Trump’s list of tax demands revealed as GOP goes to war: Live updates

Sarah Ewall-Wice, Senior U.S. Political Reporter:

President Trump’s tax priorities have been revealed, but it’s going to carry a hefty price tag unless major offsets are made.

Among the big priorities are no tax on tips, no tax on social security, no tax on overtime pay and renewing the tax cuts from the 2017 tax law.

Other priorities are adjusting the so-called SALT cap, eliminating tax breaks for sports team owners, closing the carried interest loophole and cuts for Made in America projects.

But the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that depending on how the proposals are written, the plan would reduce revenues by $5 trillion to more than $11 trillion over ten years.

It would also boost debt between 132 and 149 percent of GDP over a decade if not offset.

The biggest line item is extending the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which would reduce revenues by $3.9 trillion to $4.8 trillion over a decade.

Eliminating tax on tips would cast between $100 billion and $550 billion while eliminating tax on overtime would cost between $250 billion and $3 trillion depending on how it’s written.

Adjusting the SALT cap which restricts how much can be deducted in state and local taxes could cost up to $1.2 trillion.

Closing the carried interest loophole and tax breaks for billionaire sports owners would only boost revenues by $100 billion, a substantial sum, but not enough to make a massive dent in the overall drop in revenues.

Jon Michael Raasch, U.S. Political Reporter on Capitol Hill

A Republican is working to end the ‘deep state’ with a new law that would make it easier for Donald Trump to fire high-level officials who undermine his policies.

Congressman Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) introduced the ‘End The Deep State Act’ this week to further enforce a recent Trump executive order.

The order makes policy-influencing positions within the administration directly accountable to the president, and therefore, the American people.

Trump’s administration implemented a similar policy during his first term, but it was undone by Joe Biden.

Biden then implemented a rule to make it more difficult for presidents to fire policy-influencing workers.

‘This will give the president the latitude to simply hold people accountable,’ Ogles told DailyMail.com.

‘You can’t embed yourself into the deep state, into the bureaucracy, and then simply serve as a detractor and a disruptor for the incoming administration.’

For years Republicans have decried what they call outsized power held by veteran federal bureaucrats working to advance their own objectives and not those of the president or elected officials.

GOP lawmakers and Trump have labeled these officials the ‘deep state’ which the president has vowed to ‘obliterate,’ ‘demolish,’ and, if still standing, ‘destroy.’

‘There is a level of employee within the federal government that’s working against Americans, hard working Americans every single day, and they’re untouchable,’ Ogles said. ‘This fixes that. This creates accountability.’

Jon Michael Raasch, U.S. Political Reporter on Capitol Hill

A group of Democratic lawmakers arrived at the Department of Education to demand a meeting with top agency officials.

However, the doors are locked and the lawmakers are now forced to stand out in the cold.

The department’s headquarters are just down the street from the U.S. Capitol.

President Donald Trump signed a batch of executive orders Thursday to combat anti-Christian bias and condemn the ‘illegitimate and baseless’ charges against Benjamin Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court.

Trump’s executive action regarding the ICC will add financial sanctions and travel restrictions against the organization’s officials in response to the arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, which it issued in May 2024 as a result of the Israel-Hamas war.

The ICC is an international organization based in The Hague. It investigates and prosecutes those accused of war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity.

A furious Border Czar Tom Homan raged against an apparent intelligence leak that derailed a massive immigration raid on Tren de Aragua gang members in Colorado this week.

Homan announced he is ‘dealing’ with the source of the leak after the disruption when multiple federal agencies planned the action at multiple locations in Aurora, Colorado to rot out illegal migrants and gang members.

Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated Republican lawmakers will likely release their budget legislation over the weekend.

Johnson said Friday he and his team are ‘very close’ to getting the budget done.

He needs to get a congressional budget solidified before the GOP can pass any of Donald Trump’s legislative agenda using the reconciliation process.

The speaker is working to compile many of Trump’s favorite policies in a large bill that the House lawmakers hope to pass by May.

Approving a budget is just the first step in a long process expected to unfold over the next few months.

However as the clock ticks on and no budget framework is released, the Senate has begun compiling its own budget.

Attorney General Pam Bondi warned sanctuary cities they ‘are going to be next’ if local officials continue to harbor and protect illegal aliens over the safety of citizens.

Speaking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Bondi, 59, shared how under her leadership the Justice Department sued the city of Chicago and its mayor Brandon Johnson earlier in the day over its progressive sanctuary policies.

‘Not only did we sue today the city of Chicago, we sued the state of Illinois, we sued the mayor, we sued the governor, and we sued others,’ she said.

Melania and Ivanka Trump used thousands of dollars from USAID to fund pet projects during Trump’s first term it’s been revealed as the agency’s spending comes under scrutiny from the president.

The president has gone scorched-earth against the USAID this week, berating its use of tax-payer dollars and saying it had to be ‘corrupt’ in its spending.

But despite Donald’s disdain for the aid agency, it has maintained close ties with his wife and daughter for years by investing in their government ventures.