WND

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg handled one of the Democrats’ many lawfare cases against President Donald Trump before he took office the second time.

He took some questions about business reporting activities that would have been misdemeanors had not the statute of limitations expired already. But he claimed they were felonies because they were in pursuit of some other, unidentified crime.

Hearing the case was Juan Merchan, who had donated to leftist causes, and whose daughter was a Democrat activist making money off her father’s courtroom decisions against Trump, including his decision to allow salacious testimony from an ex-porn star and a convicted perjurer. Merchan also ruled the jury’s decision didn’t have to be unanimous, unheard of in American justice.

Bragg and Merchan, with the help of a leftist Manhattan jury, convicted Trump on 34 counts.

And while that verdict now is on appeal, the lower court isn’t entirely out of the picture, as FBI Director Kash Patel wants to know the details of that money flow, and much more.

He has announced he is working with members of Congress for subpoenas to be issued to Merchan’s daughter’s company, “who made $15 million plus from the illicit information pouring out of her father’s courtroom.”

Guess what is coming?

FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL “I want to know the bank records, because money doesn’t lie. I want to know how deep it is and how much of it went to the family…”

Subpoenas on Judge Merchan’s daughter’s company, who made $15M off this sham trial. pic.twitter.com/C9ZcGiQelD

— RealRobert (@Real_RobN) February 21, 2025

He said, “I want to know the bank records, because money doesn’t lie. I want to know how deep it is and how much of it went to the family,” for the “false conviction” of Trump.

Earlier, the Daily Caller News Foundation pointed out how Merchan “spent seven minutes” “bemoaning that then President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory prevented him from imposing a sentence normally given to an ‘ordinary citizen.’”

Merchan ultimately handed down a sentence of “unconditional discharge.” That includes no fines, jail or probation.

He claimed that the trial, in which Trump essentially was convicted of describing legal expenses as legal expenses, with its salacious testimony, was ordinary, but the sentencing was different.

Merchan said, “It is clear from legal precedent … that Donald Trump, the ordinary citizen [and] Donald Trump, the criminal defendant, would not be entitled to such considerable protections. I’m referring to protections that extended well beyond those afforded the average defendant who winds their way through the criminal justice system each day. No, ordinary citizens do not receive those legal protections. It is the office of the president that bestows those far-reaching protections to the office holder.”

Merchan’s jury had claimed Trump falsified business records to cover a $130,000 payment for a non-disclosure agreement with porn actress Stormy Daniels.

Trump explained he is “totally innocent” and said he was treated “very unfairly” throughout Merchan’s court proceedings.

Bragg claimed the payment to Daniels was labeled legal expenses by accountants, and experts have confirmed the case never should have been opened. Some of those called for Merchan to be disbarred for his activities.

 

It’s not just a “gravy train” that is dumping millions of taxpayer dollars into a broadcast scheme that delivers leftist propaganda, it’s a “gravy train with biscuit wheels.”

That’s from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who recently took to the floor of the Senate to blast the continued funding of National Public Radio, the Corporation Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting System.

Those organizations often have been criticized for having a leftist ideology, and inserting that regularly into the news reporting.

Kennedy brought with him examples of that activity, through headlines that actually were created by the organizations.

Such as, “Eating less beef is a climate solution,” “There is no neutral. Nice white people can still be complicit in a racist society” and “Scientists debunk lab accident theory of pandemic emergence.”

“No fair-minded person with an IQ above a single cell organism would conclude that this is anything but biased to certain points of view,” he said.

A report at RedState explained that Kennedy was calling on Congress “to stop funding all public broadcasting.”

Kennedy said the taxpayer-funded organizations are “the perfect example of a project the American people no longer need and should not fund.”

He said the outlets can broadcast what they want.

“But, I’m not for taking $500 million every single year and giving it to these stations (CPB) to the exclusion of everybody else. That’s immoral. We are running $36 trillion in debt. This is disgraceful in 2025. It is disgraceful whether it is left-of-center opinion journalism or right-of-center opinion journalism. It is disgraceful to the American people to have to fund this rot. It doesn’t mean the rot doesn’t have a right to exist, but they don’t have a right to taxpayer money,” he warned.

The report also noted that NewsBusters’ Executive Editor Tim Graham wrote about the same time, “NPR Is National Public Relations for the War on Trump.”

