Speaking with members of the press on Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump floated the possibility of issuing a presidential pardon to disgraced rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs, saying "it's not a popularity contest" and "I would certainly look at the facts" if asked.
In a federal indictment unsealed on Sept. 17, Combs was charged with racketeering conspiracy (RICO); sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and transportation to engage in prostitution. If found guilty, he faces a minimum of 15 years behind bars or a maximum sentence of life in prison.
He has maintained his innocence throughout the ongoing trial in which witnesses have testified to alleged rape, sexual assault, severe physical abuse, forced labor and drug trafficking.
In response to a question by Fox News reporter Peter Doocy about his previous friendship with Diddy and whether he would consider a pardon of the former rapper, Trump indicated that he would consider "if I think somebody was mistreated."
The president said that so far "nobody’s asked" for any such pardon, but noted: "I know people are thinking about it. I know that they're thinking about it. I think people have been very close to asking."
"First of all, I'd look at what's happening, and I haven't been watching it too closely, although it's certainly getting a lot of coverage," said Trump.
"I haven't seen him. I haven't spoken to him in years," he went on, adding that Diddy "used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics … that relationship busted up."
Trump said that though he never had a falling out with Diddy per se, after entering politics, he would "read some little bit nasty statements in the paper all of a sudden."
"It's different," he went on. "You become a much different person when you run for politics, and you do what's right. I could do other things, and I'm sure he'd like me, and I'm sure other people would like me, but it wouldn't be as good for our country."
"As we said, our country is doing really well because of what we're doing, so it's not a popularity contest, so I don’t know, I would certainly look at the facts. If I think somebody was mistreated. Whether they like me or don't like me, it wouldn't have any impact on me," Trump concluded.
President Donald Trump fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet, for being a "strong supporter" of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Trump announced the termination in a post on Truth Social on Friday afternoon.
"Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am hereby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery," the president wrote. "She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. Her replacement will be named shortly. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
A White House official told Fox News Digital that Sajet had donated $3,982 to Democrats, including presidential campaigns for former President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Sajet also reportedly donated to other Democrats, including former Vice President Kamala Harris.
The White House also pointed to the gallery's photo of Trump, which was curated by Sajet. The caption of the photo reads, "Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials. After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term."
The White House official also said it was ironic that Sajet said, "We try very much not to editorialise. I don’t want by reading the label to get a sense of what the curator’s opinion is about that person. I want someone reading the label to understand that it’s based on historical fact."
The National Portrait Gallery did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the matter.
According to the National Portrait Gallery website, Sajet was the first woman to serve as the director of the National Portrait Gallery, and she spent time in the role looking for ways to put her experience and creativity at the center of learning and civic awareness.
Prior to taking the position, Sajet was the president and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and held other positions at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Her biography notes that she was born in Nigeria, was raised in Australia and is a citizen of the Netherlands. She came to the U.S. with her family in 1997.
Hours after taking the Oath of Office on Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate all DEI programs from the federal government.
A day later, the president directed the Office of Personnel Management to notify heads of agencies and departments to close all DEI offices and place those government workers in those offices on paid leave.
Earlier this month, Trump fired Shira Perlmutter, who was in charge of the U.S. Copyright Office, which came just days after terminating the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. The termination was part of the administration’s ongoing purge of government officials who are perceived to be opposed to Trump and his agenda.
Both women were notified of their termination by email, The Associated Press previously reported.
Hayden tapped Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020.
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump said that he thinks Joe Biden didn't really agree with many of his administration's lax border security policies, instead suggesting those surrounding the former president took advantage of his declining faculties and utilized an autopen feature in the White House to pass radical directives pertaining to the border.
The comments came during a press conference from the Oval Office on Friday, during which Trump signaled that investigators are zeroing in on exactly who authorized officials in the White House to sign important documents for Biden using the autopen.
"I think the autopen is going to become one of the great scandals of all time because you have somebody operating it, or a number of people operating," Trump told reporters. "I knew Joe Biden, Joe Biden wasn't in favor of opening up borders, letting 21 million people into this from prisons and mental institutions and gang members. He wasn't into that at all. And, you know who signed these? Who signed these orders, proclamations and all of the different things that he signed that said our country so far back?"
House Republicans, led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, launched an investigation earlier this month aimed at determining whether Biden, who was in declining health during the final months of his presidency, was mentally fit to authorize the use of the auto-pen. Comer said this week he was "open" to dragging Biden before the House to answer questions about the matter if need be.
"I understand he signed almost everything with an auto-pen. It's a very dangerous thing. It really means you're not president," Trump added in his comments to reporters Friday.
Trump pointed to Biden's legacy as a "sort of a moderate person," to explain his reasoning why he thinks Biden was not in favor of all of his administration's open border policies, adding that "he wasn't a person that would allow a murderers to come into our country."
"I don't believe it was Joe Biden, I really don't," Trump reiterated. "He wasn't a person that was in favor of transgender for anybody that wanted it, to take kids out of families, etc., etc."
A new book, an audio transcript of Biden's special counsel testimony, and a shocking cancer diagnosis have all renewed focus on how Biden's cognitive decline may have been worse than the public was aware.
Last week, Comer sent out letters to five of the former president's closest confidants, including his former doctor in the White House, seeking further answers about Biden's cognitive health while in office. All five have made contact with the Oversight Committee, but Comer has threatened subpoena power if they refuse to testify.
"Look, I would love to ask Joe Biden a lot of questions, but right now, we’re starting with the staffers who were operating the auto-pen," Comer said, according to the New York Post. "We’re going to bring the physician, Dr. O’Connor, in, because he definitely was not telling the truth about Joe Biden’s health."
"This is the Trump Train, next stop: Ronald Reagan National Airport," could be the conductor’s call on Washington, D.C.’s commuter rail system if one Florida GOP congressman has his way.
Rep. Greg Steube drafted "The Make Autorail Great Again (MAGA) Act," which would withhold $150 million in federal funding from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) until it is renamed "WMAGA" – or the Washington Metropolitan Authority for Greater Access, in honor of President Donald Trump.
It would also require the METRO rail system – six color-coded lines encompassing about 130 miles of track – to be renamed the "Trump Train."
Steube called upon a 1966 District of Columbia law granting congressional "consent" for the interstate compact and ensuing establishment of WMATA.
"WMATA has received billions in federal assistance over the years and continues to face operational, safety, and fiscal challenges," Steube said in a statement.
"In the spirit of DOGE, this bill demands accountability by conditioning federal funding on reforms that signal a cultural shift away from bureaucratic stagnation toward public-facing excellence and patriotism."
The day-to-day operations of WMATA and the METRO, including fares and routings, are controlled by its board – not Congress. It also receives funding and recommendations from the three state/district stakeholders.
WMATA’s board consists of two members from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, plus two appointed by the federal government.
Steube called WMATA a "struggling institution" in need of a "fresh identity," particularly ahead of global events scheduled in the region, including the 2027 NFL Draft and FIFA World Cup matches.
