AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

President Trump has been on the job one month, and the pace of his administration has been unrelenting.

A federal judge this afternoon ruled the administration can continue firing federal workers by the thousands.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that's as a new Trump hire became official today.

The Senate confirmed one of the president's most polarizing nominees to lead the FBI.

Lisa Desjardins has the latest.

MAN: The confirmation is confirmed.

LISA DESJARDINS: A matter-of-fact conclusion to a controversial nomination, as the Senate confirmed Kash Patel to run the FBI, installing a staunch Trump loyalist to the top of the bureau.

Patel, a former federal public defender and counterterrorism prosecutor, has consistently blasted the FBI and Department of Justice as the so-called deep state, weaponized, he says, against President Trump and conservatives.

Republicans call him a reformer.

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): I look forward to working with Mr. Patel to restore the integrity of the FBI and get it focused on its critical mission.

LISA DESJARDINS: But Democrats say Patel is dangerous.

SEN. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): The only qualification Kash Patel has to be FBI director is that, when everyone else in the first Trump administration said, no, I won't do that, that crosses moral, ethical, and legal lines, Kash Patel said, sign me up.

LISA DESJARDINS: This as Trump's Cabinet is nearly complete.

Only three nominees remain for the Departments of Education and Labor and the U.S. representative to the U.N. On the president's top legislative priority, the sailing is not quite as smooth.

The House and the Senate are now in a staring contest over how to pass Trump's tax cut and border package, the Senate moving ahead with its strategy, which divides the president's wish list into two, while House Speaker Mike Johnson is vowing to catch up next week, bringing one large House framework to a vote.

Republicans in both chambers know the risks here.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): What I don't want to see happen is us getting into a competition.

It's not a competition.

LISA DESJARDINS: What are the prospects right now?

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY: And I think they're good.

We have got to get it done.

If we don't, we will have forfeited people's trust, and they will be mad at us.

LISA DESJARDINS: A rising controversy has been potential cuts to major programs like Medicaid to help pay for proposed tax cuts.

The president seemed to take that off the table this week.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched.

LISA DESJARDINS: Also gaining complexity, U.S. Ukraine policy.

Trump's Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, was in Kyiv today for talks, but a planned news conference was abruptly canceled, as tensions remain high, especially after President Trump said this yesterday about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: DONALD TRUMP: A dictator without elections, Zelenskyy better move fast, or he's not going to have a country left.

LISA DESJARDINS: That critique of a U.S. ally at war has sharpened the spotlight on the administration, including Vice President J.D.

Vance.

Today, he defended Trump's decision for talks with Russia, but without Ukraine in the room.

J.D.

VANCE, Vice President of the United States: They say, why are you talking to Russia?

Well, how are you going to end the war unless you're talking to Russia?

I really believe that we're in the cusp of peace in Europe for the first time in three years.

LISA DESJARDINS: Meanwhile, one of Ukraine's biggest Republican backers made news.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime.

I will not seek this honor an eighth time.

LISA DESJARDINS: Kentucky senator and former Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, a sometimes critic of President Trump, marked his 83rd birthday today by announcing he will not run for Senate again.

But the longest-serving Senate party leader ever said his remaining two years ahead won't be quiet.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL: Lest any of our colleagues still doubt my intentions for the remainder of my term, I have some unfinished business to attend to.

LISA DESJARDINS: McConnell today voted to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director.

Two other Republicans did break ranks, though, relative moderates Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.

Both said Patel appears too politically motivated to them for the job.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Lisa, on that point, what's your reporting and how those in the agency view Kash Patel?

LISA DESJARDINS: There is a split.

Talking to some in and around the agency, there are some who are trying to wait and see what happens.

They are hopeful that perhaps there will be a focus on things like, for example, drug trafficking, which Patel himself told senators he wants to be central.

But the vast majority of those in and around the agency I talked to have a kind of pit-in-the-stomach concern.

They are worried that this is someone who does in fact not want to reform the agency, but rather slice it up without considering what needs to change or not.

GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, we have got a major court ruling regarding the Trump administration's mass firing of government workers.

Tell us about that.

LISA DESJARDINS: Right, and this could apply to FBI workers as well.

