The White House is intensifying efforts to exclude illegal immigrants from a wide range of taxpayer-funded benefits, presenting the initiative as part of a larger campaign to cut government waste.
The Trump administration provided further details on new restrictions that would prohibit illegal immigrants from accessing over 15 federal assistance programs, which together represent $40 billion in public spending. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital that illegal immigrants will no longer be able “to steal public benefits at the expense of hardworking American taxpayers.” Rogers added: “That ends now. Under President Trump, it’s America first always.”
The majority of the programs being restricted for illegal immigrants are managed by the Department of Health and Human Services, with additional programs overseen by the Departments of Education, Agriculture, Labor, and Justice, Fox News reported.
The White House announced that several government health services—including Head Start, substance abuse prevention and treatment programs, family planning benefits, and health workforce loans and scholarships—will no longer be available to illegal immigrants.
This action aligns with President Donald twin campaign promises of tougher immigration enforcement and cutting wasteful government spending.
The announcement follows the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump’s signature spending and tax legislation. Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans, emerged as a key point of contention in both the House and Senate. As the bill neared passage, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed claims that the measure would strip vulnerable Americans of their healthcare.
“This bill protects Medicaid… for those who truly deserve this program, the needy, pregnant women, children and sick Americans who physically cannot work. It ensures that able-bodied Americans who can work 20 hours a week are actually doing so, and that will therefore strengthen and protect those benefits for Americans who need it,” Leavitt told reporters last month.
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The news for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to have gone from bad to worse in recent weeks following a fall in Europe that led to emergency hip replacement surgery.
As Pelosi continues recovering from her accident — she was seen using a walker on the House floor just last week — she now faces a primary challenge from a far-left former aide to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), according to a Thursday report.
Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff for AOC, announced that he would challenge Pelosi in the primary. He cited the former speaker’s efforts to block the progressive New York congressmember from becoming the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee as his reason for running, Politico reported.
“I respect what Nancy Pelosi has accomplished in her career, but we are living in a totally different America than the one she knew when she entered politics 45 years ago,” Chakrabarti, a 39-year-old former tech worker, posted on the X platform. “America is stuck, and Americans want real solutions that are as big as the problems we face.”
Pelosi, who stepped down as speaker in 2022 after nearly 20 years in the role, easily won reelection to her solidly Democratic San Francisco seat last year. Her office declined to comment on Chakrabarti’s announcement.
She has filed paperwork to run for re-election in 2026 but has not publicly confirmed whether she intends to seek another term. State Sen. Scott Wiener has long been expected to run for the seat if Pelosi were to step down. Local political observers have also speculated that Pelosi’s daughter, Christine, might run for the seat if her mother were to retire.
Whoever wins the primary is likely to secure the general election and hold the seat for a long time in a city that remains a Democratic stronghold, Politico added.
Meanwhile, Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, made $38 million worth of stock trades in the weeks leading up to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, which will no doubt lead to further calls for stock trading bans for members of Congress and their immediate families.
The New York Post reported that the tens of millions in trades included “an investment in a once-obscure artificial intelligence firm whose shares have soared nearly 50% in the past week.”
Paul Pelosi sold $24 million worth of Apple stock and $5 million worth of shares in AI chip maker Nvidia.
Both of these significant transactions were completed on New Year’s Eve, according to government filings. Nancy Pelosi is legally obligated to disclose her husband’s stock trades, The Post added.
Paul Pelosi, who survived a brutal hammer attack inside the couple’s San Francisco home roughly two years ago, has also taken a new role with Tempus AI, a Chicago-based health technology company that deploys artificial intelligence to analyze clinical and molecular data.
According to filings, Paul Pelosi purchased $100,000 worth of call options in Tempus AI on January 14. Since the disclosure of his involvement, the company’s stock has surged.
When the market opened on January 14, Tempus AI stock was trading at approximately $32 per share. However, as of Thursday, The Post noted that shares of Tempus AI— which went public last June with an IPO price of $37 per share— were trading at around $50.50 per share, marking a 60% increase.
All the while, Nancy Pelosi continues to recover from her hip surgery.
“Earlier this morning, Speaker Emerita Pelosi underwent a successful hip replacement and is well on the mend,” spokesperson Ian Krager said in a statement sent to HuffPost in mid-December.
The statement added that the former House Speaker was “grateful to U.S. military staff at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center at Landstuhl Army Base and medical staff at Hospital Kirchberg in Luxembourg for their excellent care and kindness.”
Progressive influencer Deja Foxx just got crushed in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, losing by more than 40 points in a blowout that stunned far-left activists.
The Associated Press called the race for 54-year-old Adelita Grijalva with only 65% of the vote counted.
Grijalva, a Pima County Supervisor and daughter of the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva, won with 62% of the vote, Trending Politics reported. Foxx, a 25-year-old digital celebrity with nearly 400,000 TikTok followers, came in at just 21%.
The result was a reality check for progressives hoping to replace a political dynasty with a social media star. Foxx had high-profile endorsements from David Hogg and the PAC “Leaders We Deserve.”
She only became eligible for Congress in April. Her campaign leaned heavily on her “lived experience,” highlighting a childhood in Section 8 housing, dependence on food stamps, and early activism for abortion access.
But it did not work. Grijalva was the clear favorite from the start, backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego. Her name, funding, and party support helped her cruise to victory. Foxx tried to frame the loss as a moral win.
“I couldn’t be prouder of what we built together,” she said. She talked about starting “alone in her bedroom” and building a movement that “shattered expectations.”
Still, the numbers tell the story.
“She lost by 40,” one user on X posted, quoting a Politico headline that had once suggested Foxx might have a “real shot.”
Foxx raised over $670,000 from mostly small-dollar donors and tried to reinvent field campaigning through social media. It didn’t work
Even though both candidates shared nearly identical platforms—supporting Medicare for All, tribal sovereignty, environmental justice, and opposing Donald Trump—voters went with the familiar name.
Grijalva had decades of local roots, and it showed. In her victory speech, she thanked her father and the voters who kept the legacy going.
“This is a victory not for me, but for our community and the progressive movement my dad started in Southern Arizona more than 50 years ago,” she said.
“We delivered a message rooted not just in fighting back against a dangerous and tyrannical administration—but in fighting for something: for our democracy, for the dignity of working people, and for the values that truly define Southern Arizona.”
In New York there is an effort by progressives to primary the Democrat leader of the House.
Zohran Mamdani’s democratic socialist allies are reportedly considering primary challenges next year against several congressional Democrats in New York City, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
However, a senior political advisor to Jeffries has vowed that anyone attempting to unseat the top Democrat in the House during next year’s primaries will face a “forceful and unrelenting” response, Fox News reported.
Mamdani, the 33-year-old Ugandan-born democratic socialist assemblyman from Queens, sent political shockwaves nationwide with his decisive victory two weeks ago over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary.
His win marks a significant step toward potentially becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor, but would also signal the Democratic Party’s increasing shift to the extreme far-left.
In the wake of Mamdani’s primary victory in June, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) highlighted that “this movement is bigger than one person, election, city, or organization.”
“We encourage all people inspired by the Zohran campaign to join their local DSA or YDSA chapter and get involved so we can continue to fight alongside Zohran and DSA elected officials across the country to create the future we all deserve,” the party added.
Now, following Mamdani’s victory, DSA leaders are reportedly considering mounting primary challenges not only against Jeffries but also other House Democrats representing New York City districts, including Reps. Ritchie Torres, Jerry Nadler, Dan Goldman, and Yvette Clarke, Fox added.