Senate returns to debate Trump’s big budget bill

The president announced his endorsement for Ciattarelli last month but held a telephone rally for the candidate Monday ahead of the start early in-person voting on Tuesday. The phone call lasted about 10 minutes, with the president saying that voters will decide whether the state remains a “high tax, high crime sanctuary state.”

“New Jersey is ready to pop out of that blue horror show and really get in there and vote for somebody that’s going to make things happen,” the president said.

Ciattarelli said his first executive order if elected would be ending any sanctuary policies for immigrants in the country illegally. Currently, the state attorney general has directed local law enforcement not to assist federal agents in civil immigration matters.

Ciattarelli is running against former radio talk host Bill Spadea, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and a southern New Jersey contractor named Justin Barbera.

Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, said he’d spoken with Trump recently about the bill after his promise that at least four senators were willing to hold the bill unless steeper cuts to the deficit were made.

“My main sticking point is the debt ceiling. If they strip the debt ceiling off, there’s a lot of things I would vote for,” said Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. Paul said that he told Trump this would be the first time in recent history that Republicans would “own” the debt ceiling if an increase of the nation’s debt limit was included in the GOP’s sweeping tax and spending package.

“My target for the next fiscal year (is) $6.5 trillion,” said Sen. Rick Scott of Florida. Senators, Scott said, must “go line by line through the budget” to achieve “pre-pandemic levels of spending.” Scott added that he’d recently conveyed this to Trump.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin says Congress is ready to slap sanctions on Russia to push an end to the Ukraine war — as soon as Trump says so.

“We are prepared to move forward as soon as they feel like it’s the timing’s right,” the Oklahoma Republican said.

He said, “We don’t want to get in front of the White House. We want to work with them.”

Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has been overseas working to build momentum for the sanctions on Putin’s regime. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said earlier that the White House is still working toward a deal to end the war.

Attorneys representing the Ivy League institution filed a motion for summary judgement in its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Massachusetts U.S. District Court on Monday, asserting that the Trump administration’s freeze of billions of dollars in grants “flagrantly violates the First Amendment multiple times over.”

“The Government’s across-the-board freeze and terminations are unreasonable and unreasoned,” the motion filed by Harvard reads, going on to say that the Trump administration asserts antisemitism concerns “as the basis for its actions but fails to explain how the termination of funding for research to treat cancer, support veterans, and improve national security addresses antisemitism.”

Harvard attorneys said the institution has been at the forefront of health research for 400 years.

“All told, the tradeoff put to Harvard was clear: Allow the Government to micromanage your viewpoints and your academic institution or jeopardize your ability to pursue medical breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, and innovative solutions,” attorneys wrote.

GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri says Trump told him in a call he “wants to make sure” the Senate doesn’t cut Medicaid benefits.

The Missouri Republican has been working to strip steep health care cuts in the House bill, beyond work requirements for some aid recipients.

Hawley said Trump told him the senators could instead raise revenue by closing the so-called carried interest tax loophole used by wealthy filers.

U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau was getting in some pitching practice on a famous green Monday at the South Lawn of the White House, according to a video posted by a White House aide.

DeChambeau, who golfed on Sunday with President Donald Trump at his club in Virginia, returned to the White House with the president Sunday and appeared to stick around Monday, when he used the putting green on the South Lawn.

The putting green was first installed in 1954 during President Dwight Eisenhower’s administration. It was removed in 1971, later restored in a different location by former President George H.W. Bush and moved to its current spot under President Bill Clinton.

His stare is intent. His coiffure has been swept to his right side. The lighting is dramatic with a mix of shadows that depart from the brighter photographs of his predecessors. An American flag pin gleams in his lapel.

On the Monday social media post announcing the portrait, the White House used a flame emoji to describe the picture. The posting on X featured a video of a suited man hanging the framed picture on the wall to the soundtrack of an Austin Powers-like jazz riff as people walked by, giving the picture a look of stillness and permanence.

Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune met at the White House at a critical moment Monday as senators returned to begin negotiations over the president’s big tax breaks and spending cuts package.

Thune said that GOP senators are “on track” to have the package approved by their July 4 deadline.

But Thune also acknowledged the long road ahead as senators grind through private talks over changes to put its own stamp on the House-passed bill.

