Dem senators rip GOP’s ‘Silence of the Lambs’ as Trump marks 100th day
Senate Democratic leaders spoke out Tuesday on President Donald Trump’s 100th day in office, and one lawmaker compared Republicans’ cooperation with the administration to the “Silence of the Lambs.” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., led off by mockingly “congratulating” Trump for being a “powerful and unifying force in only 100 days.” “With his embarrassing, insulting, petty and outrageous attacks, Donald Trump has given Canada a new national resolve,” he said of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s victory over conservative Pierre Poilievre. “Now, if he could just be a positive, unifying force in the United States.” DURBIN SAYS ELDERLY LAWMAKERS SHOULD CONSIDER LEAVING POLITICS ‘BEFORE THEY’RE CARRIED OUT’ It was Schumer’s deputy, however, who compared Trump’s first chapter of his second term to a horror show. “Through it all, my Republican colleagues have remained silent,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said. Durbin said Trump’s tariff agenda has raised commodity prices and damaged the stock market. “[W]hile their constituents saw their retirement funds drain and grocery bills skyrocket, Republicans remained silent – rinse and repeat this cycle,” Durbin said. DAVID PERDUE CONFIRMED AS TRUMP’S TOP CHINA DIPLOMAT AFTER KEY SENATE VOTE “Never in our nation’s history has a co-equal branch of government so willfully rolled over and ceded their power: It is the ‘Silence of the Lambs,’” he said. Later, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., lambasted Trump for his connection to a “meme coin” that led fellow Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California to demand an ethics probe into an invitation to a tony dinner for coin holders at Trump’s golf club. “He has literally done something that is so unconscionable that he is selling attendance at the White House to people who buy his meme coin,” Booker said, his voice rising as he spoke. Fox News Digital reached out to Senate Republican leadership and the White House for comment. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital asked Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., about a Trump “truth” suggesting the use of tariff revenue to lower the federal income tax in what Trump called the “External Revenue Service.” Klobuchar chuckled and remarked, “I haven’t heard the latest one. I just know that if he continues with these tariffs across the board, and he’s trying to get in quick money that way, we are going to have markets dry up. “Even if the tariffs go away, or he negotiates stuff, it’s going to be hard to get those markets back,” she said, adding economic allies will see the U.S. as an “unreliable” partner.
Improved response to mass shooting is goal of “Uvalde Strong” bill approved by Texas House
Uvalde’s former mayor, now in the Legislature, wrote the bill so that law-enforcement agencies would have better coordination and leadership as they respond to a mass shooting.
A now-discarded plan to split Keller ISD caused a stir. Lawmakers now want clear rules on how to divide districts.
A House bill would require school districts to hold an election before breaking into smaller entities.
TribCast: Inside the lottery scandals roiling Texas
In this week’s episode, Matthew and Eleanor talk to Texas Tribune reporter Ayden Runnels about lottery couriers and whether a $95 million prize winner was legitimate.
