Congress

Top Senate GOP defense hawk has Pentagon budget boost plan — with sunnier post-Trump-win prospects

Published

2 years ago

November 11, 2024

Sen. Roger Wicker, one of Capitol Hill’s most vocal defense hawks, will soon get the chance to pursue a larger Pentagon budget — and it stands a much better chance with Donald Trump headed back to the White House.

The Mississippi Republican is poised to chair the Armed Services Committee after the GOP romped in Tuesday’s Senate elections. And he brings to the role a plan for tens of billions of dollars in new military spending to expand the Navy and Air Force, modernize the nuclear arsenal and ramp up defense manufacturing.

“We’re not where we need to be in our Navy and our Air Force,” Wicker told Mississippi’s WAPT News in an election night interview. “So that’s going to be an opportunity for me as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, if this majority that’s been projected does hold, to work across the aisle … and build up our military so we can stay out of war.”

Though Wicker, who has been the top Armed Services Republican since 2023, might have the inside track with a Trump administration on spending, he’ll also be one of the most prominent GOP advocates of continuing to arm Ukraine. As chair, he’d likely need to navigate differences between defense hawks and Trump on whether to continue aid.

Budget battle plan: Wicker laid out his preferred roadmap for defense in the spring, urging the U.S. to make “a short-term generational investment” to deter an increasingly cooperative Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, which he has termed an “Axis of Aggressors.”

The plan proposes a $55 billion hike over President Joe Biden’s most recent defense budget request, eventually ramping up to 5 percent of gross domestic product — which would bring annual military spending to more than $1 trillion. Within that, Wicker wants to expand shipyard and industrial capacity to more quickly achieve a 355-ship Navy and expand the Air Force by blocking the retirement of some aircraft and adding 340 fighters over five years.

Wicker won an initial round in June when a bipartisan coalition in the Armed Services Committee voted to increase the price tag of its annual defense policy bill by $25 billion.

That heightened spending may not come to fruition this year, as extra funding would break budget caps agreed to last year and could see opposition from fiscal hardliners in the House. But it showed bipartisan support for a larger military budget that Wicker could capitalize on as chair.

A Trump roadmap? Perhaps just as importantly, some experts argue Wicker’s detailed budget blueprint could provide the GOP administration with fodder for at least their initial defense budget request. While the full extent of Trump’s Pentagon plans isn’t yet clear, confirming top officials and other issues could constrain his first-year spending blueprint.

“They’re going to probably want to go to people whom they trust more and lean on them,” said Bradley Bowman, a former Senate Republican aide who is now a senior director with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “And that would be Sen. Wicker.”

Though hawks have muscled through defense increases in divided government, Wicker has criticized Biden’s spending plans as unserious. He likened raising the Pentagon budget under a Democratic White House “pulling teeth” and suggested a GOP president would be more committed to the cause.

“We’re going to have to increase our national defense to keep us out of a war,” Wicker said in a recent interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “The idea is to keep the peace by being so strong nobody will take a chance on us.”

Ukraine campaigner: Wicker — a vocal GOP advocate for Ukraine aid alongside Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — urged Biden to use his final days to step up support for Kyiv. He wants faster weapons transfers and looser restrictions on strikes inside Russia, arguing the administration’s limits have left Kyiv “hamstrung.”

While it would be easy for Wicker to confront another Democratic administration for not giving Ukraine what it needs, it’s an open question how he would approach Trump, who has opposed more U.S. spending and has instead said he aims to broker an end to the conflict before he even takes office.

Observers say Wicker is likely to keep those differences behind closed doors.

Bowman argued that Wicker’s “unimpeachable conservative credentials” could help him make an argument on the value of NATO and arming Ukraine. Mackenzie Eaglen, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, noted that while there’s still considerable Republican support for arming Ukraine, a potential Trump administration must be convinced to ask for more aid. That could occur, she argued, if the White House is convinced it hastens an end to the war with Russia.

“If their team can be convinced that a last and final surge of military assistance for Ukraine — that is almost entirely spent here in the United States — strengthens Ukraine’s position in a negotiated settlement to end the war, then it is possible,” Eaglen said. “I suspect this will be attempted in private as long as possible to see what comes over in a [fiscal 2026] White House budget request and whether it includes a supplemental.”

Congress

‘A circular firing squad’: Senate GOP pushes back on Trump’s tiff with Thune

Published

8 hours ago

July 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump is escalating his war of words against Senate Majority Leader John Thune. He’s still not likely to get what he wants.

Trump on Wednesday told rally-goers in Georgia to “call John Thune” over the Senate GOP’s inability to pass a partisan election bill, known as the SAVE America Act, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday said the president’s patience with the South Dakota Republican is “running out.”

But if Trump’s rhetoric is meant to drive Republican voters to the polls this fall -– and some allies believe it will only increase ahead of November — it does little to change the reality in the Senate, where the SAVE America Act still doesn’t have the votes to pass. Instead, many Republicans on Thursday came to their leader’s defense, acknowledging an unwinnable standoff between the president and their 53-seat majority.

“This idea that he can just command members of the Republican conference to get in line is just a fantasy. So I think it’s unfair,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who ran against Thune for majority leader in 2024 and then lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed challenger earlier this year. “I don’t know who it was that sold the president on this idea, that this was obtainable, but it’s creating a circular firing squad for Republicans.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) added: “John can’t put a gun to people’s head and make them vote a particular way.”

It marks the latest turbulent moment between the president and Senate Republicans, after Trump last month ranted at GOP senators in a closed-door lunch. They, in turn, have fumed several times this year about a lack of coordination from the White House.

For months, Thune and other Republicans have privately tried to tell Trump, and allies in the White House, that the votes aren’t there to pass the SAVE America Act — whether with the 60-vote threshold required for most legislation to advance or even if senators did away with the filibuster, which doesn’t have the votes, either.

Senate Republicans have also stewed for months that Trump remains fixated on attacking Republicans over the election bill rather than training his fury on Democrats who won’t allow movement on other items in the president’s legislative agenda.

That message, however, appears to have fallen on deaf ears inside the Oval Office.

“The Senate is a place you send things when you want them to die,” Trump said at the Georgia rally. “We’re not going to take this any longer, we’re not going to take it. I’m trying to be nice.”

A normally even-keeled Thune immediately pushed back when asked about Leavitt’s comments, suggesting that the White House should “get on the phone” to lock in the needed votes instead of pointing fingers.

“It’s 50 around here, and so instead of, you know, pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats. And if there are Republicans that they think are gettable, get on the phone,” Thune said.

But Thune and Trump also need each other. Losing the Senate majority would be a catastrophic blow for Trump, with the House majority already in grave peril. At the same time, if Trump were to go nuclear on Thune, it would be a huge political headache for GOP senators, who would face pressure to pick sides and risk only further alienating base voters who they need.

Shortly after his initial comments, Thune moved to lower the tension, saying he did not “read a lot” into Leavitt’s comment.

“I think it was a question she got, and she was responding to it,” he said, adding that he and Trump have a “fairly regular conversation” but acknowledged it’s “more on an as-needed basis.”

The White House referred to Leavitt’s and the president’s latest comments in response to senators’ saying they don’t have the votes on SAVE America, despite Trump’s pressure.

But the volleys traded between the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue this week underscore how much of a sore point the election bill has become between the two men.

Privately, some Senate Republicans believe Trump is lashing out at Thune because, unlike in the House where the president is able to muscle through just about anything with enough pressure, he is unable to get the Senate Republican Conference to bend to his every whim.

That posture has been most prominent when it comes to protecting institutional norms against Trump’s wrath, like the legislative filibuster and the blue slip precedent that allows the minority to block a lower-court judicial nominee from their home states.

