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The Hill
25 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump leans into trade deals to shake off polling slump
Morning Report is The Hill's a.m. newsletter. Subscribe here or using the box below: In today's issue: ▪ Trump, Starmer meeting in Scotland ▪ Digging into the US-EU trade deal ▪ Courts hand Trump more wins ▪ Israel pauses Gaza fighting for aid Fresh off announcing a U.S.-European Union trade deal, President Trump is looking to clinch more bilaterial agreements this week before his Friday tariff deadline. The president on Sunday touted the EU trade deal, struck during talks with European officials after a round of golf at one of his clubs in Scotland, and urged the Senate to confirm more nominees before starting their August recess. Trump will play host again today, meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his golf clubs in Scotland for talks ranging from their recent bilateral trade deal to the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza. Follow along with The Hill's live blog. But the protesters who have gathered across Scotland for Trump's visit — including outside the U.S. Consulate in Edinburgh — offer a preview of the headwinds the president faces back home. POLLING NUMBERS: 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 average falling to more than 9 points underwater. As part of the drop, he's seen declines in particular among independents and on his handling of certain key issues like immigration. Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist University Institute for Public Opinion, told The Hill's Jared Gans that Trump's quickly shifting political fortunes are part of his skill at 'keeping the focus moving all the time,' which requires redirecting people's attention to his benefit. 'But you do take a cost that your victories are short-lived, and the net effect is there's still an awful lot that people feel has not been accomplished and that he hasn't fulfilled a lot of campaign promises,' he added. At the same time, Trump is trying to ease an ongoing headache stemming from the controversy surrounding his administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. While his numbers certainly haven't bottomed out, they add up to a rough patch for Trump after a series of major victories just a few weeks earlier. The president has expressed his frustration with how aides are handling the backlash, The Washington Post reports, as the White House and Department of Justice's response to the crisis lacks any apparent strategy. 'This is a pretty substantial distraction,' a source told the Post. 'While many are trying to keep the unity, in many ways, the DOJ and the FBI are breaking at the seams.' ▪ The Hill: Five unanswered questions around Trump and the Epstein saga. ▪ CNN: Trump's Scotland trip is the latest example of blending private business with presidential duties. ▪ Politico: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) panned a discharge petition from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) designed to force the release of more files on Epstein. DEMOCRATS ARE TAKING ADVANTAGE of the widespread disapproval of the White House's handling of the Epstein case. A recent Emerson College Polling survey found 51 percent of registered voters disapprove of the administration's handling of the Epstein files, while 16 percent approve and a third said they're neutral. Trump's refusal to release federal files put him at odds with the same core MAGA loyalists who helped propel him to power. Democrats are only happy to watch the unraveling, however long it endures, and goad it along when the chance arrives. 'Let them destroy each other. If we have to throw a log on the fire, we'll do it,' one House Democratic aide told The Hill's Mike Lillis. House Democrats are using their long summer recess to ramp up their blitz of town halls in GOP-held districts. The strategy is not new, but this time they're armed with a powerful new talking point: Trump's defiance on the Epstein issue. 'People … want someone to listen,' said Rep. Suzan DelBene (Wash.), the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. 'And if their member of Congress isn't going to listen, they want to make sure their voices are heard.' Republicans are also going on offense. Vice President Vance will be at a steel plant in Canton, Ohio, today to kick off an effort to promote the 'one big, beautiful bill' that the White House pushed through Congress this month. ▪ The Wall Street Journal: A Wall Street Journal poll found 52 percent of respondents oppose the GOP funding bill, showing the party's challenges in touting its benefits ahead of the midterms. IT'S ALL ABOUT 2026: The polling numbers and town halls all lead to the next big political target — the midterm elections. Democrats are looking to claw back a majority in one, or both, chambers of Congress, while Republicans are trying to buck the historical trend of a midterm disadvantage for the party in charge. This election cycle, Trump is using his influence to help Republicans avoid messy primary fights. The president recently waded into Michigan's Senate race and the New York gubernatorial contest in an effort to convince notable potential candidates in those races — Reps. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) — to opt against running. In both cases, the Republicans in question bowed to pressure. The Hill's Julia Manchester and Brett Samuels break down Trump's influence on key races, from North Carolina to Texas. Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) hinted over the weekend that he plans to run for the open Senate seat in his state next year. Many Democrats have been hoping Cooper would enter the race, especially as Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) announced he would not run for reelection after bucking Trump and voting against his massive tax and spending bill. The announcement is buoying Democrats, who face a tough map in the upper chamber. Despite the president's souring approval numbers in recent surveys, allies argued the president's endorsement is still a make-or-break factor in primaries because of his enduring popularity within the party. 'His numbers are stronger than ever before with the Republican base,' one Trump ally said. 'Republican voters are happier with him now than ever before.' ▪ The Hill: Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said Sunday she plans to decide in the coming days whether to launch a bid for South Carolina governor. ▪ The Hill: Civic groups are warning Democrats their plans for redistricting could violate the Voting Rights Act, creating a new problem for the party as it seeks to answer GOP efforts to redistrict its way to more power. Editor's note: Blake Burman's 'Smart Take' will return later this week. 3 Things to Know Today At this Texas school, students spend two hours a day on academics. The Alpha School has a curriculum driven by artificial intelligence (AI), and is set to expand to a dozen cities. Fights to expand or thwart the spread of abortion pills have intensified across the country. They tee up legal clashes that experts say could drag on for years. Blockbuster GLP-1 drugs could become a cure-all. The medications don't just help with weight loss, research finds, as more uses surface. Leading the Day TRADE: Trump reached a trade agreement with the European Union on Sunday that will set 15 percent tariffs on most imports — half the rate the president had threatened to levy on EU countries starting Friday. 'It's a very powerful deal — a very big deal,' Trump told reporters while sitting next to European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen at his Turnberry golf course in Scotland. 'It's the biggest of all the deals.' The EU trade deal is the largest the Trump administration has announced since its major 'Liberation Day' announcement on April 2. The EU countries combined represent the U.S.'s largest trading partner, with almost $2 trillion in goods traded in 2024. Under the new agreement, Trump and von der Leyen said the EU will purchase $150 billion in U.S. energy and make additional investments worth $600 billion. Trump had threatened to impose 30 percent tariffs on most goods if a deal wasn't reached beyond a temporary truce set to expire Friday. The new agreement will have no impact on steel and aluminum tariffs, which are subject to a separate 50 percent rate. ▪ The Hill: The White House has managed to secure some significant trade deals since the president's unprecedented sweeping tariffs were first announced in the spring. ▪ The Associated Press: As with other, recent tariff agreements that Trump announced with countries including Japan and the United Kingdom, some major details remain pending. ▪ The Washington Post: The EU agreement is likely to become a road map for further, more detailed talks. ▪ Politico: How the EU dashed to Trump's Scottish hideaway — and got the deal it craved. ▪ The Washington Post: The U.S. and China on Monday are set to begin their third round of trade talks in as many months. DEADLINE DAY: Trump will not extend Friday's deadline for countries that want to negotiate trade deals to prevent the president's proposed hikes, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday. Since January, Trump has regularly threatened trade moves before later changing tacks. It's effectively kept the world guessing. Critics have dubbed this 'TACO' trade, short for 'Trump always chickens out.' The Commerce chief signaled the threat of tariffs will stick this time. 'No extensions; no more grace periods,' Lutnick said Sunday on Fox News. 'They'll go into place, customs will start collecting the money, and off we go.' CONGRESS: Time is ticking for Republican senators who hope to avert a government shutdown this fall, and The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports that it's pushing some to try to reach common ground with Democrats and mend growing rifts. 'I know that our side won't want a shutdown,' a Republican senator told The Hill, 'Trump hates that and rightly so.' Senate appropriations bills, unlike in the GOP-controlled House, have reached bipartisan votes on higher spending levels to avoid rematches of the blistering battles that Congress had over Trump's priority tax and spending legislation during his first six months back at the White House. Republicans who spoke with The Hill said Trump made it clear he doesn't want the federal government to lapse its Sept. 30 funding deadline. 