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

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Trump Kept Gold Club World Cup Trophy for Himself So FIFA Had to Give the Winners a Replica

Trump took every opportunity to make the new, expanded soccer tournament all about himself.

President Trump has revealed that the champions of the Club World Cup won’t be getting the original trophy, because he’s keeping it.

English club Chelsea easily dispatched France’s Paris Saint-Germain in the final of the tournament in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on Sunday, with Trump joining the players for the trophy lift—much to their confusion.

It has since been revealed that the intricate prize hoisted aloft by the London club’s captain, Reece James, was a replica because the president of football’s governing body, FIFA, has let Trump use the original as an ornament in the Oval Office. The trophy, crafted in collaboration with Tiffany & Co, features a central disc with three rotating outer rings. It has a 24-carat gold-plated finish and is thought to have cost around $230,000 to make. If FIFA lets Trump keep the orbital award for good, it is likely to end up in the National Archives.

“They [FIFA] said: ‘Could you hold this trophy for a little while?’ We put it in the Oval Office and then I said: ‘When are you going to pick up the trophy’, and [FIFA President Gianni Infantino] said: ‘We’re never going to pick it up, you can have it forever in the Oval Office,’” Trump explained in a mid-game chat with the broadcaster, DAZN.

He then revealed to reporter Emily Austin that the victor, Chelsea, actually received a replica of the original for winning the tournament.

“And they actually made a new one [for Chelsea] but right now [the original] is in the Oval,” he said.

And it’s not just the trophy that Trump got his hands on, according to reports. The Athletic was among several outlets to report that Infantino kept a medal aside for his friend, handing it to him after the trophy-lifting ceremony. It is unclear if the president kept the gold medallion, but his penchant for the color is well-known.

The FIFA boss has been in Washington, D.C., 10 times since Donald Trump returned to office in January, in an attempt to woo the president. He has previously argued that proximity to the president is “absolutely crucial” to the success of the 2026 World Cup, which will be partly hosted in the U.S.

It comes as FIFA last week inadvertently confirmed the cosy Infantino-Trump relationship by moving its New York employees to a new office in Trump Tower, Manhattan.

Trump also set about making the Club World Cup, a club soccer tournament designed to bring the world’s best teams into one premier competition, all about himself. This is despite being booed before kick-off.

Trump watched the game alongside his new best friend, Infantino, and his wife, Melania. After Chelsea stunned the European champions PSG by banging in three goals without reply, he presented the trophy to the club’s captain.

But as Reece James readied to celebrate with his teammates, Trump lurked on the stage—something the players, including star man Cole Palmer, didn’t miss.

Palmer—who scored two goals and was named the tournament’s best player—said after the game that he was “confused” by Trump’s continued presence on the platform. “I knew he was going to be here, but I didn’t know he was going to be on the stand when we lifted the trophy, so I was a bit confused, yeah,“ he said post-game.

Chelsea’s captain also explained that Trump had ditched the protocol to stay in the spotlight. “They told me that he was going to present the trophy and then exit the stage, and I thought that he was going to exit the stage, but he wanted to stay,” James added, according to PA Media.

Trump also mused about the possibility of signing an executive order to have soccer officially recognized as ‘football’ in the U.S.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-kept-gold-club-world-cup-trophy-for-himself-so-fifa-had-to-give-the-winners-a-replica/?

ps:What a clown show this guy is!!!

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Trump's new weapon against Powell

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Mark Makela/Stringer

The Fed's independence is in the crosshairs as President Trump's threats become more concrete, Axios' Neil Irwin reports. Trump's appointees are trying to lay out legal predicates to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell for cause — specifically, that the Fed's $2.5 billion headquarters renovation included changes not approved by a federal planning authority and/or that Powell lied to Congress about the project. The president has also installed allies, including the White House staff secretary, on the commission that approves such renovations — normally the province of architects and historical preservationists. ?️ The other side: The Fed, as is its style, is responding in a restrained and legally precise way. As Axios first reported, Powell asked Fed inspector general Michael Horowitz to review the cost overruns and any other matters involving the building he deems appropriate. ? The bottom line: If Trump successfully uses this avenue to fire Powell, it will create a new world in which the president can use an obscure planning commission to coerce the world's most important central bank. Go deeper.

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?? U.S. will arm Ukraine

The U.S. will dramatically increase weapons supplies to European allies, who will then send those weapons to Ukraine, President Trump announced today.

• This is a seismic shift for Trump, who originally refused to side with Ukraine and until very recently insisted he would only supply defensive weapons, Axios' Barak Ravid writes.

? The supplies ultimately bound for Ukraine include missiles, air defense weaponry and artillery shells.

• A source familiar with the plan tells Axios the U.S. will sell around $10 billion in weapons to NATO allies in the first wave.

Go deeper.

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Unfree Speech

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Not that long ago, believe it or not, Donald Trump ran for president as the candidate who would defend the First Amendment.

He warned that a “sinister group of Deep State bureaucrats, Silicon Valley tyrants, left-wing activists, and depraved corporate news media” was “conspiring to manipulate and silence the American people,” and promised that “by restoring free speech, we will begin to reclaim our democracy, and save our nation.” On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order affirming the “right of the American people to engage in constitutionally protected speech.”

If anyone believed him at the time, they should be disabused by now. One of his most brazen attacks on freedom of speech thus far came this past weekend, when the president said that he was thinking about stripping a comedian of her citizenship—for no apparent reason other than that she regularly criticizes him.

“Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her,” he posted on Truth Social.

This must have been exhilarating to O’Donnell, who received a brief new grant of relevance and told the Irish broadcaster RTE, “I am very proud to be opposed to every single thing he says and does and represents.” But once the exhilaration subsides, the fundamental idea is very disturbing: Trump appears to view both free speech and U.S. citizenship as conditional, things he can revoke based on his own whims.

