The Trump Presidency, Season 2

[Free]

Trump sues Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch over reporting on Epstein ties

President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, a day after the newspaper published a story reporting on his ties to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein.

apnews.com

Who's got the popcorn?

Rupert has some, but it's pretty stale.

 

[Casey Pelous]

Who's got the popcorn?

We're gonna want to stock up in case this actually gets to the deposition stage.

If I was the WSJ's lawyer, I'd go full-court press for a speedy trial.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Trump has been shaking too many hands lately, it seems:

US President Donald Trump has been diagnosed with a common, benign vein condition, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.

"In recent weeks, President Trump noted mild swelling in his lower legs," Leavitt told journalists at a White House press briefing.

She said medical tests "revealed chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), a benign and common condition, particularly in individuals over the age of 70." Trump is 79 years old.

Leavitt claimed that the bruised hand was due to Trump shaking hands with so many people and because he takes aspirin. Trump takes aspirin to mitigate heart attack and stroke risk.

Leavitt said laboratory testing found no evidence that Trump faces "deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease."

A letter published by the White House from presidential physician Sean Barbabella said Trump "remains in excellent health."

Trump receives vein issue diagnosis amid leg swelling rumors – DW – 07/18/2025

US President Donald Trump has been diagnosed with "chronic venous insufficiency," according to the White House. Images of Trump's bruised hand and swollen legs sparked rumors about the 79-year-old president's health.

www.dw.com

 

[Cristiano]

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

When Trump visited in 2017 they had this little toy at hand. It made felt Trump unwelcome.

 

[Beebo Brink]

We're gonna want to stock up in case this actually gets to the deposition stage.

If I was the WSJ's lawyer, I'd go full-court press for a speedy trial.

You can tell that Donald has hit the very bottom of the barrel of people who will work for him because there's no one left to say, "No, Donald, no. You really don't want to launch a discovery phase."

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

This is a really insightful article.

With gavel in hand, Trump chisels away at the power of a compliant Congress

When House Speaker Mike Johnson gifted to President Donald Trump the gavel used to enact the Republicans' tax breaks and spending bill, it was a memorable moment at the White House.

apnews.com

 

[Free]

The "press" starts to look into the long, close relationship between Trump and Epstein. At least a decade too late, but I guess better late than never?

Inside the Long Friendship Between Trump and Epstein (archive.today)

In the swirl of money and sun-tanned women that was their Palm Beach-and-Manhattan set, Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein spent nearly 15 years mingling side-by-side as public friends.

There were lavish dinners with boldface names at Mr. Epstein’s mansion on the Upper East Side and raucous parties with cheerleaders and models at Mr. Trump’s private club and residence at Mar-a-Lago. In between, there were trips back and forth from Florida to New York on one of Mr. Epstein’s private jets.

But behind the tabloid glamour, questions have lingered about what Mr. Trump’s long association with Mr. Epstein says about his judgment and character, especially as his allies have stoked sinister claims about Mr. Epstein’s connections to Democrats. After their relationship ruptured, the disgraced financier ended up behind bars not just once, but two times, after being accused of engaging in sex with teenage girls.

One of the young women who later said Mr. Epstein groomed and abused her was recruited into his world while working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago. Another accuser recalled being eyed by Mr. Trump during a brief encounter in Mr. Epstein’s office, and claimed that Mr. Epstein had told Mr. Trump at the time that “she’s not for you.”

 

[Beebo Brink]

The "press" starts to look into the long, close relationship between Trump and Epstein. At least a decade too late, but I guess better late than never?

The press has been doing this for decades. It's just the first time that MAGA has paid attention.

 

[Cristiano]

 

[Free]

Should we start a new Epstein thread?

The Epstein Cover-Up at the FBI

Inside the chaotic review process of the Epstein and Maxwell files at the Bureau

www.muellershewrote.com

First, approximately 1,000 personnel in the Information Management Division (IMD) and the FBI New York Field Office were assigned to this task, confirming the whistleblower account made to Senator Durbin’s office. I can also confirm that a log exists tracking the mentions of Donald Trump in the files, and that there were approximately 100,000 files containing roughly 300,000 pages. Individual analysts were told to flag mentions of Trump by document and page number by logging them in an Excel spreadsheet, then they’d hand in their spreadsheet at the end of their (sometimes 24 or even 48-hour) shift. But it’s important to note that the agents were not told to flag Trump until later in a process that began mid-March.

The process of reviewing the Epstein and Maxwell files was chaotic, and the orders were constantly changing - sometimes daily. One person I spoke to on the condition of anonymity said that many agents spent more time waiting for new instructions than they did processing files. But here’s what caught my attention: the files were stored on a shared drive that anyone in the division could access. Normally, access is only granted to those working on a project, but because of the hurried nature of the exercise, the usual permission restrictions were not in place. Additionally, the internal SharePoint site the bureau ended up using to distribute the files toward the end did not have the usual restricted permissions. This left the Epstein and Maxwell files open to viewing by a much larger group of people than previously thought.

Sounds like the FBI is running smoothly.

 

[Khamon]

For whatever reason, Trump has the "it" factor that garners him unwavering support from the MAGA segment of the country, as the most volatile and violent segment, too. And he has the support of the GOP and the Heritage Foundation, who are using him as a figurehead for their agenda. Then there's the tech bros, who have yet another agenda. (Those aren't even all the major players, but I'll stop there.)

Trump, aka Teflon Don, is the glue that holds all those disparate factions together. The minute he's gone, or reaches the point of dementia that can no longer be denied, the fighting for power will begin.

Alexander's empire was divided after his demise. Considering that the regime has no use for international reputation or power, they may decide to do that here, sectioning groups of states into various people's republics. The question will then be what to do with the royal heirs and dangerous outliers e.g. Egorn.

 

[Free]

Alexander's empire was divided after his demise. Considering that the regime has no use for international reputation or power, they may decide to do that here, sectioning groups of states into various people's republics.

Please please please please DO NOT give the New England region to Stephen Miller. I can't stand that bald, 98lb weakling Hitler-wannabe.

 

[Free]

Of course it can't be Trump's fault. He wouldn't screw us over, his most loyal voters, right?

A clinic blames its closing on Trump’s Medicaid cuts. Patients don’t buy it.

The only health clinic here is shutting down, and the hospital CEO has blamed Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s signature legislation. But residents of Curtis — a one-stoplight town in deep-red farm country — aren’t buying that explanation.

“Anyone who’s saying that Medicaid cuts is why they’re closing is a liar,” April Roberts said as she oversaw lunch at the Curtis Area Senior Center.

The retirees trickling in for fried chicken and soft-serve ice cream will be hit hardest when the clinic closes this fall, Roberts fears. Seniors who sometimes go in multiple times a month to have blood drawn will have to drive 40 miles to the next nearest health center. Sick people, she worries, will put off checkups and get sicker.

Arriving for lunch, retired Navy veteran Jim Christensen said he’d read an op-ed that “tried to blame everything on Trump.”

“Horse feathers,” he said, dismissing the idea.

Pure rubbish! Also, a classic Marx Brothers film.

 

[Free]

Trump rolled the dice by picking his favorite court district to sue The Wall Street Journal et al. He came up snake eyes (so to speak).

Trump’s lawsuit against Wall Street Journal now has a judge — and it’s not Aileen Cannon

President Donald Trump’s bid to take down the Wall Street Journal over its coverage of his connection to Jeffrey Epstein has landed in the courtroom of Darrin Gayles, who is likely experiencing deja vu.

That’s because Gayles, a 2014 appointee of Barack Obama, had another brush with a litigious Trump in 2023, when the then-former president sought to punish his onetime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.

Trump sued Cohen in April 2023 seeking a $500 million payout for claims that Cohen violated his attorney-client relationship with Trump and enriched himself off their relationship. Six months later, Trump abandoned the lawsuit, just before Cohen’s lawyers were set to question him under oath.

 

[Khamon]

This will be brutal. They'll torture her into confessing that she made it all up and only Epstein raped minors. They'll probably promise probation for cooperation before she accidentally falls out of a window or into a sheet secured to the rafter.

 

[Free]

Johnson shuts door on House vote before September on releasing Epstein files

Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday said he does not plan to allow votes on any measures related to the Jeffrey Epstein case in the House’s final week in Washington before a weekslong recess, despite intense pressure from some of his own GOP members to go on the record on the issue.

Some of President Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters in Congress have been pressing party leaders to allow for a vote to show they support transparency around the Epstein saga — an issue that continues to animate the MAGA base even as Trump has repeatedly sought to blame Democrats for fanning the flames.

Johnson told CNN on Monday the full House would not vote on a pending measure from members of his own party – a non-binding resolution calling for the release of additional Epstein files – before the chamber’s August recess, which is slated to begin at week’s end.

Whelp, there goes the Summer of Epstein Files. So I guess we begin the Summer of Epstein Files Conspiracy Theories!

 

[Cristiano]

Habba out:

https://meidasnews.com/news/alina-habbas-nomination-rejected-by-new-jersey-judges

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Epstein Coverage Largely Ignores Trump’s Assault on E. Jean Carroll

This seems like relevant context

www.everythingishorrible.net

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

Epstein Coverage Largely Ignores Trump’s Assault on E. Jean Carroll

This seems like relevant context

www.everythingishorrible.net

I thought of that too. ..the thing is, Trump's crimes are so vast and varied that it makes it very easy to feel overwhelmed, and dismiss ALL of them as "exaggerated."

It seems like it's somehow easier to demonize a good person who fucked up ONCE than someone like Trump who is basically pure slime. I think that is part of how he got away with SO MUCH.

I really think there is a mechanic in human psychology that makes it easier to dismiss something HUGE than something small. Something about it just being beyond comprehension.