Hawley urges Republicans to cut taxes for working-class voters who ‘put Trump in the White House’
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is urging his Republican colleagues to double down on tax cuts for the working-class Americans who make up President Donald Trump’s base. Hawley told Fox News Digital in an interview that tax cuts are “what Republicans are good at,” calling specifically for changes to the payroll tax. He says Americans should be able to apply income tax credits like the child tax credit, the mortgage deduction and charitable deduction, to their payroll taxes. Hawley, who first made the push in a Tuesday op-ed for the Washington Post, says he has spoken with Trump about the potential tax breaks and the president is “very supportive.” “These are the people who put Trump in the White House,” Hawley told Fox, referring to Americans who earn less than $80,000 per year. ELON MUSK DUNKS ON SEN CHUCK SCHUMER, DECLARING ‘HYSTERICAL REACTIONS’ DEMONSTRATE DOGE’S IMPORTANCE Debate over tax policy is raging in Washington as Republicans weigh what to put in Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget bill. Many Republicans support re-upping the 2017 tax cuts, but there are calls for more changes. Some Republicans, including the White House, have even flirted with raising taxes on the uppermost brackets in order to offset costs. “We’ve got this incredible national debt, and so at some point you’ve got to address the elephant in the room,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told the New York Times on Tuesday. “Can’t tell you if it’s going to happen or not.” Hawley has also said he would support raising some taxes to offset cuts in lower tax brackets if the president makes a push for it. TRUMP OPEN TO SENDING VIOLENT AMERICAN CRIMINALS TO EL SALVADOR PRISONS He proposed to Fox that one path toward raising more revenue would be to start taxing the endowments of America’s largest universities. MEET THE TRUMP-PICKED LAWMAKERS GIVING SPEAKER JOHNSON A FULL HOUSE GOP CONFERENCE Trump’s administration is already engaged in a pitched battle to reform America’s top educational institutions, threatening to withhold federal funding if they do not adequately address anti-Semitism and other issues on their campuses. Harvard, the university that has pushed back the hardest on Trump’s administration, has an endowment of roughly $53 billion. The other seven Ivy League schools have endowments totaling over $139 billion. Regardless of offsets, however, Hawley says the top priority should be securing tax breaks for the people who voted Trump into office. Hawley emphasized this focus in his op-ed for the Post, quoting Reagan-era columnist Robert Novak. “God put the Republican Party on Earth to cut taxes.”
Vance sounds off on deportation, ‘ratification of Biden’s illegal migrant invasion’ via ‘fake legal process’
Vice President JD Vance asserted that he and President Donald Trump will not allow the “illegal migrant invasion” that occurred during President Joe Biden’s White House tenure to be ratified via “fake legal process.” He suggested that if the people crying “lack of due process” regarding the deportation of illegal aliens do not have a proposed solution that allows the nation to remove at least several million illegal aliens annually, they do not actually want to achieve border security and expel the illegal immigrants. “When the media and the far left obsess over an MS-13 gang member and demand that he be returned to the United States for a *third* deportation hearing, what they’re really saying is they want the vast majority of illegal aliens to stay here permanently,” Vance wrote in the lengthy Tuesday night post on X. TWO VENEZUELAN ILLEGAL ALIENS CHARGED WITH KIDNAPPING, TORTURING, ATTEMPTING TO KILL WASHINGTON STATE WOMAN “Here’s a useful test: ask the people weeping over the lack of due process what precisely they propose for dealing with Biden’s millions and millions of illegals. And with reasonable resource and administrative judge constraints, does their solution allow us to deport at least a few million people per year?” he noted. “If the answer is no, they’ve given their game away. They don’t want border security. They don’t want us to deport the people who’ve come into our country illegally. They want to accomplish through fake legal process what they failed to accomplish politically: The ratification of Biden’s illegal migrant invasion. President Trump and I will not stand for [it],” Vance declared. PAM BONDI CALLS OUT ‘DETACHED FROM REALITY’ DEMS FOR DEMANDING ALLEGED MS-13 GANG MEMBER BE RETURNED TO US The vice president asserted that American voters elected the Trump administration to fix the illegal immigration issue. “Consider that Joe Biden allowed approximately 20 million illegal aliens into our country. This placed extraordinary burdens on our country–our schools, hospitals, housing, and other essential services were overwhelmed. On top of that, many of these illegal aliens committed violent crimes, or facilitated fentanyl and sex trafficking. That is the situation we inherited,” he wrote. BORDER CROSSINGS HIT RECORD LOW IN MARCH THANKS TO ‘VIGILANT’ WORK OF AGENTS: REPORT CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “The American people elected the Trump administration to solve this problem. The President has successfully stopped the inflow of illegal aliens, and now we must deport the people who came here illegally,” he declared.
