FIRST ON FOX: The White House is taking aim at congressional Republicans over their support for “MAGAnomics” and former President Donald Trump’s “across-the-board tariffs” plan, which it claims would raise prices for families and worsen inflation.

In a Friday memo to “allies and interested parties,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates slammed Republicans for “targeting Medicare and Social Security for cuts, pushing tax welfare for the super-rich, and supporting across-the-board tariffs that would raise costs and taxes for hardworking families.”

“Yesterday congressional Republicans met to plot a 2025 agenda that involves historic tax increases on the middle class in the form of high tariffs, then gives tax handouts to big corporations that are overcharging Americans despite inflation decreasing,” Bates wrote.

Trump met with both Senate and House Republicans on Thursday during his trip to Capitol Hill. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said afterward that the former president “briefly floated the concept of eliminating the income tax and replacing it with tariffs.”

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“What’s more, the lead House Republican for budget issues, Jodey Arrington, recently wrote, ‘Unchecked mandatory spending on programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and welfare represent a growing threat to our economic security and potentially our way of life,’” Bates said in the memo.

Pointing to other recent reporting, Bates claimed that “in addition to extending the Trump tax giveaway for billionaires and multinational companies, congressional Republicans want even further corporate tax windfalls that will add another $1 trillion to the deficit.”

President Biden “rejects this dangerous MAGAnomics agenda,” Bates noted.

“His plan would protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security, further cut the deficit by making rich special interests pay their fair share, and to crack down on the corporate greed that is ripping off American families as inflation falls,” he wrote in the memo. “Republican officials have stood against every aspect of that plan, even defending junk fees and price gouging.”

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President Joe Biden speaks at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C, on May 17, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Bates insisted the “MAGAnomics summit puts into relief the stark choice between President Biden’s plan for an economy in which economic growth flows to the middle class, and an economy in which hardworking families are sold out to billionaires and the biggest corporations, forced to pay whatever big corporations want to charge while stripped of the Medicare and Social Security benefits they pay to earn.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary said, “The Biden campaign is lying because they are losing. President Trump’s first-term pro-growth economic policies created record-low mortgage, interest, and unemployment rates and made inflation virtually non-existent. Americans can expect President Trump’s second-term economic agenda will have the same impact and end Joe Biden’s inflation crisis that continues to rob working families of thousands of dollars every month.”

She added, “President Trump delivered on his promise to protect Social Security and Medicare in his first term, and President Trump will continue to strongly protect Social Security and Medicare in his second term.”

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, speaks with reporters at the NRSC on June 13, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Leavitt insisted the “only candidate who poses a threat to Social Security and Medicare is Joe Biden – whose mass invasion of countless millions of illegal aliens will, if they are allowed to stay, cause Social Security and Medicare to buckle and collapse.”

Trump’s trip to the nation’s capital this week made numerous headlines, as he met for the first time in several years with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. 

Trump told Republican senators that there was tremendous unity in the party, and promised to “bring back common sense to the government” if he’s elected in November.

As former President Trump’s motorcade coursed through Beverly Hills, Newport Beach and San Francisco last week, packs of MAGA hat-wearing, flag-waving fans lined the posh streets and coastal highways and cheered.

Yet when Vice President Kamala Harris, who was raised among community activists in Berkeley, headed to a San Francisco fundraiser the same week, a throng of more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanted, “Shame on you!”

The disparate treatment — at least via street protests — has been building for months, amid a spring dominated by college campus protests. But the snapshot of love for Trump and anger with Harris and President Biden has grown more striking as the protests move to the campaign trail, especially in deep-blue California, where large majorities of voters agree with Harris and Biden that Trump represents a threat to democracy.

Activists and political leaders in California and around the country point to a range of reasons for protesting against Biden, their would-be ally, more than Trump, whom they see as a wannabe dictator.

Biden is bearing the burden of incumbency that he didn’t face four years ago, facing a tough-love approach from some left-leaning activists who believe they can still push him further left. And while some protesters favor neither candidate, most have rejected Trump, whom they see as irredeemable.

Support for the president in California remains high — Biden has a 20-point lead over Trump in the state, according to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight. But Democrats at the national level are concerned that the optics of anti-Biden protests could hurt the president, as many polls show him either locked in a tie or losing to Trump.

“The thing that we’re all worried about, of course, is when it comes time for politics, can people reconcile that while the Middle East policy choices may not have been exactly right by Biden, is he still the best political choice?” said Faiz Shakir, chief political advisor for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a progressive independent. “And the jury is still out on that.”

Protests do not equal votes, of course. But anti-Trump fervor in California has been a powerful and persistent force on the left since 2016, sparking clashes with counterprotesters that turned violent at times, drawing police presence, massive crowds and headlines. Anti-Trump sentiment carried into Trump’s presidency, and the 2020 election, even amid pandemic-era social distancing rules, helping fuel a coalition that defeated him.

