Johnson says megabill will be 'jet fuel' for economy; teases 2 future bills within next year

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Sunday that President Donald Trump's megabill will be "jet fuel" for the economy despite Democrats' criticisms. 

Johnson, who ceremoniously handed Trump the gavel after the president signed his signature tax cuts and spending package into law Friday, teased two future bills to be passed within the next year. In an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," he said the "big, beautiful bill," which is "a huge leap forward for our priorities," is the first step in a three-tier strategy. Johnson expects a second reconciliation bill by fall and a third by spring before the end of the current Congress. 

"I think we can do that, and so you'll see more of us advancing these common-sense principles to deliver that American First agenda for the people," Johnson said. "That's what they elected us to do, and this was hugely forward." 

Johnson pushed back on a reported Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) memo claiming Republicans will lose the majority in 2026 as a result of the "big, beautiful bill." 

TRUMP SIGNS 'BIG, BEAUTIFUL' BILL IN SWEEPING VICTORY FOR SECOND TERM AGENDA, OVERCOMING DEMS AND GOP REBELS

"Our Republicans are going to be out across the country telling the simple truth, and guess what? It will be demonstrated," Johnson said. "Everyone will have more take-home pay, they'll have more jobs and opportunity. The economy will be doing better, and we'll be able to point to that as the obvious result of what we did. So don't buy into those false talking points." 

The speaker dismissed criticisms from Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and DNC Chair Ken Martin in particular as "old, tired talking points" that are typically used against any Republican tax legislation. 

Johnson stressed that the bill permanently extends the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which the speaker claims targeted lower- and middle-income Americans. He said the bottom 20% of earners witnessed their lowest federal tax rates in 40 years because of those original cuts and said that the new megabill expands on that by cutting taxes on tips, overtime pay, and seniors – benefits that he says will help Republicans during the 2026 midterm elections. 

"We're giving everybody a tax cut," Johnson told "Fox News Sunday" host Shannon Bream. "And that's going to help the economy, it's going be jet fuel. Small business owners, entrepreneurs, risk-takers, the people that provide the jobs, manufacturers, farmers get assistance here, and that will lift the economy." 

Citing the Council of Joint Economic Advisers, Johnson said the megabill will spur 3% economic growth, create 4 million jobs and increase the average household's take-home pay by $13,000. 

"This is a great thing for people who go to work every day," Johnson said. "They're going to feel that. And we're excited about the upcoming election cycle in '26. Because people will be riding an economic high, just as we did after the first two years of the first Trump administration. This time it's on steroids." 

ZELENSKYY TOUTS 'FRUITFUL' TRUMP CALL AFTER US PRESIDENT WAS 'DISAPPOINTED' BY PUTIN TALK

Johnson also responded to criticism from Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., who argued that the megabill makes tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent, while those for the working class "are time sensitive" and "expire in a couple of years." 

"Now, I don't think he read the bill, it's 940 pages, so I would give some grace on that," Johnson said in response to Ivey's claims. 

Bream noted that Ivey was listening while the bill text was read on the Senate floor last Sunday. 

"Yeah, you're right, for 19 hours or whatever it took," Johnson said. "If you make between $30,000 and $80,000 a year, you can have a 15% less federal tax rate. You're going to save more money, you're going to keep more of your hard-earned money, and that's not going away. So by making all these tax cuts permanent, it's the largest tax bill, the most important, most consequential tax bill that Congress has ever passed because of what it does for people who go out and work hard every day." 

Johnson said the bill pushes "pro-growth policies" and constitutes the "largest savings for the taxpayers in U.S. history." 

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"In the bill, we're also going to secure the border permanently. We're going to return to American energy dominance again, which is going to also be jet fuel to the economy," Johnson said. "We're gonna take care of peace through strength because we're going to give important investments in our military industrial complex, which will help us in our competition with China. There is so much in this bill." 

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Race against time: How Congress barely made July 4 deadline on 'big, beautiful bill'

Football and basketball coaches are experts in clock management.

So are lawmakers.

Coaches are adept at either burning or saving just enough time on the clock to execute a play – or prevent the other team from doing so.

Congressional clock management is very different.

TRUMP $3.3T MEGABILL SETS HOUSE RECORD FOR LONGEST VOTE IN HISTORY

Whatever lawmakers say they will do – it will always take them a profoundly longer period of time in which to do it.