WATCH: Two people reportedly tasered by police at Marjorie Taylor Green town hall, 3 arrested
Police forcibly escorted at least six people out of a town hall being held by GOP Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday night and were forced to deploy a taser against two of the individuals. Reporters on the ground at the event in Georgia indicated there were at least six protesters escorted from the town hall within minutes of it starting. Three of the individuals were eventually charged by police for their involvement in the disruption, including one for disorderly conduct, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “Put your hands behind your back!” a police officer can be heard in a video of the incident shared on social media by CBS News reporter Jared Eggleston. “F— off –” the man can be heard yelling as he disappeared off-screen behind a wall, before a loud bang could be heard followed by the sound of a taser. VIOLENT ATTACKS FROM ANTI-MUSK, ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTERS PLAGUE NATION, COMPEL GOP LAWMAKERS TO TAKE PRECAUTIONS A second bang from another taser going off could be heard shortly thereafter. Different videos from the event show a handful of others being escorted out, with some leaving on their own volition and others having to be literally dragged out by police. “Free Garcia,” one protester could be heard saying as they were exiting in a video posted to X, referring to Kilmar Ábrego García, who has been at the center of a deportation controversy after a federal judge said the Trump administration wrongly deported him with a group of Venezuelan gang members. “Free Kilmar!” another could be heard screaming repeatedly on video as they were escorted out. PRO-LIFE JOURNALIST ASSAULTED ON STREET ASSIGNS BLAME TO DEMOCRATIC RHETORIC At moments, as police escorted the protesters out of the town hall, Green engaged with the disruptors. “The protest is outside. Thank you very much,” Greene said. “If you were to sit and listen, you’re welcome to listen. Everyone across the aisle – Democrats, Independents,” she added while someone was being escorted out. “I’m glad they got thrown out,” Greene said following the event. “That’s exactly what I wanted to see happen … This isn’t a political rally or a protest. I held a town hall tonight. You know who was out of line? The protesters.” The disruption at Greene’s rally follows increased volatility at local GOP town halls. Things have gotten tense enough that the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., has told his fellow Republicans to temporarily refrain from holding in-person town hall events. Citing the uptick in “Democrat threats of violence,” GOP Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman followed Hudson’s advice and moved all of her in-person town halls online. The move came after an incident in which an attendee of one of her in-person events followed Hageman as she left and initiated a physical confrontation with her staff, eventually requiring police to intervene. Green was only one of a handful of GOP members that decided to do an in-person event amid the current ongoing legislative recess, according to NBC News.
