The White House is challenging the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s assessment that President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending package will raise the federal deficit by trillions of dollars throughout the next decade.
The national debt, currently $36.2 trillion, tracks what the U.S. owes its creditors, while the national deficit measures how much the federal government’s spending exceeds its revenues. So far, the federal government has spent more than $1 trillion more than it has collected this fiscal year, according to the Department of the Treasury.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued an analysis Wednesday predicting that the so-called "big, beautiful, bill" the House passed in May would increase the federal deficit by $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years.
But according to the White House, the CBO’s analysis is based on a faulty premise because it assumes that Republicans in Congress will fail to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
Rather, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) forecasts that the tax and spending measures would independently reduce deficits by $1.4 trillion.
Additionally, the White House argues that the measure, coupled with other initiatives like tariffs and other spending cuts, will lead to reducing the deficit by at least $6.6 trillion over 10 years.
The "big, beautiful, bill" has faced criticism from figures including SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who labeled the measure an "abomination" and argued that the bill would increase the federal deficit.
The measure now heads to the Senate, where lawmakers, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-K.Y., have voiced opposition to the legislation.
Meanwhile, OMB Director Russell Vought told lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee Wednesday that he believed the CBO’s analysis was "fundamentally wrong."
"It will lead to reduced deficits and debt of $1.4 trillion," Vought said. "It will reduce mandatory savings of $1.7 trillion. I don't think the way they construct their baseline, not only does it not give a fair shake to economic growth, but it fundamentally misreads the economic consequences of not extending the current tax relief."
Failure to pass Trump’s tax package would trigger a recession, according to Vought.
"We'll have a recession," Vought told lawmakers. "The economic storm clouds will be very dark. I think we'll have a 60% tax increase on the American people."
Meanwhile, the White House has accused the CBO of employing those who’ve contributed to Democratic campaigns, even though CBO Director Phillip Swagel served in former President George W. Bush’s administration.
"I don’t think many people know this: There hasn’t been a single staffer in the entire Congressional Budget Office that has contributed to a Republican since the year 2000," Leavitt told reporters Tuesday. "But guess what, there have been many staffers within the Congressional Budget Office who have contributed to Democratic candidates and politicians every single cycle since. So unfortunately, this is an institution in our country that has become partisan and political."
The CBO director is appointed according to the recommendations of the House and Senate Budget Committees. Then-Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, first recommended Swagel in 2019, and then Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, recommended Swagel again in 2023.
The CBO did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital on OMB's analysis or claims from the White House about the office being full of staffers who've backed Democrats.
Fox News’ Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump and SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk engaged in a public feud Thursday, less than a week after the White House held a farewell press conference for Musk highlighting his contributions spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk departed his tenure as a special government employee with DOGE May 30, but swiftly launched into criticisms of Trump’s massive tax and spending package dubbed the "big, beautiful, bill." Tuesday, Musk labeled the measure a "disgusting abomination" because of reports it ramps up the federal deficit.
On Thursday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Musk opposed the bill because it eliminates an electric vehicle tax credit that benefits companies like Tesla. But Trump said that provision has always been part of the measure.
"I'm very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people," Trump said in the Oval Office in a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. "He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the EV mandate, because that's billions and billions of dollars, and it really is unfair."
Musk immediately responded on X to Trump's statements, urging a removal of the "disgusting pork" included in the measure. He also said it was "false" that he was shown the measure "even once."
The two continued to publicly spar against one another, with Musk asserting that Trump wouldn’t have won the 2024 election if it weren’t for his own backing. Meanwhile, Trump accused Musk of going "CRAZY" over cuts to the EV credits, and said that Musk was "wearing thin."
Additionally, Trump told Fox News on Friday that "Elon's totally lost it" and was not interested in speaking over the phone with Musk, despite media reports suggesting the two would talk.
Here’s what also happened this week:
Chancellor of Germany Friedrich Merz met with Trump at the White House Thursday, where the two discussed the war in Ukraine.
While Merz asserted that the U.S. was in a powerful spot to bring a meaningful end to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Trump offered that the world might need to "let them fight for a little while."
"America is again in a very strong position to do something on this war and ending this war," Merz said.
Merz said that Germany was willing to help however it could, and wanted to discuss options to partner with the U.S. to bring peace. Likewise, Merz suggested that European allies exert additional pressure on Russia to end the conflict.
But Trump said that he told Putin in a recent call that perhaps both countries would need to feel the consequences of fighting more acutely, claiming he told Putin "maybe you're going to have to keep fighting and suffering a lot."
"Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy – they hate each other, and they're fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart, they don't want to be pulled," Trump said. "Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart."
Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday to discuss trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing.
"I just concluded a very good phone call with President Xi, of China, discussing some of the intricacies of our recently made, and agreed to, Trade Deal," Trump said Thursday in a Truth Social post. "The call lasted approximately one and a half hours, and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries."
Trump said the conversation focused "almost entirely" on trade, and that Xi invited the U.S. president and first lady Melania Trump to visit China. Likewise, Trump reciprocated and invited Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to visit the U.S.
The call comes nearly a week after Trump condemned China May 30 for violating an initial trade agreement that the U.S. and China hashed out in May. And on Wednesday, Trump said Xi was "extremely hard to make a deal with" in a Truth Social post.
The negotiations from May prompted both countries to agree that the U.S. would lower its tariffs against Chinese imports from 145% to 30%, and China would reduce its tariffs against U.S. imports from 125% to 10%.
Fox News’ Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
Some of the White House’s conservative House allies say they’re interpreting the upcoming vote on President Donald Trump’s $9.4 billion spending cut proposal as a "test" of what Congress can achieve in terms of rolling back federal funding.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said he would not speak for members of the Trump administration but added, "I do think it is a test."
"And I think this is going to demonstrate whether Congress has the fortitude to do what they always say they’ll do," Roy said. "Cut the minimal amount of spending – $9 billion, NPR, PBS, things you complain about for a long time, or are they going to go back into their parochial politics?"
House GOP leaders unveiled legislation seeking to codify Trump’s spending cut request, known as a rescissions package, on Friday. It’s expected to get a House-wide vote sometime next week.
"The rescissions request sent to Congress by the Trump Administration takes the federal government in a new direction where we actually cut waste, fraud, and abuse and hold agencies accountable to the American people," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said in a statement introducing the bill.
The legislation would claw back funding that Congress already appropriated to PBS, NPR, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) – cuts outlined by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this year.
And while several Republican leaders and officials have already said they expect to see more rescissions requests down the line, some people who spoke with Fox News Digital believe the White House is watching how Congress handles this first package before deciding on next steps.
"You’re dead right," Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital when asked if the rescissions package was a test. "I think that it’s a test case – if we can’t get that…then we’re not serious about cutting the budget."
A rescissions package only needs simple majorities in the House and Senate to pass. But Republicans in both chambers have perilously slim majorities that afford them few defections.
Republicans are also racing the clock – a rescissions package has 45 days to be considered otherwise it is considered rejected and the funding reinstated.
Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, did not directly say whether he viewed the spending cuts as a test but dismissed any potential concerns.
