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Bessent says he's 'confident' that Warsh will be confirmed by Senate
Scott Bessent said that he was “confident” that Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, would survive his confirmation hearing next week. This comes after Trump’s comments to Fox News that he would fire Jerome Powell at the end of the month if the Senate was unable to confirm Warsh to lead the central bank.
Bessent said that Republicans on the Senate banking committee are “aligned” on Warsh’s candidacy. However, one of the deciding votes – outgoing GOP senator Thom Tillis – has said he will not confirm any nominee until the federal investigation into Powell is dropped.
Powell’s term ends on 15 May, and if there is no confirmed successor, the president has vowed to oust the incumbent amid a probe into Powell’s handing of Federal Reserve renovations.
Bessent, however, maintained his conviction that there would be no showdown. “I am very optimistic that the Kevin Warsh will be the chair of the Fed on time,” he told reporters at the White House.
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Lucy Campbell
Bessent was asked about gas prices in today’s briefing, namely when the US will get to $3 gas. The treasury secretary said that this will depend on “how the negotiations go [with Iran]”.
The US kept its side of the ceasefire, he says, but the strait of Hormuz has not been reopened.
“So we will see, and I’m optimistic that during the summer we will see gas with a 3 right in front of it, sooner rather than later,” he says.
Bessent adds that he’s been meeting with his Middle Eastern counterparts, who say that “once the strait is open they can start pumping again within one week”.
Pressed on whether this can be achieved by the summer, Bessent says:
I am optimistic that sometime between June 20 and September 20, we can have $3 gas again.
Responding to a question from far-right commentator Jack Posobiec, the press secretary said that the rape and sexual misconduct allegations against former congressman Eric Swalwell are “despicable and disgusting”.
She added that it’s “plausible” there are “many other Democrats” in Washington who knew about Swalwell’s “perhaps illegal behavior”.
Scott Bessent said that “over six million filers have claimed no tax on tips with an average deduction of $7,100” while “over 25 million filers have claimed no tax on overtime with an average deduction of $3,100”.
The treasury secretary added that the average refund this year will be $3,400.
As Karoline Leavitt begins her briefing, she extols the larger tax refunds that Americans can expect this year.
“What the American people must not forget is that every single Democrat in Congress voted against these tax refunds. The media has largely omitted this fact and other critical details in their stories covering the benefits of the Trump tax cuts,” the press secretary said.
However, as my colleague Anna Betts reports, while some taxpayers are receiving larger refunds this year, due to 2025 changes enacted by Republicans, this comes alongside rising living costs.
The most recent data has shown that US inflation surged in March, with prices up 0.9% compared with last month and 3.3% over the year, amid the US-Israel war with Iran. And the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence survey, also released last week, recorded a 10.7% drop to its lowest level on record.
Treasury secretary to deliver remarks at White House briefing
In a short while, we’ll hear from Karoline Leavitt, who will hold a White House press briefing. She’ll be joined by the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent and head of the Small Business Administration, Kelly Loefller.
We’ll bring you the latest lines as things get under way.
Earlier, I reported that the House was planning to vote on a bill to extend a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa), – which allows intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign nationals outside the US without the need for warrants or court orders. However, the lower chamber has postponed the vote amid pushback from several Republican representatives, who are clamoring for greater Fisa reforms.
Earlier, Trump urged GOP members of Congress to pass a “clean” extension of section 702, which is set to expire next week. The president previously lambasted the bill, calling it an afront to civil liberties and has claimed that its been weaponized against him. However, the ongoing war on Iran appears to have shifted Trump’s view. “I am willing to risk the giving up of my Rights and Privileges as a Citizen for our Great Military and Country!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Donald Trump said today that Hungary’s prime minister-elect, Peter Magyar, who defeated nationalist and key Trump ally Viktor Orbán, was “going to do a good job”.
Orbán, who maintained close ties to Moscow, was ousted in Sunday’s ballot after 16 years in power as voters handed a decisive victory to Magyar’s Tisza party with a record turnout.
“I think the new man’s going to do a good job – he’s a good man,” Trump told ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl, who posted the remarks on X.
