“Lawmakers in both parties blasted a plan by President Donald Trump to claw back more than $800 million in congressionally approved spending across the government, saying the president had no right to defy Congress in how he directs federal funding,” the Washington Post reports.

“The White House late Friday said it was taking a legally contested move to cut funding at federal agencies for a range of programs that direct government services toward immigrants, minority groups, climate change programs and other issues. It was the latest bid by the Trump administration to assert sweeping control over the government and to trim congressional powers.”

NBC News: Lawmakers slam Trump’s “unlawful” move to cut $810 million in federal funds.

“Donald Trump returned to the White House promising to get the United States’ financial house in order by slashing the scope of the federal government, ending costly ‘forever wars’ and spurring economic growth to tame spiraling deficits,” Reuters reports.

“Instead, the national debt has surged past $40 trillion in the first 19 ​months of his second term. Federal spending has grown, not shrunk. The six-month-old Iran war has become an expensive stalemate. And the cost of servicing the U.S. debt, meanwhile, has grown as yields on some U.S. bonds ‌hit their highest levels in nearly two decades.”

“President Trump on Monday declared his support for federal tax credits to support film and television production in the U.S. which entertainment industry veterans say could boost a struggling industry that has lost huge amounts of business to foreign countries,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Deadline: Trump backs federal film & TV tax incentive: “Hollywood is a complete & total disaster!”

“It used to be that a new report of budgetary red ink would touch off a political crisis in Washington. There would be speeches and news conferences and blue-ribbon commissions and legislation and brinkmanship over how to get the nation’s fiscal house in order,” the New York Times reports.

“But when the national debt topped $40 trillion last week — that’s trillion with a T — the collective body politic all but shrugged. Never mind that the U.S. government now owes twice as much money as a share of the economy than two decades ago. Republicans and Democrats issued perfunctory, my-we’re-concerned statements and promptly moved on.”

“Vice President Vance said that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has a ‘very discreet plan’ to shrink the nation’s debt,” NewsNation reports.

Said Vance: “He has had a very discreet plan, of course, supported by the president of the United States, to get the United States to a point where our economy is growing faster than our debt.”

He adeed: “And if you look, we are on track. So, even though the debt is too high, even though we inherited this debt bomb from the Biden administration, we actually do have a plan to get the economy growing faster than the debt and that’s the most important thing.”