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Less than a week after leaving his position as head of the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk is calling on Americans to urge their senators and representatives to ‘kill’ the ‘big, beautiful’ budget bill backed by President Donald Trump.

Musk has grown increasingly critical of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,, claiming that if passed, it would increase the U.S. budget deficit by $5 billion.

On Wednesday afternoon, Musk posted an image of the 2003 Uma Thurman movie ‘Kill Bill,’ appearing to reference his call to nix the Trump-backed bill.

‘We need a new bill that doesn’t grow the deficit,’ Musk said on X. 

In another post, Musk urged: ‘Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.’ 

Musk said Tuesday afternoon that he ‘just can’t stand it anymore.’

‘This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,’ Musk said. ‘Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.’

Musk previously criticized the bill during an interview with CBS, noting he was ‘disappointed’ in the spending bill because ‘it undermines’ all the work his DOGE team was doing.

The bill passed the House in late May, ahead of Memorial Day, largely along party lines. However, two Republicans did vote against the measure, citing insufficient spending cuts and a rising national debt. GOP Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has also signaled he likely will not vote in favor of the bill in its current form, citing a debt ceiling increase that is a red line for him. 

Trump has lashed out at Paul and others for opposing the bill, but so far he has taken a more measured approach to Musk’s criticism.

‘Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Tuesday afternoon briefing when asked about Musk’s most recent criticism.

‘It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill and he’s sticking to it,’ she said. 

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

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Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is rebuffing Elon Musk’s call for a brand-new budget reconciliation bill, deepening the tech billionaire’s rift with Republicans in Washington.

‘A new spending bill should be drafted that doesn’t massively grow the deficit and increase the debt ceiling by 5 TRILLION DOLLARS,’ Musk wrote on X Wednesday.

He ratcheted up his rhetoric shortly after, posting, ‘KILL the BILL.’

But Johnson said the timeline was working against Congress and that an overhaul of President Donald Trump’s massive agenda bill was unfeasible. 

Johnson said when asked for a response by Fox News, ‘We don’t have time for a brand new bill.’

‘I want Elon and all my friends to recognize the complexity of what we’ve accomplished here. This extraordinary piece of legislation – record number of savings, record tax cuts for the American people and all the other benefits in it,’ the speaker told reporters.

‘We worked on the bill for almost 14 months. You can’t go back to the drawing board, and we shouldn’t. We have a great product to deliver here.’

Johnson cautioned critics of the bill not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

‘We’re proud of this product. The House Republicans are proud of it, and we’re happy to go out and explain that to everybody,’ Johnson said.

The Louisiana Republican said during a press conference earlier that he was ‘surprised’ by Musk’s criticism.

The speaker previously also pointed out that Republicans are planning to codify spending cuts identified by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in a different vehicle than the reconciliation process.

Musk has been bearing down hard on the legislation, putting Republican lawmakers in a difficult spot after months of lauding his work with DOGE.

The massive bill passed by the House and currently being considered by the Senate advances Trump’s priorities on taxes, immigration, energy, defense, and the debt limit.

It passed the House 215 – 214 with all but three House Republicans not voting ‘yes.’

House GOP leaders, noting their slim margins, have urged the Senate to change as little as possible in the bill. But the Senate GOP has its own razor-thin majority, and lawmakers there have already signaled they want to see at least some changes.

The White House, meanwhile, has stood by the bill.

‘The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it,’ Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

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Elon Musk’s tirade against President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ has forced House Republicans to scramble to respond on Wednesday.

GOP lawmakers who had spent months praising Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts are now working to avoid a war of words with the tech billionaire as he calls on them to scrap months of work in favor of a new budget reconciliation bill.

‘He didn’t make it any easier for the bill,’ Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. 

He noted that the bill also had its opponents in the Senate, where at least three fiscal hawks are calling for deeper cuts than the recent version passed by the House, which rolls back roughly $1.5 trillion in federal spending over 10 years. Fitzgerald questioned, however, what Musk’s endgame was.

‘If it was to truly kill the bill, then – I get it, he’s not an elected official – but you never really make such a bold statement without having a Plan B, and clearly, there’s no Plan B,’ he said.

House GOP lawmakers have for the most part, however, appeared in agreement on Musk ultimately having little impact on their actions. 

‘I don’t think he carries the same kind of gravitas that he did,’ Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., said.

Another House Republican told Fox News Digital, ‘When he’s not standing by the president’s side, he doesn’t have the same weight.’

