Legacy media and longtime politics reporters are increasingly reporting on scandals that rocked the Democratic Party ahead of the November election, shining additional light on political issues that Republicans had long spotlighted and railed against. 

"A full 4½ years after The Post’s bombshell series on Hunter Biden’s influence-peddling schemes, The New York Times has deigned to take an interest in the former First Son’s corruption," the New York Post's editorial board wrote in a piece last week slamming the New York Times for reporting on Biden corruption allegations years after other outlets had already uncovered reported details. 

"We’d say the Times’ willingness to at long last cover this comes better late than never, but it only published the story now that it doesn’t remotely matter anymore," the editorial board continued. 

The New York Times declared in an article published on Friday that former first son Hunter Biden "sought support from the State Department" to aid his former employer, Ukrainian energy company Burisma, while his father served as vice president. Hunter Biden allegedly leveraging his last name and father's political status in the U.S. has long been criticized by conservatives, who have alleged that Hunter and his father engaged in influence-peddling through Burisma.  

BIDEN'S CLAIM TO HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF HUNTER'S BUSINESS DEALINGS IS BECOMING HARDER TO MAINTAIN 

Hunter Biden was paid millions of dollars while serving on the board of Burisma after joining the company as legal counsel in the spring of 2014 before being elevated to the Board of Directors later that year. 

The Bidens were accused by Republicans of having "coerced" the Burisma CEO into paying them millions of dollars in exchange for their help in getting the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company fired during the Obama administration. 

The 46th president denied any involvement in his son's business dealings. 

Biden issued his son a sweeping 10-year pardon before exiting the Oval Office in January that protects Hunter Biden from offenses he "has committed or may have committed" from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024. Alleged Biden family influence-peddling has echoed from the halls of Congress to social media channels on X, but legacy outlets and left-wing media outlets often didn't give a platform to the allegations.

CNN'S JAKE TAPPER GETS RIPPED ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR 'TRYING TO REWRITE HISTORY' WITH NEW BOOK ON BIDEN'S DECLINE

Jonathan Turley, Fox News' contributor and Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, published an op-ed for Fox News Digital on Sunday remarking on the NYT's piece that was published years after other outlets and experts investigated alleged Biden family influence-peddling.

"For years, some of us have written about the Biden family’s multimillion-dollar influence-peddling operation and the Justice Department’s refusal to charge Hunter Biden with being an unregistered foreign agent. Now, years later, The New York Times has found evidence suggesting that the former president's son was acting as a foreign agent as early as the Obama administration, when his father was vice president," Turley wrote.

Media veterans and legacy outlets have leaned into reporting on and investigating a handful of other scandals and political news that conservatives had long sounded the alarm on, including that the coronavirus likely originated out of a lab in China, as well as on President Biden's mental decline in the lead-up to the election last year. 

PUBLIC WAS MISLED BY THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY ABOUT COVID ORIGINS, NY TIMES COLUMNIST ARGUES

The New York Times ran a column last month claiming the scientific community "badly misled" the public in an effort to suppress the theory that COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, even after the paper's own science writer called the theory "racist." 

"We Were Badly Misled About the Event That Changed Our Lives," the March 16 piece published by NYT columnist and Princeton sociology professor Zeynep Tufekci, argued that the scientific community long suspected COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab, but purposefully "hid or understated crucial facts," to mislead the public about the lab’s "terrifyingly lax" safety precautions. 

'MOST DAMNING EVIDENCE': HUNTER BIDEN'S FULL PARDON RESURFACES DECADE OF CONTROVERSIES, 'INFLUENCE-PEDDLING'

"We have since learned, however, that to promote the appearance of consensus, some officials and scientists hid or understated crucial facts, misled at least one reporter, orchestrated campaigns of supposedly independent voices and even compared notes about how to hide their communications in order to keep the public from hearing the whole story," Tufekci wrote.

The Trump administration's CIA reported earlier this year that the lab leak was the likely origin of the COVID-19 virus, which had previously been passed off by media outlets and scientists as a likely conspiracy theory. 

The New York Times defended that it had reported on the lab leak theory multiple times across the years, including in 2021, when approached for comment by Fox News Digital on the recent articles on both Hunter Biden and the lab leak theory. 

"The New York Times has intensely pursued every theory and lead on the origins of Covid-19, documented the political debate, funding, influence, and shifts in thinking among the scientific community, and reported on China’s censorship campaign that has stifled the search for truth. The Times has helped readers navigate the coronavirus pandemic through independent, verified reporting, and any insinuation that we have not thoroughly pursued leads is false," a NYT spokesperson said. 

And a newly released book by longtime D.C. reporters Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, "Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House," investigates Biden's mental decline in the lead-up to the general election, calling him a "shell of himself."

"All of them," Parnes told Vanity Fair of who in Biden's inner circle is most to blame for covering up his mental decline when he was in office. "It’s pretty remarkable how they kept him very closed off. He was a shell of himself. When he entered the White House, he was so, so different from the man who I covered as vice president, a guy who would hold court in the Naval Observatory with reporters until the wee hours."

"We’d been watching Biden’s decline for a long period of time and, honestly, thought he had lost his fastball some when he was running in 2020. And it was still so shocking to see the leader of the free world so bereft of coherent thought," Allen added of Biden's mental decline. 

Biden's mental acuity had been under conservatives' microscope since before the 2020 election, with concerns heightening in February 2024 when Special Counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents as vice president, announced he would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, calling Biden "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." 

JONATHAN TURLEY: BIDEN DOJ BEHIND EVEN THE TIMES IN PURSUING ALLEGED HUNTER CORRUPTION

The report renewed scrutiny over Biden’s mental fitness, which rose to a fever pitch in June 2024 after the president’s first and only presidential debate against Trump. Biden's debate performance was seen as an abject failure, with traditional allies soon joining conservatives in their concern over the president's health in the context of encouraging Biden to pass the mantle to a younger generation of U.S. leaders. 

Biden dropped out of the race in July, and shortly thereafter endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the party's presidential candidate. Harris ultimately failed to rally enough support to defeat Trump at the polls in November.

Jake Tapper, a CNN anchor and longtime Trump critic, has also touted his upcoming book, "Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," which is also anticipated to detail Biden’s mental decline and the alleged cover-up by members of the Democratic Party.

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden's post-presidential office but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Fox News Digital's Andrew Mark Miller, Gabriel Hays, and David Spector contributed to this report. 

White House Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett doubled down on the effectiveness of President Donald Trump's tariffs on Sunday, saying dozens of countries are now seeking to open negotiations and U.S. manufacturing is booming.

Hassett made the claim during an appearance on ABC News' "This Week" with host George Stephanopoulos. He said that over 50 countries have already said they want to negotiate new trade agreements with Trump's administration since the tariffs hit last week, though he acknowledged there may be short-term pain for consumers.

He pointed to the decrease in prices that has existed since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2000, arguing that the loss of jobs outweighs the low prices.

"If cheap goods were the answer, if cheap goods were going to make Americans' real wages better off, then real incomes would have gone up over that time. Instead, they went down because wages went down more than prices went down. So we got the cheap goods at the grocery store, but then we had fewer jobs," he said.

JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO RETURN MAN MARYLAND MISTAKENLY DEPORTED TO EL SALVADOR PRISON

Hassett added that he has received "anecdotal word" that some U.S. auto plants are adding second shifts to their work schedules in response to the tariffs.

JD VANCE TORCHES MEDIA, DEMS' ‘DISGRACEFUL SET OF PRIORITIES’ ON DEPORTATION OF ACCUSED MS-13 GANG MEMBER

Stephanopoulos then pressed Hassett to explain why Russia wasn't targeted with any additional tariffs.

"There's obviously an ongoing negotiation with Russia and Ukraine, and I think the president made the decision not to conflate the two issues. It doesn't mean that Russia in the fullness of time, is going to be treated wildly different than every other country," Hassett responded.

"But Russia's one of the only countries, one of few countries that is not subject to these new tariffs, aren't they?" Stephanopoulos pressed.

"They're in the middle of a negotiation, George, aren't they?" Hassett countered. "Would you literally advise that you go in and put a whole bunch of new things on the table in the middle of a negotiation that affects so many American and Ukrainian and Russian lives?"

"Negotiators do that all the time," Stephanopoulos argued.

"Russia is in the midst of negotiations over peace that affects really thousands and thousands of lives of people and that's what President Trump's focused on right now," Hassett said.

Anti-Israel organizer Mahmoud Khalil ripped the administration of Columbia University in an op-ed published in the school's newspaper on Friday.

The op-ed, titled simply "A letter to Columbia," accuses the institution of "laying the groundwork for my abduction."  He goes on to compare President Donald Trump's crackdown on anti-Israel protesters to Columbia's own apathy toward Palestinians, listing other students who have been "snatched by the state."

"The situation is oddly reminiscent of when I fled the brutality of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and sought refuge in Lebanon," Khalil wrote. "The logic used by the federal government to target myself and my peers is a direct extension of Columbia’s repression playbook concerning Palestine."

He went on to accuse Columbia administrators of manufacturing "public hysteria about antisemitism without once mentioning the tens of thousands of Palestinians murdered under bombs made of your dollars."

COLLEGES IN ICE'S DEPORTATION CROSSHAIRS SHELLED OUT DISCOUNTS, FINANCIAL AID TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: GOP REP

He also targeted some fellow students at Columbia who he says helped to create a false sense that antisemitism was spreading across the campus. He also pointed to efforts by certain students to unmask anti-Israel protesters, though he did not name any individuals.

JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO RETURN MAN MARYLAND MISTAKENLY DEPORTED TO EL SALVADOR PRISON

"Especially in light of the dual degree program with Tel Aviv University, I can’t help but think that if I were in Palestine, some of these students would be the ones stopping me at checkpoints, raiding my university, piloting the drones surveilling my community, or killing my neighbors in their homes. While students were building solidarity at Columbia, some pro-Israel students were participating in the genocide as military personnel during their school breaks, only to return to campus and claim victimhood in the classroom," he argued.

"To members of Columbia’s faculty who pat themselves on the back for their progressive leanings but are content to limit their participation to performative statements: What will it take for you to resist the destruction of your University? Are your positions worth more than the lives of your students and the integrity of your work?" he added.

The message comes weeks after ICE agents detained Khalil in New York City in early March. The Department of Homeland Security alleged that he "led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization."

Last week, several Columbia University students chained themselves to a gate outside the school's St. Paul’s Chapel in protest against Khalil's arrest.

The students demanded that the institution release the names of the trustees "who gave Mahmoud Khalil’s name to ICE." The Columbia Palestine Solidarity Committee wrote on X that "We will not leave until our demand is met."

The school denies that any of its administrators requested ICE's presence on campus.

Democrats are celebrating a larger-than-expected victory in a high-profile and historically expensive election in battleground Wisconsin, in the first statewide ballot box contest since President Donald Trump's return to power in January.

And while the GOP came out on top in Tuesday's other marquee contests, comfortably holding control of two vacant congressional seats in twin special elections in red state Florida, Democrats are spotlighting that their candidates overperformed in overwhelmingly Republican districts.

Democrats are portraying last week's contests as early referendums on Trump's sweeping and controversial moves during the opening months of his second tour of duty in the White House, including the massive federal government downsizing being steered by billionaire White House special adviser Elon Musk.

And Democrats argue that the results in Wisconsin and Florida are a sign of things to come in next year's midterm elections.

POLITICAL BAGGAGE? - POLLS INDICATE AMERICANS SOURING ON MUSK

"These races proved what we’ve seen over and over again this year: people are already fed up with Trump’s chaos agenda and they’re voting for a change," Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin emphasized in an email to supporters.

But Republican National Committee chair Mike Whatley, pointing to the Florida victories, countered that "the American people sent a clear message…they want elected officials who will advance President Trump’s America First agenda, and their votes can’t be bought by national Democrats."

LIBERAL-LEANING CANDIDATE WINS FIRST MAJOR STATEWIDE ELECTION OF THE YEAR

In Wisconsin, liberal-leaning Judge Susan Crawford topped conservative-leaning Judge Brad Schimel by roughly 10 percentage points, to preserve the liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is likely to rule going forward on crucial issues like congressional redistricting, voting rights, labor rights and abortion.

With a massive infusion of money from Democratic-aligned and Republican-aligned groups from outside Wisconsin, which turned the technically nonpartisan race into the most expensive judicial election in the nation's history, the contest partially transformed into a proxy battle over Trump as well as Musk, who personally inserted himself into the election.

Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, who has taken a buzz saw to the federal government workforce as he steers Trump's recently created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), dished out roughly $20 million in the Wisconsin race through aligned groups in support of Schimel.

And Musk, in a controversial move, handed out $1 million checks at a rally in Green Bay last Sunday to two Wisconsin voters who had already cast ballots in the contest and had signed a petition to stop "activist judges."

DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMAN LASHES MUSK IN OPENING SALVO OF SENATE BID

"I never could have imagined that I'd be taking on the richest man in the world, for justice in Wisconsin. And we won," Crawford said in her election night victory speech.

The results in Wisconsin will likely give the Democrats a jolt, and validate their efforts to target Musk.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the chamber, argued that Wisconsin voters "sent a decisive message to Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and DOGE by rejecting an extreme Republican for their Supreme Court: our democracy is not for sale."

And the DNC, looking ahead to next year's bigger contests in the 2026 midterm elections, called the showdown in Wisconsin a "bellwether race."

WHERE TRUMP STANDS WITH AMERICANS 10 WEEKS INTO HIS SECOND TOUR OF DUTY IN THE WHITE HOUSE

But veteran Republican strategist Matt Gorman noted that two years ago, when the conservatives lost their majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the liberal-leaning candidate won by 11 points.

Pointing to this week's 10-point margin, with Trump in the White House, Gorman asked"this is what Democrats are jumping up and down over?"

In Florida, the double-digit victories by the Republican candidates will give the GOP a little bit of breathing room in the House of Representatives, where the party is holding onto a very fragile majority as it aims to pass Trump's agenda.

