The Texas Republican called the measure “long overdue” and critical for securing the border and protecting the homeland.

“We shouldn’t have gotten to this point. But this just shows you where the DEMs are, that this is not a priority for them at all, and they’ll do anything they can to hamstring the president in this.”

Cloud predicted the bill will pass but said Congress should pursue broader immigration reforms.

“We still have a lot to do on the congressional side, legislative side, to close those loopholes that Biden took advantage of,” he said.

He added: “We trust the president. He’s going to keep this border secure. But what about the next Biden that comes along?”

Cloud said he wants provisions from H.R. 2, the House Republican border security bill, attached to the legislation to help codify Trump’s border work.

Asked about potential Democratic efforts to delay the bill, Cloud said Republicans should have the votes needed for passage.

“If any House Republican votes with the Democrats on this, they shouldn’t be a House Republican,” he said.

Cloud argued the legislation would provide stability for immigration enforcement by removing funding battles from the political arena.

“The big thing here is it makes sure that this doesn’t become a political football again throughout the rest of the Trump administration,” he said.

“They want to do anything they can to run out the clock on an effective president who’s doing tremendous work for the American people. They would rather see this president fail than America succeed.”

Cloud emphasized the distinction between legal and illegal entry into the United States.

“There’s a right way to come to this country and there’s a wrong way to come to this country,” he said. “We’re going to crack down on the criminal element of it and get illegal aliens out of this country. If you’re one of those who want to come here, do it the right way.”

Cloud also highlighted his family’s immigration background, noting that his wife is a naturalized citizen and that legal immigrants came to this country because they love it.

The 20-year-old’s body was recovered by search-and-rescue volunteers in a mountainous area outside the city, his mother Nancy Higginbotham confirmed in a Facebook post Saturday.

The family had last seen him May 29 near a train station east of Kyoto.

“We are forever grateful for the time we had with our sweet, precious Weston, but cannot begin to understand what life without him will be like.”

Higginbotham stayed behind on the day he disappeared while his parents and brother went to see a nearby temple, according to CBS News. A cause of death had not been determined as of Saturday.

The split came after he argued with his mother over her use of ChatGPT to plan their sightseeing and the natural resources artificial intelligence consumes, according to CNN. Friends and family described him as a committed naturalist.

BREAKING: Body of Auburn student James Weston Higginbotham found in mountainous area outside Kyoto, Japan, after he split off from family during trip, mother confirms pic.twitter.com/eckiCONl5z

— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 6, 2026

That conviction ran through his studies and his values. He majored in biosystems engineering, focused on sustainable design and pushed back against society’s growing dependence on AI, according to NBC News. His relatives worried he had been emotionally distressed when he walked off.

Kyoto Prefectural Police told ABC News they considered it highly probable that he left his family on purpose, though they still feared for his safety because he did not speak Japanese.

Search crews combed the mountains and trails with a helicopter and K-9 units.

Auburn President Christopher B. Roberts confirmed the death, calling Higginbotham a “valued member of the Auburn Family,” according to CBS News.

Dean told CNN Friday that Platner had “disqualified himself” from the race as allegations about his conduct continued mounting. “I think it’s so distressing all of the stories that are coming out, and they’re more and more it seems by the hour,” Dean said.

“He has disqualified himself in my eyes. He is not qualified to be a representative, a senator.”

Dean stopped short of calling on Platner to quit the race, but her statement marks another defection in what has become a full-scale Democratic civil war over the Maine Senate hopeful.

NEW: Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean says Graham Platner “has disqualified himself” from Maine Senate race.

“It’s so distressing — All of the stories that are coming out, and there are more and more, it seems, by the hour.” pic.twitter.com/XpqIBg4w27

— Boris Sanchez (@Boris_Sanchez) June 5, 2026

Platner has refused to step aside despite the pressure. His party remains split — some Democrats are distancing themselves while others continue backing him, according to The Hill.

California Rep. Ro Khanna defended the candidate in a statement to NBC News. “The behavior described in the New York Times story was wrong and toxic,” Khanna said. “Graham has acknowledged that and sought redemption.”

The candidate — an oyster farmer and combat veteran — has denied the most serious claims. Former girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield told The New York Times that Platner allegedly grabbed her hard enough to leave bruises and once twisted her arm behind her back, according to Daily Caller reporting.

Platner called the accounts false and politically driven. He has also faced earlier scrutiny over sexually explicit texts to married women, a skull tattoo identified as a Nazi symbol, and old Reddit posts he has since apologized for.