“How often has the House called in Trump to twist arms on votes? When he does it, he takes credit. The fact that Trump can’t do it in the Senate is why they’re blaming Thune,” said one Senate GOP aide, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

A second Senate GOP aide, also granted anonymity to discuss party dynamics, said Trump’s pressure on Thune about the SAVE America Act is “just exhausting” for Republicans.

“What leverage does he have over the Senate? He’s not spending the war chest because he’s saving it for when the House impeaches him. Trump doesn’t care about Congress at all,” the aide said, referring to the $400 million sitting unspent in the MAGA Inc. super PAC.

Behind-the-scenes, Trump is enraged, with some allies believing he will only ramp up the pressure on Thune after the August recess. How far he goes, however, could depend on the outcome of the midterms.

Thune is intending to run for GOP leader again in November and no Senate Republican has backed a challenge to him. Many Senate Republicans believe Thune is secure in his position, but some have questioned if the president could go after him after the November elections — especially if Republicans lose the majority, according to two people granted anonymity to speak candidly.

“Trump is legitimately pissed at Thune over the SAVE America Act. And the president hates the war powers votes, which just add insult to injury,” said a person close to the White House granted anonymity to speak freely.

Kennedy, however, acknowledged that “when you’re the majority leader you take a lot of spears and arrows,” but “to my knowledge, there’s no effort to replace anybody.”

White House aides have long argued that the president was elected on the promise of election integrity, and that Senate Republicans should carry out the will of the voters by advancing the bill. Some people close to the White House have even suggested that failure to pass the SAVE America Act could depress turnout among core elements of the MAGA base who are more responsive to red-meat issues at the ballot box, though GOP senators believe it’s the months of infighting that would come back to bite them, not the failure to pass the bill.

A second person close to the White House said the president is “growing tired of the excuses and lack of effort” when it comes to Thune.

Thune and his allies, however, say it’s not a lack of effort. The Senate spent weeks debating the SAVE America Act and held votes related to it as part of debate around an immigration enforcement bill as well.

Even some of Thune’s right flank declined to pile on the White House’s remarks Thursday.

“I don’t know what else I can add to it,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), while Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who some GOP senators suspect might like to mount another leadership bid against Thune, acknowledged that the current majority leader has a “hard job.”

Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), said he agreed with Trump on the SAVE America Act but returned to Thune’s concern about the votes.

Congress

Jes Staley tells House Oversight he spoke with JPMorgan CEO about Epstein’s crimes

Published

10 hours ago

July 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Jes Staley — a former top executive at JPMorgan who fought to keep Jeffrey Epstein as a client at the bank after Epstein became a convicted sex offender — told the House Oversight Committee Thursday that he spoke to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon at least twice about Epstein’s criminal exposure.

According to a transcript of his closed-door remarks, obtained by Blue Light News, Staley said he spoke to Diamond about Epstein on two occasions: once in 2006, when Epstein was first indicted, and another in 2008, when Epstein was in jail.

Staley’s recollection, which he has shared versions of in previous depositions over the years, deviates from what Dimon previously said under oath in a deposition before federal prosecutors, namely that he and Staleynever discussed the matter of whether to retain Epstein as a client.

It also increases the possibility that the House Oversight Committee could at some point call Dimon in for questioning about how JPMorgan was allegedly complicit in allowing Epstein to withdraw huge sums of money he used to traffick young girls and women for years.

It also reinforces the reality that the year-long congressional Epstein investigation could have no end in sight, as more witnesses give reason for lawmakers to continue the inquiry.

“No such conversation ever occurred, and Staley lacks credibility,” Patricia Wexler, a spokesperson for JPMorgan, said in a statement Thursday. “A UK tribunal found Staley to be evasive and unreliable.”

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority banned Staley, also the former CEO of Barclays, from holding senior management roles in the British financial services industry after finding that Staley misrepresented his relationship with Epstein; a U.K. tribunal said that Staley “lacked credibility” and “has shown no remorse for his conduct.”

