U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced visa restrictions on a Brazilian judge after the country’s Supreme Court issued search warrants and restraining orders against former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, his unspecified allies on the court and his immediate family members will face visa revocations, according to Rubio, who criticized what he called a ‘political witch hunt’ against the former president.

‘President Trump made clear that his administration will hold accountable foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States,’ Rubio said in a statement. 

‘Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes’s political witch hunt against Jair Bolsonaro created a persecution and censorship complex so sweeping that it not only violates basic rights of Brazilians, but also extends beyond Brazil’s shores to target Americans,’ he continued.

As part of the court’s orders, Bolsonaro is prohibited from contacting foreign officials, using social media or approaching embassies over allegations he sought the interference of U.S. President Donald Trump, according to the decision issued by Moraes, who cited a ‘concrete possibility’ of him fleeing the country.

Federal police raided Bolsonaro’s home, and he had an ankle monitor placed on him.

Trump has already attempted to pressure Brazil’s officials to help Bolsonaro by announcing a 50% tariff on goods from the country from August 1 in a letter that began by criticizing Bolsonaro’s trial before Brazil’s Supreme Court on accusations of attempting to overturn the last election.

The U.S. president has pushed Brazil to end the case against Bolsonaro, arguing that the former Brazilian leader was the victim of a ‘witch hunt.’

Bolsonaro is on trial before Brazil’s Supreme Court on charges of plotting a coup to stop President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking office in January 2023.

Bolsonaro told Reuters that he believed the orders against him were issued in response to Trump’s criticism of his trial.

The former president described Moraes as a ‘dictator’ and called the latest court orders acts of ‘cowardice.’

‘I feel supreme humiliation,’ he said about wearing the ankle monitor. ‘I am 70-years-old, I was president of the republic for four years.’

Bolsonaro denied any plans to leave the country, but said he would meet with Trump if he could obtain access to his passport, which was seized last year. He also said he had contacted the top U.S. diplomat in Brazil to discuss Trump’s tariff threat.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said on Friday, citing previous comments from Trump, that ‘Bolsonaro and his supporters are under attack from a weaponized court system.’

On Thursday, Trump shared a letter he sent to Bolsonaro.

‘I have seen the terrible treatment you are receiving at the hands of an unjust system turned against you. This trial should end immediately!’ he wrote.

Moraes said in his decision that the restrictions against Bolsonaro were because of allegations that the former president was attempting to have the ‘head of state of a foreign nation’ interfere in Brazilian courts, which the judge called an attack on national sovereignty.

The judge added that Trump’s threats of higher tariffs sought to create a serious economic crisis in Brazil to interfere in the country’s judicial system.

Bolsonaro was also prohibited from contacting key allies, including his son Eduardo Bolsonaro, a Brazilian congressman who has been working in the U.S. to gather support for his father.

The former Brazilian president told Reuters he had been talking to his son almost daily and denied any concerted U.S. lobbying effort on his behalf. He said he expected his son to seek U.S. citizenship to avoid returning to Brazil.

A five-judge panel of Brazilian Supreme Court judges upheld Moraes’ decision.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Slovenian lawmakers became the first Eastern European country to legalize a law on Friday to allow medically-assisted suicide for terminally-ill adults, in a shift in regional end-of-life policy. 

The country’s lawmakers passed the bill following a closely watched parliamentary vote with 50 votes in favor, 34 against and three abstaining. The vote also focused on a national referendum demanding expanded end-of-life rights. 

The legislation comes after a consultative referendum last year in which 55% of voters supported the right to end-of-life autonomy. While the move is being praised as historic, the law’s implementation will not be immediate as the procedures and oversight mechanisms are still being developed.

The law applies to terminally ill adults who are experiencing unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement. In order for candidates to qualify, they must be mentally competent and have already exhausted their available treatment options. Individuals suffering solely from mental illness will be excluded from eligibility. The patient has to provide informed, voluntary, and repeated consent. It is believed that the process may require evaluation by multiple medical professionals.

Although it is being hailed as a landmark move, it will not be immediately implemented as the detailed procedures and oversight mechanisms are still being finalized. 

‘This is a victory for compassion and dignity,’ said one lawmaker in support of the bill. A civil rights group opposed to the law referendum to overturn the measure.

