The development of a nuclear bomb that would be 24 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II is ‘significantly ahead of schedule,’ according to U.S. national security officials. 

‘The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will complete the First Production Unit of the B61-13, a modern variant of the B61 nuclear gravity bomb, this fiscal year and significantly ahead of schedule,’ an NNSA spokesperson told Fox News.

‘One of seven warhead modernization programs to ensure the reliability and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, the B61-13 will provide additional options against certain harder and large-area military targets,’ the spokesperson added. ‘NNSA accelerated delivery of the weapon by leveraging manufacturing processes from the related B61-12 program, whose final unit was completed in 2024, and implementing a range of technical innovations to optimize production.’

The process for the newest version began in the Biden administration in 2023, and it is now going into full production seven months ahead of schedule. A Department of Defense fact sheet from 2023 said the B61-13 would ‘strengthen deterrence of adversaries,’ referring to the 2022 nuclear posture review that observed U.S. adversaries like China and Russia continue to expand their nuclear forces while ‘increasing reliance on nuclear weapons.’ 

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was about a 15-kiloton bomb. The DoD fact sheet released in October 2023 said the ‘B61-13 will have a yield similar to the B61-7, which is higher than that of the B61- 12.’ 

Citing defense officials, the Federation of American Scientists said the B61-7 has a maximum yield of 360 kilotons, making it 24 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The B61-13, therefore, would also be 14 times more powerful than the 25-kiloton bomb dropped on Nagasaki. 

Sandia National Laboratories, where the new bomb is being developed, said the B61-13 program ‘used innovative program planning that resulted in projected delivery seven months earlier than expected, a more than 25% decrease in overall time to first production unit.’ Their statement cited ‘a critical challenge and urgent need’ for the acceleration and said the B61-13 ‘team reprioritized qualification activities, planned tests with U.S. Air Force stakeholders and jointly completed requirements with Los Alamos National Laboratory and NNSA.’ 

‘Their creativity in system qualification put an aggressive set of plans in motion to meet stakeholder expectations,’ Sandia National Laboratories said. 

The statement comes a day after President Donald Trump’s nominee for NNSA administration, former Rep. Brandon Williams, faced off with senators during his confirmation hearing. 

Williams notably testified that he would not advise the resumption of nuclear detonation tests last conducted in the United States in 1992. He said the ultimate decision would be ‘above my paygrade’ but that he would not recommend tests and instead preferred to rely on ‘scientific information,’ such as computer modeling done at NNSA laboratories based on data gathered from nonnuclear detonation tests. 

His response came during a line of questioning by Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who cited how ‘millions of people and acres of land were contaminated by radiation’ during nuclear detonation testing conducted in her home state during the Cold War.

Canada has a new U.S. ambassador to sort through its strained relations with Washington as the Senate on Wednesday approved President Donald Trump’s nomination of Peter Hoekstra in a 60-37 vote. 

His confirmation as U.S. ambassador to Canada comes at one of the most challenging times in Washington’s long relationship with its northern neighbor after Trump launched a series of tariffs targeting Ottawa and repeatedly claimed he believes Canada should become the U.S.’s 51st state. 

But despite heightened concerns over Trump’s ambitions for Canada, particularly among Democratic lawmakers, Hoekstra’s Senate confirmation process was a relatively smooth road.  

‘I do have a special appreciation for Canada as a neighbor,’ he told Senators at his confirmation hearing last month.

Following questions from Delaware Democrat Sen. Christopher Coons, Hoekstra affirmed that ‘Canada is a sovereign state.’

However, he declined to comment on the president’s repeated desire to incorporate Canada as the next U.S. state – a proposal Ottawa has consistently rejected.

‘How the president and the relationship between the former prime minister in Canada and the characteristics, the nature of that relationship…I don’t know,’ he added.

The Michigan lawmaker and former ambassador to the Netherlands during President Trump’s first term referenced his state’s close ties to Canada during his opening remarks last month before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

‘My home state is connected to Canada by four and soon to be five, bridge crossings along maritime board, across the Great Lakes, vital lakes that drive businesses, jobs and livelihoods in both states,’ Hoekstra highlighted. ‘If confirmed, I will work tirelessly to build on that record of cooperation extended, obviously nationally.’

