Members phkrause Posted March 6 Author Members Posted March 6 Explore Financial Disclosures From President Trump and 1,500 of His Appointees Use this database to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team. The documents disclose positions officials have held outside government, their assets and their debts, among other things. https://projects.propublica.org/trump-team-financial-disclosures/? Documents Reveal a Web of Financial Ties Between Trump Officials and the Industries They Help Regulate ProPublica is releasing a trove of disclosure records that detail the finances of more than 1,500 Trump appointees, including former lobbyists, industry executives and at least a dozen officials who declined to identify former clients. https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-administration-financial-disclosures-steve-feinberg? Trump’s Orwellian Board of Peace Consists Entirely of Human Rights Abusers At the inaugural meeting of his self-styled Board of Peace earlier this month, Donald Trump declared peace in the Middle East while simultaneously threatening to plunge the region into devastating conflict by again attacking Iran. Within 10 days, Trump followed through on that promise, teaming up with Israel to unleash a widespread campaign of deadly airstrikes in Iran that have thrust the Middle East into regional war. https://theintercept.com/2026/03/02/trump-board-peace-human-right-abuses/? The Regime Change President Who Won’t (or Can’t) Actually Change Any Regimes We need to adjust our language for President Donald Trump’s so-called regime-change efforts. Let’s call them “regime adjustments.” https://theintercept.com/2026/03/02/trump-regime-change-iran-venezuela/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 6 Author Members Posted March 6 Rattled Trump Amps Up MAGA Civil War With Late-Night Threat The 79-year-old president sent a chilling warning to top MAGA stars who might dare to question him. Donald Trump blasted high-profile MAGA figures who have attacked the president over his war on Iran by claiming that Tuesday’s elections prove their influence is waning. In a late-night Truth Social post, the 79-year-old shared an article from the Just the News website attacking former supporters who have turned on the “America First” president for launching the Middle East conflict despite his 2024 campaign pledge not to start any new wars. The article notes that even as a MAGA civil war erupts, almost all of Trump’s endorsed candidates in Tuesday’s primaries went on to win their respective races. The majority of these Trump-backed candidates were incumbents widely expected to win their primaries anyway, or ran unopposed. “Former MAGA firebrands who once wielded clout among President Donald Trump’s base were watching their influence evaporate in Republican primaries Tuesday amid infighting, backlash, and shifting loyalties,” Just the News’ Amanda Head wrote. “Trump’s success did not transpire without efforts by his detractors to prevent it, however. Multiple social media influencers who once backed the 47th president have now turned away from that support and have become ardent critics. But their attempts overwhelmingly failed.” Multiple prominent MAGA figureheads have been outspoken in their opposition to the war in Iran, which the Trump administration has struggled to justify or give any real indication of when it could end. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson called the joint U.S.-Israel airstrikes “absolutely evil and disgusting.” He also suggested the war was “waged purely because Israel wanted it to be waged.” MAGA podcaster Megyn Kelly spent the entirety of her Monday show speaking out against the war and the reasons behind it. “I don’t think those service members died for the United States. I think they died for Iran or for Israel,” Kelly said. “No one is crying that the ayatollah is dead, but our government’s job is not to look out for Iran or Israel. It’s to look out for us.” Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former MAGA mouthpiece who has since turned on the president, has been her usual firebrand self while attacking Trump and his war.“Whatever Trump’s new twisted perversion of MAGA is, is going to LOSE in the midterms,” the former Georgia congresswoman posted on X Wednesday. “People do not want to vote for this s--t show and didn’t turn out in Texas. Maybe they will wake up now and realize Armageddon is not what we voted for.” Trump had already lashed out at Carlson and Kelly for their criticism of the Iran war. “I think that MAGA is Trump—MAGA’s not the other two,” Trump told reporter Rachel Bade earlier this week. “MAGA wants to see our country thrive and be safe. And MAGA loves what I’m doing—every aspect of it.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/rattled-trump-amps-up-maga-civil-war-with-late-night-threat/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 6 Author Members Posted March 6 Trump Aides Panic Over Full-Blown Gas Price Crisis He Caused The president’s team is “getting screamed at to find some good news.” Donald Trump’s latest war is reportedly causing internal panic among the president’s top aides, with a looming energy crisis threatening his party’s grip on Congress. Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, has, according to Politico, sounded the alarm as Trump’s war on Iran sends the price of gas sharply higher—adding to voter fears about the economy. This directly contradicts the affordability message Wiles and her underling, James Blair, have begged Trump to hammer, especially with November’s midterm elections approaching. Trump has focused on the messaging, mentioning it at nearly all of his public engagements of late, even at wife Melania’s movie premiere in Washington, D.C. However, Iran’s response to his “Operation Epic Fury” means that his messaging could ring hollow. Tehran has targeted the Gulf’s energy sector, pummeling infrastructure and sending crude oil up by more than $10 a barrel. That is higher than when Trump took office. On Tuesday, prices leapt by the biggest single-day margin since 2022, and they’re up 20 cents a gallon since Trump launched his attack on Tehran—having apparently not worked out that starting a war in the world’s main oil-producing region might send crude prices higher. “Nobody is panicking,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted in a statement to the Daily Beast. The jump in prices has created a tense atmosphere on the West Wing, with Trump’s lackeys “looking under every rock for ideas on improving energy prices, especially gasoline prices,” according to one energy industry executive who spoke to Politico. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other advisers “are getting screamed at to find some good news,” they added. “Folks are scrambling for announcements and messaging to counter the narrative” of rising prices. Politico reported that the White House took days to even start discussing strategies about how to fix the spiraling cost crisis. “The faction of the White House that would care about $80-90 oil [was] being silenced,” an executive told the publication. “There [were] louder voices winning.” The issue has gotten so bad that the ideas suggested to counter it are becoming increasingly tenuous. One White House official reportedly floated the idea of a temporary holiday on the gasoline tax, but that would require action from Congress, and magnanimous decisions from oil executives. “There’s no guarantee oil refiners and gas stations would pass savings along,” Politico’s Playbook noted. Trump officials also reportedly floated the idea of using the U.S. military to defend energy infrastructure in the Middle East. Indeed, Leavitt reiterated to the Daily Beast President Trump’s willingness to use the U.S. Navy to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage that connects the Gulf to the open ocean, “if necessary.” She also doubted the veracity of Politico’s piece. “As usual, POLITICO wrote sensationalist, unverified gossip for clicks. Nobody is panicking. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership in his first term and current term, the United States remains the largest crude oil and natural gas producer in the world. President Trump’s entire energy team, from the White House to the National Energy Dominance Council to Secretaries Wright and Bessent, have a game plan to keep oil prices stable throughout Operation Epic Fury,” she said. She had previously said on Wednesday that the war would actually help bring down gas prices because success would mean that Iran would no longer be “restricting the free flow of energy.” In her statement to the Beast, she added that the Trump administration “will continue to unleash American energy dominance,” partly by tapping into newfound oil markets in Venezuela. She added that the president has announced that the United States Development Finance Corporation will provide political risk insurance, “at a very reasonable price, for crude carriers and cargo ships operating in and around the Gulf.” However, the clock is ticking toward the midterms, and most Americans primarily care about the cost-of-living crisis affecting their daily lives. If Trump’s team fails to bring down prices soon, it could spell disaster when Americans go to the polls. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-aides-panic-over-full-blown-gas-price-crisis-he-caused/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 6 Author Members Posted March 6 How Sneering Hegseth Proved His Contempt for What Truly Makes America Great He claims that honoring the fallen makes the president look bad. Perhaps he should listen to Lincoln. Maybe, in his Princeton days, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth read the ancient historian Thucydides’ famous contention that might makes right. But, as he demonstrated in his pumped-up Pentagon briefing on Wednesday morning, Hegseth simply seems jazzed by delivering maximum violence, death, and destruction. “Decisively, devastatingly and without mercy,” he said of the ongoing attacks against Iran. And he was not about to let the deaths of a few Americans dim his bloodlust. “When a few drones get through, or tragic things happen, it’s front page news,” he said. “I get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad.” No, Pete, the press was not trying to make President Trump look bad when it widely reported that Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor was a 39-year-old mother of two just days from returning home to her family in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. And that Amor liked to pick tomatoes and peppers to make salsa with her 18-year-old son. That she would have been back to rollerblading with her 9-year-old daughter. And that she had been contemplating retirement after 21 years in the military, which included a 2019 deployment to Iraq, because Amor had not wanted to miss as much of her daughter’s childhood as she had with her son. The press was not trying to make the president look bad when 35-year-old Capt. Cody Khork of Winter Haven, Florida, was remembered in a statement by his family as someone who “was deeply patriotic and took great pride in serving something greater than himself.” And when it was reported that Khork joined the ROTC program at Florida Southern College and signed up with the Army Reserve. And that he deployed to Saudi Arabia in 2018, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in 2021, and Poland in 2024. That he had a degree in