Writing off the threat to O’Donnell as just another instance of Trumpian trolling—or an attempt to distract from fatal flooding in Texas, dozens of incomplete trade deals, or intramural MAGA battles over Jeffrey Epstein—is tempting. And the odds that Trump would actually successfully strip O’Donnell of her passport seem slim. But that doesn’t mean the threat is irrelevant.

What in particular set Trump off here is unclear—he and O’Donnell have been feuding for years—but by all indications, the answer is simply that she has exercised her freedom of speech to jab him. Perhaps this should go without saying, but native-born American citizens like O’Donnell generally cannot be stripped of their citizenship. (Citizens can, however, choose to relinquish their citizenship—something that has become a somewhat popular option for people wishing to avoid U.S. taxes, including former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a New York native.) A president can’t just decide that he wants to take it away.

In other recent cases where the Trump administration has attempted to suppress speech, officials have at least claimed that they have evidence of criminality (though that’s not to say even that was a legitimate standard; such accusations are also dangerous, and judges have dismissed them). With O’Donnell, Trump isn’t even pretending she has crossed some sort of criminal line. He’s also not (yet) taking action, but Trump often uses initially brash and outlandish threats as a way to acclimate the populace to his overreaching, as I wrote in the January 2024 issue of The Atlantic: “When a second-term President Trump directs the Justice Department to lock up Democratic politicians or generals or reporters or activists on flimsy or no grounds at all, people will wring their hands, but they’ll also shrug and wonder why he didn’t do it sooner. After all, he’s been promising to do it forever, right?” I wish this argument had aged worse.

Trump has begun talking more frequently about revoking citizenship as a means of punishing political speech. He has mused about using the tool against political opponents, including the New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, alleging potential fraud, and his former buddy Elon Musk, who had the temerity to insult him. Both of these men are naturalized, which makes their citizenship marginally easier to remove—though, again, not for simple speech. The administration has also been pursuing denaturalizations of citizens whom it believes it can prove lied on their application, which is an established legal basis for stripping their legal status.

Even if Trump doesn’t normalize taking away citizenship, he is continuing to entrench the idea that the government—or, really, just the president on his own—can punish citizens who criticize it, or him. That’s been one of the most prominent themes of his term so far: He has banished the Associated Press from some White House spaces simply for refusing to adopt his preferred terminology, extorted law firms that employed lawyers involved in the criminal cases against him, and demanded huge payouts from news organizations. He’ll continue as long as he’s successful.

“If we don’t have free speech, then we just don’t have a free country,” Trump said in a campaign video posted in 2022. “It’s as simple as that. If this most fundamental right is allowed to perish, then the rest of our rights and liberties will topple just like dominos one by one. They’ll go down.”

Candidate Trump was as correct as he was disingenuous.

Related:

• The free-speech phonies
• He spent his life trying to prove that he was a loyal U.S. citizen. It wasn’t enough.

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MAGA media

The conspiracy-soaked culture that propelled Trump to political power is now coming for him. Some of the most influential voices in right-wing media are rejecting Trump’s call to stop wasting “time and energy on Jeffrey Epstein.”

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Trump’s deportation agenda will destroy millions of jobs

Both immigrants and U.S.-born workers would suffer job losses, particularly in construction and child care

https://www.epi.org/publication/trumps-deportation-agenda-will-destroy-millions-of-jobs-both-immigrants-and-u-s-born-workers-would-suffer-job-losses-particularly-in-construction-and-child-care/?

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? Trump's inevitable collision

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency and Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

President Trump seems to think financial markets are perfectly happy with his tariffs and open to his more aggressive approach, because stocks keep hitting all-time highs. But financial markets think there's absolutely no chance Trump will go ahead with the tariffs he's threatened, and therefore ... keep bidding assets up to all-time highs. Why it matters: The two beliefs can't co-exist for much longer, and the disconnect can't end well, either, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes. ? The big picture: At some point between now and Aug. 1, the U.S. will or will not strike trade deals, and will or will not adjust tariff rates accordingly. That may seem a painfully obvious binary, but almost six months of trade war have taught the world it's not quite as simple as it looks. Trump claims to be a tariff maximalist, a true believer in the power of customs duties to both raise huge sums of revenue and persuade other countries to do what he wants. Markets, on the other hand, know — or think they know — how it always ends: Trump backs down, tariffs get cut or eliminated. ? Reality check: This time is different. The tariffs are higher, the language is angrier, and the pushback from the stock and bond markets is mostly missing.

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? Trump's new wall

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

President Trump's plan to deport "millions" of immigrants has reached a critical point: Its success likely will depend not on removing criminals, but on telling people who are in the U.S. legally they're no longer welcome, Axios' Brittany Gibson and Russell Contreras write. Why it matters: For all the showy raids and tough talk, the largest targets in Trump's crackdown include immigrants who've had temporary protection to stay in the U.S. — more than 1.2 million people who fled wars, oppression, natural disasters, poverty and more. Under Joe Biden and previous presidents, the U.S. gave temporary protective status (TPS) to such immigrants, allowing them to stay in the U.S. and work for up to 18 months, which could be extended repeatedly. Trump's administration is allowing those TPS deals to expire — for more than 700,000 immigrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Honduras and Nicaragua so far, with other countries' renewal deadlines looming. At the same time, Trump's team is going after what could be hundreds of thousands more immigrants who were given humanitarian "parole" under Biden — a chance to live and work in the U.S. for a certain period. Keep reading.

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Tariffs

With President Trump threatening to increase tariffs on two of America’s largest trading partners, consumers should prepare to pay more for certain products. Over the weekend, Trump called for 30% levies on the European Union and Mexico starting on August 1 — unless they make trade deals with the US. Although some businesses may absorb the tax themselves, others will have to pass it on to American consumers. Here are some of the items that could be affected:   -Alcohol   -Fresh fruits and vegetables, especially tomatoes and avocados -Medical equipment and surgical supplies -Electronics, such as computers, electrical equipment and audio and video equipment

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Now Trump Is Really Scared by Epstein: Biographer

Author Michael Wolff said the president is “p***ed” at his own people for hyping up the Epstein files.

