Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. called on the head of President Donald Trump’s Social Security Administration to resign on Tuesday.

Schumer declared a ‘Social Security Day of Action’ during a press conference in New York on Tuesday, accusing Trump, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) of cutting Americans’ social security. Schumer called on acting SSA Administrator Leland Dudek to resign.

‘Dudek is bad medicine for our seniors,’ Schumer said from the podium.

‘Donald Trump and Elon Musk have a hatchet man in Leland Dudek, an acting Commissioner with an emphasis on the ‘acting,’ because his real role is to dismantle the very office he is supposed to lead, make better, and protect,’ he continued. ‘We have seen his audition and his work on the stage, and it is clear: Dudek is incapable of doing this job in the way it needs to be done. He won’t protect seniors. He will hurt them. Leland Dudek should resign.’

‘Republicans are trying to kill Social Security from the inside – it is a cut by another name – and we won’t let that happen,’ Schumer said in another statement.

The press conference comes after Schumer feuded with Musk on social media. The Tesla founder reacted to Schumer’s criticism of DOGE by suggesting the lawmaker was ‘getting a piece of the action with the government fraud.’

‘Another Elon lie. He wants you to think anyone who dares to stand up to him is committing fraud, meanwhile he’s taking tens of billions from the government,’ Schumer declared in a post last week.

Musk also fired off a response to a post in which Schumer suggested that Musk is slashing Social Security benefits.

‘Make no mistake: What Elon Musk is doing at Social Security is cutting benefits,’ Schumer said.

‘The intern running Schumer’s social media account is lying,’ Musk shot back.

During a Senate speech, Schumer claimed that ‘Elon Musk is cutting Social Security benefits.’

‘When offices close down, when websites crash, when phone lines shut off, that’s no different than cutting benefits,’ Schumer said.

A top advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was escorted out of the Pentagon on Tuesday and placed on administrative leave, according to a Defense Department official. 

Reuters first reported Caldwell had been placed on leave for an ‘unauthorized disclosure’ of information amid an investigation into Pentagon leaks. An official confirmed to Fox News Digital that Reuters’ reporting is accurate but declined to comment on an ongoing investigation. 

Caldwell previously worked at restraint-minded think tank Defense Priorities and Concerned Veterans for America, a group formerly led by Hegseth. A foreign policy realist, he has argued that the U.S. should dramatically reduce its footprint in Europe and pull out forces in Iraq and Syria. 

Last month, the Defense Department announced a probe into ‘recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information’ and said it planned to use polygraphs to determine the source of leaks. 

‘The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy,’ DOD Chief of Staff Joe Kasper wrote in a memo. ‘This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense.’

He wrote that ‘information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure’ would be referred for criminal prosecution.

Caldwell did not immediately reply to a request for comment. 

Caldwell’s closeness to the defense secretary was underscored in the unintentionally leaked Signal chat on Houthi strikes, where Hegseth named him as the Pentagon point of contact for the offensive campaign. 

White House aides are quietly floating a proposal within the House GOP that would raise the tax rate for people making more than $1 million to 40%, two sources familiar with discussions told Fox News Digital, to offset the cost of eliminating tips on overtime pay, tipped wages, and retirees’ Social Security.

The sources stressed the discussions were only preliminary, and the plan is one of many being talked about as congressional Republicans work on advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda via the budget reconciliation process.

Trump and his White House have not yet taken a position on the matter, but the idea is being looked at by his aides and staff on Capitol Hill.

Meanwhile House GOP leaders including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have publicly opposed the idea of any tax hikes.

‘I’m not a big fan of doing that. I mean, we’re the Republican Party and we’re for tax reduction for everyone,’ Johnson said on ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’

One GOP lawmaker asked about the proposal and granted anonymity to speak candidly said they would be open to supporting it but preferred a higher starting point than $1 million.

They said the reaction was ‘mixed’ among other House Republicans. But not all House GOP lawmakers are privy to the discussions, and it’s not immediately clear how wide the proposal has been circulated.

Nevertheless, it signals that Republicans are deeply divided on how to go about enacting Trump’s tax agenda.

Extending Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and enacting his newer tax proposals is a cornerstone of Republicans’ plans for the budget reconciliation process.

By lowering the Senate’s threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, it allows the party in power to skirt opposition to pass a sweeping piece of legislation advancing its own priorities – provided the measures deal with tax, spending, or the national debt.

Extending Trump’s tax cuts is expected to cost trillions of dollars alone. But even if Republicans use a budgetary calculation to hide its cost, known as current policy baseline, they will still have to find a path forward for new policies eliminating taxes on tips, overtime pay, and retirees’ Social Security checks.

Hiking taxes on the ultra-wealthy could also serve to put Democrats in a tricky political situation in forcing them to choose between supporting Trump’s policies and opposing an idea they’ve pushed for years.

The top income tax rate is currently about 37% on $609,351 in earnings for a single person or $731,201 for married couples. 

But raising the rate for millionaires could be one way to pay for Trump’s new tax policies.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., one of the deficit hawks leading the charge to ensure new spending is paired with deep cuts elsewhere, said ‘That’s one possibility.’

