Republicans Cave and End DHS Shutdown—Without Funding ICE

Most Recent Post Republicans in Congress voted to fund the Department of Homeland Security Thursday, effectively ending the 76-day shutdown of the department. The bill, passed by a voice vote in the House, is a win for Democrats, as it still includes no money for ICE or Border Patrol , and is now headed to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law. House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly decided to finally support the bill after a private meeting with his fellow Republican leaders earlier in the day, where they agreed that the situation couldn’t continue. The GOP will still try to fund ICE through the reconciliation process, which takes much longer but only requires a simple majority in both chambers of Congress. Previously, House Republicans had criticized their counterparts in the Senate for passing the measure with a voice vote, which doesn’t record individual members’ votes, only to adopt the same method on Thursday. Conservatives were not happy with the decision, but didn’t see any good options. Representative Chip Roy said, “I think it’s asinine that we’re funding the government this way,” but Representative Clay Higgins said, “The speaker, I think, handled, under the circumstances, very well.” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin complained last week that the department was almost out of money and soon wouldn’t be able to pay its employees. Now, assuming Trump doesn’t veto the bill, employees will still be paid. But the question of ICE’s future is still unanswered, as Democrats want the agency reformed at a minimum, with some calling for its abolition , and Republicans seem to be fine with the violence it visits on American cities. For now, at least, ICE won’t get any more money. Share This Story In other news: Trump Nominates Fox News Contributor as Next Surgeon General Most Recent Post Now that he’s no longer eligible for the office, Donald Trump—a 79-year-old who routinely falls asleep in critical meetings—believes it’s pertinent for all future presidential candidates to undergo a cognitive examination. “Anybody running for President or Vice President should be forced to take a Cognitive Examination prior to entering the Race!” Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday afternoon. “By doing so, we wouldn’t be surprised at people like Barack ‘Hussein’ Obama, or Sleepy Joe Biden, getting ‘ELECTED.’ Our Country would be a much better place!” Trump had demanded former Vice President Kamala Harris take a cognitive test while on the campaign trail in October 2024, and he has previously suggested Biden should have taken such a test before being allowed to take office. “I took the Exam three times during my (‘THREE!’) Terms as President, and ACED IT ALL THREE TIMES—An Achievement that, even on a single Exam, according to the Doctors, has rarely been done before!” he added. But Trump’s health isn’t actually that impressive—particularly as it relates to keeping his eyes open. Just last week, the president was caught falling asleep during another White House event, slumping over in his chair and fluttering his eyes for nearly a minute as his aides announced a new pharmaceutical deal. Trump has an oddball history with reportedly “ acing ” cognitive exams. Since 2024, the self-styled “stable genius” has taken several such tests, but his recollections of their contents has called into question whether he actually took them at all. While bragging about his results to the press, Trump would invariably tweak the questions he allegedly nailed, at times boasting that he had correctly recited five words and performed basic multiplication while at other times insisting that he had passed thanks to correctly identifying a whale. That is, in spite of the fact that the test’s authors reported that none of the three versions in circulation actually had a whale on them. Other test creators have said their exams are to check for dementia, not cognitive speed. Since then, the MAGA leader’s health has become a much graver topic. Over the first year and change of his second term, Trump’s speeches have become more disjointed and incoherent, and his behavior has grown increasingly erratic. The 79-year-old has spent hours at Walter Reed Medical Center, fallen asleep during more than a dozen critical meetings , appeared lost and disoriented around foreign heads of state, frequently slurred his speech, and appeared with discolored and bruised skin on several occasions. Just this month, Trump attacked several of his longest allies, pledged to annihilate Iranian civilization via a social media post, and started beef with Pope Leo XIV, claiming that the Catholic pontiff was “weak on crime.” He also forgot when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died , and that one of his most fervent GOP critics —North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis—is still in the Senate. His escalatory behavior, particularly as it relates to the Iran war, spurred new calls for the president to have his brain tested yet again, though White House physicians missed the April 25 deadline demanded by Representative Jaimie Raskin. Share This Story Most Recent Post Elon Musk is not availing himself well in court. The tech mogul and fascism enthusiast is suing Sam Altman and OpenAI, the organization he co-founded, for moving the nonprofit organization to a for-profit company. Musk took the stand three days this week in Oakland, and his testimony is not helping his cause. Throughout his time on the stand, Musk didn’t answer yes or no to yes-or-no questions, claimed to forget his earlier testimony, and lost his temper at Altman’s counsel, William Savitt, accusing him of trying to trick him. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, after the jury had left Wednesday, said that “[Musk] was at times difficult.” On Thursday, things got so bad that the judge had to remind Musk that he isn’t a lawyer after he accused Savitt of asking “leading” questions. “He can lead,” Rogers said, referring to the opposing counsel. “That’s not how it works. Let’s remind everyone in the courtroom that you’re not a lawyer.” A day earlier, Musk appeared to undermine his entire case. During direct testimony, Musk’s lawyers tried to paint a positive picture of the executive. He said that “I don’t lose my temper,” and “I don’t yell at people,” adding that he may have once called someone a “jackass,” but only to say, “Don’t be a jackass.” But Savitt easily demonstrated that this wasn’t true, as Musk openly lost his temper in the courtroom. He nitpicked simple questions and contradicted an earlier deposition. The opposing counsel was trying to make the case that Musk wasn’t suing over his desire to keep OpenAI nonprofit but because he wanted to control the company—and Musk made their case for them. Defense presented an email Musk wrote in 2016 to a colleague at Neuralink, one of his companies, where he said, “Deepmind is moving very fast. I am concerned that OpenAI is not on a path to catch up. Setting it up as non-profit might, in hindsight, have been the wrong move. Sense of urgency is not as high.” When asked about this on the witness stand, Musk said he was merely speculating. Savitt asked him, “Those are your words, yes or no?” Musk replied that “this is a hypothetical.” “So you thought it might have been a wrong move? That’s what you said?” Savitt followed up. Musk finally admitted yes. Savitt later caught Musk testifying that he didn’t read a 2017 document about OpenAI shifting to a for-profit company. “I didn’t read the fine print. We’re going into the fine print of this document,” Musk claimed, saying he had only read the first section or paragraph. “It’s a four-page document,” Savitt replied. Savitt then referred to Musk’s deposition, where he said he didn’t even read one paragraph. “I don’t think I read this term sheet,” Musk had admitted. “I’m not sure I actually read this term sheet.