Congressional Republicans are working to pass a mammoth bill advancing Trump’s priorities on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt via the budget reconciliation process.

Reconciliation allows the party in power to totally sideline opposition – in this case, Democrats – to pass a sweeping piece of fiscal legislation by lowering the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51.

But there are rules and limitations for what can be included in the budget reconciliation process. House GOP leaders say they will seek to codify spending cuts identified by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) via the annual congressional appropriations process.

That has not stopped Musk from unleashing his fury against the bill over the money it could add to the already $36 trillion-and-counting federal debt.

‘Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL,’ Musk wrote on X, among other posts.

The Tesla founder made a veiled threat against lawmakers’ seats as well, ‘In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.’

House GOP leaders and the White House, meanwhile, have closed ranks around the bill.

‘I want Elon and all my friends to recognize the complexity of what we’ve accomplished here. This extraordinary piece of legislation – record number of savings, record tax cuts for the American people and all the other benefits in it,’ Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters in response to Musk.

‘We worked on the bill for almost 14 months. You can’t go back to the drawing board, and we shouldn’t. We have a great product to deliver here.’

But Musk’s comments appear to have created a difficult political situation for some fiscal hawks who aired concerns about the bill before ultimately voting for it after GOP leaders made some last-minute changes tightening Medicaid work requirements and green energy subsidy cutbacks.

‘I wish [Musk] had been cheering from the stands before we had the vote, that would have helped us, but we are where we are,’ House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., who fought for more conservative changes, told reporters.

He side-stepped a question on whether he was worried about election threats from Musk.

‘I’m going to be – I hope that Elon continues to stay in this fight because I’m philosophically aligned with him, with his effort to try to balance this budget,’ Burlison said.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, meanwhile, said he believes Musk is wrong but conceded his opinion mattered to at least part of the GOP base.

‘The challenge is, he’s a he’s a credible guy, and he’s done, a patriotic service,’ Arrington said, referring to DOGE. I just think he’s just wrong about his comments that mischaracterize the one big, beautiful bill.’

‘So to say that it’s a problem or that it has created a bigger challenge for us, is true. Because he’s got a big voice, he’s got a big audience. And more importantly, it’s a credible voice. But he’s wrong on this issue.’

Conservative Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., said, ‘I would have preferred that he not go the direction that he went…maybe it was to encourage Congress to get on the ball with these rescissions packages that are coming.’

The White House, meanwhile, has stood by the bill.

‘The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

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Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., used his opening remarks during the Senate’s first judicial nominee hearing of the year on Wednesday to remind his colleagues that he was holding up at least one of President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice nominees.

‘I’ve got a hold on one nominee from Florida,’ Durbin said. ‘I’ve spoken to both Florida senators about it. It isn’t personal. We’ve got to find a way out of this that is fair and bipartisan that we’re going to stick with for both political parties.’

Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is blocking the nomination of Jason Reding Quinones, Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of Florida. Durbin also recently threatened to obstruct more of Trump’s picks to lead the DOJ’s 93 U.S. attorney’s offices.

Durbin’s threat loomed over the committee hearing, which featured five of Trump’s nominees to fill federal judge positions. The Illinois Democrat attributed his blockade to Vice President JD Vance announcing a hold on DOJ nominees in 2023. Vance, then a senator, said he would not lift his hold on nominees until then-Attorney General Merrick Garland stopped ‘going after his political opponents,’ a reference to the two federal prosecutions of Trump.

Any senator has the power to use holds to object to nominations. The practice significantly slows down the confirmation process because it prevents senators from voting for nominees through the typical, expedited unanimous consent process.

Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, argued Wednesday that, like Durbin, he too disagreed with Vance’s decision, but Grassley said it was notably different than Durbin’s.

‘This isn’t what you can legitimately call a precedent for blanket obstruction at the beginning of an administration before even a single one of these 93 U.S. attorneys have been filled,’ Grassley said.

Grassley, who himself has hindered nominees in past administrations, said holds should be used ‘selectively’ and quoted Durbin saying last Congress that ‘public safety will suffer across the United States’ if the obstruction of U.S. attorneys is carried out.

Durbin said Vance changed the rules ‘overnight.’

‘And guess what? The tables turn,’ Durbin said. ‘There comes a time when you want to move these by voice vote, and we’re going to have to say, as Democrats, we’re going to follow the Vance precedent.’

