Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

February 28

Trump Is Now Demanding Yet Another Medal He Didn’t Earn

The president couldn’t help but hijack a war hero’s moment to talk about himself.

President Donald Trump moaned that he cannot be given the Congressional Medal of Honor immediately after the nation’s highest military award was handed to an actual war hero.

The president, who never served in the military and avoided the Vietnam War draft due to a disputed bone spur diagnosis, made the remark Tuesday during his State of the Union address as the Medal of Honor was awarded to retired Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams.

The 100-year-old Korean War veteran received the honor after shooting down four Soviet jets during a 35-minute dogfight in 1952. Williams’ heroics remained classified for decades, and his F9F-5 Panther was riddled with 263 bullet holes during the encounter.

After Congress gave a lengthy standing ovation to Williams, Trump couldn’t resist placing himself back at the center of attention.

“I’ve always wanted the Congressional Medal of Honor, but I was informed I’m not allowed to give it to myself, and I wouldn’t know why I’d be taking it,” Trump said.

“But if they ever open up that law, I will be there with you someday.”

Chief Warrant Officer Eric Slover, a special operations helicopter pilot who was severely wounded during the January raid that captured Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, was also awarded the Medal of Honor on Tuesday.

Last week, Trump told a crowd in Georgia that he wanted to award himself a Medal of Honor for being “brave” and flying to Iraq to meet troops during his first term

Trump could have been eligible for the Medal of Honor had he served in Vietnam. Instead, he received five draft deferments: four for being a college student and a fifth in 1968 following a diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels.

In 2018, The New York Times reported that the podiatrist who diagnosed Trump, Larry Braunstein, may have done so as a favor to Trump’s father, Fred Trump, who was his landlord.

Trump has a history of being given or demanding honors that he does not deserve, including being handed Purple Hearts–a medal awarded to service members who are wounded or killed in action against an enemy–by actual veterans.

In October 2024, a Vietnam vet presented the president with a Purple Heart at one stage during a town hall in North Carolina. A retired lieutenant colonel also gave him one at a Virginia rally in 2016.

“I always wanted to get the Purple Heart,” Trump said after being handed the medal by retired Lt. Col. Louis Dorfman in Ashburn. “This was much easier.”

Trump was also handed the FIFA Club World Cup trophy after English soccer team Chelsea won the tournament in July 2025, and has kept it on display in the Oval Office ever since.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-is-now-demanding-a-congressional-medal-of-honor/?

February 28

Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard during review of Epstein ties, university says

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard University as the campus reviews his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the university announced Wednesday.

https://apnews.com/article/larry-summer-epstein-harvard-e4075897230bb917f1c2f3286682e9b8?

February 28

Surgeon general nominee faces sharp questions about vaccines, birth control and qualifications
FBI serving search warrants at Los Angeles school district headquarters and superintendent’s home
President Donald Trump’s post-State of the Union sales job begins now
Trump’s return to office has seen sweeping changes to immigration enforcement
Trump’s portrayal of ‘golden age’ is out of sync with how Americans see economy
Live updates: Iran pushes back against Trump ahead of Geneva talks
Trump administration hits Iran with new sanctions as nuclear talks near
US to end health aid to Zimbabwe after funding talks collapse
US sheds light on its allegation of Chinese nuclear test and urges nations to push for disarmament
US and South Korean militaries will have joint drills in March as tensions with North Korea escalate
US military plane hits road barrier during Philippine training, injuring 5 personnel
WATCH: Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum says Trump called her after killing of drug lord
Citing AP investigation, new bill seeks to prohibit DHS from using full-body restraints
Pennsylvania residents question police response to student ICE protesters after juveniles detained
New Hampshire resident charged in shooting at Canadian border
Former San Francisco homeless services CEO charged with misspending $1.2 million in public funds
Idaho woman charged in connection with stolen ambulance that was driven into building housing DHS

February 28

Trump taunts Dems

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President Trump's State of the Union address last night. Photo: Kenny Holston/The New York Times

President Trump used last night's State of the Union address to portray himself as America's savior and protector, as the country marks its 250th birthday, Axios CEO Jim VandeHei says in a "Behind the Curtain" video.

🇺🇸 VandeHei says Trump "wanted to prove that he is the strong and patriotic one, and that Democrats, by contrast, are weak and weird. You saw this in the choreography from the moment he walked onto the stage until he left."

The president "knows that while he's unpopular, Democrats are equally unpopular. Democrats haven't done a good job of proving themselves to be an acceptable alternative to Trump."

"The most poignant moment was where he isolated on this idea of: Will you stand for U.S. citizens, or will you stand for illegal immigrants?" VandeHei added.

⏱️ "He just taunted and taunted the Democrats. He let it hang in the air for what felt like minutes — because he understood that the imagery of Democrats sitting down when he's saying 'stand up if you stand for U.S. citizens' is brilliant politics."

Cover: New York Post

🇮🇷 Another moment to tuck away and think about, VandeHei says: Trump started to lay the predicate for war with Iran.

Trump said last night: "One thing is certain: I will never allow the world's No. 1 sponsor of terror — which they are by far — to have a nuclear weapon. Can't let that happen."

💸 Trump mostly dismissed Americans' affordability concerns, Axios' Neil Irwin and Courtenay Brown report.

Rather than present an I-feel-your-pain message paired with a litany of policy proposals, he argued that things are looking great.

Watch the video ...

February 28

🏒 Most of the gold medal-winning Team USA men's Olympic hockey players met with President Trump yesterday. Trump said the U.S. women's team, which also won gold, "will soon be coming to the White House." Go deeper.
🎓 Former Harvard president Larry Summers resigned his university positions following revelations about his closeness with Jeffrey Epstein. Go deeper.
💉 Surgeon General nominee Casey Means said during a confirmation hearing today that she believes vaccines save lives, but didn't unequivocally urge people to get vaccinated. Go deeper.
🏠 Citi announced its Blueprint for Housing Opportunity — a $60 billion, five-year housing affordability commitment to create and preserve at least 250,000 units across the U.S., including homes for essential workers. Read the announcement.

March 1

📱Wiles "in shock" over phone revelation

Illustration of a pattern of eyes looking around.

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

FBI Director Kash Patel says the FBI under President Biden subpoenaed his phone records and those of Susie Wiles, who ran President Trump's campaign and is now White House chief of staff, when they were private citizens.

Trump officials familiar with the investigation tell Axios' Marc Caputo that the revelations might be "the tip of the iceberg," and that the FBI may have probed more Trumpworld figures.
Wiles told associates: "I am in shock."

Patel said in a statement to Axios: "It is outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership secretly subpoenaed my own phone records — along with those of now-White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles — using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight."

Patel told Reuters, which broke the story, that investigators obtained "toll records" — the timing and recipients of calls. The FBI sought records of calls Patel and Wiles made in 2022 and 2023, amid the federal probe of whether Trump improperly stored classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, Patel said.
"In 2023," Reuters reports, "the FBI recorded a phone call between Wiles and her attorney, according to two FBI officials. Wiles' attorney was aware that the call was being recorded, and consented to it, but Susie Wiles was not."

About 10 FBI employees, including veteran agents, were ousted this week for their work on the Mar-a-Lago case, the N.Y. Times reports (gift link).

The Times adds this context: "It has been known for years that Mr. Patel was closely scrutinized by investigators under the special counsel Jack Smith and was compelled to testify in front of a grand jury. The fact that investigators obtained some of Ms. Wiles's phone records was made public during the inquiry into Mr. Trump's mishandling of classified documents."

Anthony Coley — Justice Department director of public affairs under Biden, and now an MS NOW contributor and public affairs consultant — told Mike that Patel "is on a singular mission: to find something, anything for which to prosecute Jack Smith. That's what Donald Trump demanded, and that's what he and Attorney General Bondi are trying to deliver."

March 1

🗳️ Art of the "implied" Trump endorsement

Republican candidates snubbed by President Trump for primary endorsements have found a workaround: Act like he endorsed them anyway, Axios' Alex Isenstadt reports.

Why it matters: Trump's approval numbers are sagging but he still dominates the GOP, using endorsements to reward allies, punish detractors and reinforce his vise-like grip on the party.

⚜️ Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy — who voted to convict Trump over his role in instigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — is the only Republican senator Trump's team is targeting for defeat this primary season.

Trump has endorsed Cassidy's opponent, U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow. But you wouldn't know it from watching Cassidy's campaign ads — where Trump is seen and mentioned.

🧨 A GOP operative told Axios: "It's all fun and games until Trump uses his Truth Social account and megaphone to blast the candidate who has seemingly claimed support from him without actually getting it."

Go deeper.

March 1

FBI fires agents who worked on Trump classified document investigation, AP sources say

The employees terminated participated in the probe into the Republican's hoarding of classified documents, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday. Read more.

ps:Amazing, just amazing firing people for just doing there jobs!!!!!

Why this matters:

The firings are part of a broader personnel purge under the leadership of Director Kash Patel, a Trump appointee who, over the last year, has pushed out dozens of employees who either contributed to investigations of the president or who were perceived as not in alignment with the administration’s agenda. The Justice Department has engaged in similarly sweeping firings of prosecutors since Trump took office last year.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

March 1

MAGA Senator Makes Bonkers Attempt to Justify Trump’s Big Lie

Iran’s nuclear program was apparently “obliterated” by strikes in June. Trump officials say it’s already back.

A MAGA senator tried desperately to justify Donald Trump’s big Iranian lie in a toe-curling segment on CNN.

Last summer, the president claimed to have wiped out Iran’s nuclear facilities in a double-team strike with Israel. He said the Islamic Republic had been just “weeks away” from developing a nuclear weapon.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joined in, boasting that U.S. forces had “obliterated” Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons.However, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, declared this week that Iran’s enrichment level has reached “60 percent” and the country is “probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was rolled out to defend the apparent doublespeak.

Mullin insisted that the administration is not interested in regime change. He said that a “nuclear Iran is bad for the entire world.”

“They said they were done trying to build a nuclear weapon, yet they‘re obviously trying to rebuild it. We‘re not going to let that happen,” he added.

Collins was not convinced. “Right, but if we obliterated it, we being the United States last summer, then why are you worried about it right now?” she asked.

Mullin then rolled out a wild analogy. “Because they‘re rebuilding it and you can see them rebuilding it, but it was obliterated, but it doesn‘t mean you can‘t rebuild. I mean, people have car accidents and obliterate their bones and their legs and yet they can still put you know, they can still put metal back in them and walk again.”

Collins: “But I think if it was obliterated in June, how is it February and we’re now, as Steve Witkoff put it, ‘a week away from Iran having this.’”

Mullin said that although he isn’t contradicting Witkoff, he has not seen the reports that informed that comment.

And despite earlier saying that the Trump administration did not want to initiate regime change, he added, “And by the way, if it takes us removing the Ayatollah (Supreme Leader of Iran) from keeping the nuclear program from moving forward, then that‘s not off the table, but we would prefer diplomacy.”

Collins pointed out the contradiction and asked how far the senator would “support that going.”

He said he doesn’t think “boots on the ground is necessary,” but supported taking out the Ayatollah with an air strike if it was deemed necessary.

“Now that he is pursuing it [nuclear readiness], the one person that‘s driving this is Ayatollah [Ali Khamenei]. That one person may have to be removed, but we don‘t think he‘s suicidal. But maybe he is,” he explained.

Towards the end of the chat, Collins once again pulled up the senator on why he was still saying that something that was allegedly “obliterated” just months ago is already, by some estimates, nearly repaired.

He said, “I guess I‘ve already explained that. How do you rebuild your legs after you shatter them? How do you rebuild a house after it‘s been knocked down by a tornado or a hurricane? You can rebuild things. The foundation may still be there. You can build a lot back on a foundation once the top of it is removed. If the structure of the foundation is there, they can start rebuilding.”

Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are heading to Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday for talks with Iranian officials.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-senator-markwayne-mullins-bonkers-attempt-to-justify-trumps-big-lie-on-iran-nuclear-program/?

March 1

How I Fear Trump Will Unleash ICE to Rig Midterms: Governor

A governor says Trump appears more and more determined to “take over” elections.

President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address to sow the seeds of a potential midterm power grab, according to Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey.“I don’t think we should underestimate the lengths that the president and the administration will go to come November,” the 55-year-old Democratic governor said on The Daily Beast Podcast.

Healey argued that Trump, 79, is actively conjuring a “specter of fraud” as a pretext to “exercise emergency powers and go in and take over elections.”

