Category: USA Politics

The 48-day Department of Homeland Security shutdown is one step closer to ending after the Senate moved to fund most of the department Thursday morning.

The Senate agreed via voice vote to send a bipartisan deal funding the whole department except for President Donald Trump‘s immigration enforcement and border security efforts to the House for consideration.

The chamber is not expected to vote on the legislation until House lawmakers return to Washington on April 13. 

The Senate vote follows GOP leaders endorsing a two-track approach to funding DHS on Wednesday, with President Trump giving lawmakers a hard deadline to end the record-breaking funding lapse. 

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES RAGE AGAINST SENATE DHS SHUTDOWN DEAL

The Senate bill accomplishes the first phase of the plan by working with Democrats to fund as much of DHS as possible on a bipartisan basis. However, it would zero out funding for ICE and much of the Border Patrol, save for $11 billion in customs funding going to the agency. Additionally, $10 billion teed up for ICE won’t be funded under the measure.

As for ICE and the Border Patrol, Republicans have said they will seek three full years of funding for both of these agencies in a party-line budget reconciliation package that will bypass Democrats’ opposition. Trump says he wants the forthcoming bill on his desk by June 1.

“We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won’t be able to stop us,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. 

The Senate bill’s passage on Thursday was a déjà vu moment for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who helped steer the same measure through the upper chamber last week.

But House GOP leadership sharply rejected it, calling the measure’s exclusion of ICE and CBP money a “crap sandwich” and warning about the risks of funding those entities using the budget reconciliation process. The chamber then put forward a rival proposal that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., made clear was “dead on arrival” in the Senate. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appeared to relent Wednesday after Trump issued a statement outlining an end to the shutdown that appeared to side with Thune’s two-part approach to funding the department. 

GOP INFIGHTING, DEMOCRATS’ UNMET DEMANDS AND A CLEAR WINDFALL: WHO’S WINNING AND LOSING THE DHS SHUTDOWN

As the DHS shutdown drags on, Trump and congressional Republicans are gambling that budget reconciliation will be the way to fund immigration enforcement for several years to come. Some Republicans have floated funding ICE not just through Trump’s term, but for up to a decade.

The GOP used the same process to fund ICE last year, teeing up $75 billion for enforcement operations for the next four fiscal years.

But the party-line process comes with a host of challenges that could test Republican unity in an election year.

GOP lawmakers will have to identify spending cuts to pay for it. When Republicans used the process to pass Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025, lawmakers nearly stumbled at the finish line over disagreements on cuts to federal Medicaid spending and food assistance programs.

Without a looming deadline like the expiration of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts that Republicans extended in July 2025 through the “big, beautiful bill,” some GOP lawmakers have voiced concern that the party will stay unified.

Republicans have proposed adding other issues into the reconciliation mix, including supplemental funding for the Iran war, affordability measures, the president’s tariff regime and pieces of the election integrity-focused SAVE America Act.

The budget reconciliation process allows a party with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress to pass tax and spending priorities with a simple majority threshold, though the process is governed by stringent requirements for what is eligible to be included.

Punting ICE and CBP money to a future spending bill could also negatively affect support staff employed by both agencies who have not been paid during the seven-week shutdown.

Democrats have repeatedly blocked funding for ICE and the Border Patrol in the Senate since the beginning of the shutdown in mid-February. Though none of their proposals to reform immigration enforcement have been adopted, Democratic leaders claimed victory on Wednesday. 

“Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday. “We were clear from the start: fund critical security, protect Americans, and no blank check for reckless ICE and Border Patrol enforcement. 

“We were united, held the line, and refused to let Republican chaos win.”

The Senate deal funding most of DHS could still face roadblocks in the House. A handful of conservatives have already said they will vote “no” while using the same messaging employed by House GOP leadership to oppose the bill last week.

“Let’s make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., wrote on social media Wednesday. “If that’s the vote, I’m a NO.”

Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent — who quit his government role last month over his opposition to the Iran war — suggested in a Wednesday night post on X that President Donald Trump will only be able to declare victory in Iran if he “restrains” Israel.

“The purpose of POTUS’s speech this evening was to show that we can declare victory when we choose. This is only possible if POTUS restrains the Israelis 1st. Israel needs us committed indefinitely, we are seeking a quick end to the war. We have drastically different goals than Israel & must act accordingly,” Kent asserted in the post.

Kent made the comments after Trump — who launched the controversial U.S. war against Iran last month in conjunction with Israel — delivered an address to the nation about the ongoing conflict on Wednesday night.

TRUMP SAYS IRAN ‘NO LONGER A THREAT’ AFTER 32 DAYS — OUTLINES NEXT PHASE OF US WAR

“Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly. We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing,” he said.

“Because of the actions we have taken, we are on the cusp of ending Iran’s sinister threat to America and the world. And I’ll tell you, the world is watching. And when we do… the United States will be safer, stronger, more prosperous and greater than it has ever been before,” Trump said during his remarks. 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: 5 KEY TAKEAWAYS FRM TRUMP’S IRAN ADDRESS

Kent indicated that the U.S. should exit the war immediately.

“We do not honor our fallen by getting more of our best men & women killed in the Middle East. We honor our fallen by learning from our past & only shedding American blood in defense of our nation. The best time to get out of a war of choice is now, before we lose more lives,” he wrote in a post on X.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Thursday.

