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Dozing Don: Trump 'Struggles For 20 Minutes' To Stay Awake At Oval Office Event

Before a man fainted in the Oval Office where the administration was announcing price cuts for weight-loss drugs, President Donald Trump struggled to stay awake for 20 minutes in a now-viral photo that the Washington Post has analyzed via video.

"A Washington Post analysis of multiple video feeds found that Trump spent nearly 20 minutes apparently battling to keep his eyes open at the Thursday event," they explain.

"It was a seemingly stark illustration of the strain of the presidency on a 79-year-old who typically keeps a vigorous travel schedule that even his aides say they struggle to keep up with — and who has reveled in calling his predecessor 'Sleepy Joe' Biden," the Post adds.

Trump, they write, "displayed a constellation of movements familiar to anyone who has attempted to stay awake during a work meeting. He closed his eyes. He put his hand to his temple. He slouched in his chair."

Meanwhile, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was speaking, saying, “People can sleep again, because they can breathe when they go to bed."

Trump woke up when the man behind him fainted, in a now much-mocked and scorned viral photo that shows the president standing frozen at his desk, unmoved by the man on the floor behind him.

Moments after that, however, Trump was again nodding off. The White House denied that Trump was sleeping, while Democrats blasted the alleged hypocrisy of a man who dubbed his fellow elderly predecessor "Sleepy Joe."

Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) snapped back at Trump's Biden moniker with a few of his own: "Dozy Don" and "The Nodfather."

“The national media would have had multiple strokes if Joe Biden was sleeping/passed out in his chair in the Oval Office,” Neera Tanden, who served as Biden’s top domestic policy aide, posted on social media.

Hegseth Weakening Military Readiness With Political Purge Of Top Generals And Admirals

Since President Donald Trump's second term began in January, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired roughly two dozen top generals and admirals — often for political reasons.

Approximately 20 current and former military leaders recently told the New York Times that Hegseth's decisions were leading to the Pentagon having a dearth of generational experience that could take years to recover. Former National Security Council member Kori Schake said the Trump administration was "squandering an enormous amount of talent." Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who was a CIA officer before running for Congress, referred to Hegseth's firings of three-star and four-star generals and admirals as a "purge" on her X account.

"The places where we’ve looked at these kinds of things are places like China," Slotkin said during a Senate hearing. "I used to work on Iraq. They would do the same thing."

Many top officers were fired due to their ties to General Mark Milley (Ret.), who was the United States' top military leader between in the final two years of Trump's first term and through most of former President Joe Biden's term. Milley told journalist Bob Woodward in 2024 that Trump was "fascist to the core" and "the most dangerous person to the country." The Times reported that Hegseth had delayed or cancelled the promotions of "at least four senior military officers" because they previously worked for Milley.

This includes Maj. Gen. James Patrick Work, who was set to head U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East. Work served as Milley's executive officer in 2018, and his status remains in limbo despite strong backing from U.S. Army leadership.Hegseth also fired Adm. Milton Sands in August, who is the commander of the elite Navy SEALs, because he promoted diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the SEALs.

Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly was nominated to become vice admiral and commander of the Navy's Seventh Fleet, which the Times reported is the Navy's largest overseas fighting force. However, Hegseth cancelled his promotion after the far-right Daily Wire reported that a sailor on the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan performed in drag during a talent show (Donnelly was not on board the carrier at the time).

Several of the Times' sources worried that Hegseth had politicized the military, and thereby ruined its credibility among the civilian populace. Gen. Stanley McChrystal (Ret.) told the paper: "Once lost, the legitimacy of a military that reflects and represents all Americans will be difficult to recover."

"The message being sent to those younger soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines is that politics can and should be part of your military service," Rep. Jason Crow, (D-CO), who is a former Army Ranger, told the Times. "It’s a dangerous message."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Report: FBI Told House Republicans About 'Worse' Trump Photos In Epstein Files

Several House Republicans have reportedly heard from the Department of Justice (DOJ) that the unreleased Jeffrey Epstein documents are especially compromising for President Donald Trump.

That's according to reporting from former MSNBC, CNN and Fox News reporter David Shuster, who posted to his X account on Wednesday that there is "speculation/rumors sweeping through [the] GOP caucus" about the details of the Epstein files.

"A few GOP house members say they’ve heard from FBI/DOJ contacts that the Epstein files (with copies in different agencies) are worse than Michael Wolff’s description of Epstein photos showing Trump with half naked teenage girls," Shuster wrote.