Fox News Digital reached out to WMATA as well as Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., for comment.
Several METRO stations already sport political names, though they often coincide with nearby sites – including for former President Ronald Reagan, ex-Secretary of State John Dulles, Pierre L’Enfant and Pierre DuPont.
A move to rename the entire METRO system in honor of a dignitary, however, has never been tried previously.
President Donald Trump during a news conference in the Oval Office on Friday said he is in favor of allowing international students on U.S. college campuses, clarifying he is against welcoming students who are "causing trouble."
Singling out Harvard University, which has come under fire in both public opinion and the courts, Trump noted nearly 30% of its students are foreign.
"Our country has given $5 billion plus to Harvard over a short period of time," he said. "Nobody knew that. We found that out. I wouldn't say that was a [Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)] thing, but we found that out over a period of time, that was sort of a Trump thing."
During ongoing litigation, which the president attributed to the university being "very anti-semitic," he said the administration found out that the government gave them more than $5 billion in funding.
"We're having it out with them, and let's see what happens," Trump said. "I think we have a very good, well, it's a very sad case. It's a case we win. We can't lose that case because we have the right to make grants. We're not going to make any grants like that."
He went on to say Harvard has not "been acting very nicely," and said other institutions like Columbia University in New York City "wants to get to the bottom of the problem."
"They've acted very well, and there are other institutions, too, that are acting, but Harvard's trying to be a big shot," Trump said. "And all that happens is every three days, we find another $100 million that was given."
Two days ago, the president said his administration had found an additional $200 million in grants given to Harvard.
"The money's given to them like gravy," he said.
Offering an alternative, Trump said he would like to see the money go toward creating the world's best trade school system.
"I'd like to see the money go to trade schools where people learn how to fix motors and engines, where people learn how to build rocket ships," he said. "Because, you know, somebody has to build those rocket ships."
"Yep," Elon Musk, who departed DOGE on Friday, chimed in from the side of Trump's desk.
"I'd like to see trade schools set up, because you could take $5 billion plus hundreds of billions more, which is what's spent, and you could have the greatest trade school system anywhere in the world, and that's what we need to build his rockets and robots and things that he's doing, and to build lots of other things."
He added he went to school with peers who could "fix the engine of a car better than anybody I've ever seen" and "take it apart blindfolded."
"They had an ability at that, and they did very well," Trump said. "They made a lot of money. You know, it's a very skilled job. … I'd like to see a lot of money going into trade schools. I've always felt that, and we probably found our pot of gold, and that's what's been wasted at places like Harvard."
Former President Joe Biden joked Friday he could take on those who questioned his mental faculties following his first public remarks since announcing he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Biden’s statement comes after several books have been released detailing his mental deterioration while in office, including the book, "Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," that was released May 20.
"You can see that I'm mentally incompetent, I can't walk," Biden quipped with reporters Friday after speaking at a Memorial Day event. "And I could beat the hell out of both of them."
Biden appeared to be referencing the book’s authors, Jake Tapper of CNN and Alex Thompson of Axios.
The reporters' book claims that Biden struggled to string together coherent sentences for campaign ad videos, that his Cabinet meetings were "so scripted" and that Biden’s team allegedly plotted a cover-up to hide just how severely his mental faculties had declined.
But Biden’s team has pushed back on the material included in the book.
"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," a Biden spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "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. In fact, Joe Biden was an effective President who led our country with empathy and skill."
In addition to the publication of multiple books this year chronicling the deterioration of Biden's mental faculties, leaked audio recordings of Biden's October 2023 interview with former Special Counsel Robert Hur were released in May, showing that Biden struggled to not slur his words and even appeared to forget the year his son died.
Biden revealed May 18 that he had an "aggressive form" of prostate cancer, and his office later said he had never received a prostate cancer diagnosis before. Biden told reporters Friday that he is "optimistic" about his diagnosis and is currently receiving treatment in the form of a pill.
"My expectation is we're going to be able to beat this," Biden said.
Earlier Friday, Biden appeared at a Memorial Day sponsored by the Delaware Commission of Veteran Affairs where he honored service members who had lost their lives.
"We come together and remember the debt we owe to the American military," Biden said at the event, sponsored by the Delaware Commission of Veteran Affairs.
"The military is a solid spine, the spine of our nation," he said. "Our troops, our veterans, our military families, and our Gold Star families in particular. Only around 1% of all Americans defend 99% of us — 1%. Just 1% of Americans risk the ultimate sacrifice. We owe them so much more than we can ever repay them."
Elon Musk showed up to the Oval Office on Friday to bid farewell to his official role in the Trump administration, but it wasn’t just the mark he made with DOGE that raised eyebrows.
It was the black one under his right eye.
Social media lit up during the livestreamed event as eagle-eyed viewers noticed what appeared to be a fresh bruise under Musk’s eye, prompting speculation about everything from a gym mishap to a political dust-up.
The assembled press couldn’t resist asking the obvious: "What happened to your eye?"
"Well, I wasn’t anywhere near France," Musk quipped, poking fun at headlines regarding French President Emmanuel Macron, who was caught on camera being shoved by his wife last week. "I didn’t know the first lady of France isn’t a lieutenant."
Then came the real story.
"No, I just was horsing around with little X," Musk said, referring to his five-year-old son, X Æ A-Xii. "And I said, ‘Go ahead, punch me in the face.’ And he did. Turns out even a 5-year-old punching you in the face… actually does this."
"X could do it, if you knew X," Trump said with a grin.
The whole exchange, captured during Musk’s Oval Office farewell event, quickly became the moment of the day, a lighthearted pause in a sendoff marking the end of Musk’s 130-day stint as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk didn’t let the black eye distract from his message.
"This is not the end of DOGE," he told reporters. "Only the beginning."
According to a May 26 update on DOGE’s official site, the department racked up over $175 billion in savings during Musk’s tenure, mostly through asset sales, canceled contracts, and cracking down on fraud. That translates to an estimated $1,087 saved per taxpayer.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Two Democrats who've spent decades in Congress this week became the latest in their party to face primary challenges from much younger opponents.
Longtime Democratic Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer has yet to announce whether he will seek re-election next year for a 24th two-year term in Congress.
If he does, he will face a primary challenger who is making Hoyer's age — the congressman turns 86 next month and would be 89 at the end of his next term — a centerpiece of his campaign.
Meanwhile, 78-year-old Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts—first elected to Congress nearly half a century ago—announced last October that he would seek another six-year term in the Senate. He is now facing a primary challenger who has criticized what he calls the senator’s "absence" in pushing back against President Donald Trump.
Harry Jarin, 35, a volunteer firefighter and emergency services consultant, said Thursday in a new video announcing his candidacy, "If you live here in southern Maryland, I want to ask you a tough question. Do you really think that Steny Hoyer, at 89-years-old, is the best person to represent us?"
"Here's the bottom line: You don't put out a fire by sending in the same people who let it spread. Send in a firefighter," Jarin said. "Maryland deserves a new generation of leadership, and I'm ready to take up the fight."
