Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin had just met with one of the slain Israeli Embassy staffers earlier in May, posting to social media Thursday that he is "heartbroken" over her tragic shooting by a "Jew-hating radical."
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, two staffers of the Embassy of Israel to the United States — a couple set to be engaged — were shot and killed as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., Wednesday night.
"I just met Sarah two weeks ago in my office at EPA HQ," Zeldin posted. "She struck me as a young woman filled with life and positivity."
"Heartbroken to learn she was one of two tragically murdered last night by a Jew-hating radical screaming ‘Free Palestine,’" he continued. "May Sarah and Yaron rest in peace."
Zeldin shared a smiling photo of himself and Milgrim from the day they met.
Milgrim and Lischinsky were killed as they left the museum’s event focused on finding humanitarian solutions for Gaza.
Lischinsky was born in Israel and grew up in Germany. His father is Jewish and his mother is Christian.
Authorities took Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old man from Chicago, into custody. Upon being taken into custody, Rodriguez began shouting: "Free, free Palestine."
The FBI is investigating the incident as "an act of terror."
President Donald Trump has not directed his administration to declassify documents related to former President Joe Biden's health and an alleged "cover-up" of the 46th president's slipping mental acuity while commander-in-chief, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.
"The president can declassify anything that he wants. Has he looked to see if there are any records here that would contradict what we've been told about Joe Biden's decline?" Fox News' Peter Doocy asked Leavitt during the Thursday press briefing.
"He has not directed anyone, to my knowledge, to look into that," Leavitt responded. "But surely, I can ask him if he intends to."
Biden's health is back under the national spotlight after audio recordings of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur were released Friday. The recordings showed the former president tripping over his words, slurring sentences, taking long pauses between answers and struggling to remember key moments in his life, including the year his son Beau Biden died of cancer.
Hur led an investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents following his departure as vice president under the Obama administration. Hur announced in February 2024 that he would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, citing that Biden is "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
Biden's office revealed Sunday that the former president was suffering from "aggressive" prostate cancer that had metastasized.
Following the election cycle, a handful of books documenting the 2024 election cycle and Biden's apparent health decline have hit store shelves claiming that Biden staffers were aware of and fretted about the president's mental decline, but publicly promoted him as physically and mentally fit to serve as president. Fox News Digital has extensively covered concerns surround Biden's mental acuity and health stretching back to the 2020 election cycle.
"I think the president has spoken on this pretty extensively," Leavitt continued in the press conference. "And I have spoken about it extensively from this podium as well, how it was truly one of the worst political scandals this country has ever seen, that the previous administration covered up the decline in the former president's mental and physical ability. And it's now all coming out. But the American people knew the truth, and that's one of the many reasons why President Trump won the election on November 5th."
Doocy asked Leavitt specifically about the Biden administration's use of an autopen, which Trump has argued was used by Biden staffers to sign official White House documents without Biden's approval.
"Specifically, (Trump) talks about the autopen. He thinks that staffers were using this autopen. Is there some kind of like a badge that you have to swipe to use an autopen? Is there a record of that?" Doocy asked.
"I can tell you here at this White House, the president signs any document that has legal implications," Leavitt responded. "The president signs every executive order. He signs every proclamation. He signs pretty much every document that is needed for the president's signature, with the exception of maybe some letters to children. From what we have heard and seen, that was not the case in the previous administration. And the president is raising good questions that are worth looking into."
Autopen signatures are automatically produced by a machine, as opposed to an authentic, handwritten signature.
The conservative Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project first investigated the Biden administration's use of an autopen earlier this year and found that the same signature was on a bevvy of executive orders and other official documents, while Biden’s signature on the document announcing his departure from the 2024 race varied from the apparent machine-produced signature.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declared Thursday that the Democratic Party "has never been more radical and out of touch with the needs of the American people" after voting against President Donald Trump’s "one big, beautiful bill."
"Every single Democrat in the House of Representatives voted against all of these common-sense and massively popular policies. The Democrat Party has never been more radical and out of touch with the needs of the American people," she said. "The one big, beautiful Bill is the final missing piece toward ushering the Golden Age of America. The Senate should pass this as quickly as possible and send it to President Trump's desk for a final signature."
Leavitt hailed the legislation as "delivering the largest tax cut in American history for middle-class families, the working class and small businesses."
The Trump administration and Republicans hope to reduce the national debt with the bill by cutting approximately $1.5 trillion in government spending. The U.S. government is over $36 trillion in debt and has spent $1.05 trillion more than it's collected in the 2025 fiscal year, according to the Treasury Department.
She also said it will "permanently secure the border by delivering the largest border security investment in history, funding at least 1 million annual removals of illegal aliens to carry out the largest deportation campaign ever, finishing the Trump border wall and giving pay raises and bonuses for our incredible ICE and Border Patrol agents."
