Closing summary
This brings our live coverage of the second Trump administration to a close for the day. We will be back on Wednesday. Here are some of the day’s major developments:
Donald Trump told reporters that he is baffled that his supporters are so interested in the “sordid, but boring” crimes of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who told a reporter two years before his death in a Manhattan jail cell that he had been “Donald’s closest friend for 10 years”. Trump supporters were baffled to hear that.
Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who has previously disobeyed Trump’s commands, announced that he is introducing “a discharge petition “to force a vote” in the House on releasing the full Epstein files.
House speaker Mike Johnson and other leading Republicans appeared to break with the president by supporting calls for testimony to Congress from Ghislaine Maxwell, who conspired with Epstein to sexually exploit underage girls.
The Trump administration decided to withdraw half of the 4,000 national guard troops it dispatched to Los Angeles chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed to the Guardian.
In a rambling set of remarks at an AI and energy investment summit, Trump veered wildly off-topic to praise two partisan, conservative reporters in attendance and made false claims about China having just one wind farm and about his uncle having once taught Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber.
Mike Waltz, who was ousted as national security adviser after mistakenly adding a journalist to a group chat on Signal about strikes on Yemen, had his confirmation hearing to become UN ambassador.
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, asked Israel to “aggressively” investigate the murder of a Palestinian American citizen who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
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Vance breaks tie after senate spilts 50-50 on measure to claw back funding for foreign aid and public media
Vice-president JD Vance just voted to break a 50-50 tie in the senate on a measure to move ahead with clawing back $9.4bn funds already appropriated by congress for foreign aid projects and public television and radio broadcasts.
Vance’s vote was necessary because three Republicans, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell, broke with their party and joined all 47 Democratic senators against the bill.
Collins said in a statement that she objected to the fact that “no one really knows what program reductions”’ are in the package since the White House budget office “never provided the details that would normally be part of this process”. While she expressed regret that cuts to public broadcasting would deprive viewers of popular entertainment shows like Antiques Roadshow, she also said that she supported defunding National Public Radio due to what she called its “biased reporting”.
In a speech on the senate floor before the vote, Murkowski expressed more support for public broadcasting. “It you don’t like what’s going on within NPR and PBS, you think that there’s too much bias there, we can address that,” she said. “You don’t need to gut the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the entity, the program that provides for so much support, particularly for those in rural places”.
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Trump says he doesn't understand why his supporters are interested in 'boring' Epstein case
Donald Trump just told reporters that he is baffled by why his supporters are so interested in the “sordid, but boring” crimes of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who told a reporter two years before his death in a Manhattan jail cell that he had been “Donald’s closest friend for 10 years”.
“You’ve urged people to move on” a reporter for the White House pool asked Trump on Thursday evening, “but I’m curious, why do you think your supporters in particular have been so interested in the Epstein story, and so upset about how it’s been handled?”
“I don’t understand it, why they would be so interested”, Trump replied. “He’s dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of: life. I don’t understand what the interest or what the fascination is. I really don’t.”
The president then moved on to suggesting, again, that some of what is contained in the investigative files about Epstein’s associates could include false accusations, even drawing a parallel to special counsel Robert Mueller’s painstaking investigation of the Russian efforts to aid his 2016 campaign for the presidency by hacking and releasing emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff.
“The credible information’s been given” he continued. “Don’t forget, we went through years of the Mueller witch hunt and all of the different things, the Steele dossier, which was all fake, all that information was fake.”
“But I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody”, Trump added. “It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring. And I don’t understand why it keeps going.”
“I think, really, only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going”, Trump said, prompting his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, to laugh.
“But, credible information”, Trump concluded, “let ‘em give it. I would say: anything that’s credible, let them have it.”
Although there was no apparent follow-up question from the reporter, one possible reason that Trump‘s supporters feel so let down by the decision from hand-picked his attorney general and top FBI officials to not release any further information on Epstein is that they, and some of Trump’s closest advisors, including his son Don Jr. and his vice-president JD Vance, spent the past four years endlessly fueling speculation that the files must contain damaging information about powerful men who socialized with Epstein.
As soon as Trump’s latest comments circulated on social media, Michael Flynn Jr, the son of Trump’s first national security adviser, commented on social media: “I just don’t get this response… Who is telling him the Epstein story isn’t a big deal or not interesting?? Does [the president] really believe what he’s saying here?”
The younger Flynn was forced to resign from Trump’s 2016 transition team for tweeting about the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which held that a cabal of Democrats were using the basement of a pizza restaurant in Washington to hold children they had trafficked for sex. After a believer in the theory took a gun to the restaurant to attempt to free the children in late 2016, Flynn tweeted that until the theory was proven to be false, “it will remain a story.” He also suggested that some of the emails stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta, about ordering pizza, might have been code for trafficked children.
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Trump administration withdraws 2,000 national guard troops from Los Angeles
The Trump administration has decided to withdraw half of the national guard troops it dispatched to Los Angeles, over the objections of state and local officials, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirms to the Guardian.
“Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding,” Parnell said in a written statement which provided no evidence for the claim that violence on the margins of protests against immigration raids, which had already subsided when the troops were deployed, had been stopped by the deployment. “As such,” Parnell added, “the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th IBCT) from the federal protection mission.”
The withdrawal still leaves another 2,000 national guard troops, and 700 active-duty marines in the city, which local officials call unnecessary and antagonistic to the community.
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, who has been fighting in court to regain control of the federalized guard troops from the president, said in a statement:
“For more than a month”, the California national guard troops have “been pulled away from their families, communities and civilian work to serve as political pawns for the President in Los Angeles.
“While nearly 2,000 of them are starting to demobilize, the remaining guardsmembers continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities,” Newsom added. “We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theater and send everyone home now.”