President Donald Trump seems to be rattled after realizing the Epstein scandal won’t go away that easily, author Michael Wolff told the Daily Beast Podcast on Monday.

The Trump biographer told Daily Beast Executive Editor Hugh Dougherty that the president was “happy to ignore” the long-running controversy surrounding disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein—until his own people began hyping up the release of the notorious “Epstein files.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in February that she had a list of Epstein’s clients sitting on her desk. FBI Director Kash Patel also told Republican lawmakers in a 2023 interview to “put on your big boy pants, and let us know who the pedophiles are.” His deputy director, Dan Bongino, has similarly said “there’s a reason they’re hiding” the client list, which conspiracy theorists believe includes high-profile names in politics and business.

“They were going to expose Epstein with no understanding that if they expose Epstein, it is very likely they are going to expose Donald Trump,” Wolff said. “So therefore they made a mistake by announcing that they were going to do this. Then Trump got p---ed at them for this. Then they tried to cover over their mistake by saying, ‘No, there’s nothing here. Pay no attention.’ And now we are where we are with this.”

MAGAworld erupted in outrage earlier this month after the FBI announced in a memo that there is, in fact, no client list, and that Epstein indeed died by suicide in detention in 2019.

Trump’s base was quick to demand Bondi’s head for failing to deliver the files that she had been talking up for months. But she brushed off the criticism in a recent Cabinet meeting: “My response [to Fox News] was, ‘It’s sitting on my desk to be reviewed,’ meaning the file, along with the JFK, MLK files as well. That’s what I meant by that.”

“I think for one, truly he’s at war with his own Justice Department,” Wolff said of Trump. “This is a problem of their own making. And I think that Trump has been determined to ignore the subject of Epstein for years and years and years.”

Trump and Epstein were good friends for over a decade. Epstein told Wolff in a 2017 interview: “I was Donald’s closest friend for 10 years.” The president similarly told New York Magazine in 2002: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

“Because of what ultimately happened to Jeffrey Epstein and what ultimately he became and what ultimately he became a symbol of, [it’s] a very precarious thing to be Jeffrey Epstein’s closest friend, which Donald Trump is,” Wolff said. “So he wants to ignore this. He wants to just push this away.”

Over the weekend, Trump poured more gasoline into the Epstein fire by publishing a lengthy Truth Social post that downplayed the scandal—claiming that the notorious files were made up by prominent Democrats like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton—while congratulating Bondi for doing a “fantastic job” at the Justice Department.

“We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening,” he wrote. “We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again.”

The post did little to quell MAGA fury over the flop, with popular right-wing influencers like Nick Fuentes burning their Make America Great Again hats in protest.

Wolff said Trump has been wondering why his own supporters are still talking about the Epstein files.

“His mood is pure denial. ‘Why are people talking about Epstein? There’s nothing there. I’m not a part of this. This happened a long time ago.’ And so, again, denial, denial, denial. And, you know, Trump is very good at that,” he said.

Some of Trump’s biggest mouthpieces, however, have agreed to tone down their criticism of the administration over the flub. Conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk told his audience that he was “done talking about Epstein for the time being” after Trump reportedly gave him a call on Saturday.

“I’m gonna trust my friends in the administration, I’m gonna trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done, solve it, ball’s in their hands,” he said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/now-trump-is-really-scared-by-epstein-biographer/?

ps:His Bull Manure is coming home to bite him in his rear end!!!!!

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Goes to War With Trump Over Broken Promises

The firebrand MAGA congresswoman is risking Trump’s wrath by contradicting his decision to send military aid to Ukraine, and his handling of the Epstein files.

MAGA loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene is taking on Trump again, this time blasting his decision to send weapons to Ukraine.

The Trump administration announced the move Monday, saying that missile systems will be sold to European North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries, which will then hand over the equipment to Ukraine. However, Greene thinks that the move represents the president reneging on the America First approach he campaigned on.

“It’s not just Ukraine; it’s all foreign wars in general and a lot of foreign aid,” she told the New York Times.

“This is what we campaigned on. This is what I promised also to my district. This is what everybody voted for. And I believe we have to maintain the course.”

Indeed, Trump promised voters in the lead-up to the election last year that he would not risk the U.S. getting entangled in foreign wars. By June, he was sending B-2 bombers to hit Iranian nuclear sites, and repeated infractions with Russian President Vladimir Putin appear to have grabbed his attention.

Most Republicans are concerned about the price of foreign wars being picked up by taxpayers. Trump’s administration tried to allay those fears by asserting that it is Europe, specifically NATO, that will foot the bill for the shipment of surface-to-air Patriot missile systems and batteries. But Greene thinks that regular Americans will bear at least some cost.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, our tax dollars are being used,” the Georgia Rep said. She pointed out indirect costs, such as the price of using U.S. troops to train Ukrainian forces on how to use the weapons. Greene also stated that the U.S. is already the largest contributor to NATO, “and so it is U.S. involvement.”

“I said it on every rally stage: ‘No more money to Ukraine. We want peace.’ We just want peace for those people,” she added.

The firebrand MAGA congresswoman added that people’s concerns are domestic, whether they can afford bills, or if they can purchase a property. “No one’s walking around thinking about Ukraine. No one’s walking around thinking about Russia. They’re just not,” Greene said.

She also had a warning for Trump, and for Republicans. “We’re opening the door for younger generations to turn to radical leaders,” she told the Times.

MTG was also a vocal critic of Trump’s involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict last month. Republican dissent towards involvement created a schism in the party with war hawks on one side, and America First advocates on the other.

Greene was firmly in the war-weary camp, firing off several attacks on Trump’s decision to get involved in the Middle East. “American troops have been killed and forever torn apart physically and mentally for regime change, foreign wars, and for military industrial base profits,” she wrote on X on June 22. “I’m sick of it.”

Greene also risked getting in Trump’s crosshairs over a post about his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced that there was no “client list,” a direct affront to a key theory held by MAGA Republicans.

Greene, and many others, were not convinced. As some Trump fans burned their MAGA hats in response, MTG delivered yet another missive on X Monday. “America deserves the truth about Jeffrey Epstein and the rich powerful elites in his circle,” she wrote.

“The line is drawn with anyone who abuses children and vulnerable innocent people. When George Santos is going to prison for 7 years but Epstein only served 13 months, our justice system is CORRUPT!!!”

In April, former Republican congressman Santos was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

The White House has been contacted for comment on MTG’s latest outburst.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-goes-to-war-with-trump-over-broken-promises/?

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TACO Trump Reverses Decision That Just Happens to Have Cost His ‘Friend’ Billions

Nvidia announced it would now be allowed to sell its H20 computer chips to China.

The U.S. has agreed to let Nvidia sell its advanced H20 computer chips to China just days after President Donald Trump met with the company’s chief executive, his “friend” Jensen Huang.

The decision, which the company announced Monday in a blog post, reverses a Commerce Department policy put in place in April that restricted sales of the chip, causing an estimated $5.5 billion in losses, the Associated Press reported.

Last week, Huang met with Trump to personally lobby for a reversal, according to the Wall Street Journal. He argued that allowing Nvidia to sell its technology worldwide would result in American companies dominating artificial intelligence instead of Chinese companies.

The chips are used in cutting-edge data centers that train AI models and operate AI applications.

Doing business in China would allow Nvidia to tap the country’s AI talent, Huang reportedly told Trump. He made a similar case to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to the Journal.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing on Monday, Huang said that half of the world’s AI researchers are based in China.

Trump had previously described the Taiwan-born businessman, who moved to the U.S. at age 9 and studied electrical engineering at Stanford University, as “my friend” in Saudi Arabia in May, the Journal reported.

Huang was part of a posse of tech leaders—which included Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk and Alphabet chief investment officer Ruth Porat—who accompanied Trump to Saudi Arabia for a Saudi-U.S. business investment forum.

The Nvidia chief has generally tried to stay out of politics but was forced to enter the fray thanks to the president’s wild pendulum swings on tariff and export control policies, the latter of which Huang called a “failure” in May, according to the Journal.

The president has flip-flopped so much on trade threats that in May Wall Street traders nicknamed him “TACO” for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

Huang spoke at the White House in late April during an “Investing in America” event highlighting domestic manufacturing investments. Nvidia had recently announced that it was working to build its AI supercomputers entirely in the U.S.

During his remarks, Huang gushed that without Trump’s “leadership, his policies, his support and very importantly his strong encouragement—and I mean his strong encouragement—frankly manufacturing in the United State wouldn’t have accelerated to this pace.”

Nvidia has eclipsed Apple, Microsoft and Google to become the most valuable company in the world on the back of the AI boom, and last week became the first company to hit a $4 trillion market valuation.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-reverses-decision-that-cost-his-friend-jensen-huang-of-nvidia-billions/?

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Trump Is Fuming Behind the Scenes at Dan Bongino’s Jeffrey Epstein Revolt

Publicly, the president called him a “very good guy.” But the mood was reportedly very different behind closed doors.

Donald Trump is said to be fuming behind the scenes at FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, whose revolt over the Jeffrey Epstein memo has caused chaos for the administration.

Trump has been “very angry” with Bongino, and to a lesser extent, FBI chief Kash Patel, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported Monday night on AC360.

Bongino reportedly skipped work on Friday and threatened to resign following a heated confrontation with Attorney General Pam Bondi at the White House days earlier over the administration’s handling of the Epstein case. Trump has stood by Bondi, who caught the brunt of furious MAGA backlash after declining to release any additional files related to the disgraced financier’s case.

Bongino did show up to work on Monday, but his future remains unclear, according to Collins.

White House officials “were texting each other and texting me this morning, asking whether or not they had figured out if he had shown up to work today,” Collins reported. “Because it was still an open question in Washington this morning if he was going to be back at the FBI today.”

While the former podcaster is continuing on in his FBI role for now, Collins said, his relationship with the White House has “deteriorated so much” that he hasn’t spoken to certain White House officials in days. He’s also been out of touch with Justice Department leadership—a relationship central to his role—since Wednesday, she added.

“So yes, Dan Bongino may still in the job for right now... but there is a real question over the future of that relationship,” Collins said.

Reached for comment by the Daily Beast, the White House sidestepped questions about internal tensions and offered a broad statement defending the administration’s law enforcement brass.

“President Trump has assembled an incredible team of Law and Order patriots who are committed to Making America Safe Again and restoring the integrity of our criminal justice system,” principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement.

“Attorney General Bondi, Director Patel, Deputy Director Bongino, and the countless other heroes of our law enforcement community are dedicated to executing President Trump’s agenda of protecting civil rights, safeguarding communities, holding criminals accountable, and defending victims. This work will continue in lockstep and with unprecedented success.”

Trump was upbeat and noncommittal when asked on Sunday if Bongino is still in his role.

“I think so,” he said, adding that he had spoken to him earlier.

“Very good guy. I’ve known him a long time. I’ve done his show many, many times. And he sounded terrific actually. No, I think he’s in good shape,” he said.

According to Collins, Trump’s anger led Patel to put out a statement over the weekend reiterating his loyalty to the president.

“The conspiracy theories just aren’t true, never have been. It’s an honor to serve the President of the United States,” Patel wrote on X. “And I’ll continue to do so for as long as he calls on me.”

Bongino has been quiet publicly, but he was “out of control furious” about the situation, a source told NBC News last week. “This destroyed his career. He’s threatening to quit and torch Pam unless she’s fired,” the source said.

Describing Bongino as a “mentor,” MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson claimed on a Monday episode that “I just did some phone calls, and I found out that Dan Bongino not only is back working at the FBI, but cooler heads have prevailed here, [and] Dan is actually working on something very very important.”

Another source told him that “there are some big things happening that we may not be able to see right now,” Johnson claimed, adding that pushback from supporters on social media had “worked.”

Patel and Bongino represent a faction of Trump’s base that had long held that there was more to the Epstein case than what the government disclosed. The convicted sex offender’s 2019 death in federal custody was ruled a suicide, but some in that faction suggested he was murdered. They’ve also demanded the release of an alleged client list implicating powerful Epstein associates.

Both men leaned into those theories prior to their appointments at the FBI. But since then, both have publicly affirmed that Epstein died by suicide, angering some MAGA supporters.

The memo that ignited the latest firestorm, a joint message from the DOJ and FBI, was shared on July 7. It stated there was no evidence Epstein kept a “client list” and that an investigation concluded he died by suicide.

“While we have labored to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein and ensured examination of any evidence in the government’s possession, it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” the memo said.

Trump and Bondi had both previously indicated that they would release more materials. The reversal has created a major rift in Trump’s base.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-is-fuming-behind-the-scenes-at-dan-bonginos-jeffrey-epstein-revolt/?

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Only One Republican Votes in Favor of Releasing Epstein Files

Democrats introduced an amendment that would force the DOJ to release the materials.

House Republicans shut down a Democratic bid to unseal the Jeffrey Epstein files Monday night, as the MAGA base tears itself apart over the controversy.

The House Rules Committee voted 6-5 against attaching a Democratic amendment to cryptocurrency legislation that would compel the Justice Department to release all documents related to Epstein on a publicly accessible website.

One Republican, Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, voted with the panel’s four Democrats in favor of attaching the amendment.

It had not been expected to pass, but was designed to expose GOP hypocrisies on the matter.

Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, submitted the measure. Approving it in committee would allow it to advance to a full floor vote.

“Trump is posting that we should all just move on. Well, I want to know what the hell is in these files,” Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the committee, said while arguing in favor of the move.

“And I think we all want to know why Trump is suddenly changing his tune and is so desperate to sweep this under the rug.”

“Republicans said, ‘Trust us. Vote for us and we will release these files.’ And here we are, they are backtracking,” he added.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the committee, said after the vote that “most of us believe what’s appropriate will be released when it is time for the president to release it,” according to Axios.

Khanna on MSNBC afterwards that a House floor vote would have allowed lawmakers to answer the question: “Whose side are you on?”

“It’s not just about knowing who’s being protected—the rich and the powerful—in terms of who had interaction with Jeffrey Epstein," he said. “It’s the sense that people have that the government is too beholden to certain interests who have their thumb on the scale.”

Trump said on the campaign trail that he would make the Epstein files public if elected, catering to a slice of his base that contends the government covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and doubts he died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.

His attorney general, Pam Bondi, suggested in February she was in possession of an Epstein “client list.” Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle encouraged her to release the files at the time.

A firestorm ignited last Monday when the DOJ and FBI, in a joint memo, announced that no further documents would be released. It said there was no “client list” and an investigation found he had died by suicide.

The issue has set off vicious infighting in MAGA ranks, as many Trump supporters slam the reversal. Trump has adopted a “nothing to see here” attitude, defending Bondi and calling on supporters to drop it.

“We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and “selfish people” are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein," Trump wrote on Truth Social over the weekend.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/only-one-republican-votes-in-favor-of-releasing-epstein-file/?

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Megyn Kelly Admits Trump May Have ‘Blessed’ Epstein Cover-Up

It’s either that or Pam Bondi “royally screwed up,” the MAGA podcaster declared.

Donald Trump-loyalist Megyn Kelly said he may have “blessed” a cover-up of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, in a shocking admission that stands against her previous comments about the president.

Maybe “there is something there and it’s being covered up and the president blessed it,” Kelly said on her daily podcast, making guest Ben Shapiro’s eyes widen and eyebrows raise. Though she was quick to immediately note, “I didn’t say there’s a child sex ring that he’s actively covering up.” Perhaps he “blessed” a cover-up out of the goodness of his heart, Kelly posited.

“It would have some names. Those men would have to defend themselves,” Kelly continued. “Maybe the administration doesn’t think it’s a fair position to put them in. Maybe there are questions about the accusers. Maybe there are half-hearted allegations in there that, you know, normally a DOJ would not put out.” She added, “There could be a middle ground” that doesn’t suggest Trump himself is linked to Epstein’s crimes.Or, she explains another theory, “Some have speculated that the Biden DOJ may have left the Epstein files in such a manner that it leads directly with an arrow toward Donald Trump, just as a middle finger toward Trump. Not that he did anything whatsoever,” she clarified again, but because “they’re b-----ds and they knew he was coming in and they knew his people were interested in this story.”

Kelly racking her brain to make sense of the miscommunication from Trump’s administration about the Epstein case is just the latest symptom of the internal MAGA fallout over its handling. She continued to blame Attorney General Pam Bondi for the worst of it on Monday, after previously declaring that Bondi’s days as Trump’s AG are “numbered”.

Kelly said it’s just as possible that “Pam Bondi has royally screwed up and the president is just forgiving her,” she said on the show Monday, “because she’s a loyal soldier and he likes her and he doesn’t want to go through the messy confirmation process of getting somebody else in there. Or, as she posted to X on Saturday, “There is a scandal that’s being covered up and it’s at his direction.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/megyn-kelly-admits-trump-may-have-blessed-epstein-cover-up/?

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How Trump plans to dismantle the Education Department after Supreme Court ruling Supreme Court justices on Monday paused a lower court order that had halted nearly 1,400 layoffs and had called into question the legality of President Donald Trump’s plan to outsource the department’s operations to other agencies. Now, Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon are free to execute the layoffs and break up the department’s work among other federal agencies. Read more.

Why this matters: McMahon has said the department has one “final mission” – to turn over its power to the states. Among the most important decisions is where to put management of federal student loans, a $1.6 trillion portfolio affecting nearly 43 million borrowers. Trump in March suggested the Small Business Administration would take on federal student loans, but a June court filing indicated the Treasury Department is expected to take over the work.   Gutting the Education Department will hinder the government’s ability to enforce civil rights laws, especially for girls, students with disabilities, LGBTQ+ students and students of color, said Gaylynn Burroughs, vice president at the National Women’s Law Center.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ More than 20 states sue Trump administration over frozen after-school and summer funding   Senate confirms Whitney Hermandorfer, Trump’s first judicial nominee of his second term   Mike Waltz to face grilling over Signal chat at Senate hearing for UN ambassador role   Waltz, former national security adviser, still on White House payroll   What Trump’s new weapons plan for Ukraine might mean   In his words: Trump’s rhetoric about Zelenskyy and Putin has evolved   WATCH: Mixed reactions in Russia after Trump comments on military aid for Ukraine   With temporary protections for some Afghans set to expire, appeals court steps in   Immigration agents demand tenant information from landlords, stirring questions and confusion   A chaotic raid, 360 arrests, and a tragic death: What happened at California’s Glass House Farms   US imposes a 17% duty on fresh Mexican tomatoes in hopes of boosting domestic production   China’s economy grows at a robust pace as trade truce eases pressure from US tariffs   Nvidia’s CEO says it has US approval to sell its H20 AI computer chips in China   Trump administration says it won’t publish major climate change report on NASA website as promised   Bitcoin soars to new all-time high as US lawmakers focus on pro-crypto legislation   Cuomo stays in NYC mayor’s race as an independent despite losing the primary to Mamdani   New York clerk refuses to enforce Texas judgment against doctor who provided abortion pills   Another DeSantis ally takes the helm of a public university in Florida   Book Review: ‘The Mission’ reveals troubling political meddling in CIA after 9/11

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With Epstein conspiracy theories, Trump faces a crisis of his own making

President Donald Trump’s strategy has been to downplay the uproar over the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case as his supporters demand the Justice Department release much-hyped records in the investigation. Trump's problem is the nothing-to-see-here approach doesn’t work for those who've learned from him they must not give up until the government’s deepest, darkest secrets are exposed. Read More.

The inflation from tariffs that economists feared begins to emerge

Inflation rose last month to its highest level since February as President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs push up the cost of a range of goods, including furniture, clothing, and large appliances. Read More.

Employees at the nation's consumer financial watchdog say it's become toothless under Trump

Once a powerful watchdog for financial wrongdoing, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has seen its enforcement efforts grind to a halt under the Trump administration. Employees report being unable to perform their duties, and investigations into financial misconduct are being undone. Read More.

Republicans are considering changes to Trump's request for $9.4 billion in spending cuts

Senate Republicans were exploring changes Tuesday to President Donald Trump’s request to cancel $9.4 billion in previously approved spending targeted by his Department of Government Efficiency, signaling potential difficulties ahead of an important test vote. Read More.

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Trump administration fires 17 immigration court judges across ten states, union says

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seventeen immigration court judges have been fired in recent days, according to the union that represents them, as the Trump administration pushes forward with its mass deportations of immigrants in the country.

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-court-judges-trump-ice-229830c0779857164a832793c2a8f3e4?

Timeline for changes

Some parts of President Donald Trump’s domestic policy law take effect this year — for instance, the expiration of the tax credit for electric vehicles and the temporary elimination of taxes on tips and overtime. Others don’t kick in until after the 2026 midterm elections.

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No Relief (Eli Hartman / Bloomberg / Getty)

View in browser One thing that’s helpful in a crisis is steady leadership. Unfortunately, disaster-stricken Americans are stuck with Kristi Noem instead. Noem, the secretary of homeland security, was unequivocal at a March Cabinet meeting: “We are eliminating FEMA.” (She was echoing President Donald Trump, who’d suggested getting rid of the agency.) This weekend, when asked point-blank whether that was still the plan, she had a different claim. “No, I think the president recognizes that FEMA should not exist the way that it always has been,” she said. “It needs to be redeployed in a new way.” Noem is right that FEMA’s current deployment seems to not be working all that well. But no matter how officials describe their plans, the Trump administration is dismantling the federal government’s ability to prepare for, warn about, and help Americans recover from disasters. My colleague Zoë Schlanger writes today about some of the many ways FEMA was not prepared to respond to major flooding in Texas. The agency took days to get search-and-rescue teams to the state and did not immediately tap responders from adjacent states who were ready and waiting. FEMA’s delay in renewing contracts for a call center meant that thousands of flood victims’ calls went unanswered (which Noem deemed “fake news,” without explanation); the contracts have since been renewed. FEMA’s acting chief, David Richardson, finally showed up in Texas more than a week after the floods, sporting, for some reason, cowboy boots and a straw planter hat. Maybe his absence didn’t matter much, because his expertise is in weapons of mass destruction, not weather disasters, and he has reportedly been taken aback by the scope of duties in the agency he now ostensibly leads. At least Texas is getting some federal help, however belatedly. By contrast, California Governor Gavin Newsom complained last week that his state has still not received the federal assistance it requested to help recover from major wildfires in January. (DHS noted that it had allocated other funding to California.) This is part of a pattern going back to the first Trump administration in which states with Republican leaders who flatter Trump get help, while Democrat-led states or those that voted against the president are shut out. Americans’ ability to recover from a disaster shouldn’t be conditioned on the officials they choose to represent them. Trump’s attacks on FEMA have never been particularly coherent: He attacked the agency last year for doing too little after Hurricane Helene, and then said he wanted it to do less. But the basic premise that FEMA needs rethinking is not unreasonable, nor is it partisan. Professional emergency managers, including top FEMA leaders who have served under both parties, have suggested that states should do more to handle smaller disasters, making the federal government more of a coordinator and funder for major-disaster relief. (FEMA is also somewhat awkwardly wedged in the Department of Homeland Security, which the Trump administration narrowly views as a border-and-immigration authority, more or less.) But moving to a more state-reliant paradigm would take real investment in federal policy beyond just FEMA—both financial and administrative, neither of which Trump is interested in making. Such a shift would require research that readies the country for changes in climate and increases in extreme weather. Instead, the Trump administration is seeking to eliminate research into climate change, which the president has described as a “hoax.” It would require rebuilding and upgrading local infrastructure so that communities can weather storms, floods, and fires better, and thus don’t have to spend so much money rebuilding (frequently, in the same high-risk locations). Instead, in April, FEMA canceled a grant program established during the first Trump administration that was designed to help fund projects that do just that, saying it was not part of the agency’s mission. It would require ensuring that people have timely and accurate forecasts that can allow them to get to safety before disasters strike. Instead, the Trump administration is gutting the organizations that perform those duties. Some National Weather Service offices no longer have 24-hour staffing. The Defense Department is cutting off the National Hurricane Center’s access to satellite images that are crucial for good hurricane forecasting, Zoë recently reported. The administration is seeking to shrink NOAA, and some administration officials have previously suggested privatizing some of the agency’s functions. And it would require making sure that states have the funds they need to handle disaster relief without help from the federal government. Instead, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s cuts to health care and food assistance have pushed funding burdens onto state governments, meaning they will be less able to cover unexpected costs. Scholars like to say that there are no natural disasters. Fires, floods, hurricanes, and other phenomena are natural, “but what makes them a disaster is how they intersect with individual and community vulnerability, which is socially constructed,” the historian Jacob Remes told Pacific Standard in 2017. “Once we understand this fundamental paradigm, we can understand how disasters are political events with political causes and solutions.” This may sound theoretical and academic, but the Trump administration’s decision to destroy the federal capacity for disaster relief will create far too many chances to see exactly what it means in practice. Related: The Trump administration is violating the first rule of disasters. FEMA is not prepared.

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Inside Epstein feud

Top White House officials are feuding over the Jeffrey Epstein files, despite President Trump's demand that they — and the American public — move on, officials tell Axios' Marc Caputo.

Behind the scenes: Trump quickly dismissed a reporter's question yesterday about whether Attorney General Pam Bondi had told him he was in the sex trafficker's files.

• But last week, a similar media inquiry had sent the White House "into a tizzy" — and helped fuel mistrust between the Department of Justice and the FBI.

The backstory: The fallout over the Epstein case continues to haunt Trump's team, 10 days after DOJ's about-face announcement that it wouldn't disclose any more details about Epstein, that he had no client list, and that he'd killed himself in prison and wasn't murdered.

• That angered Trump's MAGA loyalists who — thanks in part to Trump and his aides — had been convinced the president would reveal all about Epstein and his alleged cabal of powerful pedophiles. Suddenly, long-held conspiracy theories were fueled by new disappointment.
• The issue also irks Trump. "Pissed-off Trump is no fun for anyone," said an outside Trump adviser who's in frequent contact with administration officials. "The president wants to talk about his accomplishments. This isn't that."

? Inside the room: The blowback over DOJ's decision led to an intense shouting match in the White House last week between Bondi and the FBI's deputy director, Dan Bongino, as Axios first reported.

• Unreported until now: After the Bondi-Bongino blowout, a reporter asked whether Bondi had informed Trump that his name was in the Epstein files.
• Trump has long denied wrongdoing in the case. No evidence has emerged indicating otherwise, but he was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The reporter's question alarmed White House and DOJ personnel about the appearance that the administration had shut down the release of more Epstein information to protect Trump from embarrassing disclosures. Speculation about that swept across some cable news channels.

• "It put people in a tizzy," a source familiar with the discussions told Axios.

The story didn't run. But yesterday, a reporter publicly asked Trump about the rumor that Bondi had told him his name was in Epstein's files.

• "No, no. She's given us just a very quick briefing," Trump said at the White House, calling the Epstein files a non-story, old news and even "fake news."
• On releasing more Epstein information, Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Md.: "He's dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life. ... It's pretty boring stuff. It's sordid, but it's boring. ... Anything that's credible, I would say: Let them have it."

?️ House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a podcast interview: "I'm for transparency. ... We should put everything out there and let the people decide it. ... I agree with the sentiment that we need to put it out there."

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Epstein files

Many MAGA supporters are frustrated by the Justice Department’s latest claims about Jeffrey Epstein. Now, one of President Donald Trump's most loyal allies in Congress is calling for “transparency.” On Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson became the highest-ranking Republican to say he, too, wants to see more details about the DOJ’s investigation of the late, disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker. “It’s a very delicate subject,” Johnson said. “We should put everything out there and let the people decide it.” Last week, the DOJ issued a memo that said Epstein had not been murdered in prison, nor did he leave a client list. The memo contradicted some of the conspiracy theories previously promoted by Trump and his top lieutenants. According to a CNN poll that was conducted after the memo’s release, half of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the amount of information the Trump administration has revealed about the Epstein case.   National Guard The Trump administration has released 2,000 National Guard members from their “federal protection mission” in Los Angeles. On June 7, President Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard members — against the wishes of California’s governor and LA’s mayor — in response to immigration protests. Several days later, he deployed an additional 2,000 members to help quell demonstrations. LA Mayor Karen Bass praised the cut in National Guard ranks and described it as a "retreat." “I hope the administration heard that," Bass said. "Our soldiers are trained to fight to kill foreign enemies in foreign lands. There was never a need for them here before and there isn’t a need for them now."

