GOP senators bullish on post-Easter ‘big, beautiful’ budget agreement
EXCLUSIVE: One day after the House passed its version of the “big, beautiful” budget bill demanded by President Donald Trump, Senate Republican leaders were bullish on the prospects of a deal coming together when lawmakers return from Passover/Easter break. “Republicans have a bold agenda. The sooner we pass it, the sooner we can reverse the damage that Democrats have done over the last four years,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital, as Senate leaders made a high-dollar budget cut promise earlier in the week. “The American people need certainty that they aren’t going to face the Democrats’ $4 trillion tax increase,” said the lawmaker, whose role is to “whip” or tally Republicans’ planned votes ahead of them being cast on the floor. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota remains under pressure to deliver on $1.5 trillion in budget cuts he pledged to secure some of the votes from waffling House conservatives. The Senate version of the bill that passed earlier this month only called for $4 billion in spending cuts – a massive discrepancy from the House’s version. AK SEN LITERALLY SHREDS BIDEN’S ENERGY ORDERS In exchange for their votes, Thune and Barrasso must coax Senate GOP moderates and members with concerns over potential Medicaid or entitlement cuts that they won’t be part of the sizable slice. Additionally, the debt ceiling is projected to be hit during the summertime, which Republicans will have to reckon with financially as well. A failure to adjust for that ceiling could result in default. TRUMP’S BIG, BEAUTIFUL TAX AGENDA SCORES MAJOR VICTORY However, Thune was equally optimistic as Barrasso about pushing through Trump’s agenda, saying the upper chamber’s agenda will be “packed” overall. “More nominations to confirm. More burdensome Biden regulations to repeal. A tax bill – and border, energy, and national security bill – to continue drafting,” he said. Speaking to Fox News Digital, Thune said committee leaders were working through the holiday on varying legislation planned to come for votes soon after they return. “And, of course, appropriations season is almost upon us. And I remain committed to considering as many appropriations bills as possible under regular order,” he said. Regular order refers to matriculating bills through the committee process, which Thune previously said promotes bipartisanship and trust between lawmakers and the parties. The practices of governing by long-term continuing resolutions, or CRs, are considered antithetical to regular order. Barrasso said the American people need to know that Republicans will stand firm on investing in domestic energy and border security in their post-Easter return. “Our goal is to get this bill passed and sent to the president’s desk as quickly as possible. We’ll work towards that every day until it’s done.” Fox News Digital reached out to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., for comment on Democrats’ short-term plans but did not receive a response. Thursday’s House bill passed generally along party lines, after fiscal conservatives largely balked at the financial figures. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The number of GOP holdouts was eventually whittled down to two – Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana – who voted with the Democrats, albeit for ideologically opposing reasons. “Our first big, beautiful reconciliation package here involves a number of commitments. And one of those is that we are committed to finding at least $1.5 trillion in savings for the American people, while also preserving our essential programs,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said. Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
This longtime Republican governor will not seek re-election in 2026
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds will not seek re-election in 2026 after nearly 10 years serving in the state’s highest office, teeing up what may be a competitive Republican gubernatorial primary in 2026. In a video announcement released on Friday, Reynolds thanked Iowans for their support throughout her political career and said she will not campaign for another term as governor to focus on her family. “Today, I want to share a personal decision with you; one that was not made lightly, but comes with a full heart and a deep sense of gratitude. After a lot of thought, prayer, and conversations with my family, I have decided that I will not seek re-election in 2026,” she said. Reynolds began her political career in the Clarke County treasurer’s office, before winning election as a state senator and later as the state’s lieutenant governor. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING ON IOWA She has served as governor since 2017, when then-Gov. Terry Branstad was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as ambassador to China during President Donald Trump’s first term in office. Reynolds was elected to a full term as governor in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. “This wasn’t an easy decision, because I love this state and I love serving you,” Reynolds said in a video posted on social media. “But, when my term ends, I will have had the privilege of serving as your governor for almost 10 years.” Reynolds said the work isn’t over yet and is committed to “working hard for you every single day until my term ends,” referring to her time as governor as the “greatest honor of my life.” “This public service has been an incredible journey — one I wouldn’t trade for anything, but as Iowans know, family is everything,” she said. “Through the years, my parents and my husband Kevin, our daughters, and our grandchildren have stood by my side, supporting me through every challenge and every victory. Now, it’s time for me to be there for them.” IOWA GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL REMOVING TRANSGENDER PROTECTIONS FROM CIVIL RIGHTS CODE Seasoned Iowa-based Republican strategist Jimmy Centers, who served in the Reynolds administration, said “her governorship is historic” for more than being the first female elected Iowa governor. “It’s more than just her agenda; it’s about what she accomplished as governor. She was bold. She went out and sold her vision and she got it passed,” Centers told Fox News. Nicole Schlinger, a longtime Iowa and Washington D.C.