WATCH: AOC leaves door open for 2028 presidential bid as campaign buzz soars
EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., did not rule out 2028 presidential aspirations when asked by Fox News Digital about the viral video that had pundits guessing if she was soft-launching her campaign. “I think what people should be most concerned about is the fact that Republicans are trying to cut Medicaid right now, and people’s healthcare is in danger. That’s really what my central focus is,” the New York Democrat said when asked if she was considering a run for president, despite President Donald Trump’s assurances that he wouldn’t cut Medicaid. “This moment isn’t about campaigns, or elections, or about politics. It’s about making sure people are protected, and we’ve got people that are getting locked up for exercising their First Amendment rights. We’re getting 2-year-olds that are getting deported into cells in Honduras. We’re getting people that are about to get kicked off of Medicaid. That, to me, is most important,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Capitol Hill on Trump’s 100th day in office. Ocasio-Cortez has crisscrossed the United States with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, and Americans have been speculating about whether the New York Democrat is launching a shadow campaign for president. AOC CLAIMS ‘WE ARE ONE’ IN CAMPAIGN-STYLE VIDEO DESPITE YEARS OF INVOKING RACE, GENDER IN POLITICS Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign account posted a video on X last week that invigorated those rumors as the four-term Democrat from New York City and a progressive leader proclaimed, “We are one.” ‘WE ARE ONE’: AOC CAMPAIGN VIDEO SWIRLS 2028 PRESIDENTIAL RUMORS “I’m a girl from the Bronx,” Ocasio-Cortez said on a campaign-style stage in Idaho. “To be welcomed here in this state, all of us together, seeing our common cause, this is what this country is all about.” FiveThirtyEight founder and prominent pollster Nate Silver signaled earlier this month that Ocasio-Cortez is the leading Democrat to pick up the party’s presidential nomination in 2028. In a draft 2028 pick with FiveThirtyEight’s Galen Druke, Silver chose Ocasio-Cortez as his top choice to lead the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket. POLLSTER NATE SILVER CALLS OCASIO-CORTEZ MOST LIKELY TO BE 2028 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE “I think there’s a lot of points in her favor at this very moment,” Druke said, adding, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has broad appeal across the Democratic Party.” Americans have been reposting Ocasio-Cortez’s video across X, pointing to the video as proof of her 2028 presidential ambitions. “Get ready America. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will almost undoubtedly run for president in 2028,” political reporter Eric Daugherty said in response to the video. SCHUMER SINKS, AOC SOARS IN NEW POLL AS LIBERAL VOTERS DEMAND HARDER LINE ON TRUMP As rumors swirl over Ocasio-Cortez’s ambition for higher office, back at home in New York, a Siena College poll found Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s favorability is down, at 39% among New York state voters questioned in the poll, which was conducted April 14-16. Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez’s favorability soared to 47%. The longtime senator from New York faced pushback from the Democratic Party in March for supporting the Republican budget bill backed by Trump that averted a government shutdown and stirred up outrage among congressional Democrats who planned to boycott the bill. That growing disapproval among Democrats was reflected in the poll, and the shifting perception comes as DNC vice chair David Hogg, through his political arm, Leaders We Deserve, faced blowback from the DNC this week for investing $20 million into electing younger Democrats to safe House Democrat seats. Ocasio-Cortez raked in a massive $9.6 million over the past three months. The record-breaking fundraising haul was one of the biggest ever for any House lawmaker. Ocasio-Cortez’s team highlighted that the fundraising came from 266,000 individual donors, with an average contribution of just $21. “I cannot convey enough how grateful I am to the millions of people supporting us with your time, resources, & energy. Your support has allowed us to rally people together at record scale to organize their communities,” Ocasio-Cortez emphasized in a social media post. THESE ARE THE DEMOCRATS WHO MAY RUN FOR THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2028 Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo, a veteran of Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, said that Ocasio-Cortez appears to be one of a small group of politicians in his party who “are test ballooning a potential 2028 run for the presidency” as Democrats search “for a path out of the wilderness.” “We’re not really sure who or what it will be, but one of the pathways there is to drill down on economic populism. There are many people that occupy that lane and she is one of them. And there’s clearly energy behind what her and Bernie Sanders did criss-crossing the country.” Colin Reed, a Republican strategist, said Ocasio-Cortez “shouldn’t be discounted” by Democrats “who are standing in her way” of running for whichever office she decides to seek — whether as a U.S. senator or president of the United States. While Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders garnered plenty of national attention as they jetsetted across the country, Reed said their passion and energy might invigorate the progressive portion of the Democratic Party, but “her ideas are way too outside the mainstream to ever be electable at a nationwide level.” “Ultimately, in a Democratic base there’s always going to be a percentage of voters who are drawn to that message. The issue they run to is it’s just not the majority of Americans. The majority of Americans don’t want to transform our country into some sort of ‘European-style government rules all’ vision. That’s why America was founded in the first place — to get away from oppression, from an overbearing, overreaching government,” Reed said. As Democrats struggle to land on a consistent message and search for a clear party leader following Republicans’ November wins, there is an opportunity within the party to dominate the national Democratic narrative, Reed explained. “Chaos loves a vacuum, and right now, there is a vacuum in leadership in the Democratic Party, and thus chaos is ruling the roost,” Reed said. CLICK HERE