"This is very low-hanging fruit, and I don’t anticipate any problems," Gooden told Fox News Digital.
"I’ve heard a few comments in the media, but I don’t think they’re serious comments. If someone on the Republican side can make a case for PBS, but they won’t take a tough vote against illegal immigration, then we’ve got a lot of problems."
Paul Winfree, president and CEO of the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), told Fox News Digital last week, "This first rescissions package from President Trump is a test as to whether Congress has the ability to deliver on his mandate by canceling wasteful spending through a filibuster-proof process."
"If they can’t then it’s a signal for the president to turn up the dial with other tools at his disposal," Winfree, who served as Director of Budget Policy in the first Trump administration, said.
Both Roy and Norman suggested a process known as "pocket rescissions" could be at least one backup plan – and one that Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought has floated himself.
"Pocket rescissions" essentially would mean the White House introduces its spending cut proposal less than 45 days before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. In theory, it would run out the clock on those funds and allow them to expire whether Congress acted or not.
Vought told reporters after meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Monday that he wanted to "see if it passes" but was "open" to further rescissions packages.
"We want to send up general rescissions bills, to use the process if it's appropriate, to get them through the House and the Senate," Vought said. "We also have pocket rescissions, which you’ve begun to hear me talk a lot about, to be able to use the end of the fiscal year to send up a similar rescissions, and have the funds expire. So there's a lot of things that we're looking at."
Still, some moderate Republicans may chafe at the conservative spending cuts.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., refused to comment on whether he’d support the legislation before seeing the details but alluded to some concerns.
"Certainly I'm giving you a non-answer right now until I read the details," Bacon said.
"It does bother me because I have a great rapport with Nebraska Public Radio and TV. I think they've been great to work with, and so that would be one I hope they don't put in."
He also raised concerns about some specific USAID programs, including critical investments to fight Ebola and HIV in Africa.
The legislation is expected to come before the House Rules Committee, the final gatekeeper before most legislation sees a House-wide vote, on Tuesday afternoon.
It's separate from Trump's "one big, beautiful bill," a broad piece of legislation advancing the president's tax, energy, and immigration agenda through the budget reconciliation process.
The fallout between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump is an evolving situation marked by a public blowup on Thursday, but their relationship ties back to Trump’s first term and even earlier.
A November 2016 CNBC interview with the Tesla CEO, who’s now the richest man in the world, took a critical tone of the now president just days before he was elected president in an upset that signified the strength of the populist movement.
"Honestly, I think Hillary’s economic policies and her environmental policies particularly are the right ones, you know, but yeah. Also, I don’t think this is the finest moment in our democracy at all," Musk said.
"Well, I feel a bit stronger that probably he’s not the right guy. He just doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States," he later added in the interview.
During Trump's first term, Musk was part of some of his economic advisory councils, which often includes CEOs, but ultimately left his post because he disagreed with the president’s move to exit the Paris Climate Accords.
"Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world," Musk posted at the time.
The two continued to have an on-and-off relationship, but there were some positive signs in May 2020.
"Elon Musk, congratulations. Congratulations, Elon. Thanks, Elon. For Elon and 8,000 SpaceX employees, today is the fulfillment of a dream almost two decades in the making," Trump said at the Kennedy Space Center in May 2020.
And at the SpaceX Demo-2 launch, Trump said he and Musk communicate regularly.
"Well, I won’t get into it. But, yeah — but I speak to him all the time. Great guy. He’s one of our great brains. We like great brains. And Elon has done a fantastic job," he said.
Fast forward to 2022, when Musk purchased Twitter and renamed it X, and brought back Trump’s account that November, after it was suspended after the events of Jan. 6, 2021. In 2022, Musk also announced that he would vote Republican, but indicated he would back Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis if he opted to seek the nomination.
DeSantis launched his campaign on X in a "space," a virtual public event forum, with Musk, who also reportedly significantly financially backed the Florida governor, according to The Wall Street Journal.
However, a major turning point was in July 2024, after the assassination attempt of Trump at a rally in Butler, Penn.
"I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery," Musk posted.
Musk then campaigned for the president, including a famous moment when he was jumping on stage at his comeback rally in Butler.
"I want to say what an honor it is to be here and, you know, the true test of someone's character is how they behave under fire, right?" Musk said at the rally. "And we had one president who couldn't climb a flight of stairs and another who was fist pumping after getting shot."
"This is no ordinary election," the tech CEO continued. "The other side wants to take away your freedom of speech."
"Just be a pest to everyone," he added. "You know, people on the street everywhere: Vote, vote, vote!"
The tech billionaire spent roughly $300 million through America PAC to boost swing state voter efforts, including Pennsylvania.
By the time the presidential election rolled around, Trump and Musk appeared to be close friends as the Tesla CEO was with Trump in Mar-a-Lago on election night. Over the next few days, Musk remained in Florida and was reportedly advising Trump on appointments and policy as the transition to a new administration kicked off.
A week later, shortly before Musk and the new president appeared at a SpaceX launch together in Texas, Trump announced that Musk and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy would be heading up the Department of Government Efficiency in an effort to rid the government of waste, fraud, and abuse.
Trump described the pair as "two wonderful Americans' and although Ramaswamy left that post in January and is now running for governor in Ohio, Musk stayed on and quickly became the face of an agency that made him the main target of attacks from Democrats pushing back on spending cuts that they argued were too drastic.
Protests erupted nationwide against Musk and DOGE including violent outbursts at his Tesla dealerships that tanked the company's stock and were labeled as acts of "domestic terrorism" by the Justice Department.
During the first few months of the year, Musk and Trump were spotted together at several viral events including a UFC fight, an Oval Office meeting where Musk's son "Little X" stole the show, and a cabinet meeting in late February where Musk was the main focus.
In March, Trump hosted Elon at a Tesla showcase in front of the White House amid a dip in Tesla stock where the president told reporters he was purchasing a Tesla while touting the company.
As Musk's time at DOGE began to wind down, his employee classification allowed him to serve for 130 days, the newly formed agency had become the poster child of anti-Trump sentiment from Democrats who consistently attacked the $175 billion in spending cuts that DOGE estimated it delivered.
Signs of fracture in the relationship began showing in late May when Musk took a public shot at Trump's "big beautiful bill" as it made its way through Congress.
"I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," Musk said.
Two days later, Musk announced his official departure from DOGE.
"As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending," Musk said, adding that the effects of DOGE "will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government."
DOGE, which fell short of Musk's initial goal of slashing $1 trillion in spending which Musk said he still remains optimistic will happen in the future, will continue its work without Musk, who said, "I look forward to continuing to be a friend and adviser to the president."
That optimistic tone shifted drastically on June 3 when Musk took to X, the platform he owns, and blasted the budget reconciliation bill calling it "a disgusting abomination" and criticizing the Republicans who voted for it.
"KILL THE BILL," Musk said the next day.
A day after that, on Thursday, the feud hit a fever pitch.
While speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said that he was "very disappointed" by Musk’s vocal criticisms of the bill. The president claimed that Musk knew what was in the bill and "had no problem" with it until the EV incentives had to be cut.
