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

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Reflecting Pool liner was cut with a sharp knife or razor, National Park Service says The cut caused damage to the foam sealant installed as part of a $16 million rehabilitation project, said Frank Lands, deputy director of operations for the park service. Read more.

Why this matters: Lands made the statement in a court document filed late Wednesday as part of a lawsuit filed by a nonprofit organization to halt the Trump administration’s work on the project. His statement does not say when exactly the damage occurred or whether it was a suspected case of vandalism and does not identify anyone who might have been involved. This is the first time the Republican administration has offered specifics for when and how the Reflecting Pool may have been damaged after work on the project was substantially completed.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ immigration detention center has closed, governor says   Vance, an admirer of Richard Nixon, says Watergate would be ‘a 12-hour news story’ today   Judge blocks Trump plan that would limit graduate student loans in nursing and other fields    DEA asks watchdog to investigate claims that agents permitted fentanyl to hit the streets   Federal judge halts Trump’s election executive order seeking to create a federal voter list   Supreme Court strikes down Hawaii law requiring permission to carry guns in stores and hotels   Norman Rockwell people-watched in the West Wing lobby. Now those sketches are on public display

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JD Vance Gleefully Compares Himself to His Hero Nixon

The VP claimed the fact Watergate took down a president was “crazy.”

JD Vance has gleefully compared himself to disgraced former President Richard Nixon while downplaying the biggest scandal in U.S. political history.

Vance, 41, was not born when the investigations into five operatives connected to Nixon’s re-election campaign were arrested for burglarizing and wiretapping the Democratic headquarters in 1972.

It led to Nixon’s resignation during his second term in 1974.

However, on Thursday, Vance shared his admiration for the only U.S. president so far to have been forced to resign while speaking at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in California, promoting his new memoir, Communion.

Vance claimed that Nixon’s legacy is currently “enjoying a bit of a renaissance,” highlighting his diplomatic achievements in ending the Vietnam War and opening relations with China.

“If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy,” Vance stated.

He then made the bold claim, “If you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it’s not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration.”

Vance also compared himself to the 37th president, whom he called a “political genius.”

“Young senator, vice president, writes some bestselling books, is hated by the media,” he said. “It kind of sounds like JD Vance. I’ve always liked Richard Nixon.”

Nixon died in 1994 at the age of 81, four days after suffering a major stroke.

Vance’s comments blew up online on Thursday, as footage of his remarks was shared on social media.

Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor pointed out some of the crimes exposed by the journalists who uncovered the Watergate scandal.

“Thanks to Watergate, we know that Nixon’s staff broke into his political opponent’s HQ & Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office, and that Nixon himself approved obstructing justice to cover these crimes up, tried to use the IRS to punish enemies, and was cool with breaking finance law,” Vietor posted on X.

He added that Vance “sold his soul for power, so it’s not remotely surprising that he is now fine with all of this stuff!”

One X user said Vance was “vice-signaling,” adding that, “Politicians used to signal virtue, now they just signal vice. They signal how much they’ll hurt the other side.”

Award-winning crime author Don Winslow said Vance’s comments were “So. F---ing. Revealing,” while comedian Stacy Cay noted, “The joke is that they’re doing so many crimes now that nobody would care about Nixon.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Vance’s office for comment.

Vance has already had an awkward week online, after a cringeworthy exchange with his pregnant wife, Usha, 40, also went viral.

The couple appeared on a Father’s Day special of Storytime with the Second Lady, where Vance gingerly tapped his wife’s knee twice after she introduced him.

“The face Usha Vance makes when JD touches her knee is a cry for help if I’ve ever seen one,” Democratic strategist Mike Nellis said on X.“Holy s---. This painfully awkward JD Vance moment is going viral,” anti-MAGA influencer Joe Gallina noted. “I’ve seen more chemistry during the Iran negotiations. This guy will never be president.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jd-vance-gleefully-compares-himself-to-his-hero-richard-nixon/?

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Judge Corners DOJ for Covering Up Files on Trump’s 13-Year-Old Accuser

Dozens of files related to the FBI’s interviews with Trump’s 13-year-old accuser are reportedly still sealed.

A federal judge has cornered the Justice Department for withholding files on FBI interviews with the woman who accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was 13.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to release unredacted versions of several Jeffrey Epstein files, or explain why the DOJ should be allowed to keep them secret, as he sided with investigative journalist Katie Phang, who had accused Blanche of violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act. He gave the government until July 2 to comply.

Sullivan’s decision covers FBI notes from interviews with a woman who claimed that Epstein introduced her to Trump in 1984, when she was about 13 years old, and that Trump forced her to perform a sexual act on him. Trump has denied the allegation.

The South Carolina woman’s allegations were revealed in documents released as part of the DOJ’s Epstein files dump, including redacted FBI documents summarizing the interviews, but The Post and Courier reports that dozens of pages on the interviews have yet to be released.

The woman was interviewed by the FBI four times about her allegations against Trump in 2019, soon after Epstein was arrested on suspicion of federal child sex offenses.

The woman alleged that Epstein took her to a “very tall building with huge rooms.” Trump, she said, ordered everyone else out of the room, unzipped his pants, and pushed her head “down to his penis.” She then “bit the s--- out of” Trump’s penis, she said, after which he punched her in the head.

The White House has denied the woman’s story.

“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,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt previously told the Daily Beast. “As we have said countless times, President Trump has been totally exonerated by the release of the Epstein Files.”

The DOJ and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s court setback.

In her suit, Phang had accused Blanche of violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act by failing to publish all the documents the government holds about the convicted sex trafficker and by improperly redacting documents.

The DOJ has released roughly half of the 6 million pages of documents it collected on Epstein, and many of the disclosed files are heavily redacted.

Blanche responded to Phang’s lawsuit by arguing that she cannot sue to compel the DOJ to release documents and must instead seek them through a Freedom of Information Act request.

In his 48-page opinion, Sullivan concluded that Phang had the right to sue over unreleased files and that FOIA “does not provide an adequate remedy.”

In addition to ordering the DOJ to release the documents requested by Phang or “show cause” why it cannot comply, Sullivan also ordered the agency to release a log listing every redaction it has made to the files it has published, as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/judge-corners-doj-over-covering-up-files-on-trumps-13-year-old-accuser/?

ps:Pathetic!!!!!