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'Epstein Files Written by Obama, Clinton, and Biden': Donald Trump's Truth Social rant fuels conspiracy theories and backlash

'Epstein Files Written by Obama, Clinton, and Biden': Donald Trump's Truth Social rant fuels conspiracy theories and backlash

Time of India7 hours ago
In a major move, US President Donald Trump is working tirelessly to shift the public focus away from the Epstein Files and the controversial 'no client list' memo, which has drawn criticism even from within his own MAGA supporters. On Saturday, in a long post on Truth Social, Trump showed his support for Attorney General Pam Bondi, who drew most of the flak from MAGA supporters over the Epstein Files memo, and suggested that these files were written by people working for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, James Comey, and John Brennan.
Donald Trump blames political rivals for Epstein files, calls out so-called friends
Further in the post, Trump went on to say, "Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration...... They created the Epstein Files, just like they created the FAKE Hillary Clinton/Christopher Steele Dossier."
"They used me, and now my so-called 'friends' are playing right into their hands," Trump posted.
Not only this, but he has silenced the reporters questioning him on the Epstein Files memo and berated them for focusing on the subject rather than just talking about what he thinks are the topics of more importance, such as the Texas floods.
Donald Trump's Truth Social post on Epstein Files sparks major backlash
In the post, Trump further suggested that the Epstein Files were written by Democrats, and this sparked more backlash for the president. One user on X (formerly called Twitter) wrote, "If there are them fabricated Epstein files, did they also destroy the actual files??"
If there are dem fabricated Epstein files, did they also destroy the actual files??
"I'm shocked and disappointed that he is not reading the room better than this. And I have supported him since the beginning," another added.
While another added, "This is so embarrassingly insulting. At some point, we must stop using Bondi, Bongino, or Kash as scapegoats and demand answers from Trump himself."
I'm sorry but this is peak gaslighting - and how on earth can you say NO ONE CARES about Jeffrey Epstein. There are countless victims & Maxwell is in prison? He didn't off himself if he was innocent. I honestly never thought they'd release the files or that we would get justice…
Trump has known ties to Jeffrey Epstein, having been photographed and filmed alongside Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell several times. During his 2024 campaign, the 79-year-old pledged to make the Epstein Files public if he returned to the Oval Office.
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Pentagon official at center of weapons pause on Ukraine wants US to focus on China
Pentagon official at center of weapons pause on Ukraine wants US to focus on China

Mint

time31 minutes ago

  • Mint

Pentagon official at center of weapons pause on Ukraine wants US to focus on China