-based conservative strategist who is well-connected with evangelical groups, said that Reynolds “has been a transformation governor.” But Schlinger told Fox News that “Kim Reynolds has put a lot of things in her life on hold for the state of Iowa and if you’re going to decide what you’re doing for re-election in 2026, now is the time you’re going to be making that decision.” The Republican Governors Association (RGA) praised Reynolds for “her bold vision and conservative leadership” and said she “delivered transformational results for Iowa.” Iowa, which was once a key general election battleground state, has turned red over the past decade, and RGA communications director Courtney Alexander said “we are confident that Iowa will continue to remain in Republican control.” But the rival Democratic Governors Association (DGA), pointing to Trump’s sweeping and controversial agenda during his first three months back in the White House, said that “even former RGA Chair Governor Kim Reynolds knows she can’t defend her party’s destruction of the economy and extreme, unpopular agenda for the next two years.” DGA communications director Sam Newton argued that “in addition to leaving behind a failed record of corruption, gutting public education, and banning abortion, Gov. Reynolds has thrown the wide-open GOP field for governor into complete chaos. We look forward to holding Iowa Republicans accountable as this competitive race ramps up.” Following Reynolds’ announcement, there was instant speculation that Iowa attorney general Brenna Bird, who was a top surrogate for now-President Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign and who spoke at last summer’s Republican National Convention, may make a bid to succeed the governor. Bird, in a statement posted to social media, praised Reynolds but added that she and her husband will “consider what this decision means for our future.” “I appreciate the calls of encouragement I’ve already received. I am committed to continuing my work on behalf of Iowans and to support President Trump,” she added. Among the Republicans who may also have an interest in potentially running in 2026 to succeed Reynolds in the governor’s office in Des Moines are longtime state agriculture secretary Mike Naig; state House Speaker Pat Grassley, the grandson of longtime Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; and all four members of Iowa’s all-GOP congressional delegation — Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01), Ashley Hinson (IA-02), Zach Nunn (IA-03) and Randy Feenstra (IA-04). Two other names that are mentioned are Matt Whitaker, who ran statewide twice in Iowa but who is known nationally for serving as U.S. attorney general for a couple of months during the first Trump administration and who is currently serving as U.S. representative to NATO; and state Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, son of longtime Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann. RED STATE MOVES TO DEFUND COUNTY AFTER LEADER VOWS TO ‘INTERFERE AND INTERRUPT’ ICE DEPORTATIONS Longtime Republican strategist David Kochel, who has worked in Iowa politics for decades, noted that the Republicans have a “deep bench.” When it comes to the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, speculation centers on Iowa state auditor Rob Sand, who is currently the only Democratic statewide officeholder in the Hawkeye State. Reynolds, pointing to Iowa’s shift to the right in recent election cycles, said the GOP “will remain in great hands” as the next generation of Iowa Republicans build on her legacy. Reynolds saw her national profile rise in recent years, through her previous tenure as RGA chair and by welcoming Republican presidential candidates to Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, which remain the lead-off contest in the race for the White House on the GOP calendar. CLICK HERE TO
Federal judge hammers DOJ on whereabouts of alleged MS-13 gang member following SCOTUS order
A Maryland federal judge lambasted government attorneys Friday during a hearing over efforts to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national and Maryland resident, from a prison in El Salvador. Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported to El Salvador last month for being an alleged MS-13 gang member. His attorneys, however, have maintained that he does not have any ties to the violent gang. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis questioned DOJ attorney Drew Ensign as to Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts after the Supreme Court upheld Xinis’ order that federal officials must coordinate his return back to Maryland. Xinis asked Ensign where Abrego Garcia was, and under “whose authority,” to which Ensign responded, “I do not have that info.” MARYLAND IMMIGRANT WRONGLY DEPORTED TO EL SALVADOR MUST RETURN TO US, SUPREME COURT RULES “I do not have that knowledge, and therefore I cannot relay that info to the court,” Ensign said. “They have not provided that confirmation before this hearing.” The judge was unsatisfied with the government’s answer. “I’m not asking for state secrets. I’m asking where one man is,” Xinis responded. “The government was prohibited from sending him to El Salvador, and now I’m asking a very simple question: ‘Where is he?’” After Ensign again said he did not have the information on hand, Xinis said, “That is extremely troubling.” In a Thursday order, the Supreme Court noted that “The United States acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador, and that the removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal.” DOJ ASKS TO DISMISS VIRGINIA CASE AGAINST SALVADORAN ACCUSED MS-13 LEADER SET TO BE DEPORTED The high court proceeded to say that Xinis’ order “properly requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” Ensign made clear during the Friday hearing that the government intended to comply with the Supreme Court’s order. When asked what had been done thus far to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, Ensign said it was “unclear.” “That means they haven’t done anything,” Xinis responded. Xinis and Ensign engaged in a back-and-forth over their reading of the high court’s order. Ensign said the government had understood the order to require that it must “hear what the executive branch says in a brief.” “We read the Supreme Court’s order differently,” Ensign said. “It said deference to the executive branch.” Xinis, instead, said her reading was that the government take all the necessary steps to facilitate the return as soon as possible. “I hear you and disagree,” Xinis responded. ACCUSED MS-13 LEADER NABBED BY PATEL’S FBI TO REMAIN IN CUSTODY FOR NOW, JUDGE RULES Xinis proceeded to request daily updates as the case continued “from a person with direct knowledge,” saying she would be issuing an order that delineated the request. “My message, for what it’s worth is, if you can do it, do it tomorrow. I don’t understand why it can’t be done,” Xinis said. Ensign noted that he thought the orders were “impractical” but reemphasized that the government would be complying with the Supreme Court’s order. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked to weigh in on the matter during a Friday briefing in light of El Salvador’s president visiting the White House next week. “The Supreme Court made their ruling last night very clear that it’s the administration’s responsibility to facilitate the return, not to effectuate the return,” Leavitt said. “The District Judge made clear that she’s not going to let the government continue to play games while a man’s life is at stake,” Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, counsel for Abrego Garcia, told Fox News Digital. “They need to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia home, and until then, they need to provide meaningful status updates showing their progress in doing so.” Abrego Garcia was arrested in Baltimore on March 12 after working his shift as a sheet metal apprentice. The complaint states that he had also picked up his now-five-year-old son, who has autism and other disabilities, from his grandmother’s house before his arrest. Abrego Garcia had initially fled El Salvador to escape gang violence, according to court documents. Beginning in 2006, gang members “stalked, hit, and threatened to kidnap and kill him in order to coerce his parents to succumb to their increasing demands for extortion.” He eventually entered the United States illegally in 2011 and began living in Maryland with his brother, who is an American citizen. Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announces he’s running for fourth term
President Donald Trump offered an endorsement of Patrick on Truth Social.
Pennsylvania man charged with threatening Trump, ICE agents, other officials
A Pennsylvania man has been charged with making threats against President Donald Trump, other U.S. officials and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Shawn Monper, 32, lives in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the president was shot during a campaign rally last July. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “I want to applaud the outstanding and courageous investigative work of the FBI and the Butler Township Police Department, who thankfully identified and apprehended this individual before he could carry out his threats against President Trump’s life and the lives of other innocent Americans,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Rest assured that whenever and wherever threats of assassination or mass violence occur, this Department of Justice will find, arrest, and prosecute the suspect to the fullest extent of the law and seek the maximum appropriate punishment.” This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.
Biden’s team hid the truth about his health all along: WH press sec
The Biden administration engaged in a “cover-up” by failing to disclose details about the health of former President Joe Biden, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “I can tell you there was certainly a lack of transparency from the former president, from the entire former administration,” Leavitt told reporters on Friday. “And frankly, a lot of people in this room, when it came to the health in the competence of the former President of the United States, Joe Biden — there was one of the greatest cover-ups and, frankly, political scandals this nation has ever seen. It’s been unraveled in some recent books that are being written by journalists who engaged in that cover-up in scandal, which is quite ironic.” A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. BIDEN AIDES ‘SCRIPTED’ EVERYTHING, ALLOWED HIS FACULTIES TO ‘ATROPHY,’ NEW BOOK CLAIMS New books out have detailed Biden’s mental and physical well-being during his time in the White House. “Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History,” published Tuesday and authored by Chris Whipple, a former producer for CBS’ “60 Minutes,” claims that the White House kept Biden from socializing with those who previously worked alongside him — a tactic that backfired and contributed to his declining mental agility. EX-BIDEN AIDE SAYS FORMER PRESIDENT WAS ‘FATIGUED, BEFUDDLED, AND DISENGAGED’ PRIOR TO JUNE DEBATE: BOOK Leavitt’s remarks come as President Donald Trump is receiving an annual physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday. The White House says it will provide a readout of the appointment. “But this president is clearly committed to transparency,” Leavitt said. “You in this room see him and hear from him on a daily basis. You in this room know from covering him. It’s hard to keep up with him. He is a machine working around the clock every single day. And the physician, after today’s physical, will provide an update on the report in the effort of transparency.”
UN agrees deal on shipping emissions despite US threats
The US pulled out of the climate talks at the International Maritime Organization in London this week. Countries at the United Nations shipping agency have struck a deal on a global fuel emissions standard for the maritime sector, which will impose an emissions fee on ships that breach it and reward vessels burning cleaner fuels. The United States pulled out of the climate talks at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London this week, urging other countries to do the same and threatening to impose “reciprocal measures” against any fees charged to US ships. Despite that, other nations have approved the CO2-cutting measures to help meet the IMO’s target to cut net emissions from international shipping by 20 percent by 2030 and eliminate them by 2050. A majority of countries at the IMO voted on Friday to approve a scheme that from 2028 will charge ships a penalty of $380 per metric tonne on every extra tonne of CO2-equivalent they emit above a fixed emissions threshold, plus a penalty of $100 a tonne on emissions above a stricter emissions limit. The deal is expected to generate up to $40bn in fees from 2030, some of which will go towards making expensive zero-emission fuels more affordable. Advertisement The talks have exposed deep rifts between governments over how fast to push the maritime sector to cut its environmental effect. A proposal for a stronger carbon levy on all shipping emissions, backed by climate-vulnerable Pacific countries – which abstained in Friday’s vote – plus the European Union and the UK, was dropped after opposition from several countries, including China, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, delegates told the Reuters news agency. Vanuatu’s climate minister, Ralph Regenvanu, said countries had “failed to support a set of measures that would have gotten the shipping industry onto a 1.5°C pathway”. Industry group the International Chamber of Shipping welcomed the deal, which it said would require a huge scale-up of such fuels. “We are pleased that governments have understood the need to catalyse and support investment in zero emission fuels,” ICS said in a statement. In 2030, the main emissions limit will require ships to cut the emissions intensity of their fuel by 8 percent compared with a 2008 baseline, while the stricter standard will demand a 21 percent reduction. By 2035, the main standard will cut fuel emissions by 30 percent, versus 43 percent for the stricter standard. Ships that reduce emissions to below the stricter limit will be rewarded with credits that they can sell to non-compliant vessels. “This is a groundbreaking moment for the shipping industry, which should signal a turning of the tide on greenhouse gases from global shipping,” Mark Lutes, senior adviser at the NGO World Wildlife Fund for Nature, said in a statement. Advertisement “However, key aspects of this agreement fall short of what is needed and risk blowing the transition off course,” he added. The carbon pricing measure must now be formally adopted at an IMO assembly in October. Adblock test (Why?)
A court upheld the impeachment last week, and removing removed him from off
NewsFeed South Korea’s ousted president Yoon Suk-yeol left the presidential residence for the final time on April 11, days after a court upheld his impeachment. Yoon, who greeted throngs of flag-waving supporters, will relocate to his private home in Seoul. Published On 11 Apr 202511 Apr 2025 Adblock test (Why?)
Trump’s tariffs: Short-term damage or long-term ruin?
What does Trump aim to achieve by making it costlier for the rest of the world to sell their goods in the US? As the US government imposed tariffs on goods from all other countries, President Donald Trump has asked Americans to “hang tough”. But economists are warning of negative consequences for American households and businesses. Georgetown University professor Michael Strain, who heads economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, tells host Steve Clemons that “the risk of recession is very, very real.” Trump believes that the tariffs will stimulate the US economy and bring jobs back after decades of outsourcing, Strain argues, but the opposite is more likely: costs will rise, manufacturing will decrease, and Trump’s approval rating will go down. Adblock test (Why?)
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Since 2023, we have worked diligently to reach new audiences in Texas, increase trust in our work and expand into local news. At the end of this year, with a strong leadership team in place, I will be transitioning.