The timing carries weight. Maine’s Democratic primary falls Tuesday.

Gov. Janet Mills suspended active campaigning but stays on the ballot, and her votes will still count, according to Fox News.

Republican consultant Jim Ellis said Thursday that the GOP stands to gain between five and 12 seats from the redrawn maps across ten states — the most to redistrict mid-decade since the 1800s, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Republicans’ performance during the midterms will still hinge on the Trump administration’s Iran war and skyrocketing gas and grocery prices, according to Ellis.

Texas led the charge in July 2025, passing a new GOP-friendly map after Democratic lawmakers fled the state to block the vote. The map will likely flip three to five Democratic-held seats red. The Supreme Court gave Texas the green light to use the map in December 2025.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a May 4 map seeking to flip four Democratic House seats into Republican control. The aggressive map leaves none of the redrawn seats rated “Solid R” by Cook Political Report — despite all voting for Trump by at least nine points in 2024.

Days after Florida’s map dropped, the Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 mandating race-based gerrymandering in the South. Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee each redrew their maps, creating a new Republican-favoring seat in each state.

North Carolina changed a Democratic-held seat Trump won by three percentage points in 2024 to one he won by 12. Ohio changed Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s seat from one Trump carried by under seven points to one he won by nearly 11.

Democrats struck back in November 2025 when California voters passed Proposition 50 — a lopsided gerrymander backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom seeking to flip up to five Republican-held seats. Deep-red Utah also created a safely blue Salt Lake City seat after a Republican-appointed judge’s ruling, replacing the deep-red seat held by retiring Rep. Burgess Owens.

Democrats prematurely celebrated after Virginia voters narrowly passed a gerrymander that could have given them four additional House seats. The state supreme court struck it down 17 days later.

The Problem: Gas Prices and an Unpopular War

The Real Clear Politics polling average between May 7 and June 2 shows Democrats ahead by six points in the 2026 House generic ballot. Recent Democratic upset victories in special elections for Texas and Florida state legislative districts suggest a blue wave similar to 2018.

Polling has showed the Iran war to be among the least-popular conflicts in American history.

Even with the GOP gaining a dozen seats due to redistricting, the party can still lose control of the House.

Ellis noted that in Texas and California, multiple seats drawn as flips may remain with their current parties. He specifically referenced two GOP-targeted seats in the heavily-Hispanic Rio Grande Valley — the 28th and 34th Districts. In California, he named the 22nd District held by Rep. David Valadao and the open 48th District.

Ellis is confident the DeSantis-signed Florida map will hold despite a Democratic wave year, pointing to massive Republican Party registration gains in the state.

“In 2018 there were 257,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans” in Florida, Ellis told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Today, there’s 1.5 million more Republicans than Democrats. That’s the difference. And that’s what the pollsters miss. And that’s why the polling has been wrong in Florida in almost every election since 2018.”

How the Redistricting War Really Started

Ellis said the redistricting battle’s origins are “way different than what the media likes to portray.”

Contrary to Democratic talking points that Texas launched a “Republican power grab,” the efforts trace their roots to a federal court case a year earlier. The Biden-era Justice Department brought the case Petteway v. Galveston County after a heavily Republican Texas county eliminated a racially gerrymandered majority-minority seat. The Fifth Circuit ruled in 2024 that the district was not protected under the Voting Rights Act.

“At that point, the Justice Department informed the state of Texas that their congressional map, based upon that ruling, was illegal and had to be redrawn,” Ellis said. “That’s why redistricting started.”

Ohio was also forced to redraw its map by state law. The Buckeye State has a unique procedure involving both the legislature and a bipartisan commission. Since the legislature failed to pass Ohio’s post-2020 Census map by a three-fifths vote in 2021, the map was only allowed to stand for two election cycles — 2022 and 2024.

“So, Gov. Newsom in California then sees, ‘Well, if Texas and Ohio are redrawing and getting all these new Republican seats, we’re going to redraw California, and we’ll get five seats to negate that,” Ellis added. “Then it started off a chain reaction.”

More Redistricting Ahead

Ellis predicted another redistricting wave prior to the 2028 House elections, citing the Louisiana v. Callais case and possible retaliation from blue states.

“In coming elections now we can anticipate another round of redistricting based on the Louisiana case in 2028,” he said. “Some of the Democratic states that do the same — New York — I guarantee you they’ll redistrict.”