That’s why the temporal politics of passing President Donald Trump’s "big, beautiful bill" overwhelmed everyone who works on Capitol Hill over the past few weeks.

That ranges from the lawmakers themselves to the aides, journalists, Capitol custodians and U.S. Capitol Police officers.

To wit:

Congressional Republicans have churned through variations of frameworks and iterations of the big, beautiful bill since February. But things finally got serious when the House adopted its formal version of the package on May 22, beating the Memorial Day goal by four days.

There was chatter that the Senate would tackle the House’s package the week of June 9. Then that fell to the week of June 15. The idea was that the Senate would process its version of the bill that week and then allow the House to sync up during the week of June 22.

Then those hopes were dashed.

That’s to say nothing of the Senate at least voting to proceed to even start debate at the very end of the week of June 15.

Here’s what really happened. And it underscores just how protracted the process can be on Capitol Hill, especially with a very complicated and controversial piece of legislation.

On Monday, June 23, Republican senators talked about taking a procedural vote to launch debate on the big, beautiful bill as early as Wednesday or Thursday, June 25 or 26. Such a vote would require just 51 yeas. But the bill wasn’t ready. Republicans were still crafting and drafting the bill to comport with Senate budget rules. The GOP also aimed to write the legislation in a fashion to court 51 yeas to crack the procedural hurdle and formally start debate. 

Midweek came and the Senate never took a procedural vote. Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., opposed starting debate on a bill that was not complete.

So midweek morphed into the weekend, and when the Senate convened on Saturday, June 28, Fox News was told the chamber would take a procedural vote to begin debate around 4 p.m. ET.

SENATE REPUBLICANS RAM TRUMP'S 'BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL' THROUGH KEY TEST VOTE

Well, you guessed it.

The Senate did not trigger that vote until 7:31 p.m. Saturday. And the 15-minute vote turned into a three-hour and 38-minute affair. The Senate closed the vote at 11:09 p.m.

Saturday – with Vice President JD Vance nearby in case his services were necessary to break a tie.

They were not.

At least not on the dais.

But Vance played a pivotal role in negotiating with Johnson, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and others to greenlight the Senate starting on the bill.

However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., then compelled Senate clerks to read the entire 940-page bill out loud from the dais. That enterprise consumed just under 16 hours of floor time. The clerks – their voices cracking and hoarse – concluded a few minutes after 3 p.m. on Sunday. This marked the first time a senator required the clerks to verbally read a bill before the Senate since 2021.

So, once the clerks concluded their oratory, it was believed that the Senate might go all night with its marathon voting session – known as a "vote-a-rama" – and try to finish the bill sometime by dawn Monday.

But this is Congress time.

Senators didn’t even begin the vote-a-rama until 9:40 am Monday. Twelve hours later, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., suggested it was time to "start figuring out" a final group of amendments that were necessary to conclude the bill. 

Some groaned at that notion. One senator told Fox News that 12 hours later was a little late in the game to "start figuring out" something of that magnitude.

The Senate then toiled throughout the night Monday and into Tuesday. Thune and the GOP leadership finally cut a deal with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, on rural hospitals to marshal her vote. The Senate approved the bill late Tuesday morning after an all-night session. Vance was back to break the tie in what is called a "Van Halen" vote. The tally was 50-50 since three GOP senators defected. But Vance’s vote in favor made the roll call "51-50." 

For those who are uninitiated in the Van Halen discography, "5150" was Van Halen’s first album with new lead singer Sammy Hagar, supplanting David Lee Roth. It went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts. 

Then, it was on to the House.

HOUSE ADVANCES TRUMP'S MASSIVE AGENDA BILL AFTER FREEDOM CAUCUS CAVES

The House Rules Committee serves as a gateway for legislation to head to the floor. It convened a meeting early Tuesday afternoon. The Senate would soon send its revamped version of the big, beautiful bill across the Capitol Dome for the House to align. The Rules Committee then proceeded to meet until around 1 a.m. Wednesday, prepping the bill for the floor.

That meant the House could vote by late Wednesday afternoon.

But there was a problem.

House GOP leaders discovered what they termed a "technical error" in the rule. The entire House must first approve the rule before debating legislation on the floor. So the House needed to vote on the fix first. That vote started early Wednesday afternoon – and continued for another seven hours and 31 minutes. That established a record for the longest roll call vote in House history, topping a vote of seven hours and 21 minutes in 2021.

Some Republicans weren’t at the Capitol. But they held the vote open to buy time to work on skeptical GOP members who may be holdouts.

And around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., decided to double-dog dare anyone who was against the bill to put their voting card where their mouth was. Republican leaders closed the "technical correction" vote and proceeded to a vote on the "rule." If the House adopted the rule, it could formally debate the bill. The House was stuck if its members failed to approve the rule.

The tally board behind the dais in the House chamber populated relatively quickly. All 216 Democrats said no There were also four GOP no votes – and several who refused to vote yes. Republicans could only lose three votes and still pass the rule. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was a yes on the rule – even though he opposed the bill. He then switched to no as the vote dragged on. However, Massie ultimately supported the rule in the end.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES BREAKS KEVIN MCCARTHY RECORD WHILE STALLING TRUMP'S 'BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL'

Reps. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., Keith Self, R-Texas, Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., were no votes throughout the vote. But around 1 a.m., there was movement. The holdouts and some of those who voted no met with Johnson and other GOP leaders. That seemed to pry loose the votes of the holdouts and opponents – except Fitzpatrick. 

But there was a problem.

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa. – who had not voted – drove home to Pennsylvania. So everyone at the Capitol patiently waited for Perry to return. He did around 3:30 a.m. Thursday. Everyone but Fitzpatrick voted as a bloc in favor of the rule. The House had the votes to begin debate on the rule.

It looked as though the House might vote around daybreak on the actual bill itself.

But the office of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., had told Fox News on Wednesday that Jeffries intended to speak for an hour or so at the end of debate. There’s a custom in the House where top leaders of both parties are yielded "a minute" to speak on the floor. But this is a "magic minute." As a courtesy to those leaders, they speak as long as they want.

Jeffries began speaking just before 5 a.m. Thursday – and finally concluded eight hours and 45 minutes later just after 1:30 p.m. ET Thursday. Jeffries shattered the mark of eight hours and 32 minutes established by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in 2021. McCarthy set the record as minority leader. 

So those House members hoping to hop an early morning flight and get home for July 4 would have to wait.

Mike Johnson didn’t speak nearly as long as Jeffries. But he did observe that the late President Ronald Reagan once said that no speech should run longer than 20 minutes.

Johnson spoke for 23 minutes.

And then the House voted, finally passing the bill 218-214 at 2:31 p.m. Thursday. Fitzpatrick and Massie were the only GOP noes.

It is said that we never have enough time in life. And if you work on Capitol Hill, you’ll probably have even less thanks to congressional clock management.

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LeBron James reacts to speculation after he practiced at Cavaliers' facility: 'Yall bored man'

LeBron James' future is speculated to be in limbo, so when he was training at another team's facility, it raised some eyebrows.

James exercised his player option for the 2025-26 season, and with it has some rumors of retirement at the end of the season, or even a potential trade incoming.

In the midst of the conversation, it turned out that James wound up training at the practice facility of his former Cleveland Cavaliers.

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James took a photo with Denver Jones, who signed to the team's summer league roster, at the facility, and it prompted plenty reaction.

But James said it was a total nothingburger, saying he's practiced there "every summer since it was built."

"I live here still and train every summer. Got damn yall bored man! Go get a plate of food somewhere and enjoy the 4th of July!"

EX-NBA PLAYER BEN MCLEMORE FOUND GUILTY OF RAPE AFTER 11-DAY OREGON TRIAL

James, who is from nearby Akron, was drafted first overall to the Cavs in 2003, and played there until 2010 when he spent his next four seasons with the Miami Heat. James then returned to Cleveland in 2014 before heading to Los Angeles prior to the 2018-19 season to play for the Lakers, where he's played ever since.

James has since opened his "I Promise" school in Akron, and his entertainment company, "SpringHill Entertainment," is named after the housing complex where he was raised.

With the player option, James is set to enter his 23rd NBA season, which will be a new record.

In 2016, James helped the Cavs to the city's first professional sports championship in 52 years by leading the 3-1 comeback against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors.

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SCOTT BESSENT: President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' will unleash parallel prosperity

The same issues that drove the Founders to declare independence from the Crown in 1776 drove 77 million Americans to the polls in 2024: heavy taxes, weak leadership, and an overreaching government numb to the needs of its citizens. President Trump won in a landslide victory by offering powerful solutions to each of these problems. He is the American people's declaration of independence from business as usual in Washington.

The president seeks to serve "the forgotten men and women of America." And the One Big, Beautiful Bill, which he signs into law today, is central to that mission. This historic legislation will make life more affordable for all Americans by unleashing parallel prosperity—the idea that Main Street and Wall Street can grow together.

NEW PROJECTION SIGNALS GOOD NEWS FOR FAMILIES, WORKERS IN TRUMP'S 'BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL'

The One Big, Beautiful Bill represents the priorities of the new Republican Party, which includes millions of working-class Americans who once called themselves Democrats. This bill builds on the blue-collar renaissance started by President Trump. 

Since President Trump took office in January, blue-collar wages have increased 1.7%. This represents the largest increase in working-class wages to start a presidency in more than 50 years. For comparison, working-class wages decreased during the same period under every single president since Richard Nixon with only one exception—President Trump in his first term.

Key to sparking the president’s second blue-collar boom has been his efforts to end illegal immigration. The open-border policy of previous administrations accelerated our nation’s affordability crisis. The influx of millions of illegal aliens put an unsustainable strain on healthcare, housing, education and welfare. It also supported a black market in labor that artificially suppressed working-class wages for decades. But that ends with the One Big Beautiful Bill. 

The One Big Beautiful Bill is more than just a tax bill. It works to ensure that illegal immigrants are not taking advantage of the safety net created for Americans. The bill also funds the completion of the border wall and provides resources to hire thousands of additional federal agents to protect our country against future illegal immigration. The goal is to redirect the estimated $249 billion in annual wages paid to illegal workers to lawful workers and American citizens. Ending the black market of undocumented labor by funding enforcement of our existing immigration laws will result in a massive pay raise for the working class.

We have seen American workers benefit from the president’s economic approach before. Under President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, the net worth of the bottom 50% of households increased faster than the net worth of the top 10% of households. That will happen again under the One Big Beautiful Bill. 

The bill prevents a $4.5 trillion tax hike on the American people. This will allow the average worker to keep an additional $4,000 to $7,200 in annual real wages and allow the average family of four to keep an additional $7,600 to $10,900 in take-home pay. Add to this the president’s ambitious deregulation agenda, which could save the average family of four an additional $10,000. For millions of Americans, these savings are the difference between being able to make a mortgage payment, buy a car, or send a child to college. 

The president is delivering on his promise to seniors as well. The bill provides an additional $6,000 deduction for seniors, which will mean that 88% of seniors receiving Social Security income will pay no tax on their Social Security benefits. 

The One Big Beautiful Bill also codifies no tax on tips and no tax on overtime pay—both policies designed to provide financial relief to America’s working class. These tax breaks will ensure Main Street workers keep more of their hard-earned income. And they will bolster productivity by rewarding Americans who work extra hours. All Americans can learn how President Trump’s tax cuts will impact their lives for the better with a new White House calculator. 

These productivity-enhancing measures dovetail with the second booster in the blue-collar boom: providing 100% expensing for new factories and existing factories that expand operations, plus car loan interest deductibility to support Made-in-America. 

Economic security is national security. This became especially clear during COVID, which exposed glaring vulnerabilities in our critical supply chains. By providing 100% expensing for factories—in addition to rebalancing trade to encourage greater domestic production—President Trump is fortifying our supply chains and reawakening the might of America’s industrial base. 

To help fuel this effort, the president is unleashing American energy by removing onerous regulations, increasing oil and gas lease sales, eliminating the perverse subsidies of the Green New Scam, and refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. These measures will make life more affordable for American families by bringing down the costs of gas and electricity across the country.

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Through the One Big Beautiful Bill, President Trump is taking a bottom-up approach to restoring the economy. To that end, the bill makes the 2017 tax cuts permanent to give businesses of all sizes the certainty they need to grow, hire, and plan for the long term. It also provides targeted relief for small businesses by more than doubling the cap on overall small business expensing. These tax provisions will put billions of dollars back in the hands of America’s small business owners, which they can then use to expand their workforce and reinvigorate Main Street.

The intent of all these policies—be it tax cuts for the working class, full expensing for manufacturers, or new deductions for small businesses—is the same: to improve the lives of Americans on every rung of the economic ladder. With visionary leadership, President Trump is laying the foundation for the Golden Age he promised through tax deals, trade deals, peace deals, and deregulation.

The One Big Beautiful Bill will Make America Affordable Again. It will cement the blue-collar boom, reignite U.S. manufacturing, and unleash the commercial potential of the greatest economy in the world. Today marks the passage of the largest tax cut in history for our nation’s workers. It is a tribute to the Founders who demanded lower taxes themselves and is the perfect way to begin America’s 250th anniversary celebration.

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Left-leaning actress Natasha Lyonne leading efforts to lobby Trump admin on AI regulation

Left-leaning actress Natasha Lyonne is at the forefront of Hollywood efforts to get the government to address creators' concerns about AI infringing on their work.

"My primary interest is that people get paid for their life’s work," Lyonne said in a report in the Wall Street Journal. 

The story detailed Lyonne's efforts to lobby Hollywood heavyweights to sign onto her letter to the Trump administration in March, urging against the loosening of regulations around AI, which they deem a potential threat to their intellectual property without proper protections in place. 

The WSJ noted the White House's pending AI action plan "could influence how U.S. copyright rules are applied to training large language models," with tech companies like Google and OpenAI saying they need such models to keep theirs up to date and compete globally with rivals like China.

REPUBLICANS SCRAP DEAL IN 'BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL' TO LOWER RESTRICTIONS ON STATES' AI REGULATIONS

The Hollywood letter said the companies "are arguing for a special government exemption so they can freely exploit America’s creative and knowledge industries, despite their substantial revenues and available funds. There is no reason to weaken or eliminate the copyright protections that have helped America flourish."

Lyonne and more than 400 others, including such figures as Paul McCartney, Ron Howard and Ben Stiller, signed the letter.

Lyonne, known for her roles in the series "Poker Face" and "Russian Doll," is a partner in a new studio called Asteria, which describes itself as "an artist-led generative AI film and animation studio powered by the first clean and ethical AI model."

Like many figures in Hollywood, Lyonne is not a fan of the president, endorsing Kamala Harris in 2024 and posting in a now-deleted X post in 2020 about turning Texas blue to defeat Trump.

Earlier this year, she told The Hollywood Reporter she was concerned for marginalized communities, saying of Trump, "It’s very weird to have like a showbiz guy in charge, is surreal. I’m actually pretty horrified by how strategic and effective this whole thing has been."

FEDERAL AI POWER GRAB COULD END STATE PROTECTIONS FOR KIDS AND WORKERS

She added she was concerned that 12-year-olds wouldn't be able to get abortions, later clarifying that she was referring to young victims of rape or incest who may be forced to give birth.

The WSJ reported that Trump officials were unsure whether they'd take any action on the AI front, due to the complexities involved and having to take one side over another. 

There have been mixed rulings on the subject as well, with fair use arguments favoring companies like Meta and Anthropic in two cases last month because the copyrighted material used to train their AI models was sufficiently transformed, the Wall Street Journal reported. But others have favored copyright holders, depending on the context.

OpenAI and Google put forth their own submissions earlier this year to the White House Office of Science and Technology asking their respective companies to be able to train their models on copyrighted material.

"The federal government can both secure Americans’ freedom to learn from AI and avoid forfeiting our AI lead to the PRC [People's Republic of China] by preserving American AI models’ ability to learn from copyrighted material," OpenAI’s letter states.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON TAKES AIM AT COMPANIES USING HER LIKENESS, VOICE IN AI

Google’s letter states, "Balanced copyright rules, such as fair use and text-and-data mining exceptions, have been critical to enabling AI systems to learn from prior knowledge and publicly available data, unlocking scientific and social advances. These exceptions allow for the use of copyrighted, publicly available material for AI training without significantly impacting rightsholders and avoid often highly unpredictable, imbalanced, and lengthy negotiations with data holders during model development or scientific experimentation."

This week, a deal that had been reached between Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, over how states can regulate artificial intelligence was pulled from President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful" bill.

The collapsed agreement would have required states seeking to access hundreds of millions of dollars in AI infrastructure funding in the "big, beautiful" bill to refrain from adopting new regulations on the technology for five years, a compromise down from the original 10 years.

The White House didn't respond to a request for comment. Fox News Digital also reached out to Lyonne's representatives, as well as Google and OpenAI, for comment.

Fox News Digital's Elizabeth Stanton, Landon Mion and Kelly Phares contributed to this report.