Mark Zuckerberg on the stand: ‘Crazy,’ ‘scary’ ideas led him to buy Instagram and WhatsApp
It’s too bad there are no cameras allowed in federal courtrooms, because I really would like to see Mark Zuckerberg testify. He was the leadoff witness in the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against Meta, and that in itself was news. The clash is the most sweeping attempt to dismember the world’s biggest social network, and goes to the heart of how competition is defined. HAWLEY DEMANDS ZUCKERBERG TESTIFY ON ALLEGED TIES BETWEEN META, CHINA Not since the government broke up AT&T more than four decades ago has a mega-corporation faced the prospect of being torn apart. The suit was filed in the first Trump term (the president couldn’t stand Facebook at the time), aggressively pursued by Joe Biden, and now has finally come to trial in a Washington courtroom. Trump once told me Facebook was such a threat to society that he used it as justification for flip-flopping on his effort to ban TikTok. But since he won a second term, Zuck, like many tech bros, has been cozying up to the new sheriff in town, including a $1-million donation to the president’s inaugural. There are reports that when the man who runs Facebook recently met with Trump, he asked about the possibility of dropping the lawsuit. Obviously, it didn’t work. The focus of the trial is Zuckerberg’s decision to buy Instagram and WhatsApp when they were small start-ups. FACT-CHECKING DIRECTOR WARNS OF ‘CRISIS’ AS META, TRUMP’S DOGE CUTS THREATEN THEIR ‘HONORABLE, PATRIOTIC’ WORK The FTC’s lead lawyer questioned Zuckerberg about a platform meant to foster ties between family and friends to a concentration on showing users interesting third-party content through its news feed. “It’s the case that over time, the ‘interest’ part of that has gotten built out more than the ‘friend’ part,” Zuckerberg said. He added that “the ‘friend’ part has gone down quite a bit, but it’s still something we care about.” Translation: Screw the friends. Very 2010s. We’ve moved on. Zuckerberg spoke slowly – at least according to reporters who were there – and he was back on the hot seat yesterday. FTC lawyers pressed him on a stack of emails he had sent: “We really need to get our act together quickly on this since Instagram’s growing so fast. “Instagram has become a large and viable competitor to us on mobile photos, which will increasingly be the future of photos.” WHISTLEBLOWER TELLS SENATE COMMITTEE THAT META UNDERMINED US NATIONAL SECURITY TO COZY UP TO CHINA “If Instagram continues to kick ass on photos, or if Google buys them, then over the next few years they could easily add pieces of their service that copy what we’re doing now.” Which was a flop called Facebook Camera. In yet another message, Zuck called Instagram’s growth “really scary,” saying “we might want to consider paying a lot of money for this.” Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, and two years later spent $19 billion on WhatsApp. In an email to Tom Alison, head of Facebook, Z offered alternatives: “Option 1. Double down on Friending. One potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone’s graphs and having them start again.” Alison responded: “I’m not sure Option #1 in your proposal (Double-down on Friending) would be viable given my understanding of how vital the friend use case is to IG.” Now we come to the fascinating part. It’s not breaking news that Mark’s judgment can be flawed. Remember when he insisted that virtual reality would be the next big thing? But he argues that Meta has all kinds of rivals in the “entertainment” area, such as X, TikTok and YouTube – and he easily could have added Snap, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and HBO’s Max. It’s all about the battle for eyeballs now. There are only so many hours in the day. Mindshare is everything. SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES And with group chats all the rage, Meta doesn’t do well on that kind of interaction, with Instagram as a possible exception. Now of course it’s in Zuckerberg’s self-interest to testify that he competes with anything that has a screen. But it’s not that far off the mark. Keep in mind that Meta has 4 billion active monthly users. I sure wish we could see the embattled CEO making the case that he’s awash in a vast sea of rivals.
Texas GOP could stall Trump’s bold AI vision with red tape as China races ahead: ‘Investors are nervous’
President Donald Trump’s high-tech moonshot may hit a Texas-sized speed bump — and it’s coming from his own party. Trump’s AI initiative, dubbed “Stargate,” aims to build 20 ultra-powerful data centers across the country. Backed by heavyweights like OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and the UAE-funded MGX, the project represents a $500 billion bet on the future with Texas chosen as ground zero for the first 10 centers. But a new Texas bill, Senate Bill 6, could delay or derail that momentum. The legislation adds a six-month regulatory review on top of an existing 6–18-month timeline, while also requiring new fees and mandatory backup generators, doubling approval time and inflating costs. EXCLUSIVE: WHITE HOUSE ROLLS OUT IMPLEMENTATION OF AI FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEE RECORDS And while the legislation is pitched as a safeguard against another Winter Storm Uri-style blackout, Trump allies warn it could torpedo a generational opportunity. “This bill would be a serious roadblock to the president’s vision,” said Vance Ginn, president of Ginn Economic Consulting and former chief economist