'I think [Democrats are] going to be under an enormous amount of pressure come fall, which is why … we need to do everything we can — House Republicans, Senate Republicans, President Trump and his team — to … set it up for success, to keep the government up and funded,' Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in a recent podcast interview. OUT OF POCKET: The Trump administration's talk of using 'pocket recissions' to pare back federal spending without approval from Congress is making some Republicans nervous as they try to navigate the president's push for more cuts. White House budget chief Russell Vought recently referred to pocket rescissions as one of the executive tools available to the administration. 'It's not news that the Trump administration is going to bring a paradigm shift to this town in terms of the business of spending,' Vought said on CBS's 'Face the Nation' on Sunday. Trump signed a rescissions package last week to claw back $9 billion that Congress already appropriated, including for international aid and public broadcasting. But Trump has said he wants lawmakers to cut more, despite mounting political pressure. 'We're always gauging the extent to which the Congress is willing to participate in that process, and we're looking at a lot of different options along those lines,' Vought said. The Hill's Aris Folley spoke to experts and lawmakers about the potential tactic. COLLINS CONCERNS: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is walking a tightrope to maintain Congress's grasp of the federal purse strings while the Trump administration tries to wrangle more control. The centrist chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee is tasked with ushering the GOP's spending priorities through the upper chamber, but it's quickly becoming what most lawmakers would consider a nightmare. 'Nobody wants that job right now,' Sen. Shelley Moore Capito ( an appropriator, told The Hill's Al Weaver. The Senate is aiming to pass a three-bill appropriations package by the end of September to fund the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Commerce and Justice. Collins, 72, is facing reelection next year for a seat Democrats hope to flip. But Collins told The Hill she's not sweating the mounting pressure. 'I've been here a number of years. I've been through many high-pressure events,' she said. 'That's the nature of the job if you're in a leadership position or if you're representing your constituents.' Where and When The president is in Scotland. He will attend a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Turnberry golf course at 7:30 a.m. ET (12:30 p.m. BST). Trump will then travel to Aberdeen. The Senate will convene at 3 p.m. The House is in recess and resumes work in Washington on Sept. 2. Morning Report's Alexis Simendinger will return in August. Zoom In COURTS: Trump keeps adding notches to his Supreme Court winning streak. The justices on Wednesday blessed his firings of more independent agency leaders, their latest green light for the president to resume his sweeping agenda. To date, Trump's administration has already brought more emergency appeals than former President Biden did during his four years in office, write The Hill's Zach Schonfeld and Ella Lee, making it an increasingly dominant part of the Supreme Court's work. But as the court issues more and more emergency decisions, often without explanation, the practice has sometimes come under criticism — even by other justices. 'Courts are supposed to explain things,' liberal Justice Elena Kagan said while speaking at a judicial conference Thursday. 'That's what courts do.' As Trump wins at the high court, Americans are split along party lines over their support for the institution. A majority of Republicans, 73 percent, approve of its actions, according to a Friday YouGov survey. That number is far higher than the 34 percent of independents and 14 percent of Democrats who approve of the justices' decisions. ▪ CNN: Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship could have taken effect over the weekend. Lower courts continue to block it. ▪ The New York Times: The Trump administration is planning to change the visa system for skilled foreign workers and is considering changing the U.S. citizenship test. SILVER STATE RACE: Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford (D) is running for governor next year, aiming to unseat first-term Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo. 'Nevadans are suffering in an economy that is rigged against those trying their hardest to stay afloat,' Ford, who has been the state's attorney general since 2019, said in a statement Monday. Nevada is seen as one of Democrats' best opportunities to flip a governor's office next year. The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates it as a toss-up. PRESSURE CAMPAIGN: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard 's allegations about the Obama administration's review of the 2016 election led Trump to call for prosecution of former officials, including his predecessor. But many in Congress aren't ready to go quite that far. While his Republican supporters in Congress have united in expressing outrage, they have varying ideas of what accountability looks like. Democrats, meanwhile, say the Trump administration is completely misrepresenting the facts as they abuse intelligence and the justice system. 'Tulsi Gabbard has leveled some of the most serious charges ever leveled against an American at a former president. Bring charges. Bring charges,' said Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. 