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

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Trump’s Naked Girl Gift and ‘Secret’ Note to Epstein Revealed

The president has called in his lawyers–and the VP is furious.

Donald Trump allegedly drew a naked woman as part of a personalized gift for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday–at the request of jailed sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell.

In an exclusive report by The Wall Street Journal, the publication viewed a letter bearing Trump’s name that featured a sketch of a naked woman, hand-drawn with a heavy marker. Trump is notorious for signing all his documents with a black marker.

The Journal reports a “squiggly” signature of “Donald” appears below the woman’s waist, as if to mimic pubic hair.

The letter is signed with the cryptic message “Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

The vintage document was part of Epstein’s 50th birthday gifts in 2003, rounded up by his friend and business partner Maxwell.

The leather-bound album featured poems, letters and photos from people in Epstein’s orbit, as well as ex-girlfriends, the Journal says.

Alongside Trump’s drawing is as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein—who met in the late 1980s—and is typewritten in the third person, the newspaper adds.

“Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything,” the note began.

Donald: Yes, there is, but I won’t tell you what it is.

Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is.

Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it.

Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?

Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you.

Trump: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.

President Trump has insisted he has nothing to do with writing the letter or drawing the naked woman. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he told the publication.

“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” Trump said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”

The president also threatened to take legal action if the Rupert Murdoch-owned publication printed the article about the racy letter. “I’m gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else,” Trump said.

Trump doubled down on his denials with a fiery Truth Social post on Thursday evening, where he seemed to confirm a story in Oliver Darcy’s Status that the president had called the Journal to stop publication of the story.

“The Wall Street Journal, and Rupert Murdoch, personally, were warned directly by President Donald J. Trump that the supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE and, if they print it, they will be sued,” Trump posted.

The rant continued, “Mr. Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but, obviously, did not have the power to do so. The Editor of The Wall Street Journal, Emma Tucker, was told directly by Karoline Leavitt, and by President Trump, that the letter was a FAKE, but Emma Tucker didn’t want to hear that. Instead, they are going with a false, malicious, and defamatory story anyway. President Trump will be suing The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. Murdoch, shortly.”

The president continued to slam the “fake news” press, citing his media victories over ABC and CBS and his plan to suet the “once great” Wall Street Journal.

“It has truly turned out to be a “Disgusting and Filthy Rag”," Trump said, adding, “writing defamatory lies like this, shows their desperation to remain relevant.”

Trump them repeated his claim the Epstein issue is a “hoax”, and that any sensitive information in the Epstein files would have been revealed by Democrats in the past. “It certainly would not have sat in a file waiting for TRUMP to have won three Elections.”

Trump’s statement contradicted a foul-mouthed post on X made by Vice President JD Vance on Thursday evening.

Vance wrote, “Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter bulls--t. The WSJ should be ashamed for publishing it.”

However, President Trump said he had warned the WSJ the letter was fake, while Vance stated the administration had not seen it.

“Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it?, Vance said. ”Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?”

He added in a separate post, “Doesn’t it violate some rule of journalistic ethics to publish a letter like this without showing it to the victim of this hit piece? Will the people who have bought into every hoax against President Trump show an ounce of skepticism before buying into this bizarre story?”

The birthday gift was part of the documents previously examined by Justice Department officials, but it is not known if it was part of the current Trump administration review of Epstein, the Journal said.

The Daily Beast has contacted the FBI and the Department of Justice for comment. The White House referred the Beast to President Trump’s Truth Social post.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out on X, calling it a “hatchet job article” without mentioning Epstein by name.

“The WSJ refused to show us the letter and conceded they don’t even have it in their possession when we asked them to verify the alleged document they’re basing their ENTIRE fake story on.”

President Trump has been actively trying to distance himself from Epstein, the American financier and child sex offender who died in 2019.

The issue flared again after Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in February she was examining the files involving Epstein’s activities and a reported list of his clients. Bondi said this investigation was happening at President Trump’s request.

Earlier this month, a leak from the FBI revealed they had closed the investigation and claimed no Epstein list exists.

That has divided even Trump’s supporter base, and led to a public spat with former friend Elon Musk.

As the president spiraled over the latest drama linking him to Epstein, he ordered Bondi to unseal documents relating to the disgraced financier.

Trump posted on his Truth Social account, “Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-naked-girl-gift-and-secret-note-to-epstein-revealed/?

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Raging Trump Desperately Tried to Censor Epstein Exposé

The president personally called the editor-in-chief of “The Wall Street Journal” about an upcoming story on his links to the disgraced financier.

President Donald Trump personally called The Wall Street Journal’s editor in chief to object to its upcoming exposé on his links to Jeffrey Epstein.

The phone call, first reported on by Oliver Darcy’s Status, comes as the paper plans to publish a report that would offer “new material shedding light on the Trump-Epstein relationship.” Epstein—who once described Trump as his “closest friend for 10 years,” according to biographer Michael Wolff—died by suicide awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.

Darcy did not provide further details of the call with WSJ Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker. It is also unclear if the president has also tried calling Journal owner Rupert Murdoch, according to Status.

The White House did not respond to an immediate request for comment. Representatives for the Journal and Murdoch also did not respond to immediate requests for comment.

Journalist Mark Halperin alluded to the forthcoming exposé on his 2WAY show earlier on Thursday.

“Everyone I know believes a major newspaper, one of the top three newspapers in the country, is about to publish a piece about President Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, OK?” Halperin said. “Everyone I know knows that. And people in the White House know that, too. When that story drops, if it drops today, and some people think it might, it could drive the day.”

The Journal published its story over the president’s objections at 6:46 p.m. EST Thursday.

Trump’s supporters have been in an uproar over a July 6 memo from the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation finding that Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial, rather than being murdered, and that no “client list” of powerful associates exists—the subject of swirling conspiracies among the president’s supporters. Trump had promised to release all files related to Epstein during his campaign, and Attorney General Pam Bondi said in February that the “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now awaiting review.”

Trump has since tried to calm the waters and come to the defense of his attorney general.

Speaking with far-right Real America’s Voice Network on Wednesday, Trump called the Epstein story a “hoax” and laid the blame on Democrats.

“The Democrats, you know, they have bad policy, they have bad candidates, they have bad everything, but they stick together,” he added. “The Republicans don’t do that, but they ought to look into the Jeffrey Epstein hoax too, because it’s another hoax that’s, frankly put out by the Demo ... pushing the Republicans, and put out by the Democrats.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/raging-trump-desperately-tries-to-censor-epstein-expose/?

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The ‘Epstein Files’ Are Forcing MAGA Faithful to Eat Their Own

What does Trump do now? He’ll continue with the old playbook. There are more people to be fired, more tariffs to impose and more foreign leaders to threaten.

Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff said it best when he posted on social media, “Did anyone really think the sexual predator president who used to party with Jeffrey Epstein was gonna release the Epstein files?”

The “Epstein files” are central to MAGA mythology. Right-wing influencers have long pushed the belief that powerful—and potentially criminal—Democrats are being protected by the deep state; the files release would surely help air out all that dirty, depraved laundry and ensure consequences for those who’d worked to hide the truth. President Donald Trump’s expectation, then, that his base will now fall into line and accept that there’s no list, no evidence of blackmail, and no accountability goes against everything they stand for.