FORMER REP MTG VENTS THAT SHE’S ‘SO BEYOND DONE,’ CHARACTERIZING TRUMP’S ADDRESS AS ‘WAR WAR WAR’

In a Thursday morning post on X, Kent wrote, “The purpose of a system is what it does: Israel is targeting the negotiators to ensure we can’t end the war & to ensure that the Iranian leaders who come next will be more extreme, thereby ensuring that the war goes on. The 1st step to end the war must be restraining Israel.”

President Donald Trump revealed during Wednesday night’s Iran address that one of his top achievements against Iran, which he described as spanning across both his terms, was shredding former President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal.

Trump described the efforts in the Middle East as making “tremendous progress” and called Operation Epic Fury “necessary for the safety of America and the security of the free world.” 

Meanwhile, he slammed Iran as “fanatical,” “murderous,” and “thuggish,” arguing that letting them have a nuclear weapon “would be an intolerable threat.” While slamming Obama’s 2015 deal, the president cited the $400 million cash payment the former president’s administration flew to Iran in an effort to “buy their respect and loyalty.”

“The most violent and thuggish regime on earth would be free to carry out their campaigns of terror, coercion, conquest and mass murder from behind a nuclear shield. I will never let that happen, and neither should any of our past presidents,” Trump said, leading into his comments about Obama’s “terrible” deal with Iran. 

IRAN FIRES BACK WITH FLAT DENIAL AFTER TRUMP CLAIMS TEHRAN REQUESTED CEASEFIRE: ‘FALSE AND BASELESS’

“I did many things during my two terms in office to stop the quest for nuclear weapons by Iran. First, and perhaps most importantly, I killed General Qasem Soleimani in my first term. He was an evil genius, brilliant person, a horrible human being. The father of the roadside bomb,” Trump continued. “And then, very importantly, I terminated Barack Hussein Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. A disaster. Obama gave them $1.7 billion in cash – green, green cash. Took it out of banks from Virginia, DC and Maryland. All the cash they had.”

Trump slammed Obama’s administration for using airplanes to transport that cash, around $400 million, in January 2016, which Trump said was done “to buy their respect and loyalty.” 

“But it didn’t work,” Trump continued. “They laughed at our president and went on with their mission to have a nuclear bomb. His Iran deal would have led to a colossal arsenal of massive nuclear weapons for Iran, and they would have had them years ago, and they would have used them – would have been a different world. There would have been no Middle East and no Israel right now, in my opinion … Had I not terminated that terrible deal – I was so honored to do it. I was so proud to do it. It was so bad right from the beginning.”

Trump added that he is currently “correcting” the “mistakes” of former presidents, like Obama, noting he has been willing to do what they have not.

PRESIDENT TRUMP SAYS US COULD FINISH IRAN OPERATION WITHIN ‘TWO TO THREE WEEKS’

Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), exchanged sanctions relief to Iran for certain limits and international monitoring of Iran’s nuclear program, which the administration said would push Tehran further from a bomb, a take that has been contested by critics, including Trump. 

Critics argued the effort actually empowered Iran, pointing in part to the Wall Street Journal reporting that the U.S. secretly airlifted $400 million in cash to Tehran that coincided with the release of four American prisoners.

The Obama administration maintained that the payment was not part of the nuclear pact itself, but that it was the first installment of a separate settlement stemming from a decades-old pre-revolution arms dispute.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown became the longest funding lapse in history over the weekend, but the standoff could take several more months to fully resolve.

With President Donald Trump giving Republicans a June 1 deadline to fund the entire department, blame is flying between both parties while top Republicans present a unified front after several days of infighting.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of DHS employees are struggling to pay their bills. American travelers, too, are enduring longer-than-usual wait times at major airports.

As the shutdown continues to drag on, here is a glimpse at the biggest winners and losers of the funding lapse so far.

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES RAGE AGAINST SENATE DHS SHUTDOWN DEAL

Though Republicans were largely unified during the fall 2025 shutdown, internal divisions have erupted in the current funding fight.

House GOP leadership fiercely rejected a bipartisan Senate deal on Friday that sought to fund most of DHS while punting money for ICE and CBP to a future funding vehicle. GOP lawmakers in the House then approved a rival proposal temporarily funding the whole department, even as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., labeled it “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told GOP colleagues over the weekend that he would not bring lawmakers back to Washington for a “show vote” that is destined to fail.

Johnson, however, continued to insist his conference’s proposal was the best solution to end the stalemate.

“The Senate has to do their job and help us on this heavy lift,” the speaker said on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday, adding that the Senate failing to make sure ICE and CBP are funded was an “outrageous” move. 

Trump appeared to break the impasse when he called on Republicans on Wednesday to fund immigration enforcement and border security in a forthcoming budget reconciliation package — a move aligned with Senate Republicans’ preferred approach to end the shutdown.

Johnson and Thune issued a joint statement shortly after, endorsing Trump’s June 1 deadline in a notable display of unity. 

The cross-chamber tensions are likely to remain, however, with some House conservatives, such as Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., calling for Thune’s ouster from Senate leadership.

LEAVITT CALLS ON CONGRESS TO END EASTER RECESS TO WORK ON DHS SHUTDOWN

Top Democrats plunged the country into a partial government shutdown in mid-February to demand reforms to immigration enforcement. The push came in the wake of the killing of two Americans by federal immigration agents during the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in Minneapolis.

