NEWNow you can hearken to Fox Information articles!
The forty second week of his second administration was one other busy one for President Donald Trump.
This week, Trump signed laws ending the longest authorities shutdown in historical past, backed utilizing H-1B visas to rent overseas employees, introduced plans to order the Justice Division to guage ties between convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein and different U.S. figures and issued pardons to these accused of searching for to overturn the 2020 election.
This is a take a look at what occurred.
Authorities shutdown ends
On Wednesday night, Trump signed laws that the Home and Senate handed earlier within the week to fund the federal government once more as penalties of the lapse in funding began to mount, comparable to missed paychecks for federal employees and airline delays as a result of air site visitors controller staffing shortages.
TRUMP CANCELS $4.9B FOREIGN AID, PUSHES DC DEATH PENALTY, TOUTS KIM TIES
The invoice maintains funding for the federal government in step with fiscal yr 2025 spending ranges by Jan. 30 to offer a window for lawmakers to nail down an extended appropriations measure for fiscal yr 2026.
The measure additionally allocates spending for the Supplemental Diet Help Program (SNAP), which greater than 42 million Individuals depend on, by September. This system helps non- or low-income people or households to buy groceries with a debit card.
President Donald Trump signed laws that the Home and Senate handed earlier within the week to fund the federal government once more. (Mariam Zuhaib/The Related Press)
Moreover, the measure reverses layoffs the Trump administration set into movement earlier in October and pays staff for his or her absence.
Overseas employee visa criticism
Trump additionally carried out a sit-down interview with Fox Information’ Laura Ingraham that aired Monday and Tuesday, wherein he stated bringing overseas employees to the U.S. on H-1B visas is vital to “herald expertise” to the U.S. After Ingraham claimed that the U.S. has expertise at house, Trump disagreed.
“No, you don’t. No, you don’t. You don’t have, you don’t have sure abilities, and other people should be taught,” Trump stated. “You’ll be able to’t take folks off an unemployment line and say, ‘I’m gonna put you right into a manufacturing facility the place we’re gonna make missiles.’”
LONGEST GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IN HISTORY NEARS LIKELY END AS HOUSE MOVES ON FUNDING BILL
H-1B visas allow U.S. corporations to rent extremely expert overseas employees for as much as six years.
It is a difficulty that has remained controversial amongst MAGA supporters. Those that again this system declare it’s crucial to U.S. competitiveness, however opponents say that the visa holders are taking away jobs from Individuals.
Trump’s statements earned him criticism from those that make up his base. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., rebuked Trump’s statements afterward and stated that she is “America First and America Solely.”
“I imagine within the American folks,” Greene stated. “I’m one in all you. I imagine you might be good, proficient, inventive, clever, hardworking, and need to obtain. I’m solidly in opposition to you being changed by overseas labor, like with H1Bs.”
TRUMP SIGNS BILL ENDING LONGEST GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IN US HISTORY

President Donald Trump speaks throughout a breakfast with Senate and Home Republicans within the State Eating Room of the White Home Nov. 5, 2025, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/The Related Press )
In response to the criticism, the White Home pointed to the Trump administration’s announcement in September that might require a $100,000 annual charge for corporations searching for to acquire an H-1B visa. Plus, the White Home famous that the Division of Labor launched Venture Firewall in September in an try to make sure employers do not abuse the H-1B visa course of.
Individually, Trump additionally defended earlier statements supporting permitting as much as 600,000 Chinese language college students to come back to the U.S. in his interview with Ingraham and asserted they have to examine within the U.S. so U.S. schools don’t “exit of enterprise.”
Former Trump U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley stated doing so could be a “large mistake.”
“That may be an enormous reward to China and a menace to the US,” Haley stated in a publish on X Thursday.
Extra Epstein paperwork
Moreover, Trump introduced Friday he would order the Justice Division and the FBI to probe financier and convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship with others, together with former President Invoice Clinton and Larry Summers, the previous treasury secretary, amongst others.
The announcement got here after Democrats and Republicans on the Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee launched hundreds of paperwork Wednesday associated to Epstein, together with emails that point out Trump. Nonetheless, the paperwork don’t allege wrongdoing from Trump and easily present Epstein mentioning him.
“That is one other Russia, Russia, Russia Rip-off, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” Trump stated in a Fact Social publish Friday. “Data present that these males, and lots of others, spent giant parts of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.’ Keep tuned!!!”

American financier Jeffrey Epstein and actual property developer Donald Trump pose collectively at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Seashore, Fla., Feb. 22, 1997. (Davidoff Studios/Getty Photographs)
Clinton has denied that he ever visited Epstein’s island and wrote in his 2024 memoir, “Citizen,” that he wished they’d by no means met. A spokesperson for Summers didn’t reply to a request for remark from Fox Information Digital.
Presidential pardons
Late Sunday, the Trump administration introduced the president had issued pardons for greater than 70 folks accused of searching for to overturn the 2020 election outcomes.
However presidential pardons solely apply to federal fees, and people concerned don’t have any federal fees leveled in opposition to them, that means the transfer is primarily a symbolic gesture.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
These pardoned embody Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani, the previous New York Metropolis mayor and the president’s former private lawyer who claimed that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump. Giuliani is caught up in a case in Arizona wherein he faces state fees for election interference for these statements.
Different outstanding figures pardoned embody former White Home chief of workers Mark Meadows and former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell.