Trump announces China will restart rare earth mineral shipments to US after productive call
President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to start sending rare earth minerals to the U.S. after halting the shipments in April. Trump held a gaggle on the presidential jet Friday evening, and one reporter asked him just before landing if Xi had agreed to restart the flow of rare earth minerals and magnets to the U.S. “Yes, he did,” Trump replied. “We’re very far advanced on the China deal.” The news comes about a month and a half after China effectively halted exports of seven precious minerals, vital for assembling cars, robotics and defense systems, to the U.S. in a direct strike on America’s manufacturing and defense supply chain. LIZ PEEK: TRUMP MUST STAY STRONG, US RELIANCE ON CHINESE MINERALS AND DRUGS PUTS AMERICANS AT RISK Overseas deliveries of magnets stopped April 4, when new licensing rules took effect, according to The New York Times. Companies are only allowed to export rare earth materials if they obtain special export licenses, which take 45 days to receive. The halt also threatened to undercut Trump’s tariff strategy because China produces about 60% of the world’s critical mineral supply and processes even more, up to 90%. PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA IS OPEN TO ECONOMIC COOPERATION WITH US ON RARE EARTH MINERALS China’s mineral halt to the U.S. Defense Department came after Beijing had already imposed sanctions on multiple U.S. military contractors late last year, according to Reuters. Chinese entities were prohibited from engaging or cooperating with them in response to an arms sale to Taiwan, the outlet reported. Trump and Xi had a lengthy call Thursday amid economic and national security friction regarding trade between the U.S. and China. TRUMP’S ‘RARE’ PRICE FOR US MILITARY AID TO UKRAINE CALLED ‘FAIR’ BY ZELENSKYY “I just concluded a very good phone call with President Xi, of China, discussing some of the intricacies of our recently made, and agreed to, Trade Deal,” Trump said Thursday in a Truth Social post. “The call lasted approximately one and a half hours and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries.” Trump said the conversation focused mostly on trade. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The call came nearly a week after Trump condemned China for violating an initial trade agreement that the U.S. and China hashed out in May and a day after Trump said Xi was “extremely hard to make a deal with” in a Truth Social post. Fox News’ Diana Stancy, Bonny Chu, Danielle Wallace, Morgan Phillips and Reuters contributed to this report.
Musk feud presents ‘unprecedented’ dynamic compared to past Trump disputes: expert
The ongoing feud between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, his one-time “special government employee,” has brought an “unprecedented” dynamic compared to other famous disputes, long-time Democratic political strategist and Fox News contributor Jacques DeGraff said. After somewhat muted rumblings from Musk about why he opposed a Trump-endorsed Republican spending package, the DOGE leader launched complaints after Trump began firing back this week, including threats aimed at Musk’s business revenue. “It’s unprecedented, but the reality is that what makes it a singular moment in history is that no single figure has ever been able to say, ‘I made a president and then (fell) out with that individual,” DeGraff told Fox News Digital Friday. “There have been groups, there have been individuals who wanted to pretend that they did, but the record is clear. And, I mean, this man (Elon) brought his son into the Oval Office. He wore a hat and didn’t wear a suit to the Oval Office. He clearly had carte blanche. … The president, in effect, did a Tesla ad in the Rose Garden … and now they’ve fallen out in life.” WATCH: REPUBLICANS RALLY BEHIND TRUMP, CONTINUE TO SUPPORT MUSK AMID ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL’ BRAWL DeGraffe, who has been a political advocate and strategist for years, quipped that, ordinarily, “we would have to go to family court,” adding “what’s the court here?” Trump is no stranger to quarrels with his staff. During his first term, his relationship soured with his National Security Advisor, John Bolton, and his press secretary, Anthony Scaramucci, after they diverged on different issues and publicly criticized Trump. But, for DeGraffe at least, this quarrel has “distinguished itself from anything in the past.” One major difference he pointed to is the implications for both parties in this spat. LIZ PEEK: FIVE CRITICAL TAKEAWAYS FROM THE EPIC TRUMP-MUSK RUMBLE “Tesla stock has dropped $150 billion, Trump stock has dropped but it also occurs at the same time as this legislation and so that is going to have – no matter how it turns out – it’s going to have massive political and public policy implications for the country,” DeGraffe said. “So this is no small dispute.” DeGraffe also contended that this is “the first time” there has been a major deviation from Trump “from the MAGA side of the aisle.” He suggested the split could be bad news for Trump and others who hope to see the GOP’s budget package pass the finish line in its current form. “This major split will allow other players to take positions other than the party line, and it gives them room and comfort and cover in order to do so,” DeGraffe suggested. “Will senators who follow Musk, or, better yet, disagree with Musk, face intensely funded primaries? “That’s a consideration that everyone involved will have to take. … As a lifelong Democrat, I’m sitting with my bowl of popcorn saying, ‘Go at it.’ Because anything that slows this horrific legislation has got to be good news to the rest of the country.” CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP However, while DeGraffe sees the Trump-Musk feud as having wide-ranging and lasting implications, GOP political strategist Dallas Woodhouse says he thinks the feud is unimportant to most Republicans. “I am currently at the North Carolina State GOP convention, and this is not a topic of concern among activists,” Woodhouse said. “No doubt it makes for funny and entertaining X posts, but the GOP faithful are laser-focused on growing the new diverse GOP/Trump winning coalition.”
President Trump responds to return of alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to US
President Donald Trump responded to the sudden return of Salvadoran illegal and alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying, “he’s a bad guy” and that the courts will “show how horrible this guy is.” Trump appeared unbothered by Abrego Garcia’s return on Friday afternoon, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that the Department of Justice made the decision and that soon the world will see how “horrible” a person he is. Trump expressed confidence in the DOJ and its case against Abrego Garcia. “The DOJ made a decision,” he said, adding, “I think their decisions have been very, very good.” ‘THE FIVE’: DEMS, LIBERAL MEDIA HAVE SOME ‘BIG QUESTIONS TO ANSWER’ AFTER KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA CHARGED “Maybe they just said, ‘Look, all of these people, these judges, they want to try and run the country.’ A local judge trying to run the country,” said Trump. “The man has a horrible past, and I could see a decision being made, bring him back, show everybody how horrible this guy is.” The president said, “Frankly, we have to do something because the judges are trying to take the place of a president that won in a landslide. That’s not supposed to be the way it is. So, I can see bringing him back. I could see. He’s a bad guy.“ The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old illegal alien who was living in Maryland, to a high-security prison in his home country back in March on the grounds that he is a member of the violent MS-13 gang. Soon after his deportation, Democrats jumped to advocate for Abrego Garcia’s release and return to the U.S., arguing that he was a wrongly deported “Maryland man.” DEM IMMIGRATION TALKING POINTS FIZZLE AS DARK PICTURE OF ABREGO GARCIA EMERGES Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday that Abrego Garcia, 29, has landed in the United States and is set to face federal charges for human smuggling and conspiracy. “Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice,” Bondi said. “A grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee returned a sealed indictment charging him with alien smuggling and conspiracy.” According to the indictment, Garcia played a “significant role” in a human smuggling ring operating for nearly a decade. Bondi described him as a full-time smuggler who made more than 100 trips, transporting women, children, and MS-13 gang-affiliated persons throughout the United States. Fox News Digital obtained Tennessee Highway Patrol bodycam footage from a 2022 traffic stop where troopers pulled over Garcia for speeding. Inside his vehicle were eight other men, raising immediate suspicions. “He’s hauling these people for money,” one trooper said. WATCH: AG BONDI DETAILS ‘VERY SERIOUS CHARGES’ FACING KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA Troopers found $1,400 in cash and flagged Garcia in the National Crime Information Center, which returned a gang/terrorism alert. ICE was called but never responded. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Though Democrats have also pushed a narrative that Abrego Garcia is a “family man,” court records show Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed a protective order against her husband in August 2020. The order said their shared son and stepchildren needed protection from Abrego Garcia, accusing him of verbal and physical abuse against her and mental abuse against her children. Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who led the charge among Democrats to push for Abrego Garcia’s return, released a statement after news of the return broke, saying, “For months the Trump Administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution. Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States.”
