The Epstein Conspiracy Is Finally Giving MAGA and Democrats Common Ground
'I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody. It's pretty boring stuff. It's sordid, but it's boring,' Trump said Tuesday. 'And I don't understand why it keeps going, I think, well, really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going.' He kept it up on Wednesday, asserting on his Truth Social platform that the Democrats' 'new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullsh*t' hook, line, and sinker.'
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Iowa Tea Party founder Ryan Rhodes will run in 4th District congressional race
Republican Ryan Rhodes has launched a campaign for Congress in Iowa's 4th District, saying it's time to "drain and then set fire to the Washington swamp." 'This race isn't about left versus right — it's about two very different visions for the future of conservatism,'Rhodes said in a news release. 'We're no longer just talking about tax policy — we're fighting a spiritual and cultural war for the soul of our country. I will not shy away from those hard truths. I'll be a relentless voice for faith, family, freedom, and the forgotten men and women of the Heartland.' Rhodes said he's running on a platform of "no compromise" when it comes to protecting the Second Amendment, recognizing that an unborn fetus has "personhood" rights, defending the border and ending "corporate welfare." "California could have stayed in California. New York could have stayed in New York," he said in the release. "It's time to take the fight to them and MAKE AMERICA IOWA!" Rhodes, a 43-year-old Ames resident, served as the CEO of the conservative social media site Parler before stepping down earlier this year, although he said he still serves on the board. He also was the founder of the Tea Party in Iowa. In an interview, Rhodes said he thinks Republican President Donald Trump represents embodies the ideals he set out to champion with the Tea Party movement roughly a decade ago. "Somebody's finally getting in there, cutting government and trying to get us back on the right direction," Rhodes said. "And I know he has so much more he wants to continue doing, so each new piece of legislation is a new bite of the apple to get the government under control." Rhodes previously worked for Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson and helped conduct outreach for Michelle Bachmann during their GOP Iowa caucus campaigns. The 4th District seat is expected to be open in 2026 as current Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra moves aggressively toward a gubernatorial run. It is the most heavily Republican district in the state, and the GOP primary race will very likely determine who will be elected to Congress. It has already attracted three other Republican contenders: Siouxland Chamber of Commerce President Chris McGowan, Iowa House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl and Humboldt farmer Kyle Larsen. On the Democratic side, Ashley WolfTornabane and Stephanie Steiner have mounted campaigns. Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach her at bpfann@ or 515-284-8244. Follow her on X at @brianneDMR. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: 4th District Republican Ryan Rhodes will run for Congress in 2026
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As Trump's tariff deadline looms, a clothing factory in the tiny African nation of Lesotho goes dark
MASERU, Lesotho (AP) — The deafening roar of hundreds of sewing machines has gone silent. Spools of thread in every color are covered in dust. The warehouse is dark and empty. In the tiny African nation of Lesotho, clothing manufacturer Tzicc's business has dried up in the face of tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. A few months ago, work was steady. The factory's 1,300 employees has made and exported sportswear to American stores, including JCPenney, Walmart and Costco. But when Trump announced sweeping new tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners in April, Lesotho found itself topping the list, with a rate of 50% — higher even than that of China, where the economy is 8,000 times larger. Officials here and economic experts said they were baffled. Since then, Trump backed off — temporarily. During a monthslong pause for trade talks, the U.S. has charged a baseline 10% tariff and announced new rates for dozens of countries starting Friday. Lesotho's rate will be set at Trump's whim, with aides suggesting that tariffs charged on goods from smaller African countries could top 10%. Many nations have received letters laying out a new tariff. With the pause set to expire Friday, Lesotho officials say they've not received one and they find themselves among the countries where Trump says officials simply don't have time for one-on-one negotiations. Leaders — and the 12,000 people employed by garment factories exporting to the U.S. market — are still waiting. The damage has already rippled through Lesotho's economy, where textile manufacturing comprises the largest private industry with more than 30,000 workers in 2024. For Tzicc and its customers, the threat and apparent singling out of Lesotho were enough. Management decided to rush to deliver preexisting orders before tariffs resumed. But American buyers stopped placing new orders. With no work left, virtually all the factory's employees were sent home — potentially permanently. 'Well, unfortunately, we finished,' factory compliance manager Rahila Omar said, pointing out the irony of the strategy as she walked among rows of silenced and covered machines. 'That is why now we don't have any work.' Omar is one of a handful of employees left in the eerily quiet factory. A few remain in the accounting department; others empty leftover stock to a warehouse elsewhere. Officials and workers fear this may be a sign of what's to come for other factories in Lesotho, where poverty is widespread among the population of 2 million and most textile workers single-handedly support their families. Lesotho's tiny economy was threatened with giant tariffs In March, a month before slapping Lesotho with the 50% tariff, Trump described it as a place 'nobody has ever heard of," struggling to pronounce the nation's name in a speech criticizing U.S. foreign aid. It's true Lesotho is a 'very minuscule economy," as its own trade minister, Mokhethi Shelile, described it. But its relationship with Washington dates back decades. The U.S. was the first country to open an embassy in the capital, Maseru, after Lesotho declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. The military received U.S. training, and hundreds of millions in U.S. funds were sent to Lesotho to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic via the now defunctUSAID office and the PEPFAR program. As textiles grew to become Lesotho's main export, some 75% of its product went to the U.S. Lesotho became known as Africa's denim capital. If an American purchased jeans from a U.S. brand such as Wrangler or Levi's, they may have been 'Made in Lesotho,' as tags still note. In 2000, the U.S. signed the African Growth and Opportunity Act, allowing Lesotho and other African nations to export goods to the U.S. duty free. Shelile said he was in the process of negotiating AGOA's September renewal when he was awakened in the middle of the night by texts from aides bearing news of the 50% U.S. tariffs. 'No, this cannot be real,' Shelile remembers thinking. 'What did we do to deserve this?' According to the Trump administration, Lesotho charges a 99% tariff on U.S. goods. The government here said it doesn't know how the U.S. calculated that. In theory, the tariff decision was based on trade deficit: Lesotho's exports to the U.S. were around $240 million last year — mainly clothing and diamonds — and imports from the U.S. were only $2.8 million. But in practice, the math is more complicated than that. And in reality, Lesotho simply cannot afford to import more U.S. products. Nearly half the population lives below the poverty line. 'The trade deficit that exists between Lesotho and the U.S. is a natural trade deficit that can happen when you have these types of disparities between two economies," Shelile said. "It cannot be breached and certainly cannot be breached by imposing tariffs.' Lesotho declared a state of emergency over unemployment Last year, Lesotho's overall unemployment rate was about 30%, national data shows. For those 35 and younger, it was nearly 50%. The threat of tariffs has exacerbated the national unemployment troubles, prompting the government to declare a state of disaster this month. 'No matter how we slice it, we've already had a lot of losses," Shelile said. "People have lost quite a lot money. And to claw back and come back to where we were before this is going to take time.' Most of the 12,000 people hired by Lesotho's 11 factories exporting to the U.S. are women with children to feed and school fees to pay. Of those, 9,000 jobs are directly in the line of fire and an additional 40,000 will suffer indirectly from the U.S.-imposed tariffs, Shelile said. 'We're talking people in real estate that are leasing some rooms,' he said. 'We're talking people in transport, whether it's long-distance haulage to the port, or it is a taxi driver taking people to work in the morning. They are going be affected.' Mapontso Mathunya used to work on Tzicc's cutting room floor and is now unemployed. Her husband also is out of a steady job. With two young children, Mathunya was the family's breadwinner. She now tries to sell snacks and cigarettes on the street but finds it a daily struggle to bring home even a few cents. 'Our financial burden has been heavy," she said. 'Things are bad.' The future of this factory and others remains in limbo The future of the Tzicc factory depends on what happens Friday, compliance manager Omar said. Owned by a Taiwanese national, the factory has been open since mid-1999. In a peak month, it made up to 1.5 million pieces of clothing for JCPenney. Key U.S. customers for Tzicc — JCPenney, Walmart and Costco — did not reply to AP to comment. Pivoting to the neighboring South African market, one of the solutions proposed by the trade minister and industry consultants, wouldn't be enough to even cover the employees' payroll, Omar said. And even if American buyers return, it's unlikely the factory could rehire all its 1,300 workers, she added. Today, just a few blocks away, former employees try their luck looking for work at other factories that are still operating. Most are turned away. 'Life is difficult,' former worker Mathunya said. 'There is nothing, nothing at all. People don't have money.' __ Pascalinah Kabi in Maseru, Josh Boak in Washington and Anne D'Innocenzio in New York contributed. ___ For more on Africa and development: The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at Renata Brito, The Associated Press
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8 minutes ago
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Trump meets with candidates for four-star general in break with tradition, White House acknowledges
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has acknowledged that President Donald Trump now meets with candidates for promotion to the rank of four-star general, in a break with past practice. A White House spokesperson said the Republican president has the meetings because he wants to make sure the U.S. military retains its superiority and its leaders focus on fighting wars. 'Donald Trump wants to ensure our military is the greatest and most lethal fighting force in history, which is why he meets with four-star-general nominees directly to ensure they are war fighters first — not bureaucrats,' assistant press secretary Anna Kelly said. The meetings, however, are a departure from past practice, and knowledge of them has raised concerns about politicization of the military's top ranks. Trump has not always respected the long-standing tradition of walling off the military from partisan politics. In June, Trump took the rare step of mobilizing the National Guard and then the Marines, sending hundreds of them into Los Angeles over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat with whom the president has feuded politically. Trump followed up with a campaign-style rally at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where uniformed soldiers cheered as he criticized former President Joe Biden, Newsom and other Democrats — raising concerns that Trump was using the military as a political prop. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., an Army veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the meetings 'very welcome reform.' 'I've long advocated for presidents to meet with 4-star nominees. President Trump's most important responsibility is commander-in-chief,' Cotton wrote in a post on X. 'The military-service chiefs and combatant commanders are hugely consequential jobs' and 'I commend President Trump and Secretary Hegseth for treating these jobs with the seriousness they deserve.' The New York Times, which first reported on the practice, said it had been initiated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