A spokesperson for Staley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democrats were already on the warpath for Staley Thursday, emerging mid-interview to complain their witness was being evasive and pledging to bring him back to testify under oath if the party retakes the majority in the midterms.

Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, lamented that the interview was not done in public view and under the terms of a deposition, and suggested he would recall Staley to testify again under more restrictive arrangements if he becomes chair next year.

“What’s happening right now is a good reason why all of these interviews need to be under oath, and we need honest questions. So Staley is clearly, in our opinion, just not being truthful and flat out lying,” Garcia told reporters. “The reality is, he’s claiming first that he had no real friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. I mean, that is just ridiculous.”

He added, “This is someone that chose to work with a person that he knew had been convicted already of sex crimes.”

House Oversight Chair James Comer of Kentucky told reporters that Staley was “very close friends with Mr. Epstein” and “defended Epstein time and time again in front of JP Morgan, regardless of all the red flags to keep him as a client.”

At one point, according to a portion of the transcript transcribed by Blue Light News, Democratic investigators asked Staley whether the cash withdrawals had to do with sexual abuse or paying women for sexual abuse.

Staley replied no, adding that it was shocking to him that Epstein would continue to abuse minors after doing a stint in jail for it.

Epstein was ultimately convicted years later for sex trafficking and died by suicide behind bars in 2019.

Congress

Ted Cruz eyes bill to address ‘catastrophic risk’ caused by AI

Published

13 hours ago

July 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz said in an interview Thursday he is looking to take up legislation to address the “catastrophic risk” posed by artificial intelligence — increasingly top of mind after a major OpenAI security incident this week.

It’s a first glimpse at the types of bills that could be on the agenda for a big markup of AI and kids’ online safety measures the Texas Republican plans to hold the first week of August, and about which he has been largely secretive.

“Look, it’s deeply concerning, and there are undoubted risks and catastrophic risks that that AI potentially brings, and how the government deals with those risks and minimizes the chance of harm is a difficult policy question that Congress is wrestling with,” Cruz said.

OpenAI earlier this week disclosed that its most powerful model available to the public, and another that has yet to be released, were both able to break free of a controlled laboratory test and hack into another AI developer platform — the first documented caseof a fully autonomous AI cyberattack.

Cruz said Thursday that legislation confronting this scenario is “among the topics we are looking at for the markup,” but declined to say whether he was writing a bill to address it — or if he was working across the aisle on a bipartisan proposal.

“More to come,” he said. “We are negotiating with the Democrats and deciding — trying to find the bills that have the best maximum positive impact and also best chance of bipartisan support and passing law.”

Cruz’s aides, granted anonymity to speak freely, have previously said that the Commerce Committee chair believes in very targeted federal action to address issues like catastrophic risk or deepfakes — rather than a massive regulatory framework for AI.

The Senate Commerce markup on AI legislation was supposed to happen the last week of July but was pushed back amid continued jockeying over which bills would be included on the docket.

There has, in particular, been confusion over the fate of a forthcoming package from Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who has been working with the White House to pair a kids’ online safety measure with provisions to preempt state AI laws.

That effort suffered a blow this week when President Donald Trump declined to back the effort. Cruz, on his podcast Thursday, took credit for that decision, saying he announced during a White House meeting with Trump and Blackburn that Blackburn’s emerging framework would not have the votes to pass the Senate.

Trump was ready to hit “send” on a Truth Social post endorsing the Blackburn proposal before Cruz interjected, the Texas senator said.

Blackburn’s office did not return a request for comment about Cruz’s version of events, and Cruz said Thursday in an interview he has not spoken to Blackburn since their visit to the Oval Office.

Cruz could also include in his markup a new bill he introduced Thursday with Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) that would create a commission to study AI developments — focusing on bioethics — and report the findings to Congress.