten universities and their respective governing boards and shared governance bodies,” while the president of Rutgers University “take a leading role in convening a summit of Big Ten academic and legal leadership to initiate the implementation of this Compact.”

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“This is a remarkably politically partisan document,” said Williams, who is also a fellow for the conservative Do No Harm medical advocacy group. “This is a broad brush condemnation of the Trump administration. Now, for sure, by free speech, they absolutely have the right to do that, but if they do that, they cease being nonpartisan, and I would bring their tax-exempt status into question.”

Many Big Ten universities have historically received federal grants for research from agencies like the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

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The resolution comes at a time when the Trump administration has taken a critical look at universities receiving federal funding. In March, the administration revoked $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University, citing concerns over antisemitism on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. This action was part of a broader initiative scrutinizing elite universities for alleged civil rights violations, particularly toward Jewish students.

The administration has also shifted its focus to eliminating universities’ diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to align with Trump’s executive orders while also banning biological males from women’s sports. The Department of Education announced investigations into over 50 colleges for alleged racial discrimination, challenging race-based admissions and scholarships in February.

Trump also signed an executive order significantly reducing the size of the Department of Education in March. While the department’s operations are scaled back, it retains control over critical functions such as Title I funding, Pell grants, student loans and special education funding.

FIRST ON FOX: An email sent to New Jersey State Police staff revealed that officers were asked not to comply with federal arrest warrants, bringing attention to the state’s “sanctuary” policies.

The email sent on March 24 was made public by Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, who said he does not fault the head of the department, Col. Patrick Callahan, but the state’s policies that are in place, as well as Democratic leaders.

“The fact that my campaign received this email is evidence that brave and courageous law enforcement officers throughout New Jersey are angry about being handcuffed by liberal Democrat policies in Trenton, making our communities less safe,” Ciattarelli said in a statement.  

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“The blame goes to Governor Murphy, Attorney General Platkin, and the Democrat legislature for mandating absurd policies like the Immigrant Trust Directive,” the Republican continued.

“We will be partners with the Trump Administration in fixing our immigration system and restore law and order,” he said if elected governor in November, as Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy will be termed out of office after serving two terms.

The email from Callahan, which was obtained from the Ciattarelli campaign and reviewed by Fox News Digital, said his team is not legally permitted to follow “Outstanding Administrative Warrants of Removal from the United States,” as 27,000 “hits” were recently added to the National Crime Information Center.

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“Taking law enforcement action by arresting a subject based solely on an ‘Outstanding Administrative Warrant’ would violate the Attorney General’s Immigration Trust Directive,” the email states. The email, which was sent out to police personnel, “operational dispatch units” and “public safety telecommunicators,” also noted that NJSP employees cannot reach out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement through the phone number given.

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The directive from the Attorney General’s Office says authorities in New Jersey, at any level of government besides federal, can help federal law enforcement “when the sole purpose of that assistance is to enforce federal civil immigration law.”

In the state governor’s race, many of the Democratic candidates’ views differ from the Trump administration’s illegal immigration policies.

During a recent debate, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and Rep. Josh Gottheimer disagreed on the Laken Riley Act, federal bipartisan legislation signed by President Donald Trump that expands the crimes that could get somebody into custody of the Department of Homeland Security. 

NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR SUGGESTS HE’S HOUSING A MIGRANT AT HIS HOME, TELLS FEDS ‘GOOD LUCK’ TRYING TO GET HER

“The Laken Riley Act served to undermine the authority of the attorney general here in New Jersey,” Fulop said at the time. “It is a very dangerous piece of legislation as it relates to autonomy of the governor and the attorney general here, and it should not have been supported.”

Last month, Murphy suggested he had a migrant living with him and it was unclear if the person was in the country legally.

“Tammy [Murphy] and I were talking about – I don’t want to get into too much detail, but there is someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to. And we said, you know what? Let’s have her live at our house above our garage,” the Democratic governor told Blue Wave New Jersey.

“And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her,” he continued.

Attorney General Matt Platkin explained his perspective on the directive in a statement to Fox News Digital.

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“Our number one priority is keeping New Jerseyans safe. The Immigrant Trust Directive ensures that New Jersey police officers spend their time tackling pressing public safety issues like violent crime, gun violence, and drug trafficking, while also ensuring that victims of crime and witnesses can safely come forward to police and report crime regardless of their immigration status,” he stated. “Under the Immigrant Trust Directive, state and local law enforcement have and will continue to work with federal authorities to remove violent criminals from this country. Plain and simple, there is no ‘sanctuary’ for criminals in New Jersey.”

“The directive was drafted and is enforced with the support and cooperation of law enforcement leaders. The Office of the Attorney General, the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey, and the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police, together, recently released guidance for law enforcement on the Immigrant Trust Directive and its importance,” the attorney general continued.

Murphy’s office and DHS did not comment in time for publication. 

It appears that President Donald Trump has buried the hatchet when it comes to former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who for years was a top Republican critic of the former and current president.

Trump now says that if Sununu runs for the Senate in 2026 for the seat currently held by retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, his former antagonist would have his full support.

Sununu, who in January completed his fourth and final two-year term steering swing state New Hampshire, told Fox News Digital in an interview last month that he aimed to make a decision regarding a 2026 campaign in the “next few weeks.”

He emphasized that “I have no doubt I’d have the president’s support,” if he decided to make a bid for the Senate.

POLL POSITION: WHERE TRUMP STANDS WITH AMERICANS 11 WEEKS INTO HIS SECOND TOUR OF DUTY IN THE WHITE HOUSE

Trump, when asked by reporters about Sununu as he flew to Washington, D.C., on Sunday night aboard Air Force One, revealed that the two politicians met recently at the White House.

“I told him — He came to my office, came to the Oval Office, and [I] met with Chris Sununu, and I support him fully. I hope he runs,” Trump said. “He’s been very nice to me over the last year or so, but no, I hope he runs. I think he’ll win that seat.”

Sununu supported Trump during the 2016 general election and again when Trump unsuccessfully ran for re-election in 2020. The then-governor had a strong working relationship with the Trump White House, including close ties with then-Vice President Mike Pence.

WHY TRUMP, MUSK, FACE BLAME OVER BALLOT BOX SET BACKS LAST WEEK

However, Sununu pushed back against Trump’s unproven claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen.” He also started stating in early 2021 that the GOP was larger than any one person, which was perceived as a swipe at the then-former president.

Sununu amped up his criticism of the former president during numerous national interviews on cable news networks and Sunday talk shows, repeatedly arguing that Trump had too much political baggage to win back the White House. Additionally, Sununu began mulling a possible 2024 White House run of his own, which he ultimately decided against. 

However, he ended up backing and becoming a top surrogate of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the 2024 GOP presidential primary. Haley ended up being the final rival to Trump in the nomination race.

Trump occasionally returned fire at Sununu, calling him a “spoiled brat” and a “nasty guy,” among other things.

However, after Trump clinched the 2024 GOP nomination, Sununu said he would vote for his party’s presidential nominee.

WHAT SUNUNU TOLD FOX NEWS ABOUT POTENTIALLY RUNNING FOR THE SENATE

Earlier this year, Sununu said in a Fox News Digital interview that “Donald Trump is the head of the party, and he’s the voice of the Republican Party, and I got to say, I think he’s doing a pretty darn good job in the first couple months.”

Regarding a potential 2026 Senate run for a seat Republicans are aiming to flip from blue to red as they hope to expand their current 53-47 majority in the chamber, Sununu told Fox News Digital last month that while “the door’s open” to running, he emphasized “it’s not open a lot, to be honest.”

Sununu, who was elected and re-elected to four straight two-year terms as governor, touted that “I have no doubt I can win.”

The former governor’s comments in recent interviews are a switch from last year, when he repeatedly said he would not seek to run for the Senate in 2026.

Four years ago, Sununu expressed interest in running for the Senate against his predecessor as governor, Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, who was up for re-election in 2022. The popular governor was heavily courted by national Republicans to take on Hassan, but on Nov. 9, 2021, Sununu announced that he would instead run for a fourth term as governor, upsetting many Republicans in the nation’s capital. 

Additionally, he heavily criticized the Senate. “They debate and talk and nothing gets done,” he said at the time.

