Published: 2025-07-11 18:54:58 | Views: 13
Donald Trump and first lady Melania have arrived in Texas. Air Force One landed at Kelly Field air base in San Antonio, Texas, just before noon local time, according to a press pool report. Trump will now head to Kerrville to survey flood damage.
Key events
Jeffrey Epstein case blowback from the right roils FBI, justice department leadership
A circular firing squad has reportedly formed inside the White House as administration officials react to fallout from rightwing supporters of conspiracy theories about the death of Jeffrey Epstein and officials’ handling of the investigation.
Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer, said on X that FBI deputy director Dan Bongino is clashing with Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel. Loomer is calling for Trump to fire Bondi over her handling of the case.
Follow-up reporting by Axios said Bondi and Patel confronted Bongino with a NewsNation article that said he and Patel would have released information about Epstein earlier, but were held back by the DoJ. Bongino denied leaking that idea and didn’t show up for work on Friday, leading some insiders to believe Bongino had quit. Administration officials say he remains at the FBI.
The dispute is over a surveillance video released in conjunction with a joint FBI-DoJ report that determined Epstein had not been keeping a client list for blackmail and had committed suicide as previous investigations had concluded. The 10-hour video from outside of Epstein’s cell was strongly touted by Bongino as proof no one had entered the room before he killed himself.
But the video was found to have a minute of missing footage. Administration officials attribute the missing minute to the recording system changing over to a new tape at midnight.
Donald Trump and first lady Melania have arrived in Texas. Air Force One landed at Kelly Field air base in San Antonio, Texas, just before noon local time, according to a press pool report. Trump will now head to Kerrville to survey flood damage.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that the US has resumed military supplies and that his army leaders would work next week with US special envoy Keith Kellogg, according to Reuters.
Ukrainian media reported that Kellogg will arrive in Kyiv on Monday for a week-long visit.
‘A galaxy far, far away’… coming soon to a protest near you
Members and leaders of the progressive activist group Indivisible saw fans of the Disney+ series “Andor” at the massive No Kings protests in June. They carried posters referencing the show, and the group saw discussions about attending the protests on different fan sites.
Now, Indivisible is trying to explicitly reach fans of the show, an origin story of the Rebel Alliance that fights against the Empire, finding analogies between the show and the rising Trump resistance.
The group is running ads on Facebook, targeting Star Wars fans with a graphic of a protester carrying a “We have friends everywhere” sign, a line from the show. They’re also running podcast ads on a fan podcast. The ads invite people in the fandom to training sessions or to their local Indivisible group and are designed to boost name recognition of Indivisible among people who could be politically aligned but in places that aren’t explicitly political.
“Andor might be taking place in a galaxy far far away, but the connections to what’s happening in this country are inescapable,” an ad running on the podcast “Storm of Spoilers” says. “We’re seeing a steady march by a tyrannical regime against our communities and our rights.”
The overall money spent is not big – but it’s an experiment in reaching out to new demographics, a common theme on the left after the 2024 losses. In the past, the group has targeted Taylor Swift fans and people who read romance novels.
Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible and an Andor fan, said fans of the show are finding inspiration from it in this “moment of creeping authoritarianism”.
“Just like on the show, we want to help people move from personal frustration and occasional protest, to more sustained and inter-connected defiance – though unlike the show, obviously, our ‘rebellion’ isn’t one that involves violence,” Levin said. “At Indivisible, we’re experts on helping new people get involved in activism – and we literally have ‘friends everywhere,’ since there are 2,600+ local Indivisible groups around the country. So this feels like a natural fit.”
Missouri’s governor Mike Kehoe has signed the repeal of a law that guaranteed paid sick leave – just eight months after voters approved it.
Kehoe signed the repeal of a law on Thursday that had guaranteed paid sick leave to workers and inflationary adjustments to the minimum wage.
The move marked a major victory for the state’s largest business group and a frustrating defeat for workers’ rights advocates, who had spent years – and millions of dollars – building support for the successful ballot measure, which also granted inflationary adjustments to the minimum wage. The repeal will take effect on 28 August.
Kehoe, who also signed a package of tax breaks on Thursday, described the paid sick leave law as an onerous mandate that imposed burdensome record-keeping.
