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'Pay for Trump's golf trips': Observers call out 'Orwellian language' in Republican budget

President Donald Trump released his 2026 budget proposal on Friday in a document that says he's cut $163 billion from federal spending so far.

Fox News reporter Edward Lawrence said that this was a "skinny" topline budget request, but it "does not include Medicare and Medicaid spending. Represents an increase of 13.4%, for the military," Lawrence said, according to his colleague Chad Pergram. "That breaks down to $892.6 billion in discretionary defense spending and $119.3 billion in mandatory defense spending. OMB says all departments should expect cuts except the VA and Transportation. The budget request also protects space programs."

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Trump could face pushback over number that's 'very disturbing to Republicans': report

New polling that shows Americans believe president Donald Trump's tariffs have hurt their personal finances, and a congressional correspondent said those numbers were "disturbing" to Republican lawmakers.

A major shipping loophole closed Friday, removing the de minimis exemption that allowed shipments of goods worth $800 or less to come into the U.S duty-free, which allowed low-cost Chinese retailers like Shein, Temu and AliExpress to flourish, but a solid majority say the president's trade war has already hurt them financially.

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Family of Jan 6. protester who was killed by Capitol Police reaches settlement: report

A settlement has been reached in the death of Ashli Babbitt, according to a report from Senior Legal Affairs Reporter for POLITICO, Kyle Cheney

“A former attorney for the family of Ashli Babbitt, shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer while climbing through a window near the House chamber on Jan. 6, says a national journalist informed him yesterday a financial settlement has been reached,” Cheney posted on X.

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US weather forecasting in worse shape than experts knew after Trump cuts: report

ABC News reported this week that the U.S. experienced a multi-state tornado outbreak, impacting millions of people. However, behind the scenes of the world of weather forecasters, things are far worse than previously known.

CNN reported Friday that the drastic budget and staff cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Weather Service (NWS) have left a skeleton crew to handle the nation's forecasting agency.

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MAGA 'symbolism' behind national security advisor shakeup can't be ignored: columnist

An MSNBC columnist pointed out the painful "symbolism" represented by President Donald Trump's decision to replace Mike Waltz as national security advisory, a post he held for just over 100 days.

On Thursday, Trump announced that Marco Rubio would take over Waltz's post temporarily, while also serving as Secretary of State.

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'They're criticizing him': Trump official instantly meets fact check from CNN host

Labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer ran into an instant fact check from CNN's Pamela Brown on a statement issued by a major dockworkers union.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union denounced president Donald Trump's tariffs in a strongly worded statement, arguing his trade wars would "kill jobs, raise costs, and fuel economic instability," and the dockworkers demanded fair trade policies that serve public interest instead of the "president's whims."

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'Sad white boys': Fear as Trump terror adviser shrugs off threat from 'inside the house'

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was removed this week but a key Trump counterterrorism official remains in place at the White House — and he's planning a change in strategy to focus on jihadists rather than white supremacist groups that one leading expert said remain a significant domestic threat.

"The call is coming from inside the house," said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. "We all understand why the right doesn't want to tackle domestic violent extremism — it's their base."

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Business expert flags probable 'undercount' in Trump's unemployment numbers

NBC business analyst Christine Romans shot down enthusiasm over the new jobs numbers released on Friday, stating unusual circumstances related to DOGE government cuts kept unemployment numbers lower than expected.

Speaking with MSNBC host Ana Cabrera, Romans was asked about the report that showed unemployment numbers held steady at 4.2 percent, 177,000 jobs added in April.

Asked if the job numbers could "cushion" the blow of Donald Trump's tariffs just taking effect, Romans replied, "The job market is resilient and you know we ended last year and came into this year with a strong labor market; cooling but still strong."

ALSO READ: 'We’ve made a mistake': Trump’s trade war sends GOP into frenzy

"So I think that's good news considering all the uncertainty that is ahead here," she explained. "An unemployment rate of 4.2 percent that is near historic lows, you look under the hood here and you can see health care hiring a lot. You can see warehouses hiring. I wonder why? Because companies have been pulling forward a lot of their purchases of goods before tariffs."

"Then you look also in these numbers in federal workers, you see 9,000 federal workers lost jobs this year, about 26,000, that's probably an undercount and here's why," she offered. "The government, even in this notice, says if you're furloughed or you're still getting a paycheck, you're still counted as as employed. So a lot of these people with buyouts are just not in these numbers yet. So this is a solid position to start from with a lot of tariff uncertainty happening right now."

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Pam Bondi fires 'warning shot' at free press with 'most chilling' guidelines yet: report

“Attorney General Pam Bondi fired a warning shot at the free press last Friday,” according to the Editorial Board of the Washington Post.

They are concerned with the removal of a Justice Department regulation, which limited the government's ability to see the phone or email records of journalists.

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Fox News DOGE interview prompts onlookers to note a conspicuous absence from the team

The Fox News Jesse Watters Primetime special featuring Elon Musk's controversial DOGE team touched off a social media firestorm about who was, and who wasn't included in the roundtable discussion.

"Elon Musk was nice enough to invite us into the Eisenhower Building last night to sit in on his weekly 10 p.m. DOGE meeting," Watters said by way of introduction. "We met the whole crew, even 'Big Balls.'"

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Trump accused of making US vulnerable by leaving 'most important job' essentially 'vacant'

Secretary of state Marco Rubio will take on additional responsibilities as the next national security adviser, becoming the first person since Henry Kissinger to serve in both roles simultaneously, but a White House veteran cast doubt on his ability to do both jobs effectively.

Rubio's position in Donald Trump's administration expanded after the president said he would nominate his first national security adviser, Mike Waltz, to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but longtime national security official Brett McGurk told "CNN News Central" that the jobs were too demanding in the current era for one individual to perform those duties.

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Kash Patel accused of being spotted more in nightclubs than at his job

UPDATE: On May 5, 2025, MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire announced the claim about Kash Patel had not been verified. "This was a misstatement. We have not verified that claim," he said.


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Food supply threatened by 'flying piranha' putting 'fist-sized holes' in animals: report

Once thought to be eradicated, the screwworm could be screwing up our food supply as soon as this summer, according to a Bloomberg report.

The screwworm affected live stock ranchers from the 1930s through the 1980s.

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