political science and a passion for history. And that he was described in a statement by his family as also being “the life of the party, known for his infectious spirit, generous heart, and deep care for those who served alongside him and for everyone blessed to know him.” They added, “He lived with purpose, loved deeply, and served honorably.” And when it was reported that Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska, had a wife and a teenage son named Dylan. And that The Philippine Martial Arts Alliance described him on Facebook as “a devoted husband and father, a respected Black Belt in Philippine Combatives and Taekwondo.” The alliance added, “On the mat, he trained as a martial artist. In uniform, he served as a soldier. In both roles, he carried the same values: honor, discipline, service, and commitment to others.” And that he had been on multiple previous deployments, including to Iraq. And that 20-year-old Sgt. Declan Coady of West Des Moines, Iowa, had become an information technology specialist in the Army Reserves while also studying cybersecurity at Drake University in Des Moines. That Coady had been taking online classes in Kuwait with the hope of becoming an officer. It was not the intention to embarrass the president when Drake University said in a statement that Coady “had an incredibly bright future ahead of him.” Nor when his sister, Keira Coady, remarked that the loss did not seem real and “I just remember all of our conversations about what he was going to do when he came back.” These facts about the fallen four were widely reported in the Military Times, The New York Times, MS NOW, and elsewhere to honor what they had, and what they were willing to risk, and what they lost. The details were offered by family and friends as what was best in each one, what made them not at all ordinary to those who loved them. They emerge from the reporting as citizen soldiers who felt a duty to serve their country. What Khork’s family said of him applies equally to the others and no doubt to two fellow soldiers who died with them on Saturday, but have not yet been identified. “His legacy will endure in the lives he touched, the example he set, and the love of country and family that defined him.” Those whose names we know were not warfighters obsessed with lethality and bent on being examples of power. They instead lived and died demonstrating the power of example. Something Hegseth may have missed at Princeton was the text of President Abraham Lincoln’s speech at the Cooper Union in 1860. Lincoln flipped Thucydides around. ”Let us have faith that right makes might.” That, Pete, is the principle that made America great in the first place. https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-hegseth-proved-his-contempt-for-what-truly-makes-america-great/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 7 Author Members Posted March 7 World Leader Reveals He Was Stunned by ‘Truly Uninformed’ Trump South Africa’s president says Trump’s views are “racist” and “bereft of any reality.” The president of South Africa has revealed how shocked he was by Donald Trump’s “racist” views when he met the U.S. leader in person last year. “I just thought that he is so uninformed, truly uninformed,” Cyril Ramaphosa told the New York Times on Thursday. “I realized that he is looking at South Africa through a completely, sort of, foggy lens, without realizing the real, real harm that apartheid did,” he added. “In my view, he was just dismissive.” Ramaphosa was a close confidant of President Nelson Mandela, who fought for almost half a century to liberate Black South Africans from apartheid. Trump has repeatedly pushed far-right conspiracy theories about an ongoing “white genocide” in South Africa under Ramaphosa’s leadership. He has gone so far as to offer asylum to white citizens on the basis they face obstacles comparable to those faced by Black South Africans during segregation. Proponents of those claims often point to deadly attacks on white-owned farms in the country. South Africa has one of the highest crime rates on the continent. Such attacks are known to target white- and Black-owned farms indiscriminately, while Black South Africans represent the overwhelming majority of homicide victims nationwide. Meeting Ramaphosa at the Oval Office last May, Trump nevertheless handed the South African leader a stack of newspaper clippings as evidence of far-right claims about an ongoing “white genocide.” Some of those clippings were not in any way related to South Africa, the NYT reports. Trump also presented Ramaphosa with a video of what he claimed were dead white South African farmers. Reuters later reported the footage came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, roughly as far from South Africa as the District of Columbia is from Colombia. “I think he’s just bereft of any reality about what South Africa is all about and what it stands for,” Ramaphosa said. “We are rather amazed at the attention he gives to us. We are a small country, and we are no threat to the United States.” The Daily Beast contacted the White House for comment on this story. White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly responded with a statement ignoring Ramaphosa’s comments completely. Instead, she said: “President Trump is courageously calling attention to the harrowing stories of Afrikaners, who are experiencing violent attacks, vandalism of property, death threats, racial slurs against farmers, massive mobs singing songs calling for their death, and laws that prevent many from finding work. The South African government, at minimum, does not respond, but President Trump has a humanitarian heart. He will continue to speak the truth about these injustices.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/south-african-president-cyril-ramaphosa-reveals-he-was-staggered-by-meeting-truly-uninformed-donald-trump/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 7 Author Members Posted March 7 MAGA Senator Finally Admits Truth About Trump’s Gas Price Crisis Gas prices are already nearing their 2024 peak—the high price that Donald Trump made a top talking point during his presidential campaign. Republican Sen. Dave McCormick has conceded that President Donald Trump’s war in Iran is causing pain at the pump for everyday Americans. McCormick says Americans can expect more “volatility” as military operations against Iran, which have already claimed the lives of six American soldiers, continues indefinitiely. “There’s going to be volatility when there’s uncertainty like this,” he told Fox Business host Stuart Varney on Thursday morning. He added later in his segment, “This is going to be bumpy in the short term.” Fuel prices have surged since Trump ordered strikes in the Middle East. GasBuddy reports the national average for a gallon of gas has now reached $3.26—just a cent-and-a-half below its 2024 peak, which Trump turned into a top campaign talking point. The average price of a gallon of gas nationwide was $2.89 on February 5, AAA reports. GasBuddy wrote on Thursday that more than a dozen states—mostly red areas in the American heartland—have experienced price spikes of more than 30 cents in the last week. Another 17 states have seen increases of more than 25 cents on average. In true MAGA fashion, McCormick still insisted that Trump’s war in Iran, which does not have a clear end date or end goal, was the correct decision by the White House. He claims the action will ultimately drive gas prices down. “Let’s have a little bit of a longer view,” he pleaded with Varney, who correctly noted that the “price of gas is way up” and that the stock market has taken a pounding this week. Varney added, “Not good for the president when the gas price and the oil price is going up.” McCormick, 60, of Pennsylvania, went into spin mode. “When we finish these operations, we will now essentially have more stability in the region,” he claimed, assuming decades of precedent in the Middle East will be different this time. “The Straits of Hormuz, where 20 percent of the natural gas and oil goes through, will be secure.” He continued, “There’s now two major producers of oil that 30 percent of the oil reserves in the world are in Venezuela and Iran, and they will be under more favorable regimes that aren’t trying to support our adversaries and destroy America.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-senator-dave-mccormick-finally-admits-truth-about-trumps-gas-price-crisis/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 7 Author Members Posted March 7 Trump, 79, Plans to Win By Having Nothing Left to Lose in His War With Iran The “Peace President” has always found a way to win—now he’s betting the world’s safety. Who knows how, but Donald Trump has gotten out of every tight spot he’s fallen into. From the bone spurs that saved him from the draft to the bail outs from a rich daddy; from the sex scandal that his current wife helped him frame as locker room talk to the “Epstein files,” even, nothing has ever quite stuck to take him down. Not even the Martha Stewart-fronted spin-off of The Apprentice.He was impeached twice and came back from the dead to win reelection. Now he’s relying on his good fortune to execute a script any reality star would write with himself as the impresario. “Operation Epic Fury” is aptly nam d. Waging war against Iran is Trump’s biggest gamble, and he expects to win. Defying the lessons of history about the futility of regime change in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam, to name just a few, Trump is working to decapitate Iran’s brutal theocracy and is daring the people to rise up and take back their government. Granted, an evil regime has been largely taken down—but why now? And what now? There do not appear to be any coherent plans for the days ahead. Concocted intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons led us into a long and deadly war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio now wants us to believe that Iran was working towards nukes, too, but also that the Trump team had to act preemptively because Israel was about to launch its own strikes, and Iran would surely have retaliated on U.S. bases. (According to an inside account in The New York Times, Trump felt he had “no choice” but to align himself with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has long sought military action against Tehran.) This is a war of choice, and early polls show tepid support. Half the country doesn’t trust Trump to put country first. And that’s a problem, because in large part this was a war undertaken to improve Trump’s standing with the electorate. Shock and awe and glory. A week ago, he was already in political peril, his approval rating was down ten points since he took office. He has lost ground on immigration and the economy, his two best issues; with analysts predicting a blue wave to take the House and potentially the Senate, a panicked urgency took root at the White House and Mar-a-Lago. What better time for the “Peace President” to flip the script and launch a war? Trump is pursuing what he thinks is greatness, initiating a fight that no other U.S. president has dared to. But he has little regard for the chaos that he is letting loose, and the risk for the region and the world is considerable. Everything is about him, his strongest-of-the-strongmen artifice and his legacy. The rest of us will be tested as we watch this performance play out, with real life-and-death repercussions. I’ve asked myself, as a