Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., asked the Justice Department on Thursday to investigate a Chinese-owned self-driving trucking company, one of the largest in the U.S., citing allegations that it had shared proprietary data and other sensitive technology with state-linked entities in Beijing. 

The letter, sent to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and previewed exclusively to Fox News Digital, asks the Justice Department to open a formal investigation into the autonomous truck company TuSimple Holdings, a Chinese-owned company and one of the largest self-driving truck companies in the U.S. 

In it, Hawley cites recent reporting from the Wall Street Journal that alleges that TuSimple ‘systematically shared proprietary data, source code, and autonomous driving technologies’ with Chinese state-linked entities— what he described as ‘blatant disregard’ of the 2022 national security agreement with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS.

‘These reports also revealed communications from TuSimple personnel inside China requesting the shipment of sensitive Nvidia AI chips and detailed records showing ‘deep and longstanding ties’ with Chinese military-affiliated manufacturers,’ Hawley said. 

He noted that to date, TuSimple ‘has not faced serious consequences’ for sharing American intellectual property with China, despite having continued to share data with China after signing a national security agreement with the U.S. government in 2022, which was enforced by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.

‘If the reports about TuSimple are accurate, they represent not just a violation of export law, but a breach of national trust and a direct threat to American technological leadership,’ Hawley said. 

‘The American people deserve to know how and why a supposedly U.S.-based company was allowed to serve as a conduit for the transfer of sensitive innovations to the Chinese Communist Party,’ he added.

The letter asks Bondi and the Justice Department to take certain steps to investigate the company’s actions, as alleged by the recent reports – including investigating whether TuSimple provided protected information to any Chinese-based entities, and what activities were covered by the company’s national security agreement with CFIUS, struck more than two years ago. 

Hawley also asked Bondi what actions, if any, DOJ has taken to date to ensure that Bot Auto—a new Texas-based self-driving vehicle company staffed by many former TuSimple employees, ‘is not engaging in similar behavior.’

According to the Wall Street Journal report, TuSimple’s actions helped shape new Commerce Department regulations, which blocked the sale of internet-linked cars and different components with links to China. According to the report, a CFIUS investigation determined TuSimple’s tech sharing did not violate the official national security agreement— but the company was fined for other infractions, and ultimately paid out a $6 million settlement. 

The letter comes as Hawley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, has emerged as one of the Senate’s more vocal critics of the Chinese Communist Party, especially as it relates to the conduct of certain U.S. companies, and the sharing of certain intellectual property. 

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced his departure from DOGE on social media Wednesday after five months of viral moments and cuts that sparked both praise and controversy nationwide. Fox News Digital compiled five of the top memorable moments from that span. 

Tesla photo shoot at the White House with President Trump

As Musk’s efforts to cut government waste resulted in outrage from Democrats and violent protests at Tesla dealerships across the country, along with a dip in Tesla’s stock price, President Donald Trump announced he was going to purchase a Tesla and met with Musk outside the White House to look at options.

‘I’m going to buy a brand-new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American,’ Trump announced.

‘To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby,’ in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for,’ Trump said on Truth Social. 

Trump and Musk were photographed examining different Tesla models and sitting inside them.

Musk got in on the passenger side and joked about ‘giving the Secret Service a heart attack’ as they talked about how to start a vehicle that can reach 60 miles per hour in a few seconds.

‘That’s beautiful, this is a different panel . . . everything’s computer!’ Trump remarked, in a comment that went viral on social media. ‘That’s beautiful! Wow!’

Trump told reporters that he would write a check for the car he chose, which retails for roughly $80,000, and leave it at the White House, so his staff could drive it. The president also said he hopes his purchase will boost Tesla, which was struggling with sagging sales and declining stock prices at the time.

Iron Mountain revelation

One of the most notable DOGE revelations as it scoured the government for waste, fraud, and abuse was Musk’s announcement in February that his agency was looking into a limestone mine in Pennsylvania where he said federal employee retirements are processed manually using a system that could take months. 

‘We’re like, well, what? Why is that? Well, because all the retirement paperwork is manual on paper,’ Musk said. ‘It’s manually calculated and written down on a piece of paper. Then it goes down to mine and like, what do you mean, a mine?’

DOGE wrote on X that an old limestone mine in Boyers, Pennsylvania, about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, is where about 700 workers operate more than 230 feet underground to process about 10,000 federal retirement applications per month.

