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Reporter’s Notebook: Senate Republicans brace for tough lunch with Trump amid legislative clashes

2026-06-23T13:56:36-04:00 / Fox News

Trump repeatedly upended his own party’s legislative plans on FISA, ICE funding and the SAVE America Act

By Chad Pergram Fox News

Published June 23, 2026 1:56pm EDT

Senate postpones Jay Clayton’s DNI confirmation hearing following President Donald Trump’s declaration that he won’t approve FISA without the SAVE America Act. Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports live from Capitol Hill on the political drama.

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Hope they have Maalox and Pepto-Bismol on hand when President Donald Trump visits Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Republicans over lunch.

Senate GOP Steering Committee Chairman and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., invited Trump for the luncheon Wednesday. Some Senate Republicans may wonder if they’re the ones on the menu. Both Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are out after the president refused to endorse them and they lost their primaries. Trump has also sparred with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., exasperated that he can’t execute his legislative agenda.

Scott is a close ally of the president. He lost to Thune and Cornyn in the race to become majority leader in late 2024. In fact, Scott didn’t even request a blessing from the top Senate GOP leadership team to invite the president.

Scott teamed up with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, advocating that the Senate approve the SAVE America Act. It requires proof of citizenship to vote. This advocacy is driving Thune and other members of the GOP brass batty since the bill failed twice. Scott and Lee want the Senate to get onto the SAVE America Act and stay on it until the measure passes. But few understand how exhaustion somehow conjures a majority of senators to suddenly support the bill.

GOP TRIGGERS MARATHON SENATE FIGHT TO EXPOSE DEMS’ OPPOSITION TO TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID BILL

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on June 10, 2026.(Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

Moreover, the president demands that they eliminate the filibuster. If the SAVE America Act doesn’t have the necessary votes to pass, there’s no way it commands 60 yeas to break a filibuster.

Simple solution, right?

Not really. Thune has said repeatedly that there aren’t the votes to alter the filibuster, either.

It’s about the math.

So expect some intense discussions Wednesday over what the president wants the Senate to do. Thune has tried to tell the president repeatedly what the Senate is capable of, based on the various parliamentary equations.

And there’s fear among Republicans that the president may attempt to sow discord about the midterm election outcomes if Democrats flip the House and/or Senate — and Republicans never passed the SAVE America Act.

Trump sports plenty of supporters in the Senate, but he’s frustrated Senate Republicans by repeatedly yanking the legislative rug out from under his own party for weeks now.

The Senate was on the precipice of beginning a “vote-a-rama” to finally pass funding for ICE and Border Patrol in May. Then the administration announced its weaponization fund. A meeting between acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and GOP senators devolved into pointed conversations. Blanche continued to defend the fund. Some Republicans threatened their own amendments during the vote-a-rama to either block the fund or shield themselves from political fallout.

Thune pulled the bill from the floor and sent everyone home for more than a week.

SENATE GOP ERUPTS OVER TRUMP DOJ ‘ANTI-WEAPONIZATION’ FUND, PUNTS ICE, BORDER PATROL FUNDING

Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaks next to Jessica S. Tisch, New York Police Department commissioner, during a press conference at NYPD headquarters in New York City on March 9, 2026.(Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

Then there was a carefully crafted bipartisan agreement to renew FISA Section 702, the nation’s most effective program to track terrorists. Its authorization ran out after the president sidetracked the nomination of Jay Clayton, his own pick to become director of national intelligence (DNI).

Republicans couldn’t pass the FISA authorization on their own, so they engineered a bipartisan compromise with Democrats. But Democrats withdrew their support for the bill once the president announced that housing czar Bill Pulte would take over as acting DNI for Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned. Democrats viewed Pulte as a partisan who had no experience in intelligence. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., quickly scheduled a confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton once Trump tapped him as the nominee.

It was believed that the Senate may be able to confirm Clayton within a matter of days after his confirmation hearing. That would limit time on the job by Pulte. So, once Clayton was in place, the Senate could prospectively return to the bipartisan FISA deal and pass it.

But Trump detonated all of that last week. He insisted that Senate Republicans cancel Clayton’s confirmation hearing and not advance his nomination until it has confirmed Jamie McDonald as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. That’s the position Clayton held. The president made those demands at 3:59 a.m. ET Wednesday — all without consulting Thune.

He then made his signature on the FISA renewal conditional on passage of the SAVE America Act.

“That tells me he’s not very serious about FISA or intelligence,” said one senior congressional Republican about Trump. “And Pulte is a big middle finger to the intelligence community.”

So Senate Republicans aren’t enamored with all of these demands. Some began to lose faith in the president once he ditched support for Cassidy and Cornyn. Now they believe he’s being unreasonable, jerking around Thune, moving the goalposts for critical national security legislation and expecting the impossible on the SAVE America Act and the filibuster.