'And the reason I want her to bring charges is that there is not a court in the United States that will do anything other than to laugh hysterically over the bulls— that Tulsi Gabbard is peddling right now.' FEDERAL PROGRAMS: ▪ The Hill: Head Start programs face whiplash in funding and enrollment changes ahead of the new school year as big reforms from the Trump administration worry parents and staffers. ▪ The Hill: Medicaid cuts outlined in Trump's sweeping tax and spending package will harm family caregivers, experts warn, by reducing access to health care for themselves and those they care for. ▪ The Hill: Coca-Cola will offer a cane sugar version of its signature beverage, while ice cream and cereal makers pledged to phase out certain dyes. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has claimed them all as significant victories, but nutrition experts say the moves are far from signifying major change to make people healthier. Elsewhere GAZA: Israel implemented a 'tactical pause' in fighting in Gaza over the weekend amid concerns of mass starvation in the enclave. The pause in fighting, to allow in humanitarian aid via air drops and United Nations-approved routes, suspends fighting from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily until further notice in accordance with government directives. Secure routes for aid delivery will be permanently established. The pause in military operations, the first of its kind since March, is part of a broader set of measures that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved Saturday in response to increased international criticism over the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza. U.N. statistics estimate around 470,000 people face famine-like conditions in Gaza. The U.N.'s World Food Programme praised Israel's pause and said it has 'enough food in — or on its way to — the region to feed the entire population of 2.1 million people for almost three months.' When asked about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza, Trump on Sunday said Hamas is stealing food that was meant for civilians in the enclave. The Israeli military has reportedly found no proof of that. 'It's a mess, that whole place is a mess,' Trump told reporters. 'The Gaza Strip, you know it was given many years ago so they could have peace. That didn't work out too well.' ▪ The Hill: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday there will be a 'change in tactics' by the Israeli military in its war in Gaza. ▪ The Washington Post: Gazans are dying of hunger. Here's what happens to a starving human body. ▪ The New York Times: After Israeli restrictions on aid, hunger has risen across Gaza. Doctors and nurses, struggling to find food themselves, lack the resources to stem the surge. SOUTHEAST ASIA: Leaders from Cambodia and Thailand on Monday agreed to a ceasefire, ending days of attacks across their disputed border. The two countries met in Malaysia for peace talks after Trump threatened that continued violence would jeopardize both countries' trade deals with Washington. At least 35 people were killed, more than 200 injured, and more than 200,000 displaced in the fighting that broke out Thursday, CNN reports. ▪ The New York Times: The Thai-Cambodian conflict tears at remnants of a once-proud empire. ▪ CNBC: How Trump and his trade wars pushed Russia and Ukraine into the cold. ▪ The Washington Post: The Trump administration is set to destroy a large stockpile of U.S.-funded contraceptives stored at a warehouse in Belgium, which says it has 'explored all possible options to prevent the destruction.' Opinion People of good conscience must stop the starvation in Gaza, chef and World Central Kitchen's José Andrés writes in The New York Times. Gaza's aid crisis helps only Hamas,by The Wall Street Journal editorial board. The Closer And finally … 🍅 A 17 percent tariff on fresh tomatoes imported from Mexico could soon create problems for U.S. consumers, experts warn. The tomato import tax that began July 14, could lead to a dramatic spike in prices, The Associated Press reported, as about 70 percent of fresh tomatoes consumed in the U.S. are imported from Mexico. From looming higher prices to lower quality, The Atlantic describes why summer tomato season just hits 'different this year' amid the tariff tumult. The Mexican government has continued to try to negotiate down a 30 percent general tariff the U.S. is slated to tack on Friday.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Collins looks to navigate Trump, funding landmines as 2026 looms
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is feeling the squeeze as she navigates a series of political landmines that put her at odds with President Trump and many of her own colleagues. Collins this summer voted 'no' on two of Trump's biggest priorities: the GOP's mammoth tax and spending bill and a measure to claw back money Congress had already appropriated. She also opposed several of the president's high-profile Cabinet nominees. Her vote on the rescissions measure only complicated her next difficult task: shepherding government funding legislation to Trump's desk as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee — her longtime dream job that she finally secured earlier this year. And hovering in the background is next year's midterms, when she is expected to seek a sixth term in a seat Democrats are eyeing as a key pickup opportunity. 'Give me one senator who would trade her position,' said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a top ally of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and an Appropriations panel member. He answered his own question: 'None.' Collins has long been a one-of-one member in the conference, as the foremost centrist from a blue state that GOP leadership has had to juggle as part of a membership that has trended more MAGA throughout the years. But while that balance has always been tough, it has perhaps never been more difficult than it is right now. Collins is in the midst of a high-stakes effort to fund the government by the end of September, one that was complicated by the GOP's bill to rescind public media and foreign aid funding. Even though Collins voted against the bill, as the chief GOP negotiator she still has to deal with the fallout as Democrats warn the measure poisoned the well and left them with little incentive to work with Republicans. The Maine Republican appears to have the train on the bipartisan tracks — for now. The Senate is hopeful to pass a three-bill appropriations package — known as a 'minibus' — to fund the Departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Commerce and Justice by the end of the work period, but lawmakers readily acknowledge that this is a high-wire act. 'She's got a tough job,' said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito ( an appropriator. 'I think it's really tough. The whole Congress is fractured on spending.' 'Nobody wants that job right now. … It's not Robert Byrd's Appropriations Committee,' Capito continued, referring to the powerful former West Virginia Democrat who served three stints atop the panel. Amid all of it, Collins must also eye her looming reelection bid next year in the only remaining GOP seat in a blue state, and one Democrats are anxious to flip. Multiple Senate Republicans indicated to The Hill in recent weeks that they fully expect her to move forward with a campaign. They're also praying that she does as they readily admit the seat is gone if she decides to opt against another term. 'She's the only person that can win,' Thune recently told The Hill while laying out their sales pitch for her to move ahead with a campaign. 'She has a really hard job because she's in a conference composed largely of people who represent states that are very different from hers,' Thune said. 'But I do think there's a compelling argument to chair the Appropriations Committee, get it working again and to me that would be a pretty powerful rationale for running.' Polls show a muddled picture for the five-term moderate. A recent survey taken by Morning Consult shows her favorability at only 38 percent, with 54 percent disapproving of her performance — a 16-point difference. However, Maine-based Pan Atlantic Research unveiled a poll last month showing that her favorability remains above water. Despite the tumult and uncertainty, Collins maintained that she doesn't feel the walls closing in on her. 'I've been here a number of years. I've been through many high-pressure events,' Collins told The Hill. 'That's the nature of the job if you're in a leadership position or if you're representing your constituents.' Collins is in a strong fundraising spot, having raked in $2.4 million between April and June. She also has $5.2 million on hand. Perhaps more notable at this point is that Democrats continue to struggle to find a candidate who is willing to take her on. The party is largely pinning their hopes on Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D), 77, taking the plunge, but she has shown few signs of being gung-ho about challenging Collins. Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), a former Collins staffer, also declined to take her on and is expected to seek reelection to the House next year instead. Democrats are also still licking their wounds from 2020 when Collins trailed Sara Gideon for much of the cycle after being outspent heavily, only to end up winning by 9 percentage points. Notably Trump, who has made clear his dissatisfaction with those who've opposed his agenda, hasn't trained his fire on the Maine senator. Collins, meanwhile, is making clear she doesn't need any help from the White House. 'I've never had his endorsement and I've never sought it,' she recently told Semafor. 'And I run my own race.' In the meantime, Democrats are hoping to tether Collins to the GOP's 'big, beautiful bill' and the bill to claw back funding, even though she opposed both measures. They specifically point to her vote to open debate on the bill days before she voted against final passage due to the law's impact on Medicaid beneficiaries and rural hospitals in the Pine Tree State. 'Susan Collins is facing record low approval ratings in Maine because when push comes to shove, she will always have the backs of Donald Trump and Washington Republicans, not Mainers,' said Tommy Garcia, a Maine Democratic Party spokesperson. 'In the past month alone, Collins refused to use the power she likes to campaign on to stop devastating cuts to rural broadcast stations and cast a pivotal vote to green light Medicaid cuts.' Even amid the rough-and-tumble stretch, Republicans are maintaining their confidence in her to make it through unscathed. 'She keeps it all together,' said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), likening her to Wonder Woman. 'If you're going to take her on, you better come really well prepared.' 'Even at that,' he continued, 'you're probably not prepared enough.'
