President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine, hosted the president of South Africa at the White House and threatened more stringent tariffs against the European Union this week. 

During South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Oval Office visit on Wednesday, Trump got into a testy exchange with the South African leader about the treatment of White farmers there. Specifically, Trump aired a video that showed white crosses that Trump said were approximately 1,000 burial sites of White Afrikaner South African farmers. 

Trump has repeatedly asserted these farmers are being killed and pushed off of their land.

Trump told Ramaphosa at the White House that the burial sites by the side of the road are visited by those who want to ‘pay respects to their family member who was killed.’ 

‘Now this is very bad. These are burial sites right here. Burial sites — over a thousand — of White farmers. And those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross. And there is approximately a thousand of them,’ Trump said. ‘They’re all White farmers. The family of White farmers. And those cars aren’t driving, they are stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed. And it’s a terrible sight. I’ve never seen anything like it. On both sides of the road, you have crosses. Those people are all killed.’

‘Have they told you where that is, Mr. President?’ Ramaphosa said. ‘I’d like to know where that is. Because this I’ve never seen.’ 

‘I mean, it’s in South Africa, that’s where,’ Trump said. 

‘We need to find out,’ Ramaphosa said.

The White House defended showing the clip and said that the video was ‘substantiated,’ following reports that emerged after the encounter that said the crosses were from a memorial demonstration following the murder of a White farming couple, not actual burial sites.

Here’s what also happened this week:

Call with Putin 

Trump and Putin spoke over the phone on Monday to advance peace negotiations ending the war between Moscow and Kyiv. The call occurred just days after Russia and Ukraine met in Turkey to conduct their first peace talks since 2022. 

After the call, Trump said both countries would move toward a ceasefire and push discussions to end the war. But, Trump indicated that the U.S. would let Moscow and Kyiv take the lead on negotiations after his call with Putin. 

‘The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know the details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of,’ Trump said in a Monday post on Truth Social. 

Additionally, Trump has continued to distance the U.S. from the conflict this week, describing the conflict as a ‘European situation.’ 

‘Big egos involved, but I think something’s going to happen,’ Trump told reporters on Monday. ‘And if it doesn’t, I’ll just back away and they’ll have to keep going. This was a European situation. It should have remained a European situation.’

Trump expressed similar sentiments on Wednesday when Ramaphosa visited and stated: ‘It’s not our people, it’s not our soldiers… it’s Ukraine and it’s Russia.’ 

‘Evils of antisemitism’

The White House condemned the fatal attack against two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, labeling that incident an act of antisemitism. 

A gunman opened fire and killed Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim as they were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. The two were planning to get engaged next week in Jerusalem, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing.

Authorities arrested a pro-Palestinian man identified as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago in connection with the attack, according to officials.

In response, Trump and other leaders of his administration said attacks like these must stop and said that those responsible will face justice. 

‘These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!’ Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. ‘Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!’

Leavitt later told reporters she’d spoken with Attorney General Pam Bondi and that those who conducted the attack would face prosecution. 

‘The evil of antisemitism must be eradicated from our society,’ Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. ‘I spoke to the attorney general this morning. The Department of Justice will be prosecuting the perpetrator responsible for this to the fullest extent of the law. Hatred has no place in the United States of America under President Donald Trump.’

EU tariff threats

Trump threatened to slap a 50% tariff on imports from the European Union on Friday amid ongoing trade negotiations and after locking down a trade deal with the U.K. 

The deal with the U.K. is the first historic trade negotiation signed following Liberation Day, when Trump announced widespread tariffs for multiple countries on April 2 at a range of rates. 

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

‘Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable,’ Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday about the EU. 

‘Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025,’ he said. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later said in an interview with Fox News he hoped the warning would ‘light a fire under the EU’ and signaled Trump’s threats stemmed from frustration negotiating with European countries on trade deals. 

‘EU proposals have not been of the same quality that we’ve seen from our other important trading partners,’ Bessent said. 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman contributed to this report. 

Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said during a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) event Thursday that the Trump administration is making history with its approval of numerous waivers that will eliminate junk food from food stamp programs. 

Rollins was in Nebraska on Monday to sign the first alongside Republican Gov. Jim Pillen. She has also signed a waiver for Indiana and Iowa, ‘with half-a-dozen more coming down the line,’ she said.   

‘We are on track to sign multiples of snap waivers to get junk food and sugary drinks out of our food stamp system,’ Rollins said at the Thursday afternoon event, centering around the release of a 69-page report from the Trump administration’s MAHA Commission on how to effect change around childhood chronic disease. 

‘That has never happened before under Republican or Democrat administrations,’ Rollins added. ‘We have never made that happen before. So I am so proud and so grateful.’

On average, 42 million low-income Americans receive food stamp assistance each month, according to the MAHA report released at Thursday’s event. It added that 1 in 5 American children under 17 receive SNAP benefits.

With Nebraska’s waiver, it became the first state in the nation to bar recipients of federal food stamp programs from using the money to buy junk food, soda and other high-sugar items. The exemption will begin as a two-year pilot program, local media reported.

Other GOP-led states, including Texas and West Virginia, have applied for this waiver.

‘SNAP was created to increase access to nutritious food; however, many SNAP purchases are for food with little to no nutritious value,’ Texas GOP Governor Greg Abbott wrote in a letter to Rollins requesting a waiver last week. 

‘Under the Trump administration, for the first time since the program was authorized, states can take steps to eliminate the opportunity to buy junk food with SNAP benefits and assure that taxpayer dollars are used only to purchase healthy, nutritious food.’

West Virginia’s Governor Patrick Morrisey, one of the leaders requesting a waiver, has also been spearheading other MAHA efforts in his state. In March, Morrisey signed House Bill 2354 into law, which made it the first state in the nation to begin prohibiting certain synthetic dyes and additives used in food items sold in the state.

A major prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine is underway, a senior Ukrainian official said Friday.

The swap is not yet finished, the official told the Associated Press, despite President Donald Trump declaring Friday that Russia and Ukraine completed a ‘major prisoners swap.’ 

The announcements come after Russian and Ukrainian officials took part in direct talks in Turkey last Friday for the first time since the early days of the war, agreeing to release around 1,000 prisoners of war. 

‘A major prisoners swap was just completed between Russia and Ukraine. It will go into effect shortly,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation. This could lead to something big???’ 

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X that ‘I held a meeting on the preparation for an exchange’ and ‘The agreement to release 1,000 of our people from Russian captivity was perhaps the only tangible result of the meeting in Turkey.’ 

Trump had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. Following the conversation, Trump said ‘I believe it went very well.’ 

‘Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War. The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of,’ Trump said. ‘The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent. If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later.’ 

Putin, in a statement after the call, also noted that ‘a ceasefire with Ukraine is possible’ but noted that ‘Russia and Ukraine must find compromises that suit both sides.’ 

The Kremlin then said Thursday that both sides had no direct peace talks scheduled. 

‘There is no concrete agreement about the next meetings,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Associated Press. ‘They are yet to be agreed upon.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report. 

An internal House GOP memo sent to Republican lawmakers and obtained by Fox News Digital highlights the party’s key accomplishments included in President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill.’

House Republicans passed all 1,118 pages of Trump’s ‘one big, beautiful bill’ on Thursday morning, after working through hourslong committee meetings, huddles in the speaker’s office and even a last-minute push from the president. 

Finally, late Wednesday night, House leadership found consensus among key factions of the Republican caucus. The late-night ‘manager’s amendment’ appeased lingering Republican holdouts, including fiscal hawks who wanted more reform on Medicaid and former President Joe Biden’s green energy subsidies, and blue state Republicans seeking to raise the cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. 

The bill is a sweeping multitrillion-dollar piece of legislation that advances Trump’s agenda on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt. It aims to slash the federal government’s spending trajectory by cutting roughly $1.5 trillion in government spending. The U.S. government is over $36 trillion in debt and has spent $1.05 trillion more than it has collected in the 2025 fiscal year, according to the Treasury Department. 

The bill raises the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. 

The internal House Republican memo shared with Fox News Digital summarizes Republicans’ key legislative accomplishments. 

According to the memo, the bill reduces the deficit by $238 billion through the Agriculture Committee, securing $294 billion through Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit reform. It reinvests $56 billion in SNAP benefit savings into rural America. 

Republicans say the SNAP reform restores its integrity by requiring states to pay a larger share for its benefits and incentivizing more state efficiency. It requires congressional approval for states to increase enrollment eligibility and creates SNAP work requirements for able-bodied adults who do not have young dependents. 

The Armed Services Committee increased defense spending by nearly $143 billion with improvements to service members’ quality of life, healthcare and family support. There are billions of dollars allocated to building the military’s arsenal, advancing technology and infrastructure and expanding military readiness. 

The bill allocates $34 billion for shipbuilding, $5 billion for border security enforcement, $400 million for the Department of Defense and $25 billion for Trump’s Golden Dome, which is a layered missile defense shield. 

It reduces the deficit by $349.1 billion through the Education and Workforce Committee, which made a series of reforms to streamline student loan payment options, support students and save taxpayer money. 

Specifically, the bill caps the total amount of federal student aid a student can receive annually to the median cost of the college, which is $50,000 for undergrad, $100,000 for graduate students and $150,000 for professional graduate programs. There is also a ‘lifetime limit’ of $200,000. 

The Education and Workforce Committee consolidated student loans into two plans – a fixed mortgage-style plan or a repayment assistance plan. 

It also establishes a performance-based PROMISE grant program, prevents future attempts at the loan forgiveness program championed by the Biden administration and reforms Pell Grant programs. 

The Energy and Commerce Committee, which had a lengthy overnight budget markup last week, includes a series of Medicaid reforms, which Democrats have railed against as conservatives pushed for more cuts. The bill establishes work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents, requires state cost-sharing for adults above the poverty line, eliminates illegal immigrants from enrolling and reduces state funding for states who prioritize coverage for illegal immigrants. 

The Financial Services Committee in the ‘big, beautiful bill’ includes reforms to save taxpayer money and reduce federal bureaucracy. Meanwhile, the Homeland Security Committee increases spending by a little over $79 billion to expand border security, and the Judiciary Committee increases spending by about $7 billion to stop illegal immigration. 

The Energy and Commerce Committee also delivered on one of Trump’s key campaign promises to unleash American energy by supporting domestic energy production and eliminating Biden-era green energy projects, including eliminating electric vehicle mandates. 

The Natural Resources Committee reduces the deficit by $18 billion to deliver Trump’s energy agenda. The bill reinstates quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales, requires geothermal lease sales and mandates at least 30 lease sales in the newly-renamed Gulf of America over the next 15 years and six in the Cook Inlet in south-central Alaska.

It returns oil and natural gas royalty rates to before Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, resumes leases on energy production in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, resumes coal leasing on federal lands, increases timber sales and long-term contracts on federal lands and walks back funds allocated by the Biden administration for climate change. 

The bill includes amendments by the Oversight Committee that will reduce the deficit by $12 billion by eliminating retirement annuity payments for new federal retirees that are eligible to retire before age 62, allows new federal employee hires the option to elect to serve ‘at will’ in exchange for higher take-home pay, requires a comprehensive audit of employee dependents currently enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program plans.

Finally, the Ways and Means Committee makes the 2017 tax cuts permanent, which prevents a 22% tax hike, and delivers Trump’s campaign promises, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay or car loan interests. It also provides additional tax relief for seniors. The bill increases the university endowment tax and subjects the largest endowments to the corporate tax rate.

As touted in the House GOP memo, the bill also prevents taxpayer benefits from going to illegal immigrants by requiring a Social Security number for individuals claiming tax credits and deductions, ends illegal immigrant eligibility for Obamacare premium tax credits and Medicare, and applies new remittance payment fees for illegal immigrants. 

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in the U.S. House of Representatives 215 to 214. All Democrats and just two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, voted against it. House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., voted ‘present.’

Now, the Senate is tasked with passing their own version of the bill before it lands on Trump’s desk. Republican leadership is eyeing a July 4 deadline, but sparks are likely to fly in the Senate before Trump can claim a legislative victory.