Category: USA Politics

The House of Representatives passed a stopgap measure that would temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security late Friday, but the 43-day shutdown could drag on for several more weeks.

The two-month funding extension approved by the House is likely dead on arrival in the Senate, where any funding bill needs to overcome a 60-vote threshold, meaning buy-in from a handful of Democrats. That hurdle has not stopped House GOP leadership from arguing that their rejection of a Senate-passed deal — and pitching a subsequent rival DHS funding proposal — is the way out of the shutdown.

“We’re not going to split apart two of the most important agencies in the government and leave them hanging like that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters leaving the U.S. Capitol on Friday night. “We just couldn’t do it.”

“House Republicans will have no part in reopening the border and stopping illegal immigration enforcement,” Johnson said earlier Friday on “The Ingraham Angle,” in a scathing takedown of the Senate-passed deal that stopped short of funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and portions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

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But the full-court press launched by House Republicans aimed at persuading the Senate to return to Washington to take up their bill is likely to fall on deaf ears in the upper chamber.

A GOP aide told Fox News Digital that “the easiest way to end this shutdown is for the House to pass the Senate-passed bill.”

“We know the Democrats are not going to support a CR, in fact the Senate tried to pass CRs for the last 40 days and Dems have blocked Every. Single. One,” they said.

Senators left Washington, D.C., for a two-week Easter recess after unanimously approving a DHS funding measure in the early morning hours Friday with some traveling abroad on congressional delegations.

“I would suggest that the Senate does come back and at least take a vote,” House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain said Friday. “That is what they were elected to do. So they’re going to stay out on recess for two weeks and not come back while people don’t get paid. That’s pretty sad.”

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, also called on the Senate to return to Washington “immediately” to take up the House-passed measure in a statement late Friday. 

House lawmakers are also scheduled to be in recess for the next two weeks.

Left holding the tab in the cross-chamber feud are the tens of thousands of DHS employees working unpaid during the shutdown.

President Donald Trump moved Friday to shield TSA agents from further financial distress by taking executive action directing DHS to pay those employees with existing funds. 

The roughly 50,000 agents have missed two full paychecks during the ongoing funding lapse, leading hundreds to quit their jobs and forcing others to grapple with mounting financial distress.

The president’s move is likely to alleviate lengthy wait times at TSA security checkpoints, though senior officials have warned of long-term impacts due to more than 500 agents quitting during the funding lapse.

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However, other DHS personnel, such as those employed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and certain support staff working for ICE and CBP will still have their paychecks withheld until the department’s funding is restored. 

“Anybody who shows up to work deserves to get a paycheck, and the Senate needs to come back and at least do their job,” McClain told Fox News on Friday. 

Democratic lawmakers are sure to spend the next several weeks blaming Republicans for the impasse after Johnson’s decision to reject the Senate deal. 

“We’re here dealing with a partisan spending bill that the Senate has already indicated is dead on arrival,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said on the House floor Friday. “And so Republicans have taken the decision to own this shutdown decisively. There is no doubt.”

The short-term DHS funding patch passed by the House is a clean extension of government funding and has no partisan policy riders.

Trump also came out against the bill Friday afternoon in an interview with Fox News.

The bill notably does not include any of the reforms that Democrats have demanded for six weeks to rein in immigration enforcement, including tightening warrant requirements and prohibiting agents from wearing masks.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who warned throughout the funding stalemate that nobody wins in a shutdown, has indicated that Democrats are less likely to get those demands met than when the funding lapse first started.

“I mean, I think that ship has sailed, and they kind of kissed that opportunity goodbye by failing to provide funding for those agencies,” Thune said.

President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda is hitting repeated roadblocks in Washington, D.C., federal court, where judges have halted major policies — fueling a growing clash over whether the judiciary is checking executive power or overstepping into it.

The rulings have halted key parts of Trump’s agenda on immigration, policing and federal authority, intensifying debate over whether courts are acting as a constitutional check or obstructing elected leadership.

Here are some of the biggest court clashes Trump is facing in D.C. federal court.

One of the biggest fights is also one of the earliest lawsuits filed against the Trump administration in D.C. federal court  — centered on the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime law, to deport certain migrants to El Salvador’s CECOT prison.

Civil rights groups and immigration advocates have argued the Trump administration is stretching the law beyond its intended use case, including the three previous times it was used in U.S. history — most recently, during World War II. The Trump administration has defended the move as a lawful exercise of executive authority over national security and immigration enforcement.

