The White House memorandum describing President Trump’s recent physical examination lacks details of the results of tests to assess his cardiovascular health, according to physicians who read the report.
That is one of several areas of the report that doctors said stood out for its lack of specificity. The president spent about three hours at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday, where he underwent a battery of tests as part of his annual medical examination.
The
president’s physician, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, wrote in a
memorandum released late Friday that Trump “remains in excellent health,
demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological and overall
physical function.”
Barbabella’s description of Trump’s cardiac health cites results from a coronary CT angiography, typically done to check for narrowed or blocked arteries in the heart; an echocardiogram, which makes an image of the heart using sound waves; and an artificial-intelligence-enhanced electrocardiogram analysis. He said the AI analysis estimated the president’s cardiac age at 14 years younger than his actual age of 79.
Yet the White House memo didn’t include crucial information typically yielded from such tests that would provide evidence for Barbabella’s finding that Trump’s cardiac function is normal. Barbabella also said an ultrasound of the carotid arteries showed normal results without providing specific metrics.
Meanwhile, Chump's slush fund remains in the news. Steve Mollman (NEWSWEEK) reports:
Former Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday became the latest prominent Republican to break with the Trump administration over its controversial $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, calling the proposal “deeply offensive” and urging that it be scrapped.
Pence’s remarks place him among a growing number of high-profile Republicans who have voiced opposition in recent days, expanding what began as a Capitol Hill backlash into a broader intra-party dispute. His intervention comes after some Senate and House Republicans publicly criticized the fund, signaling widening fractures within the GOP over the proposal.
The expanding list of Republican critics has complicated President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda at a critical moment, with GOP divisions over the fund already delaying a major immigration funding package. Some Republicans have warned the fund could become a political liability for the party heading into the 2026 elections if it is not addressed.
[. . .]
Chump's friend Jeffrey Epstein remains an anchor around Chump's neck. Former Attorney General Pam da Bimbo Bondi appeared before the House Oversight Committee it a closed-door-conversation Friday. Glenn Thrush and Michael Gold (NEW YORK TIMES via PHILADELPHIA INQURIER) note:
Pam Bondi, fired as attorney general by President Donald Trump in April, insisted Friday that she had little real authority in overseeing the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, putting responsibility squarely on her former deputy and successor, Todd Blanche.
Her remarks, delivered during a closed-door interview before the House Oversight Committee, were a bracingly candid admission of her own powerlessness that belied her nominal role as one of the most powerful figures in government. It was a noticeable shift from her past appearances on Capitol Hill, when she resorted to maximum-volume attacks on Democrats who raised questions about her performance or challenged her authority.
Bondi told committee members that Blanche was managing “the entire investigation,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said after emerging from a tense session that Bondi had long sought to delay or dodge.
She added in the hearing that Blanche was responsible for determining which documents would be released, another person present for her testimony said, describing how she also repeatedly punted to FBI Director Kash Patel.
One interesting note? NDTV adds:
Former US Attorney General Pam Bondi, during her long-awaited interview with US House lawmakers, reportedly said that Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell should die in prison and should not receive a pardon.
Maxwell was a longtime associate of Epstein, the US financier and convicted sex offender, who died by suicide in jail in 2019. She was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking and conspiracy involving underage girls. She is currently serving a 20-year sentence and remains in a Texas prison facility.
And how did Maxwell get there. How did she go from a low security Florida prison to a minimum security prison in Bryan, Texas? Bondi said they needed to ask Blanche about that.
Perry Stein and Maegan Vazquez (WASHINGTON POST) note:
Bondi said that “Acting attorney general Blanche was managing the entire investigation,” Rep. Robert Garcia (California), the top Democrat on the committee, told reporters during a mid-interview break.
[. . .]
Garcia told reporters: “I also personally asked the former AG five times and five different questions about her conversations with President Trump, whether he directed her at any given time on the Epstein files, what he knew, what he asked her to redact or not, and she refused to answer any questions about President Trump. In fact, she said that she would not speak or respond to any questions that [have] anything to do with President Trump.”
It must be something to dictate to Congress what you will and will not answer questions about. Australia's ABC reports on the survivors who were outside the hearing:
Survivors of Epstein's abuse were in the building and criticised Ms Bondi's handling of the material.
They held posters that had documents from the Epstein files that feature Mr Trump's name, among others, and they made their presence known to Ms Bondi as she entered the room.
Several survivors said they were shoved aside by police officers.
"It boggles my mind that the Department of Justice released nude photos … the Department of Justice released pornography. That is unacceptable," survivor Sharlene Rochard told reporters outside the committee hearing room.
"I just hope that she does have a moment where she remembers her own humanity and our humanity and finds her compassion and remembers that this is a bigger story than political rhetoric," said Danielle Bensky, another survivor.
