Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado warned that the Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy package’s proposed cuts to Medicaid would have grave consequences for rural Americans.

House Republicans are pushing to slash nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid and food stamps as part of the “big, beautiful bill” aimed at enacting President Donald Trump’s agenda. The legislation is headed to the Senate, which must pass its own version.

If approved, millions of Americans could lose access to these benefits.

Bennet said health care providers in red parts of his state are trying to care for patients “on a shoestring as it is,” and the reduction in Medicaid support could result in the providers going out of business.

He also pushed back on Republicans’ insistence that new Medicaid work requirements included in the legislation would only impact undocumented migrants and able-bodied people, who they say shouldn’t be receiving benefits.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said today that there are enough skeptical GOP senators to potentially stop President Donald Trump’s massive domestic policy bill from advancing if major changes aren’t made to the legislation.

Johnson, who is pushing for deeper spending cuts in the House-passed bill, argued that this is Congress’ “only chance” to reset to a “reasonable, pre-pandemic level of spending.”

“The first goal of our budget reconciliation process should be to reduce the deficit. This actually increases it,” he said.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul reiterated today on “Fox News Sunday” that he will not vote for the legislation unless a debt ceiling increase is removed. Paul called the bill’s spending cuts “wimpy and anemic” and warned it would “explode deficits.”

“The problem is the math doesn’t add up,” said the Kentucky senator, who is one of his party’s most prominent deficit hawks.

House Speaker Mike Johnson also appeared on this morning’s edition of “State of the Union,” imploring Ron Johnson and other GOP critics to keep changes to a minimum on the bill if they want it to have a chance of passing back through the House before heading to Trump’s desk.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is pressuring the Senate to make as few modifications as possible to the massive spending and tax cuts package the House passed last week to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda, warning that senators could send back something he can’t get passed again in the lower chamber.

Several Republican lawmakers in the upper chamber, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Josh Hawley of Missouri, have cited concerns about the bill’s changes to Medicaid and tax credit levels.

Other critics have railed against the bill’s impact on the national debt, including Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who said he would oppose the bill if it included a debt limit raise.

The House speaker criticized the multiple scores of the bill that predict it would increase the national debt, calling them “dramatically overstated.”

The speaker asked senators, including Ron Johnson, to remember House GOP leadership is wrangling a “wide range of perspectives, and a wide range of districts represented” and will need to get 217 votes on whatever version of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is returned.

President Donald Trump said his administration wants the “names and countries” of the thousands of international students at Harvard University, suggesting that foreign countries, especially those that are hostile to the US, should contribute funding to educate their students.

“Why isn’t Harvard saying that almost 31% of their students are from FOREIGN LANDS, and yet those countries, some not at all friendly to the United States, pay NOTHING toward their student’s education, nor do they ever intend to,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social early this morning.

The president said his administration wants to “know who those foreign students are” but claimed the university “isn’t exactly forthcoming.”

About 27% of Harvard’s student body comes from overseas. And Harvard already shares a list (as of October 2024) of the countries where foreign students are from, with the most students coming from China, followed by Canada, India, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

In the 2024-2025 academic year, 6,793 undergraduate and graduate students were enrolled at Harvard from at least 147 countries and territories.

Foreign students “are not eligible for any federal funding,” as noted in the financial aid section of Harvard’s website. But “the College has its own job and scholarship money available to foreign students.”

Trump sent shockwaves through the campus last week when he tried to ban Harvard from enrolling foreign students — an action that prompted the university to sue and was temporarily halted by a federal judge.

It’s all part of an escalating feud that began when Harvard refused to accept White House policy demands at threat of losing federal funding.

President Donald Trump addressed graduates at the US Military Academy in West Point, New York, yesterday, making his second college commencement speech of the year.

It came as his administration scours the country’s military academies for course offerings, clubs and books deemed unsuitable under Trump’s anti-DEI initiatives. The president is also overseeing a wider shake-up of the Pentagon and the national security establishment.

If you missed the speech, here are some key takeaways:

: Trump didn’t shy away from playing politics and addressing controversial topics during his speech to the cadets.

Trump claimed that by banning diversity initiatives and transgender people from serving in the military, he was helping “liberate” the troops.

“We’ve liberated our troops from divisive and demeaning political trainings,” Trump said. “There will be no more ‘critical race theory’ or ‘transgender for everybody’ forced onto our brave men and women in uniform.”

Trump also slammed military readiness under his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, and claimed he had “rebuilt” the nation’s armed forces.

The president called the graduates “winners” and congratulated them on joining “the greatest and most powerful army the world has ever known.”

Trump again claimed that a “Golden Dome” missile defense system will be complete before he leaves office.

Experts have told CNN the president’s vision for a cutting-edge missile shield to protect from long-range strikes — inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome but intended to protect a country about 450 times larger — is economically and strategically ill-advised.

The president brought multiple cadets onstage to celebrate their accomplishments, including Army Golden Knights quarterback Bryson Daily and Chris Verdugo, a cadet who set a record in a grueling 18.5-mile march.

Trump also issued a pardon for all West Point cadets on restriction for minor offenses, continuing a longstanding tradition of presidents who deliver the commencement address.

President Donald Trump has faced a slew of legal challenges to various aspects of his agenda, including his immigration crackdown and efforts to assert influence over higher education.

Here are some key rulings we’ll be watching as a new week begins:

• A federal judge ordered the administration to facilitate the return of a Guatemalan asylum seeker who was wrongly deported to Mexico in February, after he told authorities about his fears of violence and torture across the border.This is at least the third time the administration has been ordered to help return a wrongfully deported migrant.

• A federal judge has temporarily halted the Trump administration’s ban on Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, marking the latest development in a battle over the elite institution’s refusal to accept White House policy demands. International students at the school say they are experiencing “pure panic” as they await an outcome.

• The Supreme Court has temporarily paused action in an emergency appeal dealing with whether DOGE must turn over public documents — like other government agencies — or whether it is shielded from such requests because it is part of the White House.The case raises fundamental questions about the power and transparency of an entity that, at Elon Musk’s direction, slashed agency budgets and government employees with unusual speed — and that has inspired a wave of federal lawsuits.