Trump threatens to sue WSJ over Epstein sketch claims – US politics live | US news

Key events

Donald Trump has also been posting about CBS’s cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which will end in May after a 33-year run, saying he “loves that Colbert got fired”.

I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.

The show’s cancellation comes just a few days after Colbert criticised the network’s parent company, Paramount, for settling a lawsuit with Trump for $16m (£12m) over the US president’s claim that CBS News deceptively edited an interview with then presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

The settlement coincided with Paramount seeking approval from the US Federal Communications Commission for an $8.4bn merger with Skydance Media. Colbert called the settlement “a big fat bribe”.

Share

Updated at 10.08 EDT

Trump again tries to brush off Epstein crisis as ‘nothing’ concocted by Democrats

Donald Trump has been posting on Truth Social early this morning, repeating his accusations about the Democrats regarding the Jeffrey Epstein case.

If there was a “smoking gun” on Epstein, why didn’t the Dems, who controlled the “files” for four years, and had Garland and Comey in charge, use it? BECAUSE THEY HAD NOTHING!!!

Trump’s frustration that the story hasn’t gone away has been apparent all week, as he and others in his administration have tried to dismiss the whole affair by framing it as a Democratic-led conspiracy – as opposed to one that Trump and his allies have long fuelled.

Indeed much of the fury and calls for release of the documents has come from his own increasingly fractured Maga base – who Trump attacked as “weaklings” and “stupid people” – and even key allies in Congress such as House speaker Mike Johnson.

Finally last night, in a bid to tamp down further controversy over a story that he allegedly contributed a sketch of a naked woman to Epstein’s 50th birthday album, Trump – who was close friends with Epstein for 15 years – last night directed his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to seek the release of grand jury testimony related to Epstein’s sex-trafficking case.

The president has said the letter is a fake, and that he will sue the Wall Street Journal over the story.

Share

Updated at 09.42 EDT

Men deported by US to Eswatini will be held in solitary confinement for undetermined time

Five immigrants deported by the United States to Eswatini under the Trump administration’s third-country program are being held in solitary confinement in various prisons for an undetermined time, a government spokesperson said.

Thabile Mdluli, the Eswatini government spokesperson, declined to identify the correctional facilities where the five men are, citing security concerns. She said they were being held in solitary confinement away from other inmates.

She added that Eswatini planned to ultimately repatriate the five to their home countries with the help of a United Nations agency. Mdluli told The Associated Press it wasn’t clear how long that would take.

The men, who the US says were convicted of serious crimes and were in the country illegally, are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos.

Their deportations were announced by US homeland security on Tuesday and mark the continuation of Donald Trump’s plan to send deportees to third countries they have no ties with after it was stalled by a legal challenge in the US.

The Eswatini government said the men are considered to be “in transit” and will eventually be sent to their home countries. The US and Eswatini governments would work with the UN migration agency to do that, it said.

The UN agency – the International Organization for Migration or IOM – said it was not involved in the operation and has not been approached to assist in the matter but would be willing to help “in line with its humanitarian mandate”.

Eswatini’s statement that the men would be sent home was in contrast to US claims they were sent there because their home countries refused to take them back.

It’s unclear how sending the men to Eswatini would make it easier for them to be deported home. There was also no timeframe for that as it depends on several factors, including engagements with the IOM, Mdluli said.

“We are not yet in a position to determine the timelines for the repatriation,” she wrote.

There have been no details on why Eswatini agreed to take the men and Mdluli, the government spokesperson, said “the terms of the agreement between the US and Eswatini remain classified”.

Share

Updated at 09.08 EDT

House passes Trump plan to cut $9bn from foreign aid, public broadcasting

The US’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed president Donald Trump’s $9bn funding cut to public media and foreign aid early this morning, sending it to the White House to be signed into law.

The chamber voted 216 to 213 in favor of the funding cut package, altered by the Senate this week to exclude cuts of about $400m in funds for the global PEPFAR HIV/Aids prevention program.

Only two House Republicans voted against the cut – representatives Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania and Mike Turner from Ohio – along with Democrats.

“We are taking one small step to cut wasteful spending, but one giant leap towards fiscal sanity,” said Aaron Bean, a Florida Republican representative.

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries countered that the funding cut “undermines our ability to keep our people safe here and to project America’s soft power all over the globe”, and argued rural Americans’ access to emergency information on public radio will be diminished.

The funding vote was delayed for hours amid Republican disagreements about other legislation, and calls from some members of the party for more government transparency about the deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Related: Tensions over Epstein files complicate Republican plan to vote on cuts bill

To satisfy the Epstein-related concerns without holding up the funding cut bill any longer, Republicans on the House rules committee introduced a resolution that calls for the release of Epstein documents by the US attorney general within 30 days.