Canada is the U.S.’s largest trading partner and the number one purchaser of U.S. goods.

‘I think there’s 36 states that see Canada as their number one trading partner internationally,’ Hoekstra confirmed. 

The U.S. is also, by far, Canada’s largest trading partner and top purchaser of Canadian goods, but Trump has repeatedly called the relationship ‘unfair.’ 

In 2023, the U.S. imported some $443 billion worth of goods, accounting for 72% of all Canadian exports, while Canada imported $317 billion U.S. goods, accounting for 49% of Ottawa’s total imports.

In response, Trump slapped Ottawa with a blanket 25% tariff on all Canadian imports in a move to dissuade American consumers from purchasing Canadian goods, with the exception of energy imports, which saw a 10% tariff. 

Additionally, Trump announced a 25% tariff on all imported vehicles and parts, which will also drastically affect Canada as automobiles are a chief export item to the U.S. 

Conservatives are reeling after Trump-appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined liberal justices, dissenting in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision to allow President Donald Trump’s administration to deport Venezuelan nationals under the 1789 Alien Enemies Act. 

Republicans have celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling that allows the Trump administration under the wartime immigration law to deport Venezuelan nationals, whom the White House maintains are Tren de Aragua gang members and terrorists. Since the ruling, conservatives have flooded social media with discontent at Barrett for siding with Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent. 

‘This is disappointing,’ Trump ally Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said on his personal X account, reacting to Barrett joining the three liberal justices in ruling against Trump’s deportations. 

Responding to Lee’s disappointment, Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk piled on the Barrett critique in an X post: ‘Suicidal empathy is a civilizational risk.’

‘While this Supreme Court victory for Trump allowing him to deport cartels is huge, it was only a 5-4 decision. Guess who joined the 3 liberal Justices to keep cartels here in America? Amy Coney Barrett,’ conservative influencer Rogan O’Handley, known as DC Draino on X, said in a post. 

LindellTV White House reporter Cara Castronuova asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about Barrett’s ‘decision to go with the liberals, and to go actually with the Tren de Araguas’ during Tuesday’s White House press briefing. Leavitt did not address Barrett’s vote directly but said the administration wished it was a unanimous decision. 

‘We believe this was a massive victory,’ Leavitt replied. ‘Certainly, we wish this was a 9-0 decision because we firmly believe the president was well within his constitutional authority and the Supreme Court made that very clear last night.’

Barrett is no stranger to the ire of Republicans, particularly Trump’s most loyal base, as this isn’t the first time she’s bucked her conservative justices since joining the majority on the nation’s highest court. She delivered a sharp dissent against a 6-3 ruling in 2024 that said the Justice Department went too far in charging Jan. 6 rioters at the U.S. Capitol with obstruction.

The Supreme Court on Monday granted Trump’s request to vacate a lower court’s ruling that barred the Trump administration from invoking the 1789 Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan nationals from the United States. The act allows the United States to remove ‘dangerous’ immigrants during times of war. At least 261 migrants were deported last month, including more than 100 Venezuelans specifically under the 1789 law. 

The Supreme Court did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by deadline. 

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.

Sen. Adam Schiff fired back late Tuesday after President Donald Trump mocked the California Democrat during a black-tie Republican dinner in Washington, D.C.

‘The President of the United States seems oddly focused on me,’ Schiff posted after footage of Trump’s jokes made the rounds.

‘Shouldn’t he be focused on the economy he’s crashing?’ he wrote.

During the event hosted by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) – the House Republicans’ campaign arm – Trump wove in a few insults about the Boston-born Angeleno’s appearance into a verbal indictment of his role in the 2016 Russia collusion investigation.

‘Adam ‘Schifty’ Schiff – can you believe this guy?’ Trump said. ‘He’s got the smallest neck I’ve ever seen – and the biggest head: We call him Watermelon-Head.’ Trump went on to ruminate about how Schiff’s ‘big fat face’ could ‘stand on a neck’ the size of the president’s finger. 

‘It’s the weirdest thing – it’s a mystery; no one can understand it.’

Trump went on to call Schiff ‘one of the most dishonest human beings I’ve ever seen,’ and wondered aloud how people like Schiff could be able to run for office.

‘He was in charge of the fake witch hunt – with ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ – it was a made-up story,’ he said, playing off the ‘Brady Bunch’ line ‘Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.’

In 2020, Schiff managed the House’s impeachment probe into Trump, leading off his opening remarks that January by comparing former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton’s 1792 warning to then-President George Washington about future American leaders who would rise to the executive ‘despotic in [their] ordinary demeanor.’

‘When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits… known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the nonsense of the zealots of the day—It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind,’ Schiff said at the time.

Since then, he and Trump have often traded criticisms, with Trump also referring to him in the past as a ‘structural marvel,’ with an appearance like a ‘finger on a basketball.’

In October, Trump compared Schiff to the ‘enemy from within’ and called him a ‘sleazebag’ on FOX Business before lamenting that the Democrat would likely defeat former MLB star Steve Garvey for California’s open U.S. Senate seat.

For his part, Schiff has also clapped back at Republicans for their criticisms – responding in July to a report that now-Vice President JD Vance had lamented campaign name-calling after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called the GOP ticket ‘weird.’

‘Shifty Schiff, pencil neck and watermelon head, would like a word, JD,’ Schiff responded at the time on Facebook.

Fox News Digital reached out to Schiff for additional comment but did not immediately hear back.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris engaged in a ‘dark-arts operation’ to undercut other potential running mates for former President Joe Biden in the 2020 election, according to a new book. 

The book, ‘Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,’ published April 1 by William Morrow and Company, claims that Harris spread unfavorable information about other possible vice presidential picks for Biden. 

‘In 2020, when she beat out a crowded field to join Biden’s ticket, Harris advisers ran a dark-arts operation to undermine the competition, circulating negative information on her rivals,’ write political journalists Jonathan Allen of NBC News and Amie Parnes of The Hill.

Specifically, the book singled out Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. 

‘‘We stabbed Karen Bass a little bit. We stabbed Susan Rice a little bit. We stabbed Stacey Abrams a little bit,’ one adviser said of the effort four years earlier. ‘We stabbed Gretchen Whitmer.’’

The book did not delve into the specifics Harris took to undercut her opponents as they all vied for the vice presidential nomination. 

But any steps Harris took to undermine those women didn’t damage their relationships enough to stop them from backing her in the 2024 election. 

Bass endorsed Harris, and both Whitmer and Abrams appeared at Harris campaign events in 2024. Additionally, Rice also defended Harris in July after Rep. Ted Burchett, R-Tenn., described Harris as a ‘DEI hire.’ Rice described the comment as ‘incredibly insulting,’ in an interview with CNN. 

Harris, who previously served as a senator from California, has signed with CAA Speakers, which represents high-profile celebrities. CAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

‘Fight’ chronicles how President Donald Trump secured the White House for a second term. Allen and Parnes conducted interviews with more than 150 political insiders for the book, according to the book’s description.

The book also details how former President Barack Obama remained wary of supporting Harris in the 2024 election to replace Biden, amid concerns about his mental fitness. Likewise, the book shares that Obama doubted Biden’s political abilities as the race dragged on. 

China’s innovation in artificial intelligence is ‘accelerating,’ Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, told Fox News Digital – but he maintained that the United States remains the world’s dominant power in AI and the Trump administration’s ‘promote and protect’ strategy will solidify that standing. 

Kratsios, who served as chief technology officer during the first Trump administration, sat for an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital on Monday.

‘The White House in the first Trump administration redefined national tech policy to focus on American leadership in emerging technologies, and those were technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing and 5G, [which] were big back then,’ Kratsios said. ‘The president, at that time, signed the executive order prioritizing U.S. leadership in AI, back in 2019 when people weren’t even talking about it.’