For his part, Scott believes he and the president can change minds.

Trump has criticized Senate Republican leaders generally of late. But he’s tiptoed around potentially calling out Thune by name. Thune is well-liked by his GOP colleagues and, like most congressional leaders, has an impossible job. That is why former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., likened the job to that of “herding cats.”

THUNE ‘ADAMANT’ ABOUT TRUMP SUPPORT, DRIVING MAGA AGENDA DESPITE TENSE PAST RELATIONSHIP

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Republican senators speak at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 2026.(Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

It’s clear that the president has better relations right now with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., compared to Thune. But turning on Thune by name would truly infuriate many of the president’s best allies in the Senate.

Trump routinely excoriated former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for not ditching the filibuster. But it was McConnell who delivered Trump three of the most lasting legacies: Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

McConnell established a new Senate precedent for the method he used to confirm Gorsuch. Gorsuch would have faced an unprecedented filibuster for an associate justice on the high court and never scored confirmation.

McConnell stuck by Kavanaugh during his raucous confirmation process in the fall of 2018. And he rammed through Coney Barrett’s confirmation days before the 2020 election. Yet McConnell refused to hold a confirmation hearing for President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, future Attorney General Merrick Garland, for nearly 11 months — because it was an election year. Blocking confirmation of Garland held the seat open for Gorsuch. Yet Trump railed against McConnell at every turn.

Thune passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year. But through no fault of his own, Thune hasn’t delivered any wins as enduring as the Supreme Court for Trump yet. However, the president has extended some grace to the South Dakota Republican — despite his criticism of the Republican Senate.

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We’ll see if that continues after Wednesday’s luncheon.

The legislative contretemps between the president and Senate Republicans over the past few weeks has just been an appetizer. Anguish and frustration are on the bill of fare Wednesday. And if the meeting doesn’t go well, some Republicans may yell “Check, please!” to get out of there as fast as they can.

Chad Pergram currently serves as Chief Congressional Correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.

Trump signs landmark executive order investing in quantum computing and cryptography security

June 23, 2026 2:27pm EDT / Fox News

IBM and Alphabet executives joined the president in the Oval Office as he outlined a national quantum strategy

By Robert McGreevy, Fox News

President Donald Trump announced a pair of executive orders investing in quantum computing Monday, moving forward an unprecedented partnership between government and industry while simultaneously moving to secure the U.S. from cryptographic threats.

The first executive order, titled “Ushering In The Next Frontier Of Quantum Innovation,” outlined a strategy to update the National Quantum Strategy by “promoting commercialization and deployment of” quantum technologies and partnering with industry leaders.

To drive that point, Trump signed the order in the Oval Office alongside executives from technology companies with vested quantum interests, including IBM and Google parent company Alphabet.

Furthermore, the directive mandates administration officials from the Departments of Energy and War, the director of national intelligence (DNI) and the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) “a summary of steps taken to align their processes, policies, and programs with” the National Quantum Strategy.

DETAILS OF TRUMP’S HIGHLY ANTICIPATED AI PLAN REVEALED BY WHITE HOUSE AHEAD OF MAJOR SPEECH

President Donald Trump signed executive orders related to quantum computing in the Oval Office of the White House on June 22, 2026.(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

It also kickstarts a national effort to develop a working quantum computer to be delivered to the Department of Energy for use and, “to the extent possible, make it available to the scientific community.”

Furthermore, Trump’s order directed NASA and other agencies to probe the development of quantum-enabled sensors, a technology that, if successfully adopted, could have significant military and defense applications.

Quantum computers can perform exponentially greater amounts of calculations at one time when compared to even the most advanced modern supercomputers today. This application makes them a potential threat to cryptographically secure information involving global finances, state secrets and digital communications.

An operating superconducting quantum computer chip is seen inside a white metal tank at QuantumCtek Co LTD in Hefei, China, on Feb. 7, 2023.(Costfoto/NurPhoto)

PROTECTING AMERICANS’DATA FROM CHINA IS CENTRAL TO AN AMERICA FIRST AGENDA

This fact underscores the second executive order Trump signed Monday, “Securing the Nation Against Advanced Cryptographic Attacks.” This order directed OMB and the national cyber director to “lead an accelerated, nationwide migration to post-quantum cryptography (PQC), ensuring our Nation and our data stay secure as quantum technology evolves.”

Joining Trump in the Oval Office, in addition to Alphabet President Ruth Porat and IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, were Nobel Prize-winning physicist John Martinis, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

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President Donald Trump delivers remarks before signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on June 22, 2026.(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Lutnick highlighted the administration’s late May move to direct $2 billion from the CHIPS and Science Act to quantum computing companies.

“Besides investing in the companies we’ve also invested in fabs to build quantum for others so we can manufacture these quantum in America,” Lutnick said, pointing to the decision to invest directly in an IBM fab, a machine that can manufacture quantum-capable chips.

“We’re already the leader by a lot. We’re gonna be, now, the leader by a lot more,” Trump also said during the signing.

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Iran war’s price tag hits $80B — more than double what Congress was told

June 23, 2026 12:10pm EDT / Fox News

The Pentagon is expected to request roughly $80 billion in supplemental funding to cover the cost of the war in Iran

By Morgan Phillips, Alex Miller, Fox News

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The Trump administration is prepping a long-awaited, multibillion-dollar request to resupply munitions drained during the Iran war as Congress wrestles with another eye-popping funding request from the Pentagon.

The Pentagon is expected to request roughly $80 billion in supplemental funding to cover the cost of the war in Iran, a source familiar confirmed to Fox News Digital. That figure is double what War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Pentagon Comptroller Jay Hurst testified before lawmakers earlier this year.

Lawmakers have been waiting since the war began for a request from the administration with little insight on what the actual price tag would be.

TRUMP’S PUSH FOR $350 BILLION ‘ARSENAL OF FREEDOM’ HITS GOP SKEPTICISM

The Pentagon is requesting $80 billion in supplemental funding from Congress to pay for the Iran war.(Stoyan Nenov/Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

Whether the request can pass muster in the upper chamber remains to be seen, especially with the backlash among several Democrats and Republicans over President Donald Trump’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) that has temporarily paused the war.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.,contended, “We need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to replenish, resupply a lot of our munitions that have been depleted, not only just with what’s happening in Iran but prior to that.”

“I think there’s a good interest in doing some things that would help ensure that, from a National Security standpoint, we’re prepared to deter and defeat any threat that comes up,” Thune said. “And so we’ll see if and when it gets here, we’ll work through it. We’ll see where the votes are at some point.”

The expected request comes after Hegseth made the rounds on Capitol Hill last week, pitching senators for more funding for the Pentagon, and after Deputy War Secretary Steve Feinberg spoke with lawmakers pushing for an $80 billion supplemental, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

HEGSETH TESTIFIES AT SENATE AS IRAN WAR’S $25B PRICE TAG AND 60-DAY WAR POWERS DEADLINE LOOM

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6391217489112

Hegseth and Hurst recently told Congress that the war had cost $29 billion, but many lawmakers believe that figure underestimates the cost given the number of SM3, Patriot, THAAD missiles and Tomahawks used to bomb Iran.

Trump is set to meet with top executives at defense contractors at the White House on Wednesday, following up on a March 6 meeting where Lockheed Martin, Raytheon parent RTX, BAE Systems, Boeing, Honeywell Aerospace, L3Harris and Northrop Grumman promised to quadruple production on their “exquisite” munitions systems.

On June 16, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to speed up production due to “systemic constraints in the munitions industrial base, including limited production capacity, fragile supply chains, long-lead dependencies, and related production bottlenecks.”

Analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies have warned that inventories of several key weapons systems used during the war could take years to restore to pre-war levels. Their analysis found that Patriot and THAAD missile interceptors, as well as Tomahawk cruise missiles, could require three or more years to fully replenish under current production rates.

Defense industry officials and outside experts have argued that substantially increasing output would require Congress to appropriate additional funding, allowing the Pentagon to place large replenishment orders and provide manufacturers with the long-term demand signals needed to expand production.

“The United States Military has more than enough munitions, ammo, and stockpiles to serve all of President Trump’s strategic goals and beyond, and Operation Epic Fury has exposed what happens when you mess with the United States,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said.”Even still, the president has urged our defense contractors to constantly produce more ‘made-in-America’ weapons, which are the best in the world. Democrats destroyed our military, but President Trump rebuilt it.”

TRUMP UNVEILS $1.5T DEFENSE SURGE, DEEP DOMESTIC CUTS — WHAT’S ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., says the U.S. must replenish depleted munitions stockpiles amid ongoing tensions with Iran.(Nathan Posner/Anadolu)

The bombing campaign against Iran, known as Operation Epic Fury, began on Feb. 28. A tenuous ceasefire has been in place since April 7, and now senior officials from both countries are negotiating on a longer-term peace deal after signing an MOU last week that established a framework for talks.

Meanwhile, it’s not the only eye-popping request the Pentagon and Trump have asked of lawmakers.

Trump earlier this month demanded that Republicans immediately begin work on a third budget reconciliation package loaded with $350 billion in defense funding tied to his highly sought-after Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act.

The figure, in part, is to make up the difference between his initial $1.5 trillion defense budget request, which lawmakers aren’t anywhere close to in their funding negotiations.

