Trump appears to have failed to get Republican holdouts behind his tax bill
Earlier today, Donald Trump pressed Republicans in Congress to unite behind his sweeping tax-cut bill, but – despite his very optimistic front – apparently failed to convince a handful of holdouts who could still block a package that encompasses much of his domestic agenda.
In a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, Trump bluntly warned Republicans in the House of Representatives not to press for further changes to the sprawling bill, which would cut taxes and tighten eligibility for the Medicaid health program.
He strongly cautioned against further plans to make it more difficult for people to access Medicaid, a program for low-income Americans. One person in the room told Reuters Trump told the holdouts:
Don’t fuck around with Medicaid.
He also discouraged Republicans from seeking further carve-outs for state and local tax payments (SALT) – a niche issue that is especially important for moderate Republicans in high-tax states like California and New York.
But Trump failed to convince some lawmakers who are pushing for those provisions.
“The president I don’t think convinced enough people that the bill is adequate the way it is,” said Republican representative Andy Harris of Maryland, who leads the hard-right House Freedom Caucus and has been pushing for further Medicaid cuts.
Republican representative Mike Lawler, a New York moderate who is pushing to raise limits on deductions for state and local tax payments, likewise said Trump did not change his mind.
As it stands right now, I do not support the bill.
After the meeting, Trump predicted the package would ultimately pass the House, which Republicans control by a narrow majority of 220-213. “It was a meeting of love,” he said. He did not address Harris’ concerns.
Freedom Caucus members have been pushing for new work requirements on some Medicaid recipients to kick in earlier than is planned for 2029. But centrists have fought to protect the program, warning that steep cuts could imperil their majority in the 2026 congressional elections.
Trump said afterward the bill would eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse” in Medicaid but would not cause people to lose coverage.
Trump is pressing for every House Republican to vote for the bill, according to a White House official. As he arrived at the Capitol, Trump said Republican lawmakers who vote against it could “possibly” face a primary challenge in next year’s congressional elections.
Key events
Fired federal workers stage sit-in on House-side Capitol steps
In an effort to pressure members of Congress to do more to reign in Doge’s “harmful and illegal cuts to federal programs”, a group of fired federal workers are sitting in on the House-side steps of the US Capitol.
According to the Fork Off Coalition, the group includes “federal employees illegally terminated by Doge; contractors on cancelled federal contracts; and other workers harmed by Doge”.
‘The days of woke are over’: Trump defends McIver charges
Earlier this morning, Donald Trump defended the justice department’s decision to charge Democratic representative LaMonica McIver of New Jersey for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers earlier this month.
McIver faces a felony assault charge over a physical confrontation with Ice officials outside a migrant detention facility in New Jersey.
Pushing back on Democratic accusations that the Trump administration is pursuing charges for political purposes, the president alleged to reporters on Capitol Hill that McIver was “out of control”.
He added:
Those days are over. The days of woke are over. That woman – I have no idea who she is – was out of control. The days of that crap are over. We’re going to have law and order.
Politico writes: “The criminal complaint filed in US district court in Newark alleges McIver ‘slammed her forearm’ into one agent and ‘forcibly’ grabbed him. The Democratic congressmember is also accused of using ‘each of her forearms to forcibly strike’ another officer, according to the complaint, which includes multiple photos from video cameras worn by officers, as well as others mounted outside the facility.”
McIver and other Democratic politicians went to the Delany Hall detection center in Newark to protest its use to house migrants, accusing the private prison company operating the facility of lacking the proper permits.
McIver has said she was the one who was assaulted by law enforcement as they arrested Newark mayor Ras Baraka.
Marco Rubio defends Trump administration’s admission of white Afrikaners as ‘refugees’
Robert Tait
Secretary of state Marco Rubio defended the Trump administration’s controversial decision to admit 49 white Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees after Hillary Clinton’s former running mate, Tim Kaine, claimed they were getting preferential treatment because of their skin colour.
