Mike Huckabee, President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel, cleared a key hurdle Tuesday after the Senate voted to end debate on his nomination.

The Senate voted 53 to 46 to advance Hucakbee’s nomination. He now awaits a final confirmation vote as Israel continues its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

While Republicans have championed Huckabee as an ardent supporter of Israel, Democrats have questioned his previous ‘extreme’ position on Palestinians.

The former Arkansas governor has previously argued it is Israel’s right to annex the West Bank and has flatly rejected the push to establish a two-state solution when it comes to the Gaza Strip. 

Huckabee has not commented on whether he still views the West Bank as Israel’s right to claim, or where he stands when it comes to Trump’s position on the Gaza Strip, which the president said he would like to turn into the ‘riviera of the Middle East’ and called for the ‘relocation’ of more than 2 million Palestinians.

During his confirmation hearing, the former governor pushed back on claims that Trump wants to take over the Gaza Strip, insisting the president has not called for the ‘forced displacement’ of Palestinians from Gaza – ‘unless it is for their safety.’

‘If confirmed, it will be my responsibility to carry out the president’s priorities, not mine,’ Huckabee said in response to questions levied at him from Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.

But Huckabee’s testimony during Senate questioning is unlikely to have garnered much new support from Democrats in Congress. 

‘Huckabee’s positions are not the words of a thoughtful diplomat – they are the words of a provocateur whose views are far outside international consensus and contrary to the core bipartisan principles of American diplomacy,’ New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, a senior Jewish Democrat, said in a statement last month. ‘In one of the most volatile and violent areas in the world today, there is no need for more extremism, and certainly not from the historic ambassador’s post and behind the powerful seal of the United States.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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.’ 

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday said the U.S. will take back the Panama Canal from ‘China’s influence’ as Washington tries to reassert control over the major trade route. 

‘The United States of America will not allow communist China or any other country to threaten the canal’s operation or integrity,’ he said during a press event from the Central American nation. ‘To this end, the United States and Panama have done more in recent weeks to strengthen our defense and security cooperation than we have in decades.

‘Together we will take back the Panama Canal from China’s influence,’ he added.

Panama has repeatedly rejected the Trump administration’s claims that China effectively controls the canal as it operates two major ports on either end of the waterway. 

However, the Central American nation withdrew from its 2017 Belt and Road Initiative agreements with Beijing earlier this year in a signal that Panama has chosen to side with the Trump administration in this geopolitical spat.

Hegseth laid out a litany of joint exercises, operations and the general presence of the U.S. military in and around the canal in a move to counter China, though Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the Pentagon to confirm whether this signified an increase in U.S. presence in the region.

‘Our relationship with Panama, especially our security relationship, will continue to grow in the months and years ahead,’ Hegseth said. ‘Our relationship is growing in part to meet communist China’s rising challenges.’

The defense secretary said China-based companies continue to install ‘critical infrastructure’ in the canal, which gives China the ‘potential’ ability to ‘conduct surveillance.’

‘This makes Panama and the United States less secure, less prosperous, less sovereign,’ he added.  

‘I want to be very clear. China did not build this canal. China does not operate this canal, and China will not weaponize this canal,’ Hegseth said.

The Chinese embassy in D.C. did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to hike the Pentagon budget to over $1 trillion for the first time ever. 

Speaking to reporters alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said the upcoming budget would be ‘in the vicinity’ of $1 trillion, a major boost from this year’s $850 billion budget. 

‘COMING SOON: the first TRILLION dollar @DeptofDefense budget,’ Hegseth posted on X. 

He said Trump is ‘is rebuilding our military – and FAST.’

The budget for all national security programs, including the Department of Defense, nuclear weapons development and other security agencies, is at $892 billion for this year. 

Moving to a $1 trillion Pentagon budget would be a 12% increase over current levels. 

But the $1 trillion budget idea comes just as the Pentagon has moved to cut 8% each year for five years from each program to reinvest in modernization. The department is also planning to slash tens of thousands from its civilian workforce and consolidate bases across the world. 

‘We’re going to be approving a budget, and I’m proud to say, actually, the biggest one we’ve ever done for the military,’ he said. ‘$1 trillion. Nobody has seen anything like it.

‘We are getting a very, very powerful military. We have things under order now.’

White House officials are expected to unveil their budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 later this spring before Congress hashes out the appropriations process. 

Even a $1 trillion budget would not put the U.S. at Trump’s stated target for NATO countries to spend on defense: 5%. 

But the president said the cash influx would be used to kickstart production on new equipment and technologies. 

‘We’ve never had the kind of aircraft, the kind of missiles, anything that we have ordered,’ he said. ‘And it’s in many ways too bad that we have to do it because, hopefully, we’re not going to have to use it.’

The Trump administration recently unveiled a Boeing contract for the Air Force’s sixth-generation fighter jet, the F-47, which the service branch expects to cost around $20 billion from 2025 to 2029. 

‘We know every other plane,’ Trump said. ‘I’ve seen every one of them and it’s not even close. This is a next level.’

An announcement on the Navy’s next-generation fighter jet, F/A-XX, has been stalled, while chief of naval operations Adm. James Kirby told reporters Monday work on the new jet’s contract was taking place at ‘secretary-level and above.’ 

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.

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.

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.’ 

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. 

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.’