🔗 Share this article

Greetings and salutations to the US politics live blog. This is Tom Ambrose, and I will be providing you with all the most recent news lines over the coming hours.

Trump Rejects Marjorie Taylor Greene's Danger Claims

We begin with the development that Donald Trump intensified his criticism of Republican lawmaker Representative Greene on Sunday, despite his shift on resisting the disclosure of the Epstein files.

He persisted in rejecting her assertion that his remarks were putting at risk her and stated he did not believe anyone was focusing on her. Greene said on the previous day that the President's online criticism had triggered a wave of menaces directed at her.

“Greene the ‘Traitor’,” he remarked, referring to the congresswoman. “I don’t think her life is in danger... I don’t think anybody cares about her,” the president informed the press before entering Air Force One on Sunday evening.

Greene, a House member from the state of Georgia who was long known as a Trump loyalist, has recently adopted stances at odds with the president. She noted on the weekend she has been contacted by security companies expressing concern for her safety and that strong criticisms against her have previously resulted in death threats.

Epstein Files Disclosure Push

This dispute occurred while the President encouraged his fellow Republicans in Congress to vote for the release of records concerning the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, reversing his prior opposition to such a move.

His message on his Truth Social came after Speaker Johnson said earlier that he believed a decision on releasing DOJ documents in the Epstein case should help put to rest claims “that he [Trump] has any involvement”.

He posted on his social media account on that day: “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have no secrets.

“And it’s time to put behind us this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by far-left activists in order to deflect from the significant achievements of the Republican Party, including our latest win on the government funding issue,” he said.

Although the President and Epstein were seen together decades ago, the president has said the two men fell out before Epstein's legal troubles. Emails disclosed last week by a House committee showed the disgraced financier, who died by suicide in prison in 2019, thought the President “was aware of the girls,” though it was not clear what that phrase signified.

Additional Updates

• Republican congressman Thomas Massie had questioned Trump over whether the commander-in-chief was making a “last-ditch effort” to keep the complete records on the deceased convicted criminal Jeffrey Epstein from becoming public by ordering a fresh investigation. Massie and Democratic representative Representative Khanna, the two lawmakers leading the bipartisan push to make all the documents in the possession of the authorities public both expressed new worries about the steps by the White House.
• US forces conducted another attack on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific on the weekend, killing three people on board, the Department of Defense said on Sunday. “Information verified that the boat was engaged in illicit narcotics smuggling, traveling on a established drug route, and transporting drugs,” the US Southern Command stated in a post on online platforms.
• Trump indicated the United States may open talks with Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan president, who is under escalating pressure from Washington during a huge US military buildup in the Caribbean. “We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll observe how that turns out. Venezuela would like to talk,” the commander-in-chief remarked on that day, in one of the first signs of a potential way to defusing the growingly strained situation in the area.
• Donald Trump on Sunday brushed aside worries about conservative commentator the commentator's recent interview with a far-right activist known for his anti-Jewish sentiments, which has created a division within the Republican party. Trump supported the host, noting the former Fox News host has “said positive remarks about me over the years.” He said if he chooses to speak with Nick Fuentes, whose supporters see themselves as defending America’s cultural heritage, then “people have to make up their own minds.” Trump did not criticize the commentator or the activist.
• Trump suggested on Sunday that he intends to have a discussion with NYC's mayor-elect Mamdani and said they will “work something out”, in what could be a detente for the GOP leader and Democratic rising star who have cast each other as political foils. Trump has for months criticized the mayor-elect, falsely describing him as a “communist” and predicting the decline of his city, NYC, if the democratic socialist were elected.
• A collective of seventeen transgender military personnel has sued the Trump administration for refusing them early retirement pensions and entitlements. The complaint, filed in federal court, describes the administration's action against them as “unlawful and invalid”.