He explained, “At the top of every hour, hundreds of taxpayer-subsidized National Public Radio stations in 50 states transmit leftist public relations, badly disguised as news. You can get talking points jammed in your ear on your rush-hour commute. Nobody is allowed to question the concept of ‘systemic racism’ on NPR. They’re deeply invested in that ideology. It’s why NPR favors describing race riots against cops as ‘rebellions.’”

He explained, “The half of the country that voted for Trump shouldn’t have to support this clearly hostile radio network with our tax dollars. Lambda Legal and all the other leftists should pony up for NPR’s supine press releases, since NPR’s ‘newscasts’ aren’t diverse or inclusive enough for conservatives.”

Kennedy noted that since 1970, Congress has given NPR more than $14.5 billion and it has purchased a $200 million office building, pays its hosts as much as $532,000 a year.

 

A military watchdog sued the U.S. Air Force and the Department of Defense (DOD) Thursday to obtain records pertaining to an LGBT pride event hosted by the Pentagon in June 2024.

The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) filed two lawsuits against the DOD and the Air Force to compel them to disclose communications, calendar entries and other records CASA requested through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) detailing the “13th annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning/Queer, and Intersex+ community (LGBTQIA) Pride event” held at the Pentagon.

CASA first submitted the FOIA requests on June 6th, 2024, but neither the DOD nor the Air Force have responded to the requests since their initial filing. The pride event appeared to be a commemorative affair that included speeches from top Pentagon personnel celebrating LGBT service members.

“Given the high priority the Biden DoD placed on LGBTQI+ advocacy, we are confused why the Department has not been more forthcoming regarding the release of records and communications involving the planning and implementation of their 13th Annual LGBTQI+ Pride Ceremony held on June 5, 2024.” CASA Director James Fitzpatrick told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The American people have a right to know how much official military time and resources were being spent on these initiatives, particularly regarding specific planning conversations and duties related to this most recent signature event. This lawsuit will force the DoD to finally provide this information to the public.”

Under former President Joe Biden, LGBT initiatives ran amok in the Pentagon with the help of taxpayer dollars, but the Trump administration’s arrival has seemingly signaled an end to LGBT activism in the armed forces.

The Biden administration once dished out an $850,000 grant project, known as Centerstone’s LGBTQI+ Family Support Program (Family+), intending to provide “affirming interventions for 230 youth and their families” and train 100 staff in delivering “evidence-based interventions.” The administration also funded sex change surgeries for service members during its tenure, a policy which was promptly shot down in February by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who banned transgender-identifying troops as well and funding for sex change procedures and drugs.

Moreover, Biden also embraced other left-leaning initiatives in the armed forces, including diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and providing reimbursement payments to service members who incurred costs for traveling out of state for an abortion. A study released by the Arizona State University Center for American Institutions in June found that the Pentagon’s current policies were hampering military readiness and creating a sense of divisiveness among service members.

The Air Force and the DOD declined to comment.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

One of the leftover pro-abortion schemes assembled while Joe Biden was in the White House has taken a direct hit in an appeals court.

It is a Biden administration rule that allowed elective abortions to be covered by the federal government under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act that now is in jeopardy.

What happened was that the law was adopted with bipartisan support in 2021 to provide accommodations for workers who are pregnant, recently had given birth or have “related medical conditions.”

But then Joe Biden’s EEOC changed the law by creating a rule that provided for abortions under “related medical conditions.”

The state of Tennessee and 16 other conservative states sued under the Administrative Procedures Act but a Barack Obama-appointed judge threw it out.

Now those claims have been reinstated by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which concluded the states have standing.

A report at Courthouse News explains, “The order reverses a lower court finding that the states failed to cite specific injuries and hadn’t made a compelling case for enjoining the regulation nationwide.”

Chief U.S Circuit Judge Steven Colloton has ruled states are, in fact, the object of the Biden regulation, as they are employers under the act.

His decision said, “Because the states are the object of an agency action, they are injured by the imposition of new regulatory obligations. The injury is caused by the agency’s action, and a judicial decision setting aside the action would remedy the injury. The imposition of a regulatory burden itself causes injury.”

Jonathan Skrmetti, the Tennessee attorney general, said the ruling was a win after the “Biden-era EEOC tried to rewrite the bipartisan Pregnant Workers Fairness Act into an aggressive abortion mandate.”

The case was sent back to the lower courts for results in alignment with the decision.

 

There’s no doubt that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has had in a mind a thorough rebuild of the American health care system for his tenure as secretary of Health and Human Services.

He’s long objected to some parts of America’s vaccination regime, and has been a harsh critic of the fact there are so many chronic diseases in children.

