After years of Republicans leading the push for government transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, the notoriously well-connected sex offender who died in jail in 2019, Democrats are now leading the charge to release the so-called ‘Epstein files.’

‘I’m glad they’re joining the party, but they should have been a little more transparent a year ago,’ Rep. Mark Messmer, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital.

Seizing on the Republicans’ demand for transparency about Epstein during former President Joe Biden’s administration, President Donald Trump campaigned in 2024 on releasing the ‘Epstein files’ and his allegedly incriminating ‘client list.’

But Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI released a memo this week concluding that Epstein died by suicide in his cell, there is no ‘client list,’ and the supposed ‘Epstein files’ are thousands of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography subject to court-ordered sealing.

The Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files has created a rift among the ‘MAGA’ wing of the Republican Party, who are demanding more transparency. 

‘We should expect transparency, no matter what administration is involved, if there was or wasn’t a client list, if there was or wasn’t video. I mean, we should expect transparency and full disclosure of whatever they are covering up,’ Messmer told Fox News Digital. 

Democrats have been quick to seize on the intraparty conflict. 

‘It’s pretty rich on their part,’ Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital. ‘But again, if there is no new information, then that’s fine. Just have the Department of Justice come out and explain that and answer questions. And if there is something, but it’s not relevant, well, explain that also.’

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has reiterated that ‘all credible evidence should come out’ regarding Epstein and criticized Democrats who he said are politicizing the issue.

California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna tied a procedural vote on releasing all Epstein files to an unrelated crypto bill earlier this week, and Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, announced he would be filing a resolution on Monday to demand the Trump administration release all files related to the late pedophile’s case.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, including Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and progressives like Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas., are also seizing on Republican fractures over the Epstein case, demanding a public hearing on the issue. 

‘The Democrats will never give Donald Trump credit for anything,’ Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital.Where were the questions when Biden was in office?’

And Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, said Democrats’ newfound investment in transparency on Epstein ‘proves that all along it was just political.’

‘I respect a call for transparency,’ Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, added. ‘If it’s from a Democrat or a Republican, I totally respect that. I have no idea of anything on this front. And I hope to just know that people are being transparent and that things aren’t being done in any nefarious way or for any nefarious reason. I think a lot of it’s overblown.’

‘I put the Epstein matter in my don’t know, don’t care file,’ Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital.

Recent studies confirm what many clinicians, myself included, have quietly observed for years: Liberals — especially young liberals — are reporting worse mental health than their conservative peers. Statistician Nate Silver’s Substack recently spotlighted this disparity, and while many factors are at play, one explanation remains oddly absent from the national conversation: the psychological cost of cutting people off over politics. 

In my work as a clinical psychologist, I’ve watched this pattern unfold in real time. Some clients describe rising anxiety, loneliness and a growing sense of disconnection — but they don’t initially trace it back to politics. Only after reflection do they realize: they’ve quietly (or, in some cases quite loudly and proudly) distanced themselves from family, ended friendships, or withdrawn from romantic prospects — not because of mistreatment, but because of political disagreement. 

As I was researching for my upcoming book Can I Say That? Why Free Speech Matters and How to Use It Fearlessly, I noticed a striking pattern — what I now call ‘The Five Ds’: defriending, declining to date, disinviting, decreasing contact and outright dropping someone over political views. These behaviors are often framed as moral stands. But when practiced habitually, they can degrade the very relationships we rely on for emotional well-being. Research backs this up — liberals are statistically more likely than conservatives to engage in the Five Ds over political differences. 

The cost is real. The U.S. surgeon general has declared loneliness a public health crisis, linking it to depression, anxiety and even physical health problems. Social support is a powerful protective factor — it helps regulate emotions, buffer stress and reinforce a person’s sense of meaning and connection.  

As social creatures, humans rely on relationships to regulate stress. When those bonds are cut over politics — especially through the habitual use of the Five Ds — liberals may be isolating themselves in ways that make them more vulnerable to loneliness, anxiety and diminished emotional regulation. 

Some do this in the name of safety, seeing opposing views as threatening. But this is a dangerous shift. Conflating disagreement with danger undermines mental health and shrinks our capacity for dialogue. Even The New York Times recently published an essay titled ‘Is It Time to Stop Snubbing Your Right-Wing Family?’ in which former Obama speechwriter David Litt wrestles with whether to stay in contact with his conservative brother-in-law. To his credit, Litt expresses openness to reconnecting. But his tone is hesitant, not declarative.  

