• Budget blueprint passes House: President Donald Trump insists on a “big, beautiful bill” to enact the agenda the American people chose last November. The House took a significant step toward passing that bill Thursday. The compromise budget resolution passed in a party-line vote of 216-214, with two Republican dissenters. This vote would have failed had the Democrats not lost two members in the last month. Now that the House and, previously, the Senate have passed a version of this bill, budget reconciliation negotiations will allow the final product to pass by a simple majority vote. The GOP’s narrow margins in Congress mean there’s little room for mistakes, however, and a chasm separates the House and Senate. House Speaker Mike Johnson promises at least $1.5 trillion in budget cuts, while the Senate has only allocated $4 billion.

• Tariff retaliation continues: It has effectively become a game of tit-for-tat as China hit back at Donald Trump’s 125% tariff on all Chinese goods by raising its own 125% tariff against all U.S. imports. China’s Finance Ministry is suddenly concerned with rules, saying America’s tariff imposition “seriously violates international economic and trade rules, runs counter to basic economic principles and common sense, and is simply an act of unilateral bullying and coercion.” The trouble for Beijing is that in this escalating tariff war, the trade imbalance actually works in Trump’s favor. This appears to be why China’s Finance Ministry added, “If the U.S. continues to play a numbers game with tariffs, China will not respond.” Meanwhile, Trump threatened more tariffs and even sanctions against Mexico over the claim that it was stealing water from Texas.

• Garcia ordered returned by SCOTUS: The Supreme Court has sided with the Obama-appointed district judge that ordered the return of an alleged MS-13 gang member from the El Salvadoran prison he was deported to. SCOTUS told Judge Paula Xinis to clarify her order that Kilmar Abrego Garcia be returned. The corporate media is hot and bothered over Garcia’s case after the Trump administration admitted that an error allowed the Salvadoran national and illegal immigrant to be deported despite a 2019 protection order against deportation to El Salvador. Garcia’s lawyers argue that he is not a gang member. After his arrest, Garcia’s wife identified him in photos via his distinctive tattoos and two head scars.

• Registration for illegals is a go: Federal Judge Trevor McFadden on Thursday ruled that pro-illegal alien groups, including the National Immigration Law Center, which raised a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s requirement that all illegal aliens must register with the federal government, had no standing. As a result, DHS is now free to pursue the enforcement of its order, which gives illegal aliens 30 days to self-deport, register, or face fines and prison time. The Trump administration is simply enforcing immigration laws that are already on the books. In this case, DHS cites the Alien Registration Act of 1940, which requires all noncitizens living in the U.S. to register with the government. As DHS Secretary Kristi Noem explained, “We must know who is in our country for the safety and security of our homeland and all Americans.”

• Meta whistleblower alleges user data handed to China: Meta, the parent company behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is not your friend. China earned massive concessions from Meta and others as it opened up to foreign companies. Sarah Wynn-Williams, a Meta whistleblower, is exposing some of those concessions. One concession China received from Meta was the sharing and storage of Facebook user data in China. This allegedly only applied to Chinese user data, but foreign users who interacted with Chinese nationals were also likely compromised. Closer to home, Sarah says Facebook targeted ads at teenagers when the algorithm detected they were feeling low or depressed. For example, a teenage girl deleting a selfie could be used as a signal to show her ads for beauty products. On the internet, if a product is free, it’s often because you are the product.

• The FBI’s bogus Russia collusion snitch: Newly declassified FBI documents regarding the Russia collusion hoax reveal that one of the primary informants the bureau used in conducting its investigation was motivated in part by “monetary compensation.” Some 700 pages of documents related to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane case against Donald Trump were recently turned over to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan. These documents reveal that longtime FBI informant and Pentagon consultant Stefan Halper received almost $1.2 million from the FBI over three decades. Even though Halper’s information, specifically regarding Trump’s former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, was eventually deemed “not plausible” and “not accurate” by the FBI, the bureau continued to pay and vouch for Halper as a legitimate human source as it continued to investigate Flynn.

• LA schools block DHS from checking on migrant children: Principals in LA schools turned away Homeland Security Investigations officers from doing “wellness checks” on children who crossed the border as Unaccompanied Alien Children. LA Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, himself a now-naturalized illegal immigrant from Portugal, defended the principals’ actions. “I am still mystified as to how [a child] would pose any type of risk to the national security of our nation,” Carvalho said in a statement, despite this being an attempt to check on the security and well-being of kids who weren’t kept track of under Joe Biden’s border invasion. More than 320,000 unaccompanied migrant children have been lost in the shuffle these last four years, and if Carvalho has his way, they’ll stay lost.

• Fewer students earn college degrees: For the third consecutive year, the number of students earning college degrees fell. After seven years of steady increases in college graduates, the past three have shown a reversing trend. Some 1.9 million students were granted bachelor’s degrees in the 2023-2024 academic year, the lowest number since 2015-2016. The number of students gaining two-year associate’s degrees also declined, dropping to a 10-year low. Meanwhile, the number of students earning certifications for skilled trades and technical jobs has increased for the third consecutive year, hitting a 10-year high of 525,215. With the problem of soaring student loan debt, many families and students are looking for lower-cost education opportunities. Colorado State Board of Education member Steve Durham sees this as “a healthy trend,” observing, “The return on investment of a four-year college degree continues to fall while the value of certificates and trades increases.”

Headlines

• EU puts retaliatory actions against U.S. on hold after Trump’s tariff pause (Daily Wire)

• U.S. ambassador to Ukraine to resign after three years in post (Just the News)

• Mike Huckabee confirmed as ambassador to Israel (Daily Wire)

• Ahead of talks, new report says Iran nuclear threat rises to “extreme danger” (Fox News)

• Judge to rule on whether anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported or if he must be freed (Fox News)

• Palestinian-American billionaire quits Harvard post after lawsuit claims he helped build Hamas terror tunnels, rocket launch sites (NY Post)

• Colorado governor signs controversial gun control bill (Center Square)

• Satire: Jasmine Crockett floats down mighty Mississippi to purchase fresh shipment of Mexican slaves (Babylon Bee)

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