China’s innovation in artificial intelligence is ‘accelerating,’ according to Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology. He told Fox News Digital that the United States’ ‘promote and protect’ strategy will solidify its standing as the world’s dominant power in AI.

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.’ 

A former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) senior staffer is speaking out about problems at the agency under the Biden administration, including diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and failures to combat China flooding the U.S. market with illicit vapes after the FDA’s top tobacco official was removed from his position. 

I think many of us had been anticipating it for quite some time, we knew that change was drastically needed at FDA when it came to tobacco control, because tobacco control had really gotten out of control,’ David Oliveira, who recently left the FDA after six years, said in response to FDA chief tobacco regulator Brian King being removed from his post earlier this month. 

‘There were many, many failures in the key core missions for the center that needed dramatic change in new leadership. Many of us, whether it be from public health, consumers, small business owners, industry, including even Senator Dick Durbin, who last year at a hearing said to Brian King, ‘It looks to me like you have fallen down on the job.’ So really it runs the spectrum with the people that are unhappy with what’s gone on recently with the FDA in terms of tobacco regulation.’

One of the most prominent missteps at the FDA over the past few years, according to Oliveira, was the influx of illicit Chinese vapes into the U.S. market, which he says made him feel like a ‘canary in a coal mine’ as he warned about the potential dangers and little was done. 

Although the rate of youths smoking cigarettes is now at an all-time low, according to the CDC, youth use of Chinese vapes has increased dramatically since 2020, as China has become the world’s leading producer of e-cigarettes, often promoting illicit vapes with flavors appealing to children. 

Sales of unauthorized, flavored disposable vapes in the United States amounted to around $2.4 billion in 2024, or 35% of the e-cigarettes from outlets such as convenience stores and supermarkets, Reuters reported.

That compares to sales worth $3.2 billion in 2023 and $2.8 billion in 2022, the data, which comes from market research firm Circana, shows. 

We have set up a regulated system, which most of the American players have said, okay, these are the rules of the road, we will obey them, we will comply, and we expect, we hope that our products will be authorized,’ Oliveira explained. ‘The Chinese have said, well, forget that. There’s huge consumer demand for these products for billions of dollars, and we will shamelessly, recklessly, irresponsibly market these products, dump them on our shores because they know there’s billions of dollars to be had. And then, unfortunately, the FDA was ill-equipped, ill-prepared. Didn’t have the skill to go after and shut that down. And now we have an industry that’s absolutely out of control with these products.’

Oliveira told Fox News Digital that the agency has been delegating too much power to other departments like Border Patrol and Department of Justice rather than using the authority it has to crack down with boots on the ground against China’s market flooding, adding that a ‘lack of focus’ and ‘cavalier attitude’ has left the U.S. behind the 8-ball. 

Oliveira says that the FDA approves or authorizes only about two products a year, which has allowed China to dominate the market. 

Under King, the FDA rejected applications for millions of flavored e-cigarettes, citing insufficient data that the products would help adult smokers. Those rejections have resulted in multiple lawsuits against the FDA from vape makers, including one that was argued before the Supreme Court in December.

Another issue under King, Oliveira explained, was that DEI became a prominent focus that ultimately led to less focus on getting the job in front of them done correctly.

I think we saw a lot more of that once Brian King came in and the fact of the matter is his version of DEI was some of the things that many people don’t find appealing,’ Oliveira said. ‘The idea of virtue signaling or doing it just to be able to wear it on your sleeve and talk about it. So you just do things around the edges like, oh, let’s change and stop using the word grandfathered because of the historical overtones and origins of that term. And then let’s have everyone put their pronouns in their email.’

The FDA recently removed DEI materials from its website amid President Donald Trump signing executive orders to rid the practice from the federal government and instead focus on meritocracy. Oliveira told Fox News Digital that DEI was a distraction from the mission at the FDA. 

‘I think it made some people uncomfortable just because of the focus on it when we knew that our work was so critical to helping people live healthier lives, that there was so much work to be done, that we were behind the 8-ball because of all the mistakes and because of this very fast-moving industry that government will always struggle to keep up with the technology. There was much work to be done. There was so more that we could have been doing that we weren’t doing. So anytime you have anything that you feel like takes your eye off the ball a little bit, that can be frustrating in the workplace for sure.’