During his 108-minute-long speech to the nation on Tuesday night, Trump baselessly claimed that “cheating is rampant in our elections” and falsely accused Democrats of rigging outcomes.

“They want to cheat, they have cheated, and their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat,” he shouted into his microphone.

Trump’s approval rating has sunk to a five-year low, according to a Washington Post–ABC News poll, and he has repeatedly expressed his worries about potential GOP losses in the 2026 midterms.

At the same time, the commander-in-chief has worked to erode trust in elections on a near-daily basis by falsely claiming they are riddled with fraud, and recently called on Republicans to transfer authority over voting from states to the federal government.

“He pushes, pushes, pushes ... all to sort of sow these seeds to provide some justification for him to exercise emergency powers, put troops on the streets, to scare people away,” Healey told host Joanna Coles.

“I think that what we have to anticipate is not only will we see ICE, we’ll see every federal agency set out around ballot-polling places to scare people away,” she added.

Reached for comment, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told the Daily Beast: “Anything said on the Daily Beast podcast is equivalent to screaming into the void. No one listens to this Trump Derangement Syndrome therapy session full of bizarre Blue Anon conspiracies.” The latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast has racked up more than 100,000 views in less than two days.

Heather Honey, a top official in the Department of Homeland Security and a 2020 election denier, recently promised election officials that there won’t be an ICE presence at polling places, Politico reported Wednesday.

Healey pointed out that Trump has taken the extraordinary step of deploying the military—including the National Guard and Marines—in U.S. cities, often over the objections of local officials.

Trump has also sent waves of federal immigration authorities like ICE into Democrat-run cities, where their heavy-handed tactics have sparked fear and anger.

On Tuesday evening, the president urged lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act, which would mandate a photo ID to vote, require people to submit proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, and grant the Department of Homeland Security access to states’ voter rolls.

Democrats have condemned the bill, warning that it could disenfranchise millions of U.S. citizens by creating hurdles to register and cast ballots.

Trump has spent years attacking the legitimacy of U.S. elections, and he continues to push—and investigate—his long-debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

During the State of the Union he quipped, “It should be my third term.”

Healey argued it was important to talk about the possibility that the increasingly unpopular president, who said last month that people sometimes “need a dictator,” could try to seize control over the vote.

“We are training local officials, local law enforcement, and community members on what might happen and what their rights are,” said Healey, the first woman elected governor in Massachusetts and one of the first openly lesbian governors in the U.S.

“I think it’s important that we talk about what is actually being attempted right now by the Trump administration and that we have in place what we need to have in place to protect people’s rights.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-i-fear-trump-will-unleash-ice-to-rig-midterms-governor-maura-healey/?

March 1

Top Trump Goon Quits Keystone Kash’s FBI Vengeance Squad

Since returning to office in January, Trump has targeted political rivals and officials who once investigated him.

A top FBI official tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump’s political retribution campaign is reportedly stepping down from his role.

Marshall Yates, who led the FBI’s congressional affairs office, is expected to step down from the FBI on Friday, CBS News reported.

A person briefed on Yates’ intentions told CBS News that he plans to step aside to focus on his family and is assisting in the search for a successor.

The news came after a report that FBI Director Kash Patel, who has already pushed out multiple agents involved in Biden-era investigations, had this week fired at least 10 employees connected with the investigation into Trump’s storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Yates was a representative on the Interagency Weaponization Working Group, a U.S. government task force formed under the Trump administration after the president’s 2025 inauguration to coordinate multiple federal agencies in reviewing and addressing what his allies call the “weaponization” of government power against him and his supporters.

The group consists of dozens of government officials from at least 12 different government offices and has been involved in investigating criminal cases stemming from the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, as well as efforts to restore former FBI agents who say they were dismissed under the Biden administration over objections to COVID-19 policies, their handling of Jan. 6 investigations, and other internal disputes.

As head of the FBI’s congressional affairs office, Yates also worked closely with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley.

Grassley released a batch of internal documents related to the FBI’s probe code-named “Arctic Frost,” an investigation that began in April 2022 into alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and later became the basis for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against President Trump.

The probe used subpoenas and records requests targeting Trump, Mike Pence, Republican lawmakers and conservative groups to investigate possible election interference.

When Grassley made those records public without redacting the names of FBI agents involved, several employees named in the documents faced public exposure and, in some cases, were fired by the bureau.

The FBI fired at least two agents who worked on Smith’s cases—one of them just months away from retirement—and disciplined a third after their names appeared in the files released by Grassley.

FBI Director Kash Patel also removed up to six agents in Miami linked to the FBI’s 2022 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

The FBI’s Washington Field Office also shut down its public corruption squad, the unit that supported Smith’s two federal investigations into Trump after the 2020 election —the Jan. 6 probe and the classified documents case.

Trump pleaded not guilty in both cases and repeatedly called the investigations politically motivated “witch hunts.”

The prosecutions effectively ended after his 2024 election victory, as longstanding Justice Department policy bars criminal cases against a sitting president.

The Trump administration has rejected accusations that the president is weaponizing the Justice Department.

“It is not weaponizing the Department of Justice to demand accountability for those who weaponized the Department of Justice, and nobody knows what that looks like more than President Trump,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing in September.

“We are not going to tolerate gaslighting from anyone in the media or from anyone on the other side who is trying to say that it’s the president who is weaponizing the DOJ.

“It was Joe Biden and his attorney general who weaponized the DOJ. Joe Biden abused this sacred American institution to go after his political opponent in an election year,” she said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-trump-goon-quits-keystone-kashs-fbi-vengeance-squad/?

March 1

Trump Mastermind Is ‘Shocked’ FBI Dared to Come for Them

Susie Wiles was reportedly floored by the revelation the bureau had subpoenaed her phone records.

Donald Trump’s chief of staff has been left stunned by news of the FBI doing its job.

Reuters reported Wednesday the bureau subpoenaed phone records for Susie Wiles, along with current FBI Director Kash Patel, in 2022 and 2023 as part of a broader investigation into the MAGA president’s alleged storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Those efforts apparently went as far as listening in on a phone call between Wiles and her attorney in 2023. Her lawyer was aware the exchange was being monitored. She was not.

“I am in shock,” Wiles told associates after learning of the extent of the probe, according to Axios.

