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Billionaire Elon Musk says he hopes the U.S. and Europe can develop their economic relationship toward eliminating the need for tariffs.

Musk made the statement during a video interview with Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini on Saturday.The billionaire says he has advised President Donald Trump to bolster the relationship with European countries.

“At the end of the day, I hope it’s agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America,” Musk said.

He went on to say he would like to see greater freedom of movement between Europe and the U.S. as well.

TARIFF STOCK SHOCK: NASDAQ HITS BEAR MARKET; S&P, DOW SINK

Billionaire Elon Musk says he hopes to see a free trade zone between the U.S. and Europe. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

“If people wish to work in Europe or wish to work in North America, they should be allowed to do so in my view,” Musk said, adding that this “has certainly been my advice to the president.”

Musk’s statement comes less than a week after Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs against virtually every major country on earth.

AFTER TRUMP TARIFFS, JPMORGAN RAISES CHANCE OF RECESSION TO 60%

The initial 10% “baseline” tariff took effect at U.S. seaports, airports and customs warehouses on Thursday. Higher taxes on goods from 57 larger trading partners are set to start later this week.

President Donald Trump imposed sweeping new tariffs across the globe. (Fox News / Special Report)

European Union imports will face a 20% tariff, while Chinese goods will be hit with a 34% tariff, bringing Trump’s total new taxes on China up to 54%.

World leaders in Europe and elsewhere have vowed to retaliate against the tariffs. China, hit harder than any other nation, promised to “take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests” last week.

President Donald Trump holds a chart as he delivers remarks on reciprocal tariffs during an event in the Rose Garden entitled “Make America Wealthy Again” at the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 2025. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says Europeans “feel let down by our oldest ally.”

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“Uncertainty will spiral and trigger the rise of further protectionism. The consequences will be dire for millions of people around the globe,” she said.

Fox News’ Landon Mion and Reuters contributed to this report.

The Trump administration has placed a Justice Department (DOJ) lawyer on leave for not “zealously advocating” its position in the case involving a Salvadoran man living in Maryland who was mistakenly deported last month. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office placed Erez Reuveni, who argued for the government, in Friday’s hearing in which a judge ruled Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia must be returned to the U.S. by Monday, on indefinite paid leave, Fox News has learned. 

“At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States,” Bondi told the New York Times in a statement. “Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.” 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ for comment. 

JOHN YOO URGES TRUMP ADMIN TO ‘WORK OUT A DEAL’ TO RETURN MISTAKENLY DEPORTED INDIVIDUALS

In this undated photo provided by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, a man identified by Jennifer Vasquez Sura as her husband, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is led by force by guards through the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador.  (U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland via AP)

Reuveni on Friday admitted that Garcia’s deportation was a mistake, according to the New York Times. 

On Saturday, the Trump administration argued in an emergency appeal that U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis can’t force the administration to return Garcia to the U.S. 

Xinis on Friday ruled that the government must make arrangements to have Garcia back in the U.S. before Monday at midnight.

The Saturday emergency appeal seeks to temporarily stay Xinis’ decision until the government has time to properly appeal the ruling. 

“Late Friday afternoon, a federal district judge ordered the United States to force El Salvador to send one of its citizens – a member of MS-13, no less – back to the United States by midnight on Monday. If there was ever a case for an emergency stay pending appeal, this would be it,” the government wrote in the emergency appeal reviewed by Fox News Digital. 

The government also argued that it “does not have control over” Garcia now that he is in El Salvador. 

“Nevertheless, the court’s injunction commands that Defendants accomplish, somehow, Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States in give or take one business day,” the appeal said, calling it “indefensible.”

An undated photo shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia.  (Murray Osorio PLLC via AP)

The filing said that the “lacked the power” to require the government “on the clock, to try to force a foreign country to take a discrete action.”

It added, “Abrego Garcia has been found to be a member of a designated Foreign 3 Terrorist Organization, MS-13. Given that status, he has no legal right or basis to be in the United States at all.” 

VANCE DOUBLES DOWN AFTER TRUMP ADMIN ADMITS ‘ERROR’ SENDING MAN TO SALVADORAN PRISON

Xinis on Friday said that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s March 15th expulsion of Garcia violated the Administrative Procedures Act, since it occurred without a judicial proceeding.

The Trump administration has acknowledged Garcia’s removal was an “administrative error,” but has also defended it, alleging that Garcia has ties to MS-13.  

“This individual is an illegal criminal who broke our nation’s immigration laws. He is a leader in the brutal MS-13 gang, and he is involved in human trafficking,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing on Tuesday. 

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said all government lawyers are required to “zealously advocate” on its behalf.  (REUTERS/Nathan Howard)

“And now MS-13 is a designated foreign terrorist organization. Foreign terrorists have no legal protections in the United States of America. And this administration is going to continue to deport foreign terrorists and illegal criminals from our nation’s interior,” she added. 

An immigration judge five years ago said Garcia, who came to the U.S. illegally in 2011 and asked for asylum, could not be deported to his home country, over concerns he would become a victim of local El Salvador gang members.

His request for asylum was denied, but he was given protection from deportation and ICE didn’t appeal the decision. 

Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who is a U.S. citizen, has vigorously campaigned for his return. 

Garcia had been working as a sheet metal apprentice in Maryland and was arrested in an IKEA parking lot on March 12 while his 5-year-old son was in the car. 

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His lawyers have argued the man had a Department of Homeland Security permit to work in the country, and strongly deny any gang affiliations. They also say that the government has given little evidence to back up its claim. 

There was no indication how the government would comply, since he is incarcerated in an El Salvador prison under that government’s custody.

Fox News’ Cameron Arcand and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday announced the U.S. will revoke visas held by South Sudanese passport holders will be revoked, and no others will be issued, effective immediately.

Rubio attributed the change to “the failure of South Sudan‘s transitional government to accept the return of its repatriated citizens in a timely manner,” according to a statement posted on X.

The U.S. Department of State on Saturday wrote in a statement that it is time for the Transitional Government of South Sudan to “stop taking advantage” of the U.S.

TRUMP ADMIN ENDS DEPORTATION PROTECTIONS FOR MASSIVE NUMBER OF VENEZUELANS AMID ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit. (Getty Images)

“Enforcing our nation’s immigration laws is critically important to the national security and public safety of the United States,” according to the statement. “Every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country, including the United States, seeks to remove them. “

The department said it “will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation.”

An army soldier walks in front of the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, after it was taken over by Sudan’s army, March 21.  (AP Photo)

The East African country is currently on the verge of civil war, with escalating armed conflict, mass displacement and severe food insecurity.

The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum suspended its operations, to include visa, passport, and other routine consular services, on April 22, 2023.

The move comes after the Trump administration in February ended a deportation shield for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the U.S.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio boards his plane at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

TRUMP REPORTS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ENCOUNTERS AT HISTORIC LOWS DURING FIRST FULL MONTH IN OFFICE

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it would revoke the statuses of more than 300,000 nationals protected by Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

The Trump administration has deported more than 100,000 illegal migrants since taking office, according to a New York Post report citing a DHS official.

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for the Republic of South Sudan did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

United Nations South Sudan declined Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: A top vaping lobbyist, whose group worked closely with the Trump campaign last year and is now ramping up pressure on the Trump administration to “uphold their promise to save the flavored vaping industry,” has extensive ties to the Chinese Communist Party, a Fox News Digital review found.

Tony Abboud, the Illinois-based executive director of the Vapor Technology Association, made several smaller donations to pro-Trump GOP Senate candidates ahead of the 2024 election and met with then-candidate Donald Trump weeks before the election in a push to protect the vaping industry.

However, his past ties to the Democratic Party and CCP are setting off alarm bells with a political operative close to the Trump administration and a top Republican Congressional leadership aide as Abboud’s group ramps up pressure on the Trump administration and lobbies several states to oppose directory bills, which would crack down on Chinese vape companies.

“Tony Abboud and Vapor Technology Association have deep ties to the CCP and Never-Trumpers,” a person close to the Trump administration told Fox News Digital. “This goes against everything President Trump stands for, which is loyalty and reining in CCP influence, especially when it comes to illicit drugs pouring across the border.”

21,000% SPIKE IN MA VAPE SEIZURES THROWS CIGARETTE BAN INTO QUESTION, EX-ATF OFFICIAL SAYS

Tony Abboud and other members of the Global Vape Alliance toast each other at 2023 InterTabac trade show in Germany (Left) and (Right) Tony Abboud and then-presidential candidate Donald Trump pose for photo after a private meeting weeks before the 2024 election. (Global Vape Alliance/Vapor Technology Association X screenshot)

Abboud, who previously donated thousands between Obama’s Senate campaign and failed House campaign, among other Democrats, and his vaping group have a close relationship with the Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce (ECCC), an entity of the CCP.