U.S. citizen, do I have an obligation to support the commander in chief? Even knowing that American lives are at stake and six servicemen have died already in a war that is just days old, should I temper my criticism? I put the question to Jonah Blank, a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer during the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. Blank opposed military action at the time—“If you read the intelligence, it was a series of lies” he said of the claims regarding Saddam’s arsenal—and noted that many of our elected officials regretted their vote to give President Bush the authority to invade Iraq on a false premise. He was emphatic that this is no time to give Trump deference either: “It will cost an enormous amount of money and a certain number of American lives for a goal that doesn’t necessarily help any Americans at all,” Blank told the Daily Beast. “Americans don’t get anything out of this except it makes Trump feel like a big man.” “It is far more patriotic in my view to oppose a president who is doing terrible damage to the country than to assist him in doing that damage,” he continued. Of course, Senator Mark Kelly, a former fighter pilot and astronaut, faced prosecution by Trump’s Department of Justice for saying much the same thing. (Kelly and several other lawmakers with military backgrounds released a video late last year reminding service members that they have not only the right but the duty to refuse to follow illegal orders.) A federal judge blocked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ensuing order to downgrade Kelly’s pension and rank, an act of petty persecution. Hegseth is appealing the decision. Now, Hegseth says this war will be quick. “No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise, no politically correct wars. We fight to win, and we don’t waste time or lives.” But pressed on whether there will be American boots on the ground in Iran, Hegseth refused to rule it out. So has Trump. Trump’s successes have not been cost-free. He didn’t go to Vietnam, but somebody else did. He lived the high life through bankruptcies that ruined others He was holding forth in the Oval Office taking questions from reporters as U.S. embassies closed and allies in the Middle East fended off attacks. With a “big wave” of attacks on Iran still coming, and so much at play—certainly at risk—the “worst” case scenario he could imagine was, he said on the fourth day of war, that “you go through this and then in five years you realize you put somebody in (to lead the country) who was no better.” Of course, by that point it wouldn’t be his problem. But it’s still a big failure, as much as he’d want to frame himself as having won. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-79-plans-to-win-by-having-nothing-left-to-lose-in-his-war-with-iran/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 7 Author Members Posted March 7 Trump Claims Lurk in Thousands of Epstein Files About to Drop The Department of Justice said thousands more files are about to be released. A sprawling trove of documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein is set to be released after federal officials acknowledged that tens of thousands of other files quietly vanished from an earlier dump. The missing materials were referenced in the tranche of records released earlier this year, but were withheld temporarily while officials reviewed them for sensitive material. Some of the files are believed to contain unverified allegations involving President Donald Trump, including FBI notes from interviews conducted in 2019 with a woman who accused Epstein of abuse and also made allegations involving Trump.According to documents already released, federal officials summarized the woman’s claim that Epstein introduced her to Trump and that she alleged the future president assaulted her during an encounter when she was a minor in the early 1980s. Trump has denied the allegations, and the FBI did not assess the credibility of her claim. A mere mention in the files does not indicate criminality, and Trump has long denied any wrongdoing. A White House spokesperson told the Daily Beast: “Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein. “And by releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calling for more investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him.” This week, the Department of Justice said thousands of files linked to Epstein were taken offline for additional review after outside analysis found 47,635 were missing from the document release carried out under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Officials now say the files should be ready to be published again by the end of the week, according to the Daily Mail. “47,635 files were offline for further review and should be ready for re-production by the end of the week,” a spokesperson for the Justice Department said. The renewed disclosure comes after an analysis by The Wall Street Journal and CBS found that the files appeared to be missing from the initial batch of Epstein-related documents made public. The department has also warned that some records in the Epstein archive include submissions from members of the public that may contain fabricated or unreliable claims. Officials previously noted that some of those materials could include “untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has overseen the document release, has repeatedly rejected suggestions that the department withheld records to shield public figures. “I can assure that we complied with the statute, that we did not protect President Trump,” Blanche said during a news conference earlier this year. “We didn’t protect or not protect anybody.” The Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the Justice Department to publish most records connected to the criminal cases against Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. The law allows the department to withhold documents only if they are duplicates, protected by attorney-client privilege, tied to an ongoing investigation, or unrelated to the cases. The statute specifically bars the government from withholding documents simply because they could prove embarrassing to public officials. A Justice Department spokesperson said that if any records were incorrectly withheld during the review process, the department would publish them “consistent with the law.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-claims-lurk-in-thousands-of-epstein-files-doj-is-preparing-to-drop/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 7 Author Members Posted March 7 More than 20 states sue over new global tariffs Trump imposed after his stinging Supreme Court loss WASHINGTON (AP) — Some two dozen states challenged President Donald Trump’s new global tariffs on Thursday, filing a lawsuit over import taxes he imposed after a stinging loss at the Supreme Court. https://apnews.com/article/global-15-tariffs-trump-lawsuit-2247451a7cbc9b8283c4574e3ee54537? Trump fires Homeland Security Secretary Noem after mounting criticism over her leadership WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, after mounting criticism over her leadership of the department, including the handling of the administration’s immigration crackdown and disaster response. https://apnews.com/article/trump-homeland-security-noem-mullin-38c583b3cef97b4ef60d84b8f8b5961a? Trump Boots Noem President Donald Trump yesterday fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, marking the first Cabinet secretary to depart during his second term. He nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to replace her. The decision followed a congressional hearing in which senators from both parties urged Noem to resign (watch excerpt). Lawmakers criticized her leadership during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown, her delay in distributing disaster funds, and her management of federal funds, including the allocation of roughly $220M to an advertising campaign. Trump said Noem will shift to a newly created role—special envoy for the Shield of the Americas—focused on Western Hemisphere security. Under federal vacancy rules, Mullin can serve as acting DHS secretary while his nomination is pending in the Senate, which remains deadlocked over DHS funding, pushing the department shutdown into a fourth week. If confirmed, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) would appoint an interim replacement for Mullin’s Senate seat until a special election is held. Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 7 Author Members Posted March 7 Trump says he’s replacing Homeland Security Secretary Noem with GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin President Donald Trump says he’s replacing his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and will nominate in her place Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin. Trump made the announcement on social media on Thursday, two days after Noem faced a grilling on Capitol Hill from GOP members as well as Democrats. Trump says he'll make Noem a "Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a new security initiative that he said would focus on the Western Hemisphere. Noem is the first Cabinet secretary to leave during Trump’s second term. Noem's departure caps a tumultuous tenure overseeing immigration enforcement tactics that have been met with protests and lawsuits. Read more. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Live updates: Trump fires Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary More than 20 states sue over new global tariffs Trump imposed after his stinging Supreme Court loss Obama throws his support behind Virginia Democrats’ redistricting plan as it heads to voters Montana Republican US Sen. Steve Daines drops reelection bid in surprise move Utah Republican Burgess Owens announces retirement from Congress after redistricting shakeup US issues first commercial construction permit for a nuclear reactor in years to a Wyoming project Hegseth urges Latin American allies to go on offense against drug cartels Capitol rioter who was pardoned by Trump gets a life sentence for molesting 2 children in Florida Wisconsin man accused of setting fire to congressman’s office over TikTok ban gets 7 years in prison Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 7 Author Members Posted March 7 Trump demands Iran pick, Bibi pardon Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Rebecca Noble/Getty Images President Trump told Axios' Barak Ravid in an interview today that he needs to be personally involved in selecting Iran's next leader. Trump revealed this exclusively in an eight-minute phone call — his second conversation with us to explain his war planning. 🇮🇷 Trump confirmed that Mojtaba Khamenei, son of assassinated supreme leader Ali Khamenei, is the most likely successor — while making clear that he finds that outcome unacceptable. Trump told Axios: "They are wasting their time. Khamenei's son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodríguez] in Venezuela." 🪖 He added that he refuses to accept a new Iranian leader who would continue Khamenei's policies, which he said would force the U.S. back to war "in five years." "Khamenei's son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran." 