The FBI’s actions formed part of a wider probe that was later placed under the leadership of Special Counsel Jack Smith. The Biden administration appointed Smith to investigate allegations Trump tried to overturn results of the 2020 election, and that he had hidden sensitive government information at his Florida resort.

Patel and Wiles were already known to have been targets of Smith’s investigations into those allegations. The New York Times reports “the fact that investigators obtained some of Ms. Wiles’s phone records was made public during the inquiry into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents.”

The FBI director, dubbed “Keystone Kash” for his bungled handling of several high-profile investigations, personally informed Reuters of new details of the searches of both his and Wiles’ records.

“It is outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership secretly subpoenaed my own phone records—along with those of now White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles—using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight,” he said.

He has now fired 10 FBI agents over the phone record subpoenas and monitoring of calls. That purge, along with his disclosures to Reuters, comes just days after critics slammed the FBI director for disrespecting Trump on a call from the Team USA locker room in Italy.

The national hockey team had just won gold at this year’s Winter Olympics. In footage of the incident, Patel is clearly intoxicated. Trump, famously, does not drink.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-white-house-chief-of-staff-susie-wiles-is-shocked-the-fbi-dared-to-come-for-her/?

March 1

Republicans Dragged Hillary Clinton Back Into the Spotlight. They’re Going to Regret It

They have inadvertently re-platformed one of the Democratic Party’s most battle-tested figures—and the gloves are off.

If you’ve noticed Hillary Clinton everywhere again, it’s not because she has launched a comeback tour. It’s because Republicans still just cannot quit her. Despite the fact that she is not mentioned in the “Epstein files,” House Oversight Chair James Comer has subpoenaed her to testify today. (Her husband, Bill Clinton, will testify tomorrow.) It seems Republicans believe that Clinton can provide a distraction—or at least a new punching bag—in the scandal that has dogged the Trump administration for months. They will surely use the closed-door deposition to rehash and revive as much Hillary hate as they can, regurgitating the greatest hits from 2016 and beyond. And they’ll certainly air all their attack lines publicly right afterwards.

Still, in forcing Clinton back into the spotlight, Republicans may have accidentally handed Democrats a gift.

Clinton has largely kept a disciplined distance from the churn of politics since her presidential run a decade ago (aside from carefully curated moments, like her speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention). Though supportive of a variety of organizing efforts through her Onward Together initiative, she did not try to become a resistance mascot. She has not inserted herself into every Trump controversy.

Yet following this Epstein testimony stunt, and after being denied a public hearing, Clinton has suddenly decided to engage on a range of issues—and in a high-visibility capacity. She has recently appeared at high-profile conferences, penned op-eds, and given major interviews to the BBC and others. And in reappearing on the national stage in a robust way, the former presidential nominee could become a much-needed voice of reason for the Democratic Party.

In their fixation with Clinton, Republicans have reintroduced into the national conversation a Democrat now uniquely equipped to say what many in her party are afraid to. Right now, Democrats are struggling with a question they rarely confront directly: how to balance moral clarity with electoral reality. Clinton, who recently confirmed she would not run for president in 2028, can offer a reality check that could stave off the party’s temptation to embrace extreme and unpopular positions at a time when a record number of Americans think it is already leaning too far left. She has been the subject of more online vitriol than any Democrat of her generation and emerged with something close to indifference toward it. That freedom is rare in modern politics. It is also incredibly powerful.

Republicans thought dragging the former First Lady back into hearings would damage Democrats and protect them. Instead, they have revived a figure who is liberated from ambition and, therefore, unusually, candid.

On so many issues, the loudest online voices often demand maximalism at a moment when much of the country is signaling fatigue with ideological escalation and “purity tests.” But Clinton lives in the real world, not on the internet, and her renewed presence can help tether Democrats to a more pragmatic outlook.

Yes, there will be Democrats who recoil at her return. For some, 2016 is still raw. For others, Clinton represents an establishment era they are eager to transcend. The party faces a volatile electorate, a resurgent Trump, and an information ecosystem that rewards the loudest voices over the wisest. But in this environment, having someone willing to lay out uncomfortable truths is a major asset.

Hillary Clinton is back in the spotlight because Republicans could not resist pulling her there. They have inadvertently platformed one of the Democratic Party’s most battle-tested figures, and she is speaking up once again—not for a campaign, not for validation, but with the clarity that comes from having nothing left to lose.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-dragged-hillary-clinton-back-into-the-spotlight-theyre-going-to-regret-it/?

March 1

Man Who Welcomed Trump to Davos Is Latest Epstein Scalp

The dominoes are falling. Just not in MAGAland.

The gathering fallout from the Justice Department’s latest release of files on the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein just claimed the job of another influential public figure.

Borge Brende, who in his role as chief executive and president of the World Economic Forum was responsible for welcoming President Donald Trump to Davos earlier this year, announced he would be resigning from the powerful financial organization on Thursday.

His statement made no mention of his reputed ties to Epstein. He said only that he was “grateful” to have served in his post, and that “I believe now is the right moment for the forum to continue its important work without distractions.”

The World Economic Forum said it had concluded an “independent review,” and “the findings state that there were no additional concerns beyond what has been previously disclosed.”

A Norwegian former foreign minister, Brende steps down after emails contained in the DoJ’s release of more than three million documents on the Epstein case show he allegedly maintained contact with the predator for years after his 2008 Florida conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Trump approved publication of those files late last year after a concerted bipartisan campaign amid renewed scrutiny of his own, once-close friendship with the disgraced financier, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He remains in his role as president of the United States.

Howard Lutnick, a longstanding friend of Trump’s, also faces mounting scrutiny after newly released documents appear to show he maintained contact with Epstein as late as 2018. He remains in his role as Commerce Secretary.

Pam Bondi has also come under intense criticism for her handling of the release, which contains redactions critics say are designed more to protect Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators than survivors of his crimes. She remains in her role as attorney general.

Brende, meanwhile, is only the latest in a gathering slew of prominent Norwegian figures, including a former prime minister and Crown Princess, to be named in files released by the Justice Department. Among them is Mona Juul, who stepped down as the country’s former ambassador to Jordan and Iraq earlier this month.

In the U.K., revelations from the tranche have led to arrests of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson.

Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, was stripped of his royal titles late last year amid long-running controversy over his relationship with Epstein. Prime Minister Keir Starmer sacked Mandelson as ambassador to the U.S. in September over his ties to the predator.

France’s former Culture Minister Jack Lang, Slovakian ex-National Security Adviser Miroslav Lajčák, and disgraced UAE business tycoon Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem have all similarly resigned or been forced out of their roles in recent weeks over fresh allegations of their links to Epstein.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/former-norwegian-foreign-minister-who-welcomed-donald-trump-to-davos-is-latest-jeffrey-epstein-scalp/?

March 1

Lutnick’s Shouting and Grandstanding Is P***ing Off Insiders

Some Cabinet secretaries and senior officials are growing frustrated with Trump’s commerce chief.

President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary is apparently making enemies among his colleagues in his quest to get credit for trade deals.

Sources within the administration told Politico a long list of complaints about Howard Lutnick, who Trump hailed as a “very very successful guy” with “good ideas” last week, even as Lutnick faced scrutiny over fresh revelations that he visited the island of late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in 2012.

Some Cabinet secretaries and senior officials are said to be growing frustrated with Lutnick’s highly centralized decision-making, disregard for dissenting opinions, and abrasive, headline-seeking behavior.

Current and former officials say he centralizes nearly all decisions, requiring explicit approval before staff can engage with other agencies— something that is creating friction inside the administration.

One administration official told Politico meetings often stall because his team is under a “gag order.”

“No one’s allowed to talk to the interagency without Howard giving explicit approval,” they said. “Even when his staff show up to meetings at the White House, they’re under a gag order, and they literally just say, ‘Hi, I don’t have a position from the Secretary on this, so Commerce has no position at this time.’”

“Lutnick is sometimes very helpful and sometimes an annoyance,” another official said. “There are some issues where if you get close alignment with him, it can be very effective in doing things and driving things forward.” They added, “a ton of issues – so many things that you need Commerce to move on – they won’t move until Lutnick signs off on it, even for kind of routine decisions."

“It just has a lot of friction. … In terms of the general workings, there’s a ton of frustration with how things are running at Commerce across not just the White House, but the broader interagency.”

Lutnick was also accused by colleagues of chasing headlines and inserting himself into deals in areas where he has little to no expertise, sometimes mucking things up just so he can claim “victory.”

“People will use the phrase there are ‘too many cooks in the kitchen,’ to keep Howard out,” an administration official said. “What they mean is don’t let Howard in the kitchen.”

Officials have also reportedly been rankled by Lutnick shouting down dissenting views during meetings, discouraging debate, and reinforcing a highly controlled, top-down culture.

“When you’re in a meeting with him, if he disagrees with what you’re saying, or if you are trying to offer, even diplomatically, an alternative view, he just completely shouts over you,” one official said.

Despite the friction between Lutnick and other administration officials, however, there is no indication that his job is at risk.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Politico that Trump “maintains complete confidence in Secretary Lutnick because he has been the most transformative Commerce Secretary in modern history and is a champion of the President’s America First trade and tariffs policies.”

He added: “Fabricated smears from anonymous sources don’t change the fact that Secretary Lutnick played a key role helping President Trump secure historic trade deals with the European Union and Japan as well as a $250 billion investment deal with Taiwan.”

Meanwhile, a Commerce spokesperson praised Lutnick in a statement noting his “important wins.”

“Secretary Lutnick is relentlessly focused on delivering for the American people, securing trillions of dollars in investment, delivering historic trade deals, and fighting for the American worker,” the statement said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/lutnicks-shouting-and-grandstanding-is-ping-off-insiders/?

March 1

Putin’s Top Officials Laugh About How Dumb Trump Is Behind His Back

They’re in hysterics over just how easily the MAGA leader buys into the Russian tyrant’s lies.

Vladimir Putin’s top aides are snickering behind Donald Trump’s back because they think the Russian tyrant is playing the MAGA leader like a fiddle.

British spies have repeatedly shared with their U.S. counterparts intercepted calls and texts between ranking Kremlin officials ridden with laughter at what they perceive as Trump’s willingness to take Putin at his word on his invasion of Ukraine.

“We have continually shown them intelligence that shows the Russians are lying,” a senior UK security official told The Spectator on Thursday. “The Russians are privately mocking Trump over his naivety about Putin’s intentions. Putin doesn’t want to end the war.”

Trump has long expressed admiration for Putin, an accused war criminal who presides over one of the most brutal autocracies on the planet, while lambasting Ukraine, a U.S. ally, amid the Russian president’s years-long invasion of the embattled Eastern European country.

Trump called his counterpart in Moscow on Feb. 12, 2025, soon after assuming office for the second time. He emerged from that exchange claiming that both sides in the ongoing conflict “want peace.”

The same day, Russian forces launched four missile strikes, 110 air strikes, 45 rocket strikes and 17 drone strikes against Ukrainian targets. In just one of those attacks, seven people died.

He called Putin again on March 18 and said the Russian president had agreed to halt strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

But Russian forces went on to bomb an energy station in the northeastern Sumy region of Ukraine on April 2, and damaged power lines outside of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.

In August, Trump greeted Putin with a red carpet reception and military flyover at a historic summit in Alaska. He told reporters ahead of time that a ceasefire deal was “close.”

He made no further mention of it at a frosty press conference held after those talks were concluded.

Trump then announced in October that Putin had agreed to meet with him again in Budapest to discuss terms for an end to the war.

The U.S. later pulled out of that summit. Officials said they were frustrated with Moscow’s unwillingness to budge on its hardline demands for an armistice.

In December, Trump said he’d held a “good and very productive call” with Putin ahead of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Mar-a-Lago. He used a press conference after that meeting to repeat Putin’s claims that Ukrainian strikes had targeted one of the Russian president’s residences.

Kyiv denied those allegations. Russia has failed to produce any evidence that those attacks actually took place.

On Jan. 29, Trump claimed Putin had agreed not to fire on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv for a week due to extreme cold across the city.

The Kremlin later narrowed that window to Feb 1, and resumed strikes immediately after it had passed.

The Daily Beast contacted the White House for comment on this story.

“Daily Beast ‘reporters’ are both lazy and bad at their jobs, which is why they copy and paste other people’s ‘reporting,’ which is already based on uninformed, anonymous sources,” spokesperson Anna Kelly said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/vladimir-putins-top-officials-laugh-at-how-dumb-donald-trump-is-behind-his-back/?

ps:How sad!!!!!