A civil rights group opposing the new law pledged on Friday to seek public backing for a potential attempt to force a referendum on the measure.

Several other countries, including Canada, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia and Colombia, have legalized the so-called death with dignity.

Last month, Britain’s parliament voted to legalize assisted dying, although the bill must still clear the upper chamber of parliament.

In the U.S., 11 states allow medical aid in dying: Delaware, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Lawmakers in some other states are considering similar legislation.

Washington, D.C., also permits physician-assisted suicide.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Edwin J. Feulner, a prominent figure in the American conservative movement and co-founder and former president of the Heritage Foundation, died on Friday at the age of 83.

Feulner served as the organization’s president from 1977 to 2013 and again from 2017 to 2018. He was well known for transforming the once-obscure think tank into one of the most influential policy powerhouses in Washington, D.C.

He was its longest-serving president after helping to create the Washington, D.C.-based think tank in 1973.

‘Ed Feulner was more than a leader—he was a visionary, a builder, and a patriot of the highest order,’ Heritage President Kevin Roberts and Board of Trustees Chairman Barb Van Andel-Gaby said in a joint statement. ‘His unwavering love of country and his determination to safeguard the principles that made America the freest, most prosperous nation in human history shaped every fiber of the conservative movement—and still do.’

The group had organized Project 2025, a controversial initiative that offered right-wing policy recommendations for the second Trump administration. Feulner co-wrote the initiative’s afterward and he and Roberts met with President Donald Trump ahead of last year’s election. Feulner was also on Trump’s transition team ahead of his first term.

Under his leadership, Heritage instituted a new model of conservative policy advocacy. This helped shape Reagan-era reforms and pushed market-based ideas into political mainstream. Feulner has remained active through Project 2025 and a transition plan for a second Trump term which is drawing praise and criticism for its hardline policy proposals.

An author of nine books and a former congressional aide, he was also involved in various other conservative organizations.

‘Whether he was bringing together the various corners of the conservative movement at meetings of the Philadelphia Society, or launching what is now the Heritage Strategy Forum, Ed championed a bold, ‘big-tent conservatism,” Roberts and Andel-Gaby wrote. ‘He believed in addition, not subtraction. Unity, not uniformity. One of his favorite mantras was ‘You win through multiplication and addition, not through division and subtraction.’ His legacy is not just the institution he built, but the movement he helped grow—a movement rooted in faith, family, freedom, and the founding. ‘

‘His ‘Feulnerisms’ still resonate in the halls of Heritage—where they will always be remembered. ‘People are policy,’ for instance— the heartbeat of his mission—to equip, encourage, and elevate a new generation of conservative leaders, not just in Washington, but across this great country,’ the statement continued. ‘And we still remember his adjuration to never be complacent or discouraged: ‘In Washington, there are no permanent victories and no permanent defeats.”

Roberts and Andel-Gaby vowed to honor Feulner’s life by ‘carrying his mission forward with courage, integrity, and determination.’

‘Thank you for showing us what one faithful, fearless man can do when he refuses to cede ground in the fight for self-governance,’ the leaders said of Feulner.

Heritage did not disclose Feulner’s cause of death.

Feulner is survived by his wife Lina, as well as their children and grandchildren.

President Trump has been in office for six months, delivering on campaign promises, securing his ‘big beautiful bill’ by his self-imposed deadline and taking decisive action on the world stage.

The president was sworn into office Jan. 20, and the Trump administration has operated at warp speed since Day One.

Key tenets of Trump’s first 100 days included imposing harsh tariffs on Chinese imports, starting and continuing peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, and cracking down on border security amid a mass deportation initiative. 

The next chapter of the second Trump administration began, with the House of Representatives, as promised, passing Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ before Memorial Day, sending it to the Senate for weeks of negotiations.

The Senate made its changes, approved the legislation and kicked it back to the House just in time for the lower chamber to pass the bill before Trump’s self-imposed Fourth of July deadline. 

The president welcomed House and Senate Republican leadership to the White House July 4 for a signing ceremony on his landmark legislation, which included key provisions that would permanently establish individual and business tax breaks included in his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and incorporate new tax deductions to cut duties on tips and overtime pay. 