Trump and his administration had previously promised to make public whatever the Justice Department had on the notorious sex trafficker, who died by suicide in federal prison in 2019. Attorney General Pam Bondi had released a “first phase” of declassified Epstein documents in February and said at the time that a rumored “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now” awaiting review.

So when Bondi subsequently failed to release the promised list of Epstein’s clients, MAGA erupted, calling for her firing. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, a former podcaster, was so distraught that he threatened to quit. When Trump tried to soothe the “boys” and “gals” in his base with some gentle parenting on social media, many firebrand voices weren’t having it.

It’s the most substantial erosion of confidence in Trump by MAGA leaders—and the rank and file—that we’ve seen. Steve Bannon, Trump ally and host of the War Room podcast, has warned that it will cost Republicans as many as 40 seats in the House in next year’s midterms.

(Other prominent voices, including Fox News, have been following the new orders, which is only serving to highlight the cracks in the base.)

The uproar is so intense that for the first time, Trump seems set back on his heels. He ranted—without evidence, of course—that former FBI Director James Comey and former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden had “made up” the Epstein files, which he dubbed the “Epstein hoax” on Truth Social. He turned on his own followers, saying only “pretty bad people” would be duped by the scheme. Looking to history, Jim Kessler, co-founder of the center-left think tank Third Way and longtime D.C. insider, explained that revolutionary movements often splinter and toss aside one leader for another. “The MAGA movement is full of people who hate each other and are rivals,” he told the Daily Beast. “They may not turn on Trump, but could turn on people adjacent to him, like Bondi.”

It’s become an expectation among beleaguered Democrats that MAGA loyalists will stay with Trump no matter what. “That might be true of some,” said Kessler, “but MAGA Americans consider themselves independent truth seekers. They see Trump as one of their own, but when that self-perception is threatened, as it is by Epstein, they will turn on him.”

“They’re unlikely to say, ‘I guess I was wrong about Epstein, and there was no list.’ They’re more likely to say, ‘People in power are the same,” continued Kessler, quoting lyrics from rock band The Who’s hit “Won’t Get Fooled Again”—“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

For a leader whose brand is entirely about opposition to the “old boss” and the establishment, that’s a serious problem.

MAGA lost confidence in Trump before over the lockdowns put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic—not to mention the vaccine mandates. It’s why he lost reelection in 2020, though he then did what most thought impossible, building a winning campaign around that failure that attracted even more voters to the fold.

Now, though, Trump has finally met a truth he can’t ignore. He partied with Epstein. The photos don’t lie. Whether or not there’s a list and whether Trump is on it, we don’t know. He can order documents unredacted and released, but it will never be enough. There are too many unanswered questions and too many vested interests to take anything on faith. He’s in a box of his own making. (Of course, if there’s anything actually incriminating, it will never see the light of day.)

House Democrats this week tried multiple times to force a vote in Congress requiring Bondi to “preserve, compile, and publish” the Epstein files. A bipartisan proposal put forward by California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie is currently drawing support from both sides of the aisle. As representatives head toward the August recess and summer town halls, Trump’s broken promise will be top of mind for voters. And so will his meltdown.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-epstein-files-are-forcing-maga-faithful-to-eat-their-own/?

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Trump’s DOJ wants states to turn over voter lists, election info

The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking the voter registration lists of several states — representing data on millions of Americans — and other election information ahead of the 2026 midterms, raising fears about how the Trump administration plans to use the information.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/18/trumps-doj-wants-states-to-turn-over-voter-lists-election-info/?

ps:Of course they do!!

Destroying the Fed’s independence to make monetary policy decisions would be a disaster for working people

During the presidential campaign, many people noted that a prospective Trump administration could trigger sustained upward pressure on inflation and interest rates if it tried to violate the Federal Reserve’s independent decision-making. This certainly seems to be happening now, as President Trump has made escalating threats to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell for the sin of not doing exactly what Trump wants with interest rates. Preventing the political capture of Fed decision-making is the only thing standing in the way of the Trump administration seizing control of monetary policy and fueling higher inflation and interest rates for typical working families.

https://www.epi.org/blog/destroying-the-feds-independence-to-make-monetary-policy-decisions-would-be-a-disaster-for-working-people/?

He Came to the U.S. to Support His Sick Child. He Was Detained. Then He Disappeared.

José Manuel Ramos Bastidas never set foot in the U.S. — at least not as a free man. He left Venezuela in January 2024, hoping to earn enough money to pay for his newborn son’s medical needs. Born with a respiratory condition, the family’s “milagrito,” or “little miracle,” had severe asthma and repeatedly needed to be hospitalized. The cost of treatment had become impossible to manage on the meager wages Ramos made washing cars in Venezuela’s collapsed economy, so he trekked thousands of miles through a half dozen countries to reach the U.S. border.

https://www.propublica.org/article/venezuelan-deportees-trump-immigration-asylum-el-salvador?

Venezuela releases jailed Americans in deal that frees migrants deported to El Salvador by US

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela on Friday released 10 jailed U.S. citizens and permanent residents in exchange for getting home scores of migrants deported by the United States to El Salvador months ago under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, officials said.

https://apnews.com/article/prisoner-swap-venezuela-united-states-el-salvador-a0c3070355fbdc31f028a16096c5655c?

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Trump appointees pushed more marble in Fed building renovation White House now attacks

President Donald Trump has looked to the marble finishes and hefty price tag of the Federal Reserve headquarters to claim grounds to fire Chair Jerome Powell, with whom he has tussled for years over interest rates. But the extensive use of marble in the building is, at least in part, the result of policies backed by Trump himself. Read More.

Trump administration seeks release of Epstein grand jury records but not Justice Department files

Under intense pressure from President Donald Trump’s own supporters, his administration now says it will push a court to unseal secret documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s case. But even if those records eventually become public, it’s far from certain they will appease critics enraged over the administration’s unfulfilled promises. Read More.

Trump is leveraging the power of his office to reap profits for family businesses

If one theme has emerged in President Donald Trump’s second term, it’s this: He’s leveraged the power of his office for personal gain unlike anyone before in history. From crypto coins to bibles, overseas development deals to an upcoming line of cellphones, Trump family businesses have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars since his election. Read More.

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? Federal agencies' new missions

Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios

Government agencies in the Trump 2.0 era are going far beyond their traditional policy arenas to tackle issues of race, gender and alleged political bias, Axios' Maria Curi, Ashley Gold and Sara Fischer report. The Federal Trade Commission recently held a workshop on "Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices in 'Gender-Affirming Care' for Minors" — a new line of inquiry for the FTC, which generally wades into health care only to examine marketing claims about products or treatments. The Federal Communications Commission has launched several investigations into media and telecom companies over their diversity, equity and inclusion policies. ⚡️ The big picture: The agencies' efforts to target companies over social issues are largely working. Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, Gannett and a slew of major media companies have all announced rollbacks of their DEI policies to mirror the administration's new mandate. The FCC last week approved two T-Mobile acquisitions after the telecom giant dropped its DEI programs. Go deeper.