Noting that Magyar was formerly a member of Orbán’s party and had similar views on immigration, Trump was quoted as saying: “I think he’s going to be good.”
Magyar for his part said he was heartened by the fact that Trump spoke about him “in very friendly terms”.
JD Vance visited Budapest last week to rally with Orbán, and hailed the 62-year-old as a “model” for Europe.
Trump reportedly said he did not know if it would have made a difference if he had personally gone to Hungary to campaign for Orbán.
“He was behind substantially,” Trump told Karl. “I wasn’t that involved in this one. Viktor’s a good man, though.”
Orbán’s defeat is a major blow to global nationalists and so-called strongman politics, signaling the waning allure of the Trumpism movement in Europe and raising questions about whether proximity to the US president could be a political liability.
The US vice-president said on Monday he was “sad” about Orban’s loss but promised Washington would work with Magyar.
The House speaker, Mike Johnson, has said he “does not want to engage in a theological debate with the pope”, amid the Trump administration’s public feud with the first American pontiff, who has become an outspoken critic of the US president’s war on Iran.
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Johnson said:
I’m not one to criticize clerics and religious leaders. We defend free speech, and we certainly defend the right the free exercise of religion.
A pontiff or any religious leader can say anything they want, but obviously, if you wade into political waters, I think you should expect some political response, and I think the pope’s received some of that.
As we reported earlier, JD Vance issued a back-handed comment to Pope Leo XIV, telling a Turning Point USA event in Georgia that the pope should “be careful” when talking about matters of theology.
Johnson, for his part, said:
I don’t want to engage in a theological debate with the pope. I certainly respect the pope. I would just say that these are matters that people of good faith and good sense can debate and think through. And I think that’s what that reflects.
Last week, without naming the president, the pope said a “delusion of omnipotence” was fuelling the war in Iran.
Donald Trump has lashed out on several occasions, calling the leader of the Catholic church “weak on crime” and saying that he was catering to “radical left lunatics”. The vice-president also chimed in earlier this week, and urged Leo to “stick to matters of morality” in an interview with Fox News.
Lisa O’Carroll
Donald Trump’s counter-blockade of the strait of Hormuz has “reversed” a gradual increase in ships getting through the choke point since the US launched its war with Iran in late February.
Data from AXSMarine said that an average of five vessels per day crossing in most of Marchrose to 10 at the end of the month and into early April “before any ceasefire was announced, suggesting traffic was already beginning to recover”.
“The early-April ceasefire added modest momentum, with crossings peaking at 17 on 12 April. However, within 24 hours of the counter-blockade enforcement, daily crossings fell back to single digits.
“As of 15 April, 949 merchant vessels are tracked west of Hormuz inside the Gulf, with 307 operating without automatic identity signals (AIS). This puts the AIS-dark rate at 32%, more than double the pre-conflict baseline of 17%,” it said in its latest report on strait traffic.
Thune pushes reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement
John Thune, the Senate majority leader, is preparing to bring a budget bill to fund federal immigration enforcement until the end of Donald Trump’s term. This comes as a funding bill to fund the entire Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remains stalled in Congress.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have largely been protected from the record-breaking partial shutdown that’s affected the wider department, thanks to the billions of dollars they received through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed into law last year.
Now, Thune is hoping to pass a “narrow” bill to ensure ICE and CBP are protected from any further funding standoffs down the line. However, the top Senate Republican is set to face pushback from GOP lawmakers in both chambers, who argue that they should use a reconciliation bill, which only requires a simple majority to advance, to include more priorities ahead of the midterm elections. Thune, for his part, maintains that keeping the legislation limited is a better strategy.
Trump shares altered image of Jesus embracing him
On Truth Social, the president leaned into controversy and shared another altered image. However, this time it was an image that depicts Jesus Christ embracing the president.
“The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this, but I think it is quite nice!!!” he wrote.
This comes after Trump received immense pushback from conservative Christian supporters and allies this week for sharing an AI-generated image of himself as a Christ-like figure. The president later deleted the post and claimed that he thought it pictured him as a doctor, healing the sick.
