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

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Republicans Are Already Giving Up Hope in This Key Election Race

The party is in political triage mode in an important state.

Republicans have already written off this year’s gubernatorial race in Virginia as a lost cause.

With Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears facing weak polling and low fundraising hauls, state and national Republicans are convinced the party will lose the governorship in November—unless something major and unexpected happens, Politico reported.

Fundraising disclosures revealed last week that Spears’ opponent, former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, had more than three times as much cash on hand, or $15.2 million to Spears’ $4.5 million.

The problem isn’t likely to improve anytime soon, because fundraising in years that are neither a presidential election year nor a midterm year tends to be a self-reinforcing cycle, according to Politico. Donors and party committees are wary of giving to candidates who seem to be struggling.

Multiple sources also told Politico that Spears herself had exacerbated the problem by failing to reach out to some of the state’s most reliable donors and top political figures, including President Donald Trump’s campaign co-manager, Chris LaCivita.

Sears and Trump met privately at the White House earlier this year, but the president has not endorsed her because she criticized him in between his two terms, according to Politico.

The lieutenant governor’s weak chances have put Republicans in a quandary because they can’t abandon her completely, but they don’t want to sink significant resources into what they see as a losing race.

As a point of comparison, four years ago, the Republican Governors Association (RGA) funneled $10.7 million to current Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s winning campaign.

Virginia law allows governors to only serve one term, and Youngkin all but assured Sears would succeed him as the Republican nominee. But now, the RGA has given Sears just $500,000 and is wary of offering anything more, according to Politico.

Party leaders are convinced they have a better chance in New Jersey, the only other state holding a gubernatorial election this year. They prefer to focus on that race and save up for 2026, when a whopping 36 gubernatorial races will be held.

Back in Virginia, some leading Republicans blame Youngkin—who appears to be gearing up for a presidential run—for not leaving the state party in a better position, according to Politico.

But Republicans already faced an uphill battle in the state, which Trump has never won. State Attorney General Jason Miyares—who appears to be one of the few incumbent Republicans poised to win in November—decided not to run for governor after Trump was re-elected.

Earlier this year, LaCivita hosted a fundraiser for Miyares and Miyares alone. In a highly unusual twist, Miyares has raised more money than Virginia’s Republican candidates for governor and lieutenant governor combined.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-are-already-giving-up-hope-in-this-years-virginia-gubernatorial-race/?

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FEMA Rescue Chief Quits Over Noem’s 72-Hour Texas Aid Delay

Ken Pagurek had become increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency, CNN reported.

FEMA’s search and rescue chief resigned because of ICE Barbie Kristi Noem’s sluggish response to the Texas flooding disaster, according to a report.

Ken Pagurek, who served as the head of the agency’s Urban Search and Rescue branch, had become increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security, two sources familiar with his thinking told CNN.

But the catalyst for Pagurek’s resignation came when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took more than 72 hours to authorize the deployment of FEMA’s search and rescue network after the deadly floods in Texas earlier this month, CNN was told.

Pagurek did not mention the disaster in his resignation letter, but confirmed that he would return to the Philadelphia Fire Department.

“This decision was not made lightly, and after much reflection and prayer, it is the right path for me at this time,” Pagurek wrote in the letter obtained by CNN.

“I have been continually inspired by the unwavering dedication, unmatched courage, and deep-seated commitment we share for saving lives and bringing hope in the face of devastation.”

A DHS spokesperson blasted Pagurek in response to his decision. “It is laughable that a career public employee, who claims to serve the American people, would choose to resign over our refusal to approve a six-figure deployment contract without basic financial oversight hastily,” a spokesman said in a statement given to the network. “We’re being responsible with taxpayer dollars, that’s our job.”

In a statement to the Daily Beast, a spokesperson added that Pagurek was “attempting to spin a personal career decision into some big scandal.”

“[It] is ridiculous. FEMA experienced no delays in deployment of assets, and Texas officials have unequivocally and vocally applauded the federal government and FEMA’s response,” they added.

“If anyone is upset by the end of unchecked, blank-check spending under President Trump’s administration, that says more about them than it does about us.”

Another spokesperson told CNN that Noem had used other resources, including the U.S. Coast Guard and Border Patrol, before turning to Pagurek’s team.

Pagurek, who had led the search and rescue division for a year, joins a growing list of officials who have fled FEMA since Trump’s second term began in January.

Despite this, his leaving letter expressed confidence “in the ongoing strength, capability, and leadership of the Branch.” CNN reported that his frustrations were shared in private.

The network also reported that FEMA is working on rolling out “lifesaving” resources a lot quicker. An internal review is underway, with a task force set up to instill a sense of urgency, leaked memos suggest, according to CNN.

“Disaster-specific means related to a specific (Presidential Major Disaster Declaration) and requires approval immediately or within hours to prevent delays in the delivery of financial or life-sustaining assistance,” one memo reportedly states.

A DHS spokesperson, in a statement given to CNN, also blasted the memo. “Any bureaucrat with fingers to type and two brain cells to rub together can draft an internal memo suggesting changes to niche bureaucratic process,” they said.

The DHS has been contacted for additional comment.

Noem, who earned the nickname ICE Barbie for her garish cosplaying of law enforcement officers, has previously denied that FEMA failed to answer “nearly two-thirds” of all distress calls and also attempted to rubbish reports that her agency was sluggish in response to the floods.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fema-search-and-rescue-chief-resigns-after-ice-barbie-kristi-noems-delay-to-disaster-response/?

ps:Well what do you expect with every department being run by people that have no idea of what they are doing and/or there just in there to run those departments into the ground!!!!!

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These Are the ‘Magic Words’ Trump Needs From Ghislaine Maxwell: MSNBC Host

Could the president of pardons be ready for another?

Jailed sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell has higher hopes of a release from prison if she tells President Donald Trump what he wants to hear, according to an MSNBC host.

The Last Word host Lawrence O’Donnell claimed that disgraced socialite Maxwell, currently serving a 20-year jail sentence, knows Trump “has the power to release her from prison immediately.”

“Donald Trump can commute her sentence,” O’Donnell said on Tuesday. “Donald Trump can pardon her, he can say she’s been punished enough.”

The host also pointed out that Trump said of Maxwell after she had been jailed, “I wish her well,” but has never commented on any of the victims in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

In 2022, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse minors. The trial found she had enticed and groomed minor girls to be abused. She pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Last week, Maxwell’s family insisted she did “not receive a fair trial” in a statement released by her siblings.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has announced he is due to meet with Maxwell “in the coming days.” Blanche represented Trump in his 2024 criminal trial in New York City.