Abboud’s VTA and the ECCC previously had an informal relationship but officially inked an official partnership together in late 2023, forming the Global Vape Alliance, which includes the UK Vaping Industry Association and the Independent European Vape Alliance. This alliance led to cooperation between the different entities, which entails sharing “information and strategies for best practices to educate and guide member companies on existing laws, regulations and industry standards.”

“The Alliance will share strategies for the promotion of the healthy development of the global vaping industry, and as a unified voice for the industry, will look to empower their member companies by promoting the sophistication, professionalism, and importance of the industry,” the declaration continued.

“VTA–like Temu, Shein, and TikTok–is well known for putting the interests of Chinese companies ahead of Americans,” a top Republican Congressional leadership aide warned in a statement to Fox News Digital. “No Hill Republicans are take their lobbying seriously and they should be ashamed for lobbying for interests connected to the Chinese Communist Party. American kids deserve a lot better.”

However, a senior adviser to the 2024 Trump campaign dismissed criticism of the group and Abboud, telling Fox News Digital that the “idea that VTA is an anti-Trump group is downright dishonest and utterly laughable.”

“Not only did they support President Trump’s re-election financially, but they also worked closely with the Trump campaign on a get-out-the-vote program targeting pro-vaping voters in support of the President in all the battleground states,” the former senior adviser said. “Their GOTV operation was so robust that it didn’t just extend to the President himself, but it was also used to support Trump-endorsed MAGA Senate candidates like Bernie Moreno in Ohio.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly defended national security advisor Mike Waltz amid fallout over the Signal group chat.  (Donald Trump 2024 campaign)

The ECCC, which partners with Abboud’s group, was established in Shenzhen, China, in January 2017 and operates under the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce (CECC), which is registered with the CCP’s Ministry of Civil Affairs of P. R. China.

A Fox News Digital review found that some of the top leaders of the CECC are former high-ranking members of the CCP, which includes a former member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, a former Vice Premier of the State Council, and a former vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the “key mechanism for multi-party cooperation and political consultation” under the leadership of the CCP, according to the CPPCC website.

FIVE-FIGURE AD BUY URGES STATES TO CRACK DOWN AS CHINA FLOODS MARKET WITH ILLICIT VAPES: ‘TRUMP WAS RIGHT’

As the executive director of VTA, Abboud has met with Ao Weinuo, the Secretary-General of the ECCC, several times over the years and is featured in several photos with Abboud. 

In a batch of photos from the 2023 InterTabac trade show in Germany, which is where the Global Vape Alliance was officially announced, Weinuo and Abboud posed together for several photographs, including one where the pair and a couple other guys from the GVA toasted each other with their drinks. During the meeting portion of the event, Weinuo and Abboud were also on the same panel that appeared to be going after the Biden administration’s FDA for feeding a “false narrative.”

That same year, Weinuo and the ECCC members participated in a team-building outing with the theme of “Seeking Red Footprints and Drawing Strength for Progress.” In the background of the photo, which included Abboud’s business partner, the hammer and sickle CCP emblem was visible.

In a promotional video that ECCC posted on Tencent in 2021, ECCC emphasized their goals for Chinese domination and price control in the vaping market, saying, “China has the pricing power” and “influence,” according to English subtitles provided by ECCC.  

Weinuo and the ECCC members participated in a team-building outing with the theme of “Seeking Red Footprints and Drawing Strength for Progress.” (Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce (ECCC).)

When pressed for comment on VTA’s ties to China and the CCP, Abboud did not address them and instead talked about how he was a “former Democrat who became a Republican because of President Trump” and that “Joe Biden spent 4 years attempting to shut down and bankrupt American vape companies across the country and President Trump is the only person we trust to reverse Biden’s anti-vaping policies and save our industry.”

The political operative close to the Trump administration pushed back, pointing to a Linkedin post from Abboud’s group, which showed Abboud networking with Democrats, including then-DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, at the 2024 DNC Convention. The post said that VTA sponsored events for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Choose Atlanta and the Democratic Party of Virginia. 

“I’m even more proud that VTA mobilized 360,000 voters to help overwhelmingly return President Trump to the White House because we know that after years of failed Democratic leadership, he is the champion our industry desperately needs,” continued Abboud, who along with VTA, also attended the RNC Convention and moderated a fireside chat. “The brazen attempts to distort our fight to save this industry are nothing more than coordinated attacks from competitors in the tobacco industry who are working with radical leftwingers like Letitia James and would stand to benefit financially from destroying American vape companies nationwide.”

“That would ultimately mean the loss of billions of U.S. tax revenue, hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and tens of thousands of small businesses across this great country,” he concluded.

In December 2023, Abboud traveled to China and participated in ECCC’s first “International Key Buyers Exchange Meeting” in Shenzhen, which included Weinuo as one of the leaders, according to photos reviewed by Fox News Digital.

According to a press release, “The special committee gave full play to its international influence and ‘brought in’ high-quality overseas wholesalers and brand owners, aiming to connect member companies with overseas resources and channels, and help Chinese e-cigarette products sell better in the international market.”

Abboud would then partner with Weinuo and ECCC a few months later in February 2024 at the Total Product Expo in Las Vegas. The expo was aimed at helping China gain greater access to the U.S. market and attracted more than 600 companies from around the world, including more than 100 exhibitors from China. A press release highlighting the event shows several photos of Abboud and Weinuo together as they hosted an after-party for the crowded event.

Tony Abboud (second from left) poses with Ao Weinuo (center), the Secretary-General of the ECCC, and others at Total Product Expo in Las Vegas in February 2024. (Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce (ECCC).)

A person familiar with the inner workings of Abboud’s VTA downplayed concerns about the group’s ties to China and the CCP, telling Fox News Digital that “Every tobacco company in the industry has their own manufacturing in China” and that the “biggest tobacco companies also have joint ventures directly with the Chinese tobacco monopoly.” The person went on to emphasize that the Global Vape Alliance is engaged “against the black market” and is focusing “its joint efforts on combating the illegal trade in e-cigarettes,” among other initiatives.

In September 2024, Weinuo was invited to deliver remarks on behalf of ECCC at the New Tobacco (E-cigarette) Forum at the New Approaches Summit in New York City, which Abboud also attended. An ECCC press release on the event touts Weinuo as the “first representative of the Chinese e-cigarette industry to participate in the forum in history” and said the “ECCC delegation has attracted much attention at this forum.”

Tony Abboud (Center) poses with Ao Weinuo (Center Right), the Secretary-General of the ECCC, and others at the New Tobacco (E-cigarette) Forum in New York City in September 2024. (Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce (ECCC).)

The press release went on to say that the “United States has the world’s largest and most influential benchmark market” and that the “ECCC delegation’s participation in this forum is of great significance.”

“It not only uses the international platform to send out a positive voice for the industry and establish a good image of Chinese e-cigarette products in the world, but also demonstrates the ECCC’s far-reaching collaborative work ability and influence in the world as the organization of Chinese e-cigarette companies,” the press release continued, highlighting that multiple current and former leaders from the World Health Organization were in attendance. “It is a concrete action to ‘tell the Chinese story well to the outside world.’”

In December 2024, Abboud visited ECCC in China for supplier and vendor conversations, where he received a “thank you prize for speaking,” according to an individual familiar with the event. A press release highlights how “more than 30 internationally renowned wholesalers and channel dealers from 10 countries and regions, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, France, Canada, Spain, Romania” visited ECCC as an international delegation to “accelerate the resource matching and docking of Chinese and foreign electronic cigarettes.” 

In addition to Abboud, multiple people on the board of directors for his VTA have ties to China, including Magellan and Demand Vape owner Jon Glauser, who said in a 2023 deposition that he has a “good relationship with every manufacturer over” in China and that he has “spent quite a bit of time in Shenzhen, China, over the years,” noting that this is “where 99 percent of e-cigarettes are made.” 

“We form a relationship with them, buy it from them either as a master distributor or distributor,” he added.

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Geoff Habicht is another member of VTA’s board of directors and serves as the CEO of Mi-Pod, an Arizona-based company that imports numerous vape juices from China.

Mi-Pod was recently the subject of a letter from the ranking Democratic member of the House Committee Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party for importing vape products that were banned for domestic sale in China and were the subject of safety concern in the United States.

In addition to the board of directors, several vape companies that are included in VTA’s membership, which range from $500 to $200,000 membership levels to join, are Chinese companies, including VooPoo, which has donated at least $100,000 to be a member of VTA, according to its website.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

House Republican leaders are rallying GOP lawmakers around a plan to enact a broad swath of President Donald Trump’s agenda, after the legislation was passed by the Senate in the early hours of Saturday morning.