"And I don't think he likes to see grandstanders in Congress. ‘What's the alternative?’ I would ask those members of Congress. Did they want to see a tax hike? Did they want to see our country go bankrupt?" Leavitt continued.
"That's the alternative by them trying to vote no. And the president believes the Republican Party needs to be unified. And the vast majority of Republicans clearly are, and are listening to the president. They are trusting in President Trump, as they should, because there's a reason he's sitting in this Oval Office. It's because he's the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party, not just a president for Republicans, but all Americans," she added.
"The president's approval rating is at an all-time high right now. That's because he knows how to deliver, and Republicans like Thomas Massie and others should take note," Leavitt also said.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Elizabath Elkind contributed to this report.
Those responsible for the fatal attack against two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington, D.C., Wednesday will be prosecuted to the "fullest extent of the law," according to the White House.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were departing an event at the Capital Jewish Museum Wednesday evening when a gunman opened fire and killed them. The two were slated to get engaged next week in Jerusalem, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a White House press briefing.
A pro-Palestinian man authorities identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago was arrested, according to officials.
"The evil of antisemitism must be eradicated from our society," Leavitt told reporters Thursday. "I spoke to the attorney general this morning. The Department of Justice will be prosecuting the perpetrator responsible for this to the fullest extent of the law. Hatred has no place in the United States of America under President Donald Trump. Everyone here at the White House is praying for the victims, friends and families during this unimaginable time."
Yaron, born in Israel but who grew up in Germany, has a father who is Jewish. However, his mother is a Christian and the family is considered Christian. Milgrim was an American employee the Israeli embassy employed.
"These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!" he wrote on Truth Social post. "Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"
Likewise, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that those responsible for the attack would encounter consequences.
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of two staff members from the Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC. Our prayers are with their loved ones. This was a brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence. Make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice," Rubio wrote on X on Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is eliminating the student visa program at Harvard University due to "pro-terrorist conduct" at campus protests, Fox News Digital has learned.
It's a severe consequence for what DHS claims is Harvard's refusal to comply with its requests for behavioral records of student visa holders.
"This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus," said Secretary Kristi Noem. "It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused. They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country."
Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students in the 2025-2026 school year and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status to reside in the U.S. before the next academic year begins.
"As a result of your brazen refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas rhetoric, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ policies, you have lost this privilege," Noem wrote in a letter to Maureen Martin, the university’s director of immigration services.
Noem offered Harvard 72 hours to provide the information requested for an opportunity to regain its visa program for the next school year.
She called the move the "direct result of Harvard’s epic failure to comply with simple reporting requirements."
The records requested include any footage of protest activity involving students on visas and the disciplinary records of all students on visas in the last five years.
Noem said last month she had requested records related to visa-holding students enrolled in the university and Harvard’s counsel did not provide adequate information to meet the demand. After the DHS general counsel asked again for the information, Harvard provided an "insufficient, incomplete and unacceptable response," she said.
"Consequences must follow to send a clear signal to Harvard and all universities that want to enjoy the privilege of enrolling foreign students, that the Trump administration will enforce the law and root out the evils of antisemitism in society and campuses.
Requested records also include footage or documentation of illegal, dangerous or violent activity by student visa holders, any records of threats or the deprivation of rights of other students or university personnel.
Harvard could not immediately be reached for comment.
Last month, Harvard announced it would allow foreign students to accept admission to both Harvard and a foreign university as backup amid the Trump administration’s threats to move to block Harvard’s authorization to host them. Typically, students must accept enrollment at Harvard by May 1 and can’t commit to another university.
At least a dozen Harvard students have had their authorization to study in the U.S. revoked over campus protest activity.
The Trump administration has already frozen close to $3 billion in federal funding to the university, largely dedicated to research, and launched investigations across the departments of Justice, Education and Health and Human Services. They claim Harvard has failed to address campus antisemitism and eradicate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in its policies.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress this week the State Department had probably revoked "thousands" of student visas by this point and would "proudly" revoke more.
"We're going to continue to revoke the visas of people who are here as guests and are disrupting our higher education facilities," he said Tuesday. "A visa is a privilege, not a right."
The crackdown on university policies comes after a wave of pro-Gaza student protests and encampments swept schools across the nation since the beginning of Israel’s offensive campaign to eradicate Hamas after the October 7 attacks to pressure university administrations to divest from Israel.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., says she supports banning stock trading for sitting members of Congress "100%," saying, "we shouldn’t be voting on things we can benefit from financially."
Though supportive of efforts to curb the practice of trading by members of Congress, Mace, a staunch conservative, told Fox News Digital that she is not surprised the effort has been unsuccessful so far.
"It's Washington. Washington is doing what it always does," she said, adding, "The establishment rules and … when you see the kind of returns members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are getting that the average American isn't, something doesn't add up."