On Tuesday, Blanche posted on X, “Justice demands courage. For the first time, the Department of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: What do you know? At Pam Bondi’s direction, I’ve contacted her counsel. I intend to meet with her soon. No one is above the law—and no lead is off-limits."

Bondi also posted on X, “President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence. If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say.”

Many in Trump’s MAGA base are angry the official investigation has not been more fully released, and that it did not back up the conspiracy theory of an international pedophile ring linked to Epstein and a client list being kept from the public’s eye.

O’Donnell claimed, “The only reason for Maxwell’s criminal defense attorney to talk to Todd Blanche is to get her out of prison. Any criminal defense lawyer would be able to tell Ghislaine Maxwell exactly what she has to say to get out of prison.”

He clarified, “She has to say Donald Trump knew nothing about it, knew nothing about what we were doing to those girls. And it would be very helpful to Donald Trump if Ghislaine Maxwell was also willing to say something incriminating about other prominent people who knew Jeffrey Epstein, like maybe Bill Clinton.”

The host pointed out that Maxwell had refused to talk to federal prosecutors or the Justice Department in the past.

O’Donnell said, “Ghislaine Maxwell and her criminal defense lawyer now know they are dealing with the most corrupt Department of Justice in American history and the only incentive that Ghislaine Maxwell and her lawyer have to speak to Todd Blanche is to give Todd Blanche the magic words that he can pass on to Donald Trump to get Ghislaine Maxwell out of prison.”

In April, Maxwell asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal over her criminal conviction.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Department of Justice for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/magic-words-trump-needs-from-ghislaine-maxwell-msnbc-host/?

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Tulsi Gabbard Pinky Promises She Has More on Obama Amid MAGA Epstein Panic

The director of national intelligence’s assertions about what’s coming next didn’t really add up.

Tulsi Gabbard teased the release of “further documents tomorrow” after Barack Obama’s office firmly rebutted her “ridiculous” claims that he conspired to subvert the 2016 election.

The director of national intelligence appeared on Newsmax on Tuesday night to defend her allegations against Obama administration officials, after various analyses cast them as deeply misleading and thin. She dropped a report Friday claiming to have uncovered a “treasonous conspiracy” by Obama-era officials to play up Russian election interference claims that “laid the groundwork for a years-long coup” against Trump.

Obama’s office issued a rare rebuke on Tuesday, dismissing the allegations as “ridiculous” and a weak attempt at distraction” as MAGA is roiled by the Jeffrey Epstein controversy.

“Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes,” Obama’s spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said in the statement.

“These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.”

Asked for her response on Newsmax, Gabbard doubled down.

“We will be releasing further documents tomorrow that will refute that statement,” she said.

“We will be pulling a whole host of statements that were made by the Obama administration, by Hillary Clinton, by senior Democrat officials, by their friends in the media, that state over and over again—after this January 2017 manufactured intelligence document was created—that repeat the narrative."

“I’m looking at my notes here: New York Times says Russian hackers acted to aid Trump in the election,“ she continued. ”Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan says there is strong consensus among us to support the CIA claim Russian hackers aided Donald Trump’s election. Hillary Clinton said, ‘I would be president if not for the Russian hackers supporting Donald Trump.’"

She claimed those statements “refute” Obama’s statement.

However, they mostly align with it—and with the cautious findings of a 2020 bipartisan Senate report that concluded Russia influenced the election with the goal of helping Trump win, but did not conspire with him to do so.

Rubio, who is now Trump’s secretary of state, signed off on the report at the time.

Gabbard’s Friday announcement came at a convenient time for Trump, who is facing continued scrutiny over his administration’s decision not to release additional files related to the Epstein case. He pounced on the Obama allegations over the weekend, posting more than a dozen times about it on Truth Social and even sharing an AI-generated video of the former president being arrested and jailed.

Despite pledging more transparency, Trump has failed to follow through on Epstein, antagonizing supporters who have long repeated conspiracy theories about the late sex trafficker and suggested the government is in possession of a “client list” of powerful people to whom Epstein trafficked underage girls.

Trump has stoked those narratives with his wider claims of “deep state” Democratic elites working to undermine him.

Since the Epstein firestorm erupted on July 7, reports have unearthed new information and images highlighting Trump’s past friendship with him, including an alleged vulgar birthday card and images of Epstein at Trump’s 1993 wedding to Marla Maples.

Trump on Tuesday praised Gabbard as the “hottest person in the room right now” during a meeting with Republican lawmakers.

“She has all the documents, she has everything that you need. You’ve found things that nobody thought we’d ever find. Very happy and very honored to have you with us,” he said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/tulsi-gabbard-makes-baffling-obama-document-promise-as-white-house-panics-over-jeffrey-epstein-files/?

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Bondi Axes Habba’s Replacement as MAGA Civil War Intensifies

The attorney general acted just hours after New Jersey judges appointed Habba’s replacement as interim U.S. attorne

Just hours after replacing Alina Habba as U.S. attorney in New Jersey with her assistant, Desiree Leigh Grace, Grace was forced to step down, too.

Mere hours after the court moved Tuesday to not extend Habba’s 120-day appointment and name her successor, Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, former Trump personal attorney Todd Blanche, swooped in.

Habba “has been doing a great job in making NJ safe again,” Bondi wrote on X.

“Nonetheless, politically minded judges refused to allow her to continue in her position, replacing Alina with the First Assistant. Accordingly, the First Assistant United States Attorney in New Jersey has just been removed,” Bondi continued, referring to Grace, whom Habba named as her assistant earlier this year.

“This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges—especially when they threaten the President’s core Article II powers,” added Bondi, who finds herself in the thick of the administration’s fight to resolve the lingering Jeffrey Epstein controversy amid pressure from the right and the left.

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told the Daily Beast in a statement that Trump “has full confidence” in Habba, “whose work as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey has made the Garden State and the nation safer.”

Fields added that the administration “looks forward to her final confirmation in the U.S. Senate and will work tirelessly to ensure the people of New Jersey are well represented.”

Grace received an email Tuesday informing her of her termination, The New York Times reported. The outlet noted that this may not necessarily prevent her from serving in the role. But another murky issue was whether the three-judge panel could enforce their decision.

Blanche, who said Habba’s term expires just before midnight on Friday, similarly criticized the panel for a “left-wing agenda.”

The panel’s order was signed by George W. Bush appointee Renée Marie Bumb.

Trump nominated Habba to a full term on July 1, but Senate confirmation is far from a sure thing, especially considering Habba’s track record in the four months she has been in office.

Her office charged Newark mayor Ras Baraska with trespassing following his arrest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building. The charge was dropped, though, drawing fierce criticism from a judge.

Habba’s office has thus far stood behind charges against Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver over the same incident.

