Ten years ago Monday, businessman Donald J. Trump launched his first presidential campaign, marking the beginning of the ‘Make America Great Again’ movement. 

Trump, beside his wife, Melania, famously came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City June 16, 2015, to announce his intention to run for president of the United States. 

‘I am officially running for President of the United States,’ Trump posted to his then-Twitter account June 16, 2015, along with a photo of his family after his announcement. ‘#MakeAmericaGreatAgain.’

‘Ten Years Ago Today, President Donald J. Trump came down the Golden Escalator and officially declared his candidacy for President of the United States,’ Team Trump posted to Instagram Monday to commemorate the ten-year anniversary. 

Since, Trump has changed American politics — creating the MAGA movement and serving as the 45th and 47th president of the United States, after beating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 and former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2020. 

Trump is the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms other than Grover Cleveland who was elected in 1884 and again in 1892.  

‘This will truly be the golden age of America,’ Trump said, upon winning the 2024 election in a landslide. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is calling off his planned trip to Jerusalem this coming weekend in light of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran.

‘Due to the complex situation currently unfolding in Iran and Israel, Speaker Ohana and I have made the decision to postpone the special session of the Knesset,’ Johnson said in a statement.

‘We look forward to rescheduling the address in the near future and send our prayers to the people of Israel and the Middle East.’

Johnson had planned to address the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, this coming Sunday.

It’s a sign of the worsening situation in the Middle East after Israel, which said Iran was dangerously close to a nuclear weapon, launched preemptive strikes in Tehran that hit nuclear enrichment sites and killed top military officials.

Johnson, like most Republicans, backed Israel’s moves.

‘Israel and the United States have been united, including in our shared insistence that Iran must never obtain a nuclear weapon. President Trump and his administration have worked tirelessly to ensure that outcome,’ the speaker said in a statement on Friday.

‘Unfortunately, Iran has refused to agree and even declared yesterday its intent to build a new enrichment facility. Israel decided it needed to take action to defend itself. They were clearly within their right to do so.’

Israel’s military said Monday that it has established ‘aerial superiority’ over Iran’s forces as the conflict continues into another day.

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday that Israel and Iran ‘should make a deal, and will make a deal.’ 

‘[W]e will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place,’ Trump wrote.

Sen. Josh Hawley again drew a line in the sand on proposed cuts to Medicaid benefits, and warned his colleagues to follow President Donald Trump’s lead and leave the widely used healthcare program largely intact.

Republican-led Senate committees have spent the last few weeks since the House GOP advanced its version of the president’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ preparing their own tweaks to the colossal bill, but much of the focus has been on the work being carried out by the Senate Finance Committee.

The panel, which is responsible for health care, tax and other policy provisions, is expected to release its chunk of the budget reconciliation package Tuesday afternoon. House GOP-authored Medicaid provisions, in particular, have been a sticking point for a small group of Senate Republicans.

What those changes on the Senate side of the bill might look like could jump start or stall the momentum of the massive legislative package in the upper chamber.

Hawley, R-Mo, is among that cohort and has long been outspoken in his position that if Senate Republicans produce a version of the president’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ that strips benefits from his constituents, he won’t support the package. But his vision for Medicaid clashes with fiscal hawks who are in search of deeper spending cuts.

One of his main arguments is to listen to what Trump wants to do.

‘This is what I continue to tell my colleagues,’ he said. ‘Anybody who asks me and who’s interested is that, why don’t we just listen to the guy who won the election who said that he doesn’t want any Medicaid benefit cuts, he doesn’t want rural hospitals to close. He wants Medicare not to be touched at all.’

The lawmaker’s remarks came during a press call on Friday discussing the inclusion of his Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which provides compensation to people who have been exposed to nuclear waste, into the ‘big, beautiful bill.’

Hawley said the addition was certainly a sweetener for his support, considering that the measure has been his ‘leading legislative priority for two years now.’ Still, Medicaid is one of his top issues in the broader reconciliation fight.

The lawmaker said that he did not have a problem with some of the marquee changes to Medicaid that his House Republican counterparts wanted, including stricter work requirements, booting illegal immigrants from benefit rolls and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in the program that serves tens of millions of Americans.

However, he noted that about 1.3 million Missourians rely on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and contended that most were working.

‘These are not people who are sitting around, these are people who are working,’ he said. ‘They’re on Medicaid because they cannot afford private health insurance, and they don’t get it on the job.’

‘And I just think it’s wrong to go to those people and say, ‘Well, you know, we know you’re doing the best, we know that you’re working hard, but we’re going to take away your healthcare access,’’ he continued. 

After nearly 150 days since President Donald Trump entered office, the U.S. still does not have an ambassador to the United Nations despite geopolitics playing a cornerstone role in his second term.

Following the withdrawal of Elise Stefanik from the nomination in late March over concerns that Republicans would not be able to hold onto her New York seat in the case of a special election, Trump nominated former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz for the top job on May 1.

Though his nomination process appears to be just now moving forward as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which needs to vote on his confirmation before a full Senate vote can be cast, only just confirmed receipt of the nomination on Thursday. 

The first movement in Waltz’s nomination process comes more than 45 days after it was first announced despite comments to Fox News Digital in early May by a GOP staffer who said, ‘The committee has been working at a historically fast pace and this nomination will be a priority moving forward.’

Though on Monday the committee was unable to confirm when Waltz’s hearing and subsequent vote would take place.  

When asked by Fox News Digital why it had only just confirmed receipt of the nomination, the committee directed questions regarding the timeline to the White House. 

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions about what the holdup could be, given that other nominations, like that of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, were pushed through within five days of Trump entering the Oval Office. 

Though the lack of a U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is not necessarily ‘dangerous,’ it weakens the U.S.’s ability to influence major geopolitical situations at a time when the U.S. is facing some of its greatest multifront geopolitical challenges since World War II.

‘There are downsides diplomatically to not having senior leadership and supporting political staff in New York. It lessens U.S. influence and its ability to negotiate at the top level with other missions and the Secretariat,’ Brett Schaefer, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an expert on multilateral treaties and international organizations like the U.N., told Fox News Digital.

Schaefer explained that though the U.S. does not have a Senate-approved official in place at the U.N., it does not mean the administration does not have representatives at U.N. headquarters in New York working to push U.S. interests.

The U.S., as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, continues to hold its position and ability to use veto powers, should major geopolitical policy come into effect, like the use of snapback sanctions against Iran.

Though the U.S. has representation should an emergency meeting be called, as one was over the weekend by Iran following Israel’s Thursday night military strikes, the ambassador is seen as having the direct ear of the president and can therefore be more influential diplomatically when it tops to the top international body.

‘The United Nations is a serious playground whether you like it or not,’ Jonathan Wachtel, who served as counsel to the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations during the previous Trump administration, told Fox News Digital, adding that there are arguments for reform and policy changes. ‘But at the end of the day it’s a flash point for every conflict in the world, and it’s important to have the representation of the United States at the world body.’ 

Wachtel also pointed out that with all the conflicts around the world, whether the U.S. is directly involved or not, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, Israel’s war against Iran and in Gaza, as well as broader crises like world hunger, Washington needs its voice heard, otherwise its adversaries will step in. 

‘[There’s] just too many things going on in the world and too much ground to cover,’ Wachtel added. ‘And instead of the U.S. voice heard [at the U.N.], you’re going to have the press corps here and diplomats listening more to the arguments of our adversaries, frankly speaking.’

Diana Stancy contributed to this report.