According to Quiver Quantitative, Mace has no reported stock trading activity and has a net worth of $3.4 million.
"I support it 100%. I don't trade stocks," said Mace. "I think I have learned since I've been up here that we can be market makers, and when we do bills, or we vote on things, or we do legislation, we shouldn't be voting on things that we could benefit from financially."
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meanwhile, declined to comment on her stance.
According to Quiver Quantitative, the former speaker of the House, who has a net worth of a little over $261 million and, as of April 28, was reported as holding $119.9 million in stocks, has been heavily criticized for engaging in lucrative trading.
When asked by Fox News Digital whether she would support banning lawmakers from trading stocks, Pelosi ignored the question and continued walking.
This comes after Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., introduced legislation earlier this month that would ban congressional stock trading, serving as the House companion bill to Sen. Josh Hawley's, R-Mo., "PELOSI Act" in the Senate.
Alford's proposed bill would ban lawmakers and their spouses from holding, purchasing or selling individual stocks while in office, but it allows investments in diversified mutual funds, exchange-traded funds or U.S. Treasury bonds. If passed, current lawmakers would have 180 days to comply with the legislation. Likewise, newly elected lawmakers must achieve compliance within 180 days of entering office.
Under the proposed legislation, lawmakers who continue to make wrongful transactions would be required to hand over any profits they made to the U.S. Treasury Department. The House or Senate ethics committees could also impose a fine on such lawmakers amounting to 10% of each wrongful transaction.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has also endorsed a stock trading ban, saying "a few bad actors" have ruined Americans' trust in lawmakers on the issue. President Donald Trump himself endorsed the same ban for members of Congress in an interview with Time magazine last month.
"I watched Nancy Pelosi get rich through insider information, and I would be okay with it. If they send that to me, I would do it," he said of a trading ban.
Democrats in the House of Representatives have also expressed support for a ban, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., throwing his weight behind the proposal last week.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., meanwhile, told Fox News Digital that he has an alternate solution that would allow legislators to trade stocks but would mandate that members of Congress wishing to do so to "put their money in escrow and announce the stock trade 24 hours before they make it."
"Then they have to legally go through with the trade. So instead of not using the insider information, let's give it to everybody and let them front run the elected officials here," he said, smiling.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., avoided answering questions from reporters regarding the shooting in Washington, D.C., that killed two Israeli Embassy staffers departing the Capital Jewish Museum Wednesday evening.
"I’m going to go for now," Omar, the first Somali American elected to Congress, told reporters Thursday when asked if she would react to the shooting.
A spokesperson for Omar did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Later, Omar said she was "appalled" by the shooting and said that violence is not welcome in the U.S.
"I am appalled by the deadly shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum last night," Omar said in a post on X on Thursday. "Holding the victims, their families, and loved ones in my thoughts and prayers. Violence should have no place in our country."
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were departing an event at the museum Wednesday evening when they were gunned down and killed. The two were planning to get engaged soon, according to the Embassy of Israel.
A pro-Palestinian man, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, was arrested in connection with the case, according to authorities.
Omar, one of the first two Muslim women in Congress, has been a vocal advocate for the Palestinian cause. She has come under scrutiny for comments toward the Jewish community, including when she appeared at a Columbia University encampment in April 2024 and said that all Jewish kids should remain safe "whether they’re pro-genocide or anti-genocide."
Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, was also arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University that same month.
Lischinsky, born in Israel, grew up in Germany. While his father is Jewish, his mother is a Christian, and the family is considered Christian. Milgrim was an American employee working for the Israeli Embassy.
President Donald Trump and other Republicans have been outspoken and labeled the attack an act of antisemitism.
"These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!" he wrote on Truth Social post. "Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"
Additionally, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that those responsible for the attack would face justice.
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of two staff members from the Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC," Rubio wrote Thursday on X. "Our prayers are with their loved ones. This was a brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence. Make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have launched a nationwide initiative to begin arresting illegal immigrants at their immigration and asylum hearings, Fox News has learned.
The effort targets illegal immigrants who have been in the U.S. fewer than two years. The DHS strategy is to drop their immigration case, arrest the migrant, then place them into expedited deportation proceedings.
The initiative requires the DHS to drop the cases because migrants cannot be put forward for expedited removal if they have a pending case.
ICE sources who spoke with Fox News Digital on condition of anonymity say Americans should expect to see "a lot more" of these kinds of arrests.
The new policy is likely to lead to a spike in deportations of migrants who have not committed crimes aside from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The Trump administration has so far focused its efforts on deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of other serious crimes.
News of the policy comes as the Department of Homeland Security is in multiple court battles regarding its deportation efforts.