March 1

Judge rejects request to block Trump White House from building its $400 million ballroom project

A federal judge on Thursday rejected a preservationist group’s request to block the Trump administration from continuing construction of a $400 million ballroom where it demolished the East Wing of the White House. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said the privately funded group based its challenge on a “ragtag group of theories” under the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution, and would have a better chance of success if it amended the lawsuit. The preservationists did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

March 1

Hegseth’s Ultimatum

																(Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Kevin Dietsch / Getty)
															

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Earlier this week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sat down with Dario Amodei, the CEO of the leading AI firm Anthropic, for a conversation about ethics. The Pentagon had been using the company’s flagship product, Claude, for months as part of a $200 million contract—the AI had even reportedly played a role in the January mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro—but Hegseth wasn’t satisfied. There were certain things Claude just wouldn’t do.

That’s because Anthropic had instilled in it certain restrictions. The Pentagon’s version of Claude could not be used to facilitate the mass surveillance of Americans, nor could it be used in fully autonomous weaponry—situations where computers, rather than humans, make the final decision about whom to kill. According to a source familiar with this week’s meeting, Hegseth made clear that if Anthropic did not eliminate those two guardrails by Friday afternoon, two things could happen: The Department of Defense could use the Defense Production Act, a Cold War–era law, to essentially commandeer a more permissive iteration of the AI, or it could label Anthropic a “supply-chain risk,” meaning that anyone doing business with the U.S. military would be forbidden from associating with the company. (This penalty is typically reserved for foreign firms such as China’s Huawei and ZTE.)

This evening, Anthropic said in a public statement that it “cannot in good conscience accede” to the Pentagon’s request. What happens next could mark a crucial moment for the company, and for the American government’s approach to AI regulation more broadly. In refusing to bow to an administration that has been intent on bullying private companies into submission, Amodei and his team are taking a bold stand on ethical grounds, and risking a censure that could erode Anthropic’s long-term viability.

During the first year of Donald Trump’s second term, the White House had a more relaxed attitude toward AI regulation; an AI Action Plan from July stresses that the administration will “continue to reject radical climate dogma and bureaucratic red tape” to encourage innovation. Hegseth is now, in effect, threatening to partially nationalize one of the biggest AI players in the private sector—and force the company to go against its own principles. “This is the most aggressive AI regulatory move I have ever seen, by any government anywhere in the world,” Dean Ball, who helped write some of the Trump administration’s AI policies, told me.

The Pentagon has already reportedly been reaching out to other defense contractors to see if they’re connected to Anthropic, a sign that officials are preparing to designate the company a supply-chain risk. Now that Anthropic has defied Hegseth, the contract is likely in peril. The firm doesn’t really need the $200 million—it reportedly pulls in $14 billion a year, and it said it raised $30 billion in venture capital just weeks ago—but being blacklisted could affect its ability to scale up in the future. (“We are not walking away from negotiations,” an Anthropic spokesperson told The Atlantic in a statement. “We continue to engage in good faith with the Department on a way forward.” The Pentagon told CBS on Tuesday that “this has nothing to do with mass surveillance and autonomous weapons being used,” and that ”the Pentagon has only given out lawful orders.”)

As AI firms around the world jockey for dominance, Anthropic has distinguished itself by emphasizing safety. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been criticized for playing up some users’ delusions, leading to cases of “AI psychosis,” and just last month, xAI’s Grok was spinning up nearly nude images of almost anyone without consent. (xAI has said it is restricting Grok from generating these kinds of images, and OpenAI has said it is working to make ChatGPT better support people in distress.) Meanwhile, Anthropic’s consumer-facing chatbot doesn’t generate images at all. By refusing to cave to government pressure, it may have just averted another crisis: a major public backlash from consumers, some of whom see the company as a more principled player in the AI wars. Anthropic recently faced some pushback over changing its policies—Time reported on Tuesday that, in a seemingly unrelated move, the company dropped a core safety pledge concerning its broader approach to AI development.

Weeks before Hegseth issued his ultimatum, Amodei opined on his website about the risks involved with precisely the two guardrails the Pentagon is targeting. “In some cases,” he wrote, “large-scale surveillance with powerful AI, mass propaganda with powerful AI, and certain types of offensive uses of fully autonomous weapons should be considered crimes against humanity.”

The Trump administration doesn’t seem to know what it wants from AI. On one hand, it’s deeply suspicious of certain kinds of models. The White House’s designated AI czar, David Sacks, has criticized Anthropic for “running a sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering,” essentially accusing the firm of pushing for unnecessary, innovation-squashing limitations and jeopardizing the future of American tech. The administration has also criticized AI bots for sometimes spitting out “woke” replies. On the other hand, Claude is apparently valuable enough that it’s on the cusp of being commandeered by the federal government.

Ball told me that the Department of Defense may have a point—that there’s an argument to be made about reining in Silicon Valley’s control over the government’s use of new technologies. Although the concentration of power among the technocratic elite is certainly troubling, Hegseth’s proposed punishments for Anthropic are misguided and plainly contradictory. The Defense Production Act does allow the government to intervene in domestic industries in the interest of national security (the Biden administration invoked it in a 2023 executive order on AI regulation). But is Claude so important for U.S. national security that the government needs to compel Anthropic to create an untethered new version? Or is it so dangerous that it needs to be shunned—not just by the Pentagon, but by any business connected to the military? A third, even-more-bewildering option is also on the table: Hegseth could decide to simultaneously commission a modified Claude and sanction the company that stewards it.

All of this ignores a much simpler solution: Hegseth could just start a partnership with a different firm. It’s a good time for his department to be in business with tech, since the mood of Silicon Valley has lately become much more Pentagon-friendly. Palantir’s Alex Karp has touted that his software is used “to scare our enemies and, on occasion, kill them”; the technologist and entrepreneur Palmer Luckey is already building autonomous weaponry for the government; and Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism funds are helping funnel the country’s top young minds into defense tech. But rather than look elsewhere, Hegseth is threatening to crush Anthropic—implying that if he can’t control Claude, no one can.

As the defense secretary looks to make an example of the company, he’s taking a cue from Trump, who has used legal and extralegal pressure to effectively force other private businesses, particularly big law firms, banks, and universities, into submission. These acts of coercion have the potential to reshape American capitalism: We are beginning to see a market where winners and losers are decided less by the quality of their products and more by their seeming fealty to the White House. How that will affect the success of businesses and the economy is uncertain.

The Pentagon created this ultimatum precisely because it understands Anthropic’s world-altering potential. The administration just can’t decide if it’s an asset, a liability, or both.

Related:

March 1

💵 GOP's affordability play

Republican strategists are launching a group to blunt the party's weakness on cost-of-living issues by highlighting and hammering New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's economic policies.

Why it matters: Affordability consistently registers as the No. 1 issue for voters amid Republicans' efforts to preserve their House and Senate majorities.

GOP operatives acknowledge the issue has hurt Republican candidates in congressional and state-level special elections over the past year.
The Coalition for Affordability & Prosperity has raised seven figures so far and expects to bring in "a lot more," a source close to the organization tells us.
📺 Its advertising will focus on yoking Democrats to Mamdani, whose economic policies GOP strategists argue are out of step with broader voter sentiments.

Between the lines: It's getting harder for GOP strategists to turn Mamdani into a bogeyman every time Trump invites him to the White House, where the two men met today for the second time in about three months in what the mayor called a "productive" meeting.

🔎 Zoom in: The Coalition for Affordability & Prosperity will also focus on highlighting steps Trump and congressional Republicans have taken to lower costs.

That includes the so-called "Trump accounts" — tax-free investment accounts for children under 18 — and the "No Tax on Tips Act," which allows service workers to deduct tips from their federal income taxes.
Chuck Flint, a former top aide to Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), will lead the group.

— Alex Isenstadt

March 1

📰 Pic du jour: Mamdani charms Trump (again)

Photo: Zohran Mamdani/X

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani brought a clever prop for what he called a "productive" meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office yesterday, Axios' Holly Otterbein reports.

Why it matters: Mamdani wants to use their bond to help him deliver on his promises to make housing and daily life in New York more affordable.

Mamdani presented Trump with a proposal to build an estimated 12,000 housing units in New York.

"The president was very enthusiastic about this idea," Mamdani press secretary Joe Calvello said.

Getty Images, Today's Daily News

🎁 Mamdani's aides created a fake front page of the New York Daily News for Trump. In a photo posted on X social media by Mamdani, Trump is grinning as he holds up the "wood," as tab covers are known, "TRUMP TO CITY: LET'S BUILD ... Backs New Era of Housing."

It's a play on one of the most famous front pages ever — the Daily News' 1975 classic, "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD," after President Ford rejected a federal bailout for the struggling city.

⚡ Mamdani's team said the mayor asked Trump to release a Columbia University student who was detained by ICE earlier yesterday. The mayor also asked the Trump administration to consider dismissing the cases of four other students who've been detained in New York.

After leaving, Mamdani received a call from Trump, who said the Columbia student, Elmina Aghayeva, would be freed, according to Calvello.

Indeed, the student was abruptly released.

March 1

US military used laser to take down Border Protection drone, lawmakers say

The drone was flying near the U.S.-Mexico border. It turned out the drone belonged to Customs and Border Protection, lawmakers said. The case of mistaken identity prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to close additional airspace around Fort Hancock, about 50 miles southeast of El Paso. Read more.

Why this matters:

It was the second time in two weeks that a laser was fired in the area. The last time it was CBP that used the weapon and nothing was hit. That incident occurred near Fort Bliss and prompted the FAA to shut down air traffic at El Paso airport and the surrounding area.
“Our heads are exploding over the news,” several top Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Homeland Security committees said in a joint statement. They criticized the Trump administration for “sidestepping” a bipartisan bill to train drone operators and improve communication among the Pentagon, FAA and Department of Homeland Security, which includes CBP.
The FAA, CBP and the Pentagon issued a joint statement late Thursday that acknowledged the military “employed counter-unmanned aircraft system authorities to mitigate a seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system operating within military airspace.” The statement said it happened far from populated areas and commercial flights as part of the administration’s efforts to strengthen protections at the border.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

March 1

US hockey player Brady Tkachuk slams White House TikTok as ‘clearly fake’ after anti-Canada slur

American hockey player Brady Tkachuk said Thursday that he did not appreciate a doctored TikTok video shared by the White House that made it look like he was disparaging Canadians after winning Olympic gold, calling it fake and something he would never say. Read more.

Why this matters:

The U.S. women also beat Canada 2-1 in overtime, the first time the Americans swept both Olympic hockey tournaments. The celebration of the twin victories has been shadowed by U.S. politics almost since the final horn of the men’s game.
The video includes fabricated audio of Tkachuk referring to Canadians as “maple syrup eating (expletive),” with the expletive bleeped out. The video carries a note saying it “contains AI-generated media.” Tkachuk, a 26-year-old Arizona native, is the captain of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators and has played his entire career in the Canadian capital. “It’s clearly fake because it’s not my voice and not my lips moving,” Tkachuk said. “I’m not in control of any of those accounts. … I know that those words would never come out of my mouth.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

March 1

Sick Reason Trump Tapped ICE Barbie for Top DHS Job Exposed

The president was reportedly encouraged by Noem’s controversial history.

One incident in Kristi Noem’s personal résumé reportedly secured her a plum role in President Donald Trump’s administration.

In her 2024 memoir No Going Back, Noem admitted to shooting her 14-month-old puppy Cricket, claiming the female dog had an “aggressive personality.”

“I hated that dog,” Noem wrote, calling Cricket “worthless.” Of the fatal shot she fired two decades ago, Noem wrote, “It was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done.” She then buried the puppy in a gravel pit.

New excerpts from the forthcoming book Undue Process: The Inside Story of Trump’s Mass Deportation Program by NBC News reporter Julia Ainsley claim that Trump had actually considered selecting Noem to be his vice president in 2024, before locking in JD Vance.

Noem, now 54, was eliminated from the short list after the release of her book in May 2024 and the subsequent backlash that followed the revelations of the cold-hearted shooting of her puppy.

Ainsley’s book, as seen by The Atlantic, reports that many observers believed the outrage and humiliation after the shooting would terminate her chance of scoring a post in the Trump administration.

However, the book reveals that “Trump actually saw this particular biographical detail as an asset in his Homeland Security Secretary—it was one of the reasons he chose her,” according to the magazine.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

Noem was sworn in as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in January last year, and has become the public face of the divisive ICE raids across the U.S. She previously served as the governor of South Dakota.

The dog-shooting incident has continued to haunt Noem, and was a recurring theme in a parody of her work leading ICE raids in an episode of South Park.

