President Trump is facing his most challenging political moment of his second term, with rough poll numbers and growing furor over his administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Trump saw some of his lowest approval ratings of his second term over the past week, with his net approval in the Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) average falling to more than 9 points underwater. He's seen declines, in particular, among independents and on his handling of certain key issues like immigration.
At the same time, he's trying to tame an ongoing headache stemming from the controversial case of the financier and convicted sex offender. |
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The controversy over Jeffrey Epstein rumbles on, despite President Trump's efforts to put it behind him.
It's been almost three weeks since a joint, unsigned memo from the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) insisted "no incriminating 'client list'" had been found among material related to Epstein. The memo also contended that there had been "no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions." The statement caused a firestorm – including among many Trump supporters, who had been primed to expect big revelations about Epstein, the sexual predator and disgraced financier who died, apparently of suicide, in 2019. |
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House Democrats are ramping up their town-hall blitz in GOP-held districts over the long summer recess. The strategy is not new, but this time they're armed with a powerful new talking point: President Trump's refusal to release the federal files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
The Epstein case has rattled Republicans in the White House and the Capitol, forcing Trump to defend uncomfortable connections to the late financier and convicted sex offender, while prompting Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to scrap last week's legislative plans and mount a hasty exit from Washington to preclude Epstein-related votes.
Trump's defiance on the files has put him at odds with the same core loyalists who helped propel him to power — a clash over a foundational MAGA doctrine that Trump himself had helped to promote. And Democrats are only happy to watch the unraveling, however long it endures, and goad it along when the chance arrives. |
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A third court ruled Friday that President Trump's birthright citizenship executive order cannot go into effect across the country, following the Supreme Court's decision last month clawing back nationwide injunctions.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, an appointee of former President Obama, found that the nationwide injunction he granted to more than a dozen states remains in effect because "no workable, narrower alternative" would provide the plaintiffs full relief — an exception laid out in the Supreme Court's ruling. |
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"South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone had a simple response to the furor the often-controversial show stoked this week with an episode showing President Trump in bed with Satan and making fun of what they depicted as the president's small genitals.
"We're terribly sorry," Parker said Thursday, holding a deadpan stare as the crowd laughed during a panel at Comedy Central's Comic-Con. |
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Financial markets finished the week on a high note after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stood his ground against President Trump in a rare joint appearance by the two men Thursday.
The S&P 500 finished 0.4 percent up, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 208 points or 0.47 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained about a quarter of percent to close above 21,108.
Top gainers on the day included Comfort Systems USA, Bel Fuse, Deckers Outdoor Corp. and IES Holdings, according to Morningstar. |
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A federal judge on Friday threw out a Trump administration lawsuit seeking to block sanctuary laws in Illinois that limit local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
In her ruling, Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins said that the Tenth Amendment, which protects people from federal government overreach, shielded the decision of local law enforcement to avoid collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other immigration agencies. |
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The Trump administration has placed two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on leave amid a series of efforts to make cuts at the agency.
NOAA spokesperson Kim Doster confirmed in an email that Jeff Dillen, deputy general counsel, and Stephen Volz, acting assistant secretary and assistant administrator for NOAA's Satellite and Information Service, were placed on administrative leave.
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Congressional candidate Isaiah Martin was forcibly removed and arrested during a Thursday hearing in the Texas State Capitol on redistricting after refusing to yield the microphone during public comment.
"It is a shame," Martin yelled as he was escorted out. "You should all be ashamed." Texas Republicans are pushing to redraw the state's maps after pressure from the Trump administration. They have not yet released a proposed map, which could re-define congressional districts to give the GOP a leg up in the 2026 midterms. |
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OPINION | The Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025 was introduced last week by six Republican senators, and in the House by by Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), co-chairs of the Friends of Egypt Caucus.
The bill, which seeks to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group, updates one that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) first introduced in 2015 and repeatedly since. This time, he has been joined by Republican Senate colleagues Ashley Moody (R-Fla.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Dave McCormick (R-Pa.). |
BY MEG LETA JONES AND MARGOT KAMINSKI |
OPINION | Earlier this month, the Senate voted 99-1 to remove a ban on state AI laws from the "big, beautiful bill." Despite this, the White House now plans to meddle in state efforts to govern AI.
Teen suicide, self-harm, isolation and the sexual exploitation of minors have been linked to platforms like Character.AI, Meta AI chatbots and Google's Gemini. These companies push their products into kid-friendly spaces on the app store and school enterprise packages, attracting millions of children for hours a day. |
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OK, so President Trump's name is in the Jeffrey Epstein files. But who put it there? Could it possibly have been former President Obama from his prison cell? Or a tranquilized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton? Oh wait, maybe it was etched onto the documents by former President Biden's magical autopen.
Or wait, is that mixing up different scandals? It's so hard to keep up with the latest wild notions circulating in the capital and beyond. Washington is awash in conspiracy theories these days, a cascade of suspicion and intrigue promoted or denied in the Oval Office, ricocheting around Capitol Hill and cable news and propelled at warp speed across social media. |
BY RICHARD RUBIN AND KARA DAPENA |
Now that President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act is law, the fight has begun over who wins and who loses from its tax-and-spending changes.
The tax provisions suggest the law has something for almost everyone: extension of tax cuts on most households from 2017 that were due to expire Dec. 31; new tax breaks for tips, overtime pay, senior citizens and car-loan interest; a long list of business-tax changes; and a more generous deduction for state and local taxes for some.
But a closer look shows that not everyone wins or loses by the same amount—and there are several different ways to examine the same data. |
When Sayfollah Musallet of Tampa, Florida, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the West Bank two weeks ago, he became the fourth Palestinian-American killed in the occupied territory since the war in Gaza began.
No one has been arrested or charged in Musallet's slaying – and if Israel's track record on the other three deaths is any guide, it seems unlikely to happen. Yet Musallet's father and a growing number of U.S. politicians want to flip the script.
"We demand justice," Kamel Musallet said at his 20-year-old son's funeral earlier this week. "We demand the U.S. government do something about it." |
Germany this year amended its constitution to allow Berlin to borrow hundreds of billions of euros for military spending, including weapons for Ukraine. Norway can tap its extraordinary oil wealth to finance air defenses. Other European countries are talking about pooling cash but still not certain how they will pay to keep Kyiv armed. Now that President Trump has agreed to allow U.S. weapons to be sent to Ukraine — provided that the Europeans foot the bill — complex negotiations are underway over the can provide what types of hardware, and with what money. Various ideas are being fleshed out but, to start, officials say, they need to cover about $10 billion of weaponry. |
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