Oliveira also told Fox News Digital that the FDA under King in the Biden years was beholden to the ‘crusade’ against menthol cigarettes, led by prominent voices like billionaire Michael Bloomberg, which he says was based more on a ‘paternalistic’ attitude toward the Black community than it was about making a positive difference. 

In recent years, the FDA’s tobacco center has been besieged by criticism from all sides.

Politicians, parents and anti-tobacco groups want the FDA to do more to stamp out unauthorized vaping products that can appeal to teens, many of which are imported from China. Tobacco and vaping companies say the FDA has been too slow to approve newer products for adult smokers — including e-cigarettes — that generally carry much lower risks than traditional cigarettes.

‘King’s crusade against vaping was public health sabotage, fueled by half-truths and a vendetta against flavors that saved lives,’  Jim McCarthy, spokesman for American Vapor Manufacturers, the leading trade association for the independent vape industry which penned a recent scathing op-ed against King, told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

‘He crushed small American businesses, sparked black markets, and ushered in hundreds of new combustible cigarette products. It was a masterclass in hypocrisy: he preached health equity while his policies ravaged marginalized communities by stripping them of safer alternatives to smoking. And while tobacco companies thrived, he sneered at the powerless and never found the simple integrity to tell Americans the truth that vaping is the most effective way to quit smoking and is vastly safer than cigarettes.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the FDA and King for comment. 

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump wants to make the U.S. the ‘crypto capital of the world,’ and a top White House cryptocurrency policy official said that the administration is well on its way to ushering in ‘the golden age for digital assets.’ 

Bo Hines, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, sat for an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital this week to outline the Trump administration’s work thus far in the cryptocurrency space.

Cryptocurrency, or ‘crypto’ for short, is a digital currency in which transactions are verified and records maintained by a decentralized system using cryptography that enables secure online payments for individuals or businesses.

‘The president has made this a priority, and it is a testament to his leadership and his knowledge in the space,’ Hines explained. ‘Unlike any president before him, he has truly embraced this technological development in a way that no one else has, which has allowed us to do what we need to do to make the United States the crypto capital of the world.’ 

Hines told Fox News Digital that officials have focused on ‘clearing the deck’ and ensuring that ‘what was happening under the Biden regulatory regime has been rescinded and repealed.’ 

Under the Biden administration, Hines said Americans using cryptocurrency went ‘offshore due to the nature of attacks they specifically received under the Biden regime.’ 

‘We will start seeing a lot of those players come back to the United States in short order because, look, we are the greatest country in the world. People want to innovate here. People want to build here. And this space is no different,’ he said. ‘At the end of the day, the largest players to the smallest players want to be operating in the United States—they just need a clear set of rules to abide by to do so.’ 

Hines said that under the Biden administration, ‘rather than welcoming in innovation and encouraging technological developments, they went after these people.’ 

‘We’ve been in the demolition phase—removing a lot of those barriers that the Biden regime put up so that people can actually start building back here in the United States.’

‘My main message to players in the crypto space has been—welcome home,’ Hines said. ‘We are going to create the most pro-crypto-friendly regulatory environment that anyone could possibly imagine because we understand how important the innovation is here in this space.’ 

Hines explained that during the first week of the second Trump administration, the president set up the interagency working group—the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets—which includes officials from the Treasury Department, the SEC, CFTC, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and more. 

Trump’s executive order directed the working group to explore several digital asset-related issues, including looking into the ‘potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile’ and proposing ‘criteria for establishing such a stockpile, potentially derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the Federal Government through its law enforcement efforts.’

‘With this group and other White House offices, we are working on delivering on the president’s promise to clear the deck and have all of these burdens and regulations lifted,’ Hines said. 

The group is currently in the process of compiling recommendations and building a comprehensive report they will deliver to the president later this year. The report is designed to explain the ‘clearest regulatory environment possible’ in the space, and recommendations for how the U.S. maintains its role as ‘the dominant leader in the space across the globe.’ 

As for legislation, Hines pointed to the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or the STABLE Act. That legislation, which passed out of the House Financial Services Committee on a bipartisan vote, establishes framework for the issuance and operation of dollar-denominated payment stablecoins in the U.S. 

‘I think the Stable Coin legislation could be the first really, truly large and meaningful piece of legislation that the president signs in the first year of a second term,’ Hines said, noting it would ‘truly revolutionize the financial system for years to come.’ 

‘I think that Americans will see that once this legislation is through—once this regulatory framework is established—the way in which they move their money will be changed forever,’ Hines said. ‘You will see that Americans will have better access to quicker payments and better access to transparency.’ 

A Democrat on the House Oversight Committee accused the Trump administration of offloading federal real estate in a haphazard ‘fire sale’ as Republicans aim to cut wasteful government spending by selling unused or underutilized government buildings. 

Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., the ranking Democrat on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee, took issue with the Trump administration’s approach during a hearing on Tuesday on reducing the federal real estate portfolio.

‘The Trump administration is currently taking a fire sale approach of looting the federal government and stripping it for parts to pay for tax cuts that we know will come up in their reconciliation deal,’ the lawmaker said.

DOGE is working with the federal government’s General Services Administration (GSA) to ‘rightsize’ its portfolio and cut wasteful spending. GSA has produced the most savings across federal agencies, according to the official DOGE website.

The GSA’s cost-cutting efforts have already resulted in nearly 700 lease terminations, eliminating 7.9 million square feet of federal office space and saving taxpayers approximately $400 million, according to subcommittee chair Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

John Hart, CEO of Open the Books, testified that $1 billion could be saved on furniture alone by not renewing leases on government buildings that are set to expire in 2027.

David Marroni, director of physical infrastructure at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, testified that no government agency ‘had a great track record in terms of the utilization’ of their physical headquarters’ footprints.

Marroni said there could be substantial savings in reducing government workspaces.

‘It’s about $8 billion a year on owned and leased office space, so any reduction is going to generate a lot of money,’ he said.

Democrats at the hearing lobbed criticism at President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who is leading the DOGE effort, with Stansbury accusing DOGE of being ‘a front’ to support billionaires ‘who are trying to privatize public services.’ 

‘And just this week, we have seen, as Elon Musk is on his exit out of the federal government, he has secured billions of dollars in new contracts across the federal government. Conflict of interest? Yes, absolutely,’ Stansbury said.

The congresswoman claimed that Musk has secured contracts and promises for contracts at the Department of Defense and NASA, and is asking to install SpaceX’s Starlink Wi-Fi at federal agencies. Starlink, which is a subsidiary of Musk-owned SpaceX, was reportedly installed at the White House last month.

‘And we understand that there is the potential to potentially deploy his AI technology across the federal agencies to replace the tens of thousands of federal employees that have recently been illegally fired,’ Stansbury claimed.

As of Tuesday, DOGE claims on its site that it has saved Americans $140 billion, or about $870 per taxpayer.

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller and Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.

The Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency are set to announce a bevy of new actions Tuesday afternoon that will ‘unleash’ coal energy following President Donald Trump’s expected signature on an executive order reinvigorating ‘America’s beautiful clean coal industry,’ Fox News Digital learned. 

‘The American people need more energy, and the Department of Energy is helping to meet this demand by unleashing supply of affordable, reliable, secure energy sources — including coal,’ Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a Tuesday statement provided to Fox News Digital. 

‘Coal is essential for generating 24/7 electricity generation that powers American homes and businesses, but misguided policies from previous administrations have stifled this critical American industry,’ he said. ‘With President Trump’s leadership, we are cutting the red tape and bringing back common sense.’

Trump is expected to sign an executive order Tuesday afternoon that will cut through red tape surrounding the coal industry, including directing the National Energy Dominance Council to designate coal as a ‘mineral,’ end a current pause to coal leasing on federal lands, promote coal and coal technology exports, and encourage the use of coal to power artificial intelligence initiatives, Fox News Digital learned of the upcoming executive order. 

The Departments of Energy and the Interior and the EPA will take actions supporting the Trump executive order Tuesday, including the Interior ending the current moratorium on federal coal leasing and removing regulatory burdens for coal mines, a press release first obtained by Fox Digital shows. 

‘The Golden Age is here, and we are starting to ‘Mine, Baby, Mine’ for clean American coal,’Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. ‘Interior is unlocking America’s full potential in energy dominance and economic development to make life more affordable for every American family while showing the world the power of America’s natural resources and innovation.’ 

The Interior Department explained that by expanding acces to coal reserves and cutting through red tape surrounding the permitting process, ‘the administration is removing long-standing regulatory barriers that have undermined American coal production.’

‘These efforts support high-paying mining jobs and rural economies, while strengthening U.S. energy independence by reducing reliance on foreign energy sources,’ the press release stated. ‘Coal is a critical component of a secure, stable and diversified American energy portfolio.’ 