‘He recognized that it was critical for the U.S. to lead in AI,’ Kratsios said. ‘We got the ball rolling on what the U.S. national strategy is and how we would win.’ 

During his first administration, Trump signed the first-ever executive order on AI in 2019. He also took executive action in 2020 to establish the first-ever guidance for federal agency adoption of AI to deliver services to the American people and ‘foster public trust’ in the technology. 

But Kratsios said that when former President Joe Biden took office, the attitude of his administration toward AI shifted to ‘one of fear and one of over-regulation.’ 

‘There was a fixation on what I would call harms, so, spending time and energy thinking about all the things that could go wrong with this technology, versus having a balanced approach, where you try to minimize things that could go poorly, and more importantly, look at ways this technology can transform America for the better,’ Kratsios explained, noting that Biden officials were ‘harms focused,’ which he said was ‘manifested in a lot of the policies that they did, in the way that they were very reticent to applying some of this technology to a lot of the issues that government faced, like how you make agencies more efficient.’ 

Kratsios reflected on Trump’s AI message during the campaign, saying he ‘made it very clear that we as a country need to win and be dominant in artificial intelligence.’ 

‘And he acted very decisively,’ Kratsios said, pointing to Trump’s move on his third day in office to direct him and other officials to develop an AI action plan. 

‘It was a way to review everything that had been done under the Biden administration and turn the page with an agenda that’s focused on sustaining and ensuring continued U.S. leadership in this particular technology, and that’s what we’ve been working on,’ Kratsios said. 

Kratsios explained that the U.S. is ‘the leader’ in AI, specifically when it comes to the ‘three layers of technology,’ which he said are chips or high-end semiconductors, the model itself and the application layer. 

‘If you look at all three of those layers, the U.S. is the leader,’ Kratsios said. ‘We have the best chips. We have the best models. And we have the best applications to date.’ 

But he warned that the Trump administration is ‘seeing the velocity of innovation’ from China.

‘We’re seeing the speed at which the PRC is catching up with us is actually accelerating,’ he explained. 

Kratsios referenced DeepSeek, which was released by a Chinese firm earlier in 2025 and develops large language models.

‘I think what DeepSeek revealed is that the Chinese continue to make progress and are trying really hard to catch up with us on those three layers,’ Kratsios said. 

But the key to maintaining U.S. dominance in the space is the Trump administration’s ‘promote and protect’ strategy, Kratsios explained. 

Kratsios said the Trump administration will ‘promote’ by continuing to accelerate the development of technology and encouraging more Americans, American companies and countries around the world to use that technology. 

‘And then on the protect side, what is it that the U.S. has which could be useful to the PRC to accelerate their efforts in AI? We protect that technology from access by the Chinese,’ Kratsios said, pointing to high-end semiconductors and chips that the Chinese ‘shouldn’t have access to, because that would make it easier for them to accelerate their efforts.’ 

‘How do we speed up innovation here at home and slow down our adversaries?’ Kratsios said. 

The answer, Kratsios said, is AI research and development that continues to drive innovation. He also said the Trump administration needs to continue to remove regulations and barriers to AI innovation, and also prepare and train Americans in the workforce to ‘better leverage this technology.’ 

Kratsios said another step is ensuring that foreign allies partner with the U.S. to ‘make sure that they are also keeping the PRC at bay and that they continue to use the American AI stack.’ 

‘So, if you’re any country in the world that wants to use AI, you’d want to use an American stack,’ he explained. ‘So we should make it as easy as possible in order for us to export our technology to like-minded partners.’ 

As for China, Kratsios said the PRC ‘is probably one of the most sophisticated surveillance states in the world, and that is underpinned by their own artificial intelligence technology.’ 

‘I think the goal of the United States should be to continue to be the dominant power in AI. And there are certain inputs to the development of AI which we can control, and which we would not want the PRC to have access to,’ he said. ‘And the most important pieces are sort of these very high-end chips that they can use to train models, and also certain equipment that would allow them to build their own very high-end chips.’ 