DOGE’s greatest hits: Look back at the department’s most high-profile cuts during Trump’s first 100 days
As President Trump marks his 100th day in office on Tuesday, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) says that it has cut at least $160 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government, including several high-profile cuts that have been highlighted over the past few months. One of the most talked about DOGE targets in Trump’s first term was spending at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the Senate DOGE Caucus Chairwoman, who says she speaks to Musk about spending cuts every few days, published a list of projects and programs she says the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has helped fund across the years. HOW A DOGE REVIEW CAN ACTUALLY IMPROVE THE PROGRAMS THAT FIGHT HIV/AIDS Ernst highlighted that the agency “authorized a whopping $20 million to create a ‘Sesame Street’ in Iraq.” Under the Biden administration, USAID awarded $20 million to a nonprofit called Sesame Workshop to produce a show called “Ahlan Simsim Iraq” in an effort to “promote inclusion, mutual respect and understanding across ethnic, religious and sectarian groups.” Several more examples of questionable spending have been uncovered at USAID, including more than $900,000 to a “Gaza-based terror charity” called Bayader Association for Environment and Development and a $1.5 million program slated to “advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.” Fox News Digital previously reported that nearly 15,000 grants worth $60 billion are set to be eliminated, according to internal documents. The grants amount to about 90% of foreign aid contracts and come after a review on spending by the State Department. DOGE’s efforts at USAID did not come without opposition, including a federal judge in Maryland who ruled that the moves were unconstitutional. In March, a federal appeals court granted the Trump administration’s motion to extend a stay allowing DOGE to continue operating at USAID. On the campaign trail and since taking office, President Trump has made it clear he aims to slash DEI spending in the federal government while making the case that a system of meritocracy should be the focus. DOGE SLASHES ‘WASTEFUL’ ‘PROBLEM-SOLVING’ CONTRACT WORTH $50K IN LATEST ROUND OF ELIMINATIONS DOGE has announced over the last few months that it has cut hundreds of millions in DEI contracts. Earlier this month, DOGE announced it had worked with the U.S. National Science Foundation to cancel 402 “wasteful” diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) grants, which will save $233 million, including $1 million for “Antiracist Teacher Leadership for Statewide Transformation.” The Department of Defense could save up to $80 million in wasteful spending by cutting loose a handful of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, the agency announced last month. The Defense Department has been working with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in slashing wasteful spending, DOD spokesman Sean Parnell said in a video posted to social media. Parnell listed some of the initial findings flagged by DOGE, much of it consisting of millions of dollars given to support various DEI programs, including $1.9 million for holistic DEI transformation and training in the Air Force and $6 million to the University of Montana to “strengthen American democracy by bridging divides.” The Trump administration announced earlier this month it is slashing millions of dollars in DEI grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) as part of its overall DOGE push. DAVID MARCUS: WHAT AMERICA OWES ELON MUSK AFTER DOGE In February, the Department of Education (DOE) said it is canceling more than $100 million in grants to DEI training as part of DOGE’s efforts. DOGE has made efforts to cut federal spending by cutting the federal workforce, which it argues has become bloated with many employees doing jobs that are unnecessary or could be streamlined. In February, DOGE terminated employment for 3,600 probationary Health and Human Services employees in a cut it says is estimated to save about $600 million in taxpayer dollars annually. FOX Business reported in early April that over the previous two months, DOGE’s cutbacks have been attributed to 280,253 layoffs of federal workers and contractors at 27 agencies, according to Challenger tracking. There were an additional 4,429 job cuts attributed to the downstream effect of cutting federal aid and ending contracts, mostly at nonprofits and health organizations. Roughly 75,000 federal employees accepted a deferred resignation program, Fox News Digital reported in February, which DOGE has argued will save the government money in the long run. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), inspired by DOGE’s crackdown on federal spending, said it had located $20 billion in tax dollars within the agency that the Biden administration reportedly “knew they were wasting.” “An extremely disturbing video circulated two months ago, featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about how they were ‘tossing gold bars off the Titanic,’ rushing to get billions of your tax dollars out the door before Inauguration Day,” EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a video posted to X on Wednesday, citing another video from December. The EPA found that just eight agencies were controlling the distribution of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to different entities “at their discretion,” such as the Climate United Fund, which reportedly received just under $7 billion. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “The ‘gold bars’ were tax dollars, and ‘tossing them off the Titanic’ meant the Biden administration knew they were wasting it,” Zeldin said, vowing to recover the “gold bars” that were found “parked at an outside financial institution.” Zeldin said that the “scheme was the first of its kind in EPA history, and it was purposely designed to obligate all the money in a rush job with reduced oversight.” In a Fox News interview, the EPA administrator praised DOGE’s work at the agency and said that the cost-cutting department is “making us better.” “They come up with great recommendations, and we can make a decision to act on it,” Zeldin said. Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report
Trump announces new ‘serious power’ fighter jets for Michigan Guard base to replace aging A-10s
President Donald Trump unveiled new plans Tuesday to swap out the retiring A-10 Warthog aircraft based out of Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan with 21 brand-new F-15EX Eagle II fighter jets. Trump shared details of the new fighter jet mission during a speech to National Guardsmen at the Michigan base for an event commemorating his 100th day in office. “Fresh off the line. That means they are brand new,” Trump said. “They’ve never been anywhere. This is where they’re going to be for a long time. And I saw one of them, flew over my head, and I said, ‘What the hell is that?’ That plane has serious power. So this is the best there is anywhere in the world, the F-15EX Eagle II. This will keep Selfridge at the cutting edge of Northern American air power.” This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
U.S., Mexico agree to new deal that sends water to South Texas
The latest development in a years-long push by South Texas farmers and officials to get Mexico to fulfill a 1944 treaty would still fall short of what is owed.
ICE touts record-breaking immigration enforcement during Trump’s first 100 days
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently announced that during President Donald Trump’s first 100 days of his second term, the agency arrested more than 66,000 illegal immigrants and removed more than 65,000. ICE arrested 66,463 illegal immigrants and removed 65,682, including those accused of threatening public safety and national security, according to a news release from ICE. Three in four arrests of illegal immigrants involved someone accused of committing a crime, according to the agency. “The brave men and women of ICE protect our families, friends and neighbors by removing public safety and national security threats from our communities,” ICE acting director Todd M. Lyons wrote in a statement. NEARLY 800 ILLEGAL ALIENS ARRESTED IN MASSIVE FLORIDA ICE OPERATION: ‘TIDAL WAVE’ The total number of ICE illegal immigrant arrests includes 2,288 gang members from Tren de Aragua, MS-13, 18th Street and other gangs, Lyons said. Tren de Aragua and MS-13 are now listed as foreign terrorist organizations. INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS SUE OVER TRUMP ADMIN REVOKING VISAS Additionally, 1,329 were accused or convicted of sex offenses, and 498 were accused or convicted of murder, according to ICE. The criminal records of those arrested include convictions or charges for 9,639 assaults, 6,398 DWIs or DUIs and 1,479 weapon offenses, according to the release. JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION RESTORE OHIO STATE GRAD STUDENT’S VISA Arrests and removals surged with help from state and local law enforcement agencies through the 287(g) Program, which allows local authorities to enforce federal immigration laws. ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations directorate has nearly 600 pending and signed agreements with police departments and sheriff’s offices across the nation, demonstrating the effectiveness of a whole-of-government approach to immigration enforcement, according to the release. Since Jan. 20, there have been 444 new 287(g) agreements nationwide. Even still, with about 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., the current 65,682 deportations would account for just 0.59%. ICE SAYS IT DEPORTED 174 CRIMINAL MIGRANTS FROM TEXAS, INCLUDING A MAN WITH 39 ILLEGAL ENTRIES Officials said ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which also focuses on transnational crime and threats, has been zeroing in on worksite operations to protect American businesses. Since Jan. 20, HSI has arrested more than 1,000 workers who were illegal immigrants, and proposed over $1 million in fines against businesses that hire illegal employees. “This agency has set the bar on arrests and removals while upholding its national security mission,” ICE deputy director Madison D. Sheahan wrote in a statement. “Last week, HSI broke up a human smuggling ring that’s allegedly responsible for bringing between 500 and 700 illegal aliens into the U.S. every year — aliens that the U.S. government never vetted. Our communities are becoming safer each day thanks to President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s leadership.” VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT USES TREN DE ARAGUA AS PROXIES TO UNDERMINE US PUBLIC SAFETY, FBI ASSESSMENT FINDS Illegal immigrant encounters are down by 95%, while illegal crossings plunged to levels last seen in the 1960s, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the White House. The number of illegal immigrants who “got away” from immigration enforcement officers is down 99%, with a 655% spike in arrests of suspected terrorists, CBP and the White House said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP There are now an additional 85 miles of new border barriers.