The case quickly landed in D.C. federal court and has since moved up on appeal, with higher courts now weighing the scope of the president’s authority under the centuries-old statute. The outcome could have sweeping implications for how rarely used emergency powers are applied in modern immigration policy.

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The scope of federal power over states and localities has also been tested. Courts have imposed limits on Trump’s efforts to assert control over National Guard units, raising federalism concerns about the balance between state and federal authority.

The standoff began in August 2025. Trump moved to expand federal control over policing in Washington, D.C., including deploying National Guard troops to respond to crime. 

A related lawsuit, District of Columbia v. Trump, challenges what city officials describe as an unprecedented federal intrusion into local policing. The case remains a key test of presidential authority over the nation’s capital.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear a pair of appeals from the Trump administration seeking to immediately halt Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations for Haitian migrants. Haitians were first granted TPS status in 2010 after a devastating earthquake. Previously, a lower court judge in D.C., U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, had blocked the Trump administration from lifting the TPS designation.

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the high court to take up the broader issue of whether the Trump administration can revoke TPS protections for other migrants living in the U.S. — citing the Justice Department’s appeal of a similar case centered on TPS protections for Syrian migrants that was kicked to the high court earlier this year.

“Unless the court resolves the merits of these challenges — issues that have now been ventilated in courts nationwide — this unsustainable cycle will repeat again and again, spawning more competing rulings and competing views of what to make of this court’s interim orders,” Sauer said last week. “This court should break that cycle.”

The appeal comes as the Trump administration has sought to wind down most TPS designations, arguing the programs have been extended for too long under Democratic presidents.

“Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago,” said then-spokesperson for DHS Tricia McLaughlin. “It was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades.”

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Early in the term, the administration’s effort to rapidly scale back the U.S. Agency for International Development was halted by a federal judge, who blocked mass leave orders and the dismantling of the agency’s workforce.

The Supreme Court eventually intervened in the case. Last March, the high court denied the Trump administration’s request to block a lower court’s order for the administration to pay nearly $2 billion in foreign aid money for previously completed projects, and leaving to the lower court judge the details of how those contracts should be paid out. That suit was eventually appealed to a higher court, where litigation remains pending.

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The independence of the Federal Reserve is also an issue before the courts.

Lawyers for the Trump administration asked U.S. District Judge James Boasberg earlier this month to reconsider an earlier order that quashed grand jury subpoenas of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, appearing to make good on a vow from U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro to appeal the order to a higher court.

In the Justice Department’s motion for reconsideration that was submitted Monday, prosecutors argued that the court “applied an incorrect legal standard, erred with respect to certain facts, and overlooked other relevant facts.” 

They argued that a subpoena should be allowed when there is even a “reasonable possibility” that the category of materials the government seeks will produce information “relevant to the general subject of the grand jury’s investigation,” and even where a subpoena recipient “proposes a plausible theory of an ulterior motive.”

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a separate case, Trump v. Cook, earlier this year. That case centered on whether Trump has the power to fire Lisa Cook from the Fed’s board of governors — without notice and largely without the ability for courts to challenge the “for cause” provision underpinning her removal.

Cook remains in her position for now, following an order from U.S. District Court Judge Jia Cobb. 

Meanwhile, White House officials have railed against the “activist” judges who they have accused of overstepping their agenda or acting with a political agenda to halt or pause Trump’s policies from taking force.  

“No Kings,” a decentralized protest movement that crystallized in opposition to President Donald Trump’s second term, will hold thousands of events on Saturday morning, according to Sarah Parker, an organizer for one of the events in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The protests mark the most recent development for the amorphous group, which has prompted similar events in the past.

“Tomorrow we’re going to have over 3,500 events across the country,” Parker said. “I think it’s important to be out in the streets at this moment in time to save our country. The events will be overwhelmingly peaceful and there are going to be millions of Americans from different affiliations, different ages and different ethnic backgrounds coming together to be in community.”

Parker did not describe how “No Kings” works with local figures to organize events but said the protests aim to build on local displeasure with the administration.

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“I think this is organic. This is a people-powered movement. We have different local hosts that are volunteers who have stepped up to host an event in their areas, even in rural areas. We have hundreds of events in rural and deep-red states,” Parker said.

Unlike other organized organizations, “No Kings” is not a non-profit, a business, or a formal organization, making its structure a mystery. Because of its lack of centralization, it has little to no financial reporting requirements and no easily identifiable leadership.