Kaine, a Democratic senator from Virginia, challenged Rubio to justify prioritising the Afrikaners while cancelling long-standing refugee programmes for other groups that have been more documented as victims of conflict or persecution.
The clash between the two men was Rubio’s most combative exchange in his first appearance before the Senate foreign relations committee since his unanimous approval by senators in confirmation hearing in January.
“Right now, the US refugee program allows a special program for Afrikaner farmers, the first group of whom arrived at Dulles Airport in Virginia not long ago, while shutting off the refugee program for everyone else,” said Kaine.
Do you think Afrikaner farmers are the most persecuted group in the world?
In response, Rubio said:
I think those 49 people that came surely felt they were persecuted, and they’ve passed every sort of check mark that had to be checked off in terms of meeting their requirements for that. They live in a country where farms are taken, the land is taken on a racial basis.
Trump has falsely asserted that white farmers in South Africa are undergoing a “genocide”.
Kaine asked why Afrikaners were more important than the Uyghurs or Rohingyas, who have faced intense persecution in China and Myanmar respectively, and also cited the cases of political dissidents in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, as well as Afghans under the Taliban.
“The problem we face there is the volume problem,” Rubio said.
If you look at all the persecuted people of the world, it’s millions of people. They can’t all come here.
Asked why Afrikaners were a special case, he said:
Because it’s a small subset, it’s a new issue, and the president identified it as a problem and wanted to use it as an example. But that’s different from having these refugee programs that were basically spending money to put people up in communities and accommodate them, and it was acting as a magnet to millions of people.
Kaine called the claims of persecution against Afrikaner farmers “completely specious” and pointed to the existence of Afrikaner ministers in South Africa’s coalition government, including the minister for agriculture.
He also contrasted the current refugee designation of Afrikaners to the absence of such a programme for the country’s Black majority during the Apartheid era.
“There never has been a special programme for Africans to come in as refugees to the United States,” Kaine said, pointing out that special categories were allowed for people being persecuted for religious reasons under communist regimes. “[But] we’ve never allowed a special program to allow Africans into the United States in an expedited refugee status until now, Afrikaner farmers living in a nation governed by a government of national unity that includes the main Afrikaner party.”
Referring to the US statutory standard of recognising a refugee claim as being a “well-justified fear of persecution”, Kaine asked:
Should that be applied in an evenhanded way? For example, should we say if you’re persecuted, on the grounds of your religion, we’ll let you in if you’re a Christian but not a Muslim?
Rubio replied that US foreign policy did not require evenhandedness, adding:
The United States has a right to allow into this country and prioritise allowance of who they want to allow to come in. We’re going to prioritise people coming into our country on the basis of what’s in the interests of this country. That’s a small number of people that are coming.
Kaine responded: “So you have a different standard based on the color of somebody’s skin. Would that be acceptable?”
Rubio replied:
You’re the one talking about the colour of their skin, not me.
Dharna Noor
Trump’s budget cancels billions of dollars in infrastructure investments, environmental programs, research grants, and renewable energy. Maine representative Chellie Marie Pingree on Tuesday said this would amount to “effectively gutting this critical this critical sector”.
“This disregards the climate change concerns that we have,” she said to interior secretary Doug Burgum at a House committee hearing.
Scientists have long warned that world leaders must urgently phase out fossil fuels and boost green technology to avert the worse possible consequences of the climate crisis. But Burgum said that is not the threat the Trump administration is worried about.
“The existential threats that this administrations is focusing on are: Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon, and we can’t lose the AI arms race to China,” he said. “That’s the number one and number two. And if we solve those two things, then we, then we will, we will have plenty of time to solve any issues related to, you know, potential temperature change.
Oklahoma’s Tom Cole, the chair of the committee, claimed Biden’s “misnamed inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan” both “ignited the worst inflation outburst in 40 years.” These policies likely resulted in Trump’s re-election, he claimed.
But research shows that inflation dropped after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, and that it enjoys widespread support.
