A bit of political football
Native Americans reject Trump's call to revert Commanders' name
Native American groups fought for years to get Washington's National Football League team to change its name. Now, President Donald Trump wants to change it back to a moniker many Native Americans consider offensive and disrespectful.
The background: Trump threatened over the weekend to block a deal to build a stadium in Washington, D.C., if the Washington Commanders team refuses to revert to the name it had from 1937 when the team moved from Boston until 2020.
🏈All the news, on and off the field: Sign up for USA TODAY's 4th and Monday newsletter for more NFL news and analysis.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, 'Cosby Show' star, dies in drowning
The Emmy-nominated actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner drowned July 20 off the coast of Costa Rica, according to ABC News and The Associated Press. Costa Rican National Police confirmed to ABC News that Warner died after being caught by a high current in the water while swimming near Cocles, a beach in Limón, Costa Rica. Warner was "rescued by people on the beach," an initial report by Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Department said, according to The AP, but first responders from Costa Rica's Red Cross found him without vital signs, and he was taken to the morgue. Read about his legacy as the lovable but at times clueless teen son of the Huxtables.
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A 'flood' of ICE agents is coming to cities run by Democrats, White House says
White House border czar Tom Homan said Americans living in so-called "sanctuary cities" can expect to see far more immigration agents on the street soon. Congress earlier this month gave the Trump administration more than $170 billion over the next four years to dramatically scale up enforcement, detention and deportation. The federal spending plan, among other things, provides funding for 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to help carry out Trump's plan to deport 1 million people annually. Immigration advocates criticize the massive funding expansion — which came without any fundamental reform to the nation's immigration process.
'Corn sweat' will add to punishing heat, humidity in Midwest this week.
It's high summer in the Midwest, and the corn is "sweating." It's a healthy process for plants — but can worsen stifling heat for humans by driving up humidity levels. In a process called evapotranspiration, plants release water vapor into the atmosphere. The released water combines with other water molecules and humidifies the air. In the Plains and Midwest regions, where there are millions of acres of corn and soybean crops, it makes a difference, pumping billions of gallons of water into the atmosphere in some states. Extra water can add 5 to 10 degrees to the dew point, a measure of the humidity in the air, on a hot summer day. The "corn sweat" will exacerbate a heat dome set to push extreme temperatures across much of the U.S. this week.
Today's talkers
Colbert v. Trump: Who gets the last laugh?
Stephen Colbert has some choice words Monday for President Trump. In his first show back on air since announcing that "The Late Show" will be canceled in May 2026, Colbert had a brief comeback ready for the president. His words came after Trump expressed in a July 18 Truth Social post that "I absolutely love that Colbert got fired."
Photo of the day: They learned how to putt!
Ahead of the movie's highly anticipated summer release on Netflix, reggaeton star Bad Bunny and comedian Adam Sandler posed for photos Monday at the "Happy Gilmore 2" premiere. Scroll through for more photos from the New York premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com.
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Axios
26 minutes ago
- Axios
Padilla to propose bill easing immigrant residency rules
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) is introducing a bill that would amend decades-old requirements for immigrants seeking permanent status — another long-shot proposal amid the Trump administration's immigration raids. The big picture: Congress has not passed a major immigration overhaul since 1986, resulting in residency requirements that are now over 50 years old. Zoom in: Under a bill that Padilla will announce Friday, the Immigration Act of 1929 would be amended so some immigrants may qualify for lawful permanent resident status if they have lived in the U.S. continuously for at least seven years. The current registry cutoff date is January 1, 1972 — more than 50 years ago. The change would provide a pathway to a green card for DACA recipients and those who had temporary protective status (TPS) State of play: The proposal comes as the Trump administration is letting TPS deals expire and going after what could be hundreds of thousands more immigrants who were given humanitarian "parole" under former President Biden. Many of those immigrants are being detained at immigration court hearings and are being placed in removal proceedings. What they're saying:"Roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the United States today, yet most have no way to earn permanent legal status," Padilla's office said in a statement. "The overwhelming majority of these undocumented immigrants have established roots in the U.S. They work in essential jobs and pay taxes." His office said Padilla will formally introduce his bill on Monday. Reality check: Republicans control both chambers in Congress and such immigration proposals are hardly getting heard. Reps. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) have introduced the DIGNITY Act of 2025, a bill that is lingering in the House, which focuses on border security, mandatory E-Verify, asylum reform and legal immigration reform. Zoom out: Padilla's latest bill comes after he and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced a bill that would ban federal immigration agents from wearing most face coverings but require them to wear visible ID during public enforcement operations. That long-shot proposal comes following images of masked, heavily armed immigration agents snatching people off the streets and taking them away in unmarked cars have shocked many Americans. What we're watching: The pressure to rein in some of ICE's enforcement tactics does have support among some conservatives worried over policing.
USA Today
26 minutes ago
- USA Today
'Terrific guy': The Trump-Epstein party boy friendship lasted a decade, ended badly
Long before the little black book, before the conspiracy theories, before one died by suicide in jail and one ascended to the White House, Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump were poster boys for '90s New York City excess. Parties. Models. Mansions. They danced with cheerleaders at Mar-a-Lago and dined with celebrities in Manhattan. Trump flew on Epstein's private jet between New York – where they lived blocks apart − and Florida, where they owned mansions 2 miles from each other. Their lives intersected over decades, with Epstein once claiming he introduced Trump to his third wife, Melania. 'Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were both horny rich guys with an eye for young models,' Michael Gross, author of the 1995 book 'Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women,' told USA TODAY. Now, their friendship plagues Trump's second term in the White House. More: Who is Ghislaine Maxwell? DOJ turns to Jeffrey Epstein's ex-partner. Trump hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing in the Epstein case, but he is among the dozens of politicians, actors and tech leaders connected to the billionaire who was first convicted in 2008 of paying teenage girls for sex acts and accused in 2019 in a sprawling sex trafficking scheme. Epstein died before he went to trial on those charges. Though dead nearly six years, Epstein now dominates Trump's agenda amid a tornado of outrage since the White House and Department of Justice tried to close the book on the case after the president and his closest allies – including the attorney general and the FBI director – spent years claiming Democrats had suppressed evidence of an Epstein 'client list' and a wider child abuse conspiracy. More: Can Trump pardon Ghislaine Maxwell? When does Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator get out? "We already know almost everything there is to be known about the Epstein files. The story isn't Epstein anymore. It's Donald Trump talking about Epstein," says Mike Rothschild, author of "The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything. Trump's MAGA movement has rebelled after being promised lurid Epstein revelations by the very officials who now say there are none. On July 22, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, sent the House of Representatives on an early summer recess to prevent passage of a bipartisan measure forcing the DOJ to release its Epstein documents. "The GOP is so intent on not talking about Epstein and not releasing any details, it makes you wonder if there is something they don't want released," Rothschild said. "It starts driving you toward conspiracy theory." More: Trump's Epstein problem grows: Even his voters want more files released On July 22, Trump said the Epstein furor was 'sort of a witch hunt,' and railed against the media, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama. One day later, the Wall Street Journal and CNN reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that he was named multiple times in the government's files on Epstein. But long before Epstein's conviction and questions about who might want his secrets buried, he and Trump were charter members of a decadent New York party scene. When Donald met Jeffrey Epstein and Trump met, it's believed, in 1990 when Epstein bought a mansion 2 miles from Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and estate. Born seven years and a borough apart in New York, Epstein was from Brooklyn and Trump from Queens. They partied hard, but neither drank alcohol. Trump was living loud in 1990. He had divorced his first wife, Ivana, with whom he had three children, and was dating model Marla Maples. Epstein was rich and single, a former high school teacher running his own financial advisory firm. Trump was known for hosting parties at the Plaza Hotel, which he owned at the time, that attracted rich men and younger women. 'If they were checking IDs, it was to make sure the girls were young enough,' Gross, who's known Trump for more than 40 years, said jokingly. It wasn't enough to simply invite models to events: Trump started his own agency and Epstein invested in one. Trump launched Trump Models in 1999. It represented Melania Knauss, who would later become his wife, and signed on teen models such as Alexia Palmer. More: Speaker Mike Johnson to shut down House early amid Jeffrey Epstein drama Epstein would later invest in Jean-Luc Brunel's MC2 modeling agency. Brunel had been banned from his former agency in Europe after accusations of abuse. Trump and Epstein were 'representative of a type that has nibbled at the edges of the modeling business. If you're in the market for women as sex toys, a higher echelon of that is models. They are, by definition, beautiful women. They also are beautiful young women,' Gross says. 