The piece reads less like someone awakening to the dangers of ideological cutoffs and more like someone reluctantly conceding a grudge. That this question — whether to maintain ties with family — was posed at all in a national newspaper shows how far the goalposts have shifted. Ostracizing loved ones over votes once seemed extreme. Now it’s mainstream content. 

This mindset of seeing opposing views as intolerable, or even threatening, isn’t just common — it’s increasingly celebrated, even when it harms us. The phrase ‘words are violence’ may feel righteous, but taken literally, it breeds anxiety and isolation. When we view differing viewpoints as threats, we push people away — not because we must, but because we’ve convinced ourselves we should. The result? We’re lonelier and more brittle than ever. 

None of this is to say that all relationships must be preserved. Boundaries are important. But ideological purging — done habitually and reflexively — is something different. It’s corrosive. Ironically, conservatives — often caricatured as emotionally rigid — may be faring better precisely because they are less likely to sever ties over politics. Their emotional well-being may benefit from tolerating disagreement and maintaining bonds across divides. 

As a psychologist, I don’t believe political ideology is destiny. But relational habits shape mental health. When we cut off those closest to us, even over serious disagreement, we deprive ourselves of a key buffer against emotional distress. What’s worse, we often do so under the illusion that the cutoff is virtuous. 

The solution is not to avoid politics. It’s to resist the reflex to cut and run. That begins with a simple mindset shift: disagreement isn’t danger, and tension doesn’t always mean toxicity. We can learn to talk through our differences — even when it’s hard. 

Mental health and free speech are more connected than people realize. If we want to feel less anxious, less isolated and more connected, we need to rethink the social costs of ideological purity. The Five Ds may feel righteous in the moment — but the long-term cost to our mental health may be far too high. 

Democrats have railed against potential Medicaid cuts since President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. Now that his ‘big, beautiful bill’ has passed through Congress, they are making Medicaid a top talking point ahead of competitive midterm elections expected in 2026. 

Republicans, meanwhile, are doubling down on Medicaid reform included in Trump’s megabill, which also includes sweeping legislation on taxes, immigration and energy. 

‘My policy is if you’re an able-bodied worker, get a damn job,’ Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital. ‘If you want government benefits, go to work and get a job.’

A provision in the megabill requires able-bodied, childless adults between the ages of 18 and 64 to work at least 80 hours a month to be eligible to receive Medicaid benefits. Individuals can also meet the requirement by ​​participating in community service, going to school or engaging in a work program.

Fox News Digital asked lawmakers on Capitol Hill if taxpayers should have to pay for Medicaid bills for able-bodied workers who are under 65 and unemployed. 

Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, said in both Arkansas and Georgia, where work requirements have already been imposed, it ended up costing taxpayers more money to administer the work requirements. 

‘We’re talking about a very small population, and in the two cases where they tried it, it ended up, number one, disqualifying people who met all the requirements but gave up on the paperwork. These aren’t people that are used to filling out a lot of paperwork every month. And it also cost the state a lot to administer,’ King said. 

The New England Journal of Medicine found that Arkansas’ Medicaid work requirement from 2018 to 2019 ‘found no evidence of increased employment … and a significant loss of Medicaid coverage among low-income adults.’

Similarly, the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute (GBPI) reported that 80% of the $58 million spent in the first year of Georgia’s Pathways to Coverage program went toward administrative costs. 

But Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., emphasized that Republicans ‘want these programs to be around for the people who need them.’ She said Medicaid reform is about ‘strengthening and preserving these programs at the rate that they’re growing.’

‘These programs were intended to be safety nets, not hammocks that people stay in, and the success of these programs should be measured by how many people we get off of them,’ Britt said. 

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., agreed, telling Fox News Digital, ‘What you don’t want is for somebody to become dependent. I’d tell people: safety nets should bounce you to your feet. They shouldn’t be like flypaper in which you stick and can never get off.’

‘We’re not saying, ‘Hey, we’re not throwing you out.’ All right, but you gotta go get a job. You either get a job, or actually you can even volunteer, all right? And that will satisfy the requirements for work,’ Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., explained. 

But Democrats who spoke to Fox News Digital continued to push back against the work requirements included in the ‘big, beautiful bill.’ 

‘I think people [who] are able to work, trust me, they’d rather work than to get the piddling dollars that they get from Medicaid. It’s insulting to suggest that a person would rather sit at home rather than work and get this meager amount of money. All of this has just been totally expanded to fit a narrative that allows them to cut into those people who really deserve Medicaid,’ Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., said. 

And Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Calif., said, ‘We need to be able to have an infrastructure in this country that supports the elderly and the sick and the widows and the child. This bill, it violates all those basic principles.’

Fox News’ Peter Pinedo contributed to this report. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon was ‘looking into’ a cloud computing program run by Microsoft utilizing foreign workers from China, which was criticized this week for potentially lacking adequate safeguards, which could provide the CCP easy access to classified defense data and systems.

A ProPublica report released Tuesday accused Microsoft of allowing China-based engineers to assist with Pentagon cloud systems with inadequate guardrails in an effort to scale up its government contracting business. 

In response, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., sent a letter to Hegseth Thursday asking for information and documents about the program, including a list of all Department of Defense (DOD) contractors that hire Chinese personnel to provide maintenance or other services to DOD systems, a list of subcontractors that hire Microsoft’s American-born ‘digital escorts’ required to supervise foreign computer scientists while they work on DOD systems and documents on the training these supervisors receive to identify suspicious activity.   

‘In light of recent and concerning reports about Microsoft using engineers in China to maintain DOD systems, I’ve asked the Secretary of Defense to look into the matter,’ Cotton said in a post on X sharing his letter to Hegseth. ‘We must guard against all threats within our military’s supply chain.’

A few hours after Cotton’s X post, Hegseth responded, ‘Spot on senator.’

‘Agree fully,’ Hegseth said in his own X post responding to Cotton. ‘Our team is already looking into this ASAP. Foreign engineers — from any country, including of course China — should NEVER be allowed to maintain or access DOD systems.’

The ProPublica report cited current and former employees and government contractors who worked on a cloud computing program deployed by Microsoft in 2016, which involved a ‘digital escort’ framework. The program, meant to meet federal contracting regulations, used a system of ‘digital escort’ chaperones for global cybersecurity officials, such as those based in China, meant to create a security buffer so that they can work on agency computing systems. DOD guidelines require that people handling sensitive data be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

According to sources who spoke to ProPublica, including some who had intimate familiarity with the hiring process for the $18-per-hour ‘digital escort’ position, the tech employees being hired to do the supervising lacked the adequate tech expertise to prevent a rogue Chinese employee from hacking the system or turning over classified information to the CCP.

The sources elaborated that the escorts, often former military personnel, were hired for their security clearances more than their technical abilities and often lacked the skills to evaluate code being used by the engineers they were supervising.

In China, people are governed by sweeping laws compelling government cooperation with data collection efforts. 

‘If ProPublica’s report turns out to be true, Microsoft has created a national embarrassment that endangers our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. Heads should roll, those responsible should go to prison and Congress should hold extensive investigations to uncover the full extent of potential compromise,’ said Michael Lucci. Lucci is the CEO and founder of State Armor Action, a conservative group with a mission to develop and enact state-level solutions to global security threats. 

‘Microsoft or any vendor providing China with access to Pentagon secrets verges on treasonous behavior and should be treated as such,’ Lucci added.

A Microsoft spokesperson defended the company’s ‘digital escort’ model Tuesday, saying all personnel and contractors with privileged access must pass federally approved background checks. 

‘For some technical requests, Microsoft engages our team of global subject-matter experts to provide support through authorized U.S. personnel, consistent with U.S. government requirements and processes,’ the spokesperson added. ‘In these instances, global support personnel have no direct access to customer data or customer systems.’

The Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) public information office was initially unaware of the program when ProPublica began asking questions about it, but it eventually followed up to point out that ‘digital escorts’ are used ‘in select unclassified environments’ at the Defense Department for ‘advanced problem diagnosis and resolution from industry subject-matter experts.’

In Cotton’s letter to Hegseth, the Republican senator requested answers to his questions by the end of the month. 

Microsoft did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment on this article. 

A $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally funded children’s nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic has been described by FBI Director Kash Patel as ‘one of the worst’ in Minnesota history.

The FBI director told Fox News in a statement that 70 people in Minnesota have been indicted for their role in the sprawling ‘Feeding our Future’ fraud scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic, which exploited a federal program designed to reimburse states for the cost of feeding children. 

Conspirators falsely claimed to have served millions of meals during the pandemic, but instead used the money for personal gain. Of the individuals indicted, 38 have pleaded guilty, FBI officials told Fox News Digital. More than a dozen of the individuals are awaiting criminal trial, with the next trial beginning in August.

‘Stealing over $250 million from hungry kids during a pandemic to fund mansions and luxury cars is as shameless as it gets,’ FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. ‘I’m proud of the FBI and our partners for dismantling this web of corruption, holding dozens accountable, and sending a clear message: if you exploit the most vulnerable, we will find you and bring you to justice.’

Conspirators charged in the scheme are accused of fabricating invoices, submitting fake attendance records, and falsely distributing thousands of meals from hundreds of so-called food distribution ‘sites’ across the state — taking advantage of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to waive, for the duration of the pandemic, many of its standard requirements for participation in the Federal Child Nutrition Program — including relaxing its requirement for non-school based distributors to participate in the program.

Charging documents show that roughly 300 ‘food sites’ in the state served little or no food, with the so-called ‘food vendors’ and organizations fabricated to launder money intended to reimburse the cost of feeding children.

FBI officials told Fox News that the investigation and resulting trials and indictments continue to impact the state, and have already touched off legislative reform in Minnesota.

They added that the investigation into the fraud remains ongoing, and that additional charges are expected, though they did not immediately share more details.

The next trial in the state is scheduled to begin on August 11.

‘Stealing from the federal government equates to stealing from the American people — there is no simpler truth,’ FBI’s special agent in charge, Alvin Winston, told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

‘The egregious fraud unveiled in the Feeding our Future case epitomizes a profound betrayal of public trust. These individuals misappropriated hundreds of millions in federal funds intended to nourish vulnerable children during a time of crisis, redirecting those resources into luxury homes, high-end vehicles, and extravagant lifestyles while families faced hardship,’ he added. 

‘We will uncover their schemes, dismantle their networks, and ensure that they are held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,’ he said. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Friday it plans to reduce its workforce by 23% and close its research and development office. 

The loss of more than 3,000 employees comes after layoffs and incentives to leave the agency amid the Trump administration’s broad effort to streamline the federal government. 

‘Under President Trump’s leadership, EPA has taken a close look at our operations to ensure the agency is better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback,’ EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement. 

‘This reduction in force will ensure we can better fulfill that mission while being responsible stewards of your hard-earned tax dollars.’

The EPA said the cuts will save the government $748.8 million.

As part of the restructuring, the EPA said it plans to open a new Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions to replace the Office of Research and Development, saying the new office would allow it to focus on research ‘more than ever before.’

This comes a week after the Supreme Court issued a ruling clearing the way for the administration to conduct mass layoffs.

Justin Chen, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, which represents thousands of EPA employees, called the research and development office the ‘heart and brain of the EPA.’ 

‘Without it, we don’t have the means to assess impacts upon human health and the environment,” Chen said. ‘Its destruction will devastate public health in our country.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to the EPA for comment. 

This announcement also comes two weeks after 139 employees signed a ‘declaration of dissent’ claiming the Trump administration was hurting the agency’s mission. 

The administration claimed the employees were ‘unlawfully undermining’ the president’s agenda. 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Microsoft said it will cease using China-based computer engineering teams for work on Pentagon cloud systems and other classified systems after an investigation this week led to national security concerns at the highest levels over a program that Microsoft has used since 2016.

A ProPublica report released Tuesday accused Microsoft of allowing China-based engineers to assist with Pentagon cloud systems with inadequate guardrails in an effort to scale up its government contracting business. 

The report got the attention of GOP lawmakers and the Trump administration, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisting Friday that foreign engineers from ‘any country … should NEVER be allowed to maintain or access DOD systems.’ He added that the Defense Department would be ‘looking into this ASAP.’

After Hegseth’s indication that the Pentagon would be looking into the matter, Fox News Digital reached out to Microsoft, which responded that it would be ceasing its use of China-based computer engineers providing assistance to sensitive Defense Department cloud ‘and related’ services.

