House Republicans narrowly approve blueprint to fund ICE, CBP
U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on April 21, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — After drama and delay, House Republicans narrowly approved a blueprint for legislation to fund immigration enforcement agencies, the first step in the GOP’s plan to reopen the Department of Homeland Security.
The party-line vote, which was held open for more than five hours, was called at 10:39 p.m. on Wednesday after Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leaders huddled with holdouts.
Reps. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Andy Harris of Maryland, Michael Cloud of Texas and Victoria Spartz of Indiana flipped their votes to yes after hours of discussion. Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, an Independent who conferences with Republicans, voted present.
The final vote was 215-211-1.
The budget resolution kicks off the drafting process of a bill that Republicans said would provide billions of dollars to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term.
Trump has set a June 1 deadline for Republicans to fund the immigration enforcement agencies.
Republicans are using reconciliation, a lengthy and complex process, to overcome Democratic opposition.
Democrats have said they won’t support funding for ICE and CBP without reforms to their operating procedures, after two American citizens in Minneapolis were fatally shot by federal agents earlier this year.
DHS has been shut down since mid-February, making it the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
The shooting at the White House Correspondents Association dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday rekindled the DHS funding fight. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the funding lapse a “national emergency.”
But it’s currently unclear when House Republican leaders plan to put a Senate-passed bill to fund the rest of DHS on the floor for a vote.
In this Feb. 10, 2026, file photo, Sen. Chris Murphy speaks to reporters as he returns to his office at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images, FILE)
(WASHINGTON) — Despite President Donald Trump saying that the United States and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire, congressional Democrats are pushing forward to hold the president accountable.
“The president has promised to commit war crimes. He’s promised to eradicate an entire civilization we have never ever seen that in the history of this country. That’s why I and many other people have been talking for the last 24 hours about the 25th amendment,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said on CNN Tuesday of the potential vehicle for removing the president from office.
Murphy said Trump has “lost touch with reality” — mentioning the president’s Tuesday morning social media post in which he threatened that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
However, hours before an 8 p.m. ET self-imposed deadline for Iran to make a deal to fully reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz or face broad strikes on its critical infrastructure, Trump said he had agreed to suspend planned bombing for two weeks if Iran agreed to reopen the strait.
“We just can’t accept a president who is literally promising to destroy an entire civilization, to murder hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings. That alone should be grounds for the removal of this President,” said Murphy, who was one of several lawmakers who mentioned the 25th Amendment after Trump’s latest threats.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Senate Democrats will once again force a vote on an Iran war powers resolution when they return from recess next week. The resolution would call on the president to terminate the use of U.S. armed forces in hostilities against Iran or any part of the Iranian government or military unless a declaration of war or authorization to use military force is enacted.
“Republicans will once again have the opportunity to join Democrats and end this reckless war of choice. The public must demand that Republicans join with us to approve a war powers act,” Schumer said at a New York press conference.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House’s top Democrat, said that “as soon as it becomes available to us to do so,” Democrats will present a war powers resolution on the House floor.
“A two-week ceasefire is insufficient. We need a permanent end to Donald Trump’s reckless war of choice, which is why House Democrats have demanded that Speaker Mike Johnson immediately reconvene the House back into session so we can move a War Powers Resolution that will end this conflict permanently,” Jeffries said on CNN Tuesday night.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson have not yet commented on the matter.
In a statement on Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar said he would support the House’s war powers resolution when it comes up for a vote – a change after Cueller was one of four Democrats who voted against it last month.
Cueller, in a post on X, said the war powers resolution is “a reaffirmation of Congress’ constitutional role and our shared responsibility to the American people.”
The Senate and the House have both failed several times to advance war powers resolutions.
Republican Sen. John Curtis said last week that he won’t support military operations in Iran beyond the 60-day window without congressional approval. He had previously voted with Republicans, aside from Sen. Rand Paul, to block the Iran war powers resolution from advancing, arguing Trump was within his legal authority to act.
In an April 1 op-ed for Deseret News, Curtis wrote that 60 days is a “sufficient window” for Trump to take emergency measures to combat the threat Iran poses, but that a declaration of war should be authorized by Congress for operations to continue.
There are no indications that other Republicans would change their votes on the war power resolution.
Democratic Rep. John Larson on Tuesday filed articles of impeachment to remove Trump from office – however, without Republican support, his effort is not likely to move forward and serves more as a signal of Democratic aspirations if they win back the majority in the midterm elections this fall.
A number of Senate Democrats have continued their calls for Congress to return early from their recess to “vote to end this war.”
Democratic Sen. Andy Kim posted a video on Tuesday night from inside a train he was taking back to Washington — imploring his fellow members of Congress to return as well.
“We need to have answers immediately for the American people. What Trump said earlier is unacceptable, it’s dangerous, it is absolutely unhinged and we should all be concerned about him helming this war, this illegal unconstitutional war. We need Congress back in session immediately,” Kim said in the video. “I call on all my colleagues to get back so we can have a vote to end this war and stop this insanity before it goes any further.”
Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell echoed calls for congressional action.
“A return to diplomatic regional discussions will save lives and dollars and protect America’s long-term interests, while President Trump’s irresponsible words and actions undermine them Congress must impose constraints on this President’s wrongheaded use of force,” Cantwell said in a post on X.
