Talk about pussy snow flakes....

A Right-Wing Group Accused NASCAR of Discrimination Against White Dudes. It’s a Blueprint for Trump.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has new priorities: protecting white, American-born, heterosexual men and women.

Abby Vesoulis

It’s not surprising a national legal nonprofit would allege in late 2023 that NASCAR had a diversity problem: Of the 42 drivers on the entry list for the 2024 Daytona 500, for example, only one was Black and zero were women.

But that wasn’t the diversity issue that America First Legal (AFL)—a group founded by Stephen Miller, a senior Trump official and a mastermind of the infamous child-separation immigration policy—had in mind. Rather, in an 8-page letter sent to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requesting a formal investigation, the conservative organization accused NASCAR of “ongoing, deliberate, and illegal discrimination against white, male Americans.”

It was one of at least 20 letters Miller’s group sent to the EEOC seeking the nonpartisan government agency investigate an employer’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) policies for discrimination against white, male, or heterosexual people. Other targets, deemed “woke corporations” by AFL, included Nordstrom, Major League Baseball, Tyson Foods, Anheuser-Busch, Morgan Stanley, and several major airlines.

The EEOC has not (yet) pursued lawsuits against these companies for the discrimination charges alleged by AFL, but that was the old EEOC—before Trump named Miller his deputy chief of staff for policy, fired two of four EEOC commissioners, and appointed an anti-DEIA enthusiast to be its acting chair. The new kids in town may very well use the complaints authored by Miller’s group as a blueprint for future, but meritless, EEOC charges.

In the last few weeks, the MAGA-fied EEOC has already added a unique code for DEIA-motivated discrimination to its internal complaint system; EEOC staff have been told to prioritize complaints from workers who allege they faced discriminated for being American-born or part of a non-minority group; and Trump’s new acting chair, Andrea Lucas, has sworn to prioritize “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination.”

These efforts are seemingly designed to hijack the EEOC’s mission from one that aims to protect the equal rights of people who are marginalized, to one that seeks to punish companies for making modest efforts to level the playing field on their behalf.

“This administration is signaling a receptivity to challenges to DEIA programs that may encourage people who feel that they have been subject to discrimination as a result of those programs to seek to vindicate their rights through the EEOC,” Jocelyn Samuels, one of the EEOC Commissioners recently fired by Trump, told Mother Jones.

Many of AFL’s requests to the EEOC cite the 1954 landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board, which unanimously concluded racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Segregating children by race “may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone,” then-chief justice Earl Warren wrote in 1954. The court-written syllabus to the decision specified that segregating children by race “denies to Negro children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.”

But in its complaint against NASCAR, AFL twisted the court’s logic to argue NASCAR’s marketing of select internship and early-career opportunities to applicants representing diverse backgrounds generated a “feeling of inferiority” among white men that may “affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be done.” (Presumably, AFL meant to write “undone,” but misquoted the landmark decision.)

The EEOC was born out of the Civil Rights Act: a bill championed by president John F. Kennedy after the peaceful Birmingham protests and then signed into law by president Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. The legislation banned the relegation of minorities to segregated public facilities and established the EEOC to enforce penalties against companies that discriminated against employees on account of their race, color, religion, national origin, or sex (which was interpreted by the Supreme Court in 2020 to include sexual orientation and gender identity).

Among other monumental wins, the relatively small agency successfully fought the practice of separating “Help Wanted” newspaper advertisements by gender, and outlawed the once-routine protocol of firing women once they married.

But since Trump’s inauguration, the EEOC’s leadership and at least part of its aim has changed. Staff have been told to stop pursuing cases about gender identity, and the agency has even gone so far as to file motions to dismiss obvious discrimination lawsuits that were already well underway. Employees also say there is a new emphasis around investigating “DEI-motivated” discrimination complaints, even though the vast majority of complaints submitted to the EEOC pertain to discrimination against what are traditionally considered minority groups, including Black and Hispanic people, pregnant people, and people with disabilities.