Habba has also been investigating the state’s Democratic governor and attorney general over immigration enforcement activities in the state, claiming Phil Murphy and Matthew Platkin told state police not to work with ICE officers.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pam-bondi-axes-alina-habbas-replacement-as-maga-civil-war-intensifies/?

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? The AI regulation ban has reentered the chat. After the Senate almost unanimously struck down a federal preemption on all state laws regulating artificial intelligence, the Trump administration is seeking to backdoor the provision back into play. In an “AI Action Plan” released today, the White House pledged to secure America’s “global leadership in AI” by removing red tape — including by directing federal agencies to withhold AI-related discretionary funding if states’ “regulatory regimes” are deemed too harsh.

• “Many of America’s most critical sectors, such as healthcare, are especially slow to adopt [AI] due to a variety of factors, including distrust… A coordinated federal effort would be beneficial in establishing a dynamic, ‘try-first’ culture for AI across American industry,” the report reads.

?? An octogenarian and a porn lobbyist walk into a primary... A former tax filing and adult film industry lobbyist is throwing his hat into a Georgia primary race as challengers look to unseat 80-year-old Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), who has held the seat for more than 20 years. Politico reports that challenger Pierre Whatley worked as an aide for Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) before lobbying on behalf of clients including Navy Federal Credit Union, Intuit, and the Free Speech Coalition, a pornography industry trade group best known for fighting age limits for porn sites.

? Big Hospital, a bigger bill. New research investigating the effects on patient prices and care when hospitals merge with physician practices finds that in the case of childbirth — the most ubiquitous reason that privately insured people visit the hospital — non-horizontal mergers led hospital prices to increase 3 percent and physician prices to increase 15 percent, on average, by reducing competition. Despite higher prices, researchers found no significant improvements on the quality of patients’ care after mergers. 

• Meanwhile, the study noted a slight increase in C-sections (which are more profitable for providers) over natural birth rates after mergers, suggesting that when hospitals buy up doctors’ offices, profiteering follows.

? Morality is bad for business. Weeks after the Pentagon announced upwards of $800 million in new artificial intelligence contracts with tech giants to develop the Department of Defense’s AI capabilities, Anthropic’s CEO — who recently made headlines urging restraint and regulation in the industry — is walking back the company’s previous refusal to take Saudi money. Days after the new federal partnership with his company was announced, Dario Amodei wrote in a leaked memo obtained by Wired that when it comes to working with authoritarian leaders, “Unfortunately, I think ‘No bad person should ever benefit from our success’ is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on.”

Surveillance pricing hits turbulence. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is publicly demanding that Delta Air Lines answers questions about its plans to expand artificial intelligence-powered dynamic pricing, which uses algorithms to analyze data, including your browsing history, and set prices based on what the AI determines is your individualized demand.

Big beautiful payola. While slashing Medicaid and other social programs for millions of Americans, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill was a massive giveaway for big corporations, preserving and expanding the corporate tax cuts Trump passed in his first term. New research from money-in-politics watchdog Accountable.US, shared with The Lever, reveals that in the weeks before the bill was ushered through on party lines, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), the bill’s chief architects, accepted thousands of dollars from private interests that benefited from the reconciliation bill.

Calling in favors. One of the megabill’s top beneficiaries is the telecommunications giant, Verizon. Verizon has been angling for favorable treatment from the Trump administration since he took office, donating $1 million to his inaugural committee. The company also took aim at Congressional powerbrokers, donating $15,000 to Thune’s campaign committees in the first quarter of 2025, part of an influx of telecommunications money to the two congressional GOP leaders in the weeks leading up to the megabill’s vote. 

• The CTIA, a trade organization representing the telecommunications industry, also lobbied in support of the bill and donated thousands to Thune (who serves on the Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband) and Johnson this year. A Verizon executive serves as the vice chairman of CTIA’s board.

Trickle-up economics. Verizon was one of the biggest winners from Trump’s signature tax package in 2017, which slashed the company’s effective tax rate from 21 percent to 8 percent. This saved Verizon $11 billion in taxes from just 2018 to 2021, all while it recorded $88 billion in profits over the same time period. Despite the incredible windfall, Verizon in 2018 laid off thousands of its workers and outsourced more than 2,000 jobs to India.

Revving up. Now, Verizon is poised to profit once again. The company this week projected higher-than-expected profits in its second-quarter earnings release, attributing this in part to the tax bill, sending stocks surging. While competitor AT&T plans to reinvest its big beautiful tax savings, Verizon is earmarking its extra capital for “free cash flow” (read: shareholder returns). A tax cut on interest rates included in the megabill will particularly benefit the telecom sector, despite warnings by tax watchdogs that it represents a “drastic” giveaway to corporate America. 

Stop Trump's mass surveillance dragnet. Palantir is a critical part of Trump's destructive policies. When masked ICE agents take away innocent people from their communities, it's done with the help of Palantir. When innocent people die in ICE detention, Thiel's company is complicit. Congress must stop funding Thiel and Trump's big tech nightmare. Stop Trump's mass deportations and insidious partnership with Palantir. ps:Just amazing!!!

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Judge rejects Trump administration effort to unseal Epstein grand jury records in Florida

A judge on Wednesday rejected a Trump administration request to unseal transcripts from grand jury investigations of Jeffrey Epstein years ago in Florida, though a similar request for the work of a different grand jury is pending in New York.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/07/23/epstein-grand-jury/?

ps:Of course he knew that would happen all along!!!!!!!!!

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The Fallout Begins (Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Valerie Plesch / Bloomberg / Getty; Aaron Schwartz / Sipa USA / Reuters.)