Trump’s second administration has also focused on the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was run by Elon Musk. DOGE proposed cuts to programs that the Trump administration chalked up to wasteful and excessive government spending.

Congressional lawmakers prepped a rescissions package — a bill to codify those DOGE cuts into law. Congress passed that package by its deadline. 

Trump signed the package Friday, which blocks $8 billion in funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and $1 billion to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for the remainder of the fiscal year. The dollars had been allocated by Congress for the duration of fiscal year 2025.

As for Musk, his ‘special government employee’ window expired, and he returned to the private sector. Shortly after, Musk started a short-lived feud with the president, who chose not to prolong the tensions. Trump only hit his former ally briefly, and carried on with business as usual, leaving Musk to a lonely rant on social media.

Meanwhile, on the world stage, the president ordered strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. 

Trump’s historic precision strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in June hit their targets and ‘destroyed’ and ‘badly damaged’ the facilities’ critical infrastructure — an assessment agreed upon by Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Israel and the United States. 

But Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently issued his latest threat against the U.S. and ‘its dog on a leash, the Zionist regime (Israel),’ saying that Iran’s attack on U.S. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar was just the beginning of what Tehran could throw at Washington. He warned that ‘an even bigger blow could be inflicted on the U.S. and others.’

Iran has until the end of August to agree to a nuclear deal with the United States and its allies, Fox News has learned. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom set the de facto deadline, according to three sources with knowledge of a call Wednesday among the officials. 

If Iran fails to agree to a deal, it would trigger the ‘snapback’ mechanism that automatically reimposes all sanctions previously imposed by the United Nations Security Council. 

The sanctions were lifted under the 2015 Iran deal. 

In his first six months as president, Trump also signed a sweeping order blocking travel to the U.S. from nearly 20 countries identified as high-risk for terrorism, visa abuse and failure to share security information.

The travel restrictions — announced under executive order 14161 — apply to nationals from 12 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Libya and Yemen, all deemed ‘very high risk’ due to terrorist activity, weak or hostile governments, and high visa overstay rates. 

Domestically, the president has focused efforts on securing the border, with border crossings at a record low.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported the lowest number of border crossings in recorded history in June. Nationwide, there were 25,228 CBP encounters, the lowest monthly number the agency has recorded, including a ‘historical low’ of 8,024 apprehensions. Encounters include legal ports of entry, whereas apprehensions are arrests of those coming into the United States illegally. 

As for tariffs, the Trump administration had leveled tariffs as high as 145% on Chinese goods following the president’s reciprocal tariff plans in April, when China retaliated against the U.S. with tariffs of its own. China and the U.S. reached a preliminary trade agreement in May, which Trump said China violated in a Truth Social post at the end of May.  

An agreement was reached between the U.S. and China in June, which includes China supplying rare earth materials to the U.S., and that Trump will ‘work closely’ with Chinese President Xi Jinping ‘to open up China to American Trade.’

‘Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China,’ Trump said in June. ‘Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!). We are getting a total of 55% tariffs, China is getting 10%. Relationship is excellent!’ 

The president also celebrated the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday with a massive parade in Washington June 14 — kicking off a yearlong extravaganza leading up to America’s 250th birthday.

Outside the White House, Trump administration agencies have delivered on promises. 

The Department of Education unveiled plans to scale down its workforce, terminating nearly 1,400 Education Department employees. The Supreme Court upheld Trump’s move.

The Justice Department released the audio of former President Joe Biden’s interview with former Special Counsel Robert Hur. Hur was investigating Biden for alleged improper retention of classified records.

Congressional lawmakers had been demanding the audio of that interview be released since 2024, after the transcript of Biden’s interview was littered with mistakes and revealed significant memory lapses.

The Department of Justice also has started an investigation into Biden’s pardons his final days in office to determine whether they are valid. Fox News Digital has learned the pardons, in his final weeks in office, were signed by autopen, with just one signed by hand — the pardon for his son Hunter. 

Trump has also directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to make public any relevant grand jury testimony relating to the Jeffrey Epstein case. 

Over at the FBI, CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, intelligence officials and political appointees are in the process of declassifying all records related to the Trump–Russia investigation, also known as ‘Crossfire Hurricane.’

Fox News Digital also exclusively reported that former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan are under criminal investigation relating to their actions tied to the Trump–Russia probe.

Fox News’ Emma Colton, Diana Stancy, Elizabeth Elkind and Louis Casiano contributed to this report. 

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is applauding a letter sent Thursday by Republican lawmakers to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, urging the agency to stop using taxpayer dollars for experiments on animals conducted in foreign laboratories. 

The letter, signed by Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., highlights concerns about the lack of oversight and inadequate standards in certain foreign facilities. 

The bipartisan Cease Animal Research Grants Overseas (CARGO) Act—led by the Republicans along with Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.—seeks to end NIH funding for animal experiments outside the U.S. and ensure taxpayer dollars are not misused for the unnecessary suffering of animals.

Between 2011 and 2021, the NIH issued more than $2.2 billion in grants for controversial research in 45 countries.

According to the letter, the ‘research’ included genetically altering cats to be born with deformed legs, infecting bats with diseases that were transmissible and fatal to humans, and force-feeding mice human feces.

Nehls and Scott noted there are little to no inspections at the facilities where research is conducted or where the animals are housed, and there is inadequate auditing of foreign NIH-funded animal studies, resulting in significant gaps in oversight and accountability of how taxpayer dollars are being used. 

‘It is deeply concerning that American taxpayer dollars have been used to fund harmful and abusive animal experiments overseas that lack the same oversight and accountability as labs here in the United States,’ Nehls and Scott wrote in the letter. ‘…It is a waste of resources that should be allocated to more ethical and effective research practices that do not involve animals.’

PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo said the organization is grateful to Nehls, Scott, Titus and Booker for serving as the lead sponsors of the CARGO Act.

‘This effort represents a significant step in halting cruel and wasteful animal experimentation abroad, and it aligns with the Trump Administration’s broader shift toward more relevant, non-animal research methods,’ Guillermo wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘We are excited to continue working alongside these dedicated lawmakers to pass the CARGO Act and ensure that taxpayer money is no longer used to support pointless and unethical research.’

The CARGO Act was introduced following a PETA investigation into Caucaseco Scientific Research Center, a discredited Colombian laboratory with a history of violating animal care standards. 

Caucaseco Scientific Research Center received more than $17 million in U.S. funding, and the Biden administration’s NIH encouraged additional funding, even after it was caught confining monkeys in filthy conditions, leaving them to die from infected wounds, and starving mice to the point of cannibalism, according to PETA.

The PETA investigation reportedly led to multiple investigations by local authorities, the rescues of 108 monkeys and 180 mice, and the retraction of a research publication.

‘The letter’s request for NIH to immediately cease funding animal experiments in foreign labs is a crucial step toward protecting animals and ensuring taxpayer dollars are used responsibly,’ Guillermo wrote. ‘PETA remains committed to advocating for legislative and policy changes that prioritize ethical, practical, and non-animal research.’

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the United States does not support recent Israeli airstrikes on Syria and called for ‘dialogue’ between the two Middle East powers.

‘The United States unequivocally condemns the violence. All parties must step back and engage in meaningful dialogue that leads to a lasting ceasefire,’ Bruce announced at a State Department press briefing Thursday afternoon. 

On Wednesday, Israeli airstrikes in the Syrian capital of Damascus struck the country’s Defense Ministry headquarters and an area near the presidential palace, killing three and injuring dozens of others, according to reports. 

The Israeli military said it was intervening to defend the minority Druze population in southern Syria, a community that shares a border with Israel, amid armed skirmishes between local Bedouin Sunni tribes and the recently installed Syrian government.

‘We are acting decisively to prevent the entrenchment of hostile elements beyond the border, protect Israeli citizens and prevent harm to Druze civilians,’ Eyal Zamir, chief of the Israeli Defense Forces’ general staff, said during a situational assessment at the Syrian border.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday afternoon that an agreement had been reached between Israel and Syria to end the ‘troubling and horrifying situation.’

‘This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made, and this is what we fully expect them to do,’ he added.

‘Thankful to all sides for their break from chaos and confusion as we attempt to navigate all parties to a more durable and peaceful solution in Syria,’ U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack added.

When asked Thursday what prompted the Israeli strikes and whether the U.S. suspected any foreign fighters, like ISIS, of being involved in the conflict in Syria between the Bedouins and the Druze, Bruce said there will need to be continued investigation to figure out exactly why this Israeli airstrike occurred.

Rubio said Wednesday he believed Israel’s strike on the Syrian capital of Damascus was ‘likely’ due to ‘a misunderstanding.’

Bruce on Thursday responded to reporters’ questions about what U.S. officials meant when they said ‘confusion’ and ‘misunderstanding’ from Israel were what led to their involvement. 

‘This is an ancient rivalry between the Druze and the Bedouins and violence ensued, the Syrians moving to that area to quell and stop that violence. And the Israelis, who see that occurring to the Druze community and their concerns, then entered what they assessed was something larger than what, or even not what it was at all,’ Bruce said at Thursday’s briefing. 

‘The good news is, the story is, it stopped, as within the management of that larger conflict. Again, there’s still skirmishes and other issues. … The Syrian government is going to have to lead — obviously, there will be other involvement — but lead in to this de-escalation and to the stability.’

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.

Senators are not thrilled with a top White House official’s comments that the government funding process should become more partisan, and fear that doing so could erode Congress’ power of the purse.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought told reporters during a Christian Science Monitor Breakfast Thursday morning that he believed ‘the appropriations process has to be less bipartisan.’

His sentiment came on the heels of Senate Republicans advancing President Donald Trump’s $9 billion clawback package, which would cancel congressionally approved funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, just a few hours before.

Unlike the hyper-partisan bills that have dominated the Senate’s recent agenda, including the rescissions package and the president’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ the appropriations process is typically a bipartisan affair in the upper chamber.

That is because, normally, most bills brought to the floor have to pass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, and with the GOP’s narrow majority, Senate Democrats will need to pass any spending bills or government funding extensions to ward off a partial government shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who alluded to issues down the line with the appropriations process if Republicans advanced Trump’s resicssions package, took a harsh stance against Vought. 

‘Donald Trump should fire Russell Vought immediately, before he destroys our democracy and runs the country into the ground,’ Schumer said. 

Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee also did not take kindly to Vought’s comments.

‘I think he disrespects it,’ Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said. ‘I think he thinks that we are irrelevant, and I wish I had actually heard the speech, because, you know, again, everything in context.’

‘But you have to admit that when you look at the quotes that are highlighted in the story this morning, it is pretty dismissive of the appropriations process, pretty dismissive,’ she continued.

Vought has no intention of slowing the rescissions train coming from the White House, and said that there would be more rescissions packages on the way.

He noted another would ‘come soon,’ as lawmakers in the House close in on a vote to send the first clawback package to the president’s desk.

‘There is no voter in the country that went to the polls and said, ‘I’m voting for a bipartisan appropriations process,’’ Vought said. ‘That may be the view of something that appropriators want to maintain.’

Both Murkowski and Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted against the rescissions package, and warned of the cuts to public broadcasting, lack of transparency from the OMB and the possible effect it could have on legislating in the upper chamber.

‘I disagree with both those statements,’ Collins said of Vought’s push for a more partisan appropriations process. ‘Just as with the budget that the President submitted, we had to repeatedly ask him and the agencies to provide us with the detailed account information, which amounts to 1000s of pages that our appropriators and their staff meticulously review.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the OMB for comment. 

Vought’s comments came at roughly the same time as appropriators were holding a mark-up hearing of the military construction and veterans’ affairs and Commerce, Justice and Science spending bills.

Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said during the hearing that Senate Republicans coalescing behind the rescissions package would only make hammering out spending bills more difficult, and argued that ‘trust’ was at the core of the process.

‘That’s part of why bipartisan bills are so important,’ she said. ‘But everyone has to understand getting to the finish line always depends on our ability to work together in a bipartisan way, and it also depends on trust.’

Other Republicans on the panel emphasized a similar point, that, without some kind of cooperation, advancing spending bills would become even more challenging.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said that finding ‘critical mass’ to move spending bills was important, and warned that people have to ‘quit saying it’s gotta just be my way or the highway,’ following threats Schumer’s threats last week that the appropriations process could suffer should the rescissions package pass. 