He just started on his agenda, with two orders.

The Daily Mail reports he has pulled a campaign that was intended to promote flu shots to Americans, and he has postponed a meeting of a team of vaccine advisers.

The first order concerned the CDC’s “Wild to Mild” flu shot promotions, the report said. They “juxtaposed” a lion next to a kitten in a claim that the shot “tamed” the virus.

Kennedy’s goal, however, is to move the CDC away from such pushy tactics so that its communications focus on “Informed consent,” literally that patients are told the medical risks and benefits and are allowed to come to their own decisions.

The report claims that the primary side effect of most shots is the pain from the injection.

And doctors have expressed concern that not launching a persuasion campaign will result in fewer people getting the shots.

Kennedy long has been a critic of some parts of America’s shot agenda, including his concern that they need more testing before being used widely.

“During his Senate confirmation saga, RFK was pressed on the issue of vaccines by Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy, a physician and staunch advocate of vaccinations,” the report said. “Sen. Cassidy was particularly alarmed at Mr. Kennedy’s repetition over the years of controversial claims that vaccines are linked to rising rates of autism.”

In fact, the number of autism cases diagnoses has exploded exponentially in recent years.

Kennedy explained he wouldn’t change the existing shot schedule and would provide Congress with notice of changes to guidelines.

Kennedy in the past has suggested reevaluating recommended vaccinations, shifting research priorities and removing legal protections for vaccine makers. He’s also lobbied for changes in drug advertising practices.

He has suggested “subjecting vaccines to the same rigorous approval process as other drugs, mandating automated adverse event reporting, eliminating conflicts of interest in federal vaccine approvals, and reevaluating all vaccines recommended before evidence-based guidelines were established,” the report said.

The issue of vaccinations is a flashpoint right now because of the experimental COVID-19 mRNA shots forced on millions of Americans by government or employer mandate, and the fact that the evidence now shows they largely didn’t accomplish their goal of preventing infection. Further, side effects have been documented up to and including death.

That’s the focal point for those insisting that Joe Biden’s medical consultant during the pandemic, Anthony Fauci, should be investigated for possible charges, which might have been why Biden granted him a presidential pardon.

Kennedy also has postponed a scheduled meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, scheduled to meet next week on recommendations for COVID shots and more.

William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville said in an interview with NBC that he’s been part of the committee for 40 years and doesn’t recall any other postponement, outside of the COVID pandemic.

He described as “concerning” the delay.

The official reason given for delaying the meeting involved accommodating public comment, the report said.

 

 

Feb. 21, 2025: 2:00 p.m.:

VP Vance delivers his message to young people

VP Vance gives his message to young people:

“We want you to be able to buy a home, we want you to be able to work a good job, we want you to be able to raise your kids according to the values you believe in, & we want you to be able to build a nice life in this country.” pic.twitter.com/S441UnxCd4

— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) February 21, 2025

Several leftist states have openly defied President Donald Trump’s orders that men not be allowed to participate in women’s sports, including Maine.

And it may end up costing the state a lot.

Trump has announced plans to withhold federal funds from Maine because of its open rejection of the president’s mandates.

President Trump announces Maine will not receive federal funding until they comply with the executive order keeping men out of women’s sports.

Moral clarity & accountability are back in the White House. Praise God.
pic.twitter.com/d70qzX9z3t

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) February 21, 2025

A report from Fox News explains Trump confirmed federal funds will be cut off if the state “continues to defy his executive order.”

The issue is the transgender ideologies and beliefs that were promoted government-wide, worldwide in fact, by Joe Biden.

Those unscientific claims said men who said they are women could be considered women on the issue of athletic competition.

In fact, following the science, men do not become women, no matter their chemical treatments or even surgical mutilations, because being male or female is embedded in the human body down to the DNA level.

“I heard men are still playing in Maine,” Trump told a gathering of Republican governors. “I hate to tell you this, but we’re not going to give them any federal money, they are still saying ‘we want men to play in women’s sports’ and I can not believe that they’re doing that… So we’re not going to give them any federal funding, none whatsoever, until they clean that up.”

Trump signed his order earlier this month instructing all federal agencies to look at grants, programs and policies that fail to comply with the administration’s efforts to end “male competitive participation in women’s sports… as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”

Some governing bodies for sports have no official position regarding men claiming to be women. Others allow men to be on women’s teams.

Trump’s order said, “These policies are unfair to female athletes and do not protect female safety.”