Sununu, who left office in January with very positive approval and favorable ratings, is seen by national Republicans as the best candidate to win the seat. However, he is not the only Republican mulling a Senate bid in New Hampshire.

Former Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, who later narrowly lost to Shaheen in New Hampshire in the 2014 election, is seriously considering a 2026 run.

POPULAR FORMER GOP GOVERNOR WEIGHS IN ON POTENTIAL SENATE BID AND WHETHER TRUMP WILL ENDORSE HIM

Brown, who served four years as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand during Trump’s first administration, has been holding meetings with Republicans across New Hampshire for a couple of months and has met multiple times with GOP officials in the nation’s capital.

Earlier this year, Brown met with top Trump administration political officials at the White House, sources told Fox News.

When asked about the president’s comments regarding Sununu, Brown told Fox News in a statement that “President Trump is the leader of the party, and he has earned the right to endorse whoever he supports. There is no path to a Republican nomination running against President Trump-backed candidates.”

In the race for the Democratic Senate nomination in New Hampshire, four-term Rep. Chris Pappas formally launched his campaign last week. 

Using clips of a listening tour he made through all ten of New Hampshire’s counties last month as he ramped up toward running for the Senate, Pappas said voters feel like “the system’s rigged.”

TRUMP’S SWAY OVER REPUBLICANS STRONGER THAN EVER, BUT SUNUNU SAYS GOP STILL A ‘BIG-TENT PARTY’

“You think about the Social Security office that’s going to be closed in Littleton, drastic cuts to Medicaid, all in the name of giving big tax breaks to billionaires like Elon Musk,” he argued, as he pointed to Trump’s top donor and the world’s richest person, who is leading the administration’s controversial downsizing of the federal government workforce.

Pappas emphasized, “I do get angry, because when you’re talking about public service, you should be focused on how you can help people, how you can make people’s lives better.”

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Pappas may not have the Democratic Senate primary in New Hampshire all to himself.

Sources close to Rep. Maggie Goodlander, New Hampshire’s other House member, said last month that the first-term representative is considering a Senate run.

EXCLUSIVE: House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., said he would oppose the Senate’s version of sweeping legislation to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda if it was voted on in his chamber this week.

“At this point, I would vote against it,” Harris told Fox News Digital in an interview on Monday morning.

He is also calling for the House and Senate to get to work on their own versions of the plan, after the latter passed an amended version of the former’s legislation in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The Maryland Republican, who leads the House GOP’s most conservative group, is the highest-ranking GOP lawmaker to come out against the legislation so far.

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It comes as other fiscal hawks voice concerns about the Senate’s version of the legislation – specifically, that it mandates at least $4 billion in spending cuts, compared to $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in the House.

“I mean, if the Senate actually is able to deliver on meaningful deficit reduction, we could just pass the Senate amendments to the House budget resolution,” Harris said.

“But again, I’m not willing to do that until I see what the deficit reduction, the actual deficit reduction that the Senate has in mind, is.”

Congressional Republicans are working on a massive piece of legislation that Trump has dubbed “one big, beautiful bill” to advance his agenda on border security, defense, energy and taxes.

‘LOSING THEIR MINDS’: DEM LAWMAKERS FACE BACKLASH FOR INVOKING ‘UNHINGED’ VIOLENT RHETORIC AGAINST MUSK

They can pass such a measure via the budget reconciliation process. Traditionally used when one party controls all three branches of government, reconciliation lowers the Senate’s threshold for passage of certain fiscal measures from 60 votes to 51.

As a result, it has been used to pass broad policy changes in one or two massive pieces of legislation.

The House’s framework passed in late February, and included some new funding for defense and border security, along with $4.5 trillion for extending Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and implementing newer Trump proposals like no taxes on tipped wages.

The framework also called for between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion in spending cuts, dependent on how much Trump’s tax policies would add to the national deficit – something that was key to winning support from deficit hawks.

It also raised the debt limit, something Trump has specifically asked Republicans to deal with, by $4 trillion. The Senate’s version would raise the debt limit by $5 trillion.

In a letter to House GOP colleagues on Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said lawmakers would vote on the Senate’s amended version this week. 

However, Johnson insisted that the Senate’s passage of its framework simply allows the House to begin working on its version of the bill passed in February – and that it does not impede their process in any way.