But Democrats are not likely to have any of their proposals met after consistently rebuffing Republicans’ attempts to find consensus.

“The Dems wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms,” Thune said.

The proposals included prohibiting ICE agents from wearing masks, requiring judicial warrants when entering private homes, and shielding sensitive locations such as churches and schools from enforcement targets.

The Senate’s since-rejected deal to fund most of DHS, minus immigration enforcement, included none of Democrats’ demands. But Schumer has still claimed victory by pointing to Senate Republicans agreeing to a funding deal that did not fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and most of the Border Patrol.

“Throughout it all, Senate Democrats stood united — no wavering, no backing down,” Schumer said. “We held the line.”

SEE IT: LAWMAKERS CAUGHT ON VACATION AMID RECORD-BREAKING SHUTDOWN WHILE DHS WORKERS GO UNPAID

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents, who make an average of $47,000 a year, were forced to report to work without pay for six weeks before President Donald Trump took executive action Friday to begin the process of compensating them.

The withheld paychecks forced some agents to sleep in cars to save on gas, sell blood and plasma for money, and take on second and third jobs to make ends meet.

More than 500 TSA agents have quit during the funding lapse, according to DHS.

TSA officials have indicated that staffing issues will likely remain even after the shutdown ends. The workforce was also subjected to a lengthy shutdown in fall 2025, during which agents worked for roughly a month and a half without pay.

Assaults on agents have also increased by 500% since the shutdown began, Acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill testified at a congressional hearing last week.

Additionally, tens of thousands of Americans employed by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and support staff working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have continued to work without pay or have been furloughed.

JOHNSON TURNS UP HEAT ON SCHUMER AS DHS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON, AIRPORT DELAYS MOUNT

Travel impacts from the months-long DHS shutdown hit a fever pitch last week, with some major airports advising passengers to arrive three to four hours prior to their departure.

Those travel disruptions — caused primarily by a shortage of TSA workers — have eased after agents began receiving two full retroactive paychecks.

At Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, which has seen some of the longest security screening lines in the country, nearly 40% of TSA agents called out Sunday, according to DHS.

However, the number of TSA agents calling out at the travel hub fell by nearly half Monday, with the airport experiencing just over a 20% absence rate among personnel.

“Since President Trump issued an order to pay TSA officers on March 28, TSA officer call-outs have dropped by roughly 30%,” Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “We are grateful to President Trump for ensuring our hardworking TSA officers are paid as they continue safeguarding our airports during the longest government shutdown in history.”

It is not clear whether the president’s executive order will cover future TSA paychecks if the funding lapse drags on.

SENATORS DEFEND TWO-WEEK RECESS AS RECORD-BREAKING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON

Even as Democrats continue to refuse funding for ICE, the partial government shutdown is reshaping how some Americans view the embattled agency.

Passengers at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport told Fox News Digital they appreciated ICE agents assisting TSA officers with managing long security lines. Trump deployed ICE agents to more than a dozen airports in March to help alleviate TSA staffing shortages.

Their presence has allowed TSA personnel to focus on security screenings, while ICE agents direct travelers through long lines and help set up new lanes.

“I think it has been very helpful. They have been helping people go to the right places and help them out,” one traveler named Pinal told Fox News Digital.

Another traveler named April said she was grateful for the ICE agents’ presence. “They gave us water, and they said good morning when we walked in. I’m sure they’re just as miserable down here,” she said.

“They’ve been great, very kind, very helpful. They’ve got water,” another traveler named Maria said with a big smile.

Long TSA lines at major airports have created an unequivocal winner during the shutdown. Clear Secure, the company that operates the ID-verification system allowing some travelers to use a fast lane through airport security, has seen a surge in sign-ups since the shutdown began in mid-February.

At least 319,000 travelers downloaded the Clear app in March to steer around TSA checkpoints, Fast Company reported last week.

However, the service, costing $209 annually, has not been available at some airports where it typically operates during the DHS funding lapse. 

Clear has called for an end to the shutdown and has contributed about $200,000 in gas cards and grocery cards to TSA agents, a company spokesman told The Wall Street Journal.

As the debate on voter ID and the SAVE America Act rages on in the Senate, a former Democratic senator from Ohio, Sherrod Brown, is facing heat from his political opponents as he runs to return to the Senate over his votes and positions on the election integrity issue.

“You know, it’s inconsistent to denounce White supremacy but not repudiate voter ID laws, to not repudiate the Muslim ban, to not repudiate ‘the wall,’” Natasha Merle, then nominee for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, said during a 2017 podcast, Fox News Digital reported during her confirmation process in 2022.

“These are all things that support and are grounded in White supremacy. The voter ID bills disproportionately impact Black and Brown voters. They disproportionately prevent Black and Latino voters from voting. So you cannot say you are not for White supremacy and at the same time be for disenfranchising Black and Latino voters.”

Additionally, Merle appeared to compare today’s voter ID laws to “dogs and whips” being used to control minority populations in a 2020 speech to college students on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

SHERROD BROWN PITCHES HIMSELF AS BLUE-COLLAR POPULIST WHILE RAKING IN CASH FROM HOLLYWOOD CELEBRITIES

“We cannot lose sight of states such as Alabama, Texas, Florida that have created new barriers to make voting harder, including by eliminating early voting, passing restrictive voter ID laws, and purging legal voters from their rolls — all of this happening with the implicit and sometimes explicit support of the Justice Department,” Merle said. 