View in browser For months, no Republican in either the House or the Senate spoke out more forcefully, or more consistently, against cutting Medicaid than Josh Hawley. As President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” was weaving its way through Congress, Hawley argued repeatedly that stripping health insurance from the poorest Americans would be “morally wrong and politically suicidal” for a party that, in the Trump era, has relied on millions of votes from people who receive government assistance. Back home in Missouri, the senator was making the same case in private, according to several people I spoke with who met with him or his staff this year. His deep engagement on the issue impressed advocates representing Missouri’s hospitals, doctors, and rural health centers, all of whom were having trouble getting GOP lawmakers to take their concerns seriously. The changes, these advocates argued, could cost Missouri billions of dollars in federal funding, take away insurance from an estimated 170,000 residents, and force hospitals and rural health centers to close. “I did believe that he was genuine,” Amy Blouin, the president of the Missouri Budget Project, a nonpartisan think tank, told me. “I do see him as a different type of Republican.” Yet Hawley ultimately joined almost every other Republican in Congress and voted for the bill, which independent analysts project will cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid and leave 10 million Americans newly uninsured. With three Republicans opposing the legislation in the narrowly divided Senate, Hawley’s support proved decisive. In a statement, Hawley said that the bill’s benefits—chiefly the extension of Trump’s first-term tax cuts—outweighed his concerns. “Gotta take the wins where you can,” the senator told a reporter. Then, last week, Hawley’s Medicaid journey took yet another turn when he introduced legislation that would prevent some of the deepest reductions from taking effect—essentially proposing to repeal a major provision of the legislation he had just voted to enact. Hawley’s contortions on the bill were perhaps the starkest illustration of how a Republican Party, under pressure to deliver a quick win for the president, ended up slashing a core social-safety-net program much more deeply than many people expected—and more than some of its own members, including Trump himself at times, seemed to want. Republicans are only now beginning to assess the fallout from their enactment of such a far-reaching law. Polls have found that the bill is unpopular, and its Medicaid cuts especially so. But the law puts off its most painful provisions until after the 2026 midterm elections. Trump himself won’t face voters again, so lawmakers like Hawley will be left to deal with the bill’s political and real-world consequences. Democrats have roundly mocked Hawley, painting him as one more weak-kneed Republican who talked a big populist game on Medicaid only to fold quickly under pressure from Trump. “It was a performance worthy of a gold medal in political pretzel gymnastics,” Russ Carnahan, a former Missouri representative in Congress who is now chair of the state Democratic Party, told me. Hawley’s effort to immediately restore the cuts, Carnahan said, was a cynical attempt to fool Missourians: “He turned his back on helping people when he had the chance.” A former three-term Republican senator from Missouri, John Danforth, was barely more sympathetic. Danforth was once a political mentor to Hawley but broke with him after he backed Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He told me that Hawley’s new legislative proposal is tantamount to a press release. “It has no real consequence,” Danforth said, dismissing the measure as “simply a way of saying ‘whoops.’” Hawley’s office declined to make him available for an interview. Instead, a spokesperson pointed to victories that the senator had secured in the GOP bill, including additional relief for Missourians living with cancers linked to Manhattan Project work that took place in the state more than 80 years ago. This morning, at an event hosted by Axios, Hawley said he had drawn a “red line” on benefit cuts for individual Medicaid recipients, and that the bill did not contain any. Hawley had seemed to be an unlikely savior for those looking for a Republican willing to thwart Trump’s agenda. Outside Missouri, he is best known as the senator who held up a fist of support for the Trump faithful gathered outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and then, hours later, was seen on video fleeing the mob. Unlike moderate Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Hawley does not have an extensive record of breaking with Republicans on key votes. Nor does he have an imminent campaign to consider; Hawley won reelection last fall by nearly 14 points. The Missourians I spoke with presume that Hawley’s populist rhetoric reflects his national ambitions. With an eye toward the 2028 presidential race, he might be trying to stay loyal to Trump—a requirement for political survival in today’s GOP—while separating himself from rivals whose emphasis on fiscal austerity alienates the president’s working-class supporters. Hawley cited Trump’s own past pledges to protect Medicaid in explaining his initial opposition to the cuts, and he was one of a few Senate Republicans who publicly welcomed the idea (which the party ultimately abandoned) of raising taxes on the rich in the GOP megabill. The bill contains several major changes to Medicaid, and Hawley is trying to prevent only some of them. He continues to support, for example, the work requirements for nondisabled adults that could add administrative burdens to the program and result in millions of people losing insurance. The cuts that Hawley opposes would affect the amount of money that states such as Missouri could receive from the federal government for Medicaid. Hawley has taken credit for the fact that the enacted bill delays the start date of those provisions until at least 2028, and for securing a $50 billion rural health fund in the bill that could partially offset the loss of federal money for states. His new proposal would repeal the Medicaid funding changes altogether and double the rural fund. Hawley’s attempt at a balancing act has found him few friends so far. Democrats are happy to use his critique of Medicaid cuts as campaign fodder for next year’s midterm elections—the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hailed him as its “newest surrogate”—while denouncing his vote for the bill. Republicans have mostly ignored him. None have signed on as co-sponsors of his new proposal. When I surveyed the seven other Republicans who represent Missouri in Congress on whether they share Hawley’s concerns about Medicaid or support his new legislation, none responded. (A spokesperson for Missouri’s GOP governor, Mike Kehoe, said that Hawley “is right to be concerned about the long-term sustainability of rural hospitals in Missouri and across the country.”) Danforth told me he never thought Hawley’s vote on the GOP bill—which the former senator called “terrible”—was in doubt. “It would just be impossible to be a Republican in good standing in this era and vote against it,” Danforth said. “You’re going to be heckled. People are going to abuse you, and you’ll just never come up for air. So you must vote for the ‘big, beautiful bill,’ even though it means voting for elements that are against what you’ve been saying.” Missouri’s Medicaid advocates haven’t given up on Hawley, however. In some respects, his lonely, politically awkward fight might be their best hope to stave off cuts that Heidi Lucas, the executive director of the Missouri Rural Health Association, described to me as “devastating.” “People are going to die because of these, especially when rural hospitals start closing,” Lucas said. “They were already running on very thin margins, and this is going to put them over the edge.” Lucas said the rural health fund, even if it gets doubled, is “a drop in the bucket” compared with the total loss of federal dollars. “We need stitches to fix the problem, and he’s doing it more like a Band-Aid,” she said of Hawley. Still, Lucas offered Hawley some praise for introducing his bill. “Whatever we can do to mitigate the damage these cuts are going to have, we need to be supportive of,” she said. “So we’ll support Hawley pushing for these fixes in the hopes that in the long term, these will get into place, and then we can roll back some of the other provisions.” Maybe, Lucas allowed, “this ends up being a great thing.” Hawley’s bill stands little chance of passing while Republicans control Congress. And Democrats aren’t interested in partnering with Hawley after he voted for the bill that contained the cuts in the first place. “It’s a cynical play, and people see that,” Representative Suzan DelBene of Washington State, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told me. “It’s not an honest attempt to address the issue, because this issue wouldn’t exist if he hadn’t voted for it.” If Democrats can harness voter anger to recapture one or both chambers of Congress next year, Hawley could become more useful to them as a Republican willing to revisit the president’s signature bill. A political backlash to the bill could make Hawley’s critique look prescient. And Trump, who was never that excited about slashing Medicaid to begin with, could use a further delay or repeal of the cuts as a bargaining chip for other legislative priorities. “What we’ve just seen is these election cycles lead to policy decisions, and they do truly have consequences,” Jon Doolittle, the president of the Missouri Hospital Association, told me. “There is time for these laws to change before they take effect.” Amy Blouin is hoping that’s true. I asked her whether she still thinks that Hawley was “genuine” in his opposition to Medicaid cuts. She said she does, but his vote for the president’s bill stung nonetheless. “I don’t know the right word to describe the feeling. It’s not necessarily betrayed,” Blouin said. She settled on “extremely disappointed.” Like others I spoke with, she had wondered whether Hawley could withstand the intense pressure all Republican lawmakers were facing to back Trump’s bill. A few of them did, most notably Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who voted no, after criticizing the Medicaid cuts. “I was hoping,” Blouin told me with a rueful laugh, “that Senator Hawley would be a Tillis.” Unlike Hawley, however, Tillis was not voting with his political future in mind: Shortly after declaring his opposition to the bill, he announced his retirement from the Senate. Related: No one loves the bill (almost) every Republican voted for. Medicaid cuts will be a disaster for ERs.

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Appeals court finds Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship unconstitutional, upholds block

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s order seeking to end birthright citizenship is unconstitutional, affirming a lower-court decision that blocked its enforcement nationwide.

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-birthright-citizenship-16658c712cf6a3141f168c7557c0628d?

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MAGA's Obama dream

The Trump administration's feverish push for "transparency" over the 2016 Russia investigation is fast becoming a vehicle for MAGA's long dream: the potential prosecution of former President Obama, Axios' Tal Axelrod and Zachary Basu write.

• Why it matters: President Trump's war on his predecessor is dramatically escalating just as Trump faces new pressure over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files — with a steady stream of leaks extending the scandal, day by day.

For MAGA, the new focus on "Russiagate" offers a unifying reprieve — a return to a comfort zone where Trump is the victim of a conspiracy, not the subject of one.

• It's a retribution campaign that's deeply personal to Trump's most loyal supporters, and one that could plunge the U.S. into uncharted territory if carried to its extreme conclusion.

? Zoom in: The two most explosive stories in Washington are unfolding in parallel.

1. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard appeared at the White House podium yesterday to unveil newly declassified documents that she claims expose a "treasonous conspiracy" by Obama-era intelligence officials.

• Asked whether she believes Obama himself committed crimes, Gabbard said she had referred the documents to the FBI.

2. Hours after Gabbard's press conference, The Wall Street Journal reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi had informed Trump in May that his name appeared in the Epstein files.

• Trump, who was friends with Epstein in the 90s and early 2000s, hasn't been accused of wrongdoing. The White House called the Journal story "fake news." It was later confirmed by CNN and The New York Times.

Between the lines: Obama's office has dismissed Trump's claims of treason as "bizarre" and "outrageous." It's unclear how the former president could even be charged, given the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity that Trump cited in his own criminal cases.

• Still, Bondi announced the formation of a Justice Department "Strike Force" yesterday to review Gabbard's material and assess possible legal action.

? Reality check: The newly declassified report released by Gabbard originates from a 2017 House Intelligence Committee probe of the intelligence community's investigation into Russian election interference.

• The report, drafted and revised solely by Republicans, questioned the analytical process behind the conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin preferred Trump over Hillary Clinton. But it didn't dispute the broader finding that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to hurt Clinton.

It offers no evidence of criminal conduct by Obama or his senior officials, despite Gabbard's claims of a "treasonous conspiracy."

• DNI release ... Declassified 2020 report.

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? Trump's "woke" AI fight

The Trump administration's new AI Action Plan — which offers the industry much of what it says it needs to compete with China — also contains a time bomb for tech companies: an attempt to dictate how chatbots deal with contentious political issues, Axios' Ina Fried, Ashley Gold and Maria Curi write.

• Why it matters: Trump's move could be the first of many long-feared efforts by governments around the world to require AI systems to toe political lines, setting up endless conflicts between tech firms and rulers.

? Zoom in: The plan — and a related executive order on "Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government" — insists that any AI model procured by a federal agency must promote "ideological neutrality."

• The requirement poses thorny technical challenges and raises questions about who decides what counts as an acceptable answer.

? The big picture: Most of the 23-page Action Plan gives a green light to the tech industry, focusing on accelerating AI innovation rather than addressing concerns such as model safety, environmental risks and the potential for job loss.

? In a speech late yesterday at an AI summit in Washington, Trump called for doing "whatever it takes" to win the AI race.

• He also said that "we need to have a single federal standard, not 50 states," regulating AI, and nodded to the industry's desire to train AI systems on copyrighted content without having to compensate content creators.

? Trump said that "winning the A.I. race will demand a new spirit of patriotism and national loyalty in Silicon Valley. ... We need U.S. technology companies to be all-in for America." (Video)

• "America is the country that started the A.I. race. And as President of the United States, I'm here today to declare that America is going to win it." (Video)

"All of this prosperity and progress has come from the culture of freedom and hard work, merit, ambition and risk-taking," Trump added. "Silicon Valley rose to wealth, fame, and glory by exemplifying these values. And it will win this race not by rejecting them, but by embracing them." (Video)

• Keep reading ... Read the 28-page policy, "Winning the Race: America's AI Action Plan."

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⚖️ Charted: Trump's lawsuit surge

Data: Axios research. Chart: Axios Visuals President Trump is already embroiled in as many new media and defamation lawsuits halfway through 2025 as he was in lawsuits that were filed all of last year, Kerry Flynn and Sara Fischer write in Axios Media Trends. Keep reading.

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Signal controversy

The national security scandal involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top officials has taken a new turn. In March, the officials discussed a US military attack on Houthi militants in Yemen in a group chat on Signal — a conversation that inadvertently included a journalist. Now, the Pentagon’s inspector general has received evidence that the military plans shared from Hegseth’s Signal account were taken from a US Central Command document that was marked classified at the time, two people familiar with the ongoing review said. The IG’s possession of the file appears to further undercut Hegseth’s claims that nothing classified was shared on the publicly available messaging app.   Epstein files When Attorney General Pam Bondi briefed President Donald Trump in May on the Justice Department’s review of the Jeffrey Epstein case, she informed him that his name appeared in the files, sources familiar with the discussion told CNN. Bondi also said that although the names of several other high-profile figures were mentioned, the investigators did not find a client list or evidence refuting that Epstein died by suicide. The revelations about the meeting contradict Trump’s more recent denials that he was told he was in the files. On Wednesday, a House Oversight subcommittee voted to subpoena the DOJ’s files about the disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker.  The motion passed, 8-2, with three of the panel’s Republicans joining with Democrats. House Oversight Chair James Comer also subpoenaed Epstein’s former associate Ghislaine Maxwell for a deposition.   Birthright citizenship A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that President Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship was unconstitutional. Birthright citizenship is a nearly 160-year-old practice guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which grants citizenship to anyone born on American soil. The 2-1 ruling from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld a nationwide block against the controversial order. In response, the Trump administration may ask the full 9th Circuit to review the case, or it could appeal the matter straight to the US Supreme Court.