“I intend to dispel the notion that only the ‘right sort of’ charging party is welcome through our doors,” Lucas said in a press release announcing her promotion.

Towards her stated mission, AFL’s allegations are instructive. Miller’s group alleged, for example, that the National Football League (NFL)’s “Rooney Rule” discriminates against qualified prospective white coaches by requiring teams also interview diverse applicants. Teams engage in “sham interviews with minority candidates solely to check the Rooney Rule box,” AFL explained. “Given the limited timeframe to hire executives and coaches after the season, this results in fewer opportunities for similarly situated, well-qualified candidates who are not minorities.”

Additionally, AFL said that by offering pregnant employees in abortion-banned states benefits to travel for abortion care, Lyft and DICK’S Sporting Goods were discriminating against pregnant employees who carry their pregnancies to term. “Although Title VII prohibits discrimination based on childbirth, DICK’S does not offer an equivalent paid benefit to a mother who has her baby,” the group said. (It’s worth noting that Lyft and DICK’S offer a different benefit—several weeks of paid leave—to new parents.)

Historically, most EEOC cases are initiated by employees who personally face discrimination and then file complaints with the EEOC, which are then investigated by EEOC staff who sometimes bring the cases to court. But Lucas can personally launch her own investigations, based on news reports or letters from groups like AFL, too. These independent endeavors are called Commissioner Charges, and Lucas filed more of them (38) than any of her six fellow commissioners (they averaged 11) in fiscal year 2024.

Moreover, the Supreme Court is on the precipice of emboldening Lucas to punish companies alleged to have made “woke” decisions on new hires and promotions. On Wednesday, the court heard oral arguments in a case in which a straight woman claimed her gay supervisor passed her over for a promotion in favor of a lesbian, and demoted her to an inferior role with a gay man taking her place. (Heterosexual employees made the personnel decisions and also had concerns about the plaintiff’s leadership skills, the employer’s lawyers said.)

If the court sides with the plaintiff, non-minority plaintiffs alleging what is colloquially known as “reverse discrimination” will no longer have to meet a heightened burden of proof when making these claims. Legal analysts at the New York Times and SCOTUSblog predict the court will rule in the plaintiff’s favor.

The accusations AFL made about DEIA programs are unlikely to result in courts finding that non-minority groups actually faced discrimination—even if the EEOC formally puts its weight behind them.

“The kinds of DEIA programs that most employers are pursuing are fully lawful, effective, and necessary to identify and address the barriers that are still preventing people from achieving equal employment opportunity,” says Samuels. “I think it is a misrepresentation of the nature of the law, and the standards that courts have applied now for decades, to assert that an employer’s commitment to DEIA activities necessarily demonstrates that the employer has engaged in impermissible race-based decision making.”

Still, the mere act of launching EEOC investigations into DEIA practices could cost companies time and legal expenses, ushering in a chilling effect in the corporate world.

We’ve already seen companies play anticipatory defense. Major employers, from Chipotle to Google, have removed or softened information about diversity policies from investor reports and public-facing materials. Federal employees also tell Mother Jones their identity-based employee resource groups have been disbanded.

“Even well-constructed DEI programs could run some risk for your organization,” a leading employment-law firm, Fisher Phillips, posted in a new guide. Increased risks under the Trump administration include “discrimination lawsuits alleging DEI-related unlawful discrimination from employees who feel disadvantaged” and “scrutiny from federal and state agencies such as the EEOC.”

In the meantime, conspiracies about mistakes being the result of DEI or DEIA initiatives have proliferated: Social media was abuzz with misinformation that the Delta plane flipping over in Toronto amid bad weather conditions was a result of an ill-prepared female pilot. (The incident is still under investigation, but the aircraft was captained by a man.) After Trump was grazed with a bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania last summer, similarly unfounded rumors spread about the qualifications of a female Secret Service agent.

On the surface, Lucas’ stated mission is to ensure nobody is subject to the extremely rare act of discrimination against white, male, heterosexual, cisgender, or American-born citizens. But the subtext is that anyone from outside of these categories receiving a coveted role can only be thanks to DEI policies.

God forbid a woman earns a pit-crew internship at NASCAR.

Just more fucking insanity that does nothing...

Trump’s Plan to Tackle Inflation? An “Affordability Czar”

Meanwhile, the administration will proceed with tariffs on Mexico and Canada, which economists say will drive up prices for consumers.

Julianne McShane

On Sunday morning, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went on Face the Nation on CBS to make an announcement: His department will appoint a new “affordability czar” tasked with bringing down prices for consumers.

What does this actually mean? Great question. (Host Margaret Brennan seemed confounded by it as well, asking, “What does that mean? What’s an affordability czar?”) According to Bessent, the czar’s job will be to identify five to eight priority areas where the administration should focus to bring down prices. It’s unclear who will fill that role, or when; spokespeople for the White House and Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.

In some ways, this is unsurprising. First off, Trump loves a “czar”—someone he can appoint, without Senate approval, to take charge of a particular policy area. Tom Homan is the “border czar”; Doug Bergum is the “energy czar”; Trump recently announced Alice Marie Johnson, whose cause Kim Kardashian took up during Trump’s first term, will be the “pardon czar.”

And Americans are indeed feeling the pain of inflation—and many of them are blaming Trump for it: A new CBS/YouGov poll out Sunday found that the economy and inflation are the top two issues people want Trump to prioritize, but they are the two issues they think he is prioritizing least.

But it’s unclear how, exactly, an “affordability czar” will bring about change for average Americans’ budgets, particularly considering that President Trump is set to enact tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and double tariffs on China, in the coming week. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Fox News on Sunday that Trump will determine the exact tariff amounts on Tuesday.

As Brennan pointed out to Bessent on Sunday, the nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates that based on the proposal Trump put forth last month before pausing it—25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico and a 10 percent increase on tariffs on Chinese goods—the tariffs would cost the average American household more than $1,200 a year because goods will become more expensive. (Bessent called the Peterson Institute “alarmist” and said “they take an anti-tariff position,” adding that he believes inflation will be reduced this year.)

Not to mention that the Republican budget resolution passed this past week greenlit trillions in tax breaks and spending cuts expected to hurt low-income Americans relying on Medicaid and other social services. Plus, Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is seeking to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has helped protect people from predatory lenders and financial scams, as my colleague Abby Vesoulis reported. And, as my colleague Isabela Dias has reported, if Trump’s mass deportation plan actually gets carried out, research suggests it could raise the prices of food and construction—industries immigrants play huge roles in. A January report by financial services company Allianz Trade estimated the immigration crackdown could drag down the country’s GDP growth rate to under 2 percent by 2026.

So, if the “affordability czar” truly wants to bring down prices, he or she may be required to defy the GOP—starting with Trump.

The mentally ill mango is insane and must be removed...

Trump continues to seethe at Zelensky as national security team gathers to discuss what’s next on Ukraine

By Alayna Treene, Natasha Bertrand and Kevin Liptak

Top Trump Cabinet secretaries and national security officials are holding meetings this week to discuss the administration’s next steps on Ukraine – including the prospect of suspending military aid – following the spectacular collapse of Friday’s Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz, among others, planned to meet Monday as they map out how to move forward with peace talks, a Trump administration official and a State Department official told CNN.

“We’re going to have a broad discussion on what’s next,” Waltz told CNN on Monday.

There was little evidence the ill will between Washington and Kyiv was waning three days after the Oval Office blow up. Trump and top advisers continued to harshly criticize Zelensky for his demeanor and outlook on the war, refusing to rule out the notion he should resign.

Trump on Monday slammed Zelensky’s remarks to reporters that the end to the war “is still very, very far away.”

“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “[T]his guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. – Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?”

Trump’s stance, not for the first time in recent weeks, seemed close to the Kremlin’s.

