The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, insists that a photograph of a sexually suggestive 2003 birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein, bearing Donald Trump’s name and signature, released by House Democrats and published by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, is evidence that the president has been framed.“The latest piece published by the Wall Street Journal PROVES this entire ‘Birthday Card’ story is false”, Leavitt wrote on X. “As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it.”The president’s spokesperson added that his legal team “will continue to aggressively pursue litigation”, against the Journal, which first reported the existence of the note and drawing.Leavitt also referred to the reporting that Trump contributed the signed drawing and note to a birthday album for the late sex offender as an effort “to perpetuate the Democrat Epstein Hoax!”Leavitt’s deputy, Taylor Budowich, chimed in on X with what he presented as definitive visual evidence that “it’s not his signature”, in the form of four images of Trump’s signature on cards inserted in copies of a book about the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year.However, it appears that all four of those signatures were from 2024, more than two decades after the 2003 birthday note, and it is a documented fact that people’s handwriting and signatures commonly change as they age.Andrew Feinberg, a White House correspondent for the Independent, posted two images of Trump’s signature from the years before 2003 on X, which appear closer to the one on the note to Epstein.Several speakers at the immigrants-rights news conference in Westlake quoted from Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent.“I dissent. We all dissent,” the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said.Bass called the ruling “enraging” and said she had already directed the city to strengthen protocols prohibiting resources from assisting with federal immigration enforcement.“We will not and we will not participate in these cruel, inhumane tactics,” Bass said.She warned that undermining the personal liberties of Angelenos would impact all Americans.“The rule of law used to mean something not just to us, but to the Supreme Court, but now, with the stroke of a pen, the Supreme Court has undermined the rights of millions,” she said.She added: “And how ironic is it that this same Supreme Court that ruled colleges cannot use race in the admissions process has now ruled that law enforcement can use race to conduct raids and detain people.”Another speaker, representing the ACLU, also quoted a part Sotomayor’s dissent that stated the situation in stark terms: “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job”.Outside a Home Depot in a heavily Latino neighborhood of Los Angeles, immigrant-rights advocates, joined by the city’s mayor, Karen Bass, warned that the supreme court had “effectively legalized racial profiling”.Cars honked in support as they passed signs that said “Keep Ice out of LA” and one that read simply: “fuck Trump.”“We are infuriated because the impacts will continue to show in our community”, Flor Melendez, the executive director of CLEAN Car Wash Worker Center and a plaintiff in the case. “We will continue to feel the pressure, because we could not depend on our legal system”.She said 81 car washes across the region have been raided since Trump’s crackdown began earlier this summer, some multiple times. At least 247 car wash workers were detained, she added.“The Supreme Court of the United States decided not to see this evil that has been visited on our people, not to hear the cries of all who have been victims and witnesses of these actions, and not to use the voice of the court to protect individual rights under the Constitution,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (Chirla), which was one of the organizational plaintiffs in this case.“Do the conservative justices not have eyes to see the video evidence, or are they not able to read our multiple collected declarations that we have provided”, Salas added. “Our evidence demonstrated that these are not calm and consensual engagements with individuals who voluntarily offer information about their immigration status”.The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, insists that a photograph of a sexually suggestive 2003 birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein, bearing Donald Trump’s name and signature, released by House Democrats and published by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, is evidence that the president has been framed.“The latest piece published by the Wall Street Journal PROVES this entire ‘Birthday Card’ story is false”, Leavitt wrote on X. “As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it.”The president’s spokesperson added that his legal team “will continue to aggressively pursue litigation”, against the Journal, which first reported the existence of the note and drawing.Leavitt also referred to the reporting that Trump contributed the signed drawing and note to a birthday album for the late sex offender as an effort “to perpetuate the Democrat Epstein Hoax!”Leavitt’s deputy, Taylor Budowich, chimed in on X with what he presented as definitive visual evidence that “it’s not his signature”, in the form of four images of Trump’s signature on cards inserted in copies of a book about the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year.However, it appears that all four of those signatures were from 2024, more than two decades after the 2003 birthday note, and it is a documented fact that people’s handwriting and signatures commonly change as they age.Andrew Feinberg, a White House correspondent for the Independent, posted two images of Trump’s signature from the years before 2003 on X, which appear closer to the one on the note to Epstein.Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, has denounced the US supreme court ruling that permits federal immigration agents to demand proof of citizenship from anyone who appears to be of Latin American origin or is speaking a foreign language in Los Angeles, a city with a population that is 35% foreign-born and where 56% speak a language other than English at home, in a county that is nearly 50% Latino.Newsom said, of the 6-3 ruling by the Republican-nominated majority:
Trump’s hand-picked supreme court majority just became the Grand Marshal for a parade of racial terror in Los Angeles. This isn’t about enforcing immigration laws – it’s about targeting Latinos and anyone who doesn’t look or sound like Stephen Miller’s idea of an American, including US citizens and children, to deliberately harm California’s families and small businesses. Trump’s private police force now has a green light to come after your family – and every person is now a target – but we will continue fighting these abhorrent attacks on Californians.
