The White House is expected to send a federal spending cut proposal to Congress next week, two Republican sources told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

It is the latest move by Republican officials to make good on promises to slash government spending, a project spearheaded by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The proposal is called a ‘rescissions package,’ a vehicle for the president to block funds that were already allocated by Congress in its yearly appropriations process. Once transmitted to Capitol Hill, lawmakers have 45 days to take it up before it’s voided.

An Office of Management and Budget (OMB) official told Fox News Digital the package is expected to total roughly $9.4 billion.

It will primarily target federal funding to NPR, PBS and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the official said, confirming details first reported by Axios.

A third GOP source told Fox News Digital that House GOP leaders had asked the White House to wait until their chamber finished their consideration of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ to send its spending-cut package.

The House passed the massive piece of tax-and-spending legislation last week after an all-night session of debate and procedural votes, sending it to the Senate for further consideration.

That bill, which is being advanced under the budget reconciliation process, primarily deals with mandatory government funding that Congress must change by amending the law itself.

A rescissions package targets discretionary government funding, which Congress sets the levels of every year in its annual appropriations process.

The White House referred Fox News Digital to OMB when reached for comment.

The package is expected to get to Congress just as Musk is beginning to step away from his role leading DOGE – but is apparently still keeping a close eye on governmental affairs.

The billionaire tech founder criticized Republicans’ ‘big, beautiful bill’ on ‘CBS News Sunday Morning,’ saying in a preview clip that he was ‘disappointed’ by it.

‘I think a bill can be big, or it could be beautiful. But I don’t know if it could be both,’ Musk said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., vowed the House would do more to codify DOGE cuts in a statement after Musk’s message.

‘The House is eager and ready to act on DOGE’s findings so we can deliver even more cuts to big government that President Trump wants and the American people demand. We will do that in two ways,’ Johnson wrote on X.

‘1. When the White House sends its rescissions package to the House, we will act quickly by passing legislation to codify the cuts. 2. The House will use the appropriations process to swiftly implement President Trump’s 2026 budget. In the meantime, we have been working around the clock as we prepared for those processes. The House made sure to build on DOGE’s success within the One Big Beautiful Bill.’

Musk’s commentary, meanwhile, divided House Republicans on Wednesday.

‘This is why Mr. Musk has no place in Congress. He wants to codify discretionary cuts. He didn’t find enough waste, fraud, and abuse to fund [the Small Business Administration], let alone reduce our debt,’ one House GOP lawmaker granted anonymity to speak freely told Fox News Digital. ‘This was a gimmick, he got used, he’s now upset.’

Meanwhile, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., who voted ‘present’ on the legislation last week, told Fox News Digital that he believed Musk was right.

‘I share Mr. Musk’s concerns about the short-term adverse effect on the federal deficit of the limited spending reductions in the BBB. Debt markets remain concerned about US total debt and annual deficits,’ Harris said.

The House is expected to begin working on fiscal year (FY) 2026 appropriations next week, though the rescission package deals with FY 2025 funding.

Additionally, the 45-day deadline for that is not the only marker on the horizon – identical FY 2026 spending bills must pass the House and Senate by the end of the current fiscal year on September 30 to avert a partial government shutdown.

 — A new intelligence report claims Iran is continuing with its active nuclear weapons program, which it says can be used to launch missiles over long distances. 

The startling intelligence gathering of Austrian officials contradicts the assessment of the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).  Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a Senate Intelligence Committee in March that the American intelligence community ‘continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.’

Austria’s version of the FBI — the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution — wrote Monday in an intelligence report,’In order to assert and enforce its regional political power ambitions, the Islamic Republic of Iran is striving for comprehensive rearmament, with nuclear weapons to make the regime immune to attack and to expand and consolidate its dominance in the Middle East and beyond.’

The Austrian domestic intelligence agency report added, ‘The Iranian nuclear weapons development program is well advanced, and Iran possesses a growing arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads over long distances.’

According to an intelligence document obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital, ‘Iran has developed sophisticated sanctions-evasion networks, which has benefited Russia.’ 

The Austrian intelligence findings could be an unwanted wrench in President Trump’s negotiation process to resolve the atomic crisis with Iran’s rulers because the data outlined in the report suggests the regime will not abandon its drive to secure a nuclear weapon.

In response to the Austrian intelligence, a White House official told Fox News Digital, ‘President Trump is committed to Iran never obtaining a nuclear weapon or the capacity to build one.’

