INTERNACIONAL
How Mike Johnson rescued Trump’s tax agenda from jaws of likely defeat
When lawmakers arrived on Capitol Hill last Monday, House GOP leaders’ plans to sync up with the Senate on sweeping legislation to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda seemed an all-but-impossible task.
House fiscal hawks were furious with Senate Republicans for passing an amended version of the former’s budget framework, one that called for a significantly lower amount of mandatory spending cuts than the House’s initial plan.
By late Thursday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was celebrating victory in front of reporters after a narrow 216-to-214 vote.
«I told you not to doubt us,» a triumphant Johnson told the media. «We’re really grateful to have had the big victory on the floor just now. It was a big one, a very important one.»
HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS CHAIR URGES JOHNSON TO CHANGE COURSE ON SENATE VERSION OF TRUMP BUDGET BILL
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson shakes hands with President Donald Trump onstage at a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on Nov. 13, 2024 in Washington. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The hard-fought win came after long hours and late nights as House Republican leaders — and leaders in the Senate GOP as well — worked to persuade holdouts, while Trump and his aides worked those same critics from the sidelines.
White House aides were at House Republicans’ weekly conference meeting on Tuesday, a rare sight but not unexpected, given the importance of the coming vote.
But GOP lawmakers filed out of that meeting doubting whether Trump’s influence could help this time, after he played a key role in helping shepherd earlier critical bills across the finish line this year.
«I don’t see it happening,» a House Republican told Fox News Digital when asked whether Trump would be enough to sway critics.
Nevertheless, a select group of those holdouts were summoned to the White House alongside House GOP leaders on Wednesday afternoon, hours before the expected vote.
MEET THE TRUMP-PICKED LAWMAKERS GIVING SPEAKER JOHNSON A FULL HOUSE GOP CONFERENCE
Fox News Digital was told that Trump commanded the room for roughly 20 to 30 minutes, and told House conservatives he agreed with them on the need to significantly slash government spending.
Trump also communicated to holdouts that Senate leaders felt the same, but, like the House, were working on their own tight margins, Fox News Digital was told.
The president, meanwhile, has been concerned in particular with the looming debt limit deadline, Fox News Digital was told.
It’s one of the issues that Republicans are looking to tackle via the budget reconciliation process. By lowering the Senate’s passage threshold from 60 votes to 51, it allows the party controlling the House, Senate and White House to enact broad policy changes via one or two broad pieces of legislation.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks during a news conference following the Senate Republican policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In this case, Republicans are looking for some added funds for border security and defense and to raise the debt ceiling — while paring back spending on the former Biden administration’s green energy policies and in other sections of the federal government, likely including entitlement programs.
GOP lawmakers are also looking to extend Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the provisions of which expire at the end of this year. They will also need new funding for Trump’s efforts to eliminate taxes on tipped and overtime wages.
But first, Republicans wanted the House and Senate to pass identical frameworks setting the stage for filling those frameworks with actual legislative policy.
Whereas the House version calls for at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, the Senate mandated a floor of $4 billion — a wide gap to bridge.
The Wednesday-afternoon White House meeting did sway some holdouts, but far from enough.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., also met with House GOP critics of the bill for more than an hour on Wednesday evening ahead of the planned vote.
«He couldn’t have been more cordial and understanding in talking to us about what we needed to know. And honestly, he had some of the same concerns that we did,» Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital.
«You know, he’s got to get it over the finish line, and he had to make certain commitments. But he committed to us to work with us.»
Ultimately, however, plans to advance the measure that evening were hastily scrapped as an unrelated vote was held open for over an hour, leading to confusion and frustration on the House floor.
«He looked like he was in no better spot than he was at the beginning,» one House Republican said of that night.
Rep. Tim Burchett speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol. (Alex Wong)
Trump was not called to address the group during that huddle with holdouts, two sources in the room told Fox News Digital.
However, the president did have individual conversations with some holdouts on Wednesday and Thursday, one person said.
The Wednesday night failure gave way to a late night of negotiations involving both holdouts and House GOP leaders.
Two House GOP leadership aides told Fox News Digital that Johnson had huddled with Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., until late Wednesday to figure out a path forward.
When they emerged shortly before midnight, they had settled on a plan — a televised promise by Johnson and Thune to put both leaders on the record committing to deep spending cuts.
SENATE GOP PUSHES TRUMP BUDGET FRAMEWORK THROUGH AFTER MARATHON VOTE SERIES
«I’m happy to tell you that this morning, I believe we have the votes to finally adopt the budget resolution so we can move forward on President Trump’s very important agenda for the American people,» Johnson said.
