Donald Trump Scores Second Massive Legislative Victory

The House of Representatives has voted in favor of a rule approving President Donald Trump‘s request to claw back around $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid.

The House passed the bill early Friday in a 216-213 vote, and it will now go to Trump’s desk for signature.

Responding to the vote, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “House approves nine billion dollar cuts package, including atrocious NPR and public broadcasting, where billions of dollars a year were wasted. Republicans have tried doing this for 40 years, and failed…But no more. This is big!!!”

Why It Matters

A rescissions package is a request from the president to claw back funding that Congress has already approved. In this case, the Trump administration wanted to take back more than $1 billion in federal funding for public broadcasters like NPR and PBS, and more than $8 billion in foreign aid funding.

Friday’s vote is a major victory for the president’s agenda and his second major legislative success since taking office less than six months ago.

It is also a win for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who had to wrangle the chamber’s Republican caucus together amid days of internal turmoil over the Trump administration’s handling of the investigation into the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

What To Know

The Republican-controlled House voted to pass the rule shortly before a Friday deadline, after which the administration would not have been able to claw back the funds.

GOP Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick and Mike Turner joined all present Democrats in voting against the measure.

The House’s vote came after the Senate passed an amended version of Trump’s rescissions proposal earlier Thursday, sending it to the House. No democrats supported the measure when it passed the Senate in a 51-48 vote.

This is a developing story. More to follow.