WASHINGTON : Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's top policy official, wants to refocus the U.S. military on countering China. That has put him at the center of the Trump administration's abrupt moves on providing weapons to Ukraine. It was Colby, a 45-year-old grandson of a former Central Intelligence Agency director, who wrote a memo to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in early June outlining how Ukraine's requests for U.S. weapons could further stretch already depleted Pentagon stockpiles. The memo didn't have a recommendation and was described by a defense official as a tool for assessing how arms deliveries would affect U.S. stockpiles. But some officials in the administration and in Congress say it figured in the Pentagon's decision to suspend some arms shipments to Kyiv, a move President Trump later reversed. The incident exemplifies Colby's push to make good on years of U.S. vows to boost its military position in the Western Pacific, his supporters say. But it also highlights the contrary pressures on an administration that, in its first months in office, has already launched major military operations against Iran and the Houthis in the Middle East while continuing military deliveries to Ukraine. Colby 'has been thinking very deeply about how the United States can best defend itself in an era of constrained resources," said Dan Caldwell, a former adviser to Hegseth. 'A lot of policymakers have refused to accept that reality." Colby has turned down interview requests about his views on helping Ukraine and in urging U.S. partners in Asia and Europe to step up their defense efforts. But in a social-media message Saturday, he said that he would continue to press allies to boost their military spending, even if some 'might not welcome frank discussions." Some of those frank discussions have included pressing Japan and Australia to make clear what military steps they are prepared to take in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan, according to a person familiar with the exchanges. Colby's efforts have surprised some officials in the region because the U.S.'s longstanding policy of 'strategic ambiguity" has avoided an explicit statement about what actions Washington might take if Chinese forces moved against Taiwan, and even Trump hasn't spelled out what he would do. Colby's discussions were earlier reported by the Financial Times. In arguing for doubling down on China, Colby is known as a 'prioritizer" who favors limiting U.S. obligations outside Asia to free up resources to counter Beijing. In so doing, he has differentiated himself from 'restrainers" who have urged that the U.S. pull back from overseas commitments, as well as traditional Republican hawks. Though presidents from both parties, starting with Barack Obama, have called for focusing U.S. national security strategy on China, putting the idea into practice has proven difficult, partly due to new threats that have emerged outside Asia and partly due to the Pentagon's longstanding commitments in Europe and the Middle East. Colby's calls to de-emphasize demands on U.S. forces other than in Asia have left him out of step with some Republicans. 'For many years, GOP 'prioritizers' have argued that the United States should not strike Iran or aid Ukraine because it must husband its resources for a possible war with China," said Matthew Kroenig of the Atlantic Council, who was a national security adviser to the 2012 Mitt Romney and 2016 Marco Rubio presidential campaigns. 'President Trump, in contrast, believes 'America First' requires continued U.S. involvement in multiple regions of the world." When Trump nominated Colby to serve as undersecretary of defense for policy in December, the fissures among Republicans over national security came to the fore. Colby received a hearty endorsement at his March confirmation hearing from Vice President JD Vance, who has long been a skeptical voice on providing billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine and has called Colby a friend. Colby was grilled by Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) about his past statement that it was feasible to contain a nuclear-armed Iran. Colby amended his stance in that confirmation hearing, saying that Iran cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and that he would provide the president with military options to stop it from doing so. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the only Republican to vote against Colby's confirmation, lambasted him for promoting policies that could lead to 'geostrategic self-harm." Colby has deep family connections to the foreign policy establishment through his grandfather, former CIA Director William Colby. 'Bridge," as he is known in Washington, attended school in Japan, where his father worked for an investment bank, before graduating from Harvard University. At Yale Law School he was a housemate of Jon Finer, the former deputy national security adviser to President Joe Biden. Even then, Colby's contrarian foreign policy priorities were evident: He was a rare Republican who opposed the war in Iraq. Colby has written that the 2003 Iraq war and the lengthy U.S. occupation was a 'historic error" that squandered vast resources. He argued in a 2012 article against striking Iran's nuclear facilities, saying it would provide Tehran 'every incentive to reboot the program with greater vigor." As a deputy assistant secretary of defense during Trump's first term, he played a major role in the drafting of the 2018 national defense strategy, which urged a shift from a focus on counterterrorism that the Pentagon adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to countering China and Russia. Colby's role wasn't without turbulence. Trump's defense secretary at the time, retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, was frustrated with Colby's emphasis on defending Taiwan, participants recall. 'I think Bridge did a really good job in managing the strategy formulation process," said Frank Hoffman, a retired Marine colonel who was brought in by Mattis to help draft the strategy document. 'But in making Taiwan the hinge point of our military competition with China, he had a narrower focus than Secretary Mattis on what the strategy needed to do." Colby elaborated on his views in his 2021 book, 'The Strategy of Denial," in which he argued that the defense of Taiwan was vital because of its proximity to China, along with Japan and the Philippines, forming what Pentagon strategists refer to as the first island chain in the Western Pacific. His focus on China, he noted in the book, included arguing that Russia could be a 'potential collaborator" with the U.S. in an anti-Beijing coalition. And he warned against including Ukraine in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization because the country was 'highly exposed" to a Russia attack 'while offering no meaningful advantage to the alliance that is remotely comparable to the costs and risk that their defense would impose on it." But Colby's call for reprioritizing Pentagon strategy was tested after Russia invaded Ukraine the following year and turned to Beijing for help in expanding the Russian defense industry. Instead of dealing with China in isolation, Washington has faced the prospect of simultaneously deterring two geographically disparate adversaries that have been cooperating. Colby is playing a pivotal role in policy debate and the crafting of a new defense strategy that will set spending and force deployment goals for years to come. Some current and former officials who share Colby's goal of boosting American capabilities in the Pacific say he may be better at standing on principle than bringing allies along. Colby has irked Tokyo by urging that it commit to boosting military spending to 3.5% of its gross domestic product, they say. With policy disagreements over military spending and tariffs, Japan put off high-level talks with the U.S. that had been expected in July. A review Colby is conducting of a 2021 agreement—known as Aukus, under which Australia will get nuclear-powered attack submarines from the U.S. while contributing several billion dollars to the U.S. defense-industrial base—has concerned Australian officials. In an interview with Australian television last year, Colby said it would be 'crazy" for the U.S. to provide attack submarines to Australia unless the Pentagon can be assured it would have enough for itself, adding that the U.S. would be 'lucky" to get to the 2030s without a conflict with China. But it was the classified memo that preceded the pause in arms deliveries to Ukraine that especially spotlighted Colby's views. It tallied the numbers of weapons sought by Ukraine along with how many the U.S. has in its stocks for training and warfighting around the world. Trump later told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he wasn't responsible for the pause in shipments that followed, which he has since lifted. Wess Mitchell, a former senior State Department official who once started a policy organization with Colby called the Marathon Initiative, said the Pentagon official's focus on making tough decisions to deter China is driven by concern that the U.S. is overstretched. 'Bridge has put his finger on the real problem and said 'Let's give priority to the main threat even if that means we have to accept trade-offs in the other regions,' " Mitchell said. 'People may disagree with his approach, but it is driven by a legitimate concern, which is we don't currently have the resources for a three-front war." Write to Michael R. Gordon at and Lara Seligman at