“More than a year ago, the House began discussing the components of a reconciliation package that will reduce the deficit, secure our border, keep taxes low for families and job creators, reestablish American energy dominance, restore peace through strength, and make government more efficient and accountable to the American people. We are now one step closer to achieving those goals,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and his top lieutenants wrote to House Republicans.

“Today, the Senate passed its version of the budget resolution. Next week, the House will consider the Senate amendment.”

Congressional Republicans are pushing a conservative policy overhaul via the budget reconciliation process. Traditionally used when one party holds all three branches of government, reconciliation lowers the Senate’s threshold for passage on certain fiscal measures from 60 votes to 51.

TED CRUZ CLASHES WITH KEY DEMOCRAT OVER ‘SECOND PHASE OF LAWFARE’ THROUGH FEDERAL JUDGES’ ORDERS

President Donald Trump helped get House Republicans’ budget bill over the line in February, and backed the Senate version this week (Getty Images)

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

Senate Republicans passed a framework for a reconciliation bill just after 2 a.m. ET on Saturday, after hours of debate and votes on amendments to the measure.

It’s similar to the version House Republicans passed in late February; but mechanisms the Senate used to avoid factoring in the cost of extending Trump’s 2017-era tax cuts as well as a lower baseline for required federal spending cuts has some House conservatives warning they could oppose the bill.

The Senate’s version calls for at least $4 billion in spending cuts, while the House’s version mandates a floor of $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion.

Both bills also include Trump priorities on border security, energy, and new tax policies like eliminating penalties on tipped and overtime wages.

“If the Senate’s ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ budget is put on the House floor, I will vote no,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote on X.

“In the classic ways of Washington, the Senate’s budget presents a fantastic top-line message – that we should return spending back to the pre-COVID trajectory (modified for higher interest, Medicare, and Social Security) of $6.5 Trillion, rather than the current trajectory of over $7 Trillion – but has ZERO enforcement to achieve it, and plenty of signals it is designed purposefully NOT to achieve it.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, speaks during a news conference (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

But House GOP leaders insist 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.”

GOP DEFECTORS HELP SENATE ADVANCE RESOLUTION TO CANCEL TRUMP TARIFFS DESPITE WHITE HOUSE VETO WARNING

House GOP leaders have pointed out that passing a framework is just the first step in a long process, one that just lays out broad instructions for how money should be spent.

Now that similar frameworks have passed the House and Senate, the relevant congressional committees will work out how to achieve the final reconciliation policy goals under their given jurisdictions.

“We have made it clear the House will NOT accept nor participate in an ‘us versus them’ process resulting in a take it or leave it proposition from the Senate,” House leaders warned.

“Immediately following House adoption of the budget resolution, our House and Senate committees will begin preparing together their respective titles of the reconciliation bill to be marked up in the next work period.”

The letter reiterated Johnson’s earlier goal of having a bill on Trump’s desk by the end of May.

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House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, called the Senate’s resolution “unserious and disappointing,” noting it only mandated $4 billion in “enforceable cuts.”

He vowed to work with congressional leaders to find the best path forward, however.

“I am committed to working with President Trump, House leadership, and my Senate counterparts to address these concerns and ensure the final reconciliation bill makes America safe, prosperous, and fiscally responsible again,” Arrington said.

President Donald Trump is doubling down on his controversial tariffs program and has called on Americans to “hang tough” amid stock market turmoil over the last few days. 

Trump, in a post on Truth Social Saturday morning, wrote that his plan is already working with trillions of dollars already being poured into the U.S. economy.

“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. 

President Donald Trump is doubling down on his controversial tariffs program and has called on Americans to stay the course amid stock market turmoil over the last few days. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

HERE’S WHAT TRUMP IS REALLY UP TO WITH HIGH-STAKES TARIFF GAMBIT

This week’s steep losses for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were among the worst in the past decade as stocks tumbled for a second day in a row. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 2,231.07 points, or 5.5%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 5.97% and 5.82%, respectively. The Nasdaq entered into bear market territory on Friday.

Trump implemented a 10% baseline tariff on all imported goods into the United States while some countries were slapped with higher tariffs.

But Trump remains defiant that his plan will work in the long term as he aims to reduce America’s trade deficit with other countries, protect American industries and bolster jobs by encouraging companies to move manufacturing back to the U.S.

“HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic,” Trump wrote. “We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Trump wrote. 

Trump took aim at China after the communist country clapped back to Trump’s Liberation Day tariff announcement with a reciprocal 34% tariff on U.S. imports.

“China has been hit much harder than the USA, not even close,” Trump wrote. “They, and many other nations, have treated us unsustainably badly. We have been the dumb and helpless “whipping post,” but not any longer.”

Trump’s 34% tariffs announced against China on Wednesday come in addition to the 20% tariffs already imposed against the country.

Trump implemented a 10% baseline tariff on all imported goods into the United States while some countries were slapped with higher tariffs. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

HOW WE GOT TO LIBERATION DAY: A LOOK AT TRUMP’S PAST COMMENTS ON TARIFFS

“China played it wrong, they panicked — the one thing they cannot afford to do,” Trump wrote Friday on Truth Social.

The back and forth has raised concerns about a global trade war and possible recession.

The new Chinese tariffs against the U.S. will go into effect on April 10, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Companies who sell their goods to China were hit hard on Friday, including those in aerospace, agriculture and heavy equipment.

Some of Thursday’s biggest losers — banks, airlines and technology companies — sank again on Friday. Others, such as retailers, clothing and restaurants, were down but not nearly as bad. A handful, like Nike, even posted small gains on Friday.

A television broadcasts market news on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Friday, April 4, 2025. The S&P 500 slumped 5.97% on Friday, closing out its worst week since COVID. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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The so-called Magnificent 7 stocks that have dominated the market the past few years had some of the heaviest losses. Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Tesla have lost around $1.8 trillion in market value combined in the past two days.

Meanwhile, a conservative legal group is challenging President Trump’s tariffs on China, calling them “an unlawful attempt” to make Americans pay higher taxes on Chinese imports. 

The Fox Business team and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump marked the week by unveiling an unprecedented wave of tariffs on imports to the U.S., aligning with his long-held position that other countries have taken advantage of the U.S. in trade. 

Trump disclosed the historic tariffs in a ceremony at the White House’s Rose Garden for a “Make America Wealthy Again” event, asserting these new duties would generate new jobs for U.S. workers. 

“For nations that treat us badly, we will calculate the combined rate of all their tariffs, nonmonetary barriers and other forms of cheating,” Trump said Wednesday.

“And because we are being very kind, we will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us,” he said. “So, the tariffs will be not a full reciprocal. I could have done that. Yes. But it would have been tough for a lot of countries.”

HERE’S A CLOSER LOOK AT TRUMP’S TARIFF PLAN: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEW DUTIES

The tariff plan establishes a baseline tax of 10% on all imports to the U.S., along with customized tariffs for countries that place higher tariffs on American goods. The baseline tariffs of 10% will take effect Saturday, while the others will take effect Wednesday. 

The Trump administration previously imposed a 25% tariff on imported vehicles, up to 25% tariffs on certain goods from Mexico and Canada and a 20% tariff on shipments from China. The tariffs already imposed on Canada and Mexico remain unaffected, but the new tariffs on China will be added on top of the previous duties on Beijing, according to the White House. 

President Donald Trump during a “Make America Wealthy Again” event in the Rose Garden of the White House April 2, 2025.  (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The tariffs have faced backlash from both parties in Congress, and allies, including Canada and Australia. A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation Friday called the Trade Review Act of 2025 that would require the executive branch to provide Congress a 48-hour notice before imposing tariffs. Likewise, the measure would permit tariffs to expire after 60 days, unless Congress moves to approve a joint resolution codifying the duties. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged countries against imposing retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. in response. 

“My advice to every country right now: Do not retaliate,” Bessent said in an interview Wednesday with Fox News. “If you retaliate, there will be escalation.”

TRUMP CONFIRMS NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL FIRINGS AS WALTZ’S SIGNAL CHAT WOES SNOWBALL

Here’s what also happened this week: 

National Security Council firings 

Trump also disclosed that several members of the National Security Council, headed by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, were fired Thursday. Trump said the firings affected a small number of employees, and he still had a high level of confidence in his national security team. 

“Always, we’re going to let go of people we don’t like or people we don’t think can do the job or people who may have loyalties to somebody else,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One when asked about media reports on the firings.

The firings come amid scrutiny over Waltz’s use of a Signal group chat to discuss strikes in Yemen after a journalist was accidentally added to the group. 

Waltz created the group chat that included White House leaders like Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The chat also included Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stand as President Donald Trump meets French President Emmanuel Macron in February.  (Reuters/Brian Snyder)

The White House said classified information was not shared via the encrypted messaging service. However, The Atlantic published the full exchange of messages March 26. The messages included certain attack details, including specific aircraft and times of the strikes. 

Still, the White House has defended Waltz and said the White House is no longer looking into the incident. 

MUSK NOT LEAVING YET, WRAPPING UP WORK ON SCHEDULE ONCE ‘INCREDIBLE WORK AT DOGE IS COMPLETE’: WHITE HOUSE

“As the president has made it very clear, Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday. “And this case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned.”

Musk’s DOGE status 

The White House confirmed that SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk would depart his position spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) later this spring in response to reports from Politico that Trump was disclosing to those close to him that Musk would “step back” from his role with DOGE in the forthcoming weeks. 

Elon Musk arrives for President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington March 4, 2025.  (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

“This ‘scoop’ is garbage,” Leavitt posted on X Wednesday. “Elon Musk and President Trump have both *publicly* stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete.”

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Musk is a “special government employee.” The executive or legislative branches are permitted to take on temporary employees to address short-term projects for up to 130 days in a single 365-day period. For Musk, that period of time will expire at the end of May.

Musk and Trump have previously said they anticipate Musk will complete the work necessary for DOGE within that window of time. 

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report. 

A cohort of Democratic representatives and senators are proposing legislation aimed at stalling President Donald Trump’s efforts to relocate federal agencies outside of Washington, D.C., something the president has taken steps to start doing. 

Guidance issued in February from the Trump administration instructed federal agencies to submit any proposed relocation of agency bureaus and offices by April 14, instructions that were tied to the president’s broader efforts to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government. 

The pair of companion bills from Democrats in the House and Senate seeks to require agencies to conduct and share a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis with Congress and the public prior to any relocations.

ELON MUSK SAYS DOGE WILL INVESTIGATE ‘STRANGELY WEALTHY’ LAWMAKERS: ‘NOBODY CAN EXPLAIN THAT’

A worker removes the U.S. Agency for International Development sign outside its headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 7. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

“Everyone standing here, every one of my colleagues, wants to get rid of fraud, waste and abuse… but that rhetoric [from the administration] is a cover for an agenda that is perverse and contrary to the interests of the United States of America,” Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said during a press conference held at the Capitol announcing the new legislative effort.

“All of this is targeted at depleting the federal workforce and nullifying the government of the United States,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., added. “That is the philosophy that is driving this entire thing.” 

ELON MUSK AND DOGE TEAM SIT DOWN WITH BRET BAIER IN ‘SPECIAL REPORT’ EXCLUSIVE

Maryland Democrats have introduced a pair of bills in the House and Senate aimed at stalling President Trump’s efforts to relocate federal agencies outside of Washington, D.C. (Getty Images/Fox News)

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Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen previously introduced “The COST of Relocations Act” in 2020, and again in 2023.

“We hoped [the bill] wouldn’t be necessary again, but it is,” Van Hollen stated at the press conference. “It’s necessary in order to stop Donald Trump and Elon Musk from wasting American taxpayer dollars by sabotaging services that the American public depends on.”

Since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Democrats have made xenophobic comments about DOGE chief Elon Musk and first lady Melania Trump.

Some of the party’s leaders have repeatedly complained about Musk’s country of birth being South Africa and told Trump to look into deporting his wife, who was born in the former Yugoslavia.  

Speaking at an anti-DOGE protest in Los Angeles March 22, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., suggested Trump should investigate and potentially deport the first lady.

“When he [Trump] talks about birthright, and he’s going to undo the fact that the Constitution allows those who are born here, even if the parents are undocumented, they have a right to stay in America. If he wants to start looking so closely to find those who were born here and their parents were undocumented, maybe he ought to first look at Melania,” Waters said on stage at a rally in Los Angeles, various videos posted to social media show. 

CORY BOOKER ON WHETHER HE SHOULD BE DEMOCRATS’ NEXT LEADER: ‘IT’S TIME FOR ALL OF US’

Since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Democrats have raised concerns about DOGE chief Elon Musk and first lady Melania Trump. (AP; Getty Images)

“We don’t know whether or not her parents were documented. And maybe we better just take a look.” 

The first lady became a U.S. citizen in 2006, according to official government biographies. She is the first U.S. first lady to become a naturalized citizen and the second first lady to be born outside the U.S., following President John Quincy Adams’ wife, Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, who was born in London in 1775. 

Democrats, however, have reserved some of their most vitriolic attacks for Musk, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1995 and became a citizen in 2002.

Speaking at a congressional Democratic rally protesting musk’s access to the Treasury Department Feb. 4, Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Ore., compared Musk to the British burning the city of Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812.

WATCH: DEM JASMINE CROCKETT SILENT AS AIDE ATTEMPTS TO INTIMIDATE, BLOCK REPORTER’S QUESTION ABOUT VIOLENCE

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has suggested first lady Melania Trump could be deported. (Getty Images)

“They always told us the British had come to storm the city. They always reminded us the British had come, and they burned everything down, and we could never let that happen again. They told us, and here we are, Trump and his billionaire boy band. They are not British this time. This one is South African. But they came back,” said Bynum.

Rep. Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., did not use allegories, but simply called for Musk to “go back to South Africa.”

“It was interesting yesterday. I was watching a video of an interview of Elon Musk with someone where he said that the Italians should stay in Italy and the Chinese should stay in China. My question to Elon Musk is, what the hell are you doing here in America?” Velazquez said while speaking at an event outside the HUD Department.

Even before Musk took the helm at DOGE, far-left Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, slammed him during a Jan. 20 interview for not being born in the U.S. while suggesting he supported apartheid.

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Rep. Jasmine Crockett touted the Signal app in comments over the weekend.  (Allison Bailey/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

“[Musk] went from being the dork that was jumping around on stage to allegedly being this amazing genius that’s going to save this entire country, the country he wasn’t born in and a country that maybe he doesn’t agree with, the idea of a Democratic Republic, considering the fact that he may have been more so on the side of apartheid,” said Crockett.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., piled on further, suggesting in a February interview that Musk was reverting to a fascist state of mind due to his South African heritage.

“I think that’s a leftover from Elon Musk’s South African heritage, and maybe he’s falling too far back on the apartheid system of government that was a fascist form of government,” said Connolly.

“Here in the United States, Mr. Musk,” he added, “we have three branches of government, each of them separate but coequal, and, ultimately, the judicial branch is the deciding factor when there is a dispute between the other two branches of government. That’s how our system works here.”

DEM CONGRESSMAN LASHES MUSK IN OPENING SALVO OF POPULIST BID IN 2026 SWING-STATE SENATE RACE

Elon Musk with mother Maye Musk. (Reuters/Danny Moloshok)

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., accused Musk’s parents of trying to deny Black people their rights in South Africa, comparing them to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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“Why can’t you understand? The Ukranians [sic] are fighting for the same thing which his parents tried to deny black South Africans,” Cohen wrote in a February X post.  

“Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., also suggested Musk did not care for democracy because he came from South Africa.

“Elon Musk, who grew up in apartheid, Trump who worships dictators around the country, and strong men, are not interested in our constitutional republic,” Omar said.

Despite these claims, a Snopes fact-check found the reason Musk left his birth country in the first place was to avoid military service because he did not want to fight for an apartheid state.

After taking to social media to announce he was ditching his Tesla because it was made by an “a–hole” he claimed is damaging the country, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., refused to say whether Democrats’ inflammatory rhetoric against Elon Musk is to blame for the ongoing spate of attacks against Tesla owners and dealers across the country.

Kelly also refused to say whether the attacks — some of which have involved shooting at and throwing Molotov cocktails into dealerships — qualify as “domestic terrorism.”

The Arizona senator admitted that “it’s certainly vandalism and it’s a crime, a significant crime, especially if you firebomb a car or vandalize somebody’s vehicle, or even key somebody’s vehicle, you shouldn’t be doing it.”

While Kelly said those responsible should be tried and prosecuted, pressed by Fox News Digital on whether the attacks qualify as terrorism, he responded, “I think we’ve got to tread lightly on the whole ‘terrorist’ word.”

OVER 200 ‘TESLA TAKEDOWN’ PROTESTS ERUPT NATIONWIDE

After months of slamming Elon Musk as a threat, Democrats are refusing to say whether their inflammatory rhetoric is to blame for the attacks against Tesla owners and dealers across the country. (Getty Images/Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images/Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images/AP Images)

“Sometimes trying to expand this thing, it kind of loses its focus,” he said. “But when folks are vandalizing people’s vehicles or dealerships, it is wrong and it is dangerous. Somebody’s going to get hurt. For that reason, we should let the full force of law enforcement get to this problem and prosecute it.”

There have been at least 80 acts of vandalism against Tesla vehicles in the U.S. and Canada, and at least 10 incidents of vandalism and arson against Tesla dealerships, charging stations and properties. 

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has said the Justice Department is investigating the incidents as “domestic terrorism.”

Leading Democrats, however, have been largely silent on the issue, with few being willing to condemn the attacks as acts of terrorism.