“This is a GENERATIONAL Investment in our Military, even bigger than President Reagan’s! Recon 3.0 is the ONLY path to the full $1.5 TRILLION DOLLAR Military Budget our Warriors need in order to build THE ARSENAL OF FREEDOM,” Trump said on Truth Social.

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But the request has already hit early roadblocks among Republicans in the upper chamber, and it comes as few Republicans want to circumvent the typical appropriations process to fund the Pentagon.

Earlier this month during a contentious Senate Appropriations hearing, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., agreed that another reconciliation bill was unlikely to happen, particularly as a dumping ground for billions in additional defense spending.

Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said, “Reconciliation is not the best approach.”

“It would be very difficult to get the reconciliation bill approved,” Collins said.

Fact Check: Covid-19 documents Gabbard released don’t prove her claims about Fauci

2026-06-23T19:32:40.450Z / CNN Politics

By Margaret Given, CNN

Published 3:32 PM EDT, Tue June 23, 2026

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CNN’s Daniel Dale joins Boris Sanchez for a fact check of claims made by now-former DNI Tulsi Gabbard about Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Covid-19 pandemic.

03:51 • Source: CNN

Politics of the Day 11 videos

Trump administration can’t block SNAP recipients in 5 states from buying soda and candy, judge rules

June 23, 2026 / 12:28 PM EDT / CBS News

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s effort to let states bar SNAP recipients from using their food benefits to buy soft drinks and candy, ruling the Agriculture Department lacked the authority to approve the restrictions.

Earlier this year, multiple states received approval from the Agriculture Department to enact the ban, with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins backing the efforts as a way to strip foods regarded as unhealthy from the $100 billion federal program.

However, SNAP recipients in five states — Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia — sued the agency in March, alleging the move would “destabilize food access” for people on food stamps. They also argued that the ban makes it difficult for people with chronic illnesses to access food or drinks needed to maintain their health, including items used to manage blood sugar.

In her Monday ruling, Judge Amy Berman Jackson sided with the plaintiffs, writing that the Agriculture Department exceeded its authority when it allowed states to issue the ban.

“Congress defined what ‘food’ is supposed to be, and it did not authorize the agency to amend or waive the definition it enacted,” she wrote in her opinion. “It did not authorize the agency to cut types of food out of SNAP entirely.”

SNAP provides monthly benefits to help low-income Americans pay for groceries. While it’s a federally funded program, food stamps are administered by each U.S. state.

The Agriculture Department defended the effort and vowed to continue pursuing the “Make America Healthy Again” initiative.

“The idea that taxpayer funds should not be used to purchase junk food should not be controversial,” a USDA spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News. “We will not be backing down from the fight to Make America Healthy Again, including for families and communities reliant on SNAP.”

While the ruling only applies to the five states where the plaintiffs live, it could have implications for the remaining 18 states with similar bans, according to the Food Research & Action Center, or FRAC, an anti-hunger advocacy group.

“Other approved SNAP restriction demonstrations relied on the same USDA process, the same statutory authority and many of the same legal and procedural assumptions the court rejected,” Gina Plata-Nino, SNAP director for FRAC, said in a Tuesday blog post. “For that reason, the decision may provide a roadmap for future challenges.”

Setback for “Make America Healthy Again”

The ruling is a setback for the “Make America Healthy Again” campaign championed by Kennedy and Rollins, who have argued taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill for foods and drinks that fuel obesity, diabetes and chronic disease epidemics.

“We cannot continue a system that forces taxpayers to fund programs that make people sick and then pay a second time to treat the illnesses those very programs help create,” Kennedy said in a December statement.

So far, the Agriculture Department has permitted 23 states to implement restrictions through waivers that allowed them to block SNAP recipients from buying certain food and beverages that are normally allowed under federal law.

The Food and Nutrition Act, which governs SNAP, allows food stamps to be used for “any food or food product intended for human consumption,” except for alcohol and ready-to-eat hot foods. The law also bars SNAP recipients from using benefits to buy tobacco.

The National Center for Law and Economic Justice, a nonprofit representing the plaintiffs, argued the different state-by-state definitions led to confusion for retailers and SNAP recipients.

“This decision makes clear that the USDA cannot bypass the legal guardrails that establish how SNAP must operate across the country,” Katie Deabler, senior attorney at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, said in a statement.

Edited by Aimee Picchi

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Senate votes to limit Trump’s Iran war powers in rare rebuke

2026-06-23T19:44:05.356Z / CNN

By Morgan Rimmer

16 min ago

PUBLISHED Jun 23, 2026, 3:44 PM ET

The US Capitol building in Washington, DC, on June 18, 2026.

Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

The Senate adopted a resolution on Tuesday directing the president to remove military forces from the conflict with Iran, a significant rebuke to Donald Trump and a strong message that the war lacks support in Congress.