At the Department of Energy, Wright is expected to announce five initiatives to strengthen coal innovation and mineral independence, Fox Digital learned. The five actions include: Reinstating of the National Coal Council; facilitating new investment in coal-powered electricity generation; the designation of steelmaking coal as a critical material and mineral; deploying mineral extraction technology from coal ash; and commercializing coal ash conversion technologies. 

The National Coal Council is a 50-member federal advisory committee that was established in 1984, but saw its charter expire under the Biden administration in 2021. The council acted as a guide for the government while navigating coal technologies and markets. Once reinstated, the council will include coal producers, users, equipment suppliers, state and local officials, and other stakeholders, according to a Department of Energy press release first obtained by Fox News Digital Tuesday. 

The Energy Department’s Loan Program Office’s Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) Program will also make $200 billion in financing available for coal energy investments, such as upgrading energy infrastructure and building new facilities that utilize legacy energy infrastructure.

The Department of Energy also will work with the Interior Department to recommend that coal, in the context of steelmaking, be designated as critical material and a critical mineral in the 2025 Critical Materials Assessment. 

‘This strategic designation will help ensure the U.S. maintains a stable supply of steelmaking coal in the decades to come and underscores the vital role of steelmaking coal in bolstering national security and economic stability,’ the Energy Department explained of the initiative. 

The department is also expected to heighten its focus on coal ash, specifically employing its newly patented technology to extract critical minerals from coal ash, and commercializing the recovery of critical minerals from coal ash, which the Department of Energy said will reduce the U.S.’ reliance on China for such materials. 

‘The Energy Department is committed to restoring American energy dominance and strengthening America’s industrial base,’ the Department of Energy said of the initiative. ‘Secretary Wright will continue to work with all members of the National Energy Dominance Council to eliminate unnecessary regulatory burdens on coal and unleash American energy.’ 

While the EPA is set to announce that $5.8 million in State and Tribal Assistance Grants funds will be made available to provide grants assisting states in the implementation of EPA-approved state Coal Combustion Residual program, which comes after Zeldin’s EPA already has taken a handful of coal-related actions, such as reconsidering the Biden-era ‘Clean Power Plan 2.0.’ plan and revising coal regulations. 

‘President Trump is delivering on the mandate Americans gave him last November by empowering different forms of domestic energy to drive down costs, increase domestic energy supply, and improve our grid security as we pioneer the path to become the Artificial Intelligence capital of the world,’ EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in comment provided to Fox News Digital. 

‘The Obama and Biden administrations deliberately tried to regulate coal out of existence. Under my leadership, economic growth and environmental stewardship are not mutually exclusive choices. We are committed to supporting all forms of energy, including clean beautiful coal, and have already taken steps to bolster America’s energy dominance and make energy affordable again while ensuring we have the cleanest air, land and water on the planet,’ Zeldin added. 

Producing energy at home in the U.S. was a cornerstone of Trump’s campaign, with the then-candidate vowing that the U.S. would no longer rely on foreign nations for oil by reinvigorating the coal industry, and tapping oil in the U.S.

‘We will develop the liquid gold that is right under our feet, including American oil and natural gas and we will also embrace nuclear, clean coal, hydropower, which is fantastic, and every other form of affordable energy to get it done,’ Trump said in 2023. 

The Tuesday executive order is expected to build on Trump’s pledge to make the U.S. energy independent while also providing cheaper energy costs to Americans, and follows previous actions such as withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, terminating the liberal climate plan dubbed the Green New Deal in a January executive order, and reversing a pause on liquefied natural exports, a fact sheet on the upcoming executive order argued. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will be on Capitol Hill again on Wednesday to meet with a key Republican caucus, Fox News Digital has learned.

A source familiar with the planning told Fox News Digital that Bessent is among the speakers at the Republican Study Committee’s weekly lunch on Wednesday. Discussions are likely to focus on tariffs and the budget reconciliation process, the source anticipated. It comes as House Republicans wrestle with a way forward on both fronts.

On tariffs, some Republican lawmakers have said they would like more clarity from the White House on President Donald Trump’s plans – including whether his sweeping import taxes on friends and foes are a negotiation tactic or a matter of long-term policy.

One GOP lawmaker told Fox News Digital that Trump’s messaging has been ‘well-received’ but added, ‘It would be nice to have more information.’