And in an interview with Fox News Digital, Jarin said: "I think we’re facing a really serious constitutional crisis… Congress has really declined as an institution over the last three or four years. Congress has surrendered a lot of its legislative power under the Constitution over to the executive branch. I think that’s been very corrosive to our political system."
Asked about his motivation to primary challenge Hoyer, Jarin said, "It’s not just about getting someone younger and fresher in. It’s getting someone in who understands the need to revitalize Congress as an institution."
Fox News reached out to Hoyer's office for a response, but a spokesperson declined to respond.
Hoyer, who first won his seat in Congress in a 1981 special election, from 2003 to 2023, was the second-ranking House Democrat behind Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. He served as House Majority Leader from 2007-2011 and from 2019-2023, when the Democrats controlled the chamber.
Along with Pelosi, Hoyer stepped down from his longtime leadership position at the end of 2022 but remained in Congress.
"I think all of us have been around for some time and pretty much have a feel for the timing of decisions. And I think all three of us felt that this was the time," Hoyer told CNN at the time, as he referred to the moves by the top three House Democrats — Pelosi, Hoyer and Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. — to step down from their leadership roles.
Hoyer has long been a major backer of the Democrats' top issues, and during his second tenure as House majority leader, he played a crucial role in the passage of then-President Joe Biden's so-called American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
He represents Maryland's Democrat-dominated 5th Congressional District, which covers a region known as Southern Maryland, and includes the suburbs south and east of Washington, D.C., a sliver of suburban Baltimore and Annapolis, as well as rural areas farther south.
Hoyer, who suffered a minor stroke last year, is the latest high-ranking House Democrat to face a primary challenge from a younger opponent.
Pelosi and Reps. Brad Sherman of California and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois have drawn primary challenges, with Schakowsky later announcing that she will no longer run for re-election.
Jarin told Fox News that when he spoke with voters in the district about Hoyer, they had concerns about the incumbent's age.
"The main reaction I got when I asked people about Steny Hoyer was first and foremost his age," Jarin said. "The idea that he would be close to 90 years old at the end of the next term is just a little bit nuts for people. I think people are starting to process how extreme a situation that is."
The primary challenges come as Democrats are still trying to regroup following last November's election setbacks, when the party lost control of the White House and their Senate majority, and came up short in their bid to win back the House.
The party's base is angry and energized to push back against the sweeping and controversial moves by Trump in the four months since he returned to the White House.
Additionally, while much of that anger and energy is directed at fighting the White House and congressional Republicans, some of it is targeted at Democrats whom many in the party's base feel aren't vocal enough in their efforts to stymie Trump.
Concurrently, other longtime and older House Democrats in safe blue districts are facing the possibility of primary challenges.
This, after newly elected Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg last month pledged to spend millions of dollars through his outside political group to back primary challenges against what he called "asleep at the wheel" House Democrats — lawmakers he argued have failed to effectively push back against Trump.
The move by the 25-year-old Hogg, a survivor of the horrific shooting seven years ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, to spend money against fellow Democrats ignited a firestorm within the party.
Jarin said that "we have reached out to David Hogg. We’ve been in communication."
But Hogg told The Washington Post last month that he wouldn't support primary challenges against Hoyer, Pelosi or Clyburn.
As for his ability to raise money for his campaign, Jarin said, "I do come from a political family."
He noted that his husband was a major donor and bundler for former President Joe Biden's successful 2020 campaign and also served as a DNC finance director, and that his uncle had "been a big bundler for Democratic causes for a long time."
"I think a lot of donors realize that this is a problem but may not be able to say it out loud for fear of repercussions," he argued.
Jarin said that he's received "some pushback from donors for concerns of prioritizing more marginal districts" instead of pouring resources into swing seats as the party aims to win back the House majority in 2026.
"My message to them has been that putting extremely elderly politicians like Steny Hoyer back into office for a 24th term sends a message to voters across the country that Democrats are just the party of status quo and clearly that message has not been working," he said.
In Massachusetts, first-time candidate Alex Rikleen — a father, former teacher and fantasy sports writer, this week launched a primary challenge against Markey.
While Rikleen didn't spotlight the senator's age, he did argue that "Markey, like many other Democrats, has stood silently by as [Senate Democratic Leader] Chuck Schumer surrenders Democrats' leverage" in battling Trump.
Rikleen said that he is "stepping forward to challenge an incumbent because Democrats have shown us that they are not going to change course on their own…in this perilous moment, I believe we need dramatic action now and we are not getting it from our current Democratic leaders."
And while he said that "Sen. Markey has been a fantastic leader on progressive policy throughout my lifetime and he is better than most at standing up for others. In a normal political environment, I'd proudly continue voting for him," he argued that "this is not a normal moment. Better than most is not good enough."
But Markey has been very visible this year, as he attended protests and rallies across Massachusetts. And last month he traveled to Louisiana to urge the Trump administration to release Rumeysa Ozturk, a student at Massachusetts' Tufts University who was handcuffed while walking on a street by masked Department of Homeland Security agents and detained at an ICE facility.
And Markey took to social media on Thursday to once again defend Harvard University in its battle with the Trump administration, pledging that "Massachusetts will not be bullied."
Though Elon Musk leaves behind a legacy of massive cuts to government programs which left many members of the Washington, D.C., establishment enraged, he was not able to accomplish all the lofty goals he set at the beginning of his time as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
According to a May 26 update on DOGE’s website, the initiative has saved an estimated $175 billion through asset sales, contract cancellations, fraud payment crackdowns and other spending cuts. That translates to about $1,087 in savings per taxpayer.
Though significant, the $175 billion is a far cry from the original $2 trillion–nearly a third of the federal government’s total spending–that Musk originally set out to cut.
So, what went wrong?
Richard Stern, an economics policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital that DOGE "overestimated what legal flexibility they would have, and the agencies would have, to actually make good on that."
From the start, DOGE was hit with not only a tsunami of negative press and outraged Democratic lawmakers, but also a series of lawsuits, which bogged it down in protracted legal battles.
This, coupled with the reality of most of the major end cuts requiring congressional approval to carry out, relegated DOGE’s impact on cutting around the edges of the big programs and agencies it likely would have liked to eliminate entirely.
Despite Musk’s efforts, in many cases agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could only be shrunk and limited, while total elimination requires an act of Congress.
Just last week, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell blocked the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Institute of Peace, writing in a ruling that the removal of its board members and the takeover of its headquarters by members of DOGE are actions that are "null and void."
Stern asserted that "at the end of the day, they were just a little overzealous about how much legal authority they would ultimately have to be able to make this many cuts themselves,"
Where Stern believes DOGE can have the greatest impact is on focusing on the information-gathering and whistleblower aspects of its mission.
"You can kind of break down DOGE into two very large buckets," he posited. "The first large bucket, which is the one that's mostly been not done, is actually making grand spending cuts themselves directly. I think the second one was identifying what cuts could be made."