Durbin, who has an amicable relationship with Grassley, signaled he was willing to come to negotiate with Republicans over the Florida nominee, who has already been favorably reported out of the committee along party lines.

Asked by Fox News Digital what a resolution would look like, a Durbin spokeswoman pointed to the senator’s remarks during the hearing and declined to comment further. 

Durbin’s hold is not the only roadblock for Trump’s nominees. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday from the Senate floor that Republicans wanted to ‘quietly rubber-stamp’ Patrick Davis’ nomination and that he would not allow it.

Trump nominated Davis, a former Grassley aide, to serve as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legislative Affairs, who is responsible for handling DOJ’s correspondence with Congress. Schumer said he opposed Davis’ nomination in part because the DOJ has been unresponsive to his inquiries about the controversial luxury plane that Qatar gifted to the Trump administration.

‘They won’t even answer serious questions about this. This plane should be withdrawn,’ Schumer said.

He added that when ‘this Justice Department is as horrible as it is, as political as it is, as destructive of American values as it has been, no way.’

Grassley responded to Schumer on X: ‘Why would Democrats expect responsiveness to Congress from DOJ when they obstruct Pres Trump’s nominees who r responsible to ANSWER THEIR LTTRS????’

The last two Senate-confirmed heads of the Office of Legislative Affairs, during the Biden administration and first Trump administration, were confirmed through the speedy voice vote process.

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Less than a week after leaving his position as head of the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk is calling on Americans to urge their senators and representatives to ‘kill’ the ‘big, beautiful’ budget bill backed by President Donald Trump.

Musk has grown increasingly critical of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ claiming that if passed, it would increase the U.S. budget deficit by $5 billion.

On Wednesday afternoon, Musk posted an image of the 2003 Uma Thurman movie ‘Kill Bill,’ appearing to reference his call to nix the Trump-backed bill.

‘We need a new bill that doesn’t grow the deficit,’ Musk said on X. 

In another post, Musk urged: ‘Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.’ 

Musk said Tuesday afternoon that he ‘just can’t stand it anymore.’

‘This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,’ he said. ‘Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.’

Musk previously criticized the bill during an interview with CBS, noting he was ‘disappointed’ in the spending bill because ‘it undermines’ all the work his DOGE team was doing.

The bill passed the House in late May, ahead of Memorial Day, largely along party lines. However, two Republicans did vote against the measure, citing insufficient spending cuts and a rising national debt. GOP Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has also signaled he likely will not vote in favor of the bill in its current form, citing a debt ceiling increase that is a red line for him. 

Trump has lashed out at Paul and others for opposing the bill, but so far he has taken a more measured approach to Musk’s criticism.

‘Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Tuesday afternoon briefing when asked about Musk’s most recent criticism.

‘It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it,’ she said. 

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

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President Donald Trump called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead an investigation into whether certain individuals working for former President Joe Biden conspired to deceive the public about his mental state while also exercising his presidential responsibilities by using an autopen.

In a memo on Wednesday, Trump said the president of the U.S. has a tremendous amount of power and responsibility through the signature. Not only can the signature turn words into laws of the land, but it also appoints individuals to some of the highest positions in government, creates or eliminates national policies and allows prisoners to go free.

‘In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,’ Trump wrote. ‘This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.’

He continued, saying Biden had suffered from ‘serious cognitive decline’ for years, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently concluded that Biden should not stand trial, despite clear evidence he broke the law, because of his mental state.

‘Biden’s cognitive issues and apparent mental decline during his presidency were even ‘worse’ in private, and those closest to him ‘tried to hide it’ from the public,’ Trump said. ‘To do so, Biden’s advisors during his years in office severely restricted his news conferences and media appearances, and they scripted his conversations with lawmakers, government officials, and donors, all to cover up his inability to discharge his duties.’

Still, during the Biden presidency, the White House issued over 1,200 Presidential documents, appointed 235 judges to the federal bench and issued more pardons and commutations than any administration in U.S. history, Trump said.

The president wrote about Biden’s decision just two days before Christmas 2024, to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 most dangerous criminals on federal death row, including mass murderers and child killers.

‘Although the authority to take these executive actions, along with many others, is constitutionally committed to the President, there are serious doubts as to the decision-making process and even the degree of Biden’s awareness of these actions being taken in his name,’ Trump wrote. ‘The vast majority of Biden’s executive actions were signed using a mechanical signature pen, often called an autopen, as opposed to Biden’s own hand. This was especially true of actions taken during the second half of his Presidency, when his cognitive decline had apparently become even more clear to those working most closely with him.