But the Democratic candidates in the two special congressional elections vastly outraised their Republican counterparts – a sign that the party's base is angry and energized – which forced GOP-aligned outside groups to pour money and resources into the races during the final stretch. And the Democratic candidates ended up losing by 15 and 14 points in districts that Trump carried by 37 and 30 points in last November's presidential election.

REPUBLICANS HOLD CONTROL OF TWO VACANT CONGRESSIONAL SEATS IN THIS RED STATE

Democrats quickly spotlighted how the party "overperformed" in Florida. And the House Majority PAC, the top super PAC supporting House Democrats, touted that the results showed "that the political headwinds are firmly at our backs heading into 2026."

But Mike Marinella, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, argued that "Democrats just lit over $20,000,000 on fire in a doomed-to-fail effort to make two deep-red Florida districts competitive – and got blown out of the water in the most embarrassing way."

WHERE TRUMP STANDS WITH AMERICANS 10 WEEKS INTO HIS SECOND TOUR OF DUTY IN THE WHITE HOUSE

The elections in Wisconsin and Florida were held on the eve of Trump's blockbuster tariff announcement, sparking a trade war with the nation's top trading partners and triggering a massive sell-off in the financial markets. The latest move by the president could also set the stage for an even bigger ballot box backlash next year.

But Democrats have a serious brand issue right now.

The party's favorable rating sank to all-time lows in separate national polls conducted last month by CNN and NBC News. Those numbers followed a record low for Democrats in a Quinnipiac University survey in the field in February. 

Additionally, the latest Fox News National poll indicated that congressional Democrats' approval rating is at 30%, near an all-time low. And Democratic activists are irate over their party's inability to blunt Trump's agenda.

And when it comes to normally low-turnout off-year elections and special elections, the party in power – which in the nation's capital is clearly the Republicans – often faces political headwinds.

"We'll get up to fight another day. But this wasn't our day," Schimel said in his concession speech.

And Wisconsin GOP chair Brian Schimming noted that "coming off a successful November, we knew the April elections would be challenging."

DNC chair Martin is touting that "Democrats have won or over-performed in nearly every special election race this year, including this week’s."

But Republicans note that Democrats enjoyed a slew of special election victories in 2023 and 2024 before suffering serious setbacks in last November's elections.

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"Special elections are special for a reason, and not always useful canaries in the coal mines for what lies ahead," veteran Republican strategist Colin Reed told Fox News Digital. "While they can be used as a barometer for energy, they are also a reflection of the individual candidates whose names are on the ballots."

And Gorman emphasized that special elections "are not predictive."

Reed argued that "the bigger challenge for the Democrats looking ahead is the lack of a vision or governing agenda beyond reflexive and blanket opposition to the White House and their continued positioning way outside the mainstream on a slew of commonsense issues." 

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will announce Sunday that he understands the rationale behind President Donald Trump’s tariffs and that the West is entering a new economic era.

"The world has changed, globalization is over and we are now in a new era," the prime minister’s office said in a statement to the Sunday Times. "We’ve got to demonstrate that our approach, a more active Labour government, a more reformist government, can provide the answers for people in every part of this country."

The statement comes after Trump announced new tariffs on dozens of countries around the world on Wednesday, including a 10% levy on goods from the U.K.

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

While Starmer will still argue that tariffs are wrong, according to the Sunday Times report, the prime minister will also admit that he understands the rationale behind Trump’s move and why such policies have become increasingly popular with voters.

"Trump has done something that we don’t agree with, but there’s a reason why people are behind him on this," the prime minister’s office said in the statement.

Starmer is expected to emphasize the failures of free trade and mass migration specifically during the address on Sunday, the report said, arguing that it has failed millions of voters. 

MUSK SAYS HE HOPES FOR 'ZERO TARIFFS,' FREEDOM OF TRADE ZONE BETWEEN US AND EUROPE

Meanwhile, the report noted that Trump ally Elon Musk seemingly publicly broke with the president during a video interview for an event in Italy Saturday, saying he hopes, eventually, for a "zero-tariff" solution between the U.S. and Europe one day.

"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," he said.

Musk also called for there to eventually be more "freedom" of movement between the two continents, an apparent break from Trump’s hard line on immigration.

"That’s what I hope occurs, and also more freedom of people to move between Europe and North America if they wish," Musk said. "If they wish to work in Europe or wish to work in America, they should be allowed to do so, in my view. So that has certainly been my advice to the president."

The White House did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

GOP Rep. Marlin Stutzman told Fox News Digital that the recent Signal leak debacle was "obviously" a mistake, but he expressed confidence in the Trump administration's national security officials and said he trusts the president to determine whether any consequences should be handed down.