Some of the troops have been seen providing security during raids by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers, which reinforced concerns that the military was being used for law enforcement duties.
The marine deployment around one federal building in Westwood even briefly detained a veteran trying to access a veterans administration office.
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Thomas Massie, Republican lawmaker, files discharge petition to force a vote on full release of Epstein files
Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who has previously disobeyed Donald Trump’s commands, announced on Tuesday that he is introducing “a discharge petition “to force a vote in the US House of Representatives on releasing the COMPLETE files” on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
As Massie explained in a social media post, “A discharge petition is a procedural tool for bypassing leadership. In 7 days we can start collecting signatures. At 218 signatures, the House must vote on our bill requiring a full release of the Epstein files. If your Representative won’t sign the discharge petition, ask why.”
Epstein’s sordid crimes have been the subject of numerous pro-Trump conspiracy theories focused on the fact that some powerful Democrats, including former president Bill Clinton, and the current health secretary Robert F Kennedy, were known to have socialized with him and traveled on his private jet.
But Donald Trump also socialized with Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and traveled on his jet, which has led to speculation, even from Trump supporters, that Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, has decided not to release any more files to protect her boss.
Democrats target House Republicans who voted against measure to release Epstein files
The House Majority PAC, which is working to elect a Democratic majority in the 2026 midterms, is trying hard to make an issue of Republicans in congress voting on Tuesday to block a procedural motion that would have forced a vote on a Democratic-sponsored amendment to force the release investigative files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who once claimed that he had been Donald Trump’s closest friend for a decade.
The amendment calling for “the full release of the Epstein files” was introduced on Monday by Ro Khanna a California Democrat.
In a press release sent to reporters on Tuesday, the House Majority PAC unveiled what it called “the GOP Epstein Simps Target List”, identifying House Republicans “who have remained complicit in the wake of the Trump administration’s push to bury the Epstein case.”
The political action committee lists 43 Republicans it hopes to defeat next year, but draws particular attention to five.
“For years, House Republicans were transfixed by Jeffrey Epstein’s network of exploitation. Nancy Mace demanded the client list, Anna Paulina Luna clamored for information, Cory Mills questioned the circumstances of his death, and Scott Perry insisted that the public has a right to know”, the Democratic group writes.
“But now that Trump’s administration refuses to release the list—claiming it doesn’t exist, releasing selectively edited footage, and stonewalling transparency—those same Republicans have nothing to say. Some, like Rep. Mike Lawler, are now even dismissing coverage of Epstein altogether, calling it ‘nonsense’”, the attack ad in the form of a press release adds.
The US Secret Service said in a statement that at about 11.30am local time in Washington on Tuesday:
Officers responded to an individual who threw an object over the White House fence along Pennsylvania Avenue. As a precaution, officers cleared the North Grounds, Pennsylvania Avenue and Lafayette Park. A military Explosive Ordinance Disposal team responded to the scene and cleared the object. One individual was transported to an area hospital for a mental health evaluation.
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House speaker Mike Johnson appears to support calls for Ghislaine Maxwell to testify to Congress
In a series of livestreamed interviews with the far-right podcaster Benny Johnson on Monday, House speaker Mike Johnson and other leading Republicans appeared to break with the president by supporting calls for testimony to congress from Ghislaine Maxwell, the former socialite who conspired with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually exploit underage girls.
The question to the speaker was relayed by the podcast host (who shares his last name but is no relation) from a viewer of the podcast’s live stream, who asked if there will be a vote in congress on having Maxwell testify.
“I’m for transparency,” Johnson said before adding that he trusts Donald Trump and his hand-picked attorney general. “They’re doing a great job; it’s a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide” Johnson said. “The White House and the White House team are privy to facts that I don’t know,” Johnson added, “but I agree with the sentiment that we need to put it out there.”
Three of the podcast host’s guests, senator Mike Lee and congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert also said they supported having Maxwell testify, despite Donald Trump’s repeated efforts to convince his supporters to stop asking for more information about the investigations of his late friend, Epstein.
After Maxwell’s arrest in 2020, when Trump was asked at a White House briefing if he thought she was “going to turn in powerful men”, Trump he suggested that he didn’t know much about a woman he had been photographed socializing with in the past.
“I don’t know. I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly,” the president said. “I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach, but I wish her well.”
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Trump repeats false claim that China has only one wind farm
In a rambling set of remarks at an AI and energy investment summit at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Donald Trump veered wildly off-topic to praise two partisan, conservative reporters in attendance and made false claims about China having just one wind farm and about his uncle having once taught Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber.
After boasting that he had made it easier for US firms to burn coal to generate electricity, Trump returned to a debunked false claim he has made previously, about China lacking wind farms.
“China makes windmills but how many wind farms do you see in China? I haven’t seen any lately,” Trump said. “It’s sort of crazy, they buy – they build the windmills, sell them into our country, they sell them all over the world and they ruin their fields and ruin their valleys.”
He then imagined a conversation with China. “And then you look at China. ‘Where’s your wind farm?’ ‘Well, we have one, we’re thinking about one … ” Trump said.
In fact, China is the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines, producing more than half of the supply, but is also installing them at home at a record pace. As the Associated Press reported last week, to debunk Trump’s false claim on this subject at a cabinet meeting:
China has 1.3 terawatts of utility-scale wind and solar capacity in development, which could generate more electricity than neighboring Japan consumed in all of 2023, according to a report from the Global Energy Monitor released last week. The report highlighted China’s offshore wind development, calling China the undisputed leader in the offshore wind sector, though it also said coal and gas are still on the rise across China.
Trump then moved on to praise two of the journalists waiting to interview him after the event. The first was the New York Post reporter Salena Zito, who has just published a book about the attempted assassination of Trump last year that he took time to promote last week.
“We have a great woman here, Salena Zito, she’s the writer, she writes on the rust belt and the midwest really but the rust belt, anything having to do with rust and belt,” Trump said.
