REPUBLICANS on Thursday moved closer to clawing back billions in federal spending and passing a package of crypto bills, advancing more pieces of President Trump‘s agenda.

The GOP is speeding toward the end of another chaotic but productive legislative week, even as the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files consumes Washington (more on that below).

The biggest line item from Thursday is the Senate’s passage of a rescissions package with $9 billion in cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting.

Congress once again worked past midnight, with Republicans squeaking the clawbacks through with a 51-48 vote just after 2 a.m. Thursday. The vote came after last-minute dealmaking between the White House and Senate Republicans over funding for a global anti-AIDS initiative, which will remain in place.

Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) were the two GOP holdouts.

The rescissions package now heads back to the House with the clock ticking toward a Friday deadline for passage. The rescissions bill will cut funding to PBS and NPR, a top wishlist item for conservatives, who have long argued the outlets have taken a left-leaning ideological bent.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday celebrated the rescissions package, describing PBS and NPR as “two media organizations that have ridiculously used federal dollars to push a partisan, left-wing agenda for many years.”

Also on Thursday, House Republicans finally overcame internal divisions to move forward with a trio of cryptocurrency bills following a two-day saga driven by another revolt among hardline conservatives.

“This legislation is going to make America the crypto capital of the world,” Leavitt said, adding the White House had already planned a signing ceremony for Friday.

The vote to move forward on the crypto bills was open for hours, as lawmakers negotiated behind the scenes. It’s the longest vote in House history, surpassing a previous record set earlier this month when the House was working to overcome a procedural vote on Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

“I will say again, I’m tired of making history, I just want normal Congress, but some people have forgotten what that looks like,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Punchbowl News. “But as long as we get it done, it doesn’t matter to me how long a vote is held open. We just got to get the votes and we did.”

The GOP has largely been fighting itself, but fresh fights with Democrats are coming.

Democrats are furious over the rescissions, saying they threaten bipartisan negotiations to fund the government ahead of a September shutdown deadline.

“How are we supposed to negotiate a bipartisan deal if Republicans will turn around and put it through the shredder in a partisan vote,” Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said on the Senate floor earlier this week.

Most Republicans don’t want to get in the habit of passing rescissions bills, as they worry about ceding Congressional authority over spending to the Executive Branch.

However, White House budget chief Russ Vought said Thursday the administration is likely to send another rescissions package to Congress soon.

Murkowski on Thursday said Vought “disrespects” Congress’ annual funding process after he said it should be “less bipartisan.”

“I think he thinks that we are irrelevant,” Murkowski said.

MEANWHILE…

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee walked out of a Senate hearing in protest on Thursday, as Republicans gave their approval to two controversial Trump nominees.

The committee gave its approval to Emil Bove, one of Trump’s former criminal defense attorneys who is now in the No. 3 spot in the Justice Department, and to Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News host confirmed as a nominee for U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.

Democrats are largely powerless to stop the Trump agenda with minorities in both chambers, although they hope their fortunes will change in the 2026 midterm elections.

A new CNN poll finds Democrats are more motivated to vote next year, although favorable views of the party are at their lowest in decades.

Liberals have organized another round of street protests this weekend to draw attention to the GOP’s Medicaid cuts and Trump’s immigration policies.

The New York Times interviewed Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) about the way forward for Democrats.

“You cannot win a game, a war, anything, just by playing defense,” Slotkin said. “You can’t just point at Donald Trump every day and point out the bad things that he’s doing. You have to show a positive, affirmative vision of what you’re going to do if you’re in power.”

MORE POLITICS…

• CNN commentator Scott Jennings, who has amassed a following on the right for his spirited debates with Democrats, says he’d run for Senate to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) if Trump wants him to.

• Arizona Democrats voted to oust their state party chair amid infighting.

• Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked Trump to endorse him in his Senate primary against state Attorney General Ken Paxton, but Cornyn says Trump is “not ready” to endorse anyone yet.

• The Hill’s Caroline Vakil has five takeaways from the latest campaign finance reports.

💡Perspectives:

• The Hill: Rescission package is a chance to get serious about spending.

• The New Republic: How to fix Dem messaging.

• Free Press: Independence Day for NPR.

• The Hill: Dem fence-sitters had better dump Mamdani before it’s too late.

• Tablet: Why I’m leaving Columbia.

Read more: 

• 10 GOP senators come out against latest Trump school funding cuts.

• GOP senators appear to have deal to allow FBI to stay in DC.

• PBS chief: Funding cuts will be ‘devastating’ for rural areas.

• Democrats seek to close social media gap with GOP, Trump.

• President Trump underwent medical testing for “mild swelling” in his legs and bruising on one of his hands, which revealed a vein condition that is common in individuals over the age of 70.

• The Department of Justice is seeking a one-day prison sentence, already served, for a Louisville police officer convicted in connection with the raid that resulted in Breonna Taylor’s death.

• Migrants are suing to bar the Trump administration from arresting people making appearances at immigration court proceedings.

• Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited Alcatraz on Thursday as they consider plans to reopen it for use as a federal prison.

©  Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press

President Trump has been trying for days to escape GOP doubts about the government’s story surrounding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but Trump’s denials and attacks on his own supporters have only fueled demands for more transparency.

“I have to disagree with the president,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said on “Good Morning BT with Bo Thompson & Beth Troutman.” “I don’t think human trafficking of young teenage girls being exploited by billionaires on a private island is boring. I think it’s despicable, and I believe that anybody who had anything to do with it or knowledge of it should be held accountable.”

“Just release the damn files,” Tillis added.

Elon Musk is using his X account to add to the clamor for more disclosure.

“So many powerful people want that list suppressed,” Musk posted.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), a Trump ally who has called for a special counsel investigation, explained her position:

“People are frustrated. We want to know if there’s more information,” Boebert said in an interview on NewsNation’s “On Balance.”