“The Senate amendment as passed makes NO CHANGES to the House reconciliation instructions that we voted for just weeks ago. Although the Senate chose to take a different approach on its instructions, the amended resolution in NO WAY prevents us from achieving our goals in the final reconciliation bill,” the letter said.

“We have and will continue to make it clear in all discussions with the Senate and the White House that—in order to secure House passage—the final reconciliation bill must include historic spending reductions while protecting essential programs.”

Johnson’s office pointed back to the letter when reached for comment on Monday.

Passing a reconciliation framework, which merely outlines top-line spending figures, allows Congress to move on to the next step of actually crafting policy to accompany those top-lines.

However, conservatives like Harris have countered that they see no need to vote on the Senate’s version of the bill to begin work in the House.

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“They just think that we have to keep the train moving forward. But again, if we just begin to craft the actual reconciliation packages, that keeps the train moving forward as well,” Harris said.

He left the door open to supporting the Senate’s work, despite ruling out support for its immediate offering.

“I still think that we should just ask the Senate to begin crafting their reconciliation bill, and then if they deliver on their promise of deficit reduction, then I’m fine with their budget resolution,” Harris said.

A federal appeals court voted en banc Monday to block President Donald Trump’s firings of two federal board members, reversing an appellate court ruling and clearing the way for the Trump administration to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.

Judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 7-4 Monday to restore the positions of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Gwynne Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) member Cathy Harris – two Democratic appointees who were abruptly terminated by the Trump administration earlier this year. 

The majority cited Supreme Court precedent in Humphrey’s Executor and Wiener v. United States as the backing for their decision, noting that the Supreme Court had never overturned or reversed the decades-old precedent regarding removal restrictions for government officials of “multimember adjudicatory boards” – including the NLRB and MSPB.

They noted that the Supreme Court has not yet overturned these precedents, or instructed lower courts to act otherwise.

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

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly told the courts of appeals to follow extant Supreme Court precedent unless and until that Court itself changes it or overturns it,” judges noted in their opinion. 

Monday’s ruling from the full panel means that both Wilcox and Harris can return to their positions, at least for now. It is likely to spark intense backlash from the Trump administration, which has lobbed accusations of so-called “activist judges” that have slowed or halted some of Trump’s executive orders and actions.

Also on Monday, the appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s request for an administrative stay, which would have allowed their removals to remain in place while the challenge continued to play out in federal court. 

The panel found that the administration had not demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits of its appeals, nor did it show irreparable injury if they did not grant the stay – the legal requirements needed to satisfy an emergency court intervention. 

The en banc ruling reverses a decision reached just 10 days earlier by a three-judge panel for the same appeals court. That panel ruled 2-1 in favor of the Trump administration and allowed the firings to proceed, prompting plaintiffs to file a request for the appeals court to hear the case again en banc, or with all appellate court judges present.

The appellate court’s decision to hear the case again, even after a three-judge appellate panel from the same court ruled on the issue late last month, is likely to be met with intense scrutiny by Trump and his allies. 

It also all but ensures that the Trump administration will move quickly to appeal the matter to the Supreme Court for emergency review.

JUDGE BOASBERG POISED TO HOLD TRUMP ADMIN IN CONTEMPT, TAKES DOWN NAMES OF DHS OFFICIALS: ‘PRETTY SKETCHY’

Since taking office, Trump has signed more than 300 executive orders and actions, including sweeping personnel moves, the restructuring of federal agencies, and the creation of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE – a temporary agency that has drawn scrutiny for its broad oversight powers and access to sensitive government data.

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Critics argue that the flurry of early executive actions warrants an additional level of legal scrutiny, and judges have raced to review a crushing wave of cases and lawsuits filed by terminated employees or brought on behalf of agency employees. 

The Trump administration has appealed its early losses to the Supreme Court – a strategy it appears poised to continue in the NLRB and MSPB terminations.

House Republicans are set to advance two key bills backed by President Donald Trump this week after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., resolved a weekslong standoff with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., over the issue of remote voting for new parents in Congress.

The House is poised to vote this week on the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, which requires proof of citizenship in the voter registration process; and the No Rogue Rulings Act (NORRA) by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., which would limit district court judges’ ability to issue orders blocking Trump policies nationwide.