‘People better start recognizing that we’re all gonna have to work together and hopefully get these [appropriations] bills to the floor and see what we can move,’ he said. ‘But if somebody just sits up and says, ‘Oh, because there’s a rescission bill, then I’m not going to work on Appropriations,’ you can always find an excuse not to do something. Let’s figure out how we can work forward.’

What can you get for $9.4 billion?

3G Capital recently purchased footwear giant Skechers for $9.4 billion. 

$9.4 billion could cover your rent for a pretty nice apartment in New York City for more than 40,000 years. 

Yes, it will just be you and the cockroaches by then. 

Or, you could pay the cost of every major disaster in the past four decades – ranging from Chernobyl to Fukushima to Hurricane Sandy. 

But $9.4 billion isn’t a lot when cast against nearly $7 trillion in annual spending by the federal government. 

And it’s really not much money when you consider that the U.S. is about slip into the red to the tune of $37 trillion. 

Which brings us to the Congressional plan to cancel spending. That is, a measure from Republicans and the Trump Administration to rescind spending lawmakers already appropriated in March. The House and Senate are now clawing back money lawmakers shoved out the door for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and foreign aid programs under USAID. The original proposal cut $9.4 billion. But that figure dwindled to $9 billion – after the Senate restored money for ‘PEPFAR,’ a President George W. Bush era program to combat AIDS worldwide. 

In other words, you may have a couple thousand years lopped off from your rent-controlled apartment in New York City. Of course that hinges on what Democratic mayoral nominee Zorhan Mamdani decides to do, should he win election this fall. 

Anyway, back to Congressional spending. Or ‘un-spending.’ 

The House passed the original version of the bill in June, 216-214. Flip one vote and the bill would have failed on a 215-215 tie. Then it was on to the Senate. Republicans had to summon Vice President Vance to Capitol Hill to break a logjam on two procedural votes to send the spending cancellation bill to the floor and actually launch debate. Republicans have a 53-47 advantage in the Senate. But former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., along with Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska and Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted nay – producing a 50-50 tie.

Fox is told some Senate Republicans are tiring of McConnell opposing the GOP – and President Trump – on various issues. That includes the nay votes to start debate on the spending cancellation bill as well as his vote against the confirmation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in January.

‘He used to be the Leader. He was always telling us we need to stick together,’ said one GOP senator who requested anonymity. ‘Now he’s off voting however he wants? How time flies.’

Note that McConnell led Senate Republicans as recently as early January.

But McConnell ultimately voted for the legislation when the Senate approved it 51-48 at 2:28 am ET Thursday morning. 

Murkowski and Collins were the only noes. The services of Vice President Vance weren’t needed due to McConnell’s aye vote and the absence of Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn. She fell ill and was admitted to George Washington Hospital for exhaustion. 

As for the senior senator from Alaska, one GOP senator characterized it as ‘Murkowski fatigue.’

‘She always asking. She’s always wanting more,’ groused a Senate Republican.

Murkowski secured an agreement on rural hospitals in exchange for her vote in favor of the Big, Beautiful Bill earlier this month. However, Murkowski did not secure more specificity on the DOGE cuts or help with rural, public radio stations in Alaska on the spending cut plan.

‘My vote is guided by the imperative of coming from Alaskans. I have a vote that I am free to cast, with or without the support of the President. My obligation is to my constituents and to the Constitution,’ said Murkowski. ‘I don’t disagree that NPR over the years has tilted more partisan. That can be addressed. But you don’t need to gut the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting.’ 

In a statement, Collins blasted the Trump administration for a lack of specificity about the precision of the rescissions request. Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee in charge of the federal purse strings, also criticized the administration a few months ago for a paucity of detail in the President’s budget. 

‘The rescissions package has a big problem – nobody really knows what program reductions are in it.  That isn’t because we haven’t had time to review the bill,’ said Collins in a statement. ‘Instead, the problem is that OMB (the Office of Management and Budget) has never provided the details that would normally be part of this process.’

Collins wasn’t the only Republican senator who worried about how the administration presented the spending cut package to Congress. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss.,  fretted about Congress ceding the power of the purse to the administration. But unlike Collins, Wicker supported the package.

‘If we do this again, please give us specific information about where the cuts will come. Let’s not make a habit of this,’ said Wicker. ‘If you come back to us again from the executive branch, give us the specific amounts in the specific programs that will be cut.’

DOGE recommended the cuts. In fact, most of the spending reductions targeted by DOGE don’t go into effect unless Congress acts. But even the $9.4 billion proved challenging to cut. 

‘We should be able to do that in our sleep. But there is looking like there’s enough opposition,’ said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Fox Business.

So to court votes, GOP leaders salvaged $400 million for PEPFAR.

‘There was a lot of interest among our members in doing something on the PEPFAR issue,’ said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. ‘You’re still talking about a $9 billion rescissions package – even with that small modification.’

The aim to silence public broadcasting buoyed some Republicans.

‘North Dakota Public Radio – about 26% of their budget is federal funding. To me, that’s more of an indictment than it is a need,’ said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. 

But back to the $9 billion. It’s a fraction of one-tenth of one percent of all federal funding. And DOGE recommended more than a trillion dollars in cuts.

‘What does this say for the party if it can’t even pass this bill, this piddling amount of money?’ yours truly asked Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.

‘I think we’re going to lose a lot of credibility. And we should,’ replied Kennedy.

But the House needed to sync up with the Senate since it changed the bill – stripping the cut for AIDS funding. House conservatives weren’t pleased that the Senate was jamming them again – just two weeks after major renovations to the House version of the Big, Beautiful Bill. But they accepted their fate.

‘It’s disappointing that we’re $37 trillion in debt. This to me was low-hanging fruit,’ said Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo. ‘At the end of the day, I’ll take a base hit, right? It’s better than nothing.’

White House Budget Director Russ Vought is expected to send other spending cancellation requests to Congress in the coming months. The aim is to target deeper spending reductions recommended by DOGE. 

But it doesn’t auger well for future rescissions bills if it’s this much of a battle to trim $9 trillion.

What can you get for that much money? For Republicans, it’s not much. 

Republicans were swinging for the fences with spending cuts.

But in the political box score, this is recorded as just a base hit.

Congress is officially sending a package detailing $9 billion in spending cuts to President Donald Trump’s desk, minutes after midnight on Friday.

The bill, called a ‘rescissions package,’ was approved by the House of Representatives in a late-night 216 to 213 vote after intense debate between Republicans and Democrats. Just two Republicans, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Mike Turner, R-Ohio, voted in opposition.

Friday was also the deadline for passing the legislation, otherwise the White House would be forced to re-obligate those funds as planned.

It’s a victory for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., but a mostly symbolic one – the spending cuts bill was largely seen by Trump allies as a test run of a fiscal claw-back process not used in more than two decades.

‘This bill tonight is part of continuing that trend of getting spending under control. Does it answer all the problems? No. $9 billion, I would say is a good start,’ House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said during debate on the bill.

When signed by Trump, it will block $8 billion in funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and $1 billion to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for the remainder of the fiscal year. The dollars had been allocated by Congress for the duration of fiscal year 2025.

Republicans celebrated it as a victory for cutting off the flow of U.S. taxpayer dollars to what they called ‘woke’ initiatives abroad, while Democrats accused the right of gutting critical foreign aid.

Rescissions packages are a way for the president to have input in Congress’ yearly appropriations process. The White House sends a proposal to block some congressionally obligated funds, which lawmakers have 45 days to get through the House and Senate.

Republicans have also been able to sideline Democrats so far, with the rescissions process lowering the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51.

The last time a rescissions package was signed into law was 1999.

Consideration of the bill began with a House Rules Committee hearing at 6 p.m. on Thursday evening.

Democrats attempted multiple times throughout the process to weaponize the ongoing inter-GOP fallout over the Jeffrey Epstein case, both in the House Rules Committee and on the chamber floor during debate on the bill. 

Multiple calls were made for votes to force the release of the so-called Epstein ‘files.’

‘If every Republican votes to block our attempt to release the records, they are telling Epstein’s victims, you don’t matter as much as our political convenience. And that should disgust every single one of us,’ said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.