Maine, and others states like California and Minnesota, immediately announced their open defiance.

Now the chief of a major athletics governing body for high school sports in Maine said officials still will use claimed “gender identity” to determine an athlete’s participation, meaning if a boy says he is a girl, he is allowed on the girls’ teams.

Mike Burnham of the Maine Principals Association said schools will follow state law, not the president’s order.

“The executive order and our Maine state Human Rights Act are in conflict, and the Maine Principal’s Association (MPA) will continue to follow state law as it pertains to gender identity,” Burnham said, in the report.

Already, the U.S. Department of Education has begun Title IX investigations into athletic officials in Minnesota and California “for refusing to comply,” the report said.

“The Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation are free to engage in all the meaningless virtue-signaling that they want, but at the end of the day they must abide by federal law,” said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights.

The federal government is using the sledgehammer of federal civil rights laws, “that protect women and girls from discrimination and harassment,” against the states.

Further, state laws do not override federal anti-discrimination laws, officials confirmed.

 

OXON HILL, Md.—Attorney General Pam Bondi told Texas Sen. Ted Cruz that the Trump administration is winning against the legal challenges of the Left, and on the cases the administration doesn’t win, they will appeal them to the Supreme Court.

Bondi riled up the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday by declaring, “We’re winning!”

Cruz, a Republican, interviewed Bondi at the conference. He noted that after President Donald Trump issued executive orders freezing some federal funding; directing the federal government to stop promoting the movement for “diversity, equity, and inclusion;” and declaring that the government will not support gender ideology, leftist groups and Democrat attorneys general have sued to block these moves, and some district court judges have issued nationwide injunctions that purport to change federal policy. The lawsuits have also targeted Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

“Every day, we are seeing Democrat attorneys general and Democrat interest groups suing the president, suing Elon Musk, suing the federal government, and the Department of Justice is on the front lines. And sadly, we’re seeing left-wing activist judges, individual district court judges, issuing nationwide injunctions,” Cruz said.

“Tell us about what it’s like defending against those lawsuits, and give us your thoughts on the authority of one radical district judge to try to run the executive branch and issue a nationwide injunction,” the senator added.

“Two words: We’re winning,” Bondi replied.

“You’ve got one unelected district judge trying to tell President Trump—who was elected overwhelmingly by the American people—where federal funds can go,” she remarked. “We’re winning, even in liberal courts, senator, we’re winning.”

“And if not, we’re going to go all the way to the Supreme Court,” she added.

While some district court judges have indeed upheld Trump’s moves, most judges have issued injunctions to block them. The administration has appealed one case to the Supreme Court already.

?’WE’RE WINNING’

Attorney General @PamBondi‘s two-word answer to @tedcruz‘s question about the lawfare against President Trump was perfect.

She added that even if they don’t win in the courts, the administration will appeal to the Supreme Court, and win there.… pic.twitter.com/vhyb6IYFwu

— Tyler O’Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) February 20, 2025

Bondi also announced news from the stage at CPAC. She said that Joint Task Force Alpha—which marshals the forces of the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security against human smuggling and trafficking groups operating in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras—just arrested a group of human smugglers in Juarez, Mexico.

?BREAKING NEWS

Joint Task Force Alpha just made a huge arrest of human smugglers in Juarez, Mexico, freeing children! @PamBondi announces it on stage with @TedCruz and @benfergusonshow at @CPAC pic.twitter.com/VSF2cDNcpS

— Tyler O’Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) February 20, 2025

Cruz recorded his podcast, “Verdict With Ted Cruz,” live on stage with Bondi and his podcast co-host, Ben Ferguson.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

OXON HILL, Md.—As President Donald Trump reforms the executive branch, rooting out gender ideology, “Marxist equity,” and waste from the federal government, Democrats and leftist groups have filed lawsuits to block him, and some judges have abetted these efforts. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has predicted that this lawfare will not stop.

“The entire four years of Trump’s presidency, the Left is going to wage lawfare against him,” Cruz told The Daily Signal in an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday.

“You’re going to have Democrat attorneys general who are going to sue the federal government over and over and over again,” the senator predicted. “You’re going to have left-wing activists paid for by George Soros, paid for by leftist billionaires, that are just going to file relentless lawsuits. And they’re going to go seek out friendly judges—they’re going to file these cases in blue states, they’re going to go out and seek left-wing radical judges, and that means the Department of Justice is going to be defending the president day in and day out.”