Shuster is likely referring to an October interview in which Trump biographer Michael Wolff told the Daily Beast that he had personally seen "about a dozen Polaroid snapshots" of Trump and Epstein, in which Trump was photographed with several topless young women on his lap. Wolff said Epstein pulled the photos out of a safe and spread them out "like a deck of cards" on his dining room table. The author told the Beast he saw the photos while visiting Epstein's home at the convicted sex offender's invitation, as Epstein wanted Wolff to write a book about him.

Veteran journalist Shuster further reported that Republicans were "spooked" by Attorney General Pam Bondi's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, after she refused to answer a question from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) about whether she had personally seen the photos after the contents of Epstein's safe were confiscated. After Whitehouse asked her about the photos, Bondi then questioned him about receiving campaign donations from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who was associated with Epstein.

"She didn’t give a denial," Shuster wrote.

According to Shuster, Republicans' anxiety about the contents of the Epstein files is compounded by "more than 100+ Republicans" who are reportedly planning to vote for the bipartisan discharge petition by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), which only needs one more signature in order to force a floor vote. Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), who won a late September special election to fill the seat vacated by her late father, promised to be the 218th and final signature on the discharge petition, though she has yet to be sworn in.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Civil War Erupts In Heritage Foundation Over Neo-Nazi Fuentes

One major conservative group is experiencing a massive rift in its workforce, and the source of the division is reportedly a polarizing far-right influencer.

That's according to a Monday article in the New York Post, which reported that insiders at the Heritage Foundation (the group responsible for the authoritarian Project 2025 playbook) are sharing stories of "revolt" within the GOP-aligned organization. Many within Heritage are alarmed after the group's president, Kevin Roberts, refused to disavow right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson after his friendly interview with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.

"We will always defend our friends against the slander of bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda," Roberts said at the time. "That includes Tucker Carlson, who remains, and as I have said before, always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation."

"I disagree with and even abhor things that Nick Fuentes said," Roberts continued. “But canceling him is not the answer either.”

One source told the Post that Roberts' statement was "the most embarrassed I’ve ever been to be a Heritage employee," adding: "It’s not close." Another accused Carlson of "playing footsie with literal Nazis." A separate Heritage staffer said Roberts' refusal to "cancel" Carlson amounted to "safe space wokeism.""If we are labeled on the same side as Nick Fuentes, then we deserve to lose," a fourth source said. "Talking with some of the interns I think that there are a growing number of them who actually agree [with Fuentes]."

Fuentes, who has openly praised Adolf Hitler and repeatedly maligned the Jewish community, spent part of his interview with Carlson blaming Jewish people for the state of American politics. He also heaped praise on World War II-era Russian leader Josef Stalin, calling himself a "fan" of the dictator who killed millions of his own citizens.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

CNN Polling Analyst: Upcoming Elections May Foretell Midterm Doom For GOP

The upcoming gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, along with next week's mayoral election in New York City, could be viewed as a reliable bellwether for how next year's midterm elections will go, according to CNN data analyst Harry Enten.

In a Friday segment on CNN's OutFront, Enten told guest host Erica Hill that "Donald Trump can't be too happy" with the latest polling in those three races. Even though New Jersey's gubernatorial race is the closest of the three, Trump-endorsed Republican Jack Ciattarelli is still anywhere from six to eight points behind Democratic candidate Mikie Sherrill.

Republicans have an even smaller chance of keeping control of the governor's mansion in Virginia, as Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears is trailing Democrat Abigail Spanberger by 14 points according to a recent YouGov poll. And Democrat Zohran Mamdani is poised for a clear victory over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (who is running as an independent) and Republican Curtis Sliwa. An Emerson College poll shows Mamdani ahead of Cuomo — his closest challenger — by roughly 25 percentage points.

"At this point in time, to me, it seems like the Democrats are most likely going to sweep all three of those races," Enten said. "And that's in part because of Donald Trump."

Enten went on to observe that there have only been five instances in the past 90 years where Democrats have swept all three off-year elections, with the latest instance happening in 2017. The other four times were in 1989, 1961, 1957 and 1953. However, he added that Democrats have reason to be hopeful if they repeat the feat next week.

"The five times that I mentioned that the Democrats swept all three of those races, each and every single time, the following year, they won a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives," he said. "So if Democrats sweep on Tuesday, in my opinion, it's a very good sign looking forward to 2026 in taking back that majority from the Republicans."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

GOP Member TO SNAP Families: 'Stop Smoking Crack' And Stockpile Groceries

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) ignited a firestorm of outrage after a tweet in which he blamed the 42 million Americans set to lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits this weekend for their own plight.

On Thursday, Higgins posted to his official X account: "There are 22 million American households receiving SNAP benefits for groceries, at $4200 per year on average. Try to get your head wrapped around how many pantries you can stock with $4200 dollars in properly shopped groceries. Any American who has been receiving $4200 dollars per year of free groceries and does NOT have at least 1 month of groceries stocked should never again receive SNAP, because wow, stop smoking crack."

Higgins' post was met almost immediately with anger and ridicule. Children's author Kristine Rudolph wrote on Bluesky: "Tell us you don’t do the grocery shopping in your house without telling us you don’t do the grocery shopping in your house." Pennsylvania Capital-Star editor-in-chief Tam Lambert posted that $4,200 per year in SNAP benefits amount to "about $80 a week."

Retired air traffic controller Vivian M. Lumbard argued that Higgins' post reveals how "none of these Republicans seem to understand how much groceries actually cost, especially if you have kids."

"$4200 equates to $350/month," she wrote. "I doubt I could cover all my groceries just for myself for that amount of money, even if I gave up meat."

Political consultant Jamison Foster quoted Lucille Bluth from the sitcom "Arrested Development" (who famously said: "It's one banana Michael. What could it cost? $10?) by writing: "It's one month of groceries, Michael. How much room can it take up? Ten closets?"

Political scientist Miranda Yaver broke down Higgins' post by pointing out that Republicans simultaneously expect Americans to "Stop eating processed foods. Make healthy choices: eat more fresh food" while claiming SNAP recipients are "irresponsible" if they "don't have a month's food supply on hand to live on when we can't keep the government open."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Shutdown May Inflict Heavy Price On Republicans In Poor Rural Districts

Members of Congress from Republican-controlled states may be about to pay a hefty political price due to one particular element of the government shutdown, according to a longtime conservative.

During a Monday segment on MSNBC's Deadline: White House, David Frum — who was a speechwriter in former President George W. Bush's administration — said Republicans' shutdown gamble is unlikely to pay off. He predicted there would be an "exit ramp" for the GOP in the form of agreeing to a deal on extending expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, but that a bigger problem was still looming: Trump challenging Congress' power of the purse under Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution."The Constitution awards Congress power over taxing and spending. And Donald Trump has challenged that power in a very fundamental way," Frum said. "He is taxing, without Congress, thirty-plus billion dollars a month in tariff revenue, and he is spending without Congress. He is getting other forms of revenue than taxes."

"The reason the White House ballroom story is so important: It's not just the vandalism of an historical monument. It's not just the gaudy, bad taste of this ballroom. It's that it is being funded not by taxes, but by gifts from people who have business before the government," he continued. "So he's bypassing Congress as a source of revenue, and he's bypassing Congress' control of spending, and he's claiming the authority to refuse to spend money that Congress has appropriated and that he signed. So how do you do business with someone like that?"

Frum also pointed out that with funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) expiring on Saturday for 42 million Americans, many Republicans may already be feeling pressure from constituents to make a deal with Democrats. He pointed out that many residents of reliably red states are dependent on food stamps."There's a lot of poverty and hunger in poor, white, rural America," Frum said. "There are a lot of people on food stamps in poor white rural America that I think a lot of the people in Trump's gaudy circle assume that they can use food stamps and other things to squeeze the Democrats, because the Democrats are the 'poor people's party.' But that is not exactly true anymore."

"One of Donald Trump's achievements was to change the class basis of American politics. There are a lot more educated and affluent people in the Democratic coalition. There are a lot more poor and rural people in the Republican coalition," he added. "... If you're planning on running up the electoral score in North Carolina, for example, many of the people in the Republicans are counting on to make their gerrymander in North Carolina work, may be on food stamps."

Trump's Black Outreach Chief Bemoans 'Racism And Hatred' In Young Republican Texts

The ongoing fallout over leaked racist text messages from Republican leaders and staffers is now causing one prominent Black organizer from President Donald Trump's reelection campaign to issue a stark warning to her party.

The text messages, which were initially leaked to Politico this week, showed Republican elected officials and party officials in multiple states openly praising Germany's fascist regime during World War II, sending political opponents "to the gas chamber" and calling Black people "monkeys" and "watermelon people." Several of the Republican officials named in the report have either resigned or been fired from their positions.

In a Thursday op-ed for the Washington Post, Gina Barr — who was the executive director of Black coalitions for the Trump 2024 campaign — lamented that young Republicans who have been tasked with leading the GOP in the coming decades openly espoused "hatred and racism."

"Their bigotry doesn’t just stain their reputations — it blinds them and their ilk to the reality of the political terrain ahead," Barr wrote.

Barr, who is also the director of women and urban engagement at the Republican National Committee according to her LinkedIn profile, said that the scandal was particularly damning for Republicans given that the most important "terrain" in the 2026 midterm elections is in the suburbs, and that people of color will play an outsized role in determining who controls Congress next November.

"The demographics tell the story. Of the 26 congressional districts targeted by the National Republican Congressional Committee, 17 are in areas where at least 40 percent of residents are people of color, according to the 2020 census," she wrote. "Four of Texas’s five newly drawn seats are majority minority. Those numbers aren’t just statistics — they are the future knocking on the GOP’s door."

Barr acknowledged that while Republicans made inroads with communities of color in 2024, those gains could be wiped out if voters see the GOP as a party filled with closet racists. She called on the GOP to "root out anyone in its ranks still clinging to the racist relics of the past."

"The Republican Party made real progress with voters of color in 2024. If it hopes to keep Congress in 2026, it will need to work even harder," she wrote. "Because the terrain has shifted — and in politics, like war, if you don’t understand the terrain, you lose."

Trump Withdraws Nomination Of Top BLS Official Amid Critical Blast

President Donald Trump is now withdrawing the nomination of the Heritage Foundation's E.J. Antoni to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

That's according to a Tuesday article in CNN, which reported that the White House has officially submitted its withdrawal paperwork to the U.S. Senate, where Antoni is awaiting formal confirmation. While the White House hasn't officially given a reason for its decision, CNN reported that it may be due to revelations that Antoni administered a secret social media account in which he repeatedly made derogatory remarks about top Democrats and minorities.

CNN reported earlier this month that Antoni was confirmed to be behind an account named "phdofbombsaway" that had been named "ErwinJohnAntoni" up until 2019. That account shared posts implying former Vice President Kamala Harris performed sexual favors to advance her political career, and that referred to Christine Blasey Ford — who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of assaulting her when he was in high school – as "Miss Piggy." At the time, the White House stood by Antoni.

"President Trump has nominated Dr. EJ Antoni to fix the issues at the BLS and restore trust in the jobs reports," White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said earlier this month. "Dr. Antoni has the experience and credentials needed to restore solution-oriented leadership at the BLS — solutions that will prioritize increasing survey response rates and modernizing data collection methods to improve the BLS’s accuracy."

Antoni was nominated to replace former BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer, who Trump fired after the August jobs report showed anemic job growth and issued revisions lowering job growth estimates from previous jobs reports (a common occurrence, as employer surveys tend to trickle in over time). The White House alleged without evidence that McEntarfer had been purposefully publishing weak jobs numbers in order to embarrass the administration.

As of Tuesday evening, Congress has been so far unable to pass a bill to keep government agencies funded beyond September 30, meaning a federal government shutdown is imminent. This means that the BLS will not be publishing an October jobs report next Friday. And even if Congress manages to pass a funding bill and end a shutdown by October 7 (when the House of Representatives is scheduled to return), a clean jobs report with a full month of data isn't likely until September.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Celebrated Former US Attorney Will Defend Comey Against Trump's Toy Prosecutor

Lindsey Halligan — who is President Donald Trump's new acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia — will be facing a particularly tough opponent on the other side of the courtroom in former FBI Director James Comey's pending criminal trial.

On Thursday, Politico reported that Comey has officially retained former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as his defense attorney, who led the Department of Justice's operations in the Northern District of Illinois for more than a decade. Fitzgerald successfully prosecuted multiple high-profile cases, securing convictions against former Illinois Governors Rod Blagojevich (D) and George Ryan (R), as well as media mogul Conrad Black.

As an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Fitzgerald also prosecuted al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Egyptian terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman and Pakistani terrorist Ramzi Yousef for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. And while Comey was FBI director, he appointed Fitzgerald to oversee the investigation into the Valerie Plame affair during former President George W. Bush's administration.

Halligan's indictment of Comey is just two pages long, and her signature is the only one on the official charging documents (which are typically signed by several career DOJ prosecutors in addition to the U.S. attorney overseeing the case). Halligan has no prior experience as a prosecutor, and practiced insurance law before Trump put her on his legal team in his classified documents case (which Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon later threw out). The grand jury she convened for Comey didn't return an indictment on one of the three charges she recommended.

Several legal experts and commentators argued that Halligan will have an exceedingly difficult road ahead in her goal of convicting Comey on multiple felony counts. Former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance wrote on X that Fitzgerald is "one of the most highly regarded former DOJ officials."

"Interestingly enough, it was James Comey who appointed Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the exposure of the CIA's Valerie Plame," MSNBC columnist Steve Benen wrote on Bluesky. "Fitzgerald then prosecuted Scooter Libby ... who was ultimately pardoned by Trump ... who's now prosecuting Comey ... who'll be represented by Fitzgerald."

Legal journalist Chris Geidner, who writes the "Law Dork" newsletter on Substack, pointed out that Trump's DOJ also has a significant obstacle in the form of U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff — an appointee of former President Joe Biden who served as a federal public defender prior to his nomination to the federal judiciary.

"So it's going to be the tough-as-nails, highly experienced former U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald vs a twice-failed Miss Colorado contestant — who worked in the insurance industry and has never prosecuted anything — in the Comey case? What a time to be alive," author Mollie Katzen wrote.

"This may backfire on Trump," one X user observed.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

'Lying To Us!': MAGA Erupting With Conspiracy Suspicions Over Kirk Murder

Even though the alleged murderer of Charlie Kirk has been apprehended – and even reportedly confessed in a Discord group chat — that hasn't stopped MAGA pundits from spreading conspiracy theories accusing President Donald Trump's administration of not telling the whole truth.

Bulwark reporter Will Sommer wrote that the MAGA media world is being "pulled apart" by conspiracies questioning the FBI's handling of Kirk's murder. Far-right podcast host Michael Savage suggested over the weekend that alleged killer Tyler Robinson was a patsy, doubting the government's claims that he disassembled the rifle used for the killing before jumping off of a rooftop, only to re-assemble it before abandoning the weapon (a firearms expert told NewsNation that it was indeed possible for the gunman to disassemble the weapon relatively quickly with the help of "after-market accessories.")

"Something is wrong with this whole f------ picture," Savage said. "We are not hearing or seeing reality ... We're supposed to believe a guy is on the run after killing Charlie Kirk, and he pauses in the woods to reinstall a barrel. And he leaves it there for us to find, for the FBI to find?"

"I don't believe a word of it," "I can't take it anymore. I can't take the bulls---," he added. "This f------ government is lying to us!"

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon also doubted the veracity of the FBI's investigation in a recent episode of his "War Room" podcast. He argued that the government's timeline of events "makes no sense" and that Americans were being "spoonfed a narrative" that wasn't true.

"Charlie Kirk was executed," Bannon tweeted. "This isn’t a 'single murder'; it’s a conspiracy."

Pro-Trump podcaster Candace Owens also suggested the administration was withholding information about Kirk's murder in her latest episode. Owens pointed out that before Kirk was killed, he had taken a more critical stance against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, and that his comments led to a confrontation with billionaire Bill Ackman, who donates to pro-Israel causes.

The Anti-Defamation League found that in the days following Kirk's murder, a number of right-wing antisemitic social media accounts were suggesting that Israel was somehow involved in the shooting (no evidence has emerged tying Israel to Kirk's murder).

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

' This Is Who He Is': Trump Niece Accuses President Of 'Stoking' Violence

Mary Trump — the niece of President Donald Trump — recently said her uncle plays a significant role in the escalation of political violence in the United States.

During a Thursday interview with former CNN host Jim Acosta, Mary Trump agreed with Acosta when he said that Trump was incapable of being a "consoler-in-chief" in the wake of the murder of 31 year-old MAGA activist Charlie Kirk. She said her uncle was "pouring gasoline on a raging fire" by singularly blaming the political left for Kirk's death.

"He will never change. He's been the same person for decades. And quite frankly, he's been rewarded for being this person. So it's a fool's errand to suggest that he will ever change."

Acosta reminded viewers that despite Trump's promise to find and prosecute the person responsible for shooting Kirk, he said nothing about the death of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman (D) when she was assassinated by a far-right activist in June. And he lamented that Trump didn't call Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) after Hortman's shooting, saying it would have been a "waste of time."

Mary Trump agreed with Acosta, and went on to argue that the media was so far absolving the president for his role in exacerbating political divisions in the U.S.. She argued that her uncle was engaging in a "slippery slope" of suggesting that Democrats should be "targeted" in the wake of Kirk's murder.

"I see people still giving him the benefit of the doubt, and it is mystifying to me. Because how much more evidence do we need really, that this is who he is and this kind of behavior benefits him?" She said. "Just as the divisiveness — he is largely responsible for stoking in this country over the last decade — benefits him and protects him."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Epstein Joked About Selling 'Fully Depreciated' Woman To Pal Donald

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are now releasing new images from the infamous "birthday book" that convicted child trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell – who was pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's chief accomplice — assembled for Epstein for his 50th birthday. One image appears to show President Donald Trump and references a deal involving an unnamed woman and tens of thousands of dollars.

The image, which Oversight Committee Democrats posted to their official X account on Monday, appears to show the woman (whose face has been redacted), Trump, an unknown Mar-a-Lago member and Epstein all holding up an enlarged check bearing Trump's signature. A handwritten note is seen under the image, and although the note is not signed, the writing appears similar to Epstein's own, according to public records.

"Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women! Sells 'fully depreciated' [REDACTED] to Donald Trump for $22,500," the note read. "Showed early 'people skills' too. Even though I handled the deal I didn't get any of the money or the girl!"

Investigative journalist Jacqueline Sweet alleged the Mar-a-Lago member seen in the photo is Joel Pashcow, who was also seen sitting in close proximity to Epstein in a separate photo from 1994. Sweet also observed that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy was in the photo close to both Pashcow and Epstein. Kennedy admitted to flying on Epstein's jet on two separate occasions in the 1990s.

The release of the photo comes on the heels of a separate photo the Wall Street Journal released of Trump's purported message to Epstein as part of the book. As the Journal reported earlier this year, the message imagines a conversation between Trump and Epstein in which Trump said that the two men "have certain things in common" and share "a wonderful secret." The message is outlined by a drawing in the shape of a woman's torso, with Trump's signature in the approximate area of the woman's pubic region.

"We got the Epstein note Trump says doesn’t exist," Oversight Committee ranking member Robert Garcia (D-CA) tweeted. "Time to end this White House cover-up."

Earlier on Monday, White House spokesperson Taylor Budowich tweeted several of Trump's signatures and disputed that the signature seen on the letter was not from the president. However, conservative attorney George Conway tweeted a photo of a letter Trump sent him in 2006, in which the signature at the bottom was nearly identical to the one seen in the lewd birthday message.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

'Very Hostile': White House Bullies Republicans Over Epstein Files Release

The House of Representatives is weighing a bipartisan effort to force a vote on the full release of documents pertaining to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but President Donald Trump is actively discouraging Republicans from backing it.

That's according to a statement the White House released Tuesday evening, which was tweeted by NOTUS reporter Daniella Diaz. An unnamed administration spokesperson cautioned House Republicans against signing on in support of a discharge petition by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) that Massie announced Tuesday.

"Helping Thomas Massie and Liberal Democrats with their attention-seeking, while the DOJ is fully supporting a more comprehensive file release effort from the oversight committee, would be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration," the spokesperson said.

The threat from the White House comes as Massie and Khanna are planning a Wednesday morning press conference in which several Epstein victims — including some speaking out for the first time — are planning to share their stories with Capitol reporters. And should Congress and the Trump administration continue to stymie efforts to release the files, some victims have indicated they plan to possibly name additional accomplices who allegedly helped Epstein exploit young girls.

Massie told MSNBC on Tuesday that Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) have already signed the petition. This means that, assuming all Democrats sign the petition, the full House could vote on releasing the Epstein files if just two more Republicans add their names.

If the bipartisan petition gets 218 votes, it would circumvent House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and bring a vote directly to the floor on whether to compel the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all of the remaining Epstein-related files that have yet to be seen by the public. The New York Times reported in July that the DOJ is sitting on an estimated 100,000 pages of unreleased materials.

According to ABC News, the unreleased Epstein evidence categorized by the FBI includes several notable items, including a logbook of visitors to Epstein's "Little Saint James Island," which housed his private compound. The FBI also reportedly indexed "a document with names," which may be the rumored "client list" that Attorney General Pam Bondi has insisted doesn't exist.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Trump Biographer: President Worrying Over Epstein Files Release

President Donald Trump's administration is becoming increasingly worried about the ramifications of Congress reviewing documents relating to convicted child predator Jeffrey Epstein.

That's according to New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman, who reported on the administration's nervousness over the partial release of some of the Epstein files in a Thursday appearance on CNN. Haberman told host Brianna Keilar that Trump's photo-op with law enforcement in Washington D.C. on Thursday night could be viewed as an attempt to distract the media from Friday's release of documents to the House Oversight Committee.

"He is mindful. It is in the back of his mind to try to keep Epstein out of the news," she said. "I think we don't quite know what this is going to look like tomorrow, but he, absolutely, and certainly a lot of his advisers, were happy that Epstein has not been front-and-center as an issue for the last few weeks."

As PBS reported earlier this week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is planning on releasing some of the estimated 100,000 pages of Epstein-related files to the Oversight Committee in response to a recent subpoena. The administration has so far not said what would be in the initial release of documents, and it remains unclear whether the committee will make those files publicly available following its review.

ABC News has reported that some of the unreleased evidence categorized by the FBI includes logbooks of visitors to Epstein's "Little Saint James" Island (which housed his private compound) and "a document with names," which could be the rumored "Epstein list" that Attorney General Pam Bondi has publicly insisted does not exist.

When Keilar asked Haberman how the Trump administration was preparing for eventual media coverage surrounding the new documents, the Times reporter said the DOJ knew unfavorable coverage was "sort of baked in for them." Haberman added that the "big question" of whether to share the files with the public still remains open.

"Do they ever turn these files over publicly, which they clearly have the ability to do and just have chosen not to do it, and instead have looked for judges to release grand jury testimony?" Haberman said. "The judges have said [the grand jury records] don't contain some kind of a smoking gun."

"They know what's coming and they have their talking points," she added. "It's just that it's not a topic that any of them enjoy."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Swamp Critters: White House Staffers Grab Lucrative Lobbyist Jobs

Multiple people inside President Donald Trump's administration are already jumping ship after less than a year on the job and are securing highly lucrative jobs as lobbyists.

That's according to a Wednesday article by Politico's Caitlin Oprysko and Sophia Cai, who reported that high-profile lobbying firms are now scooping up several Trump administration staffers who have only been in the White House for a handful of months. Oprysko and Cai noted that the Washington D.C. "revolving door" between lobbying and government that Trump promised to bulldoze with his 2016 "drain the swamp" mantra remains alive and well given the announcement of the new hires.

"[B]arely a half-year into his second administration, a handful of senior White House aides are already heading for the exits — and right through the revolving door between the federal government and K Street, where they’re lining up cushy lobbying gigs," they wrote.

White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields is leaving the administration to join the Republican-run lobbying firm CGCN Group, after just seven months in his previous role. Fields was often quoted as a White House spokesperson in major media outlets, accusing NPR and PBS of "creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime" in a May article for Axios and justifying Trump's attacks on large law firms for having allegedly "propelled one-sided justice by providing pro bono resources to those causes that make our nation more dangerous and less free" in a recent Wall Street Journal report.

In addition to Fields' exit, Trent Morse — who is a deputy assistant to the president and the deputy director of the White House's Office of Presidential Personnel — is launching his own lobbying firm, while also teaming up with the powerhouse lobbying firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who worked alongside Morse at two other lobbying firms over the last decade, heaped praise on Morse as he made his exit, calling him "an important and integral part of the successes we’ve had."

Ivan Adler, who runs an executive hiring firm in Washington, told Politico that the early exits of senior Trump staffers was proof that so many lobbying clients are "looking for a sherpa for this administration, just because it’s so different," and that "people are taking advantage" of their knowledge by hiring them directly from the White House.

Federal law requires a year-long "cooling off" period from the time a former government worker leaves their position to when they can begin officially lobbying the West Wing and representing foreign entities, meaning that for Fields and Morse, their cooling off window will be longer than their actual time serving in the White House. However, they can begin lobbying Congress immediately.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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