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X CEO Elon Musk is scheduled to meet with congressional Republicans to pitch his drastic budget-cutting plans, and it's already causing concern for some on Capitol Hill.

An unnamed Republican Senate aide who spoke with Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman on Thursday predicted that Musk and fellow Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Vivek Ramaswamy would create massive political headaches for Republicans in the coming weeks.

WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers railed against what they called “woke” curriculum in schools during a Wednesday hearing in a U.S. House education panel, the latest example of culture wars rocking public education policy.

The hearing brought “critical race theory” to the forefront. The academic framework focuses on the social construction of race and has drawn strong Republican opposition in states across the country.

A pair of opposing political operatives disagreed on CNN over the status of embattled defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth.

The former Fox News host has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill talking with senators concerned about reports of his alleged excessive drinking, sexual misconduct and mistreatment of women, and CNN's John Berman was astonished that Hegseth had assured lawmakers that he would stop drinking if confirmed to lead the Pentagon.

Reacting to Vivek Ramaswamy glibly claiming it will be "good for many of the [government employee] individuals when they make a transition from government service back to the private sector," MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and "Morning Joe" regular Steve Ratner thoroughly dismantled the Donald Trump advisor's economic plans for the country.

Newly installed into Trump's proposed Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE), the tech entrepreneur, along with co-chair Elon Musk, have been making broad claims of eliminating trillions in government expenses without providing much in the way of messy details.

On Thursday morning, host Scarborough introduced the clip of Ramaswamy speaking and, after admitting he is in favor of government cutbacks, bluntly said of the Trump's appointees proposals, "This is a scam."

ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Senate Dems consider whether Biden should ‘clear the slate’ and pardon Trump

"Steve, let's cut straight to this," Scarborough said to his guest. "I know you're going to go through these charts, but his is something that you want to hear these two guys talking about: how they are going to cut $2 trillion from the budget."

"It's a joke," he pronounced before adding, "And it's a joke because this is something you and I have been obsessed about for very long time, the national debt, getting the deficit under control. Just looking at your first chart here, people need to understand, Social Security and Medicare make up about 50 percent of what the government spends. You add defense and veterans benefits, that's another 20 percent, you are up to 70 percent. You then add debt, and how much it costs to service that debt, that's another 10 percent."

"So Steve, before they even start talking about cutting these so-called federal employees that are bankrupting us, the United States government has already spent 80 percent of its budget on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, vets, defense and interest on the debt," he added.

"I love some of these other numbers," he joked. "Again, forgive me for killing Hamlet in the first act here: let's cut law enforcement, that's 1 percent of the budget., but let's cut sciences and medical research, we spend too much on that they may be saving 1 percent of the budget.

"Transportation, those barrel projects is going to bankrupt us, it's only 2% of the budget," he jokingly exclaimed. "Again, I will actually let you explain this far better than I am right now, but this is a scam unless they are going to slash Social Security and Medicare and Veterans Affairs. They are never going to get the $2 trillion so they need to just stop pretending."

President-elect Donald Trump has an ambitious agenda that he wants to get through Congress next year, but The New Republic's Greg Sargent has found it's facing "surprise resistance" from many Republicans.

At issue, writes Sargent, are Trump's stated desires to rip up green energy subsidies and to conduct mass deportations of undocumented immigrants would hurt the economies of many Republican-majority districts.

Donald Trump's family-owned business is poised to capitalize on his re-election to the White House, and with even looser restrictions on foreign dealings than his first term as president.

The Trump Organization is sending Eric Trump to speak at a cryptocurrency conference next week in Abu Dhabi, and a New York Times review of financial records and interviews with people knowledgeable about the president-elect's finances found that the company will issue a more limited ethics plan that won't limit its growth.

Reacting to Fox News personality Pete Hegseth's roaming the halls of Congress on Wednesday hoping to salvage his nomination to be Donald Trump's secretary of defense, the panel on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" called attention to the embattled nominee's history of financial mismanagement with multiple veterans' non-profits he managed.

MSNBC host Joe Scarbourgh was joined by Mika Brzezinski and Jonathan Lemire as he cited reporting from the New York Times that documented how Hegseth drove two organizations onto the ground with his extravagant spending that led to donations drying up before he was ousted.

"It adds to his list of concerns specifically," the MSNBC host began. "First of all, we have the sexual misconduct, including rape allegations and then you have financial mismanagement."

ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Senate Dems consider whether Biden should ‘clear the slate’ and pardon Trump

"So these are the numbers that the New York Times brought up today," he continued. "They had an $8.7 million budget in 2008. Four years later, by 2012, it was in debt as the New York Times said, quote, 'It fizzled out.' He then was at Concerned Vets for America, who the Times said was at the time, continually spending more money than it took in. And then the last year he was there, it was $37,000 in debt. That's where these two small vets organizations –– and then on top of that, forget the financial mismanagement –– on top of that, you have the New Yorker piece that talks about the whistleblower complaints of his activities while he was there."

"So sexual misconduct, public drunkenness, financial mismanagement –– these whistleblower reports," he ticked off. "And all of that is on top of concerns that a lot of Republicans have he just doesn't have the qualification to be secretary of defense."

"I've got to say, as other people reporting, this looks like a failed PR attempt yesterday as sort of a last gasp, but it looks like the Trump transition team is already ready to move on," he added.

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Donald Trump's incoming administration intends to deport migrants to countries they've never visited if their home countries refuse to accept them, according to a new report.

Three sources familiar with the plans say administration officials are preparing a list of countries – including but not limited to Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, Panama and Grenada – where they would send undocumented migrants as part of planned mass deportations, although it's not clear they would be allowed to legally work or live in those nations, reported NBC News.

The co-host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" kicked off Thursday morning with an extraordinary 22-minute combined rant that addressed a blow-up with conservative guest David Frum on Wednesday that then turned into a defense of their highly-criticized meeting with President-elect Donald Trump.

On Wednesday co-host Mika Brzezinski spoke about a comment Frum made about Fox News and the alleged drunk behavior of former employee Pete Hegseth. With Brezinski calling the remark "flippant," Frum left the show and penned a column for the Atlantic to complain about how he was treated, writing, "It is an ominous sign that Morning Joe felt it had to apologize for something I said."

Donald Trump is reportedly considering Ron DeSantis to replace Pete Hegseth, if Hegseth drops out of the running to lead the Department of Defense, but some DeSantis allies worry that Trump is actually looking to punish the governor.

DeSantis opposed Trump for the 2024 GOP primary, but immediately joined forces with Trump after being beaten. Still, some have said bad blood still exists between the two Republican politicians.

A prominent FBI criminal profiler laid out three possible motives for the Wednesday morning killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO that left New York City – and the country – stunned as police continued searching for the suspect.

Candice DeLong said that while the average American likely wouldn’t recognize Brian Thompson’s name, his position as the head of a health care giant that covers over 100 million Americans could have made him a potential target.

A Maryland man used a banned flamethrower to burn the words "Trump" and "USA" into the middle of a road and investigators tied him to the crime after a TikTok video showed him igniting the words using a flammable liquid, fire officials said.

Investigators were called to Hickory Hollow Drive in Glen Burnie, Maryland, on Nov. 15 for a report of property destruction, the Anne Arundel County Fire Department said in a news release. There they found the words "Trump" and "USA" charred on the street.