Two Republican senators announced on Monday that they are opening a congressional investigation of “the preparation for and response to” the deadly Palisades fire in Los Angeles by state and local officials in California, who are Democrats.The senators, Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, said in a press release that the fire, which burned for 24 days in January and killed at least 12 people, “was more than just a horrific tragedy, it was an unacceptable failure of government to protect the lives and property of its citizens”.In a separate news release last week, Scott accused California Democrats of having “botched” the response to the California wildfires.However, the senate investigation appears to focus only on the fire in the affluent Palisades, where Scott was taken on a tour last month by a former reality TV star turned rightwing podcaster, Spencer Pratt, and not on the Eaton fire, which burned through Altadena, a less well-off suburb to the east.As soon as the investigation was announced, Pratt, a conservative Palisades resident, folded it into a partisan attack on California Democrats in a social media video. “Why is it that only Republicans are interested in finding out why a California city burned to the ground?” Pratt asked.The Democratic mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, announced three weeks ago that the city had been asked by the justice department to wait until federal investigation is complete to release its “after action report” on the Palisades fire.I’ve been speaking with Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, about the ruling from a federal appeals court today which upheld the defamation lawsuit by writer E Jean Carroll, and orders that Donald Trump still pay an $83m judgment.Tobias said that the ruling is significant because it affirms substantial “punitive damages” – which comprise around $65m of the total award to Carrol. These “send a message” to the president, according to Tobias, to avoid further defamation.While Tobias isn’t surprised by the ruling, characterizing Judge Lewis A Kaplan – who tried the case in the district court – as a “savvy, experienced jurist, who has resolved many high profile cases” – he fully expects the Trump administration to challenge the decision and attempt to appeal to the supreme court.Per my last post, Robert Garcia, a representative who serves as the ranking member on the House oversight committee, said that Donald Trump is lying about the existence of his birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein.In a video, posted to X, Garcia said that the president is “leading a White House cover-up”. The lawmaker from California added that committee members plan to review the documents that they received from the Epstein estate today.Democrats on the House oversight committee have released a scanned copy of a “birthday note” that Donald Trump allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein, that was eventually compiled into an album of messages to celebrate Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003.The sexually suggestive note to Epstein includes a conversation between Trump and the late sex offender, with a naked female silhouette drawn around it. The president’s signature is at the bottom of the note.“Happy birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the note reads.The committee recently subpoenaed the Epstein estate for more documents as part of their investigation into the handling of the Epstein case. Trump has denied writing a letter for the birthday book, and even sued the Wall Street Journal for defamation when they first reported his contribution.Senate Democratic whip Dick Durbin, of Illinois, called the “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago “a waste of money” and “another failed attempt at a distraction” in a statement today.Durbin, who also serves as the ranking Member of the Senate judiciary committee, said that the surge in immigration enforcement in the city is part of Donald Trump’s “campaign to arrest hardworking immigrants with no criminal convictions”.He added:
To the hardworking immigrant families who are now scared to send your children to school, go to the hospital, or report crimes to the police: we stand with you … While the President exhibits disdain for immigrants, Chicago embraces them as family who help make our economy thrive and our city strong.”
There have been a flurry of rulings today, with two particularly crucial decisions from the supreme court, in response to emergency requests from the Trump administration.
First, the court allowed federal agents to proceed with raids in southern California targeting people for deportation based on their race or language – a victory for the administration’s hardline immigration agenda. Attorney general Pam Bondi praised the decision on social media, and said that immigration enforcement officers can “continue carrying out roving patrols in California without judicial micromanagement”.
The supreme court also allowed Donald Trump to fire a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today. It’s the latest decision in a spate of high-profile firings of Senate-confirmed officials in recent months. Chief justice John Roberts issued the ruling, which blocks a lower court’s ruling for the president to reinstate Rebecca Slaughter while the case plays out. A federal district court judge said last week that the administration had violated a federal law which prevents FTC members from removal without cause. Slaughter was one of only two Democratic appointees on the five-member board.
Meanwhile, a federal appeals court in New York did uphold the defamation lawsuit filed by writer E Jean Carroll, and the $83.3m award, after Trump denied her claim that he raped her. The panel of judges also rejected the administration’s argument that the president is protected by the supreme court’s immunity ruling last year.
The administration also filed an emergency request to the supreme court on Monday to block a lower court’s ruling, which stopped the administration from withholding billions of dollars in congressionally appropriated foreign aid. An appeals court ordered the administration to spend the money, upholding the federal judge’s ruling last week, which ultimately prompted the request to the supreme court.
Beyond DC, Trump has pledged more federal force in Chicago. It comes after weeks of deriding the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, and Illinois governor, JB Pritzker. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) posted on social media that an operation was under way to remove “dangerous public safety threats from American communities”.
Trump goaded Pritzker on Truth Social earlier, and said that he wanted to “straighten” Chicago out while delivering remarks at the Museum of the Bible in DC. He also used the appearance to tout that DC was now a “safe zone”, since the federal takeover of the DC police and increased federal activity, citing Muriel Bowser’s compliance with the administration.
Attorney general Pam Bondi called the supreme court’s decision to allow federal agents to proceed with raids in southern California targeting people for deportation based on their race or language a “massive victory”.She wrote on social media that immigration enforcement officers now can “continue carrying out roving patrols in California without judicial micromanagement”.US defense secretary Pete Hegseth and air force general Dan Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, arrived in Puerto Rico today as the Trump administration steps up its military operations against drug cartels in the Caribbean.The arrival comes more than a week after ships carrying hundreds of US marines deployed to Puerto Rico for a training exercise.Puerto Rico’s governor, Jenniffer González, said Hegseth and Caine visited the US territory to support those participating in the training.“We thank President Trump and his administration for recognizing the strategic importance of Puerto Rico to U.S. national security and for their fight against drug cartels and the narco-dictator Nicolás Maduro,” González said in comments reported by the Associated Press.Hegseth and Caine met with officials at the 156th Wing Muñiz Air national guard base in Carolina, a city just east of the capital, San Juan.González said Hegseth spoke to nearly 300 soldiers at the base and thanked those he described as “American warriors” for their work.The visit comes as the US prepares to deploy 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico for operations targeting drug cartels, a person familiar with the planning told AP on Saturday.Seemingly confirming earlier reports of incoming federal activity in Chicago, Ice has posted the following on X:
CHICAGO: a sanctuary city that attracts and protects criminal illegal aliens to the detriment of law abiding citizens. In an ICE-led operation, we are here to remove these dangerous public safety threats from American communities.