“Today, we are protecting the people who make Missouri work – families, job creators, and small business owners – by cutting taxes, rolling back overreach, and eliminating costly mandates,” Kehoe, a Republican, said in a statement carried by AP.
United Airlines tie-up with JetBlue raises anti-competition concerns
Senator Richard Blumenthal described a proposed partnership between United Airlines and JetBlue Airways as anti-competitive, questioning the CEOs of both companies about their records and plans in a letter seen on Friday by Reuters.
United is the second-largest airline by revenue and the fourth by passengers carried in 2024 in the United States. JetBlue is a low-cost competitor with about a quarter of United’s capacity. Shares of both firms were lower on the news of Blumenthal’s concerns.
JetBlue has been seeking partnerships for years and has been thwarted twice by competition rulings. JetBlue’s partnership with American Airlines ended in 2023 after a federal judge blocked it. JetBlue and Spirit broke off a planned $3.8bn merger last year after a US judge blocked the deal on anti-competition grounds.
In the letter to United CEO Scott Kirby and JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty, the Democratic senator asked about their “Blue Sky” agreement to share bookings across websites and points in each airline’s frequent flyer programs. Blumenthal expressed concern about any deal “that may harm full and fair airline competition and lead to fewer and more expensive options for travelers, particularly in the New York City area”.
Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche says there is “no daylight” between the FBI and the Department of Justice leadership on the assertions made in a joint memo about the death of Jeffrey Epstein in custody.
“I worked closely with [FBI director Kash Patel] and [FBI deputy director Dan Bongino] on the joint FBI and DOJ memo regarding the Epstein Files,” Blanche wrote on X. “All of us signed off on the contents of the memo and the conclusions stated in the memo. The suggestion by anyone that there was any daylight between the FBI and DOJ leadership on this memo’s composition and release is patently false.”
The memo released earlier this week by administration officials reaffirmed earlier findings that Epstein committed suicide in his cell on 10 August 2019. “This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’” it states. “There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
Donald Trump – an acquaintance of the disgraced financier, who was facing charges of sex trafficking of minors at the time of his death – has come under withering criticism from the right, which had been expecting Trump to make good on campaign pledges to release more information about the case.
Trump erupted at a question asked at a press conference on Tuesday about a one-minute gap in a 10-hour video recorded outside of Epstein’s cell. “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” he said. “This guy’s been talked about for years … Are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.”
The Senate armed services committee has approved $500m in security assistance for Ukraine, according to Reuters.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an annual policy bill that authorizes funding levels and provides authorities for the U.S. military, includes a provision to extend the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative through 2028 and to increase funding from $300m to $500m this year.
The initiative will help Ukraine’s defense capabilities in its ongoing war against Russia, which invaded in 2022.
Americans are becoming less opposed to immigration, a Gallup poll suggests:
30% of Americans want immigration decreased, down from 55% a year ago
Record-high 79% consider immigration good for the country
Support down for border wall, mass deportation
A new Gallup poll released today suggests that the political potency of illegal immigration may be abating as Americans see what draconian immigration enforcement actually looks like.
The portion of Americans who want immigration to be reduced has returned to the level measured by polls in 2021, Gallup reported. 38% now want immigration kept at its current level, and 26% say it should be increased. The collapse in opposition to immigration is largest among Republicans, down 40% over the past year to 48%. Republicans remain the only group with a plurality seeking immigration reductions. Among independents, opposition to rising immigration is down 21 points to 30%, and among Democrats, down 12 points to 16%.
When asked if immigration is generally a good thing or bad thing for the country, a record-high 79% of U.S. adults call it a good thing; a record-low 17% see it as a bad thing.
Dimon blasts Democrats for DEI, calls Mamdami a Marxist
JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon blasted Democrats at an event hosted by the Irish foreign ministry in Dublin yesterday, calling them “idiots” for focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion.
“I always say they have big hearts and little brains,” Bloomberg news reported. “They do not understand how the real world works. Almost every single policy rolled out failed.” Dimon restated his company’s devotion to “reaching out to the Black community, Hispanic, the LGBT community, the disabled – we do all of that. But the extent, they gotta stop it. And they gotta go back to being more practical. They’re very ideological.”