"Yes, obviously, we don't want those things to happen," Stutzman. R-Ind., told Fox News from inside the Capitol. "We all know that President Trump is America First. He supports our military, he supports security – I mean, he is the law and order president, so he's going to make sure that he takes care of this… he's going to be the one to make this decision and I support whatever decision he makes."

RUBIO BREAKS SILENCE ON LEAKED SIGNAL CHAT: ‘SOMEONE MADE A BIG MISTAKE’

Stutzman's comments came amid a reported attempt by Democratic Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to introduce articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, national security advisor Michael Waltz and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, each of whom were involved in the Signal chat leak. 

Trump confirmed Thursday aboard Air Force One that multiple employees within the National Security Council were fired, but did add that it was not many. So far, no consequences have been handed down to Hegseth, Waltz or Ratcliffe, three of the highest-ranking officials who allegedly participated in the leaked Signal chat.  

PENTAGON WATCHDOG OPENS PROBE INTO HEGSETH'S USE OF SIGNAL TO DISCUSS HOUTHI ATTACK PLANS

Republicans have said there was no classified material shared or discussed in the leaked Signal chat, but Democrats have insisted the manner in which sensitive information was handled was still "reckless," potentially illegal and constituted the need for repercussions.

But Stutzman expressed confidence in the administration's national security officials and the president, noting that "so far" everyone involved has taken appropriate responsibility and "they're going to make sure that it doesn't happen again."

"I think they'll analyze every communication channel that they have," Stutzman said. "I think that they're going to be sure, especially this soon in the administration – this will be a top priority for them… we all know that there are folks all around the world trying to get into American leaders' conversations all the time, and so they're going to be just as diligent."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

President Donald Trump unveiled his latest tariff plan last week on "Liberation Day," which the administration said will restore the American Dream and spark an economic boon for U.S. workers. 

"American steel workers, auto workers, farmers and skilled craftsmen," Trump said from the White House Rose Garden last Wednesday afternoon in his announcement. "We have a lot of them here with us today. They really suffered, gravely. They watched in anguish as foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once-beautiful American dream. We had an American dream that you don't hear so much about. You did four years ago, and you are now. But you don't too often." 

"Now it's our turn to prosper, and in so doing, use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt," he continued. "And it will all happen very quickly. With today's action, we are finally going to be able to make America great again, greater than ever before. Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base."

The Trump administration’s tariff plan leveled a baseline tariff of 10% on all imports to the U.S., while customized tariffs were set for countries that have higher tariffs in place on American goods. The baseline tariffs of 10% took effect on Saturday, while the other tariffs will take effect on April 9. 

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

Trump pointed to the European Union during his announcement, and explained the U.S. will charge the EU a 20% tariff, compared to its 39% tariffs on the U.S. Japan will see 24% tariffs, compared to the 46% the country charges the U.S., while China will be hit with a 34% tariff, compared to the 67% it charges the U.S.

The customized tariffs, Trump explained, would not be full reciprocal tariffs, as his administration was "very kind" and leveled tariffs that are roughly half of what a particular nation was charging the U.S. on tariffs. 

"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. 

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

"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."

Fox News Digital examined the full tariff list and spoke to experts about who stands to lose the most due to the tariffs, and who will likely benefit and tackle the new tariffs victoriously. 

Fox News Digital spoke with Samir Kapadia, a managing principal at the lobbying and advisory firm the Vogel Group, who explained Vietnam will likely lose the most business due to the upcoming tariffs. 

"Vietnam has long been an amicable trade partner with the United States for a variety of sectors, whether that would be textiles and apparel or computers and consumer electronics, but there has been a gross inequity in the bilateral trade relationship. Vietnam simply doesn't have the economy or the resources to import from the United States and to… provide that reciprocity," Kapadia explained. 

Vietnam charges the U.S. a 90% tariff on imported goods to the nation. The Trump administration last week announced the Southeast Asian country will face a 46% tariff on goods imported to the U.S. 

Vietnam's industries are also deeply rooted in Chinese business investments, Kapadia said. 

MUSK SAYS HE HOPES FOR 'ZERO TARIFFS,' FREEDOM OF TRADE ZONE BETWEEN US AND EUROPE

"To add insult to injury, they also have been a hot bed for Chinese investment. Since the imposition of the Section 301 tariffs under the first Trump administration, which were these large-scale tariffs on Chinese imports, you had a whole number of Chinese companies across a variety of industries in the consumer product segment basically invest, instead, in factories in Vietnam as a way to circumvent paying tariffs, so the Chinese would keep their market share, but just go and make it in another country," he explained. 

Trump signed a memo under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 in 2018 under his first administration targeting Chinese goods for U.S. tariffs in response to Chinese theft of American intellectual property, Trump said at the time. 