“It’s a sound, good-faith resolution that ensures protections for victims and innocent witnesses,” said representative Virginia Foxx from North Carolina, the Republican leader of the rules committee.

But the top Democrat on the rules panel, representative Jim McGovern from Massachusetts, blasted the resolution as a “glorified press release” because it lacks an enforcement mechanism to make the justice department comply.

When the chamber finally voted on the funding cut, it was the second close House vote on Trump’s request to claw back the funds previously approved by Democrats and his fellow Republicans in Congress.

In June, four Republicans joined Democrats to vote against an earlier version of the rescissions package, which passed 214-212.

House Republicans felt extra pressure to pass the Senate version as the administration would have been forced to spend the money if Congress didn’t approve it by Friday.

Share

Updated at 08.21 EDT

‘Devastating’: US public broadcasters condemn Trump cuts to key programs

Maya Yang

Public broadcast station leaders are condemning Donald Trump’s latest victory after the Senate approved a bill on Wednesday that will cancel all federal funding for public broadcasting programs including PBS and NPR.

Following the Senate’s decision to pass $9bn in spending cuts to public broadcasting as well as foreign aid, PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger saying that the Senate’s approval of the package “goes against the will of the American people”.

“These cuts will significantly impact all of our stations, but will be especially devastating to smaller stations and those serving large rural areas. Many of our stations which provide access to free unique local programming and emergency alerts will now be forced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead,” Kerger said.

“Despite today’s setback, we are determined to keep fighting to preserve the essential services we provide to the American public.”

Similarly, NPR’s CEO, Katherine Maher, said: “Nearly three in four Americans say they rely on their public radio stations for alerts and news for their public safety.

“We call on the House of Representatives to reject this elimination of public media funding, which directly harms their communities and constituents, and could very well place lives at risk.”

Since that statement, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed Trump’s $9bn funding cut to public media and foreign aid early this morning, sending it to the White House to be signed into law.

Share

Updated at 08.14 EDT

‘He’s a lot of fun to be with’: Trump and Epstein were close friends for 15 years

It was a friendship that spanned three different decades. To Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein was a “terrific guy”. Epstein believed himself to be Trump’s “closest friend”, and praised the future president as “charming”.

The relationship would eventually break down, the men falling out over a bidding war on a property in Florida. And after Epstein was convicted of child sex offences in 2008, Trump distanced himself from the financier, claiming he was “not a fan” and wondering, in recent days, why his supporters would “waste time and energy” on demanding that FBI and Department of Justice files on Epstein be released.

But photos, videos and anecdotes paint a picture of a close friendship, of two middle-aged men who repeatedly partied together both alone and with their partners, including with Melania Knauss, who would go on to become Trump’s third wife.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Read the full report here:

Share

Updated at 08.43 EDT

Donald Trump will visit Scotland next week, the White House has confirmed.

Speculation mounted about a potential visit of the president this month when Police Scotland confirmed it was in the early stages of planning for such an event, PA Media reports.

Speaking at a briefing in Washington DC on Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Trump will visit both of his golf courses in Scotland: Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie in Aberdeenshire, between July 25 and 29.

It has already been confirmed Trump will meet with prime minister Keir Starmer while in Aberdeen, while plans are being put in place for the president to meet First Minister John Swinney, according to the Scottish Government.

Share

Here is a report from my colleague Sian Cain on the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been cancelled and will end in May, with network CBS announcing it will retire the Late Show entirely after a 33-year run.

The news comes just a few days after Colbert criticised the network’s parent company, Paramount, for settling a lawsuit with Donald Trump for $16m (£12m) over the US president’s claim that CBS News deceptively edited an interview with the then presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

The settlement comes as Paramount is seeking approval from the US Federal Communications Commission for an $8.4bn merger with Skydance Media. Colbert called the settlement “a big fat bribe”.

Colbert, who has hosted the talkshow since 2015, announced the news during Thursday night’s recording, telling the audience he had been told of the decision the previous night.

As the audience booed, he said, “Yeah, I share your feelings.

“It’s not just the end of the show, it is the end of the Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced, this is all just going away,” Colbert said.

Read the full report here:

Share

Tim Walz says Trump ‘brings out the worst in people – and the worst in me’

by Ramon Antonio Vargas

Donald Trump “brings out the worst in people, and he brings out the worst in me”, Tim Walz has said in a new interview in which Minnesota’s governor struck an apologetic tone over a recent plea for his fellow Democrats to “bully the shit out of” the Republican president.

Walz, who was Kamala Harris’s running mate as she unsuccessfully ran for the White House against Trump in November, made those comments in a conversation with the Minnesota news station KMSP that was published Thursday.

They came after Walz in late May urged his fellow Democrats “to be a little meaner … a little more fierce” to Trump – and “bully the shit out of him back” – as the party tried to regroup from its defeat to him in the fall.

