Hegseth Battles Dems on Capitol Hill, Showdown at SCOTUS, Artemis II Crew at WH: AM Update 4/30

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0:32Good morning, everyone. I'm Emily Jashinsky, host of After Party and the Megyn Kelly Wrap-Up Show on Sirius XM channel 111. It's Thursday, April 30th, 2026. And this is your AM Update. Why would Congress permit review of the procedural aspect when really what everybody cares about much more is the substance? The Supreme Court weighing whether the Trump administration can end temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of migrants. Underground, they're buried and watching 24-7. So we know where any nuclear material might be. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in a fiery hill hearing offering lawmakers their first opportunity to publicly question the secretary on the ongoing war with Iran.

1:16And a White House welcome for the Artemis II crew after their successful mission around the moon. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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2:57If their home country faces war, natural disaster, or extreme circumstances, TPS issued for set periods but can be renewed as it reaches expiration. If the government does not announce whether it will extend or end a designation at least 60 days before it expires, the status is automatically extended for an additional six months. Yesterday's arguments centering on the status of immigrants from two countries, Syria and Haiti. Syrians originally granted TPS in 2012 under then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano due to a, quote, brutal crackdown waged by dictator Bashar al-Assad. The status continually renewed, providing about 6 ,000 Syrians with legal status in the U.S.

3:40Haiti granted TPS in 2010 following a devastating earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands of people and caused major damage throughout the country. That status, too, renewed regularly in the years since. Approximately 350 ,000 Haitians in the U.S. are here under TPS. Last year, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem moving to end temporary protected status for Haiti and Syria, arguing conditions in each country had improved and that continuing the program was no longer in the national interest. Haitian nationals then filing suit in Washington, D.C., while a group of Syrians challenged the move in New York.

4:19In both cases, federal judges blocked the Trump administration from ending the protections, finding the decisions likely violated federal administrative law. With appeals courts citing against the administration, Trump's DOJ taking both cases to the Supreme Court. In yesterday's oral arguments, Solicitor General John Sauer arguing for the government, Attorney Jeff Pippoly arguing for the Haitians, and Alianti, a rule in Otham, arguing for the Syrians. Sauer arguing the law shields the DHS secretary's TPS decisions from court review entirely, including the steps leading up to them. The provision thus bars judicial review of both the secretary's ultimate decision whether to designate, extend, or terminate, and of each antecedent step along the way to that determination.

5:05Both challengers agreed that federal law prevents courts from second-guessing the merits of a TPS decision, but they argue the administration failed to follow the required consultation process before trying to end the program. Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Amy Coney Barrett pressing that position. Would you be kind enough to say what else is reviewable despite the jurisdiction stripping provision? Because it seems pretty broad. It says there is no judicial review of any determination of the Attorney General. We have to say, look, determination is a very broad word. It's used all the time in many different statutory provisions.

5:50It's used all the time by this court. If we apply ordinary meaning of that term here, I really don't understand how you can prevail. I mean, if it's just kind of a box-checking exercise, I mean, why would Congress permit review of the procedural aspect when really what everybody cares about much more is the substance? The lawyer for the Haitians also arguing race was a driving factor in ending TPS for the country. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan questioning how that component fits into this case. You can argue that there was just like a across the board, we have to get rid of all these TPS and the statutory requirements weren't followed and all of that.

6:30But the injection of this racial component into it, I guess I don't quite see how that operates when all of these programs went. The lawyer pointing to statements from President Trump and former Secretary Noem and contrasting them with policies favoring white migrants, arguing that pattern shows the decision was driven by racial bias. A decision is expected by early July. We spoke with the Center for Immigration Studies fellow in law and policy, Andrew Arthur, who says this is a clear-cut case and the government is right. What this comes down to is this is a temporary protection. The word temporary appears 42 different times in the statute.