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Bombshell Claim on Who Is Hiding Epstein’s Birthday Book

An attorney who has represented Epstein victims says the book exists—and could be handed over.

A lawyer who has represented over 200 victims of Jeffrey Epstein says the existence of a book given to the sex offender for his 50th birthday is an “absolute fact.”

Attorney Bradley Edwards says the 2003 birthday book, which allegedly contains a letter from Donald Trump, is in the possession of the Epstein estate in Florida.

The birthday book was revealed last week by The Wall Street Journal, which claimed that Donald Trump included a bawdy letter to his then-friend Epstein. It allegedly contained a sketch of a naked woman with a “squiggly” signature of “Donald” appearing below the woman’s waist, as if to mimic pubic hair.

The president has insisted the letter is “fake” and is suing the publication.

Speaking to Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC’s The Last Word on Wednesday, the lawyer, who released the book, Relentless Pursuit: My Fight for the Victims of Jeffrey Epstein in 2020, said “multiple” victims of the financier and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell that he represents had knowledge of the existence of the birthday book.

“I do know that they were involved in the assembly of the book, several of them,” Edwards said. “They were told by Ghislaine to assist in putting the book together. Others have seen the book post-birthday and after it was assembled. So the existence of the book is an absolute fact.”

Edwards said he knows the Epstein estate executors personally and believes they would happily hand over the item if issued with a subpoena by Congress.“They would turn the book over immediately,” Edwards said. “Nobody would have to guess. You would immediately have the answers. You could flip to the page. Is there a letter? Is there not a letter? It’s over. The victims then get to move on. But that’s not what’s happening. Real people are being hurt here. The truth matters, transparency actually matters. Get this over with and get it behind us.”

Edwards added that if the book does get released, “it should probably be set in the Smithsonian as an artifact at this point in time.”

“It’s going to go down in history,” he said. “So that the world can see this book and they’ll know who were Jeffrey Epstein’s best friends at the time? What letters did his family write to him? What other pictures were in there? Redact victim names, release the book and move on.”

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

“Now, who wrote letters, what’s in the book?” Edwards added. “You’re going to have to get the book to figure it out. But this isn’t something that needs to be a mystery forever and drag the victims into all kinds of anxiety, for nothing. We can get that answer pretty quickly.“

He continued, “You have to remember that Jeffrey Epstein was abusing and exploiting young women and children every day of his life. So anybody that’s around for any major events, such as the assembly of his 50th birthday book, they’re going to have to be involved in assembling or playing their part, whatever they were directed to do with respect to that book.”

The lawyer said at least 50 of the Epstein victims he has represented were under 18, with the youngest being 14.

Responding to Edwards’ claims, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna told O’Donnell he will invite Edwards to meet with the House Oversight Committee and move for a subpoena to get the book from Epstein’s estate.

“I think we can easily move forward on this subpoena of that birthday book, which could really advance this case,” Khanna said.

“Bombshell revelation by Bradley Edwards on Lawrence tonight,” Khanna later tweeted. “The Epstein birthday book is in the hands of the Epstein estate. Lawyers will turn it over. I will work with @OversightDems to subpoena. This is about the victims and justice.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announcing his plan to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell in jail has upset victims, Edwards said, claiming they are already suffering “enormous anxiety” about the scandal becoming a political issue again.

“The one thing that has really alarmed our clients is the information that now Ghislaine Maxwell is being visited in jail and that she is somehow being given some credibility and a platform on this particular topic. Does she have information that could potentially help? Yes. Will she be truthful about it? Who knows?“

He added, “I have many clients who say, ‘President Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell were good friends back then. Is he going to pardon her?’ For him to do that, would be, he thought about you and he decided you do not matter. I don’t think that is on the table, maybe I’m putting too much trust in him.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bombshell-claim-on-the-whereabouts-of-jeffrey-epsteins-birthday-book/?

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Ted Cruz Admits Trump’s Fever Dream of Obama Treason Charge Is BS

Even if Tulsi Gabbard’s half-baked conspiracy had any merit, presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts.

Sen. Ted Cruz has admitted that Barack Obama is not going to be charged with treason, despite the Trump administration’s attempts to smear the former president to deflect from the Jeffrey Epstein saga. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has accused Obama of engaging in a “treasonous conspiracy” and “years-long coup” against President Donald Trump over his administration’s investigation of Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election.

Trump and his base have eagerly embraced the half-baked conspiracy and called for Obama’s arrest, but now the president’s own allies have been forced to admit Obama won’t be on trial for treason anytime soon.

During Cruz’s Wednesday appearance on The Ingraham Angle, Fox News host Laura Ingraham pointed out that the Supreme Court has ruled that presidents enjoy immunity for “official acts.”

“He’s not going to be prosecuted for treason,” Ingraham said. “That’s not going to happen.”

“He’s not going to be prosecuted, in all likelihood, for treason,” Cruz agreed.

The Texas senator then tried to insist, however, that members of the Obama administration could face “criminal liability” for supposedly lying under oath and “fabricating evidence.”

So far, the administration has not provided any evidence that Obama officials did anything other than request preliminary intelligence assessments about Russia’s election-meddling in 2016.

Gabbard’s supposed smoking guns have not contradicted the massive bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report that concluded in 2020 that Russia had “engaged in an aggressive, multi-faceted effort to influence, or attempt to influence, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election” in Trump’s favor.

The director of national intelligence, however, has pointed to the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not successfully hack electronic voting machines as “evidence” that Russia’s election interference was all a “hoax.”

She said she was sending all of her documents to the Department of Justice, implying that indictments could be imminent.

Obama hit back at the Trump administration on Wednesday in a rare statement, saying through a spokesman: “The bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction. Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.”

The accusations came as Trump was facing his own supporters’ fury over the administration’s failure to provide new evidence in the Epstein case.

When it comes to the disgraced financier, the president’s base has accused the administration of over-promising and under-delivering—something that Cruz’s comments show could very well happen in the Obama conspiracy as well.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ted-cruz-admits-donald-trumps-fever-dream-of-arresting-barack-obama-for-treason-is-bs/?

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Project 2025 Data Leak Shows a Paul Ingrassia Calling for Test for Voting and Halting Immigration

In 2024, as Donald Trump’s reelection campaign gathered steam, the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 had its eye on staffing a new Republican administration. The initiative, which was designed around crafting an agenda for an incoming Trump White House, put out a call for aspiring administration officials.

https://theintercept.com/2025/07/23/project-2025-leak-paul-ingrassia-justice-department/?

