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.
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."
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."
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.
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.
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."
"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.
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.
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."
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."
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.
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.
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 reviewedby 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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
"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.
"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.
"[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."
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.
"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.
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.
"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."
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."
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."
"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.
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."
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."
"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.
"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."
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."
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."
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.
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."
Trumpalso 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.
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.
"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."
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.
"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."
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.
Disgraced former Rep. George Santos could face more than seven years in prison if New York prosecutors get their way.
Santos, 36, who became just the sixth House member to be expelled from the chamber and the first Republican, pleaded guilty to federal fraud and identity theft charges in August as part of a plea deal after having been indicted on felony charges.
The former lawmaker stole from political donors, used campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses, lied to Congress about his wealth and collected unemployment benefits while actually working.
"No matter how hard the DOJ comes for me, they are mad because they will NEVER break my spirit," Santos posted on X Friday in the wake of a court filing by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Santos has already agreed to serve a minimum of two years in prison and was expected to be sentenced in February but asked the court to postpone sentencing until he can make enough money from his podcast to pay the nearly $600,000 he owes in restitution and forfeiture.
Prosecutors alleged he had raked in around $800,000 from appearances on the Cameo app, with previous reports suggesting he was charging $350 a pop for videos featuring his drag alter ego Kitara Ravache. Santos previously denied ever dressing as a drag queen or associating with drag queens.
Prosecutors argued in the filing Friday that Santos warrants a significant sentence because his "unparalleled crimes" had "made a mockery" of the country’s election system.
"From his creation of a wholly fictitious biography to his callous theft of money from elderly and impaired donors, Santos’s unrestrained greed and voracious appetite for fame enabled him to exploit the very system by which we select our representatives," the office wrote.
They wrote that he had been unrepentant for years and blasted investigations into his crimes as a "witch hunt."
They also said his claims of remorse after pleading guilty "ring hollow" and suggested he has a "high likelihood of reoffending" given he has not forfeited any of his ill-gotten gains or repaid any of his victims.
The lawyers maintain such a sentence is in line with those handed to former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and other political figures facing similar financial crimes.
Santos' legal team asked for a two-year sentence in a Friday court filing. His lawyer, Andrew Mancilla, said prosecutors were selling a false narrative to the court.
"The government wants headlines, not justice. This vindictive 87-month demand ignores sentencing norms for similar cases," Mancilla said.
The freshman lawmaker was expelled a year into his first term in the House in the wake of a damning House Ethics Committee report that found he misused campaign funds on luxury items and OnlyFans, among other things. He had not been convicted of a crime at the time.
During his campaign, Santos claimed that he attended New York University, that he had worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, and that his grandparents had fled the Nazis during World War Two. None of those claims were true.
Santos was once touted as a rising political star after he flipped the suburban district that covers the affluent North Shore of Long Island and a slice of the New York City borough of Queens in 2022.
Last year he failed in an attempt to relaunch his political career by running as an Independent in a neighboring district to re-enter the House.
Fox News’ Stepheny Price and Anders Hagstrom as well as The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
An Ohio substitute teacher is accused of offering a student $2,000 to kill her estranged husband before the teenager's mother caught wind of the murder-for-hire plot and alerted authorities.
Stephanie Demetrius, 44, was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree conspiracy for the offer to a boy at The Academy For Urban Scholars High School in Columbus, WSYX reported.
Demetrius approached a student at the school on March 26 and offered $2,000 to carry out the murder of her soon-to-be ex-husband. The student was initially paid $250 in cash as a down payment.
"This particular teacher was attempting to groom this young person into committing murder," Columbus Division of Police Sgt. James Fuqua told WSYX.
The plan was foiled when the student’s mom discovered texts on her son's phone between him and Demetrius. The teenager's mother then reported the incident to the police.
"Without their help, some of this might not have come to light," Fuqua said. "This was a situation where a parent was able to capture things inside this young person's phone and contact authorities."
In a recorded phone call between the student and Demetrius, the substitute teacher told the student that he would receive the remainder of the payment, saying she owed an additional "15."
The substitute teacher also gave the student information about when her children would be out of the home, so he could kill her estranged husband, who worked from home, court records show, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
"When asked if the neighbors would hear the gunfire, she advised that they don't care about the neighbors," court records state, the outlet reported.
Demetrius and her husband have been married since 2004 but were going through divorce proceedings, court records show.
She appeared in Franklin County Municipal Court on Thursday morning, with her public defender denying the allegations and criticizing them as fabrication.
Prosecutor Parker Schwartz said Demetrius's estranged husband had received a protection order against her. Schwartz also noted that Demetrius had exhibited "possessive and controlling behavior," had mental health issues and had previously made homicidal threats.
Court filings show she has previously been accused of assaulting her estranged husband and some of her children, setting a fire in her home's basement, smashing garage doors and damaging other property while the children were present and other threatening behavior, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Demetrius was released on a $150,000 bond and is barred from having any contact with her estranged husband or the student. She is due back in court on April 11.
The Senate passed a framework for a sweeping bill promoting President Donald Trump's agenda 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 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.
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."
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.
"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.
House Republicans passed a framework that closely resembles the current Senate-passed version last month.
But it's still not clear that House conservatives will accept the Senate plan, despite its similarities to the lower chamber's framework, with the Senate's bid to permanently extend Trump's tax cuts likely to be one of the biggest points of contention.
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."
Trump on Friday shared video of a recent airstrike on Houthi rebels, writing, "They will never sink our ships again."
"These Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis! They will never sink our ships again!"
The black and white aerial footage appeared to show a group assembling before a massive blast leaves nothing but a crater.
The Trump administration has been conducting daily airstrikes on the Iranian-backed rebels for the last 20 days following renewed Houthi threats against Israeli vessels last month after Jerusalem cut off humanitarian aid headed for the Gaza Strip.
Late last month, the group took responsibility for attacks on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and several U.S. warships in the Red Sea.
The Houthis have also shot down three U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones since March 3, sources previously told Fox News.
The State Department put forward sanctions after the Houthis shot down the first Reaper in early March, and on Tuesday, the State Department announced sanctions on "financial facilitators, procurement operatives, and companies operating as part of a global illicit finance network supporting the Houthis."
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told CBS' "Face the Nation" late last month: "These guys are like al Qaeda or ISIS with advanced cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and some of the most sophisticated air defenses, all provided by Iran. Keeping the sea lanes open, keeping trade and commerce open, is a fundamental aspect of our national security."
On Monday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the Houthis have been "decimated by the relentless strikes over the past two weeks."
"Many of their Fighters and Leaders are no longer with us," he continued. "We hit them every day and night — Harder and harder. Their capabilities that threaten Shipping and the Region are rapidly being destroyed. Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation. The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at U.S. ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran."
The terrorist network, backed by Iran, began escalating its attacks on Western ships in the Red Sea following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. Notably, security experts have pointed out the Houthi attacks are not indiscriminate as they do not routinely target Chinese or Saudi Arabian vessels.
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.
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.
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.
The canal could be used as leverage for China in U.S. tariff negotiations.
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.
While senators Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., cited economists' projections that President Donald Trump's tariffs will cost American families an extra $5,000 per year, GOP Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., insisted, "We don't know," suggesting those who claim they do are making fools of themselves.
"I followed what all these economists are saying. Most of them make these late-night psychic hotlines look respectable," Kennedy told Fox News Digital at the Capitol. "They don't know any more than anybody else. We're in uncharted waters here."
According to Schumer and Luján, Americans can likely expect to see costs rise enough to equate to a $5,000 per year tax on American families.
"When the average American family sits down and tries to figure out how they're going to pay for things, and they hear they may pay $5,000 more than they've had to pay before — and they may not be able to buy a new car, they may not be able to support that new drug that grandma needs, they may not be able to take that vacation they were planning for a year — they're going to be outraged," Schumer told reporters.
"It's a huge tax on American families. All – all – to help billionaires get a tax cut."
Luján seconded the sentiment from Schumer, pointing to the economists that Kennedy blasted as less respectable than a "late-night psychic hotline."
"There's no question that the American people are the ones that are going to be paying the brunt of this," Luján argued. "The actuaries that have been putting out reports and other economists are suggesting that this is going to be a national sales tax on the American people of about 5,000 bucks year. That's just not right.