The survivors also implored lawmakers to hold Ms Bondi accountable for the handling of the Epstein case files' release, which included the personal information of potential victims.
Remember thug Greg Bovino? So out of control that even Chump fired him. Well Laura Esposito (DAILY BEAST) reports:
Ousted Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino has gone from angling for his job back to launching a full-scale attack on the Trump administration.
Bovino, the one-time face of Donald Trump’s brutal deportation operation that culminated in the deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal agents, condemned the president and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles for what he described as a move to “water down mass deportations.”
The White House is racing to do damage control on Kristi Noem—before it turns deadly.
Donald Trump’s administration is quietly working to reverse the damage done to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, at Noem’s direction during her tenure as Homeland Security secretary. The former South Dakota governor was ousted in March, and now serves as the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas.
While
FEMA’s sworn mission is to help Americans before, during, and after
disasters, a year marked by firings, re-hirings, frozen funds, and
feuding among political appointees has plunged the agency into chaos.
Now, after pushing Noem aside from FEMA oversight, the White House is
scrambling to repair the agency—despite Trump’s repeated insistence that
it should not exist in its current form.
“It could take a decade to fix what they broke,” a high-ranking FEMA official told CNN. “And if we have a major disaster this year, we’re screwed.”
In a report published Sunday, CNN detailed conversations with some 50 FEMA insiders over the past year, many of whom said the havoc wrought under Noem in just 13 months will cripple the agency for years to come.
“If you wrote this as a book, no one would believe it,” one senior FEMA official told CNN. “It’s completely dumbfounding how it’s all played out.”
Last year, as state leaders across the country spent months pleading for disaster relief funds, FEMA ended December with more than $15 billion in unspent funds, according to the report. Much of that backlog stemmed from Noem insisting on personally signing off on any distribution of funds exceeding $100,000, creating major delays in disaster relief.
At the same time, Noem and her top adviser—and rumored lover—Corey Lewandowski were focused on gutting the agency. In January, an internal document obtained by The Washington Post detailed potential cuts affecting more than 11,500 employees at an agency whose workforce is just over double that size.
As New Mexico’s bipartisan Epstein Truth Commission will hold its first public meeting this week at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe, many Otero County political leaders — have remained notably quiet on the matter.
Local state leaders voted affirmative for the resolution creating the special commission but for the most part have been silent on the demand for transparency and release of all documents in DC and for state level prosecution in New Mexico if appropriate.
The commission is examining allegations of sex trafficking, abuse of minors, and potential state and local oversights tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s former Zorro Ranch. With subpoena power and a $2 million budget, the panel is seeking survivor testimony and reviewing how such activities could occur in New Mexico with little apparent intervention for years.
Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, partnered with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to lead a coalition of lawmakers—including Oregon’s U.S. Senator Ron Wyden—in urging the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to determine the true cost of war in Iran and set the record straight regarding inaccurate and incomplete estimates provided by the Trump Administration.
“The American people deserve to know the true costs of this conflict, and they deserve transparency and honesty when their government commits the nation to war,” wrote the Senators.
On April 29, two months into the war, Acting Comptroller of the Department of Defense (DOD) Jay Hurst testified before Congress that the cost of Operation Epic Fury would be about $25 billion. Weeks later, he revised that estimate to be about $29 billion.
But independent analysts and investigative journalists have produced estimates that are significantly higher, raising concerns that the administration has not been fully truthful or transparent with the American public. Some Republican lawmakers reportedly heard estimates that the Pentagon is spending as much as $2 billion a day on the war, roughly quadruple the initial estimate that Hurst gave to Congress.
According to public reports, the estimates provided to Congress “did not fully account for damaged or destroyed equipment or U.S. military installations damaged,” with the real cost coming in closer to “$40-50 billion when accounting for the costs of rebuilding U.S. military installations and replacing destroyed assets,” including “extensive damage” to U.S. bases in the Middle East.
Even conservative experts, including President Trump’s former DOD deputy comptroller Elaine McCusker, estimated the cost to be as high as $35 billion at the time of the April 7 ceasefire. When accounting for operations, munitions, equipment losses, and U.S. military aid, other analysts have estimated the war’s cost to be as high as $72 billion in just the first 60 days. These figures could be even higher with indirect costs, when accounting for higher energy prices and long-term care for veterans.
“It is essential that Congress and the American public receive accurate, comprehensive estimates of the costs of the war in Iran,” wrote the lawmakers.
The Senators’ letter comes as the Trump administration intends to request as much as $200 billion in additional funding for the war in Iran—in addition to its unprecedented $1.5 trillion defense budget request it recently submitted to Congress.
“[CBO’s] timely and comprehensive estimate of the immediate and long-term budgetary consequences will help ensure that the Iran war remains subject to rigorous and appropriate legislative oversight,” the Senators concluded.
Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) joined in signing the letter.
Full text of the letter can be found by clicking here.
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