Army reveals 2-phase plan to remove service members with gender dysphoria
The Army on Wednesday said it is approaching its second phase of separation with service members experiencing gender dysphoria, an initiative that follows the Trump administration’s directive of prioritizing military excellence and readiness. A new memo issued by Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll and obtained by Fox News Digital outlines two phases in the separation process, the first of which will be completed at the beginning of June. The first phase, which ends June 6, allows service members who have been diagnosed with or have a history of gender dysphoria to identify themselves and volunteer to separate from the military branch, an Army spokesperson told Fox Digital. PENTAGON CEASES GENDER TRANSITION TREATMENTS AS IT MOVES TO BOOT TRANS TROOPS Once a service member notifies an immediate commander, that commander will then notify a superior, initiating the separation process. Soldiers who reached a threshold for years of service qualify for voluntary separation pay or double the pay a service member would get by separating from the Army for various reasons, the spokesperson said. HEGSETH BANS FUTURE TRANS SOLDIERS, MAKES SWEEPING CHANGES FOR CURRENT ONES However, they will not qualify for separation pay if they have not reached the years of service, if there is pending administrative action against them or if they are facing Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) code infractions. In the case of pending administrative action against them, their discharge may also not be honorable. The Army said those who volunteer for separation, but do not qualify, will still be separated and afforded benefits; they will only forfeit the additional separation pay, according to the spokesperson. After the June 6 deadline for voluntary separation, the Army will enter the involuntary separation phase. In the second phase, “there will be means of identifying those who did not want to self-identify,” the spokesperson said. HEGSETH ORDERS DEADLINE FOR TRANS SERVICE MEMBERS TO LEAVE MILITARY: ‘OUT AT THE DOD’ The spokesperson said soldiers’ records, prior to the new policy, reflected service members’ sex at birth. Once they are identified, a separation process will begin. TRANSGENDER SAILORS, MARINES OFFERED BENEFITS TO VOLUNTARILY LEAVE SERVICE OR FACE BEING KICKED OUT “Regardless of potential outcome, every service member will be treated with dignity and respect, however this shakes out,” the spokesperson said. Driscoll’s guidance comes after President Donald Trump issued an executive order Jan. 27, “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth heeded Trump’s executive order with a memo outlining what the Department of Defense needed to do to comply.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy reveals history of questioning Biden’s mental fitness
Fox News’ Peter Doocy has some unique insight on former President Joe Biden as questions continue to persist about whether there was a coverup to hide his declining mental state while serving as commander-in-chief. Doocy, a senior White House correspondent, posted multiple videos to X on Wednesday showing him questioning Biden and the White House about the then-president’s cognitive decline. “I have some unique insight on President Biden, having dedicated six years of my life to covering him,” he wrote. “If you are wondering why nobody asked about his mental fitness, and why nobody asked if White House staffers were covering up his decline… then you weren’t paying attention.” WASHINGTON POST URGES CONGRESS TO ACT TO PREVENT ANOTHER COVER-UP OF PRESIDENT’S HEALTH AMID BIDEN REVELATIONS In one video, Doocy is seen questioning Biden about Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report that concluded that one of the reasons Biden wasn’t charged for his handling of classified Obama-era documents found in his former office and at home was because he was a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” “I’m well-meaning and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing. I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation,” Biden replied. Doocy then asked how bad Biden’s memory was and would he be able to continue to serve as president. “My memory is so bad, I let you speak,” Biden shot back. Much of the media has been criticized for its reluctance to question Biden or the White House about his health concerns. The former president’s health is once again in the headlines after CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson’s new book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” was released on Tuesday. The book alleges that Biden’s inner circle concealed his cognitive decline for years and was released just days after news broke that Biden had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. In one instance, during a news briefing, Doocy questioned then-White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about a campaign event in which Biden was present. “At a fundraiser this week, President Biden told donors about how Charlottesville inspired his campaign, and according to the pool, a few mins later he told the story again nearly word for word. What’s up with that?” CBS NEWS REPORTER SAYS WSJ’S ‘COURAGEOUS’ 2024 REPORT ON BIDEN’S DECLINE SHOULD HAVE WON THE PULITZER “What I can tell you is, and I’m going to be careful not to talk about it because this was a campaign event,… the president was making very clear why he decided to run in 2019,” Jean-Pierre responded. In another briefing, Jean-Pierre said Biden was making a “light-hearted joke” and “speaking off the cuff” when she was asked by Doocy about Biden’s remarks that his “health is fine. It’s just his brain.” In another video, Jean-Pierre was asked about Biden’s gaffe when he appeared to mix up French President Emmanuel Macron with François Mitterrand, the former president of France who died in 1996. “How is President Biden ever going to convince the three-quarters of voters who are worried about his physical and mental health that he’s OK even though in Las Vegas he told a story about recently talking to a French president who died in 1996?” WALL STREET JOURNAL CALLS OUT TAPPER FOR SNEERING AT PAPER’S STORY ABOUT BIDEN’S DECLINE “I’m not even going to go down that rabbit hole with you,” she replied. Doocy also asked if Biden had been tested for Parkinson’s Disease or dementia following his disastrous debate performance against then-candidate Donald Trump. “What we shared with you was comprehensive, but he’s had a full physical. We’ve shown the results of those this past three years,” Jean-Pierre said. “We showed it just four months ago, and it is in line with what we have done, similar to President Obama, similar to George W. Bush. We are committed to continue to be transparent. We are committed to continue to show the results of those physicals, and look, it’s the president’s medical team that makes a decision.” In another briefing, Jean-Pierre was questioned about why Biden was treated by White House staffers “like a baby.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “No one treated the president of the United States, the commander-in-chief, like a baby,” she replied. “That’s a ridiculous claim.” Fox News Digital’s Kristine Parks contributed to this report.
House Republicans divided as Trump’s comprehensive bill faces critical vote
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has been hard at work this week meeting with as many factions within the House GOP as possible to quell concerns ahead of a chamber-wide vote on President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Managing a razor-thin House majority isn’t easy in the best of times, but negotiating the vast tax-immigration-energy-defense-debt limit bill has revealed both old and new fractures within the Republican Conference. Fox News Digital took a look at what the key factions have been looking for. HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS HEADING TO WHITE HOUSE AFTER DELAY PLAY ON TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ The House Freedom Caucus and their allies have been pushing the bill to go further on curbing Medicaid’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) expansion, and implementing work requirements for able-bodied Americans on the government healthcare program sooner than the current bill’s 2029 deadline. There’s broad consensus among Republicans on needing work requirements for able-bodied Americans on healthcare, but cutting too deeply into the Obamacare-era expanded population has some moderate GOP lawmakers worried. The conservatives have consistently argued that they are only seeking to reshuffle the program to make it more available for vulnerable people who truly need it, including low-income women and children. That same group has argued in favor of a total repeal of President Joe Biden’s green energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – a push that has pitted them against Republicans whose districts have businesses that benefitted from those subsidies. DEMS WARN HOUSE REPUBLICANS WILL PAY PRICE AT BALLOT BOX FOR PASSING TRUMP’S ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’ Moderate Republicans in California, New York, and New Jersey have been taking a stand on raising the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap. SALT deduction caps primarily benefit people living in high-cost-of-living areas like New York City, Los Angeles, and their surrounding suburbs. Republicans representing those areas have argued that raising the SALT deduction cap is an existential issue — and that a failure to address it could cost the GOP the House majority in the 2026 midterms. Several of the Republicans vying for higher SALT deduction caps have pointed out that their victories are critical to the party retaining control of the House in 2024. SALT deduction caps did not exist before Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which notably instilled a $10,000 ceiling for married and single tax filers. That cap has been received positively by the majority of Republicans, however – and those in lower-tax, GOP-controlled states have dismissed the push for a higher SALT deduction cap as an unearned reward for Democratic states with high-tax policies. Republicans in places like Tennessee and Missouri have argued it was their tax dollars subsidizing wealthier, blue-leaning areas’ tax breaks. Blue state Republicans, meanwhile, have contended that they send more tax dollars back to the federal government which in turn helps pay for lower-tax states. There is some overlap between Republicans looking for more modest cuts to the IRA and those seeking a higher SALT deduction cap – but not completely. Republicans in swing districts in Arizona and Pennsylvania have argued that upending those tax credits now would harm businesses in their districts that had begun changing their operations already to conform to those new tax breaks. In March, 21 House Republicans signed a letter urging their colleagues to preserve the green energy tax credit. “Countless American companies are utilizing sector-wide energy tax credits – many of which have enjoyed broad support in Congress – to make major investments in domestic energy production and infrastructure for traditional and renewable energy sources alike,” they wrote. But conservative fiscal hawks pushing for a total repeal said in their own letter that the U.S.’ growing green energy sector was the product of government handouts rather than genuine sustainable growth. “Leaving IRA subsidies intact will actively undermine America’s return to energy dominance and national security,” they said. “They are the result of government subsidies that distort the U.S. energy sector, displace reliable coal and natural gas and the domestic jobs they produce, and put the stability and independence of our electric grid in jeopardy.”