Thune added, «We are aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined in terms of savings. The speaker has talked about $1.5 trillion. We have a lot of United States senators who believe in that as a minimum.»
A senior Senate GOP aide argued to Fox News Digital, «Absent Thune’s intervention, Mike Johnson would not have gotten this resolution through the House.»
But the speaker was also putting in his own long hours with holdouts.
Steve Scalise, House majority leader, speaks during Day 2 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 16, 2024. (Reuters/Mike Segar)
The office of Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who ultimately voted to advance the framework, told Fox News Digital that critics were sent a memo by Johnson early on Thursday, assuring them that he was committed to deep spending cuts.
«The Senate amendment to H. Con. Res. 14 preserves untouched language from the original House-passed resolution, including the reconciliation instructions to House committees and Section 4001 — Adjustment for spending cuts of at least $2 trillion,» the memo said.
It referred to a measure in the House-passed framework that suggested funding toward tax cuts would be reduced by a corresponding amount if final spending cuts did not equal $2 trillion.
«This language reflects a critical principle — that deficit-increasing provisions of the final reconciliation bill are accompanied by concomitant spending cuts,» it said.
Then, as the vote was called around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, a final huddle between holdouts and leaders sealed the Republicans’ victory.
«At some point, it was heated. And then the speaker’s leadership team [House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.] made sure we were clarified on some issues which are very important to some of the members,» Burchett said.
«And then Steve Scalise, really batting cleanup, and he came in with the final with the final conclusion, which everybody agreed to pretty much. And then the speaker closed the deal.»
House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain leaves a meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on Feb. 28, 2023. (Tom Williams)
Burchett said he believed that Johnson had spoken to Trump separately at some point during that huddle.
A senior House GOP aide said McClain was also present for that meeting.
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Republicans clinched the win minutes after 11 a.m. on Thursday, with the GOP side of the House chamber erupting in applause.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., who helped lead the opposition, told reporters after the vote, «We made tremendous progress over the last two days in making certain that whatever we do on reconciliation, we don’t increase this country’s budget deficit.»
«We take the Moody report from two weeks ago pretty seriously, that you can’t have unpaid-for tax cuts, and we made progress in making, getting assurances both from the Senate and the House leadership that that’s not going to occur,» Harris said.
House Of Representatives,Mike Johnson,Donald Trump,Politics
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A federal judge in Boston agreed Monday to extend a temporary restraining order blocking President Donald Trump’s attempt to block international students from entering the U.S. to study at Harvard.
The update is a near-term win for the nation’s oldest university in its months-long fight with the Trump administration.
Lawyers for Harvard had urged U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs on Monday to extend two restraining orders that blocked the Trump administration from revoking its credentials under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, or SEVP, and which temporarily blocked a proclamation Trump signed earlier this month that barred foreign nationals from traveling to the U.S. if they planned to study or research at Harvard.
«The proclamation is a plain violation of the First Amendment,» Ian Gershengorn, a lawyer for Harvard, told Judge Burroughs in court on Monday in seeking a preliminary injunction, a more lasting form of court-ordered relief.
CONTINUED COURT FIGHTS COULD PUT HARVARD IN UNWINNABLE POSITION VS TRUMP
Banners on the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (Sophie Park/Bloomberg)
Burroughs extended the temporary restraining order through June 23, noting that she needed more time to formally rule on the request for injunctive relief.
«We’ll kick out an opinion as soon as we can,» she told the court Monday afternoon, shortly before proceedings wrapped for the day.
At issue is a push to revoke Harvard’s credentials under its SEVP program, announced by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in May; and a separate proclamation signed by Trump in June, seeking to block foreign nationals from entering the U.S. if they were planning to study or conduct research at Harvard.
Both actions were temporarily blocked by Burroughs. Now, lawyers for the school are pushing for a more permanent form of relief known as a preliminary injunction.
In the interim, lawyers for Harvard said that the Trump administration’s actions have injected «unnecessary uncertainty for Harvard and its students, who may yet again have their status as lawfully present nonimmigrants in the United States abruptly and categorically rescinded.»
Harvard argued that the Trump administration’s actions would violate the Administrative Procedure Act, the First Amendment, and the Fifth Amendment – injecting «continued chaos and lasting damage on Harvard for no compelling reason,» they said in a filing.
STATE DEPARTMENT NOW SCRUTINIZING ALL VISA HOLDERS ASSOCIATED WITH HARVARD
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Trump officials have accused Harvard University of «fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,» according to a statement earlier this year, and for failing to account for «known illegal activity» on its campus.