The applications are processed by hand using paper, and are stored in manila envelopes and cardboard boxes, DOGE said.

The Washington Post described the facility as a ‘sinkhole of bureaucracy’ in a 2014 article. At the time, the report said the total spending on the retirement system was $55.8 million. 

‘And then the speed, the limiting factor is the speed at which the mine shaft elevator can move, determines how many people can retire from the federal government,’ Musk said. ‘And the elevator breaks down and sometimes, and then you can’t, nobody can retire. Doesn’t that sound crazy?’

Lil X steals the show at the White House

Musk’s 4-year-old son, Æ A-12, also known as ‘Lil X,’ was often seen accompanying his father for visits to the White House and Capitol Hill in recent months, often going viral on social media. 

In February, Lil X made headlines after attending an Oval Office meeting and mimicking his father while he spoke, at one point sitting on Musk’s shoulders and putting his fingers in the former DOGE chief’s ears, and holding onto the Resolute Desk. 

‘This is X, and he’s a great guy. High IQ,’ a chuckling Trump said, adding that the boy is a ‘high-IQ individual.’

In March, heartwarming photographs of Trump walking to the president’s helicopter, Marine One, with Elon Musk’s son went viral on social media, with internet users doting over the joyful moment. 

Explosive interviews with ‘Big Balls’ and the DOGE team

Musk sat down with ‘Special Report’ executive editor Bret Baier for a revealing behind-the-scenes interview with members of his team earlier in March and offered previously unseen glimpses into the work being done.

Musk, along with DOGE members Steve Davis, Joe Gebbia, Aram Moghaddassi, Brad Smith, Anthony Armstrong, Tom Krause and Tyler Hassen, illustrated key efforts of the department to achieve Trump’s goal. Davis brought up federal credit cards, which he labeled a ‘mundane’ but ‘illustrative’ example of DOGE’s work.

‘There are in the federal government around 4.6 million credit cards for around 2.3 to 2.4 million employees. This doesn’t make sense. So one of the things all of the teams have worked on is we’ve worked for the agencies and said, ‘Do you need all of these credit cards? Are they being used? Can you tell us physically where they are?” Davis explained.

‘Clearly there should not be more credit cards than there are people,’ Musk responded.

The eight-man group also discussed DOGE’s work relating to the federal workforce, financial management, government infrastructure, computer systems, Social Security and more.

‘They may characterize it as shooting from the hip, but it is anything but that,’ Musk said, noting that the agency’s approach to cuts is to ‘measure twice, if not thrice, and cut once.’

Earlier this month, Musk and his team gave a second revealing interview to ‘Jesse Watters Primetime,’ outlining examples of waste they had discovered in government. 

As the team shared cases of wasteful spending from top departments to smaller agencies, Watters asked how the findings made Musk and the DOGE members feel.

‘Unfortunately, like the 100th time you’ve heard it, it’s hard not to get a little numb, and by the 200th time, you’re like, well, OK, it was just another day at the office,’ Musk replied.

One DOGE member, who joined Musk on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime,’ revealed that he had dropped out of Harvard University to ‘serve my country,’ but faced backlash. 

‘It’s been unfortunate to see lost friendships. Most of campus hates me now, but I think, fundamentally, I hope people realize through conversations like this that reform is genuinely needed,’ he said.

In the interview, 19-year-old DOGE team member Edward Coristine revealed how he got the nickname ‘Big Balls,’ which had received significant chatter online. 

Coristine went on to say that the system that distributes government or taxpayer money ‘literally has no checks and no accountability to the actual American taxpayer.’

‘So, it’s a huge vector for fraud, waste, and abuse.’

Dismantling of USAID

Out of the many agencies that experienced cuts during Musk’s time at DOGE, USAID was perhaps the most discussed and most affected by DOGE’s findings. 

In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that 83% of USAID programs would be canceled following the conclusion of a six-week review by DOGE.

In total, 5,200 contracts were to be terminated, Rubio wrote on X, announcing the new reforms. He said the canceled contracts amounted to ‘tens of billions of dollars’ being spent ‘in ways that did not serve,’ or even harmed, the national interests of the U.S.

Rubio added that the remaining 18% of USAID programs—approximately 1,000—would now be managed by the State Department. The move to transfer that authority, he said, was made in consultation with Congress. 

Several examples of questionable spending were made public by DOGE, including where Biden’s USAID awarded $20 million to a nonprofit called Sesame Workshopto produce a show called ‘Ahlan Simsim Iraq’ in an effort to ‘promote inclusion, mutual respect and understanding across ethnic, religious and sectarian groups.’ 

