
Federal judge halts the Trump administration from dismantling the US African Development Foundation
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., ruled that Trump violated federal law when he appointed Pete Marocco the new head of the U.S. African Development Foundation, or USDAF, because Marocco was never confirmed by Congress. As a result, Marocco's actions — terminating most of the agency's employees and effectively ending the agency's grants — are void and must be undone, the judge found.
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Gizmodo
17 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
Elon Musk Rekindles Trump Criticism, Attacks ‘Big, Beautiful Bill'
The long-simmering feud between President Donald Trump and his former 'first buddy' Elon Musk is showing signs of boiling over once more. Following the passing of Trump's signature 'One Big Beautiful Bill' that will offer tax breaks to the wealthy while kicking millions off of Medicaid, Musk publicly supported Senator Rand Paul's criticism (one of the few Republican 'no' votes in the Senate), specifically Paul's assertion that the bill would 'explode the deficit. Rand posted on X, 'The Big Not-So-Beautiful Bill has officially passed both chambers. Despite a few conservative provisions, it explodes the deficit in the near term. This is Washington's MO: short-term politicking over long-term sustainability.' Musk reposted this comment, expressing agreement with a '100' emoji, his first public statement on the bill since its official passage. 💯 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2025 Musk has been criticizing the bill for some time: it marked an early point of contention in his relationship with the President, ultimately culminating in a significant public spat during which Musk accused Trump of appearing in Jeffrey Epstein's black book (an attack he would later deleted and retracted). He previously referred to the spending bill as the 'Debt Slavery Bill.' He also offered some very salient and well-reasoned critiques, like 'I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both,' and 'we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!' Really makes you think. Despite his significant opposition to the Big, Beautiful Bill—one so strong that he was seemingly willing to throw away his relationship with the President over it—he didn't flex his political power, whatever of it remains, to stop it from passing. He did issue a pretty lame threat to oust the members of the Republican party who cast their vote for the bill one day before the Senate voted on it, but that reads more like jeering from the sidelines from a guy who used to be in the arena. For a guy who is online all day to only offer up a single threat and a couple of critical posts, it just feels a little phoned in. Musk insists that his opposition to the bill comes from a place of being a true budget hawk, which maybe he is. But Trump has called him out for covering up his self-interest in opposing the legislation, as it cuts clean energy credits for solar projects and electric vehicles, which Musk's companies would have benefited from. Musk has issued no objection to the cuts to food benefits and healthcare, by the way. Austerity is fine for everyone else, it seems.


Washington Post
17 minutes ago
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200 Marines sent to Florida to support ICE, U.S. Northern Command says
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Fox News
24 minutes ago
- Fox News
Big Beautiful Bill immediately hits the campaign trail in battle for Congress
President Donald Trump signs the sweeping Republican-crafted domestic policy package that he and the GOP call the "One Big Beautiful Bill," into law on Friday at the White House. The massive tax cuts and spending bill passed the House and Senate this week by razor-thin margins along near party lines. But the political battle over the bill is far from over, as it moves from Capitol Hill to the campaign trail. "I'm deeply concerned about this bill and what this will do. We're going to be talking a lot about it," Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire told Fox News Digital on Friday. Pappas, who's running in the crucial 2026 race to succeed retiring longtime Sen. Jeanne Shaheen for a Democrat-held seat Republicans would love to flip, took aim at the bill. "This was a one-party effort and unfortunately it arrived at a conclusion that I think is not good for our state and for our country," Former Republican Sen. Scott Brown, who last month announced his candidacy for the Senate, sees things differently, and he praised the president for helping GOP leaders in Congress get the bill to his desk at the White House. "The things he said he was going to do, he's actually done. For somebody in politics to actually do that I think is very rare," Brown said of Trump. The bill is stuffed full of Trump's 2024 campaign trail promises and second-term priorities on tax cuts, immigration, defense, energy and the debt limit. It includes extending his signature 2017 tax cuts and eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay. By making his first-term tax rates permanent - they were set to expire later this year - the bill will cut taxes by nearly $4.4 trillion over the next decade, according to analysis by the Congressional Budget Office and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The measure also provides billions for border security and codifies the president's controversial immigration crackdown. And the bill also restructures Medicaid — the nearly 60-year-old federal program that provides health coverage to roughly 71 million low-income Americans. Additionally, Senate Republicans increased cuts to Medicaid over what the House initially passed in late May. The changes to Medicaid, as well as cuts to food stamps, another one of the nation's major safety net programs, were drafted in part as an offset to pay for extending Trump's tax cuts. The measure includes a slew of new rules and regulations, including work requirements for many of those seeking Medicaid coverage. And the $3.4 trillion legislative package is also projected to surge the national debt by $4 trillion over the next decade. Democrats for a couple of months have blasted Republicans over the social safety net changes. "We're going to be talking about this bill because the results are that 46,000 people in New Hampshire will lose their health insurance. We'll have people that will go hungry, that won't be able to access assistance," Pappas warned. "And we know that insurance premiums for all Granite Staters could go up as a result of uncompensated care costs and the burden that this places on our hospitals." The four-term congressman, who was interviewed by Fox News on Friday as he arrived for the annual July 4th naturalization ceremony in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, noted that "we've been hearing from folks and engaging with people all across the state on this issue." Democrats have spotlighted a slew of national polls conducted last month that indicate the bill's popularity in negative territory. By a 21-point margin, voters questioned in the most recent Fox News national poll opposed the bill (38% favored vs. 59% opposed). The bill was also underwater in other national surveys conducted last month by the Washington Post (minus 19 points), Pew Research (minus 20 points) and Quinnipiac University (minus 26 points). About half of respondents questioned in the Fox News poll said the bill would hurt their family (49%), while one quarter thought it would help (23%), and another quarter didn't think it would make a difference (26%). Asked about criticism from Democrats on the Medicaid cuts, Brown said "my mom was on welfare. Those are very important programs and I've said already that the people that actually need them the most, the ones who are disabled, the ones who can't get out and work, they should have them." "It's meant for lower and middle-income people and I support them getting those benefits. But I don't support who are here illegally get them," Brown said. And he added that he doesn't support giving the benefits to "people who are able-bodied and can absolutely go out and do some volunteerism, go out and work." Republicans are also going on offense over the bill, targeting Democrats for voting against the tax cuts. Republicans are shining a spotlight on recent polls conducted by GOP-aligned groups that indicate strong support for the bill due to the tax cut provisions. Brown, who was interviewed by Fox News after he marched in the annual Brentwood, New Hampshire July 4th parade, said "obviously keeping the 2017 tax cuts in place. Certainly for individuals and businesses, it's really really critical." And pointing to Pappas, whose family for over a century has owned Manchester's iconic Puritan Backroom restaurant, Brown said "for someone like Chris Pappas, imagine walking into the restaurant he owns and telling his employees 'oh by the way I'm not going to support your no tax on tips, your no tax on overtime.' How do you do that?" Asked about the GOP attacks, Pappas said "I support targeted tax cuts for working people, for our small businesses and to make sure we are targeting that relief to the people that need it, not to billionaires, to the biggest corporations in way that adds $4 trillion to the national debt as this bill does." "We hoped there would be an opportunity for a bipartisan conversation on taxes and how we can invest in the middle class and working people and our small businesses and unfortunately that didn't happen," he added.