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Bleak House. And Senate. (Kent Nishimura / Bloomberg / Getty)

View in browser In fall 1963, as President Lyndon B. Johnson struggled to pass the Civil Rights Act, some allies warned him that the success wouldn’t be worth the electoral hit he’d take. Johnson was insistent that the point of winning elections was to push the policies he wanted. “Well, what the hell’s the presidency for?” he said. No one would have to ask President Donald Trump that question. His vision of power is dangerous but clear, and he’s wasted little time in implementing it. One reason he’s been so successful is that members of the House and Senate seem to have no idea what the hell the Congress is for. The past few weeks have seen Republican members of Congress wringing their hands furiously over bills under consideration, criticizing the White House’s legislative priorities … and then voting for them. The most torturous, and tortuous, example is Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, a prominent member of the supposedly populist wing of MAGA Republicans. On June 28, Hawley criticized Medicaid cuts included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in the form of work requirements. “If you want to be a working-class party, you’ve got to deliver for working-class people,” he said. “You cannot take away health care from working people.” Three days later, on July 1, he voted for a bill that did exactly that. It also cut funding to rural hospitals, and yet, a few days later, he told NBC News, “I think that if Republicans don’t come out strong and say we’re going to protect rural hospitals, then, yeah, I think voters aren’t going to like that.” This week, he introduced a bill to roll back some of the Medicaid cuts he’d voted for two weeks earlier. If Hawley didn’t like the cuts, he could have voted to stop them. I don’t mean that symbolically: The bill passed 51–50, with Vice President J. D. Vance breaking the tie. By withholding his vote, Hawley could have killed the bill or forced changes. This is how legislating is supposed to work. But in his defense, Hawley has terrible role models: He’s a relatively young senator surrounded by elders who seem just as confused about their role. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted for the OBBBA too, and then told reporters that she hoped that the bill she had just voted for would not be enacted as written, pleading with the House to do her job for her by altering it. (The House didn’t.) Years ago, my colleague Ashley Parker, then at The New York Times, identified the existence of a Republican “Vote No/Hope Yes Caucus.” Murkowski is perhaps the spiritual founder of a Vote Yes/Hope No Caucus. She has plenty of company. Her comrades were out in force for this week’s vote on rescissions, retroactive budget cuts requested by the White House and approved by Congress. Some members worry that acceding to the rescissions is effectively surrendering the power of the purse to the executive branch. “I don’t have any problem with reducing spending. We’re talking about not knowing,” complained Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, the former Senate majority leader. “They would like a blank check, is what they would like. And I don’t think that’s appropriate. I think they ought to make the case.” McConnell voted for the bill. “I suspect we’re going to find out there are some things that we’re going to regret,” North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, ostensibly freed up by his decision not to run for reelection, said on Wednesday. If only there were some way to avoid that! But Tillis voted yes, because he said he’d been assured by the White House that certain programs wouldn’t be cut. It should be clear by now that the administration’s promises to senators aren’t worth the red cent that Trump is eliminating; regardless, the way to ensure that something happens is to write it into law. Isn’t that what we send legislators to Washington to do? Apparently not. Also this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune paused a bill to levy sanctions against Russia, deferring to Trump, who has threatened to impose tariffs on Moscow. “It sounds like right now the president is going to attempt to do some of this on his own,” he said. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise concurred: “If anybody’s going to be able to get Putin to the table to finally agree to peace, it’s President Trump.” Never mind that the Constitution places the tariff power primarily with Congress. Trump’s executive-power grab, I’ve argued here and in my recent book, is the product of careful planning laid out in Project 2025, whose authors make a case for how and why the president should seize new authorities. In Project 2025’s main document, Kevin D. Roberts, the head of the Heritage Foundation, attacks “Congress’s preening cowardice” in refusing to exercise its duties and leaving them to the presidency. Project 2025’s paradoxical response is for the executive to seize even more power. That has worked because members of Congress are—unlike LBJ—afraid to take votes that might create some sort of political backlash. They might pay the price anyway. “In recent decades, members of the House and Senate discovered that if they give away that power to the Article II branch of government, they can also deny responsibility for its actions,” Roberts writes. That trick works for only so long. Trump never has to face voters again, but having passed up the chance to set their own agenda, many members of Congress will have to answer for his decisions in next year’s midterms. After the longest vote in House history this week, Speaker Mike Johnson—no relation genealogically, ideologically, or stylistically to Lyndon—lamented the state of affairs in the legislature. “I am tired of making history; I just want normal Congress,” he said. “But some people have forgotten what that looks like.” It’s a shame that Johnson doesn’t know anyone who has the power to change the way things work at the Capitol. Related: The missing branch The Trump administration targets Congress—again.

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Trump sues Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch over reporting on Epstein ties

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch Friday, a day after the newspaper published a story reporting on his ties to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-jeffrey-epstein-grand-jury-justice-department-ece8a837f9bd179771f801a765e242e4?

Trump sues Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over Epstein report

Donald Trump has sued Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters for libel and slander over claims that he sent the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a lewd letter and sketch of a naked woman.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/18/trump-libel-lawsuit-wsj-dow-jones-rupert-murdoch

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? Here come stablecoins

Photo illustration: Maura Losch/Axios. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, which means many mainstream banks will soon try to make stablecoins a part of everyday life, Axios Crypto author Brady Dale writes. A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency pegged to a stable asset like the dollar. Why it matters: With clear legal guidelines for the most promising blockchain application, many companies are going to jump into the business. The big picture: There are two ways stablecoins might improve everyday lives. 1. ? Savings. On exchanges like Coinbase and apps like Paypal, users can buy stablecoins with dollars and earn 4% interest on their money (for now). That blows away bank savings rates. Yes, but: While your deposits won't be lent out like banks do and are 100% reserve-backed, they don't have FDIC insurance. 2. ?️ Shopping. Osama Bari, with the D24 Fintech Group, predicts instant rebates could come soon for stablecoin transactions. So a consumer might get an instant $2 back on a $100 watch. That's partly because retailers don't pay interchange fees when they get paid with stablecoins. ps:Who do you think will have access to these coins?? The rich that's who!! They'll be the only ones to be able to have access to money!!!

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? Trump's toughest opponent

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

An aggressive pressure campaign forced President Trump to flinch on the Jeffrey Epstein case — exposing a rare moment of weakness inflicted not by his enemies but by his most loyal supporters. Why it matters: Forget resistance mounted by Democrats, moderate Republicans or even the courts. The most destabilizing opposition of Trump's second term has come from within: an online MAGA army known for its extreme devotion, Axios' Neal Rothschild writes. ⚡ After nearly two weeks of blowback, fueled in large part by MAGA influencers, Attorney General Pam Bondi yesterday asked a judge to unseal the Epstein grand jury transcripts in response to Trump's request. Though the move is unlikely to produce new evidence — and falls far short of the sweeping disclosures demanded by his base — it still marked a clear shift in posture. Zoom in: Six months in, Trump has steamrolled his traditional opposition. He enacted his crowning legislative priority, breaking the rebellious Freedom Caucus and neutralizing skittish Republicans worried about deficits and Medicaid. Congressional Democrats have resorted to increasingly dire alarms as their approval rating plummets to an all-time low. The Supreme Court dashed one of the most significant checks on Trump's power by limiting lower courts' ability to block his policies through nationwide injunctions. Inside the administration, key watchdogs have been replaced by loyalists. Between the lines: Trump's dominance makes it all the more extraordinary that his typically unconditionally loyal base is pushing back on everything from the Middle East and Ukraine to immigration and Epstein. ⚖️ The latest: Trump filed a lawsuit for $10 billion against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch, accusing WSJ of defaming him with an article about a lewd birthday letter to Epstein the outlet said bore Trump's signature. Read the lawsuit.