Trump administration ‘making mockery’ of US refugee process by granting asylum to Afrikaners, says senator Chris Van Hollen
Faisal Ali
US senator Chris Van Hollen has accused the Trump administration of “making a mockery” of the US refugee process, turning it into a system of “global apartheid” by granting asylum status to white Afrikaners, while turning away refugees from war-torn countries, including Sudan, where he said a genocide is currently unfolding.
The first group of 59 Afrikaners began arriving in the US last week after Trump claimed the Afrikaners were victims of “unjust racial discrimination” and granted them asylum status. The move comes as the US has lifted legal protections in the US for refugees from many war torn countries.
Speaking in a Senate foreign relations committee hearing, Van Hollen, a Democrat, said he had voted to confirm Marco Rubio because he believed the secretary of state would defend democracy and human rights abroad — but said that he had “done the opposite”.
Van Hollen contrasted the decision by the Trump administration to dismantle the majority of USAID’s foreign assistance programs with the decision to allow Afrikaners to claim asylum in the US, calling it “despicable”.
You try to block the admission of people who have already been approved as refugees, while making bogus claims to justify such status to Afrikaners. You’ve made a mockery of our country’s refugee process turning it into a system of global apartheid.
Senate confirms Charles Kushner – father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared – as ambassador to France
Michael Sainato
Charles Kushner, the father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared, has secured US Senate confirmation to serve as the nation’s ambassador to France.
The elder Kushner’s confirmation late on Monday came a little more than four years after Trump, during his first presidency, pardoned him from his conviction on charges of tax evasion and other federal crimes.
Cory Booker of New Jersey was the only Democratic senator to vote in support of the nomination. His vote came after Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump – his wife and the president’s daughter – held a fundraiser for Booker as he successfully ran for the Senate in 2013.
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska defected from her fellow Senate Republicans to vote against Charles Kushner’s appointment to the French ambassadorship, though that did not impede him from being confirmed by a 51-45 vote.
Kushner had been asked about his crimes during his confirmation hearing before the Senate foreign relations committee.
He pleaded guilty in 2005 to 18 charges that included tax evasion, retaliating against a federal witness and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. The witness tampering charge involved his hiring a sex worker to seduce his brother-in-law, who was cooperating with federal authorities. Kushner arranged to secretly record the encounter between the sex worker and his brother-in-law and then send the footage to his sister, the other man’s wife.
Trump pardoned Kushner for those crimes in December 2020 after Joe Biden had defeated him in that year’s election.
“My misjudgment and mistake was over 20 years ago,” Kushner said. “Since then, I’ve been pardoned by President Trump. But I don’t sit here before you today and tell you I’m a perfect person. I am not a perfect person. I made a very very, very serious mistake, and I paid a very heavy price for that mistake.”
The United States has expressed to the United Arab Emirates and other countries that they are turning the conflict in Sudan into a proxy war, secretary of state Marco Rubio told the Senate foreign relations committee earlier.
Rubio also said that Washington wanted to appoint a special envoy for Sudan but needed to find the right person.
RFK Jr says ‘Make America Health Again’ report coming out on Thursday
Robert F Kennedy Jr said earlier that the MAHA commission report Donald Trump tasked him producing would come out on Thursday.
Trump signed an executive order to establish a commission to “Make America Healthy Again,” during Kennedy’s swearing in ceremony on 13 February and tasked it with investigating chronic illness and delivering an action plan to fight childhood diseases, starting with a report due within 100 days.
“You’ll see the report. It’s going to be released on Thursday. Everybody will see the report,” Kennedy told the Senate appropriations committee hearing in response to questions about the contents of the report and its impact on agriculture.
Trump appears to have failed to get Republican holdouts behind his tax bill
Earlier today, Donald Trump pressed Republicans in Congress to unite behind his sweeping tax-cut bill, but – despite his very optimistic front – apparently failed to convince a handful of holdouts who could still block a package that encompasses much of his domestic agenda.
In a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, Trump bluntly warned Republicans in the House of Representatives not to press for further changes to the sprawling bill, which would cut taxes and tighten eligibility for the Medicaid health program.