Despite these comments, Merle was confirmed as a federal judge in 2023 by a 1-vote margin with the support of then-Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is currently running a campaign to return to the Senate after losing his seat in 2024, and no Republican support.

“That’s a shocking, radical point of view,” Ohio GOP incumbent Sen. Jon Husted, who Brown is trying to unseat, told Fox News Digital about Merle’s comments. “I didn’t really know much about that particular judge, but I’m shocked to learn those facts. I’ll just say this, when you look at the polling data, 60 to 70% of African-American and Hispanic voters support the idea of voter ID.”

Democrat opposition to voter ID was brought to the forefront of the news cycle earlier this month when Husted, during the debate about the SAVE America Act, attempted to pass a standalone voter ID bill through unanimous consent in a move to test Democratic claims they don’t oppose voter ID but rather take issue with other measures of the bill.

The measure would have enacted a nationwide voter ID requirement, though 36 states already have similar rules on the books. The Ohio Republican said citizens could use a state-issued driver’s license, a U.S. passport or valid military or tribal ID to meet the requirement.

Democrats blocked the measure on the Senate floor. 

SCHUMER, DEMOCRATS SAY THEY SUPPORT VOTER ID, THEN BLOCK GOP AMENDMENT TO REQUIRE IT

“I gave them a simple, clean, straightforward proposal, and then they blocked it, and then when we took it to a roll call vote, every single Democrat voted against it, thus proving that they were unwilling to put their words into action when given the choice,” Husted said, adding that Democrats are “controlled” by the “radical left” wing of the party. 

Shortly after the showdown, Brown called voter ID, which is utilized in Ohio, one of the “unnecessary barriers that threaten the ability of hardworking Ohioans to vote early, mail in their ballots, or vote on Election Day.”

Husted told Fox News Digital that Brown “consistently voted in lockstep with the radical left of his party, which are out of touch with how people in Ohio live their lives on a daily basis.”

“During the Biden years, Sherrod Brown and Democrats let over 10 million people into this country, many of them not properly vetted, many of them not here legally, many of those who have the ability to get on voter rules in states where they don’t properly maintain voter rules,” Husted said. “Because understand, in places like California, you can vote simply with a signature. All you have to do is come up with a signature that looks close to the person who’s properly registered and you can cast a ballot. That’s the kind of stuff we’re trying to solve.”

A Fox News poll released in September 2025 found that 84% of registered voters said photo ID should be required to prove citizenship before voting.

Ohio’s current Secretary of State, Republican Frank LaRose, also called out Brown’s “unnecessary barrier comment” in a post on X saying, “Americans support photo ID, and Ohio proves it works.”

Husted, who previously served as Ohio’s secretary of state, told Fox News Digital that Democrat claims of racial “disenfranchisement” haven’t occurred in his state with voter ID.

“In the last election, we had the second-highest turnout in a presidential election of the last four presidential elections,” Husted said. “It clearly doesn’t suppress voters and I’m highly confident that Hispanic and African American voters are just as capable of using a photo ID as anyone else.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Brown’s campaign for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller and Adam Pack contributed to this report.

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X that all she heard from President Donald Trump’s address to the nation on Wednesday night “was WAR WAR WAR.”

“I wanted so much for President Trump to put America First. That’s what I believed he would do. All I heard from his speech tonight was WAR WAR WAR,” Greene wrote.

“Nothing to lower the cost of living for Americans. Nothing to reduce our near $40 trillion in debt. Nothing to save Social Security, which goes bankrupt in just a few years. Nothing to lower the cost of insurance. Nothing to address jobs for Americans. Nothing about education for our children. Nothing about our children’s future. Nothing for America’s future,” she continued.

“I’m so beyond done. I pray for our military and their families. I pray for innocent people all over the world. I pray for peace and prosperity for all,” she concluded.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE SAYS TRUMP, GOP ‘GOVERNED AMERICA LAST,’ PREDICTS MIDTERM LOSSES

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Thursday morning but did not immediately receive a response.

President Trump delivered the speech on Wednesday night, more than four weeks after launching U.S. military action against Iran alongside Israel.

“Because of the actions we have taken, we are on the cusp of ending Iran’s sinister threat to America and the world. And I’ll tell you, the world is watching. And when we do … the United States will be safer, stronger, more prosperous and greater than it has ever been before,” Trump said during his remarks. 

TRUMP SAYS IRAN REQUESTED CEASEFIRE

“Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly. We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing,” he said.

Americans have been facing surging fuel prices amid the war – the AAA national average for regular gas has soared to $4.081 as of April 2. 

The president said that when the conflict ends, the Strait of Hormuz “will open up naturally” and “gas prices will rapidly come back down.”

TRUMP SAYS IRAN ‘NO LONGER A THREAT’ AFTER 32 DAYS — OUTLINES NEXT PHASE OF US WAR

“Our economy is strong and improving by the day, and it will soon be roaring back like never before,” he said.

President Donald Trump addressed the nation Wednesday night, saying the United States’ “core strategic objectives” in Iran are “nearing completion”—just a month after “Operation Epic Fury” began, and warned that the U.S. will hit Tehran “extremely hard” over the next several weeks.