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Patients' double punch

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Millions of low-income Americans, already worried about losing their health insurance, now face lower credit scores, Axios' Emily Peck reports. The Trump administration last week got a federal court to toss a Biden-era rule that would have removed medical debt from people's credit reports. At the same time, cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in the "big, beautiful bill" will likely mean people pay more for health care. That means a single medical setback could crater credit scores, if it leads to unpaid bills that wind up in collection. Other debts are also about to show up on credit reports, including delinquent student loans, after a years-long pause, and buy-now, pay-later purchases. ? Follow the money: Some argue that it's a win for consumers who pay their bills on time to have more information on their credit reports. But the more data the credit agencies have about people, the more potential there is that consumers get hurt by negative information, says Chi Chi Wu, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, which was on the losing side of the debt ruling. Read on.

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Trump Rages at Biden Over ‘Numbskull’ Fed Chair Who He Appointed Himself

President Donald Trump unleashed a Truth Social tirade at his predecessor for hiring Jerome Powell—whom Trump himself originally put in the job back in 2017.

President Donald Trump blasted Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as a “numbskull” Friday, bizarrely blaming Joe Biden for re-appointing the man who he himself first elevated to the post.

Taking to Truth Social, Trump fumed that Powell and “the Fed” were “choking out the housing market with their high rate, making it difficult for people, especially the young, to buy a house,” declaring, “He is truly one of my worst appointments.

“Sleepy Joe saw how bad he was and reappointed him anyway… the Fed Board has done nothing to stop this ‘numbskull’ from hurting so many people.”

Donald Trump's Truth Social post contained yet another confused message. TheDailyBeast/TruthSocial

His bizarre blast came just 48 hours after the 79-year-old president berated Powell in the Oval Office—and apparently forgot his own role in hiring him.

 

Trump, 79, Can’t Remember Appointing His Own Fed Chair‘BIDEN DID THAT!’

Sarah Ewall-Wice

“He’s a terrible Fed chair. I was surprised he was appointed… frankly, that Biden put him in and extended him,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.

It’s quite the about turn, given what Trump said when he nominated Powell in Nov. 2017, praising his “wisdom and leadership.” Biden then granted the Republican banker a second four-year term in 2021, keeping continuity at the central bank during the post-pandemic rebound. Powell, now 72, has spent much of Trump’s second term deflecting presidential pressure to slash rates to 1 percent. Inflation peaked above 9 percent in mid-2022, and the Fed later dialed its benchmark down to the current 4.25-4.50 percent range, pausing since January.

“We want to see lower interest rates. Our country deserves it,” Trump said on Wednesday, saying in his Truth Social post that stance costs “$1 trillion dollars a year” in unnecessary interest payments.

Powell has argued that, were it not for the president’s price-boosting tariffs, the Fed would probably have pushed rates down even further.

Wednesday’s rant triggered snark on social media. MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell quipped, “Dementia? And yes let’s once again imagine the reaction… if Biden said this,” highlighting the double standard when Trump confuses basic facts.

Trump is weighing replacements even as the president claimed Wednesday it’s “highly unlikely” he will fire him before his term expires.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-rages-at-joe-biden-over-numbskull-fed-chair-jerome-powell-who-he-appointed-himself/?

ps:What a genius is all I can say about this president and his administration!!

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Trump’s Mad Dream of Revamping Alcatraz Would Cost More Than $2 Billion

The president wants to turn the notorious island back into a prison after more than five decades as a museum and national park.

Donald Trump’s bonkers scheme to return Alcatraz Island to its inglorious past as one of the nation’s most feared prisons could run taxpayers upward of $2 billion.

The president is apparently so hellbent on the made-for-Hollywood plan that on Thursday Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum took a tour to assess the site, which currently attracts 1.6 million tourists a year.

An Axios report quoted two administration officials outlining the costs of three prospective renovation plans. The most expensive option, costing the full $2 billion, would see the island’s existing structures demolished and replaced with a new “supermax” prison complex.

For reference, a price tag of that amount would be equivalent to more than three decades’ worth of the $60 million the site currently brings in annually as a national park and museum, according to data from the National Park Service.

Alternatives would include building a lower-security prison occupying only a part of the island, for an estimated $1 billion, or outsourcing the entire project to private contractors, which sources say looks less likely at this point in the discussions.

“We’re still in the early stages,” one person familiar with those talks said. “We need a lot more study, a lot more specificity, before the president decides. But $2 billion might just be too much money for him.”

The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary initially closed in 1963 after the government determined it had proven far too expensive to operate. The age of existing structures on the island meant they required constant maintenance, with its remote location making it costly to regularly ship supplies and personnel on and off the site.

Trump’s plans have therefore drawn widespread derision from critics across the aisle such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose congressional district covers much of San Francisco. “It should concern us all that clearly the only intellectual resources the administration has drawn upon for this foolish notion are decades-old, fictional Hollywood movies,” she said.

“He likes it because it’s tough,” one of the advisers who spoke to Axios suggested.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/president-donald-trumps-mad-dream-of-revamping-of-alcatraz-would-cost-more-than-2-billion/?

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Trump’s First DOGE Cuts Amount to Astonishingly Small Amount

Senate Republicans hailed their passage of the $9 billion rescissions package as a victory, but it’s merely a drop in the bucket.

President Donald Trump’s $9 billion rescissions package is back in the House after being passed in the Senate. But while Congress is on track to give the president his first DOGE cuts, it’s hardly a great victory.

At the rate the U.S. is running, $9 billion amounts to barely half a day’s U.S. government spending, and it took a lot of time and work to likely clawback money that would have been gone in less than 12 hours.

The U.S. federal government spent $6.75 trillion in the last fiscal year. While the money is not evenly spent day-to-day, that amounts to nearly $130 billion a week, more than $18 billion a day, more than $770 million an hour, or $12.8 million a minute on average.

“This is trying to buy a House by collecting pennies,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB). “It is so far short of what is really needed to be done to right the fiscal ship.”

With the national debt at $36 trillion, the second biggest line item in federal government spending is paying interest on that debt (just behind Social Security).

The government has also been running on so-called continuing resolutions after Congress failed to pass a budget and efforts to reach a bipartisan budget deal going forward appear destined for failure.

The president unveiled his first round of DOGE cuts for Congress more than a month ago and the House still needs to make sure the bill passes by Friday.

Even to get to where the bill currently stands on the verge of passage, Republican leaders had to spend weeks negotiating and making compromises with members to claw back what barely amounts to a drop in the bucket for government spending, and it is nowhere even close to the president’s original DOGE goal to find $2 trillion in savings.

In the end, the bill will cut $8 billion in foreign aid and more than $1 billion in public broadcasting, a major blow to NPR and PBS more than a decade after Mitt Romney threatened to fire Big Bird at a presidential debate.

The Senate version of the bill included an amendment to save money for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program that combats HIV/AIDS and is credited with saving tens of millions of lives around the world.

The final version of the Senate bill was $9 billion, down from the $9.4 billion package first passed in the House. It passed 51 to 48 early Thursday with Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joining Democrats in voting against it.

It is now back in the House for final passage before hitting the president’s desk, but it remains to be seen whether they can even meet tomorrow’s deadline with their crammed agenda.

When Trump first tapped Elon Musk to lead DOGE, he gave the group a goal to find $2 trillion in federal government savings by July 2026. The tech billionaire barely made a dent before his exit from the Trump administration in May, which was quickly followed by his explosive public breakup with the president.