Soros, a Hungarian American billionaire who has funded most leftist causes, founded the Open Society Foundations, a large nonprofit now run by his son, Alex Soros. Open Society Foundations or its sister nonprofits have funded the American Civil Liberties Union and the Human Rights Campaign, two organizations that have already sued the Trump administration to block its border and gender policies.

Nationwide Injunctions

Federal judges have issued nationwide injunctions in some cases, ordering the Trump administration to halt its freeze on federal spending, to rehire a special counsel, to restore deleted government websites, and to refrain from giving the Department of Government Efficiency (an effort headed by Elon Musk to root out waste, fraud, and abuse from the federal government) access to federal records, among other things.

Cruz noted that the very notion of a “nationwide injunction” is highly controversial. Judges have the authority to resolve the dispute in front of them, between the person who sued and the defendant or between the prosecutor and the accused, but that does not necessarily mean they can order the federal government to block a nationwide policy outside of a specific dispute.

“The issue of nationwide injunctions is actually hotly contested in the law,” the senator said. “You see a single district judge that tries to govern the entire country, and the basic principle is that a judge has the authority to resolve the case and controversy in front of him between the litigants, but the authority of one district judge to issue a nationwide injunction is hotly contested.”

Cruz, a former Supreme Court clerk and solicitor general of Texas, declined to predict whether the Supreme Court would rule on the issue, but he suggested the nation’s highest court would ultimately uphold Trump’s authority in specific cases.

“Whether the Supreme Court reins it in or not, I don’t know,” he said. “You’re going to see the Department of Justice appealing those cases and you’re going to see those overturned either in the courts of appeal or, ultimately, I think in the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“I think it’s something that Congress can address, as well,” he added.

While the Supreme Court oversees the federal courts, Congress has the authority to create courts and the Senate confirms Supreme Court justices.

Cruz spoke with The Daily Signal after he interviewed Attorney General Pam Bondi on the main stage at the conservative conference for his podcast, “Verdict With Ted Cruz.”

“She is very focused on No. 1, keeping us safe—putting murderers and rapists and child molesters and gang members and terrorists—putting them in jail, securing the border, going after the cartels, going after the people who are threatening our safety,” he said. “She is also laser-focused on ending the politicization and weaponization of the Department of Justice and the FBI.”

Funding the Left

Cruz also praised Musk and DOGE for exposing how the Democrats’ machine funneled taxpayer money to leftist causes.

“The simplest principle in terms of how you catch mobsters, how you catch criminals, is follow the money,” he said. “We need to follow the money behind the antisemitic protests on college campuses and who’s funding that.”

He said the Left’s decision to use taxpayer money to prop up their causes makes up one of three major ways the Biden administration weaponized the federal government.

“One aspect of the politicization and weaponization of government under the Democrats was indicting and prosecuting Donald Trump, was targeting pro-life activists, was targeting faithful Catholics, was targeting parents who speak up at school boards,” Cruz said. “That’s one aspect of weaponization.”

“Another aspect of politicization and weaponization is turning a blind eye to the illegal conduct of your friends and allies,” such as the “cartels and human traffickers, and letting criminals go,” he added.

“Yet another aspect of politicization is sending cash to your political allies,” Cruz said. “Everything the Biden administration did was politicized, and they were shoveling millions and billions of dollars to left-wing groups. We need to root all of that out. I’m really grateful Elon’s putting the energy into finding that, because the relentlessness … every agency, every program. It was accepted.”

The senator noted that an Environmental Protection Agency staffer reportedly compared the $20 billion in funding for “green” grants at EPA to throwing gold bars off the Titanic.

Contempt for Voters

Cruz also condemned former President Joe Biden, who sought to tie Trump’s hands on policy as Biden exited the Oval Office.

“There’s never been a president after his party is defeated, who has behaved more petulantly and with more contempt for democracy and the voters than Joe Biden did,” the senator said. “He spent his last two months as president doing everything he could to try to frustrate Donald Trump and the will of the voters, and one of the examples is signing agreements with the federal employee unions saying they don’t have to go into the office to work.”

Cruz praised Trump for requiring federal workers to return to the office. “This is not a dial-in from home in bunny slippers job,” he quipped.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

Senate Republicans blocked nearly 30 amendments from Democrats intended to derail the upper chamber’s budget blueprint to fund President Donald Trump’s border security agenda during an overnight session that concluded early Friday morning.

