Two migrants, including one reportedly on the U.S. terrorist watchlist, are in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after they allegedly attempted to drive a delivery truck past security guards and into Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, officials said.

The truck with two people was stopped by military sentries on May 3, base spokesman Capt. Michael Curtis said Wednesday, per the Stars and Stripes.

The truck’s operator told military police officers they were making a delivery with an Amazon subcontractor, but because the two had no credentials to enter, military police directed them to go through standard vetting procedures, Curtis said.

At that time, the driver attempted to take the vehicle onto base, causing officers to deploy vehicle denial barriers and detain the individuals before turning them over to ICE custody.

The migrants’ immigration status is unclear, but according to the Patomac Local News: “Multiple sources report one of the individuals inside the truck is a Jordanian foreign national who recently crossed the southern border into the U.S., and that one of the occupants is on the U.S. terrorist watch list.”

President Joe Biden has asserted executive privilege to block House committees from obtaining audio recordings of his own interviews with special counsel Robert Hur about Biden’s handling of classified documents.

The White House counsel’s office notified House GOP investigators of the move hours before Republicans were expected to recommend holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over the audio. Rather than changing the GOP’s plan, the privilege assertion sparked a wave of outrage from Republicans, who are moving forward with their planned contempt vote.

Hur’s description of his interviews with Biden — laid out in a 345-page report released in February — fueled a firestorm over the president’s memory and mental fitness. In that report, Hur said Biden could potentially defend himself in court, if charges were recommended, by appealing to jurors as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Biden pushed back with a fiery news conference defending his acuity.

While the transcripts of the interviews have already been released, Biden’s effort to block the recordings puts him in a politically awkward position: He has insisted that Hur has mischaracterized the interviews but is nonetheless trying to maintain secrecy over the raw audio.

“The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal — to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes,” White House Counsel Ed Siskel wrote in the letter to Republican House leaders Thursday morning revealing Biden’s decision. “Demanding such sensitive and constitutionally-protected law enforcement materials from the Executive Branch because you want to manipulate them for potential political gain is inappropriate.”

Garland asked Biden to block release of the audio recordings, citing concerns that making them public could prompt high-ranking White House officials to be less cooperative in future investigations.

“The Committees’ needs are plainly insufficient to outweigh the deleterious effects that productions of the recordings would have on the integrity and effectiveness of similar law enforcement investigations in the future,” Garland wrote in a letter to Biden dated Wednesday.

During a brief exchange with reporters at the Justice Department Thursday morning, Garland defended the privilege claim as a principled one and suggested the House was demanding the audio as part of a broader campaign to delegitimize the department and federal law enforcement more generally.

“We have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the committees get responses to their legitimate requests, but this is not one,” the attorney general said. “To the contrary, this is one that would harm our ability in the future to successfully pursue sensitive investigations.”

White House Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed scrutiny of the decision, telling reporters on Thursday that “for one, the transcript, as you all know, is already out there.” “The attorney general made it clear that law enforcement files like these need to be protected, and so the president made his determination at the request of the attorney general,” she said.

Jean-Pierre declined to address questions about the White House’s concern that Republicans would use the audio for political purposes, saying she didn’t “want to dive into the specific point” and referring further inquires to the White House counsel’s office.

Republicans are reviewing Hur’s investigation and Biden’s handling of classified documents as part of a sweeping impeachment inquiry into the president. Though the broad impeachment effort has largely stalled thanks to skepticism from a broad swath of Republican lawmakers, Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) are still quietly investigating.

And the arguments from DOJ and the White House did little to tamp down Republican angst, from Donald Trump’s campaign to House Republican leadership. The Judiciary Committee is meeting on Thursday morning to vote on its contempt recommendation for Garland; the Oversight Committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday evening to recommend the same.

However, Biden’s action on Thursday effectively precludes any criminal prosecution of Garland for failing to comply with the Hill subpoenas.

Republicans lobbed criticism largely from two angles: That Biden was afraid of the audio recordings’ release because they believe it would add fodder to Hur’s description of his memory, and that the privilege assertion is designed to squash congressional oversight.

“President Biden is apparently afraid for the citizens of this country and everyone to hear those tapes. They obviously confirm what special counsel is about and would likely cause, I suppose, in his estimation such alarm with the American people that the President is using all of his power to suppress their release,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Thursday.

Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson, accused Biden of having “irretrievably politicized the key constitutional tenet of executive privilege” and trying to use it to “run political cover for Crooked Joe.”

Jordan argued that transcripts, which the DOJ has already handed over, “are not sufficient evidence of the state of the president’s memory.” The White House and Biden’s counsel have both contested Hur’s descriptions of Biden and asked him to correct the report.

“This last-minute invocation does not change the fact that the attorney general has not complied with our subpoena,” Jordan said.

Comer added in a statement on Thursday that “it’s a five-alarm fire at the White House. …Today’s Hail Mary from the White House changes nothing for our committee.”

The early-morning notification to Congress of Biden’s privilege assertion isn’t the Biden administration’s first quick move regarding Hur’s probe. The administration previously handed over the transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden just hours before the former special counsel testified before Congress. The approach strategy clearly rankled Republicans on Thursday.

“This happens to be a pattern,” Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) said, accusing the DOJ of trying to “pick and choose which pieces of evidence” the committee gets as part of its investigation.

Biden met with Hur for five hours last October and was questioned in detail about his practices around the use of classified documents and his recollections of where they were kept. In a report released on Feb. 8, the Justice Department announced that Hur had decided not to seek any charges in the case. Standing department policy also precludes any criminal charges against a sitting president.

However, Hur’s characterization of Biden in the report as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” triggered a prolonged public discussion about the 81-year-old president’s mental acuity as well as the possible political motives of the prosecutor, who was named by Garland but is a Republican and former appointee of President Donald Trump.

Biden opted against asserting executive privilege over the transcript of his interview, despite his fresh effort to block access to the audio. And he asserted no privileges over any of Hur’s report or its characterizations of the interview.

POLITICO and other news organizations have requested the recordings and other records from the probe, and at least two lawsuits have been filed under the Freedom of Information Act. It is unclear how the Justice Department will seek to defend Biden’s secrecy bid in that litigation.

Biden has also routinely waived executive privilege to permit congressional and Justice Department investigators to access documents and witnesses from Donald Trump’s administration, determining that an invocation of privilege was unwarranted.

That has included decisions against blocking former high-level Trump White House advisers from testifying to a grand jury convened by special counsel Jack Smith. It also included multiple determinations against asserting privilege to shield Trump White House documents from the Jan. 6 select committee.

Many of those documents and witness interviews became central to the charges that Trump has faced in Washington, D.C. and Florida.

Garland did not directly address a reporter’s question Thursday about whether his request and the president’s concurrence reflected a conflict of interest due to the way the issue could affect them personally. However, when cabinet members have faced possible contempt citations in the past, they have sometimes appealed directly to the president to seek the legal protection offered by an assertion of executive privilege.

The House Judiciary Committee advanced a resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress over the Justice Department’s failure to produce the subpoenaed audio recording of President Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur.

The House Judiciary Committee considered a resolution to hold the attorney general in contempt during a markup session Thursday.

The vote advances the measure for a full floor vote.

The move comes after the White House asserted executive privilege over the audio and video recordings related to Hur’s interviews with the president as part of his classified records investigation.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that “the attorney general made it clear that law enforcement files like these need to be protected.”

“And so the president made his determination at the request of the attorney general,” she said.

“So just want to make that second point that I made really clear.”

Hur, who released his report to the public in February after months of investigation, did not recommend criminal charges against President Biden for mishandling and retaining classified documents, and he stated that he would not bring charges against Biden even if he were not in the Oval Office.

Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.”

Hur, in his report, described President Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” — a description that has raised significant concerns for Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday issued a full pardon for a former U.S. Army sergeant convicted of murder in the shooting death of an armed protester during a 2020 Black Lives Matter march.

The move by Abbott came minutes after a unanimous recommendation by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles that Daniel Perry be pardoned and have his firearms rights restored.

Under Texas law, the governor cannot issue a pardon without a recommendation from the board, which the governor appoints.

“The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles conducted an exhaustive review of U.S. Army Sergeant Daniel Perry’s personal history and the facts surrounding the July 2020 incident and recommended a Full Pardon and Restoration of Full Civil Rights of Citizenship,” Abbott said in a statement.

“Among the voluminous files reviewed by the Board, they considered information provided by the Travis County District Attorney, the full investigative report on Daniel Perry, plus a review of all the testimony provided at trial,” Abbott said. “Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney. I thank the Board for its thorough investigation, and I approve their pardon recommendation.”

Perry was convicted of murder last month in the 2020 shooting death of 28-year-old Garrett Foster, who was legally carrying an AK-47 rifle through downtown Austin during a summer of nationwide riots.

Perry was sentenced to 25 years in prison for Foster’s murder.

Perry’s attorney, Douglas K. O’Connell, said his client is “thrilled and elated to be free” and “optimistic for his future.”

“He wishes that this tragic event never happened and wishes he never had to defend himself against Mr. Foster’s unlawful actions,” O’Connell said. “At the same time, Daniel recognizes that the Foster family is grieving. We are anxious to see Daniel reunited with his family and loved ones.”

Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza blasted the pardon as a “mockery of our legal system.”

“The board and the governor have put their politics over justice,” Garza said. “They should be ashamed of themselves. Their actions are contrary to the law and demonstrate that there are two classes of people in this state where some lives matter and some lives do not. They have sent a message to Garrett Foster’s family, to his partner, and to our community that his life does not matter. ”

Prosecutors argued Perry could have driven away without opening fire and witnesses testified that they never saw Foster raise his gun. The sergeant’s defense attorneys argued Foster, who is White, did raise the rifle and that Perry had no choice but to shoot. Perry, who is also White, did not take the witness stand and jurors deliberated for two days before finding him guilty.

Perry served in the Army for more than a decade. At trial, a forensic psychologist testified that he believed Perry has post-traumatic stress disorder from his deployment to Afghanistan and from being bullied as a child.

At the time of the shooting, Perry was stationed at Fort Cavazos, then Fort Hood, about 70 miles north of Austin.

At long last, National Institutes of Health (NIH) principal deputy director Lawrence Tabak admitted to Congress Thursday that US taxpayers funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China in the months and years before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Dr. Tabak,” asked Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, “did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through [Manhattan-based nonprofit] EcoHealth [Alliance]?”

“It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research,” Tabak answered. “If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did.”

The response comes after more than four years of evasions from federal public health officials — including Tabak himself and former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Dr. Anthony Fauci — about the controversial research practice that modifies viruses to make them more infectious.

Tabak added that “this is research, the generic term [gain-of-function], is research that goes on in many, many labs around the country. It is not regulated. And the reason it’s not regulated is it poses no threat or harm to anybody.”

Dr. Bryce Nickels, a professor of genetics at Rutgers University and co-founder of the pandemic oversight group Biosafety Now, told The Post the exchange “was two people talking past each other.”

“Tabak was engaging in the usual obfuscation and semantic manipulation that is so frustrating and pointless,” Nickels said, adding that the NIH bigwig was resisting accountability for risky research that can create pathogens of pandemic potential.

“Instead of addressing this directly, Tabak launched into a useless response about how ‘gain-of-function’ encompasses many types of experiments,” he added.

In July 2023, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) barred the Wuhan Institute of Virology from receiving federal grants for the next 10 years.

EcoHealth Alliance, whose mission statement declares it is “working to prevent pandemics,” had all of its grant funding pulled by HHS for the next three years on Tuesday.

EcoHealth Alliance president Dr. Peter Daszak, in a hearing earlier this month before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, testified that his organization “never has and did not do gain-of-function research, by definition.”

But that claim directly contradicted Daszak’s private correspondence, including a 2016 email in which he celebrated the end of an Obama administration pause on gain-of-function research.

The EcoHealth head was also called out in sworn testimony to the COVID panel by Dr. Ralph Baric, a leading coronavirologist who initiated the research himself and declared it was “absolutely” gain-of-function.

In an October 2021 letter to Congress, Tabak had acknowledged NIH funded a “limited experiment” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that tested whether “spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse model.”

He did not describe it as gain-of-function research — but disclosed that EcoHealth “failed to report” the bat coronaviruses modified with SARS and MERS viruses had been made 10,000 times more infectious, in violation of its grant terms.

The NIH scrubbed its website of a longstanding definition for gain-of-function research the same day that the letter was sent.

Tabak also noted in his October 2021 letter that the “sequences of the viruses are genetically very distant” from COVID-19 — but other grant proposals from EcoHealth have since drawn scrutiny for their genetic similarities.

Fauci has repeatedly denied that the Wuhan lab research involved gain-of-function experiments, clashing with Republicans in high-profile hearings and “playing semantics” with the term during a closed-door interview with the House COVID panel earlier this year.

“He needs to define his definition of gain-of-function research, because as I have through this process in the last three years, read many, many published articles about gain-of-function research, or creation of a chimera, this is a new one,” COVID subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said following Fauci’s grilling in January.

The ex-NIAID head and White House medical adviser under President Biden was escorted by Capitol Police and his attorneys to and from the committee room for his two days of interviews — and repeatedly dodged The Post’s questions about gain-of-function research and pandemic lockdown restrictions.

In 2021, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) held Fauci’s feet to the fire over the evasions in several hearings.

“The NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Fauci declared that May.

In another House hearing the same month, then-NIH director Dr. Francis Collins testified that researchers at the Wuhan lab “were not approved by NIH for doing gain-of-function research.”

“We are, of course, not aware of other sources of funds or other activities they might have undertaken outside of what our approved grant allowed,” Collins added cautiously at the time.

That ignorance about what experiments came about as a result of the NIH grants was underscored by Daszak during his COVID subcommittee hearing last week.

The EcoHealth leader acknowledged he had not asked longtime collaborator and Wuhan Institute of Virology deputy director Shi Zhengli for any viral sequences since before the pandemic began.

In his own closed-door testimony to the House subcommittee released Thursday, Collins echoed Tabak’s comments but went further by saying there “is a generic description of gain-of-function which is utilized in scientific and public conversation, but is not appropriate to apply that to a circumstance where we’re talking about a potential pathogen.”

“We need to be highly cognizant of the risks of gain-of-function technology now that scientific capabilities exist for creating something in a lab that didn’t exist 100 years ago, or even 50 years ago,” Wenstrup told The Post following Thursday’s hearing.

“Drs. Fauci and Collins, over a decade ago, both conceded that there are risks associated with gain-of-function research.”

EcoHealth received more than half a million dollars for its work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology as part of a grant of more than $4 million to study the emergence of bat coronaviruses between 2014 and 2024.

That grant was revoked in 2020, reinstated in 2023 and finally suspended and proposed for debarment this week.

The House subcommittee is still investigating whether COVID-19 accidentally leaked out of a lab in Wuhan, which has been described as the most likely cause of the pandemic by the FBI, US Energy Department, ex-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr. Robert Redfield and former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe.

Nickels also slammed Tabak Thursday for still claiming the evidence points to SARS-CoV-2 originating in a “wild animal market in Wuhan.”

“No credible scientist still believes this. In fact, the wet market theory has even been refuted by the world’s leading coronavirus expert, Ralph Baric, in his testimony from January,” Nickels said.

The Rutgers prof added that Thursday’s hearing highlighted the lack of oversight for scientific research on pathogens that poses a threat to humans, making it “up to the grantee to oversee themselves,” as Wenstrup put it.

“It’s pure insanity to continue to delegate responsibly for risk/benefit analysis of research that poses an existential threat to humanity to the scientist that will perform the work and their institutions,” Nickels claimed.

“We just had a devastating pandemic likely caused by creation of a [Pathogen with Enhanced Pandemic Potential] in a lab, and yet scientists want the public to trust them that they can police themselves?” he balked. “That’s just total and complete nonsense.”

Fauci is scheduled to answer questions about the gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab and theories of the origin of the pandemic in a public subcommittee hearing set for June 3.

Michael Cohen has completed his second day of intense cross-examination by Todd Blanche, former President Trump’s attorney, with the proceedings in the hush money trial growing increasingly heated while the defense attempted to paint Cohen as a liar.

Cohen is expected to be the prosecution’s last witness in the historic trial, which has stretched into its fourth week. Cross-examination is expected to wrap-up on Monday morning, the next time the trial will be held.

Attorneys indicated before the trial broke for the day on Thursday that each side could rest its case as soon as next Tuesday. There still is no word on whether Trump himself plans to testify.

The president of Tucker Carlson’s news startup, Justin Wells, is leaving his position at the former Fox News star’s streaming service, two sources familiar with the situation told Semafor.

Wells produced Carlson’s primetime Fox program for years, and stayed with Carlson to help him launch his new show on X after Fox fired both the conservative talking head and Wells in April 2023. Wells has launched his own production company, a person familiar with his plans said.

The reasons for the move are unclear, but he doesn’t seem to be going far — one person said Wells has a new multiyear consulting contract with Carlson as a senior advisor, where he will continue working closely with the host on various upcoming projects.

“He didn’t really go anywhere and I hope he never will,” Carlson said in a text message to Semafor.

Meanwhile, Carlson’s new turn as a digital content creator on X has made some news, primarily with his controversial interview of Vladimir Putin. But he has not wielded the same power to drive the political narrative on the right, and his venture has reportedly seen a decline in viewership.

A 25-year-old GOP candidate for Missouri Secretary of State is going viral for a recent video in which she implored Americans not to be “weak and gay. ”

“In America, you can be anything you want, so don’t be weak and gay,” Valentina Gomez, a real estate investor and former D1 swimmer at Tulane University, said in a Sunday Twitter video.

“President Trump and I are leading the charge to take our country back from the weak and gay Biden-Harris administration that has destroyed our nation,” Gomez told the Daily Caller.

“I look forward to accepting his endorsement so I can ensure a free and fair election to the people of Missouri, where dead people and illegals will never be voting. All of these cases against President Trump are baseless and if he is facing jail time for defending our freedoms and constitution, I am ready to speak the truth and defend him from this unconstitutional gag order from a compromised judge in the biggest election interference case in history.”

Gomez, a self-described MAGA candidate is “running so [she] can give the people their freedoms back,” she told the Daily Caller.

When asked to give some examples of people being weak and gay, Gomez responded “Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau, Zelenskyy, George Bush.”

Gomez, who also went viral in February for taking a flamethrower to a pile of LGBTQ books, gave her recommendations on how to not be weak and gay.

“Put God First, Pray, workout, and I do recommend listening to Dr. Jordan B Peterson as well as Andrew & Tristan Tate. Also, get your testosterone levels up,” she told the Daily Caller.

Gomez faces a wide field of eight opponents in her August 6 GOP primary. She was polling at 10 percent, just behind field leader Denny Hoskins at 12 percent in a February Remington Research poll though over half of the poll’s respondents noted they were still undecided.

Gomez’s camp maintains they run their own polls and that she’s ahead in all of them, they told the Daily Caller.

The U.S. Capitol Police announced that a small bag of cocaine had been found in a “heavily trafficked” hallway of its headquarters.

In a press release Wednesday, the agency announced that around 1 p.m., a roughly one-inch-by-one-inch bag filled with a “white powdery substance” was found in the middle of the floor at the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The USCP said that the substance field tested positive for cocaine.

The cocaine was found on the second floor of the USCP headquarters in an area that was used for storing furniture and other supplies.

USCP said that the hallway area was frequented by various contractors and employees and is also near the Prisoner Processing, Crime Scene, Intel and Reports Processing offices.

An officer found the bag “in the middle of the floor” and immediately reported it to a supervisor, USCP said.

USCP announced that it had opened an investigation and will test the residue further and conduct DNA testing of the bag.

The finding of the “powdery white substance” came just 10 months after cocaine was also found in the White House.

On July 2, 2023, the cocaine, which was found in the West Wing, sparked an evacuation and emergency response.

“The White House complex went into a precautionary closure as officers from the Secret Service Uniformed Division investigated an unknown item found inside a work area,” the U.S. Secret Service said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“The DC Fire Department was called to evaluate and quickly determined the item to be non-hazardous. The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending,” the statement added.

President Biden is planning executive action that would allow him to shut down the US-Mexico border once the number of migrant crossings reaches 4,000 per day, a source close to the White House told The Post Wednesday.

The order would match a provision in the bipartisan border bill that failed to pass the Senate in February, which gave the president authority to expel migrants when border crossings reached the same daily average.

The legislative proposal would have given the homeland security secretary discretionary authority to carry out removals — but would have made deportations mandatory when illegal entries surpassed 5,000 per day over a one-week period.

The bill allowed for the suspension of that authority two weeks after the seven-day average falls to 75% of those levels.

A federal government source confirmed to The Post that an executive order to limit entries was coming, though it was unclear when it would be announced.

In April, southwestern border authorities stopped an average of 5,990 migrants per day, according to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — a figure which does not include so-called “gotaways” who escaped detection and arrest.

Traditionally, the number of border crossing dips in the summer months, with migrants less inclined to try and enter the US illegally in the intense heat. However, last year, the average number of border crossers encountered per day rose from 4,819 in June to 5,919 in July to 7,515 in August to 8,991 in September.

The US Border Patrol currently has more than 10,000 migrants in custody nationwide, according to internal CBP data exclusively obtained by The Post.

Five Border Patrol sectors have exceeded their migrant holding capacity, with the San Diego region keeping 1,675 migrants in facilities that can only hold a total of 1,000 individuals.

A spokeswoman for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) — who has repeatedly called on Biden to take action on the border — said the executive order would “prove” the president “doesn’t need Congress to pass legislation to take action on the border.”

In January, Biden insisted that lawmakers had to approve the border bill before he could take further action to limit illegal immigration, telling reporters he had “done all I can do.”

“Just give me the power. I’ve asked from the very day I got into office,” he said at the time. “Give me the Border Patrol, give me the people, the judges — give me the people who can stop this and make it work right.”

However, the president has changed his tune since public polling has consistently shown that he faces an uphill battle for re-election in November, with illegal immigration and enhanced border enforcement ranked as a top concern for voters.

The administration recently introduced new restrictions for asylum interviews taking place at the southern border to allow officers to quickly remove migrants who don’t have a “credible fear” of returning to their home country from the US.

“We’re examining whether or not I have that power,” Biden, 81, told Univision’s Enrique Acevedo last month of another order reportedly under consideration that would raise the “credible fear standard” for asylum seekers.

The president had also mulled executive action to ban migrants from being granted asylum if they cross the border illegally between ports of entry — and remove others at designated entries when crossings met an unannounced threshold, Politico reported in February.

Meanwhile, congressional Democrats have shifted their own border messaging.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is also considering resurrecting the failed border legislation, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to The Post.

In February, the bill came up short of the 60-vote filibuster threshold by 11 votes — five of whom were Democrats.

“The status quo cannot continue,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “The only way we’ll solve this issue is with real, bipartisan action, not partisan talk.”

“Apparently it’s time to give the commander-in-chief kudos on his handling of a crisis that still lets nearly 5,000 people cross our border illegally in a day,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said wryly in his own floor speech.

“Of course, President Biden does have the authority he needs to start rapidly undoing the damage of the historic crisis that unfolded on his watch,” added McConnell, who voted against the Senate border bill.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), who also voted against the bill, called the move “a cheap election year ploy” since “Biden has lost all credibility on the border.”

“Democrats have completely failed on the issue for the past three and a half years and will have to own that failure in front of American voters,” Schmitt told The Post.

“Chuck Schumer should spend his time convincing Biden to reinstate the successful Trump policies Biden reversed like Remain in Mexico that created a 45-year low in illegal immigration,” he added, referencing the levels of Border Patrol arrests in 2017.

Axios first reported on Schumer discussed bringing the border bill back to the floor during a Senate Democratic caucus lunch meeting last week.

“Senator Schumer and Senate Democrats already have a House-backed bill that has bipartisan support which will solve the southern border catastrophe engineered by the Biden Administration, but they’re letting it collect dust in the Senate,” Johnson also told The Post in a statement.

“The End the Border Catastrophe Act, which includes core components of H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023, would institute Remain in Mexico, reform the parole and asylum laws, and build the border wall,” Johnson added.

On Friday, the campaign arm for House Democrats also released a memo encouraging members to go “on the offensive” against Republicans “who joined [former President Donald] Trump in killing a bipartisan border deal so that they could campaign on the border.”

Trump, 77, has promised to roll out the “largest mass deportation effort” in US history if he wins election to another term Nov. 5, removing “nearly 20 million” illegal immigrants who they say are currently in the US.

By October, more than 8 million migrants are expected to be living illegally in the US, according to a court docket of asylum cases involving non-citizens released into the interior by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

President Biden just missed taking a brutal spill Wednesday, catching his foot on a step as he took the stage at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service at the Capitol.

The 81-year-old Biden managed to reach the microphone without further incident before paying his respects to law enforcement officers who have given their lives in the line of duty.

Eagle-eyed critics of the president were quick to share video of the near-tumble, led by the Republican National Committee’s rapid response X account.

Biden trips (again) as he’s led on stage at the national Peace Officers Memorial Service pic.twitter.com/qRWUBQAUmx

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 15, 2024

The close call with the stairs came hours after Biden released a dramatic challenge to his rival, former President Donald Trump, to face him in a debate.

By midday, the presumptive Republican and Democratic nominees had agreed to showdowns on June 27 and Sept. 10, hosted by CNN and ABC News, respectively.

In his remarks, Biden told his audience of police officers that Americans “owe you as a nation.”

“Police officer is not just what you do,” the president said. “It’s who you are.”

Age has loomed large in the Nov. 5 presidential election. Biden is the oldest commander-in-chief in US history and would be 86 at the end of a second four-year term.

Trump, 77, would surpass Biden as the oldest president if he wins the rematch and serves out a full term himself.

Biden has acknowledged his age is a legitimate concern and poked fun at it from time to time. His aides and allies have been adamant that he is as sharp and vibrant as ever.

However, voters may be spooked by a number of incidents of Biden struggling to keep his balance, including repeated stumbles on the steps of Air Force One and a heavy fall on the stage of the Air Force Academy’s graduation ceremony in June last year.

When told Biden is too old to be effective as president, 69% said they either somewhat or strongly agreed, while only 27% somewhat or strongly disagreed, according to a recent New York Times/Siena College survey.

By contrast, just 41% somewhat or strongly agreed that Trump was too old to be effective, compared to 56% who either strongly or somewhat disagreed.

The CNN debate moderators were named after President Trump and Joe Biden agreed to a debate.

Joe Biden and President Trump on Wednesday accepted an invitation from CNN for a debate on June 27 without a live audience.

The CNN debate will take place in Atlanta, Georgia. Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate CNN’s June debate.

Trump also accepted ABC News’ invitation to debate Biden on September 10.

This is months after President Trump has repeatedly challenged Joe Biden to a debate. Joe Biden is such a coward that he has avoided committing to a debate until he was practically forced to because of pressure.

ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE! pic.twitter.com/uIpMYI6qjb

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 11, 2024

However, Biden will only debate Trump if there is no audience, Trump’s mic is muted while he’s speaking, and if left-wing networks/moderators are in charge of the matchup.

President Trump challenged Joe Biden to a third debate hosted by Fox News and moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.

Biden snubbed the invite to a third debate.

“President Biden made his terms clear for two one-on-one debates, and Donald Trump accepted those terms,” Biden Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement. “No more games. No more chaos, no more debate about debates.”

Stormy Daniels’ fellow porn star husband Barret Blade said the couple will probably pack up and flee the United States if Donald Trump wins his hush money trial.

Blade, 50, was also heavily critical of women’s groups and other objects of Trump’s ire for abandoning his wife – whose $130,000 hush money payment from the former president’s team before the 2016 election is at the center of the case – and spent two days last week on the witness stand in the ongoing trial.

In an interview Tuesday, Blade said he’s saddened by what he describes as the anger toward his wife and doesn’t really see a positive future for the couple in America.

‘Either way, I don’t think it gets better for her. I think if it’s not guilty, we got to decide what to do. Good chance we’ll probably vacate this country,’ he said.

Whether the former president wins or loses the case, he believes they will face reprisal from Trump’s MAGA supporters.

‘I don’t see it as a win situation either way,’ Blade told CNN. ‘I know that we would like to get on with our lives. I know that she wants to move past this.

‘We just want to do what I guess you’d say “normal people” get to do in some aspects but I don’t know if that ever will be, you know, and it breaks my heart.’

He appeared to choke back tears when he wondered where the movements that have risen up to try and protest Trump and other men accused of misdeeds were when his wife needed them, or Trump’s other antagonists like E. Jean Carroll.

‘I don’t see people fighting back for her, for instance, E. Jean Carroll. Although we’re super happy that everything happened for her happened… Stormy opened the door. Stormy got sued for the exact same two comments but she’s gotta pay legal fees. No one wants to help her for that.’

He then said: ‘Or the women’s groups. She fights for women’s groups all day long. I don’t see anyone doing Gofundmes to try and help with her legal fees and help her.’

Blade also attacked former Daniels attorney turned convicted felon Michael Avenatti.

‘Michael Avenatti, he did a Gofundme to try to help her, then he ended up stealing all her money!’

Daniels was grilled during cross examination last week about her porn career as the former president’s attorney tried to portray her as someone who wanted to get rich off selling the story of her alleged affair with Trump.

The proceedings concluded with Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche is arguing for a mistrial, calling Daniels’ testimony ‘extraordinarily prejudicial.’

It was just over a year ago that DailyMail.com revealed that Daniels had quietly tied the knot with her fourth husband.

Blade and Daniels have known each other for 25 years.

They originally met in a bar but it was only in recent years that their friendship became romantic.

Daniels did not reveal where she and Blade, who turned 50 in March, got married.