EXCLUSIVE: White House marks ‘blockbuster’ week for Trump’s immigration agenda
EXCLUSIVE: Despite stunning news about the return of illegal alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia Friday afternoon, the White House is celebrating a “blockbuster” week for President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. “It’s a bad day to be an illegal alien and a great day to be an American,” a spokesperson said. On the heels of “Operation Patriot,” the largest ICE operation ever, which saw the arrest of nearly 1,500 illegal aliens in the deep blue state of Massachusetts, ICE arrests surged this week, with agents making over 2,000 arrests Tuesday and nearly 2,500 Wednesday. TRUMP’S BORDER WALL EXPANSION MOVES FORWARD IN SEVERAL CRITICAL AREAS: ‘CRISIS IS NOT YET OVER’ Overall, ICE has arrested over 100,000 illegal immigrants since Trump took office. Over the weekend, ICE officials and local authorities in South Carolina raided a “cartel after-party” where 80 illegal aliens were arrested, including two alleged “high-level cartel members” of the Mexican cartel Los Zetas and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, according to The Post and Courier. According to the outlet, one of the individuals arrested, a Honduran national, has been named in an international murder case. The New York Times also reported that deportation flights rose to the highest level yet under the Trump administration. This comes as ICE announced this week that it had deported 142 criminal aliens to Mexico from the Houston area, including child predators, gang members, human traffickers and one individual convicted of making terroristic threats. On Monday, ICE announced that, working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, it had made a “game-changing” seizure of 50,000 kilograms of meth ingredients destined for the Sinaloa Cartel. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DROPS HAMMER ON ‘NARCO SUB’ COCAINE RING AS CARTELS THREATEN US BORDERS Chad Plantz, special agent in charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations Houston, said the collaboration provides authorities “with a game-changing method to stay one step ahead of the cartels by disrupting the flow of chemicals that they depend on to produce illicit narcotics.” A source familiar with the operations shared with Fox News Digital a listing of some of the arrests made by ICE this week. KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA INDICTED ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING CHARGES, ORDERED TO APPEAR BEFORE JUDGE IN NASHVILLE These arrests included a Salvadoran national arrested in Los Angeles for sodomy of a child, a Mexican national arrested in Chicago for criminal sexual assault of a child, a Mexican national arrested in Houston for indecent sexual contact with a child, a Honduran national arrested in El Paso for possession of child pornography and a Laotian national arrested for murder and attempted murder. SAN DIEGO AUTHORITIES ARREST 3 NONCITIZENS ALLEGEDLY INVOLVED IN TRANSPORTING MORE THAN $5M WORTH OF METH White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called this week “a blockbuster week for President Trump’s immigration agenda.” “President Trump is doing exactly what he promised the American people — securing the Southern border and deporting illegal aliens,” said Jackson. “The President is cracking down on cartels, cutting the flow of fentanyl coming across our border by over half in the last year,” she added. “Under President Trump’s America First leadership, it’s a bad day to be an illegal alien and a great day to be an American.”