‘Given clear indications that President Biden lacked the capacity to exercise his Presidential authority, if his advisors secretly used the mechanical signature pen to conceal this incapacity, while taking radical executive actions all in his name, that would constitute an unconstitutional wielding of the power of the Presidency, a circumstance that would have implications for the legality and validity of numerous executive actions undertaken in Biden’s name,’ he added.

The memo goes on to call for an investigation that addresses if certain individuals, who are not named in the document, conspired to deceive the American public about the former president’s mental state and ‘unconstitutionally’ exercised the president’s authority and responsibilities.

Specifically, Trump called on the attorney general’s investigation to look at any activity that purposefully shielded the public from information about Biden’s mental and physical health; any agreements between his aides to falsely deem recorded videos of Biden’s cognitive ability as fake; and any agreements between Biden’s aides to require false, public statements that elevated the president’s capabilities.

The investigation will also look at which policy documents the autopen was used for, including clemency grants, executive orders, and presidential memoranda, as well as who directed Biden’s signature to be affixed to those documents.

Trump said last week that he thinks Biden did not really agree with many of his administration’s lax border security policies, instead suggesting that those surrounding the former president took advantage of his declining faculties and utilized the autopen to pass radical directives pertaining to the border.

House Republicans, led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, launched an investigation earlier last month aimed at determining whether Biden, who was in declining health during the final months of his presidency, was mentally fit to authorize the use of the autopen. Comer said last week he was ‘open’ to dragging Biden before the House to answer questions about the matter if necessary. 

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

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Snacktime is nigh at the Golden Arches.

On June 3, McDonald’s announced exactly when the Snack Wrap will return to partipating restaurants nationwide: July 10. And, thankfully, it’s not a limited-time offer, either — it’s here for good.

The Snack Wrap, which has been off menus for almost a decade, features one of the chain’s new McCrispy Strips — a chicken strip made with all-white meat — and is topped with shredded lettuce and shredded cheese, wrapped in a flour tortilla.

This go-round, the Snack Wrap comes in two flavors: Spicy, which McDonald’s says “brings the heat with a habanero kick” reminiscent of its Spicy McCrispy sandwich; and Ranch, which “delivers a satisfying burst of cool ranch goodness,” according to the brand, along with hints of garlic and onion.

Customers can get the Snack Wrap on its own or as a combo meal, which will come with two wraps, a medium fries and your drink of choice.

It’s been a long journey for Mickey D’s devotees: On Dec. 5, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, first revealed that the Snack Wrap was on its way back while discussing the new McValue menu.

“The Snack Wrap will be back in 2025,” Erlinger said at the time, declining to reveal the exact date. “It has a cult following, I get so many emails into my inbox about this product.”

Then, on April 15, the chain teased the official release date: “snack wraps 0x.14.2025,” it posted on X, without specifying the month.

Now, for the official rollout, McDonald’s is leaning into the fact that for years, fans have inundated the chain with pleas to reinstate the item after it was kicked off menus in 2016. A Change.org petition started in 2021 in its honor garnered over 17,000 signatures, and fans resorted to posting TikToks and making dedicated Instagram accounts devoted to bringing it back.

While the chicken-craving masses waited for the Snack Wrap’s return, other fast-food chains have dropped their own versions: In March 2023, Wendy’s introduced its Grilled Chicken Ranch Wrap; in July 2023, Taco Bell reintroduced its Crispy Chicken Taco for a limited time; and in August 2023, Burger King launched BK Royal Crispy Wraps for a limited time, too.

Most recently, a single day before McDonald’s announcement, Popeyes dropped its own Chicken Wraps as a limited-time offer. Let the wrap battle commence.

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OpenAI on Wednesday announced that it now has 3 million paying business users, up from the 2 million it reported in February.

The San Francisco-based startup rocketed into the mainstream in late 2022 with its consumer-facing artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, and began launching workplace-specific versions of the product the following year.

The 3 million users include ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Team and ChatGPT Edu customers, OpenAI said.

“There’s this really tight interconnect between the growth of ChatGPT as a consumer tool and its adoption in the enterprise and in businesses,” OpenAI’s chief operating officer Brad Lightcap told CNBC in an interview. The company supported 400 million weekly active users as of February.

OpenAI expects revenue of $12.7 billion this year, a source confirmed to CNBC. In September of last year, the company expected to see an annual loss of $5 billion on $3.7 billion in revenue, according to a person close to the company who asked not to be named because the financials are confidential.

Lightcap said OpenAI is seeing its business tools adopted across industries, including highly regulated sectors like financial services and health care. Companies including Lowe’s, Morgan Stanley and Uber are users, OpenAI said.

The company also announced new updates to its business offerings on Wednesday.

ChatGPT Team and ChatGPT Enterprise users can now access “connectors,” which will allow workers to pull data from third-party tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, SharePoint, Box and OneDrive without leaving ChatGPT. Additional deep research connectors are available in beta.

OpenAI launched another capability called “record mode” in ChatGPT, which allows users to record and transcribe their meetings. It’s initially available with audio only.

Record mode can assist with follow up after a meeting and integrates with internal information like documents and files, the company said. Users can also turn their recordings into documents through the company’s Canvas tool.

Lightcap said enterprise customers have been asking for updates like these, and that they will help make OpenAI’s workplace offerings more useful.

“It’s got to be able to do tasks for you, and to do that, it’s got to really have knowledge of everything going on around you and your work,” Lightcap said. “It can’t be the intern locked in a closet. It’s got to be able to see what you see.”

OpenAI said it has been signing up nine enterprises a week, and Lightcap said the company will try to sustain that pace over time.

“People are starting to really figure out that this is a part of the modern tool stack in the knowledge economy that we live in,” he said.

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A nationwide coordinated crackdown on retail crime — what authorities are calling the first of its kind — led to hundreds of arrests in 28 states last week.

The blitz, led by Illinois’ Cook County regional organized crime task force, involved more than 100 jurisdictions and over 30 retailers including Home Depot, Macy’s, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walgreens, Kroger and Meijer.

“When you give specific focus to a crime, it reverberates,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart told CNBC. “When they see it is being prosecuted and taken seriously, it deters conduct. They don’t want to get caught.”

Organized retail crime — a type of shoplifting where groups of thieves work together in targeted operations to turn stolen goods into cash — has grown in scale and scope in recent years. CNBC previously reported on the extensive law enforcement efforts to take down retail crime organizations.

While aggregate numbers for retail theft are difficult to quantify, retailers reported 93% more shoplifting incidents on average in 2023 compared with 2019, according to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation. Those surveyed also reported a 90% increase in the associated dollar losses over that same time period.

Some critics point to a lack of enforcement and felony thresholds for allowing criminals to continue committing theft. It’s something Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has been focused on since taking office in December.

On her first day in office, O’Neill Burke said prosecutors would pursue felony retail theft charges in accordance with state law, when the value of the goods exceeds $300 or when the suspect already has a felony shoplifting conviction.

Before her taking office, retail theft felonies were charged only if the value of the stolen goods was $1,000 or more or if the suspect had 10 or more prior convictions.

Since Dec. 1, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has filed charges in 1,450 felony retail theft cases, the office said.

The goals of the coordinated operation, O’Neill Burke told CNBC, is “to have one day where we focus and concentrate on [retail theft] and we share intelligence about it — about what we learned about the network, so that gives us more tools on how to take this network down.”

It was the coordination between law enforcement and prosecuting attorneys that got a number of the involved retailers to participate in the blitz.

“Collaboration is key to making a meaningful impact,” Ulta Beauty Senior Vice President of Loss Prevention Dan Petrousek told CNBC. “That’s why we were proud to participate in the National ORC Blitz alongside dedicated law enforcement and prosecutorial partners.”

Ulta Beauty had teams participating across nine states in last week’s operation, providing law enforcement with information on incidents of retail crime.

“Organized retail crime remains one of the most significant challenges in our industry,” said Marty Maloney, Walgreens director of media relations. “In this most recent operation we worked closely with law enforcement partners across nearly 20 cities and at over 40 locations to help curb this trend.”

A representative for Home Depot told CNBC that while overall theft is down, investigated incidents of organized retail crime are still up double digits year over year.

Now that the operation has concluded, the group is pulling together each jurisdictions’ observations and sharing data to continue to help crack down on retail theft.

Other participating retailers reached for comment by CNBC, including Macy’s, T.J. Maxx and Target, said they’re committed to partnering with law enforcement and pushing for stronger laws to combat retail crime.

California Highway Patrol arrests retail crime suspect in Long Beach, CA.Courtesy: California Highway Patrol.