Democrats have repeatedly forced votes to limit Trump’s war powers in both the House and the Senate – a campaign that has gradually picked up more GOP support in recent weeks, drawing the president’s ire.

GOP Sens. Rand Paul, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Bill Cassidy joined Democrats in voting for the resolution, while Democratic Sen. John Fetterman voted against it. The final tally was 50-48**.

The measure passed the House earlier this month. But because it is what’s known as a concurrent resolution, it does not require the president’s signature and, by definition, does not carry the force of law.

A House Democratic aide who has been involved in the effort to pass the war powers resolution told CNN earlier this month, however, that they believe the measure would be binding and it would be a legal matter to work out.

This is the 10 th time the Senate has voted on an Iran war powers measure since the beginning of the year. An earlier Senate-led resolution advanced last month, but has not had a follow-up vote yet as Democrats work to ensure they have the support needed to pass it.

The House passed the concurrent resolution 215-208, with four House Republicans voting with Democrats and immediately facing the president’s anger. Trump called the four members “GRANDSTANDERS” and their action “unpatriotic” in a post on Truth Social after the vote.

Some Democratic senators, including Tim Kaine, have argued that passage of a war powers resolution is necessary, even after the US reached an agreement with Iran and amid ongoing negotiations with Tehran.

“I think it’s a good time to have the vote to say, ‘Hey, if we’re really in a period of maybe some stability here, let’s not just allow it to start up again without Congress being involved in that decision,” he told reporters last week.

Frank Luntz: Democrats will move to impeach Trump ‘on day one’ if they take both chambers

2026-06-23T19:37:43.298Z / CNN Politics

By Blake McGill, CNN

Published 3:37 PM EDT, Tue June 23, 2026

https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/23/politics/video/cncpm-frank-luntz-midterms

Frank Luntz: Democrats will move to impeach Trump ‘on day one’ if they take both chambers

As primary contests take place across the country and President Donald Trump visits the swing state of Pennsylvania, pollster & communication strategist Frank Luntz joins CNN’s Brianna Keilar and Boris Sanchez.

4:49 • Source: CNN

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What has Andy Burnham, Britain’s likely next prime minister, said about President Trump?

2026-06-23T12:54:00-0400 / CBS News

By Emmet Lyons

Emmet Lyons is a news desk editor at the CBS News London bureau, coordinating and producing stories for all CBS News platforms. Prior to joining CBS News, Emmet worked as a producer at CNN for four years.

Read Full Bio

Updated on: June 23, 2026 / 2:03 PM EDT / CBS News

London — Labour Party lawmaker Andy Burnham, who looks increasingly likely to be Britain’s next prime minister, has previously criticized President Trump, accusing the American leader of bringing “instability” to the world.

Current Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Monday that he would resign in the wake of disastrous local elections in May, and 20 resignations from his government.

As his Labour Party still has a large majority of seats in the U.K. parliament — won in the last national elections in 2024 — it gets to pick Starmer’s replacement, and Burnham is widely expected to get the job.

Andy Burnham, newly elected Member of Parliament for Makerfield, Greater Manchester, at his swearing-in ceremony in the House of Commons, in London, June 22, 2026. House of Commons/Handout/REUTERS

If that happens as expected in the coming weeks, Burnham will, sooner or later, find himself on the phone with Mr. Trump, whose advisers will likely have scoured years of news articles for evidence of Burnham’s views on the businessman-turned-politician.

So what has Burnham said about Mr. Trump?

“A polarized, poisonous politics”

In short, he has not been particularly complimentary.

“The path we’re on, if we are not careful, is a path towards the politics of the United States of America,” Burnham warned on the campaign trail in June. While he didn’t attribute it directly to President Trump, he said Americans were grappling with “a polarized, poisonous politics where people in communities don’t work together anymore.”

Last year, in an interview with The London Economic that included questions about Mr. Trump’s reelection and the rise of right-wing, populist parties in Europe, he said: “I think we now have to have a real debate about what that means and the instability that [former prime minister] Liz Truss brought to Britain, I think Trump is bringing to the U.S. and the world.”

In a 2024 book that he co-authored, Burnham wrote: “Whether we like it or not, Donald Trump and Nigel Farage have been effective in connecting with people who feel politicians have neglected the place where they live.”

A photo posted online by British politician Nigel Farage on Nov. 12, 2016 shows him standing with Donald Trump at Trump Tower in Manhattan after a private meeting with the then-U.S. president-elect. Nigel Farage/Twitter

He said a “new radical Right” in the U.K. and U.S. were capitalizing on inequality and an “out-of-touch left-progressive establishment” that had failed to solve problems for middle class voters.

And on Jan. 6, 2021, as rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Burnham posted on X: “Any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now.”