It comes as Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened an immigration enforcement crackdown and national guard deployment in the nation’s third largest city.Democrat Chuck Schumer returned to the Senate floor last week with some urgent questions. “Will Senate Republicans continue to kowtow to a leader they know is dragging the country down?” he demanded. “That they know is a pathological liar? Or will they, as the Founding Fathers intended, stand up to him? Will they help us fight America’s slide into authoritarianism?”It was a recognition of how Donald Trump has spent eight months seeking to expand presidential power at the expense of Congress and others. He has signed 200 executive orders – more than Joe Biden in four years – unleashed squadrons of national guard troops in Washington, turned investigators on his political foes and sought to bring academic, cultural, financial and legal institutions to heel.The capitulation has moved faster and further than even many of Trump’s critics expected and has left them looking for democratic guardrails that might yet constrain him. But as members of Congress returned to Washington this week, there were only flickers of hope that they might heed Schumer and reassert their usurped authority.Trump’s Republican party holds narrow majorities in both the House of Representatives and Senate and remains overwhelmingly loyal to him. In May, during a debate on their signature tax and spending bill, the House speaker, Mike Johnson, called him “arguably the most powerful, the most successful, and the most respected president in the modern era of the United States”. Congress has in effect become his rubber stamp.Yet in recent days small fractures appeared in the edifice. Congressman Thomas Massie gained the support of fellow Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace on a discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files. Hours after Trump described the issue as a “Democratic hoax”, Greene shot back: “It’s not a hoax because Jeffrey Epstein is a convicted pedophile.”Some Republicans’ patience is also wearing thin with Trump’s health secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr, over his moves to undermine vaccines and purge leadership at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Senator John Barrasso, a doctor, told Kennedy that he was “deeply concerned” about his leadership on vaccines.In addition, several Republicans have faced blowback from voters during town halls in their district over the summer. Opinion polls show that Trump’s tax and spending megabill is the most unpopular major piece of legislation in a generation. And Friday’s dismal jobs reports reflected uncertainty around his economic agenda.If the trend continues, swing-state Republicans might be tempted to distance themselves from him in next year’s midterm elections and then treat him as a lame duck as the race for 2028 heats up.Thom Hartmann, a political analyst and author of the upcoming book The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink, suggests that Trump’s sway over Congress might be more fragile than it appears.
The simple reality is that five or six Republicans in the House and two or three or four Republicans in the Senate could stop Trump in his tracks. They can put an end to this insanity.
Increasingly, as public opinion is turning against him – he’s polling very negatively in virtually every aspect of his presidency, from the economy to the troops in the streets to destroying federal agencies – at some point some of these Republicans are going to look around and say, you know, maybe the way to ensure my own political survival is to challenge this guy. That day can’t come soon enough for me.
Donald Trump launched a vitriolic attack against Tom Hanks for supposedly being “destructive” and “woke” after one of America’s most beloved actors was snubbed without much explanation by West Point last week.On his social media site on Monday, the US president applauded the alumni association of the US Military Academy (or West Point) for abruptly calling off a ceremony honoring Hanks, twice an Academy award winner who has played numerous military characters and also has a long history of advocating for veterans.Trump wrote: “Our great West Point (getting greater all the time!) has smartly cancelled the Award Ceremony for actor Tom Hanks. Important move! We don’t need destructive, WOKE recipients getting our cherished American Awards!!! Hopefully the Academy Awards, and other Fake Award Shows, will review their Standards and Practices in the name of Fairness and Justice. Watch their DEAD RATINGS SURGE!”Hanks had been scheduled to receive the 2025 Sylvanus Thayer Award later this month for his “service and accomplishments in the national interest”.Law enforcement officials on Sunday dismantled a peace vigil that had stood in front of the White House for more than four decades, an action taken on orders issued by Donald Trump two days earlier.The vigil targeted by the president was started in 1981 by William Thomas to promote nuclear disarmament and an end to global conflicts, and it is believed to be the longest continuous anti-war protest in the United States. For decades, volunteers would man the site, just in front of the White House gates in Lafayette Square, to prevent it from being taken down.A correspondent for the conservative network Real America’s Voice, Brian Glenn, asked Trump about the vigil on Friday. “Just out front of the White House is a blue tent that originally was put there to be an anti-nuclear tent for nuclear arms – it’s kind of morphed into an anti-America sometimes, anti-Trump at many times,” he said. Trump replied that he didn’t know about the tent and then turned to staff to say: “Take it down, right now.”Will Roosien, a 24-year-old who had been volunteering at the vigil on Sunday, told the Washington Post that officers arrived at 6.30am on Sunday and told him he had 30 minutes to remove a tarp under which he had been sheltering from the rain. He refused and told the Post he was detained while the officers dismantled the tent.“This is a disgrace, and you should all feel ashamed,” Roosien told the officers, according to video obtained by the Post. “Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for 44 years, someone has sat here, advocating for people around the world who we don’t know. Advocating for human rights. Advocating for peace.”Concurring with the decision, conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that “apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion” but it can be a “‘relevant factor’ when considered along with other salient factors”.He added: “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a US citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, they promptly let the individual go.”Per my last post, the supreme court’s three liberal justices publicly dissented from the decision, directing pointed criticism at its conservative majority.The administration “has all but declared that all Latinos, US citizens or not, who work low-wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction”, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the dissenting opinion.“Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent,” Sotomayor added. More