The White House vowed the $9 billion rescissions package is just the first of many that the administration will send over to Congress.

Trump’s budget chief Russ Vought repeated after meeting with Senate Republicans on Tuesday that more DOGE cut bills would be sent to the Hill, but he said he would not get ahead of the current rescissions package as senators worked to reach a final deal.

While some Republicans, who claim to be fiscal conservatives, complain that the 12 hours of spending cuts does not go far enough, Republicans passed Trump’s megabill just weeks ago with nearly all the GOP’s support.

 

Big Bird Goes Down as House Passes First DOGE CutsELMO STUFFED

Sarah Ewall-Wice

Despite calls to tackle the national debt and cut government spending, CRFB estimated that the legislation would add $4.1 trillion to the national debt over the next decade and increase the national deficit by $600 billion a year.

“That DOGE claimed it was going to achieve $2 trillion savings, which was a preposterous claim to begin with, but only has $9 billion being considered now, and the fact that Congress is already trying to unravel the savings in the reconciliation bill they just passed, all demonstrate how non-serious the fiscal efforts are right now,” MacGuineas said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-first-doge-cuts-amount-to-astonishingly-small-amount/?

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Rubio Tells All U.S. Diplomats They Have to Talk Like Trump

Envoys have been told to ask “Would the President say this?” before commenting on world affairs.

Marco Rubio has instructed U.S. diplomats not to comment on the legitimacy or fairness of foreign elections, breaking with decades of American diplomatic practice.

The memo, sent to all Foreign Service officers overseas, states that U.S. missions abroad will no longer be issuing election-related statements or social media posts unless there is a “clear and compelling” foreign policy reason for doing so.

“When it is appropriate to comment on a foreign election, our message should be brief, focused on congratulating the winning candidate and, when appropriate, noting shared foreign policy interests,” read the cable, which was seen by Reuters.

It added: “Messages should avoid opining on the fairness or integrity of an electoral process, its legitimacy, or the democratic values of the country in question.”

The only legitimate election-related messages from now on should come from the secretary of state himself, the president, or an official department spokesperson, the memo read, warning diplomats not to speak on such issues without explicit approval.

Citing comments made by President Donald Trump during a visit to Riyadh in May in which he criticized “Western interventionists” telling Middle Eastern countries how to conduct their affairs, the memo said: “While the United States will hold firm to its own democratic values and celebrate those values when other countries choose a similar path, the President made clear that the United States will pursue partnerships with countries wherever our strategic interests align.”

Overseas diplomats are still permitted to post public messages congratulating the election winner without high-level approval, unless the result is contested, but are instructed to focus on the “election result, not the process.”

“DO NOT use election-time messaging to advance a U.S. foreign policy goal,” the memo read. “DO NOT use it to promote an ideology.”

Diplomatic personnel writing official messages are instead instructed to ask themselves: “Would the President say this?”

The move marks a wider shift by the Trump administration to downplay the promotion of democracy and human rights around the globe, as the president increasingly cosies up to autocratic leaders and pushes his “America First” approach to foreign policy.

In May, the administration formally notified Congress it planned to cut thousands of jobs from the State Department’s human rights bureau, reshaping it to focus on promoting “Western values” and complaining the agency had become a platform for “left-wing activists to wage vendettas against ‘anti-woke’ leaders.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/marco-rubio-bans-diplomats-from-criticizing-foreign-elections/?

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How the Endless Epstein Scandal Began with a Teenage School Yard Squabble

This is the extraordinary—and moving—true story of how two teenage girls set off events which have engulfed Trump and hundreds of others.

The long lead-up to the ongoing MAGA civil war over the supposed Epstein files can be traced back two decades to a February 2005 fight in gym class between a 14-year-old and her best friend at Royal Palm Beach High School.

This tussle between two public school girls in their early teens triggered an extended series of events that would see Epstein commit suicide in prison and leave Prince Andrew in disgrace along with ex-JP Morgan CEO Jes Staley.

The then U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta in Florida prosecuted the first federal case against Epstein and went on to become President Donald Trump’s first secretary of labor, only to resign after the Miami Herald reported that he had entered into a disgracefully lenient plea deal, amounting to house arrest, in Epstein’s case.

Others who have been muddied just by associating with Epstein include Microsoft founder Bill Gates. A host of public figures from former President Bill Clinton to attorney Alan Dershowitz have been the subject of conspiracy theories regarding a client list that may well not exist.

Incoming U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that she would be releasing the Epstein files, but when that was delayed, she reported she had them on her desk and would soon make the contents known. She then said that there was nothing significant to reveal.

FBI Deputy Director Don Bongino, who has long joined Bondi and Trump himself in trading on baseless conspiracy theories, threatened to resign if Bondi did not step down. Trump stuck by Bondi and said too much energy was being expended on the Epstein mess.

He suggested that grumbling among the usually blindly loyal Trumpoids was the work of the Democrats. He thereby sought to assuage unhappy MAGA conspiracy theorists with a conspiracy theory.

And all that followed a March 14, 2005 phone call by the 14-year-old’s stepmother to the Palm Beach Police Department. Whatever is not or is not in law enforcement files about Epstein, the very first entry in the very first file begins there: the very first Jane Doe 1, to be followed by others in years of subsequent cases.

“[The stepmother] felt that there was some kind of sexual activity,” Palm Beach Det. Joe Recarey, told the grand jury. “[Jane Doe 1] had gotten into a fight at [Royal Palm Beach High School.]...After the fight, theory had discovered $300 in her purse…She had told them that she received it from a man in Palm Beach.”

Det. Michelle Pagan went to the school and interviewed Jane. The teen told the detective and later the grand jury that she had confided in her best friend during their first period dance class that she had received $300 from a wealthy older man for giving him a massage over the weekend.

“I told her like, if you ever want to make $300, you can come with me,” Jane later testified. “‘And all you have to do is give him a massage and stuff.’ And I told her what I did.”

Jane added, “I didn’t tell her everything I did. I didn’t tell her—the vibrator part. I just left that out. But I told her everything else.”

But the friend told somebody who told somebody who told somebody. The whole school seemed abuzz with it when Jane encountered her friend at gym class.

“I confronted her,” Jane testified. “I was like, ‘Well, why are you telling people? And that’s kind of my business. And you know I told you to be nice and not to go around telling people. You’re supposed to be my best friend.’”

Jane continued, “And she just laughed about it. So then we got into an altercation.”

The two ended up in the office of the assistant principal for freshmen, who asked why they had been fighting.

“At first, we both kind of lied about it.” Jane testified.

Jane tried telling the principal that her friend had been spreading rumors about her. But then, Jane said, her friend told the principal, “why, like for real.”

“And so then the Principal, she was like, ‘Let me see in your purse,’” Jane told the grand jury. “And I said, Why?...And then she said, ‘you don’t have to lie. You’re not going to be in trouble. Give me your purse.’”

Jane continued, ”And then I gave her my purse and she found the $300. And she asked me how I got it.”

Jane tried to say it was from her job at Chick-fil-A, but she only worked 10 hours a week, the maximum for a 14-year-old. She did not earn enough to make the lie convincing.

“She said, ’You don’t have to lie. I know. I know what happened,’” Jane recalled.

The principal called Jane’s stepmother, who came to the school. The stepmother said there was no way the $300 came from Jane’s paycheck.