Lawyers for Harvard told Burroughs in court on Monday that these actions have already injected uncertainty into the lives of their international students.
They noted that some foreign students were incorrectly denied visas after indicating their plans to study at Harvard, while at least four other students were wrongfully detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials earlier this month upon arriving in the U.S. at Boston’s Logan International Airport.
TRUMP NOMINATES FORMER DEFENSE ATTORNEY EMIL BOVE FOR FEDERAL APPEALS COURT VACANCY
Harvard President Alan Garber acknowledges an extended round of applause during Harvard University’s commencement ceremonies, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Harvard is also fighting to retain its SEVP accreditation. The program is run by the Department of Homeland Security and allows universities to sponsor international students for U.S. visas for the duration of their enrollment at a public university.
If it loses that status, experts previously told Fox News, thousands of international students currently enrolled at Harvard will have a narrow window to either transfer to another U.S. university, or risk losing their student visas within 180 days.
Lawyers for Harvard previously told Burroughs that ending their SEVP certification would affect roughly 7,000 international students at Harvard – or some 27% of its total student body.
Monday’s hearing was the latest in a string of legal dust-ups that have pitted Harvard against the Trump administration – or vice versa – in Trump’s second White House term.
100 DAYS OF INJUNCTIONS, TRIALS AND ‘TEFLON DON’: TRUMP SECOND TERM MEETS ITS BIGGEST TESTS IN COURT
Cambridge, MA – May 23: Hundreds of graduates walked out of the 2024 Commencement in Harvard Yard to call attention to the plight of Palestinians. (Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Since Trump took office in January, the administration has already frozen more than $2 billion in grants and contracts awarded to the university, and is proposing to end its tax-exempt status, among other things.
The administration is also targeting Harvard with investigations led by six separate federal agencies.
Combined, these actions have created a wide degree of uncertainty at Harvard.
Legal experts noted the court is wading into largely uncharted territory.
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Asked how it might play out, many scholars pointed to a lack of precedent and offered no clear answer.
«As with many things that Trump does, the answer is unclear, because it hasn’t been done before,» Josh Blackman, a law professor at South Texas College of Law, said last month. «No president has tried to do this before, so I don’t think there’s a clear precedent on the answer.»
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Israel activated a new aerial defense system – dubbed «Barak Magen,» meaning «lightning shield» – for the first time on Sunday night, saying it intercepted and destroyed multiple Iranian drones.
The Israeli Navy intercepted eight Iranian drones using the «Barak Magen» and its long-range air defense (LRAD) interceptor, which were launched from an Israeli navy Sa’ar 6 missile ship, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
John Hannah, senior fellow at The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) and the co-author of a report published earlier this month on Israel’s defense against two massive Iranian missile attacks in 2024, told Fox News Digital on Monday that the air defense system «significantly enhances» the air and missile defense architecture of Israel’s navy.
«The Barak Magen is simply another arrow in the expanding quiver of Israel’s highly sophisticated and increasingly diverse multi-tiered missile defense architecture – which was already, by leaps and bounds, the most advanced and experienced air defense system fielded by any country in the world,» Hannah said.
USS NIMITZ CARRIER STRIKE GROUP SAILING TOWARD MIDDLE EAST AHEAD OF SCHEDULE, US OFFICIAL SAYS
The «Barak Magen» interceptors were launched from an Israeli navy Sa’ar 6 missile ship. (Israel Defense Forces)
The system can intercept a «wide range of threats,» according to the IDF, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), cruise missiles, high-trajectory threats and shore-to-sea missiles.
Hannah said the system not only provides force protection for the Israeli fleet but also gives long-distance protection to Israel’s expanding oil and gas infrastructure in the eastern Mediterranean, along with critical infrastructure and population centers located along Israel’s coastline.
«It allows Israel to conduct interceptions at significant distances from the Israeli homeland, both out in the eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and thereby adds critically important strategic depth when defending Israel’s tiny geographic area,» he said.
The IDF said that the Israeli Navy’s missile ship flotilla has intercepted about 25 UAVs that posed a threat to Israel since the conflict with Iran escalated.
ISRAEL SAYS IT HAS AERIAL SUPERIORITY OVER TEHRAN, IRANIAN INTELLIGENCE LEADER KILLED
Israel and Iran traded missile strikes for the fourth day on Monday, with Iran firing a new wave of strikes that killed at least eight people and wounded dozens more.
