Trump: nothing will be good enough for ‘lunatics’ requesting Epstein files
Donald Trump said on Saturday that he had asked the justice department to release all grand jury testimony in Jeffrey Epstein’s case. In a post on Truth Social, the president declared that even if the court gave its “full and unwavering support” that “nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request”:
I have asked the Justice Department to release all Grand Jury testimony with respect to Jeffrey Epstein, subject only to Court Approval. With that being said, and even if the Court gave its full and unwavering approval, nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request. It will always be more, more, more. MAGA!
Key events
Maryland’s Democratic representative Jamie Raskin has joined in on public calls for the Donald Trump administration to release the entirety of the Jeffrey Epstein files, saying on X:
We don’t need Trump or Bondi to sift through the stack and tell America what they think is ‘credible’ in the Epstein files. Thanks, but no thanks—we’ll decide ourselves. The president should stop playing us for fools and suckers. Release everything—now.
Raskin echoed similar sentiments on MSNBC, saying about the Trump administration:
Their policies are hurting our people and we’ve got to turn it around. And let’s start by having some truth and clearing the air over this whole Epstein affair as quickly as possible.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees. One union leader said the moves “will devastate public health in our country”.
The agency’s office of research and development (ORD) has long provided the scientific underpinnings for the EPA’s mission to protect the environment and human health. The EPA said in May it would shift its scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices that focus on major issues such as air and water.
The agency said on Friday it is creating a new office of applied science and environmental solutions that will allow it to focus on research and science “more than ever before”.
Once fully implemented, the changes will save the EPA nearly $750m, officials said.
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Amid the buzz surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein files, Donald Trump insisted on Saturday that the US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities have completely “obliterated” the sites.
Writing on TruthSocial, Trump said:
All three nuclear sites in Iran were completely destroyed and/or OBLITERATED. It would take years to bring them back into service and, if Iran wanted to do so, they would be much better off starting anew, in three different locations, prior to those sites being obliterated, should they decide to do so. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Trump’s post comes after a new NBC report, which cited five current and former US officials familiar with a recent US assessment of the strikes, said that two of the three sites were not “as badly damaged”.
The news report, which was released on Thursday, added that two out of the three sites were “degraded only to a point where nuclear enrichment could resume in the next several months if Iran wants it to”.
Tom Phillips
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has reportedly stripped eight of Brazil’s 11 supreme court judges of their US visas as the White House escalates its campaign to help the country’s former president Jair Bolsonaro avoid justice over his alleged attempt to seize power with a military coup.
Bolsonaro, a far-right populist with ties to Donald Trump’s Maga movement, is on trial for allegedly masterminding a murderous plot to cling to power after losing the 2022 election to his leftwing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro is expected to be convicted by the supreme court in the coming weeks and faces a jail sentence of up to 43 years.
As the day of judgment nears, Trump has been increasing pressure on the court and President Lula’s administration. On 9 July, the US president announced he would impose 50% tariffs on all Brazilian imports as of 1 August, partly as a result of the supposed persecution of his ally. The move triggered an outpouring of nationalist anger in the South American country, with Lula describing it as “unacceptable blackmail”.
Lauren Aratani
After years of heated attacks on the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, the Trump administration has begun suggesting recent costly renovations at the central bank’s Washington DC buildings could justify firing Powell.
Donald Trump’s antipathy for Powell stems mainly from the central bank boss’s refusal to lower interest rates – something the president has repeatedly called for.
Recent comments from the supreme court suggested firing Powell could be unconstitutional, but that hasn’t stopped the White House from getting creative.
Any move by the White House to formally dismiss the Fed chair would be unprecedented. The president has historically respected the independence of the central bank, and kept out of its way – even if there was disagreement over policy.
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Trump: nothing will be good enough for ‘lunatics’ requesting Epstein files
Donald Trump said on Saturday that he had asked the justice department to release all grand jury testimony in Jeffrey Epstein’s case. In a post on Truth Social, the president declared that even if the court gave its “full and unwavering support” that “nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request”:
I have asked the Justice Department to release all Grand Jury testimony with respect to Jeffrey Epstein, subject only to Court Approval. With that being said, and even if the Court gave its full and unwavering approval, nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request. It will always be more, more, more. MAGA!
Carter Sherman
The Trump administration has decided to destroy $9.7m worth of contraceptives rather than send them abroad to women in need.