For some Republicans, Trump’s announcement on the ceasefire seemed to be met with cautious optimism.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top Trump ally, said he is hopeful the “reign of terror” can be ended through diplomacy but that he is “extremely cautious regarding what is fact vs fiction.”
“As I stated before, I prefer diplomacy if it leads to the right outcome regarding the Iranian terrorist regime. I appreciate the hard work of all involved in trying to find a diplomatic solution,” Graham posted on X. “At this early stage, I am extremely cautious regarding what is fact vs. fiction or misrepresentation. That’s why a congressional review process like the one the Senate followed to test the Obama Iranian deal is a sound way forward. Fair and challenging questions with a full opportunity to explain, and a healthy dose of sunlight is generally the right formula to understand any matter. Simply put, kick the tires.”
ABC News’ John Parkinson and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a bill signing in the Oval Office of the White House on February 03, 2026 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump shared on his social media platform overnight a video that includes a racist animation of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama depicted with the bodies of apes, sparking condemnation from some lawmakers and demands that the post be taken down.
Trump reposted the roughly minutelong video, which focused on debunked claims about the 2020 election, to his social media platform.
At the end of the video, the Obamas’ faces appear abruptly and without explanation for seconds with the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” playing over it. The video then ends back on similar imagery of the conspiracy video footage.
The Obamas had no comment when ABC News reached out to their representatives for a response.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when asked for comment, said, “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
The video reposted by Trump overnight includes only imagery of the Obamas.
The meme video referenced by Leavitt was shared in October by the Hardin County Republican Party of Kentucky on Facebook, which led the chairman to issue an apology and deleted the post after swift backlash noting the long history of racist tropes depicting Black people as apes or monkeys — a tool of slave traders and segregationists to dehumanize them.
Trump’s overnight repost was condemned by some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black leader of a party in Congress, wrote on X: “President Obama and Michelle Obama are brilliant, compassionate and patriotic Americans. They represent the best of this country. Donald Trump is a vile, unhinged and malignant bottom feeder.”
“Every single Republican must immediately denounce Donald Trump’s disgusting bigotry,” Jeffries wrote.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate and also the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, posted on X: “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, wrote in a post: “Racist. Vile. Abhorrent. This is dangerous and degrades our country — where are Senate Republicans? The President must immediately delete the post and apologize to Barack and Michelle Obama, two great Americans who make Donald Trump look like a small, envious man.”
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office after signing an Executive Order April 18, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump doubled down on his claim that the term “86” is a “mob term” for a killing as former FBI Director James Comey faces a federal indictment over a social media post of seashells arranged to read “86 47.”
“’86’ is a mob term for ‘kill him.’ They say 86 him! ’86 47′ means ‘kill President Trump,'” Trump wrote in a social media post Wednesday night, before going on to assail Comey as a “Dirty Cop” who “knows this full well!”
Comey, who was indicted on Tuesday by a federal grand jury in North Carolina, made an initial court appearance on Wednesday after self-surrendering to law enforcement at the courthouse in the Eastern District of Virginia. Comey did not enter a plea.
The former FBI director, who was fired in 2017 by Trump during the president’s first term, faces one charge of threats against the president and successors, and one charge of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.
The indictment centers on a controversy that erupted nearly a year ago when Comey, in a since-deleted Instagram post, shared a picture showing the numbers “86 47” written in seashells on the beach with the caption “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
“EIGHT MILES OUT, SIX FEET DOWN! Didn’t he also lie to the FBI about this??? I think so!” Trump said on Wednesday night, describing his apparent interpretation of what the eight and six represent.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary, which lists several definitions of “eighty-six,” says the most common use for the informal saying is to describe a way “to refuse to serve” or “to eject or ban” a customer from a restaurant or bar. The dictionary says it’s often used as a way to say something has been removed. The American Heritage dictionary says the term may have derived as a rhyming slang for “nix.”
The origin of the president’s assertion that the term comes from the mob is unclear. A search of scripts from the American Film Institute’s top 10 gangster films shows no instance of the phrase being used, despite Trump referring reporters to mob movies on Wednesday.
“You ever see the movies? ’86 ’em’ — the mobster says to one of his wonderful associates, ’86 ’em.’ That means kill ’em. It’s — I think of it as a mob term,” he said.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said he did some of his own research on the term.
“I searched to the end of the internet last night, I can’t find one example where the number 86 had anything to do with any violent threat. So hopefully there’s more to it than just the picture in the sand,” Tillis told reporters on Wednesday. “Otherwise, I just think it’s another example of where we’re going to regret this because we’re setting a fairly low bar and political physics, like I’ve said around here for years, is what it is. For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.”
Tillis later added, “maybe there’s deep history in the use of this word and communicating threats. I just can’t find it anywhere.”
The Department of Justice in announcing that the indictment that had been handed up said that “a reasonable recipient [of Comey’s image] who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States.”
And while the president has repeated his claim that Comey’s post was a call for him to be killed, Trump appeared to hedge when asked directly Wednesday whether he believed his life was in danger.
“Probably, I don’t know,” he said. “You know, based on — based on what I’m seeing out there, yeah.”
