Starting with Donald Chump's good friend, the late Jeffrey Epstein. Anupreeta Das (NEW YORK TIMES) reports:
Anil Ambani, one of India’s most prominent businessmen, was eager in the early days of the first Trump administration to figure out where India might fit into the new president’s national security strategy.
In 2017, that led him to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender whose fat Rolodex of politicians, diplomats and policymakers allowed him to present himself to Mr. Ambani as a White House insider and guide, according to a review by The New York Times of hundreds of messages exchanged by the men over a two-year period.
“Will need ur guidance on dealing wth white house for india relationship ad defense cooperation,” Mr. Ambani wrote to Mr. Epstein soon after their online introduction, according to exchanges released this year by the Justice Department. Mr. Epstein promised to get Mr. Ambani some “inside baseball.”
The exchanges, riddled with typos and shorthand, show the global reach of Mr. Epstein and the reputation he had built among the world’s wealthiest people as a power broker able to operate in the shadowy world of back-channel diplomacy. While the line between braggadocio and influence was blurred, Mr. Epstein shared with Mr. Ambani nuggets of information on foreign policy and Trump appointments before they became widely known. Whether he just got lucky or not, his messages indicated he sought and received accurate information from unnamed people about the White House’s thinking in response to Mr. Ambani’s questions.
Epstein was so lucky to have had that friendship with Chump. King Charles visits DC this month and will be meeting with Chump. ALJAZEERA reports:
The family of Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has called on the United Kingdom’s King Charles to meet other victims when he visits the United States later this month.
In a statement, members of the family said the visit, scheduled for April 27 through 30, comes close to the anniversary of Giuffre’s death in April 2025, which was ruled a suicide.
Giuffre first went public in 2010 with allegations that she had been groomed and trafficked by Epstein, a wealthy financier, and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell when she was a teenager. She also said she had been trafficked by Epstein to the UK’s then-Prince Andrew, Charles’s only brother.
“We strongly urge King Charles to meet with us and survivors and hear what we have to say,” Sky and Amanda Roberts, Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law, said in a statement to the Reuters news agency.
Pam da bimbo Bondi has spent around a year protecting Chump from The Epstein Files. However, Chump fired her last week. For now, Todd Blanche is in charge at the Justice Dept and Victoria Bekiempis (GUARDIAN) observes:
As news emerged this week presaging Donald Trump’s dismissal of Pam Bondi, one of his motivations reportedly related to her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files.
While the new acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, insisted he had “never” heard the president say “that anything that happened to her had anything to do with the Epstein files”, it’s clear the issue has dogged Bondi throughout her tumultuous tenure.
Indeed, Trump had repeatedly vowed his administration would release all Epstein documents – a promise that served as political manna for conspiracy-minded members of his rightmost base. Many ultra-conservative Trump supporters believe that Epstein’s abuse of teen girls was part of a sprawling sex-trafficking network of the global elite.
Todd Blanche has already noted his desire to run from The Epstein Files. Rebecca Beitsch (THE HILL) reports:
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is taking heat for seeking to distance himself from the Epstein files, saying they “should not be a part of anything going forward.”
The comments came during an interview late Thursday with Fox News’s Jesse Watters, who asked Blanche if he would agree that the files were “not handled well.”
Blanche went on to defend fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying her removal by President Trump had nothing to do with the investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
But Blanche also appeared to suggest the Department of Justice (DOJ) should now be able to turn the page on the saga.
Chump would love for everyone to move on from Epstein. He would love for the topic to go away. There are some who argue he went to war on Iran to switch the focus. Edward Wong (NEW YORK TIMES) reports:
Power plants, desalination stations, oil wells, roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
They are the foundations of civilian life in Iran, and their destruction by American and Israeli forces would cause widespread suffering among the country’s 93 million people — and in most cases would be considered a war crime under international law.
Yet President Trump has repeatedly threatened to do exactly that, with the aim of sending Iran “back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” as he put it in a speech on Wednesday.
On Easter weekend, he wrote online that “all Hell will reign down” on the Iranians unless they met a deadline of Monday to make concessions or open up the Strait of Hormuz to ship traffic, adding, “Glory be to GOD!”
The president was emphatic about the targets in a follow-up post: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah.”
Yes, his dementia only worsens with each passing day. And the calls for the 25th Amendment to be implemented Hollie Silverman (NEWSWEEK) notes:
Prediction markets tracking the likelihood that President Donald Trump could be removed from office under the 25th Amendment saw a steady climb this weekend, reflecting heightened public speculation as the Iran war intensifies and the president’s recent statements draw widespread scrutiny.
On Kalshi, one of the largest regulated prediction platforms, trading volume rose as users bet on whether Cabinet‑level action to declare the president unfit might occur.
The increase comes at a moment of global crisis, with the Iran war reshaping U.S. foreign policy and raising questions about decision‑making at the highest levels of government.
The 25th Amendment is one of the most consequential constitutional mechanisms available, allowing the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare a president unable to perform the duties of office.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Alex Padilla's office:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement after President Trump announced his official Fiscal Year 2027 budget request:
“Donald Trump has raised the cost of housing, groceries, and health care, taken our country into war, and now he’s asking families to foot the bill for his disastrous agenda.
“With his proposed budget, Trump is asking Congress to cut critical programs that millions of Americans depend on: health care for veterans, scientific and medical research, education for children across the country, housing assistance, and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Notably, he wants to cut Election Security Grants and decimate the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which would put our elections infrastructure at risk.
“Meanwhile, his unprecedented $1.5 trillion defense budget proposal — a 50 percent increase from last year — is so large that some Pentagon officials worry they won’t know what to do with it.
“Congress must reject this budget and fight for one that reflects our values, not the whims of Donald Trump.”
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The following sites updated:
