President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as the next U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday and defended proposed tariffs from the Trump administration. 

Greer told lawmakers that the U.S. government previously raked in major funding from tariff revenues until the early 1900s, a time ‘when America truly was exploding as an international industrial powerhouse and we had a relatively high tariff rate.’

‘At the same time, we saw countries like the United Kingdom lowering their tariff rates and actually falling out of industrial competitiveness,’ Greer said to lawmakers. 

Greer also called for bolstering the U.S. manufacturing base, claiming that trade policy has major ramifications on economic and national security issues. 

‘If the United States does not have a robust manufacturing base and innovation economy, it will have little in the way of hard power to deter conflict and protect Americans,’ Greer said. ‘Trade policy can play an important role in ensuring that we have the economic security that leads to strong national security. I am convinced that we have a relatively short window of time to restructure the international trade system to better serve U.S. interests.’ 

Greer, who previously served as the chief of staff to the trade representative during Trump’s first term, played a key role in implementing tariffs during Trump’s first administration, the president said when unveiling Greer’s nomination. 

Specifically, Trump said Greer assisted with imposing tariffs on China and other nations and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. 

A lawyer and Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps veteran with one deployment to Iraq, Greer’s role as U.S. trade representative would require him to negotiate with foreign governments on trade deals and disputes and membership of international trade bodies like the World Trade Organization. 

Greer’s confirmation hearing comes just after Trump announced he would impose new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. 

The White House announced Friday that in response to an ‘invasion of illegal fentanyl’ to the U.S., it would impose a 25% tariff on all goods entering the United States from Mexico and Canada, a 10% tariff on Canadian energy and a 10% tariff on all goods entering the U.S. from China. 

Tariffs against China went into effect Tuesday, although Trump agreed to push back tariffs against Mexico and Canada by at least one month after discussions with each respective country about securing the border.

As a result, Democratic lawmakers pressed Greer on whether the tariffs were aimed at renegotiating trade issues or about border security. 

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said, ‘Donald Trump governs by whim and in trade that hurts American families.’ 

‘His tariff bluff created huge uncertainty that is costing American businesses and putting the global economy on what I would describe as a month to month lease,’ Wyden said. ‘Frankly, my top priority today is to figure out who the hell in the Trump administration is going to be in charge of trade, what they plan to do, and how this sort of bedlam is going to get straightened out.’

Some Republican lawmakers also voiced concerns with Trump’s tariff plans, and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said that agriculture communities in Montana suffered after Trump imposed tariffs in his first administration. 

Trump acknowledged on Friday the tariffs might result in ‘temporary, short-term disruption.’ But Democrats claim American taxpayers will end up hurting and paying the price. 

According to one Washington think tank, the nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics, these rounds of tariffs are expected to cost U.S. households roughly $1,200 a year annually.

Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report. 

Democrats succeeded Thursday in delaying a committee vote to advance the confirmation of FBI director nominee Kash Patel until next week at least. 

The vote, which was slated to happen at 10:15 a.m. on Thursday, was pushed to next week after Senate Democrats demanded a second hearing from the Trump-aligned former Defense Department official, citing concerns about his previous remarks and candor.

In a statement Tuesday night, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa., said attempts by top Judiciary Democrat Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and others to force Patel to testify again were ‘baseless’ as he already sat before the committee for more than five hours and disclosed ‘thousands of pages’ of records to the panel, as well as nearly 150 pages of responses to lawmakers’ written questions.

At a press briefing Thursday morning, Democrats criticized Patel for both his previous actions and his remarks made on podcasts, social media and in his book, saying that in their view, Patel failed to assuage any of their concerns last week during his nearly six-hour confirmation hearing, including questions of whether he would take moves to ensure the bureau can continue to act without political interference. 

Patel, they argued, failed to directly answer their questions on this topic.

They also said Patel failed to account for his previous statements to the extent required to head up the nation’s sprawling law enforcement agency. 

‘This appointment, the head of the FBI, is one of the most serious that the Senate Judiciary Committee should consider,’ Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, told reporters. 

‘Kash Patel has no business being the director of the FBI,’ Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said Thursday, noting that he asked Patel three ‘simple, direct’ questions last week about how he would lead the bureau in an independent manner if confirmed. 

‘I asked him if he understood who the FBI works for, and he answered, essentially through the Department of Justice, the White House,’ Coons said. ‘I gave him another chance to answer not who they report to, but who they work for. And he said again, the White House.’

‘I asked if he would refuse a direct order from the President to do something inappropriate, immoral or illegal,’ Coons said, ‘and he would not answer.’

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., for her part, cited her own background as a prosecutor, a job she noted involves close work with federal law enforcement. ‘That nonpartisan, independent nature’ of the Justice Department and FBI ‘is really key to all the work and the belief in our justice system,’ she said.

‘To have an FBI nominee – think about this – who is repeatedly calling the people that he is supposed to be managing corrupt is beyond belief,’ she said. ‘And I am shocked that our Republican colleagues have not signified any concern about this nominee.’

Still, Democrats face limited options to further delay Patel’s confirmation in the near-term. 

Durbin told Fox News Thursday that their aim in delaying the hearing is to raise more public awareness about Patel’s previous actions, in hopes that doing so will shore up new opposition from some Republicans in the chamber.

Ultimately, lawmakers noted they can only delay Patel’s committee vote through next week. Beyond that, they said, it is up to Republicans.

‘The president has chosen a nominee – a disappointing choice – in Kash Patel,’ Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., told reporters. ‘Now it’s up to the Senate to either confirm this nominee or not,’ he said, adding that it’s ‘clear where Senate Democrats stand.’

‘I think my biggest question is where are Senate Republicans going to stand at this important moment in history.’ Padilla continued. ‘Will they choose the rule of law? Will they choose the Constitution?’ he said, ‘Or will they choose loyalty to a reckless president?’

‘We’ll soon find out.’

In President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was rife with ‘corrruption’ as staffers were intent on ‘subverting the president’s will,’ on policy matters and sending taxpayer dollars overseas to further DEI and LGBT advocacy initiatives, a former USAID official told Fox News Digital in an interview.

‘A lot of them were beholden or had ties to the previous administration, the Obama administration, [and] the large majority of them had voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016,’ Mark Moyar, who worked in the department from 2018 to 2019, said. 

‘Now some of them did as they were told, but there was a large resistance element. And in one case, I was at a meeting, and they talked about how there was this aid going into Syria, and we needed to hide it from the White House, because we don’t want President Trump finding out about it and canceling it.’

‘They apparently just forgot I was in the room,’ he added. 

Moyar resigned from his position in July 2019 after his security clearance was suspended due to a dispute over him publishing a book – ‘Oppose Any Foe: The Rise of America’s Special Operations Forces’ before the Defense Department was able to complete a prepublication review for potentially classified information, according to a court document.

While USAID did not officially terminate his employment, Moyar said he was effectively ‘fired’ without due process. He has also alleged that the suspension of his security clearance was a form of retaliation for reporting waste, fraud and abuse within the agency.

Moyar said significant amounts of money were being spent at USAID without the knowledge of political appointees. He described a case from 2019, ‘more than halfway through the administration,’ where officials discovered a ‘big slush fund that none of his political appointees knew about.’ 

Once it was exposed, they were able to take action, but he emphasized that such issues were widespread across the agency. He also pointed to numerous conflicts of interest, where employees used their positions to benefit private businesses in which they had a stake – something he described as ‘totally illegal.’

Moyar explained that what ultimately led to getting in trouble at the department was reporting an office director who was not only using his role to assist a specific company but was also ‘the Chairman of the Board of that company.’ Despite previous reports being made about the misconduct, he said no action was taken. Instead, he said the agency ‘helped him find employment at another federal agency, the Department of Defense, so he ends up OK.’

‘Meanwhile, they come after me and try to accuse me of publishing classified information and use that as a pretext to have me fired,’ Moya said. ‘And I’m 100% sure this is fraudulent. I’ve actually sued the government to turn over the records, and still, five years later, the Department of Justice is fighting me. But it’s part of a larger pattern where the people who report the corruption are the ones who get kicked out, and the ones who are engaged in corruption thrive within the organization.’

Moyar added this is part of why such ‘radical’ changes are happening in real time at the USAID, as Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – the government accountability unit headed by billionaire Elon Musk – effectively shut down the $40 billion agency on Monday.

The former director also detailed instances of government waste dating back to Trump’s first term, saying it;s ‘so important to get into the records of the agency’ to determine how many taxpayer dollars have been used on wasteful initiatives. 

Uncovering the full extent of DEI-related spending at USAID will take significant effort, as much of it has been ‘disguised or rebranded,’ Moyar said. He noted that while it’s clear a ‘huge amount’ has already been spent, the actual figure is likely even higher. He also criticized the push for DEI abroad, calling it not only a ‘ridiculous ideology’ but one that is actively harming U.S. relations with other countries. ‘Most other countries look at this DEI stuff and say, ‘This is crazy,’’ he said, adding that efforts to promote a ‘radical LGBTQ agenda’ overseas have sometimes been met with resistance.

‘So I think we’re going to find a great amount of waste, fraud and abuse, especially because the Inspector General, I think, has been asleep at the wheel,’ Moyar said. ‘In the weeks and months to come, we’re going to hear a lot of horror stories about how USAID has been misusing the money.’

USAID was set up in the early 1960s to act on behalf of the U.S. to deliver aid across the globe, particularly in impoverished and underdeveloped regions. The Trump administration alleges that much of the spending has been wasteful, promoting a liberal agenda around the world. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department, Department of Defense and USAID for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report. 

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from obtaining access to certain Treasury Department payment records.

Treasury officials ‘will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained within the [Treasury] Bureau of Fiscal Service,’ Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a temporary restraining order.

That program handles an estimated 90% of federal payments. 

The order comes after the Justice Department on Wednesday agreed in a proposed court order to limit access to the sensitive records to only two ‘special government employees’ within DOGE, who will have read-only permission. Kollar-Kotelly approved the motion in a brief order Thursday.

Several government employee unions brought suit over who could access the material as part of a government-wide evaluation of programs and systems, led by DOGE. 

The lawsuit claimed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent allowed improper access to Elon Musk’s team, potentially exposing personal financial information to unauthorized individuals. 

Under the order, only Musk ally Tom Krause, CEO of Cloud Software Group, and Marko Elez – an engineer and former Musk company employee — will continue to have access to Treasury’s Fiscal Service, but they will not be allowed to make any changes to the program. 

The order identifies both Krause and Elez as ‘Special Government Employee[s] in the Department of the Treasury.’

Panama has denied the U.S. State Department’s claim that the country will eliminate fees for U.S. government vessels transiting the Panama Canal, just one day after the State Department initially announced a deal.

The Panama Canal Authority, which is authorized to set tolls and other fees for vessels that transit the canal, said in a statement on Thursday that it has not made any adjustments to these tolls and fees. The statement added that the Panama Canal Authority ‘is ready to establish a dialogue’ with U.S. officials regarding the transit of U.S. warships.

The State Department on Wednesday announced a new deal with the government of Panama that will eliminate charge fees for U.S. government vessels.

‘The government of Panama has agreed to no longer charge fees for U.S. government vessels to transit the Panama Canal,’ the State Department wrote in an X post Wednesday night.

The new agreement would have saved the U.S. government millions of dollars a year, officials noted.

Panama President José Raúl Mulino promised on Sunday to end a key development deal with China after meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

During his visit, former Florida Senator Rubio wrote in a post on X that ‘the United States cannot, and will not, allow the Chinese Communist Party to continue with its effective and growing control over the Panama Canal area.’ 

President Donald Trump, who has openly criticized the six-figure premiums imposed on U.S. ships traveling through, has suggested repurchasing the canal.

It was built over decades by the U.S., but was later handed over to Panama during the Carter administration.

A newly introduced bill called the ‘Panama Canal Repurchase Act’ would give Trump and Rubio the authority to negotiate with Panama to repurchase the canal.

More than 70 percent of all vessels traveling through the canal are inbound or outbound to U.S. ports, according to the State Department. It is also a key transit point for U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Defense vessels. 

Ships would need to travel 8,000 additional miles around South America to avoid using the pathway.

Fox News Digital requested comment from the State Department, but did not immediately receive a response as of Wednesday night.

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace and Stepheny Price contributed to this report.