TV News LIES

The White House is pushing Congress to approve a $250 bill bearing Donald Trump’s portrait, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said, which would require changing longstanding federal law that prohibits any living person from appearing on US currency.

Speaking from the White House at a news conference, Bessent said the bill would be in celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary of independence, and that the treasury has already started preparing for the possibility of the new currency.

“As treasury secretary, I have two mandates for US currency at present: that no living person can be on US currency, and the currency must say ‘In God we trust’,” Bessent said. “So, right now, there isproposed legislation in front of the House, in front of the Senate, to change the first requirement, so that a living person – Donald J Trump – could be on the $250 bill.”

The Washington Post reported that two of Trump’s political appointees at the treasury had pushed staff to start preparing prototypes of a $250 bill with Trump’s image, raising concerns that doing so would breach federal law.

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Key Senate Republicans are raising concerns about a reported peace deal being negotiated with Iran, arguing it would be a disaster for the United States that would make meaningless the war launched by President Trump nearly three months ago.

“The rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a post on social platform X.

He said the effects of the joint military operation between the U.S. and Israel titled “Operation Epic Fury” would “be for naught” if the deal as he understood it went forward.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of President Trump who for years has pushed for U.S. military action against the Iranian regime, said a premature deal could fundamentally shift the balance of power in the Middle East in Iran’s favor.

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Former Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Sunday described Sen. Bill Cassidy’s (R-La.) defeat in the Louisiana Republican primary on Saturday as a “loss for the country.”

Cassidy lost the race in Louisiana’s newly closed primary system following years of disagreement with President Trump after Cassidy voted to convict him for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

“The Senate to now lose an exceptionally brilliant and creative mind, an MD who chairs healthcare, and a person of character,” Romney said on the social platform X, referring to Cassidy’s degree as a medical doctor. “Bill Cassidy’s departure is a loss for the country.”

Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming (R) were the top vote-getters Saturday, edging out Cassidy in his toughest race since first winning in 2014. Neither Fleming nor Letlow scored at least half the vote to avoid a June 27 runoff.

“When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to, but you don’t pout, you don’t whine, you don’t claim the election was stolen, you don’t find a reason why you lost,” Cassidy said late Saturday to supporters.

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The Senate parliamentarian late Saturday ruled against the $1 billion provision intended to fund President Trump’s White House ballroom in the budget reconciliation package.

According to Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who serves as the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, the guidance states that “a project as complex and large in scale as Trump’s proposed ballroom necessarily involves the coordination of many government agencies which span the jurisdiction of many Senate committees,” adding that the funding provision is outside the scope of the Judiciary panel.

Earlier this month, the Senate Judiciary Committee — as well as the upper chamber’s Homeland Security Committee — included funding for the new complex in a budget reconciliation bill for federal immigration enforcement.

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Congress finally ended the historic Department of Homeland Security shutdown, resolving the longest crisis of its kind in American history.

In an abrupt afternoon voice vote on Thursday, April 30, the House of Representatives passed a funding bill for the agency with seemingly unanimous support, sending it to President Donald Trump's desk.

The vote resolved a political showdown that has plagued Capitol Hill and the country for about 75 days. The ordeal, which exposed fierce acrimony between House and Senate Republicans, left thousands of workers without pay, upended air travel and jeopardized Americans' safety. After the White House unilaterally shifted money to pay the agency's workers, it also likely wrought longer-term implications for Congress' authority over federal spending.

The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General says it will audit the department’s compliance with a law mandating the public release of the Epstein files.

The audit, initiated by the acting official running the office, comes amid complaints on both sides of the aisle that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has failed to fully release the files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and improperly concealed the identities of some named in the files.

“The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is initiating an audit of DOJ’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Our preliminary objective is to evaluate the DOJ’s processes for identifying, redacting, and releasing records in its possession as required by the Act,” it said.

The OIG will look at how the DOJ set guidelines for sifting through the 6 million files, the directives it gave staffers over what could be held back or redacted and how the DOJ addressed “post-release publication concerns,” including revealing the names of victims who were slated to be redacted under the law.

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