Trump’s first 100 days: Pace of executive orders leaves Congress in the dust
Tuesday marks President Donald Trump’s first 100 days back in the White House, and it’s been defined largely by the nearly 140 executive orders he has signed. The eye-popping number is all the starker when compared to the number of laws passed by Congress and signed by the commander in chief – just five total. Three of those were aimed at repealing Biden administration regulatory policies put in place during the previous four years. Another item includes the stopgap government funding extension passed in March to avoid a partial federal shutdown. MEET THE TRUMP-PICKED LAWMAKERS GIVING SPEAKER JOHNSON A FULL HOUSE GOP CONFERENCE And the first bill signed into law by Trump – and the only item of new policy on the list – is the Laken Riley Act. It’s a landmark new law that allows Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to take into custody any illegal immigrant who has been charged with theft or other crimes. But so far, Trump has largely acted alone in his endeavors, with executive orders aimed at dismantling the Department of Education, keeping transgender women out of biological women’s spaces, and others. In comparison, Congress passed 30 bills that were signed into law by Trump in the first 100 days of his first term. The first 100 days of the Biden, Obama and Bush administrations saw 11, 14, and seven laws signed, respectively. Two Trump allies in Congress, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Eric Burlison, R-Mo., were frustrated at the wide gap between their body and the White House. “I think Congress is the one that’s failing on the job,” Greene told Fox News Digital on Monday. She said her particular issue was Republicans not being further along in their plans for a massive Trump legislative policy overhaul via the budget reconciliation process. House GOP leaders have said for months that they want it finished by the spring or summer, however. “We didn’t do our reconciliation over the first 100 days, and I think that’s a failure,” Greene said. “I’ve kept my mouth shut. I remain hopeful, hoping that we can get this done in the House and the Senate. But I’ve grown frustrated.” Burlison told Fox News Digital, “I’d give Trump an A, an A+. I’d give Congress a D.” “Congress needs to reciprocate the kind of bold vision and courage that Trump has taken, particularly with DOGE,” Burlison said. Meanwhile, Democrats have accused congressional Republicans of giving up their power to Trump with his flurry of executive actions. “I believe now is the time for Congress to reassert the constitutional authority it continues to cede to the executive branch,” Rep. John Mannion, D-N.Y., said during a Tuesday press conference. But House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Congress had not ceded any authority to Trump when asked by Fox News Digital on Friday. SENATE GOP PUSHES TRUMP BUDGET FRAMEWORK THROUGH AFTER MARATHON VOTE SERIES “I don’t think we’ve ceded any authority. I think that he’s doing what is within his scope to do,” Johnson said. “I don’t think he’s crossed the line yet. If he does, or if he did, you know, I would address it with him personally as a concern, as a partner, and explain that I think it’s been overdone.” He also said Congress was working toward fulfilling more of Trump’s legislative priorities, while noting the processes for taking action were vastly different between the executive and legislative branches. “We’ve got to work it through our processes and get, you know, 218 votes on everything. So we’ve been doing that, which you’ll see the roll out of that in turn here in the next few weeks as well,” he said. “We’ve got done a lot of the ground work, a lot of these legislative vehicles through the committee process. So now we have them on deck to just roll out and begin to pass through and send over to the Senate.”