Trump touts big win as his candidates face major test in Wisconsin and Florida special elections

Jon Michael Raasch, Political Reporter for DailyMail.com

President Donald Trump's MAGA agenda has been given a major boost after two Republican victories in Florida despite mounting economic pressure threatening attitudes on the GOP agenda.

On the eve of the president's much-touted 'Liberation Day' on Wednesday, where the Republican is expected to announce broad tariff policies that will surely impact global markets that are already roiling, Trump has received good news.

Republicans are projected to win special elections for Florida's 1st and 6th Congressional Districts Tuesday evening.

This means Trump's agenda will more easily flow through the House of Representatives, which the GOP currently controls by a razor-thin margin of just a few votes.

Randy Fine is projected to win Florida's 6th Congressional District, according to the AP. The spot was vacated after President Donald Trump tapped National Security Advisor Mike Waltz for his Cabinet earlier this year.

Across the state in the 1st District, the AP projects former state chief financial officer Jimmy Patronis will win over Democrat Gay Valimont. He will fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Jon Michael Raasch, Political Reporter for DailyMail.com

Republican Jimmy Patronis has won the special election for Florida's 1st Congressional District, the AP projects.

The seat was vacated after former Rep. Matt Gaetz resigned his seat following a scandal in December 2024.

Gaetz had allegedly paid for sex and drugs, even having romantic interactions with a minor, according to an Ethics Committee report.

With about 90 percent of the vote in, Patronis led his Democratic opponent Gay Valimont 58 percent to 43 percent.

Jon Michael Raasch, Political Reporter for DailyMail.com

Witnesses testified before Congress that three deceased CIA agents were 'complicit' in the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., led the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets' first hearing into the JFK files on Tuesday afternoon.

The panel of witnesses included documentary make Oliver Stone and authors Jefferson Morley and James DiEugenio, who have written books on JFK's murder.

Morley, a liberal former Washington Post reporter and longtime Kennedy assassination author, opened his testimony by alleging three CIA agents were involved in the young president's untimely death.

Documents recently unveiled under Trump's declassification efforts helped uncover that some of the CIA agents' testimony to Congress was false, which is a crime, Morley testified.

Jon Michael Raasch, Political Reporter for DailyMail.com

Randy Fine is projected to win Florida’s 6th Congressional District in a special election Tuesday night to replace the seat vacated by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.

The AP called the race shortly after polls closed at 7:00 pm local time.

Fine, 50, a state senator and former gambling executive, faced off against Democrat Josh Weil, 40, a single father and public school teacher.

Republicans have received criticism for the race heating up towards Election Day as Democratic fundraising surged.

Trump won the 6th District by a whopping 30 points in November.

Early projections show that the race on Tuesday was much closer.

Trump called the race correctly for Fine minutes before news outlets officially made a pronouncement.

'Randy Fine wins!' the president posted.

The New Jersey lawmaker, 55, is still speaking over 24 hours later as lawmakers and staff returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday and got back to work.

He surpassed the all-time longest record set by Sen. Strom Thurmond who holds the honor at 24 hours and 18 minutes. Thurmond was filibustering the Civil Rights Act in 1957.

The senator didn't even appear tired besides stepping from side to side at times. He’s manned with a small copy of the U.S. Constitution and a series of binders and has been listing off the lawsuits against Trump.

Over 770,000 are watching the live stream of him on X as he rambles on.

The House GOP currently has a razor-thin majority as they work to enact Trump's ambitious agenda with 218 members to Democrats' 213 members.

Florida voters will determine who fills the seats vacated by Trump's National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who represented the state's 6th Congressional District until he was confirmed to serve in the Trump administration.

Voters in Florida's 1st Congressional District will also be casting ballots to fill the seat vacated by former Congressman Matt Gaetz.

Sarah Ewall-Wice, Senior U.S. Political Reporter on Capitol Hill:

Democratic Senator Cory Booker’s speech on the Senate floor is now approaching the longest Senate speech in U.S. history.

While his marathon speech is technically not a filibuster, he has now been going for roughly 23 hours after taking the Senate floor around 7pm Monday night to protest the Trump administration.

The longest filibuster on record was that of Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in 1957 in protest of the Civil Rights Act.

Thurmond broke the previous record for longest speech which was set by Senator Wayne Morse, who spoke for 22 hours and 26 minutes in 1953.

Senator Alfonse D’Amato currently has the second longest filibuster in history. He spoke for 23 hours and 30 minutes in 1986. He also spoke for more than 15 hours in 1992.

More recently, Senator Ted Cruze spoke for 21 hours and 19 minutes in protest of the Affordable Care Act.

In 2017, Senator Jeff Merkley spoke for 15 hours and 26 minutes against the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.

A fourth-generation importer of Italian wine and spirits won't be popping the Prosecco on 'Liberation Day' when Donald Trump's tariffs around the world are set to go into effect.

Stock markets have plummeted worldwide as Trump prepares to hit foes and allies alike on April 2.

The food and beverage industry is preparing for insane price hikes due to Trump's threatened retaliatory 200 percent tariff on the 'hostile and abusive' European Union targeting champagne and alcohol.

It comes after the EU raised tariffs on American goods including whiskey.

Dina Opici said her family import and distribution business is set to get hit with a $1 million tariff on three containers worth of goods. The goods themselves are valued at only about $500,000.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to the government's stunning admission that ICE deported a migrant to a notorious El Salvadoran prison despite a judge's standing order due to an 'administrative error.'

Leavitt was about the incident Tuesday, hours after the government admitted the mistake in a court filing. She accused the deportee, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, of being involved in human trafficking and made plain he would not be getting any second chances.

'The error that you are referring to was a clerical error. It was an administrative error. The administration maintains the position that this individual who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang,' Leavitt said.

President Trump is putting his wheeler-dealer skills to the test, as he seeks to line up potential buyers with a deadline he set for the sale approaches.

In an extraordinary flex of executive authority, Trump is finalizing plans for investor groups that include Blackrock and Oracle, Bloomberg News reported, bringing them in for a planned White House meeting on Wednesday.

Such a group could save the company from a legal deadline to shutdown barring a sale – after Trump extended the statutory date.

Batya Ungar-Sargon, a writer and journalist who has called herself a 'MAGA leftist,' said the biggest threat to the movement is not Democrats.

Ungar-Sargon, a columnist for The Free Press, said Democrats were 'fundamentally incapable of realizing what they did wrong.'

She told Fox News Digital the threat was a return to the pre-Trump Republican Party.

Trump made the GOP cool, you know. He made it, like, cool and edgy. And if they go back to the old version of the party, which was catering to the rich and the country clubs economically, believed in using American taxpayer dollars to fund wars and programs and trans operas globally, and was socially conservative and believed in taking people's choices away from them at the social level, they're gonna lose a lot of the support that he built.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Corresopndent

Kid Rock said Tuesday morning that President Donald Trump's dinner with comedian and critic Bill Maher 'could not have been better.'

It was Kid Rock who organized the meeting between the conservative Trump and the liberal Maher in an effort to 'have a little more civility in this country and try and bring people together,' the rocker explained Tuesday morning on Fox & Friends.

The dinner ended up being Kid Rock, Trump, Maher and UFC CEO Dana White.

'Everyone was so surprised, so pleasant,' Kid Rock gushed. 'And the president was so gracious. He took us up to the private residence. We saw the Gettysburg address in the Lincoln Bedroom.'

First lady Melania Trump stunned in cheetah print as she spoke Tuesday at the State Department as part of the International Women of Courage Awards.

Throughout my life, I have harnessed the power of love as a source of strength during challenging times. Love has inspired me to embrace forgiveness, nurture empathy, and exhibit bravery in the face of unforeseen obstacles.

Today, we celebrate courage – a strength that is based in love.

A Republican politician once accused of sexual harassment has been exposed for following nearly 100 OnlyFans, gambling and dating advice social media accounts.

Joe Gruters, 47, is a husband to Sydney, father of three young kids and elected Florida state senator who currently serves as treasurer of the Republican National Committee.

A review of his private Instagram account exclusively shared with DailyMail.com found that as of last week, Gruters was following at least 60 OnlyFans model profiles showing women in skimpy clothing and swimsuits and 20 others with gambling or dating advice content.

Gruters stunningly admitted that he follows 'questionable' accounts when DailyMail.com reached him for comment, but insisted he does not 'personally know everyone I follow or who follows me.'

'I typically engage accounts that are recommended or interact with my account,' Gruters told DailyMail.com. 'That said, I will review my follows and remove any content that may be considered questionable.'

As of Monday night, Gruters was following 6,477 accounts – a notable amount for a profile that is set to private. That number was not changed as of Tuesday afternoon.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

The Justice Department is seeking the death penalty for alleged United Healthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione.

Attorney General Pam Bondi released a statement claiming this directive is in line with her efforts to ‘revive the federal death penalty’ and ‘lift the moratorium on federal executions.’

‘Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,’ Bondi said in a Tuesday statement.

After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.

Mangione was handed federal murder charges on December 19, 2024. But now, Bondi is directing Acting US Attorney Matthew Podolsky to seek the death penalty in the case.

Sarah Ewall-Wice, Senior U.S. Political Reporter:

Democratic Senator Cory Booker mounted an all-nighter on the Senate floor Monday to speak out against the policies of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.

The New Jersey lawmaker vowed he would keep going as long as he possibly could and was still speaking more than 16 hours later as lawmakers and staff returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday morning and got back to work.