A state department spokesperson confirmed that the decision had been made – a move that will cost US taxpayers $167,000. The contraceptives are primarily long-acting, such as IUDs and birth control implants, and were almost certainly intended for women in Africa, according to two senior congressional aides, one of whom visited a warehouse in Belgium that housed the contraceptives. It is not clear to the aides whether the destruction has already been carried out, but said they had been told that it was set to occur by the end of July.
“It is unacceptable that the state department would move forward with the destruction of more than $9m in taxpayer-funded family planning commodities purchased to support women in crisis settings, including war zones and refugee camps,” Jeanne Shaheen, a Democratic senator from New Hampshire, said in a statement. Shaheen and Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii, have introduced legislation to stop the destruction.
“This is a waste of US taxpayer dollars and an abdication of US global leadership in preventing unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions and maternal deaths,” added Shaheen, who in June sent a letter to the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, about the matter.
The department decided to destroy the contraceptives because it could not sell them to any “eligible buyers”, in part because of US laws and rules that prohibit sending US aid to organizations that provide abortion services, counsel people about the procedure or advocate for the right to it overseas, according to the state department spokesperson.
David Smith
The “Make America Great Again” (Maga) base is in revolt as never before. The trigger was Donald Trump’s broken promise to publicly release details about Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, who was facing federal charges of sex-trafficking minors when he died in jail in 2019.
Spurred by the president and his allies, Trump’s movement has long latched on to the Epstein scandal, claiming the existence of a secret client list and that he was murdered in his cell as part of a cover-up. But last week the justice department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced there was no evidence that the disgraced financier kept such a list or was blackmailing powerful figures.
Far from closing the case, the memo deepened supporters’ obsession and sense of grievance. A movement defined by the view that elites rig the system against them felt cheated. Trump made efforts to douse the flames with ever-shifting explanations, excuses and distractions but merely poured fuel on the fire.
To some, his erratic and evasive behaviour implies a guilty secret. It also evokes a line from President John F Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address: “Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.” Having spent years embracing QAnon-tinged propaganda that casts him as the only saviour who can demolish the “deep state”, Trump is now seen as co-opted by its corrupt bureaucracy.
Senior Brazilian official says judiciary won’t be intimidated by US visa bans
Brazil’s judiciary will not be intimidated by a US decision to target officials involved in the trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro with visa bans, a senior judicial official said late on Friday, criticising the move as arbitrary, according to Reuters.
In an escalation of tensions between US President Donald Trump and the government of Latin America’s largest economy, Washington imposed visa restrictions on Friday on supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes, his family and other unnamed court officials. The visa bans were a response to the supreme court’s decision to issue search warrants and restraining orders targeting Trump ally Bolsonaro, who is accused of plotting a coup to overturn the results of a 2022 election he lost.
Solicitor general Jorge Messias, the top judicial official for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s executive branch, said in a statement posted on X that prosecutor general Paulo Gonet was also targeted by the ban. “Rest assured that no improper manoeuvre or sordid conspiratorial act will intimidate our country’s judiciary in the independent and dignified exercise of its task,” he added.
According to Reuters, Messias said the Brazilian officials were subject to “arbitrary acts of visa revocation by a foreign nation on account of their fulfilment of their legitimate institutional responsibilities in accordance with constitutional terms”.
In addition to Moraes, seven other justices from Brazil’s 11-member supreme court were also hit by the US visa restrictions, government institutional relations minister Gleisi Hoffmann said on Friday. They include justices Luís Roberto Barroso, Dias Toffoli, Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino, Cármen Lúcia, Edson Fachin, and Gilmar Mendes.
The prosecutor general’s office and the supreme court did not immediately respond to Reuter’s requests for comment.
Trump has criticised the proceedings against Bolsonaro as a “witch-hunt”, a term he has used to describe his own treatment by political opponents, and has called for the charges to be dropped. In a letter last week, he announced a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods starting 1 August, opening the message with criticism of the trial.
Bolsonaro is on trial before Brazil’s supreme court on charges of plotting a coup to stop Lula from taking office in January 2023. Bolsonaro has denied that he led an attempt to overthrow the government but has acknowledged taking part in meetings aimed at reversing the election’s outcome.
Cpt Adam VanGerpen, public information officer for the Los Angeles fire department told ABC that people inside the club came out to help in the minutes before emergency crews arrived to help the victims, after a vehicle drove into a crowd along Santa Monica Boulevard in East Hollywood.
According to the Associated Press (AP), he said:
They were all standing in line going into a nightclub. There was a taco cart out there, so they were … getting some food, waiting to go in. And there’s also a valet line there. The valet podium was taken out, the taco truck was taken out, and then a large number of people were impacted by the vehicle.