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Republicans squabble over Trump spending plan as Fiscal Year 2026 looms: ‘Stay until we pass it’
President Donald Trump is proposing staggering spending cuts.
In his budget request for fiscal year 2026, the president demands that Congress slash an eye-popping 20% of spending which lawmakers allocate each year.
«You’re going to see $150 billion (in cuts) passed in the House and the Senate. That is real money,» said Budget Director Russ Vought on Fox News. «I think for the first time, this budget is not dead on arrival.»
To be clear, the budget which Mr. Trump sent to Capitol Hill is aspirational. All presidential budgets are. It’s what a president proposes that lawmakers – and his administration – aim to spend for the upcoming fiscal year. Congress is still charged with voting on the 12 annual spending bills which fund the government. The 20% cut proposed by President Trump deals with that area of spending.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: WHERE WE STAND WITH TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’
The new budget championed by Team Trump features drastic spending cuts. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The Trump administration characterized this blueprint as a «skinny» budget. That’s because it included nothing about Medicare and Medicaid. Those social programs consume exorbitant chunks of federal spending – far exceeding what Congress appropriates each year. Congressional Republicans aim to make alterations of some kind to these programs in their so-called «big, beautiful bill.» Republicans insist those programs won’t endure cuts. But a «cut» is in the eye of the beholder.
«We’re going to move towards a long-term balanced budget. I like how we’re thinking long-term instead of short-term,» said Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., on Fox News.
To be clear, the framework for the GOP’s big, beautiful bill does not balance the budget. In fact, it increases the budget deficit. And Mr. Trump’s budget package doesn’t balance either. There’s no way to understand such a path unless you include Medicare and Medicaid.
But here’s what Mr. Trump’s budget request does do:
It eliminates dollars from every federal department and agency, except the Departments of Transportation and Veterans Affairs. Space programs and NASA are also safe, too.
«This is how you break the Swamp,» declared the House Freedom Caucus. «The FY ‘26 budget is a paradigm shift.»
The president’s proposal knifes the Department of Housing and Urban Development by 40%. It axes the Departments of Labor and Interior by 30%.
TOP SENATE ARMED SERVICES REPUBLICAN SAYS TRUMP OMB’S BUDGET ‘SHREDS TO THE BONE’ MILITARY CAPABILITIES
However, dollars for the Pentagon are essentially flat.
Defense hawks were apoplectic.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., torched Mr. Trump’s outline.
«Trump successfully campaigned on a Peace Through Strength agenda. But his advisers at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) were apparently not listening,» fumed Wicker. «For the defense budget, OMB has requested a fifth year straight of Biden administration funding, leaving military spending flat, which is a cut in real terms.»
Wicker accused OMB of trying to «shred to the bone» the nation’s military.
Some members of Congress, like Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., have rebuked Trump’s proposal for its effective non-adjustment of defense funds. (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., chairs the Senate defense appropriations panel, charged with funding the Pentagon.
«It is peculiar how much time the President’s advisors spend talking about restoring peace through strength, given how apparently unwilling they’ve been to invest accordingly in the national defense or in other critical instruments of national power,» said McConnell.
«I am very concerned the requested base budget for defense does not reflect a realistic path to building the military capability we need to achieve President Trump’s Peace Through Strength agenda,» said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala.
With friends like these…
TRUMP SLAMS REPUBLICAN ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ OPPOSING BUDGET BILL, PREDICTS MASSIVE US TAX INCREASES IF IT FAILS
Vought fired back at Congressional defense advocates and their allegations that the budget request undercut the military.
«It’s an inaccurate charge. We provide a trillion dollars in national defense spending. 13% increase. We do it in two components,» said Vought. «We use discretionary spending. And then we put in a historic paradigm all of our increases on defense and Homeland Security. We use it in reconciliation so that we only need to use Republican votes. We don’t want Democrats to have the filibuster as a veto to then hijack the appropriations process and say no to the Homeland Security spending.»
Let me fillet that statement for you.
In other words, Vought asserts that some of the funding increases for the Pentagon will come through «budget reconciliation,» the process Republicans are now using to pass the big, beautiful bill. Republicans intend to pass that package with only GOP votes. But if Republicans included that military money in a «regular» appropriations bill, Democrats may demand «parity.» They would insist that non-defense programs score the same increase in exchange for advancing those bills – and voting to overcome a filibuster. So Vought argues his approach keeps Democrats from holding Pentagon dollars hostage in exchange for money targeted toward other programs.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought rebuffed claims that the Trump budget would undercut the military. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
But Democrats are focused on what Republicans may try to do with Medicare and Medicaid. They argue that Republicans are teeing up cuts.