Earlier on Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov suggested that “someone must force Zelensky to change his position,” adding, “someone must make Zelensky want peace.”

Zelensky’s latest comments to rile the president came at the end of a gathering of Western leaders, without Trump, in London, where the US’ traditional allies including Britain, France and Canada made clear they remain staunchly supportive of Zelensky and are on a very different page to the US president.

Officials said they wanted to see a public apology with expression of regret from Zelensky before they could resume talks on the mineral deal that was scrapped after the Oval Office debacle.

Behind closed doors, Trump aides were considering how to get both Russia and Ukraine to agree to a potential ceasefire and how to end long-range strikes, including on critical energy infrastructure, the administration official said.

Also on the table were questions over whether the Trump administration will pause funding for Ukraine committed by the Biden administration, something Trump officials have flirted with even before the president took office. No decisions had been made Monday morning on halting American assistance, but Trump suggested his patience was wearing thin.

“Obviously when you’re trying to assess how to move forward, you won’t exclude options. All options are a matter of discussion,” the official said.

New funding to transport aid unlikely

US military officials said on Monday that it appeared unlikely that the Trump administration would request additional funding for Ukraine aid from Congress, which will be required for the US military — and in particular the Army — to continue transporting military equipment to Ukraine and training Ukrainian troops.

The Army has been paying for the transportation of the aid and the training out of its own budget, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, military officials said. But the branch will have to either cut back or halt those operations if it doesn’t receive new funding.

A similar situation played out last year, when funding for Ukraine faced an uncertain future in Congress and left the Army to foot the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars in support for Kyiv’s war effort.

At that time, under the Biden administration, these operations were considered mission critical, so money had to be moved around from within the Defense Department’s budget to support them. But this time, it’s far from clear that support for Ukraine remains a White House or Pentagon priority.

As of Sunday, aid was still moving into Ukraine. A defense official told CNN that “the Department is continuing to deliver via previously-approved [presidential drawdown authorities] some of the critical munitions, including hundreds of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) and anti-tank weapons and thousands of artillery rounds, that Ukraine is employing on the battlefield when they are available from our stocks.”

The official added that “DoD is also providing other capabilities, such as armored vehicles, as soon as required repairs are completed.”

Already, some Republicans have raised alarms about the administration potentially cutting off support for Kyiv. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said over the weekend she was feeling unwell over “whispers from the White House that they may try to end all US support for Ukraine.”

“I know foreign policy is not for the faint of heart, but right now, I am sick to my stomach,” she wrote.

The discussions come as the president and members of his Cabinet have continued to publicly question Zelensky’s intentions and express skepticism that he is ready for a peace deal.

Earlier Monday, Walz argued that “what became so evident to us in that session [on Friday] was he is not ready to talk peace at all.”

“What we don’t have right now is President Zelensky saying, ‘I am ready to take the steps necessary and have the conversations necessary and make the compromises necessary to end the fighting,’” Waltz told Fox News.

“We’re ready to have those conversations. We had it with the Russians in Riyadh,” Waltz said, referring to last month’s US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia. “We’re ready to have it with the Ukrainians and then engage in shuttle diplomacy. But we need to hear that latter piece from Zelensky, and we need to hear it publicly.”

Trump administration officials are still committed to moving forward with navigating an off-ramp to the war, the sources said. That includes continuing talks with the Russians and Ukrainians. CNN previously reported that preparations are now underway for a second round of US-Russia talks, to be hosted shortly, potentially also in a Gulf state.

“We are not gonna stop to make movements to try and stop to end the war,” the administration official told CNN. “But it would be extremely helpful if Zelensky expressed an openness to go somewhere other than where we are today,” the official said.

Time to act... Congress is gone. Courts are gone... Must stop the mango...

US suspends offensive cyber operations against Russia, senior US official says

By Jim Sciutto and Sean Lyngaas

The US has suspended operations and planning for offensive cyber operations against Russia, a senior US official told CNN.