“No Kings” first burst onto the scene through “No Kings Day” in June 2025, an event that, in the words of their website, inspired “a nationwide uprising 14 times larger than both of Trump’s inaugurations combined.”

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Almost a year later, the protests scheduled for Saturday hope to continue their opposition, touting opposition to Trump’s recent actions in Iran and debates over immigration enforcement.

“Masked secret police terrorizing our communities. An illegal, catastrophic war putting us in danger and driving up our costs. Attacks on our freedom of speech, our civil rights, our freedom to vote. Costs pushing families to the brink,” their website’s description reads.

Despite Parker’s framing of a decentralized movement, No Kings provides a highly-structured document for organizers titled “March 28 Toolkit,” instructing viewers on how to recruit their own speakers, delegate roles, register their event and use No Kings branded media materials. It also lays out best practices for logistics as well as how to avoid permitting and insurance requirements for event-holders.

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Notably, the document also includes a “host hotline,” providing a number with a Maryland area code.

A map of events scheduled for Saturday shows organizational activity in the vast majority of urban centers across the country. Parker said that no one center will play a lead role, but that Minneapolis will act as a “flagship.” 

Parker isn’t affiliated with No Kings directly. Instead, she described herself as a part of 50501 — another decentralized organization that partners with No Kings. She did not describe the nature of the partnership or how they interacted amid their similarly decentralized structures.

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Asked what 50501 meant, Parker said the name originally stood for “50 states, 50 capitols, one day.”

It, too, is not registered as a non-profit or as a business.

When asked who should be listening to No Kings’ messaging, Parker said she believes its lawmakers that should pay attention.

“I think it’s for any elected official that is not listening to their constituents again. It should be a message for any, any elected officials, regardless of their political affiliation,” Parker said.

Neither party escaped travelers’ ire as some estimated they had to walk miles to reach the back of the security line and wait several hours to catch their flights at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. 

Fox News Digital asked travelers waiting in line at Bush who they believed was to blame for the massive wait times. One traveler named Tim simply responded: “The politicians.”

On Thursday, lines at Bush snaked through check-in, baggage claim, out the doors and through underground subway tunnels. One traveler, who did not share his name, estimated that he and his family had to walk two miles to reach the back of the line. While many arrived several hours ahead of their scheduled departure times, those who did not could be seen frantically searching for terminals with smaller lines.

When it comes to who bears the blame, another traveler, who did not identify herself, answered: “All congressmen.”

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“All of them, regardless of their party,” she added. “They just need to do their jobs.”

Another, named Lancet, singled out the Democrats, who have demanded reinstating funding for the Department of Homeland Security contingent on broad reforms to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.

“I mean, honestly, look, the Democrats are not voting on the DHS being reinstated. And they’re the ones who pay for TSA from what I know,” said Lancet. “So, without paying the people, they obviously can’t work.”

Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport has been among the airports most heavily impacted by the partial government shutdown, which has led to TSA agents missing paychecks for more than 40 days. Nearly 500 TSA agents have quit, and as of Friday, the agency has missed out on $1 billion in pay.

The partial shutdown was caused by disagreements in Congress over ICE and Border Patrol’s enforcement of immigration law in cities across the U.S., with Democrats making funding contingent on major changes in tactics and policy. Late Thursday night, the Senate passed a bill to fund most of DHS, including TSA, but it is not final. The House still needs to approve the measure and send it to the president before funding resumes and workers are paid.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday directing federal officials to ensure TSA employees are paid, calling the ongoing shutdown an “emergency,” 

One traveler named Kevin, who was waiting in a security line in an underground subway corridor with hardly functioning air conditioning, did not hold back.

“Anybody who votes for a Democrat after this should be shipped out of the country,” said Kevin. “This is a Democrat mess.”

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At the front of the same line, which stretched halfway across the airport’s subway corridor, a traveler named April answered, “I have no idea to be honest with you, but also the construction doesn’t help either.”

“Having to go to Terminal A and Terminal E and going back and forth, yeah, it’s not been great,” she added.

One traveler named Maria, who despite the line bore a large smile and a chipper attitude, told Fox News Digital, “You know what? I would only blame myself for not getting to the airport sooner.”

“I’ve been flying for many, many years, so I know. Got to get to the airports soon, guys. Get your Subway, get your Starbucks, and get to airports,” she quipped, smiling.

“I don’t know, man, I don’t get political about these things,” answered a traveler named Pinal. “It is what it is, and we all are just going through the motions right now.”

