2026 midterms should be a referendum on Trump's bill, Democratic House Campaign chair says
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The Herald Scotland
23 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Steve Bannon, Megyn Kelly slam Trump admin over Epstein case
While New York's chief medical examiner ruled in 2019 that Epstein died by suicide, Trump on the 2024 campaign trail said he would declassify federal files on the man. A new report released last week by the FBI and Department of Justice said officials found no such list or proof that Epstein was murdered in custody. Timeline: Trump's team promised transparency on Epstein. Here's what they actually delivered. The findings quickly prompted pushback among members of Trump's inner circle and voters alike, who alleged the president's administration wasn't living up to its promises of transparency with the American people. "Please understand the EPSTEIN AFFAIR is not going away," Trump's former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn wrote in a post directed to the president. He warned that unanswered questions means that "moving forward on so many other monumental challenges our nation is facing becomes much harder." Well-known MAGA figures have been publicly airing their grievances with Attorney General Pam Bondi for days following the release of the government's memo. She drew particular criticism over an interview with Fox News in February during which she was asked a question about the so-called client list. "It's sitting on my desk right now to review," Bondi said at the time. But in a July 8 Cabinet meeting, Bondi clarified she was referring to the files in totality. The Epstein case fallout reached a fever pitch July 11, with even those inside the administration reportedly perturbed. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, the second-highest official at the bureau, did not come into work and was weighing resignation, according to CNN and Semafor. But major Republican voices have also said the management of the case has to go beyond Justice Department officials - reaching the president himself. "It's deeper than Epstein," former White House strategist and podcaster Steve Bannon told a crowd of young conservatives at Turning Point USA's Student Action Summit July 12. He went on to predict real electoral consequences for Republicans in the near future. "For this to go away," Bannon said, "you're going to lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement. If we lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement right now, we're going to lose 40 seats in (2026), we're going to lose the presidency." Another public figure typically in Trump's corner, Megyn Kelly also voiced skepticism about law enforcement's recent review of the Epstein files. "There are really only two options," Kelly, a political commentator who identifies as an independent, wrote on X July 12. "There's no huge undisclosed there there on Epstein, Bondi misled on it (until she didn't) & Trump is quick to forgive a loyal soldier for being desperate to get on TV," she said. Or, "There is a scandal that's being covered up & it's at his direction."
The Herald Scotland
23 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Trump assassination attempt still reverberates one year later
"It is very hard not see the hand of Providence on his life, and on the life of our nation," said Ralph Reed, a prominent religious conservative who recounted to USA TODAY that he texted Trump after the U.S. military bombed Iran last month to share his view that the president's life was saved for that historic foreign policy moment. Trump has embarked on one of the most consequential and controversial opening stretches of any presidential term in modern memory - striking Iran's nuclear facilities, overhauling the federal government and pursuing mass deportations. Allies believe his near-death experience on July 13, 2024, has colored this approach to the presidency and made him even more motivated than the last time Trump ran the country. "When you have one of these moments, you realize every day counts ... and that you need to have a profound, lasting impact," said Sean Spicer, who was the White House press secretary during Trump's first term. "And I think that's why he is so mission-driven right now." A dramatic turning point for the 2024 campaign The assassination attempt wasn't just a pivotal moment for Trump. Historians say the shooting continues to reverberate nationwide a year later. "I think it was a dramatic turning point," said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, who described Butler as "extremely important in U.S. presidential history." He noted Trump quickly gained new support after the shooting, expanding his coalition. Trump got a political boost in the immediate aftermath of Butler, which came shortly after a disastrous debate for then-President Joe Biden, which helped force the Democratic incumbent - then 81 years old - out of the race. Republicans rallied around their wounded standard-bearer, who famously appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee two days later with a large white bandage on his ear. It quickly caught on at the GOP gathering as attendees donned ear bandages in solidarity. The shooting added to a sense among Trump supporters that he is a persecuted figure, which was fueled by the four criminal cases filed against him during the campaign. "It sort of suddenly rang true, like, 'Holy smokes, they really are trying to get him,'" Spicer said. Musk's endorsement and how Butler is part of Trump 'lore' Billionaire Elon Musk endorsed Trump on the day of the assassination attempt, and later he appeared onstage with him when the Republican defiantly returned to Butler in October for a rally about a month before Election Day. Musk spent nearly $290 million on the 2024 campaign to help Trump and other Republican candidates, which made him the largest donor, by far, of the election cycle. Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, called the Butler shooting "an inflection point in the campaign." "It made a real difference in his own supporters feeling like they needed to go the extra mile for him and leave it all on the field after he had been willing to step into the arena at the risk of his own life," Reed said. A year later, Butler has become part of Trump's "lore," Brinkley said. It will be featured in his presidential library someday. Its physical effects still linger for Trump, who talks about still experiencing a "throbbing feeling" in his ear. Another reminder of that day went on display in April on the White House State Floor. The presidential residence now features a large painting of Trump pumping his right fist in the air with blood streaked across his face after being shot. The scene captures Trump as he stood onstage, wounded, and defiantly shouted "fight, fight, fight" into the mic before being whisked away by Secret Service agents. It instantly became an iconic image, emblazoned on T-shirts and "indelibly sealed in the American imagination forever," Brinkley said. There also is a statue depicting the moment in the Oval Office. 