Dimon also described Zohran Mamdami, the New York state representative and Democratic nominee in the New York City mayoral race, as “more a Marxist than a socialist”.
Tariffs were very much on Dimon’s mind, after Donald Trump announced a new round proposing a 50% levy on Brazil and on the copper trade. Trump reversed course on tariffs earlier this year after wild swings in the stock market. The banking leader warned Wall Street that the so-called Taco Trade – investments that speculate on Trump’s propensity to back down from tariff threats – are preventing a reaction to risk that creates the very market conditions that would see the tariffs take effect this time.
“I think he did the right thing to chicken out,” he said, per the Financial Times. “Unfortunately, I think there is complacency in the market.”
In comments to reporters in the White House driveway this morning, Russ Vought responded to questions about Fema and it’s ability to respond to future disasters.
The Washington Post reported Friday that the administration is backing away from plans to shutter Fema entirely.
“Fema has $13b in its reserves right now to continue to pay for the necessary expenses,” the Office of Management and Budget director said of that agency, according to a pool report. He added that “the president has said to Texas, anything it needs it will get.” He continued that, at the same time, “we also want Fema to be reformed. We want Fema to work well … the president is going to continue to be asking tough questions of all of his agencies.”
Former Ice attorney speaks out about employee morale in the agency
A piece from The Atlantic yesterday described the moral conundrum of Ice agents, highlighting Adam Boyd, a 33-year-old attorney who ultimately quit Ice’s legal department last month.
Deportations are now a numbers game, with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller setting a daily arrest quota of 3,000 that is getting little push back inside an agency that has had its senior leadership replaced, even though rank-and-file Ice agents perceive that target as impossible to meet.
Standards for due process for immigration detainees has deteriorated, Boyd said. He couldn’t remain at the agency in good conscience.
“I had to make a moral decision,” Boyd told The Atlantic’s Nick Miroff. “We still need good attorneys at Ice. There are drug traffickers and national-security threats and human-rights violators in our country who need to be dealt with. But we are now focusing on numbers over all else.” Some Ice attorneys “are only waiting until their student loans are forgiven, and then they’re leaving”, he said.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington this week did not result in a ceasefire deal for the Gaza war, despite Donald Trump’s efforts, the Associated Press reports.
Despite Trump throwing his weight behind a push for a 60-day truce between Israel and Hamas, no breakthrough was announced during Netanyahu’s visit, a disappointment for a president who wants to be known as a peacemaker and has hinged his reputation on being a dealmaker. His aim of making a peace deal has been challenged by the Israeli prime minster’s desire to continuing the war until Hamas is destroyed.
Yesterday, my colleague José Olivares reported that the death toll in Texas was plateaued at 120, signaling that rescuers have made little progress to find victims amid wreckage in the past 24 hours. From José’s report:
On Thursday morning, local officials in Kerr county, which was hit the hardest by the 4 July flash flood, announced that 96 people had died, the same number reported on Wednesday evening.
Thursday’s update comes a day after Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, discussed plans to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Weeks ago, Trump had promised to begin “phasing out” Fema in order to “bring it down to the state level”.
You can read the full story here:
In about an hour, we expect Donald Trump and Melania Trump, the first lady, to depart the White House for Kerrville, Texas, where scores of people have been killed and remain missing after catastrophic flooding hit the region last week.
While the Trump administration isn’t backing away from its pledges to shutter the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), it has lessened its focus on the topic since the 4 July disaster.
The president is expected to do an aerial tour of some of the hard-hit areas, according to the Associated Press. The White House also said he will visit the state emergency operations center to meet with first responders and relatives of flood victims.
Trump will also get a briefing from officials. Republican Governor Greg Abbott, Senator John Cornyn and Senator Ted Cruz are expected to the visit.
A recent ruling by the US supreme court cleared the way for the state department layoffs to start while lawsuits challenging cuts continue to play out.
The department formally advised staffers on Thursday that it would be sending layoff notices to some of them soon.
Marco Rubio said officials took “a very deliberate step to reorganize the state department to be more efficient and more focused”, the Associated Press reported.
“It’s not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don’t need those positions,” the US secretary of state told reporters. “Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.”
Rubio said some of the cuts will be unfilled positions or those that are about to be vacant because an employee took an early retirement.