Several shots lost their recommendation from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after a judge’s stay against changes made by the Trump administration – which may affect access to the shots in some states. And no new vaccine recommendations may be made as long as the vaccines committee is halted.
Access to existing vaccines – and the future development of new vaccines – has been increasingly called into question under the second Trump administration, as the now-halted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) made controversial recommendations and health officials made unilateral changes to routine vaccines, with long-term and global implications.
Recommendations for the current annual flu and Covid shots no longer exist, and the recommendation for a new shot to protect babies against RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) is also on hold. It’s not clear if new shots will be recommended in coming months, even in anticipation of respiratory virus spikes.
“We could see delays in updates of vaccines,” said Jen Kates, senior vice-president and director of the Global and Public Health Policy Program at KFF, a health policy non-profit. “We’re going into some pretty uncharted territory.”
America’s vaccines landscape has been thrown into greater tumult after a judge essentially overturned all decisions made by the vaccine advisers, who were hand-picked by Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and a longtime vaccine opponent.
Read the full report:
Vought budget hearing on Capitol Hill interrupted by protesters
On Capitol Hill, Russell Vought, who serves as Donald Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is answering questions from lawmakers about the White House’s latest budget request to Congress for 2027. A reminder, this proposal includes an historic ask for $1.5tn in defense spending, an increase of more than $440bn from last year’s blueprint.
As Vought began speaking, he was interrupted by a number of protesters, who appeared to be HIV activists, over the reports that the administration has withheld congressionally appropriated funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Controversial FISA resolution heads to House floor
Today, House speaker Mike Johnson will attempt to pass an extension of a key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Section 702 of the law authorizes intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign nationals outside the US, without the need for warrants or court orders.
Johnson has faced consternation from Democrats, but also from members of his own party, who argue that extending 702 would be a threat to Americans’ privacy.
On Wednesday, Donald Trump weighed in, and repeated calls for GOP lawmakers to “unify” and pass an extension. The president previously suggested attaching his restrictive voter ID bill, the Save America act, to the bill in order to satisfy conservative holdouts, who appeared unwilling to move forward without reforms.
However, Trump is now urging the Republican conference to keep things simple and “stick together” to pass a “clean bill”.
The Office of the Director of Intelligence maintains that the information collected under 702, allows the government to protect the US and allies from “hostile foreign adversaries, including terrorists, proliferators, and spies, and to inform cybersecurity efforts”.
Trump says China is ‘very happy’ he is permanently opening strait of Hormuz
Donald Trump said that China and the United States are working together, and that Beijing is “very happy” that the US president is opening the strait of Hormuz.
“I am doing it for [China], also,” Trump said on Truth Social. “This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran.”
Trump predicted that Xi Jinping will give him a “big, fat, hug,” when he travels to China next month for his postponed trip. “We are working together smartly, and very well!” the president added.
Trump threatens to fire Powell if he doesn’t leave at end of his term
Donald Trump has threatened to fire Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, if he doesn’t step down at the end of his term next month.
Trump has nominated financial executive Kevin Warsh to lead the central bank. Warsh will face Senate lawmakers in a confirmation hearing next week.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump said he would remove the Powell if Warsh was ultimately not confirmed by 15 May, the end of Powell’s term. It is possible for the incumbent Federal Reserve chair to stay in the position while lawmakers confirm a permanent replacement.
Warsh’s nomination faces a hurdle, given that Senator Thom Tillis, a deciding Republican vote on the banking committee, has vowed to withhold his support for any nomination to lead the central bank as long as the Trump administration continues to investigate Powell for alleged mismanagement of the Federal Reserve renovations.
Tillis has branded the president’s efforts to punish Powell as political retribution for the Fed chair’s unwillingness to cut interest rates at Trump’s command.
On Fox News, Trump said the investiation into Powell is “more than a criminal probe”, but also about “incompetence”.
A reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest developments out of the Middle East, including Iran’s threats to shipping beyond the strait of Hormuz, if the US naval blockade of Iranian ports continues.
This comes after Donald Trump told Fox News that the war on Iran is “very close to over”, and hinted at another round of peace talks in Pakistan in the coming days.