7:14And yet, immigrants advocates have managed to turn it into a quasi-permanent form of protection by challenging every determination that the Trump administration has made attempting to end temporary protected status regardless of the country. You know, this is a pretty straightforward statute. Congress plainly intended that there wouldn't be any judicial review. And unfortunately, it's reflective of the highly politicized times in which we live. The district court judges think that they have the ability, let alone the obligation to interpose themselves in political decisions that Congress has placed outside of their jurisdiction.

7:58As for the Haitian plaintiff's claims that race factored into the decision, Arthur points out a flaw in that argument. They're going back to statements that President Trump has made in the past, denigrating statements about Haiti generally, in order to say that improper racial animus has weighed into this decision. But the argument basically goes as follows. One, the president has said that, you know, Haiti is a bad place. TPS is based upon the idea that Haiti is temporarily a bad place. And therefore, it almost defeats their argument to bring up the fact that the president has talked about issues in Haiti.

8:40So, you know, it may almost be too cute by half to make the argument. But in the public sphere, it's probably the most compelling argument that they could make. I just don't think it's a valid one. On The Bigger Picture, Arthur predicts the justices will side with the Trump administration, using this case to send a broader message to the lower courts about their role. One of the issues that the Roberts court has contended with as long as Donald Trump has been president is immigrants' advocates who have used the courts as a way to stymie the president's political decisions. And I think that the Roberts court wants to send a message to the inferior courts, the district and the circuit courts, that when Congress says there is no review or that certain things aren't reviewable or aren't reviewable at the district court level, that Congress means what it says so that the Supreme Court doesn't have to continually return to the issue to tell inferior courts that they don't have jurisdiction or that they've gone too far.

9:47This court wants to get itself out of political questions. Coming up, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth clashing with lawmakers on the Hill over the war in Iran. And President Trump hosts the Artemis II crew at the White House following their successful mission around the moon.

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11:25Go to supersure.com slash Megan today. That's supersure.com slash Megan paid for by Super Sure Insurance Agency, LLC, a licensed insurance company. Secretary of War Pete Heigseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Raisin-Cain, and Acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst appearing in front of the House Armed Services Committee yesterday on the Pentagon's 2027 budget request. The hearing presenting the first opportunity for lawmakers to publicly question the officials since the beginning of Operation Epic Fury in Iran. Hurst testifying that the estimated cost of the war with Iran so far is$25 billion, with most expenditures covering munitions, maintenance, and equipment replacements.

12:09The Pentagon requesting a budget of$1.45 trillion for the fiscal year 2027, the largest ever request from the department. In his opening statement, Chairman Mike Rogers, Republican from Alabama, warning America is not keeping pace with its adversaries. All of our adversaries are spending more of their GAP on defense than we are. Meanwhile, our defense spending as a percentage of GDP has been steadily falling since World War II. Our defense industrial base, long the envy of the world, has atrophied significantly. We're no longer capable of manufacturing for our warfighters at scale or speed. Just look at shipbuilding.

12:51China builds 47 percent of the world's ships. The U.S. builds one-tenth of one percent. Our global munition stockpiles are low, and we lack the capacity to rapidly restock magazine depth. Many of our defense supply chains are reliant on the very adversaries we seek to deter. Much of the hearing focusing on U.S. military action against Iran. Democrats and Secretary Hegseth clashing often on the financial toll, domestic impact, and end goals of the mission. Secretary Hegseth blasting critics in Congress. President Trump, unlike other presidents, has had the courage to ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, and he's ironclad in that.

13:34We have the best negotiator in the world driving that deal. The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless, and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans. two months in, I remind you, two months in to a conflict. Lest I remind you, and my generation understands how long we were in Iraq, how long we were in Afghanistan, how long we were in Vietnam, two months in on an existential fight for the safety of the American people, Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb. We are proud of this undertaking. Ranking member of the committee, Adam Smith, Democrat from Washington, and the secretary in a heated exchange.

14:19You have to stare down this kind of enemy who's hell-bent on getting a nuclear weapon and get them to a point where they're at the table giving it up in a way that... So they haven't broken yet. Okay, we haven't gotten there yet. For all of the... Well, their nuclear facilities have been obliterated. Underground, they're buried, and we're watching them 24-7. So we know where any nuclear material might be. Reclaiming my time for just a quick second here. we had to start this war you just said 60 days ago because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat now you're saying that it was completely obliterated they had not given up their nuclear ambitions and they had a conventional shield of thousands of operation midnight hammer accomplished nothing of substance it left us at exactly the same place we were before So much so that we have to start a war.

