The Trump administration’s quiet effort to deliver billions more in tax breaks to some of the largest companies in the United States drew fresh scrutiny and outrage this week, with Democratic members of Congress warning that a series of obscure regulatory changes could further undermine efforts to rein in corporate tax dodging.

In a letter to the US Treasury Department unveiled Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) led a group of lawmakers in denouncing the Trump administration’s assault on the corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT), a Biden-era measure that requires highly profitable US corporations to pay a tax of at least 15% on their book profits—the numbers reported to shareholders“The Trump administration has consistently chipped away at CAMT to further corporate interests,” the lawmakers wrote, pointing to rules issued in recent months exempting many corporations from the tax.

“But these massive giveaways apparently aren’t enough for billionaire corporations and their lobbyists, which are trying to further undermine CAMT,” the lawmakers continued.

The Democratic lawmakers, who were joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), specifically warned against an ongoing corporate push for a carveout to a research and experimentation (R&E) tax break included in the Trump-GOP budget law enacted over the summer.

Corporations supported the R&E tax break. But as the Wall Street Journal reported last month, the giveaway is driving some companies’ “regular taxes down so far that they are pushed into CAMT.”

“This is exactly what CAMT was designed to do, the tax’s defenders say,” the Journal noted. “Companies are pressing the Treasury Department for relief, particularly on the way that CAMT limits the deduction for research expenses. The National Association of Manufacturers, the R&D Coalition, and the National Foreign Trade Council sent letters urging the administration to write rules that would be favorable to companies.”

The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service are reportedly considering the corporate proposal.

Such a change, Democratic lawmakers warned in their new letter, “egregiously circumvents Congress’ intent to set a floor on corporations’ tax liabilities regardless of deductions.”

But the Trump administration’s hostility to the CAMT, cozy relationship with powerful corporations, and willingness to trample existing law have fueled concerns that it will readily bow to industry demands.

“Apparently the Trump administration thinks the trillions they spent on tax cuts for the wealthy wasn’t enough now they’re planning another huge tax windfall for the biggest corporations in the country,” Beyer said Thursday.

In a social media post, Warren wrote that “giant corporations are lobbying Donald Trump for yet another tax handout—this time for research they’ve ALREADY DONE.”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) bragged that he had overseen the "most productive" Congress in history despite enacting a seven-week hiatus to force Democrats to agree to Republican demands during a government shutdown.

During an interview on Friday, Fox Business host Stuart Varney noted that Johnson was saddled with a "minuscule majority."

"We have one of the smallest margins in U.S. history," the speaker agreed. "And on any given day, two or three or four people may be upset or frustrated about something. They didn't get all their preferences, or they have different ideas."

"Because if we stay unified, there is absolutely nothing that we can't achieve," he continued. "But we've already demonstrated that, this Congress. We've had one of the most productive Congresses in the history of the institution."

Johnson pointed to "big legislation" like President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill that included tax cuts that largely benefited rich Americans.

He also predicted that Republicans would "flip blue seats to red because we're going to run on this extraordinary record" during the midterm elections.

"Do the Republicans have a messaging problem with affordability?" Varney wondered.

"No, it's just that we've had so many things to message," Johnson replied. "I mean, it's a blessing and a curse. The big, beautiful bill was aptly named because there was so much in it, so much policy. And there were so many things to message all at once."

"We are laser-focused on affordability, bringing down the cost of living," he added. "The president's agenda is going to be aggressive, and this Congress is going to deliver that. So as we go into the midterm cycle next year, you'll hear everything focused on that."

Johnson's remarks come as Republicans have failed to find a solution to rising health care costs.

The Trump administration released its official National Security Strategy this week — and many critics noted that it was loaded with rhetoric frequently used by white nationalists.

Some of the most inflammatory language in the document is aimed at US-allied European countries that supposedly face “the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure” within the next 20 years.

In particular, the document accuses the European Union of enacting policies “that undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence.”

The document goes on to claim that “should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less,” while emphasizing that US policy is to help “Europe to remain European, to regain its civilizational self-confidence, and to abandon its failed focus on regulatory suffocation.”

Jon Henley, Europe correspondent for the Guardian, noted in a Friday report that the document “appears to espouse the racist ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory, saying several countries risk becoming ‘majority non-European.’” Henley added that the document “underscores the Trump administration’s clear alignment with Europe’s far-right nationalist parties, whose policies centre on attacking supposed EU overreach and excessive non-EU migration.”

Scott Horton, legal affairs and national security contributor to Harper’s and an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, wrote on Bluesky that the document “reads like something written by Vladimir Putin,” given its depiction of Europe as being “degenerate and... racially adulterated through the in-migration of dark-skinned people.”

Progressive activist Max Berger argued that the document “contains some pretty explicit white nationalism.” He pointed to the document’s support for dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives as a way to restore “a culture of competence.”

Berger also flagged a section in the document that named “ending mass migration” as the top US national security priority, which he described as “a pretty explicit defense of using the state as a means of enforcing white supremacy.”

Edmund Luce, a columnist for the Financial Times, also took note of the administration’s emphasis on “competence and merit” in the document. This is ironic, Luce continued, because “this administration personifies the opposites” of those traits.

Journalist Michael Weiss argued in a post on X that the document shows that it is now official US policy to promote and assist far-right parties in Europe.