🔗 Share this article

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I am Tom Ambrose, and I will be providing you with all the latest developments over the coming hours.

The President Rejects Marjorie Taylor Greene's Safety Concerns

We start with the news that President Donald Trump intensified his criticism of GOP congresswoman Representative Greene on Sunday, despite his reversal on opposing the disclosure of the Jeffrey Epstein documents.

He continued to dismiss her assertion that his remarks were endangering her and said he did not believe anyone was focusing on her. The congresswoman said on the previous day that the President's online criticism had triggered a wave of menaces directed at her.

“Greene the ‘Traitor’,” he said, speaking of the lawmaker. “I don’t think her life is in danger... I doubt anybody is concerned for her,” the president informed reporters before entering his presidential plane on Sunday night.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a House member from Georgia who was previously considered a Trump loyalist, has recently adopted stances contrary to the president. She noted on Saturday she has been contacted by private security firms warning about her safety and that strong criticisms against her have previously resulted in death threats.

Jeffrey Epstein Documents Release Push

The public fallout occurred while the President urged his GOP colleagues in Congress to vote for the release of records related to the deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reversing his earlier resistance to such a action.

Trump’s post on his social media platform came after Speaker Johnson previously stated that he thought a vote on making public justice department documents in the Epstein case should help dispel allegations “that he [Trump] has something to do with it”.

He posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday: “House Republicans should support unsealing the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.

“Now is the moment to move on from this political stunt perpetrated by far-left activists in order to deflect from the significant achievements of the GOP, including our recent Victory on the government funding issue,” he said.

Although Trump and Epstein were seen together years back, the commander-in-chief has claimed the two men fell out before Epstein’s convictions. Messages released last week by a congressional panel showed the convicted sex offender, who died by suicide in jail in 2019, believed Trump “knew about the girls,” though it was not clear what that phrase signified.

Other Updates

• Republican congressman Thomas Massie had challenged Trump over whether the commander-in-chief was making a “last-ditch effort” to prevent the full files on the late sex offender Epstein from becoming public by initiating a fresh investigation. The congressman and Democratic representative Ro Khanna, the two US representatives spearheading the bipartisan push to have all the documents held by the government available both expressed new worries about the steps by the White House.
• The United States conducted another attack on an alleged narcotics smuggling vessel in the Pacific region on the weekend, killing three individuals on board, the Department of Defense said on Sunday. “Information confirmed that the boat was engaged in illicit narcotics smuggling, traveling on a established drug route, and carrying drugs,” the US Southern Command stated in a message on social media.
• The President indicated the US may open talks with President Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, who is under escalating pressure from the US government during a significant US military buildup in the Caribbean region. “We could initiate some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll observe how that turns out. They would want to talk,” the US president said on that day, in one of the first signs of a possible path to defusing the increasingly tense circumstances in the area.
• Trump on the weekend brushed aside concerns about right-wing pundit the commentator's latest discussion with a far-right activist recognized for his antisemitic views, which has created a schism within the Republican party. Trump supported Carlson, noting the former Fox News host has “said positive remarks about me in the past.” He said if he chooses to interview Nick Fuentes, whose followers consider themselves working to preserve the nation's cultural heritage, then “individuals have to make up their own minds.” Trump did not criticize the commentator or Fuentes.
• The President indicated on that day that he intends to have a discussion with New York City’s incoming mayor Mamdani and said they will “work something out”, in what could be a detente for the GOP leader and Democratic rising star who have portrayed one another as opponents. He has for an extended period slammed Mr Mamdani, falsely describing him as a “communist” and predicting the ruin of his hometown, New York, if the democratic socialist were chosen.
• A collective of 17 trans military personnel has sued the federal government for denying them retirement benefits and benefits. The legal filing, filed in a US court, characterizes the administration's action against them as “unlawful and invalid”.