Trump intensifies trade war with threat of 30% tariffs on EU, Mexico
Trump intensifies trade war with threat of 30% tariffs on EU, Mexico

Time of India

timean hour ago

  • Time of India

Trump intensifies trade war with threat of 30% tariffs on EU, Mexico

President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to impose a 30 per cent tariff on imports from Mexico and the European Union starting on August 1, after weeks of negotiations with the major US trading partners failed to reach a comprehensive trade deal. In an escalation of the trade war that has angered US allies and rattled investors, Trump announced the latest tariffs in separate letters to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum that were posted on his Truth Social media site on Saturday. The EU and Mexico responded by calling the tariffs unfair and disruptive while pledging to continue to negotiate with the US for a broader trade deal before the deadline. The EU and Mexico are among the largest US trading partners. Trump sent similar letters to 23 other trading partners this week, including Canada, Japan and Brazil, setting blanket tariff rates ranging from 20 per cent up to 50 per cent, as well as a 50 per cent tariff on copper. Trump said the 30 per cent rate was "separate from all sectoral tariffs," which means 50 per cent levies on steel and aluminum imports and a 25 per cent tariff on auto imports would remain. The August 1 deadline gives the targeted countries time to negotiate agreements that could lower the threatened tariffs. The spate of letters shows Trump has returned to the aggressive trade posture that he took in early April when he announced a slew of reciprocal tariffs against trading partners that sent markets tumbling before the White House delayed implementation. 'Unfair treatment' But with the stock market recently hitting record highs and the US economy remaining resilient, Trump is showing no signs of slowing down his trade war. The US president promised to use the 90-day delay in April to strike dozens of new trade deals, but has only secured framework agreements with Britain, China and Vietnam. The EU has hoped to reach a comprehensive trade agreement with the US for the 27-country bloc. Trump's letter to the EU included a demand that Europe drop its own tariffs, an apparent condition of any future deal. "The European Union will allow complete, open Market Access to the United States, with no Tariff being charged to us, in an attempt to reduce the large Trade Deficit," he wrote. Von der Leyen said the 30 per cent tariffs "would disrupt essential transatlantic supply chains, to the detriment of businesses, consumers and patients on both sides of the Atlantic." She also said while the EU will continue to work towards a trade agreement, it "will take all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required." Mexico's economy ministry said Saturday it was informed the US would send a letter during a meeting on Friday with US officials. "We mentioned at the roundtable that it was unfair treatment and that we did not agree," the ministry's statement said. Rate for Mexico lower than Canada Mexico's proposed tariff level is lower than Canada's 35 per cent, with both letters citing fentanyl flows even though government data shows the amount of the drug seized at the Mexican border was significantly higher than the Canadian border. "Mexico has been helping me secure the border, BUT, what Mexico has done, is not enough. Mexico still has not stopped the Cartels who are trying to turn all of North America into a Narco-Trafficking Playground," Trump wrote. China is the main source of the chemicals used to make fentanyl. According to the US Customs and Border Patrol, only 0.2 per cent of all fentanyl seized in the US comes from across the Canadian border, while the vast majority originates from the southern border. Mexico sends more than 80 per cent of its total exported goods to the US and free trade with its northern neighbor drove Mexico to overtake China as the top US trading partner in 2023. The EU had initially hoped to strike a comprehensive trade agreement but more recently had scaled back its ambitions and shifted toward securing a broader framework deal similar to the one Britain brokered that leaves key details to be negotiated. The bloc is under conflicting pressures as powerhouse Germany urged a quick deal to safeguard its industry, while other EU members, such as France, have said EU negotiators should not cave into a one-sided deal on US terms. Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, said Trump's letter raised the risk of retaliatory moves by the EU similar to the flare-up between the US and China that rattled financial markets. "US and Chinese tariffs went up together and they came back down again. Not all the way down, but still down together," he said. Trump's cascade of tariff orders since returning to the White House has begun generating tens of billions of dollars a month in new revenue for the US government. US customs duties revenue topped $100 billion in the federal fiscal year through to June, according to US Treasury data on Friday. The tariffs have also strained diplomatic relationships with some of the closest US partners. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said last week that Japan needed to lessen its dependence on the US The fight over tariffs has also prompted Canada and some European allies to reexamine their security dependence on the U.S., with some looking to purchase non-US weapons systems.

US says screening does not stop at visa approval, warns it will deport those who break laws
US says screening does not stop at visa approval, warns it will deport those who break laws

Scroll.in

timean hour ago

  • Scroll.in

US says screening does not stop at visa approval, warns it will deport those who break laws

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