Both of them use their stage names. Daniels’ real name is Stephanie Clifford while Blade’s is Russell Barrett.

As well as acting in porn movies, California-born Blade is a businessman, running a company called Alienwerxs – which sells alien-themed clothing as well as Stormy Daniels merchandise such as T-shirts and calendars.

‘When you marry your best friend, life is always going to be good…even on days it’s hard,’ Daniels wrote shortly after their marriage.

‘Thank you @barrettblade777 for giving me my dream home, life and family,’ she wrote on Instagram shortly after their wedding.

‘The diamonds and amazing sex are awesome too!’ she added in parentheses.

Daniels – who was born Stephanie Gregory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana – first married porn star Pat Myne in 2003. His real last name is Clifford, and she has used that name ever since.

They divorced in 2005 and she married Mike Moz – real name Michael Mosny – two years later. Again the marriage was short-lived and they divorced in 2009.

Her third marriage was to Glendon Crain – another one-time porn star who acted under the name Brendon Miller and has also played drums in several rock bands.

They were wed from 2015 to 2018.

The porn star claims she was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about her liaison with Trump while his wife Melania was pregnant with their son Barron, now 17.

The charges – the first criminal charges against the former president – relate to reimbursements made through an LLC to his former attorney and ‘fixer’ Michael Cohen, who himself testified Tuesday.

Trump has said the payments were legitimate expenses, and not illegally disguised.

The porn star revealed new details about the alleged 2006 hookup while speaking under oath during a criminal trial with Trump seated just feet from the witness stand, including repeating her claim about swatting the future 45th president’s behind.

‘I had my clothes and my shoes off. I believe my bra however was still on. We were in the missionary position,’ Daniels said.

Trump, 77, was already motioning to his defense. ‘Objection,’ said Susan Necheles, raising her umpteenth objection of that morning.

By then, Daniels, 45, had taken us through her career as an erotic dancer, her first pornographic film (‘I’ll spare you the details,’ she said) and her regimen of STD testing (once a month at the time she said she met Trump; twice a month now).

The jury had heard her talk about ‘condom mandatory’ porn shoots, a description of herself with ‘blond hair and big boobs,’ and how she spanked Trump with a rolled-up magazine.

But it was two moments, when she described not being able to remember how she ended up on a hotel bed with Trump and how he allegedly failed to wear a condom, that briefly threatened to derail the whole hush money case.

Either way, Daniels was determined to tell her story of how she met Trump at a celebrity golf event in 2006, before having sex with him and then selling the rights to her story just ahead of the 2016 election.

And tell it she did… using all her skills as an actress to deliver it with hand waves, lip pouts and nose wrinkles, interspersed with laughter as if to underline the absurdity of it all.

The jury listened to the deluge of words entranced. After a day of dull but essential testimony about invoices and checks on Monday, Daniels was the showstopper.

Some of the jurors kept their eyes fixed downwards as they took notes. Others looked hypnotized.

The trial follows the legal victory of E. Jean Carroll – which Blade mentioned in his interview.

The 80-year-old writer held hands with her attorneys, who were sat either side of her, before the verdict was read out.

She sued Trump for his defamatory statements disparaging her, and denying her rape allegations.

Last year a jury found that Carroll proved Trump had sexually abused her in the late 1990s in the changing room of Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan, and defamed her. The jury awarded her $5 million in damages in her civil trial.

He continued to hurl insults at her and call her a liar, so she sued him again for defamation. The case concluded in late January, after the panel of seven men and two women deliberated for approximately two hours 45 minutes.

Avenatti, who rose to fame representing porn star Daniels in her lawsuit against Trump, was sentenced in 2022 to 14 years in federal prison for dodging taxes and stealing millions of dollars from clients, including Daniels.

In a district court in Orange County on Monday Avenatti, 51, was also ordered to pay nearly $8million in restitution after admitting he secretly took settlement money paid to his clients and spent some of it to buy a private jet.

He is now serving time in a Southern California prison on two separate cases. In one he was convicted of stealing book proceeds from Daniels and in the other of trying to extort Nike for $25million.

Avenatti represented Daniels in her lawsuit to break a confidentiality agreement with Trump to stay silent about an affair she said they had. Daniels became one of Trump’s leading adversaries, attacking him on news programs and Twitter.

The government dropped all other remaining charges against Avenatti stemming from a 36-count indictment.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, argued that President Joe Biden should have pardoned Donald Trump after the Justice Department brought indictments against the former president and pressured New York prosecutors not to pursue Trump’s ongoing hush money trial.

In an exclusive interview on MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle,” Romney expressed his dismay in response to Republican lawmakers, including the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s vice presidential prospects, rallying to Trump’s defense outside the Manhattan courthouse where Trump’s hush money trial is taking place.

“How does that make you feel about Republicans?” Ruhle asked Romney.

Romney, a vocal critic of Trump, said, “I think it’s a terrible fault for our country to see people attacking our legal system — that’s an enormous mistake. I think it’s also demeaning for people to quite apparently try and run for vice president by donning a red tie and standing outside the courthouse. It’s just — I’d have felt awkward.”

The Utah Republican argued that Biden should have pardoned Trump when the Justice Department announced charges against him and that the president “made an enormous error” by not pressuring New York prosecutors to drop their case against Trump. (Presidents can pardon only in federal cases.)

“He should have fought like crazy to keep this prosecution from going forward,” Romney said, referring to Biden. “It was a win-win for Donald Trump.”

Pressed by Ruhle whether that is Biden’s job to pardon Trump, Romney said he believes that Biden should have taken a cue from former President Lyndon B. Johnson, saying that the president could have stepped in and urged New York prosecutors to drop the case.

“I have been around for a while. If LBJ had been president, and he didn’t want something like this to happen, he’d have been all over that prosecutor saying, ‘You better not bring that forward or I’m gonna drive you out of office,’” he said.

Ruhle then noted that Romney supports having separate but equal branches of government.