"If the president would be open to using targeted tariffs as a tool — something that I'm open to and I think others are — that's one thing," Luján added. "But when he's arbitrarily just going across the board and trying to slap on numbers … I'm very concerned for my constituents that are going to be paying out of pocket."
Kennedy argued such projections had no basis in fact.
"The truth is we don't know. These economists don't know," Kennedy insisted. "These are uncharted waters. We've not had these kind of tariffs in a long time. It may be a net positive. President Trump implemented tariffs in his first term. Didn't seem to hurt the economy. It could be a negative. All I'm saying is that in Washington, D.C., for every economist, there's an equal and opposite economist, and they're usually both wrong."
A Democratic prosecutor in Fairfax County, Virginia, dropped a felony charge against a twice-deported illegal immigrant charged with strangulation and kidnapping, cutting a plea deal that let him off with a misdemeanor.
According to local outlet ABC7 News, Democrat Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano advertises on his website that "wherever possible, Steve will make charging and plea decisions that limit or avoid immigration consequences."
Guatemalan national Wilmer Osmany Ramos Giron was facing 360 days in prison for a felony charge involving abduction by force, strangulation and assault on a family member.
Ramos Giron was accused of assaulting his ex-wife during an argument. According to the victim’s testimony and court documents, Ramos Giron allegedly took his ex-wife’s keys, keeping her from leaving; placed two hands on her throat, impeding her breathing; and brandished a knife over her legs.
According to a statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Ramos Giron is in the country illegally after previously being deported twice. The ICE statement said Ramos Giron has a prior federal conviction for a gun crime and has an ICE detainer filed against him.
Descano’s move has been harshly criticized by other local leaders who say he is contributing to a two-tiered justice system in favor of illegal immigrants.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, slammed Descano, saying, "If someone's here illegally and they have committed a violent crime, or they're a drug dealer and you can pick them up on an illegal weapons charge, you shouldn't treat them more leniently than you would an actual U.S. citizen.
"He is willing to treat those that have broken our laws and come here illegally and give them a lenient sentence or plea deal than somebody that's actually a legal citizen of the United States," said Miyares. "That's unconscionable to me that someone would think that is in some way protecting our community."
Fairfax County Criminal Justice Advisory Board member Sean Kennedy also commented on the case, saying, "It’s appalling that Fairfax’s prosecutor would protect and abet this dangerous, violent offender precisely because he is illegally present.
"How does breaking one set of laws provide you immunity to break more? It shouldn’t, but it does in Fairfax's two-tier justice system."
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.
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.
"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.
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."
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).
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.
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.
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.
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 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will slash its workforce by at least 25% beginning Friday with layoffs as the Trump administration continues to shrink the size of the federal government.
In addition to the layoffs, the agency said in a letter to employees that it is eliminating its Office of Civil Rights and Compliance, which is responsible for protecting taxpayers from discrimination, audits and investigations.
The remaining employees in the division will be transferred to other departments.
"In a stark contrast to the previous administration’s wildly unpopular plan to hire thousands of additional IRS agents, President Trump is focused on saving tax dollars, eliminating bloat, axing useless DEI offices, and increasing the agency’s efficiency," White House spokesperson Liz Huston said to Fox News Digital.
"This action is being taken to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the IRS in accordance with agency priorities and the Workforce Optimization Initiative outlined in a recent Executive Order," the letter states, referring to President Donald Trump's executive order directing the Department of Government Efficiency to get rid of wasteful spending.
The agency said it was approved to offer Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment (VSIP). Information about those programs will be shared with employees at a later date, the message said.
"This calendar year to date, approximately 5% of this office left through the Deferred Resignation Program and attrition," the message said. "An additional 75% of the office will be reduced through a RIF (Reduction in Force)."
A Treasury Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the reductions are part of, and driven by, "process improvements and technological innovations that will allow the IRS to collect revenue and serve taxpayers more effectively."
"The roll back of wasteful Biden-era hiring surges, and consolidation of critical support functions are vital to improve both efficiency and quality of service," the spokesperson said. "The Secretary is committed to ensuring that efficiency is realized while providing the collections, privacy, and customer service the American people deserve."
The layoffs were expected, as the agency announced in February its intention to slash nearly 7,000 probationary workers in Washington, D.C.
Former President Barack Obama sought to distance himself from the Democratic Party after leaving it in shambles following his departure from the White House, according to a new book.