Trump Admin Prepares to Kick Mixed Immigration Status Families Out of Public Housing

President Donald Trump appears to be quietly reviving a plan from his first term that would kick families of mixed immigration status out of public housing and prohibit them from receiving most forms of rental assistance, escalating his administration’s attacks on access to public services for immigrant communities. 

https://theintercept.com/2025/07/22/hud-immigration-mixed-status-eviction/?

Border Patrol Wants Advanced AI to Spy on American Cities

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, flush with billions in new funding, is seeking “advanced AI” technologies to surveil urban residential areas, increasingly sophisticated autonomous systems, and even the ability to see through walls.

https://theintercept.com/2025/07/23/cbp-border-patrol-ai-surveillance/?

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‘Morning Joe’ Reveals How Trump Already Killed His Own Obama Conspiracy Plot

Donald Trump previously undercut his latest demand to put Barack Obama on trial.

President Donald Trump stepped into his own trap, and Morning Joe seemed delighted—if somewhat bemused—to have to point it out.

On Thursday, MSNBC ran a clip from April 2024 in which the president praised a Supreme Court judge ahead of a ruling that granted sweeping criminal immunity for “official acts,” saying, “All presidents have to have immunity.”

Fast forward to Thursday, and the show featured Trump discussing on Tuesday how he wanted his presidential predecessor Barack Obama to face criminal action over allegations he had meddled with the 2016 election—in what is the current administration’s latest deflection tactic from Trump’s links to Jeffrey Epstein.

“It’s time to go after people. Obama’s been caught directly... his orders are on the paper. He’s guilty. This was treason. [He] tried to steal the election.”

It was then host Joe Scarborough pounced. “Um... no,’ he said wryly, adding: ”President Trump seems to have forgotten about that Supreme Court ruling on immunity—something he repeatedly called for before that decision."

Even if Trump’s “wild, crazy conspiracy theories were right, they would be irrelevant,” the host added, because the justices have already locked future presidents behind the same legal shield Trump just celebrated.

That shield was forged in a case which ruled that ex-presidents are immune for “core” duties and are presumptively immune for most others—a ruling Trump hailed in the very soundbite Scarborough rolled.

Even Trump’s own supporters, including Ted Cruz, have admitted that Obama is not going to be prosecuted.

The host then clanged his signature “low-expectations bell” for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has spent the week waving newly declassified files she claims prove Obama “manufactured” the 2016 Russia assessment.

Gabbard was, Scarborough snarked, “the winner” of “meeting the lowest of low expectations,” promising to ring the bell “a lot this morning.”

“So even if your wild, crazy conspiracy theories were right, they would be irrelevant,” he said.

But the morning’s main irony was reserved for Trump himself. As Scarborough put it, his “wild, outrageous claims” are “just leading to chaos” and, thanks to Trump’s own Supreme Court win, will go nowhere fast.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment. They had not responded at the time of publication.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/msnbc-host-morning-joe-scarborough-reveals-how-donald-trump-already-killed-own-barack-obama-conspiracy-plot/?

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Desperate Trump Cracks Down on His Own Team Talking About Epstein as Crisis Spirals

The president wants his administration to stop mentioning the late pedophile in the hopes his supporters follow suit.

President Donald Trump is hoping the outrage surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein files will eventually blow over if his administration just stops talking about it, according to a report.

In a shift from the usual strategy of publicly defending Trump at all costs, White House officials have reportedly implemented a gag order on the administration discussing Epstein without “high-level vetting,” a senior administration official told NBC News.

Trump, who’s been desperately trying to distract his MAGA base from the late pedophile’s crimes with wave after wave of outrage bait, is also hoping the furor will die down if his inner circle stops talking about Epstein, a source close to the White House told the outlet.

The president’s aides realized a full-blown media blackout was a non-starter, as they still want officials to praise Trump’s policies and message on television. Instead, Trump and his team came with a compromise to convince his administration to quickly move on and not try to defend the president when the issue of Epstein comes up.

“The questions are going to come, but whether we engage or not is part of the consideration,” the official said.

The shift underscores just how much Trump’s team is struggling in its attempt to control the Epstein narrative, which has riled up the president’s MAGA base for weeks now.

Despite Trump and his inner circle promising to release all Epstein files, the FBI and Department of Justice said they won’t be releasing any further documents, and denied the existence of a so-called “Epstein client list” which according to the MAGA faithful contained names of rich and powerful figures tied implemented in his sex crimes.

A cornered Trump has already tried, and failed, to convince his supporters to move on from Epstein, even issuing a rare attack on his own supporters claiming they have bought into conspiracy “bulls--t,’ hook, line, and sinker.”

Trump’s latest attempt to kill the Epstein story is to get his base to be outraged instead over a baseless claim that former President Barack Obama committed “treason” because his intelligence team “manufactured” evidence to suggest that Russia tried to influence the 2016 election.

Obama’s office described the “bizarre” and highly disputed allegations as a “weak attempt at distraction.”

In the latest sign that the Epstein saga is not going away any time soon, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that his name appears multiple times in the Epstein files, a direct contradiction to what Trump told reporters earlier this month.

“No, no,” Trump said at the time. “She’s given us just a very quick briefing in terms of the credibility of the different things that they’ve seen.”

One Trump ally acknowledged it’ll take something drastic to finally shift attention away from Trump and Epstein. “Short of a war or some life-changing news event, I’m not sure what does the trick,” the ally told NBC News.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/desperate-donald-trump-cracks-down-on-his-own-team-talking-about-jeffrey-epstein-as-crisis-spirals/?

ps:What did he think would happen after all these years of lying about everything? Oh that's right he doesn't think about anything!

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Trump Posts Video of the Night Obama Humiliated Him as He Pushes for Prosecution

Donald Trump shared an edited 5-minute mash-up of Obama mocking him.

Never one to easily let things go, Donald Trump is still nursing a 14-year grudge, it seems.

The president is pushing for the prosecution of his predecessor Barack Obama for what intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard claims was a “treasonous conspiracy” to subvert her boss’s 2016 election victory.

The Trump administration is also struggling to shift attention away from the Epstein files and demands from its MAGA base for the release of more documents.

Trump posted overnight to Truth Social a clip of Obama’s roast of the then-Celebrity Apprentice star at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

The five-minute mash-up, featuring many of the jokes faced by Trump that night, opens with the diss from Obama about “The Donald” and his ongoing obsession with his birthplace.

“No one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth-certificate matter to rest than the Donald… because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter—like, did we fake the moon landing?”

The jokes sent cameras zooming in on a stone-faced Trump, a moment many insiders say crystallized his determination to run for president.Fourteen years later, Trump is trying to flip the script. His roast post has followed repeated unsubstantiated claims that Obama tried to sabotage his 2016 victory.

“They tried to rig the election, and they got caught. And there should be very severe consequences for that,” he told reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday, adding that Obama was the “ring leader” who deserves prosecution.