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Republicans stop short of endorsing Trump's call to arrest Obama officials
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's document releases about the Obama administration's review of the 2016 election are leading President Trump to call for prosecution of former officials, including his predecessor. But many Republicans in Congress aren't ready to go quite that far. While Trump's GOP supporters in Congress have united in expressing outrage, they have varying ideas of what accountability looks like. And Democrats say the Trump administration is completely misrepresenting the facts while abusing intelligence and the justice system. They also see it as a bid to distract from growing pressure on the White House to release more information about deceased financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The files reveal little new information about Russia's much-studied efforts to influence the 2016 election, but Republicans have nonetheless claimed the intelligence reviews were designed to cast doubt on Trump's victory. The documents do not undercut a central conclusion: that Russia lunched a massive campaign with the hopes of influencing the contest. House GOP leaders are vowing Congress will investigate, but are stopping short of calling for prosecutions, as Trump has, or proposing any tangible consequences for those named in the newly released documents. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) called Gabbard's disclosures 'pretty earth-shattering.' But Scalise declined to call for arrests or prosecutions. 'There needs to be accountability,' Scalise said. 'But now our committees are going to go to work. There's a lot of work to do to find out more …. You follow the evidence wherever it leads, and then if somebody broke laws, you take action. We're at the beginning stages of this. So let's find out where it leads.' Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Fox Business Network last week that 'it would appear that laws have been broken by any number of people,' also alluding to congressional action. 'We will use every tool within our arsenal to bring about accountability here. And if we have to create and pioneer new tools, we'll do that as well,' Johnson said. The reaction showcases yet another fracture between congressional Republicans who are normally in lockstep behind Trump — though a much smaller one than the split over files relating to Epstein, which many Republicans have continued to seek despite Trump's calling interest in the matter a 'hoax.' If the administration did pursue charges against Obama, it would likely be hamstrung as a result of Trump's own legal battles. The Supreme Court in 2024 sided with Trump in determining that former presidents retain immunity from criminal prosecution even after they leave office for actions within the scope of their executive power. Further dissection of the limits of that immunity went unexplored when the underlying case was dismissed after Trump's reelection. But Democrats argue the biggest roadblock would be that the GOP claims don't align with the facts — and some are eager for the courts to tell Republicans just that. 'Tulsi Gabbard has leveled some of the most serious charges ever leveled against an American at a former president. Bring charges. Bring charges,' said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. 'And the reason I want her to bring charges is that there is not a court in the United States that will do anything other than to laugh hysterically over the bulls— that Tulsi Gabbard is peddling right now.' 'They're not dumping documents. They're making up lies,' Himes added. Gabbard earlier this month released a report she said unearths a 'treasonous conspiracy' against Trump when it comes to the 'Russia hoax.' In fact, what she released shows intelligence leaders discussing how the Russians were never able to alter vote tabulations — something that was never in dispute and aligns with what Obama officials said publicly at the time. What intelligence did find, and which several reviews have since backed, was that Russia embarked on a massive social media campaign in the hopes of sowing division in the U.S. Last week, Gabbard released another report, this time a classified review led by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee. That report cast doubt on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed to aid Trump as opposed to sowing discord within the U.S. (In the process, she infuriated Democrats, who argued she exposed sources and methods for gathering intelligence.) However, a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, a panel led at the time by now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio, blacked the conclusion Russia favored Trump. 'Moscow's intent was to harm the Clinton Campaign, tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration, help the Trump Campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine the U.S. democratic process,' that report concluded. Nonetheless, Trump this week said the new files 'have [Obama] stone-cold,' saying he needs to be investigated. 'They tried to rig the election, and they got caught. And there should be very severe consequences for that,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last week. On his website Truth Social, Trump posted what appeared to be an AI-generated meme of Obama administration officials — including the former president himself — posing for mug shots in orange jumpsuits. And he shared an AI-generated video of Obama being handcuffed and arrested. Obama's team issued a rare public statement, calling the claims an effort at distraction. 'Our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,' an Obama spokesperson said. 'But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.' Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) signaled that she would like to see arrests in light of the releases from Gabbard. 'If they don't arrest people, this systemic corruption will just continue,' Luna told The Blaze. In the upper chamber, meanwhile, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) last week called for a special counsel to be appointed, saying there must be 'an immediate investigation of what we believe to be an unprecedented and clear abuse of power by a U.S. presidential administration.' Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who is normally a staunch supporter of Trump, said that calls for indictments over Gabbard's releases are 'way too premature.' 'Let the facts determine what happens,' Norman said.