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South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is projected to be the new president following a snap election on Tuesday, according to an exit poll by Korean broadcasters, in a vote held exactly six months after the country’s previous leader declared martial law and plunged the nation into chaos.

The joint exit poll from KBS, MBC and SBS projects that Lee, 60, of the liberal Democratic Party, will win 51.7% of the vote. His main rival, Kim Moon-soo of the ruling conservative People Power Party, is projected to win 39.3% of the vote.

Official results are yet to be announced, but in previous elections the exit polling was closely in line with the final tally.

This election was closely watched and may now offer South Koreans some semblance of political stability after half a year of uncertainty and turmoil as the US ally and economic powerhouse navigated the aftermath of the martial law crisis.

It also comes as South Korea’s export-oriented economy grapples with global events like US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a potential recession, all without a permanent leader at the helm.

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on December 3 last year in a short-lived power-grab that was halted after lawmakers pushed their way past soldiers into the legislature and voted to block the decree. Yoon was impeached soon after and formally removed from office in April.

In the months since that dramatic night, South Korea’s government has been in disarray, with a revolving door of interim leaders ahead of the snap election.

The acting leader of the Democratic Party, Park Chan-dae, said in an interview Tuesday night that the results of the exit poll reflect “people’s fiery judgement against the insurrection regime.”

Voter turnout reached 79.3%, according to the country’s National Election Commission.

Lee, a divisive figure within Korean politics, emerged early on as the frontrunner, despite recent legal challenges and allegations of corruption and abuse of power. If official results mirror the exit poll, he could be inaugurated as early as Wednesday – and faces a host of issues waiting to be tackled.

South Korea’s economy has stuttered in recent months, with rising costs of living and lower consumption. There are trade talks with the US over Trump’s tariffs, although no deal has been struck yet. There are also national challenges like the country’s aging society and falling birthrate, and geopolitical tensions with China and North Korea.

Lee’s rise to the top

A former underage factory worker from a poor family, Lee became a human rights lawyer before entering politics. He is a former mayor of Seongnam city, home to around 1 million people, and governor of Gyeonggi province, and most recently served as a lawmaker after narrowly losing to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election.

He survived an assassination attempt in January 2024 when a man stabbed him in the neck during a public event in the city of Busan. The injury required surgery, but was not life threatening, officials said at the time.

Later that year, he again made headlines on the night Yoon declared martial law and sent troops to parliament, becoming one of the lawmakers who rushed to the legislature and pushed past soldiers to hold an emergency vote to lift martial law. He livestreamed himself jumping over a fence to enter the building, in a viral video viewed tens of millions of times.

On the campaign trail, often speaking behind bulletproof glass and wearing a bulletproof vest, Lee promised political and economic reforms, including more controls on a president’s ability to declare martial law, and revising the constitution to allow two four-year presidential terms instead of the current single five-year term. He also supports boosting small businesses and growing the AI industry.

He has emphasized easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula while holding onto the longtime goal of denuclearizing North Korea. His aides say human rights will remain central to engagement with Pyongyang, including discussions on returning any living prisoners of war from the 1950-53 Korean War.

But Lee has also been embroiled in controversy, including several ongoing trials for alleged bribery and charges related to a property development scandal.

Separately, he was convicted of violating election law in another ongoing case that alleges he knowingly made a false statement during a debate in the last presidential campaign. The case has been sent to an appeals court.

Opponents accuse Lee of being a polarizing figure in South Korean politics, openly criticizing former President Yoon and blocking legislation proposed by Yoon’s government. Yoon even cited Lee’s Democratic Party and its undermining of the government’s budget bill as a reason for declaring martial law.

Diplomatic recalibration ahead

Lee’s team has pledged to reestablish trust with the US, which his advisers have said was weakened during the martial law crisis.

The Biden administration was caught off guard by the brief challenge to South Korea’s democracy, experts say, after the White House invested significant time to forge a landmark security partnership between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.

Ahead of the election, Lee’s foreign policy adviser Wi Sunglac said the alliance with Washington would remain the “cornerstone” of South Korea’s diplomacy.

Seoul is also actively negotiating with the US over Trump’s tariffs, which include a 25% levy on South Korean exports and 25% duties on imports of automobiles and steel products. Trump has suggested more duties on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals – all predominant industries for South Korea’s economy.

Relations with China and Russia, strained in recent years, will be managed through “strategic engagement,” with Lee’s camp saying peace and security in the region require ongoing dialogue with both.

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