He strongly cautioned against further plans to make it more difficult for people to access Medicaid, a program for low-income Americans. One person in the room told Reuters Trump told the holdouts:
Don’t fuck around with Medicaid.
He also discouraged Republicans from seeking further carve-outs for state and local tax payments (SALT) – a niche issue that is especially important for moderate Republicans in high-tax states like California and New York.
But Trump failed to convince some lawmakers who are pushing for those provisions.
“The president I don’t think convinced enough people that the bill is adequate the way it is,” said Republican representative Andy Harris of Maryland, who leads the hard-right House Freedom Caucus and has been pushing for further Medicaid cuts.
Republican representative Mike Lawler, a New York moderate who is pushing to raise limits on deductions for state and local tax payments, likewise said Trump did not change his mind.
As it stands right now, I do not support the bill.
After the meeting, Trump predicted the package would ultimately pass the House, which Republicans control by a narrow majority of 220-213. “It was a meeting of love,” he said. He did not address Harris’ concerns.
Freedom Caucus members have been pushing for new work requirements on some Medicaid recipients to kick in earlier than is planned for 2029. But centrists have fought to protect the program, warning that steep cuts could imperil their majority in the 2026 congressional elections.
Trump said afterward the bill would eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse” in Medicaid but would not cause people to lose coverage.
Trump is pressing for every House Republican to vote for the bill, according to a White House official. As he arrived at the Capitol, Trump said Republican lawmakers who vote against it could “possibly” face a primary challenge in next year’s congressional elections.
Marco Rubio says US has not discussed deportation of Palestinians from Gaza to Libya
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said the US has not discussed the deportation of Palestinians from Gaza to Libya, but he said that Washington had asked other countries in the region if they would be open to accepting people in Gaza who want to move voluntarily.
“What we have talked to some nations about is if someone voluntarily and willingly says I want to go somewhere else for some period of time because I’m sick, because my children need to go to school, or what have you, are there countries in the region willing to accept them for some period of time?,” Rubio said, adding that he was not aware of Libya being included in that.
Rubio also told the Senate foreign relations committee that the United States was pleased to see the resumption of food shipments to Gaza, adding that the US understands that another 100 trucks are behind the initial ones to cross in to Gaza and more might enter in the coming days.
Dharna Noor
Interior secretary Doug Burgum defended the Trump administration’s budget request on Tuesday in a House committee hearing.
Burgum testified before the House Appropriations Committee:
With common sense approaches and modern systems, we can increase returns for our citizens, strengthen our economy, and create great-paying and meaningful jobs – all while protecting our beautiful lands, our abundant wildlife, and our clean air and clean water.
The secretary took some mild heat from lawmakers, facing questions about hiring and funding freezes in the Department of Interior. Republican representative Mark Amodei of Nevada said:
How you can sit there and hold somebody’s feet to the fire when there’s a whole bunch of empty desks.
Trump has proposed shrinking the Interior Department budget by $5bn, with major cuts to national park management, conservation programming, and other key functions.
Despite the potential steep fall in funding, Burgum has issued an order requiring national park units to remain fully open to visitors.
The planned cuts follow the firing of probationary employees within the department in recent weeks, as well as the resigning of 2,700 workers who accepted Trump’s “deferred resignation” offer.
“In just four months, the department has been destabilized, and there’s been a stunning decline in its ability to meet its mission,” Democratic representative Chellie Marie Pingree of Maine told Burgum.
Given your extensive executive experience, I’m disappointed that you would allow this to happen.
Robert Tait
Secretary of state Marco Rubio has defended the cuts to foreign aid under the gutting of USAID, telling the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee that the US still provides more assistance than the next 10 countries combined.
He also dismissed claims that China was stepping in to replace lost American aid, saying:
China doesn’t do foreign aid.
Ukraine, he said, still has Washington’s support and Russian president Vladimir Putin has not gained a single thing.