at the White House Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital. “It’s a misguided effort that’s rooted in fear: fear of energy scarcity, fear of AI, fear of the future.” According to Ginn, the bill’s hefty requirements, including a $100,000 grid connection fee and a so-called “kill switch” that would let the Electric Reliability Council of Texas cut power to data centers, could end up pushing these billion-dollar projects out of Texas entirely. “These companies aren’t just using energy,” Ginn said. “Many of them actually put excess electricity back onto the grid. So instead of hurting Texas, they help stabilize it.” Stargate has already broken ground in Abilene, but the next 10 data centers are still up in the air. If Texas becomes too costly or complicated, experts warn the back half of the project might never happen — even as rival states like Wyoming and Tennessee court businesses without Texas’s infrastructure. WHITE HOUSE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CHIEF WARNS CHINA IS ‘CATCHING UP’ IN AI RACE “The Texas legislature should be working in lockstep with President Trump to build out AI infrastructure, not throwing up barriers,” Ginn added. “The AI revolution is here. If Texas fumbles this, it will fall behind.” The bill’s sponsor, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, insists the legislation won’t hurt Trump’s agenda. “Senate Bill 6 actually ensures President Trump’s Stargate Plan is a success,” Patrick said in a statement. “We are in lockstep with the president on his goal to make America number one, and dominate China on AI, data centers, and cryptocurrency.” Even with a Trump endorsement for Patrick’s re-election, Trump-aligned economists say the state is playing a dangerous game. “We’re already seeing signs of this,” Ginn warned. “Microsoft has pulled back on projects. Investors are nervous. And meanwhile, China’s forging ahead.” A Chinese startup called DeepSeek has made headlines for rolling out cutting-edge AI models in record time, triggering fresh anxiety about America’s standing in the global AI arms race. “This isn’t just about innovation,” Ginn said. “This is national security. If we’re six months behind China, we may never catch up.” Trump has backed up his AI push with hard policy, including a 10% blanket tariff on all imports and a steep 125% tariff on Chinese goods, announced just last week. But those tariffs could also raise the price of key data center components, from steel to electrical transformers. Despite the tradeoffs, the Trump administration sees Stargate as a cornerstone of 21st-century American leadership in everything from education to healthcare. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Texas should be leading,” Ginn said. “We can’t let fear of the unknown hold us back.”
DOT Sec Sean Duffy finalizes $150M grant to build new port of entry on southern border
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy announced Tuesday that a $150 million federal grant had been finalized to construct a new port of entry facility and road for the San Diego-Baja California border. As part of the agreement for the grant, Green New Deal requirements from the Biden administration, including a zero-emission vehicle charging provision, will be removed. The DOT called the requirements a waste of taxpayer funds, taking away from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) mission toward national security. DOT SAVES TAXPAYERS OVER $60M BY TERMINATING TEXAS HIGH-SPEED RAIL CONTRACT The Otay Mesa East Port of Entry project was awarded a grant from the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight and Highway Projects program in September 2022, though the project never moved forward. “Thanks to the prior administration’s lack of focus, this critical project sat in limbo for two years. No more. We moved to finalize this deal so we can help protect our Southern border and crack down on drug trafficking while preventing tax dollars subsidizing pointless Green New Deal priorities,” Duffy said. “This department will continue to clear the previous administration’s unprecedented grants backlog and deliver results.” The $150 million investment will give the CBP new state-of-the-art inspection facilities, as well as a commercial vehicle enforcement facility. DC TRANSIT POLICE OFFICER STABBED AT TRAIN STATION AS SEC SEAN DUFFY ARRIVES TO TALK SAFETY: ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ The deployment of intelligent transportation technologies to help manage traffic demand through dynamic tolling will also be included, which the DOT said will increase inspection efficiency and bolster cross-border trade. TRANSPORTATION SEC SEAN DUFFY SLAMS BLUE-STATE GOVERNOR, SAYS CRIMINALS ‘CONTINUE TO TERRORIZE’ CITY RESIDENTS DOT added that the project will reduce congestion, bring economic benefits and spur job creation across Southern California. The nearly 3,600 trucks that cross the border at Otay Mesa and Tecate Ports of Entry, which are currently operating at full capacity, will have an alternative crossing once the project is complete. The project comes after the Trump administration inherited over 3,200 grants which were promoted by the Biden administration but never followed through on, according to the DOT. “This unprecedented backlog of unobligated grants delayed critical investments in communities across the country,” the DOT said in a news release. “Under Secretary Duffy’s leadership, the Department is working diligently to accelerate the distribution of these long-overdue funds and address core infrastructure projects.”