The book, "Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,"published by William Morrow and Company, claims that Obama was never a Democratic Party loyalist. Instead, the authors allege, Obama curried favor from a group of "Black professionals" for his campaigns, unlike former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and former President Joe Biden.
Additionally, Obama’s creation of Organizing for Action — a nonprofit that launched in 2012 following Obama’s re-election to advance his legislative priorities — fractured the Democratic Party, according to the book, authored by political journalists Jonathan Allen ofNBC News and Amie Parnes of The Hill.
"Though Organizing for Action never realized his vision, it competed with the party for power and money," the book said. "He left the Democratic Party far weaker than he found it. Or, as one Black party operative put it, ‘Obama destroyed that s---.’"
The book also detailed how the Clintons, along with Biden and former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile and a few other party operatives, sought to "rebuild the party infrastructure" following Obama’s 2016 departure from the White House. This meant preventing far-left Democrats from seizing control of the party and ensuring party loyalists ran the show, according to the book.
"By helping install party loyalists at the national and state committees over the course of years, these establishment Democrats kept progressive outsiders at bay. ‘You know who did that?’ said one Black Biden ally familiar with the maneuvering. ‘Bill and Hillary motherf---ing Clinton,’" the book related.
"Fight," released Tuesday, also revealed how Obama remained hesitant to back former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election to replace Biden, amid concerns about his mental fitness. The book claimed that Obama didn’t believe Harris had the capacity to beat now-President Donald Trump in the November 2024 race, frustrating Harris.
Ultimately, Obama endorsed Harris five days after Biden announced he would not run for office again in the 2024 race — a delay that offended Harris and required some "mending" between the two Democrats, a source close to Obama said, Allen and Parnes wrote.
A spokesperson for Obama's press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Even so, Obama's wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, appeared at the Democratic National Convention in August 2024 after Harris clinched the party's nomination.
"Kamala Harris is more than ready for this moment," Michelle Obama said at the convention. "She is one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency and she is one of the most dignified — a tribute to her mother, to my mother, and probably to your mother, too, the embodiment of the stories we tell ourselves about this country."
Meanwhile, Democrat strategists predict that Barack Obama’s influence over the Democratic Party is waning, and some have suggested he is out of touch with the appeal of Trump.
For example, political commentator and author Ben Burgess wrote an op-ed after Obama delivered a speech at the Obama Democracy Forum that part of the "problem" is Obama doesn’t understand why Trump won the 2024 election and that the American public should stop listening to the former president.
"Obama’s characteristic rhetorical virtues were on full display," Burgess wrote in December 2024 for MSNBC, following Obama’s speech. "He was a constitutional law professor before he was a politician, and he still sounds like one. At the same time, he was a once-in-a-generation talent as a political communicator. He knows how to convey a complex set of ideas in a digestible and appealing way."
"But there was a massive gaping hole at the center of his speech," the op-ed stated. "He still doesn’t understand why his eight years in power culminated in the rise of Trump."
"Fight" details how Trump secured the White House for a second term and the fallout of his victory for the Democratic Party. It is based on interviews Allen and Parnes conducted with more than 150 political insiders, according to the book's description.
Fox News’ Hanna Panreck and Emma Colton contributed to this report.
For decades, President Donald Trump has remained a staunch advocate for tariffs — routinely declaring the word one of the most beautiful in the dictionary and regularly accusing foreign countries of ripping off the U.S.
Following through on 2024 campaign promises and building upon policies his first administration introduced, Trump unveiled a series of historic tariffs at the White House’s Rose Garden Wednesday for a "Make America Wealthy Again" event as part of a day his administration dubbed "Liberation Day" for the U.S.
While some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced concern over the policy, tariffs are an area where Trump’s views have remained incredibly consistent over the years, as he has routinely decried that other countries have treated the U.S. unfairly in trade deals…Read more
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CALIFORNIA PLEADIN': Newsom to ask world leaders to exempt California exports from retaliatory tariffs
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Get the latest updates on the Trump administration and Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.
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.
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."
"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.
However, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the move didn’t equate a "recission of the federal funding 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.
Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde formally introduced his articles of impeachment against McConnell on March 24, after his initial announcement in February.
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.