Nine people, including families, arrived late last week, said Jaco Kleynhans, head of international liaison at the Solidarity Movement, a group representing members of South Africa’s white Afrikaner minority. An initial group of 59 white South Africans arrived in Virginia on last month.

The program announced in February fast-tracks the resettlement of white South Africans after the Trump administration indefinitely suspended other refugee programs.

The administration said it is offering refugee status to white South Africans it alleges are being persecuted by their Black-led government and are victims of racially motivated violence. The South African government has denied the allegations and said they are a mischaracterization of the country.

▶ Read more about the South African refugee program

Emery Eversoll and her mother shared a good laugh when Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that some autistic children will never write poems. The 16-year-old’s bedroom is full of notebooks featuring her verses. Sometimes, she quietly recites poetry to get through an outburst of anger.

Still, this Kansas family is optimistic about Kennedy’s plans to launch a broad-based study of what causes autism.

Kennedy has said the developmental disorder ”destroys families.” He said children with autism “will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”

For some people with autism, his comments were an overdue recognition of the day-to-day difficulties for families with autistic loved ones. To others, Kennedy deeply misrepresented the realities of their disability.

▶ Read more about Kennedy’s plan and the reactions to it

The head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday defended his tactics against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed as they ramp up arrests toward President Donald Trump’s promises of mass deportations.

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said he was “deeply upset” by an ICE operation at a popular Italian restaurant just before the dinner rush on Friday. A chaotic showdown unfolded outside as customers and witnesses shouted, smoke bombs filled the air, and agents wore heavy tactical gear to face an angry crowd.

Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director, turned emotional when asked to explain why officials wear masks. He said some have received death threats and been harassed online.

“I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is,” he said at a news conference in Boston to announce nearly 1,500 arrests in the region as part of a month-long “surge operation.”

▶ Read more about Lyons’ defense of ICE’s tactic

Hey, Elijah. Thanks for submitting this question for AP’s Washington Bureau Chief, Anna Johnson. Here’s what she said:

U.S. District Judge John Holcomb, who was appointed in 2019 by Trump, ruled that the administration is not providing due process rights to people it accuses of belonging to a Venezuelan gang against which Trump invoked an 18th century wartime law.

Holcomb temporarily halted removals of people in central California targeted under Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. He joins judges in New York, Texas, Colorado and Pennsylvania in temporarily freezing deportations under the act.

Holcomb did find that Trump’s invocation of the act was proper. That’s in contrast to some other judges who ruled it cannot be used against a gang.

Trump says the “horrific” attack in Boulder, Colorado, “WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the United States of America” and suggested it was the fault of his predecessor’s immigration policies.

In a post on his social media site, Trump wrote, that the suspect in the attack, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, “came in through Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy” — even though the details surrounding Soliman aren’t entirely clear.

Soliman was living in the U.S. illegally after having entered the country in August 2022 on a B2 visa that expired in February 2023, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X. B2 is generally a non-immigrant, temporary tourist visa.

McLaughlin said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023 that had expired.

Trump is “likely” to talk this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says.

The two leaders are slated to talk as trade tensions have intensified after both nations agreed in May to reduce tariffs for a 90-day negotiation period. But the U.S. is displeased with problems over China exporting critical minerals, while China is frustrated by U.S. efforts to limit their access to advanced computer chips.

Leavitt told reporters that the White House would provide a readout of the call between Trump and Xi.

Pennsylvania’s two U.S. senators, Democrat John Fetterman and Republican David McCormick sat on Monday for 30 minutes to take questions from Shannon Bream, anchor of Fox News Sunday, at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston as part of an effort to promote bipartisanship.

They found it easy to agree on certain questions, such as foreign policy, and politely disagreed on others, including President Trump’s tax breaks, spending cuts and border security bill.

Fetterman says he won’t support cuts to Medicaid and food aid. McCormick stresses the need for tax relief, spending cuts and border security. But he also says they agree that the federal government shouldn’t take benefits away from vulnerable people.

Fetterman and McCormick have struck up a friendship following McCormick’s victory last November over longtime Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, Fetterman’s mentor in the Senate. Fetterman has had something of a warm embrace from Republicans over his ideological split with Democrats on Israel and border policy.

On foreign policy, both men are strong backers of Israel in its war against Hamas and preventing a nuclear-armed Iran, even if it means Israel striking Iran’s nuclear facilities to destroy them.

The sequence of events is familiar: A lower court judge blocks a part of Trump’s agenda, an appellate panel refuses to put the order on hold while the case continues and the Justice Department turns to the Supreme Court.

Trump administration lawyers have filed emergency appeals with the nation’s highest court a little less than once a week on average since Trump began his second term.

The court is not being asked to render a final decision but rather to set the rules of the road while the case makes it way through the courts.

The justices have issued orders in 11 cases so far, and the Trump administration has won more than it has lost.

Among the administration’s victories was an order allowing it to enforce the Republican president’s ban of on transgender military service members. Among its losses was a prohibition on using an 18th century wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans alleged to be gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

The most recent emergency filing arrived May 27.

▶ Read more about what’s left on the court’s docket

The only thing on Trump’s schedule today, according to the White House, is lunch with Vice President JD Vance at 1 p.m.

The Trump administration is sending three Cabinet members to Alaska this week as it pursues oil drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and reinvigorating a natural gas project that’s languished for years.

The visit comes after Trump signed an executive order earlier this year aimed at boosting oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in Alaska. It also comes amid tariff talks with Asian countries that are seen as possible leverage for the administration to secure investments in the proposed Alaska liquefied natural gas project.

While it’s not unusual for U.S. officials to visit Alaska during warmer weather months, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office said the officials’ visit is significant. Dunleavy, a Trump ally, said he is thankful for an administration that “recognizes Alaska’s unique value.”

▶ Read more about the upcoming trip

Conservative legal activist Leonard Leo helped Trump transform the federal judiciary in his first term. He closely advised Trump on his Supreme Court picks and is widely credited as the architect of the conservative majority responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade.

But Trump last week lashed out at Leo, blaming his former adviser and the group Leo used to head for encouraging him to appoint judges who are now blocking his agenda.

Trump’s broadsides came after a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of International Trade blocked his sweeping tariffs, ruling that he had overstepped his authority when he invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare a national emergency and levy tariffs on imports from almost every country in the world.

While an appeals court soon intervened and allowed the administration to continue collecting the tariffs while the legal fight plays out, the decision — and Trump’s fury at Leo — underscored the extent to which the judiciary is serving as a rare check on Trump’s power as he pushes the bounds of executive authority.

▶ Read more about Trump and Leo

China blasted the U.S. on Monday over moves it alleged harmed Chinese interests, including issuing AI chip export control guidelines, stopping the sale of chip design software to China, and planning to revoke Chinese student visas.

“These practices seriously violate the consensus” reached during trade discussions in Geneva last month, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement.

That referred to a China-U.S. joint statement in which the United States and China agreed to slash their massive recent tariffs, restarting stalled trade between the world’s two biggest economies.

But last month’s de-escalation in Trump’s trade wars did nothing to resolve underlying differences between Beijing and Washington and Monday’s statement showed how easily such agreements can lead to further turbulence.

The deal lasts 90 days, creating time for U.S. and Chinese negotiators to reach a more substantive agreement. But the pause also leaves tariffs higher than before Trump started ramping them up last month. And businesses and investors must contend with uncertainty about whether the truce will last.

▶ Read more about China’s comments

Just catching up on the news from the weekend? Here are some of the major headlines:

• Trump says he’s withdrawing the nomination of Musk associate Jared Isaacman to lead NASA
• Trump, frustrated with some judges, lashes out at former ally and conservative activist Leonard Leo
• Trump officials are visiting Alaska to discuss a gas pipeline and oil drilling
• Spike in steel tariffs could imperil Trump promise of lower grocery prices
• The Black hair industry imports products from China. Here’s what tariffs mean for braids and wigs

Trump faces the challenge of convincing Republican senators, global investors, voters and even Elon Musk that he won’t bury the federal government in debt with his multitrillion-dollar tax breaks package.

The response so far from financial markets has been skeptical as Trump seems unable to trim deficits as promised.

“All of this rhetoric about cutting trillions of dollars of spending has come to nothing — and the tax bill codifies that,” said Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank. “There is a level of concern about the competence of Congress and this administration and that makes adding a whole bunch of money to the deficit riskier.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the “blatantly wrong claim that the ‘One, Big, Beautiful Bill’ increases the deficit is based on the Congressional Budget Office and other scorekeepers who use shoddy assumptions and have historically been terrible at forecasting across Democrat and Republican administrations alike.”

▶ Read more about the reaction to Trump’s pledge to fix the national debt