"The original plan was that DOGE could come in and do both these things that they could find specific spending to cut … and then the other part of that was identifying this information and making it public that people didn't have that would allow for really thought-out spending cuts to come in from Congress," he explained.
Though less flashy, Stern believes this is where DOGE, going forward, can have its greatest impact.
"There's a lot of think tanks, including Heritage, that have put together lists for a very long time as to policies that we don't think are good, where you could cut spending. But I think what no one has a window into is the really deep mechanics of how a lot of these programs work. And so, because of that, it's actually been very hard in a really robust fashion to even know what programs you could cut spending from or how you would do it or what the ramifications would be," he explained.
"So, DOGE, by being in the administration, has been in and continues to be in a position to actually make that public, to actually put a spotlight on that in a way that really almost nobody else was in a position to do," Stern went on. "That can feed rescission bills and congressional cuts down the road. But some admin needed to actually do that. And DOGE is finally doing that."
Emotions are running high on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill as Elon Musk makes his way for the exit.
Musk is stepping back from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which President Donald Trump appointed the tech billionaire to run for the first 130 days of his new administration.
He's been a polarizing figure in Washington, and that has extended to his announcement earlier this week that he's returning to the private sector. Republicans cheered Musk's work, while Democrats celebrated the end of it.
"Exposing reckless, wasteful government spending isn’t about one individual—it’s about a lasting overhaul of Crazy Town," House DOGE Caucus Chair Aaron Bean, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital. "That’s why we’re working closely with the White House to ensure recession packages reflect DOGE’s critical findings."
And the White House has begun that work already, preparing a $9.4 billion package of spending cuts that's expected to hit Congress on Tuesday. But Bean's comments imply Republicans are going to seek more.
It was a sentiment that appeared to be shared by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who said that Musk "did a lot of what he came to do."
"A lot of the savings that he identified are things hopefully that we’ll be able to incorporate into bills that Congress passes. The work that he did was really important. It’s long overdue," Thune said.
Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she was "honored" to work with Musk but signaled he should not be needed for lawmakers to cut government waste.
"It has been wonderful having a willing partner in my decade-long work to make Washington squeal, but I was DOGE before DOGE was cool, and I’m not slowing down," Ernst told Fox News Digital in a statement.
Other Republicans were more lavish in their praise, like Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., who hailed Musk as an "American hero."
"I'm absolutely sad to see him go," Haridopolos told Fox News Digital. "He has given up a lot of time and wealth in order to bring the fiscal house of the United States in order, and he has done a great service to our country by bringing a heck of a lot more transparency of how we're spending money."
And Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., compared the billionaire to the nation's revered first leaders.
"He's kind of half Benjamin Franklin and half Thomas Jefferson. He had the inventiveness of Benjamin Franklin and the vision of a Thomas Jefferson, and I just remember all of our founding fathers were patriots, and they left their regular jobs. They gave up everything to come help found this country. And that's what Elon's [done]," Marshall told Fox News Digital.
On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., pointed out that as much as Republicans lauded Musk, he also dealt a blow to the House GOP earlier this week by criticizing their "big, beautiful" tax and spending bill.
"They brought Musk to DC to fight the deficit, and he left DC calling out how the reconciliation bill will blow the biggest hole in the deficit ever – adding more than $3 trillion in debt," Suozzi told Fox News Digital.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told Fox News Digital he believed DOGE's efforts were misplaced in the end.
"Initially, I said we should work with Musk to find common ground where there is real waste — like defense contractors, Medicare Advantage overpayments, and prescription drugs. It is sad that DOGE faced opposition in focusing on those issues, and that agencies like USAID and NIH are being dismantled," Khanna said.
Others on the left unleashed on Musk directly.
Democrats have held up the Tesla CEO as a boogeyman since he began campaigning for Trump, using him as a living example of the wealthy, out-of-touch people they believed the Republican White House was benefitting.
"Elon came to Washington thinking he could run the government like one of his companies—firing people left and right, gutting essential services, and tearing this s--t up from the ground up," Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, wrote on X, calling for an investigation into Musk's work.
House Progressive Caucus Chairman Greg Casar, D-Texas, meanwhile, took credit for Musk leaving despite his fixed tenure.
"Musk’s exit is an enormous victory for Democrats and working people. This is a sign of how powerful the anti-corruption, anti-billionaire movement in American politics can be," Casar said in a statement. "Musk did not choose to leave because Elon Musk likes to follow the rules. Musk will leave because the American people built enough political pressure that he had no choice."
And Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, wrote on X, "Musk failed others and served himself."
"But there’s an irony in his failure: in his quest to destroy government, he reminded us why it matters. To look out for hungry kids, to keep planes safe, to deliver Social Security checks, and to do the quiet work to serve the common good," Booker said.
When reached for comment on this story, White House spokesman Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital, "DOGE is integral to the federal government’s operations, and its mission, as established by the President’s executive order, will continue under the direction of agency and department heads in the Trump administration. DOGE has delivered remarkable results at an unprecedented pace, and its work is far from complete." Fox News Digital also reached out to Tesla for comment from Musk.
Trump, for his part, heaped praise on Musk at a joint press conference on Friday.
"Elon’sservice to America has been without comparison in modern history. He's already running one of the most innovative car companies in the world, if you look at his factories and compare them with some of the old factories we have, and it's a big difference. And the most successful space company, I guess in history, you would have to say. The largest free speech platform on the internet," Trump said.
"Yet, Elon, willingly, with all of the success, he willingly accepted the outrageous abuse and slander and lies and attacks because he does love our country."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed to Fox News Digital that it is no longer operating any "soft-sided" facilities, following the closure of a migrant processing center near San Diego in March.
The Biden administration used the facilities to process migrants who entered the country illegally at multiple sites in California, Texas, and Arizona, amid a surge of millions crossing the border.
"Due to the unprecedented drop in apprehensions of illegal aliens as a result of the President’s recent executive actions, CBP is not operating any temporary, soft-sided processing facilities where illegal aliens have been held in specific locations along the southwest border. CBP no longer has a need for them as illegal aliens are being quickly removed," a CBP spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital on Thursday.
"The U.S. Border Patrol has full capability to manage the detention of apprehended aliens in USBP’s permanent facilities. Manpower and other resources dedicated to temporary processing facilities will be redirected toward other priorities and will speed CBP’s progress in gaining operational control over the southwest border," the spokesperson said.
On March 13, CBP said that they were closing three Texas and two Arizona facilities, but one California and one Texas location were still open.
In March, Fox News Digital reported that CBP had shuttered the Otay Mesa facility that was launched in January 2023 as the border crisis raged on.
U.S. Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector posted a video to X on Sunday showing that the sector’s soft-sided facility has been decommissioned.
"The world has heard President Trump and Secretary Noem’s message. America’s borders are CLOSED to lawbreakers," Homeland Security posted in response to the clip.
According to CBP, the facilities cost taxpayers between $5 million and $30 million per month.