The Senate took the first step in unlocking more than $340 billion in spending to fund the president’s border security and deportation efforts, which will allow the administration’s illegal immigration crackdown to be executed at full force. Though Senate Democrats attempted to put their Republican colleagues on the spot by holding votes on dozens of amendments intended to exact political pain, Democrats had little to say about the actual purpose of the budget resolution: funding the president’s border security agenda.

The Senate ultimately approved the border security-focused budget resolution in vote of 52 to 48 shortly before 5 a.m. after nearly a ten-hour slog. Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul opposed the resolution, citing concerns that the forthcoming budget bill would fail to completely offset the spending increases unlocked with passage of the budget resolution.

No Senate Democrat voted to advance the budget resolution that would unlock money to fund the president’s illegal immigration crackdown efforts. Senate Republicans’ budget proposal provides instructions to fund $175 billion in immigration enforcement money in addition to an increase in defense spending and policy changes to spur energy production in a forthcoming budget bill.

“If you listen to Senate Democrats, it’s abundantly clear that they do not support these goals,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said on the Senate floor Thursday. “Democrats are opposed to securing our border, rebuilding our military, and unleashing American energy.

The budget resolution stage of the reconciliation process allows any senator to propose an unlimited number of budget-related amendments that are voted on in a marathon process known as a “vote-a-rama.” The unique rules of the reconciliation process allowed Senate Democrats to delay passage of the budget resolution until they lost steam voting on amendments. Every Democrat-sponsored amendment failed to be adopted.

Senate Democrats’ opposition to funding border security and defense spending comes as their approval rating plummets to an all-time-low. Just two in ten Americans approve of congressional Democrats’ job performance, according to Quinnipiac polling released Wednesday.

Democrats debated the border security package by harping on taxes, appearing to view attacking Senate Republicans for allegedly giving tax cuts to billionaires as a political lifeline to a party widely viewed as struggling to craft a strategy back to electoral success.

“Nothing criticizes the broken core of Republicans’ agenda better than their tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor prior to introducing an amendment to stop a budget bill from providing a tax cut to individuals earning more than $1 billion per year.

Republicans countered that the budget bill was not a tax-focused bill, but a border security-focused bill. Senate Republicans plan to take up the president’s tax priorities in a separate budget package later in the year.

Democrats also alleged that Senate Republicans were seeking to cut popular entitlement programs despite the budget resolution not providing instructions to do so, and widespread opposition in the Republican conference to achieve significant spending reform by cutting into entitlements.

Trump has also repeatedly said he would not support a budget package that cuts Medicare or Medicaid — barring instances of waste, fraud and abuse.

“The Democrats know very well that this targeted budget blueprint does not cut Medicaid or Medicare,” Senate Finance Committee Mike Crapo of Idaho said on the Senate floor Thursday evening.

“The claims we’ve heard continuously tonight, to me, seem just to be the politics of fear in the face of trying to deal with our nation’s critical issues,” Crapo said later in the evening.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Josh Hawley of Missouri occasionally voted for Democrat-backed amendments seeking to forestall hypothetical cuts to entitlement programs in a forthcoming budget bill.

Collins, the most moderate member of the Senate Republican conference, could face a competitive reelection in a state former Vice President Kamala Harris won. Hawley appeared to be concerned about how hypothetical cuts to entitlement programs could impact working class Americans throughout the night.

Despite staying up until the early morning hours to advance a budget resolution, the Senate’s version may face immediate roadblocks if the House refuses to consider the upper chamber’s slimmed-down budget approach.

Speaker Mike Johnson has said the Senate’s budget proposal is dead on arrival in his chamber. House Republicans could pass a competing budget resolution as early as next week incorporating all of the president’s tax and spending priorities into “one, big beautiful bill.”

Though Trump threw his weight behind the House version, the president appeared to give Senate Republicans the green light to continue advancing their own budget plans Thursday prior to the vote-a-rama.

“Thank you to Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Senate, for working so hard on funding the Trump Border Agenda,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Your work on funding this effort is greatly appreciated!”

Hawley told reporters Trump still wants one comprehensive bill Thursday.

As Trump moves to stem the influx of illegal migrants into the United States — lowering border encounter numbers to levels not seen since the 1960s — key administration officials are begging Congress to provide additional funding to go full throttle on the president’s immigration crackdown.

Senate Republican leadership is adamant that their budget plan is the right vehicle to do just that.

“After four years of high prices and open borders, Americans deserve a path to safety and prosperity,” Barrasso said Thursday. “Starting with the Republican budget, they will finally get it.”

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.