On X, Musk called that assessment "false."
Trump turned to social media to criticize Musk, who he appointed to find ways to cut $2 trillion after forming the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
"Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!" Trump said in one post.
In another post, Trump said, "I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress. It’s a Record Cut in Expenses, $1.6 Trillion Dollars, and the Biggest Tax Cut ever given."
"If this Bill doesn’t pass, there will be a 68% tax increase, and things far worse than that. I didn’t create this mess, I’m just here to FIX IT. This puts our Country on a Path of Greatness. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
At one point, Musk referenced late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in relation to Trump as part of the larger tirade in a comment that several Republicans told Fox News Digital went "too far."
Other posts from Musk included a claim that Trump would not have won the election without his help while accusing Trump of "ingratitude." In another post, Musk suggested that Trump should be impeached and replaced by Vice President Vance.
It is unclear if a resolution to the feud is coming in the next few days. Fox News Digital reported on Friday morning that Musk wants to speak to Trump and that White House aides could possibly broker a meeting.
Trump told Fox News on Friday that he isn't interested in talking to Musk, adding that "Elon's totally lost it."
Trump also said to Fox News' Bret Baier that he isn't worried about Musk's suggestion to form a new political party, citing favorable polls and strong support from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The Trump administration has taken a more aggressive approach than its predecessor toward addressing the nationwide surge in antisemitic incidents, launching investigations, punishing elite universities, and intensifying its immigration enforcement practices.
President Donald Trump, through his Department of Justice (DOJ) and other agencies, is using law-and-order tactics that his deputies say are necessary, but that critics say could constitute overreach.
Harmeet Dhillon, the DOJ's assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, told Fox News Digital she has not seen any "close cases" when it comes to weighing antisemitic behavior against First Amendment rights of those who oppose Israel or Judaism.
"Criticizing the government of Israel is not what I'm typically seeing here," Dhillon said. "I'm seeing an intifada revolution. I'm seeing blocking Jewish students from crossing campuses and destroying property on campus, which is a crime. … Quiet, polite conversation and disagreement with Israeli policy is not really what's happening here. It's literally people saying Israel shouldn't exist — and bringing the revolution to the United States."
Dhillon added that "that type of violent rhetoric has led to violent acts in our country."
After Hamas’s deadly terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the FBI’s hate crime statistics showed a sharp spike in anti-Jewish incidents in the U.S. The data runs through December 2023.
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) data from 2024 and high-profile incidents this year suggest the trend is continuing.
An Egyptian national in the U.S. illegally in Boulder, Colorado, is facing state and federal charges for allegedly injuring 15 people, including elderly victims and a dog last weekend with Molotov cocktails during a peaceful pro-Israel demonstration in support of hostages being held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, stated to authorities "he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead," according to an FBI affidavit. During the attack he allegedly yelled "free Palestine," the agent said.
In May, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, who worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., were gunned down outside the Capitol Jewish Museum in D.C.
Suspect Elias Rodriguez of Illinois shouted "free Palestine" as he was detained, and Interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said her office is investigating the case as a hate crime and act of terrorism.
In another incident, a man allegedly set fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence on the first night of Passover. Emergency call logs released by local authorities revealed that the suspect, Cody Balmer, invoked Palestine after the arson and blamed Shapiro, who is Jewish, for "having my friends killed."
Tarek Bazrouk, who identified himself as a "Jew hater" and said Jewish people were "worthless," allegedly carried out a series of assaults on Jewish New Yorkers in 2024 and 2025, according to an indictment brought against him in May.
Bazrouk wore a green headband that mimicked Hamas garb and a keffiyeh during the attacks, and he celebrated Hamas and Hizballah on his social media, according to federal authorities.
Trump warned in an executive order at the start of his presidency that foreign nationals participating in "pro-jihadist protests" would be deported, and he specifically highlighted college campuses as being "infested with radicalism."
Unlike the Biden administration, the Trump administration has since gone to war with elite universities, some of which have been roiled by disruptive pro-Palestinian protests that involve occupying academic buildings and installing encampments.
Harvard and Columbia, in particular, are now engaged in litigation after Trump moved to freeze billions of dollars in federal funding for the universities and ban Harvard's foreign students.
The embattled schools have been successful in winning temporary pauses to Trump’s sanctions through the courts, but litigation is pending and legal experts have said they face an uphill battle.
The Trump administration has zeroed in on non-citizen students and activists who it has accused of supporting Palestinian causes in ways it deems hostile to U.S. interests.
Amid Trump’s pursuit of visa and green card holders, Mahmoud Khalil’s case has become a flashpoint.
Khalil was arrested in March and detained after the administration accused him of violating immigration laws by engaging in anti-Israel activism.
This week, Khalil said in court papers the administration’s claims against him were "grotesque" and that his activism involved "protesting this Israeli government’s indiscriminate killing of thousands of innocent Palestinians."
Civil rights groups have warned that the government’s hardliner posture risks violating free speech and protest rights. A coalition of 60 groups issued a joint statement this week on antisemitic hate crimes in which it warned the Trump administration not to over-correct because it would "make us all less safe."
"As we condemn these heinous [antisemitic] acts and those who perpetrate hate and violence, we also recommit to ensuring that these events — and the legitimate fear in the Jewish community — are not exploited to justify inhumane immigration policies or to target Arab Americans and those who peacefully and nonviolently exercise their First Amendment rights in support of Palestinian human rights," the groups said.
Dhillon told Fox News Digital: "It's not my responsibility to balance free speech issues on campus. It's my responsibility to enforce the federal civil rights laws. And my opinion, there's really no conflict."
When he took office, Trump vowed in a string of executive orders to direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to "aggressively prosecute terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews."
Trump appointees at the DOJ then moved quickly to convene an antisemitism task force. Dhillon said there is also frequent communication between the White House, the DOJ, and Jewish leaders about addressing antisemitism.
"We have heard from the Jewish community, and I've probably met with — I think there's at least two dozen rabbis who have my number on speed dial now. I literally sent three emails to rabbis in the last hour," she said.
She said her division has opened several investigations involving land use for religious purposes under a law known as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), including five related to Judaism. The administration is also notifying Jewish communities of grants available for added security at synagogues, and she said campuses are a "significant focus" for her.
After reports surfaced that Dhillon's shakeup in the Civil Rights Division led to a mass exodus of more than 100 attorneys leaving the division, she told the media she was unfazed by the departures and that her focus remains on launching the division's work toward combating antisemitism.
Testing the limits of his subordinates and the courts, another top DOJ official, Emil Bove, launched an internal investigation into Columbia student protesters early this year. The probe caused concern among line attorneys, who felt it was flimsy and was also met with multiple reprimands from a magistrate judge, according to the New York Times.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement in May that the New York Times' story was false and fed to the newspaper "by a group of people who allowed antisemitism and support of Hamas terrorists to fester for years."
Blanche confirmed the veracity of the investigation and said it involved, in part, a probe into a Hamas-linked image on Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s social media.
A federal judge in Massachusetts on Thursday granted Harvard University's emergency request to block, for now, the Trump administration's effort to ban international students from its campus, siding with Harvard in ruling that the university would likely suffer "immediate and irreparable harm" if enforced.
The temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs blocks the administration from immediately stripping Harvard of its certification status under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, or SEVP — a program run by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that allows universities to sponsor international students for U.S. visas.
Burroughs said in her order that Harvard has demonstrated evidence it "will suffer immediate and irreparable injury before there is an opportunity to hear from all parties," prompting her to temporarily block the SEVP revocation.
Still, some see the order as a mere Band-Aid, forestalling a larger court fight between Harvard and the Trump administration — and one that Trump critics say could be unfairly weighted against the nation's oldest university.
"Ultimately, this is about Trump trying to impose his view of the world on everybody else," Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman said in a radio interview discussing the Trump administration's actions.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the administration has frozen more than $2 billion in grants and contracts awarded to the university. It is also targeting the university with investigations led by six separate federal agencies.
Combined, these actions have created a wide degree of uncertainty at Harvard.
The temporary restraining order handed down on Thursday night is also just that — temporary. Though the decision does block Trump from revoking Harvard's SEVP status, it's a near-term fix, designed to allow the merits of the case to be more fully heard.
Meanwhile, the administration is almost certain to appeal the case to higher courts, which could be more inclined to side in favor of the administration.
Should Harvard lose its status for SEVP certification — a certification it has held for some 70 years — the thousands of international students currently enrolled at Harvard would have a very narrow window to either transfer to another U.S. university, or risk losing their student visas within 180 days, experts told Fox News.
Some may opt not to take that chance, and transfer to a different school that's less likely to be targeted by the administration — even if it means sacrificing, for certainty, a certain level of prestige.
Regardless of how the court rules, these actions create "a chilling effect" for international students at Harvard, Aram Gavoor, an associate dean at George Washington University Law School and a former Justice Department attorney, said in an interview.
Students "who would otherwise be attending or applying to Harvard University [could be] less inclined to do so, or to make alternative plans for their education In the U.S.," Gavoor said.
Even if the Trump administration loses on the merits of the case, "there's a point to be argued that it may have won as a function of policy," Gavoor said.
Meanwhile, any financial fallout the school might see as a result is another matter entirely.
Though the uncertainty yielded by Trump's fight against Harvard could prove damaging to the school's priority of maintaining a diverse international student body, or by offering financial aid to students via the federally operated Pell Grant, these actions alone would unlikely to prove financially devastating in the near-term, experts told Fox News.
Harvard could simply opt to fill the slots once taken by international students with any number of eager, well-qualified U.S.-based applicants, David Feldman, a professor at William & Mary who focuses on economic issues and higher education, said in an interview.
Harvard is one of just a handful of American universities that has a "need-blind" admissions policy for domestic and international students — that is, they do not take into consideration a student's financial need or the aid required in weighing a potential applicant. But because international students in the U.S. typically require more aid than domestic students, replacing their slots with domestic students, in the near-term, would likely have little noticeable impact on the revenue it receives for tuition, fees and housing, he said.
"This is all about Harvard, choosing the best group of students possible," Feldman said in an interview. If the administration successfully revokes their SEVP certification, this would effectively just be "constraining them to choose the second-best group," he said.
"Harvard could dump the entire 1,500-person entering class, just dump it completely, and look at the next 1,500 [applicants]," Feldman said. "And by all measurables that you and I would look at, it would look just as good."
Unlike public schools, which are subject to the vagaries of state budgets, private universities like Harvard often have margins built into their budgets in the form of seed money that allows them to allocate more money towards things they've identified as goals for the year or years ahead.
This allows them to operate with more stability as a result — and inoculates them to a larger degree from the administration's financial hits.
"Uncertainty is bad for them," Feldman acknowledged. But at the end of the day, he said, "these institutions have the capacity to resist."
"They would rather not — they would rather this whole thing go away," Feldman said. But the big takeaway, in his view, is that Harvard "is not defenseless."
Elon Musk’s fiery feud with President Donald Trump spilled onto the top Republicans in Congress, where the tech billionaire questioned if their zeal to cut spending had disappeared.
Musk launched into a social media assault this week against Trump’s "big, beautiful bill," and accused Republicans of crafting a "disgusting abomination" full of wasteful spending.
What started as a rant against the bill turned into pointed attacks against Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
The tech billionaire and former head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) lamented the bill as not cutting deep enough into Washington’s spending addiction. The House GOP’s offering, which is now being modified in the Senate, set a goal of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts.
Musk set a benchmark of finding $2 trillion in waste, fraud and abuse to slash with his DOGE initiative, but fell far short, hitting only $160 billion in his four-month stint as a special government employee.
Still, he came with receipts, questioning whether Trump, Thune and Johnson were actually committed to making deep cuts.
Below are moments from the campaign trail and recent months compiled by Fox News Digital where the trio affirmed their commitment to putting a dent in the nation’s nearly $37 trillion debt.
A common theme for Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign was to go after the Biden administration, and his opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, for "throwing billions of dollars out the window."
The then-presidential candidate vowed that should he win a second term, his incoming administration would halt wasteful spending.
"We will stop wasteful spending and big government special interest giveaways, and finally stand up for the American taxpayer, which hasn't happened since I was president," he said. "We stood up. Our current massive deficits will be reduced to practically nothing. Our country will be powered by growth. Our country, will be powered by growth, will pay off our debt, will have all this income coming in."
Thune has agreed with his colleagues in the House GOP that the tax cut package needs to achieve steep savings, and believes that the Senate GOP could take those cuts a step further. After the bill advanced from the House last month, the top Senate Republican re-upped his vow to slash federal funding.
"It does everything that we set out to do. It modernizes our military, secures our border, extends tax relief and makes permanent tax relief that will lead to economic growth and better jobs in this country, and makes America energy dominant, coupled with the biggest spending reduction in American history," he said. "So those are our agenda items, and that's what we campaigned on. That's what we're going to do."
Johnson had to strike a balancing act in the House to cobble together enough support behind the legislation, and struck deals and satisfied concerned lawmakers across the spectrum of the House GOP while still setting a goal of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. Rooting out waste, fraud and abuse has been a continued mantra of the speaker and his allies.
"I said this is the beginning of a process, and what you're going to see is a continuing theme of us identifying waste, fraud and abuse in government, which is our pledge of common sense, restoring common sense and fiscal sanity," Johnson said.
Medicaid reform in President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" has drawn a partisan line through Congress.
Democrats have railed against potential Medicaid cuts since Trump was elected, while Republicans have celebrated Medicaid reform through the reconciliation process as an efficient way to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the welfare program.
Fox News Digital asked lawmakers from both ends of the political spectrum to react to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's Medicaid reform. The results were as expectedly divided.
"This is all B.S., what the Democrats are doing," Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., told Fox News Digital. "They're pushing the agenda that we're cutting 10 million people off Medicaid. It's people that actually shouldn't be on it, illegals that shouldn't be on it. We're reforming it."
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan federal agency that has been ridiculed by Republicans, estimated this week that Trump's "big, beautiful bill" would leave 10.9 million people without health insurance, including 1.4 million who are in the country without legal status in state-funded programs.