Since President Donald Trump took office, southern border crossings marked by CBP have gone down. In April, there were just over 8,300 "apprehensions," which is a 93% drop from the year before, the agency said.
"For the first time in years, more agents are back in the field—patrolling territories that CBP didn’t have the bandwidth or manpower to oversee just six months ago," Pete Flores, Acting Commissioner of CBP, said in a statement on May 12. "But thanks to this administration’s dramatic shift in security posture at our border, we are now seeing operational control becoming a reality—and it’s only just beginning."
Former President Joe Biden honored fallen service members and Gold Star families Friday at a Memorial Day service in Delaware, marking his first public remarks since announcing he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
"We come together and remember the debt we owe to the American military," Biden said at the event, sponsored by the Delaware Commission of Veteran Affairs.
"The military is a solid spine, the spine of our nation," Biden said. "Our troops, our veterans, our military families, and our Gold Star families in particular. Only around 1% of all Americans defend 99% of us — 1%. Just 1% of Americans risk the ultimate sacrifice. We owe them so much more than we can ever repay them."
A Gold Star family is the immediate family of service members who died while serving in the line of duty.
For the Biden family, the day is deeply personal as May 30 marks 10 years since Biden’s son Beau died of brain cancer. Beau Biden served in the Delaware Army National Guard for more than 10 years, completing a tour in Iraq where he earned the Bronze Star for his service, and became the state’s attorney general before his death.
Biden said that his son’s proudest moment was wearing his uniform and said appearing at the event eased the pain of the loss of his son. He also offered some words of encouragement to others suffering loss as well.
"Everyone who came here today to grieve, who was grieving in your heart, please know you're not alone," Biden said. "You'll never be alone. And your loved one will never be forgotten. Period."
Biden said that Beau Biden’s son, Hunter, 19, was present at the event, while he reminisced about attending the exact same Memorial Day event as a senator with Beau Biden around the same age.
The former president also said that politics has become divided — but that the sacrifices of those in the military to defend democracy should unite everyone.
"Our troops don't wear a uniform that says I'm a Democrat or a Republican, says I'm an American," Biden said. "I'm an American. That's who I am."
Biden announced May 18 that he had been diagnosed with an "aggressive form" of prostate cancer. The former president's office later said he had never received a prostate cancer diagnosis.
The announcement came amid heightened scrutiny about Biden's mental fitness for office, following the publication of multiple books this year chronicling the deterioration of Biden's mental faculties.
Likewise, leaked audio recordings of Biden's October 2023 interview with former special counsel Robert Hur were released in May, showing that Biden struggled to not slur his words and even appeared to forget the year his son died.
As Elon Musk, the world's richest person, put it, his role in steering President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has come "to an end."
However, the president, in a social media post on Thursday night announcing that he and Musk would team up for a 1:30 p.m. ET White House news conference on Friday, teased that Musk would continue to help the Trump administration.
"This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific!" he wrote.
Musk's political impact on national politics and on next year's midterm elections — for better or for worse — is far from over and is likely to live on well past his official departure from the Trump administration.
Trump, after winning back the White House in last November's election, created DOGE with marching orders to overhaul and downsize the federal government. Trump named Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX and Trump's biggest political donor in the 2024 election, to steer the organization.
"Elon Musk made the most serious attempt at reducing the size and scope of government in modern political history. It was at times chaotic but impactful," veteran GOP strategist Ryan Williams told Fox News.
Williams predicted that Musk's "efforts will continue to linger as a political football, but also a guide for Republicans if they're serious about limiting the growth of the federal government."
After returning to the White House in January, Musk and DOGE quickly swept through federal agencies, rooting out what the new administration argued was billions in wasteful federal spending. Additionally, they took a meat cleaver to the federal workforce, resulting in a massive downsizing of employees.
Nothing symbolized Musk's controversial moves more than his brandishing of a chainsaw during a February appearance at the MAGA-dominated Conservative Political Action Conference, where he touted "how easy" it was to "save billions of dollars sometimes in… an hour."
The moves by DOGE grabbed tons of national attention and triggered a slew of lawsuits in response. Many of DOGE's cuts in government staffing were stymied or reversed by federal court orders.
While DOGE was originally tasked with slashing $2 trillion from the federal government's budget, the DOGE website earlier this week said that its efforts to date had led to roughly $175 billion in savings due to asset sales, contract cancellations, fraud payment cuts, in addition to other steps to eliminate costs.
Musk's arrival in the nation's capital came with a bang.
Thanks to a direct pipeline to the president and his powerful mouthpiece on the social media site X, Musk instantly and repeatedly made headlines with his provocative moves and the targeting of people he did not like, often to the chagrin of Trump administration officials and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Trump repeatedly praised Musk and DOGE's efforts.
"The vast majority of people in this country really respect and appreciate you, and this whole room can say that very strongly; you have really been a tremendous help," the president said during a Cabinet meeting four weeks ago, when Musk announced that he would be cutting back on his time spent with DOGE and the Trump administration.
However, behind the scenes, there was a lot less harmony.
"People got really sick of him really quickly," a veteran Republican strategist with ties to the administration and Capitol Hill who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News.
"He was fun to begin with," the strategist noted, before adding that "people inside and around the administration and people outside" were tired of Musk "by the end, when he's sitting in a meeting wearing multiple hats on his head."
Additionally, Musk's recent criticism of Trump's sweeping "big beautiful bill," which passed a major congressional hurdle, did not help matters.
While a slew of public opinion polls, including national surveys from Fox News, indicated that Americans like the idea of downsizing the federal government, those same surveys highlighted that the public was far from thrilled with how Musk and DOGE carried out cuts to the federal bureaucracy.
Musk, who spent nearly $300 million in support of Trump's 2024 White House victory, quickly became a lightning rod in the handful of off-year and special elections held early this year.
Through aligned political groups, Musk dished out roughly $20 million in battleground Wisconsin's high-profile state Supreme Court race, in support of Trump-backed judge Brad Schimel, the conservative-leaning candidate in the election.
Musk, in a controversial move, handed out $1 million checks at a rally in Green Bay two nights ahead of the election to two Wisconsin voters who had already cast ballots in the contest and had signed a petition to stop "activist judges."
Musk, at the rally, donned a cheesehead hat — a foam wedge which resembles a chunk of cheese — that is traditionally worn by devout Green Bay Packers football fans in Wisconsin and across the country.
However, Schimel ended up losing by 10 points to the Democratic-aligned candidate in what was supposed to be a close contest. Musk ended up getting tagged with plenty of blame in a race that partially turned into a referendum on his efforts at DOGE.
Democrats repeatedly made Musk the bogeyman in their messaging in Wisconsin's election and in other contests, and they pledged to continue to target him heading into next year's midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their razor-thin House majority and their modest Senate majority.
"Top of mind for voters are the pocketbook issues. Democrats are going to win by highlighting the fact that Republicans are failing at lowering costs because they are too busy pushing tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations, while making the rest of us pay for them," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee national press secretary Viet Shelton told Fox News.