More than $900,000 went to a ‘Gaza-based terror charity,’ called Bayader Association for Environment and Development, and $1.5 million went to a program slated to ‘advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.’

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel, Stephen Sorace and Associated Press contributed to this report.

With Elon Musk’s departure from the agency, there’s debate roiling over how effective the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE), has been in its mission.

In a report released just two days prior to Musk stepping down, financial watchdog Open The Books published a report finding it is likely impossible for the average American taxpayer to track the savings associated with the contracts and grants that were terminated by the DOGE team.

According to Open The Books’ analysis, which mined all the data published on DOGE’s official website, the average American taxpayer would likely only be able to confirm 42% of contracts and 27% of grants through an independent review of public federal spending databases.

‘This doesn’t mean these targets aren’t real, it simply means it’s very hard for taxpayers who want to see additional savings to find proof and evidence of savings,’ Open The Books points out in its analysis, shared in a report the group released Tuesday.

‘Because taxpayers don’t have access to real-time transparency and a real-time look at the Treasury Payment System, it’s still too difficult for even a highly motivated Joe Taxpayer to confirm the savings claims DOGE is making,’ the analysis, released ahead of Elon Musk stepping down from running the agency, continued. ‘It’s also far too easy for critics to sew [sic] doubt and confusion.’

DOGE says on its website that the group’s work up to this point has provided the American taxpayer with $175 billion in ‘estimated’ savings from the elimination of contracts, grants and leases, as well as through renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion and other mechanisms. 

However, DOGE’s estimated savings have been contested by watchdog groups and budget experts. Such critics have posited that the inclusion of already canceled contracts, double-counting or misrepresentation of contract values, and the unaccounted cost burden that could be imposed on the government when it has to re-hire folks down the line, or revamp its productivity, due to DOGE cuts, have led to inflated savings estimates. 

Nate Malkus, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, has accused DOGE of ‘overestimating contracts by a factor of two,’ according to CBS News.

But White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital that DOGE has produced ‘historic savings’ for the American people.

‘DOGE is working at record speed to cut waste, fraud, and abuse, producing historic savings for the American people,’ Fields said. ‘The DOGE Wall of Receipts provides the latest and most accurate information following a thorough assessment, which takes time. Updates to the DOGE savings page will continue to be made promptly, and departments and agencies will keep highlighting the massive savings DOGE is achieving.’

‘DOGE and Elon Musk have done the country an incredible service by identifying savings targets,’ added Open The Books CEO John Hart. ‘Having worked on the last major deficit commission with the late Senator Tom Coburn, we would have been elated to have had Musk in our corner. Now it’s up to Congress to not only turn DOGE’s recommendations into durable savings but to go beyond DOGE’s scope and truly tackle our long-term debt and deficit crisis.’

Open The Books highlighted two ‘common sense’ standards to help establish an ‘intellectually honest’ approach to understanding the true impact of government cuts, such as those being recommended by DOGE.

The first is the ‘durable standard,’ which asks whether a proposed cut can be easily reversed.

‘Describing something as ‘durable’ does not mean it is permanent or irreversible; it simply means it is hard to reverse,’ the Open The Books’ analysis stated. ‘The most durable budget cut in our constitutional system would be passed by Congress, signed into law by the president and be clearly constitutional, or unassailable in a court challenge. Budget cuts become less durable when they lack any of these three elements.’

The second is called a ‘duty standard,’ which illuminates the power behind certain cuts based on who is trying to impose them.

‘In our constitutional system, the founders gave the job of budget savings to three branches but primarily to Congress,’ Open The Books points out. ‘DOGE’s job is to identify, not enact, savings targets. It’s up to Congress to do the heavy lifting. And We the People have a responsibility to be informed and hold our elected officials accountable.’

Open The Books ultimately concluded that due to various limitations associated with publicly available data on government spending and revenue, in particular a lack of real-time access to the government’s Treasury Payment System, it is still too difficult for even the most motivated average American citizen to either confirm, or deny, the savings claimed by DOGE.

Elon Musk officially stepped down from his role as DOGE chief Thursday evening, as his position of ‘special government employee’ in the Trump administration was limited by law to a few months. Amid the transition, Musk criticized Republicans’ spending bill that was passed ahead of Memorial Day in the House, indicating he was ‘disappointed’ it would increase the federal deficit. 