‘What I’d like to do is I’d actually like to find spending reductions elsewhere in the budget, but if we can’t get enough spending reductions, we’re going to have to pay for our tax cuts,’ Harris told ‘Mornings with Maria’ last week.

‘Before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the highest tax bracket was 39.6%, it was less than $1 million. Ideally, what we could do, again, if we can’t find spending reductions, we say ‘Okay, let’s restore that higher bracket, let’s set it at maybe $2 million income and above,’ to help pay for the rest of the president’s agenda.’

But Johnson’s No. 2, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., again poured cold water on the idea Tuesday.

‘I don’t support that initiative,’ Scalise told ‘Mornings with Maria,’ though he added, ‘everything’s on the table.’

‘That’s why you hear all kind of ideas being bounced around. And if we take no action, then you’d have over 90% of Americans see a tax increase,’ Scalise warned.

Bloomberg News was first to report House Republicans’ 40% tax hike proposal.

When reached for comment, the White House pointed Fox News Digital to comments by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier on Tuesday when she said Trump had not made up his mind on another proposal to raise the corporate tax rate.

‘I’ve seen this idea proposed. I’ve heard this idea discussed. But I don’t believe the president has made a determination on whether he supports it or not,’ Leavitt said.

Fox News Digital also reached out to Johnson’s office for comment.

President Donald Trump is seeking to combat soaring prescription drug prices in a new executive order he signed Tuesday. 

The order instructs Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) to standardize Medicare payments for prescription drugs — including those used for cancer patients — no matter where a patient receives treatment. This could lower prices for patients by as much as 60%, according to a White House fact sheet.

Likewise, the order also calls to match the Medicare payment for certain prescription drugs to the price that hospitals pay for those drugs — up to 35% lower than what the government pays to acquire those medications, the White House said. 

The order also takes steps to lower insulin prices. Specifically, the order calls for lowering insulin prices for low-income patients or those that are uninsured to as little as three cents, and injectable epinephrine to treat allergic reactions to as low as $15, coupled with a ‘small administrative fee,’ according to a White House fact sheet. 

Additionally, the order attempts to drive down states’ drug prices by ‘facilitating importation programs that could save states millions in prescription drug prices,’ as well as bolstering programs that assist states secure deals on sickle-cell medications in Medicaid, the fact sheet said. 

The order also requires DHS to seek comment on the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, which the Biden administration authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act and allows Medicare to directly engage in hashing out prescription prices with drug companies. 

‘The guidance shall improve the transparency of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, prioritize the selection of prescription drugs with high costs to the Medicare program, and minimize any negative impacts of the maximum fair price on pharmaceutical innovation within the United States,’ the order said. 

Drug prices have significantly ramped up in recent years. Between January 2022 and January 2023, prescription drug prices rose more than 15% and reached an average of $590 per drug product, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Of the 4,200 prescription drugs included on that list, 46% of the price increases exceeded the rate of inflation. 

Previous efforts under the first Trump administration to curb prescription drug prices included installing a cap on Medicaid prescription drug plans for insulin at $35. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s 145% tariffs on Chinese imports to the U.S. could mean that healthcare costs are particularly susceptible to price increases. Market research group Black Book Research found that 84% of experts predict that prices for medical treatments and drugs will rise due to the tariffs, according to a survey released in February. 

Additionally, Trump signaled Monday that tariffs on the pharmaceutical were headed down the pipeline. 

‘We don’t make our own drugs anymore,’ Trump told reporters Monday. ‘The drug companies are in Ireland, and they’re in lots of other places, China.’

Trump signed the executive order Tuesday, along with others that seek to prevent illegal immigrants from accessing Social Security benefits, and another one calling to investigate the impact of imported processed mineral on national security. 

Tuesday’s executive order comes days after the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told states Thursday that the federal government would cease assistance to states to fund nonmedical services geared toward things like nutrition for those enrolled in Medicaid. 

Fox News’ Alec Schemmel contributed to this report. 

The Defense Department’s (DOD) deputy chief of staff was placed on administrative leave on Tuesday, following the steps of another Pentagon official earlier in the day.

Darin Selnick, the deputy chief of staff for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has been removed, a senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News.

Selnick is under investigation for the same leak probe that saw Hegseth aide Dan Caldwell escorted out of the Pentagon by security. Both Selnick and Caldwell are on administrative leave.

According to the Pentagon’s website, Selnick is a retired Air Force officer who has worked extensively in veterans’ affairs organizations.

‘Mr. Selnick leverages his extensive government and non-government experience advocating for veterans to position Service members for productive post-separation lives from the first day they put on a uniform,’ the biography states.

Both Selnick and Caldwell worked for Concerned Veterans for America in the past, a group formerly led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Reuters reported that Caldwell was placed on leave for an ‘unauthorized disclosure,’ as part of an investigation into leaked Pentagon documents.

The probe was announced last month, and concerned itself over ‘recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information.’ 

‘The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy,’ DOD Chief of Staff Joe Kasper wrote in a memo at the time. ‘This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense.’

An official told Politico that the leak concerned Panama Canal plans and Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon, among other matters.

More information about the leak is unknown, and there is currently no evidence to connect Caldwell or Selnick to that leak.

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.