«Hospitals will close. Nursing homes will shut down. Communities will be hurt. And Americans will die,» said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
Republicans insist those programs won’t face cuts.
«The question is, will we be susceptible to the fear-mongering and the false rhetoric that you just heard from the Democrat Minority Leader in the House? And this is the same tired play they run,» said House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, on Fox News. «We will be rewarded because we’re doing this for the sustainability of these programs for the most vulnerable.»
TRUMP SAYS PUBLIC ENTITLEMENTS LIKE SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICAID WON’T BE TOUCHED IN GOP BUDGET BILL
Still, even some remain apprehensive about how the GOP will handle those programs.
«If you want to be in the minority forever, then go ahead and do Medicaid cuts,» said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. «That would be catastrophically stupid.»
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., met President Trump at the White House late last week to discuss the big, beautiful bill. The White House gave Congressional leaders a wish list of items it wants in the bill – and what can fall by the wayside.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., still aims to pass the bill through the House by Memorial Day. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Tax credits for electric vehicles are out.
«I don’t have a problem if somebody wants to go buy an electric vehicle. I just don’t think hardworking Americans should be subsidizing that,» said House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wisc., on Fox News.
Republicans hope to use money generated from the sale of EVs to shore up the Highway Trust Fund. The government used the federal gas tax to pay for construction of roads and bridges. But Congress hasn’t adjusted the gas tax since the mid-1990s. Plus, more EVs and hybrids are now on the road. And conventional vehicles which rely on gas are more fuel efficient. So this shores up some of those depleted coffers.
HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS EMBRACES TRUMP BUDGET PROPOSAL ‘PARADIGM SHIFT’
Johnson is sticking by his goal to pass the bill through the House by Memorial Day. But some Republicans doubt that timeline.
«There’s no way,» said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., on Fox Business. «Unfortunately, President Trump chose the one big, beautiful (bill). What he should have done is the multiple-step process.»
In other words, lawmakers could have addressed the border, tax cuts and spending cuts in individual chunks. Loading everything onto one legislative truck makes this hard.
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So can the House approve this in two weeks? There’s not a lot of consensus yet. But maybe they’ll try to wear Members down.
«We will stay until we pass it,» said one senior House GOP leadership source.
Congress,Donald Trump,House Budget,Defense Spending & Budget News,House Of Representatives,Senate
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Trump ignites conservative backlash after opening door to 600,000 Chinese students: ‘What is this madness?’
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President Donald Trump’s plan to allow 600,000 Chinese student visas to be issued sparked backlash from the right on Monday and Tuesday.
«I hear so many stories that we’re not going to allow their students,» Trump told reporters as trade talks with China are ongoing.
«We’re going to allow their students to come in. It’s very important, 600,000 students. It’s very important. But we’re going to get along with China,» he continued.
Trump expanded on his comments during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday.
«I think it’s very insulting to say students can’t come here because they’ll go out and start building schools and they’ll be able to survive it. But I like that their students come here. I like that other countries’ students come here. And you know what would happen if they didn’t? Our college system would go to hell very quickly. And it wouldn’t be the top colleges, so it’d be colleges that struggle on the bottom. And you take out 300,000 or 600,000 students out of the system,» Trump said.
«I like having, and I told this to President Xi that we’re honored to have their students here. Now, with that, we check in with careful and we see who’s there,» he added.
TRUMP OPENS DOOR TO 600,000 CHINESE STUDENTS AMID BEIJING TRADE TALKS
Donald Trump says 600,000 Chinese students could be allowed into the U.S. to study at its colleges pending a potential trade agreement with China. (Fox News)
Some immigration groups and conservative voices on social media voiced their opposition to the proposal.
«We should not let in 600,000 CHINESE students to attend American colleges and universities that may be loyal to the CCP,» Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted on X late Monday night. «If refusing to allow these Chinese students to attend our schools causes 15% of them to fail then these schools should fail anyways because they are being propped up by the CCP.»
«Granting 600,000 student visas to Chinese nationals threatens to put foreign students ahead of U.S. graduates,» Joe Chatham, director of government relations at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
«The focus now must be on reforms to limit access to sectors crucial to our economy and national security that have repeatedly been the target of corporate espionage and intellectual property theft—not expanding access to hostile countries. Educating foreign nationals should never be put before the interests of U.S. citizens and ensuring that our nation thrives,» he continued.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick delved further into the Trump administration’s view on the matter when pressed on «The Ingraham Angle.»
TRUMP SUSPENDS FOREIGN STUDENT VISAS AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY AMID NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in the Oval Office of the White House on Aug. 6, 2025. (Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
«The president’s point of view is that what would happen if you didn’t have those 600K students is that you’d empty them from the top, all the students would go up to better schools, and the bottom 15% of universities and colleges would go out of business in America.»
«He’s taking a rational economic view, which is classic Donald Trump,» Lutnick added.
Many suggested that the free market should come into play with these colleges that could be at a potential financial risk.
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«Let them go under, then! What is this madness? NO. WE DON’T WANT MORE CHINESE STUDENTS. We actually don’t want any,» conservative commentator Kira Davis wrote.
«15% going under isn’t a bad thing,» writer Ryan Girdusky posted to X.
«Trump’s team is not capable of defending his Chinese student visa program,» conservative lawyer Marina Medvin posted on X. «That’s because they don’t actually want it either. It’s hard to sell something you don’t like.»
TRUMP SAYS HE WANTS FOREIGN STUDENTS WHO DON’T ‘CAUSE TROUBLE,’ SLAMS HARVARD FOR BEING ‘A BIG SHOT’
Banners on the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 27, 2025. (Sophie Park/Bloomberg)
«So this is essentially a subsidy for academia. Got it. American universities shouldn’t need an influx of foreign students in order to stay afloat. If they can’t survive on American enrollment, then let them go under. Plus, Chinese students steal our research and send it home,» Josh Peterson, a full stack developer and investigative journalist, posted.
Conservative commentator Liz Wheeler unleashed on the Trump White House, saying these Chinese students should be banned.
«Chinese ‘students’ are all spies for the Chinese Communist Party. They’re forced to be. They steal our intellectual property. They steal our tech. They steal our intel. They cozy up to our military,» Wheeler posted on X. «Trump should ban all Chinese students from U.S. universities. Deport them all.»
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«This is the dumbest explanation I’ve heard. By all means, put colleges & universities out of business!» Wheeler said in response to Lutnick’s defense of Trump’s policy. «Their business is indoctrinating students into hardened revolutionary Marxists. If you want to save America, you’ll have to raze the university system. Perfect chance to start.»
Others agreed with Lutnick’s perspective on the issue, saying that it could actually help the United States bring in more talent domestically.
«This is not as horrible as people are making it out to be. Chinese students on U.S. visas aren’t average kids. They represent the top tier of China’s youth,» podcast host Joshua Reid posted to X.
«On the other side, we are hosting China’s future leaders, scientists, and innovators. Which also means that American culture returns home with them. When you start to think about emergent tech, this is actually a great idea. Bring the top level students over the US. This is talent that is pulled away from China and now becomes a national asset,» Reid added.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Bussey contributed to this report.
immigration,china,education
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A United Nations-backed report declaring famine in areas of Gaza has sparked a war of words over the conditions in the enclave.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released a report on Friday in which it declared for the first time that the Gaza Governorate is experiencing a famine. Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis are meanwhile in severe crisis. Conditions in Northern Gaza are estimated to be as severe as those in the Gaza Governorate or worse. The IPC report does not touch on conditions in Rafah, as it is largely considered to be depopulated.
The IPC, a U.N.-backed initiative involving U.N. agencies, NGOs and technical experts, has been widely considered to be the global standard for classifying food crises.
Israel has fiercely pushed back against the report’s findings, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office saying it was «an outright lie.» While Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Oren Marmorstein claimed the report was «tailor-made» based on «Hamas lies laundered through organizations with vested interests» and denied that a famine exists in Gaza.
DEIR AL BALAH, GAZA – AUGUST 10: Palestinians wait with pots in their hands as a charitable organization distributes food.
ISRAEL SAYS UN MISLEADS WORLD AS GAZA AID STOLEN AND DIVERTED FROM CIVILIANS
«Israel does not have a policy of starvation. Israel has a policy of preventing starvation,» the prime minister’s office wrote in a thread on X that included Israeli data on the situation in Gaza.
