JERUSALEM — With President Donald Trump set to leave for the Middle East on Monday, talks between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic of Iran concluded a fourth round of negotiations in Oman on Sunday over Tehran’s illicit nuclear weapons program. 

A day before the start of talks, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei welcomed chants of ‘Death to America’ in Tehran. ‘Your judgment is right,’ Khamenei told a crowd of supporters who called for the destruction of the U.S.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the nuclear talks were ‘difficult but useful.’ A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations, offered a little bit more, describing them as being both indirect and direct, The Associated Press reported.

An ‘agreement was reached to move forward with the talks to continue working through technical elements,’ the U.S. official said. ‘We are encouraged by today’s outcome and look forward to our next meeting, which will happen in the near future.’

President Trump announced a 60-day time frame to reach an agreement with Iran over its illegal atomic weapons program. The first U.S. negotiating session with Iran commenced on April 12. 

Mardo Soghom, an Iran analyst and journalist, noted prior to the start of talks several months ago that Iran’s regime will go to great lengths to preserve its right to enrich uranium—the material required for a nuclear weapon. The Trump administration vehemently opposes a uranium enrichment program on Iranian soil.

‘Iran is trying to save its enrichment operation at a lower level and also not accepting any pressure to halt its anti-Israel stance. Khamenei’s speech [Saturday] highlighted that second point. But at this point, the main issue is dismantling Iran’s uranium enrichment,’ Soghom told Fox News Digital.

Khamenei also lashed out at Israel during his Saturday speech in Tehran, declaring about Israel’s war campaign to root out Iran-backed Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip that ‘The people of Gaza are not facing Israel alone—they are facing America and Britain.’

Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, told Fox News Digital that ‘The Iranians, like last round, sound more downcast than the U.S. side, describing talks as difficult.’

In 2018, President Trump withdrew from former President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), because the accord failed to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear weapons device, according to the first Trump administration.

President Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff recently stressed that Iran cannot have an enrichment program during an interview with Breitbart News prior to Sunday’s bargaining session. 

Witkoff said ‘First of all, we’re never doing a JCPOA deal where sanctions come off and there’s no sunsetting of their obligations. That doesn’t make sense. That was a mismatched procedure in JCPOA. We believe that they cannot have enrichment, they cannot have centrifuges, they cannot have anything that allows them to build a weapon. We believe in all of that. That was not JCPOA. JCPOA had sunset provisions that burned off the obligations and burned off the sanctions relief at inappropriate times. It’s never going to happen in this deal.’

Brodsky said that ‘All in all, both sides want to keep the process moving. The Iranians will usually say and do enough to earn another meeting as they stand to lose more by this process breaking down than the U.S. government. The negotiating process is as important to the Iranians as the agreement itself as the process offers insulation from the impact of sanctions—with the rial strengthening since talks started—and protection from a military strike.

‘This is why Iran will want these negotiations to continue for as long as possible. They will try to wear out and exhaust U.S. negotiators into concessions, which the Trump administration should reject. As President Trump said in a different context, Tehran does not have the cards here.’

The hot-button issue of uranium enrichment has plagued talks with Iran over the last few decades. The Europeans faced intense criticism when they agreed—independent of the U.S.—to allow the Islamic Republic to enrich uranium during the nascent phase of atomic talks during the early years of this century.

Brodsky said ‘The original sin of U.S. decision-making on Iran’s nuclear program was when the Obama administration changed the U.S. position from zero enrichment to tolerating enrichment at 3.67%. That laid the groundwork for Iran to retain the capability to continue to use its nuclear program to extort the United States and ultimately build a nuclear weapon.’

The nuclear expert noted, ‘That should end today, and recent comments from President Trump, Special Envoy Witkoff, and Secretary Rubio hopefully signal that this era is over. House and Senate Republicans were also very clear on this point over the last week. The Iranians say they want a durable deal. But a JCPOA 2.0—tolerating enrichment at 3.67% and no dismantlement of nuclear facilities—would not be one.

‘The Iranians are engaged in all kinds of gimmicks to dress up a variation of the same concessions they offered to President Obama. That should be unacceptable to American negotiators.’

The anti-American news outlet, Kayhan, that serves as the mouthpiece for Khamenei, published a full-page screed against Trump where it stated, ‘He is a framework based on narcissism, superiority delusions, and threat-based tactics.’

The talks on Sunday ran for some three hours in Muscat, the capital of Oman. Iran’s regime spokesperson, Baghaei, said that a decision on the next round of talks is under discussion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com

A measure in President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ aimed at cracking down on federal payments for abortion providers could run into a buzzsaw of opposition from moderate House Republicans.

House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., held a conference call with GOP lawmakers on Sunday night unveiling his panel’s portion of the Republican reconciliation bill.

During the question and answer portion of the call, Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., asked for clarity on several aspects, including a provision to make ‘large groups who provide abortion services’ ineligible for federal Medicaid dollars, Fox News Digital was told.

‘You are running into a hornet’s nest,’ Lawler warned his colleagues.

The New York Republican, one of only three GOP lawmakers representing districts that Trump lost in 2024, questioned how those groups were being defined and said the language needed to be ‘looked over,’ Fox News Digital was also told.

Guthrie assured him that certain considerations were being taken in the language.

Lawler also pointed out that the Hyde Amendment already prevents federal dollars from going towards abortion services, Fox News Digital was told.

His concerns were echoed by another person familiar with House GOP discussions on the matter, who was granted anonymity to speak freely.

That person told Fox News Digital that several moderate Republican lawmakers communicated to House GOP leaders that they could oppose the final bill if that provision was included.

‘We’re not fighting a new fight on abortion when that’s kind of calmed down,’ the person recalled of the moderates’ argument.

Fox News Digital first learned of discussions about the potential measure last week. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., alluded to Republicans’ plans in a speech at the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s gala last month.

Johnson said the Republicans’ bill would redirect funds from ‘big abortion’ to ‘federally qualified health centers.’

The legislation itself refers to nonprofit organizations that are ‘an essential community provider…that is primarily engaged in family planning services, reproductive health, and related medical care; and provides for abortions.’

The legislation makes exceptions for facilities that only provide abortions in the case of rape, incest, or threats to the life of the mother.

It’s one of several efforts to rein in spending to pay for Trump’s other priorities via the budget reconciliation process.

House Republicans currently have a razor-thin three-vote margin, meaning they can afford to have little dissent and still pass anything without Democratic support. They’re hoping to do just that, with virtually no Democrats currently on board with Trump’s massive Republican policy overhaul.

The budget-reconciliation process lowers the Senate’s passage threshold from 60 votes to 51, lining up the House’s own simple majority threshold.

Reconciliation allows the party in power to effectively skirt the minority and pass broad pieces of legislation – provided they address taxes, spending or the national debt.

Trump wants Republicans to use the maneuver to tackle his priorities on the border, immigration, taxes, defense, energy, and raising the debt ceiling.

To do that, several committees of jurisdiction are working on their specific portions of the bill, which will then be put together in a massive vehicle to pass the House and Senate.

The Energy & Commerce Committee – which has a broad jurisdiction including Medicare, Medicaid, telecommunications, and energy production – was tasked with finding at least $880 billion in spending cuts out of a total $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion.

Guthrie said the bill released late on Sunday evening includes ‘north of’ $900 billion in spending cuts.

In addition to the measure ending Medicaid funds for large abortion providers, the legislation also finds savings in instilling work requirements for certain able-bodied beneficiaries of Medicaid expansion. 

Some Medicaid dollars going toward states that provide taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegal immigrants are also targeted.

It would also repeal certain Biden administration green energy subsidies, including the former White House’s electric vehicle mandate.

Fox News Digital reached out to the committee and Lawler’s office for comment on the specific measure.

Global stock markets are soaring in the wake of the trade truce between the U.S. and China.

The agreement, announced early Monday, implements a 90-day cooling-off period between the world’s two largest economic superpowers, bringing a temporary end to their tariff war that last month triggered a massive financial market sell-off. 

U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports, which were jacked to 145% last month as President Donald Trump hiked tariffs on countries around the world, will be scaled down to 30%, with Beijing lowering its tariffs from a retaliatory 125% to just 10%.

‘We both have an interest in balanced trade, the U.S. will continue moving towards that,’ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said after talks with Chinese officials in Switzerland.

While the initial agreement brought instant relief to the stock markets, for a president aiming to pass a sweeping agenda through Congress and hold onto his congressional majorities in next year’s midterm elections, it is the potential political payoff that may be of upmost importance.

The truce with China follows days after an initial trade deal with the United Kingdom – which is the first since Trump implemented tariffs last month. The president touted that the agreement with London would be ‘the first of many.’

‘It’s a positive first step,’ veteran Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams told Fox News.

Trump’s approval ratings have been sliding since he returned to power in the White House nearly four months ago and are now underwater in most national polling.

Most, but not all, of the most recent national public opinion surveys indicate Trump’s approval ratings in negative territory, which is a deterioration from the president’s poll position when he started his second tour of duty in the White House in late January.

Fueling the drop in Trump’s poll numbers are increased concerns by Americans over the economy and inflation, which were pressing issues that kept former President Joe Biden‘s approval ratings well below water for most of his presidency.  

Trump stood at 44% approval and 55% disapproval in the most recent Fox News national poll, which was conducted April 18-21.

Additionally, getting past the top lines, the president’s approval registered at 38% on the economy and just 33% on inflation and tariffs.

Front and center is Trump’s blockbuster tariff announcement in early April, which sparked a trade war with some of the nation’s top trading partners and triggered a massive sell-off in the financial markets and increased concerns about a recession.

In discussing his tariffs soon after he announced them on what he called ‘Liberation Day,’ the president touted that ‘these countries are calling us up, kissing my a–.’

‘They are dying to make a deal. ‘Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir!’’ Trump claimed.

A month later, Trump finally has a chance to show tangible results.

The president touted, ‘NO INFLATION!!! LOVE, DJT’ in a social media post Monday morning.

‘President Trump has argued that his agenda requires time for an adjustment and deal making. He’ll be given a period of time to execute deals to prove that his plans are working and the first major trade deal with a nation like the UK is at least a sign that some of the work has been going on behind the scenes thus and is starting to bear fruit,’ Williams said last week, following the announcement of the deal with the United Kingdom.

Williams added that the president will ‘have to back it up with more, but it is a positive first step for him in securing other deals.’

House Republicans released a sweeping plan late on Sunday to curb who gets Medicaid coverage and roll back former President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle (EV) mandate, among other measures.

The Energy & Commerce Committee, which has broad jurisdiction, including over federal health programs, telecommunications and energy, was tasked with finding at least $880 billion in spending cuts to pay for other priorities in President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill.’

Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told House Republicans on a lawmaker-only call on Sunday night that the panel had found ‘north of $900 billion’ in savings, however – a significant victory for House GOP leaders who weathered attacks from Democrats about significant cuts to welfare programs like Medicaid.

However, Republicans largely avoided the deep cuts to Medicaid that were sought by some fiscal hawks in the House GOP Conference, a win for moderate Republicans who were more politically vulnerable to Democratic attacks over the issue.

The legislation would put a new 80-hour-per-month work requirement on certain able-bodied adults receiving Medicaid, aged 19 through 64.

It would also put guardrails on states spending funds on their expanded Medicaid populations. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed states to expand Medicaid coverage to adults who make up to 138% of the poverty level.

More specifically, states that provide Medicaid coverage to illegal immigrants could see their federal Medicaid reimbursement dollars diminished, putting more of that cost on the state itself.

The bill would also require states with expanded Medicaid populations to perform eligibility checks every six months to ensure the system is not being abused.

Guthrie told House Republicans on a Sunday night call that the legislation was ‘ending’ the former Biden administration’s EV mandate. He said $105 billion in savings could be found in ending the mandate to have EVs account for two-thirds of all new car sales by 2032.

Other savings are found in rescinding unspent funds in a variety of Biden green energy tax programs established via the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

It is not a full repeal of the IRA, however, as some conservatives had been pushing Republicans to do.

That had been another point of contention ahead of the bill’s release, with GOP lawmakers who have businesses in their districts that have benefited from the green energy subsidies pushing back on significant cuts.

On the other end of the energy divide, the bill would also boost Trump’s non-green energy goals by establishing a fast-tracked natural gas permitting route. The permit applicant would be required to pay $10 million or 1% of the project’s cost to be on the expedited track.

There is also a victory for social conservatives in a measure that would make certain large abortion providers ineligible for Medicaid funding. That measure was pushed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., himself, and was backed by anti-abortion groups like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. 

However, it could run into opposition from moderate Republicans – Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., called the provision ‘problematic’ and warned colleagues they were ‘running into a hornet’s nest’ on the matter in the Sunday night call.

The legislation does provide exceptions for places that provide abortions in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake. It’s not necessarily clear, however, if providing voluntary abortions would disqualify those locations.

The Energy & Commerce Committee’s legislation accounts for the bulk of Republicans’ $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion spending cuts they are hoping to find in the budget reconciliation process.

House Republicans currently have a razor-thin three-vote margin, meaning they can afford to have little dissent and still pass anything without Democratic support. They are hoping to do just that, with virtually no Democrats currently on board with Trump’s massive Republican policy overhaul.

The budget-reconciliation process lowers the Senate’s passage threshold from 60 votes to 51, lining up the House’s own simple majority threshold.

Reconciliation allows the party in power to effectively skirt the minority and pass broad pieces of legislation – provided they address taxes, spending or the national debt.

Trump wants Republicans to use the maneuver to tackle his priorities on the border, immigration, taxes, defense, energy and raising the debt ceiling.

To do that, several committees of jurisdiction are working on their specific portions of the bill, which will then be put together in a massive vehicle to pass the House and Senate.

GOP leaders hope to have that final bill on Trump’s desk by Fourth of July.