'You can go from there.' Brunel was suspected of transporting girls or young women for Epstein. In 2022, less than three years after Epstein's death, he died by suicide in a French jail. 'Rhythm is a Dancer' In July 2019, after Epstein's arrest on federal sex trafficking charges, Trump said in the Oval Office that he was 'not a fan' of the financier. But it wasn't always that way. In 1992, Epstein joined Trump for a party at Mar-a-Lago, where a video shows Trump chatting and laughing next to Epstein. Trump sways to the Eurodance hit 'Rhythm is a Dancer,' as the pair hang with cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins. Later that year, Trump and Epstein would again meet at Mar-a-Lago, at an invite-only event for a 'calendar girl' competition organized by George Houraney, according to the New York Times. The Florida businessman had created the event at Trump's request. "At the very first party,' Houraney told the Times, 'I said, 'Who's coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming.' It was him and Epstein.' Epstein moved into one of the largest private homes in Manhattan in 1995, a townhouse previously owned by billionaire Victoria's Secret owner Les Wexner. Trump was 1 mile away in a penthouse at Trump Tower. 'Terrific guy,' he famously told New York magazine in 2002 for a story that called Epstein an "international money man of mystery." 'He's a lot of fun to be with," Trump said. "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." 'I sort of get away with things' When his modeling agency never quite took off, Trump turned to beauty pageants. In October 1996, he bought Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA. In a 2005 interview with Howard Stern, Trump bragged about his access to contestants, some of whom were as young as 14. 'I'll go backstage before a show and everyone's getting dressed and ready and everything else and no men are anywhere …. I'm allowed to go in because I'm the owner of the pageant and therefore I'm inspecting it,' Trump told Stern. 'The girls are standing there with no clothes on, and so I sort of get away with things like that,' he said. Tasha Dixon was competing in the Miss USA pageant in 2001 in Gary, Indiana, when she, a former Miss Arizona, met Trump. He walked in, she told CNN, as contestants changed into their bikinis. The theme that year was empowering women. "Who do you complain to? He owns the pageant,' she said. As Trump approached his third marriage − and alleged affairs, which he denies, with an adult film star and a former Playboy playmate − court testimony shows his friend Epstein was abusing teenagers. Sometime in the summer of 2020, a 16-year-old Mar-a-Lago locker room assistant was recruited into Epstein's circle by Epstein's procuror and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. She would later accuse Epstein of years of sexual abuse. Virginia Giuffre died by suicide last April at the age of 41. A lenient plea deal Epstein received from Florida state and federal prosecutors in 2008 included restitution to 36 victims. A 2019 federal indictment cited "dozens" of victims. The breakup In 2003, the Wall Street Journal reported, Epstein received a leather-bound volume of tributes from friends for his 50th birthday. A lewd message in the book was attributed to Trump, the paper reported. It ended: 'Happy Birthday − and may every day be another wonderful secret.' (Trump denied writing the letter and has sued the Wall Street Journal over the report.) A year after Epstein turned 50, Trump, in his book "Trump ‒ How to Get Rich," described a call from a person he called "the mysterious Jeffrey." "As mysterious as Jeffrey is, he's one of the few people I know who can get by on just a first name," Trump wrote. "My staff never asks for a last name in his case, which in a way puts him up there with Elvis." But that year, Epstein and Trump fell out over an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach called Maison de l'Amitie − the House of Friendship. Trump outbid Epstein for the estate, paying $41 million, and in 2008 flipped it for $95 million to a Russian billionaire. Other reports say they broke after Ghislaine Maxwell solicited the daughter of a Mar-a-Lago member and her father complained to Trump. 