🇺🇸 Trump's comments represent an extraordinary claim of American power over Iran's political future, further muddying the objectives of the massive U.S. military campaign. Giant roadside screens display the U.S. and Israeli flags in Tel Aviv yesterday. Photo: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images 🇮🇱 Trump also told Axios that Israeli President Isaac Herzog must pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "today" — calling Herzog "a disgrace" for failing to act over the last year. Trump said: "Every day I talk to Bibi about the war. I want him to focus on the war and not on the f*cking court case. I want the only pressure on Bibi to be the fighting against Iran." Trump has been pushing for a Netanyahu pardon since last June, arguing that Netanyahu's trial on corruption charges is a "witch hunt" akin to his own legal troubles. But today's comments — which Trump raised himself, unprompted — marked a dramatic escalation and direct intervention in Israel's legal system at a moment of active war. Go deeper. Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 7 Author Members Posted March 7 Hawkish Interventionism View in browser Donald Trump campaigned on the idea that electing him was the best way to avoid wars. He has referred to himself as the “peace president,” going so far as to complain that he hadn’t won a Nobel Peace Prize. Yet Trump has governed as a hawkish interventionist whose approach better aligns with his neoconservative secretary of state, Marco Rubio, than with the anti-interventionists in his administration, such as J. D. Vance and Tulsi Gabbard. The United States is now enmeshed in so many conflicts that its foreign policy is closer to “world police” than “America First.” The newly launched war against Iran is the most significant. Operation Epic Fury begins less than a year after the United States and Israel partnered to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. At the time, Trump declared that operation a success, and Vance defended it by stating, “I certainly empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements … But the difference is that back then, we had dumb presidents and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America’s national-security objectives. So this is not gonna be some long, drawn-out thing.” The Trump administration has now launched a “long, drawn-out thing” in Iran with no end in sight. U.S. military personnel have already been imperiled at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Ali Al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait, Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. Navy headquarters in Bahrain, and facilities in Iraq. American interests around the world are at risk of Iranian retaliation. All alone, this war would make a mockery of MAGA claims that Trump is an anti-interventionist. But it is one in an extensive list of Trump-era entanglements. Even as America’s military expands its focus in Iran, it launched a new operation this week against drug cartels in Ecuador. “Together, we are taking decisive action to confront narco-terrorists who have long inflicted terror, violence, and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere,” U.S. Southern Command announced in a press release. U.S. forces in Africa have been carrying out air strikes over Somalia against the Sunni Islamist terrorist organization al-Shabaab. As recently as last month, U.S. forces carried out multiple strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria, according to U.S. Central Command. Earlier this year, the United States launched Operation Absolute Resolve, a military campaign that successfully removed the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from power. After the operation, Trump said that the U.S. would run Venezuela at least temporarily. This week, Reuters reported that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum traveled to Venezuela and met with its acting president, Delcy Rodríguez.The United States is both negotiating contracts with Rodríguez and threatening to indict her. The Trump administration concluded last year with a Christmas Day attack on Islamist militants in Nigeria. Earlier in 2025, the United States carried out air strikes in Iraq, waged a roughly seven-week offensive against Houthi rebels in Yemen, and carried out the aforementioned attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. This year and last, the Trump administration has been blowing up boats in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, many off the coast of Venezuela, that it suspects of drug smuggling. The boat strikes have killed at least 150 people. Ukraine is the one place where the Trump administration appears to be trying to draw down U.S. involvement, though the United States has supplied the country with intelligence as it resists Russian aggression. During the run-up to the 2016 election, I wrote that “if you’re a voter who believes that Donald Trump is against foreign wars and regime change, unlike the globalist elites in Washington, D.C., you have been misled.” At the time, I noted that Trump released a video in 2011 that sought to pressure President Obama to invade Libya. Trump also argued that George H. W. Bush should have ousted Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and wrote in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, “We still don’t know what Iraq is up to or whether it has the material to build nuclear weapons.” He added, “Am I being contradictory here, by presenting myself as a deal-maker and then recommending preemptive strikes? I don’t think so.” In 2011, he urged the Navy to wage war on Somali pirates. Now Trump has proved his proclivity for interventionism, without congressional approval or the support of the public. And there’s no evidence to suggest that he will stop here. If Congress continues allowing him to deploy force unilaterally, he may pursue land strikes on drug cartels in Mexico, a prospect that he raised early this year in an interview with Fox News; regime change in Cuba, a longtime dream of Rubio’s; and God knows what else. He is an impulsive man who gambles, especially when the most significant risks are borne by others. There is no way to know how exactly he will surprise Americans next. Trump could even make the United States a pariah among its Western allies by revisiting his on-again, off-again threats to take Greenland by force, a move that parts of his base have been urging ever since Trump first raised the possibility, or by seizing the Panama Canal, as he has also threatened to do. Had Americans known that Trump was going to undertake wars of choice and assorted military strikes all around the world, they may not have elected him. At this point, with a majority of voters opposed to Trump’s interventions, congressional action is the only way to disentangle the country from these conflicts. Until then, the list is likely to only grow longer. Related: America vs. the world A foreign policy worse than regime change Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 7 Author Members Posted March 7 Trump's epic power play Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios President Trump seethed when the Supreme Court stripped away his unilateral tariff authority, the first real check on his presidency. Then he set out to impose his will on every remaining vector of American power — smashing norms and shrugging off Congress in a historic, 14-day show of executive force, Axios' Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. Why it matters: Over the past two weeks, Trump launched a massive Middle East war, blacklisted the hottest AI company on the planet, ordered new global tariffs, and presided over the biggest media merger in two decades. He did it all unilaterally — without passing a single law, and without pretending he needed to. Axios' Zachary Basu narrates this epic fortnight: 🚢 The tariffs: On Feb. 20, hours after the Supreme Court ruling, Trump imposed a new 10% global tariff under a separate emergency law — daring the courts to stop him again. By sidestepping the court's ruling rather than accepting it, Trump sent an unmistakable message: No institution — not Congress, not the judiciary — would constrain his ability to reshape the global economy. 🎥 The merger: On Feb. 26, Netflix walked away from the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery — handing Trump allies Larry and David Ellison control of CNN, HBO and Hollywood's two most storied studios. Paramount's David Ellison privately assured Trump officials last year that he would make sweeping changes to CNN, a network despised by the president, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Ellisons' emerging media empire — CBS, TikTok and soon CNN — gives Trump allies unprecedented influence on what Americans watch, read and scroll. 🤖 The blacklist: On Feb. 27, Trump ordered every federal agency to stop doing business with Anthropic after the $380 billion AI startup refused to give the Pentagon unfettered access to its technology. The Pentagon then designated Anthropic a "supply chain risk" — a label typically reserved for adversarial foreign companies, and one that a former Trump AI adviser called "attempted corporate murder." "I fired Anthropic like dogs," Trump told Politico. 🪖 The war: On Feb. 28, Trump did what no president before him had dared — launch a full military assault on an Iranian regime that has tormented the United States since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Some U.S. officials have been careful not to call it a "war" — a label that connotes congressional approval — or admit that "regime change" is the goal. The president hasn't bothered with either pretense. Trump told Axios yesterday that he must be personally involved in selecting Iran's next leader just as he was in Venezuela, where interim President Delcy Rodríguez has become a compliant conduit for U.S. interests. In the same interview with Axios' Barak Ravid, Trump demanded that Israel's president pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — seeking to simultaneously pick Iran's next leader and shield his war partner from criminal prosecution. 💡 The big picture: Trump has spent his second term systematically testing how much power a president can seize without Congress, the courts or public opinion stopping him. The answer, so far: almost limitless. Trump has signed fewer laws than any modern president at this stage — because he doesn't need them. Executive orders, military force and the bully pulpit have proven more efficient. Trump's advisers say he's content using unilateral powers, and congressional Republicans — with rare exceptions — have cheered him on at every turn. Go deeper: "The most unprecedented presidency in 250 years." Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 7 Author Members Posted March 7 🔎 How ice finally broke under Kristi Noem Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Getty Images President Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after he consulted allies and advisers — all of whom told him it was time for her to go, Axios' Marc Caputo and Brittany Gibson report. "She burnt up a ton of goodwill," an adviser who spoke with Trump told Axios. "It was everywhere. It was everything." Why it matters: Trump's firing of Noem was the biggest personnel shake-up of his second term. It showed the backlash against her was so great that Trump was willing to dismiss the nation's domestic security chief as he's launching a war abroad. 🏛️ The ice under Noem was getting thinner and thinner even before this week, when she made two disastrous appearances before House and Senate committees. During those public sessions, Noem was subject to bipartisan probing about alleged mismanagement of DHS, her self-promotion at huge taxpayer expense and even a rumored extramarital affair with her de facto chief of staff, Corey Lewandowski. Under oath, Noem refused to deny an affair. ✈️ Noem recently drew scrutiny from administration officials and congressional leaders for spending deportation funds to buy two luxury Gulfstream jets and leasing a Boeing Business Jet 737, which Noem said would be used for "executive air travel and for deportations." But the 737's luxurious interior, with a bedroom and bar onboard, would be unlike any other plane used to deport unauthorized immigrants. 👀 The intrigue: Noem and Lewandowski then lent the 737 to First Lady Melania Trump, who used it on several flights from D.C. to New York. The first lady's office didn't respond to a request for comment. "They're smart," an administration official said, calling the move to involve the first lady an "insurance policy" for the spending. "Corey is really smart. I don't take that away from them. Because they flew the first lady on it, they think they're bulletproof." Planned cost for the three planes: More than $270 million, making it "the world's worst deal to buy an aircraft," an administration official told Axios on Saturday. Trump was made aware of the situation and, another official said, spoke with Lewandowski this week about him and Noem moving on. "It wasn't a positive call," the official said. Zoom out: The plane deal and congressional hearings were the final demerits for Noem, whose reputation in Trump's eyes had taken a beating for her handling of the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, where federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens. "Minneapolis was just a disaster. We were supposed to be stopping fraud from Somalian illegals. But we wind up shooting two people in the middle of the street," one of the Trump advisers told Axios. At this week's hearings, Noem also struggled to explain why FEMA money meant for disaster relief last year was still held up. "She had no goodwill on Capitol Hill," the adviser said. "She mismanaged FEMA. She didn't show up to hearings. She was disrespectful. No one liked her." Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) picked to lead Homeland Security, talks to reporters on the Capitol steps yesterday. Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), President Trump's pick to be the next Homeland Security Secretary, is a MAGA firebrand with a fighter's reputation. Keep reading. Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 8 Author Members Posted March 8 Kristi Noem fired President Trump fired Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday amid mounting scrutiny over her conduct in the role. Noem, who was tapped to lead the agency at the start of Trump's second term, had faced a series of controversies — including her alleged romantic relationship with a top adviser, questions over a $220 million ad campaign that prominently featured her, and conflicting accounts about fatal incidents involving federal immigration agents. Trump plans to replace her with Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who is expected to assume the role later this month pending Senate confirmation. Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 8 Author Members Posted March 8 House narrowly rejects limiting Trump’s war powers in Iran war The 212-219 vote rejecting a resolution to curb President Donald Trump’s powers is an early sign of unease in Congress over the rapidly widening conflict that is reordering U.S. priorities at home and abroad. Read more. What to know: It’s the second vote in as many days, after the Senate defeated a similar measure. While the tally in the House was expected to be tight, the outcome provided a clarifying snapshot of political support for, and opposition to, the U.S.-Israel military operation and Trump’s rationale for bypassing Congress, which alone has the power to declare war. At the Capitol, the conflict has quickly carried echoes of the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and many Sept. 11-era veterans now serve in Congress. Trump has scrambled to win support for the nearly week-old conflict as Americans of all political persuasions take stock. Administration officials spent hours behind closed doors on Capitol Hill this week trying to reassure lawmakers that they have the situation under control. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the war could extend eight weeks, twice as long as the president first estimated. Trump has left open the possibility of sending U.S. troops into what has largely been a bombing campaign until now. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump and officials discuss rationale for Iran strikes different ways Live updates: US warns attacks will intensify Iowa governor believes in war despite ‘sacrifice’ by state soldiers who died Lack of notice about Iran strikes and defense help frustrates some Gulf nations, AP sources say Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 8 Author Members Posted March 8 911 calls reveal pain, despair at ICE’s largest detention camp Camp East Montana is the nation’s largest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility. Stories of conditions at the Texas facility, revealed in data and recordings from more than a hundred 911 calls obtained by the AP — in addition to follow-up interviews and court filings — offer a disturbing portrait of overcrowding, medical neglect, malnutrition and emotional distress. Read more. What to know: Each 911 call is its own tale of pain and despair. A man sobs after being assaulted by another detainee. A pregnant woman complained of severe back pain and also had coronavirus. “Every day felt like a week. Every week felt like a month. Every month felt like a year,” said Owen Ramsingh, who spent several weeks in the camp. “Camp East Montana was 1,000% worse than a prison.” Detainees describe a camp where an average of about 3,000 people have lived per day in loud and unsanitary quarters, diseases spread easily and sleep is a luxury. Detainees struggle to obtain medication and health care, lose concerning amounts of weight because of a lack of food, and live in fear of private security guards known to use force to put down disturbances. In an email, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson who did not provide their name rejected claims of subprime conditions, saying Camp East Montana detainees receive food, water and medical treatment in a facility that is regularly cleaned. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ LISTEN: 911 calls from the immigration detention center Markwayne Mullin: Oklahoma senator with a fighter’s reputation is Trump’s choice to lead DHS Trump’s pick for DHS secretary leaves US Senate vacancy in deep-red Oklahoma Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 8 Author Members Posted March 8 ‘Christ is king’ becomes a loaded phrase in US political debates, especially on the right On its own, the phrase “Christ is king” sums up a core tenet of the Christian faith, that Jesus is the divine ruler of the universe. But the ancient proclamation can morph into something political, controversial or even sinister, depending on who says it and how it’s said. Read more. Why this matters: In recent years, “Christ is king” and similar phrases have been chanted at political rallies, posted on social media and proclaimed in speeches by voices on the right. At times the phrase is used to support the notion of America as a Christian nation or as one that owes its allegiance specifically to the Christian God. Some current Cabinet officials and recent members of Congress have used the phrase in speeches and on social media. But other times, political activists have paired “Christ is king” with anti-Zionist statements or negative Jewish stereotypes. The phrase has gained popularity among far-right figures and their followers. Conservative influencer Candace Owens, who shares antisemitic conspiracies, sells branded “Christ is King” coffee mugs and T-shirts. There are times when the use of the phrase “Christ is king” is unquestionably hostile toward Jews, said a 2025 report by the Rutgers University-affiliated Network Contagion Research Institute. Analyzing social media postings between 2021 and 2024, the institute reported a dramatic increase of the phrase “Christ is king,” often used as a hate meme targeting Jews. The report lamented this deviation from its historical use as a hopeful, sacred affirmation with biblical roots. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Justice Department publishes missing Epstein files involving uncorroborated claim about Trump Pentagon says it is labeling AI company Anthropic a supply chain risk ‘effective immediately’ Study suggests Trump’s unproven autism claims influenced care As Texas braces for messy Senate runoff, Georgia Republicans fear similar fate unless Trump endorses GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas ends reelection bid after admitting to affair with aide See what’s ahead with this 2026 midterm elections calendar FBI investigating ‘suspicious’ cyber activity on system holding sensitive surveillance information Wisconsin man who killed his parents to fund Trump assassination attempt gets life in prison Man pleads guilty to bringing explosives to a DC church marking the start of a Supreme Court term US Postal Service expects to run out of cash in a year without help from Congress, postmaster says Panel reviewing Trump’s White House ballroom project gets an earful from the public opposed to it Lionel Messi and Inter Miami feted by President Donald Trump at the White House for MLS Cup title US aims to exhume and identify 88 USS Arizona crew members buried as unknowns after Pearl Harbor Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 8 Author Members Posted March 8 Creepy Nicknames Trump Allegedly Used With Epstein Revealed by Accuser A woman who accused the men of assaulting her as a minor shared the bizarre nicknames she heard them use for young women. A woman who contacted the FBI in 2019 with allegations of sexual assault against Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump revealed details of the creepy nicknames she alleges the pair used to describe young women. In the interview, conducted with FBI agents in August 2019 following Epstein’s arrest for the sex-trafficking of minors the previous month, the woman claimed that sometime in the 1980s, when she was between the ages of 13 to 15, Epstein introduced her to Trump, who, she alleged, sexually assaulted her. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, who died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial, and has not been charged with a crime. The woman, who is not identified in the documents, described the language Trump and Epstein allegedly used when referring to girls, telling the interviewers that she had heard them using the terms “fresh meat”, “untainted,” and “not jaded.” The memo notes that she did not understand the term “not jaded” at the time, and had to look up the meaning of the word “jaded.” While the woman has not been identified, CNN notes that many details found in a lawsuit filed by a victim identified as Jane Doe 4 matched those in the memos. According to 2021 court records, she was deemed ineligible for compensation under the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, a system established to independently review victims’ claims, though it is unclear why. She voluntarily dismissed her lawsuit, and her lawyer told the Post and Courier that she received a financial settlement from Epstein’s estate. Her lawyer declined to comment when contacted by CNN last week. Responding to a request for comment from the Daily Beast, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the claims “completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence,” and questioned the credibility of the accuser. She added, “The total baselessness of these accusations is also supported by the obvious fact that Joe Biden’s department of justice knew about them for four years and did nothing with them — because they knew President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.” The president has maintained his innocence in connection with Epstein and has repeatedly claimed the files have “totally exonerated” him, telling reporters, “I have nothing to hide. I’ve been exonerated. I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein.” “They went in hoping that they’d find it and found just the opposite. I’ve been totally exonerated,” he added. Memos describing the woman’s interviews with the FBI were finally published on Thursday after being excluded from the previous Epstein file dumps. Instead, only a memo describing allegations she made accusing Epstein of abusing her when she was a minor was uploaded. In a statement posted to social media, the DOJ explained that the files had been incorrectly tagged as duplicates; by law, the DOJ can withhold duplicate files, as well as those that are privileged or part of an ongoing federal investigation. Having identified the tagging error, the DOJ then uploaded the three memos detailing interviews conducted in August and October 2019, as well as two pages of an intake form documenting the initial call to the FBI made by a friend of the woman. The DOJ announced in January following the second release of files that it had now completed its review of the documents associated with the case. In total, only some 3.5 million of more than 6 million files associated with the case were released to the public. Trump and Epstein were friends for years until a falling-out in the mid-2000s. In 2008, Epstein was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution following an investigation by police in Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is located. A report published by The Wall Street Journal in December revealed that in addition to being a frequent visitor to Mar-a-Lago, Epstein also regularly received house calls from resort employees offering spa services. Employees reportedly warned each other about Epstein’s inappropriate behavior, including being sexually suggestive and exposing himself during appointments, but continued to be sent to his home until an 18-year-old beautician complained to her manager in 2003 that Epstein had pressured her for sex. The incident prompted the manager to relay her concerns to Trump, urging him to ban Epstein from the club. Trump reportedly agreed, but the incident was not reported to local law enforcement. Leavitt said in response to the report that the Journal was “writing up fallacies and innuendo in order to smear President Trump.” “No matter how many times this story is told and retold, the truth remains: President Trump did nothing wrong and he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of Mar a Lago for being a creep,” Leavitt said in a text message. Representatives for the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/creepy-nicknames-trump-allegedly-used-with-epstein-revealed-by-accuser/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 8 Author Members Posted March 8 Military Secretly Admits U.S. Role in Girls School Bomb Horror As questions mounted over the deadly strike, Pete Hegseth boasted about the campaign’s lethality. American forces were responsible for a strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed at least 150 students and staff, according to a preliminary assessment by U.S. military investigators. Two U.S. officials told Reuters that investigators believe the deadly strike on the Shajareye Tayabeh girls’ school in Minab, Hormozgan Province, was launched by American forces after Donald Trump ordered the launch of “major combat operations” against Iran on Saturday. The sources described the assessment as tentative and said additional evidence could still emerge that might identify another party as responsible. The school was struck as the U.S. and Israel launched combined attacks across Iran on Saturday as part of a large-scale operation that has killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and dozens of top officials. But as questions mounted over the strike that killed scores of students, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly boasted about the scale and lethality of the military campaign. He told reporters on Monday that “We fight to win” and “We don’t waste time or lives.” Hegseth also warned that civilian casualties were inevitable. “As the president warned, an effort of this scope will include casualties. War is hell and always will be,” he said. “America, regardless of what so-called international institutions say, is unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history: B-2s, fighters, drones, missiles, and of course classified effects. All on our terms with maximum authorities,” Hegseth went on. “No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise, no politically correct wars,” the Pentagon chief added. Separate analysis by The New York Times, published Thursday, reported that the school building was severely damaged by a precision strike that occurred at the same time as attacks on an adjacent naval base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The newspaper reported that official U.S. statements confirmed American forces were targeting naval assets near the Strait of Hormuz, where the IRGC base is located. American forces “were most likely to have carried out the strike,” the Times reported. Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency initially reported Saturday that Israel carried out the strike. Hegseth has so far avoided confirming whether the U.S. was responsible for the strike. When pressed by reporters on Wednesday about the incident, he said the Pentagon was “investigating.” Under international humanitarian law, deliberately attacking a school, hospital, or other civilian structure would likely constitute a war crime. If U.S. responsibility were confirmed, Reuters reported that the strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts in the Middle East. The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Pentagon for comment. The strikes marked the second U.S. attack on Iran in the past year, following a June 2025 operation targeting Iranian nuclear facilities. President Donald Trump has offered shifting explanations for his decision to strike Iran. He initially said Tehran was preparing to strike U.S. bases. However, Trump administration officials later told congressional staffers in closed-door briefings that there was no intelligence pointing toward imminent Iranian strikes. https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-forces-likely-behind-deadly-iran-girls-school-strike/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 8 Author Members Posted March 8 Tucker Carlson Cries Uncle After Trump Denounces Him The former MAGA star decided not to double down on his criticism of the president. Tucker Carlson tucked his tail between his legs after President Donald Trump attacked his former MAGA ally. ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl shared on Thursday that Trump, 79, said during a phone call that “Tucker has lost his way,” after the former Fox News pundit criticized the president’s actions in Iran. “I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA,” Trump told Karl. “MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again.” “MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things,” he added. “And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.” Responding to Trump’s vicious diss, Carlson cowered in an attempt to stay on the president’s good side. “There are times I get annoyed with Trump, right now definitely included,” Carlson told Status. “But I’ll always love him no matter what he says about me.” Carlson, 56, has long opposed American military involvement in the Middle East, and reportedly tried to talk the president out of starting a conflict there, according to The New York Times. Carlson was unsuccessful, as evidenced by the surprise attack Trump launched in tandem with Israel on Iran on Saturday. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed along with dozens of other top Iranian officials in Saturday’s strikes. Six American soldiers were killed in a retaliatory strike on a base in Kuwait on Sunday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not given a definite timeframe for the military operation, dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” saying on Thursday that America can “sustain the fight for as long as it takes.” “This happened because Israel wanted it to happen,” Carlson said on his show on Monday. “This is Israel’s war. This is not the United States’ war.” “This war is not being waged on behalf of American national security objectives, to make the United States safer or richer,” he continued. “This war is waged purely because Israel wanted it to be waged.” On Monday, Trump said Carlson’s opposition “has no impact on me,” and claimed that Iran “is a detour that we have to take in order to keep our country safe and keep other countries safe, frankly.” “I think that MAGA is Trump—MAGA’s not the other two," Trump told independent journalist Rachael Bade on Monday, referring to the criticism by Carlson and another MAGA star, Megyn Kelly, who said she had “serious doubts” about the president’s hawkish strategy. The president added that Kelly, 55, “ought to study her history book a little bit.” “Some people are against [me],” he said, “and they always come back.” The Daily Beast reached out to Carlson and the White House for comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/tucker-carlson-cries-uncle-after-trump-denounces-him/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 8 Author Members Posted March 8 DOJ Finally Publishes Graphic Trump Allegations It Hid Documents describing interviews with a woman who accused the president of assault have finally been released. The Justice Department has released documents detailing interviews conducted by the FBI with a woman who accused both Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump of sexual assault. The move comes following reports last month that the DOJ had only published documents relating to the first of four interviews with the woman in which she alleged she was abused by Epstein when she was a minor. That document did not mention Trump. In addition to the woman’s interviews, an analysis conducted by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday found that more than 40,000 documents were missing from the online file cache. In a statement to the Daily Beast, the DOJ said that the files were offline for review “and should be ready for re-production by the end of the week.” After Democrats announced their intent to open an investigation into the missing files, the DOJ claimed on X that, “Should any document be found to have been improperly tagged in the review process and is responsive to the Act, the Department will of course publish it, consistent with the law.” On Thursday, three “302” memos summarizing the woman’s interviews with the FBI were finally uploaded online. The memos contain graphic and troubling allegations against both Epstein and Trump. Two pages of an intake form documenting the initial FBI call made by a friend of the woman were also uploaded. Trump has consistently maintained his innocence in connection with Epstein and has claimed the files have “totally exonerated” him. Responding to a request for comment from the Daily Beast, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “These are completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence, from a sadly disturbed woman who has an extensive criminal history. The total baselessness of these accusations is also supported by the obvious fact that Joe Biden’s department of justice knew about them for four years and did nothing with them — because they knew President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong. As we have said countless times, President Trump has been totally exonerated by the release of the Epstein Files.” In the interviews, conducted in August and October 2019 after Epstein was arrested for the sex trafficking of minors, the unnamed woman alleges that she was introduced to Trump by Epstein in either New York or New Jersey—she recalls being taken to a “very tall building”—when she was between 13 and 15 years old in the 1980s. She goes on to allege that Trump ordered everyone else present to leave the room, and then “mentioned something to the effect of, ‘Let me teach you how little girls are supposed to be,’” before unzipping his pants and putting her head “down to his penis.” The woman told FBI agents that she proceeded to bite Trump, at which point he allegedly pulled her hair, punched her on the side of the head, and exclaimed, “Get this little b---h the hell out of here.” In the interviews, the woman also describes nicknames that she claims Trump and Epstein would use to refer to young women: “fresh meat”, “untainted,” and “not jaded.” She noted that it appeared that the president was “jealous” of Epstein, telling the interviewers that their relationship “included a certain amount of jealousy” but that, “at some point, they ended up on level playing fields.” The woman also alleged that Epstein was blackmailing people, and that Trump knew about it, explaining to the FBI agents that she heard the pair talking about it. She also claimed that she had knowledge of illegal building permits Trump had used, and said that she heard him discussing laundering money through casinos. In her third interview with the FBI, the woman described receiving threatening phone calls, as well as multiple incidents where she was “almost run off of the road” by cars. The memo states that, speaking under her breath, the woman said that if Epstein wasn’t responsible for the threatening phone calls, maybe it was the “other one.” When asked for the identity of the “other one,” she replied, “Trump.” In her fourth and final interview, the woman did not have an attorney present, and said she was uncomfortable being recorded. Referring to the fact that the statute of limitations for her case may have already expired, she asked the federal agents, “What’s the point?” when asked if she wanted to describe her interactions with Trump. “[The woman] again asked what the point would be of providing the information at this point in her life when there was a strong possibility nothing could be done about it,” the memo reads. Agents then told her to go home and “take as much time as she needed to think about speaking with the agents further,” at which point the interview ended. It is unclear what, if anything, became of the investigation. An email sent between FBI agents and included in the files noted that “one identified victim claimed abuse by Trump but ultimately refused to cooperate,” but does not clarify if it was the same victim. The woman’s identity also remains unclear, although CNN notes that a “Jane Doe 4″ filed a lawsuit against the Epstein estate containing similar details to those found in the memos. Despite being deemed ineligible to receive compensation from the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, her lawyer told the Post and Courier in January that she received a financial settlement from Epstein’s estate. Her lawyer declined to comment when contacted by CNN last week. In a statement published to social media, the DOJ explained why the files had not been initially uploaded, claiming that they had incorrectly been tagged as duplicates. By law, the DOJ can withhold duplicated documents, as well as those that are privileged or that relate to on an onging federal investigation. “Additionally,” the post continued, “the Southern District of Florida separately determined that 5 prosecution memos that were initially marked as privileged could be released while still protecting the privileged materials.” CNN noted that in addition to the interviews, images that had been previously removed were republished. A DOJ official told the outlet that the several thousand images left to re-upload would also be published on Thursday. NPR noted that 37 pages of records are still missing, including notes from the interviews, a law enforcement report and license records. While the DOJ is in possession of over 6 million files connected to the Epstein case, it has only released some 3.5 million, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announcing following the second release that the DOJ was now done reviewing documents. A top Democrat who has reviewed the DOJ’s unredacted version of the files claimed last month that Trump’s name appears more than one million times throughout the files. A DOJ official confirmed to CNN on Thursday that the department was not currently investigating any individual in connection with the case, and that without any new information, they did not expect anyone to be charged. https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-finally-publishes-graphic-trump-allegations-it-hid/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 8 Author Members Posted March 8 Marco Rubio Is No Colin Powell. That’s the Problem Colin Powell had a “blot.” Marco Rubio is just looking for a promotion. Colin Powell spent the final years of his life haunted by his February 2003 presentation to the United Nations Security Council, claiming the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq justified military action. It was a shameful performance in which he laid out the phony case—aluminum tubes, satellite photos and the WMDs that never were—with the full moral authority of a four-star general who’d bled for his country. Before he died, Powell called backing the Iraq war a “blot” on his record. It was a stain he could never quite wash out. Marco Rubio, at the moment, surely has no such regrets. It seems unlikely he will in the future either. That, more than anything, is what separates these two men, and it tells a sad story about how far U.S. diplomacy has fallen. It’s tempting to see similarities between them. Both served as Secretary of State. Both are trailblazing men of color: Powell was the first Black American to hold the office; Rubio is the first Hispanic. Both were considered reasonable moderates in their party, though in Rubio’s case this means prior to his confirmation to Trump’s Cabinet. Since then, of course, he’s been chugging the MAGA Kool-Aid like he’s at one of Pete Hegseth’s frat parties. They were the credentialed grown-ups brought in to reassure a skeptical world that their president—men who ran foreign policy on instinct and ego, each with well-documented reputations for incuriosity and disdain for history—was not as reckless, or as dimwitted, as he appeared. And yes, both used their “sensible guy” reputations to sell the public on a Middle East war that didn’t have to happen. But here is where the comparison really breaks down. To treat these two men as moral or even political equivalents would be its own dishonesty. Powell, whatever his failures of nerve, was deceived. He was handed bad intelligence by peers who wanted a particular decision, and he delivered it with a decorated soldier’s sense of honor and duty. When the weapons of mass destruction never materialized and Iraq became a generational catastrophe, Powell owned it. He said he’d been wrong. He said it cost him. Rubio’s justifications for America’s role in attacking Iran, meanwhile, were pure politics. Pure spin. He already surely knows what’s rotten in the questionable case being made by the Trump administration. When asked about US involvement, he deflected, offering carefully constructed non-answers in a flippant tone that dripped with disdain. His “aluminum tube” moment came when he cited the Islamic regime’s missile and drone capabilities as an imminent threat to Israel and the United States, less than a year after Trump ordered strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities which, the president said at the time, completely destroyed their capabilities. He invoked preemption—we had to strike first because they were going to strike us after Israel struck them first. Sound familiar? It should. That’s the direct descendant of the “imminent threat” doctrine that gave us Iraq. The same carte blanche to attack. Bush signed one version. Trump has signed another. And unlike Powell, Rubio hasn’t even attempted the rituals of diplomacy. Powell at least sought international backing and prioritized regional security as much as he could. Rubio has openly expressed a desire for the Iranian people to “overthrow this government” while insisting the military mission is limited to defensive aims. To Rubio, the “clean hands” of preemptive defense coexist comfortably with ideological regime change. Political transformation becomes an overt policy pillar, not an unintended byproduct. Kidnap or kill or bomb and bomb some more, all according to the boss’s flippant whims, and without input from anyone else who knows better. It is the Powell playbook stripped of rationalization, reluctance, conscience, and institutional memory. In the end, Powell tried to serve his country. Rubio serves a constituency of one, a man who would throw the country under the bus if it benefited him. The political consequences will find him. When Powell’s name was floated as a potential presidential contender in 2008, and again quietly in 2012, the wounds from Iraq were still too raw. Rubio has made no secret that he wants to be president. He ran unsuccessfully in 2016, earning the nickname “little Marco” from Trump. Ten years later, it still rings true. This stain too will follow Rubio into every town hall in 2028. If the war with Iran metastasizes the way Middle East interventions tend to do, his fingerprints will be all over it. They will be bloody. The lesson of the Trump era is brutally consistent: fly too close to that sun, and you get burned. But the deeper problem isn’t political. It’s institutional. Powell’s UN speech, for all its failures, represented a Secretary of State still trying to operate within a framework that believed in evidence, argument, international legitimacy, and consensus. Yes, he was wrong. Yes, he was manipulated. But that framework meant something to him. Rubio represents something else: a State Department transformed from a diplomatic corps into a communications arm for Donald Trump’s agenda. There is no deliberation. No courting allies. No anguish. The argument isn’t made in good faith. Rubio humiliates himself when he’s deployed to validate