When asked about Burnham’s previous comments about Mr. Trump on Tuesday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told CBS News: “Left-wing policies of unfettered migration and destructive globalism have made once-great European cities unrecognizable – allowing criminals to run wild and antisemitism to thrive. President Trump saved the United States from such destruction when he was elected, and he has rightfully warned other world leaders that western civilization will continue to erode if they don’t quickly reverse course.”

Reflecting Pool renovation, a massive White House ballroom and a triumphal arch: Here’s how Trump is remaking D.C.

June 23, 2026 / 2:00 PM EDT / CBS News

By Luis Giraldo,

Katherine Lam
Katherine Lam is the director of Growth & Engagement at CBS News, focusing on strategy, content partnerships and platforms including YouTube. She previously worked at Fox News as a breaking news digital producer.

Read Full Bio

In his second term in office, President Trump has initiated a D.C. makeover, attempting to leave his mark on the capital and prompting multiple legal battles.

Mr. Trump, a former real estate developer, has overseen the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make way for a massive ballroom, tried to change the name of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and completed a resurfacing project at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool that quickly faced setbacks.

Here’s a look at where five of Mr. Trump’s projects stand and how much they cost.

Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool

The Trump administration announced plans to resurface the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in April and paint it “American flag blue” at the president’s request. The last time the reflecting pool underwent a significant renovation was from 2010 to 2012 during the Obama administration. At the time, the government tapped $34 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to cover the cost of the project.

President Trump displays a rendering of his proposed renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool during an event in the Oval Office on June 3. Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images

The cost: Mr. Trump estimated it would take a week and cost roughly $1.5 million. Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the Virginia-based company hired for the project, completed the restoration in early June for $14.7 million, according to records, more than nine times Mr. Trump’s original estimate. The administration spent another $1.7 million on a filtration system. Neither contract for the reflecting pool was subject to a competitive bidding process.

National Park Service personnel vacuum algae from the Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC. Photo by Pete Kiehart/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Where it stands now:Images showed the reflecting pool’s water turning green in less than two weeks after Mr. Trump announced that the site had reopened to “rave reviews.”

A spokesman for the Interior Department said supply lines that had been dormant for two months are to blame for the residual algae causing the color change.

Days later, chunks of peeling paint from the blue coating were spotted in the water. Mr. Trump claimed in a Truth Social post, without any evidence, that the Reflecting Pool was vandalized. Five people were arrested for vandalism and five others were served citations, according to the U.S. Park Police.

Bare patches are visible where newly applied blue paint has peeled from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. Ken Cedeno /AFP via Getty Images

White House ballroom

The Trump administration announced in July 2025 plans to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom that could seat 1,000 guests. CBS News obtained architectural renderings of the project in September and weeks later, the White House’s East Wing was demolished to start on the ballroom construction. The Trump administration hired Clark Construction as the project’s contractor.

The Trump administration has argued the proposed ballroom would provide safety assurances for large gatherings with the president and other distinguished guests. Administration officials amplified their argument after April’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and an alleged foiled plot to attack the White House UFC event this month.

An overhead view of the construction site for President Trump’s White House ballroom. Aaron Schwartz / Getty Images

The cost:The project was initially estimated to cost $200 million but has increased significantly less than a year after it was first announced. Mr. Trump has since said construction would cost about $400 million and insisted it would be “taxpayer-free” and funded by him and other donors, including tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Nvidia, defense contractors and other large corporations.

However, a project summary obtained by The Washington Post showed ballroom construction would cost an estimated $600 million, with about half coming from taxpayer-funded departments, including the Secret Service, White House Military Office and the Executive Residence of the White House.

Rendering of the White House State Ballroom interior

Where it stands now:The project has been embroiled in a legal battle in federal courts. The National Trust for Historic Preservation in the U.S. sued the Trump administration in December for demolishing the East Wing “without any review whatsoever.”

The White House is waiting for an appeals court to decide whether construction can continue after a lower court ruled that Congress must approve the project.

President Trump holds a rendering of the planned White House Ballroom extension during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office on Oct. 22, 2025. Aaron Schwartz / CNP / Bloomberg via Getty Images / Aaron Schwartz – Pool via CNP

“Arc de Trump”

In October 2025, President Trump told a group of donors for the White House ballroom project that he would also be building a 250–foot triumphal arch that resembles the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The structure would be built in the middle of Memorial Circle between the entrance of the Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial. Construction could take two to three years, according to documents published on the Federal Register.

When CBS News senior White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe asked President Trump who the arch is for, Mr. Trump simply said: “Me.” The White House added that the arch would commemorate the 250th anniversary of the U.S.

Rendering of President Trump’s triumphal arch that would sit between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery. Interior Department to Commission on Fine Arts

The cost:The White House has not disclosed the total cost for the arch. However, some taxpayer money has already been earmarked for the project. In its spending plan, the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent government agency, allocated $15 million in taxpayer dollars for the arch.