“Tonight, I’m pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” the president said, touting the United States military and their “extraordinary” efforts.

Here are the top five takeaways from the president’s address: 

President Trump told Americans Wednesday night that after 32 days of Operation Epic Fury, Iran is “essentially really no longer a threat.” 

The president, upon the announcement of Operation Epic Fury, detailed the United States’ objectives. Trump said, “We are systematically dismantling the regime’s ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders.”

“That means eliminating Iran’s Navy, which is now absolutely destroyed, hurting their Air Force and their missile program at levels never seen before, and annihilating their defense industrial base,” the president said Wednesday night.

INSIDE IRAN’S MILITARY: MISSILES, MILITIAS AND A FORCE BUILT FOR SURVIVAL

“We’ve done all of it,” he continued. “Their Navy is gone. Their Air Force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten. Taken together, these actions will cripple Iran’s military, crush their ability to support terrorist proxies and deny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb.” 

“Our Armed Forces have been extraordinary,” the president said. “There’s never been anything like it militarily. Everyone is talking about it.” 

“And tonight, I’m pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” he said.

Meanwhile, the president thanked U.S. allies in the Middle East— “Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain.”

“They’ve been great and we will not let them get hurt or fail in any way, shape or form,” he said.

“I’ve made clear from the beginning of Operation Epic Fury that we will continue until our objectives are fully achieved, thanks to the progress we’ve made,” he said. “I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly. Very shortly.”

The president warned that the U.S. is “going to hit them extremely hard over the next 2 to 3 weeks.”

“We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong,” he said. “In the meantime, discussions are ongoing. Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change, but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders’ deaths. They’re all dead. The new group is less radical and much more reasonable.”

Since Operation Epic Fury began, gas prices in the United States have increased. The president acknowledged that development, and expressed confidence that those increases are “short term.”

The average price of a gallon of gas surpassed $4 Tuesday, a first since 2022. 

“Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home,” the president said. “The short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict.”

WHY TRUMP, IRAN SEEM LIGHT-YEARS APART ON ANY POSSIBLE DEAL TO END THE WAR

“This is yet more proof that Iran can never be trusted with nuclear weapons. They will use them and they will use them quickly. It would lead to decades of extortion, economic pain, and instability worse than we can ever imagine,” the president said. “The United States has never been better prepared economically to confront this threat. You all know that we built the strongest economy in history.”

The president touted the economy under his leadership, saying that he has “taken a dead and crippled country—I hate to say that, but we were dead and crippled country after the last administration—and made it the hottest country anywhere in the world by far, with no inflation, record-setting investments coming into the United States, over $18 trillion and the highest stock market ever with 53 all-time record highs in just one year.”

The president said those economic gains “all positioned us to get rid of a cancer that has long simmered.”

“It’s known as the nuclear Iran, and they didn’t know what was coming. They’ve never imagined it,” he said. “Remember, because of our drill baby drill program, America has plenty of gas. We have so much gas.”

The president said that, under his leadership, the U.S. is the “number one producer of oil and gas on the planet without even discussing the millions of barrels that we’re getting from Venezuela because of the Trump administration’s policies. We produce more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined.”

“Think of that— Saudi Arabia and Russia combined,” he continued. “And that number will soon be substantially higher than that. There’s no country like us anywhere in the world.”

The president stressed that “the hard part is done.”

“When this conflict is over, the strait will open up. Naturally. It’ll just open up naturally. They’re going to want to be able to sell oil because that’s all they have to try and rebuild,” he said. “It will resume the flowing and the gas prices will rapidly come back down.”

The president said it was necessary to “take that little journey to Iran to get rid of this horrible threat with our historic tax cuts, where people are just now talking about receiving larger refunds than they ever thought possible, they are getting so much more money than they thought. That’s from the great big, beautiful bill.”

He added: “Our economy is strong and improving by the day and it will soon be roaring back like never before. It will top the levels that it was a month ago.”

The president began his address Wednesday night by thanking U.S. troops for “the massive job they did in taking the country of Venezuela in a matter of minutes.”

“That hit was quick, lethal, violent and respected by everyone all over the world,” Trump said, referring to the January operation.

“We’re working along with Venezuela are, in a true sense, joint venture partners,” Trump said. “We’re getting along incredibly well in the production and sale of massive amounts of oil and gas—The second largest reserves on Earth after the United States of America.”

POLL POSITION: WHERE TRUMP STANDS AMONG AMERICANS AS HE FACES THE NATION IN PRIMETIME

Shifting to Operation Epic Fury and the progress made, the president honored “the 13 American warriors who have laid down their lives and this fight to prevent our children from ever having to face a nuclear Iran.”

“Twice this past month, I have traveled to Dover Air Force Base, and it’s been something I wanted to be with those heroes as they return to American soil,” he said. “And I was with them and their families, their parents, their wives, their husbands.”

“We salute them, and now we must honor them by completing the mission for which they gave their lives,” the president said. “And every single one of the people, their loved one said, please, sir, please finish the job, every one of them, and we are going to finish the job and we’re going to finish it very fast. We’re getting very close.”

“It’s very important that we keep this conflict in perspective,” the president said. “American involvement in World War One lasted one year, seven months and five days.”