But Republicans are holding firm in their defense of Medicaid reform, which Republicans say only cuts benefits to illegal immigrants, those ineligible to receive benefits who are currently receiving benefits, duplicate enrollees in one or more states and those who are able but choosing not to work.
"The people who would not continue to get Medicaid benefits under this bill were not qualified to get them in the first place," Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told Fox News Digital.
Democrats continue to sound off on the healthcare threat of eliminating 10 million people from Medicaid. Not a single House Democrat voted to pass Trump's championed legislation, which includes fulfilling key campaign promises like cutting taxes, immigration reform and American energy production.
"These burdensome regulatory requirements for proving that somebody has obtained or sought work are going to mean millions of people will go without healthcare, and the restrictions on food assistance are equally an obstacle to people meeting their everyday needs," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said.
Blumenthal added he is "very, very concerned about these seemingly cruel and unproductive ways of raising money simply to finance tax cuts" for "wealthy billionaires."
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Andy Kim said he is happy to have an "honest conversation" about government efficiency and saving taxpayer dollars, but that's not the reality of this bill.
"People are struggling, and I feel like, in the richest, most powerful country in the world, we should be able to make sure that people can have the basic needs they need to be able to survive," Kim said of Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told Fox News Digital there is "nothing beautiful" about Trump's "big, beautiful bill."
"This is horrific, and it adds massive amounts to our debt, compromising our ability to [fund] the fundamentals in the future, foundations for families to thrive — health care, housing, education, good-paying jobs. That's what we should be doing here, not doing massive tax cuts for billionaires and paying for them by tearing down programs for ordinary families," Merkley said.
The Transportation Security Administration clarified this week that a Costco membership card is not sufficient to present at airport security.
"We love hotdogs & rotisserie chickens as much as the next person but please stop telling people their Costco card counts as a REAL ID because it absolutely does not," the TSA wrote on Facebook Wednesday.
The reminder comes less than a month after the U.S. began requiring a REAL ID driver's license when flying domestically May 7.
Aside from REAL IDs, which have enhanced federal standards, domestic flyers can also use their passports or another federally-approved form of identification like Defense Department-issued IDs (but not a Costco card).
"Department of Defense IDs for active and retired military continue to be an acceptable form of ID at TSA checkpoints following the implementation of REAL ID last month," the TSA wrote on Facebook Thursday.
REAL IDs were available for years before the requirement went into effect after a 2005 law passed based on recommendations from the 9/11 Commission report.
With many procrastinating until shortly before the deadline, DMV centers were inundated with long lines in April and early May, and there was confusion about what forms of identification, such as a passport, birth certificate or Social Security card, were acceptable at a DMV to secure a REAL ID.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to start sending rare earth minerals to the U.S. after halting the shipments in April.
Trump held a gaggle on the presidential jet Friday evening, and one reporter asked him just before landing if Xi had agreed to restart the flow of rare earth minerals and magnets to the U.S.
"Yes, he did," Trump replied. "We’re very far advanced on the China deal."
The news comes about a month and a half after China effectively halted exports of seven precious minerals, vital for assembling cars, robotics and defense systems, to the U.S. in a direct strike on America’s manufacturing and defense supply chain.
Overseas deliveries of magnets stopped April 4, when new licensing rules took effect, according to The New York Times. Companies are only allowed to export rare earth materials if they obtain special export licenses, which take 45 days to receive.
The halt also threatened to undercut Trump’s tariff strategy because China produces about 60% of the world’s critical mineral supply and processes even more, up to 90%.
China's mineral halt to the U.S. Defense Department came after Beijing had already imposed sanctions on multiple U.S. military contractors late last year, according to Reuters. Chinese entities were prohibited from engaging or cooperating with them in response to an arms sale to Taiwan, the outlet reported.
Trump and Xi had a lengthy call Thursday amid economic and national security friction regarding trade between the U.S. and China.
"I just concluded a very good phone call with President Xi, of China, discussing some of the intricacies of our recently made, and agreed to, Trade Deal," Trump said Thursday in a Truth Social post. "The call lasted approximately one and a half hours and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries."
Trump said the conversation focused mostly on trade.
The call came nearly a week after Trump condemned China for violating an initial trade agreement that the U.S. and China hashed out in May and a day after Trump said Xi was "extremely hard to make a deal with" in a Truth Social post.
Fox News' Diana Stancy, Bonny Chu, Danielle Wallace, Morgan Phillips and Reuters contributed to this report.
The ongoing feud between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, his one-time "special government employee," has brought an "unprecedented" dynamic compared to other famous disputes, long-time Democratic political strategist and Fox News contributor Jacques DeGraff said.
After somewhat muted rumblings from Musk about why he opposed a Trump-endorsed Republican spending package, the DOGE leader launched complaints after Trump began firing back this week, including threats aimed at Musk's business revenue.
"It's unprecedented, but the reality is that what makes it a singular moment in history is that no single figure has ever been able to say, 'I made a president and then (fell) out with that individual," DeGraff told Fox News Digital Friday.
"There have been groups, there have been individuals who wanted to pretend that they did, but the record is clear. And, I mean, this man (Elon) brought his son into the Oval Office. He wore a hat and didn't wear a suit to the Oval Office. He clearly had carte blanche. … The president, in effect, did a Tesla ad in the Rose Garden … and now they've fallen out in life."
DeGraffe, who has been a political advocate and strategist for years, quipped that, ordinarily, "we would have to go to family court," adding "what's the court here?"
Trump is no stranger to quarrels with his staff. During his first term, his relationship soured with his National Security Advisor, John Bolton, and his press secretary, Anthony Scaramucci, after they diverged on different issues and publicly criticized Trump.
But, for DeGraffe at least, this quarrel has "distinguished itself from anything in the past."
One major difference he pointed to is the implications for both parties in this spat.
"Tesla stock has dropped $150 billion, Trump stock has dropped but it also occurs at the same time as this legislation and so that is going to have – no matter how it turns out – it's going to have massive political and public policy implications for the country," DeGraffe said. "So this is no small dispute."
DeGraffe also contended that this is "the first time" there has been a major deviation from Trump "from the MAGA side of the aisle." He suggested the split could be bad news for Trump and others who hope to see the GOP's budget package pass the finish line in its current form.
"This major split will allow other players to take positions other than the party line, and it gives them room and comfort and cover in order to do so," DeGraffe suggested. "Will senators who follow Musk, or, better yet, disagree with Musk, face intensely funded primaries?
"That's a consideration that everyone involved will have to take. … As a lifelong Democrat, I'm sitting with my bowl of popcorn saying, ‘Go at it.’ Because anything that slows this horrific legislation has got to be good news to the rest of the country."
However, while DeGraffe sees the Trump-Musk feud as having wide-ranging and lasting implications, GOP political strategist Dallas Woodhouse says he thinks the feud is unimportant to most Republicans.
"I am currently at the North Carolina State GOP convention, and this is not a topic of concern among activists," Woodhouse said. "No doubt it makes for funny and entertaining X posts, but the GOP faithful are laser-focused on growing the new diverse GOP/Trump winning coalition."