He added: ‘And if we can kind of continue to make it challenging for them to do that. I think it’ll be the benefit of the U.S.’ 

Looking ahead, Kratsios echoed the president, saying the U.S. is in the ‘golden age’ and that this special moment in time is ‘underpinned by unbelievable science and technology.’ 

‘We want to put an American flag on Mars,’ Kratsios said. ‘We want to fly supersonic again. We want drones to be delivering packages around the world. We want AI to be used by American workers to allow them to do their jobs better, safer and faster.’ 

He added: ‘We have an opportunity to all these things, like so much more, in these four years. And this office is going to be the home for driving that innovation across so many technological domains.’ 

Biden administration State Department officials held private talks with Beijing counterparts about the Chinese spy balloon that intercepted U.S. airspace in 2023, and discussed the implications the balloon’s publicity would have on the relationship between the U.S. and China, according to Trump administration officials. 

U.S. officials identified the spy balloon infiltrating U.S. airspace on Jan. 28, 2023, and an Air Force fighter jet shot down the Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina Feb. 4, 2023, two days after the Pentagon issued a statement on the matter.  

Biden officials held discussions with Beijing Feb. 1, 2023, about the balloon, and discussed the impact disclosing the balloon to the public could have on the relationship with China, internal State Department documents show, two Trump administration officials told Fox News Digital.  

An internal State Department readout of the talks between Blinken and a top Chinese diplomat said Blinken stated that if the presence of the balloon were revealed publicly, it could have ‘profound implications for our relationship’ with China, particularly amid efforts to stabilize the bilateral relationship with Beijing, two Trump administration officials familiar with the documents told Fox News Digital. 

The readout said that the incident could also have complicated Blinken’s travel plans to China in early February 2023, if not quickly resolved. Blinken ultimately postponed the trip until June 2023. 

A former Biden administration official told Fox News Digital that the State Department summoned senior Chinese diplomat Zhu Haiquan Feb. 1, 2023, so that the U.S. could notify China to remove the balloon, and issue a warning that the U.S. could take action to eliminate the balloon. 

‘Former Secretary Blinken advocated strongly to tell the American people about China’s rogue balloon, which is exactly what happened,’ a spokesperson for the former secretary of state said in a Tuesday statement to Fox News Digital. ‘He has a long history of being tough on China while actually delivering results.’

Likewise, another senior State Department official also held private talks on Feb. 1, 2023, with Chinese counterparts. A readout from that discussion says that the official claimed the longer it took to mitigate the issuewould only increase the likelihood that news of the balloon would become public, posing greater challenges managing the situation, the Trump administration officials said. 

Ultimately, the Pentagon issued a statement Feb. 2, 2023, claiming that the U.S. government had detected a ‘high-altitude surveillance balloon.’ 

While then-White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden received a briefing on the balloon on Jan. 31, 2023, she did not provide details regarding why his administration didn’t issue a statement on the matter until Feb. 2, 2023. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, then a U.S. senator from Florida, repeatedly criticized the Biden administration for how it handled disclosing information to the public about the balloon — and how long it took the administration to shoot it down. 

Biden’s failure to address the situation sooner was the ‘beginning of dereliction of duty,’ Rubio said during an appearance on CNN with Jake Tapper. 

‘Why didn’t the president go on television?’ Rubio told Tapper. ‘He has the ability to convene the country in cameras and basically explain what we’re dealing with here.’ 

On Feb. 4, 2023, an Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter jet from Virginia’s Langley Air Force Base shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. 

At the time, the Pentagon said that while the balloon was not a military or physical threat, its presence in U.S. airspace did violate U.S. sovereignty. The Pentagon also shut down China’s initial claims that the balloon was a weather balloon blown off course and labeled such statements false. 

‘This was a PRC surveillance balloon,’ a senior defense official told reporters at the time. ‘This surveillance balloon purposely traversed the United States and Canada, and we are confident it was seeking to monitor sensitive military sites.’

The Pentagon also said after shooting down the balloon that similar balloons from China transited continental U.S. airspace in at least three instances during Trump’s first administration. 