“I said I was doing drugs, and I was dealing them,” Jane testified “Like, I made up any kind of lie. I didn’t want to tell ‘em what happened.”

But Jane ended up telling the truth to the police and to the grand jury. She testified that they had met an older teenage girl at a “family football thing” in the nearby home of her boyfriend’s aunt.

“It was just kind of like a regular night and we were hanging out, watching TV,” she recalled. ”And [the older teenager] was like. ‘What are you doing tomorrow?’ I said, ‘Nothing.’ And then she was like, ‘Oh, well, do you want to make like $200?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And then she was like, ‘Well, you’re going to have to meet my friend Jeffrey. And he lives in a big humongous mansion, And, like, he lives on the water.’…And I was like, ‘That’s really cool.’”

Jane continued, “And then she’s like, ‘But you have to give him a massage for like 40 minutes. And that’s all you have to do and you get, like $200 for it. And it’s really easy.’ And I was like, ‘Okay. Like, whatever, it’s just massage.’”

Jane testified that her boyfriend tried to dissuade her.

“I guess because I was 14,” she testified. “He was just like. ‘Don’t go, don’t go, don’t go.’ And I was like, ‘Well it’s $200.’ And I was 14.”

Jane recalled that she told her father she was going to the mall when the older teenager picked her up and drove her to Epstein’s humongous waterfront mansion the next morning, a Sunday. The older teen led her in through the kitchen. She met Epstein.

“Old.” Jane would reply when a grand juror asked what he looked like.

Jane recalled that Epstein was wearing a Polo t-shirt and khaki pants. “Like he was going golfing.”

They shook hands.

“Then Jeffrey said, ‘Who’s going to go first?” Jane recalled. “And the other girl’s like, ‘I don’t care.’ And then Jeffrey’s like, ‘How about you?’ Pointing to me.”

Epstein was now wearing only a towel. He had sought to cover himself by asking the older girl to assure him that Jane was 18, though she clearly was not.

“I was a little shrimp, didn’t have boobs, and didn’t look 18 at all,” Jane told the Daily Beast in 2015. “My face, the way I spoke, and my body didn’t look like I was 18.”

She still had braces. And she was so short she could reach across the massage table climbing up on it. But that suited Epstein fine after he instructed her to strip down to her thong panties.

“As she gave Epstein the massage, he told her to get on his back,” a police affidavit says. “[Jane] stated she straddled herself on Epstein’s back whereby her exposed buttocks were touching Epstein’s bare buttocks. Epstein was specific in his instruction to her on how to massage him, telling her to go clockwise or counter clockwise.”

The affidavit continues, “Epstein then turned to his side and started to rub his penis in an up and down motion. Epstein then pulled out a purple vibrator.

Jane left with three $100 bills, the added one for watching him masturbate and allowing him to apply the vibrator outside her panties.

‘And he told me ‘Thank you,’” Jane recalled.

He asked her to write down her name and phone number.

“And then after that he just left the room and told me I could get dressed again and that it was done. It was over.”

At dance class the next morning, Jane confided in her best friend and then came the fight in gym class that landed them in the assistant principal’s office. Then the stepmother phoned the police. And there was the very first entry into what might be collectively called law enforcement’s Epstein files. The next addition was a report by Det. Pagan, who showed her a picture of Epstein. Jane confirmed that was the man and described what he had done. She was later asked in the grand jury why she had Pagan would Epstein masturbating, but had initially said nothing about the vibrator.

“That’s his body, and the vibrator’s on my body,” she replied.

Jane never went back to the mansion. The Palm Beach police ended up interviewing dozens of underage victims who had. There were more in New York and elsewhere, but Epstein was essentially given a pass until 2019, when he was indicted by the US Attorney in the Southern District of New York for sex trafficking dozens of underage girls between 2002 and 2005, Jane among them.

He was remanded, but was found dead in his cell at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan before he could stand trial, almost certainly a suicide.

But that became the stuff of conspiracy theories involving the Epstein files, which go back two decades to a high school gym class fight between a 14-year-old victim and her best friend. Unlike the fight, they seem to be without end.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-endless-epstein-scandal-began-with-a-teenage-school-yard-squabble/?

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Trump’s Epstein Grand Jury Smokescreen Immediately Called Out as BS

The president asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to ask the court to release all grand jury testimony related to Jeffrey Epstein.

President Donald Trump’s vow to seek the release of the Jeffrey Epstein grand jury transcripts is being dismissed as nothing but smoke and mirrors.

Facing scrutiny over his relationship with the disgraced financier and fury from his base over the administration’s failure to release new information in the case, Trump announced in a social media post that he had asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.”

Trump Makes Frantic Move After Bombshell Epstein ExposéBACK AGAINST THE WALL

Josh Fiallo

Bondi—who has been facing calls from MAGA to resign over her failure to produce new Epstein revelations—responded minutes later, writing in a social media post, “President Trump—we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.”

It wasn’t clear if she was referring to Epstein’s 2006 prosecution in Florida, which ended in a plea deal, or his 2019 prosecution in New York, where he was indicted and died by suicide in jail while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges.

Democratic lawmakers and legal experts alike, however, quickly poked holes in Bondi’s pledge. Federal law generally prohibits releasing grand jury transcripts, and the nature of the proceedings themselves would have been limited in scope.

“Nice try @AGPam Bondi,” Rep. Daniel Goldman, a Democrat from New York, wrote in a post on X. “What about videos, photographs and other recordings? What about FBI 302’s (witness interviews)? What about texts and emails?”

That’s where any evidence about Trump and other high-profile associates would be, whereas the grand jury testimony would only be related to Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, the former prosecutor added.

During a grand jury hearing, the prosecutor isn’t trying to secure a guilty verdict—they just need to convince a jury that there’s enough evidence to try the case. Instead of proving the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, prosecutors just have to show there are reasonable grounds to believe a crime was committed, a standard known as probable cause.

Democratic Reps. Ro Kanna of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland expressed similar concerns, with Raskin—who is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee—telling CNN that congressional Democrats are also interested in Epstein’s emails, correspondence, phone calls, and other evidence.

“Everybody can see through it—it’s slicing the baloney extremely fine,” Raskin said during an appearance on Laura Coates Live.

Kanna also pointed out during a House Rules Committee meeting on Thursday night, where Republicans voted down a Democratic-led measure to advance the release of the Epstein documents, that courts usually don’t release grand jury testimony.

Even if Bondi immediately requests the transcripts to be made public, it could be a long time before any information is released—if ever.

Under the federal rules of criminal procedure, grand jury proceedings are secret unless the court authorizes disclosure based on a limited set of statutory exceptions.

Barb McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, wrote in a social media post that Trump’s order was a “meaningless trick” because a court cannot violate federal Rule 6(e) prohibiting public disclosure.

University of Alabama law professor and MSNBC analyst Joyce Vance wrote in a Substack post that the reason grand jury proceedings are kept secret is to protect the integrity of the investigation, prevent witness intimidation, and protect the reputations of people who are not indicted.

To get the material disclosed, the requesting party needs to convince the court that the need for the information outweighs the interest in keeping it secret.

“All of the possible impediments to releasing grand jury material may well be the point for Trump,” Vance wrote. “He can say, yet again, that he tried and the courts stood in his way. Even a delay, while lawyers brief the matter and a judge schedules a hearing, could work in Trump’s favor if the fickle public loses interest in the issue and moves on, and he lives to fight another day, yet again.”

If the administration were serious about releasing the files, it could have put the process in motion a long time ago, Politico reporter Kyle Cheney pointed out in a social media post.

Fox News Accused of Deceptively Editing Trump Epstein AnswerRUNNING COVER

Eboni Boykin-Patterson

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and the Department of Justice for comment.

“If there was a ‘smoking gun’ on Epstein, why didn’t the Dems, who controlled the ‘files’ for four years, and had Garland and Comey in charge, use it? BECAUSE THEY HAD NOTHING!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-request-to-release-the-jeffrey-epstein-grand-jury-transcript-called-out-as-bs/?

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? Trump's pop politics

Photo illustration: Maura Losch/Axios. Photo via Getty Images

In his second term, President Trump is making a habit of taking action on topics plucked from America's popular imagination that had previously been non-existent in Washington's policy playbook. These are "group-chat issues" — stuff you'd text your friends about that doesn't usually get picked apart by policy wonks, Axios' Neal Rothschild writes. Trump said on Truth Social that Coca-Cola agreed to use real cane sugar in Coke. For decades, high-fructose corn syrup has been Coke's sweetener. (The company hasn't confirmed his claim.) The topic has been steadily gaining attention in the U.S., with interest in Mexican Coke — which uses cane sugar — rising for years, according to Google Trends. There's also ... Alcatraz: Trump stunned the country by announcing this spring that the notorious prison island — closed for more than 60 years — would be reopened. The move is inspired "more by symbolism than necessity," Axios' Marc Caputo reported. The penny: The administration took action on the ultimate pocketbook issue by announcing plans to discontinue the 1-cent coin. JFK files: He indulged a decades-long national fascination with the JFK assassination by releasing 63,000 pages of records. Zoom in: On some lesser-noticed, Seinfeldian issues, Trump addressed everyman gripes with the stroke of a pen. He signed executive orders to maintain "acceptable water pressure in showerheads" and curb the use of paper straws.

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? Trump II hits 6 months

Screenshot: Truth Social

Today marks six months into President Trump's second term — Day 182, with 1,280½ days to go. Day 200 will be Aug. 7. "Six months is not a long time to have totally revived a major Country," Trump bragged on Truth Social this morning. (Full post above.) Two top MAGA online influencers are featured today by old-school Sunday papers: Alex Bruesewitz in the Oval Office earlier this month. Photo: The White House Alex Bruesewitz — a top Trump digital adviser, and engineer of the 2024 campaign's podcast strategy — tells The Sunday Times (London) that some of MAGA's best online content comes from everyday fans. "These guys make some of the best memes, and they're bus drivers in small towns across the country," Bruesewitz, 28, told Washington correspondent Lara Spirit. "And they get off of work and they go home and they open their computer, they tell their wife they love them and they log on to X for the next five hours of their life. And they're making hilarious memes of the president or videos of the president." Bruesewitz — who has 600,000 followers on X and is CEO of X Strategies, based in Palm Beach — met his fiancée, Carolina Urrea, during a campaign stop with hosts of the "Girls Gone Bible" podcast in Vegas. They brought a friend, a former Miss Nevada. The next day, Carolina took a photo with Trump, who gave her a thumbs-up. Keep reading. Brett Cooper in Franklin, Tenn. Photo: Houston Cofield for The New York Times Brett Cooper — a podcast star popular with young MAGA, who signed last month as a Fox News contributor — is the cover story in today's N.Y. Times Sunday Business: "Striving to Make Conservatism Cool." Cooper says conservatives of the past undervalued pop culture: "This is our real life, especially for young people ... The majority of our lives aren't spent debating policy and debating political candidates. It's spent engaging with social media, and that's where we learn values." Cooper, 23, lives on a farm outside Nashville with 10 cows, 10 chickens, five pigs and three ducks, The Times' Jessica Testa notes. Cooper has 1.3 million Instagram followers and 1.6 million YouTube subscribers. She's in her third trimester of pregnancy, plans a book of essays and "is brainstorming a consumer product — a subscription cookie dough business has been floated." As influences, she named "Reese Witherspoon, whose media company adapts book club selections into scripted projects, and Gwyneth Paltrow, who turned her wellness newsletter into the Goop retail brand." Keep reading (gift link).

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Trump muscles into '26

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

President Trump is already fixated behind the scenes on next year's midterm elections for the House and Senate — unleashing his billion-dollar political operation and personally burrowing into the minutiae of races, Axios' Alex Isenstadt writes. Why it matters: Now that his megabill has passed Congress, Trump's ability to accomplish more big things there — and avoid impeachment — hinges on keeping the GOP's razor-thin majorities in both chambers of Congress for his last two years in office. ? Zoom in: Even with all that's swirling around Trump — foreign conflicts, deportations, tariffs, the Jeffrey Epstein fallout — he's micro-level focused on 2026 races. Trump's been particularly locked in on the already messy GOP Senate primary in Texas, where polls indicate Sen. John Cornyn is trailing scandal-plagued state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a longtime Trump loyalist. After Paxton's wife announced she was filing for divorce, White House insiders say, Trump — who hasn't endorsed in the race — was aware of it within an hour. He has been asking others about its political impact. Here's how Trump's team is laying the groundwork for 2026: Money muscle. Trump's biggest asset could be his enormously well-heeled political operation, for which he continues to aggressively raise money. Trump has told congressional Republicans he plans to spend heavily on their races. Recruit aggressively. The White House is seeking candidates to run in several key races. Trump himself is expected to get involved if an on-the-fence prospect needs a push. Trump aides are trying to land a recruit in the race for New Hampshire's vacant Senate seat, for example. Early redistricting. Trump is pushing Texas Republicans to redraw the state's House districts five years early to create more GOP-friendly seats. That could net as many as five new GOP-held seats and dilute Democrats' voting power. But it almost certainly would face court challenges, and could lead blue states to try the same thing to favor Democrats. Keep selling Trump's big bill. The White House is drawing up plans to spend the next year-plus selling Trump's domestic policy mega-bill to voters. That won't be easy: Polls show the measure — which includes tax cuts and a range of cuts to social programs — isn't popular. Prevent retirements. Trump helped convince Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) to seek reelection to his competitive district, rather than run for governor. The White House is also trying to keep Iowa's Sen. Joni Ernst from retiring. Endorse — and attack — in primaries.

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? Trump's phone-a-friend

A 10-page profile of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in The New Yorker, "Money Talks," out this morning, reports that he and President Trump "speak on the phone most nights, at around one in the morning, just after Lutnick gets in bed."

• The two billionaires (and former Manhattan moguls) talk about "real stuff," like Canadian steel tariffs, Lutnick told the reporter, Antonia Hitchens. Lutnick told her they also talk about "nothing," which he described as:

"sporting events, people, who'd you have dinner with, what was this guy like, can you believe what this guy did, what's the TV like, I saw this on TV, what'd you think of what this guy said on TV, what did you think about my press conference, how about this Truth [Social post]?"

Of course, Lutnick added, "Trump has other people he calls late at night." But Lutnick, often spotted in the West Wing, is a regular.

• Hitchens writes that Lutnick, 64, who became the head of a major bond-trading firm at 29, "radiates a brash, ebullient energy that is often referred to as 'scrappy' or 'outer borough.' He likes to dish. He talks with his hands and emphasizes his points with catchphrases such as 'How about no' or 'How about we don't.'"

"Lutnick sees himself primarily as the President's dealmaker-in-chief," the article says. "Lutnick is in many ways the most Trumpian member of Trump's Cabinet — a raw, unbridled expression of the President's mercantilist instincts and branding acumen, of government as deal-making in gold-plated rooms."

• Lutnick — who grew up on Long Island and is former chairman and CEO of the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald — says of Washington types: "I'm just experienced in business in the way none of these people are — except Donald Trump ... I know him so well that I know where the puck is going."

? In a passage about staffing the new administration, Lutnick, who was co-chair of the transition and sat at Trump's side during the Cabinet-picking at Mar-a-Lago, says: "President Trump makes decisions by orchestra ... And I would say I'm the first violin."

• An old friend of Lutnick's said he "always loved celebrities": "I think in his mind he's hanging out with Matt Damon or Brad Pitt."

Keep reading.

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Washington Commanders

President Donald Trump is threatening to restrict a stadium deal in Washington, DC, unless the Washington Commanders change their name back to the “Redskins.” The football team dropped the old name in 2020 after decades of criticism from Native American groups. But on Sunday, Trump posted on his social media network: “I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins,’ and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I won’t make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington.” In April, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced plans to build a new stadium on federal land at the site of the old Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium and bring the Commanders back to the district. The proposal is currently stalled before the DC Council. CNN has reached out to the Commanders and the DC mayor’s office for comment on Trump’s posts. ps:Nothing better to do than tell others what to do?

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Texas Republicans aim to redraw House districts at Trump’s urging, but there’s a risk Texas Republicans are poised to redraw the state’s congressional map during a special session that starts Monday. It's a move urged by President Donald Trump as a way to help the GOP retain control of the U.S. House in next year’s midterm elections. The midcycle redrawing of political lines complicates Democrats’ plans to begin regaining power in Washington, and they have few avenues to push back. But the move also has risks for Republicans. Some Texas districts considered safe for conservatives will have to add more Democratic voters. Read more.

Why this matters: Texas has 38 seats in the House. Republicans now hold 25 and Democrats 12, with one seat vacant after Democrat Sylvester Turner, a former Houston mayor, died in March. Redrawing the state’s congressional maps this coming week to devise five new winnable seats for the GOP would help the party avoid losing House control in the 2026 elections.   Mapmakers — in most states, it’s the party that controls the legislature — must adjust congressional and state legislative lines after every 10-year census to ensure that districts have about the same number of residents. That is a golden opportunity for one party to rig the map against the other, a tactic known as gerrymandering. But there is a term, too, for so aggressively redrawing a map that it puts that party’s own seats at risk: a “dummymander.”   Democratic state lawmakers are talking about staying away from the Capitol during the special session of the Legislature to deny the Legislature the minimum number needed to convene. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton posted that any Democrats who did that should be arrested.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ EPA eliminates research and development office, begins layoffs   Billy Long sworn in as IRS commissioner, taking over an agency he once sought to close   Judge restores Democrat to Federal Trade Commission, ruling her firing by Trump was illegal   Trump threatens to hold up stadium deal if Washington Commanders don’t switch back to Redskins   Education Department will release some frozen grants for after-school and summer programs   Trump administration imposes limits on Mexican flights and threatens Delta alliance   Hegseth tells lawmakers about plan to detain immigrants at bases in Indiana and New Jersey   3 Democrat-led states have rolled back Medicaid access for people lacking permanent legal status   Volunteers flock to immigration courts to support migrants arrested in the hallways   Court rules Mississippi’s social media age verification law can go into effect   Texas attorney general sues adult swimming group for allowing transgender competitors   Minnesota lawmaker convicted of felony burglary for breaking into estranged stepmother’s home   Man accused of stockpiling bombs, using Biden photo for target practice, pleads guilty   New York agrees to settle lawsuit with ex-aide who accused former Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment   Trump sues Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch over reporting on Epstein ties    Request to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts likely to disappoint, ex-prosecutors say ps:For a party that claims to have no problem beating democrats in certain states, they actually seem afraid if you ask me! Why do they need to redraw districts?????

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Epstein Victim Twice Urged FBI to Investigate Trump

The disgraced financier’s former employee recalled an alleged incident in which Trump stared at her bare legs.

Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s first accuser says she warned the Federal Bureau of Investigation on two occasions to look into Donald Trump’s conduct as an associate of the disgraced sex offender.

In an interview with The New York Times, Maria Farmer, who in 1996 was the first to report Epstein’s sexual offenses, recalled a 1995 encounter with Trump after she was summoned to see Epstein at his luxurious Manhattan offices.

Farmer, who was preparing to do some work for Epstein, said she was wearing running shorts when she turned up at the building to find Trump in a suit. Farmer told the Times that she started feeling scared as Trump allegedly stared at her bare legs, but Epstein came into the room and broke the tension. Farmer said Epstein reportedly said to Trump, “No, no. She’s not here for you.”

The incident left Farmer shaken, with her alleging that she could hear Trump tell Epstein in the other room that he thought she was a teenager, the Times reported.

The next year, Farmer told the FBI that she was sexually assaulted by Epstein and his alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, and warned that the two had “committed multiple serious sex crimes” against her and other girls, including her then-15-year-old sister, Annie.

Although Farmer, now in her mid-fifties, said she has not seen Trump engage in any inappropriate behavior and has had no other uncomfortable encounters with the MAGA figurehead, the incident was enough for her to tell the FBI to look into the people in Epstein’s orbit, including Trump.

According to Farmer, she was alarmed by what she saw working at Epstein’s mansion, including his pursuit of young girls and using them to gain favor with prominent people, including the likes of Alan Dershowitz and former President Bill Clinton.

Farmer also spoke to the Sixth Precinct of the New York Police Department in 1996, police records show, the Times reported.White House Communications Director Steven Cheung denied Farmer’s claims in a statement, saying, “The president was never in his office.” He added, “The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep.”Farmer filed a lawsuit against the federal government on May 29 on the grounds that it failed to protect her and other victims of Epstein and Maxwell. Farmer said she warned of Epstein’s associates again in a 2006 FBI interview, but nothing came of it, the Times reported.Epstein was indicted in 2006, later pleading guilty to two felony charges, including soliciting a minor. Then in 2019, he was charged again and accused of trafficking dozens of girls as young as 14 years old. He was found dead in his jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, in what was said to have been a suicide.As Trump looks to bury his alleged connections to Epstein in the press—filing a $10 billion lawsuit over a Wall Street Journal report on a lewd drawing he allegedly sent Epstein for his 50th birthday—Farmer’s testimony has picked up new steam as MAGA demands that the Trump administration unseal all Epstein files.Previously, Trump referred to Epstein as a “terrific guy” in a 2002 New York magazine article, with one of Epstein’s exes also describing Trump as Epstein’s “bro.”

Yet in a lengthy Truth Social post on July 16, Trump ripped some of his followers for believing what he called the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.”

“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker. They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years,” he wrote. “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support any more!”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/epstein-victim-twice-named-trump-to-law-enforcement/?

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As Trump's raids ramp up, a Texas region's residents stay inside — even when they need medical care

As the Trump administration intensifies deportation activity around the country, some immigrants — including many who have lived in Texas’s southern tip for decades — are unwilling to leave their homes, even for necessary medical care. Read More.