President Donald Trump is considering a small tax increase for wealthy Americans to help pay for his priorities to boost the middle and working classes.

A source familiar with Trump’s thinking told Fox News Digital that Trump is considering allowing the rate on individuals making $2.5 million or more to increase by 2.6%, from 37% to 39.6%.

He quietly pushed Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on the idea in a phone call on Wednesday, two people familiar with conversations told Fox News Digital.

It comes as Republicans work on a massive piece of legislation advancing Trump’s priorities on taxes, border security, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt, which the president has dubbed his ‘big, beautiful bill.’

Differing projections show the bill is likely to add trillions of dollars to the country’s deficit over the next 10 years, so fiscal hawks are looking for ways to mitigate that and set up America for a less bloated government down the line by pairing the new priorities with deep spending cuts elsewhere.

The tax portion of the bill is expected to be the costliest portion. 

Republicans are hoping to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) as well as pay for newer Trump priorities like eliminating taxes on tips, overtime wages and retirees’ Social Security.

TCJA previously lowered taxes for the highest bracket from 39.6% to 37%, but that’s set to expire at the end of 2025. Trump wants to restore that top bracket, albeit for people making significantly more money than the current threshold. The current top tax bracket is $609,350 for single income earners.

The source familiar with Trump’s thinking said doing so would help pay for his ‘massive’ tax cuts for the middle and working classes, as well as protect Medicaid coverage for millions of Americans.

Punchbowl News first reported details of the Trump-Johnson phone call.

It’s not clear yet what Republicans will decide, or even if they will ultimately decide to raise taxes on the highest earners – but details are expected to emerge in the coming days.

The Ways & Means Committee, the House’s tax-writing panel, is expected to meet on Tuesday afternoon to advance that portion of Trump’s bill.

Talks about potential tax hikes on the wealthy have triggered a deep rift within the Republican Party. 

Mainstream conservatives have balked at discussions of raising rates on anyone, arguing it would have a negative impact on job creators, while populist and more moderate Republicans have floated such ideas in order to pay for Trump’s priorities to benefit the middle and working classes.

‘Raising taxes on America’s highest earners and biggest job creators makes no sense,’ Marc Short, a former chief of staff to ex-Vice President Mike Pence and a key part of TCJA negotiations, told Fox News Digital.

‘I don’t understand why there are some inside the current administration who are pushing Congress to raise the top rate, because again, these are America’s job creators.’

Other Republicans told Fox News Digital in recent weeks that they believe the idea could be popular, however.

‘I’m open-minded to what the president or the treasury secretary may have in mind. And I would want to see some numbers behind it and how it would have an effect on the economy,’ conservative Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital in late April.

‘What I’ve heard from people in the upper tax brackets is, you know, they’re willing to pay more as long as they know that it’s paying the debt down. They don’t want to see it go toward more spending.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Johnson’s office for comment.

A pair of hawkish, Trump-supporting Senate Republicans say that any ‘lasting’ Iran nuclear deal would need to be approved by Congress, ideally through a two-thirds majority treaty vote. 

But scoring a two-thirds majority in the Senate for treaty ratification would require Iran to fulfill a series of steep demands. In addition to getting rid of all of its enriched uranium and centrifuges, GOP lawmakers say it would need to dismantle its ballistic missile program and cease all support for terrorist groups across the Middle East.

‘If they want the most durable and lasting kind of deal, then they want to bring it to the Senate and have it voted on as a treaty,’ Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in response to a question from Fox News Digital. 

‘That was one reason why President Obama’s deal was so weak,’ Cotton went on. ‘An agreement between the American president, whoever he or she may be, and a foreign leader, can be reversed by future presidents, which President Trump rightly did seven years ago today.’

In 2015, Cotton led an open letter signed by Senate Republicans to Iranian leaders warning that any nuclear agreement not approved by Congress could be undone by a future administration. The move was widely viewed as a direct effort to undermine President Barack Obama’s ongoing negotiations.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., echoed the call for congressional oversight, saying that ‘at a minimum’ any deal must go through the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (INARA), which passed Congress in 2015 with resounding bipartisan support and guarantees lawmakers a chance to review any accord reached with Tehran.

Graham said he had told Secretary of State Marco Rubio there was ‘no way’ to get 67 votes to ratify a treaty agreement without Iran totally dismantling its nuclear and missile programs and support for terrorism. 

The senators also drew a parallel with the so-called 123 agreements – the legal frameworks that govern U.S. civil nuclear cooperation with foreign nations. These agreements require strict safeguards to prevent the development of nuclear weapons.

‘It’s also customary in some cases for the Congress, not just the Senate, to pass ordinary legislation that supports the so-called 123 agreements,’ Cotton noted, suggesting that any comprehensive deal with Iran should be treated with similar legislative rigor.

Cotton and Graham spoke to reporters after introducing a resolution outlining ‘acceptable’ terms of an Iran deal, including total cessation of uranium enrichment. 

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has amassed enough highly enriched uranium to potentially build several nuclear weapons if it chose to do so – though U.S. intelligence assessments maintain that Tehran has not yet made a decision to weaponize.

Both U.S. and Israeli officials have ramped up their threats against the regime. Trump has made clear that if talks go south, the U.S. will engage in direct military action to thwart Iran’s nuclear program. 

Graham suggested the regime only has ‘weeks’ to acquiesce to a deal. 

‘We’re not talking about long, protracted negotiations,’ the South Carolina Republican said. ‘We’re talking weeks, not months, not years. The potential of Iranian breakout looms large here. Israel’s desire to bring closure to this issue looms large here.’

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts used a public appearance Wednesday to stress the importance of an independent judiciary, doubling down on defense of the courts under fire by President Donald Trump and his allies, who have accused so-called ‘activist judges’ of overstepping their bounds.

Asked during a fireside chat event in Buffalo, New York, about judicial independence, Roberts responded in no uncertain terms that the role of the federal courts is to ‘decide cases, but in the course of that, check the excesses of Congress or the executive.’

That role, he added, ‘does require a degree of independence.’

Roberts’ remarks are not new. But they come as Trump and his allies have railed against federal judges who have paused or halted key parts of the president’s agenda. (Some of the rulings they’ve taken issue with came from judges appointed by Trump in his first term.)

The Supreme Court is slated to hear a number of high-profile cases and emergency appeals filed by the Trump administration in the next few months, cases that are all but certain to keep the high court in the spotlight for the foreseeable future.

Among them are Trump’s executive orders banning transgender service members from serving in the U.S. military, restoring fired federal employees to their jobs and a case about whether children whose parents illegally entered the U.S. and were born here should be granted citizenship. Oral arguments for that last case kick off next week.

Just hours before Roberts spoke to U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo, a high-stakes hearing played out in federal court in Washington, D.C.

There, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg spent more than an hour grilling Justice Department lawyers about their use of the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport hundreds of migrants to El Salvador earlier this year. 

Boasberg’s March 15 order that temporarily blocked Trump’s use of the law to send migrants to a Salvadoran prison sparked ire from the White House and in Congress, where some Trump allies had previously floated calls for impeachment.

Roberts, who put out a rare public statement at the time rebuking calls to impeach Boasberg or any federal judges, doubled down on that in Wednesday’s remarks.

‘Impeachment is not how you register disagreement with a decision,’ Roberts said, adding that he had already spoken about that in his earlier statement.

In the statement, sent by Roberts shortly after Trump floated the idea of impeaching Boasberg, said that ‘for more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,’ he said.

‘The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,’ he said in the statement. 

President Donald Trump touted his administration’s efforts to rebuild and modernize U.S. air traffic control, as the Department of Transportation rolled out its three-year plan to build a brand-new, ‘state-of-the-art’ system to address critical safety needs, while blasting former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for having ‘no clue.’ 

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Thursday unveiled the proposal, which would replace the current, antiquated Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system and ‘enhance safety in the sky, reduce delays and unlock the future of air travel.’ 

‘Under President Trump, America is building again,’ Duffy said Thursday, upon rolling out the new proposal for a ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a brand new, state-of-the-art air traffic control system.’ 

‘Decades of neglect have left us with an outdated system that is showing its age,’ Duffy said, noting that building the new system ‘is an economic and national security necessity, and the time to fix it is now.’

Under the new air traffic control system proposal, the FAA would replace infrastructure, including radar, software, hardware and telecommunications networks, to manage modern travel. 

Officials say the current system was built ‘for the past,’ but the new proposal is to build a system ‘for the future.’ 

The plan would ensure facilities are equipped with better technologies to reduce outages, improve efficiency and reinforce safety. 

‘We’re going to be buying a brand-new, state of the art system that will cover the entire world,’ Trump said earlier Thursday. 

The plan consists of four infrastructure components: communications, surveillance, automation and facilities, according to the Transportation Department. 

Officials plan, by 2028, to replace current telecommunications systems with new fiber, wireless and satellite technologies at more than 4,600 sites, 25,000 new radios and 475 new voice switches. By 2027, 618 radars will also be replaced.  

The plan also would address runway safety by increasing the number of airports with Surface Awareness Initiative to 200. Officials expect this to be complete by 2027. 

The Transportation Department also proposed building six new air traffic control centers for the first time since the 1960s. It also proposes replacing 15 towers and 15 co-located TRACONs, or Terminal Radar Approach Controls, which are facilities that manage air traffic in the airspace surrounding busy airports. 

Officials also proposed the installation of new modern hardware and software for all air traffic facilities, which would create a common platform system throughout all towers, TRACONs and centers. 

The proposal also includes the deployment of additional technologies to the Caribbean and Alaska to provide accurate, real-time surveillance and weather information for air traffic control and pilots to ensure ‘safe and efficient flights for these critical locations.’ 

Officials stressed the need for a new air traffic control system, saying the FAA is grappling with a ‘rapidly growing, complex and demanding aviation sector,’ as commercial air travel returns to pre-COVID levels. Officials also pointed to novel challenges, including drones and advanced air mobility. 

Officials said the FAA’s current systems ‘are showing their age,’ which leads to ‘delays and inefficiencies.’ 

The Department of Transportation stressed that the current National Airspace System is ‘safe,’ but stressed that maintaining safety is necessary. 

The proposal is based on a three-year framework to reinvest in the National Airspace System, and called for an ’emergency supplemental funding increase.’ 

‘Modernization of the NAS can no longer take 10+ years to complete; it must be done now,’ the proposal states. ‘We need an immediate infusion of funding to address critical infrastructure needs.’ 

Duffy, on Thursday, said the project would take three to four years. 

‘I need help, I can’t do it by myself. And it’s going to take the help of the Congress to make that happen,’ Duffy said. ‘We need all of the money up front.’ 

Duffy said requesting the money in ‘small tranches’ over the course of several years would extend the project. 

‘Politics change, leadership changes, presidents change, interest changes, and it never gets built,’ Duffy said. ‘So I’m going to ask the Congress for upfront appropriations to give us all the money. I’ll come before the Congress every, every quarter and give them an update of how far we’ve built, how much money we’ve spent.’ 

Duffy added that if the Department of Transportation is not given the money, it would take ’10 to 15 years to build this.’ 

‘And by the time we get done with it, what we’re going to build is already going to be old technology,’ Duffy said. ‘So we want to build this in three to four years, and we can do it with the help of Congress.’ 

A report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in March shows that the Trump administration inherited an outdated FAA system from the Biden administration with ‘severe shortcomings’ that resulted in dangerous travel conditions across the country.

After Trump’s return to the White House, the GAO advised the administration that it had made nine recommendations to the FAA under the Biden administration that remain open, and that ‘urgent attention’ is needed to remedy the safety issues left by Biden.

GAO said that under the Biden administration the FAA ‘did not prioritize or establish near-term plans to modernize unsustainable and critical systems.’

The GAO’s 2025 report said the 2023 national airspace prompted an operational risk assessment, which found that of the 138 air traffic control systems, ’51 (37%) were deemed unsustainable by FAA and 54 (39%) were potentially unsustainable.’

Trump, on Thursday, blasted the current ‘ancient infrastructure,’ saying ‘it’s buckling under the weight of more than a billion flying passengers a year and supporting hundreds of billions of dollars.’  

‘Pete Buttigieg, who was the secretary of transportation, had no clue what the problem was,’ Trump said. ‘He had no clue. Zero. Zero.’ 

Trump said Buttigieg ‘wants to run for president.’ 

‘I don’t think he’s going to do too well,’ Trump said. ‘The federal government now pays $250 million annually just to keep up the old equipment and keep it running.’

Meanwhile, Duffy on Thursday said the administration has assembled an ‘unprecedented coalition of support’ from labor to industry, stressing that support is ‘indicative of just how important it is to this administration to get done what no one else could.’  

Duffy added: ‘The American people are counting on us, and we won’t let them down.’

The rollout of the proposal comes just days after the FAA issued a ground delay for Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey due to staffing shortages, weather and construction.

‘Our antiquated air traffic control system is affecting our workforce,’ an FAA statement said. ‘As Secretary Duffy has said, we must get the best safety technology in the hands of controllers as soon as possible.’

It also comes after air traffic controller audio was made public from when radar and radio communications with planes were briefly lost at Newark Airport on April 28. 

The April 28 outage lasted roughly 90 seconds. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association confirmed the incident to Fox News Digital, writing that the FAA’s operation in Philadelphia had ‘temporarily lost radar and communications with the aircraft under their control, unable to see, hear, or talk to them.’

Fox Business’ Grady Trimble contributed to this report. 

The White House will unveil a new nominee to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, following resistance to the administration’s current pick, according to President Donald Trump. 

Trump had nominated Ed Martin, a former defense attorney who represented Americans charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, for the role. Martin has taken on the responsibilities of the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., since January. 

However, the Senate has held up confirming Martin, amid concerns from lawmakers. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced Tuesday he wouldn’t endorse Martin. 

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, also opposed Martin’s nomination. Specifically, Durbin said Martin provided several false statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

On Thursday, Trump suggested he would put forward another candidate who would receive broader backing than Martin. 

‘He wasn’t getting the support from people that I thought,’ Trump told reporters at the White House Thursday. ‘You know, he’s done a very good job. Crime is down 25% in DC during this period of time… I can only lift that little phone so many times of the day. But we have somebody else.’

‘I have to be straight. I was disappointed,’ Trump said. ‘A lot of people were disappointed. But that’s the way it works. Sometimes, you know, that’s the way it works. And he wasn’t rejected, but we felt it would be very – it would be hard. And we have somebody else that will be announcing over the next two days who’s going to be great.’ 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Trump’s decision to replace Martin came amid a May 20 deadline to confirm the former defense attorney and ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer. That’s because if the Senate fails to confirm a U.S. attorney nominee within 120 days, federal district court judges may select an interim U.S. attorney, according to the Department of Justice. 

Judge James Boasberg is the current chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Boasberg has become intertwined in several key cases against the Trump administration and has attracted scrutiny from the White House for blocking deportation flights in March.

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report. 

The Trump administration on Thursday targeted Iranian oil with a new slate of sanctions – a move that increases pressure on the Islamic Republic amid talks between U.S. and Iranian officials to make a deal to prevent nuclear proliferation, Fox News Digital has learned. 

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control increased pressure on Iran’s export of oil Thursday, designating the ‘teapot’ refinery Hebei Xinhai Chemical Group Co., Ltd., and three port terminal operators in Shandong province, China, for their role in purchasing or facilitating the delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil. 

The ‘teapot’ refineries purchase the majority of Iranian crude oil exports, according to the Treasury Department. 

The Treasury Department on Thursday is also imposing sanctions on several companies, vessels and captains they say are responsible for facilitating Iranian oil shipments as part of Iran’s so-called ‘shadow fleet.’ The companies and vessels are all China-based. 

‘As part of President Trump’s broad and aggressive maximum pressure campaign, Treasury today is targeting another teapot refinery that imported Iranian oil,’ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. ‘The United States remains resolved to intensify pressure on all elements of Iran’s oil supply chain to prevent the regime from generating revenue to further its destabilizing agenda.’

The sanctions come following President Donald Trump’s executive order, which targets Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical sectors – as well as another executive order targeting those that provide support to the National Iranian Oil Company. 

Thursday’s sanctions are the latest round targeting Iranian oil sales since the president, in early February, issued a national security memorandum that instituted a campaign of ‘maximum economic pressure on Iran.’ 

As for Iran’s ‘shadow fleet,’ Tehran relies on obscure ship management companies to manage its fleet of tankers that ‘mask’ Iran’s petroleum shipments to China using ship-to-ship transfers with sanctioned vessels. 