those vagaries and notions. Powell gave us bad intelligence. He deserved the criticism, and he knew it. But he believed in American democracy. Rubio is giving us bad faith. And he only believes in Donald Trump’s autocracy. https://www.thedailybeast.com/marco-rubio-is-no-colin-powell-thats-the-problem/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 9 Author Members Posted March 9 Why Cheating MAGA Rep’s Ouster Is a Problem for Trump GOP retirements now match the number of exits seen ahead of the 2018 midterms. The number of Republican lawmakers heading to the exit of the deeply dysfunctional Congress is not good for President Donald Trump and GOP leaders as they try to cling to the House majority in the midterms amid mounting headwinds. On Thursday, scandal-plagued Rep. Tony Gonzales announced he would not seek reelection as he faced a House Ethics Committee investigation for an affair with his ex-staffer, who died last year by suicide. Gonzales was headed to a runoff with right-wing gun-loving influencer Brandon Herrera when he bowed out of the race in the competitive Texas district. His decision not to run again was unique to his situation and unlike the many others scrambling for the exit. But it still marks the 34th Republican incumbent who has decided not to seek reelection in the House as Democrats set their sights on more districts than ever. The 34 Republican House members not seeking reelection matches the number of GOP lawmakers who did not run again in 2018, when Democrats swept in during Trump’s first term with a blue wave and picked up 41 seats. This week alone, three GOP members announced they were not running again, including Reps. Ryan Zinke of Montana and Burgess Owens of Utah. Perhaps even more telling is the significant number of Senate Republican senators not seeking reelection, pointed out Democratic strategist Max Burns, who argued that what it shows is “regardless of what they say in public, plenty of GOP lawmakers are getting internal polling that suggests Trump has steered them into a disaster. “Even GOP lawmakers don’t feel like they can exert enough influence on the White House to course correct, so it’s easier to just walk away,” he added. While not all retirements are from competitive districts, and some lawmakers chose not to run in the House to seek higher office, the landscape and figures look bleak, as incumbents tend to do better in reelection bids than unknown candidates. Currently, House Republicans have a razor-thin majority with just 218 seats to Democrats’ 214. If they lose even one seat, they lose their working majority. Back in 2018, when 34 Republicans retired, the GOP held a 241-seat majority over the Democrats’ 194 in the 115th Congress. But Democrats swept through with a blue wave and picked up 41 seats, bringing the new Democrat-controlled House majority to 235 to 199. This year, more Democrats are retiring than in 2018, but the number remains similar: 18 Democrats retired ahead of the 2018 midterms. To date, 21 Democrats are retiring this year, far fewer than the 34 Republicans. It comes after Trump has had lower approval ratings more than one year into his second term than he had during his first term, as the midterms are seen as a referendum on the president. “Retirements are definitely trending in the wrong direction. Some of them are from safe districts, but an uptick in retirements is usually correlated with the difficulty of the political environment ahead of the midterms,” said Republican strategist Kevin Madden. Madden noted the Republican campaign committee fundraising ahead of the environment at least keeps them competitive. Mark Bednar, who was an adviser to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, noted each retirement “means the party needs to devote resources and recruiting efforts to introduce a new candidate ot voters, and risks having fewer resources and attention to the swingiest of seats.” But he argued Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans remain in a good position because they have the money and message to keep the majority. The Daily Beast asked the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) for comment on the number of GOP retirements. Initially, House Speaker Mike Johnson had held off on calling for Gonzales to exit the race ahead of Tuesday’s primary despite the bombshell accusations against him. Instead, the speaker argued they would see how the primary played out. But on Thursday, after the results forced the primary to a runoff with Herrera leading and the ethics investigation against the congressman was announced, Republican leaders called on the embattled congressman not to seek reelection. Democrats celebrate Gonzales’ downfall and the prospect of their candidate Katy Padilla Stout running against Herrera in the competitive border district in November. “Deputy Speaker Mike Johnson tried to quietly push sexual harasser Tony Gonzales through his primary out of fear of defending a Neo-Nazi,” DCCC spokesperson Justin Chermon told the Daily Beast. “Now Gonzales is gone, and House Republicans have added another casualty to their massive retirement list. Good riddance.” It was Gonzales who first started labeling his GOP challenger as a “known Neo-Nazi” for posting videos featuring Nazi imagery when he first challenged him in 2024. Herrera, who is also known as “The AK Guy,” repeatedly denied it. The heavily Hispanic district has long been competitive, but the recent redistricting was expected to make it more favorable to Republicans. However, with Hispanic voters feeling the GOP in Trump’s second term after he made major gains with Hispanic voters in 2024, it might not work out for Republicans in the state the way they had intended. https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-cheating-maga-reps-ouster-is-a-problem-for-trump/? ps:I doubt it!!!!! Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members phkrause Posted March 9 Author Members Posted March 9 Hidden Accuser Claims Playboy Trump Was ‘Jealous’ of Serial Sex Abuser Epstein The Justice Department has finally released documents containing fresh allegations against the president after it claims to have withheld them in error. A woman who accused Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein of sexually abusing her when she was a minor claimed the president was envious of the notorious pedophile. Speaking with the FBI in late 2019, just weeks after the disgraced financier died while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, the alleged victim, whose name is redacted in fresh documents released Thursday by the Justice Department, claimed to investigators she was repeatedly assaulted by the pair in the 1980s. “[Redacted] got the feeling the relationship between EPSTEIN and TRUMP included a certain amount of jealousy,” a bureau write-up of interviews with the woman, conducted between August and October of that year, reads. “She thought Trump appeared jealous of Epstein, but at some point, they ended up on level playing fields,” the documents go on, further outlining the woman’s claims that Trump forced her to perform oral sex, beat her when she resisted, and may have later sought to threaten her into silence. Trump has long denied having any involvement in Epstein’s crimes, and the DOJ released a statement when many of the first files were released in December stressing that they contain “untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election.” Files containing the latest claims and other lurid allegations against the president come after The Wall Street Journal found Tuesday roughly 40,000 documents appeared to be missing from the Justice Department’s Jan. 30 dump of materials on the disgraced financier’s crimes. Trump mandated the release of investigative documents on the case in November amid a concerted pressure campaign to provide full transparency. His administration blew through an initial deadline of Dec. 19 and now faces backlash over redactions to materials eventually released later in January, which critics say serve more to protect the predator’s associates than his victims.Up to half of an estimated 6 million Epstein-related documents at the Justice Department are thought to still remain under lock and key. Trump has insisted the available case files “totally exonerated” him. The department has sought to justify the previous omission of Thursday’s documents by claiming they’d been marked in error as duplicates of otherwise published materials. Their release comes as headlines around the world remain dominated by the president’s new war in the Middle East. In her interviews, the woman alleges Epstein introduced her to Trump at a “very tall building” in either New York or New Jersey when she was aged between 13 and 15. After meeting Trump, she claims he had everyone leave the room, and then “mentioned something to the effect of, ‘Let me teach you how little girls are supposed to be.’” She accused him of unzipping his pants and pushing her head “down to his penis.” The woman said she then bit Trump, who allegedly responded by pulling her hair, punching the side of her head, and shouting, “Get this little b—h the hell out of here.” She further claimed Trump and Epstein would use terms like “fresh meat,” “untainted” and “not jaded” when referring to girls and young women. The woman also alleged Epstein sought to blackmail his associates, and that Trump was aware of those efforts as they were taking place. She recalled allegedly receiving threatening phone calls, and said that if Epstein wasn’t responsible for them, they may well have come from Trump himself, or been made on his behalf. Toward the end of her interviews with the FBI, Trump’s accuser is further understood to have questioned the purpose of coming forward with her allegations against the president. “[She] again asked what the point would be of providing the information at this point in her life when there was a strong possibility nothing could be done about it,” the files read. Trump was in office at the time. It is unclear whether her claims were investigated further. In a statement to CNN Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described the latest revelations from the Epstein files as “completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence,” and cited the redacted accuser’s criminal record as grounds to question her credibility. “The total baselessness of these accusations is also supported by the obvious fact that Joe Biden’s Department of Justice knew about them for four years and did nothing with them—because they knew President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong,” Leavitt added. Although the woman has not been named, CNN found many details of her claims to the FBI appeared similar to those in a prior lawsuit brought against Trump and Epstein in 2016. The case never went to trial, and the complaint was voluntarily withdrawn prior to that year’s presidential election. A lawyer behind the lawsuit later claimed the woman who brought it had received a financial settlement from Epstein, while court filings suggest she was subsequently denied a payout under the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program. It remains unclear why. The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for further comment on this story. https://www.thedailybeast.com/hidden-donald-trump-accuser-claims-he-was-jealous-of-serial-sex-abuser-jeffrey-epstein/? Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
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