Trump and his entourage have multiplied their reactions following the revelation, by the Oversight Committee, of the famous birthday letter sent by Epstein’s estate following a subpoena.
The message, attributed to Trump, had been sent to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003.
President Donald Trump refused to address a birthday note that he reportedly wrote to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after House Democrats released it.
Donald Trump, who had repeatedly denied the existence of a birthday message mentioned by the Wall Street Journal, where he referred to “a wonderful secret” with Epstein and added a drawing depicting a naked woman, assured that he did not draw and had never sent such a note.
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Questioned by NBC News after the official post confirming the document’s authenticity, Trump simply said he had no comment on the matter:
“I don’t comment on something that’s a dead issue.”
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Trump then declared:
“I gave all comments to the staff,” while White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt denied it was his signature on the letter and drawing, signed simply “Donald”, saying:
“It’s very clear that President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it.”
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Following the post on his father’s birthday message to Epstein, Eric Trump for his part said in an interview on Newsmax:
“My father does not sketch out cartoon drawings.”
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JD Vance also reacted, on X…
The Democrats don't care about Epstein. They don’t even care about his victims. That's why they were silent about it for years. The only thing they care about is concocting another fake scandal like Russiagate to smear President Trump with lies.
…to the post attributing the birthday message to Trump, accusing Democrats and saying it was “another fake scandal like Russiagate to smear President Trump with lies”.
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Some Republicans also reacted publicly to the letter.
Florida Representative Byron Donalds and Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett have both questioned the authenticity of the signature, while several media outlets point out that Trump has, on various occasions over the years, signed only with his first name.
South Korea is angry after ICE arrested more than 300 of its workers at a Hyundai-LG plant under construction in Georgia.
The immigration raid on a Hyundai-LG battery factory in Georgia has sent shock waves across South Korea.“We spend a lot of money in the United States and we get slapped in the face,” said Choi Jong-gun, former vice foreign minister.
This case comes just a few weeks after a mega-trade agreement in which Seoul pledged to invest $350 billion in the United States in return for a 15% tariff.
It will be recalled that a major immigration raid was carried out on a factory under construction in Georgia on September 4, during which nearly 475 people were arrested following a months-long investigation by the Department of Homeland Security.
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South Korea has since obtained an agreement to repatriate some of the South Korean workers detained by the US authorities.
There was total incomprehension on the South Korean side: the government, former high-ranking officials and the opposition denounced this brutal action, deemed by some to be “disrespectful” towards a strategic ally and even described as a “slap in the face”.
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They also stressed the importance of the trade agreement reached on July 30, as Choi Jong-gun, former vice foreign minister, recalled: “We spend a lot of money in the United States”.
According to The Washington Post, Israel, under threats from the United Arab Emirates, recently abandoned its plans to annex the West Bank.
For weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been weighing formally annexing much or all of the occupied West Bank.Now, an unusual message, delivered by a crucial Arab partner, is complicating his decision-making.
This decision comes after the Emirates clearly warned that any attempt to annex part of this territory would constitute a “red line” likely to jeopardize the Abraham Accords, signed in 2020 and considered a historic breakthrough in normalization between Israel and several Arab countries.
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Faced with this risk, Netanyahu has removed annexation from the government’s official agenda.
The region remains under high tension with the war in Gaza, which has already claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives, triggered after the Hamas forward in October 2023. The humanitarian crisis is severe, and Israeli operations are worsening Israel’s relations with its Arab neighbors.
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An annexation of the West Bank would undoubtedly have shattered Israel’s relations with the Emirates and other Gulf countries, threatening the stability of the region.
Billionaire hedge fund manager, co-CIO and founder of Bridgewater Associates Ray Dalio has commented on Donald Trump’s extreme policies, warning that the US is sliding towards an autocratic regime that he compares to those of the 1930s and 1940s, in an interview with the Financial Times reported by CNN.
“I think that what is happening now politically and socially is analogous to what happened around the world in the 1930-40 period,” the founder of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, has told the Financial Times.https://cnn.it/460e7wl
Ray Dalio illustrates his remarks by drawing on the recent decision by Trump and his administration to take a 10% stake in Intel.
