Trump Team Weighed Range of Options for Oil Supply Disruptions
The odds of needing to employ those strategies diminished Monday evening after Trump announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a tentative truce.
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Yahoo
5 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Newsom Hits Hard At 'Unmoored' Trump Amid Epstein Scandal: 'This Is Not The Same Trump'
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) came full swing at President Donald Trump Saturday, claiming the president is lying to cover up his involvement in convicted sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein's case. 'He's lying to cover up his prior lies and then lying again. Now he doesn't even know truth from fiction, and so look, he's caught it red handed,' Newsom told popular left-wing influencer Brian Tyler Cohen in an interview that aired Saturday. 'He's in the files. We know it, period, full stop.' Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have received major backlash in the past few weeks over their handling of Epstein's files after hyping them up, then failing to release more information. Many of those outraged are the president's own supporters, who are beginning to turn on him over the issue. Meanwhile, news outlets have been resurfacing old videos, photos and documents that suggest a close friendship between the president and Epstein. 'His biggest supporters may have been the difference in the election, and he turned on them. He has zero loyalty,' Newsom said. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Bondi informed Trump in May that his name was in the files related to Epstein's case. 'He's part of this cover up, and he has confused even the most ardent observers here. I mean, you can't — the guy's a pretzel on this issue. Every hour, he contradicts a statement,' Newsom told Cohen. This week, Trump's former criminal defense attorney, now Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, met with Epstein's co-conspirator and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. The president told reporters that pardoning Maxwell is not something he has thought about, but noted that he is 'allowed to do it' 'This is sick stuff. This is sick,' Newsom said. 'I mean, if you're a conspiracy theorist, I mean, they're going to turn me into one. Why the hell are we even talking to her? What, a pardon for what? No, seriously, for what?' He added that Trump has seemed increasingly 'unmoored' as speculation grows about his past relationship with Epstein. 'He's lost a step,' Newsom said. 'This is not the same Trump 1.0. This is, something's off, increasingly off, and he's getting, he's unmoored in ways even by Trump's standards I haven't seen. I don't want to overstate this moment, but you can't understate. This is something, something ain't right, as they say.' Newsom went on to bash Trump over recent actions that some have speculated were intentional distractions from the Epstein scandal, such as threatening to strip Rosie O'Donnell of citizenship, vowing to put cane sugar in Coca-Cola, complaining about the name of the Washington Commanders and sharing a bizarre AI-generated video of Barack Obama being arrested. 'It reminds me of a punch drunk boxer. He's just wildly flailing. He's flailing. He's just zigging and zagging. He's desperate,' Newsom said. 'He's trying anything, trying to chum the waters, and it's not working. And normally it works for him. It's not working right now.' The governor told Cohen that Trump is 'going to have to do a lot more than he's done in the past to be able to dig his way out of this.' Related... Joe Rogan On Trump Administration's Handling Of Epstein Files: 'Do You Think We're Babies?' Trump Claims He 'Never Went' To Epstein's Island, Tells People To Focus On Bill Clinton Instead What To Know About Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's Longtime Collaborator
Chicago Tribune
6 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Official fired during President Donald Trump's first term appointed president of embattled US Institute of Peace
A senior State Department official who was fired as a speechwriter during President Donald Trump's first term and has a history of incendiary statements has been appointed to lead the embattled U.S. Institute of Peace. The move to install Darren Beattie as the institute's new acting president is seen as the latest step in the administration's efforts to dismantle the embattled organization, which was founded as an independent, non-profit think tank. It is funded by Congress to promote peace and prevent and end conflicts across the globe. The battle is currently being played out in court. Beattie, who currently serves as the under secretary for public diplomacy at the State Department and will continue on in that role, was fired during Trump's first term after CNN reported that he had spoken at a 2016 conference attended by white nationalists. He defended the speech he delivered as containing nothing objectionable. A former academic who taught at Duke University, Beattie also founded a right-wing website that shared conspiracies about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and has a long history of posting inflammatory statements on social media. 'Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work,' he wrote on October 2024. 'Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.' A State Department official confirmed Beattie's appointment by the USIP board of directors, which currently includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. '(W)e look forward to seeing him advance President Trump's America First agenda in this new role,' they said. The USIP has been embroiled in turmoil since Trump moved to dismantle it shortly after taking office as part of his broader effort to shrink the size of the federal government and eliminate independent agencies. Trump issued an executive order in February that targeted the organization and three other agencies for closure. The first attempt by the Department of Government Efficiency, formerly under the command of tech billionaire Elon Musk, to take over its headquarters led to a dramatic standoff. Members of Musk's group returned days later with the FBI and Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police to help them gain entry. The administration fired most of the institute's board, followed by the mass firing of nearly all of its 300 employees in what they called 'the Friday night massacre.' The institute and many of its board members sued the Trump administration in March, seeking to prevent their removal and to prevent DOGE from taking over the institute's operations. DOGE transferred administrative oversight of the organization's headquarters and assets to the General Services Administration that weekend. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell overturned those actions in May, concluding that Trump was outside his authority in firing the board and its acting president and that, therefore, all subsequent actions were also moot. Her ruling allowed the institute to regain control of its headquarters in a rare victory for the agencies and organizations that have been caught up in the Trump administration's downsizing. The employees were rehired, although many did not return to work because of the complexity of restarting operations. They received termination orders — for the second time, however, — after an appeals court stayed Howell's order. Most recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the U.S. Institute of Peace's request for a hearing of the full court to lift the stay of a three-judge panel in June. That stay led to the organization turning its headquarters back over to the Trump Administration. In a statement, George Foote, former counsel for the institute, said Beattie's appointment 'flies in the face of the values at the core of USIP's work and America's commitment to working respectfully with international partners' and also called it 'illegal under Judge Howell's May 19 decision.' 'We are committed to defending that decision against the government's appeal. We are confident that we will succeed on the merits of our case, and we look forward to USIP resuming its essential work in Washington, D.C. and in conflict zones around the world,' he said.