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who is leading a bipartisan bill to retake Congress’ power on tariffs, told reporters on Tuesday, ‘I don’t like the thought of waging a trade war with the entire world, and that’s what we’re doing right now.’ 

‘I mean, I surely support tariffs on China. It’s not that I oppose all tariffs, I think there are some countries that would need it. But I question why on Canada,’ Bacon said.

Others, like Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., were more supportive – though he also signaled he saw it as more of a negotiating tool.

‘I believe in fair and free trade, I really do, but what we have right now is not fair, and it’s not free – we pay a disproportionate tax to other nations,’ Haridopolos told Fox News Digital. ‘Whatever you tax me, I’ll tax you. Even better, if there’s no tax between the two countries, that’s a win for the United States in general.’

‘I think the president has taken a strong position to say, ‘We’re a very generous country, and….all we’re asking for is for our trading partners to treat us the way they want to be treated.”

The Republican Study Committee has more than 170 members and acts as the House Republican conference’s de facto think tank at times.

Bessent, meanwhile, opened the door to using tariffs as a hardball tactic in trade talks with other countries – likely welcome news for Republicans who were concerned about the long-term impact on their districts.

He told CNBC on Tuesday morning that he and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were tapped to lead talks with Japan. He also said Trump himself would be ‘directly involved in those negotiations.’

‘There are 50, 60, maybe almost 70 countries now who have approached us. So it’s going to be a busy April, May, maybe into June. And Japan is a very important military ally,’ Bessent said. ‘And the U.S. has a lot of history with them, so I would expect that Japan’s going to get priority, just because they came forward very quickly. But it’s going to be very busy.’

On the other end, the White House is working with House GOP leaders to convince critics of the Senate’s version of a sweeping bill to advance Trump’s agenda.

Republicans are aiming to use their majorities to pass a massive piece of legislation dealing with border security, energy and defense, as well as extending Trump’s 2017 tax policies. 

Fiscal hawks are angry that the Senate’s version of the bill mandates a minimum of $4 billion in cuts, whereas the House plan calls for at least $1.5 trillion.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Treasury Department but did not immediately hear back.

China is pushing back Tuesday after Vice President JD Vance told Fox News last week that the U.S. borrows ‘money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.’ 

Vance, during an interview with ‘Fox & Friends,’ made the remark while speaking about the effects of the Trump administration’s tariffs. 

‘I think it’s useful for all of us to step back and ask us, ask ourselves, what is the globalist economy gotten the United States of America? And the answer is fundamentally, it’s based on two principles — incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things that other countries make for us, and to make it a little bit more crystal clear, we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture,’ Vance said.  

When asked about Vance’s comments on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said, ‘To hear words that lack knowledge and respect like those uttered by this Vice President is both surprising and kind of lamentable. 

‘China has made its position perfectly clear on its trade relations with the U.S.,’ he added. 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

China’s criticism of Vance on Tuesday comes as the U.S. and China are involved in an escalating dispute over tariffs. 

‘Remember the during the first Trump administration, everybody said that Trump’s tariffs were going to be inflationary back then. What actually happened — we had 1.5% inflation, we had the fastest growing economy in a generation. And we had the beginning of a manufacturing renaissance in the United States of America,’ Vance told Fox News. ‘Then, of course, we had four terrible years of the Biden administration.’ 

‘We’ve seen closing factories. We’ve seen rising inflation. We’ve seen the cost of housing so high that most Americans can’t afford to buy a home right now,’ he also said. ‘President Trump is taking this economy in a different direction. He ran on that. He promised it. And now he’s delivering.’ 

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk sparred on social media Tuesday with White House Senior Counselor Peter Navarro, after Navarro said in an interview Monday that Tesla was a car ‘assembler’ rather than a manufacturer. 

‘Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks,’ Musk said in an X post on Tuesday. 

‘Navarro is truly a moron,’ Musk said in a separate post. ‘What he says here is demonstrably false.’ 

Both Navarro and Musk are two of Trump’s closest advisors, and Navarro previously served in Trump’s first administration as the director of the White House National Trade Council and the director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy. 

Musk is currently spearheading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative to curb government waste and spending as a ‘special government employee.’ 

The executive or legislative branches are permitted to take on temporary employees to address short-term projects for up to 130 days in a single 365-day period, which will expire at the end of May for Musk. 