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Prior to this deal, Trump had viciously forward attacked CEO Lip-Bu Tan on Truth Social, accusing him of China-related conflicts of interest and demanding his immediate resignation.
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Ultimately, Trump turned $11 billion in subsidies into a 10% public stake in Intel, boasting that Tan had offered “$10 billion to the United States” to keep his job, reviving accusations of political interference and a drift toward state capitalism, echoed by Dalio:
“Tan walked in wanting to keep his job, and he ended up giving us $10 billion for the United States.”
Since that deal, Trump no longer seems concerned about the Intel executive’s supposed ties to China.
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Ray Dalio also highlighted the silence of many actors, who dread speaking out against the regime for fear of reprisals from Trump and his administration:
“Most people are silent because they are afraid of retaliation if they criticize.”
US President Donald Trump has confirmed that the Pentagon carried out a strike against a ship suspected of belonging to a Venezuelan drug cartel, while it was in international waters in the southern Caribbean.
Trump defends US strike on boat from Venezuela he says was carrying drugs reut.rs/4mOBnVg
According to Trump, 11 people aboard the ship, described by his administration as “a drug ship” that had sailed from Venezuela”, were killed in the strike in international waters.
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The president himself later defended the attack, with Reuters reports, saying he believed the ship was carrying drugs.
Donald Trump broke the news via Truth Social, broadcasting a declassified video of the attack carried out by US forces:
“Earlier this morning, on my orders, U.S. military forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists in SOUTHCOM’s area of responsibility.”
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Recall that in an executive order signed last January, Trump officially classified drug cartels, including Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG, as “foreign terrorist organizations” while the Pentagon promised further military action against them in the coming months. Trump used this accreditation to invoke Article II of the UN charter for the attack, allowing him to use deadly military force on a foreign entity without enacting war.
Multiple news outlets and legal experts have questioned the legitimacy and legality of the attack, and whether the ship was actually being used to traffic illegal drugs. The Trump administration fed into this speculation, with Marco Rubio and Trump giving conflicting information on the alleged destination of the vessel.
The White House has until Thursday to send it’s report to Speaker Mike Johnson, detailing its official reasoning for the attack, but experts warn to stay wary about information coming from POTUS.
The group Tren De Aragua have not made a comment on the airstrike, nor the accusation of the ship’s intention. The Venezuelan government has also not confirmed the identity or the objective of the vessel. On their part, President Nicolás Madur claims his government demolished Tren De Aragua in 2023. The government goes as far as to claim the group is a work of fiction, perpetrated by international media organizations.
Tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela have been mounting for multiple months, with this attack representing a potential breaking point for Venezuela. President Maduro made statements on Monday that some saw as readying his citizens for war, with Maduro encouraging Venezuelans to prepare themselves to defend their country.
Maduro claimed to have once again won Venezuelas election last year, but numerous democracies around the world, including Canada’s, have refused to recognize his victory. Poll tracking of the 2024 election showed opposition leader Edmundo González owning more than 60 per cent of the popular vote, with Madura commanding under 20 per cent.
The Trump administration has not indicated they plan an invasion of Venezuela, but three navy destroyers and a cruiser, carrying 4,000 American troops has been moved closer to the Venezuelan shore.
As a press conference was held outside the Capitol alongside Democratic and Republican members of Congress for the introduction of the “Epstein Files Transparency Act”, several victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell delivered deeply moving speeches directly appealing to Donald Trump to take them seriously.
Trump bashes Epstein files as ‘hoax’ as Republicans rally with trafficking victims
Questioned by reporters at the White House at the same time, the President reiterated his position, stating once again that, in his opinion, the Epstein Files are nothing more than a Democratic “hoax”.
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According to Trump, the uproar surrounding the bipartisan filing of the “Epstein Files Transparency Act”, which calls for the file to be fully posted with victims’ names redacted, is nothing more than “A Democrat hoax that never ends”.
He added, according to The Independent, that “no one is ever satisfied” despite the “thousands of pages of documents” already made public, calling the whole thing “totally irrelevant”.