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Adams, Cuomo push probe into Mamdani's college race claim; Sliwa slams it as distraction

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo are calling for a full investigation into allegations that Zohran Mamdani falsely identified himself as African American on his Columbia University application.

However, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa says the controversy is a distraction from Mamdani’s socialist agenda and only turns him into a victim, energizing his supporters and swaying undecided voters.

Both Adams and Cuomo warned that Mamdani’s alleged racial misrepresentation could signal deeper deceit — with the Adams campaign calling the move "possibly fraudulent" and Cuomo’s campaign warning it might be "just the tip of the iceberg." 

CURTIS SLIWA VOWS TO STAY IN NYC MAYORAL RACE AS DONORS PLOT TO STOP MAMDANI

Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, identified as "Black or African American" on his 2009 Columbia University application, even though he now says he does not consider himself Black, The New York Times reported Thursday. Mamdani, then a high school senior, also checked "Asian" and reportedly wrote in "Ugandan" in the space for additional background. He was ultimately not accepted to Columbia, even though his father is a professor at the elite school. He was not a U.S. citizen at the time.

Mamdani told The Times he identifies as "an American who was born in Africa," and said checking multiple boxes was an effort to reflect his "complex background" and not to gain an edge in the competitive admissions process.

However, Adams condemned Mamdani’s actions as "an insult to every student who got into college the right way." 

"The African American identity is not a checkbox of convenience," Adams said. "It’s a history, a struggle, and a lived experience. For someone to exploit that for personal gain is deeply offensive."

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for the Cuomo campaign, echoed the calls from the Adams camp. 

"This should come as no surprise as Mamdani — his proposals, his funding, and his background — received absolutely no scrutiny," Azzopardi said. "This issue must be fully investigated because, if true, it could be fraud and just the tip of the iceberg."

Adams is running as an Independent, having been elected as a Democrat in late 2021, while Cuomo is weighing an independent route to Gracie Mansion, having lost to Mamdani in the Democratic primary. 

ACKMAN BACKS ADAMS TO STOP SOCIALIST MAMDANI, CALLS ON CUOMO TO DROP OUT

Sliwa, on the other hand, is taking the high road and sees the controversy as a political distraction that will only help Mamdani’s cause.

"There’s so much we can criticize Zoran for…to me, what are we doing here?" Sliwa told Fox News Digital. "We're making him a martyr. We're victimizing Zohran and getting away from the issues of why his election would be a threat to New York City.

"He’s being attacked as a Muslim, he’s being mocked for how he eats in a video. Stop that. You’re enraging people who might otherwise disagree with him on the issues. You’re galvanizing his support."

Mamdani’s win has caused a political earthquake in the Big Apple, striking fear into moderates, independents, conservatives — and even parts of the Democrat Party — who believe his socialist policies could have devastating and long-lasting consequences on the financial capital of the world. Mamdani ran on a platform that included economic policies aligned with progressives and socialists in the Democratic Party, such as a $30 minimum wage, tax hikes on businesses and the rich, and other policies, like creating city-owned grocery stores and imposing a rent freeze for stabilized tenants.

Sliwa warned critics that critics are handing Mamdani a political gift. 

"Even people who don’t agree with him on the issues will rally to his defense when they think the attacks are unfair or over the top," Sliwa added. "Let's get back to the issues where there are clear differences between how Zohran Mamdani wants to run the city and the way I want to run this city — or Eric Adams or Andrew Cuomo. Stop this, you're just victimizing him."

The Adams campaign is calling on Columbia University to publicly release Mamdani’s 2009 admissions records, clarify whether his non-citizen status influenced admissions or financial aid decisions, and conduct a formal review to determine whether any university policies were violated.

"We need answers," Adams spokesperson Todd Shapiro said. "Because the people of New York deserve to know whether the man asking for their vote built his career on a possibly fraudulent foundation."

Fox News Digital reached out to the Mamdani campaign about the controversy and his opponents' takes on it but did not immediately receive a response. 

Mamdani told The Times that aside from those college forms, he doesn’t recall ever identifying as Black or African American. His parents are both of Indian descent. His father, Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani, has lived in East Africa for generations, but Mamdani said there had been no intermarriage in the family with native African groups.

Mamdani has leaned into his South Asian and Muslim identity on the campaign trail. 

During a June speech at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, he also stressed his African roots, saying, "I was born in Kampala, Uganda... I was given my middle name, Kwame, by my father, who named me after the first Prime Minister of Ghana."

Fox News’ Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report. 

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Dr. Phil’s Merit Street Media files for bankruptcy, sues Trinity Broadcasting

Dr. Phil McGraw’s Texas-based media company filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday and simultaneously filed a breach of contract lawsuit against business partner Trinity Broadcasting Group, which specializes in Christian programming.

Merit Street Media, which was formed in 2023 and launched Merit TV in 2024, is a joint venture of McGraw’s Peteski Productions and Trinity Broadcasting. McGraw agreed to provide Merit Street with new episodes of his "Dr. Phil Show," primetime specials and other content, while Trinity Broadcasting contributed distribution and production services, according to the lawsuit that essentially blames the Christian broadcaster for the bankruptcy. 

Merit Street accused Trinity Broadcasting of reneging on its obligations and abusing "its position as the controlling shareholder of Merit Street to improperly and unilaterally burden Merit Street with unsustainable debt, doing so either without notice or in direct violation of promises not to do so."

DR. PHIL SAYS LEGACY MEDIA IS 'CREATING CRIMINALS' BY DISTORTING LA RIOT COVERAGE

"This lawsuit arises out of a sad but oft told story: one side lived up to its commitments but the other, the Defendant [Trinity], did not. Moreover, these failures by [Trinity] were neither unintended nor inadvertent. They were a conscious, intentional pattern of choices made with full awareness that the consequence of which was to sabotage and seal the fate of a new but already nationally acclaimed network," the complaint, filed in conjunction with the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, stated. 

"This fresh voice on the national stage is inexorably going dark, going off the air because TBN has refused to honor its commitment to transfer its must carry rights and thereby provide national distribution for the network—Merit Street," the complaint continued. "And this conduct stretches beyond mere breach of contract and extends to breach of fiduciary duty and breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing—the full extent to which may require a forensic accounting audit."

Trinity "formed Merit Street as a joint venture and contractually committed to provide valuable services to the joint venture," according to the complaint. 

DR. PHIL EXCORIATES ILHAN OMAR, CALLS HER BASHING OF AMERICA 'ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING'

"But [Trinity] then reneged on its obligations and abused its position as the controlling shareholder of Merit Street to improperly and unilaterally burden Merit Street with unsustainable debt, doing so either without notice or in direct violation of promises not to do so," the complaint stated, noting that it owes over $100 million to third parties and that Trinity, referred to as "TBN" in court documents, should be responsible. 

"The most egregious impact is TBN’s conscious and knowing choice to cause Merit Street to lose its national distribution by withholding distribution payments despite repeatedly acknowledging those distribution payments were 100% TBN’s sole responsibility. Simply put, as a result of TBN’s conduct, Merit Street has nowhere to send its broadcast signal and nowhere to air its programming no matter how great it may be," the complaint stated. 

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Merit Street bills itself as an organization that "provides clarity and solutions on the issues and topics that matter most to Americans," including "traditional family content," news, sports, music, true crime and more. 

The bankruptcy filing lists both estimated assets and liabilities in the $100-$500 million range. Merit Street is seeking damages, legal costs, and "further relief as the Court may deem just and proper."

Trinity Broadcasting did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital. 

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Jake Paul now eligible for championship fight as he officially enters WBA cruiserweight rankings

After recording his 12th professional win over the weekend, Jake Paul may now have no choice but to attempt to silence his critics.

Paul defeated former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the son of the boxing legend who held five different world titles in four different weight classes, on Saturday in Anaheim, and moved to 12-1.

With the victory, Paul is now officially ranked for the first time, coming in at No. 14 in the WBA cruiserweight rankings.

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This now makes him eligible for a title bout against Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramirez, who is 48-1. Ramirez defended his title in the co-main event on Saturday, beating Yuniel Dorticos (ranked No. 7) before Paul and Chavez Jr. took the ring.

Paul's career has often been mocked due to his opponents - fighters who are either out of their primes. like Mike Tyson, Anderson Silva and Tyron Woodley, or unpopular pros like Ryan Bourland and Andre August. However, he has been adamant that he wants to become a world champion. 

In fact, he made the prediction to Fox News Digital that he would win a title before the summer of 2028.

Paul was recently challenged by Piers Morgan about his opponents, namely super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, but Paul again claimed that Alvarez "ducked" him.

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"Anderson Silva, Tyron Woodley, champions in their sport. Gold Gloves champions, Ryan Bourland, Andre August, undefeated fighters. The list goes on," Paul said to Morgan before his fight against Chavez Jr. "Former world champion on Saturday, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. I don't know what you guys want to see. I tried to fight Canelo, he ducked out of it… I'm trying to fight the best people. That's why Chavez is here on Saturday. I want Canelo, I want Anthony Joshua. I want all of these people. It's been five years in this sport.

"I've fought multiple boxers with professional records, including Mike Tyson himself."

Paul said back in February that he and Alvarez were in "deep negotiations" for a fight that would have occurred during Cinco de Mayo weekend. However, Alvarez wound up signing a four-fight deal with Riyadh Season to fight in Saudi Arabia.

"It’s disappointing to see how the situation unfolded. MVP operates with integrity, transparency and respect for the sport, its athletes and the fans. Unfortunately, not everyone in the boxing world shares those values," Paul's Most Valuable Promotions said at the time.

Both Paul's and Ramirez's next opponents are TBD, but perhaps the fact that both co-main evented the same card could be a form of foreshadowing. 

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Afternoon napping could have surprising impact on longevity, study suggests

A new study linking daytime napping to increased mortality rates in older adults may have some rethinking that midday snooze.

The study, presented last month at SLEEP 2025, the 39th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Seattle, Washington, found that frequent, longer and irregular daytime naps — especially in the early afternoon — were linked to a higher risk of death over an eight-year period.

"Our study fills a gap in knowledge," lead author Chenlu Gao, a postdoctoral research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told Fox News Digital.

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The research shows "not just whether someone naps, but how long, how variable, and when they nap during the day may be meaningful indicators of future health risk," he said.

The study included 86,565 participants averaging 63 years of age — all of whom worked regular daytime schedules — who were monitored by actigraphy, which detects movement during sleep but not brain activity. 

Scientists defined daytime napping as sleeping between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.

After the initial study, researchers kept tabs on the participants for eight years and discovered that 5,189 (6.0%) of them died during that time period.

MOST AMERICANS HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON EVERY MORNING — HERE’S WHY IT COULD BE BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH

The research showed that taking longer naps — and napping between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. or between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. — was associated with a higher mortality rate.

Results were adjusted for other potential factors influencing mortality, like demographics, weight, smoking, alcohol consumption and nighttime sleep duration, the researchers stated.

"Naps are not necessarily problematic unless they are used to compensate for chronically poor sleep at night," Dr. Chelsie Rohrscheib, a neuroscientist and sleep specialist at Wesper in New York, told Fox News Digital.

"Getting seven to nine hours of good quality sleep is required to maintain health and reduce the risk of developing dangerous medical conditions like heart disease and diabetes," added Rohrscheib, who was not involved in the study.

The study did not establish proof that naps directly affect the risk of death.

"These are associations," Gao told Fox News Digital. "We cannot conclude from this study whether napping causes poor health."

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In another potential limitation, because the study relied on detecting movement but not brain activity, "quiet wakefulness" may have been misclassified as sleep. 

Additionally, defining daytime napping as sleep between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. could have mistakenly included participants’ actual sleep, affecting the accuracy of what would count as a nap, the researchers stated.

Excessive napping could also be a marker of other health issues, such as chronic disease, systemic inflammation, or disruptions to circadian rhythms, which may themselves increase mortality risk. 

"Someone who requires daily naps to get through the day is likely not getting sufficient sleep during the night, or has an underlying health condition that causes daytime sleepiness," Rohrscheib noted.

Gao added, "We need more research to understand the causal relationships before we can conclude that a certain type of napping pattern would benefit health."

"However, we suggest that monitoring napping patterns might help us identify health conditions early, so that we can implement interventions accordingly."

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine encourages healthy adults to limit naps to no longer than 20 to 30 minutes in the early afternoon.

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While a brief "power nap" can improve daytime alertness and performance, naps of 30 minutes or longer may cause a person to feel groggy after waking up. This grogginess, or "sleep inertia," can delay the short-term benefits of a nap, experts say.

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Overall, the findings suggest that when it comes to mid-day snoozing, moderation is key — and that napping patterns could be a window into broader health concerns worth discussing with a medical provider.

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