The suspension is “a major blow,” the official said, especially since planning for such operations takes time and research to carry out. The concern, the official said, is that the pause on offensive cyber operations against Russia will make the US more vulnerable to potential cyberattacks from Moscow, which has a formidable cadre of hackers capable of disrupting US critical infrastructure and collecting sensitive intelligence.

The pause in operations and planning from US Cyber Command, the military’s offensive and defensive cyber unit, comes as the Trump administration has sought a broader détente with Russia three years into Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on Friday, throwing the US-Ukraine relationship into uncertainty.

Vance previously slammed Zelensky for lack of gratitude. This time, it placed him at center of tense Oval Office exchange

“Due to operational security concerns, we do not comment nor discuss cyber intelligence, plans, or operations. There is no greater priority to Secretary Hegseth than the safety of the warfighter in all operations, to include the cyber domain,” a senior defense official told CNN, referring to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The Record first reported on Cyber Command’s suspension of planning related to Russia.

“It is not uncommon for the Pentagon to pause actions which are potentially destabilizing or provocative for negotiations, including cyber-effects operations,” Jason Kikta, a former Cyber Command official, told CNN. “But if a planning pause was also directed, that could cause offensive options to become stale and therefore nonviable.”

“Any extended period without checking on access and updating planning, risks losing that access or missing a critical change,” Kikta said, adding that he was not personally aware of any change in status of Cyber Command operations.

Russia and the US are in a regular state of confrontation in cyberspace, current and former US official say. The Kremlin sees cyberspace as a source of asymmetric advantage with the US, as it can burrow into US critical infrastructure and try to influence US elections.

For their part, American military and intelligence hackers have in recent years increasingly gone after Russian cybercriminals and intelligence operatives.

National security adviser Mike Waltz tells CNN's Dana Bash that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky needs to make clear "publicly and privately" that he’s "ready to go to peace."

Since 2016, when Russia used bots, trolls and hackers to try to influence the election in favor of Trump, Moscow has repeated that playbook in some form in every US presidential election, according to US officials.

Cyber Command was established more than a decade ago, in part to respond to threats from Russia and other foreign powers. The command has matured considerably since its inception, growing into a several-thousand strong force of computer operatives who conduct offensive and defensive missions.

From its base at Fort Meade, Maryland, alongside the National Security Agency, Cyber Command has also increasingly become a tool of US power projection. The command has sent specialists to allies around the world to try to help them defend against threats from cybercriminals and spies.

That includes a trip to Ukraine in December 2021, in anticipation of Russia’s full-scale invasion, to help Kyiv prepare for an onslaught of Russian cyberattacks.

Months after Russia’s full-scale of invasion, Cyber Command confirmed that it was actively engaged in helping Ukraine defend itself through cyberattacks.

Despite the change in planning at Cyber Command, another major federal cybersecurity agency said it was not altering its posture.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the lead civilian agency for defending federal networks from hacks, said Sunday night on X that its mission is to “defend against all cyber threats to U.S. Critical Infrastructure, including from Russia.”

“There has been no change in our posture,” the agency said, in an apparent response to media reports that the agency was emphasizing non-Russia threats. “Any reporting to the contrary is fake and undermines our national security.”

Now for all the stupid people, "TOLD YOU SO!!!!"

RFK Jr. suggests parents consider measles vaccine amid deadly Texas outbreak: 'Call to action'

Story by Eric Lagatta

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation's top health official, is asking parents to consider measles vaccinations for their children – though not outright suggesting them – as the once-eradicated disease spreads through Texas and other states.

Referring to the deadly outbreak as a "call to action," Kennedy wrote in an opinion piece published Sunday on Fox News Digital that parents should consult with physicians about the MMR vaccine, which also covers mumps and rubella.

"The decision to vaccinate is a personal one," Kennedy wrote. "Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons."

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Kennedy, who has previously expressed skepticism about vaccines and made false claims about the measles shot, authored the op-ed after an unvaccinated school-age child last week became the first measles death in the U.S. in a decade.