The danger of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism (and its illegal atomic weapons program) was cited 99 times in the 211-page report that covers pressing threats to Austria’s democracy. 

‘Vienna is home to one of the largest embassies of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Europe, which disguises intelligence officers with diplomatic,’ the Austrian intelligence report noted.

‘Iranian intelligence services are familiar with developing and implementing circumvention strategies for the procurement of military equipment, proliferation-sensitive technologies, and materials for weapons of mass destruction,’ the Austrian intelligence agency said.

In 2021, a Belgium court convicted Asadollah Asadi, a former Iranian diplomat based in Vienna, for planning to blow up a 2018 opposition meeting of tens of thousands of Iranian dissidents held outside Paris. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served as President Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, attended the event in France.

When asked about the differences in conclusions between the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Austrian intelligence report, David Albright, a physicist and founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital, ‘The ODNI report is stuck in the past, a remnant of the fallacious unclassified 2007 NIE [National Intelligence Estimate].

‘The Austrian report in general is similar to German and British assessments. Both governments, by the way, made clear to (the) U.S. IC [intelligence community] in 2007 that they thought the U.S. assessment was wrong that the Iranian nuclear weapons program ended in 2003.

‘The German assessment is from BND [Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service] station chief in D.C. at that time. The British info is from a senior British non-proliferation official I was having dinner with the day the 2007 NIE was made public. The German said the U.S. was misinterpreting data they all possessed.’ 

The Austrian intelligence findings that Tehran is working on an active atomic weapons program ‘seems clear enough,’ said Albright.

In 2023, Fox News Digital revealed a fresh batch of European intelligence reports showed that Iran sought to bypass U.S. and EU sanctions to secure technology for its nuclear weapons program with a view toward testing an atomic bomb.

European intelligence agencies have documented prior to 2015 and after the Iran nuclear deal( JCPOA) was agreed upon that Tehran continued efforts to illegally secure technology for its atomic, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction programs. 

The Austrian intelligence report noted that Iran provides weapons to the U.S.-designated terrorist movements Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as to Syrian militias.

A spokesperson for ODNI declined to comment. The U.S. State Department and U.S. National Security Council did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital press queries.

President Donald Trump announced he will nominate Emil Bove, a Justice Department official and his former defense attorney, to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, a controversial choice that comes as the president continues to attack so-called ‘activist’ judges for blocking his agenda.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump praised Bove as ‘SMART, TOUGH, and respected by everyone.’

‘He will end the Weaponization of Justice, restore the Rule of Law, and do anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,’ Trump added.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi also praised his nomination on X. Emil has been ‘indispensable partner at the Department of Justice’ she said, and ‘has worked tirelessly from day one as we make America safe again.’

‘It is hard to imagine going to work without Emil, but our loss here at DOJ will be the country’s gain!’ she added.

There are two vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. If confirmed, Bove he would serve a lifetime appointment on the federal bench.

Bove faces an uncertain path to confirmation, as Democrats have sharply criticized President Trump’s efforts to install loyalists atop the DOJ and FBI. His nomination is likely to spark a contentious confirmation battle, with Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats expected to use the process to press Bove under oath on some of the administration’s most controversial actions.

Ed Whelan, a conservative legal scholar and senior Justice Department official during the George W. Bush administration, voiced some of these concerns on social media Wednesday afternoon. 

‘Trump’s assurance that Emil Bove as a judge would do ‘anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN’ presents an odd and highly politicized understanding of the judicial role,’ he said on X. 

News of his nomination comes weeks after Trump installed Ed Martin, his controversial former nominee to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, to serve as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney. The role gives Martin broad oversight, including leadership of the so-called ‘weaponization working group’ within the Justice Department formed under Trump.

Prior to his installation at the Justice Department, Bove spent nearly 10 years as a U.S. prosecutor for the Southern District of New York. He also defended Trump in two of his criminal trials following his first term in the White House.

In each of these roles and at DOJ, Bove’s hard-charging tactics have solidified his reputation as a fierce, loyal and, at times, aggressive leader. 

He has emerged as the man behind some of the Justice Department’s most contentious actions during Trump’s second term, prompting some officials to resign rather than carry out his marching orders. 

Shortly after taking office, Bove sent a memo threatening state and city officials with criminal charges or civil penalties if they failed to comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration or slow-walked their orders on enforcement. 