"This was by far the worst day for the Vietnamese government, in the sense, they're realizing that that door has now closed. A 46% tariff – Vietnam is not an attractive country to import from. The numbers won't work," Kapadia said of the new rounds of tariffs targeting Vietnam. 

The Asian nation has already felt the pinch, and called on Trump to delay the tariffs from taking effect this weekend.

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

Vietnam's leader To Lam wrote a letter to Trump on Saturday, the New York Times reported, asking him to delay the imposition of the tariffs for at least 45 days and for the pair of world leaders to meet in Washington, D.C., in May "to jointly come to an agreement on this important matter, for the benefit of both our peoples and to contribute to peace, stability and development in the region and the world."

The "biggest losers" from Trump's Wednesday announcement are "without question" China and Vietnam, Kapadia said. 

China was hit with a 34% tariff as part of Trump's announcement last week, which is in addition to previous tariffs leveled on the nation. Kappadia said the newest upcoming tariff and the "high-band" tariffs of 45% on some Chinese goods puts the country's tariff barrier at about 75% to 80%, which Kapadia predicted could grow to 150% by the end of 2025. 

"That's because there's just a lot of ongoing challenges with China that have not begun to kind of roll-out or get resolved, and ultimately the United States is going to have to continue to pressure U.S. companies to invest more in the United States, and the only way to do that is to continue to put pressure on China," Kapadia said. 

The trade expert continued that other nations, particularly European export sectors, could also see fallout from the tariff plan in regard to luxury products or household purchases, but that it's too early to predict where the chips will fall with Europe. 

"I think that that might resolve itself over time, depending upon how the Europeans behave. From what we've seen, just early next week, we're going to have some dignitaries and officials from Europe come and visit the president to negotiate on a potential resolution. All in the meanwhile, they are threatening a retaliatory 20% tariff to kind of make this tit-for-tat based on the reciprocal tariff announcement, but we know from the president that all that's going to do is turn the 20% that we put on Europe to 40%," he said. 

Kapadia pointed to India and Japan as the two nations that will benefit from Trump's tariff plan last week. 

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

"We have seen both the Japanese head of state and the Indian head of state come to Washington and provide the president with opportunities where they would then reduce their own tariff barriers," he said. 

"Just a week before this announcement, Prime Minister Modi came out and provided a whole list to the government… that says, 'Here are all the things that I'm going to reduce, in terms of tariffs of U.S. exports to India' And so I think that's going to continue. And I think that they're going to make headway at getting toward more equitable trade between the two countries," he added. 

Trump unveiled a 27% tariff on India on "Liberation Day" and a 24% tariff on Japan. 

"I think that they're going to make headway at getting toward more equitable trade between the two countries, whether that's India and the U.S. or Japan and the U.S., and honestly serves to the U.S.' benefit to rectify some of those tariff barriers with India," he said. "It is the largest democratic country in the world, and they are strategic ally for geopolitical reasons and a number of other considerations. And so they're going to be a country that I think we have to watch and really see how they negotiate their way through this new tariff regime." 

Kapadia pointed to a handful of U.S. companies that operate in India, such as Lego, Apple and Goldman Sachs, and predicted companies that have made large-scale investments in India will likely stay there, while they will likely move other overseas operations in nations facing even higher tariffs, such as Vietnam, to India. 

TRUMP TOUTS RETURN OF ‘AMERICAN DREAM’ IN HISTORIC TARIFF ANNOUNCEMENT 

"You name it, a whole slew of U.S. companies have made concerted, large-scale investments in India. I think that they're going to stick to them. I think they're going to grow there. And if you look at the difference, just on our arbitrage basis, 46% versus 26% – that's a big Delta. So if you're Apple, and you're making Apple technology, Apple-related products in Vietnam, and you're importing at 46%, or you're making it in India at 26%, you're obviously going to double down on your India effort," he said. 

Kapadia continued that Trump's latest tariff policies target corporate America, which opens the doors to which industries will move back to U.S. soil to avoid the tariffs. He pointed to "critical industries" such as semiconductor manufacturing, critical minerals, aluminum and steel manufacturing delivering large-scale investments in the U.S. both this year and next year, to increase capacity and production "out of necessity." He noted that Trump's customized reciprocal tariffs are not stackable with existing tariffs on certain industry imports, such as steel and aluminum.

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED DURING TRUMP'S 11TH WEEK IN OFFICE

"That's going to be the opportunity for the jobs to be created, for the investment to happen. Whereas on the multilateral kind of, 'Hey, here's our new kind of blended rate for these 60 odd countries,' that's just going to be finding more equity with a foreign direct investment from those countries," he said. 

In America's Rust Belt, which stretches from Illinois to upstate New York, critical industries are ramping up production under the second Trump administration and locals are excited after decades of old industrial towns economically suffering, Ohio Republican Rep. Michael Rulli told Fox News Digital in an exclusive Zoom interview. 