Shelton emphasized that "Elon is, and forever will be, an instantly-recognizable manifestation of the fact that House Republicans don’t work for the American people, they work for the billionaires."
So, were Musk's potential political risks to Republicans behind his departure from the nation's capitol?
A GOP strategist close to GOP lawmakers, when asked if Musk's welcome was wearing out among congressional Republicans, said "yes to a point."
"But I think the larger question about whether Musk and DOGE are liabilities in the midterms, I would say emphatically no," added the strategist, who asked for anonymity to speak more freely.
The strategist noted that GOP lawmakers "who have talked about waste, fraud, and abuse, and have talked about the savings generated by DOGE, they've done quite well. It's the folks who don't want to message on it and have not put Democrats on defense, who are tired of Musk."
Additionally, veteran Republican strategist Matt Gorman disagrees with the Democrats' argument about Musk's lasting impact on the campaign trail.
"I don't think that in any way Elon Musk will be a factor one way or another in the year-plus that we have until Election Day 2026," Gorman, a veteran of numerous presidential and statewide campaigns, told Fox News.
Kentucky state Democratic Sen. Robin Webb, who represents Kentucky’s rural 18th Senate district, is switching her party affiliation to Republican after she says the Democrat Party "left me."
"First and foremost, I’m a mother, a rancher and a lawyer with deep personal and professional roots in Kentucky’s coal country," Webb explained. "As the Democratic Party continues its lurch to the left and its hyperfocus on policies that hurt workforce and economic development in my region, I no longer feel it represents my values."
This comes as a major blow to Kentucky Democrats, who have historically held a stronghold in rural regions of the state largely due to union workers and the coal industry.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told a local Louisville news outlet that he "would consider" a run as the Democratic nominee for president in 2028, and the newly elected Democratic governor and potential presidential candidate now faces an additional challenge to mobilize his state's party ahead of the 2026 midterms.
"Like countless other Kentuckians, [Webb] has recognized that the policies and objectives of today’s Democratic Party are simply not what they once were, and do not align with the vast majority of Kentuckians," Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Robert Benvenuti added.
"I always respected that [Webb] approached issues in a very thoughtful and commonsense manner, and that she never failed to keenly focus on what was best for her constituents," Benvenuti added. "It is my pleasure to welcome Sen. Robin Webb to the Republican Party."
Despite Beshear serving in the governor's office, the attorney general's office, secretary of state and both chambers of the state legislature have a Republican majority.
"While it’s cliché, it’s true: I didn’t leave the party — the party left me," Webb said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Governor Andy Beshear's office but did not receive a response.
Fox News embedded exclusively with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the greater Boston area this week, where agents were carrying out the arrests of hundreds of egregious criminal migrants in what the agency said is the largest operation it has undertaken since President Donald Trump returned to office.
The sweeping operation, called "Patriot," is expected to hit 1,500 arrests and is targeting migrants like a Salvadoran illegal migrant convicted of child rape who went to prison and was deported in 2017. He was nabbed by ICE living right next to a children’s playground.
ICE also swooped on another illegal migrant who is on El Salvador’s most wanted list and has an Interpol Red Notice for aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping and robbery.
Both arrests were captured exclusively on camera by Fox News.
ICE deployed 19 teams across Massachusetts this week and the agency brought in ICE teams from other parts of the country to assist.
It's in direct response to Massachusetts and Boston’s sanctuary policies, where officials do not fully enforce or assist with federal immigration laws, as border czar Tom Homan has promised to surge ICE to these areas.
Fox News is told that about 70% of the arrests are criminals with convictions or pending charges.
Patricia Hyde, the head of ICE Boston, said it’s not uncommon to have migrants convicted of child rape to be roaming public streets close to where children play.
"It's not unusual. Due to the open border policies, we are finding that plenty of people who have been previously deported and committed heinous crimes and were removed from the country are now back here, just living among us," Hyde said. "And now that's our job to go round them up."
Fox News alsojoined ICE as they arrested a Colombian illegal migrant facing pending charges for sexual assault of a child, as well as a Dominican illegal migrant with a drug trafficking conviction who is now facing local charges for fentanyl distribution.
Meanwhile, other arrests included a Guatemalan illegal migrant who's facing charges in Massachusetts for aggravated child rape but was released from state custody. They also arrested Honduran alien, who's facing local charges for rape and was also released from local custody.
ICE Boston told Fox News that local ICE activists have been interfering in their operations.
For instance, on Thursday, activists tried to grab onto a migrant who had been handcuffed by ICE, and in another incident, agents were stalking out a migrant murderer's home and a crowd gathered and blew their cover.
Hyde said sanctuary jurisdictions are starting to escalate against ICE.
"I think the lack of cooperation is getting worse and worse and it’s putting law enforcement lives in danger," Hyde said.
Hyde said that ICE agents will continue to round up dangerous criminal illegal migrants, despite pushback from local lawmakers and activists.
"We're not going away. It might take us longer. It might be harder, but we're not going away, we're here," Hyde said. "We know what the American people voted for. We understand that we work for the American people and we're going to be here until we send everyone home."
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a lower court order that blocked the Trump administration from deporting roughly 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The decision is a near-term victory for President Donald Trump as he moves to crack down on border security and immigration priorities in his second term.
The order stays, for now, a lower court ruling that halted Trump's plans to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for some migrants living in the U.S., which allows individuals to live and work in the U.S. legally if they cannot work safely in their home country due to a disaster, armed conflict or other "extraordinary and temporary conditions."
The stay, like many emergency orders handed down by the high court, was unsigned, and did not provide an explanation for the justices' thinking.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson did lay out their criticisms in a blistering dissent.
Jackson said that, in their view, the court "plainly botched" its assessment, and failed to properly weigh the "devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending."
"While it is apparent that the government seeks a stay to enable it to inflict maximum predecision damage, court-ordered stays exist to minimize — not maximize — harm to litigating parties," she added.
The TPS program is typically extended to migrants in the U.S. on 18-month increments, most recently under the Biden administration towards the end of his presidency.
But they were abruptly upended by the Trump administration in February, when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem attempted to end protections for a specific group of Venezuelan nationals, arguing they were not in the national interest.
U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer asked justices earlier this month to allow the administration to proceed with its decision to revoke the status for the migrants, accusing U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of improperly intruding on the executive branch’s authority over immigration policy.
"The district court’s reasoning is untenable," Sauer told the high court, adding that the program "implicates particularly discretionary, sensitive, and foreign-policy-laden judgments of the Executive Branch regarding immigration policy."
The update comes after the Supreme Court also allowed the Trump administration earlier this month to revoke the protected status of 350,000 Venezuelan migrants, clearing the way for the Trump administration to move forward with their plans to remove them.
It was nearly 10 p.m. on a Sunday night when House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., surprised reporters in the hallway of the Cannon House Office Building.
The top House Republican was making a low-key — but high-stakes — visit to the House Budget Committee before the panel’s second meeting on President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill." The first meeting on May 16 had blown up without resolution when four fiscal hawks balked at the legislation and voted against advancing it to the full House.