Bruce Springsteen releases EP featuring anti-Trump rants from UK concert
Singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen continued his criticism of President Donald Trump Wednesday by releasing a six-track digital extended play (EP) that included his political rants while performing in Manchester, United Kingdom, last week. “The Boss” included four songs on the 31-minute EP, “Land of Hope & Dreams.” The songs included “Land of Hope and Dreams,” “Long Walk Home,” “My City of Ruins” and “Chimes of Freedom.” All four songs were recorded live May 14, 2025, when Springsteen publicly lambasted Trump. During his intro to “Land of Hope and Dreams,” Springsteen said it was great to be back in Manchester, calling on the “righteous power of art, of music, of rock and roll, in dangerous times.” KID ROCK CALLS OUT BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’S ANTI-TRUMP RANT ON EUROPEAN TOUR, SAYS IT WAS A ‘PUNK MOVE’ “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,” he said. “Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring.” Springsteen went on another political rant against Trump and the U.S. government before the E Street Band kicked into the song “My City of Ruins.” “There’s some very weird, strange and dangerous s— going on out there right now,” Springsteen told the British crowd. “In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now. In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction and abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. TRUMP CALLS SPRINGSTEEN ‘HIGHLY OVERRATED’ AFTER ROCKER LABELS HIM ‘TREASONOUS’ OVERSEAS “This is happening now,” he added. “In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers. They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society. They’re abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom.” Springsteen also accused the government of defunding American universities that “won’t bow down to their ideological demands.” “They’re removing residents off American streets and, without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons,” he said. “This is all happening now. A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government. They have no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American. FOX NEWS POLITICS NEWSLETTER: NO LOVE LOST BETWEEN TRUMP AND ‘THE BOSS’ “The America that I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real and, regardless of its faults, is a great country with a great people,” Springsteen added. “So, we’ll survive this moment.” The crowd responded with applause when Springsteen continued to pontificate his stance on the current administration. The comments went viral last week, and Trump responded by slamming Springsteen and calling him “highly overrated” Friday. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN IGNORES QUESTION ABOUT TRUMP FEUD WHILE SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS: VIDEO “I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country. “Sleepy Joe didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing, but Springsteen is ‘dumb as a rock,’ and couldn’t see what was going on, or could he (which is even worse!)? This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!” Springsteen declared last year that “I’ll be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz” in the presidential election. Harris lost the race to Trump. Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman, Lindsay Kornick and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
Pro-Palestinian Columbia alumni torch diplomas
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Columbia University alumni burned diplomas and police arrested protesters outside a commencement ceremony.
Tottenham defeat Manchester United to win Europa League final
Brennan Johnson scores the only goal as Tottenham beat Man Utd to lift the cup and qualify for the Champions League. Tottenham beat Manchester United 1-0 to win the Europa League final, lifting its first European trophy in more than four decades to qualify for next season’s Champions League. It is the first major title for Tottenham since it won the English League Cup in 2008, and its first European triumph since it won its second UEFA Cup — the equivalent of the Europa League now — in 1984. Brennan Johnson squeezed in the winner at the end of the first half on Wednesday to help Spurs salvage a dismal season, in which it will finish near the bottom of the Premier League standings. The title guarantees Spurs a spot in next season’s Champions League, and brings some much-needed relief for manager Ange Postecoglou after he struggled to keep his team on track all year. Tottenham Hotspur’s Brennan Johnson, left, scores their first goal [Vincent West/Reuters] The victory comes six years after Tottenham fell short against Liverpool in the Champions League final. The defeat adds pressure on United coach Ruben Amorim, whose team sits in 16th place — just ahead of Tottenham — in the Premier League. The club will not play in any European competition next season. United came close to equalising the match on Wednesday when a header by Rasmus Hojlund was cleared at the goal line by Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven in the 68th. Deep into stoppage time, a header by Luke Shaw prompted a difficult save by Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario. Tottenham Hotspur’s Micky van de Ven clears the ball off the line [Andrew Couldridge/Reuters] It had been an even match, with neither team creating many significant scoring opportunities, until Tottenham got on the board in the 42nd minute after a cross by Pape Sarr into the area. Advertisement The ball ricocheted off Shaw and fell in front of Johnson, who seemed to get just enough of it to poke it across the goal line. United pressed forward after conceding, but was not able to get the equaliser in front of a split crowd of nearly 50,000 at Athletic Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium. Manchester United’s captain, Bruno Fernandes, looks dejected as he walks past the trophy after collecting his runners-up medal [Isabel Infantes/Reuters] United had last won a trophy in the 2024 FA Cup, and its last European triumph was at the 2017 Europa League under manager Jose Mourinho. The Red Devils lost all four matches against Tottenham this season and is winless against its rival in seven straight games, with the last six under Postecoglou. United and Tottenham had met in just one previous final — the 2009 League Cup when Alex Ferguson’s United won 4-1 on penalties after a 0-0 draw. Tottenham striker Son Heung-min, who came off the bench in the 67th, finally ended his decade-long trophy drought with Spurs. Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou celebrates with his players after winning the Europa League [Isabel Infantes/Reuters] Adblock test (Why?)