Both were expected to get a vote last week, but those plans were derailed amid a standoff over House procedure that ground business-as-usual to a halt.

“Speaker Johnson and I have reached an agreement to bring back a procedure called live/dead pairing, which dates back to the 1800s. It will be open for the entire conference to use when unable to vote (e.g., new parents, bereaved, emergencies, etc.),” Luna wrote on X Sunday evening.

ANNA PAULINA LUNA FORCES HOUSE LEADERSHIP’S HAND ON PROXY VOTING AS GOP WAR ESCALATES

“Thanks to [Trump] and his guidance, as well as all of those who worked to get this change done, this is becoming the most modern, pro-family Congress we’ve ever seen.”

Johnson’s office confirmed to Fox News Digital that the speaker announced a deal had been reached with Luna on a Republican lawmaker-only call on Sunday afternoon.

The compromise they agreed to invokes an old congressional custom that essentially cancels out an absent new mother’s vote by “pairing” it with a vote by someone on the other side of the issue. Neither vote would count, but their stances on the issue would be noted in the Congressional Record.

Johnson’s office said they also reached an agreement on boosting accessibility for young mothers in the Capitol as well.

The House floor was left paralyzed last Tuesday afternoon when a small group of GOP lawmakers upended their leaders’ effort to quash a bill by Luna that would have allowed new parents to vote by proxy for 12 weeks surrounding their child’s birth.

Luna was readying to force a vote on her legislation via a discharge petition, a mechanism allowing lawmakers to force bills into House consideration provided they can get signatures from a majority of the chamber.

Johnson, who believes proxy voting is unconstitutional, attached language to kill discharge petitions to an unrelated measure that was up for a vote on Tuesday afternoon.

If passed, it would have allowed for consideration and likely passage of the NORRA Act and SAVE Act last week.

ANNA PAULINA LUNA RESIGNS FROM HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS, SAYS ‘MUTUAL RESPECT’ WAS ‘SHATTERED’

Instead, it was an embarrassing blow to House GOP leaders on a normally sleepy procedural vote.

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The standoff comes as the House is also trying to reckon with the Senate’s reconciliation framework, which will allow Republicans to begin working on policy and monetary changes that will become part of a massive bill advancing Trump’s agenda on defense, energy, the border, and taxes.

Republican leaders are poised to move forward with that legislation as planned – despite concerns from fiscal hawks about discrepancies between the Senate and House’s views on the issue.

It is 11 weeks into his second administration, and President Donald Trump is not slowing down.

The president has signed 111 executive orders since his inauguration on Jan. 20, far outpacing any of his immediate predecessors in the White House.

“More than any in American history,” Trump touted a week ago.

Trump has been expanding the powers of the presidency, as he has upended long-standing government policy and made major cuts to the federal workforce through an avalanche of executive orders and actions. 

WHY TRUMP, MUSK, FACE BLAME OVER BALLOT BOX SET BACKS LAST WEEK

While Trump regularly showcases his performance steering the nation, some of the latest national public opinion polls suggest Americans may not be so pleased with the job he’s doing as president.

The president stands at 43% approval and 53% disapproval in a Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted March 31-April 2, and he is also underwater – at 46%-51% – in a Wall Street Journal poll in the field March 27-April 1.

While a survey from the Daily Mail, which was also conducted over the past week, suggested Trump’s approval rating is in positive territory, the majority of the national public opinion surveys in the field since mid-March indicate Trump in negative territory.

WHERE TRUMP STANDS IN THE LATEST FOX NEWS NATIONAL POLL

Trump has seen his numbers edge down slightly since the start of his second term, when an average of his polls indicated the president’s approval rating in the low 50s and his disapproval in the mid-40s.

Contributing to the slide are increasing concerns over the economy and inflation, which was a pressing issue that kept former President Joe Biden’s approval ratings well below water for most of his presidency.

Additionally, the latest surveys were conducted nearly entirely before Trump’s blockbuster tariff announcement last week, which sparked a trade war with the nation’s top trading partners, triggered a massive sell-off in the financial markets, and increased concerns about a recession.