'The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep," said White House Communications Director Steven Cheung. Maxwell is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking a minor to Epstein for sexual abuse. After her 2020 arrest, when asked if Maxwell might cut a deal with prosecutors, Trump said: "I just wish her well." On July 24, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as a criminal defense lawyer for Trump, flew to Florida to meet Maxwell at a women's prison. 'Boring stuff' Trump and Epstein appear to have not spoken for 15 years before his death. As Epstein continues to dog his presidency, Trump says he's bewildered by the attention. 'I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody," he told reporters. "It's pretty boring stuff.'
USA Today
26 minutes ago
- USA Today
Trump wins again: Columbia's $200 million fine will reshape higher education
Liberals have howled for months over President Trump's targeting of Ivy League universities. I doubt they'll view the Columbia agreement as a win for students and for our nation as whole. But it is. In an agreement ripped from the pages of President Donald Trump's "The Art of the Deal," Columbia University has agreed to pay $200 million fine to the federal government to settle accusations that the school failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitism on campus. The move is a capitulation to Trump's harsh rebuke of elite universities because of the rampant antisemitism unleashed on campuses after the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. This is a win for Trump, a scathing reprimand of higher education and a message of hope for American Jews. Jewish students were told to flee campus Columbia agreed to pay the $200 million fine to resolve multiple civil rights investigations centering on its failure to stop antisemitic protests on campus. The threats were so severe that a rabbi warned Jewish students to flee campus a day before the start of Passover in April 2024. Columbia also has agreed to appoint an independent monitor to update the federal government on its compliance with civil rights laws and to pay an additional $21 million fine to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. These are mind-boggling agreements by one of the country's most elite universities. Opinion: Liberals claimed Trump would end democracy. They were wrong again. In March, Trump cut off $400 million in federal funding to Columbia and launched investigations into 59 other colleges and universities because of their admissions policies and the antisemitic protests on their campuses. If you had told me then that Columbia would bow the knee to Trump just four months later, I'd have laughed. Trump is reshaping higher education Columbia's agreement to pay a $200 million fine is a strong indication that Trump was right about widespread antisemitism on campus. Even so, liberals have howled for months over Trump's targeting of Ivy League universities, and I doubt they'll view the Columbia agreement as a win for students and for our nation as whole. It is, though, and they should. Trump also froze Harvard University's funding over hiring policies that elevated diversity, equity and inclusion ideology over merit-based appointments. Progressives called Trump a "despot in the making" and an enemy of free speech. But Trump was in reality standing against a culture on university campuses that promoted progressive values to the exclusion of dissenting opinions. Conservative students were shunned. And Jewish students were targeted because of Israel's defense of its citizens. Columbia is now paying the price for that intolerance. Opinion: In-N-Out owner places order to go − out of California I hope the Columbia settlement helps reshape higher education in the Ivy League and beyond. Institutions that accept taxpayer dollars must be held accountable for antisemitism and other forms of discrimination. Because Trump took a stand − and took the heat from progressives and the news media − things may finally change for the better at Columbia. Ball to you, Harvard. You next? Nicole Russell is a columnist at USA TODAY and a mother of four who lives in Texas. Contact her at nrussell@ and follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @russell_nm. Sign up for her weekly newsletter, The Right Track, here.