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The US sends third-country deportees to the small African kingdom of Eswatini The United States has sent five men to the small African nation of Eswatini in an expansion of the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday. Read more.

What to know: In a late-night post on X, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the men, who are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos, had arrived in Eswatini on a plane. She said they all were convicted criminals and “individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.”    There was no immediate comment from Eswatini authorities over any deal to accept third-country deportees or what would happen to them in that country. Eswatini was previously called Swaziland.   The U.S. already deported eight men to another African nation, South Sudan, after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on sending people to countries where they have no ties. The U.S. also has sent hundreds of Venezuelans and others to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump administration fires 17 immigration court judges across ten states, union says   Pentagon ends deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles   Immigration agency flexes authority to sharply expand detention without bond hearing   Judge says Trump administration can’t use travel ban to keep 80 refugees out of the US   Former US Marine Corps reservist charged in Texas immigration detention center shooting   Trump to put tariffs of over 10% on smaller nations, including those in Africa and the Caribbean   Trump tells Texas Republicans to redraw the state congressional map to help keep House majority    Federal judge reverses rule that would have removed medical debt from credit reports   Senate votes to move ahead with Trump’s request for $9 billion in spending cuts   Republicans declared it ‘crypto’ week in the House. It’s not going as planned   Federal agency shifts stance on transgender discrimination complaints   Mike Waltz pledges to make UN ‘great again’ at Senate confirmation hearing   Trump downplays possibility of sending Ukraine long-range weapons as it struggles to repel Russia   Global views of China and Xi improve, while they decline about the US and Trump, survey says   How Trump could use a building renovation to oust the Fed chair   Democrats are trolling Trump and the GOP over the Jeffrey Epstein case   Pam Bondi dodges questions on Epstein and Bongino amid Justice Department turmoil   America’s only rare earth producer gets a boost from Apple and Pentagon agreements   Adelita Grijalva wins Democratic primary for Arizona US House seat held by her late father

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? Trump sets lifesaving aid on fire. So much for preventing government waste. After months of warnings from federal workers were ignored, 500 metric tons worth of emergency, high-nutrition biscuits intended for global disaster relief are instead marked for incineration, The Atlantic reports. Thanks to the Department of Government Efficiency, which all but eliminated the U.S. Agency for International Development, routine foreign aid expenses — including deliveries — now require approval from the very top. Yet employees’ requests to distribute the biscuits were ignored, and now they're nearing expiration, leading the Trump administration to order their incineration.

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TACO Trump Instantly Chickens Out of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell

The president said he was not planning on firing Jerome Powell after reports suggested it was imminent.

President Donald Trump denied he was preparing to fire Jerome Powell after reports that the sacking of the Federal Reserve chair would be imminent.

Trump blasted the central bank chief in the Oval Office on Wednesday but pushed back on him being fired.

“No, I’m not talking about that,” the president said. “We get to make a change in the next eight months or so, and we’ll pick somebody that’s good.”

Trump did acknowledge that he raised the idea of firing Powell with House Republicans on Tuesday night, and they supported it. But he said he was “more conservative than they are.”

The president has been railing against Powell for months as the central bank has refused to cut the federal funds rate as quickly as the president wants.

“I think he’s done a terrible job. He’s costing us a lot of money,” Trump complained.

“He’s a terrible Fed chair. I was surprised he was appointed,” the president claimed. “I was surprised, frankly, that Biden put him in and extended him.”

However, it was in fact Trump who appointed Powell to lead the Federal Reserve during his first term before Biden reappointed him.

The president said that he wants lower interest rates and insisted there is no inflation, but the latest data shows inflation accelerated last month.

Prices rose 2.7 percent over the past year ending in June, the highest annual rate since February.

Powell has said the Fed likely would have cut interest rates this year if not for the president’s widespread tariffs which many economists believe will lead to higher prices.

The head of the central bank also cannot unilaterally cut the federal funds rate. That is decided by the Federal Open Market Committee.

Trump said on Wednesday that he has a “lot of good people” he could appoint to replace Powell and specifically mentioned Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, though the president praised the work he is doing in his current job.

While the president said he was not planning on firing Powell, when pressed by a reporter on whether he had ruled it out, Trump responded “I don’t rule out anything, but I think it’s highly unlikely.”

Republicans fueled the rumors that the president was preparing to fire Powell after he met with lawmakers at the White House on Tuesday.

“I’m 99% sure firing is imminent,” wrote Rep. Anna Paulina Luna on X. She then wrote “Hearing Jerome Powell is getting fired! From a very serious source.”

The president denied he showed a drafted letter to Republicans during the meeting but said he talked about the “concept of firing him” and that they joked about it.

“I said ‘what do you think?’ Almost every one of them said I should, but I’m more conservative than they are,” Trump said.

The stock market went on a wild ride amid reports that Trump would fire Powell. Stocks dropped as the rumors spread, but started to rebound after the president rejected that he would.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/taco-trump-instantly-chickens-out-of-firing-fed-chair-jerome-powell/?

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Trump slams his own supporters as ‘weaklings’ for falling for what he now calls the Epstein ‘hoax’

President Donald Trump is lashing out at his own supporters, accusing them of being duped by Democrats, as he tries to clamp down on criticism over his administration’s handling of much-hyped records in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation, which Trump now calls a “Hoax.” Read More. ps:There he goes throwing all his followers under the bus!

Trump's bid to claw back $9B in foreign aid and public broadcasting funds nears Senate vote

President Donald Trump’s request to cancel about $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting spending is nearing passage in the Senate, an action that would have a tiny impact on the nation’s rising debt but could have major ramifications for future spending fights in Congress. Read More.

Trump says he's 'highly unlikely' to fire Fed's Powell after floating that idea in private

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was “highly unlikely” to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a public statement made less than 24 hours after suggesting in a private meeting that he was leaning in favor of dismissing the head of the nation's central bank. Read More.