Far-right GOP figures are demanding accountability, while Trump has called on his base to move on after the Department of Justice (DOJ) signaled the case was closed.

Initial plans to begin advancing the bill earlier in the day were quickly scuttled, with Republicans on the committee being concerned about being put into a difficult position with potential Epstein votes.

In the end, a compromise led to the House Rules Committee advancing a separate nonbinding measure dealing with Epstein transparency, on a parallel track to the rescissions bill.

‘All the credible evidence should come out. I’ve been very clear with members of the House Rules Committee. Republicans have been taking the incoming criticism because they voted to stop the Democrats’ politicization of this, and they’re trying to stick to their job and move their procedural rules to the floor so we can do our work and get the rescissions done for the American people,’ Johnson told reporters during negotiations earlier in the day.

Democrats nevertheless pressed on, mentioning Epstein multiple times on the House floor. McGovern even briefly led a chant of ‘release the files’ when closing debate on the bill.

Republicans, in turn, accused Democrats of hypocrisy.

‘Interesting how they talk about Jeffrey Epstein, because for four years, Mr. Speaker, President Joe Biden had those files, and not a single Democrat that you’re hearing tonight tried to get those files released,’ House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said at one point during the House floor debate.

The House initially voted to advance a $9.4 billion rescissions package, but it was trimmed somewhat in the Senate after some senators had concerns about cutting funding for HIV/AIDS prevention research in Africa.

Trump is expected to sign the bill on Friday.

Former Biden administration staffer Annie Tomasini is expected to appear before congressional investigators on Friday after being subpoenaed by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.

Tomasini, former Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for ex-President Joe Biden, was previously scheduled to appear for a voluntary transcribed interview on Friday.

A committee aide told Fox News Digital earlier this week that Tomasini’s counsel requested the subpoena, but did not say why. 

When she arrives for the 10 a.m. closed-door deposition on Friday, she will be the third ex-Biden administration aide to come under subpoena in Comer’s probe in recent weeks.

Comer is investigating allegations that Former President Joe Biden’s former top White House aides covered up signs of his mental and physical decline while in office, and whether any executive actions were commissioned via autopen without the president’s full knowledge. Biden allies have pushed back against those claims.

In an interview with The New York Times on Thursday, Biden affirmed he ‘made every decision’ on his own.

Just before Tomasini, House investigators heard from Anthony Bernal, a longtime aide to ex-first lady Jill Biden. 

Bernal pleaded the Fifth Amendment on all questions about Biden and was out of the committee room less than an hour after going in.

Lawmakers are largely not expected to attend the closed-door deposition, which is traditionally staff-led.

Comer has been to several so far, and progressive firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, has made surprise appearances as well.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson revealed in their book, ‘Original Sin,’ that Tomasini and Bernal ‘loaded a written Q&A into a prompter ahead of a local interview – a document that the campaign had used in prep with Biden.’

Tomasini and Bernal brought out the teleprompter as his aides were trying to soften his blunders as Biden struggled to stay on message, according to the book. But the teleprompter fiasco became an easy attack line throughout Biden’s re-election campaign, as President Donald Trump ‘weaved’ through his myriad unscripted moments.

The book described how Tomasini and Bernal grew closer to Biden during the pandemic, eventually becoming Joe and Jill Biden’s most trusted aides. 

Tapper and Thompson describe the ‘intensely loyal’ duo – Tomasini and Bernal – as taking on an ‘older-brother-and-little-sister vibe’ among Biden’s inner circle.  

Bernal and Tomasini later took on some of the residence staffers’ roles in the White House. Tapper and Thompson said the aides ‘had all-time access to the living quarters, with their White House badges reading ‘Res’ – uncommon for such aides.’

‘The significance of Bernal and Tomasini is the degree to which their rise in the Biden White House signaled the success of people whose allegiance was to the Biden family – not to the presidency, not to the American people, not to the country, but to the Biden theology,’ the authors wrote. 

A source familiar with the Biden team’s thinking called House Republicans’ probe ‘dangerous’ and ‘an attempt to smear and embarrass.’

‘And their hope is for just one tiny inconsistency between witnesses to appear so that Trump’s DOJ prosecute his political opponents and continue his campaign of revenge,’ the source said.