Trump can't get his base to move on from Epstein: From the Politics Desk
In today's edition, President Donald Trump struggles to turn the page on the Jeffrey Epstein saga while a politically vulnerable senator in Texas appeals to him for an endorsement. Plus, Andrea Mitchell files a dispatch from the Aspen Security Forum.
Sign up to receive this newsletter in your inbox every weekday here.
— Adam Wollner
Trump struggles to convince MAGA world to move on from the Epstein files
By Matt Dixon and Henry J. Gomez
President Donald Trump can't get his MAGA supporters to end their obsession with the Jeffrey Epstein files. And now he's taking out his frustration on them.
In a blistering post on Truth Social, Trump continued to push his backers to stop talking about an issue that has driven what appears to be one of the most significant rifts between him and the political movement he built.
'[M]y PAST supporters have bought into this 'bulls---' hook, line, and sinker,' he said in the post, adding, 'Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don't even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don't want their support anymore!'
Trump's message Wednesday was a significant escalation, reflecting that his supporters aren't all following his lead and adopting his messaging as they usually do. It's also left MAGA-aligned media at a loss for what to do, torn between much of the base that continues to call for more documents related to Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender, and Trump, who insists they should drop the issue.
'This is a major problem and could hurt turnout in the midterms,' a Republican strategist familiar with Trump's political operation said. 'It signals betrayal to those who believed the president would expose the deep state. His team made promises, then doubled down.'
On Capitol Hill: A growing number of Republicans are calling for the release of the Epstein files.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he found it 'a little difficult to believe, the idea that the DOJ and the FBI who prosecuted cases relating to this don't have any idea who Epstein's clients were.'
'My view is make public, everything you can make public,' he told NBC News.
Democrats are continuing to attempt to drive a wedge between Republicans on the issue. As Julie Tsirkin reports, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., is trying to force a vote on a resolution calling on the Justice Department to release its files related to the Epstein probe.
Read more on the Trump-MAGA rift →
Related: Ghislaine Maxwell's family appeals to Trump amid battle over Epstein files, by Matt Lavietes
Sen. John Cornyn appeals to Trump as he faces primary headwinds in Texas
By Bridget Bowman, Ben Kamisar, Olympia Sonnier, Melanie Zanona and Julie Tsirkin
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is making his case for the White House to get involved as he tries to fend off a primary challenge from state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
But, so far, President Donald Trump is staying on the sidelines.
'I've talked to him about it a number of times. He is not ready to make that endorsement,' Cornyn told NBC News. 'I think as we start advertising and closing the gap in the polls, hopefully he'll see fit to make that endorsement, but we can't wait.'
'I pointed out to him, and he knows this, that if he endorsed me, the race would be over,' Cornyn later added.
Some Republicans are concerned that Paxton — a conservative firebrand with no shortage of personal controversies, including some that led to an impeachment push by a number of fellow Republicans in 2023 — could be a problematic general election candidate who would force national Republicans to spend millions to defend the longtime red seat.
Behind the scenes: The race came up at a White House meeting last week between Trump; Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.; staffers with the super PAC Senate Leadership Fund; and other former Trump campaign staffers. A source with knowledge of the meeting said the group agreed that Cornyn and allies need to focus over the summer on improving the incumbent's poll numbers.
Paxton's team has also been in touch with the White House political team and sharing polling data, according to a source close to his campaign.
The polls: In public surveys, the University of Texas at Tyler found Paxton leading Cornyn by 10 percentage points, 44%-34%, while Texas Southern University found Paxton leading by 9, 43%-34%. Both polls found about a quarter of voters undecided.
The money: New campaign finance reports show that Paxton raised $2.9 million from April through June and had $2.5 million in the bank. Meanwhile, Cornyn's campaign raised $804,000 and ended the quarter with $5.9 million on hand, while his joint fundraising committee raised $3.1 million and had $2.7 million on hand.
The Cornyn campaign's haul marked its second-worst quarter over the senator's past two election cycles on the ballot (2020 and 2014).
Bottom line: This is far from the first time Cornyn has faced issues on his right flank. His most recent challenge came in 2014, when he won 59% of the GOP primary vote. But it may be the most dangerous moment of his Senate career.
Read more on the Texas Senate race →
Related: 5 takeaways from the latest campaign fundraising reports, by Ben Kamisar, Bridget Bowman and Joe Murphy
The impacts of Trump's retreat from the global stage
Analysis by Andrea Mitchell
At the annual Aspen Security Forum today — listening and learning from U.S. and foreign experts on the Middle East, space defense, energy policy and international trade and aid, among other topics — there is an unprecedented absence of current administration officials. They were invited and only Pentagon officials accepted before canceling at the last minute.
Former U.S. Ambassador to China and NATO Nicholas Burns, currently co-chair of the Aspen Strategy Group, lamented the decision. Burns, who began his career as a National Security Council officer under President George H.W. Bush, pointed out that the conference has always been a nonpartisan gathering for the exchange of ideas, and he hopes they will return next year.
The national political divide is being felt profoundly by deep cuts at the State Department and other government agencies, some of which Congress is formalizing with a rescissions package lawmakers are advancing. At Foggy Bottom, there were plenty of tears as veteran diplomats' and civil servants' badges were revoked and they turned in their laptops and phones.
The climate office to negotiate current and future global agreements was eliminated. The State Department said it was being streamlined to make it more efficient and relevant. Among those also cut: senior intelligence analysts on Russia and Ukraine, hardly irrelevant. The relatively small State Department intelligence bureau — numbering a few hundred — was one of the only agencies dissenting against the false conclusion that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. launched the war in Iraq. And those fired included the East Asia analysts who had just prepared briefing papers on the global competition against China's aggression in the South China Sea for Secretary of State Marco Rubio's trip to the ASEAN summit last week, a top policy priority for the White House.
Occasionally, President Donald Trump may discover having experts around can save him from embarrassing moments. One example is last week's luncheon with visiting African leaders, when he praised Liberia's president for his command of the English language and asked, 'Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Were you educated? Where?'
Briefers would have told him Liberia was settled by Americans in 1847 and is an English-speaking country. But the NSC — which had an admittedly bloated 300 staffers — now has approximately 50 staffers.
🗞️ Today's other top stories
🤔 Will he or won't he?: Trump said it was 'highly unlikely' he would fire Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve, less than 24 hours after telling Republican lawmakers that he was considering doing so. Read more →
☑️ Concerned, but voting aye: The Senate is set to approve a rescissions package that would claw back $9 billion in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, despite reservations from GOP lawmakers. Read more →
🔊Sales pitch: Vice President JD Vance urged a Pennsylvania audience to 'talk to your friends' about the megabill Trump recently signed into law. Read more →
✈️ Mass deportation agenda: The Department of Homeland Security resumed third-country deportation flights by sending five immigrant detainees, all from different countries, to the small nation of Eswatini in southern Africa. Read more →
⚫ Middle East latest: U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee demanded that Israel 'aggressively investigate the murder' of an American who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Read more →
🗳️ About last night: Arizona Democrats have nominated Adelita Grijalva, daughter of the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva, to fill his former seat in a September special election. Read more →
🎙️ Into the podverse: Former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison launched a new podcast — and one of his first guests will be Hunter Biden. Read more →
👀 Speculation quashed: Barack and Michelle Obama laughed off divorce rumors during a new episode of the former first lady's podcast. Read more →
Follow live politics updates →
That's all From the Politics Desk for now. Today's newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Dylan Ebs.
If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com
And if you're a fan, please share with everyone and anyone. They can sign up here.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Judge denies Trump administration request to end a policy protecting immigrant children in custody
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday to deny the Trump administration's request to end a policy in place for nearly three decades that is meant to protect immigrant children in federal custody. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles issued her ruling a week after holding a hearing with the federal government and legal advocates representing immigrant children in custody. Gee called last week's hearing 'déjà vu' after reminding the court of the federal government's attempt to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement in 2019 under the first Trump administration. She repeated the sentiment in Friday's order. 'There is nothing new under the sun regarding the facts or the law. The Court therefore could deny Defendants' motion on that basis alone," Gee wrote, referring to the government's appeal to a law they believed kept the court from enforcing the agreement. In the most recent attempt, the government argued they made substantial changes since the agreement was formalized in 1997, creating standards and policies governing the custody of immigrant children that conform to legislation and the agreement. Gee acknowledged that the government made some improved conditions of confinement, but wrote, 'These improvements are direct evidence that the FSA is serving its intended purpose, but to suggest that the agreement should be abandoned because some progress has been made is nonsensical.' Attorneys representing the federal government told the court the agreement gets in the way of their efforts to expand detention space for families, even though Trump's tax and spending bill provided billions to build new immigration facilities. Tiberius Davis, one of the government attorneys, said the bill gives the government authority to hold families in detention indefinitely. 'But currently under the Flores Settlement Agreement, that's essentially void,' he said last week. The Flores agreement, named for a teenage plaintiff, was the result of over a decade of litigation between attorneys representing the rights of migrant children and the U.S. government over widespread allegations of mistreatment in the 1980s. The agreement set standards for how licensed shelters must provide food, water, adult supervision, emergency medical services, toilets, sinks, temperature control and ventilation. It also limited how long U.S. Customs and Border Protection could detain child immigrants to 72 hours. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services then takes custody of the children. The Biden administration successfully pushed to partially end the agreement last year. Gee ruled that special court supervision may end when HHS takes custody, but she carved out exceptions for certain types of facilities for children with more acute needs. In arguing against the Trump administration's effort to completely end the agreement, advocates said the government was holding children beyond the time limits. In May, CBP held 46 children for over a week, including six children held for over two weeks and four children held 19 days, according to data revealed in a court filing. In March and April, CPB reported that it had 213 children in custody for more than 72 hours. That included 14 children, including toddlers, who were held for over 20 days in April. The federal government is looking to expand its immigration detention space, including by building more centers like one in Florida dubbed ' Alligator Alcatraz,' where a lawsuit alleges detainees' constitutional rights are being violated. Gee still has not ruled on the request by legal advocates for the immigrant children to expand independent monitoring of the treatment of children held in U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities. Currently, the agreement allows for third-party inspections at facilities in the El Paso and Rio Grande Valley regions, but plaintiffs submitted evidence showing long detention times at border facilities that violate the agreement's terms. Valerie Gonzalez, The Associated Press
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Proposed congressional maps in California could help Democrats flip 5 seats
Proposed new congressional maps in California that are expected to be put to voters in a special election this fall indicate the redrawn district lines could help Democrats flip five Republican seats and bolster around five Democratic incumbents in toss-up districts. The new maps, posted on the California State Assembly website on Friday evening, are draft proposals and are subject to be changed or reworked by the state legislature, which is set to start working next week. The legislative action follows California Gov. Gavin Newsom's call on Thursday for a special election on new maps, in an attempt to counter mid-decade redistricting being pushed by Republicans in Texas. MORE: California will move forward with redistricting vote to counter Texas, Newsom says The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the campaign arm of House Democrats, took credit Friday for submitting the maps to the California legislature, saying in a statement they believe they will have widespread support among California legislators and voters. "We anticipate this proposal will have widespread support both among California office holders and various stakeholders across the state," DCCC Executive Director Julie Merz said in a statement. "We will not stand by as Republicans attempt to rig the election in their favor and choose their voters. It's increasingly clear that Republicans will do anything to protect their narrow majority because they know they can't win on their disastrous legislative record which has raised costs and rips away health care for millions, all to give the ultra-wealthy a tax break." Paul Mitchell, a redistricting and data expert who drew the maps, told ABC News San Francisco station KGO-TV in an interview on Friday afternoon before the draft maps were posted online that eight of the proposed redrawn districts are unchanged; another 20 are changed very little, and that overall the goal was "pushing back on Texas without doing something that would radically disrupt the congressional district lines." MORE: Texas Democrats to return after governor ends special session that included redistricting, sources say Mitchell added that beyond making five Republican-held seats favor Democrats -- as a counter to the proposed congressional maps in Texas that could flip five seats to favor Republicans -- the proposal also strengthens the districts of around five Democratic "frontline candidates" who face more difficult challenges from Republicans. "[The legislature has] got some time next week to put it together, along with all the other language for a statewide ballot measure. And I think the point for voters is, this is a way to push back on what Texas Republicans are doing, on what Trump is doing," Mitchell told KGO-TV. Republicans continue to cry foul, saying that Newsom's gambit for new maps is politically motivated. NRCC chair Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) wrote in a statement before the proposed maps were posted: "Gavin Newsom failed to solve the homelessness, crime, drug, and cost epidemics plaguing the Golden State. Now he is shredding California's Constitution and disenfranchising voters to prop up his Presidential ambitions. "Californians oppose Newsom's stunt because they won't let a self-serving politician rig the system to further his career. The NRCC is prepared to fight this illegal power grab in the courts and at the ballot box to stop Newsom in his tracks."
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump says he and Putin made 'headway' but there is 'no deal until there's a deal'
US President Donald Trump said 'some great progress' was made during high-stakes talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the war in Ukraine, but neither leader offered specific details on the trajectory of the war. Mr Trump said 'many points were agreed to,' with just a 'very few' remaining, and he told reporters he will speak with European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky soon. Mr Putin said the two leaders had reached an 'understanding,' but neither offered further details on Ukraine's future.