US Justice Department ends post-George Floyd police reform settlements
The administration of President Donald Trump has begun the process of ending the federal government’s involvement in reforming local police departments, a civil rights effort that gained steam after the deaths of unarmed Black people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. On Wednesday, the United States Department of Justice announced it would cancel two proposed settlements that would have seen the cities of Louisville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, agree to federal oversight of their police departments. Generally, those settlements — called consent decrees — involve a series of steps and goals that the two parties negotiate and that a federal court helps enforce. In addition, the Justice Department said it would withdraw reports on six other local police departments which found patterns of discrimination and excessive violence. The Trump administration framed the announcement as part of its efforts to transfer greater responsibility towards individual cities and states — and away from the federal government. Advertisement “It’s our view at the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division under the Trump administration that federal micromanagement of local police should be a rare exception, and not the norm,” said Harmeet Dhillon, an assistant attorney general at the Justice Department, said. She argued that such federal oversight was a waste of taxpayer funds. “There is a lack of accountability. There is a lack of local control. And there is an industry here that is, I think, ripping off the taxpayers and making citizens less safe,” Dhillon said. But civil rights leaders and police reform advocates reacted with outrage over the news, which arrived just days before the fifth anniversary of Floyd’s murder. Reverend Al Sharpton was among the leaders who called for police departments to take meaningful action after a viral video captured Floyd’s final moments. On May 25, 2020, a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, leaned his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, causing him to asphyxiate and die. “This move isn’t just a policy reversal,” Sharpton said. “It’s a moral retreat that sends a chilling message that accountability is optional when it comes to Black and Brown victims.” He warned that the Trump administration’s move sent a signal to police departments that they were “above scrutiny”. The year of Floyd’s murder was also marked by a number of other high-profile deaths, including Taylor’s. The 26-year-old medical worker was in bed late at night on March 13, 2020, when police used a battering ram to break into her apartment. Her boyfriend feared they were being attacked and fired his gun once. The police responded with a volley of bullets, killing Taylor, who was struck six times. Advertisement Her death and others stirred a period of nationwide unrest in the US, with millions of people protesting in the streets as part of social justice movements like Black Lives Matter. It is thought that the 2020 “racial reckoning” was one of the biggest mass demonstrations in US history. Those protests unfolded in the waning months of Trump’s first term, and when Democrat Joe Biden succeeded him as president in 2021, the Justice Department embarked on a series of 12 investigations looking into allegations of police overreach and excessive violence on the local level. Those investigations were called “pattern-or-practice” probes, designed to look into whether incidents of police brutality were one-offs or part of a larger trend in a given police department. Floyd’s murder took place in Minneapolis and Taylor’s in Louisville — the two cities where the Trump Justice Department decided to drop its settlements on Wednesday. In both cities, under Biden, the Justice Department had found patterns of discriminatory policing. “Police officers must often make split-second decisions and risk their lives to keep their communities safe,” the report on Minneapolis reads. But, it adds, the local police department “used dangerous techniques and weapons against people who committed at most a petty offence and sometimes no offense at all”. Other police departments scrutinised during this period included ones in Phoenix, Arizona; Memphis, Tennessee; Trenton, New Jersey; Mount Vernon, New York; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and the Louisiana State Police. Advertisement Dhillon, who now runs the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, positioned the retractions of those Biden-era findings as a policy pivot. She also condemned the consent decrees as an overused tool and indicated she would look into rescinding some agreements that were already in place. That process would likely involve a judge’s approval, however. And while some community advocates have expressed concerns that consent decrees could place a burden on already over-stretched law enforcement departments, others disagree with the Justice Department’s latest move, arguing that a retreat could strip resources and momentum from police reform. At the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD), Chief Paul Humphrey said the commitment to better policing went beyond any settlement. He indicated he would look for an independent monitor to oversee reforms. “It’s not about these words on this paper,” he said. “It’s about the work that the men and women of LMPD, the men and women of metro government and the community will do together in order to make us a safer, better place.” And in Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey doubled down, saying he could keep pushing forward with the police reform plan his city had agreed to. “We will comply with every sentence of every paragraph of the 169-page consent decree that we signed this year,” he said at a news conference. “We will make sure that we are moving forward with every sentence of every paragraph of both the settlement around the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, as well as the consent decree.” Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)
Sparks fly between Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Dem Rep. Watson Coleman: ‘You should feel shameful’
Sparks flew on Capitol Hill Wednesday as Education Secretary Linda McMahon faced off with Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., in a fiery exchange during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing in the latest clash over the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education. The war of words began when Watson Coleman asked, “Do you believe that there is illegal discrimination against people who are Black or brown, and other types of discrimination in jobs and education in this country?” “I think it still exists in some areas,” McMahon replied. ‘EDUCATORS WILL BE FIRED’: REPUBLICANS CHEER TRUMP ORDER DISMANTLING EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AS DEMS SEETHE Watson Coleman pressed further: “Then can you tell me why the Office of Civil Rights and the Department of Education is being decimated?” McMahon responded, “Well, it isn’t being decimated. We have reduced the size of it. However, we are taking on a backlog of cases that were left over from the Biden administration.” Watson Coleman grew visibly frustrated and accused the administration of racial bias in immigration and education policies, saying its actions amounted to “favoritism and prioritization of white over color.” In a blistering rebuke, Watson Coleman said, “Your rhetoric means nothing to me. What means something to me is the actions of this administration. I’m telling you, the Department of Education is one of the most important departments in this country. And you should feel shameful to be engaged with an administration that doesn’t give a damn.” STUDENT LOANS, PELL GRANTS WILL CONTINUE DESPITE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT DOWNSIZING, EXPERT SAYS McMahon, remaining composed, replied, “I am the secretary of Education who has been approved to run this agency by Congress. And I was appointed by the president. And I serve at his pleasure under his mandate. So, therefore, the direction of his administration is what I will follow.” The exchange came as part of a larger hearing in which McMahon laid out President Donald Trump’s 2026 education budget proposal, which calls for a $12 billion cut to the Education Department, a 15% reduction. McMahon described her work as the department’s “final mission”: to wind it down and restore education oversight to states, parents and local educators. “Let’s focus on literacy. What we’re seeing in those scores is a failure of our students to learn to read,” McMahon said. “We’ve lost the fundamentals.” Chairman Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., praised McMahon’s approach, noting, “Despite $3 trillion in federal education spending since 1980, student achievement has not improved. The answer is not more money. It’s more accountability and local control.” The plan consolidates 18 federal programs into a single $2 billion block grant to states. Democrats labeled the proposal as a backdoor effort to gut federal support for public schools. On student loans, McMahon said the department has begun recovering repayments after years of Biden-era pauses and confusion. “Since we restarted collections in May, we have recovered nearly $100 million,” she said. She also defended staffing cuts and administrative restructuring, stating, “We’re delivering on all of our statutory requirements with fewer people and lower overhead.” Republicans on the subcommittee shared their support for charter schools and school choice. McMahon, in agreement, pointed to a proposed $60 million increase in charter school funding. “We’ve got about a million students on charter school waiting lists,” she said. “Parents should be deciding where their children can go to school and get the best education.” Democrats also criticized McMahon for not defending early childhood education, particularly Head Start, even though the program technically falls under the Department of Health and Human Services. “Every Head Start program in the country has three days of funding. That’s not someone else’s problem. It’s America’s children,” said Rep. Josh Harder, D-Calif. McMahon responded, “The earlier we can start education, the better, but I don’t believe the federal government is responsible for everything. That’s where states can lead.” The Trump administration also defended its position forcefully outside the hearing room. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “On the topic of corruption, let’s not forget that the Department of Education was created by President Carter in an attempt to win voters,” Savannah Newhouse, Education Department press secretary, said in a statement to Fox News Digital following the exchange. “Since then, we have spent over $3 trillion pretending the department is necessary as student learning outcomes have not improved,” she continued. “While the congresswoman from New Jersey basks in her five minutes of fame, the Trump administration is working to improve student outcomes and ensure American families have access to the quality education that they deserve.”