President Donald Trump responded to the sudden return of Salvadoran illegal and alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying, "he’s a bad guy" and that the courts will "show how horrible this guy is."
Trump appeared unbothered by Abrego Garcia’s return on Friday afternoon, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that the Department of Justice made the decision and that soon the world will see how "horrible" a person he is.
Trump expressed confidence in the DOJ and its case against Abrego Garcia.
"The DOJ made a decision," he said, adding, "I think their decisions have been very, very good."
"Maybe they just said, ‘Look, all of these people, these judges, they want to try and run the country.’ A local judge trying to run the country," said Trump. "The man has a horrible past, and I could see a decision being made, bring him back, show everybody how horrible this guy is."
The president said, "Frankly, we have to do something because the judges are trying to take the place of a president that won in a landslide. That's not supposed to be the way it is. So, I can see bringing him back. I could see. He's a bad guy."
The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old illegal alien who was living in Maryland, to a high-security prison in his home country back in March on the grounds that he is a member of the violent MS-13 gang.
Soon after his deportation, Democrats jumped to advocate for Abrego Garcia’s release and return to the U.S., arguing that he was a wrongly deported "Maryland man."
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday that Abrego Garcia, 29, has landed in the United States and is set to face federal charges for human smuggling and conspiracy.
"Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice," Bondi said. "A grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee returned a sealed indictment charging him with alien smuggling and conspiracy."
According to the indictment, Garcia played a "significant role" in a human smuggling ring operating for nearly a decade. Bondi described him as a full-time smuggler who made more than 100 trips, transporting women, children, and MS-13 gang-affiliated persons throughout the United States.
Fox News Digital obtained Tennessee Highway Patrol bodycam footage from a 2022 traffic stop where troopers pulled over Garcia for speeding. Inside his vehicle were eight other men, raising immediate suspicions. "He’s hauling these people for money," one trooper said.
Troopers found $1,400 in cash and flagged Garcia in the National Crime Information Center, which returned a gang/terrorism alert. ICE was called but never responded.
Though Democrats have also pushed a narrative that Abrego Garcia is a "family man," court records show Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed a protective order against her husband in August 2020. The order said their shared son and stepchildren needed protection from Abrego Garcia, accusing him of verbal and physical abuse against her and mental abuse against her children.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who led the charge among Democrats to push for Abrego Garcia’s return, released a statement after news of the return broke, saying, "For months the Trump Administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution. Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States."
EXCLUSIVE: Despite stunning news about the return of illegal alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia Friday afternoon, the White House is celebrating a "blockbuster" week for President Donald Trump's immigration agenda.
"It’s a bad day to be an illegal alien and a great day to be an American," a spokesperson said.
On the heels of "Operation Patriot," the largest ICE operation ever, which saw the arrest of nearly 1,500 illegal aliens in the deep blue state of Massachusetts, ICE arrests surged this week, with agents making over 2,000 arrests Tuesday and nearly 2,500 Wednesday.
Overall, ICE has arrested over 100,000 illegal immigrants since Trump took office.
Over the weekend, ICE officials and local authorities in South Carolina raided a "cartel after-party" where 80 illegal aliens were arrested, including two alleged "high-level cartel members" of the Mexican cartel Los Zetas and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, according to The Post and Courier.
According to the outlet, one of the individuals arrested, a Honduran national, has been named in an international murder case.
The New York Times also reported that deportation flights rose to the highest level yet under the Trump administration. This comes as ICE announced this week that it had deported 142 criminal aliens to Mexico from the Houston area, including child predators, gang members, human traffickers and one individual convicted of making terroristic threats.
On Monday, ICE announced that, working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, it had made a "game-changing" seizure of 50,000 kilograms of meth ingredients destined for the Sinaloa Cartel.
Chad Plantz, special agent in charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations Houston, said the collaboration provides authorities "with a game-changing method to stay one step ahead of the cartels by disrupting the flow of chemicals that they depend on to produce illicit narcotics."
A source familiar with the operations shared with Fox News Digital a listing of some of the arrests made by ICE this week.
These arrests included a Salvadoran national arrested in Los Angeles for sodomy of a child, a Mexican national arrested in Chicago for criminal sexual assault of a child, a Mexican national arrested in Houston for indecent sexual contact with a child, a Honduran national arrested in El Paso for possession of child pornography and a Laotian national arrested for murder and attempted murder.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called this week "a blockbuster week for President Trump’s immigration agenda."
"President Trump is doing exactly what he promised the American people — securing the Southern border and deporting illegal aliens," said Jackson.
"The President is cracking down on cartels, cutting the flow of fentanyl coming across our border by over half in the last year," she added. "Under President Trump’s America First leadership, it’s a bad day to be an illegal alien and a great day to be an American."
When Donald Trump ran for president for the first time, he campaigned on reducing the national debt, referring to himself at the time as "the king of debt" and telling voters he would pay off the nation's multi-trillion-dollar debt in 8 years.
"I'm the king of debt. I’m great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me," Trump said during an interview with CBS's Norah O'Donnell in the lead up to the 2016 election. "I’ve made a fortune by using debt, and if things don’t work out I renegotiate the debt. I mean, that’s a smart thing, not a stupid thing."
"We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt," Trump said a few months prior on the campaign trail during an interview with The Washington Post. When asked how long it would take, Trump responded: "I would say over a period of eight years … The power is trade. Our deals are so bad."
The nation's ever-rising debt is once again a focus for Trump, as GOP defectors over his "big, beautiful bill," have largely staked their concerns around arguments that the Republican Party's new spending package will increase the national debt and deficit too much, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating it will add roughly $3 trillion over the next decade.
Elon Musk, who has cemented his stance in recent days against the Trump-endorsed spending package – leading to a highly-publicized feud between the two leaders – has argued that bill "undermines" the work he did while leading the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) because it does not cut spending enough.
"This immense level of overspending will drive America into debt slavery!" Musk declared early on Wednesday in a post on X, shortly after he called the bill a "disgusting abomination."
Shortly thereafter, Musk referenced an X post from GOP Utah Sen. Mike Lee, which argued that "the accrued interest on the national debt now exceeds $1 trillion a year." This is more than the country spends on defense annually, Lee's post added. "And yet Congress continues to add to the debt at an astounding rate of $2 trillion per year—with our national debt growing faster than our economy."
In another X post from Musk, in the lead up to his feud with Trump this week, he succinctly described the U.S.'s $36.2 trillion debt as "scary."
Even before the highly publicized feud between Musk and Trump over the contentious GOP spending package, Musk called the rising national debt "terrifying" and lamented "America is headed for de facto bankruptcy very fast."
"President Trump is the first president in modern history to seriously tackle the waste, fraud, and abuse in our bloated government. He has already trimmed billions in astonishingly mindless government spending across the administration, and now he is spearheading The One, Big, Beautiful Bill – which will be the largest deficit reduction in decades," White House spokesman Kush Desai said to Fox News Digital in a statement Friday afternoon.