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Trump finally complained that, no matter how hard his administration tried to make the Epstein files available, while many recalled that the vast majority of the thousands of pages released had already been released under the Biden administration, the requests never stop.
Donald Trump has leveled serious accusations against the leaders of China, Russia and North Korea on Truth Social, accusing all three of “conspiring” against the United States.
President Trump alleges China, Russia, and North Korea are conspiring against the US, as leaders of each nation were pictured together at the military parade in Beijing. Follow live updates. https://cnn.it/3Vu8fGJ
As the three leaders gathered in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square for a huge military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over Japan and the end of World War II, Trump posted a message for the occasion.
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It began with a cordial tone towards Xi:
“May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration.”
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But Trump’s message ended with a direct accusation:
“Pleasegivemywarmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America.”
Trump went on to question China’s willingness to acknowledge the crucial role played by the US in winning the Second World War.
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He declared:
“The big question to beanswerediswhether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and «blood» that The United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secureits FREEDOM from a veryunfriendlyforeigninvader.“
During his visit to China, Vladimir Putin made a series of statements to the effect that Russia had never been opposed to Ukraine joining the European Union.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Moscow had never opposed Ukraine's potential membership of the European Union, and that he thought it was possible to find a consensus on ensuring the security of both Russia and Ukraine reut.rs/4g9yBHM
However, according to Reuters, he reiterated his firm opposition to Kyiv joining NATO, which he sees as a direct threat to Russia’s security.
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Putin also mentioned his recent trade with Donald Trump, saying that a compromise on Ukraine’s security remains conceivable.
Visiting Moscow’s ally China, the Russian president denounced what he called the “hysteria” of some European leaders, who he said were brandishing the threat of possible Russian aggression against other countries on the continent.
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According to Putin, the key to lasting peace lies in limiting NATO’s expansion, while continuing to refuse, for the time being, a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
This stance comes just days after his summit in Alaska with Donald Trump, who rolled out the red carpet for him and asserted that such a meeting, deemed crucial to peace talks, would take place shortly.
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Ultimately, the decision to join the European Union or NATO rests with the Ukrainians and their allies, not Putin.
The man accused of trying to assassinate Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club will defend himself at his trial, which opens with jury selection in Florida.
Almost a year since he allegedly perched a rifle through the chain-link fence of a golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, the 59-year-old man accused of creating a “sniper’s nest” one hole away from where Donald Trump was playing golf will now stand trial. https://cnn.it/3V6Grbs
Ryan Routh, 59, was arrested on September 15, 2024 as he attempted to flee by car. Earlier, the Secret Service had spotted him in the woods surrounding Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, just a hundred feet from the area where Donald Trump was staying.
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The trial opens on September 8 with jury selection, and according to CNN, Routh has chosen to represent himself. The case promises to be as surprising as some of his court filings, in which he bluntly attacks Trump.
According to documents reported by CNN, Routh makes troubling remarks that hint at the tone of his trial.
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In it, he calls Trump a “racist pig” and challenges him to a round of golf to decide his guilt.
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The trial, which opens on September 8 under the presidency of federal judge Aileen Cannon, a close Trump ally, is expected to last a maximum of four weeks.
Donald Trump stirred up controversy this weekend when he posted a threatening message on Truth Social, claiming that Chicago “is about to find out” why he renamed the “Department of Defense” to the “Department of War”.
Trump posted online that Chicago was "about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR," but later said his administration wouldn't go to war with American cities but rather "clean them up."
He accompanied his statement with an AI-generated image with a nod to the film Apocalypse Now.
The image shows Trump wearing the hat of Lieutenant-Colonel Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall, with Chicago in flames in the background after U.S. Army helicopters have passed by.
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This meme was widely criticized, especially as it contained the phrase “I love the smell of deportations in the morning”, a parody of Duvall’s famous line.
Trump then tried to calm the controversy by asserting that his administration is “not going to war” with Chicago.
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JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, strongly denounced Trump’s post on X, saying his threat to wage war on an American city was neither a joke nor something normal, and asserting that his state will not be intimidated by a “wannabe dictator.”