Additionally, Biden ‘gave his authorization to take down the Chinese surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to us civilians under the balloon’s path,’ the senior defense official said, noting that there was concern debris could harm civilians. 

The Pentagon later said in June 2023 that it did not believe that the balloon gathered information as it traveled across the U.S.

Blinken is now a speaker with CAA Speakers, which represents high-profile celebrities.

A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital. 

House Republicans are divided over how to proceed on a massive piece of legislation aimed at advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda as a possible vote on the measure looms Wednesday afternoon.

The House Rules Committee, the final gatekeeper for legislation before a chamber-wide vote, is expected to consider the measure on Wednesday morning beginning at 8:45 a.m. ET.

Fiscal hawks are rebelling against GOP leaders over plans to pass the Senate’s version of a sweeping framework that sets the stage for a Trump policy overhaul on the border, energy, defense and taxes.

Their main concern has been the difference between the Senate and House’s required spending cuts, which conservatives want to offset the cost of the new policies and as an attempt to reduce the national deficit. The Senate’s plan calls for a minimum of $4 billion in cuts, while the House’s floor is much higher at $1.5 trillion.

Trump himself worked to sway critics twice on Tuesday – first with a smaller group of House GOP holdouts at the White House, then in a more public message during House Republicans’ campaign arm’s national fundraising dinner.

‘Close your eyes and get there. It’s a phenomenal bill. Stop grandstanding,’ the president said at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) event.

But it’s still unclear how many people that swayed.

‘The problem is, I think a lot of people don’t trust the Senate and what their intentions are, and that they’ll mislead the president and that we won’t get done what we need to get done,’ Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., told reporters on Tuesday. ‘I’m a ‘no’ until we figure out how to get enough votes to pass it.’

McCormick said there were as many as 40 GOP lawmakers who were undecided or opposed to the measure.

A meeting with a select group of holdouts at the White House on Tuesday appeared to budge a few people, but many conservatives signaled they were largely unmoved.

‘I wouldn’t put it on the floor,’ Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told reporters after the White House meeting. ‘I’ve got a bill in front of me, and it’s a budget, and that budget, in my opinion, will increase the deficit, and I didn’t come here to do that.’

Senate GOP leaders praised the bill as a victory for Trump’s agenda when it passed the upper chamber in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Trump urged all House Republicans to support it in a Truth Social post on Monday evening.

Meanwhile, House Republican leaders like Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have appealed to conservatives by arguing that passing the Senate version does not in any way impede the House from moving ahead with its steeper cuts.

The House passed its framework in late February.

Congressional Republicans are working on a massive piece of legislation that Trump has dubbed ‘one big, beautiful bill’ to advance his agenda on border security, defense, energy and taxes.

Such a measure is largely only possible via the budget reconciliation process. Traditionally used when one party controls all three branches of government, reconciliation lowers the Senate’s threshold for passage of certain fiscal measures from 60 votes to 51. As a result, it has been used to pass broad policy changes in one or two massive pieces of legislation.

Passing frameworks in the House and Senate, which largely only include numbers indicating increases or decreases in funding, allows each chamber’s committees to then craft policy in line with those numbers under their specific jurisdictions. 

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have pushed for Johnson to allow the House GOP to simply begin crafting its bill without passing the Senate version, though both chambers will need to eventually pass identical bills to send to Trump’s desk.

‘Trump wants to reduce the interest rates. Trump wants to lower the deficits. The only way to accomplish those is to reduce spending. And $4 billion is not – that’s … anemic. That is really a joke,’ Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told reporters.

He said ‘there’s no way’ the legislation would pass the House this week.

The legislation could still get a House-wide vote late on Wednesday if the House Rules Committee advances the bill Wednesday morning.

As for the House speaker, he was optimistic returning from the White House meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

‘Great meeting. The president was very helpful and engaged, and we had a lot of members whose questions were answered,’ Johnson told reporters. ‘I think we’ll be moving forward this week.’

Fox News’ Ryan Schmelz and Aishah Hasnie contributed to this report.