“World War Two lasted for three years, eight months and 25 days,” He continued. “The Korean War lasted for three years, one month and two days. The Vietnam War lasted for 19 years, five months and 29 days.”

“Iraq went on for eight years, eight months and 28 days,” the president said.

“We are in this military operation, so powerful, so brilliant against one of the most powerful countries for 32 days,” he said. “And the country has been eviscerated and essentially is really no longer a threat.”

FOX NEWS LIVE UPDATES ON THE U.S. WAR WITH IRAN

Trump said that Iran was “the bully of the Middle East, but they’re the bully no longer.”

“This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future,” he said. “The whole world is watching and they can’t leave the power, strength and brilliance. They just can’t believe what they’re seeing. They leave it to your imagination, but they can’t believe what they’re seeing—The brilliance of the United States military.”

He added: “Tonight, every American can look forward to a day when we are finally free from the wickedness of Iranian aggression and the specter of nuclear blackmail. Because of the actions we have taken, we are on the cusp of ending Iran’s sinister threat to America and the world. And I’ll tell you, the world is watching.”

President Trump said ending former President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal was among his top achievements as president, telling the nation he was “honored” to do it.

“I terminated Barack Hussein Obama’s Iran nuclear deal disaster,” Trump said. “Obama gave them $1.7 billion in cash. Green, green cash took it out of banks from Virginia, DC and Maryland. All the cash they had.”

The president went on to say that Obama “flew it by airplanes in an attempt to buy their respect and loyalty. But it didn’t work.”

“They laughed at our president and went on with their mission to have a nuclear bomb,” Trump said. “His Iran deal would have led to a colossal arsenal of massive nuclear weapons for Iran, and they would have had them years ago, and they would have used him, would have been a different world.”

The president said, “There would have been no Middle East and no Israel right now, in my opinion, the opinion of a lot of great experts, had I not terminated that terrible deal that I was so honored to do it.”

“I was so proud to do it It was so bad right from the beginning,” he said. “Essentially, I did what no other president was willing to do.”

He added: “They made mistakes and I am correcting them.”

The president said his “first preference was always the path of diplomacy, yet the regime continued their relentless quest for nuclear weapons and rejected every attempt at an agreement.”

“For this reason, in June, I ordered a strike on Iran’s key nuclear facilities and Operation Midnight Hammer. And nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Those beautiful B-2 bombers performed magnificently,” he said. “We totally obliterated those nuclear sites.”

But the president said the Iranian regime “then sought to rebuild their nuclear program at a totally different location, making clear they had no intention of abandoning their pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

President Donald Trump declared Iran is “essentially really no longer a threat” after a 32-day U.S. military campaign, telling Americans in a primetime address Wednesday that the country has been “eviscerated” following weeks of strikes.

Even so, Trump said the United States is preparing additional attacks in the coming weeks even as diplomatic discussions continue.

“I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly. Very shortly, we are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said. “We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing.”

INSIDE IRAN’S MILITARY: MISSILES, MILITIAS AND A FORCE BUILT FOR SURVIVAL

“We have all the cards. They have none,” Trump said. “American involvement in World War II lasted for three years, eight months and 25 days,” the president went on, noting that the Vietnam War lasted 19 years and Iraq War lasted eight.

“We are in this military operation … for 32 days,” he said. “And the country has been eviscerated and essentially is really no longer a threat.”

Trump pointed to U.S. attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, saying sites hit by B-2 bombers were “obliterated” and warning the United States would launch additional strikes if Tehran attempts to recover nuclear material.

“The nuclear sites that we obliterated with the B-2 bombers have been hit so hard that it would take months to get near the nuclear dust,” Trump said. “If we see them make a move, even a move for it, we’ll hit them with missiles very hard.”

The remarks come as key questions remain about the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, including roughly 900 pounds to 1,000 pounds of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, according to international watchdog estimates.

The conflict has driven volatility in global energy markets and rising fuel costs for Americans.

WHY TRUMP, IRAN SEEM LIGHT-YEARS APART ON ANY POSSIBLE DEAL TO END THE WAR

Addressing those concerns directly, Trump blamed recent increases in gasoline prices on Iranian attacks targeting commercial shipping and regional infrastructure.

“Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home,” Trump said. “The short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries.”

Trump also suggested Iran’s leadership structure has been fundamentally altered by the strikes, saying senior figures are dead and warning of additional attacks if Tehran does not reach an agreement with the United States.

“We never said regime change, but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders’ death. They’re all dead,” Trump said. “If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously.”

He further claimed Iran’s air defenses had been eliminated. “They have no anti-aircraft equipment,” Trump said. “Their radar is 100% annihilated. We are unstoppable.” 

The mission known as Operation Epic Fury began just more than one month ago, on Feb. 28. 

Since then, U.S. forces have struck more than 12,000 targets inside Iran and damaged or destroyed 155 naval ships, according to the Central Command. Thirteen U.S. service members have died in the operations, and 350 have been injured.  

“Twice this past month, I have traveled to Dover Air Force Base, and it’s been something I wanted to be with those heroes as they return to American soil. And I was with them and their families, their parents, their wives, their husbands. We salute them,” Trump said in reference to the deceased service members.  

“Now we must honor them by completing the mission for which they gave their lives. And every single one of the people, their loved one said, please, sir, please finish the job, every one of them, and we are going to finish the job and we’re going to finish it very fast. We’re getting very close.” 