Five members of the Proud Boys are suing the U.S. government and certain employees in the FBI and Department of Justice for $100 million over their Jan. 6 prosecutions.
Enrique Tarrio, Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Dominic Pezzola allege in the lawsuit the FBI and DOJ violated their constitutional rights with their prosecution over what prosecutors said was their planning of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In a document filed in a Florida federal court and obtained by Fox News Digital, the men claim "egregious and systemic abuse of the legal system and the United States Constitution to punish and oppress political allies of President Trump, by any and all means necessary, legal, or illegal.
"Through the use of evidence tampering, witness intimidation, violations of attorney-client privilege, and placing spies to report on trial strategy, the government got its fondest wish of imprisoning the J6 Defendants, the modern equivalent of placing one’s enemies' heads on a spike outside the town wall as a warning to any who would think to challenge the status quo."
Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice for comment.
Four of the five men were convicted of seditious conspiracy after the attack, and Tarrio faced the harshest punishment — 22 years for planning the attack — of any of the Jan. 6 defendants, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Nordean was sentenced to 18 years, Biggs was sentenced to 17 years and Rehl was sentenced to 15 years. Pezzola was found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct Congress and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
However, President Donald Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly all the defendants after he took office this year, including Tarrio, Rehl, Nordean, Biggs and Pezzola.
All the men except Tarrio were at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, according to the Journal.
Tarrio had been barred from entering Washington, D.C., because of a previous arrest, The Washington Post reported.
"Now that the Plaintiffs are vindicated, free, and able to once again exercise their rights as American citizens, they bring this action against their tormentors for violations of their Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment Rights … as well as the common law tort of malicious prosecution and false imprisonment," the suit adds.
Prosecutors said Pezzola was seen on video using a police riot shield to commit the first breach of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6.
Prosecutors alleged the men were charged under a "novel theory of criminal conspiracy called the ‘tool theory,'" according to the suit. "Despite the legal jiggery-pokery employed by the government to obscure the fact, the Plaintiffs were essentially convicted of ‘stochastic terrorism,’ a leftist bugbear used to describe rhetoric offensive to them that they claim provokes violent acts."
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who has led the party’s advocacy for suspected gang member Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, is celebrating his return to the U.S., saying, "This is not about the man, it’s about his constitutional rights."
"For months, the Trump administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution," Van Hollen asserted in a statement sent to Fox News Digital via email.
"Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States."
Van Hollen was the first of several Democratic lawmakers to fly to visit Abrego Garcia after he was deported to a high-security prison in his home country, El Salvador, in March.
Abrego Garcia, 29, has been returned to the U.S. and is facing charges in a sealed federal indictment in Tennessee for alleged conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain and unlawful transportation of illegal aliens.
Though many Democrats claim Abrego Garcia is an innocent man who was wrongly deported, the administration has pointed to considerable evidence he is a member of the MS-13 gang.
Abrego Garcia allegedly moved illegal immigrants from Texas to interior states in what prosecutors say was an organized operation stretching back years.
He has also been accused of being a member of the violent Salvadoran gang MS-13. According to court records filed by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, he also allegedly physically abused her on multiple occasions.
Since Abrego Garcia’s deportation to his home country, Van Hollen has advocated for his return.
After Fox News Digital asked Van Hollen in May whether he was aware of the domestic violence allegations against Abrego Garcia before he went to visit him in El Salvador, the senator became defensive, saying, "What I said here was these issues need to be litigated in the courts."
In a statement Friday, Van Hollen doubled down on that sentiment, saying, "As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man. It’s about his constitutional rights, and the rights of all.
"The administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along."
Despite the gravity of his alleged crimes, returning Abrego Garcia to the U.S. has become a major cause for the Democratic Party.
Earlier Friday, another Maryland Democrat, Rep. Glenn Ivey, who also made a trip to El Salvador to advocate for Abrego Garcia, used his X account to promote an event to continue the "critical conversation on the fight to return those who are wrongfully imprisoned in El Salvador."
Ivey claimed Abrego Garcia’s case is "part of a much larger crisis — and we must not look away."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Ivey also asserted that the Trump administration "defied the Supreme Court and misled the American people for months, saying they could not bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States under any circumstances, knowing that they had the power to do so all along.
"I went to El Salvador and advocated for Kilmar’s return because he was entitled to due process under our Constitution. Kilmar will now get his day in court. I hope he receives the fair trial that he is guaranteed."
Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland's lone Republican congressman, responded to the news of Abrego Garcia’s return with disgust, posting on X, "What a waste of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Bringing an already deported illegal alien criminal back to the US to be housed in a US jail at taxpayer expense so he can stand trial and then be deported back to his homeland."
Fox News Digital also reached out to representatives Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., Maxwell Frost, D-Fla. and Robert Garcia, D-Calif., all of whom have made trips to visit Abrego Garcia in prison.
A day after the White House held a farewell press conference for SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to highlight his efforts as outgoing leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), President Donald Trump suddenly pulled Musk ally Jared Isaacman as his pick for NASA administrator.
While the White House released a May 30 video chronicling Musk’s contributions to DOGE and several X posts thanking him and listing various "DOGE wins," the gestures were some of the last, final public actions of goodwill between Trump and Musk.
On Saturday, Trump announced in a social media post he was pulling the nomination for Isaacman, a commercial astronaut and founder and CEO of payment processing company Shift4 Payments after "a thorough review of prior associations."
Trump also said he would unveil a "new Nominee who will be Mission aligned, and put America First in Space."
Isaacman’s affiliations with Musk include being an investor in SpaceX, in addition to leading two private spaceflight missions with SpaceX, including Inspiration4. The 2021 Inspiration4 mission was the first time an all-civilian crew orbited Earth.
Isaacman addressed his pulled nomination in an episode of the "All-In Podcast," which is hosted by four venture capitalists and covers business, technology and society, that dropped Wednesday. Specifically, Isaacman said he received a call from the White House May 30 notifying him his nomination wouldn’t advance because the White House had "decided to go in a different direction."
Isaacman said he suspected his ties to Musk were part of the decision, noting the call came the same day Musk’s tenure with DOGE concluded.
"I don’t need to play dumb on this," Isaacman said in the podcast. "I don’t think that the timing was much of a coincidence, that there were other changes going on the same day.
"There were some people that had some axes to grind, I guess, and I was a good, visible target."
Tensions between Musk and Trump continued to escalate after Musk’s departure as a special government employee May 30 and Isaacman’s withdrawn nomination the following day.
Although Musk previously told CBS News in an interview clip released May 27 that he was disappointed by the House’s passage of Trump’s massive tax and spending package, the "big, beautiful bill," because it would increase the federal deficit, Musk’s attacks on the measure ramped up exponentially after Trump rescinded Isaacman’s nomination.
Specifically, on Tuesday, Musk labeled the measure a "disgusting abomination" and followed up by urging the American public to contact lawmakers to "KILL the BILL" in an X post Wednesday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday that Trump was aware of Musk’s position on the bill and that it didn’t change the president’s stance on the measure. And Trump did not mince words Thursday as tensions between the two men reached a boiling point.
Trump said Musk was irritated with provisions in the bill that would cut an electric vehicle tax credit that benefits companies like Tesla. He also suggested Musk may suffer from "Trump derangement syndrome," a term used to describe deeply negative reactions to the president.
"I'm very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people," Trump said in the Oval Office during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
"He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden, he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the EV mandate because that's billions and billions of dollars, and it really is unfair."
Trump also specifically mentioned Isaacman’s nomination, claiming Musk recommended Isaacman for the role. But Trump voiced concern about Isaacman’s ties to the Democratic Party.
"He wanted and rightfully, you know, he recommended somebody that he, I guess, knew very well. I'm sure he respected him, but to run NASA," Trump told reporters Thursday. "And I didn't think it was appropriate. And he happened to be a Democrat, like, totally Democrat. And I say, you know, look, we won. We get certain privileges. And one of the privileges is we don't have to appoint a Democrat. NASA is very important."
Trump then said he "understood" why Musk was upset over the pulled nomination.
The White House directed Fox News Digital to Trump's comments Thursday and Isaacman's previous donations to Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
Isaacman told the "All-In Podcast" he doesn’t think his past political donations to Democrats were a factor in his pulled nomination, and that he identifies as "right-leaning."
Isaacman and Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Trump and Musk continued to trade barbs Thursday. At one point, Musk urged the removal of the "disgusting pork" included in Trump’s tax and spending bill. He also said it was "false" that he was shown the measure "even once."
Musk even went so far as to say Trump wouldn’t have won the 2024 election if it weren’t for Musk's backing. Meanwhile, Trump accused Musk of going "CRAZY" over cuts to the EV credits and said Musk was "wearing thin."
Although Politico reported that Trump and Musk were slated to speak Friday over the phone, Trump shut down speculation of a call between the two.
"No. I won’t be speaking to him for a while I guess, but I wish him well," Trump said, according to CNN.
"I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem," Trump said.
Despite Musk’s departure, White House officials have said DOGE’s efforts to address waste, fraud and abuse will continue, and Trump and cabinet members will oversee DOGE. The agency is expected to formally shut down July 4, 2026.
FIRST ON FOX: While Tesla CEO Elon Musk has departed the Department of Government Efficiency amid a blazing public tiff with the president, congressional DOGE leaders are primed to carry on the legacy well beyond his tenure.
"It’s never easy to see two friends at odds, but DOGE is bigger than any one person," House DOGE Caucus chairman Aaron Bean, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital on Friday – expressing endearment towards both Musk and President Donald Trump.
"Our caucus, with 110 members, is laser-focused on delivering real solutions for the American people, reining in wasteful spending, demanding oversight, and ensuring every taxpayer dollar is spent wisely."
Bean said his panel’s work rooting out government waste and streamlining the bureaucracy will continue on-track, with a major effort planned next week to change the Treasury’s payment system to curb improper disbursements.
The Jacksonville lawmaker said that longstanding issue has led to about $162 billion in wrongful payments every year. During his tenure, Musk also worked with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to fix systemic problems there.
The House DOGE Caucus will continue to advocate to "enact the cuts found by DOGE," Bean went on.
The panel looks forward to working with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to pass $9.4 billion in rescissions identified by DOGE and presented to Congress for action by OMB Director Russ Vought.
Republicans faced criticism for moving too slowly on DOGE’s proposed cuts, but GOP leadership sources said they needed either a formal request from Vought or separate bills outside the Big Beautiful Bill Act to avoid jeopardizing its eligibility for Senate reconciliation.
"Taking on Crazytown is no easy task," Bean quipped to Fox News Digital last November when he launched the House DOGE Caucus.
On the Senate side, DOGE caucus chairwoman Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, scrutinized a recent government report on COVID aid fraud and has already launched an effort to head off what she called easily-determinable signals that an application for government emergency aid is likely falsified or ineligible.
Ernst this week flagged an analysis from the Pandemic Resources Accountability Committee – led by federal inspectors general – that randomly sampled nearly 700,000 identity records from 67.5 million applications for PPP, EIDL and other COVID-19 relief programs and found nearly $80 billion in potentially fraudulent payouts.
Ernst said much of the likely fraud could have been prevented if officials had simply verified Social Security numbers, matched them with SSA records, and confirmed whether applicants were still alive.
In turn, she informed Fox News Digital exclusively that she would be launching a bill Friday to prevent this kind of easily-avoided oversight issues in the future.
The DOGE in Spending Act would prevent "con artists," she said, who, during COVID-19, "raided America’s piggy bank."
The bill’s name also signaled that the Senate, too, would continue its Musk-inspired work long after the mogul has left.
"There is nothing more frustrating than losing billions of dollars to preventable fraud," Ernst said, calling the illicit payouts during the pandemic "unprecedented."
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled the Department of Government Efficiency could access Social Security systems with sensitive information.
The ruling blocked a lower Maryland court order that kept DOGE from seeking certain Social Security information due to federal privacy laws.
The data from the U.S. Social Security Administration includes Social Security numbers, medical information, citizenship records, school records, and tax returns for millions of Americans.
"We conclude that, under the present circumstances, SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work," the court said in an unsigned order.
The six conservative justices voted for the ruling and the three liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.
Jackson said the ruling created "grave privacy risks" for millions of Americans by giving "unfettered data access to DOGE regardless — despite its failure to show any need or any interest in complying with existing privacy safeguards, and all before we know for sure whether federal law countenances such access."
The ruling came soon after DOGE's former head, Elon Musk, left the government and a day after he and President Donald Trump traded personal attacks that were sparked by a disagreement over the president's "Big, Beautiful" bill.
DOGE's path forward after Musk's exit isn't clear, but Trump and Musk have both previously said the newly-created agency's work would continue.
The Trump administration has said DOGE needs access to Social Security information to continue its core task of rooting out government waste.
Musk has previously called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme," and insisted on eliminating waste in the program.
Maryland U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander previously ruled that DOGE’s efforts with Social Security were a "fishing expedition" based on "little more than suspicion" of fraud. She did allow some access, however, to anonymous data for DOGE workers who had gone through background checks.
An appeals court didn't immediately lift the block, with dissenting conservative judges saying there’s no evidence that DOGE has done any "targeted snooping" or exposed personal information.
Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, Capitol Hill and more Fox News politics content.
Here's what's happening…
-Trump's border wall expansion moves forward in several critical areas: 'Crisis is not yet over'
-Trump admin asks Supreme Court to life injunction blocking dismantling of Education Dept
-Elon Musk may speak to Trump aides in push to calm feud
President Donald Trump told Fox News on Friday that he isn't interested in talking to SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, adding that "Elon's totally lost it."
Trump also said to Fox News' Bret Baier that he isn't worried about Musk's suggestion to form a new political party, citing favorable polls and strong support from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The comments come as Musk and Trump have been arguing over social media in recent days…Read more
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UNITY ON IMMIGRATION: Handful of House Democrats join Republicans in sanctuary city crackdown
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'WORLD STANDARD': Risch urges 'top to bottom' USAID spending review after waste, fraud exposed
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Get the latest updates on the Trump administration and Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.