‘In response to concerns raised earlier this week about U.S.-supervised foreign engineers, Microsoft has made changes to our support for U.S. government customers to assure that no China-based engineering teams are providing technical assistance for DOD government cloud and related services,’ Frank Shaw, chief communications officer at Microsoft, said.

‘We remain committed to providing the most secure services possible to the U.S. government, including working with our national security partners to evaluate and adjust our security protocols as needed.’

The ProPublica report released earlier this week, which spurred Microsoft’s action, cited current and former employees and government contractors who worked on a cloud computing program deployed by Microsoft in 2016. The program, meant to meet federal contracting regulations, used a system of ‘digital escort’ chaperones for global cybersecurity officials, such as those based in China, meant to create a security buffer so that they can work on agency computing systems. DOD guidelines require that people handling sensitive data be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

According to sources who spoke to ProPublica, including some who had intimate familiarity with the hiring process for the $18-per-hour ‘digital escort’ positions, the tech employees being hired to do the supervising lacked the adequate tech expertise to prevent a rogue Chinese employee from hacking the system or turning over classified information to the CCP.

The sources elaborated that the escorts, often former military personnel, were hired for their security clearances more than their technical abilities and often lacked the skills to evaluate code being used by the engineers they were supervising.

Microsoft used its escort system to handle sensitive government information that falls below ‘classified,’ the ProPublica report indicated. That includes ‘data that involves the protection of life and financial ruin.’ At the Defense Department, the data is categorized as ‘Impact Level’ four and five, which ProPublica reported includes materials directly supporting military operations.

People in China are governed by sweeping laws compelling government cooperation with data collection efforts.

Before Microsoft’s announcement Friday that it would be ceasing its use of China-based engineers for sensitive Defense Department programs, the company defended its ‘digital escort’ program, noting all personnel and contractors with privileged access must pass federally approved background checks. The company also pointed to a response from the Defense Information Systems Agency, which said that ‘digital escorts’ are used ‘in select unclassified environments.’     

‘For some technical requests, Microsoft engages our team of global subject-matter experts to provide support through authorized U.S. personnel, consistent with U.S. government requirements and processes,’ a company spokesperson told Fox News Digital Tuesday. ‘In these instances, global support personnel have no direct access to customer data or customer systems.’

The spokesperson added at the time that Microsoft adheres to the federal security requirements outlined by the Defense Department and the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program established in 2011 to address the risks associated with moving from entirely government-controlled servers to cloud-based computing.

‘We establish layers of mitigation at the platform level with security and monitoring controls to detect and prevent threats. This includes approval workflows for system changes and automated code reviews to quickly detect and prevent the introduction of vulnerabilities,’ the spokesperson said. ‘This production system support model is approved and regularly audited by the U.S. government.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Pentagon to inquire whether Microsoft’s action changes its planned investigation but did not receive a response by publication time.

At Attorney General Pam Bondi’s direction, the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday formally moved to unseal long-secret grand jury transcripts from the Jeffrey Epstein case, citing what it called intense public interest in the notorious sex trafficking investigation.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche submitted the motion in Manhattan federal court, urging a judge to release the transcripts from Epstein’s 2019 grand jury proceedings and those from the prosecution of Epstein’s convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, as part of a new transparency push by the department.

Earlier this month, the DOJ and FBI issued a memorandum describing an ‘exhaustive review’ of their Epstein investigative files. That internal review sought to determine if any evidence could justify charging additional individuals, but it concluded that ‘no such evidence was uncovered’ against any uncharged third parties. 

Since the memo’s July 6 release, officials say, public interest in its conclusions has remained high.

While the department maintains it stands by the memo’s findings, the filing emphasizes that ‘transparency to the American public is of the utmost importance to this Administration.’ Given the intense public interest, the DOJ told the court it is moving to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts to shed light on its investigative work in the Epstein matter.

The DOJ said it will work with prosecutors to redact all victim names and personal identifying information from the transcripts before any release. 

‘Transparency in this process will not be at the expense of our obligation under the law to protect victims,’ the motion assured.

Epstein, 66, was indicted by a New York grand jury July 2, 2019, on sex trafficking charges. Just over a month later, on Aug. 10, 2019, he died by suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial, and the case was dismissed.

Epstein’s longtime confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell, was indicted by a grand jury in 2020 on multiple counts related to trafficking and coercing minors.

She was convicted in December 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Maxwell’s convictions were upheld on appeal in 2024, and she is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to review her case.