‘I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,’ Musk told CBS News in an interview that will air in full on June 1.

The Justice Department on Thursday formally notified the American Bar Association that it will no longer comply with its ratings process for judicial nominees, the result of what it argues is a biased system and one that ‘invariably and demonstrably’ favors nominees put forth by Democratic administrations.

The letter, sent by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to ABA President William R. Bay, was previewed exclusively to Fox News. It marks the latest escalation in a protracted legal fight that Republicans have waged against the nation’s largest association of legal workers.

‘For several decades, the American Bar Association has received special treatment and enjoyed special access to judicial nominees,’ Bondi said in the letter. ‘In some administrations, the ABA received notice of nominees before a nomination was announced to the public. Some administrations would even decide whether to nominate an individual based on a rating assigned by the ABA.’ 

The Justice Department said in the letter that it will no longer grant the ABA the ‘special treatment’ and first access it has received, revoking decades of precedent where the ABA interviewed and vetted potential members of the incoming DOJ team.

‘Accordingly, while the ABA is free to comment on judicial nominations along with other activist organizations, there is no justification for treating the ABA differently from such other activist organizations and the Department of Justice will not do so.’

It also ended an Office of Legal Policy that directed judicial nominees to provide waivers allowing the ABA access to non-public information for nominees, including bar records. 

‘Nominees will also not respond to questionnaires prepared by the ABA and will not sit for interviews with the ABA,’ Bondi said.

The Trump administration’s decision to excise the ABA from the judicial nomination process comes after several Republican senators on the Senate committee tasked with vetting judicial nominees told the ABA in a letter earlier this year that they planned to ignore its rating system.

The ABA, established in the late 1800s, has grown into a sprawling organization that touts a membership of over 400,000 legal workers.

But it has sparked criticism from Republicans, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, previously blasted the ABA as a ‘radical left-wing advocacy group.’

He and others on the panel previously took aim at the group for embracing so-called ‘woke initiatives,’ including its heavy use of diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI efforts, in many facets of its work.

This is not the first time Republican administrations have broken with the ABA. The George W. Bush administration ended the practice of giving the ABA a first look at nominees, and Trump also did so in his first presidential term. 

GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin indicated that he does not want to run for a fourth Senate term, but he isn’t ruling it out.

Johnson, who is serving his third six-year Senate term, said during remarks at a Wednesday event hosted by the Milwaukee Press Club and WisPolitics.com that he learned from his run for a second term that ‘you can’t say … never.’

In a 2022 Wall Street Journal piece, Johnson explained his about-face on seeking another term.

‘During the 2016 campaign, I said it would be my last campaign and final term. That was my strong preference and my wife’s. We both looked forward to a normal private life,’ he said. ‘I believe America is in peril. Much as I’d like to ease into a quiet retirement, I don’t feel I should.’

The senator, who has been vocal in objecting to the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act that most in the House GOP voted to pass last week, said during his remarks on Wednesday that he would like to place America on a ‘sustainable course’ and return home.

‘I don’t covet the position,’ he said.

But while he’s not slamming the door on the possibility of running for Senate again, he flatly ruled out the prospect of a presidential bid.

‘No, God, what an awful job,’ he said when asked whether he’d ever run for the presidency. He said he wouldn’t want to make the decisions that a commander in chief must make.

— Senate Republicans plan to launch their own investigation next month that delves into the alleged ‘conspiracy’ behind former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. 

Senators Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, announced plans to hold a Senate Judiciary hearing June 18 to look into the alleged cover-up of the 82-year-old former president’s mental decline while in office by the media and those closest to him.

The lawmakers are still gathering witnesses for the probe, which would be the first full congressional committee hearing on the subject.

‘It’s time to expose how a cadre of Biden aides and family members were the de facto commander in chief, while President Biden was sidelined,’ Schmitt said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘I look forward to getting the American people the answers they deserve.’

Both lawmakers contend Biden’s decline was hidden for ‘years.’ 

Cornyn argued the country depended ‘on having a president who has the mental capacity to do the job, and it’s clear that President Biden did not, so we must use this hearing to uncover the facts.’

‘For this conspiracy between the mainstream media, Joe Biden’s family and his inner circle to have hidden the impairment of the president of the United States for years, and lied consistently to the American people about his capacity to make decisions, which are solely vested by the Constitution, is unacceptable,’ Cornyn said in a statement to Fox News Digital.  