The highly contagious virus, which primarily affects children, has since been surging in Texas and several other states.

"By working together – parents, healthcare providers, community leaders, and government officials – we can prevent future outbreaks and protect the health of our nation," Kennedy wrote. "Under my leadership, (the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) is and will always be committed to radical transparency to regain the public’s trust in its health agencies."

RFK Jr.'s op-ed comes after measles questions at White House

Kennedy's op-ed comes after he fielded a reporter's question last week in the White House during his first public appearance as the nation's secretary of Health and Human Services.

During the meeting Wednesday of President Donald Trump's cabinet, Kennedy said two people had died in an ongoing measles outbreak in Texas. The claim contradicted reports from national and local health officials − including HHS − that only one person had died.

Kennedy, who founded the anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense, also said at the same briefing that measles outbreaks were “not unusual.”

In his op-ed, Kennedy affirmed that healthcare providers, public leaders and policymakers all have a "shared responsibility to protect public health."

"This includes ensuring that accurate information about vaccine safety and efficacy is disseminated," Kennedy wrote. "We must engage with communities to understand their concerns, provide culturally competent education, and make vaccines readily accessible for all those who want them."

While no antiviral medication is approved for measles patients, Kennedy also touted vitamin A as a way to "dramatically reduce measles mortality." The Centers of Disease Control & Prevention recently updated its recommendation in support of vitamin A being administered in certain cases under physician supervision. Doctors hope to debunk claims, though, that vitamin A stops children from getting the measles, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

What to know about measles outbreak in Texas

Healthcare professionals have said the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) is the most effective method for people to protect themselves from the current measles outbreak that began in a West Texas Mennonite community.

More than 150 people in Texas and across state lines, including New Mexico, are now known to have been infected since January, most of them among people who weren't vaccinated or had no known vaccination status, according to the CDC.

The outbreak comes 25 years after measles was declared eliminated in 2000 in the United States.

But declining vaccination rates – primarily due to widespread misinformation about vaccines – has allowed the highly contagious disease, the symptoms of which include the telltale sign of a rash, to once again resurface. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, has himself amplified a false claim linking the MMR vaccines with autism in a since debunked and retracted 1998 study.

Just fucking destroying the country....

DOGE is hobbling Trump’s plan to unleash California’s water

Sharp staffing cuts at the Bureau of Reclamation are causing panic among the farm districts that Trump says he wants to help.

By Annie Snider and Camille von Kaenel

DOGE-ordered firings at the federal agency responsible for delivering water to farms and cities across California are getting in the way of President Donald Trump’s order to maximize the state’s water supplies.

The Bureau of Reclamation’s California office has lost 10 percent of its staff due to buyouts and orders by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency to fire short-tenured employees, according to three people close to the office who were granted anonymity because they feared retaliation.

DOGE’s cuts are already hurting Reclamation’s ability to move water through a sprawling system of pumps, canals and reservoirs to roughly a third of the state’s farmland — and impeding the agency’s ability to ratchet up deliveries in line with Trump’s demand, the people said.

The sharp cuts being leveled on Reclamation mirror those being imposed by the Trump administration across the federal government as Musk’s team of aides and other agencies have sought to slash spending. But their impact on a dusty corner of the federal bureaucracy that has taken outsized importance in the president’s mind offers a case study in how DOGE’s bulldozer approach stands to upend one of the president’s dearest policy goals.

Trump’s long-running feud with state Democrats over water restrictions escalated in January when the president falsely linked hydrants that had run dry during the Los Angeles wildfires to those restrictions. His first month in office was marked by an obsessive focus on the state’s water issues, with the White House issuing not one, but two executive orders on the topic and ordering an abrupt water dump from a pair of dams.

Reclamation’s terminated employees — some 100 of the agency’s 1,000-odd staff in California — include civil and mechanical engineers, plant mechanics and resource managers responsible for land acquisition and permitting, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.