When asked about the market plunge, the president told reporters on Sunday evening, “Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”

Daron Shaw, a politics professor and chair at the University of Texas who serves as a member of the Fox News Decision Team and is the Republican partner on the Fox News poll, calls the economy “the 800-pound gorilla.”

According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, only 37% of Americans approve of the job the president’s doing on the economy, with 52% giving him a thumbs down.

Trump’s numbers on the economy are slightly better in the Wall Street Journal poll – 44% approval and 52% disapproval – but still underwater.

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING, ANALYSIS, AND OPINION ON PRESIDENT TRUMP

Shaw suggested that over the past week the president has been “slowly losing the argument that tariffs are part of a larger program that will bring down prices.”

“He’s got his work cut out for him….he’s losing the narrative,” Shaw said of Trump. “He’s got to make the case that tariffs are part of a larger economic plan that’s going to deal with problems that people feel.”

The only issue where Trump is in positive territory in the Reuters/Ipsos and Wall Street Journal polls is immigration and border security, which, along with inflation, was another top issue that helped catapult him back into the White House.

However, Shaw noted that Trump’s success has blunted the importance of the issue.

“The broader narrative is that he’s had success on border security and has essentially tabled that as an issue,” he argued. “One of the problems of succeeding is that it’s something that you no longer really talk about. It’s no longer at the top of people’s issue priorities. So one of his dominant issues has been neutralized by his success on the issue.”

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While Trump’s poll numbers are edging down in most surveys, they are still superior to ratings during his first term in office. Trump’s poll numbers were almost entirely in negative territory in most surveys for the entirety of his first term in office.

“Keep these numbers in perspective. The numbers he’s averaging right now are still higher than he was at any point during his first presidency,” veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse told Fox News.

Newhouse emphasized that Trump’s Republican “base is strongly behind him,” which was not the case at the start of his first term in the White House.

President Donald Trump’s 12th week in office is likely to center around the fallout from last week’s announcement of several new tariffs and a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“HANG TOUGH,” Trump said on social media Saturday while defending new U.S. tariffs, adding that “it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”

The comments come as much of Trump’s 12th week in office promises to center around the president’s decision last week to announce new tariffs on dozens of countries around the world, a policy he argued will eventually “supercharge” the economy as part of his “economic revolution.”

STEPHEN MILLER SAYS AMERICANS HAVE TO UNDERSTAND HOW ‘BADLY’ WE’VE BEEN RIPPED OFF AS A COUNTRY

But concerns remain about the economic pitfalls of the new tariffs, most notably after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq saw their worst plunge of the decade late last week. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2,231.07 points, or 5.5%, on Friday, adding to the concern over Trump’s trade policies.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the tariffs a “massive assault on American families” during an appearance on CNN over the weekend, arguing that the policy will only serve to “help the billionaires.”

Nevertheless, Trump appeared ready to double down on his tariff push in the week ahead, vowing the trade plan will be a “win” in the long run.

TRUMP’S CHINA TARIFFS FACE LEGAL CHALLENGE FROM CONSERVATIVE GROUP CALLING THEM ‘UNLAWFUL’

“We are bringing back jobs and businesses like never before. Already, more than FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS OF INVESTMENT, and rising fast! THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN,” Trump wrote Saturday on Truth Social.

Meanwhile, Trump is set to host Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, when the two leaders are likely to discuss not only the 17% tariff the president placed on the longtime U.S. ally but also the ongoing expansion of the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

Trump is also likely to keep a close eye on Congress in the week ahead as GOP lawmakers push forward to advance the president’s multitrillion-dollar spending agenda.

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The Senate adopted Trump’s budget blueprint over the weekend, which will now require approval from the House in order to push forward toward the budget reconciliation process. But doubts remain that Trump’s agenda can clear the lower chamber this week, with the GOP holding a slim majority that has strong disagreements among factions of the party.

“The Senate is free to put pen to paper to draft its reconciliation bill, but I can’t support House passage of the Senate changes to our budget resolution until I see the actual spending and deficit reduction plans to enact President Trump’s America First agenda,” Rep. Andy Harris, the House Freedom Caucus chair, wrote on X on Saturday.