Schmitt and Cornyn join a growing chorus of Republicans demanding answers about what really went on behind the scenes during Biden’s presidency. 

In the House, lawmakers are pushing to create a select committee that would investigate the Biden administration’s alleged cover-up. 

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., is leading the charge to create the panel and introduced legislation Thursday to start the committee that would dive into ‘the potential concealment of information from the American public’ regarding Biden’s health.  

And House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., has called on several high-ranking staffers from the Biden White House to participate in transcribed interviews regarding their alleged roles in covering up the former president’s decline. 

Comer called on Neera Tanden, the former director of the Domestic Policy Council; former assistant to the President and deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini; former senior adviser to the first lady Anthony Bernal; former deputy director of Oval Office operations Ashley Williams; and Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, to participate. 

The growing fervor among Republicans to uncover whether Biden’s allies and family hid concerns about his health from the public comes after the release of ‘Original Sin’ by CNN host Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson. 

Their book claimed the Biden White House was trying to control the narrative about the former president’s health and that his allies worked to cover up his decline. 

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., sided with a Chicago-area toy company on Thursday, blocking five executive orders signed by President Donald Trump that imposed tariffs on Chinese imports.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras determined the International Economic Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize Trump to impose the tariffs in his executive orders.

Contreras granted a motion for a preliminary injunction, filed by the toy company, Learning Resources, Inc., which will be stayed for 14 days in case the administration decides to appeal the decision.

Trump announced his ‘Liberation Day’ reciprocal tariff plan on April 2, imposing a 10% baseline tariff on all countries.

In certain countries, hostile negotiations led to even higher levies, with taxes on Chinese imports reaching 145%.

Rick Woldenberg, CEO of Learning Resources, said in April the third-generation family business that had been manufacturing in China for four decades would face an almost 98% increase in its tariff bill.

He said the $2.3 million the company paid in 2024 would jump to $100.2 million in 2025. 

‘I wish I had $100 million,’ Woldenberg wrote in a statement. ‘Honest to God, no exaggeration: It feels like the end of days.’

China produces 97% of America’s imported baby carriages, 96% of its artificial flowers and umbrellas, 95% of its fireworks, 93% of its children’s coloring books and 90% of its combs, according to a report from the Macquarie investment bank.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled the administration overstepped its authority over tariffs under IEEPA.

‘The Constitution assigns Congress the exclusive powers to ‘lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,’ and to ‘regulate Commerce with foreign Nations,’’ the court wrote in its opinion. ‘The question in the two cases before the court is whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (‘IEEPA’) delegates these powers to the President in the form of authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world.’

Three judges, appointed by former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, and Trump, found IEEPA did not ‘confer such unbounded authority.’

The Trump administration appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it is unclear what goods will be subject to tariffs in the meantime, Reuters reported.

‘Foreign countries’ nonreciprocal treatment of the United States has fueled America’s historic and persistent trade deficits,’ White House spokesperson Kush Desai told FOX Business after the decision. ‘These deficits have created a national emergency that has decimated American communities, left our workers behind, and weakened our defense industrial base — facts that the court did not dispute.’ 

‘It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency,’ Desai added. ‘President Trump pledged to put America First, and the Administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American Greatness.’

FOX Business’ Greg Wehner and Bill Mears, and Reuters contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet will spearhead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts, now that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is stepping aside from leading the initiative. 

‘The DOGE leaders are each and every member of the president’s cabinet and the president himself, who is wholeheartedly committed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse from our government,’ White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday at a White House press briefing. 

‘The entire Cabinet understands the need to cut government waste, fraud and abuse,’ Leavitt said. ‘And each Cabinet secretary at their respective agencies is committed to that. That’s why they were working hand in hand with Elon Musk. And they’ll continue to work with their respective DOGE employees who have onboarded as political appointees at all of these agencies. So surely the mission of DOGE will continue, and many DOGE employees are now political appointees and employees of our government.’

Since January, Musk has been heading up DOGE, which was tasked with cutting $2 trillion from the federal government’s budget through efforts to slash spending, government programs and the federal workforce.

DOGE’s efforts to cut waste has led to roughly $175 billion in savings due to asset sales, contract cancellations, fraud payment cuts, in addition to other steps to eliminate costs, according to a May 26 update from DOGE’s website. That translates to roughly $1,086.96 in savings per taxpayer, according to the website. 

Musk announced his departure in an X post. 

‘As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,’ Musk said on X Wednesday. ‘The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.’

Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.