"They did a study by the Census Bureau in 1949, and they looked at the top 20 most influential cities that were prosperous in the United States. And I want you to think about some of these names on this [list]. They're names like Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland, Youngstown, Allentown, Pittsburgh. That isn't the case anymore. For the 50 years after that, we saw both political parties celebrate putting jobs across in other countries," Rulli said. 

Rulli reflected on 1977's "Black Monday" in Youngstown, Ohio, when steel manufacturer Campbell Works of Youngstown Sheet and Tube shuttered its doors and left thousands of workers unemployed in a chilling move that is still felt in the area today. 

TRUMP TARIFFS SPARK 'EXCITING TIME' FOR OHIO STEEL PLANT AS CEO EYES ADDING JOBS, BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY

"We have Vallourec up in Youngstown, Ohio, that's making all the pipe that you use for fracking. And that's really exciting," Rulli said. "When you put energy first, it ties in with the whole Ohio six. We're gonna start building power plants, cracker plants. We're going to put America back on the map with energy. And it's all happening with this agenda that's going right in front of your eyes. And it starts with tariffs. Remember, we have to have a starting place for 'Art of the Deal.' And the president has put that bar very high. We have every ability to negotiate fair trade deals with these other countries right now."

The Ohio congressman said he toured Mingo Junction, Ohio, home to a JSW steel plant, and saw how the steel industry is coming back to life in the area after decades of dormancy. 

DEMOCRAT REP VOWS TO WORK WITH TRUMP ON KEY PART OF TARIFF PLAN: 'HOPING THAT I CAN HELP'

"Two weeks ago, I spent several hours touring the entire steel mill and how incredible it was in Mingo Junction, Ohio, actually the birthplace of my grandma. So it was like sort of a full circle. We're bringing back steel in America. How about that? And they're re-looking at it. They're being very specific. It's almost like a boutique steel making process and they're expanding. It's really a great triumph," he said. 

With jobs, Rulli argued, crime and addiction woes that have plagued the nation in recent years will fall, while generations of families that previously worked in the steel industry can carry on the tradition, 

"This is Art of the Deal. In the 1950s, America was at its highest point ever. And what we've done since then is pretty much gutted the working-class, blue-collar. And I think the people in my district realized this, you know, when we see some of these tariffs that are put on the United States, that they put 60, 70, 80% tariffs on us, and we send our product to them with no tariffs. I think this is the greatest, basically, reconfiguration of trade that has ever happened in American history. And it's very exciting, especially if you go by the America First agenda," he said. 

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

House Republicans will finally begin this week with a full conference for the first time this year.

Newly minted representatives Randy Fine, R-Fla., and Jimmy Patronis, R-Fla., won special elections in the Sunshine State's 6th and 1st congressional districts, respectively, Tuesday night.

It's going to give some much-needed wiggle room to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has been wrestling with a one- to two-vote margin since the 119th Congress began at the beginning of January.

In separate interviews with Fox News Digital this week, both lawmakers signaled they would be team players focused on advancing President Donald Trump's agenda, likely welcome news for House GOP leaders as they navigate a conference that's been deeply fractured on key issues like government spending.

SCOOP: TRUMP ALLY DONALDS SHOWCASES CAMPAIGN CASH SURGE SINCE ANNOUNCING FLORIDA GOVERNOR RUN

"We do not need the team to fight within itself. Everyone's got to keep their eye on the prize," Fine said. "How do we make Speaker Johnson successful? And when we do that, how do we make President Trump successful? My focus is helping the team be successful. That will help my constituents. That will help Florida. That will help the country."

Patronis told Fox News Digital some of his top priorities would be the military and veterans and advancing Trump's policies on government efficiency, the border crisis and fentanyl trafficking.

The military is particularly important to Patronis, who until recently was the chief financial officer of Florida. The 1st Congressional District, which had been represented by former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., maintains a heavy military presence in multiple branches of the armed forces.

Patronis pledged his office would be "doing everything we can" to help the military installations continue to "protect our nation."

On veterans' care, the new Florida congressman lauded Trump's first administration for backing reforms aimed at enabling veterans to seek care outside of VA hospitals but said it was "mothballed" under the Biden administration. 

"It's really allowed those vets to seek services in their own community instead of traveling out of state," he said, pledging to work to get it back on track.

While he did not mention the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) specifically, Patronis signaled he aligned with its goals of transparency in federal spending.

"I'm a big believer that the citizens of the state of Florida spend their money better, a heck of a lot better, than Washington, D.C., does," Patronis said. "I like being a watchdog. … I like to ensure that that transparency is the norm, that we have, you know, a public that is informed and aware how their tax dollars are being used."

Fine, when asked about his agenda items, deferred largely to the president.