“I do. … You may disagree with this, but had I been President Biden, when the Justice Department brought on indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him. I’d have pardoned President Trump. Why? Well, because it makes me, President Biden, the big guy and the person I pardoned a little guy.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and several of Trump’s potential vice presidential picks issued public remarks in front of the Manhattan courthouse where Trump is required to attend court proceedings in the hush money trial against him, expressing their support and loyalty for him as the trial limits his time on the campaign trail. The potential VP picks, which include Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, have echoed, without evidence, Trump’s accusations of the trial being a Democrat-led effort to interfere with his campaign.

Biden and Trump on Wednesday agreed to participate in general election debates in June and September, at least the first of which will not have a live audience. Asked whether debates matter today and if he thinks it would influence votes, Romney, who unsuccessfully ran for president against Barack Obama in 2012, said people have “low expectations” for Biden but “much higher expectations” about Trump.

“The image that comes to mind is those two old guys on the Muppets, you know, that sat in the back … that’s what comes to mind. But I actually think there’ll be a huge audience for these debates,” he said. “I think people have very low expectations as to what President Biden will do. I think they have much higher expectations about President Trump and his competitiveness.”

Romney added that he has had “good exchanges” with Biden and that Trump “seems energetic and forceful” during his rallies, but he’s unsure about what to expect when they go head-to-head in debates.

“You have got a cheering crowd and you have got teleprompters you could read, so how will they do in person?” Romney said, referring to presidential campaign rallies. “I don’t know the answer to that, but I think America will be watching.”

A black man from New Jersey was charged in federal court with threats after allegedly planning a mass murder of white people, who he said were privileged.

In December 2022, federal prosecutors say Joshua Cobb wrote online that he wanted “to cause mayhem on the white community,” according to court records filed late last week.

“The reason i specifically want to target white people is because as a black male, they will NEVER understand my struggles,” Cobb wrote, according to the prosecutors. “Same way I will never understand their struggles, but I don’t care to. I want to erase them. All of them really, but in this case as many as I possibly can.” Cobb added that he had “officially began planning my attack” to occur in New Jersey during “an important holiday to their race,” and that he had “already acquired 2 of the 4 firearms I plan to use for my attack.”

The next year, Cobb attended Marine Corps basic training in South Carolina. He was stationed at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California this year.

In April 2024, FBI agents interviewed Cobb on base and he “provided detailed information on three locations he chose as possible targets for his attack,” and said he “continued to have homicidal ideations and still harbored feelings of contempt towards those whom he perceived as privileged white people.”

Cobb was arrested Friday, May 10, and was also discharged from the Marine Corps that day, according to court affidavits. He was charged with transmitting threats in interstate commerce, which could bring up to five years in prison. According to court records, he is being held in jail and is represented by a public defender.

He allegedly told investigators that one location he targeted was a gym or a grocery store, where “you just see all these f—ing rich-ass white people,” or simply a “rich white area and just like start shooting. That was like all my little ideologies.”

He said he had access to weapons through “my boy” since “it’s no secret guns are in bad areas.”

When the FBI told him it was confiscating his cell phone, he said, “this is why people like me shoot people.”

The military has struggled with recruiting and talent after the Biden administration fought efforts to promote based on merit rather than race.

It was slated to spend $270 million on DEI programs over three years, and has faced severely waning interest from white, blue-collar men as the military put on events like drag shows.

Perhaps no federal agency has embraced radical and divisive rhetoric as the Department of Veterans Affairs, even though its workforce is disproportionately black. The agency said, pursuant to a Joe Biden equity directive, that it wants more black veterans to be declared mentally disabled so that they could receive government checks — even though black vets already get those disability checks at twice the rates of whites.

Each of the major U.S. stock indexes closed Wednesday at record highs after new federal data showed inflation slowing down.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite all rallied Wednesday after the Labor Department reported inflation falling to a 3.4 percent annual rate in April after a 0.3 percent monthly increase in prices, according to the consumer price index.

The Dow rose roughly 350 points Wednesday to close at 39,908, a gain of 0.9 percent. The S&P rose 1.2 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 1.4 percent.

The slowdown in price gains is welcome news to Wall Street after several months of higher-than-expected inflation.

Federal Reserve officials had expected to cut interest rates as soon as this spring, according to projections released in December, but held off as both job gains and inflation came in hot.

If inflation continues to fall, the Fed could be inclined to cut interest rates and loosen its foot on the brake of the economy.

Lower interest rates tend to stimulate the stock market as companies spend less money on debt costs and consumers have more money to spend.

In a whirlwind few hours, President Biden and former President Trump have upended the traditional presidential debates — and moved to box out RFK Jr.

Biden’s campaign announcedthis morning it wouldn’t take part in fall debates by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. It offered one-on-one debates with Trump in June and September, with no studio audience and microphones that could be cut.

Trump immediately accepted, telling Salem Media radio host Hugh Hewitt he’ll debate with any moderator.

Biden and Trump accepted a CNN invite for a debate on June 27, the two candidates said this morning. That’s before either party has its national convention to officially pick presidential nominees.

The Trump campaign then proposed extra debates in July and August.

RFK Jr. then accused the two campaignsof “colluding” against his campaign to “avoid discussion of their eight years of mutual failure.”

Trump and Biden thenaccepted invites from ABC News for a debate on Sept. 10.

The campaigns have agreed to no audience for the CNN debate, but they’re still negotiating on how to handle cutting off microphones.

The Trump and Biden campaigns recently held back-channel conversations about cutting the commission out of the process, the Washington Post reports.

RFK Jr. had a real chance at making the presidential debate stage for the traditional fall debates, but could be cut out by the moved-up timelines of the new contests.

CNN’s rules say a candidate needs four polls at 15% and they have to be on the ballot in enough states to secure 270 electoral votes.

Kennedy recently scored one poll at 16%, CNN’s Harry Enten pointed out earlier this week.

Kennedy is on the ballot in four states, with ongoing efforts in 38 more.

Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting after a political event Wednesday afternoon, according to his Facebook profile.

Reports on TA3, a Slovakian TV station, said Fico, 59, was hit in the stomach after four shots were fired outside the House of Culture in the town of Handlova, some 93 miles northeast of the capital, where the leader was meeting with supporters. A suspect has been detained, it said.