As the Trump administration pursues an “all of the above” energy strategy, hydrogen experts welcome the new attention and are advancing efforts to make it a top, domestically-produced power source.

The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association, one of seven “hubs” nationwide, partners with tribal, public and private concerns to build hydrogen production projects throughout their region.

“Hydrogen has a lot of dexterity as a molecule, and it can be used for a host of different things,” PNWHA president Chris Green told Fox News Digital.

Hydrogen can be a power source, but it more so is utilized as an energy carrier due to its periodic makeup.

“It is a carrier of electrons and can store energy in that regard. But as a fuel, it’s just like any other fuel. It can be used to propel machinery, equipment and industrial processes, those kinds of things. And so it’s another sort of energy commodity product that we can make here at home domestically,” Green said.

Hydrogen also has a dual role in agriculture, he said. 

Fertilizer – of which much has been historically imported from now-war-torn Russia and Ukraine – is hydrogenic in makeup. Ammonium nitrate – a key ingredient – is hydrogen sourced. If the U.S. can bolster its hydrogen production, it can rely less on unreliable or adversarial economies, especially amid new tariffs.

And its power-sourcing and energy-carrying nature can power equipment, mills and more.

NIKOLA CEO: WE’RE THE ONLY ONES SELLING HYDROGEN TRUCKS IN THE COUNTRY

With all of these important uses, Green said the U.S. has a chance to “leap ahead of everybody else if we can build out all this infrastructure.”

Beginning in the aughts, there had been talk of hydrogen-powered vehicles. But the extremely flammable nature of hydrogen has kept it from being a ubiquitous fuel source like petrol.

One company investing big in hydrogen, particularly in the West, is Chevron. The company said hydrogen may appeal to those worried about the energy sector’s environmental footprint.

The Texas-based energy giant is “leveraging [its] strengths to safely deliver lower carbon energy in a growing world,” according to a statement.

“Hydrogen can play a key role in delivering large-scale lower-carbon solutions especially where electrification of demand is not feasible,” the statement said, adding it is confident hydrogen’s prominence will grow in the near-term.

Hydrogen is also used in processed foods, metallurgy and other areas.

In Utah, Chevron entered into a venture with Mitsubishi called ACES Delta or “Advanced Clean Energy Storage [of] Delta [UT].”

By harnessing the naturally protective state of an enormous subterranean salt cavern, the ACES Delta project currently under construction aims to produce up to 110 tons of hydrogen daily and store it at “utility scale” in the environmentally safe confines of the cavern.

AMAZON SIGNS HYDROGEN SUPPLY DEAL

Chevron expects the ACES Delta project to provide “delivery-scale” amounts to the Intermountain Power Agency – also based in the Beehive State – in the near term.

The company also boasted of the accessibility of the hub – which is located along U.S. 50, a highway that cuts a 3,000-mile swath through the center of the country from Sacramento, California, to Washington, D.C., and on to Ocean City, Maryland.

That hub also has the regional potential to power the world’s fifth-largest economy: California, which has otherwise driven out most fossil fuel refiners and producers.

In his interview, Green also noted the demand for cleaner-burning jet-fuel alternatives and suggested that rather than replacing oil, it is a greener complement to sweet crude.

“Sometimes, don’t think about hydrogen as replacing a bunch of other things as much as we think about it complementing and then nurturing or supporting or boosting some of these existing supply chains,” he said.

“[I]f you produce a lot of it, then you’ve got optionality to support a host of different industry verticals that could benefit from it.”

Hydrogen has earned rare bipartisan support, bridging a divide where the right typically resists renewables like wind and solar, and the left often opposes “Big Oil.”

“Central Washington is leading the way in the all-of-the-above approach needed to achieve American energy dominance,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.

“I am working with the Trump administration to ensure we protect the domestic resources we are building here at home.”

Newhouse told Fox News Digital that PNWH2 has made “huge strides” in advancing technology toward safe and clean energy that decreases foreign reliance.

“Supporting the hub means new jobs, new investments, and stronger domestic supply chains that fall in line with the administration’s bold energy agenda,” Newhouse said.

On the left, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington said in June that PNWH2 “is poised to play a leading role in growing America’s green hydrogen economy.”