Judge Christopher Cooper ruled just a short time ago that he is not able to block the mass firings that the Trump administration has put into place.

He says, instead, unions that have asked for that block have to appeal to a labor relations board.

So he said, it's not in my jurisdiction.

What that means is, those mass firings will go ahead.

And we know there have been hundreds just in the past couple of days at USAID.

IRS workers I'm talking to are waiting for notice even as we speak.

So this was a major ruling.

GEOFF BENNETT: I know you're also tracking the developments on Capitol Hill that could determine the fate of President Trump's agenda.

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: What's the latest there?

LISA DESJARDINS: All right, now this is something that we're going to make sure viewers pay a lot of attention to over the next couple of weeks.

So this is teeing it up and reminding people of what's happening.

This is a key moment.

You look at the House - - the Senate floor -- excuse me -- right now.

There's Senator Bernie Sanders speaking.

This is a moment where senators are going -- are teeing up basically the first step in kind of launching the Trump agenda in Congress, how they could get sort of a shortcut in the Senate to have an easier 50 vote -- a 50-margin vote.

Now, the Senate is starting on a smaller bill on the Trump agenda, Senate Republicans focusing on immigration and border in this framework that we see on the Senate floor tonight.

They are not including tax cuts.

Why not?

Well, the Senate doesn't think that the House can pass a huge bill all in one go.

Think of it sort of like an older sibling saying, you are taking on too much.

You're going to break something if you try to do this.

The House disagrees.

Next week, the House will do a whole separate process.

What's the takeaway here?

They're having trouble getting out of the starting gate, even though there is a lot of determination from Republicans.

GEOFF BENNETT: And what's the big picture challenge?

LISA DESJARDINS: OK, this is important.

I want to take people through here.

It's simply the math.

So, looking at this, there are four main prongs we have talked about that Republicans and Trump want to do here in Congress.

One, extend the Trump tax cuts, expand them, also fund border security, and cut the deficit.

The total cost, you see, of those is estimated between $5 trillion and $11 trillion.

But how much the House Republicans are budgeting right now, just $4.5 trillion.

So to make up that difference, Geoff, you can't just cut employees.

It's not going to save you remotely that kind of money.

Instead, you have got to talk about entitlement programs, things like Medicaid, that affect many hundred -- many millions of Americans.

And Trump saying Medicaid's off the table, that's not where Republicans are right now.

So pay very close attention to what happens with these programs that a lot of people care about.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, one final question for you, Lisa, on the topic of Ukraine.

We heard President Trump call President Zelenskyy a dictator.

President Trump falsely stated that Ukraine started the war.

Just last night, he told reporters, Mr. Trump did, that he trusts the Russians to negotiate in good faith.

How are Republican supporters of Ukraine reacting to all of this?

LISA DESJARDINS: I spent a lot of time today talking to those Republican senators.

Some, like Thom Tillis, are saying, no, it's clear Putin is the aggressor here.

But most are staying away from criticizing President Trump.

Here's one.

Senator Josh Hawley said, this is just a beginning approach.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): This is going to be a long process.

Ukraine is going to have to be involved.

And Europe's going to have to be involved, because, at the end of the day, Europe is going to have to bear a greater share of responsibility for the defense of the continent.

LISA DESJARDINS: So pay attention to that.

Ukraine was not involved in these initial talks.

But Hawley is kind of saying, well, I hope, I think they should be engaged.

But they're not.

Another one, others are saying that Zelenskyy started things by criticizing Trump, saying that he was operating on disinformation.

So that's a way of not talking about Trump, but Zelenskyy.

And one interesting person I talked to was Ted Cruz, who himself used to be an opponent of Trump.

Here's what he said.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Look, I think Zelenskyy has made a very serious mistake.

He is running to the European press and just attacking President Trump.

And it's not complicated.

That is a strategy doomed to failure.

And every time he attacks President Trump, it is predictable that Trump is going to punch back.

LISA DESJARDINS: So, deep breath.

This is a lot to take in today.

But what the through line is here is that, while there is concern, and about very serious issues across government and across the world with what President Trump is doing, Senate Republicans for now are either placing faith in him or they are not opposing him in public.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins covering it all.

Our thanks to you, as always.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.