A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the DHS had violated a court order in sending a plane full of eight illegal immigrants to South Sudan this week.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ruled that the migrants — all of whom are convicted of crimes ranging from homicide to robbery — were not properly given "credible fear interviews." The interviews allow migrants being deported to a third-party country to argue that being sent there would endanger them.
Murphy said he is investigating whether the deportees can conduct their interviews in South Sudan rather than returning to the U.S. immediately.
Murphy previously found that any plans to deport people to Libya without notice would "clearly" violate his ruling regarding third-party deportations, which also applies to people who have otherwise exhausted their legal appeals.
A new book about President Joe Biden's cognitive decline and his administration's alleged cover-up has forced a reckoning in the Democratic Party.
Biden's aides worried about his age long before his consequential 2024 presidential debate against then-former President Donald Trump, CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson reveal in their book, "Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," which was released on Tuesday.
"During an eight-day, grueling bus tour in Iowa in December 2019, Biden gave his aides pause. While doing prep, he struggled to remember the name of longtime aide Mike Donilon. ‘You know, you know,’ he said, groping for it. His aides side-eyed one another–Donilon had worked for Biden since 1981," Tapper and Thompson wrote.
That was not the only time aides worried about Biden on the 2020 presidential campaign trail, according to the book. The journalists described aides "white-knuckling" through debate performances as they "shied away from tough interviews" because Biden no longer communicated the way he did as senator or vice president.
The book details his aides' concerns on the 2020 campaign trail that voters in battleground states were seeing a "diminished man" who was "not always 100 percent" during the relentless campaign schedule.
Without the COVID-19 pandemic, his aides "doubted Biden could have otherwise kept up the pace of campaigning through November."
However, even during the pandemic, Tapper and Thompson described Biden as struggling to stay on message as his aides tried to soften his blunders. Two aides who grew closer to Biden during lockdown, Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, "loaded a written Q&A into a prompter ahead of a local interview – a document that the campaign had used in prep with Biden," according to the book.
"The team was constantly trying to change the Zoom configurations and production designs to adapt to him. Aides privately noted that they couldn't rely on him to stay on message, and he often had a very short attention span."
Tapper and Thompson describe a turning point during the 2020 campaign when Biden struggled to follow virtual conversations with American voters through a series of monitors for the Democratic National Convention.
"It was like a different person. It was incredible. This was like watching Grandpa who shouldn't be driving," one Democrat told the journalists.
After watching the short, overly edited videos of Biden struggling to interact with voters, Democrats told Tapper and Thompson that they did not think Biden could be president. They said Democrats became angry imagining his aides seeing him like this every day.
A Biden spokesperson, however, pushed back on the narrative of the book, telling Fox News Digital that "there is nothing in this book that shows Joe Biden failed to do his job, as the authors have alleged, nor did they prove their allegation that there was a cover-up or conspiracy."
"Nowhere do they show that our national security was threatened or where the President wasn’t otherwise engaged in the important matters of the Presidency," the spokesperson continued. "In fact, Joe Biden was an effective President who led our country with empathy and skill."
However, those close to Biden told Tapper and Thompson that the "first signs he was deteriorating emerged after the death of his beloved son Beau in 2015."
"Beau's cancer treatment also demonstrated the Bidens' capacity for denial and the lengths they would go through to avoid transparency about health issues, even when the person in question is an elected official, in this case the sitting attorney general of Delaware."
Tapper and Thompson described how the Biden family went through great lengths to downplay or mislead the media about then-vice president Biden visiting his son in the hospital.
"Beau's wife, Hallie, told people she didn't understand why they had to keep his illness a secret."
Fox News Digital has written extensively dating back to the 2020 presidential campaign about Biden's cognitive decline and his inner circle’s role in covering it up.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., avoided answering questions from reporters and refused to condemn the shooting in Washington, D.C., that killed two Israeli Embassy staffers departing the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday evening.
"I’m going to go for now," Omar, the first Somali American elected to Congress, told reporters when asked if she would react to the shooting.
A spokesperson for Omar did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were departing an event at the museum on Wednesday evening when they were gunned down and killed. The two were planning to get engaged soon, according to the Embassy of Israel.
A pro-Palestinian man, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, was arrested in connection with the case, according to authorities.
Omar, one of the first two Muslim women in Congress, has been a vocal advocate for the Palestinian cause. She has come under scrutiny for comments toward the Jewish community, including when she appeared at a Columbia University encampment in April 2024 and said that all Jewish kids should remain safe "whether they’re pro-genocide or anti-genocide."
Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, was also arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University that same month.
Lischinsky, born in Israel, grew up in Germany. While his father is Jewish, his mother is a Christian, and the family is considered Christian. Milgrim was an American employee working for the Israeli Embassy.
President Donald Trump and other Republicans have been outspoken and labeled the attack an act of antisemitism.
