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DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin turned his first House budget hearing into a shouting match Wednesday, repeatedly interrupting a Democratic congressman grilling him over his use of what the lawmaker called an $80 million luxury jet — forcing the Republican chairman to threaten to shut the whole thing down.

Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) came loaded for bear, confronting Mullin over flight logs showing the secretary regularly uses a Gulfstream G700 — one of two luxury jets purchased by his predecessor, Kristi Noem, for up to $200 million during a government shutdown — to make near-weekly trips home to Oklahoma.

The Trump administration is deploying aggressive legal tactics to prevent its top customs official from appearing in court under oath to explain why $166 billion in illegally collected tariffs remain undispersed to businesses owed refunds.

According to the New York Times, the administration is actively resisting a court order mandating full refunds, creating the possibility that only some importers will receive complete repayment. In contrast, others face partial reimbursement or delays.

Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman shared a photograph Wednesday of a large print-out displayed by House Republican leadership during a press conference, the content of which elicited a collective sigh from onlookers.

The photograph depicts a large sign split vertically, with the left side championing “common sense” Republicans for “cutting your taxes,” and the right side mocking “crazy” Democrats for “trans-ing the mice,” a reference to the past misleading claim made by President Donald Trump that taxpayers funded medical research to make “mice transgender.”

Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, Secretary Markwayne Mullin refused to commit to complying with federal court orders.

During a tense Senate Appropriations hearing Tuesday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, pressed Mullin four times to confirm DHS would follow court directives to halt illegal or unconstitutional conduct.

Senate Republicans removed funding for security upgrades to President Trump's White House ballroom from their immigration package after the provision threatened the entire legislative effort, according to revised text released Wednesday

The Senate parliamentarian had determined the ballroom language violated specific budgetary requirements, which would have allowed Democrats to filibuster the bill and block $70 billion in ICE and border patrol funding, and Senate GOP leaders acknowledged the provision was procedurally problematic and politically risky, reported CNN.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) put Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the hot seat Wednesday over President Donald Trump's unprecedented stock trading, demanding to know whether the White House should face the same scrutiny Bessent himself once said Congress deserved.

The exchange, at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Trump's FY2027 budget, turned combative fast.

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) appeared to storm out of a congressional hearing on Wednesday following a tense exchange with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom she accused of concealing lucrative private contracts over Venezuelan oil revenue that remains under Trump administration control.

Following the Trump administration’s military operation in January to kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro – which was succeeded by a U.S. takeover of the country – Rubio revealed that the United States would “retain control” of Venezuela’s oil revenue. Since then, Democrats have called for an audit of what they described as the Trump administration’s “secretive financial arrangement using offshore accounts to disperse Venezuelan oil revenue.”

Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) fractured Republican caucus has created a legislative gridlock in the House, contrasting sharply with Senate Majority Leader John Thune's (R-SD) productive chamber.

Politico reports, the time to vote for legislation is growing increasingly limited.

The mood in farm country is sour, and Democrats are betting that anger boils over at the ballot box in November.

Tariffs have battered agriculture-heavy economy in Iowa, which Donald Trump carried by 13 points just 18 months ago, while Medicaid cuts have shuttered rural health clinics across the state and the Iran war has driven up the cost of fertilizer and diesel — the lifeblood of farm country — pushing some farmers to delay essential purchases until prices became unavoidable, and Politico reported that voters there have had enough.

A tense exchange at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday turned into a dramatic public confrontation over President Donald Trump's health, as Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) played three videos he said showed Trump sleeping at official events — then accused Secretary of State Marco Rubio of lying to Congress when Rubio denied ever witnessing it.

Rubio was testifying on the FY2027 State Department budget request when Lieu announced he would show footage from the December 2, 2025, Cabinet meeting — a session where Trump appeared to struggle to keep his eyes open during extended stretches while Cabinet officials gave updates, including Rubio himself.