The hit comedy show depicted Noem as an ICE agent in full glam who loves posing for the camera, killing puppies, using Botox, and arresting anyone suspected of being Hispanic.

The episode ended with the cartoon Noem going on a shooting rampage in a pet store, firing off over 60 rounds, leading to puppy carnage.

Noem addressed the late Cricket on the New York Post’s MAGA-friendly Pod Force One podcast with Miranda Devine last September.

The Republican defended shooting the puppy, and confirmed she also killed a “disgusting, musky, rancid” male goat who “loved to chase” her children.

“The dog was actively killing animals for fun, had been massacring chickens and then had tried to bite me and attack me,” Noem told Devine. “That is something that happens from time to time, and keeping children and people safe is incredibly important.”

Noem added, “At that time we had little kiddos around every single day… I knew I had to take responsibility for the situation.”

The DHS secretary said she put the dog-shooting incident in her book in order to be transparent about making “hard decisions,” and knew it had been weaponized against her.

“I absolutely love animals, I’ve always had dogs, I still have a dog that goes everywhere with me, and that situation there was hard,” she said.

Trump’s less-than-friendly relationship with dogs has long been noted. He is the first president since William McKinley not to have one, and the first president since Andrew Johnson not to have any White House pets. He has also used “like a dog” as a derogatory term, including “choked like a dog,” for among others Mitt Romney, and “died like a dog,” for the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Ironically, a U.S. military dog was part of the operation to capture or kill al-Baghdadi, and Trump misgendered it as male.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/sick-reason-trump-tapped-ice-barbie-kristi-noem-for-top-dhs-job-exposed/?

March 1

DOJ Gives Shameless Reason for Hiding Photo of Lutnick and Epstein

The commerce secretary was caught lying about his relationship with the late pedophile.

Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice has offered a questionable explanation for the removal of a photo of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick from its public library of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The photo, which was found in a downloaded cache of Epstein files but was later removed from the DOJ’s dedicated site, appears to show Epstein and Lutnick walking on Little St. James, the Caribbean island where many of Epstein’s crimes took place.

It also shows three other unidentified men, all wearing baggy shorts and T-shirts or button-down shirts, while Epstein is dressed in a white T-shirt and pants.

In a statement to the Daily Beast, a DOJ official said the image was “part of a batch of files that had been flagged for nudity.”

“The batch of thousands of images was pulled for review and is being uploaded with necessary redactions on a rolling basis,” the official said. “No files are being deleted.”

All of the men in the photo are fully clothed.

The picture was located by “jmail,” a site run by two tech workers who have created a searchable version of Epstein’s Gmail inbox by downloading all of the latest releases.

The DOJ’s explanation for its removal was particularly shameless, given that more than 100 explicit photos of Epstein’s victims were accidentally uploaded to the portal before being removed and redacted.

Lutnick’s trip to the island had previously been revealed by other documents in the Epstein files, which showed the 64-year-old father of four had lied about his contacts with the disgraced financier.

During an October appearance on the MAGA-friendly podcast Pod Force One, he said he had met Epstein only once, in 2005, after he and his wife moved in next door, and claimed that he ended all contact the following year.

The DOJ files, however, revealed that Epstein and Lutnick traded emails for years, even after Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution.

The messages showed them arranging calls and lunches, along with a 2012 trip to Little St. James, which Lutnick told Congress he visited with his wife, their children, and the kids’ nannies for lunch.

As recently as 2018, Lutnick and Epstein discussed a joint business venture.

Epstein was charged with sex trafficking and found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019.

A spokesperson for the Commerce Department told CBS News earlier this month, “Secretary Lutnick had limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.”

The commerce secretary has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.

But even some MAGA diehards have blasted him for being “reckless” and for failing to apologize for his association with Epstein.

President Donald Trump, who was close friends with Epstein for years, told reporters on Thursday that he hadn’t spoken to Lutnick about his visit to Little St. James, and made a point of insisting that he personally had never visited the pedophile’s island.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-gives-shameless-reason-for-hiding-photo-of-howard-lutnick-and-jeffrey-epstein/?

March 1

‘Judge’ Jeanine’s MAGA Probe Could Be Halted by Real Judge

An investigation into one of President Trump’s longtime adversaries has been challenged by the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve has launched a behind-closed-doors legal challenge that could prevent U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro from completing a controversial probe into the Chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell.

America’s central bank has asked a judge to quash a pair of subpoenas Pirro issued as part of an investigation into allegations that Powell lied to Congress about the ballooning costs of renovations to Federal Reserve buildings.

The Fed made the request in sealed proceedings, The Wall Street Journal reported. If successful, the move could drastically reduce, or even eliminate, its obligation to respond to the subpoenas.

It is unclear what specific legal arguments the Fed has put forward, but subpoena recipients commonly challenge requests they believe are overly broad or seek information protected by legal privilege. The requests are being made away from the public to comply with secrecy rules regarding criminal investigations pending before a grand jury.

Pirro, the former host of the Fox News show Justice with Judge Jeanine, was picked by Donald Trump for the U.S. attorney role. Her investigation into Powell has been widely condemned as another example of the president using federal prosecutors to target his political adversaries.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell as “stupid,” a “dummy,” and a “knucklehead” for refusing to slash interest rates as quickly as the president would like, while suggesting the traditionally nonpartisan central bank is biased against him.

In January, Powell released a rare statement saying the Fed made “every effort” to keep Congress informed about renovation costs, and suggested the “threat” of criminal charges was motivated by the bank’s refusal to bow to Trump’s pressure to cut interest rates.

Several Republican lawmakers have also raised concerns about the investigation and questioned its merits.

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, has said he will refuse to support any of Trump’s nominees to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors until the probe concludes.

Trump has nominated former Fed governor Kevin Warsh to replace Powell when his term ends in May. However, if Tillis joins Democrats in the 13-11 GOP majority on the Senate Banking Committee to oppose Warsh, his nomination will fail to advance.

All 11 Democrats on the committee have already demanded that Warsh’s confirmation hearing be postponed until the “sham” investigation into Powell is resolved.

The Daily Beast has contacted the Federal Reserve and Pirro’s office for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-enemy-jerome-powell-locked-in-secret-battle-with-maga-ally-jeanine-pirro-over-revenge-plot/?

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