“And also Miss McAdams,” the president added, referring to Alexis McAdams of Fox. “Where is Miss McAdams? We’re going to do one with her too, and she’s great, with Fox. And she’s been fantastic.”
Spotting the Fox correspondent in the crowd, Trump addressed her directly with words of praise: “Stand up! Stand up! Young and smart and vibrant. You’ve done a great job, so I’ll see you in a couple of minutes.”
The president’s remarks also included an apparently new false claim that his late uncle, John Trump, who was an accomplished a professor of engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, taught Kaczynski, the former University of California mathematics professor who sent a series of letter bombs.
While Trump recounted a conversation with his uncle about what kind of student Kaczynski was, there appears to be no evidence that the murderous mathematician, who was educated at Harvard, ever studied with Trump’s uncle, a physicist at MIT.
Trump veered into the subject of his uncle’s scientific brilliance for the same reason that he usually does, to suggest that he has some sort of innate, genetic predisposition to understand science.
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'Our memo speaks for itself': Bondi breaks silence on Maga furore over Epstein case
Speaking to NBC News earlier, the embattled attorney general Pam Bondi was of course asked about the frustration from Trump’s Maga base surrounding her department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
She said (on a different topic):
We’re going to fight to keep America safe again.
We’re fighting together as a team. That’s what’s so important right now. We’ve got a war on drugs. We’ve got a war on human trafficking, we’ve got cartels in this country ... we have got foreign adversaries around this world as well, and we’re all going to work together as a team.
Asked about the president’s earlier remarks that she should release whatever files she thinks are “credible”, Bondi added:
Today, our memo speaks for itself. We’ll get back to you on anything else. I haven’t seen all of his statements today.
At a press conference earlier on drug enforcement, Bondi had refused to answer questions about Epstein. She told reporters:
Today is about fentanyl overdoses throughout our country and people who have lost loved ones to fentanyl. That’s the message that we’re here to send today. Not Epstein. Not going to talk about Epstein.
She also wouldn’t answer a question about Dan Bongino and whether he should stay in his role (though that has since been somewhat put to bed).
Bondi, who has faced calls to resign from some conservatives because of the memo, including from Bongino, also said she has no plans to go.
I’m going to be here as long as the president wants me here.
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The day so far
Mike Waltz had his confirmation hearing to become UN ambassador, where he said he has plans to “make the United Nations great again”. Democrats slammed Waltz over his role in Signalgate, saying he lied about aspects of the leaked chat, and excoriating him for “cowardice” and acting in a manner that is “disqualifying” for this position. Republican senators were far less critical of Trump’s nominee, instead confirming that his thoughts and decision-making would align with the president’s Maga agenda.
Donald Trump and Republican senator Dave McCormick are set to announce $90bn in AI and energy investments at a summit at Carnegie Mellon University, near Pittsburgh, as his administration prepares more measures to power the US expansion of artificial intelligence.
The Trump administration is reportedly seeking to bar millions of immigrants who allegedly arrived in the US without legal status from receiving a bond hearing as they try to fight their deportations in court.
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said that he has asked Israel to “aggressively” investigate the murder of an American citizen who was beaten to death in the occupied West Bank.
Trump has continued to defend Pam Bondi, who has come under furious fire from the president’s Maga base, including from FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, who returned to work yesterday and was expected at the office today, days after he had threatened to quit over Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
Trump said he is set to meet the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, during his upcoming trip to Scotland and refine the trade framework agreed upon by the two leaders.
The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, said secondary sanctions could hit countries such as China, Brazil and India if Russia is not serious about peace talks to end its war on Ukraine. He also said Europe would “find the money” for Ukraine to continue defending itself from Russian aggression ahead of any peace talks.
Inflation shot up in June as the impacts of Trump’s tariffs slowly started to show in US prices.
A group of Republican lawmakers complained that smoke from Canadian wildfires is ruining summer for Americans, just days after voting for a major bill that will cause more of the planet-heating pollution that is worsening wildfires.
A Biden-era plan to implement a gas-powered blast furnace at a steel mill in Ohio, which would have eliminated tons of greenhouse gases from the local environment year over year and created more than a thousand jobs, was put on hold indefinitely by the Trump administration.
Trump to announce $90bn in AI and energy investments for Pennsylvania
Donald Trump and Republican senator Dave McCormick are set to announce $90bn in AI and energy investments at a summit at Carnegie Mellon University, near Pittsburgh, shortly.
Trump will reveal details of the new initiatives at the event in Pennsylvania where McCormick is hosting the summit.
Dozens of industry leaders are expected to attend, including heads of ExxonMobil, BlackRock, Palantir and Google. Also expected are senior members of Trump’s cabinet and Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro.
We’ll bring you any key lines here.
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Trump administration seeks to end bond hearings for immigrants without legal status
The Trump administration is reportedly seeking to bar millions of immigrants who allegedly arrived in the US without legal status from receiving a bond hearing as they try to fight their deportations in court.
The new policy would apply during removal proceedings, which can take years, for millions of immigrants who entered the country from Mexico in recent decades, according to a report from the Washington Post, which reviewed documents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).
Such immigrants had previously been allowed to request a bond hearing before an immigration judge, but Todd Lyons, Ice’s acting director, stated in a memo reviewed by the Post that the homeland security and justice departments had “revisited [their] legal position on detention and release authorities”. The departments determined that such immigrants “may not be released from Ice custody”, Lyons reportedly wrote in the memo.
That new restriction, which is expected to face legal challenges, was issued on 8 July shortly after the Republican-controlled Congress provided Ice $45bn over the next four years to detain immigrants for civil deportation proceedings.
“To be clear, [Ice’s] position here is laughable and is being rejected by immigration judges all over the US, and will soon be dismissed by actual federal court judges in habeas proceedings,” Charles Kuck, an immigration attorney and Emory University law professor, wrote on X in a post that alluded to challenges against one’s detention.
The policy change would mark the latest significant departure for Ice, which during Joe Biden’s presidency provided a guide on how immigrants who are detained can post bond.
US ambassador asks Israel to investigate murder of American citizen in occupied West Bank
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said that he has asked Israel to “aggressively” investigate the murder of an American citizen who was beaten to death in the occupied West Bank.
Relatives of Sayfollah “Saif” Musallet have been calling for the Trump administration to arrest and prosecute those responsible for his killing.
“There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. Saif was just 20 yrs old,” Huckabee said in a post on X.
The 20-year-old from Tampa, Florida, was visiting his family in an area near Ramallah, and was killed last week trying to protect their farm from invaders, they said at an emotional press conference in Florida yesterday.
Musallet was beaten with clubs and bats, and died in the same attack that killed a 23-year-old Palestinian man. Razek Hussein al-Shalabi was shot and left to bleed to death, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Hasem Musallet, Sayfollah’s uncle, said the settlers prevented ambulances from reaching the injured men, and that a brother watched Sayfollah take his last breath.
The attacks come amid a wave of increasing Israeli settler violence targeting Palestinians in the occupied West Bank – more than 1,000 Palestinian people have been killed there and at least 9,000 injured since the Hamas raid into southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
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Trump says Bondi handled Epstein case 'very well'
On that note, Donald Trump has continued to defend Pam Bondi, who has come under furious fire from the president’s Maga base over the perceived lack of transparency surrounding the justice department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.
“The attorney general has handled that very well,” Trump said of Bondi. “She has really done a very good job.”
Asked whether she had told him if his name appeared in a file related to Epstein, Trump said “no,” adding that Bondi has “given us just a very quick briefing”.
Trump claimed that the files were “made up” by his predecessors, though previously he has discussed the files, and his allies – from the vice-president, JD Vance, to Bondi herself – have called for their release.
“She’s handled it very well, and it’s going to be up to her,” Trump said. “Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release.”
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Bongino back at FBI after threatening to quit over Epstein row
FBI deputy director Dan Bongino returned to work yesterday and was expected at the office today, a federal law enforcement source told NBC News this morning, days after he had threatened to quit over a justice department memo that effectively ended the government’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
The source told NBC that Bongino was expected to stay on in his role, but that tensions remained high with the FBI, justice department and White House attempting to weather the storm in the hope that the controversy might die down over the coming days.
A source told NBC last week that the former podcaster was “out-of-control furious” after the memo was made public and had gotten into a heated confrontation with attorney general Pam Bondi over his frustration with how the justice department had handled the case.
He didn’t show up to work last Friday and had threatened to quit unless Bondi was fired, NBC News reported.
But Trump has repeatedly backed Bondi and also expressed support for Bongino over the weekend, saying they had spoken and he sounded “terrific”.
Related: How the Jeffrey Epstein row plunged Maga world into turmoil – a timeline
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Republicans move to block Democratic effort to force release of Epstein files
Republican lawmakers have moved to block a Democratic effort to force the release of the so-called Epstein files, a near-mythological trove of undisclosed information about the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at the center of an internal political war among US conservatives.
Democrats had been pressing for an amendment to cryptocurrency legislation that would have forced the release of information and exhibits itemized in a list of evidence held by the justice department from the 2019 child sex-trafficking case against disgraced financier Epstein.
Donald Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, teased a full accounting of the Epstein evidence, including a purported client list earlier this year. But 10 days ago, she changed course when she announced that the Trump administration had reviewed the evidence, concluded that Epstein had indeed killed himself in jail, and decided not to release the contents that the justice department said included a thousand hours of video depicting child sexual abuse.
That set off a firestorm within Trump’s conspiracy-minded Maga movement that the president has since tried to calm.
Democrats had weighed in on the issue, hoping to force a release of the documents. “The question with Epstein is: Whose side are you on?” California Democratic US House member Ro Khanna, the author of the Epstein measure, told Axios. “Are you on the side of the rich and powerful, or are you on the side of the people?”
Khanna promised to introduce the amendment “again and again and again”.
But Republicans on the US House rules committee voted down the amendment that would have allowed Congress to vote on whether the evidence – which includes micro cassettes, DVDs, CDs including one labelled “girl pics nude book 4”, computer hard drives and three massage tables in green, beige and brown – should be released.
Yet the federal case against Epstein, which dates back to 2005 and involves a mysterious plea deal that allowed to the financier to plead guilty to Florida state charges of solicitation of a minor, continues to challenge what political hardliners on the right and left believe is evidence of a nefarious nexus of international power.
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Trump to meet UK's Starmer in Scotland to refine trade deal
Donald Trump said he is set to meet the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, during his upcoming trip to Scotland and refine the trade framework agreed upon by the two leaders.
“We are going to have a meeting with him, probably in Aberdeen. And we’re going to do a lot of different things, also refine the trade deal that we’ve made,” Trump said.
Trump plans to visit both his Turnberry and Aberdeen golf properties, and officially open a new 18-hole golf course at his resort on the North Sea coast at Menie, north of Aberdeen, on a trip expected to last from 25 to 29 July.
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Rutte: Secondary US sanctions could hit China, Brazil and India 'very hard'
The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, has said secondary sanctions could hit countries such as China, Brazil and India if Russia is not serious about peace talks to end its war on Ukraine.
Speaking on the final day of his visit to Washington DC, Rutte also said Europe would “find the money” for Ukraine to continue defending itself from Russian aggression ahead of any peace talks.
He said:
“What happened yesterday was important. First of all that the US will now supply, massively, Ukraine with weapons out of [the] US; not just air defence, also missiles, also ammunition, paid for by the Europeans.