FLASHBACK: Trump ran on being ‘King of Debt’ in 2016, bragged he could eliminate national debt in 8 years
When Donald Trump ran for president for the first time, he campaigned on reducing the national debt, referring to himself at the time as “the king of debt” and telling voters he would pay off the nation’s multi-trillion-dollar debt in 8 years. “I’m the king of debt. I’m great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me,” Trump said during an interview with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell in the lead up to the 2016 election. “I’ve made a fortune by using debt, and if things don’t work out I renegotiate the debt. I mean, that’s a smart thing, not a stupid thing.” “We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt,” Trump said a few months prior on the campaign trail during an interview with The Washington Post. When asked how long it would take, Trump responded: “I would say over a period of eight years … The power is trade. Our deals are so bad.” SENATE WEIGHS TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ AS POLICY GROUP BACKS CBO, PROJECTS $3 TRILLION DEBT INCREASE The nation’s ever-rising debt is once again a focus for Trump, as GOP defectors over his “big, beautiful bill,” have largely staked their concerns around arguments that the Republican Party’s new spending package will increase the national debt and deficit too much, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating it will add roughly $3 trillion over the next decade. The debt currently stands at more than $36.2 trillion according to Fox Business’ U.S. National Debt Tracker. Elon Musk, who has cemented his stance in recent days against the Trump-endorsed spending package – leading to a highly-publicized feud between the two leaders – has argued that bill “undermines” the work he did while leading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) because it does not cut spending enough. “This immense level of overspending will drive America into debt slavery!” Musk declared early on Wednesday in a post on X, shortly after he called the bill a “disgusting abomination.” TRUMP’S ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’ NEEDS A ‘FAT SHOT’ TO END OUR DANGEROUS DEBT ADDICTION Shortly thereafter, Musk referenced an X post from GOP Utah Sen. Mike Lee, which argued that “the accrued interest on the national debt now exceeds $1 trillion a year.” This is more than the country spends on defense annually, Lee’s post added. “And yet Congress continues to add to the debt at an astounding rate of $2 trillion per year—with our national debt growing faster than our economy.” In another X post from Musk, in the lead up to his feud with Trump this week, he succinctly described the U.S.’s $36.2 trillion debt as “scary.” Even before the highly publicized feud between Musk and Trump over the contentious GOP spending package, Musk called the rising national debt “terrifying” and lamented “America is headed for de facto bankruptcy very fast.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “President Trump is the first president in modern history to seriously tackle the waste, fraud, and abuse in our bloated government. He has already trimmed billions in astonishingly mindless government spending across the administration, and now he is spearheading The One, Big, Beautiful Bill – which will be the largest deficit reduction in decades,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said to Fox News Digital in a statement Friday afternoon.
Proud Boys members file federal lawsuit over ‘illegal’ tactics in Jan. 6 prosecutions
Five members of the Proud Boys are suing the U.S. government and certain employees in the FBI and Department of Justice for $100 million over their Jan. 6 prosecutions. Enrique Tarrio, Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Dominic Pezzola allege in the lawsuit the FBI and DOJ violated their constitutional rights with their prosecution over what prosecutors said was their planning of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. In a document filed in a Florida federal court and obtained by Fox News Digital, the men claim “egregious and systemic abuse of the legal system and the United States Constitution to punish and oppress political allies of President Trump, by any and all means necessary, legal, or illegal. “Through the use of evidence tampering, witness intimidation, violations of attorney-client privilege, and placing spies to report on trial strategy, the government got its fondest wish of imprisoning the J6 Defendants, the modern equivalent of placing one’s enemies’ heads on a spike outside the town wall as a warning to any who would think to challenge the status quo.” OUTGOING US CAPITOL POLICE CHIEF CRITICIZES TRUMP PARDONS FOR JAN. 6 DEFENDANTS Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice for comment. Four of the five men were convicted of seditious conspiracy after the attack, and Tarrio faced the harshest punishment — 22 years for planning the attack — of any of the Jan. 6 defendants, according to The Wall Street Journal. Nordean was sentenced to 18 years, Biggs was sentenced to 17 years and Rehl was sentenced to 15 years. Pezzola was found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct Congress and sentenced to 10 years in prison. However, President Donald Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly all the defendants after he took office this year, including Tarrio, Rehl, Nordean, Biggs and Pezzola. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AGREES TO PAY ASHLI BABBITT’S FAMILY $5 MILLION All the men except Tarrio were at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, according to the Journal. Tarrio had been barred from entering Washington, D.C., because of a previous arrest, The Washington Post reported. “Now that the Plaintiffs are vindicated, free, and able to once again exercise their rights as American citizens, they bring this action against their tormentors for violations of their Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment Rights … as well as the common law tort of malicious prosecution and false imprisonment,” the suit adds. Prosecutors said Pezzola was seen on video using a police riot shield to commit the first breach of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6. Prosecutors alleged the men were charged under a “novel theory of criminal conspiracy called the ‘tool theory,’” according to the suit. “Despite the legal jiggery-pokery employed by the government to obscure the fact, the Plaintiffs were essentially convicted of ‘stochastic terrorism,’ a leftist bugbear used to describe rhetoric offensive to them that they claim provokes violent acts.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The men also claimed in the lawsuit that the government didn’t have probable cause to raid their homes.