"These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!" he wrote on Truth Social post. "Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"
Additionally, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that those responsible for the attack would face justice.
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of two staff members from the Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC," Rubio wrote Thursday on X. "Our prayers are with their loved ones. This was a brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence. Make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice."
With the narrow 215-214 passage of House Republicans’ "Big, Beautiful Bill," (BBB) there were noted winners and losers, and some entities who felt mixed results from the midnight-oil-burning negotiations and vote.
The House Freedom Caucus (HFC) within the GOP conference appeared to be a key player in BBB talks, as Chairman Andy Harris of Maryland voted "present," while two other HFC members, Reps. Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, voted "nay."
The HFC was initially very concerned about the bill’s spending levels and how quickly — or not — some of the reduction measures would be implemented.
Ultimately, the HFC won out in terms of shifting Medicaid Work Requirements in the bill to take effect by 2027 rather than the originally proposed 2029 deadline.
On the other GOP flank, moderates and lawmakers from blue states had expressed concern over the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT) — which helps Democrat-run state residents lessen their tax burden.
Originally, SALT was capped at $10,000, but the budget bill raised it to $30,000 for individuals earning up to $400,000.
Rep. Michael Lawler, R-N.Y., and other blue-state Republicans clashed with President Donald Trump on the matter — with the president retorting that he knew Lawler’s Rockland County district better than he did.
Lawler was seen as a winner in the budget bill’s passage, as his work — along with that of Long Island Republicans like Rep. Nick LaLota — secured the deduction for their constituents.
Another blue-state Republican, Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York, was one of two nonvoting members — the other being Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., according to the official roll.
Residents of such high-tax states as New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Maryland and California won out in that respect, ensuring that they would be able to continue to utilize SALT.
Outright winners from the bill were Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who saw some version of their original effort come to pass.
Passage of the bill in the House comes as the national debt currently sits at $36,214,475,432,210.84, according to FOX Business' National Debt Tracker. The federal deficit will grow by about $2 trillion over 10 years, according to reports, while the tax cuts’ preservation will reduce gross federal revenue.
But Medicaid and SNAP work requirements funding cuts are expected to lessen that blow.
Other winners included illegal immigration hawks, with the bill allocating billions for the Pentagon and for homeland security, including at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Energy interests also won out in the bill’s passage.
The American Petroleum Institute applauded the House for taking another step to "restore American energy dominance."
"By preserving competitive tax policies, beginning to reverse the ‘methane fee,’ opening lease sales and advancing important progress on permitting, this historic legislation is a win for our nation’s energy future," the group said in a statement.
Losers included Democratic leadership, as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., saw his caucus vote as a bloc, but just shy of the partisan force necessary to block the bill.
One particularly upset "loser" in the bill’s passage was House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson of Mississippi.
"You can’t shovel s--- and call it sugar," Thompson fumed in a Thursday statement.
"This horrific bill is one of the most shameful grifts I have ever seen played on the American public," he added.
Abortion providers also lost out via the bill, as it reportedly bans Medicaid disbursements to Planned Parenthood for one year, which could lead to decreased revenue for such organizations.
Opponents of SALT, including members of the HFC, also essentially lost out, given the fact the deduction remained intact and was somewhat bolstered.
The bill’s slashing of green energy tax credits also renders that particular corporate sector — including wind, solar and EV concerns — another potential loser in the BBB.
President Donald Trump's Make America Healthy Again Commission released its anticipated report assessing chronic diseases that have gripped U.S. youths in recent years, pinning blame for a spike in childhood issues on a host of variables stretching from ingesting foods with added chemicals to an increase in prescribing pharmaceuticals to young kids.
"After a century of costly and ineffective approaches, the federal government will lead a coordinated transformation of our food, health, and scientific systems," the report, released Thursday and reviewed by Fox News Digital, outlined. "This strategic realignment will ensure that all Americans—today and in the future—live longer, healthier lives, supported by systems that prioritize prevention, wellbeing, and resilience."
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. serves as chair of the commission and attended a call with the media earlier Thursday, when he explained that the report is a "diagnosis" of the state of U.S. health, and that the "prescription" for the ongoing issues will be released in 100 days at the end of August in the form of policy recommendations for the federal government.
The report's findings include teenage depression nearly doubling from 2009 to 2019, more than one-in-five children over the age of 6 being considered obese, one-in-31 children diagnosed with autism by age 8 and childhood cancer spiking by 40% since 1975.
"Over 40% of the roughly 73 million children (aged 0-17) in the United States have at least one chronic health condition, according to the CDC, such as asthma, allergies, obesity, autoimmune diseases, or behavioral disorders," the report stated. "Although estimates vary depending on the conditions included, all studies show an alarming increase over time."