In that same exchange, he branded Obama “a major threat” and declared the episode “treason… every word you can think of.”

Obama hit back the following day, in a rare statement about Trump, saying the allegations were simply a poor attempt to divert the public’s attention from the Epstein files.

Trump’s push comes as the White House scrambles to quash headlines about the Epstein files.

The president began the week on a Truth Social spree with numerous posts about Director of National Intelligence Gabbard’s criminal claims, and has continued in the same vein ever since.

The Daily Beast has contacted The White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-posts-video-of-the-night-barack-obama-humiliated-him-as-he-pushes-for-prosecution/?

ps:I saw the original. What a piece of work this man is. What he can't take a little ribbing?????

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Ghislaine Maxwell’s Brother Reveals She’s Preparing ‘New Evidence’ for Feds

Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend is serving 20 years in jail for helping him traffic and abuse underage girls.

The brother of Ghislaine Maxwell says Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime girlfriend will reveal previously undisclosed details about the late pedophile when she meets with a top official from the Department of Justice.

Ian Maxwell told The New York Post his sister, currently serving 20 years in prison for conspiring with Epstein to traffic and sexually abuse children, will provide information not raised at her 2021 trial, at which she never testified.

“She will be putting before the court material new evidence that was not available to the defense at her 2021 trial, which would have had a significant impact on its outcome,” he told the newspaper. Ian Maxwell and his siblings have been campaigning to have their sister released, arguing that she was covered by a non-prosecution agreement Epstein reached with the government in 2007.

Maxwell, who may be the only person who knows the true extent of Epstein’s sickening crimes, is set to meet with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday, sources told ABC News. She has also received a subpoena from House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer to sit for a deposition on Aug. 11.

Spencer Kuvin, a lawyer who represented some of Epstein’s victims who came forward in 2007, said Maxwell essentially acted as a “booking agent” for the pedophile, who died in August 2019.

“Ghislaine would coordinate to get the girls for Jeffrey and his friends, and she would also make sure that his homes around the world were ready to receive him,” Kuvin told the Post. “She knows all the johns and she knows all of the victims, because she did all the dirty work.”

Interest and outrage over the Epstein case continues to pile intense pressure on President Donald Trump, as he and his administration desperately try to get his base to move on from the billionaire financier’s crimes—and his relationship with Trump himself.

Despite vowing for years to release all files connected to Epstein, the FBI and Department of Justice now say they will not be disclosing any more information and deny the existence of a so-called Epstein “client list” containing rich and powerful names. This is despite Attorney General Pam Bondi claiming in February that the list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”

A bombshell Wall Street Journal report says Bondi and Blanche told Trump in May that his name appears multiple times in the Epstein files. The pair reportedly told the president the documents contain “unverified hearsay” about Trump, rather than alleging any specific crimes.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung dismissed the report to the Daily Beast as “nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media.”

Trump and Epstein were associates for years, with Epstein once describing Trump as his “closest friend.”

In February, the DOJ released what they called “phase one” of the Epstein files, which mostly contained previously leaked information. That includes Trump’s name appearing in Epstein’s “black book” of contacts—not his so-called “client list”—and flight logs confirming Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet multiple times in the 1990s.

There is no evidence Trump was involved in or aware of Epstein’s crimes, and the two reportedly fell out around 2004 over a Palm Beach real estate deal.

However, the latest Wall Street Journal report contradicts what Trump told reporters earlier this month when asked if Bondi had informed him that he featured in the Epstein files. “No, no. She’s given us just a very quick briefing in terms of the credibility of the different things that they’ve seen,” Trump said.

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ghislaine-maxwells-brother-reveals-shes-preparing-new-evidence-for-feds/?

ps:This should be interesting! I wonder what she'll think up to get her pardon?????

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US cuts short Gaza ceasefire talks and accuses Hamas of lacking ‘good faith’

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is cutting short Gaza ceasefire talks and bringing its negotiating team home from Qatar to discuss next steps after Hamas’ latest response “shows a lack of desire” to reach a truce, President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Thursday.

https://apnews.com/article/mideast-wars-trump-witkoff-gaza-ceasefire-4d713a205d5d33e664b7c5853c6f5a1a?

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Trump and Powell bicker over Fed building renovations as president ratchets up pressure campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, President Donald Trump took the fight to the Fed’s front door on Thursday, publicly scorning the central bank chief over the ballooning costs of a long-planned building project. Powell pushed back, challenging the president’s latest price tag as incorrect.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-federal-reserve-jerome-powell-145b0189a8c7acaab9fcfb097dc376c9?

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Trump says he wants Musk to thrive, not to destroy him

President Trump said on Thursday that he wanted to see Elon Musk's companies thrive, one day after the White House said he didn't want Musk's xAI to get government contracts.

https://www.axios.com/2025/07/24/trump-musk-tesla-xai?

U.S. blames Hamas for crisis in ceasefire talks, eyes "alternative" hostage plans

White House envoy Steve Witkoff said Thursday that Hamas' latest response in Gaza talks "shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire," and warned the U.S. is now considering "alternative options" for bringing the hostages home.

https://www.axios.com/2025/07/24/gaza-ceasefire-talks-israel-recall-negotiators?

ps:Yes I agree Hamas' is definitely to blame, but in my opinion the US and Israel are also to blame for continuing this stupidity!!!!!

Trump signs bill to cancel $9 billion in foreign aid, public broadcasting funding

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed a bill Thursday canceling about $9 billion that had been approved for public broadcasting and foreign aid as Republicans look to lock in cuts to programs targeted by the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency.

https://apnews.com/article/pbs-npr-budget-cuts-trump-republicans-7d29c97c85d0b450549af657e115f0f8?

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How Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” further enriches the rich and immiserates the poor

On July 4, President Trump signed into law the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) after passage in the Senate and the US House of Representatives. It continues and expands President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts which disproportionately benefit the rich, cuts basic services like Medicaid and Food Assistance, and adds $4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.

https://www.mecep.org/blog/how-trumps-big-beautiful-bill-further-enriches-the-rich-and-immiserates-the-poor/?

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? Charted: Trump's second-term low

Data: Gallup. Chart: Axios Visuals President Trump's approval rating has fallen 10 points since his second term began six months ago, new Gallup polling shows. Why it matters: The decline is driven by a 17-point plunge among independents, who give the president a 29% approval rating. His numbers with the group have never been lower. "No more than 36% of independents approve of the president's job performance" on any of the eight issues Gallup polled: The situation with Iran (36%). Foreign affairs (33%). Immigration (30%). The economy (29%). Foreign trade (27%). Israel (27%). The situation in Ukraine (24%). The federal budget (19%). Explore the data.