We reported earlier that Donald Trump met with House Republicans on Capitol Hill to unite around his tax and spending cuts proposal.
Speaking to reporters after the closed-door meeting, Trump said he had a “great talk” and that there was “unbelievable unity” in his party. He said:
That was a meeting of love. That was love in that room. There was no shouting.
Elon Musk said he plans to spend “a lot less” on political donations “in the future” after he gave millions towards Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
“I think I’ve done enough,” Musk said during an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum. He added:
If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I don’t currently see a reason.
Musk spent more than $250m in the last election cycle to elect Trump and other GOP candidates.
RFK Jr defends his handling of US measles outbreak
Robert F Kennedy Jr defended his management of the ongoing measles outbreak in the US, telling Republican senator Jerry Moran, of Kansas, that he’s urging people to get vaccinated against the virus, The Hill reports.
Moran asked Kennedy what the Department of Health and Human Services needed in order to best respond to the outbreak, which has surpassed 1,000 cases. Kennedy said:
The best way to prevent the spread of measles is through vaccination. We urge people to get their MMR vaccines. I spent a lot of time with the Mennonites and the MMR vaccine has millions of fragments of human DNA in it, from aborted fetal tissues, and that’s a religious objection for them that I have to respect.
We’ve done a better job at controlling measles since I came into this agency than any other country in the world. Today, we’re at 1,035 cases and we only added 27 cases last week.
As my colleague Jessica Glenza wrote recently, although Kennedy has tepidly endorsed the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to prevent measles, he has also made false and inflammatory claims about the vaccine, including repeating the above false claim that it contains “aborted fetus debris”. The rubella vaccine, like many others, is produced using decades-old sterile fetal cell lines derived from two elective terminations in the 1960s.
The US is enduring the largest measles outbreak in a quarter-century. Centered in west Texas, the measles outbreak has killed two unvaccinated children and one adult and spread to neighboring states including New Mexico and Oklahoma.
The US eliminated measles in 2000. Elimination status would be lost if the US had 12 months of sustained transmission of the virus. As of 1 May, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 935 confirmed measles cases across 30 jurisdictions. Nearly one in three children under five years old involved in the outbreak, or 285 young children, have been hospitalized.
Trump says ‘we’ll see’ about Russia after EU and UK move ahead with major sanctions
Donald Trump said he was weighing what actions to take after the European Union and Britain moved ahead with major new Russia sanctions, but he gave no further detail.
“We’re looking at a lot of things, but we’ll see,” Trump told reporters as he left Capitol Hill following a meeting with fellow Republicans about their tax bill.
The UK and Europe earlier announced major sanctions against Russia as it became clear that yesterday’s call between Trump and Vladimir Putin had failed to deliver any meaningful concessions from Moscow.
The UK said its sanctions would target dozens of entities “supporting Russia’s military machine, energy exports and information war, as well as financial institutions helping to fund Putin’s invasion of Ukraine”.
Shortly after the EU approved sanctions targeting Russia’s shadow fleet of about 200 vessels and said that more sanctions were in the pipeline.
Here is the moment Marco Rubio’s Senate hearing was disrupted briefly by a pro-Palestine protester.
Reaching nuclear agreement with Iran will not be easy, says Marco Rubio
The Trump administration is working to reach an agreement that would allow Iran to have a civil nuclear energy program but not enrich uranium, secretary of state Marco Rubio said, but admitted that achieving such a deal “will not be easy.”
He told the Senate foreign relations committee that the administration was offering an “off-ramp” for Iran to pursue prosperity and peace.
It will not be easy, but that’s the process we’re engaged in now.
Marco Rubio says potential collapse of Syrian transitional authority may be weeks away
Secretary of state Marco Rubio told the Senate foreign relations committee that the Syrian transitional authority may be weeks away from potential collapse and full-scale civil war, defending Donald Trump’s decision to lift Syria sanctions and to engage with the interim government in Damascus.
It is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they’re facing, are maybe weeks, not many months, away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions, basically the country splitting up.