'I was saved by God to make America great again' As lawmakers and other dignitaries gathered in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda to launch a new administration, Trump recalled how "an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear," imbuing him with a sense of divinely ordained purpose. "I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason," Trump said in his inaugural address in January. "I was saved by God to make America great again." The first five months that followed in Trump's second administration have been a tumultuous time. The president has moved aggressively by pushing legal boundaries and testing the limits of executive power. Many conservatives have cheered his actions. Opponents have protested and accused Trump of acting like an authoritarian. In a statement to USA TODAY on the anniversary of the assassination attempt, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt noted foremost the death of Corey Comperatore, the 50-year-old volunteer firefighter at the Butler rally "who selflessly laid down his life to protect those around him." "President Trump will never forget Corey and his beautiful family," Leavitt wrote, adding: "On that dark day, God spared President Trump's life by a miraculous millimeter. Now one year later, President Trump is standing stronger than ever as he continues to 'fight, fight, fight' for the American people." Trump's 'divine right' narrative Trump's rhetoric about being saved by God to carry out his agenda plays into what Jennifer Mercieca, an expert on political rhetoric who teaches at Texas A&M University, describes as a narrative the Republican reality-TV-star-turned-politician has cultivated for years. Kings once ruled by "divine right," the professor noted, a claim that meant they were "placed in the world by God to rule over others, as God's ambassador on Earth." "Trump has been creating his own 'Divine Right' narrative since 2015, but has especially leaned into it since the assassination attempt," Mercieca wrote in an email response to questions from USA TODAY. As he works to expand the power of the presidency in his second term, she said, "Trump's embrace of a mandate from God is rhetorical framing that, if accepted, gives Trump unlimited power." Evangelical Christians have always been an important part of Trump's base. The shooting in Butler, and Trump's deeper embrace of religious language in its aftermath, may also have special resonance for them. Politically, Brinkley said, that has allowed Trump "to be seen as some kind of avenging angel by the Evangelicals who wanted to drain Sodom and Gomorrah." Trump's allies see a leader grappling with a near-death experience - and changed by it. "I believe it has forever impacted him," Spicer said, "in a very personal way." Contributing: Joey Garrison
The Herald Scotland
24 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Was Trump really shot? Yes, despite conspiracy theories, see evidence
The FBI later deemed that a bullet had struck Trump in the ear, either whole or fragmented, though unfounded conspiracies initially questioned if it was glass or some other piece of shrapnel that injured the president. But a year later, the conspiracy theories haven't stopped. A quick scroll through X shows close-ups of Trump's ear comparing recent and old photos and false theories that the assassination attempt was staged. Here is what we do know about the shooting, and what questions remain: More: One year after Trump's attempted assassination, how politics has changed The first assassination attempt of Donald Trump: What happened? On July 13, 2024, Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman positioned on a rooftop near the rally fired multiple shots toward the then-presidential candidate. Trump was shot in the ear and ducked behind the lectern as Secret Service agents swarmed him and ushered him off stage. However, they did not get him out of public sight before he raised a fist in the air as blood streaked down his face in a photo moment that would be a defining image of his campaign. The shooter was later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, and he was killed by law enforcement. Crooks appeared to have acted alone and did not belong to any particular political leanings. A spectator at the rally was killed, and two were critically injured. Was Trump really shot? Yes, multiple pieces of evidence show Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet. A bipartisan congressional task force was created in the weeks following the first attempt to "investigate all actions by any agency, department, officer, or employee of the federal government, as well as state and local law enforcement (LLE) or any other state or local government or private entities or individuals, related to the attempted assassination," according to a December report from the task force. A timeline of events included in the report shows Crooks fired three shots at 6:11 p.m., with one round hitting Trump's ear before his detail immediately covered his body. A few seconds later, Crooks fired five more shots, the report stated. A week after the shooting, Trump's previous White House physician Rep. Ronny Jackson issued a memo on Trump's injury. "The bullet passed, coming less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear," the memo posted to X read. "The bullet track produced a 2 cm wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear." Dr. Anthony Fauci said on CNN that the doctors' reports indicated it would just be a surface-level wound with no further complications. Trump has mentioned multiple times that he still experiences a "throbbing feeling" in his ear where he was shot. Remaining questions focus on the security shortcomings Between the incident in Butler and a second apparent attempt on Trump's life two months later at his golf course in Florida, some Republicans also stirred up conspiracies about the shooting. Trump himself blamed Democrats for the plots while on the campaign trail. The congressional task force report argued that the Secret Service and other federal agencies failed in some of their planning, execution and leadership. The Secret Service also said on July 10 it disciplined six staffers with suspensions without pay between 10 days and six weeks, and it was implementing some of the recommendations from the congressional report. Trump, now in office, said he was briefed by multiple agencies on the shooting in a previewed clip of an interview with daughter-in-law Lara Trump. "They briefed me and I'm satisfied with it," Trump said on Fox News' "My View with Lara Trump." "There were mistakes made, and that shouldn't have happened ... I have great confidence in these people." But Rep. Mike Kelly, the Pennsylvania Republican who chaired the task force, said he was continuing to push for more answers about the agencies' failures. "We can't quit on it because we never got the answers," Kelly said in June in an interview with the USA TODAY Network at his Butler office. "The public deserves to know what happened that day." Contributing: Zac Anderson, Matthew Rink, Bart Jansen, Josh Meyer, Jeanine Santucci, David Jackson, USA TODAY Network Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@ Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @
