Trump admin updates: Trump wants Senate to cancel August recess to work on nominees

The Senate narrowly approved a White House request to claw back $9 billion from the federal budget, including funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting.

The final vote on Thursday morning was 51-48. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted with Democrats against the rescissions bill. Sen. Tina Smith did not vote after being admitted to the hospital.

The bill would rescind funding allocated for the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, related agencies and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The bill now returns to the House with a deadline for final passage by Friday.

-ABC News’ Justin Gomez

In a post on his social media platform, Trump announced he is ending federal funding for California's High-Speed Rail project.

“The railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will,” Trump wrote. "Thanks to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, not a SINGLE penny in Federal Dollars will go towards this Newscum SCAM ever again," Trump continued.

In a statement, Duffy said the Federal Railroad Administration terminated approximately $4 billion in unspent funding for “California’s High Speed Rail Boondoggle,” saying the $135 billion projected cost of the project could buy every San Francisco and Los Angeles resident nearly 200 round trip flights between the cities.

“This is California’s fault. Governor Newsom and the complicit Democrats have enabled this waste for years. Federal dollars are not a blank check -- they come with a promise to deliver results,” Duffy said. “It’s time for this boondoggle to die. President Trump and I will always fight to ensure your tax dollars only go to projects that accomplish great, big, beautiful things.”

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie and Sam Sweeney

One of President Donald Trump's staunchest supporters pushed back against the president over his claims that the Epstein controversy was a "hoax."

Michael Flynn wrote a lengthy post on X imploring the president to be more transparent and reveal more details.

"All we want at this stage is for a modicum of trust to be reestablished between our federal government and the people it is designed to serve," Flynn wrote.

"With my strongest recommendation, please gather your team and figure out a way to move past this. The roll out of this was terrible, no way around that. Americans want America to be successful, therefore, WE NEED YOU TO BE SUCCESSFUL," he added.

-ABC News' Will Steakin

When asked by reporters whether he still has confidence in Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, President Donald Trump responded that he has "total" confidence in them.

But when asked about the possibility of appointing a special counsel to investigate the Epstein case, Trump said that he has "nothing to do with it."

ABC News' Kelsey Walsh