15:09Their facilities were bombed and obliterated. Their ambitions continued. Democrat Congressman John Garamendi of California accusing the secretary of lying about the war. Secretary Heseth, you have been lying to the American public about this war from day one. And so has the president. You have misled the public about why we are at war. You've misled the public about the progress of the war. the strategy has been an astounding incompetence. The president has got himself in America stuck in the quagmire of another war in the Middle East. When I said reckless, feckless, and defeatist of congressional Democrats at the beginning, that came after watching you say the same thing on CNN this morning, a quagmire.

15:55Don't say I support the troops on one hand and then a two-month mission is a quagmire. That's a false equivalence. Who are you cheering for here? Who are you pulling for? I know the American people support that mission, despite your loose talk and words like quagmire. Polling consistently shows declining support for the war. According to a survey from Reuters released Tuesday, just 34 % of Americans approve of the U.S. conflict with Iran, down from 38 % in mid-March. The hearing comes hours after President Trump posted an AI image to Truth Social featuring a version of himself wearing sunglasses, carrying a machine gun, walking away from explosions in the background.

16:37Text on the image reading, quote, No more Mr. Nice Guy. Mr. Trump writing, quote, Iran can't get their act together. They don't know how to sign a non-nuclear deal. They better get smart soon. On Sunday, Axios reporting the Iranians presenting the U.S. with a new plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and postpone nuclear talks until a later date. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday rejecting the idea on its face, telling Fox News Iran's nuclear program is, quote, the reason why we're in this in the first place. That fundamental issue still has to be confronted. That still remains the core issue here.

17:10From the Oval Office yesterday, President Trump saying talks are continuing via phone. I make a call or I have my people make a call and you know the answer. I always like face to face. You know, I consider it better. But when you have to fly 18 hours every time you want to have a meeting and you know what the meeting is all about and you know they're going to give you a piece of paper that you don't like before you even leave. It's ridiculous. They've come a long way. The question is whether or not they're going to go far enough. So at this moment, there will never be a deal unless they agree that there will be no nuclear weapons.

17:50President Trump welcoming the Artemis II crew to the White House yesterday following their successful mission around the moon and back, landing safely in the Pacific Ocean earlier this month. President Trump congratulating astronauts Reed Weissman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. It takes people like this to make our country great. And again, I've never seen anything. Everybody I knew, they wanted to see the launch, and they especially wanted to see a successful landing. We're very proud of these people. They have unbelievable courage, unbelievable. A lot of other things, too, by the way.

18:25To get in there, you have to be very smart. You have to do a lot of things physically good. So I would have had no trouble making it physically very, very good. Maybe a little bit of a problem. I don't know, I'm sure. We'll have to try it sometime. Is a president allowed to go up in one of these missions? We can get working on that. We have no problem, right? We're going to launch more rockets. We'll have to try it. Congratulations very much. On a separate but possibly related point, one reporter asking about a timeline on the release of more information about UFOs. Well, I think we're going to be releasing as much as we can in the near future for some reason.

19:04and I guess it's just a reason it's been in the minds of people for a long time and that is such they want to find out about the UFOs and anything having to do with UFO or related material and we're going to be releasing a lot of things that we have and I think it's going to be very interesting to people I've interviewed people my first term primarily but I interviewed some pilots very solid people and they said they saw things that you wouldn't believe so you're going to be reading about it. Disclosure day incoming. That'll do it for your AM update. I'm Emily Jashinsky, host of After Party. Catch the Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM's The Megyn Kelly Channel 111 at noon east on youtube.com slash megynkelly and all podcast platforms.

19:58To realize the future America needs, we understand what's needed from us. to face each threat head on. We've earned our place in the fight for our nation's future. We are Marines. We were made for this.