Read the full report here:

Share

Dozens of Malaysians protested near the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, calling for Donald Trump’s nomination as envoy to Malaysia to be rejected, AFP reports.

Trump nominated right-wing commentator Nick Adams, known for his outspoken views and strong pro-Israel stance, as ambassador to multicultural, Muslim-majority Malaysia a week ago.

Protesters chanted “Reject Nick Adams” and “Destroy America” and held up posters depicting Adams with a red cross over his face.

Other placards read: “No space for racists and Islamophobes in Malaysia.”

The marchers, organised by the youth wings of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) coalition, submitted a memorandum to the embassy near the centre of Kuala Lumpur.

They urged the US government to withdraw Adams’s nomination and “consider a candidate who is more professional, moderate, and attuned to the importance of Southeast Asia’s regional stability”.

Share

Trump blames Fed board as he labels Powell a ‘numbskull’

Donald Trump on Friday blamed US Federal Reserve officials as he reiterated his criticisms of Fed chair Jerome Powell and again called for lower interest rates, Reuters reports.

Trump wrote on his social media platform:

And the Fed Board has done nothing to stop this ‘numbskull’ from hurting so many people. In many ways the Board is equally to blame!

Fed officials meet later this month.

Share

Updated at 07.01 EDT

Trump gives New York attorney new title after judges reject his appointment

by Joseph Gedeon in Washington

Donald Trump has given a New York prosecutor a new job title to keep him in power after federal judges rejected his appointment.

John Sarcone III was supposed to be removed as interim US attorney for New York’s northern district after a judicial panel refused to make his appointment permanent. Instead, the justice department has made him “special attorney to the attorney general” with the same powers and no time limit.

The appointment represents Trump’s curious pattern of working around traditional oversight mechanisms. Unlike his first term, when all 85 US attorney nominees were confirmed by the Senate, his second administration has formally nominated only about a quarter of that number, relying instead on interim appointments that bypass Senate confirmation.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, trying to make sense of the appointment, said the justice department is using a federal law called 28 US Code Section 515 to justify the move, but he says that’s a stretch. That law allows for “special attorneys” to handle specific cases, but this sort of application may not be intended to let someone serve as both acting US attorney and first assistant at the same time.

Read the full report here:

Share

A federal judge on Friday could deal another blow to Donald Trump’s attempts to limit birthright citizenship, even though a US Supreme Court decision last month made it more difficult for lower courts to block White House directives, Reuters reports.

A group of Democratic attorneys general from 18 states and the District of Columbia will urge US District Judge Leo Sorokin at a hearing in Boston at 10am ET Friday to maintain an injunction he imposed in February that blocked Trump’s executive order nationwide.

The order directs US agencies to refuse to recognise the citizenship of children born in the United States after February 19 if neither their mother nor father is a US citizen or lawful permanent resident.

Share

Donald Trump’s plan to convert Alcatraz back into a maximum-security prison could cost roughly $2bn (£1.5bn), Axios reported on Friday, citing administration sources.

Alcatraz was closed as a maximum-security prison in 1963 after 29 years of operation, because it was too expensive to continue operating.

Trump previously said he would order the long-shuttered facility, now operated as a historical site in San Francisco Bay, to once again house violent criminals, reports Reuters.

Share

Trump threatens to sue WSJ

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics where, after days of resistance and trying to play down the story, Donald Trump has directed his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to seek the release of grand jury testimony related to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking case.

The president said on Truth Social he had authorised the justice department to seek the public release of the materials, citing “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”.

It comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump allegedly contributed a sketch of a naked woman to Epstein’s 50th birthday album.

Trump denied to the Journal that he was the author of the birthday message and, hours after the story was published, announced he intended to file a lawsuit in a post on Truth Social, decrying the reporting as fake and condemning it as what he called “the Epstein Hoax”.

In other developments:

The US’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed president Donald Trump’s $9bn funding cut to public media and foreign aid early on Friday, sending it to the White House to be signed into law. The chamber voted 216 to 213 in favour of the funding cut package.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been cancelled and will end in May 2026 after a 33-year run, the network CBS announced. The news comes days after Colbert criticised the network’s parent company, Paramount, for settling a lawsuit with Trump for $16m (£12m) over the US president’s claim that CBS News deceptively edited an interview with the then presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Five migrants deported by the US to the small southern African country of Eswatini, under the Trump administration’s third-country programme, will be held in solitary confinement for an undetermined time, an Eswatini government spokesperson has said. The spokesperson said a UN agency will repatriate five men to their home countries, but the agency said on Thursday that it had not been contacted. The men, who the US says were convicted of serious crimes and were in the US illegally, are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos.

Share

Updated at 09.06 EDT