"The real debate was, is when [we] voted not to approve the budget. And the reason I did that, along with the others, was we needed to make the provisions better," Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital.
"It was our opportunity to make a bill that overall was good, better. And that was the impetus to stop the budget, and then get some concessions. And then when it reached Rules Committee, there really wasn't that much dissension."
The committee meeting continued with little fanfare, save for Democratic objections to the bill, before one more visit from Johnson, when he signaled the deal was sealed.
"I think what is about to happen here is that every member, every Republican member, will give a vote that allows us to proceed forward, and we count that as a big win tonight," Johnson said.
He was right, with the legislation advancing exactly along party lines.
Fox News Digital was told that conservatives were anticipating what is called a manager's amendment, a vehicle with wide flexibility to change legislation, before the House Rules Committee’s vote to advance the bill to the full chamber.
The House Rules Committee acts as the final gatekeeper to most bills before a House-wide vote. Trump himself made a rare visit to Capitol Hill the morning of May 20 to urge Republicans to vote for the bill.
House leaders again signaled confidence late on May 21, informing Republicans that they would likely vote soon after the House Rules Committee’s meeting was over. However, that meeting alone had already dragged on for hours, from just after 1 a.m. on May 21 to finally voting on Trump’s tax bill just after 2:30 a.m. on May 22. Lawmakers and reporters alike struggled to stay awake as Democratic lawmakers forced votes on over 500 amendments, largely symbolic, in a bid to drag out the process.
Meanwhile, at some point overnight, talks with GOP holdouts went south.
The House Freedom Caucus held an impromptu press conference directly after Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., met with Johnson.
"The leadership’s going to have to figure out where to go from here," Harris said. "I think there is a pathway forward that we can see…I’m not sure this can be done this week. I’m pretty confident it could be done in 10 days. But that’s up to leadership to decide."
Harris also said the Freedom Caucus had struck a "deal" with the White House, something a White House official denied. "The White House presented HFC with policy options that the administration can live with, provided they can get the votes," the official said.
However, the manager’s amendment, which finally came out just after 11 p.m. on May 21, eased the concerns of at least several of the fiscal hawks.
It bolstered funding to states that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included additional tax relief for gun owners, and quickened the implementation of Medicaid work requirements, among other measures.
Meanwhile, a small group of those House Freedom Caucus members had also been meeting with a small group of conservative senators who assured them they would seek deep spending cuts in the bill when it landed in the upper chamber, Norman said.
"It was our hope that the Senate would come back and even make the cuts deeper, so that the deficit could be cut," Norman said.
The moves were not enough to ease everyone’s concerns, however. Roughly three hours after the amendment’s release, Freedom Caucus Policy Chair Chip Roy, R-Texas, was the only Republican member of the House Rules Committee to miss the key vote.
Fox News Digital inquired via text message why Roy missed the vote and was told he was "actually reading the bill…"
Nevertheless, it passed by an 8 to 4 vote — prompting House leaders to warn their members to return for what would be an all-night series of voting and debates. Democratic leaders, recognizing they would be sidelined completely if Republicans had enough support on their side, again moved to delay the proceedings.
A whip notice sent to House Democrats, obtained by Fox News Digital, warned left-wing lawmakers that "House Republicans are planning to finish debate and vote on final passage of H.R. 1 late tonight."
The notice advised that House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., would force a vote on adjourning the House and that "additional procedural votes are expected."
In a bid to keep Republicans close to the House floor for what was an hourslong night, the speaker set up a side room with snacks and coffee for lawmakers to wait out proceedings. In the House Appropriations Committee room just down the hall, more Republicans were huddled over cigars and other refreshments. The smell of tobacco smoke wafted out as increasingly haggard lawmakers shuffled between the two rooms.
Fox News Digital even heard from several lawmakers inquiring when the final vote was expected to be — and wondering whether they had time for a nap themselves. Meanwhile, Fox News Digital spotted Harris and Roy walking the opposite way from the hullabaloo of the House floor, toward the much quieter Longworth House Office Building.
Both said they were leaving for more conversations with White House staff before the final vote.
"The manager’s amendment gets us a little closer, but we're still in discussions with the executive branch to see whether we can achieve the objectives that we seek, which is support the president's goals on waste fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid and, you know, making sure that we've got all we can out of the Inflation Reduction Act," Harris said.
Roy said he hoped Republicans would go further against states that drastically expanded their Medicaid populations under the ACA. He also signaled that leaders suggested at the time some further Medicaid reform could come from the White House.
"The speaker alluded to this afternoon…that there are things in the executive space, executive actions, that we think could take care of some of the concerns that we were having about — again, it's not what we want, but it does ameliorate some of our concerns on the Medicaid expansion front," Roy said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and the speaker’s office for comment.
When it came time for the final vote, it appeared enough was done to get Roy on board. Harris, however, voted "present."
Neither made themselves available for an interview for this story.
The final vote saw just two Republican defections — Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., long a critic of Johnson, and Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio.
"While I love many things in the bill, promising someone else will cut spending in the future does not cut spending. Deficits do matter and this bill grows them now. The only Congress we can control is the one we’re in. Consequently, I cannot support this big deficit plan. NO," Davidson posted on X just before the vote began.
Two other Republicans, Reps. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., and Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., both fell asleep before the final vote — but both said they would have voted to pass the bill.
In the end, it advanced by a 215-214 vote — with Republicans erupting in cheers when they realized the victory was locked.
"The media, the Democrats have consistently dismissed any possibility that House Republicans could get this done. They did not believe that we could succeed in our mission to enact President Trump's America First agenda. But this is a big one. And once again, they've been proven wrong," Johnson said during a press conference after the vote.
Now, the bill is expected to be considered by the Senate next week — when senators are already signaling they are gearing up to make changes.
"I encourage our Senate colleagues to think of this as a one-team effort as we have, and to modify this as little as possible, because it will make it easier for us to get it over the line ultimately, and finish and get it to the president's desk by July fourth," Johnson said.
Federal authorities are probing a scheme to impersonate White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, according to individuals familiar with the issue, the Wall Street Journal reported.
"The White House takes the cybersecurity of all staff very seriously, and this matter continues to be investigated," a White House official noted.
Senators, governors, American business executives and other people have gotten texts and calls from an individual claiming to be Wiles, individuals familiar with the messages noted, according to the outlet.
"The FBI takes all threats against the president, his staff, and our cybersecurity with the utmost seriousness," FBI Director Kash Patel delcaerd in a statement, according to the Journal. "Safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the president’s mission is a top priority."
The chief of staff informed associates that her phone contacts had been hacked, according to some of the people, the Journal reported. The phone is her personal device, not a government phone, the individuals noted, according to the outlet.
Some calls involved a voice which sounded like the chief of staff, individuals who heard them noted, according to the report. Government officials believe the impostor utilized artificial intelligence to mimic her voice, some of the individuals noted.