Among those fired are employees who were working on a power plant upgrade near Shasta Dam in Northern California, according to one of the people, a Reclamation employee. That facility, which helps move water through the federal system, has been sitting disassembled for weeks after the Trump administration froze funding for it under an order halting spending tied to the bipartisan infrastructure law. That funding may soon be released, but now key staffers hired to do the work have been fired, the Reclamation employee said.

Agency staff say the impacts were avoidable. “We could have made the 10 percent cuts, if we’d been allowed to, much more easily, with far less impact to the mission,” the agency employee said. “Instead, it’s been this baseball bat that’s been taken to it, and the targets that they’ve hit are mission-critical.”

The firing of probationary employees hit Reclamation’s California office particularly hard because it had staffed up over the past year to fill what had been a 30 percent vacancy rate. Now, Reclamation as a whole is drawing up plans for a 40 percent reduction in staffing on orders from DOGE, the three people said.

The cuts have alarmed the agricultural water districts that Trump has long aligned himself with, spurring more than a dozen of them to write Interior Secretary Doug Burgum this week to defend the staff and call for a “strategic and thoughtful” approach to any additional cuts at Reclamation, which his department oversees.

“The elimination of Reclamation’s staff would merely compromise its ability to fulfill its mission of delivering water and power without significantly promoting the goal of increasing the federal coffers,” the letter says.

Interior spokesperson J. Elizabeth Peace said by email that short-term impacts to operations at the Shasta power station are being “mitigated” and “immediate mission fulfillment is not expected to be affected.”

“We will always prioritize our resources to ensure we are delivering reliable and safe operations of these facilities,” she said.

Spokespeople for the White House and DOGE did not reply to requests for comment.

The backstory

Trump has been infatuated with California water issues for nearly a decade, frequently lambasting the tiny endangered fish at the heart of the state’s fish-versus-farmers water wars and mocking Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state Democrats over water policy.

Within his first week in office, Trump issued two executive orders directing agencies to maximize California water supplies, and dispatched DOGE employees to a Bureau of Reclamation pumping plant in the state’s water hub.

DOGE claimed victory on social media after that visit, when Reclamation restarted a pump that had been offline for maintenance. Many employees at the federal agency saw that announcement as a meaningless publicity stunt. So they were shocked when the White House shortly thereafter ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to hastily release water from two Central Valley dams — a move that wasted the water and nearly flooded downstream farms, according to local officials.

Now, DOGE’s staffing moves are having very real repercussions on Reclamation’s ability to carry out Trump’s stated goal of delivering more water.

The fallout

The impact of the staffing shortage on water deliveries to farms could soon be even more severe due to planned staffing cuts related to the pumping facility DOGE employees visited last month.

Near the Jones Pumping Plant is a facility that catches endangered salmon before they can enter the pumps that export water to Central Valley farmers. Its operations are essential to carrying out Trump’s order to maximize water deliveries, since federal environmental rules — including those crafted by the first Trump administration — only allow the pumps to run if the fish collection facility is active.

Seven staff there are within their first year of employment. Agency leaders intervened to shield them from the first wave of firings, but some of them are on the list to be fired soon in a second wave of terminations, the Reclamation employee said. Four of the employees physically operate the facility, while three are fish biologists.

“The kinds of things that we’re being directed to try to maximize supplies is critically dependent on the optimal functioning of that facility,” the employee said.

Morale at the regional office has hit rock bottom, the three people close to the office said, with further firings and retirements expected. The region’s director, Karl Stock, is among the employees who took a deferred retirement, they said. Stock, an agency veteran who joined Reclamation in 2001, declined to comment.

The cuts are putting the California water suppliers that have celebrated Trump’s water promises in a difficult position as they ask for policy changes to get more water while reckoning with the risks to basic functions.

The fourteen local water officials who sent the letter to Burgum this week primarily manage small water agricultural districts in the northern part of the Central Valley — not the powerful water districts in the southern San Joaquin Valley whose lobbyists include Trump’s former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who remains close to his new administration.