The actual price tag is likely to be much higher: In November 2025, Axios reported that the arch would cost an estimated $100 million.

“The estimated cost of the Triumphal Arch is still being calculated and will be shared in the near future,” the Department of the Interior said in a statement to CBS News. “We anticipate some combination of public and private funds to be used to pay for the Triumphal Arch.”

Where it stands now:Critics say the arch would dominate the skyline and tower over the 99-foot Lincoln Memorial. A group of veterans and a historian sued the Trump administration to block construction, but a federal court has yet to intervene.

The National Park Service said the project could take almost a year to complete on an accelerated timeline, with two, 10-hour shifts per day, and “several tower cranes, forklifts, skid steers, drill rigs, and concrete pumping systems.”

A model of President Trump’s proposed arch to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary is seen on a table at a public meeting of the Commission of Fine Arts on April 16. Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Mr. Trump has made significant changes at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during his second term. He ousted several board members, installed himself as chairman and proposed an “anti-woke” vision for its future, leading to several artists canceling performances. The board voted in December to change the institution’s name to the Trump-Kennedy Center, and a few months later announced it would close its doors for two years for renovations that were slated to begin this summer.

Construction workers build scaffolding near the sign for the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts on June 12. Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images

The cost:Last year, Mr. Trump secured $257 million through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to restore the Kennedy Center. The tax cut and spending law states that funding is available until September 2029 for expenses related to “capital repair, restoration, maintenance backlog and security structures” at the Kennedy Center. Repairs include upgrading theater seats, repairing water damage and drainage issues, replacing soffit panels and addressing structural issues with the center’s parking garage.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the center,” Matt Floca, executive director and chief operating officer, said in a statement to CBS News. “All of these improvements that we need to make are real, are needed.”

The Kennedy Center did not disclose the total estimated cost for the renovations.

A tarp covers the newly removed name of President Trump from the facade of the Kennedy Center on June 13. Aaron Schwartz / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Where it stands now:In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in favor of Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who serves on the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees, after she sued to block the name change and the closure. The judge stopped the plan to temporarily close the center and ruled the board acted unlawfully when it added Mr. Trump’s name to the building.

“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” Cooper wrote in his opinion.

Dozens of people gathered outside the Kennedy Center on June 13 to watch crews scrape the president’s name off the building.

After the judge’s ruling, the center’s board of trustees voted to create a new endowment in Mr. Trump’s name that they said was intended to recognize his “significant contributions and dedication” to the Kennedy Center. A Kennedy Center official said the endowment will raise private funds that will supplement the money secured by Mr. Trump and Congress for renovations.

Lafayette Park

The National Park Service announced that portions of the park would close in January because of “serious concerns about security for construction equipment and prior vandalism associated with public protests in recent years.” In May, Mr. Trump posted on social media that he had contributed funds to build fountains and to rebuild parts of Lafayette Park in front of the White House.

“That’s the entrance to the White House, and it was an embarrassment,” Mr. Trump said.

With the White House in the background, construction equipment is parked in Lafayette Square as part of a renovation project. Kevin Carter / Getty Images

The cost:The New York Times reported in April that the Trump administration initially agreed to pay the government contractor in charge of the ballroom renovation, Clark Construction, $11.9 million to do the job, but later increased the contract to $17.4 million to cover additional costs.

Where it stands now:The project was expected to be completed by May 31, but a spokesperson for the Department of the Interior, which oversees the park, told CBS News that the restoration project is still in progress and that “final figures for the project are unavailable at this time.”

Arden Farhi contributed to this report.

Trump keeps claiming Iran made concessions. Iran keeps denying them

2026-06-23T17:46:20.748Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/23/politics/trump-iran-claims-nuclear-inspectors

Ever since releasing a memorandum of understanding last week that appeared heavily slanted toward Iran, the Trump administration has kept claiming Tehran agreed to other major concessions in ongoing negotiations.

The problem is that none of them appeared in the MOU — and Iran keeps denying them.

And given the Trump administration’s own demonstrated credibility problems, it’s not at all clear whom to trust.

The biggest example came Tuesday morning, when President Donald Trump made the massive claim that Iran has already agreed to major nuclear inspections in perpetuity.

“… Iran has fully and completely agreed to highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future (Infinity!!!),” he wrote on Truth Social. “This will insure (sic) ‘Nuclear Honesty.’ If they did not agree to this, there would be no further negotiations!”

Similarly, Vice President JD Vance at a press conference Monday in Switzerland cited a “major milestone.” He said Iran had agreed to admit inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

But Iran has rejected the idea there had been any significant movement on this front.

It instead said that its work with the IAEA, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency, would continue “under the current procedures.”