Democrats celebrate return of suspected human trafficker Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who has led the party’s advocacy for suspected gang member Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, is celebrating his return to the U.S., saying, “This is not about the man, it’s about his constitutional rights.” “For months, the Trump administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution,” Van Hollen asserted in a statement sent to Fox News Digital via email. “Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States.” Van Hollen was the first of several Democratic lawmakers to fly to visit Abrego Garcia after he was deported to a high-security prison in his home country, El Salvador, in March. FEDERAL JUDGE DELIVERS ONE-TWO PUNCH TO TRUMP IN ABREGO GARCIA CASE Abrego Garcia, 29, has been returned to the U.S. and is facing charges in a sealed federal indictment in Tennessee for alleged conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain and unlawful transportation of illegal aliens. Though many Democrats claim Abrego Garcia is an innocent man who was wrongly deported, the administration has pointed to considerable evidence he is a member of the MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia allegedly moved illegal immigrants from Texas to interior states in what prosecutors say was an organized operation stretching back years. He has also been accused of being a member of the violent Salvadoran gang MS-13. According to court records filed by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, he also allegedly physically abused her on multiple occasions. AG BONDI DETAILS ‘VERY SERIOUS CHARGES’ FACING KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA Since Abrego Garcia’s deportation to his home country, Van Hollen has advocated for his return. After Fox News Digital asked Van Hollen in May whether he was aware of the domestic violence allegations against Abrego Garcia before he went to visit him in El Salvador, the senator became defensive, saying, “What I said here was these issues need to be litigated in the courts.” In a statement Friday, Van Hollen doubled down on that sentiment, saying, “As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man. It’s about his constitutional rights, and the rights of all. “The administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.” TENNESSEE BODYCAM OF ‘MARYLAND MAN’ TRAFFIC STOP SHOWS TROOPERS’ HANDS TIED DESPITE SMUGGLING CLUES Despite the gravity of his alleged crimes, returning Abrego Garcia to the U.S. has become a major cause for the Democratic Party. Earlier Friday, another Maryland Democrat, Rep. Glenn Ivey, who also made a trip to El Salvador to advocate for Abrego Garcia, used his X account to promote an event to continue the “critical conversation on the fight to return those who are wrongfully imprisoned in El Salvador.” Ivey claimed Abrego Garcia’s case is “part of a much larger crisis — and we must not look away.” ABREGO GARCIA’S WIFE BEGGED JUDGE FOR PROTECTION ORDER, SAYING ‘HE SLAPPED ME’: AUDIO In a statement to Fox News Digital, Ivey also asserted that the Trump administration “defied the Supreme Court and misled the American people for months, saying they could not bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States under any circumstances, knowing that they had the power to do so all along. “I went to El Salvador and advocated for Kilmar’s return because he was entitled to due process under our Constitution. Kilmar will now get his day in court. I hope he receives the fair trial that he is guaranteed.” Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland’s lone Republican congressman, responded to the news of Abrego Garcia’s return with disgust, posting on X, “What a waste of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Bringing an already deported illegal alien criminal back to the US to be housed in a US jail at taxpayer expense so he can stand trial and then be deported back to his homeland.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital also reached out to representatives Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., Maxwell Frost, D-Fla. and Robert Garcia, D-Calif., all of whom have made trips to visit Abrego Garcia in prison.
Snub of Musk’s NASA nominee ally preceded sudden ‘big, beautiful bill’ criticism, Trump feud
A day after the White House held a farewell press conference for SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to highlight his efforts as outgoing leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), President Donald Trump suddenly pulled Musk ally Jared Isaacman as his pick for NASA administrator. While the White House released a May 30 video chronicling Musk’s contributions to DOGE and several X posts thanking him and listing various “DOGE wins,” the gestures were some of the last, final public actions of goodwill between Trump and Musk. On Saturday, Trump announced in a social media post he was pulling the nomination for Isaacman, a commercial astronaut and founder and CEO of payment processing company Shift4 Payments after “a thorough review of prior associations.” Trump also said he would unveil a “new Nominee who will be Mission aligned, and put America First in Space.” MUSK CONFIDENT DOGE WILL SAVE $1 TRILLION AS GOVERNMENT COST CUTTING CONTINUES Isaacman’s affiliations with Musk include being an investor in SpaceX, in addition to leading two private spaceflight missions with SpaceX, including Inspiration4. The 2021 Inspiration4 mission was the first time an all-civilian crew orbited Earth. Isaacman addressed his pulled nomination in an episode of the “All-In Podcast,” which is hosted by four venture capitalists and covers business, technology and society, that dropped Wednesday. Specifically, Isaacman said he received a call from the White House May 30 notifying him his nomination wouldn’t advance because the White House had “decided to go in a different direction.” DOGE STAFFING SHAKEUP AS ELON MUSK HANGS UP HIS HAT, WHITE HOUSE CONFIRMS Isaacman said he suspected his ties to Musk were part of the decision, noting the call came the same day Musk’s tenure with DOGE concluded. “I don’t need to play dumb on this,” Isaacman said in the podcast. “I don’t think that the timing was much of a coincidence, that there were other changes going on the same day. “There were some people that had some axes to grind, I guess, and I was a good, visible target.” Tensions between Musk and Trump continued to escalate after Musk’s departure as a special government employee May 30 and Isaacman’s withdrawn nomination the following day. Although Musk previously told CBS News in an interview clip released May 27 that he was disappointed by the House’s passage of Trump’s massive tax and spending package, the “big, beautiful bill,” because it would increase the federal deficit, Musk’s attacks on the measure ramped up exponentially after Trump rescinded Isaacman’s nomination. Specifically, on Tuesday, Musk labeled the measure a “disgusting abomination” and followed up by urging the American public to contact lawmakers to “KILL the BILL” in an X post Wednesday. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday that Trump was aware of Musk’s position on the bill and that it didn’t change the president’s stance on the measure. And Trump did not mince words Thursday as tensions between the two men reached a boiling point. Trump said Musk was irritated with provisions in the bill that would cut an electric vehicle tax credit that benefits companies like Tesla. He also suggested Musk may suffer from “Trump derangement syndrome,” a term used to describe deeply negative reactions to the president. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: THE BUDGET CUTS MUSK COULDN’T COMPLETE AND WHAT’S NEXT FOR DOGE “I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people,” Trump said in the Oval Office during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden, he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate because that’s billions and billions of dollars, and it really is unfair.” Trump also specifically mentioned Isaacman’s nomination, claiming Musk recommended Isaacman for the role. But Trump voiced concern about Isaacman’s ties to the Democratic Party. “He wanted and rightfully, you know, he recommended somebody that he, I guess, knew very well. I’m sure he respected him, but to run NASA,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “And I didn’t think it was appropriate. And he happened to be a Democrat, like, totally Democrat. And I say, you know, look, we won. We get certain privileges. And one of the privileges is we don’t have to appoint a Democrat. NASA is very important.” Trump then said he “understood” why Musk was upset over the pulled nomination. The White House directed Fox News Digital to Trump’s comments Thursday and Isaacman’s previous donations to Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. Isaacman told the “All-In Podcast” he doesn’t think his past political donations to Democrats were a factor in his pulled nomination, and that he identifies as “right-leaning.” Isaacman and Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. Trump and Musk continued to trade barbs Thursday. At one point, Musk urged the removal of the “disgusting pork” included in Trump’s tax and spending bill. He also said it was “false” that he was shown the measure “even once.” Musk even went so far as to say Trump wouldn’t have won the 2024 election if it weren’t for Musk’s backing. Meanwhile, Trump accused Musk of going “CRAZY” over cuts to the EV credits and said Musk was “wearing thin.” Although Politico reported that Trump and Musk were slated to speak Friday over the phone, Trump shut down speculation of a call between the two. “No. I won’t be speaking to him for a while I guess, but I wish him well,” Trump said, according to CNN. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem,” Trump said. Despite Musk’s departure, White House officials have said DOGE’s efforts to address waste, fraud and abuse will continue, and Trump and cabinet members will oversee DOGE.