“I don’t know exactly what [Attorney General] Pam Bondi has seen or what she hasn’t seen,” Boebert continued. “I’ve seen just as much that has been released from her as you have. And so I’m saying maybe someone else needs to take a look at this.”

The White House said Thursday that Trump “would not recommend a special prosecutor in the Epstein case.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel sought to close the book on the matter earlier this month, releasing the results of an investigation concluding that there is no official Epstein “client list.”

That determination brought howls of protest from the right, where many of Trump’s most vocal supporters in the media had tantalized their audiences with the promises of transparency and bombshell revelations of a vast conspiracy of powerful people.

Many of Trump’s allies remain fixated on the case, even as Trump describes it as a “hoax” and blasts his “past supporters” as “weaklings” for not letting it go.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt explained Thursday why Trump has taken to describing the Epstein files as a “hoax.”

“The president is referring to the fact that Democrats have now seized on this, as if they ever wanted transparency when it came to Jeffrey Epstein, which is an asinine suggestion for any Democrat to make,” Leavit said. “The Democrats had control of this building for four years and they didn’t do a dang thing.”

Leavitt argued that Trump directed Bondi and Patel to undertake an exhaustive review in an effort to be transparent, and that their findings closed the book on the matter.

“These are great patriots, some of the most trusted voices in the Republican Party movement…and they spent many months going through all the files,” Leavitt added.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who introduced a bill with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to force a vote on releasing all government files pertaining to Epstein, says he nearly has enough GOP co-sponsors to pass the legislation through the House.

Still, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he’s not seeing a groundswell in the Senate to back the effort to release the files.

“I’m not hearing it,” Thune said.

The Hill’s Emily Brooks and Mychael Schnell report that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is considering backing a measure to disclose more information on the case, as he seeks to quell GOP outrage. 

MEANWHILE…

Epstein’s former lawyers are speaking out, saying there never was a “client list.”

“I don’t believe for a second there’s a client list out there,” attorney David Schoen said on NewsNation’s “Cuomo.” “That wasn’t Jeffrey Epstein.”

Schoen also denied that Epstein had ever blackmailed people in his inner circle.

💡Perspectives:

• The Free Press: What the Epstein fight is really about.

• The Bulwark: Trump’s right-wing media machine turns on him.

Read more: 

• Epstein files uproar puts spotlight on Dan Bongino.

• James Comey’s daughter, who worked on Epstein case, fired as federal prosecutor.

• The Memo: Trump struggles to extract himself from Epstein mire.

©  AP Photo/Alex Brandon/Rick Bowmer

President Trump has backed away from threats to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, but senior administration officials are keeping the heat on the central bank chief.

Earlier this week, Trump told a small group of GOP lawmakers he’d fire Powell “soon.” The president then said publicly that there’s no point in firing Powell, whose term ends in less than a year.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg TV that Trump “is not looking to fire” the Fed chair.

The president cannot legally fire Powell for policy differences but he can fire him for “cause.”

Democrats believe the Trump administration is laying the groundwork for termination as Republicans investigate cost-overruns to renovations taking place at the Federal Reserve building in Washington.

Administration officials have accused Powell of lying to Congress about the $2.5 billion refurbishment. White House Budget adviser Russ Vought said Thursday the project had experienced $700 million in cost overruns.

“We want to get a sense for the difference between his statements and the plans that were submitted to the National Planning Commission,” Vought said.

“It has implications for the country’s fiscal situation,” he added.

Republican senators are warning Trump against firing Powell, saying it would send “shockwaves” through the economy.

“I do not believe a president, any president, has the authority to fire the Federal Reserve chair,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Fed.

“I believe strongly in the independence of the Federal Reserve,” he added. “Some countries in the world don’t have independent central banks. Ask Turkey how that’s been working out for them. At one point Turkey had inflation at 30 percent.”

The conservative editorial board at the Wall Street Journal echoed that sentiment.

“Love or loathe Mr. Powell, Mr. Trump chose him,” the board said. “Mr. Trump also chose the tariff taxes, and a multitude of no-growth tax and spending handouts in the new budget bill. Now the President has to live with his choices.”

In its July Beige Book, the Federal Reserve board warned of inflation, saying businesses “passed on at least a portion of cost increases to consumers through price hikes or surcharge.”

Powell has refused Trump’s demands to lower interest rates, citing the threat of inflation from tariffs.

“Despite all of the doom-casting from the so-called experts that these tariffs would be the end of the world as we know it, the opposite has occurred,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday. “Tariffs are not inflationary, as President Trump has said all along. In reality, tariffs are a source of massive revenue.”

Leavitt said tariff revenue has totaled more than $113 billion so far this year.

• Trump’s approval rating on immigration is at the lowest point of his second term, according to a new survey from Reuters/Ipsos.

Only 41 percent approve, down from 50 percent in March, as immigration raids and mass deportations dominate headlines.

White House border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday the Trump administration is considering changes to immigration policy pertaining to farm and hospitality workers.

Last week, Trump announced a new program intended to support the agriculture industry, as farmers complain that deportations are disrupting their business, which often rely on migrant workers.

Trump insisted the program would not provide “amnesty,” though details are scant.

The Wall Street Journal reports: “President Trump’s aggressive deportation policies are spawning a new GOP-led policy push in Congress: Specific immigration-law changes to help protect the workforce in the agriculture industry, which relies heavily on unauthorized laborers.”

💡Perspectives:

• Bloomberg: Tariffs are no longer just about trade.

• Commonplace: Something is rotten at the Federal Reserve.

• Washington Examiner: Trump bullish on America.

• The Liberal Patriot: Bobby Kennedy, a role model for our times.

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