Trump also called on U.S. allies to take a more active role in securing global energy routes, arguing that countries reliant on Middle Eastern oil should be responsible for protecting the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping chokepoint.

“The countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage. They must cherish it. They must grab it and cherish it,” Trump said. “We will be helpful, but they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on.”

Trump suggested some nations had failed to support U.S. military efforts against Iran and urged them to step up, both militarily and economically.

“So to those countries that can’t get fuel, many of which refuse to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, we had to do it ourselves,” he said. “Go to the strait and just take it. Protect it. Use it for yourselves.”

He added that global energy flows would stabilize once the conflict subsides, predicting the waterway would reopen and markets would recover.

“When this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally,” Trump said. “It will resume the flowing and the gas prices will rapidly come back down.”

What would you say if one body of Congress didn’t take a formal roll call vote on a major piece of legislation – yet passed it at 2:19 on a Friday morning?

Would you try to outdo your colleagues across the Capitol Rotunda with some Congressional chicanery of your own? Perhaps by passing an equally important version of the same bill – while officially sidestepping a direct up/down vote on the measure – at 11:28 p.m. on that same Friday night.

That’s what happened late last week. The Senate scored approval from all 100 senators to pass a bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year – but did it on a voice vote at 2:19 a.m. Friday with only five senators in the chamber.

House Republicans scoffed at this. So they passed their own bill – to fund all of DHS – just before the witching hour Friday. But technically, the House didn’t even vote directly on the legislation itself. The House voted to approve a “rule” (which manages debate for bills). With adoption of that rule, the House “deemed” the underlying DHS funding measure as passed.

GOP LEADERS ENDORSE TRUMP’S SHUTDOWN-PROOF MOVE TO END DHS FUNDING LAPSE

But despite all of this, the House and Senate weren’t aligned. They hadn’t approved the same bill. And despite the parliamentary antics, House Republicans then implored the Senate to pass the measure it approved Friday night on Monday morning – without a roll call vote and with just two senators in the chamber.

If you followed all of that, that is exactly what’s unfolded on Capitol Hill the past few days as lawmakers struggled to end the six-week Department of Homeland Security shutdown.

It was clear early Thursday evening that there wasn’t a path in the Sente to approve a partisan GOP bill to fund DHS after a lengthy roll call vote which started in the afternoon.

But something was afoot.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MAKES MAJOR MOVE TO RELIEVE ‘UNFAIR BURDEN’ ON DHS WORKERS AS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON

Congress was staring at a 15-day recess for Easter and Passover on Friday. Failure to address the crisis now meant that lawmakers would leave town until the middle of April – extending the shutdown until then as airport lines swelled.

So Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., got to work on something which could pass the Senate – and potentially pass the House – before everyone abandoned Washington for the break.

Thune suggested earlier in the week that the Senate usually has to get “to Thursday” before frozen positions may begin to thaw. He was right. There was a corridor for the Senate to approve a bipartisan bill to tackle most of the funding crisis at DHS. So Thune’s charge late Thursday night and into the wee hours of Friday morning was not necessarily to persuade bipartisan senators to support the bill he was putting on the floor. But instead, Thune’s goal was to coax skeptical senators not to object and blow the whole thing up.

There’s something called a “hotline” in the Senate. Any time the leadership wants to set up a series of votes, make particular amendments in order and perhaps allocate wedges of time to debate, it sends around a “hotline” to all 100 senators. If any senator objects, they let the leadership know. This streamlines the process ahead of time. It also ensures that senators aren’t blindsided by something called a “unanimous consent” request. Unanimous consent requests, or “UC’s,” happen all the time in the Senate.

One of the most powerful tools in the Senate is “unanimous consent.” If you obtain the “unanimous consent” of all 100 senators, you can make the sun rise in the west. But all it takes is one objection to block a UC – even if all other 99 senators agree.

The behind the scenes hotline takes care of this in advance. Any senator could object and block Thune’s proposal to fund most of DHS. But there shouldn’t be any problem if he cleared it with all 100 senators offstage in advance.

That’s why Thune went to the floor at 2:19 a.m. Friday. Not a single senator flagged his proposal. And so the South Dakota Republican went to the floor with a team of five senators – and passed the bill. Not by UC. But by something called a “voice vote. Those in favor shout yea. Those who oppose holler nay. The louder side wins. The Senate passed the bill. There was no roll call vote.

HOUSE GOP RAMS THROUGH NEW DHS FUNDING PLAN WITH SHUTDOWN FAR FROM OVER

So, this wasn’t something snuck by in the dead of night on the sly. If any senator had a reservation, they could have flagged it. Or better yet, come down to the floor at 2:19 a.m. and contested it. In short, there were 100 senators, 100 chiefs of staff, 100 legislative directors and 100 counsels who should have known about Thune’s plan. That’s a universe of at least 400 people – if not more. So, this wasn’t an episode of someone pulling a fast one.

By morning, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said he “opposed this bill.” Same with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

Well, that’s fine. But no one objected nor pushed back on the hotline. No one went down to the floor to demand a roll call vote – or even argued that the Senate couldn’t do anything because there wasn’t a quorum present to conduct business. So anything said by Republican senators upset about the bill were simply academic or rhetorical objections. If those senators truly opposed the bill, they missed their opportunity to do something about it.