The Treasury Department on Thursday took action to increase pressure on that ‘shadow fleet’ of actors by designating ships as ‘blocked property.’

Any violation of U.S. sanctions may result in the imposition of civil or criminal penalties on U.S. or foreign persons, the Treasury Department said. 

The imposition of sanctions comes as the United States and Iran prepare for a fourth round of nuclear talks. U.S. and Iranian officials are set for the next round of talks to take place in Oman in the coming days. 

Trump is scheduled to travel to the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Vice President JD Vance recently previewed the next round of talks, saying Wednesday the U.S. was negotiating toward a ‘complete cessation’ of Tehran’s nuclear program. 

The Trump administration has said the flawed 2015 Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear feal, did not prevent Iran from building an atomic bomb, with Vance adding that the agreement had ‘incredibly weak’ enforcement regarding inspections. 

Vance said he didn’t believe it ‘actually served the function of preventing the Iranians from getting on the pathway to nuclear weapons.’  

Vance also said the Trump administration believes that there were some elements of the Iranian nuclear program that were actually ‘preserved’ under the JCPOA. 

‘Yes, there weren’t nuclear weapons. Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon,’ Vance said, arguing the deal ‘allowed Iran to sort of stay on this glide path toward a nuclear weapon if they flip the switch and press go.’ 

‘We think that there is a deal here that would reintegrate Iran into the global economy,’ Vance said ahead of the talks. ‘That would be really good for the Iranian people, but would result in the complete cessation of any chance that they can get a nuclear weapon. And that’s what we’re negotiating toward. And as the president has said, that’s Option A.’ 

If Option A is ‘very good for the Iranian people,’ Vance said, then Option B ‘is very bad.’ 

‘It’s very bad for everybody,’ Vance said. ‘And it’s not what we want, but it’s better than Option C, which is Iran getting a nuclear weapon. That is what is completely off the table for the American administration. No ifs, ands or buts.’ 

As for Trump, he said during a recent interview on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that he would only accept ‘total dismantlement’ of Iran’s nuclear program. 

China is eager to hash out a trade deal with the U.S., according to President Donald Trump. 

Trump’s remarks come as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is poised to launch trade negotiations with China in Switzerland on Saturday amid a steep tariff battle between Washington and Beijing.  

‘Scott’s going to be going to Switzerland, meeting with China,’ Trump told reporters Thursday at the White House. ‘And you know, they very much want to make a deal. We can all play games. Who made the first call, who didn’t make them? It doesn’t matter. Only matters what happens in that room. But I will tell you that China very much wants to make a deal. We’ll see how that works out.’

The Trump administration announced widespread tariffs for multiple countries on April 2, following criticism that other countries’ trade practices are unfair toward the U.S.

The administration later adjusted its initial proposal and announced on April 9 it would immediately impose a 145% tariff on Chinese goods, while reducing reciprocal tariffs on other countries for 90 days to a baseline of 10%. China responded by raising tariffs on U.S. goods to 125%.

Bessent said Tuesday that negotiations between the U.S. and China had not started, after China said Friday that Beijing was open to holding talks if the tariffs were rescinded. 

Trump told reporters on Air Force One Sunday he wants a ‘fair’ trade deal with China, claiming discussions with Beijing were in the works on multiple issues.  

Trump has voiced support for tariffs for decades. The White House has called for tariffs to address the nation’s 2024 record $1.2 trillion trade deficit, and said the tariffs will bring back U.S. manufacturing jobs. 

Bessent cautioned in April that the tariffs could cost China up to 10 million jobs, and said it’s incumbent upon Beijing to remove current tariffs on U.S. imports. 

‘I think that over time we will see that the Chinese tariffs are unsustainable for China. I’ve seen some very large numbers over the past few days that show if these numbers stay on, Chinese could lose 10 million jobs very quickly,’ Bessent told reporters at the White House on April 29. ‘And even if there is a drop in the tariffs that they could lose 5 million jobs.’

‘So remember that we are the deficit country,’ Bessent said. ‘They sell almost five times more goods to us than we sell to them. So the onus will be on them to take off these tariffs. They’re unsustainable for them.’

Bessent also told lawmakers Tuesday that the U.S. has launched discussions with various countries, and indicated that major trade deals could be announced ‘as early as this week.’