Chronic diseases have a chilling effect on national security, commission members said in a Thursday morning phone call with the media. Roughly 75% of America's youth aged 17–24 do not qualify to serve in the military due to obesity, asthma, allergies, autoimmune diseases or behavioral disorders, they said.
"We now have the most obese, depressed, disabled, medicated population in the history of the world, and we cannot keep going down the same road," Food and Drug Commissioner Marty Makary said in the phone call with the media. "So this is an amazing day. I hope this marks the grand pivot from a system that is entirely reactionary to a system that will now be proactive."
The report itself pointed to a handful of variables leading to what Kennedy and other Trump administration leaders called a "chronic disease crisis," including a "food system (that) is safe but could be healthier;" exposure to environmental chemicals such as pesticides outside or microplastics in food consumed; as well as a culture shift that moved kids from playing outside to being glued to their phones or tablets.
"American children are highly medicated — and it’s not working," the report added of another variable compounding the chronic health issues.
The report found that prescribing medication to children has skyrocketed in recent history, such as a 250% increase in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder prescriptions between 2006 and 2016 despite scientific evidence that the prescriptions did not "improve outcomes long-term," as well as a 1,400% increase between 1987 and 2014 for antidepressant prescriptions for kids, and 800% increase in antipsychotic medications for children between 1993 and 2009.
"These time trends significantly outpace more moderate increases seen in other developed countries," the report found. "Psychotropics for ADHD are one example, prescribed 2.5 times more in US than in British children, and 19 times more than in Japanese youth. The crisis of overdiagnosis and overtreatment in children is therefore both empirically evident, and proportionally specific to American youth."
While the report detailed that fluoride, which is a water additive frequently used to protect teeth from decay and cavities, was found to have a "statistically significant association between exposure to fluoride above recommended levels and reduced IQ levels in children." The EPA, the report said, is in the midst of reviewing fluoride data to potentially enact "revisions to the federal drinking water standard."
By 2022, more than 60% of Americans — more than 70% of those on public water systems — were consuming fluoridated water, the report said.
A 2025 systematic review published in JAMA Pediatrics, analyzing 74 high-quality studies, found a statistically significant association between exposure to fluoride above recommended levels and reduced IQ levels in children. The EPA is currently conducting a review of additional research that will inform any potential revisions to the federal drinking water standard.
Director of the National Institutes of Health Jay Bhattacharya shared during the press call that the report underscores that America's next generation of children are less healthy than their parents and will subsequently live shorter lives if not addressed.
"What the report says is that the next generation of children will live shorter lives than their parents," he said. "For me as a parent, that is absolutely shocking. The implication is that whatever is happening to our kids, the food that they eat, the environmental exposures they face, the medicines that they take to address the fact that they're sick are not translating over into making them healthier. And in fact, they are less healthy than their parents were at the same age."
The report found, "Despite outspending peer nations by more than double per capita on healthcare, the United States ranks last in life expectancy among high-income countries — and suffers higher rates of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Today’s children are the sickest generation in American history in terms of chronic disease and these preventable trends continue to worsen each year, posing a threat to our nation’s health, economy, and military readiness."
The Trump officials stressed on the call that America's food system is "100% safe," but that it could be even healthier, such as shifting from "ultraprocessed foods" that contain added "sugars, chemical additives, and saturated fats, while lacking sufficient intakes of fruits and vegetables."
Kennedy added that the "holistic" review of U.S. health as it relates to children includes promoting a strong economy, citing that "weak economies kill people."
The report "represents an invitation to the American people and the American press to have a complex conversation about a nuanced subject, including that environmental policy, good economic policy and good public health policy are ultimately 100% aligned," Kennedy said on the press call.
"The reason for that, particularly regarding public health, is that a strong economy is a social determinant of public health," he continued. "Weak economies kill people. They make people sicker. Large public deaths make people sicker. These are all social determinants. And we learned during COVID that you can't isolate the economy from the public health policy."
Trump signed an executive order in February establishing the commission, chaired by Kennedy and joined by other agency leaders such as EPA chief Lee Zeldin, USDA's Brooke Rollins and VA Secretary Doug Collins. The executive order directed the commission to release "an assessment that summarizes what is known and what questions remain regarding the childhood chronic disease crisis, and include international comparisons."
The commission will release its next report advising on how to tackle chronic health issues in the next 100 days, which falls on Aug. 30.
Kennedy and Trump vowed on the campaign trail to "Make America Healthy Again," including directing their focus on autism among the youth in recent years.
House Republicans took a victory lap Thursday morning after passing President Donald Trump's "one big, beautiful bill."
"It's finally morning in America again," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed 215 to 214. All Democrats and two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, voted against the bill. House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., voted "present."
"Today, the House has passed generational, truly nation-shaping legislation to reduce spending and permanently lower taxes for families and job creators, secure the border, unleash American energy dominance, restore peace through strength and make government work more efficiently and effectively for all Americans," Johnson added.