It was also Bove who ordered federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York to file a motion to dismiss charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. That order prompted a string of resignations from personnel, including acting U.S attorney for the section Danielle Sassoon, who chose to leave DOJ rather than drop the case.

Fox News also reported earlier this year that Bove was behind an exhaustive questionnaire sent to FBI agents detailing their roles in the Jan. 6 investigations. 

Questions ranged from agents’ participation in any grand jury subpoenas to whether the agents worked or responded to leads from another FBI field office or if they worked as a case agent for investigations.

Former Justice Department officials have cited concerns that the probe or any retaliatory measures carried out as a result could have a chilling effect on the work of the FBI, including its more than 52 separate field offices.

Ed Whelan, a conservative legal scholar and senior Justice Department official during the George W. Bush administration, voiced some of these concerns on social media Wednesday afternoon. ‘Trump’s assurance that Emil Bove as a judge would do ‘anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN’ presents an odd and highly politicized understanding of the judicial role,’ he said on X.

The group cited in particular the order from then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove to terminate the entire FBI senior leadership team and the assistant director in charge of the Washington Field Office. 

President Donald Trump said he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy in the coming weeks ‘if necessary.’ 

The president’s comments come just after he condemned Russia’s recent large-scale strike against Ukraine. 

Russian forces launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight Sunday. The attack, which has been called the largest aerial attack of the war so far, targeted the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

Ukrainian officials said that at least 12 people were killed and dozens more were injured.

Though past strikes have proven more deadly, the attack is the largest-scale aerial assault of the war in terms of the number of weapons: 298 drones and 69 missiles were launched.

The president on Wednesday was asked if he believes Putin actually wants to end the war with Ukraine, to which Trump replied: ‘I can’t tell you that, but I’ll let you know in about two weeks.’ 

‘Within two weeks, we’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not,’ Trump told reporters at the Oval Office during a swearing-in ceremony for Jeanine Pirro as interim U.S. attorney. ‘And if he is, we will respond a little bit differently.’ 

Trump said his special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is ‘doing a phenomenal job’ and ‘dealing with them very strongly right now.’ 

‘They seem to want to do something,’ Trump said. 

But Trump again condemned Russia’s attack, saying he is ‘very disappointed at what happened a couple of nights now where people were killed — in what you would call a negotiation.’ 

‘I’m very disappointed by that,’ Trump said. ‘Very, very disappointing.’ 

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed a willingness to sit down again with Trump and with Putin in Geneva. 

When asked if he was planning to sit down with Putin and Zelenskyy, Trump said he would be willing. 

‘Well, if it’s necessary… we have to, I think at this point. I wish you would have been that way a couple of months ago, but at this point, we’re working on President Putin, and we’ll see where we are,’ Trump said. ‘I think we’re doing fine, but we’ll see.’ 

Special Envoy Keith Kellogg is preparing for possible talks in Geneva, though it remains unclear when they will be held. Russia has yet to agree to the U.S.’s peace proposal, and its foreign ministry Tuesday claimed it was still working on its memorandum of terms. 

Russia has suggested a possible meeting in Istabul, Turkey. 

Meanwhile, the president again on Wednesday said: ‘I don’t like what’s happening. It’s one thing I’ll say — I don’t like when I see rockets being shot into cities. That’s no good. We’re not going to allow it.’

The president, over the weekend, blasted Putin, saying he is ‘killing a lot of people.’ 

‘I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,’ he said over the weekend. ‘I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.’ 

In a post on Telegram, Zelenskyy called for an international response to the attack.

‘The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,’ he wrote on Telegram. ‘Every such terrorist Russian strike is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.’

Trump expanded on his comments later Sunday, writing on Truth Social that Putin ‘has gone absolutely CRAZY!’ while also criticizing Zelenskyy.

‘I’ve always said that (Putin) wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!’ the social media post read. ‘Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.’

‘This is a War that would never have started if I were President,’ Trump concluded. ‘This is Zelenskyy’s, Putin’s, and Biden’s War, not ‘Trump’s,’ I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred.’ 

A community in Kansas gathered to celebrate the life of Israeli Embassy employee Sarah Milgrim Tuesday after she was fatally shot alongside her boyfriend, fellow Israeli Embassy employee Yaron Lischinsky, leaving the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last week. 

Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring and was planning to propose to Milgrim before they were both killed, those close to the couple said. The suspect, Elias Rodriguez, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder; murder of foreign officials, a federal capital offense; and multiple gun-related counts. He could face the death penalty if convicted. 

The suspect shouted ‘Free Palestine’ while in police custody, and the fatal shooting is being investigated as a hate crime, according to the FBI. Lawmakers have condemned the violence as an act of antisemitism. 

Speaking with Fox News Digital on Capitol Hill, both Republican and Democratic senators condemned the fatal shooting. 

‘These two young people died senselessly. Israel’s engaging in a war for its very survival. My heart breaks for these two young people in the prime of their lives,’ Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said. 

Lischinsky was 30, and Milgrim was 26. 

‘There’s no room for violence in America,’ Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., told Fox News Digital. ‘I appreciate my colleague, Sen. Rosen, moving a resolution today that no colleagues objected to, bringing attention to antisemitism in America. Anytime anyone is targeted, we need to speak up, not just here, but around the world.’

Senators Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., last week on the Senate Floor condemned what they described as an ‘antisemitic attack’ and celebrated the passage of their bipartisan resolution that recognizes May as Jewish Heritage American Month. 

‘This is everybody’s worst nightmare that people would not only engage in antisemitic rhetoric, but act on it,’ Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said it ‘reminds us all how festering hate and prejudice leads to violence. We have to redouble our efforts to stop any form of prejudice or bigotry.’

‘Obviously, there’s been a rise in antisemitism over the last several years,’ Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital. 

Gillibrand is one of two Democratic senators representing New York, which is home to the largest Jewish population in the United States and also includes Columbia University, the elite Ivy League school in Manhattan that has been accused of allowing antisemitism to fester on campus. 

President Donald Trump has condemned the anti-Israel protests at elite universities, threatening to cut federal funding to institutions that do not condemn antisemitism and threatening to revoke international students’ visas. 

‘It is disgraceful that two young people with their whole lives in front of them can’t go to a reception in a public building in Washington, D.C., and be safe. It is criminal. It is disgraceful. It is intolerable, and we have to do everything we can to stop antisemitism in its tracks and protect people,’ Gillibrand added. 

In an unusual move for active federal court judges, four of them said in a Dispatch opinion piece Wednesday, ‘Societies that persecute Jews are societies that are sick and dying. Societies that allow the moral rot of Jew hatred to proliferate are societies on their way out of the pages of history.’

The Associated Press contributed to this story. 

Israeli United Nations Ambassador Danny Danon condemned what he called a ‘shakedown’ by the U.N. to prevent Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) from working with the new U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

While addressing the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, Danon claimed that the world body was using ‘threats, intimidation and retaliation’ against NGOs that dared to defy the international body’s call to boycott GHF. The Israeli diplomat described the U.N.’s response to NGOs cooperating with GHF as ‘mafia-like.’

‘Without any discussion, without due process, the U.N. removed those NGOs from the shared aid database. That database is the central system for tracking aid deliveries into Gaza,’ Danon told the Security Council. ‘This is the gravest violation of the U.N.’s own principles. It is extortion of well-meaning NGOs that refuse to kiss the ring.’

In the same Security Council meeting, Acting U.S. Alternate Representative John Kelley urged the U.N. to work with GHF and Israel ‘to reach agreements on how to operationalize this system in a way that works for all.’ Kelley also emphasized the need to ensure that Hamas cannot benefit from any humanitarian aid distribution system that is established. 

On Wednesday, GHF said in a statement that it had opened another secure aid distribution site ‘without incident.’ The organization also addressed some claims about its operations. GHF said that, contrary to reports, no Palestinians have been questioned or detained while receiving aid. Additionally, GHF said that no Palestinians had been shot or killed while trying to get aid.

GHF disputes reports that its sites were overrun on Tuesday: ‘GHF anticipated that the [safe distribution sites] may experience pressure due to acute hunger and Hamas-imposed blockades, which create dangerous conditions outside the gates.

‘According to established protocol, for a brief moment the GHF team intentionally relaxed its security protocols to safeguard against crowd reactions to finally receiving food. No beneficiaries were injured, no lives were lost and all food available was distributed without interference. Order was restored without incident. As in all emergency response situations, particularly in conflict zones, this type of reaction from stressed beneficiary populations is expected and we remain prepared to continue providing lifesaving assistance should disruptions occur.

‘Unfortunately, there are many parties who wish to see GHF fail. Conditions remain very difficult and the lives of both Gazans and aid workers are at stake,’ GHF said in a statement.

The international community has not relented in its push against GHF.

U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher — who once called the plan behind GHF a ‘fig leaf for further violence and displacement’ of Palestinians in Gaza — has made his objections to the program clear. Fletcher made an appeal in a post on X to let the U.N. take control of aid distribution in Gaza.

‘We have the supplies, plan, will, and networks to deliver massive amounts of lifesaving aid to civilians in Gaza, in line with humanitarian principles, as the world is demanding,’ Fletcher wrote.

Earlier this month, Fletcher urged the international community not to ‘waste time’ with a new plan when the U.N. already had one in place.

On Wednesday, as Israel marked 600 days since the Oct. 7 massacre, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) noted that ‘121 trucks belonging to the U.N. and the international community’ were allowed into the Gaza Strip. The IDF said that the trucks were carrying food and other aid.

Elon Musk is beginning the process of stepping down from his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO posted on X on Wednesday night that his time as a special government employee is coming to an end and thanked President Donald Trump for the opportunity to cut down on wasteful spending.

‘The ⁦‪@DOGE‬⁩ mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,’ 
Musk wrote in his post. The White House confirmed to FOX that Musk’s post is accurate and offboarding will begin Wednesday night.

Musk has been the public face of DOGE since Trump signed an executive order establishing the office Jan. 20. DOGE has since ripped through federal government agencies in a quest to identify and end government overspending, corruption and fraud.

He was officially hired as a ‘special government employee,’ which is a role Congress created in 1962 that allows the executive or legislative branch to hire temporary employees for specific short-term initiatives.

Special government employees are permitted to work for the federal government for ‘no more than 130 days in a 365-day period,’ according to data from the Office of Government Ethics. Musk’s 130-day timeframe, beginning on Inauguration Day, was set to run dry on May 30.

DOGE is a temporary cross-departmental organization that was established to slim down and streamline the federal government. The group itself will be dissolved on July 4, 2026, according to Trump’s executive order.

Musk and Trump have both previously previewed that Musk’s role was temporary and would come to end in the spring. 

‘You, technically, are a special government employee and you’re supposed to be 130 days,’ Fox News’ Bret Baier asked Musk during an exclusive interview Musk and DOGE team members in April. ‘Are you going to continue past that or do you think that’s what you’re going to do?’ 

‘I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time frame,’ Musk responded. 

Trump hinted at Musk’s departure in comments to the media on March 31, when asked if he wants Musk to remain in a government role for longer than the predetermined 130 days. 

‘I think he’s amazing. But I also think he’s got a big company to run,’ Trump said in March. ‘And so at some point he’s going to be going back.’

‘I’d keep him as long as I can keep him,’ Trump said. ‘He’s a very talented guy. You know, I love very smart people. He’s very smart. And he’s done a good job,’ the president added. ‘DOGE is, we’ve found numbers that nobody can even believe.’ 

More recently, Musk said during a Tesla earnings call on April 22 that he will take a step back from his work as DOGE’s leader. 

‘I think starting probably in next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,’ Musk said during Tesla’s earnings conference call. ‘I’ll have to continue doing it for, I think, the remainder of the president’s term just to make sure the waste and fraud that we stopped does not come roaring back, which it will do if it has the chance. So I think I’ll continue to spend, you know, a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it is useful.’

‘But starting next month,’ he added, ‘I’ll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla now that the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done.’

Amid Musk’s work with DOGE, Democrats and activists have staged protests against the tech billionaire and his companies, including working to tank Tesla stocks. 

Musk has been the public face of DOGE for months, but is not an employee of the United States DOGE Service and does not report to the acting DOGE chief, according to court filing in March that shed additional light on the internal workings of the office. 

‘Elon Musk does not work at USDS. I do not report to him, and he does not report to me. To my knowledge, he is a Senior Advisor to the White House,’ Amy Gleason, the acting administrator of DOGE, wrote in a declaration included in a court filing. 

Gleason previously worked for the United States Digital Service, which was founded in 2014 by former President Barack Obama as a technology office within the Executive Office of the President. Trump signed an executive order in January that renamed the office to the United States DOGE Service, establishing DOGE. 

Though Musk has been the public face of DOGE, he ‘has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself’ and is working as a senior advisor to the president, a White House official said in a separate court filing back in February.

Musk emerged as an ardent supporter of Trump’s at the height of the election cycle over the summer, officially endorsing Trump after the first assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. 