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“There’s a lot of people to blame,” said a woman who did not identify herself. “But at least I think the important part is everybody’s working together to try to be as efficient as possible. I got here at 10, and my flight is at 1:30, so I got there in enough time, hopefully.”

“It’s just the division,” remarked a young man named Nick. “Everybody should be unified, working together, instead of just picking teams, fighting against each other, you know?” 

“People rather be on a team than rather just focus on a solution,” Nick continued. “If we could just focus more on the problem and working together rather than focusing on the differences, I think that would be a major change. But it’s tough, man.”

House Republicans passed a short-term funding patch for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the fierce objections of Democratic lawmakers late Friday evening.

But the 42-day shutdown that has snarled air travel and left tens of thousands of federal employees without pay is far from over.

House lawmakers voted 213-203 largely along party lines to approve a two-month funding extension for the beleaguered department, which has been operating without full-year appropriations since the funding lapse began on Feb. 14. 

Reps. Don Davis, D-N.C., Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, crossed party lines to support the measure. More than a dozen lawmakers did not vote.

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The House-passed DHS measure faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where Democrats have filibustered GOP-authored legislation that includes immigration funding for the past six weeks. 

Both chambers are scheduled to leave Washington for an Easter recess without ending the funding standoff, paving the way for the partial government shutdown to become the longest in history. 

“In those eight weeks, we will figure this out with Democrats and figure out a couple of reforms or whatever they need to make sure that we do this right, but we are going to protect the homeland. We have to,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on the Ingraham Angle on Friday evening. “It’s the most important and most basic function of Congress, and Democrats don’t want to do that.”

Democratic lawmakers, who have repeatedly voted against DHS spending bills funding President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown absent reforms, echoed the same position Friday. 

“House Republicans have decided that they would rather inconvenience you, create chaos for you and for your families so that they can continue to jam their extreme right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people so they can continue to spend billions of dollars for ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to brutalize and kill American citizens,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said during a news conference Friday. 

The vote came after House GOP leadership and the conservative House Freedom Caucus unequivocally rejected a Senate-passed deal earlier on Friday. The agreement, which passed the Senate unanimously, would have funded the vast majority of DHS sub-agencies minus ICE and parts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The National Border Patrol Council endorsed the House bill late Friday, arguing the Senate’s failure to fund all of DHS is “completely unacceptable and should not stand.”

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Senate Republicans have teased a second “big, beautiful” bill to give additional funding to ICE and the Border Patrol, though that could be a difficult feat in an election year with slim majorities in both chambers.

“It wasn’t good. It wasn’t appropriate,” Trump told Fox News in an interview Friday, referring to the Senate agreement. “You can’t have a bill that’s not going to fund ICE.”

House GOP leadership has also voiced concern about funding ICE and the Border Patrol through a second budget reconciliation package.

“That’s a very difficult task. It is a high-risk gamble for us to assume that we could do that,” Johnson told the Ingraham Angle. “And in the meantime, people are still going unpaid in this. We’ve got to make sure that we take care of those who take care of ourselves.”

The most pressing pain point of the shutdown — a shortage of Transportation Security Administration employees at airports nationwide — is set to be alleviated. The staffing constraints had created hours-long wait times at TSA security checkpoints, leading to travel disruptions and missed flights.

Trump, through an executive order, directed DHS to pay the more than 50,000 TSA personnel who had been reporting to work without compensation since the start of the shutdown to cover their salaries. The agents are expected to receive their first full paychecks in more than six weeks on Monday.

Mainstream media outlets reportedly used the phrase “war crime” nearly three dozen times in the first three weeks of the Iran conflict, but 88% of that usage was directed toward the U.S. or Israel, according to an analysis released by a U.S.-based, Mideast-focused media watchdog.

CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, and its research manager, David Litman, released a study Wednesday counting 32 uses of the term “war crime” from the BBC, CNN, NBC News, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

In his review, Litman asked readers to consider how the term “war crime” has been applied in reporting on the conflict, noting that simple internet searches return usages “almost exclusively” against the U.S. and Israel.

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“CAMERA found 32 total applications of the phrase ‘war crime’ during the first three weeks of the war (Feb. 28-Mar. 21). Of those, 28 (88 percent) were directed solely toward the actions of the United States and/or Israel,” Litman wrote on CAMERA’s website. 

“Zero were directed solely toward the actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Four (12 percent) were unattributed or directed at both sides.”

CAMERA found nearly all references stemmed from an airstrike early in the conflict that allegedly destroyed a school in Minab, Iran. The Pentagon is continuing to investigate the incident, according to CAMERA.