DOGE will go on: Hill pork hawk says rooting out government waste will continue after Elon
FIRST ON FOX: While Tesla CEO Elon Musk has departed the Department of Government Efficiency amid a blazing public tiff with the president, congressional DOGE leaders are primed to carry on the legacy well beyond his tenure. “It’s never easy to see two friends at odds, but DOGE is bigger than any one person,” House DOGE Caucus chairman Aaron Bean, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital on Friday – expressing endearment towards both Musk and President Donald Trump. “Our caucus, with 110 members, is laser-focused on delivering real solutions for the American people, reining in wasteful spending, demanding oversight, and ensuring every taxpayer dollar is spent wisely.” Bean said his panel’s work rooting out government waste and streamlining the bureaucracy will continue on-track, with a major effort planned next week to change the Treasury’s payment system to curb improper disbursements. DRAIN THE SWAMP ACT SEEKS TO MOVE DC BUREAUCRACY ‘OUT OF CRAZYTOWN’: HOUSE DOGE LEADER The Jacksonville lawmaker said that longstanding issue has led to about $162 billion in wrongful payments every year. During his tenure, Musk also worked with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to fix systemic problems there. The House DOGE Caucus will continue to advocate to “enact the cuts found by DOGE,” Bean went on. The panel looks forward to working with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to pass $9.4 billion in rescissions identified by DOGE and presented to Congress for action by OMB Director Russ Vought. Republicans faced criticism for moving too slowly on DOGE’s proposed cuts, but GOP leadership sources said they needed either a formal request from Vought or separate bills outside the Big Beautiful Bill Act to avoid jeopardizing its eligibility for Senate reconciliation. DOGE MEETS CONGRESS: FL REP LAUNCHES CAUCUS TO HELP MUSK “Taking on Crazytown is no easy task,” Bean quipped to Fox News Digital last November when he launched the House DOGE Caucus. On the Senate side, DOGE caucus chairwoman Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, scrutinized a recent government report on COVID aid fraud and has already launched an effort to head off what she called easily-determinable signals that an application for government emergency aid is likely falsified or ineligible. Ernst this week flagged an analysis from the Pandemic Resources Accountability Committee – led by federal inspectors general – that randomly sampled nearly 700,000 identity records from 67.5 million applications for PPP, EIDL and other COVID-19 relief programs and found nearly $80 billion in potentially fraudulent payouts. Ernst said much of the likely fraud could have been prevented if officials had simply verified Social Security numbers, matched them with SSA records, and confirmed whether applicants were still alive. In turn, she informed Fox News Digital exclusively that she would be launching a bill Friday to prevent this kind of easily-avoided oversight issues in the future. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The DOGE in Spending Act would prevent “con artists,” she said, who, during COVID-19, “raided America’s piggy bank.” The bill’s name also signaled that the Senate, too, would continue its Musk-inspired work long after the mogul has left. “There is nothing more frustrating than losing billions of dollars to preventable fraud,” Ernst said, calling the illicit payouts during the pandemic “unprecedented.”
Supreme Court rules DOGE can access Social Security information
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled the Department of Government Efficiency could access Social Security information. The ruling blocked a lower court order that kept DOGE from seeking certain sensitive Social Security information. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The information from the U.S. Social Security Administration includes Social Security numbers, medical information, citizenship records and tax returns. Three liberal justices dissented.