“Donald Trump is being rejected by large swaths of his own party … They are rejecting his failed leadership, his divisive rhetoric, and his threats of political violence against demonstrators or anyone who dares to disagree with Dictator Trump,” said Biden campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika in a statement to The Times. “President Biden, meanwhile, is able to bring people together even when they don’t always agree.”

Some activists say privately that the violence at those events has deterred some activists from going out into the streets. And though many protesters on the left say they fear a return to office for Trump, many do not see themselves as aligned with the Democratic Party. Their main goal is changing policy, not electing a president.

Even so, many say a Trump presidency could put all of their goals at extreme risk, starting with the right to protest.

The Biden administration’s stance on the war between Israel and Hamas, which is fueling much of the anger among activists, is much closer to the protesters’ than Trump’s, who has endorsed Israeli control of contested lands and urged Israel to “get the job done” in Gaza.

“At some point, you have this bubbling up. I don’t believe the protesters are saying, ‘We are protesting Biden because we want Trump.’ They already know what Trump is,” said the Rev. William Barber II, one of the nation’s leading civil rights and anti-poverty activists who directs the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale University.

When Trump arrived in Newport Beach on June 8, Orange County Democrats were too busy getting out the vote for down-ballot races to worry about the top of the ticket, said Ada Briceño, chair of the county party. Volunteers were knocking on doors, touting Dave Min for Congress and attending an ice cream social for Tammy Kim’s mayoral campaign in Irvine.

Susan Hildreth, president of the Democrats of Rossmoor in the Bay Area, said her volunteers have also kept busy writing postcards and door-knocking for Central Valley congressional candidates such as Rudy Salas. Her group is mostly composed of people over 55 who are less inclined to participate in protests, she said.

“We’re ardently, ardently anti-Trump,” said Hildreth, 72. The lack of Trump critics taking to the streets “may have more to do with the general age of this group than anything else. It doesn’t mean that we don’t care!”

Still, the California Democrats hadn’t entirely neglected Trump. A couple of antagonists made their way into the Newport Beach MAGA crowd along the motorcade, crying “Happy Pride!” and eliciting some heckles. An “Orange County votes Biden/Harris 2024” banner trailed behind an airplane.

In San Francisco, an inflatable Trump-like chicken decked in black-and-white prison stripes was ferried around the bay on a boat labeled “Alcatraz Prison Transport.”

Armand Domalewski, a 34-year-old data analyst, pulled together a group of about 50 people to stand across a San Francisco street from hordes of Trump supporters, who he said occasionally crossed over to taunt his side.

“There’s just an odd asymmetry between the parties,” Domalewski said, noting that Democrats, as well as Republicans, have been protesting against Democrats. That reality “makes it really hard, because that’s both sides protesting us.”

Though he’s attended many protests, last week was the first time Domalewski had coordinated one himself — because no one else did, he said. The Trump supporters were evidently more organized. Vocal too. Some, anticipating Trump’s birthday, sang “Happy Birthday.” (He turned 78 Friday.)

Even in 2020, Biden was never a movement candidate like Sanders or Trump, who held big inspirational rallies and raised small-dollar donations from die-hard fans; Biden also did some campaigning virtually to protect against COVID-19. And unlike Trump, who regularly employs violent language and rousing images at his rallies, Biden has campaigned as a calming unifier.

“We have not seen a fighting Joe Biden,” Shakir said.

Though Biden has governed as a progressive, “he isn’t a populist by nature who gives you the sort of emotional satisfaction of a cause and a movement and a mission,” Shakir said. His argument is competence and good judgment, he added, which doesn’t play as well in an arena.

Trump has been the galvanizing force in politics to both his supporters and his detractors. One of the biggest protests against him occurred in 2017, the day after his inauguration, when thousands of women gathered in Washington and across the country to denounce him and stand up for gender equality.

But the political group that formed in the wake of that protest, the Women’s March, has so far endorsed candidates only in local and state races and is rethinking its approach to confronting Trump. Street protests may not be the best strategy.

Trump “vowed to be a dictator on day one, so we know that he would not take protests seriously. He would not take global human rights concerns seriously,” said Tamika Middleton, the group’s managing director.

But Women’s March may keep its focus on reproductive rights and women’s equality to avoid giving Trump a platform, noting that he has raised money and won attention in adverse situations, including his 34 felony convictions.

Trump “sort of revels in the kind of attention of a women’s march going head to head,” she said.

Biden is set to return to California for a posh downtown Los Angeles fundraiser Saturday, featuring Hollywood elites such as George Clooney and Julia Roberts, as well as former President Obama.

Already, Jewish Voice for Peace has announced it will greet his arrival with a protest.