“Several of the other allegations refer to the sinking of an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean in what can assuredly be classified as a lawful attack,” Litman wrote.

The analysis also contrasted that usage with events that have not been labeled “war crimes” in CAMERA’s findings.

The group cited cluster bombs fired by Iran, many of which hit populated areas in Israel and elsewhere.

“While cluster munitions are not universally banned, using them to target populated areas almost certainly constitutes a war crime,” the analysis found.

CAMERA also pointed to Iranian strikes that hit energy and other key installations in nations not officially engaged in the conflict, such as Kuwait and Bahrain.

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The analysis found that, among the mainstream media sources examined, the term “war crime” was not applied to these strikes, and if Iran was cited in a war crimes discussion, it was paired with equal criticism of the West.

“This journalistic malpractice inverts reality,” Litman wrote.

George Mason law professor Adam Mossoff commented on the analysis, writing on X that “data analytics confirm huge bias in favor of pro-Islamic regime of Iran by BBC, CNN, NBC and NY Times.”

“These media orgs used ‘war crime’ 32 times in news reports in the first 3 weeks of the U.S./Israel-Iran war. Zero references solely to crimes by Islamic regime, and 88% media uses referred solely to U.S. or Israel.

“Islamic regime uses cluster bombs against Israeli civilians, shoots missiles and suicide drones at civilian targets in numerous Arab countries not involved in war, fires missiles at holy sites in Old Jerusalem, [but] zero identification of these war crimes as standalone crimes by major Western media organizations. This is shameful.”

Fox News Digital reached out to communications officials at CNN, the BBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times and NBC News for comment but did not hear back by deadline.

CAMERA was founded in Washington in 1982 by social worker Winifred Meiselman in response to The Washington Post’s coverage of Israel’s incursion into Lebanon and allegations of anti-Israel bias.

Early advisors included Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa; former Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, R-Minn.; and former Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., according to its website.

President Donald Trump on Friday signaled a shift away from the war with Iran after apparent positive negotiations this week and the administration’s capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, saying “Cuba is next.”

While speaking in Florida at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute Summit at the Faena Forum in Miami Beach, Trump said that even though he campaigned on peace through strength, sometimes force is necessary.

“And Cuba is next, by the way. But pretend I didn’t say that,” Trump said. “Please, please, please media, please disregard that statement. Thank you very much — Cuba’s next.”

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He added that he thought NATO’s absence in negotiations with Iran was a “tremendous mistake.”

“They just weren’t there,” he said. “It’s going to make a lot of money for the United States, because we spent hundreds of billions of dollars a year on NATO, hundreds of protecting them. And we would have always been there for them. But now, based on their actions, I guess we don’t have to be, do we?”

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The president talked about the Strait of Hormuz, which he pressured NATO to help the U.S. reopen. 

“We’re negotiating [with Iran] now, and it would be great if we could do something, but they have to open it up,” he said. “They have to open up the Strait of Trump — I mean, Hormuz. … The fake news will say he accidentally said [that]. No, there’s no accidents with me.”

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Previously, when asked about control of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said the U.S. will “have control of anything we want.”

The Iranian regime has imposed multimillion-dollar charges on some tankers transiting the critical global shipping choke point, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply flows.

House Republicans’ gambit to end the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown survived a critical hurdle on Friday evening, teeing up a chamber-wide vote that will put the chamber on a collision course with the Senate. 

The House Rules Committee advanced a two-month DHS stopgap measure after House GOP leadership vigorously rejected a Senate-passed deal earlier on Friday with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., dubbing the funding bill a “joke.” President Donald Trump also criticized the Senate bill in an interview with Fox News.

The Senate deal provided full-year appropriations for DHS minus funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), halting roughly $5.5 billion for the agency. It also largely nixed funds for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), save for just over $11 billion for operations and support.

“The Senate’s proposal is nothing more than unconditional surrender masquerading as a solution, and the House will not bend itself into submission by acquiescing,” House Rules Committee Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said Friday.

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House Republicans are expected to have the votes to pass the 60-day CR in a chamber-wide vote, though Johnson will be able to spare just one GOP defection in a party-line scenario. A vote on final passage could occur as early as Friday evening.

House Democrats are expected to line up against the short-term funding patch, citing their opposition to funding Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts absent myriad reforms. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is also pinning the blame on House Republicans for prolonging the 42-day government shutdown.

“This could end and should end today,” Jeffries said Friday. “There is a bipartisan bill that has been sent over from the Senate that would reopen the non-controversial parts of the Department of Homeland Security, make sure TSA agents are paid and end the chaos at airports throughout the nation.”

Any CR from the House stands no chance of surviving in the Senate, given that Senate Democrats blocked numerous attempts by Republicans throughout the shutdown to pass short-term, two-week extensions.

Lawmakers in the upper chamber have also left Washington, D.C., with some going abroad on congressional delegations.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., immediately came out against Johnson’s plan and said that Democrats and Republicans reached unanimous agreement to advance the DHS funding bill while carving out immigration enforcement funding.

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“A 60-day CR that locks in the status-quo is dead on arrival in the Senate, and Republicans know it,” Schumer said.

And a GOP aide told Fox News Digital that “the easiest way to end this shutdown is for the House to pass the Senate-passed bill.”

“We know the Democrats are not going to support a CR, in fact the Senate tried to pass CRs for the last 40 days and Dems have blocked Every. Single. One,” they said.

When asked about its uncertain prospects in the Senate, House GOP leadership Conference Chair Lisa McClain, R-Mich., told Fox News Digital that she hoped the upper chamber returned to Washington next week.

“I will tell you what can’t pass is what is what the Senate sent us at three in the morning,” McClain said. “We will not go back to the Biden administration, where we had wide open borders.”

Senate Republicans are already determined to front-load funding for ICE and CBP for the next several years in a new budget reconciliation bill, just as they did last year when Congress passed President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

However, McClain insisted Friday that funding for ICE and Border Patrol must be handled through the appropriations process, rather than receiving additional money through another party-line megabill.

“Border deserves a guarantee. I’m not willing to roll the dice on ‘Oh, let’s try and do it in reconciliation.’ No. Let’s do what the American people sent us here in the ‘24 election to do, and that’s make sure our people are safe and our borders remain closed.”

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President Donald Trump turned heads again this week for a viral Cabinet meeting tangent about a favorite custom White House Sharpie. He said the marker is an example of how he can get “better” results for less cost.

The president brought up the pen while criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over a new headquarters, which he said costs the government $4 billion.

“If it was properly done and planned, you would have done that building for — I would have done it — for $25 million, and it would be better,” he said. 

He then reached for a marker on a table and said, “See this pen right here? This pen is an interesting example.”

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Trump said he was having issues with the old Oval Office pens, which he said were inlaid with gold and silver, running out of ink. He said he also felt “guilty” about wasting money by handing them out to as many as 40 people every time he signed an executive action. 

So, he decided to replace the expensive pens with customized White House Sharpies.

“It’s the same thing,” he told his Cabinet and members of the press. “This pen is very inexpensive, but it writes well; I like it.

“I came here, and they have thousand-dollar pens, and you hand pens out. You’re signing, and you’re handing them out. You’re handing them out with all these people. Sometimes, you have 30, 40 people, and they were a thousand dollars apiece,” he said. 

“Beautiful pen, ballpoint, a thousand. There was gold, silver. Gorgeous. But I’m handing it out to kids that don’t even know what they are. ‘What is this, Mommy?’ It’s kids, they’re getting a pen for a thousand dollars, and they have no idea what it is.”

He said he felt “guilty” because “I want to save money.”

“So, I’m saying this is crazy,” he explained. “And it had another problem. They didn’t write well.”

However, despite his preference for Sharpies, Trump said he couldn’t “have the pen the way it was.”

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The president said he considered signing documents in a separate room, or “I could do like Biden did, you know, give it to somebody else to sign or an autopen.

“This is when I called the guy. I said, ‘I’d like to use your pen, but I can’t have a grey thing with a big ‘S’ on it saying ‘Sharpie’ as I’m signing a trillion-dollar airplane contract to buy brand-new fighter jets – brand new B-2 bombers, of which we just ordered plenty. I can’t do that with the press, use your pen, but I like the pen the best.”

According to Trump, a Sharpie representative then said, “Well, I could make it nicer.”

“I said, ‘What can you do?’ He said, ‘I’ll paint it black.’ I said, ‘That’s nice,’” Trump related.

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The president said the representative even offered to paint the White House and Trump’s signature on it “in gold, almost real gold, not bad.”

After relating the story, Trump noted, “By the way, this was not staged.”

“I just saw the pen sit there; I thought that this is an example of how $25 million spent by me at the Federal Reserve building would be a better job than the $4 billion that they’re spending.”