… I did not closely look at this term sheet.” This got Musk to raise his voice and contradict his earlier claim that he never lost his temper, shouting in the courtroom, “I said I didn’t look closely! I read the headline!” All of this is more proof of Musk’s own ego being the real reason for his biggest problems, and shows how his time in the federal government also went badly. The case is not looking good for the world’s richest man. Share This Story Unfortunately more on Elon: WTF Was Elon Musk Doing on a Phone Call With Trump About Iran? Most Recent Post Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ignored military officials when he gutted a Pentagon oversight office designed to limit the risk of civilian deaths in war. Then the U.S. killed thousands of Iranian civilians amid its war with Tehran. The results of the war were apparently beyond explanation during a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing Thursday, when Hegseth stumbled trying to rationalize his decision to nix the critical department during a heated exchange with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. “Let’s talk about how you’re prosecuting the war. What is your response to targeting that has resulted in the destruction of schools, hospitals, civilian places? Why did you cut—by 90 percent—the division that’s supposed to help you not target civilians? And do you know the impact of a strategic failure in a war when you have so many civilian casualties?” pressed Gillibrand. “You may have tactically completed a mission well, but strategically [it] is not meeting your goals because of the casualties,” the New York lawmaker stressed. “What is the cost of that?” But Hegseth did not have an answer for her. Instead, he ducked the line of questioning entirely, opting to repeat a vague principle rather than address the fallout of his decisions. “No military, no country, works harder at every echelon to ensure they protect civilian lives than the United States military,” Hegseth said. “And that is an ironclad commitment that we make, no matter what systems we use.” “Well then why did you cut the department by 90 percent?” repeated Gillibrand before Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker—the committee’s Republican chairman—cut her off. Hegseth has no response to Gillibrand's question about why he cut the Pentagon division that's supposed to help the US military avoid targeting civilians pic.twitter.com/Vq04GEA2vp — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 30, 2026 The war has killed at least 1,701 civilians in Iran, according to an analysis by the Human Rights Activists News Agency released last week. That figure is even higher in Lebanon, where Israeli strikes have killed more than 2,496 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry . The war has also claimed the lives of 13 U.S. service members throughout the region. Meanwhile, the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has caused a global energy crisis, choking off a critical tradeway for the Middle Eastern oil trade. In the U.S., the lagging oil and gas deliveries have caused transportation costs to surge, affecting virtually every commodity on the market. At the time of publication, the average cost for a gallon of gas was above $4.30, according to a AAA analysis . In some areas of California, such as San Francisco, Napa, and San Jose, gas was at least $6 per gallon. The economic consequences have sparked concerns within the Republican Party—and in the White House—that the wildly unpopular war could bode poorly for conservatives and their majority in Washington come November. Share This Story Read more about Hegseth: Hegseth Accuses Troops of Lying as He’s Faced With Facts on Iran War Most Recent Post President Donald Trump announced a new surgeon general nominee Thursday, and unsurprisingly, it appears to be someone that he’s seen make frequent appearances on Fox News. In a post on Truth Social, the president announced that he had named Dr. Nicole B. Saphier to take the new post, calling her “a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention, while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments.” Trump had previously nominated wellness influencer Casey Means as his surgeon general, but announced on Thursday that he was dropping her nomination because of opposition from Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a doctor who questioned Means’s anti-vaccination stance and her lack of an active medical license. “Despite Senator Cassidy’s intransigence and political games, Casey will continue to fight for MAHA on the many important Health issues facing our Country,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. While Saphier is a radiologist, she’s not much better than Means. She has weighed in culture war issues on Fox, railing against movies with “ woke ideologies ” like Inside Out and Elemental , and engaging in bigotry by accusing Ms. Rachel and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani of being antisemitic. Aside from that, her medical expertise has been colored by right-wing panic, complaining about “social bandwagons with the whole transgender ideologies” in February after the Rhode Island shooting . Her stance on vaccination is also troubling, as she has criticized mask and vaccine mandates and and praised Trump for allowing military servicemembers expelled for refusing the Covid-19 vaccine back into the service. She has locked her account on X, where she has likely made many more concerning statements. It seems that she is being chosen as the surgeon general because her ideas are in lockstep with the administration. This story has been updated. Share This Story Editor’s Pick: Lee Zeldin Is Trying to Dodge His MAHA Critics View More Posts Share This Story Read More: Politics Law Supreme Court Constitution Foreign Policy Health Care Economic Inequality Taxes Washington