“And, secondly, that President Trump said basically if Russia is not serious about peace talks, [then] in 50 days, he will slam secondary sanctions on countries like India, China and Brazil.
“My encouragement to these three countries is … you might want to take a look into this because this might hit you very hard. Please make a phone call to [Russian president] Vladimir Putin and tell him he needs to get serious about peace talks.”
He added:
“We will find the money in Europe to make sure Ukraine is in the best possible position as soon as these peace talks start.”
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Summary: Mike Waltz's Senate confirmation hearing
In case you’re just catching up, here are some of the top lines from Mike Waltz’s Senate confirmation hearing to become the US ambassador to the United Nations:
Waltz was critical of the UN’s approach to China and “antisemitism” in his opening remarks. He said the UN had drifted from its original peacemaking goals and should return to its founding principles – “peacemaking, not nation-building”.
Waltz also pledged to “make the UN great again”, echoing Trump’s message for revamping America.
It took over an hour before the Signal group chat leak was mentioned. The leak, which occurred when Waltz was national security adviser and inadvertently added an Atlantic journalist into a group chat about US strikes on Yemen, led to his removal from that role in May and current nomination as ambassador to the UN.
Waltz said using Signal was “not only authorized, it was recommended” for government and personal devices. He also repeatedly claimed no classified information was disclosed.
Democratic senators Chris Coons, Tim Kaine and Cory Booker were the ones to press Waltz about Signalgate. Booker in particular excoriated Waltz for “cowardice” and acting in a manner that he said is “disqualifying” for this position.
Republican senators were far less critical of Trump’s nominee, instead confirming that his thoughts and decision-making would align with the president’s Maga agenda.
Waltz stressed that the Trump administration’s diplomatic strategy would be focused on cutting costs to what he called “waste, fraud and abuse that are endemic to the UN system”.
Democratic senator Jacky Rosen then cited that strategy when asking whether Waltz was still on White House payroll, despite being removed from his former role months ago, and said that could be perceived as a waste of taxpayer dollars.
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Waltz denounces UN global reports that examined US domestic policy
Earlier in the hearing, the Associated Press reported that Mike Waltz stressed that the Trump administration’s diplomatic strategy would be focused on cutting costs to what he called “waste, fraud and abuse that are endemic to the UN system”.
“It’s worth remembering, despite the cuts, the US is by far the most generous nation in the world,” said Waltz, responding to concerns that the administration’s cuts to global programs hurt US influence.
Waltz added that some UN-funded research and projects were anti-American and received input from some UN members whom the administration considers adversaries.
“The UN’s radical politicization, such reports as ‘Stolen Native American Land’ reports and investigations, called the ‘George Floyd mechanism’, labeling American police and America systemically racist with input from countries like Cuba and Venezuela, is unacceptable,” said Waltz.
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Mike Waltz’s hearing has officially concluded.
Democratic senator Jacky Rosen opened her line of questioning by asking Mike Waltz if is he still on White House payroll, as the Associated Press reported earlier.
From the AP: Waltz, whose Florida House seat was filled during a special election earlier this year, has spent the last few months on the White House payroll despite being removed as national security adviser. The latest list of White House salaries, current as of July 1, includes Waltz earning an annual salary of $195,200.
“I was not fired, the president never said that,” Waltz said in response. “I was kept on as an adviser.”
Rosen asked him to explain because he was removed as the national security adviser. Waltz went on to call the reporting “fake news”, which the senator was in no mood to entertain.
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Booker slams Waltz for 'profound cowardice' for behavior after Signal group chat leak
In Cory Booker’s time to question Mike Waltz, he also took the opportunity to go after the nominee for his actions during and after the Signal group chat leak.
The New Jersey senator said Waltz went after the Atlantic journalist, whom Waltz accidentally added to the Signal group chat, and was disappointed by the fact that the then national security adviser could not own up to making a mistake.
“That’s not leadership when you blame people who tell the truth,” the senator said.
Booker did not hold back his critique of Waltz:
“In a moment when our national security was clearly compromised, you denied, you deflected, and then you demeaned and degraded those people who objectively told the truth and criticized your actions. Smearing people, attacking folks, singling them out just further compounds what I think is disqualifying about you for this position. It also to me just shows profound cowardice.”
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As Mike Waltz testifies in Washington, Donald Trump has been quite active on social media this morning on an array of topics, including Adam Schiff, the Fed and a new digital assets bill.
After it was reported that the inflation rate was higher in June as Trump’s tariffs start to show in pricing, the president implored the Federal Reserve to “cut Rates by 3 Points. Very Low Inflation. One Trillion Dollars a year would be saved!!!”
And apparently it’s crypto week, according to his latest post on Truth Social. Trump claims the House will soon vote on a digital assets bill.
The GENIUS Act is going to put our Great Nation lightyears ahead of China, Europe, and all others, who are trying endlessly to catch up, but they just can’t do it. Digital Assets are the FUTURE, and we are leading by a lot! Get the first Vote done this afternoon (ALL REPUBLICANS SHOULD VOTE YES!).
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Democratic senator Tim Kaine also brought up Signal during his time to question Mike Waltz.
The former national security adviser again claimed that no classified information was shared. Waltz cited testimony from the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, claiming the same assessment of their Signal group chat.
“I’m sure Secretary Hegseth says he didn’t share any classified information but the fact of the matter is there are two investigations going on at the Pentagon precisely to determine in an objective and independent way whether classified information was shared,” Kaine said.
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Waltz says no classified information was shared during Signalgate
Finally, Mike Waltz is asked by Democratic senator Chris Coons whether he was investigated for his disclosure of sensitive operational information on Signal and his expansion of the group chat to (mistakenly) include a journalist.
Waltz says that use of Signal was “not only authorized, it was recommended” for government and personal devices.
Pressed to clarify whether Signal was recommended for disclosure of sensitive military information, Waltz says there was no classified information disclosed.
Pressed again on whether or not he was investigated, Waltz says the White House conducted an investigation and, to his understanding, the Department of Defense was still conducting one.
Asked if any disciplinary action was taken, Waltz says no.
Asked if he spoke to the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, about his decision to share details of an imminent military strike, Waltz says they only spoke about the “highly successful mission”.
Coons says he was hoping to hear some level of regret from Waltz about sharing sensitive information on a commercially available app, to which Waltz insists again that no classified information was shared.
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Just an observation that we’re an hour into this hearing and the Signal group chat leak hasn’t come up yet.
If confirmed as ambassador, Mike Waltz would arrive at the United Nations at a moment of great change, writes the Associated Press. The world body is reeling from Trump’s decision to slash foreign assistance – affecting its humanitarian aid agencies – and it anticipates US funding cuts to the UN annual budget.
Under an “America first” foreign policy realignment, the White House – in line with the remarks we’ve just heard from Waltz at the hearing – has asserted that “some of the UN’s agencies and bodies have drifted” from their founding mission and “act contrary to the interests of the United States while attacking our allies and propagating antisemitism”.
With the US being the largest UN donor, cutting American funding to the UN budget would greatly impair operations.
Facing financial instability, the UN has spent months shedding jobs and consolidating projects while beginning to tackle long-delayed reforms. It is also facing growing frustration over what critics describe as a lack of efficiency and power in delivering on its mandate to end conflict and prevent wars.
John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the UN who was also national security adviser during Trump’s first term, was critical of the current state of the UN. “It’s probably in the worst shape it’s been in since it was founded,” Bolton, now an outspoken Trump critic, recently told the AP.
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In his opening remarks, Mike Waltz was critical of the United Nations’ approach to China and what he called “antisemitism” at the organization.
He said the UN had drifted from its original peacemaking goals and should return to its founding principles – “peacemaking, not nation-building”. Waltz added:
I’m confident under this president’s leadership, we can continue to spread peace and prosperity, and I’m confident we can make the UN great again.
“Countering China, absolutely, Senator Shaheen, is critical,” Waltz said. If confirmed, he said, he would work with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio (who also replaced him as national security adviser), to challenge China’s growing influence at the UN.
He also highlighted the large number of UN resolutions against Israel compared with other countries, without offering any context as to why that might be.
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True to her comments in my last post, the ranking member on the Senate foreign relations committee, Jeanne Shaheen, focused her opening remarks at Mike Waltz’s confirmation hearing on critiquing the US’s retreat from its role on the global stage, highlighting the Trump administration’s slashing of budget and staff related to international relations. When the US pulls back, China benefits, she said.
They continue making long-term investments at the United Nations and international organizations, not only through contributions, but by placing more Chinese nationals in key roles. Mr Waltz, I urge you to take this threat seriously. I know you do.
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Mike Waltz testifies at Senate confirmation hearing on nomination as UN ambassador
Former national security adviser Mike Waltz (remember him?) is due to have his confirmation hearing before the Senate foreign relations committee shortly, giving lawmakers their first opportunity to publicly question him over the Signalgate controversy – which saw him inadvertently add a journalist to a high-level Signal group chat about US military strikes in Yemen.
Trump removed Waltz from his role as national security adviser in May, weeks after the scandal, and nominated him to the position of United Nations ambassador. Waltz had actually been on thin ice for weeks before Signalgate in large part due to strained working relationships in the White House, but he had also found himself under pressure for being seen as a war hawk and at odds with Trump’s “America first” agenda.
The demoted Waltz, who has been meeting with senators on Capitol Hill in recent days, will appear before the committee today alongside John Arrigo and Christine Toretti, two other Trump nominees for ambassadorships to Portugal and Sweden respectively. He is largely expected to be confirmed unless anything major comes up – and get a second go in the Trump administration.
The top Democrat on the committee, Jeanne Shaheen, told NBC News she is “sure” Signalgate will come up, “but what I want to know from Mr Waltz is whether he supports the UN, continued American presence at the United Nations, how he intends to make that case, and what he sees as the role of our UN ambassador”.
I’ll bring you any key lines from the hearing here.
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Donald Trump has said that Democratic senator Adam Schiff “has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible mortgage fraud” and “needs to be brought to justice”.
In a post on Truth Social this morning, Trump said Schiff, who holds a seat in California, had listed his primary address in Maryland “to get a cheaper mortgage” from 2009 until 2020, when he listed the property as his second address.
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US inflation rose in June as Trump’s tariffs start to show in prices
Inflation shot up in June as the impacts of Donald Trump’s tariffs slowly started to show in US prices.
Business leaders have said for months that the high, volatile rates of Trump’s tariffs will force companies to raise consumer prices. Prices remained stable in the spring, particularly as many of Trump’s highest tariffs were paused; however, they started increasing in May and have continued to rise in June.
Annual inflation rose to 2.7% in June, up from 2.4% in May, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which tracks the prices of a basket of goods and services each month. Core CPI, which leaves out energy and food prices, ticked up slightly to 2.9%, compared with 2.8% in May.
Inflation remains far below the price peaks seen three years ago, when price increases reached as high as 9%, and even a year ago, when increases were closer to 3%. But tariffs have appeared to halt inflation’s downward path.
According to the Yale Budget Lab, Americans now face an average tariff rate of 18.7% – the highest rate since 1933. That includes 30% tariffs on China, a 50% tariff on steel and aluminum, 25% on auto parts and a universal 10% tariff on all imports.
The levies currently in effect do not include those Trump is threatening to impose on other large US trading partners. Over the weekend, Trump threatened the EU and Mexico with 30% tariffs and Canada with a 35% tariff. Brazil is set to face 50% tariffs as punishment for the trial of Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, who is facing charges of attempting a coup.
Prices will likely be pushed up much higher should these tariff rates go into effect, but it’s unclear if and when that could happen. Trump initially set negotiation deadlines to 9 July, but pushed it forward to 1 August as the date approached. Trump’s trade advisers have said they aim to end negotiations by Labor Day at the beginning of September.
As prices remain volatile, the Federal Reserve appears unlikely to adjust interest rates anytime soon, despite cutting rates three times in the fall. Fed officials, including the central bank’s chair, Jerome Powell, have said that price increases are expected to continue in the summer, drawing away from the Fed’s 2% inflation target.
Luke Harding in Kyiv and Artem Mazhulin
Ukrainians are celebrating Melania Trump on social media in a series of memes, after Donald Trump suggested the first lady played a part in his apparent change of heart over Russia.
Speaking at a meeting in the White House on Monday with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, Trump said his wife had played a key role in pointing out Vladimir Putin’s duplicity.
“My conversations with him [Putin] are always very pleasant. I say, ‘Isn’t that a very lovely conversation?’ And then the missiles go off that night,” Trump said.
“I go home, I tell the first lady: ‘I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.’ She said: ‘Really? Another city was just hit.’”
Slovenian-born Melania, who grew up in the former Yugoslavia, has previously appeared to be a bigger supporter of Ukraine than the sceptical US president, who in February this year called Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator. Shortly after the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion, she appealed to her social media followers to donate to the Red Cross, saying it was “heartbreaking and horrific to see innocent people suffering”.
Agent Melania Trumpenko pic.twitter.com/rVzf6tJfvJ
— Kate from Kharkiv (@BohuslavskaKate) July 14, 2025
After Trump’s Oval Office comments on Monday, one social media user posted a photo of “Agent Melania Trumpenko” wearing a blazer with a Ukrainian trident insignia. Her face is half-shaded with a big hat, giving the impression she is working undercover inside the White House, to Kyiv’s benefit.
The magazine Business in Ukraine observed that “there is a lot of love on social media tonight for Melania Trump” after the announcement that the US would send Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine.
It reproduced a longstanding meme featuring three creatures wearing an army helmet and military caps. The image is used to denote a western politician or celebrity who supports or is friendly to Ukraine. The creatures give Melania a hat decorated with a Ukrainian flag.
Another meme shows the first lady standing behind her husband in the Oval Office, while he signs a presidential decree.
The caption reads: “Sisters Melania of the Bene Gesserit” – a reference to the powerful, secret and politically influential sisterhood from Frank Herbert’s science fiction book Dune.
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Republicans complain to Canada over wildfire smoke despite supporting planet-heating bill
A group of Republican lawmakers has complained that smoke from Canadian wildfires is ruining summer for Americans, just days after voting for a major bill that will cause more of the planet-heating pollution that is worsening wildfires.
In a letter sent to Canada’s ambassador to the US, six Republican members of Congress wrote that wildfire smoke from Canada has been an issue for several years and recently their voters “have had to deal with suffocating Canadian wildfire smoke filling the air to begin the summer”.
“Our constituents have been limited in their ability to go outside and safely breathe due to the dangerous air quality the wildfire smoke has created,” the group of House of Representative members from Wisconsin and Minnesota wrote on 7 July.
“In our neck of the woods, summer months are the best time of the year to spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family, and creating new memories, but this wildfire smoke makes it difficult to do all those things.”
The lawmakers urged Canada to take “proper action” to reduce the smoke and noted the historic friendship between Canada and America, without mentioning Donald Trump’s repeated demands for Canada to be annexed and become the 51st state of the US. “Our communities shouldn’t suffer because of poor decisions made across the border,” Tom Tiffany, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin and one of the letter’s authors, wrote on X.
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Trump administration dashes hopes of anti-pollution plan for JD Vance’s home town
A Biden-era plan to implement a gas-powered blast furnace at a steel mill in Ohio, which would have eliminated tons of greenhouse gases from the local environment year over year and created more than a thousand jobs, has been put on hold indefinitely by the Trump administration.
Experts and locals say the setback could greatly affect the health and financial state of those living around the mill.
For 13 years, Donna Ballinger has been dealing with blasting noises and layers of dust from coal and heavy metals on her vehicles and house, situated a few hundred yards from the Cleveland-Cliffs-owned Middletown Works steel mill in south-west Ohio.
“I’ve had sinus infections near constantly. I have COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease],” she says. “When they’ve got the big booms going, your whole house is shaking.”
So when two years ago, the steel mill successfully trialed a hydrogen gas-powered blast furnace, the first time the fuel had been deployed in this fashion anywhere in the Americas, she was delighted. It cost an estimated $1.6bn, and the Biden administration, through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), coughed up $500m to help cover the cost of installing the technology.
Replacing a coal-powered furnace would have eliminated 1m tons of greenhouse gases from the local environment every year, according to Cleveland-Cliffs. It would also have saved the company $450m every year through “efficiency gains and reduced scrap dependency”, and created 1,200 construction and 150 permanent jobs in the town of 50,000 residents who have struggled for decades with manufacturing losses.
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The US Senate will begin voting as soon as Tuesday on president Donald Trump’s request to slash $9.4 billion in spending on foreign aid and public broadcasting previously approved by Congress, the latest test of Trump’s control over his fellow Republicans.
Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the chamber’s Republican majority leader, said he hoped the first procedural votes would take place on Tuesday, but he did not know whether he had enough votes for the measure to pass without amendments.
“I don’t know the answer to that at this point. We got a lot of feedback. And I know there are folks who would like to see at least some modest changes to it,” Thune told reporters.
The Senate has until Friday to act on the rescessions package - a request to claw back $8.3 billion in foreign aid funding and $1.1 billion for public broadcasting - or the request will expire and the White House will be required to adhere to the spending plans passed by Congress.