In some cases involving texts, individuals got requests which they at first thought were official, according to the outlet, which noted that one legislator received a request to develop a list of people who could be pardoned by Trump.
But it became evident to some legislators that the asks were suspect when the impostor started posing questions about the president, for which Wiles should have been privy to the answers — and in one instance, when the impostor requested a cash transfer, some of the people noted, according to the outlet.
In many instances, the impostor used broken grammar and the messages were too formal compared to how Wiles normally communicates, individuals who received the messages noted, according to the outlet. The calls and texts did not emanate from Wiles's phone number, according to the report.
Fragments of toppled Civil War monuments still lie in a lot beside Interstate 95, near the Richmond Wastewater Treatment Plant—just a stone’s throw from the iconic "Marlboro Cigarette" in South Richmond, the onetime capital of the Confederacy.
While Richmond’s tobacco-trading past remains symbolized by that roadside oddity at the Philip Morris plant, it and other cities across the south took swift action to erase reminders of the Civil War and slavery.
A report Thursday in the Richmond Times-Dispatch looked back at what has, or moreso hasn’t, transpired as those who had sought the culling of the monuments had hoped in the heat of the George Floyd riots of five years ago this week.
Virginia State Del. Mike Jones, D-Richmond, a reported opponent of the monuments, told the paper that "s—t didn’t change when they came down," and that "real progress" was what was sought in erasing the South’s pro-slavery and secessionist past.
"As abhorrent as [they] are, give me life, give me real justice. You can keep your monuments." Jones told the paper.
One statue did find a new home, as Davis is now on display at the city’s Valentine Museum. It still has paint marks on it from when it was besieged by protesters in 2020.
Jones told the paper that gun violence and education-related issues still plague minority communities and also took a swipe at President Donald Trump in regard to the lack of change since the Floyd riots and monumental upheaval.
"We didn’t really get the monuments because the spirit of [them] is in the White House right now," he told the Times-Dispatch.
While monuments have either been toppled by protesters or removed by municipalities across the South, Richmond – as expected due to its past as the C.S.A. capital – had many in prominent places.
The city’s tree-lined Monument Avenue was reduced to a series of traffic circles around unremarkable granite pedestals after the removal of effigies of Gens. Robert E. Lee, James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart, President Jefferson Davis, and local scientist-turned-Confederate Naval officer Matthew Maury.
Then-Gov. Ralph Northam’s efforts to remove the last of the monuments, Lee’s, were briefly blocked by a court – as it was originally constructed through private donations and the help of then-Democratic Gov. Fitzhugh Lee; the general’s nephew.
While efforts to rename Robert E. Lee Bridge on U.S. 301 – the major pre-I-95 crossing of the James River – have appeared to stall, signage that once greeted travelers bound for Petersburg is now muted.
Fox News Digital reached out to lieutenant governor candidate Levar Stoney—who, as Richmond’s mayor, led the effort to remove the monuments—for comment on reports that the removal has brought little meaningful change.
During his mayorship, Stoney said in a video statement that protesters attempted to take down monuments themselves while the coronavirus raged, and that in response to the risk of "serious illness, injury or death."
"It is past time, as the capital city of Virginia, we have needed to turn this page for decades," Stoney said, adding the city and "residents of color" had been "burdened" by its historical role as CSA capital.
Fox News Digital also reached out to Gov. Glenn Youngkin, as well as Republicans in the greater Richmond area, for their response to the current sentiments, but did not hear back by press time.
One Republican lawmaker told Fox News Digital the situation shows the focus should have been, and should be, on directly addressing crime and pressing issues like the city's water shortage crisis, which reemerged this week after Richmond and even the State Capitol were stopped in their tracks due to a catastrophic utility failure earlier this year.
Former President Joe Biden's Cabinet meetings were overly "scripted," CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson reveal in their book, "Original Sin," an outline of Biden's cognitive decline and his administration's alleged cover-up.
"The Cabinet meetings were terrible and at times uncomfortable – and they were from the beginning," a Cabinet member told the authors. "I don't recall a great Cabinet meeting in terms of his presence. They were so scripted."
The White House's speechwriters shortened Biden's remarks and shrank his vocabulary to adapt to "Biden's diminished capabilities," according to Tapper and Thompson. During his one-term presidency, Biden's aides told the journalists that he became increasingly reliant on teleprompters and note cards, even for private conversations and in Cabinet meetings.
Four Cabinet members who spoke with Tapper and Thompson described Biden's meetings as overly scripted. One Cabinet secretary said he hated "the scripts" for Cabinet meetings, while another doubted in 2022 that he could run for re-election.
However, as Biden's bad speeches and reliance on note cards became common practice, a speechwriter told Tapper and Thompson that over time, "they just got used to it."
The story behind closed doors was inconsistent with the White House's narrative, according to "Original Sin."
In January 2024, the White House convened a meeting with Biden, his national security advisers and congressional leadership to urge Congress to continue financially supporting Ukraine against Russia's invasion.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries described Biden as "incredibly strong, forceful, and decisive," and the official White House readout said Biden was "clear" about protecting national security and "underscored the importance of Congress ensuring Ukraine has the resources it needs."
However, a House Democrat who attended the meeting said, "That's not true," Tapper and Thompson wrote. A second House Democrat described the meeting as a "disaster," and a "s---show."
"For the first twenty minutes of the meeting, the president listlessly read bullet points out of a binder. For many at the table, he was difficult to hear. He stumbled over words; he started sentences and then stopped abruptly; he trailed off," Tapper and Thompson said.
A House Democrat said he was "not capable of making a strong, forceful argument," and deferred to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and National Intelligence Director Avril Haines to answer questions, as outlined in "Original Sin."
Tapper and Thompson described a concerning event for senior administration officials on the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision. After reading a "weak, slurry" speech from a teleprompter, Biden confused Alabama with Texas and then his own Cabinet members, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
"I blame his inner circle, and I blame him," an official who found the event "crazy" told the authors a year later.
As Cabinet members observed concerning practices that accompanied Biden's day-to-day meetings, Tapper and Thompson described how the president's circle grew smaller and smaller in 2023 and 2024.
"Access dropped off considerably in 2024, and I didn't interact with him as much," a Cabinet secretary told the authors. "I didn't get an explanation."
The Cabinet secretary said they briefed senior White House aides who would then communicate the information to the president themselves. They questioned if it was the White House's way of filtering information to shape his decisions.
"I think the people around him had their own agenda, and they didn't want more people around him," another Cabinet member told Tapper and Thompson.
The Cabinet members who spoke to Tapper and Thompson described a "weird period" when they didn't have any access to Biden for months between 2023 and 2024. They described it as a "deliberate strategy by the White House to have him meet with as few people as necessary." When they did see him, they said they were shocked at how "disoriented" and "out of it" he seemed, mumbling and "not making much sense."
Fox News Digital has written extensively dating back to the 2020 presidential campaign about Biden's cognitive decline and his inner circle’s alleged role in covering it up.
A Biden spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