The marathon speech was met with praise by the Democratic base who have been calling for the party to fight back harder against the president's agenda.

MAGA loyalists decried the overnight symbolic move as a waste of time as it serves as a performative delay but will not block Senate Republicans from pushing forward with their agenda.

Booker's marathon speech was not a technical filibuster, which is a longstanding Senate practice to delay or block a particular vote. The action was dubbed 'bizarre' by conservatives.

But in a post before he started on Monday night, the New Jersey senator said he was headed to the floor 'because Donald Trump and Elon Musk have shown a complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution, and the needs of the American people.'

President Trump will celebrate the 'reciprocal' tariffs he is imposing around the world at his first Rose Garden event of his new term.

Trump has repeatedly referred to the April 2 date when he will announce the tariffs as 'Liberation Day,' despite some businesses raising alarms it could kick off inflation or even prompt a recession.

World leaders have threatened their own tariffs in response, businesses are weighing in to try to trim them, and a move in the Senate would seek to cut off the 'emergency' authority Trump is using to impose them.

A White House release says Trump 'will deliver remarks at a Make America Wealthy Again Event on Wednesday, April 2, 2025.' The phrase is a line from Trump's campaign stump speech.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Melania Trump will make a rare public appearance on Tuesday when she joins Secretary of State Marco Rubio in presenting the 2025 International Women of Courage Award.

'Mrs. Trump will highlight the profound connection between the love and courage shown by this year’s honorees. She looks forward to celebrating the extraordinary strength of women who embody love in action around the globe,' her office said.

The awards honor women from around the world who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership.

The ceremony, which takes place at the State Department, was one Melania Trump regularly attended in her first tenure as first lady.

To date, the U.S. Department of State has recognized more than 200 women in over 90 countries with the IWOC Award.

The list of honorees is available at the State Department’s website.

President Donald Trump compared himself to convicted French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, calling her ban from elective office a 'very big deal.'

'That's a big deal. That's a very big deal,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

He expressed sympathy for Le Pen and said her situation 'sounds very much like this country.'

'I know all about it, and a lot of people thought she wasn't going to be convicted of anything and I don't know that it means conviction but she was banned for running for five years and she's the leading candidate. That sounds like this country. That sounds very much like this country,' he added.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Employees at the Department of Health and Human Services began receiving notice on Tuesday of their dismissal.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced last week he was slashing 20,000 jobs at his deparmtnet – half were through early retirements or voluntary separation offers and the other half through layoffs.

Here is a breakdown of where the 10,000 firings are coming from:

- 3,500 at the Food and drug Administration (FDA)

- 2,400 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

- 1,200 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

- 300 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

President Donald Trump blamed Donald Jr.'s Russia meeting for the breakdown of his marriage to ex-wife Vanessa, even as he gave his blessing for his former daughter-in-law's relationship with Tiger Woods.

Earlier this month, DailyMail.com exclusively broke the news that the golf icon was dating Donald Trump Jr.'s ex-wife before the couple went public in a social media post on March 23.

The president, who teed it up with the 15-time major winner before jetting into New Orleans for the Super Bowl last month, delivered his verdict on golf's newest power couple Monday.

The Trump administration's plan to ban people from 43 countries from travelling to the US is delayed indefinitely.

Trump issued an executive order on January 20 requiring intensified security vetting of any foreigners seeking admission to the US to detect national security threats.

The White House then put out a dramatic memo in mid-March that showed the nations broken down into different categories, with particular sanctions set for allies of Russia.

Congress is set to host a hearing Tuesday to further examine how former President John F. Kennedy was killed half a century ago.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is leading the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets' first hearing into the JFK files.

The task force was established after President Donald Trump signed an executive action to release the remaining classified files on the high-profile assassination.

Elon Musk has dropped $20 million into a small race in Wisconsin that could prove omniscience for the 2028 midterms and for his Tesla electric car company.

The Tesla founder was in the state on Sunday to hand out two $1 million checks to help Republican candidate Brad Schimel win a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Tuesday's election.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide a number of key issues in the perennial battleground state, including abortion rights, congressional redistricting and the rules for the 2028 presidential election.

But, for Musk, it's more personal.

The court also will decide a lawsuit Tesla has filed challenging a state law that forbids auto manufacturers from opening dealerships, favoring the dealerships to be independently run.

Now he and his money have become a central issue in the contest. Democratic candidate Susan Crawford has dubbed the race 'The People v. Musk.'

The European Union said has a 'strong plan' to retaliate against tariffs set to be imposed by President Donald Trump.

U.S. trading partners scrambled to prepare for the latest raft of Trump tariffs expected on Wednesday.

The Washington Post reported a plan for 20 per cent tariffs on most imports to the U.S. is under consideration.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said:

We do not necessarily want to retaliate. But if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it.