The amounts at stake are small in the context of the sprawling federal budget, which totaled $6.8 trillion in the fiscal year ended 30 September. Yet they have raised the hackles of Democrats and a handful of Republicans who see an attempt to erode Congress’s authority over spending.
Democrats say the programs in Trump’s crosshairs are foreign aid initiatives. These include support for women and children’s health and the fight against HIV/AIDS, programs that have long had strong bipartisan support. Democrats also oppose cutting funds supporting broadcasting they view as essential communications in rural areas.
Trump ‘disappointed, but not done’ with Putin as he backs Nato on Ukraine
Trump said he was “disappointed, but not done” with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, hours after he announced a military deal with Nato countries to arm Ukraine.
His announcement, alongside the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, in the Oval Office, has been viewed in Europe as an important shift from Washington.
When asked if he was done with Putin, the president replied: “I’m disappointed in him, but I’m not done with him. But I’m disappointed in him.
“We had a deal done four times and then you go home and you see just attacked a nursing home in Kyiv. And so what the hell was that all about?” Asked if he trusted him, he said: “I trust almost nobody, to be honest with you.”
He also said he believed there was a newfound respect for him among world leaders – now he had twice won the presidency.
“When you do it twice, it’s the big difference. I also think that over the years, they’ve gotten to know me, this is not an easy crowd to break into,” he said. “These are smart people heading up very, very successful … countries, you know, they’re Germany and France, Spain and, yeah, big.”
Asked if he felt world leaders were being too obsequious and deferential, Trump said: “Well, I think they’re just trying to be nice.”
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Trump says he thinks about assassination attempt 'as little as possible'
Donald Trump also reflected on the attempted assassination of him, which the BBC journalist Gary O’Donoghue witnessed at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July.
Speaking to BBC News, he said:
We had 55,000 people, and it was dead silence. And so, you know, I assumed that they expected the worst.
And so I had to let them know I was OK, which is what I did. That’s why I tried to get up as quick as possible. They had a stretcher ready to go. I said: ‘No, thank you.’
I actually had a big argument with them. They wanted me on a stretcher. And I said: ‘Nope, I’m not doing that.’
Trump said he did not like to spend time thinking about that day – but acknowledged it could affect him deeply if he started to dwell on it.
He said:
I like to think about it as little as possible.
I don’t like dwelling on it, because if I did, it might be life changing. I don’t want it to be that.
In that BBC interview, president Donald Trump said that he was convinced the UK would come to the US’s aid if it were at war.
He said:
I think they would be, I don’t think a lot of the other countries would be.
It’s a special relationship. Look, that’s why I made a deal with them … for the most part in terms of your competitors and in terms of the European Union, I haven’t made a deal.
Now the UK is very special … they have been a really true ally.
Trump, who has previously been a key advocate of Brexit, also suggested he did not think the potential had been fulfilled – but said Starmer was making progress:
No, I think, I think it’s been on the sloppy side, but I think it’s getting straightened out. I really like the prime minister a lot even though he’s a liberal, I think he’s, you know, he did a good trade deal with us.
US supreme court allows Trump to resume gutting education department
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics amid the news that “America’s students will be the best, brightest, and most highly educated anywhere in the world,” according to Donald Trump as he welcomed the supreme court’s decision to allow him to resume dismantling the Department of Education.
In a late night post on Truth Social, the president said:
The United States Supreme Court has handed a Major Victory to Parents and Students across the Country, by declaring the Trump Administration may proceed on returning the functions of the Department of Education BACK TO THE STATES.
Now, with this GREAT Supreme Court Decision, our Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, may begin this very important process. The Federal Government has been running our Education System into the ground, but we are going to turn it all around by giving the Power back to the PEOPLE.
America’s Students will be the best, brightest, and most Highly Educated anywhere in the World. Thank you to the United States Supreme Court!
The three liberal justices on the court dissented over the decision which will allow McMahon – a founder of World Wrestling Entertainment – to lay off nearly 1,400 staff.
McMahon said it’s a “shame” it took the supreme court’s intervention to let Trump’s plan move ahead.
“Today, the supreme court again confirmed the obvious: the president of the United States, as the head of the executive branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies,” McMahon said in a statement.
A lawyer for the Massachusetts cities and education groups that sued over the plan said the lawsuit will continue, adding no court has yet ruled that what the administration wants to do is legal.
“Without explaining to the American people its reasoning, a majority of justices on the US supreme court have dealt a devastating blow to this nation’s promise of public education for all children. On its shadow docket, the Court has yet again ruled to overturn the decision of two lower courts without argument,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement.
Read the full story here:
Also overnight, Trump said he was “disappointed but not done” with Vladimir Putin in comments to the BBC’s journalist Gary O’Donoghue. It followed yesterday’s Oval Office meeting with Nato’s chief, Mark Rutte, in which Trump promised a new weapons deal for Ukraine and threatened to impose “severe” sanctions on Russia if the war does not end within 50 days.
The interview also touched on the assassination attempt against him, how he is looking forward to his state visit to the UK and his immigration and tax policies and we will bring you some major lines shortly.
In other news:
Mike Waltz will face questioning from lawmakers for the first time since he was ousted as national security adviser. Trump has nominated him to be US ambassador to the United Nations, and he’s set to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing today.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, thanked Trump for saying that European nations, led by Germany and Norway, could purchase US-made Patriot missile air-defense systems on Ukraine’s behalf, to help defend the country against aerial bombardment by Russia.
Trump continued his attacks on Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, calling the central banker a “stupid guy” and a “knucklehead” as the president called for interest rates to be lowered to 1% or less.
As Trump faced blowback from supporters over his administration’s decision to not release more information about the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, more attention was being paid to the president’s evasive answer on the subject during a portion of an interview with Fox News last year that was not broadcast.
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