‘I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,’ Musk posted to X shortly after the attempt, accompanied by footage of Trump raising a fist and shouting ‘Fight, fight, fight!’ after he was left bloodied by the assassination attempt. 

Musk hosted Trump on X for an expansive interview while on the campaign trail 

Across Musk’s tenure as a special government employee, Trump has praised the tech billionaire for his efforts to streamline the government and cut it of overspending, including during his first address to a joint session of Congress since his second inauguration. 

‘Thank you, Elon. He’s working very hard. He didn’t need this. He didn’t need this. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it, I believe. They just don’t want to admit that,’ Trump said in March during his address, quipping that Democrats were even grateful for Musk’s work at DOGE. 

President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is terminating awards totaling more than $750 million dollars that were provided to pharmaceutical manufacturer Moderna to help facilitate its production of mRNA-based bird flu vaccines. 

During President Joe Biden’s final week in office, his administration awarded $590 million to Moderna to help speed up its production of mRNA-based vaccines. The $590 million award followed a separate $176 million award Biden gave to Moderna earlier last year for mRNA vaccine technology.

Messenger RNA vaccines are a newer type of vaccine technology, which was utilized by companies like Moderna and Pfizer to develop their COVID-19 vaccines. The vaccine technology was at the center of a lot of criticism amid the coronavirus pandemic for potentially being associated with adverse side effects in some people who took them, such as myocarditis.

Trump administration officials previously hinted at the potential that this funding could be terminated, citing a lack of oversight during the Biden administration pertaining to vaccine production. 

‘After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna’s H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable,’ HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon said. ‘This is not simply about efficacy — it’s about safety, integrity, and trust. The reality is that mRNA technology remains under-tested, and we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last administration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public.’

The announcement reflects a larger shift in federal vaccine priorities, after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced earlier this week that COVID-19 vaccines would be removed from the federal government’s list of recommended vaccines for children and pregnant women. 

Meanwhile, a report from Senate Republicans released earlier this month suggested the Biden administration withheld critical safety data and downplayed known risks tied to the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. In particular, the Senate report focuses on HHS’ awareness of, and response to, cases of myocarditis — a type of heart inflammation — following COVID-19 vaccination.

‘Rather than provide the public and health care providers with immediate and transparent information regarding the risk of myocarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, the Biden administration waited until late June 2021 to announce changes to the labels for the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines based on the ‘suggested increased risks’ of myocarditis and pericarditis,’ the Senate report states. ‘Even though CDC and FDA officials were well aware of the risk of myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination, the Biden administration opted to withhold issuing a formal warning to the public for months about the safety concerns, jeopardizing the health of young Americans.’

In response to the Trump administration’s funding termination, Moderna put out a press release acknowledging the move, but also touting the ‘safety profile’ observed amid its work on a new mRNA bird flu vaccine.

‘While the termination of funding from HHS adds uncertainty, we are pleased by the robust immune response and safety profile observed in this interim analysis of the Phase 1/2 study of our H5 avian flu vaccine and we will explore alternative paths forward for the program,’ said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. ‘These clinical data in pandemic influenza underscore the critical role mRNA technology has played as a countermeasure to emerging health threats.’

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday the U.S. will begin ‘aggressively’ revoking visas of Chinese students.

‘Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,’ Rubio wrote in a statement. 

The State Department will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.

In March, House Republicans introduced the Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act, also known as the Stop CCP VISAs Act.

In an interview with FOX Business May 12, U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., criticized providing student visas to Chinese nationals, citing a Stanford University report that uncovered the Chinese Communist Party’s alleged activity on U.S. college campuses.

The report, published by the Stanford Review, detailed an incident in which a man posing as a Stanford student targeted women at the university to gather intelligence for the Chinese Ministry of State Security.

‘How can we keep offering 300,000 student visas to Chinese nationals every year when we KNOW they are legally required to gather intelligence for the CCP? The answer is simple: we can’t,’ Moody wrote in a post on X. ‘@StanfordReview’s report on CCP espionage on campus should shock everyone and verify what I have been saying. We need to pass my STOP CCP Visas Act to protect our national security.’

Along with the new Chinese national policy, Rubio announced new visa restrictions Wednesday on foreigners ‘complicit’ in censoring Americans.

‘For too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights,’ Rubio wrote in a post. ‘Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans.

‘Free speech is essential to the American way of life – a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority.’

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