"The big agenda item for me is gonna make sure we get President Trump's agenda passed. Look, it's a narrow majority, and you have to support the team captain," Fine said.

DESANTIS REBUKES REPUBLICANS FOR BACKING BILL FOR CARBON SEQUESTRATION TASK FORCE: ‘ABSOLUTELY EMBARRASSING’

He pointed out that Florida's Republican majority grew significantly during his tenure in both houses of the state legislature.

"It didn't get there overnight. It's because Republicans showed that we knew how to govern, and we hit singles and doubles and triples every day. And the voters rewarded us," Fine said. "The goal needs to be go from a five-vote majority to a 15, to a 25, to a 35, and you do that by governing and putting points on the board every day."

Both Republicans made clear, however, that their principles would follow them from the Sunshine State to the nation's capital.

Patronis said he was looking at starting work on insurance reform, a critical issue in Florida, a state that regularly deals with natural disasters.

"When you've got high insurance rates, when you've got inflation the way it is, home ownership is more of a dream than a reality," he said. "We rolled out several solutions when I was CFO."

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Among the initiatives he mentioned was legislation to create a tax-free savings account to help homeowners during national disasters, a bill that was introduced by Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., a fellow delegation member.

Fine maintained to Fox News Digital that he "can't give carte blanche" guarantees to House GOP leaders but said he foresaw few if any future points of contention.

"I was the only Republican Jew in the Florida legislature for eight years. I got this crazy nickname, the 'Hebrew hammer,' which I finally decided to embrace," Fine said. "If, God forbid, they were going to do something that stood in the way of [fighting antisemitism], that would be an example where my principals would override, and I wouldn't be able to be with the team."

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

"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.

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.

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

"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.

A district court judge awarded $6.6 million combined to four whistleblowers who sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on claims he fired them in retaliation for reporting him to the FBI.

Blake Brickman, David Maxwell, Mark Penley and Ryan Vassar notified Paxton and his office on Oct. 1, 2020, that they had reported him to the FBI for allegedly abusing his office. The four were all fired by mid-November.

Travis County Judge Catherine Mauzy ruled Friday that by a "preponderance of the evidence," the whistleblowers proved liability, damages and attorney's fees in their complaint against the attorney general's office.

The judgment says the former aides made their reports to federal law enforcement "in good faith" and that Paxton's office did not dispute any claims or damages in the lawsuit.

FBI FLOODED WITH RECORD NUMBER OF NEW AGENT APPLICATIONS IN KASH PATEL'S FIRST MONTH LEADING BUREAU

"Because the Office of the Attorney General violated the Texas Whistleblower Act by firing and otherwise retaliating against the plaintiff for in good faith reporting violations of law by Ken Paxton and OAG, the court hereby renders judgment for plaintiffs," Mauzy wrote in her judgment.

The court found that the four former aides of the attorney general were fired in retaliation for reporting allegations that he was using his office to accept bribes from Austin real estate developer and political donor Nate Paul, who employed a woman with whom Paxton was having an extramarital affair.

Paxton has denied allegations that he accepted bribes or misused his office to help Paul.

"It should shock all Texans that their chief law enforcement officer, Ken Paxton, admitted to violating the law, but that is exactly what happened in this case," Tom Nesbitt, an attorney representing Brickman, and TJ Turner, an attorney representing Maxwell, said in a joint statement.

Paxton said in a statement that the judge's ruling is "ridiculous" and "not based on the facts or the law." He said his office plans to appeal the ruling.

The attorney general was probed by federal authorities after eight employees reported his office to the FBI in 2020 for bribery allegations. He agreed to settle the lawsuit for $3.3 million that would be paid by the legislature, but the state House rejected his request and conducted its own investigation.

Paxton was impeached in the House in 2023 before he was later acquitted in the Senate.

TEXAS AG PAXTON ACQUITTED ON ALL IMPEACHMENT CHARGES: 'THE TRUTH PREVAILED'

In November, the state Supreme Court overturned a lower-court ruling that would have required Paxton to testify in the lawsuit.

The U.S. Justice Department declined to pursue its investigation into Paxton in the final weeks of the Biden administration, according to The Associated Press.

The Associated Press 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

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."

The filing said that the judge "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. 

"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. 

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 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

"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."

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

Previously, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, 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.

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

The Department of Homeland Security (DSH) said it would revoke the status of more than 300,000 nationals protected by temporary protected status.

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.

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.

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

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."

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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."

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

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.

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.  

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.

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. 

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

"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

"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.

BAN ON TAXPAYER-FUNDED SEX CHANGES FOR PRISONERS SPARKS DEM WALKOUT IN GEORGIA HOUSE VOTE

"[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

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.

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

"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

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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."

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

"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" — 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

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

"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."

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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."

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. 

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: 

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.

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."

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. 

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.