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Iran had not agreed to let inspectors examine its heavily damaged nuclear sites and that it had made “no new commitments.”

Indeed, despite Vance’s claim of a major advance, the IAEA already has limited access to Iran. So merely being allowed in isn’t, in and of itself, a major step forward.

Fuller inspections were also a major piece of the Obama administration’s Iran deal that Trump pulled out of.

But Trump didn’t back down Tuesday afternoon while on his way to an event in Pennsylvania. “They’re wrong, they’re wrong,” he told reporters of the Iranians. “We have it down: 100% inspections. And if they were right, I’d cancel the meetings right now.”

The Trump administration has also claimed this week that the many billions in Iranian assets that would be unfrozen as part of a peace deal would be used on American products.

It has made this claim as it attempts to combat criticisms that Iran could use the money, along with at least $300 billion in reconstruction funds from Gulf countries, to rebuild its military or fund terrorism. Even many conservatives have complained about the extensive financial concessions to Iran in the agreement.

Vance said Monday that lead negotiator Jared Kushner had devised a plan under which the spending of the money would be approved by the US and Qatar. He said that “then the money would actually go to buy American soy, American corn and American wheat for the benefit of the Iranian people.”

“If Iranian assets are ever unfrozen, they are going to make American farmers richer and help feed the Iranian people,” Vance said.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Waltz said later Monday on Fox News that “they’re going to buy American crops.”

Trump added Tuesday morning in his social media post that the money would be “controlled by the U.S.A., and will be used for the purchase of food and medical supplies, exclusively from the United States.”

But when Fox’s Laura Ingraham pressed Waltz on how ironclad the agreement was, Waltz suggested it was still being worked out. He said that “how we control” the money is “being negotiated right now as we speak.”

And Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ali Bahreini, on Tuesday rejected the idea.

“Iran ​is the only country to decide what to do with its assets,” Bahreini said. He added, “I reject any claim about that if there would be any role for any other country to have an influence on those decisions or on those processes.”

The MOU says that vessels will be allowed to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has gained great leverage by closing, “with no charge, for 60 days only.”

What happens after that, the two sides can’t agree.

Trump said last week at the G7 summit in France that the strait would also be “toll-free” beyond the 60 days.

“Somebody said, oh, it’s toll-free for – no, no, its toll-free, period,” Trump said last Tuesday. “When it opens permanently, it’ll be toll-free.”

He added Monday that “we have an agreement where it’s going to be open, and it’s toll-free. We had a little argument on that; it’s toll-free.”

Trump previously made a similar promise in an interview with The New York Times’s David Sanger, saying the strait would be “permanently toll-free.”

But Iran has not said that. In fact, it has previewed a plan under which it would charge “fees” for certain services. And The New York Times reported Tuesday morning that it has already set this plan in motion.

The mere fact that the MOU only makes the strait free of charge for 60 days would suggest this is a real sticking point.

And the dispute is apparently still serious enough — despite Trump’s assurances — that this weekend he threatened to “take over” the strait and have the United States charge for passage.

The answer to that question is usually a pretty easy one — especially when dealing with authoritarian regimes like Iran.

But Trump’s tendency to make wild and false claims makes it more complicated.

This is a president, after all, who suggested more than three dozen times over more than two months that an Iran deal was right around the corner. He said more than two months ago that Iran had already “agreed to everything” he was demanding — when it clearly hadn’t.

Similarly, Trump and his administration claimed last year’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites had “obliterated” its nuclear program. Trump went so far as to say the strikes had also obliterated the “future nuclear capability of Iran.”

But CNN and others reported that early US intelligence assessments did not back up these claims. And sure enough, eight months later, Trump was launching a war by citing, yet again, the supposedly imminent nuclear threat that Iran posed.

Put plainly: The Trump administration has major credibility problems, too.

And that also applies to the known terms of the current negotiations.

For instance, before the MOU was released last week, Trump was asked if it included “a $300 billion fund funded by Gulf allies.” He said that was “false.” But sure enough, the MOU contains such a reconstruction fund.

Vance and the administration also broadly dismissed claims about the MOU from Iranian media as “propaganda.” A White House spokesman also said a draft version of the MOU published by CNN last week did “not reflect the language of the actual MOU.”

But many of the Iranian claims wound up being echoed in the actual MOU. And the final document was similar to the draft version CNN published, with some language differences.

It’s also worth asking, if some of these concessions to the US side are so ironclad and were able to be agreed to so quickly, why didn’t they appear in the MOU? Why was that document so heavily weighted toward the Iranians?

The Trump administration has suggested that’s because of the delicate politics involved on Iran’s side of the negotiations — and even that there are some secret handshake agreements that weren’t enumerated in the document.

But the politics are delicate in the United States right now, too. And the administration’s just-trust-us approach might not cut it.