It was thought that the House might take up the bill – reluctantly – the next day to end most of the shutdown and pay TSA workers. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., signaled support. So did Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. Granted, liberal Democrats might oppose the bill because there weren’t changes at ICE. But the bill probably would have passed with some Republicans and lots of Democrats. In fact, there may have been more Democratic yeas than Republican yeas. That would have been toxic for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., lost his gavel over moving a bipartisan bill to avoid a shutdown in the fall of 2023.

So by Friday afternoon, Johnson strenuously lodged his opposition to the Senate bill.

“Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement,” said Johnson, noting that the Senate plan left out funding for ICE and the Border Patrol. “This gambit that was done last night is a joke. I’m quite convinced that it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill.”

In other words, were they not dialed in on the hotline?

THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO WHAT TO EXPECT ON DHS FUNDING WHEN THE SENATE MEETS MONDAY

Yours truly questioned the Speaker, asking why he and Thune weren’t on the same page. Johnson accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. of being behind the bill. I pointed out that Thune “was the engineer behind this.”

“I wouldn’t call John Thune the engineer of this,” said Johnson.

“He didn’t have the accept it,” I countered.

“Let me answer the question, Chad,” sighed an exasperated Johnson.

So the House forged ahead and passed its own bill to fully fund DHS Friday night. Some House Republicans then expected the Senate to break custom and pass its bill – by unanimous consent – during a brief pro forma session Monday. In other words, House Republicans ripped the Senate for what it did early Friday morning. But those same House Republicans wanted senators to approve THEIR bill on Monday the same way they criticized the Senate for passing its bill on Friday.

Note that there was no hotline for the House bill at that point.

“We’d love to see them do that,” said Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., on Friday.

But Democrats dispatched a watchdog to guard the floor against any possible GOP chicanery as the Senate met for 31 seconds with meager attendance.

The Senate gaveled in. The Senate gaveled out. Nothing happened.

“I was there to object,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. “I was here just in case there were some shenanigans.”

Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., called it “insane” that Senate Republicans “didn’t even try” to pass the House bill. But the lone Senate Republican on duty said the presence of Coons doomed that to failure.

“We don’t have consent yet,” said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., who presided over the session. “They declined. Obviously Sen. Coons was there to do that.”

But by Wednesday, the bill which Johnson trashed Friday afternoon was on its way to passage. Despite a sea of opposition from conservative Republicans, the House would accept the Senate bill and end most of the DHS shutdown. The Earth shifted. President Trump was fine with this. Suddenly, Johnson and Thune were on the same page.

So the Republican House would eat what the Senate originally cooked up early Friday morning. And the House would likely approve it with lots of Republicans spread around the country. But like Senate Republicans early Friday morning, no one would likely return to block it.

And by now, this wasn’t something engineered in the dead of night that only 400 people knew about. The entire country was more than aware what happened.

FIRST ON FOX: Actor Robert De Niro was in the nation’s capital Wednesday sitting in the same crowded courtroom as President Donald Trump and some of his closest advisors during oral arguments by the Supreme Court about birthright citizenship. 

Fox News Digital caught up with De Niro as he was exiting the courthouse, but De Niro said he did not have any perspective on how the arguments went. 

“I’m waiting to get a, getting a – I’m not sure because I could hear, but not hear. It’s complicated. So, I can’t say,” De Niro responded when asked about the oral arguments he had just witnessed before the high court. 

De Niro described the Trump administration’s argument on the matter — that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens — as a way for Republicans to “get rid of people they don’t want.”

ALITO INVOKES SCALIA ANALOGY IN BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP FIGHT OVER ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

“It’s that simple,” De Niro said.

The actor and activist, who spoke at a “No Kings” protest in New York City over the weekend, has been criticized for his anti-Trump rhetoric. He has called the president “a piece of s—,” a “nasty little b—-,” a “petulant little punk,” has said he’d “like to punch him in the face” and declared Trump an “enemy” of the United States.   

When asked about claims he has “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” sometimes referred to by the acronym “TDS,” De Niro called it “nonsense.”

“People don’t like him for a reason,” De Niro shot back. “All the terrible things he’s done. If he did nice things, then he could have, he had the chance — he became president — to do nice things, not hateful, retribution, not just, outright mean things. If he did nice things, people would love him. But he’s got a problem. He’s damaged.”

SCOTUS SLATED TO WEIGH FUTURE BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP PROTECTIONS FOR MILLIONS — HERE’S WHAT AT STAKE

Asked what specifically bothered him about Trump, De Niro said “everything.”

“Everything that we all know now,” De Niro added. 

Reporting from Wednesday indicated the Supreme Court appeared ready to reject Trump’s argument on birthright citizenship. The arguments reportedly lasted over two hours, and, in addition to Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi was present, as was Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. 

De Niro reportedly sat in seats reserved for the justices’ guests, according to The Associated Press.  

“When the crowds are chanting ‘No Kings,’ what I’m really hearing – as we all know – is ‘No Trump.’ There have been other presidents who have tested the constitutional limits of their power, but none have been such an existential threat to our freedoms and security — none — except Trump,” De Niro told supporters at the No Kings rally he attended over the weekend. 

“He must be stopped, and he must be stopped now,” De Niro added, calling members of Trump’s Cabinet “goons.”