Bierman reported from Washington and Pinho from Los Angeles.

After a lucrative three-day swing by former President Trump through California, President Biden returns to the West Coast to tap into the Democratic-dominated state’s political ATM.

With less than five months to go until the November election, late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel will interview Biden and former President Obama as they team up with Hollywood heavyweights George Clooney and Julia Roberts at a star-studded fundraiser that’s expected to haul in millions.

It’s the latest case of national politicians coming to California to pad their campaign coffers. According to figures from the Federal Election Commission, Biden and Trump have raked in more money in California this cycle than from any other state.

“When politicians look to the west, they see a field of green,” veteran California-based political scientist Jack Pitney at Claremont McKenna College told Fox News.

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Tickets for the gala at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, which an invitation described as a “historic night,” ranged from $250 for a single person to get in the door to half a million dollars for special access, photos with Biden and Obama and invitations to an after-party.

The president arrives in California one week after Trump left the Golden State.

Trump’s team said that when all the money is counted, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was expected to haul in roughly $27.5 million from three fundraisers in California and one in Las Vegas, a senior campaign official told Fox News.

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And the Trump campaign said an additional $6 million was raised for outside groups supporting his 2024 election rematch with Biden.

Trump has been aiming to close his fundraising gap with Biden. In April, his campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) for the first time raised more than the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee. 

Trump’s campaign announced a week ago it and the RNC, fueled in part by the former president’s guilty verdicts in his recently concluded criminal trial, hauled in a stunning $141 million in May.

Former President Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court May 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)

Trump was found guilty of all 34 felony counts in the first trial of a former or current president in the nation’s history.

The former president’s campaign noted that in the first 24 hours following the verdict, it and the RNC brought in nearly $53 million, which counted toward May’s total. 

The Biden campaign has also been raising money off the Trump verdict, and a source told Fox News “the 24 hours after the verdict were one of the best fundraising 24 hours of the Biden campaign since launch.”

While Trump’s California fundraising haul was fueled by top-dollar GOP donors, including tech industry investors and hedge fund giants, Saturday’s fundraising for Biden is being orchestrated by the Democratic Hollywood machine.

It’s no surprise. The entertainment industry, which showered presidents Clinton and Obama with campaign cash, has long been known for its Democratic leanings.

Former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and President Biden. (Getty Images)

And while the 81-year-old Biden doesn’t have the tight relationships with Hollywood that his Democratic predecessors enjoyed, he can still draw a crowd.

“Any Democratic presidential candidate is going to be able to raise a lot of money in California, and an incumbent president has a big advantage. When the president enters a room, it fills up with cash,” Pitney said.

Major strikes by two Hollywood labor unions representing film and television writers and actors from May through November of last year delayed Biden from raising money in Los Angeles entertainment circles.

But the president started making up for lost time in December with a major fundraiser hosted by famed directors Steven Spielberg and Rob Reiner. Saturday’s mega-fundraiser was orchestrated by media mogul and Democratic rainmaker Jeffrey Katzenberg, who’s a Biden campaign co-chair.

Katzenberg also put together a major fundraiser with Biden, Obama and Clinton in March at New York City’s famed Radio City Music Hall, which raked in $26 million.

The Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee have enlisted the help of plenty of stars and well-known performers from the entertainment world as the president runs for a second term.

Among those lending a hand is famed actor Robert De Niro, who headlined a Biden campaign news conference outside the New York City courthouse during the final days of Trump’s trial. 

The news conference went viral after De Niro, who portrayed mobsters in such cinematic masterpieces as “The Godfather Part II” and “Goodfellas,” screamed at nearby Trump supporters that “You are gangsters” as they yelled obscenities at the actor.

Actor Mark Hamill, who portrayed Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, made a recent unannounced appearance at the White House briefing room to praise the president and called Biden “Joe-Bi-Wan-Kenobi.”

Spielberg has helped the DNC with its storytelling efforts, and Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer campaigned with Vice President Kamala Harris on a recent swing through battleground Michigan.

Trump, whose final California fundraiser took place last weekend at a tony gated community in upscale Newport Beach, California, and included veteran actor Jon Voight, will spend this weekend in Michigan, holding multiple events, including a roundtable discussion at a northwest Detroit church.

Supporters of former President Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, react to his motorcade on the day he visits to raise money in Newport Beach, Calif., June 8, 2024. (REUTERS/David Swanson)

The Trump campaign argued the former president will be meeting with “everyday Americans” while “Biden will be at a glitzy fundraiser in Hollywood with his elitist, out-of-touch celebrity benefactors that own him.”

The Trump campaign and Republican allies also criticized the president for skipping a peace conference on Ukraine being held this weekend in Switzerland to appear at the California fundraiser. Vice President Kamala Harris will represent the U.S. at the peace talks.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.