The Hill
6 minutes ago
- The Hill
Sunday shows preview: Trump remains embroiled in Epstein drama as tariff deadline looms
The Trump administration and Cabinet members remain entangled in a saga entrenched in controversy over files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which is likely to be a focus of this week's Sunday shows. Members of Congress and the public are continuing to call on leaders to release the names of past clients, associates and businessmen linked to Epstein's dealings, urging President Trump to make good on his campaign promise to provide transparency on the deceased criminal's actions. Their push for more information follows a July joint memo from the FBI and Justice Department (DOJ) that confirmed Epstein kept no 'client list' and said no further files tied to the late financier would be released by the federal government. Epstein's longtime partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, agreed to speak with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche this week about the international sex trafficking ring run by the two. 'This was a thorough, comprehensive interview by the Deputy Attorney General. No person and no topic were off-limits. We are very grateful. The truth will come out,' Maxwell's attorney David Oscar Markus said in a statement to NewsNation, the sister network of The Hill. Maxwell was granted limited immunity amid her push to appeal her conviction before the Supreme Court. DOJ officials have opposed the effort but continue to applaud her cooperation while the president has not completely ruled out the possibility of pardoning Epstein's accomplice, who's now serving a 20-year sentence behind bars. Lawmakers disgruntled by the lengthy delay to unveil new evidence voted Tuesday to subpoena Maxwell to testify before the House Oversight Committee. A House Oversight subpanel on Wednesday approved several subpoenas including one directing the DOJ to turn over materials relating to the Epstein files. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Rep. Riley Moore ( will likely discuss the huddle amongst their GOP colleagues this week on Sunday shows, addressing their party's strategy to investigate Epstein's criminal dealings without stepping on the Trump administration's toes. McCaul is set to appear on CBS's 'Face the Nation' and Moore is slated to appear on CNN's 'State of the Union.' Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is set to address the Democratic push to force transparency on the president's ties to Epstein's illegal actions on his Sunday appearance on ABC's 'This Week.' Amidst the legislative drama, the White House is courting foreign nations to coax mutually beneficial trade deals between the U.S. and its international partners. Officials sent out the first batch of letters earlier this month to other nations informing them of new tariff rates, but those tariffs won't go into effect until Aug. 1, White House officials said. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who sits on the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee, may address the impact set to strike the country's business through the onset of levies during Sunday appearances on Fox News's 'Fox News Sunday' and NBC's 'Meet the Press.' This week, markets surged as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell waved off criticism from the president on Thursday and corrected his projected costs for projects undertaken by the entity. The S&P 500 finished 0.4 percent up, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 208 points or 0.47 percent. Many await further direction from the Fed Chair on inflation as more permanent tariffs take effect and Americans begin to feel the jolt from its repercussions. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Development could address how different business ventures may thrive or decline due to newer trade policies. All this and more will be discussed on this week's Sunday shows. Please see the full list of appearances below: NewsNation's 'The Hill Sunday:' Former Amb. John Bolton, Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) and Former Gov. Chris Sununu (R-N.H.) ABC's 'This Week:' Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.); Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) CNN's 'State of the Union:' Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Mark Warner, (D-Va.); Rep. Riley Moore ( CBS' 'Face the Nation:' Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.); Rep. Michael McCaul, (R-Texas); International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi; former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb NBC's 'Meet the Press:' Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.); Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for New York mayor