The bill is a victory for Trump and House Republicans, who overcame policy disagreements to deliver on Trump's key campaign promises, including an extension of his 2017 tax cuts and no tax on tips, overtime and Social Security.
"We look forward to the Senate's timely consideration of this once-in-a-generation legislation. We stand ready to continue our work together to deliver on the one big, beautiful bill, as President Trump named it himself. We're going to send that to his desk. We're going to get there by Independence Day, on July 4th, and we are going to celebrate a new golden age in America," Johnson said.
House leaders took turns Thursday thanking Republicans for rallying together to pass the bill.
"Democrats made it very clear they didn't want to have any part in helping get America back on track again, but we were never fettered when this bill could have failed 10 times over. We said we were going to get this done, and failure is not an option. And we meant it," said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.
"Great job by Speaker Mike Johnson, and the House Leadership, and thank you to every Republican who voted YES on this Historic Bill! Now, it’s time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work, and send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! There is no time to waste," Trump wrote.
The multitrillion-dollar bill includes provisions to advance Trump's "America First" agenda by lowering taxes, securing the border, increasing national defense, reforming Medicaid and slashing Biden-era energy policies.
The bill aims to make a dent in the federal government's spending trajectory by cutting roughly $1.5 trillion in government spending elsewhere. The U.S. government is still more than $36 trillion in debt and has spent $1.05 trillion more than it has collected in the 2025 fiscal year, according to the Treasury Department.
"Take this as a lesson. Don't bet against the House Republicans. We've shown, time and time again, that we deliver for the American people, especially when it matters most. By taking hold of this historic opportunity, I truly believe we've unlocked the opportunities for generations to come," House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said.
Republicans on Thursday slammed their House Democratic colleagues for delaying the bill's passage — down to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' 30-minute "magic minute" before House votes.
"Democrats voted to put Americans last, and it's a shame. But thank God for House Republicans, and thank God for our president, Donald J. Trump," said GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain, R-Mich.
But the "big, beautiful bill" still has a big hurdle ahead. The Senate is tasked with passing its own version of the bill, and Republican leaders are hoping to send the bill to Trump's desk by the Fourth of July.
Senate Republicans have already signaled they expect to make changes to the bill when it reaches the upper chamber, despite House GOP leaders publicly urging them to amend as little as possible.
A significant number of senators have voiced concern over the extent of Medicaid and SNAP cuts proposed by the House. Meanwhile, raising the SALT deduction cap could face resistance in the Senate, where no Republicans represent blue states — unlike in the House, where districts in New York and California are key to the GOP majority.
And Senate Democrats are already piling on the criticism of Trump's "big, beautiful bill."
"This is not one big, beautiful bill. It’s ugly. There’s nothing beautiful about stripping away people’s healthcare, forcing kids to go hungry, denying communities the resources they need, and increasing poverty," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Thursday.
Republicans are targeting China’s efforts to sidestep U.S. tariffs through foreign production, with new legislation introduced Thursday by House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas.
The Axing Nonmarket Tariff Evasion (ANTE) Act aims to stop subsidized and state-owned entities from setting up production in other countries to avoid tariffs.
"For far too long, adversaries like China have engaged in unfair trade practices, cheated the American economy, and cost the U.S. millions of jobs," Arrington said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
On April 2, which the White House dubbed "Liberation Day," President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs with the intention of ending trade imbalances. Some of the harshest of the tariffs were imposed on China, which was initially hit with a 145% tariff that was later lowered to 30%.
While tariffs seem to be discouraging Chinese manufacturers from exporting to the U.S., as evidenced by a recent Commerce Department report showing import levels at their lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic, imports have not stopped entirely.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has found ways to evade the tariffs, such as setting up production in third-party countries or by shipping goods to another country and re-labeling them before sending them to the U.S. By labeling the goods as originating from another country, manufacturers dodge the high tariffs on China and instead get hit with much lower tariffs that are imposed on other nations. This is something that Arrington hopes to stop with his legislation.
"The ANTE Act will stop highly-subsidized, state-owned businesses from using third countries as backdoors to evade President Trump’s tariffs and help ensure a level playing field for American producers and manufacturers," Arrington told Fox News Digital.
Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., who is introducing companion legislation in the Senate, is also confident the bill will stop the CCP from falsifying the origins of imports.
"Communist China shouldn’t be able to dodge U.S. tariffs by slapping a ‘Made in Mexico’ label on their products," Banks said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "My bill closes loopholes and stops the CCP from cheating American workers and manufacturers."
The phenomenon of "place-of-origin washing" is not limited to large businesses. Chinese social media platforms are filled with ads offering services to help sellers avoid tariffs, the Financial Times reported. The outlet also noted that South Korea’s customs agency has seen an uptick in cases involving sellers using their country to avoid U.S. tariffs.
Under U.S. law, goods must undergo "substantial transformation" in a country to qualify as originating from there. The transformation must significantly add to the value of the good, according to the International Trade Administration’s (ITA) website.
As an example, the ITA writes that if ingredients are taken from several countries and turned into baked goods, the country of origin can be listed as where the items were baked, as this constitutes a "substantial transformation." However, if produce from multiple countries is frozen and mixed in another nation, then the origin of each ingredient must be listed.
A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from dismantling the Department of Education on Thursday, ruling that it cannot be done without congressional approval.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun's order blocks the Trump administration from carrying out the mass-firing at the DOE announced in March and orders that any employees who were already fired be reinstated.
Joun's order noted Trump's repeated calls to shut down the department while on the campaign trail, and argued the reduction in force was his means of doing so.
"The idea that Defendants’ actions are merely a ‘reorganization’ is plainly not true," Joun wrote.
"Defendants do acknowledge, as they must, that the Department cannot be shut down without Congress’s approval, yet they simultaneously claim that their legislative goals (obtaining Congressional approval to shut down the Department) are distinct from their administrative goals (improving efficiency). There is nothing in the record to support these contradictory positions," his ruling continues.
The ruling comes just a day after another federal judge blocked Trump's administration from firing two Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton found that allowing unilateral firings would prevent the board from carrying out its purpose.
Walton wrote that allowing at-will removals would make the board "beholden to the very authority it is supposed to oversee on behalf of Congress and the American people."
The oversight board was initially created by Congress to ensure that federal counterterrorism policies were in line with privacy and civil liberties law.
The two plaintiffs, Travis LeBlanc and Edward Felten, argued in their lawsuit that members of the board cannot be fired without cause. Meanwhile, lawyers for Trump's administration argued that members of other congressionally created boards do have explicit job protections, and it would therefore be wrong for Walton to create such protections where they are absent.
"The Constitution gives President Trump the power to remove personnel who exercise his executive authority," White House spokesman Harrison Fields told the Associated Press. "The Trump Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue."
FIRST ON FOX: Foreign entities are snatching up U.S. real estate, even when Americans cannot buy property in their nations, according to Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., who told Fox News Digital he is introducing legislation to fix the problem.
His bill, the Real Estate Reciprocity Act, would slap a 50% tax on real estate purchases by foreign nationals and entities who have government ties if their governments do not allow Americans to buy property in those countries.
It would require all foreign nationals who purchase land to file with the IRS and require the secretary of state to report each year on which foreign countries prohibit U.S. citizens from owning real estate.
"While American families struggle to afford a home, foreign adversaries are buying up our country with cash – farmland, neighborhoods, even land near military bases. These regimes ban Americans from buying land on their soil, but think they can carve up ours," Harrigan told Fox News Digital in a statement.
"My Real Estate Reciprocity Act stops it cold with a 50% tax on every purchase, mandatory disclosure, and protections for the ground we raise our kids on. If Americans can’t buy land in your country, you won’t be able to buy land in ours."
A surprising number of nations have an outright ban or severe restrictions on foreigners purchasing land within their borders. Switzerland, New Zealand, Denmark, the Phillippines, Poland and Vietnam all have stringent rules on the books. In places like China and Saudi Arabia, foreigners cannot purchase land, but they can invest in real estate.
Foreign buyers have long been accused of snatching up pricey apartments in metropolitan areas like New York City to park their assets, driving up housing costs.
The bill comes amid a slew of legislation designed to address China’s increasing encroachment on U.S. farmland, particularly near military bases.
China owned around 350,000 acres of farmland across 27 states as of last year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
As of 2022, foreign entities and individuals held 43.4 million acres of U.S. agricultural land, which is nearly 2% of all land in the U.S.
As of 2021, Canada was the largest foreign holder of U.S. land. At 12.8 million acres, Canadian land ownership was bigger than the states of New Hampshire and Vermont combined.
The Supreme Court on Thursday voted in a 4-4 vote to uphold the Oklahoma State Supreme Court's decision in a landmark school choice case.
Justices issued a one-sentence ruling upholding the lower court's decision, saying only: "The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court."
The state had ruled that providing state funds for a religious charter school violated the First Amendment.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the ruling, resulting in the 4-4 split.
The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved St. Isidore's contract request in June 2023, making them eligible to receive public funds.
But its ability to receive it was later blocked by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which ruled that using public funds for the school was in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
That argument was appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case last October.
During oral arguments, the justices focused on two major questions. The first is whether charter schools should be treated as public schools, which are considered extensions of the state, and therefore subject to the Establishment Cause and its ban establishing or endorsing a religion, or whether it should be considered a private entities or contractor.
The case is the first of its kind to involve religious charter schools.