Looking into the 2030s, Ellis said overwhelming population gains projected for Florida and Texas compared to losses in California and New York are poised to give the GOP more seats when all states redistrict prior to the 2032 elections.

If apportionment after the 2030 census is carried out using 2025 population estimates, California would lose four congressional seats while Texas would gain four and Florida would gain two, according to the American Redistricting Project. Idaho and Utah would gain one each, while New York, Rhode Island, Oregon, Illinois, and Minnesota would each lose one.

The event in which Ellis spoke marked the launch of the America’s Economy First speaker series at Navigators Global’s Washington, D.C. office.

The heckler interrupted Kirk’s address on faith and conservative values, yelling “Erika Kirk protects pedophiles” repeatedly, according to video posted by Turning Point USA.

Attendees booed immediately. Kirk stood silent for a moment, then delivered a line that landed like a hammer.

“It’s important to remember that happiness comes and goes and I pray that you find it.”

The crowd erupted in applause. After it settled, Kirk added: “And we must pray for our enemies and those that do not feel like their life has meaning.”

She called the heckler “not the enemy,” telling the audience, “We know who the real enemy is.”

Conservative commentator Eric Daugherty shared the clip on X, describing Kirk’s reply as “pure class.”

Kirk has faced a surge of hostility since her husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, was assassinated at Utah Valley University in September, according to Fox News. She took over as TPUSA’s chief executive following his death.

The heckler named no individual. The Justice Department called similar claims about Trump false, according to TheWrap.

The wave of arrests began July 4 when armed, black-clothed activists arrived at the ICE Prairieland Detention Center for a protest that turned into a violent assault. The mob vandalized property before defendant Benjamin Song, nicknamed “Champagne,” began shooting at a local police officer who tried talking to them, according to Department of Justice evidence.

Song was convicted of attempted murder. The officer was shot in the neck.

“Many of the defendants have been convicted and are facing decades-long sentences for simply doing a sit-in outside a detention center.”

That claim — posted March 26 by four Michigan-based groups — is demonstrably false. The “sit-in” involved surveilling the facility beforehand, written plans for “Peaceful Protest no more,” arriving with multiple firearms, throwing fireworks and shooting at law enforcement, court records show.

Seven federal defendants pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in the months following the July incident. Jurors convicted Song and nine others in March. Eight defendants were convicted of material support for terrorism, rioting and explosives offenses.

Groups organizing support for the convicted defendants include the DFW Support Committee, a Texas-based operation that has raised funds and organized protests outside the Fort Worth courthouse. The committee’s website contains guidance on sending letters to prisoners and organizing fundraisers through “seemingly innocuous events such as bake sales.”

The committee called the jury verdicts “stunning” and reflective of a “sham trial, built on political persecution and ideological attacks coming from the top.”

Seven other activist groups in Santa Cruz, Oakland, Hudson Valley, Oregon and elsewhere have encouraged donating to the DFW Support Committee following the trial verdicts. Their statements called the convictions “devastating,” “oppression and retaliation” and part of a “terroristic assault on immigrants and protesters.”

A “Unitarian Universalist” church in Fort Worth advertised weekly fundraising dinners for the defendants in May Facebook posts, calling the July terrorist attack “a noise demo.”

“We know that the fight doesn’t end here, as we have to garner more support as we look toward appeals and supporting 13 defendants during their state trials.”

Prosecutors described all federal defendants as members of a North Texas “Antifa cell” largely led by Song, making the case the first U.S. terrorism prosecution explicitly targeting the so-called anti-fascist movement. Trump labeled Antifa a domestic terrorist organization in a September executive order that called for greater government attention toward the threat.

The Washington-based liberal organization Defending Rights and Dissent and the National Lawyers Guild hosted defendant Dario Sanchez in an April virtual panel focused on “the dangerous precedent” the prosecutions set. Johnson County charged Sanchez with hindering the prosecution of terrorism and tampering with evidence by deleting suspects from group chats. A judge dismissed the hindering prosecution charge on May 22.

Sanchez told panelists that watching comrades face consequences has created a “chilling effect” for some North Texas activists while emboldening others.

“Certainly, there are people that I know who have decided that they’d rather just stay home right now, right?” he said.

The case even sent shockwaves to Europe. The Bergen Art Book Fair website in Norway quoted the DFW Support Committee and included an April 10 presentation backing a Prairieland defendant whom jurors convicted of hiding pro-insurrection anarchist materials.

“As fascism continues to run rampant in the US under Trump and ICE is kidnapping people off the streets without any due process, we must turn our attention to how the act of dissent is being labeled domestic terrorism and how zines fit into the equation,” the event description says.

One Oregon-based group’s plans did not pan out. The Williamette Valley Abolition Project announced a “strip club” event planned for May 31 featuring performers whose earnings would go toward the committee. The group later said the “venue backed out” in a deleted Instagram post.

The chamber voted 215-208 to pass the concurrent resolution, with four Republicans joining Democrats. The problem: concurrent resolutions don’t have the force of law, according to the Senate’s website, meaning Trump has no obligation to comply.

“Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Trump called the vote “meaningless” in a Thursday Truth Social statement and accused supporters of wanting to see the U.S. “fail.” He added the four Republicans are “GRANDSTANDERS” who “should be ashamed of themselves.”

The resolution, sponsored by Democratic New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, would direct Trump to remove U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran except when “necessary to defend the United States” or an ally from an “imminent attack” and seek congressional approval for military actions.

Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, a president has 60 days to engage in military conflict before Congress must either declare war or authorize force. Trump told Congress in a May 1 letter that the Iran war had been “terminated” as the deadline approached. Legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that a ceasefire would not reset the war powers timeline.

A White House official told Military.com that concurrent resolutions are “unconstitutional,” making it “very unlikely” the administration would respond even if the Senate passes it.

“The War Powers Act was designed with a legislative veto, which was declared unconstitutional in 1983,” the official said. “President Trump will continue to protect our national security using his constitutional authority as Commander-in-Chief while being transparent with Congress.”

If the resolution reaches the Senate, it will be referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. If sent to the floor, it would need a simple majority of 51 votes — no filibuster. The Senate’s own version is a joint resolution requiring Trump’s signature, which would almost certainly be vetoed. Overriding that veto would require a two-thirds majority.

Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted to advance the Senate’s joint resolution for a final vote on May 19. Cassidy lost his primary to Republican Louisiana Rep. Julia Letlow, who received Trump’s endorsement. Collins is seeking reelection in November against Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner.

Even if both chambers pass their versions, Congress would need a two-thirds majority to override Trump’s veto of any binding joint resolution — a threshold unlikely to be met.

Morris told Newsmax Friday the directive gives Trump a federal mechanism he’s long wanted. “It’s very exciting,” he said.

On March 31, Trump signed an executive order titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.”

“A LIST BEFORE ELECTION DAY OF WHO’S ELIGIBLE FOR MAIL-IN VOTES TO MAKE SURE THAT BALLOTS ONLY GO TO THOSE PEOPLE.”

The order directs the Department of Homeland Security, working with the Social Security Administration, to compile a list of confirmed U.S. citizens of voting age in each state.

The Postal Service is instructed to deliver mail ballots only to voters on state-supplied absentee rolls submitted to the federal government at least 60 days before an election.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who joined Trump at the signing, said states would be required to apply USPS barcodes to ballot envelopes for tracking.

Morris said the order makes voting by mail auditable. He argued that without such a system, voting by mail cannot be policed the way in-person voting can.

“Unless you have photo ID for in-person voting, you can’t control it. But how do you control mail-in voting?” Morris asked, pointing to what he described as bloated voter rolls in states such as California.

Parking lots are getting ballots, he said, and “voters who have died 20 years ago are getting ballots, and many of them are voting.”

Morris tied the issue to illegal immigration, saying border czar Tom Homan had cited a population of 20 million to 30 million people in the country illegally.

The order faces a widening legal fight.

On May 28, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington declined to issue an emergency order blocking the directive, finding the challenge premature because federal agencies had not yet implemented it.

Democrats filed an appeal on June 1.

A parallel challenge brought by a coalition of Democrat-led states is pending in federal court in Boston, where U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani heard arguments June 2.

The Postal Service has begun rulemaking. A proposed rule circulated in late May would impose uniform standards for election mail, including unique envelope barcodes and verified state mail-in voter lists.

A final rule is due within 120 days of the order’s signing.

The border czar pushed back Friday on Newsmax against claims from New Jersey Democrats and protesters who have targeted the ICE facility for weeks.

“Lies, lies, lies. I went up there. There was never a hunger strike.”

Demonstrations have continued outside the facility for more than two weeks, fueled by allegations that detainees staged a hunger strike and complaints about medical treatment and living conditions.

Homan said reports of a hunger strike were false because detainees who skipped cafeteria meals were still purchasing food through the commissary.

“They claimed there was a hunger strike because a couple of people didn’t go to the cafeteria and eat food,” he said. “But what they didn’t know is that they were ordering food from the commissary and eating it in their rooms, so nobody missed a meal. No hunger strike.”

Homan also rejected claims that the facility is overcrowded.

“Wrong. Seven hundred people in the facility. It’s a 1,000-bed facility. There is no overcrowding.”

The criticism intensified after Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said detainees told him pregnant women, cancer patients, and others were not receiving adequate medical care and that some cases had languished for months without resolution.

Homan said he personally inspected the facility and found no evidence supporting those allegations.

“As far as the medical issues, I had a conversation with the governor [Democrat Mikie Sherrill]: ‘Give me the names of people that weren’t medically treated properly, in your opinion.’ They couldn’t give me a name,” he said.

Homan said he toured “every square foot” of the detention center, including medical facilities, recreation areas, housing units, showers, and the cafeteria. He returned the following day without advance notice and ate the same lunch served to detainees.

“I ate the same exact food — spaghetti with meat sauce, green beans, beans, rolls with butter, dessert, and a fruit drink. I’m a pretty big guy, and I didn’t finish the meal.”

Homan said the opposition stems not from concerns about conditions but from frustration with the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

He said Democrats “didn’t say squat for four years” and are angry “right now because ICE is arresting people at record numbers.”

“We’re ruining their long-term plans. That’s what it’s all about,” he said.

That’s a payroll-over-labor-force spread larger than any comparable postwar episode six years after a recession trough, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The three-month moving average of monthly job growth hit 188,333 in May — a level reached only 41 percent of the time in data going back to 1947. For an economy 73 months past a recession bottom, this pace of job growth has occurred in only three prior cases: the late Reagan expansion, the 1990s dot-com expansion, and the post-financial-crisis expansion.

“We’re in a jobs expansion that is unprecedented in the post-World War II economy.”

The foreign-born civilian noninstitutional population dropped by roughly 532,000 people over the past 12 months, the jobs report showed. The foreign-born labor force fell by 94,000, and foreign-born workers currently employed dropped by 107,000.

Federal government payrolls tell the other half of the story. Compared with a year ago, federal government payrolls are down by 275,000. Compared with the peak of federal employment in October 2024, payrolls are down by 346,000.

That means the net job growth isn’t being inflated by government expansion or cheap foreign labor.

Manufacturing Wages Hit 50-Year High

Weekly real wages for durable goods workers are up 3.5 percent — a pace not seen consistently since the post-war boom of 1947 to 1969. For context, real weekly gains averaged just 0.2 percent annually in the decade before the pandemic and were essentially stagnant going back to the 1970s.

Nominal weekly paychecks are up 7.4 percent year-over-year, hourly pay is up 5.3 percent, and overtime hours have jumped from 3.7 to 4.0 hours per week. The One Big Beautiful Bill’s overtime tax cut means take-home pay gains are even stronger than the gross figures.

Real durable goods output grew at a 5.8 percent annualized rate in Q1, and productivity surged at a 5.5 percent annualized rate.

Labor’s share of output fell to the lowest level ever — in data going back to 1947 — in the first quarter of this year, fueling capital investment and improved productivity.

Workers are seeing real gains funded by productivity and profit expansion rather than wage-price spiral dynamics that might trigger inflation or Federal Reserve intervention.

Warren Accuses Trump of Insider Trading — Stocks Perform In Line With Market

Sen. Elizabeth Warren complained during a Treasury hearing this week that Trump should be investigated for insider trading because his trusts bought shares of Bank of New York Mellon and Robinhood ahead of an April 6 announcement that the bank would be the financial agent for the Trump account.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testified at the hearing.

Bank of New York is up around 15 percent since April 6 — the same as the S&P 500. Its competitor State Street is up almost 23 percent. Robinhood shares rose around 19 percent, but underperformed competitor Interactive Brokers, which is up 28 percent.

The stocks performed in line with the market and underperformed the closest comparable competitors.

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced his resolution for independence to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. John Adams seconded the motion.

Congress delayed the final vote until July 2, when 12 colonial delegations voted in favor. New York delegates abstained, though New York approved the resolution on July 9.

The explanatory document — the Declaration of Independence — wasn’t adopted until July 4.