The tension between the two advisors comes days after the Trump administration unveiled a host of tariffs Wednesday. The policy sets out a baseline duty of 10% on all imports to the U.S., in addition to customized tariffs for countries that have higher tariffs in place on American goods.

Meanwhile, Musk is an advocate for free-trade policies. 

Navarro told CNBC in an interview Monday that Musk is a ‘car person’ who wants ‘cheap, foreign parts.’ 

‘When it comes to tariffs and trade, we all understand in the White House, and the American people understand, that Elon is a car manufacturer, but he’s not a car manufacturer,’ Navarro said. ‘He’s a car assembler.’ 

Musk and Navarro could not be reached for comment by Fox News Digital. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt brushed off the disagreement as a sign of the administration’s transparency. 

‘Whatever,’ Leavitt said, according to CNBC. ‘We are the most transparent administration in history, expressing our disagreements in public.’

The White House referred Fox News Digital to Leavitt’s comment to CNBC when asked to weigh in on the matter. 

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the episode exposed the ‘chaos’ within the Trump administration. 

‘The chaos within the Trump administration was shown a few minutes ago when Elon Musk called Peter Navarro, the chief architect of these tariffs, a moron,’ Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday. ‘That’s Musk’s word. He called him a moron. Their plan is so crazy, so controversial, that this administration cannot get its act together with them calling names about each other to against one one another about this tariff plan.’ 

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with the Trump administration and upheld the mass firing of tens of thousands of probationary federal employees, granting a request for an emergency administrative stay on a lower court order blocking the firings.

The majority of the high court ruled that the plaintiffs, nine non-profit organizations who had sued to reinstate the employees, lacked standing to sue. 

‘The District Court’s injunction was based solely on the allegations of the nine non-profit-organization plaintiffs in this case. But under established law, those allegations are presently insufficient to support the organizations’ standing,’ the court said in an order. 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson would have denied the application for a stay.

In their final brief to the Supreme Court, government attorneys argued that lower courts overstepped their authority by ordering the reinstatement of probationary employees last month.

The legal battle stems from the termination of an estimated 16,000 probationary federal employees since President Donald Trump took office, prompting a wave of lawsuits from Democrat-led states and former workers.

Probationary employees are particularly vulnerable to termination because they lack the civil service protections granted to full-time federal workers, which typically take effect after a designated period of service.

Justice Department lawyers have warned that forcing the government to rehire those employees would create ‘chaos’ across federal agencies. They have also maintained that the firings were tied to poor performance – an allegation the dismissed employees strongly dispute.

Last month, a federal judge in Baltimore ordered the Trump administration to reinstate probationary employees who had been fired from multiple government agencies.

Chief Judge James Bredar also directed the administration to return within seven days with a list of the affected employees and an explanation of how the agencies were complying with the reinstatement order.

In their Supreme Court filing, the plaintiffs argued that the Trump administration’s ‘decimation’ of probationary staff had caused deep and lasting harm to key federal agencies.

At the Department of Veterans Affairs – already plagued by chronic understaffing – the layoffs have ‘already had and will imminently continue to have’ serious negative consequences for those who rely on its services, the plaintiffs wrote.

‘Similarly, cuts to the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have already harmed and will continue to harm the ability of Respondent environmental and outdoor organizations to enjoy and protect a wide range of federal lands and resources,’ they said.

The plaintiffs, represented by the American Federation of Government Employees, argued that the terminations have already caused significant disruption across the federal government, impairing agencies’ ability to carry out critical functions.

Most recently, a federal judge in Maryland expanded an order this week requiring the Trump administration to rehire terminated probationary federal employees. The ruling also barred the administration from carrying out future mass firings of probationary staff unless done in accordance with federal laws governing employee removals.

That includes providing affected employees with a 60-day notice period, as required under current civil service regulations.

In a Supreme Court filing, Solicitor General John Sauer argued that the lower court’s injunction had forced the Trump administration to rehire federal workers ‘despite agencies’ judgments about what best serves their missions.’

‘Courts do not have license to block federal workplace reforms at the behest of anyone who wishes to retain particular levels of general government services,’ the government wrote in its brief.

The administration argues that reinstatement is not an appropriate remedy in this case, claiming it exceeds the court’s authority – and that even if the terminations were deemed ‘unlawful,’ that still would not justify such a sweeping order.