Grand jury proceedings are ordinarily secret by law, or as the motion says, ‘a tradition of law that proceedings before a grand jury shall generally remain secret.’ But the filing notes this tradition ‘is not absolute.’

Federal courts have recognized ‘certain ‘special circumstances’’ where releasing grand jury records is appropriate even outside the usual exceptions, like when a case holds significant public or historical importance.

The DOJ argues Epstein’s case is exactly such a special circumstance given its unparalleled notoriety.

‘Public officials, lawmakers, pundits, and ordinary citizens remain deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter,’ the motion notes. 

The motion points out that a Florida judge last year ordered the release of some Epstein grand jury records after concluding the financier was ‘the most infamous pedophile in American history’ and that the facts of Epstein’s case ‘tell a tale of national disgrace.’

By the DOJ’s account, the sealed grand jury transcripts are ‘critical pieces of an important moment in our nation’s history,’ and ‘[t]he time for the public to guess what they contain should end.’ 

The motion stresses that Epstein’s death means any privacy interests on his side are now ‘substantially diminished.’ And even though Maxwell is still fighting her conviction, prosecutors said the extraordinary public scrutiny around the Epstein saga justifies pressing ahead with unsealing now.

For these reasons, the DOJ is urging the court to conclude that the Epstein and Maxwell cases qualify as matters of public interest and to grant the unsealing of the grand jury transcripts while lifting any protective orders. 

The unsealing would shine unprecedented light on one of America’s most notorious criminal cases, a move the department says is legally justified and necessary in the name of public accountability.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News’ Mike Ruiz contributed to this report.

During a celebratory dinner at the White House with a number of Donald Trump’s GOP allies, including several Republican lawmakers from Congress, the president signaled that 10 more hostages in Gaza would be ‘coming very shortly.’

The dinner was largely focused on touting the achievements Republicans have had over the last six months, but while praising his administration’s work on foreign policy, Trump commented about the hostages. 

‘Gaza – we got most of the hostages back,’ Trump said when his comments turned to the Middle East. ‘We’re going to have another ten coming very shortly. And we hope to have that finished pretty quickly,’ the president added.

So far, the U.S. has brought home five total American hostages captured by Hamas, three of whom were alive, two of whom were dead. Two Americans reportedly still remain in captivity, in addition to dozens of other non-Americans.

The rest of Trump’s address Friday night mostly included praise for Congressional Republicans over their work passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with the president stating he doesn’t ‘think anybody’s ever come close to’ passing such sweeping legislation with such a small majority. 

In particular, Trump thanked by name Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, Republican Policy Committee Chair Shelly Moore-Capito, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham.

‘Nobody’s done so much, so fast. And probably you could say, with so few votes,’ Trump praised. ‘You stayed in session for a marathon ten consecutive weeks, and that’s the longest of any Senate in 15 years. And you held over 400 votes, more than any Senate in 35 years. And they were successful votes. And just a few weeks ago, we had the biggest victory of them all. When you passed the one big beautiful bill.’ 

The president also lauded Republicans for all the work they have done on immigration, border security, foreign diplomacy, speedy cabinet nominations, deregulation and spending cut efforts, calling out Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff specifically for their work on U.S. foreign diplomacy.

Top of mind Friday night was the GOP recission package as well, which Trump praised the passage of. Trump did not indicate when he would sign the GOP bill, but did note that ‘we have numerous other recissions coming up, adding more, many more $10 billion dollars to it.’

Meanwhile, Trump also predicted that, in 2026, the GOP majority ‘is going to be stronger in both the House and the Senate.’ Typically, conventional wisdom predicts that the party that won the presidency will not typically perform as well two years later during the midterm elections. 

‘I don’t understand why they say that when you win the presidency, you always almost automatically lose the midterms, because nobody’s had a more successful period of time than we have,’ Trump told the crowd of attendees at the White House Friday evening. ‘Based on that, we should do great.’

Trump added Friday that ‘We achieved more in six months than almost any administration could accomplish in eight years.’

‘And we’re going to have a lot of good six months left. We’re going to have a six and another six and another six. So we’ll keep going,’ he continued. ‘Over the next year and a half, we’ll have an incredible record to share with the American people,’ he continued. ‘As long as we continue to keep our promises to the voters, Americans will continue to stand by our side.’