The individual, who attempted to “assassinate” PM Robert Fico, was identified by Slovakian media as Juraj Cintula, a 71-year-old poet. European media Nexta cited Slovak media as reporting that “the attacker was a former employee of a private security company and author of a poetry collection Juraj Cintula. This is reported by local TV channel Markiza.”

A message posted to Fico’s Facebook account said the leader “has been shot multiple times and is currently in life-threatening condition. At this moment he is transported by helicopter to Banská Bystrica, because it would take too long to get to Bratislava due to the necessity of an acute procedure. The next few hours will decide.”

The shooting in Slovakia comes three weeks ahead of crucial European Parliament elections, in which populist and hard-right parties in the 27-nation bloc appear poised to make gains.

Deputy speaker of parliament Lubos Blaha confirmed the incident during a session of Slovakia’s Parliament and adjourned it until further notice, the Slovak TASR news agency said.

Slovakia’s major opposition parties, Progressive Slovakia and Freedom and Solidarity, canceled a planned protest against a controversial government plan to overhaul public broadcasting that they say would give the government full control of public radio and television.

“We absolutely and strongly condemn violence and today’s shooting of Premier Robert Fico,” said Progressive Slovakia leader Michal Simecka. “At the same time we call on all politicians to refrain from any expressions and steps which could contribute to further increasing the tension.”

President Zuzana Caputova condemned “a brutal and ruthless” attack on the premier.

“I’m shocked,” Caputova said. “I wish Robert Fico a lot of strength in this critical moment and a quick recovery from this attack.”

Fico, a third-time premier, and his leftist Smer, or Direction, party, won Slovakia’s Sept. 30 parliamentary elections, staging a political comeback after campaigning on a pro-Russian and anti-American message.

Critics worried Slovakia under Fico would abandon the country’s pro-Western course and follow the direction of Hungary under populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Thousands have repeatedly rallied in the capital and across Slovakia to protest Fico’s policies.

Condemnations of political violence quickly came from leaders across Europe, although no motive for the attack was immediately apparent.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned what she described as a “vile attack.”

“Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good,” von der Leyen said in a post on X.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala called the incident “shocking,” adding, “I wish the premier to get well soon. We cannot tolerate violence, there’s no place for it in society.” The Czech Republic and Slovakia formed Czechoslovakia until 1992.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X: “Shocking news from Slovakia. Robert, my thoughts are with you in this very difficult moment.”

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon should begin serving a four-month prison sentence now that a federal appeals court has upheld his contempt-of-Congress conviction, the Justice Department told a federal judge Tuesday.

US District Judge Carl Nichols, who presided over Bannon’s trial, had paused Bannon’s sentence while an appeal of his conviction played out.

He has given Bannon until Monday to respond to the DOJ’s request, extending an earlier deadline following a motion to delay from the defense team.

Bannon was found guilty in July 2022 by a federal jury of two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena by the House January 6 select committee in its investigation into the 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

The Justice Department said in its court filing that a person who is found guilty must report for their term of imprisonment unless the defendant can establish “the appeal is not for the purpose of delay and raises a substantial question of law or fact likely to result in reversal.”

“The D.C. Circuit rejected defendant’s appeal on all grounds, including the primary argument on appeal: the requisite mental state required for a contempt of Congress violation,” the Justice Department wrote.

The unanimous decision by the appeals court was a win for Congress, potentially paving the way for how others will be held accountable for defying a congressional subpoena.

The timing of when Bannon will be expected to report to prison is still unclear.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned that the US needs to reduce its fiscal deficit sooner rather than later otherwise the issue will become ‘far more uncomfortable.’

The billionaire banker, 68, pointed to the nation’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic as the cause of the issue, as it triggered a period of rapid interest rate hikes, stimulus programs and tax hikes.

‘America has spent a lot of money. During Covid and after Covid, our deficit is at 6% now,’ Dimon told Sky News. ‘That’s a lot, but obviously that drives growth.’

Through the 2024 fiscal year so far, the US deficit stands at $855 billion, which is $59 billion less than through the same period in the prior fiscal year, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Dimon said the efforts made by the US government to prop up its economy have not been counter-corrected, and leaving the deficit to grow could allow it to become out of control.

‘Any country can borrow money and drive some growth, but that may not always lead to good growth,’ he said.

‘So, I think America should be quite aware that we have got to focus on our fiscal deficit issues a little bit more, and that is important for the world.’

The deficit skyrocketed during the pandemic, reaching $3.13 trillion in 2020 and $2.71 trillion in 2021.

Through 2023 that figure had dropped to $1.7 trillion, but Dimon said moves by President Biden’s administration – such as the Inflation Reduction Act – have not turned the tide as much as he would have hoped, reports CNBC.

However, when questioned over whether Americans should be bracing for immediate economic turmoil, he downplayed the issue – but warned that things may also not be getting any better.

‘I don’t think it’s a big comeuppance and I don’t think it’s the next couple of years, but I think it is why we have higher inflation,’ he said.

‘I think if you want to do a great job in your country, and you have a 6% deficit and 100% debt to GDP, this can go [on] for a while, but the sooner we focus on it, the better.’

Dimon added that he is hoping Biden ‘really focuses’ on handling the deficit, and felt it was an issue that would only become dire if ignored.

‘At one point it will cause a problem and why should you wait?’ he said.

‘The problem will be caused by the market and then you will be forced to deal with it and probably in a far more uncomfortable way than if you dealt with it to start.’

Dimon was once rumored to be in consideration for former President Trump’s Treasury Secretary, and was questioned by CNBC earlier in the year as he waded into politics.

Speaking to the outlet’s ‘Squawk Box’, he said Democrats should be ‘more respectful’ of Trump’s supporters, and praised the former president for being ‘kind of right’ about a number of controversial issues.

But when questioned whether he was chiming in on the political scene to launch his own role in the cabinet, he said it was ‘absolutely not’ the case.

‘Made those comments to make a point that we should listen to each other and talk to each other, whether you agree with someone or not,’ he said.

‘I think people should be very clear about what polices work and what policies don’t work. Whoever wins the presidency, I hope they have policies that work for both America and the free and democratic world.’