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“Investments in hydrogen have the potential to reduce emissions from the most difficult to decarbonize sectors,” added Sen. Jeffrey Merkley, D-Ore.

“[W]hen done right, hydrogen can help us solve hard problems and decarbonize sectors of the economy.”

In terms of agriculture’s interest in a hydrogen future, the Washington State Potato Commission told Fox News Digital that as a cornerstone of the Evergreen State and others’ economies, agriculture drives innovation and growth.

“The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub will play a crucial role in securing a local hydrogen supply for fertilizer production, helping to mitigate supply chain disruptions and rising costs that challenge the industry,” an official said.

“Beyond fertilizer, hydrogen presents an opportunity to potentially fuel agricultural machinery, such as tractors and trucks. Washington’s potato farmers are committed to supporting hydrogen production in the Pacific Northwest, strengthening the future of agriculture in our region.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Energy Department for comment.

Left-wing movie director Oliver Stone slammed Democrats for weaponizing federal law enforcement and “lying” in their attempts to charge the president with Russian collusion during the 2016 election.   

Stone, meanwhile, applauded President Donald Trump for taking steps to find out what really happened, adding that he is “absolutely” right that the federal government has been weaponized to attack political opponents.

Trump recently signed a new executive order directing the FBI to immediately declassify files concerning Crossfire Hurricane, the initial investigation launched in 2016 that sought information on whether members of the Trump campaign were colluding with the Russians to undermine the election. The president has also taken steps to go after the law firms involved in the scandal, including by suspending the security clearances for their attorneys and barring them from entering any federal buildings. 

‘ABSURD’: WHITE HOUSE BLASTS LAW FIRM THAT HELPED FUEL RUSSIA HOAX AFTER CHALLENGING TRUMP ORDER

“Russiagate – we paid for it,” Stone said. “I applaud [what Trump is doing], and I hate what they did with Russiagate, I really do. I think it’s – again, the lying, the lying, the lying, and selling that to the American people.”

When asked if he felt Trump was right about there being weaponization of the federal government against conservatives, Stone responded: “There was.”

Stone, who has produced several documentaries supporting Russian narratives about Ukraine, added that the underlying premise behind Russiagate – that Russia is a nefarious actor – is wrong and “un-American.”

TRUMP CUTS OFF FEDERAL RESOURCES FOR LAW FIRM THAT HELPED FUEL 2016 RUSSIA HOAX

“They are potentially our best partners, as are the Chinese. I mean, we have this mentality that they’re the enemy,” Stone said. “That’s all been inculcated by propaganda. If you go out there to China, and you go out to Russia, you don’t hear that kind of vituperative dialogue.”

However, while Stone said he agreed with Trump’s approach to taking on those involved with Russiagate, he did lament the president’s attacks on pro-Palestinian protesters over alleged antisemitism.  

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“I don’t like this new thing about censorship coming from Trump,” said Stone. “Against the anti – what he calls ‘antisemitic news’ – I mean, I don’t agree. I don’t know where he’s coming from, and it’s not what he promised.”

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he is not willing to make a deal with China unless the trade deficit of over $1 trillion is resolved first.

While speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said with some countries there is a trade deficit of over a billion dollars, but with China, it is over $1 trillion.

“We have a $1 trillion trade deficit with China. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose to China, and unless we solve that problem, I’m not going to make a deal,” he said. “I’m willing to make a deal with China, but they have to solve this surplus. We have a tremendous deficit problem with China… I want that solved.”

SOME COUNTRIES TARGETED BY TRUMP TARIFFS SEEK NEGOTIATIONS, CHINA SAYS ‘NO WINNERS IN TRADE WARS’

Trump also said because of the tariffs, the U.S. has $7 trillion of committed investments when it comes to building automotive manufacturing plants, chip companies and other types of businesses, “at levels that we’ve never seen before.”

But in terms of trade deficits, Trump said he has spoken with a lot of leaders in Europe and Asia, who are “dying” to make a deal, but as long as there are deficits, he is not going to do that.

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“A deficit is a loss,” he said. “We’re going to have surpluses, or we’re, at worst, going to be breaking even. But China would be the worst in the group because the deficit is so big, and it’s not sustainable.

“I was elected on this,” Trump added.