THE LOUDEST SILENCE: TOP DEMOCRATS REMAIN MUM AMID VIOLENT ATTACKS ON TESLA

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who, in a 2023 CNN interview, accused Republicans who criticized her of engaging in “stochastic terrorism,” also refused to say whether Democrats’ anti-Musk rhetoric should be held responsible for the attacks. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who, in a 2023 CNN interview, accused Republicans who criticized her of engaging in “stochastic terrorism” — that is, incitement of violent political action — also refused to say whether Democrats’ anti-Musk rhetoric should be held responsible for the attacks.

Fox News Digital asked Ocasio-Cortez whether she sees a connection between language against Musk and the violent incidents across the nation.

Cortez began to answer, saying, “Yeah, I mean, again, I’ve seen Republicans call me ‘communist’ and that I ‘hate this country,’” before trailing off.

Meanwhile, Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., refused to label the attacks as even violent, saying, “While I have no opinion on what’s been going on, I actually haven’t been following that much, but let’s be precise about our language — ‘violence’ is against human beings.”

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: AOC REFUSES TO SAY WHETHER DEMOCRATS’ RHETORIC IS RESPONSIBLE FOR TESLA ATTACKS

Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., refused to label the attacks as even violent, saying, “While I have no opinion on what’s been going on, I actually haven’t been following that much, but let’s be precise about our language — ‘violence’ is against human beings.” (Reuters/Michael A. McCoy)

Asked about Democrats’ rhetoric, Lee said it is important to “recognize the difference between the frustration of people that is maybe organic, but also the language that is coming from people who are in power.”

“Donald Trump is in power and he’s abusing that and it’s going to harm people and has already,” she said. “Because of the rhetoric from the administration, because of the rhetoric from the right, we’re seeing American citizens being picked up, we’re seeing a lot of profiling that’s happening, I think that that’s incredibly dangerous and again those are being perpetrated against people.”

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., also attempted to turn the question around, saying President Donald Trump “in effect… told people to resort to violence” at his rally on Jan. 6, 2021.

Hoyer said he discourages anyone from resorting to violence but advocated for peaceful ways of telling Trump and Musk “how angry we are.”

TESLA HYPOCRISY: DEMS CONTINUE INVESTING IN ELON MUSK COMPANY DESPITE PAINTING HIM AS VILLAIN

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, speaks during a hearing with the Subcommittee on Delivering On Government Efficiency in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 26. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“Effectively, he [Musk] and Trump are both trying to profit from being president. And this is unheard of what Musk is doing,” said Hoyer.

“I’m opposed to all violence, beginning with the Jan. 6th insurrection,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told Fox News Digital.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who has been warned by Bondi to “tread lightly” after seeming to threaten Musk by calling for him to be “taken down,” refused to answer the question, while her security got into the face of the Fox News Digital reporter.

Republicans, in the meantime, hammered that the attacks are obvious examples of terrorism.

JASMINE CROCKETT SAYS SHE WAS HIRED AS A PUBLIC DEFENDER BECAUSE SHE WAS BLACK 

“I think it’s awful, they need to bust their a–,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn. “Elon doesn’t even own a majority share of it anymore. All you’re doing is hurting Americans.” (Alex Wong)

“I think it’s awful, they need to bust their a–,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn. “Elon doesn’t even own a majority share of it anymore. All you’re doing is hurting Americans.”

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Rep. Addison McDowell, R-N.C., pointed out that “when we boycotted Bud Light over their support over these radical issues, we didn’t just say, ‘We’re going to burn down Bud Light manufacturers.’ We just didn’t buy it.” 

“What you see these woke, radical liberals doing to a car they used to want championed, is lighting them on fire, destroying property, that’s not how adults behave,” McDowell said, adding, “they’re behaving like criminals.”

The Trump administration on Friday launched a new investigative unit to protect “female athletes, from the pernicious effects of gender ideology in school programs and activities,” further clamping down on transgender women in school sports and sending a warning signal to states defying the president’s executive orders.

The Department of Education (ED) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the Title IX Special Investigations Team (SIT) to handle cases, particularly targeting transgender women in sports, because “traditionally, our Office for Civil Rights [OCR] takes months, even years, to complete Title IX investigations,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Friday.

“OCR under this Administration has moved faster than it ever has, and the Title IX SIT will ensure even more rapid and consistent investigations,” McMahon said. “To all the entities that continue to allow men to compete in women’s sports and use women’s intimate facilities: there’s a new sheriff in town. We will not allow you to get away with denying women’s civil rights any longer.”

 CONCERNED PARENTS OF TRANS KIDS COMPARED TO ‘HATE GROUPS’ BY COLORADO DEM: WOULDN’T ‘ASK THE KKK’ FOR OPINION

The Education Department has canceled various grants and contracts since President Donald Trump took office. (Getty Images)

The team, drawn from both agencies, will implement a rapid process to handle the growing number of cases to hand over investigations to potential DOJ enforcement. McMahon said the Title IX unit “will benefit women and girls across this nation who have been subjected to discrimination and indignity in their educational activities.”

“Protecting women and women’s sports is a key priority for this Department of Justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday. “This collaborative effort with the Department of Education will enable our attorneys to take comprehensive action when women’s sports or spaces are threatened and use the full power of the law to remedy any violation of women’s civil rights.”

The unit comprises investigators and attorneys from the OCR, the ED Office of General Counsel, and the ED Office of Student Privacy and Protection, along with caseworkers and an FSA Enforcement investigator. The unit also includes attorneys from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

TRANS INMATE IN PRISON FOR KILLING BABY MUST GET GENDER SURGERY AT ‘EARLIEST OPPORTUNITY’: JUDGE

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 20. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

The investigative unit will enforce Title IX protections with President Donald Trump’s executive orders on “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” and “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism.”

The unit comes as Trump has been facing pushback from both lawmakers and judges for his gender-related orders.

Trump and Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills sparred in February over Trump’s order banning biological males from women’s sports. During a National Governors Association meeting, Trump accused Mills of defying federal orders by continuing to allow transgender women to compete in women’s sports. Following the confrontation, the Trump administration launched investigations into Maine’s education department.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture also froze funds to certain educational programs in Maine due to the state’s rebellion. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins indicated the funding freeze could be lifted if Maine aligns with federal interpretations of Title IX.

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President Donald Trump told Maine Gov. Janet Mills that her state needs to comply with an executive order on transgender athletes in school sports during an event at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 21. (Reuters Photos | Pool)

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Trump’s Title IX unit comes after the Biden administration updated Title IX regulations in 2021 and 2022 to expand protections for LGBTQ+ students, interpreting the law’s prohibition on sex discrimination to include gender identity and sexual orientation.

Under then-President Joe Biden’s interpretation, transgender students were allowed in women’s sports, bathrooms, changing room facilities and in other educational programs.

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to immediately make arrangements for the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison. 

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said that Kilmar Abrego Garcia had been illegally deported to El Salvador and said he must be returned by Monday before midnight.

Xinis ruled that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s March 15th expulsion of Garcia violated the Administrative Procedures Act, since it occurred without a judicial proceeding.

The U.S. Justice Department said Friday that it plans to immediately appeal the judge’s order. 

KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA DID NOT HAVE HIS DAY IN COURT, SAYS REP GLENN IVEY

This undated photo shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (Murray Osorio PLLC via AP)

The Trump administration has acknowledged Garcia’s removal was an “administrative error,” but has also defended it, alleging that Garcia has ties to MS-13.  

“This individual is an illegal criminal who broke our nation’s immigration laws. He is a leader in the brutal MS-13 gang, and he is involved in human trafficking,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing on Tuesday. 

JOHN YOO URGES TRUMP ADMIN TO ‘WORK OUT A DEAL’ TO RETURN MISTAKENLY DEPORTED INDIVIDUALS

“And now MS-13 is a designated foreign terrorist organization. Foreign terrorists have no legal protections in the United States of America. And this administration is going to continue to deport foreign terrorists and illegal criminals from our nation’s interior,” she added. 

In this undated photo provided by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, a man identified by Jennifer Vasquez Sura as her husband, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is led by force by guards through the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador.  (U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland via AP)

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News after the ruling: “The American people should know who this individual is. He’s not some American father as the mainstream media will make you believe, he’s actually a member of MS-13, and was involved in trafficking. It’s unbelievable the framing of this. Whether this man is in El Salvador or in a U.S. detention center, he should be locked up.”

An immigration judge five years ago said Garcia, who came to the U.S. illegally in 2011 and asked for asylum, could not be deported to his home country, over concerns he would become a victim of local El Salvador gang members.

His request for asylum was denied, but he was given protection from deportation and ICE didn’t appeal the decision. 

Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who is a U.S. citizen, has vigorously campaigned for his return. 

Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who is a U.S. citizen, has vigorously campaigned for his return.  (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Garcia had been working as a sheet metal apprentice in Maryland and was arrested in an IKEA parking lot on March 12 while his 5-year-old son was in the car. 

His lawyers have argued the man had a Department of Homeland Security permit to work in the country, and strongly denied any gang affiliations. They also say that the government has given little evidence to back up its claim. 

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There was no indication how the government would comply, since he is incarcerated in an El Salvador prison under that government’s custody.

Fox News’ Cameron Arcand and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

After breaking the Senate record for longest floor speech, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., gave an innocuous answer about whether he sees himself as the Democratic Party’s next leader.

With Democratic veterans like former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., no longer in leadership, no one person can fully claim the title of Democratic Party leader.

At age 55, Booker has been in the Senate for more than 10 years. After his record-breaking speech on the Senate floor this week, during which he bashed the Trump administration, Elon Musk and Republicans, some wonder whether Booker could be a contender for party leader.

“Some are saying the Democratic Party needs a national leader, are you it?” Fox News Digital asked.

BOOKER CALLED FILIBUSTER AN ‘ABUSE OF POWER’ YEARS BEFORE SETTING SENATE SPEECH RECORD

After breaking the Senate record for longest filibuster, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., gave an innocuous answer about whether he sees himself as the Democratic Party’s next leader. (Getty Images)

“I think that, as the great Ella Baker said, we are the leaders we’ve been looking for,” Booker answered.

“I think the Democratic Party needs everybody to realize it’s time for all of us to lead,” he added.

During his speech, Booker claimed that President Donald Trump, in 71 days, “has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy, and even our aspirations as a people for, from our highest offices, a sense of common decency.”

Booker said he felt inspired to make his marathon speech, which disrupted votes on the Senate floor for over 25 hours, because his constituents “were demanding more.”

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Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks on the Senate floor on Tuesday. (Senate Television via AP)

“We’re in a moral moment in our country about what we are going to stand for,” he said. “So, I wanted to stand with our veterans, I wanted to stand with expecting moms in their healthcare, I want to stand for people who rely on Social Security and a lot of the other things that are happening I think are in the balance right now.”

The senator said that his days as a football player at Stanford prepared him to be able to stand and speak for so long.

“I learned a lot as an athlete — as most athletes will tell you, what you learn is that you can go further than you think you can,” said Booker. “You’ve got more in the tank when you think it’s all gone. And those lessons gave me a lot to draw on. And then even when everything is out of the tank and you physically have hit your wall, that your spirit can take over and you can do a little bit more.”

JASMINE CROCKETT SETS OFF SOCIAL MEDIA AFTER TOUTING BEING BLACK AS QUALIFICATION FOR PUBLIC DEFENDER JOB

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said he felt inspired to make his marathon speech, which disrupted votes on the Senate floor for over 25 hours, because his constituents “were demanding more.” (Nicholas Ballasy)

Asked whether his speech, not technically a filibuster, had the impact he was hoping for, Booker responded: “I think this is not a single moment, or even 25 hours. I think it’s a longer journey.”

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“It was a good day,” he continued. “But as I learned playing college football, just because you had a good play, you get back to the huddle, and you get ready for the next one, and that’s what we need to do.”

FBI Director Kash Patel is tackling China’s influence on American farmlands head-on, as both a food supply and national security concern. 

Patel’s early focus on Chinese influence over American land — particularly farmland near sensitive sites — reflects a broader second-term push by the Trump administration to confront the Chinese Communist Party’s presence on U.S. soil. The effort has gained traction among Republican lawmakers and conservative allies, who say CCP-connected land ownership poses a direct threat to national security and critical infrastructure.

“FBI Director Kash Patel has made eradicating CCP interference and infiltration in the United States a relentless, uncompromising priority,” Patel advisor Erica Knight told Fox News Digital. 

“With his unmatched experience in counterterrorism and intelligence, Patel possesses a profound understanding of the grave threats our nation faces,” Knight said. “His expertise and unwavering resolve make him uniquely equipped to lead the bureau to crush CCP infiltration and safeguard America’s national security.”

US-CANADA BORDER EYED AS VULNERABILITY BY CHINA, RUSSIA, SAYS PATEL: ‘THE ENEMY ADAPTS’ 

FBI Director Kash Patel is taking China’s influence on American farmlands head-on, as a food supply and national security concern.  (Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Patel recently told lawmakers that the “effective resolution” of the southern border crisis has prompted adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran to shift their focus to the U.S. northern border.

As the administration ramps up its second-term focus on China, President Donald Trump was asked aboard Air Force One on Thursday what the White House is doing about Chinese-owned farmland.

Trump said he is “looking at it all the time,” adding that he has “a very good relationship with China and with the president.”

“I have a lot of respect for President Xi,” Trump said. 

TOP FIVE TAKEDOWNS: KASH PATEL’S FBI HITS THE GROUND RUNNING WITH MAJOR EARLY VICTORIES

Trump emphasized that Chinese-owned farmland “has been an issue for years.”

In a February Fox News op-ed, Presidential Envoy for Special Missions Ric Grenell echoed growing concern on the right over Chinese-owned farmland, calling it part of a “not-so-silent takeover.”

With the administration stepping up its second-term focus on China, President Donald Trump was asked aboard Air Force One on Thursday how the White House is addressing Chinese-owned farmland. (Roy Liu/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“While conservative legislators and governors across the country are taking action to stop adversarial nations from buying U.S. farmland, we must recognize that there’s a much broader issue at play here — China’s end goal is not confined to land ownership,” Grenell wrote. 

MORE THAN HALF A MILLION LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL BACK PATEL AS FBI DIRECTOR

Capitol Hill lawmakers have already begun taking action. In early March, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., introduced the PASS Act in the Senate, which would bar entities from “covered countries” — including China — from purchasing agricultural land near military bases or other sensitive sites.

The legislation, which also has Democratic support, would allow the Department of Agriculture to submit cases to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. for review if the department suspects there is a national security concern. 

Patel has emphasized eradicating China’s influence on U.S. soil as a top priority for him as he heads the agency. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Likewise, Republican senators in January also announced the Not One More Inch or Acre Act, led by Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Katie Britt of Alabama. 

The legislation would require selling land owned or “influenced” by the Chinese Communist Party that is deemed to be a national security risk.

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

FIRST ON FOX: Former Ohio Republican State Senator Kevin Coughlin exclusively spoke to Fox News Digital about his recent announcement that he is challenging Dem. Rep. Emilia Sykes in one of the most closely watched House districts in next year’s midterms.

“The motivation is the same as it was in the last election,” Coughlin, who narrowly lost to Sykes in November by two points in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, told Fox News Digital. 

“I wanna make a difference for people. I think our country’s going in the wrong direction. I think we have some great opportunities here. And it’s very clear that with tight majorities in both the House and the Senate, we need reinforcements there to help push an America First agenda through and to try to secure our border, bring down costs, protect our communities and give taxpayers value for their dollar. The spirit is there, and the movement is there in DC. It’s harder to do when you’ve got close majorities. And so I want to go and contribute to that and help deliver for the people of Northeast Ohio.”

Coughlin told Fox News Digital that Sykes has not served the district well and that when he speaks to people in the district they tell him they are unsatisfied with her leadership.

LEAKED VIDEO EXPOSES DEM STAFFER ADMITTING ‘QUIET PART OUT LOUD’ IN FIERY TIRADE: ‘OPEN THE F—ING BORDER’

Kevin Coughlin is running to unseat Dem. Rep. Emilia Sykes (Fox News Digital/Getty)

“What they’re getting with our current member of Congress is somebody who’s just a partisan hack who’s doing everything her party tells her to do at the expense of what’s right for the families and the small businesses of our region and our district,” Coughlin said. “She’s repeatedly voted against extending the Trump tax cuts of 2017, which would end up being a huge tax increase on everyone. She has opposed efforts to reduce regulation and to root out waste and fraud in our government. She has voted to shut down our government and provide essential services to people who truly need them.”

Coughlin added that Democrats since Trump’s inauguration have become “a bunch of toddlers pounding on the floor” and that they “really just don’t have a message right now.”

“They’re flailing around not only for leadership, but for a voice and a message and you know the old adage when your adversary is drowning, don’t interrupt them,” Coughlin said. “I think the best thing for us to do as Republicans is to continue moving forward in the way they have so far, methodically move toward delivering on President Trump’s agenda, delivering on the promises that they were elected on and moving that forward to deliver for the people that they represent. And as long as we keep doing that, and I think that the spirit is there, as long as they keep doing it, I think we’ll be rewarded in the midterms.”

FORMER NAVY SEAL CLINT BRUCE ON RELATIONSHIP WITH OHIO STATE’S RYAN DAY, HELPING COLLEGE FOOTBALL STARS

Dem. Rep. Emilia Sykes narrowly defeated her Republican opponent in 2024. (AP Newsroom)

The Cook Political Report ranks the race in OH-13 as a “Democrat toss up” as Republicans head into the midterms with a slim majority in the House and facing the conventional wisdom that the party in power struggles in the first midterm after a new president takes office.

Coughlin told Fox News Digital he expects Republicans to do well in the midterms, particularly in Ohio, where Trump won by 11 points in November. 

“I was encouraged by results around the country this week with special elections in Florida and with the ballot issue on voter ID passing in Wisconsin,” Coughlin said. “It tells me that our issues are still winning, that the people still view and have the same concerns that we have, and so that’s a good thing.”

“I think with regard to my opponent, what I’ve seen this year is that she’s become even more partisan than she was before. She’s digging in and hugging the liberal left even harder than she did before. So, that means she’s casting a lot of votes that are very much out of step with her district, and I expect she’ll continue to do that. And frankly, Ohio is different from the rest of the country in some regards,” Coughlin said. “I think we’re a little bit insulated here from the traditional midterm effect of the president’s party not doing well in the elections. Statewide elections are going on next year, and if we stay true to form, we will have a strong, talented, dynamic, well-organized, well-funded slate of people running for statewide office, which lifts all boats with regard to Republican candidates in our state. So, I think it’s going to be a good year here in Ohio.”

A Sykes campaign spokesperson dismissed Coughlin’s attacks.

“Rep. Sykes is focused on how we can best bring costs down, put money in people’s pockets and protect earned benefits like social security and medicaid and will let others engage in unproductive name-calling,” the spokesperson said.

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The dome of the U.S. Capitol building is seen from a perch in Washington, D.C. (Fox News Digital)

The spokesperson also referred Fox News Digital to a quote from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), who called Coughlin a “corrupt, out of touch loser who’s only running so he can work with Elon Musk to dismantle Social Security and gut Medicaid to pay for billionaire tax breaks.”

“Congresswoman Sykes is a results oriented leader with an undeniable record of fighting for Northeast Ohioans – focusing on lowering costs, creating good paying jobs, and keeping our communities safe,” the DCCC spokesperson Viet Shelton added.

“Emilia Sykes is nothing but a rubber stamp for the far Left, completely out of touch with the people of Ohio,” NRCC spokesman Zach Bannon said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “From voting to shut down the government and raise taxes to supporting open borders, Sykes is too extreme for Ohio. That’s why she’ll be out of a job next November.” 

The Senate approved changes to the House’s budget resolution on Saturday after an hourslong series of amendment votes during which Democrats sought to put Republicans on record on issues like tariffs and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

It passed mostly along party lines in a 51 to 48 vote around 2:30 a.m. ET on Saturday morning. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., were the only two Republicans to join Democrats in opposing the measure.

The amended framework would raise the debt ceiling by up to $5 trillion within the reconciliation process, taking future leverage away from Senate Democrats. It would also make President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent by using what’s called a current policy baseline that Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., decides.

DEM SENATOR LOOKS TO HIJACK KEY TRUMP BUDGET PROCESS WITH TARIFF CHALLENGE

An amended version of the House-passed Trump budget was voted on at the end of a marathon vote series in the Senate. (Reuters)

The scoring tool essentially means the cost of making Trump’s tax cuts permanent would be factored at $0 because it extends current policy, rather than counting it as new dollars being added to the federal deficit.

Some conservatives have signaled they’re wary of using that method, however.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote series, “I have been assured that there is a commitment and other ways to pay for the eventual reconciliation bill.”

“Now, I am not saying that I think that it is better that we use current policy as baseline. It’s never been done before in a setting like this. I think it establishes a dangerous precedent. It might be within the rules to do so, but it doesn’t mean it’s wise to do so,” he said.

Some House conservatives have gone so far as to call it a “gimmick.”

Senate GOP leaders made clear they were in lock-step behind the framework, however.

“This resolution is the first step toward a final bill to make permanent the tax relief we implemented in 2017 and deliver a transformational investment in our border, national, and energy security – all accompanied by substantial savings measures and commonsense reforms to our government,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said on Friday evening.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said, “The American people gave us a mission and a mandate: secure borders, lower taxes, affordable energy, peace through strength, and, of course, efficient, effective government. Senate Republicans’ bold budget blueprint delivers.”

REPUBLICANS CHARGE AHEAD ON TRUMP BUDGET, SETTING UP MARATHON SENATE VOTES

The Senate voted late into the night Friday as a number of amendments are proposed and voted on prior to the final budget bill. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Budget reconciliation lowers the vote threshold in the Senate from 60 to 51, which lets Republicans approve certain priorities with no Democrat support. 

Washington’s Republican trifecta thus sees reconciliation as a key tool for delivering on Trump agenda items. 

The Senate’s Friday night “vote-a-rama” was triggered by the chamber agreeing to a motion to proceed to the budget resolution amendment on Thursday night. Nearly a day of debate followed before the vote series was initiated.

During this type of voting series, senators of both parties can introduce an unlimited number of amendments, and many get floor votes.

No amendments were adopted during the roughly six hours-long vote series.

Some notable measures, however, included an amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to raise the federal minimum wage to $17 over a period of five years, an amendment by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to limit many of Trump’s tariffs, and a bipartisan amendment aimed at blocking the reconciliation bill from making cuts to Medicaid.

TED CRUZ CLASHES WITH KEY DEMOCRAT OVER ‘SECOND PHASE OF LAWFARE’ THROUGH FEDERAL JUDGES’ ORDERS

The Senate “vote-a-rama” Friday deals with the House-passed budget bill as Republicans hope to get a bill to the president’s desk. (Fox News Digital/Trump-Vance Transition Team)

“Tonight, Senate Democrats gave Senate Republicans the chance to hit the kill switch on Donald Trump’s tariffs on DOGE, on the attacks against Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid,” Schumer said after the vote. “And at each opportunity, Republicans refused.”

Graham said in a statement on X after the vote, “Tonight, the Senate took one small step toward reconciliation and one giant leap toward making the tax cuts permanent, securing the border, providing much-needed help for the military and finally cutting wasteful Washington spending.”

The budget would address border funding for the Trump administration as well as extend the hallmark tax cuts Trump passed in 2017. 

Initially, there was stark disagreement between Republicans in the House and Senate on how to organize a budget reconciliation resolution. The House GOP leaders preferred one bill with both the border and taxes included, while those in the Senate wanted to have two separate resolutions for them. 

It’s still not clear that House conservatives will accept the Senate plan, despite its similarities to the lower chamber’s framework.

The Senate’s bid to permanently extend Trump’s tax cuts is likely to be one of the biggest points of contention. 

Republicans aren’t necessarily on the same page just yet about budget reconciliation. (Reuters)

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The House Budget Committee’s Republican majority wrote on X just before the Senate kicked off its vote series, “Cutting taxes without cutting spending doesn’t reduce taxes, it merely shifts the tax burden to our children. We have a generational opportunity – and maybe our last – to get our fiscal house in order.”

After matching frameworks pass the House and Senate, the relevant congressional committees will begin filling it out with policy and spending changes under their jurisdictions.

Trump expressed support for the Senate framework earlier this week, saying at an unrelated event, “If we get this done, it’ll be the most incredible bill ever passed in the history of our Congress.”

A Rhode Island federal judge targeted for impeachment dealt the Trump administration a legal blow on Friday, ordering it to lift a freeze on federal funds.

U.S. District Judge John McConnell ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to unfreeze federal funds to states after plaintiffs alleged the agency had failed to comply with an earlier court order.

The lawsuit was originally launched by 22 states and the District of Columbia, challenging the Trump administration’s decision to block funding for programs like the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Pollution Reduction Grant and other environmental initiatives. 

LAWSUIT TRACKER: NEW RESISTANCE BATTLING TRUMP’S SECOND TERM THROUGH ONSLAUGHT OF LAWSUITS TAKING AIM AT EOS

A Rhode Island federal judge, currently at the center of an impeachment debacle, dealt the Trump administration a legal blow on Friday, ordering the administration to unpause a federal funds freeze. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Plaintiffs in the suit, including the states of New York, California, Illinois and Rhode Island, argued that FEMA’s implementation of a manual review process for payment requests violated a previous preliminary injunction issued by McConnell. The states argued that the review “constitutes ‘a categorical pause or freeze of funding appropriate by Congress.'”

The defendants, which include President Donald Trump and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), responded that the review did not violate the order because “FEMA is relying on its own independent authorities to implement the process rather than the OMB Directive.”

McConnell concluded that the plaintiffs had “presented evidence that strongly suggests that FEMA is implementing this manual review process based, covertly, on the President’s January 20, 2025 executive order.” 

COURTROOM COMBAT: INSIDE THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY SYSTEM WHERE TRUMP’S AGENDA IS UNDER ASSAULT

“The Court reaffirms its preliminary injunction order,” McConnell wrote. 

McConnell had issued a restraining order in late January that enjoined the defendants from freezing federal funds. This came after OMB released a memo on Jan. 27 announcing the administration’s plans to temporarily pause federal grants and loans. The White House later rescinded the memo on Jan. 29. 

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., left, formally introduced his articles of impeachment against U.S. District Judge John McConnell on March 24. (Getty Images)

However, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the move didn’t equate a “recission of the federal funding freeze.” 

‘CORRUPT, DANGEROUS’: GOP REP MOVES TO IMPEACH JUDGE WHO BLOCKED TRUMP FEDERAL FUNDS FREEZE

After McConnell ordered the administration to comply with the restraining order, the government appealed to the First Circuit — which refused to stay the orders. 

McConnell also recently made headlines after becoming one of several federal judges hit with impeachment articles. 

“Judge McConnell’s actions are corrupt, dangerous, and worthy of impeachment,” Clyde told Fox News Digital. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde formally introduced his articles of impeachment against McConnell on March 24, after his initial announcement in February. 

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The articles, first shared with Fox News Digital, charged McConnell with abuse of power and conflicts of interest, stating he “knowingly politicized and weaponized his judicial position to advance his own political views and beliefs.”

“The American people overwhelmingly voted for President Trump in November, providing a clear mandate to make our federal government more efficient,” Clyde told Fox News Digital. “Yet Judge McConnell, who stands to benefit from his own injunction, is attempting to unilaterally obstruct the president’s agenda and defy the will of the American people. Judge McConnell’s actions are corrupt, dangerous, and worthy of impeachment.”

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy contributed to this report.

The Senate kicked off a marathon vote series on Friday night, which Republicans need to get through in order to approve their changes to the House’s plan for President Donald Trump’s budget. 

“Very soon, the Senate is going to be voting on a budget resolution that essentially accomplishes five objectives – but at least four. And one is to prevent a $4 trillion tax increase on the American people at the end of the year, number one,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a Senate floor speech before voting kicked off.

“Number two, it rebuilds our military by investing in our military readiness in a way that will enable us to deal with and deter the threats that America deals with in a very dangerous world. It will restore energy dominance for this, for our country, making energy more affordable to the American people.

“Obviously securing the border – and there are resources in there to make sure that over the course of the next four years of this administration, that they have what they need to ensure that our border is secure and that the American people are safe.”

DEM SENATOR LOOKS TO HIJACK KEY TRUMP BUDGET PROCESS WITH TARIFF CHALLENGE

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. (Reuters)

The final point, Thune said, was “reducing spending.”

The seemingly endless amendment votes began after nearly a day of debate concluded. Republicans passed a key motion on Thursday to begin the process, which will end with a vote on their adjustments to the House GOP’s budget. 

During the “vote-a-rama,” senators of both parties are able to introduce an unlimited number of amendments, and many are expected to get floor votes. Democrats are planning to use the marathon of votes as an opportunity to force Republicans to go on record on Trump’s tariffs and the actions of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

REPUBLICANS CHARGE AHEAD ON TRUMP BUDGET, SETTING UP MARATHON SENATE VOTES

President Donald Trump holds a chart as he delivers remarks on reciprocal tariffs during an event in the Rose Garden entitled “Make America Wealthy Again” at the White House in Washington on April 2, 2025. (Getty Images)

On Thursday, the Senate agreed on a motion to proceed by a vote of 52 to 48, along party lines. 

The only exception was Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who voted against it. He has notably criticized the budget amendment’s provision on the debt ceiling, which would raise it by up to $5 trillion. 

During the last such series in February, the Senate voted for about 10 hours, into the early morning. The budget they passed was the Senate GOP’s preferred strategy of having two budget reconciliation resolutions for the border and extending Trump’s tax cuts. 

TED CRUZ CLASHES WITH KEY DEMOCRAT OVER ‘SECOND PHASE OF LAWFARE’ THROUGH FEDERAL JUDGES’ ORDERS

Sen. Rand Paul talks with reporters after the senate luncheons in the U.S. Capitol on April 1, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

But the House’s plan to address both in one bill ultimately won out after getting Trump’s blessing. 

It’s unclear how long the voting will last, as it depends on how many amendments get votes and when Democrat and Republican leadership in the Senate come to a time agreement. 

GOP DEFECTORS HELP SENATE ADVANCE RESOLUTION TO CANCEL TRUMP TARIFFS DESPITE WHITE HOUSE VETO WARNING

Republicans aren’t necessarily on the same page just yet about budget reconciliation. (Reuters)

When the voting series ends, a final vote will take place to approve the Senate amendment to the House’s budget. If this passes, it will still need to return to the lower chamber before taking effect. 

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In addition to raising the debt ceiling, and in doing so taking leverage away from the Senate Democrats, the Senate budget amendment makes Trump’s tax cuts permanent by what’s known as a current policy baseline, determined by Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report

The U.S. General Services Administration has saved $1 million by converting decades-old information storage technology, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said Friday. 

In a post on X, DOGE said that the agency, which supplies office space, transportation and other basic services to federal agencies, saved money by converting 14,000 magnetic tapes to permanent modern digital records.

The move is part of the Elon Musk-led group’s mission to get rid of wasteful government spending. 

MUSK NOT LEAVING YET, WRAPPING UP WORK ON SCHEDULE ONCE ‘INCREDIBLE WORK AT DOGE IS COMPLETE’: WHITE HOUSE  

The U.S. General Services Administration has saved $1 million by converting decades-old technology, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said Friday. (Getty)

Earlier this week, the group said The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a month for website changes before canceling the contract and having an internal staffer take over. 

While combing through loads and loads of data, DOGE discovered a previous contract by the VA for its website maintenance.

JD VANCE FIRES BACK AT CRITICS OF TRUMP TARIFFS, ADDRESSES ELON MUSK’S DOGE FUTURE

DOGE leader Elon Musk is pictured with the U.S. General Services Administration building in Washington D.C. The GSA on Friday is saving $1 million by upgrading its technology, DOGE said.  (AP/Getty)

“Good work by @DeptVetAffairs,” DOGE said in an X post on Wednesday. “VA was previously paying ~$380,000/month for minor website modifications. That contract has not been renewed, and the same work is now being executed by 1 internal VA software engineer spending ~10 hours/week.”

GAS said on Thursday it will save $4.5 million by “optimizing leases & reducing our footprint” with less unused office space. 

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“Smart moves like this mean more efficiency & better spaces for agencies to deliver for the American people,” a GSA post on X states. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the GSA, but did not hear back by the time of publication.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is slated to meet with Panama leaders next week amid President Donald Trump‘s continued efforts to regain control of the key strategic and military resource. 

The Trump administration has been outspoken about national security threats presented by alleged Chinese interference.

During a February visit to the country, Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in an X post that “the United States cannot, and will not, allow the Chinese Communist Party to continue with its effective and growing control over the Panama Canal area.” 

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed on Friday the secretary of defense will attend the 2025 Central American Security Conference, participating in discussions that will “drive ongoing efforts to strengthen the U.S.’s partnerships with Panama and other Central American nations,” according to a report from the Associated Press.

A cargo boat navigates on the Panama Canal next to the expansion project of the Panama Canal on the Pacific side in Panama City, November 17, 2015. (Reuters)

PANAMA DENIES STATE DEPT CLAIM THAT IT IS ELIMINATING FEES FOR US GOV VESSELS USING CANAL

The president, who has criticized the six-figure premiums imposed on U.S. ships traveling along the vital waterway, previously suggested repurchasing the canal.

It was built by the U.S. over the span of multiple decades, but was eventually handed over to Panama during the Carter administration.

The “Panama Canal Repurchase Act,” a bill that was recently introduced in Congress, would give Trump the authority to negotiate with appropriate Panamanian government officials to reacquire the Panama Canal.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a NATO Defence Ministers meeting at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on Feb. 13, 2025. (Reuters/Yves Herman)

CHINA, HONG KONG THREATEN TO THWART SALE OF PANAMA CANAL PORTS TO AMERICA’S BLACKROCK

Panama President José Raúl Mulino previously said China does not have influence over the canal and accused Trump of “lying” about potentially acquiring it, according to the AP.

BlackRock, Inc. later announced a $23 billion deal with Hong Kong-based CK Hutchinson to take ownership of the Panamanian ports of Cristobal and Balboa, along with 43 ports in 23 other countries, Fox News Digital previously reported.

Two cargo ships enter the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal in Panama City on Jan. 22. (Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images)

The canal could be used as leverage for China in U.S. tariff negotiations.

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Hegseth will also visit Eglin Air Force Base in Florida to meet with military members and leadership at the 7th Special Forces Group, according to the AP.

Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.