Biden recalls seeing ‘colored kids’ on segregated bus during his youth in post-presidency speech
Former President Joe Biden, while reflecting on his youth and witnessing segregation firsthand, referred to Black students as “colored kids” in his first major address since exiting the Oval Office. “We lived in an apartment complex, and she’d [Biden’s mom] drive us only about half a mile to Holy Rosary School in Claymont. But it was so dangerous, she wouldn’t let us walk up,” Biden said Tuesday evening while delivering a speech on the Social Security Administration before a disability advocacy conference in Chicago. “There were hardly any Black people in Scranton at the time … and I was only going into fourth grade. And I remember seeing kids going by, at the time called colored kids, on a bus going by,” Biden added in his anecdote to explain the importance of civil rights laws to him and why he got involved in politics. The 46th president was reflecting on how his family moved from Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Wilmington, Delaware, when he was in fourth grade and how he witnessed segregated schools in the nation’s second-smallest state. BIDEN RETURNS TO PODIUM FOR FIRST TIME TO SLAM TRUMP’S SOCIAL SECURITY PLANS: ‘WRECK IT SO THEY COULD ROB IT’ “They never turned right to go to Claymont High School,” Biden said of Black students not attending a White school. “I asked my mom why? Why? In Delaware, they’re not allowed to go to school in public school with White kids. “And it sparked my sense of outrage as a kid, just like it does [now].” The Supreme Court effectively ended segregation in public schools across the country in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. BIDEN AIDES ‘SCRIPTED’ EVERYTHING, ALLOWED HIS FACULTIES TO ‘ATROPHY,’ NEW BOOK CLAIMS The former president joined the Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) conference in Chicago Tuesday evening, where he received the “beacon of hope award” for his accomplishments as president and addressed the gathering about the Social Security Administration, including attacking the Trump administration for its policies. “Why are these guys taking aim at Social Security now?” Biden asked, referring to the Trump administration. “Well, they’re following that old line from tech startups. The quote is ‘move fast, break things.’ They’re certainly breaking things. They’re shooting first and aiming later. “The result is a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights.” Biden added that the Trump administration is looking to “wreck” Social Security to “rob it.” “My friend, Gov. O’Malley, knows what they’re really up to. He says, and I love his quote, ‘They want to wreck it so they could rob it.’ They want to wreck it so they could rob it. Why do they want to rob it? In order to deliver huge tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations and keep it going. They want to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefits the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations. That’s going to cost $5 trillion. Where are they going to get $5 trillion to pay for (it) when they continue to run the deficit up? BIDEN’S TEAM HID THE TRUTH ABOUT HIS HEALTH ALL ALONG: WH PRESS SEC “What they always do … by running up the national debt, No. 1. Then by taking the money from someplace else. What are the two big pots of money out there in raw numbers? Social Security and Medicaid. …. Republicans, these guys are willing to hurt the middle class and the working class in order to deliver significant, greater wealth to their already very wealthy. Who in the hell do they think they are?” The Trump administration has cut about 7,000 Social Security Administration staffers since taking office as part of its mission to cut government fat and bureaucracy and realign agencies with “America First” policies. Democrats have slammed President Donald Trump over the cuts, claiming he will cut Social Security benefits to seniors. The White House has repeatedly rejected claims that the Trump administration will cut such benefits, vowing to “always protect” Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. The Trump administration’s official Social Security X account responded after the speech that “Biden is lying to Americans,” before providing a detailed list of “facts,” including that Trump has repeatedly pledged to protect benefits and that no field office has been closed since Jan. 20. The ACRD conference was billed as the 46th president’s first public speech since leaving the White House. Biden however, has delivered other public remarks since Jan. 20, Fox Digital found, such as speaking at the National High School Model United Nations in March, but those events received little media coverage.
Pentagon deputy chief of staff is second Hegseth advisor removed amid DOD leak probe
The Defense Department’s (DOD) deputy chief of staff was placed on administrative leave on Tuesday, following the steps of another Pentagon official earlier in the day. Darin Selnick, the deputy chief of staff for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has been removed, a senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News. Selnick is under investigation for the same leak probe that saw Hegseth aide Dan Caldwell escorted out of the Pentagon by security. Both Selnick and Caldwell are on administrative leave. According to the Pentagon’s website, Selnick is a retired Air Force officer who has worked extensively in veterans’ affairs organizations. “Mr. Selnick leverages his extensive government and non-government experience advocating for veterans to position Service members for productive post-separation lives from the first day they put on a uniform,” the biography states. GENERAL WHO HELPED TRUMP DECIMATE ISIS TERRORISTS IN FIRST TERM CONFIRMED AS JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN Both Selnick and Caldwell worked for Concerned Veterans for America in the past, a group formerly led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Reuters reported that Caldwell was placed on leave for an “unauthorized disclosure,” as part of an investigation into leaked Pentagon documents. The probe was announced last month, and concerned itself over “recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information.” HEGSETH QUIPS ‘99.9%’ OF DEI INITIATIVES ARE GONE FROM THE MILITARY UNDER TRUMP’S WATCH “The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy,” DOD Chief of Staff Joe Kasper wrote in a memo at the time. “This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense.” An official told Politico that the leak concerned Panama Canal plans and Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon, among other matters. More information about the leak is unknown, and there is currently no evidence to connect Caldwell or Selnick to that leak. Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
Trump administration refers NY AG Letitia James for possible prosecution over allegations of mortgage fraud
New York Attorney General Letitia James has been hit with shocking allegations by the Trump administration, accusing her of mortgage fraud. In documents obtained by Fox News Channel’s The Ingraham Angle, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice, accusing James of mortgage fraud. FHFA Director William Pulte said in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi that James appears to have falsified records in order to meet certain lending requirements and receive favorable loan terms. Pulte cited a property in Virginia that James allegedly claimed as her principal residence, and a property in New York that she claimed as a four-unit structure instead of five, which he said could mean she was able to get a different and more favorable loan. COURT NAMES NEW JUDGE IN TRUMP CIVIL FRAUD CASE BEFORE REASSIGNING PREVIOUS JUDGE HOURS LATER Fox News contributor and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Ingraham the irony of James getting accused of falsifying records is “perfectly crushing.” “This is a person who prosecuted Trump for everything short of ripping a label off a mattress, and among the charges that were brought in New York, in just the civil but the criminal case, was making false or misleading statements to financial institutions,” Turley said. “As for James, if we apply the Letitia James standard that she created, there’d be little question here. This seems pretty straightforward.” He explained that the Trump administration is saying this was not her principal residence because, as a New York elected official, she has to say her principal residence is in New York. ‘PLAYING WITH THE COURTS’: TRUMP ADMIN HIT WITH DOZENS OF SUITS AFTER YEARS OF PRESIDENT CONDEMNING ‘LAWFARE’ James is also accused of stating that her father is her husband in order to file as a married couple, Turley added. “The Supreme Court just stated earlier in March, in a case called Thompson, that they want to see knowing false statements under sections like 10-14, not just misleading statements,” Turley said. “These are misleading statements: either it’s your principal residence or it’s not. Either you’re married to your father or he’s your father.” The DOJ and James did not respond to Fox News on the matter. The issue has been prosecuted in the past, but as Turley said on the Ingraham Angle, the “documents themselves are quite damning.” ‘ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY’: LEGAL EXPERTS SHRED NY V. TRUMP AS ‘ONE OF THE WORST’ CASES IN HISTORY The New York Post reported that the documents show that the property James purchased with her father had both parties listed as “husband and wife” in 1983 and 2000. “While this was a long time ago, it raises serious concerns about the validity of Ms. James representations on mortgage applications,” Pulte reportedly wrote. James brought forth a civil fraud suit against President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization and its senior leadership in 2022, frequently sitting in the courtroom throughout the proceedings, and celebrated the prosecution of Trump in the Manhattan criminal trial over the 34 counts of falsifying business records. Trump was ordered to pay a $454 million civil fraud judgment in James’ lawsuit against him, which is currently on appeal. So far in 2025, James has spearheaded at least five legal actions against the Trump administration, including leading a coalition of state attorneys general to sue the federal government to halt DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department’s internal systems, as well as another lawsuit related to the Trump admin slashing grant funding to research institutions and universities. Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.
White House quietly floats millionaire tax hike proposal in Congress as GOP leaders signal opposition
White House aides are quietly floating a proposal within the House GOP that would raise the tax rate for people making more than $1 million to 40%, two sources familiar with discussions told Fox News Digital, to offset the cost of eliminating tips on overtime pay, tipped wages, and retirees’ Social Security. The sources stressed the discussions were only preliminary, and the plan is one of many being talked about as congressional Republicans work on advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda via the budget reconciliation process. Trump and his White House have not yet taken a position on the matter, but the idea is being looked at by his aides and staff on Capitol Hill. Meanwhile House GOP leaders including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have publicly opposed the idea of any tax hikes. TRUMP OPEN TO SENDING VIOLENT AMERICAN CRIMINALS TO EL SALVADOR PRISONS “I’m not a big fan of doing that. I mean, we’re the Republican Party and we’re for tax reduction for everyone,” Johnson said on “Sunday Morning Futures.” One GOP lawmaker asked about the proposal and granted anonymity to speak candidly said they would be open to supporting it but preferred a higher starting point than $1 million. They said the reaction was “mixed” among other House Republicans. But not all House GOP lawmakers are privy to the discussions, and it’s not immediately clear how wide the proposal has been circulated. Nevertheless, it signals that Republicans are deeply divided on how to go about enacting Trump’s tax agenda. MEET THE TRUMP-PICKED LAWMAKERS GIVING SPEAKER JOHNSON A FULL HOUSE GOP CONFERENCE Extending Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and enacting his newer tax proposals is a cornerstone of Republicans’ plans for the budget reconciliation process. By lowering the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, it allows the party in power to skirt opposition to pass a sweeping piece of legislation advancing its own priorities – provided the measures deal with tax, spending, or the national debt. Extending Trump’s tax cuts is expected to cost trillions of dollars alone. But even if Republicans use a budgetary calculation to hide its cost, known as current policy baseline, they will still have to find a path forward for new policies eliminating taxes on tips, overtime pay, and retirees’ Social Security checks. Hiking taxes on the ultra-wealthy could also serve to put Democrats in a tricky political situation in forcing them to choose between supporting Trump’s policies and opposing an idea they’ve pushed for years. The top income tax rate is currently about 37% on $609,351 in earnings for a single person or $731,201 for married couples. But raising the rate for millionaires could be one way to pay for Trump’s new tax policies. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., one of the deficit hawks leading the charge to ensure new spending is paired with deep cuts elsewhere, said “That’s one possibility.” “What I’d like to do is I’d actually like to find spending reductions elsewhere in the budget, but if we can’t get enough spending reductions, we’re going to have to pay for our tax cuts,” Harris told “Mornings with Maria” last week. “Before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the highest tax bracket was 39.6%, it was less than $1 million. Ideally, what we could do, again, if we can’t find spending reductions, we say ‘Okay, let’s restore that higher bracket, let’s set it at maybe $2 million income and above,’ to help pay for the rest of the president’s agenda.” But Johnson’s No. 2, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., again poured cold water on the idea Tuesday. “I don’t support that initiative,” Scalise told “Mornings with Maria,” though he added, “everything’s on the table.” “That’s why you hear all kind of ideas being bounced around. And if we take no action, then you’d have over 90% of Americans see a tax increase,” Scalise warned. Bloomberg News was first to report House Republicans’ 40% tax hike proposal. When reached for comment, the White House pointed Fox News Digital to comments by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier on Tuesday when she said Trump had not made up his mind on another proposal to raise the corporate tax rate. “I’ve seen this idea proposed. I’ve heard this idea discussed. But I don’t believe the president has made a determination on whether he supports it or not,” Leavitt said. Fox News Digital also reached out to Johnson’s office for comment.