An Israeli attack on the Shahran oil depot on June 15, 2025, in Tehran, Iran. (Stringer/Getty Images)
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Meanwhile, the Israeli military claimed it had achieved air superiority above Tehran, warning about 330,000 people in a central part of the Iranian capital to evacuate ahead of new strikes.
El brutal bombardeo de Irán a Tel Aviv de este sábado por la noche dejó 10 muertos y decenas de heridos. También dejó varias imágenes impactantes grabadas por los propios ciudadanos israelíes.
La ofensiva iraní estuvo dirigida sobre el norte del país, más precisamente en la zona de Haifa. Las autoridades israelíes informaron que sufrieron el impacto de misiles en zonas residenciales.
Leé también: Noche de terror en Medio Oriente: diez muertos y destrozos en Tel Aviv por un nuevo ataque iraní
Las alarmas de emergencia se activaron en la zona durante la noche del sábado y las Fuerzas de Defensa de Israel confirmaron el ataque con misiles por parte del ejército iraní. También detallaron a la población que el sistema de defensa antiaéreo conocido como “La Cúpula de Hierro” estaba operativo.
Los vecinos grabaron el momento en que los misiles comenzaron a caer en territorio israelí: decenas de luces comenzaron a sobrevolar por los edificios.
Algunos pudieron detectar el momento en que la Cúpula de Hierro interceptó los misiles, mientras que otros videos muestran el impacto de los mismos sobre el territorio israelí.
Uno de los bombardeos provocó el derrumbe de un edificio de cuatro pisos y causó la muerte de al menos ocho personas.
La ofensiva iraní estuvo dirigida sobre el norte del país, más precisamente en la zona de Haifa. (Video: X/@NoaGresiva).
Una vez finalizado el ataque, varios civiles se acercaron al edificio derrumbado y registraron cómo el edificio había pasado a ser escombros.
El bombardeo de este sábado por la noche se produjo después de una jornada intensa de ofensivas israelíes sobre diversos puntos de Irán, incluidos sitios estratégicos para su programa militar y nuclear.
De hecho, mientras respondía a la amenaza que cayó este sábado, la Fuerza Aérea israelí continuaba operando sobre Teherán.
Una vez finalizado el ataque, varias personas se acercaron al edificio derrumbado y registraron cómo el edificio había pasado a ser escombros. (Video: X/@NoaGresiva).
Según confirmaron las propias autoridades iraníes, fueron alcanzados el Ministerio de Defensa —donde se registraron daños leves— y dos depósitos de combustible. Se trataría de los depósitos de Shahran, al noroeste de Teherán, y otro embalse al sur de la ciudad.
Más temprano, las Fuerzas de Defensa de Israel (FDI) habían confirmado una maniobra contra una instalación militar subterránea en el oeste de Irán, un punto estratégico previamente revelado por las autoridades y exhibido como parte de su demostración de poderío militar.
Tel Aviv, a través de sus canales oficiales, confirmó la operación y detalló que se habían alcanzado con éxito “los túneles de almacenamiento para misiles tierra-tierra y de crucero, así como los múltiples pozos de lanzamiento”.
Las alarmas de emergencia se activaron en la zona durante la noche del sábado y las Fuerzas de Defensa de Israel confirmaron el ataque con misiles por parte del ejército iraní. (Video: X/@NoaGresiva).
En las primeras horas de este sábado, las Fuerzas de Defensa de Israel anunciaron haber alcanzado el yacimiento de gas South Pars, la refinería de gas natural Fajr Jam y el puerto de GNL de Kangan, ubicados en la provincia de Bushehr, en el sur del país.
Según los informes de las agencias Tasnim y Fars, un dron israelí impactó una de las refinerías de la Fase 14 de South Pars, causando una explosión e incendio que obligaron a suspender las operaciones temporalmente.
“Muy pronto verán aviones de la Fuerza Aérea israelí sobre los cielos de Teherán. Atacaremos todos los objetivos del régimen de los ayatolás”, declaró Benjamin Netanyahu en las últimas horas, antes de advertir que las imágenes actuales «no son nada» comparado con las que se verán en los próximos días.
Leé también: Pese al ataque de Israel, el programa nuclear de Irán seguiría en marcha y el rol de EE.UU. se vuelve clave
Por su parte, el ministro de Defensa de Israel, Israel Katz, había asegurado que “Teherán arderá” si continúan los ataques y sumó que el pueblo iraní pagará “un alto precio” por poner en peligro a los ciudadanos israelíes. Horas más tarde, tras el ataque iraní sobre su país y la respuesta de la Fuerza Aérea, dijo: “Arde Teherán”.
Israel, Irán, bombardeo
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