Marmorstein also claimed that IPC «twisted its own rules and ignored its own criteria just to produce false accusations against Israel.»
In its Aug. 22 report, the IPC projected that by the end of September the famine will expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, leaving 641,000 people in famine conditions. The report predicts that the number of people in IPC Phase 4 (emergency) conditions will rise to 1.14 million while 198,000 will be in crisis.
In its recommendations, the IPC calls for an immediate ceasefire, a guarantee of unconditional and safe humanitarian access, protection of civilian infrastructure and large-scale humanitarian assistance.
APP USERS READ THE IPC REPORT HERE
GAZA HUMANITARIAN FOUNDATION: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE US-BACKED AID GROUP
After the report was released, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the Jewish state on X.
«This is not a mystery — it is a man-made disaster, a moral indictment and a failure of humanity itself. Famine is not only about food; it is the deliberate collapse of the systems needed for human survival,» Guterres wrote on X. «As the occupying power, Israel has unequivocal obligations under international law — including the duty of ensuring food and medical supplies of the population. We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity.»
Guterres ended his message with calls for a ceasefire, unfettered humanitarian access and the return of the hostages.
Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Aug. 25, 2025. (Leo Correa/AP Photo)
UNICEF OFFICIAL SAYS GAZA MALNUTRITION REACHES ‘FAMINE LEVELS’ AS HUMANITARIAN AID TRICKLES IN
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO), all of which participate in the IPC, reiterated their call for an immediate humanitarian response and ceasefire.
Israel’s Coordination for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), slammed the IPC for relying on Hamas-run entities, UNRWA assessments and «unverifiable sources,» while ignoring the data from Jerusalem.
A Palestinian carries a box of food from the World Food Program as others carry sacks of flour unloaded from a humanitarian aid convoy that reached Gaza City from the northern Gaza Strip, Aug. 24, 2025. (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo)
AS ISRAEL FACES BLAME FOR THE HUNGER CRISIS IN GAZA, UN’S OWN DATA SHOWS MOST OF ITS AID IS LOOTED
Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a former White House and National Security Council official during both Trump administrations, took issue with the report’s findings, calling them politically motivated.
«The ideology of destroying Israel and saving Hamas is widespread within the U.N. and far-left NGOs, leading them to change their own guidelines for declaring a famine in Gaza while they ignore an actual famine in Sudan. The data doesn’t support a famine declaration in Gaza, but that doesn’t matter when the conclusion is politically pre-ordained,» Goldberg told Fox News Digital.
Palestinians run towards parachutes carrying aid packages, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip Aug. 18, 2025. (Ramadan Abed/Reuters)
Goldberg also noted the timing of the report, which came just days after Israel said it would enter Gaza City — which is in the Gaza Governorate — was «the most telling part of it all.»
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee shared a statement from Netanyahu’s office and said that «tons of food has gone into Gaza but Hamas savages stole it, ate lots of it to become corpulent, sold it on the black market but they didn’t give it to the hostages.»
Hamas terrorists carrying clubs and firearms secure humanitarian aid trucks in the northern Gaza area of Jabaliya on June 25, 2025. (TPS-IL)
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Fifty hostages have been held in Gaza for nearly 700 days. Of those, 20 are believed to be alive while the rest are confirmed dead. Hamas is holding onto their remains. Earlier this month, the terror group released a video of hostage Evyatar David who appeared extremely thin and said he had not eaten in days.
israel,terrorism,united nations,human rights united nations
Funcionarios del Gobierno de Nicolás Maduro están señalados como miembros del Cartel de los Soles, un grupo criminal que, según Washington, ha corrompido las altas esferas políticas, militares y judiciales en Venezuela desde la década de 1990 para enviar drogas a Estados Unidos.
Según expertos consultados por CNN, este grupo criminal fue identificado en los noventa luego de que en causas judiciales se involucrara a dos generales de división venezolanos en el tráfico de droga colombiana a través de las FARC.
“A partir de ese caso, se comenzó a identificar a una red de militares y de (agentes de la) Guardia Nacional que estaban involucrados, primero, en el tráfico de cocaína hacia el norte usando infraestructura militar venezolana o de la Guardia Nacional, y, después, en el tráfico de oro, de minerales diversos, a través de minas informales que estaban siendo organizadas ilícitamente por el ejército venezolano”, dijo en entrevista a CNN Edgardo Buscaglia, asesor internacional contra terrorismo y delincuencia organizada, director de Save Democracy y académico principal de la Universidad de Columbia en EE.UU.
Buscaglia añadió que, cuando Hugo Chávez llegó al poder en Venezuela, el mandatario trató de negociar con los militares que formaban la red ilícita, pero finalmente el grupo se expandió hasta funcionarios civiles del Estado y ya no solo militares.
“De alguna manera Maduro hereda la estructura criminal que le deja Chávez y la expande de manera enorme a funcionarios civiles como el ministro del Interior (Diosdado) Cabello, como fue en su momento el jefe de inteligencia Hugo Carvajal, que eran parte de la organización criminal”, aseguró el experto en temas de seguridad.
El Cartel de los Soles se convirtió eventualmente en un sistema de corrupción que se beneficia de las actividades del crimen organizado y que “a menudo” se asocia con cárteles internacionales, señaló por correo electrónico Imdat Oner, ex diplomático turco que estuvo basado en Venezuela y hoy es analista político en la Universidad Internacional de Florida.
Según Insight Crime, un grupo de expertos dedicado a temas de crimen organizado, basado en EE.UU. y Colombia, el nombre de Cartel de los Soles proviene de la vestimenta de los militares señalados de actividades ilícitas.
El nombre “Cartel de los Soles” comenzó a utilizarse en 1993 luego de que se se conocieron denuncias de participación en narcotráfico contra generales de la Guardia Nacional y luego comandantes de división, que llevaban en el uniforme soles dobles por su rango, explica el grupo.
El Cartel de los Soles, dice Insight Crime, no es una organización tradicional de crimen organizado donde hay un líder y abajo están los subordinados, sino de una red compuesta por muchas células dentro de las ramas castrenses venezolanas y del gobierno.
Debido a que el Cartel de los Soles se compondría de células dispersas, la idea de que Maduro lidera a este supuesto grupo criminal es una “simplificación excesiva” por parte de Estados Unidos, menciona Insight Crime.
“Más que una organización jerárquica con Maduro al mando de las operaciones de tráfico de drogas, el Cartel de los Soles se asemeja más a una red de corrupción en el que funcionarios militares y políticos se benefician de los acuerdos establecidos con narcotraficantes”, detalla el grupo de expertos.
El gobierno de Maduro, sin embargo, insiste que en Venezuela no operan grupos del crimen organizado. La semana pasada, luego de que la administración Trump aumentara la recompensa sobre Maduro, Vladimiro Padrino López, ministro del Poder Popular para la Defensa de Venezuela, también rechazó el vínculo del presidente con cárteles de la droga.
“La Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana rechaza categóricamente las bufonescas declaraciones de la fiscal general del Gobierno norteamericano, efectuadas ayer 7 de agosto, en las cuales anuncia el incremento de la recompensa ofrecida por los departamentos de Justicia y de Estado a quien brinde información que conduzca al arresto del ciudadano Nicolás Maduro Moros”, dijo Padrino en un evento desde Caracas.
“Esos mismos inmorales están tratando aquí de decir que nuestro comandante en jefe es un narcotraficante, que el ministro de la Defensa es un narcotraficante. Es una falta de respeto a Venezuela”, agregó.
Padrino aseguró que en Venezuela “no operan ni bandas criminales… ni tampoco existen cárteles ni capos” y dijo que Maduro es un “héroe”.
“Se desarticularon absolutamente (estos grupos)… Podemos decir que nuestro comandante en jefe (Maduro) ha sido un héroe en esta tarea”, señaló el ministro Padrino.
Estados Unidos,Venezuela,Nicolás Maduro,Narcotráfico
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Celeste Cid quiso cocinarles a sus nuevos suegros y prendió fuego todo: el video de la pesadilla
Trump ignites conservative backlash after opening door to 600,000 Chinese students: ‘What is this madness?’
Israel pushes back at ‘tailor-made’ UN-backed report claiming Gaza famine
Chile organizó una colecta para que la familia del hincha que fue operado por fractura de cráneo pueda viajar a la Argentina
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El fuerte cruce entre Victoria Villarruel y Mayra Mendoza por el caso de los audios
