The White House News

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is warning Americans that Congress might attempt to pass a large omnibus spending bill ahead of the pre-Christmas deadline, which he said would allow the government to continue operating under Democrats’ and President Biden’s preferred spending levels. 

“Don’t let the swamp steal Christmas!” he penned in a letter to the American people, obtained by Fox News Digital on Monday. The document featured a rendering of Biden as the Grinch. 

THUNE ‘ADAMANT’ ABOUT TRUMP SUPPORT, DRIVING MAGA AGENDA DESPITE TENSE PAST RELATIONSHIP

“Congress may soon deliver a massive Christmas gift to Joe Biden at the expense of the American people in the form of legislation called an omnibus. This is their last chance to do favors for K Street lobbyists, give carve-outs to donors and friends, and generally spend your tax dollars like there’s no tomorrow,” the letter said. 

According to Lee, such a bill would sabotage President-elect Trump’s agenda by design.  

He predicted several items that might be part of a “swampbus,” including a stopgap spending bill that lasts for a year, more funding for Ukraine, an additional suspension of the debt limit, and other bill priorities with looming deadlines. 

Lee urged Americans to contact their senators and representatives to demand they not support any omnibus. 

TOP GOP SENATORS WARN DOJ TO PRESERVE JACK SMITH DOCS IN TRUMP CASES, CITING ‘PAST DESTRUCTION’ OF RECORDS

“Instead, Congress should pass a SHORT TERM continuing resolution for a few months, so that Donald Trump and the unified Republican Congress – decisively elected by Americans just two weeks ago – can drain the swamp, reform our government, and Make America Great Again,” he said. 

A continuing resolution (CR) is a stopgap measure that would keep spending steady for a period of time. 

On “Fox News Sunday,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., shared this perspective, telling host Shannon Bream, “[W]e’ll have a temporary measure, I think, that would go into the first part of next year and allow us the necessary time to get this done,” if individual appropriations bills are not passed by the Dec. 20 deadline. 

“Chuck Schumer is still the Democrat leader there in the Senate, and he has refused to put a single appropriations bill on the floor,” he said of the Democratic majority leader.

Johnson noted that with majorities in both the House and Senate and control of the White House in 2025, Republicans would be able to craft and pass a more favorable spending bill with a short-term CR. 

THUNE SAYS TRUMP’S BORDER PLAN IS 1ST UP IN RIGOROUS PRIORITY LIST FOR NEW CONGRESS: ‘REAL WORK BEGINS’

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, said she still hopes to pass individual appropriations bills, but that it ultimately depends on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and what he wants to do. 

“But I think it’s a big mistake to have the appropriations process – for this fiscal year – go into next fiscal year and risk triggering the caps, which would result in a substantial decrease – more than a 5% decrease in defense spending,” she added. 

As of Wednesday, Collins said she hadn’t seen Schumer after recess, let alone discussed appropriations with him. 

Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., noted that passing the spending bills individually would be his preference, but when it comes to an omnibus or a continuing resolution stopgap bill, he’d rather the former. 

MATT GAETZ FACES GOP SENATE OPPOSITION AFTER TRUMP SELECTION FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL

Congress will “probably end up with an omnibus,” he told Fox News Digital, “but I’d like to go ahead and clear the decks now so we can come back and get started.”

According to the senator, “If you ask our military leaders what hurts them the most, it’s these continuing resolutions.”

“You can imagine how it would be if you had to keep spending money exactly like you spent the previous year, not being able to start any new projects.” 

If new spending is not approved by way of appropriations bills or a stopgap measure, a partial government shutdown could be ushered in before Christmas. 

Schumer’s office did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital. 

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus will oppose President-elect Donald Trump’s planned mass deportation campaign, Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán, D-Calif., declared during remarks on Friday.

The congresswoman – who chairs the group composed entirely of Democrats – claimed that mass deportations would “have a negative impact on the U.S. economy.”

During a Saturday appearance on “Fox News Live,” Tom Homan, who Trump tapped to serve as “border czar,” responded to the lawmaker’s remarks.

“Game on,” he declared, later adding, “shame on her.” 

EX-ACTING ICE DIRECTOR SAYS MASS DEPORTATION POSSIBLE WITHOUT FAMILY SEPARATION IF THEY’RE ‘DEPORTED TOGETHER’

Homan, who previously served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said the lawmaker should resign from Congress, noting that ICE enforces laws enacted by the nation’s legislature.

Prior to winning the 2024 presidential election, Trump pledged to initiate the biggest mass deportation in the nation’s history.

TRUMP SAYS MASS DEPORTATIONS ‘NOT A QUESTION OF A PRICE TAG’

In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump indicated that he is prepared to declare a national emergency and leverage military assets to execute the deportation effort.

“GOOD NEWS: Reports are the incoming @RealDonaldTrump administration prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a post on Truth Social earlier this month.

“TRUE!!!” Trump declared on Monday in response to Fitton’s post.

‘TRUE!!’: TRUMP CONFIRMS SUPPORT FOR MAJOR STEP IN MASS DEPORTATION PUSH TO ‘REVERSE THE BIDEN INVASION’

A Fox News Poll conducted in October found that 67% of registered voters favored a policy of deporting illegal immigrants back to their home countries. 

President Biden bragged about achieving his goal of delivering $11 billion per year in climate financing, which represents a six-fold increase since 2021.

Biden’s comments came during a historic trip to the Amazon rainforest in South America over the weekend, during which he declared “nobody” could reverse “the clean energy revolution” ongoing in the U.S.

“The fight against climate change has been a defining cause of my presidency,” Biden said Sunday. “It’s no secret that I’m leaving office in January. I will leave my successor and my country [with] a strong foundation to build on if they choose to do so.”

The U.S. saw a massive increase in climate financing under Biden. In 2021, taxpayers spent roughly $1.5 billion, while, by Biden’s final year in office, that number ballooned to $11 billion annually. 

BIDEN IMPOSES A NEW METHANE EMISSIONS TAX AS HE PREPARES TO LEAVE THE WHITE HOUSE

Meanwhile, according to a White House fact sheet, the Biden administration also increased “U.S. adaptation finance” six-fold, to $3 billion per year. This money is aimed at helping less developed countries build resilience to the impacts of climate change.

“Folks, we don’t have to choose between the environment and the economy. You can do both,” Biden said during his address from the Amazon. “The question now is: Which government will stand in the way, and which will seize the enormous economic opportunity?”

FEDERAL COURT UPENDS DECADES OF ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS

President-elect Trump has signaled that he would reverse many of the climate initiatives put in place under Biden. Much of those climate investments stem from executive rulemaking under Biden, as well as his administration’s passage of three major bills that worked to address climate change: the CHIPS Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.  

Meanwhile, Trump has referred to climate change as a “hoax” and derided the Biden administration’s focus on climate funding as “the green new scam.”

TRUMP TO INSTALL ‘ENERGY CZAR’ TO DISMANTLE BIDEN CLIMATE RULES

The future president has signaled he would repeal many of the green energy initiatives implanted within Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, while also indicating during his campaign for the presidency that he was “not thrilled” about some of the big spending in Biden’s CHIPS Act, which also serves to address climate change.

However, while Trump will be able to influence some change when it comes to the government’s climate investments, efforts to claw back unspent funds from these major bills will ultimately require approval from Congress.

Trump nominated the CEO of a Denver-based fracking corporation, Chris Wright, to lead his Energy Department over the weekend. If confirmed, Wright will be at the helm of any efforts to claw back climate funding allocated under Biden. 

“My dedication to bettering human lives remains steadfast, with a focus on making American energy more affordable, reliable, and secure,” Wright said on X, formerly Twitter, following news of his nomination. “Energy is the lifeblood that makes everything in life possible. Energy matters. I am looking forward to getting to work.”

President-elect Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that he is prepared to declare a national emergency and potentially use military assets as part of a mass deportation effort that his administration is preparing to launch on day one.

Trump responded to a Truth Social post by Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, who said that Trump is reportedly “prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.”

“TRUE!!” Trump posted.

INCOMING TRUMP ADMIN EYES MASSIVE EXPANSION OF IMMIGRATION DETENTION: ‘HE WILL DELIVER’

Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border in 2019 in order to allocate more money to the construction of a border wall amid congressional inaction on the subject. Military assets have been used in a number of ways in regard to border security, including in Texas. However, it is not clear how they would be used related to deportations.

Trump made a historic mass deportation campaign a cornerstone of his 2024 campaign, and his top officials have repeated that promise since he was elected this month.

“Following the Eisenhower Model, we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” Trump said in September.

He has also promised to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to remove gang members, drug dealers and cartel members from the U.S., with the help of multiple government agencies.

Additionally, he previously said he is prepared to move troops to the southern border and use the Navy to impose a “fentanyl blockade” on U.S. waters.

Fox News Digital reported last week that the Trump administration is already discussing where it can expand detention centers in anticipation of the operation and has spoken to private prison companies about potential expansion.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the transition team told Fox News Digital, “The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.” 

DEM GOVERNOR THREATENS TO USE ‘EVERY TOOL’ TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST TRUMP-ERA DEPORTATIONS

Trump announced three major immigration-related staffing moves last week. He announced that former acting ICE Director Tom Homan will be the “border czar” and will be in charge of border security and overseeing the deportation operation. On Tuesday, Trump announced that Kristi Noem was his pick to lead the department of Homeland Security. 

Trump is likely to face significant resistance from blue states for his deportation operation. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said she is prepared to use “every tool in the tool box” to protect its citizens and residents and vowed that state police would “absolutely not” assist Trump in the operation.

‘LIBERATION DAY’: WHAT TO EXPECT FROM PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP ON BORDER SECURITY, IMMIGRATION

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said last week that he is “going to do everything that I can to protect our undocumented immigrants.”

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

However, he conceded there were some circumstances where his state would work with the federal government to deport illegal immigrants.

Fox News’ Kristine Parks contributed to this report.

As the FBI investigates three incidents of U.S. commercial airliners being fired upon departing Haiti and the FAA orders a 30-day ground stop, nonprofit leaders are up in arms about the Biden administration’s overall response.

Jack Brewer, a retired New York Giants safety who runs the Jack Brewer Foundation, said in a Thursday interview the halt to civil aviation is a drop in the bucket compared to what President Biden can and should do against “terrorists” attacking U.S. citizens.

Brewer’s foundation has helped build churches, aided in the medical realm and ministered to underserved populations in Haiti and East Africa. In the states, the Jack Brewer Foundation’s major focus is on the fatherlessness epidemic that he said is particularly glaring in the Black community.

Brewer said he and his foundation are a consistent presence in Haiti, arriving regularly at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, where the jets have been targeted.

JACK BREWER TORCHES CALIFORNIA’S COSTLY REPARATIONS PUSH

“We’ve also had some tragedy – we’ve had some unfortunate deaths,” he said, describing how the head of one of his schools was murdered and parents and children either kidnapped, attacked or burned alive by the gangs that have taken over their half of the island shared with the Dominican Republic since Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated.

“They give FAA ground-stops for verbal threats… you don’t do FAA ground-stops when your planes are getting shot in the sky – you do military action,” he said, adding the FAA shouldn’t be the main agency for such a high-level threat.

A JetBlue flight bound for JFK, an American Airlines plane headed for Miami and, most recently, last Monday, a Spirit Airlines flight that attempted to land in Port-au-Prince but rerouted to Santo Domingo, were all found to have been hit by gunfire.

Brewer said the Biden administration is content to fight proxy wars in Ukraine and elsewhere, but not against a nation-state 90 minutes away from its shores where Americans are being maimed.

“If we really want to say we stand for democracy… then what are we doing in Haiti?”

He also criticized the Congressional Black Caucus for what he saw as relative silence against attacks on Americans, and in a global sense, an extremely dangerous environment for Black people.

“They’ll talk about Black Lives Matter and cops and all these other scenarios, but when you have this, the first independent Black nation in the world that’s in utter chaos, and we’re going to sit back here and do nothing about it. It’s a slap in the face as a Black man,” he said.

“And it should be a sign to all of the American people just how these Democrats on the left and their woke politics is nothing about except for themselves. If they can’t raise money for it, where it doesn’t benefit them politically, they stay out of it.”

FAA SUSPENDS AIR TRAFFIC TO HAITI FOR 30-DAYS AFTER FLIGHTS HIT BY GUNFIRE

In recent public actions, the CBC’s subset House Haitian Caucus held a news conference in September condemning hate against Haiti. 

CBC members Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., in May, spoke on Capitol Hill to call for federal action on the Haiti crisis.

Cherfilus-McCormick, considered the first Haitian American in Congress, said Haiti is a “facing a political crisis of epidemic proportions with its people calling out for refuge.”

“The increasing violent gang activity and attacks on commercial airlines in Haiti have further destabilized the island, putting the Haitian people at greater risk and underscored the need for a comprehensive humanitarian response from the United States,” Clarke, Pressley and Cherfilus-McCormick said in a separate statement Friday.

“[W]e renew our call for the Biden-Harris administration to immediately halt all deportations, further combat illicit arms trafficking, and deliver the humanitarian assistance needed in Haiti.”

The three congresswomen are co-chairs of the House Haiti Caucus.

Brewer, however, said Biden had four years to better address Haiti, including after Moise was killed in 2021 and the ensuing migrant surge.

Brewer said he believes Trump is the right man to properly address the situation and that he should immediately sanction the country and appoint a “Frederick Douglass”-like ambassador instead of career civil servants to hold public officials there accountable.

“I would give them 24 hours. I tell all those gang members, whether it’s ‘Barbecue’ or whomever, all the gang members, just know you’ve got 24 hours to throw your guns in [or have] the U.S. military in there and smoke them all out.”

JP Decker, head of Mercury One – a charity that does similar work in Haiti – told Fox News Digital the group is trying to help an American family get their adopted daughter out of Haiti amid the chaos.

“This [FAA] decision has left many families in a state of uncertainty and has delayed the opportunity for many children to start their new lives with their adoptive families,” he said, calling on the feds to work with international partners to reopen the airspace and quell the threat.

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Victor Marx, who leads the Haitian orphanage organization All Things Possible, said the feds had not acted to “stabilize the situation and protect innocent lives before it reached this critical point.”

“Whatever support or assistance the United States might offer at this point must come with accountability,” he said. “Trust me, no one trusts that government. I would urge the U.S. to work through private organizations to bypass the government and bring stability to the region.”

A representative for the FAA said it is responsible for the safety of civil aviation operations, and that it indeed issued a “NOTAM” prohibiting flight within 10,000 feet above Haitian airspace for 30 days. The representative further directed Fox News Digital to the Pentagon.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Pentagon. The CBC declined comment.