In their letter, they endorsed the goal of overall efficiency and said they want to see the “badly outdated” water infrastructure system improved, especially by loosening the environmental rules limiting how much water can be pumped out of Northern California rivers.

But, they wrote, it is mostly their local water agencies — funded by water sales to individual farmers — who pay for the Bureau of Reclamation’s services through contracts for water deliveries — not federal taxpayers. Power production at the dams also generates significant revenue for the federal Treasury Department.

“It is important to note that elimination of Reclamation staff will not further the goal of achieving significant cost savings to the American people,” they wrote.

Not only do the job cuts imperil Trump’s agenda to increase water supplies, they wrote, but also the agency’s basic contracts to deliver water to its paying customers. The Central Valley Project operated by the Bureau of Reclamation moves water through a 450-mile series of dams, aqueducts, pumps and pipes from the wetter, far northern part of California to some of the state’s driest regions in the heart of the agriculturally rich southern San Joaquin Valley, irrigating roughly a third of the state’s farmland, or three million acres.

The future

Reclamation earlier this week forecast it would be able to provide 75 percent of the summer water under contract with agricultural water districts in the northern part of the Central Valley and 35 percent in the southern part of the Central Valley.

But delivering on that promise requires careful modeling to determine when runoff is expected to flow down rivers and into reservoirs as well as the ability to physically maintain and operate the pumps that move water around the state.

“It is critical that Reclamation retains experienced staff to continue fulfilling its mission (and its contractual obligations) of delivering reliable water and power supplies to its paying contractors,” the letter says.

The authority managing water for cities in the Sacramento region, meanwhile, echoed some of the same language in its own letter and raised an additional alarm bell about the risk to downstream communities, like Sacramento, that depend on the Bureau of Reclamation’s dams to prevent flooding.

“It is my assessment that the organization is already extremely lean on staffing, and further workforce cuts would jeopardize its mission and place the American people, who live in or near key federal water facilities such as dams, in danger,” wrote Jim Peifer, the executive director of the Sacramento Regional Water Authority.

Attack on Zelenskyy angers many

Trump, Vance attack on Zelenskyy angers many. But Russians and (some) Republicans love it.

Ukraine’s supporters defend Kyiv against the U.S. president’s in-person attack, while detractors say he got what he deserved.

By Nahal Toosi and Amy Mackinnon

Ukraine’s supporters in Washington and abroad reacted with horror to President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s verbal takedown of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, calling it a dismaying display of American bullying.

Trump supporters cast the encounter differently, saying it was a necessary show of American power toward an ungrateful ally.

The Russians, of course, were thrilled with how it all went.

The one thing most everyone could agree on was that the Oval Office back-and-forth three years into the full-scale Russia-Ukraine war was jaw-dropping.

“Frankly, I still don’t know how to process what we just saw,” one foreign diplomat in Washington said an hour after the session ended. The person, along with several others, was granted anonymity because the issue was sensitive and some feared retaliation from the White House.

At the State Department, which is already reeling from the specter of Trump administration plans to shrink the U.S. diplomatic footprint, staff expressed shock that Trump would treat another country’s leader so dismissively.

“This guy isn’t just trying to save his country — he’s the finger in the dike for the rest of Europe,” one State Department official said of Zelenskyy. “First, we extort him, then we intentionally try to embarrass him.”

Ukraine Caucus Co-Chair Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), speaking on MSNBC, called the scene “the Trump-Vance clown show, and it’s horrifying,” Asked how allies would react, Quigley said, “I don’t know if we have allies anymore.”

Many leaders across Europe expressed solidarity and support for Ukraine, as well as a sense that they could no longer count on the United States. “Dear @ZelenskyyUa, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone,” Poland’s Donald Tusk posted on social media.

Zelenskky was in town in part to sign a mineral deal that both sides had said they planned to finalize Friday. The Trump and Vance strike on the Ukrainian leader came across as so abrupt and coordinated that some observers wondered afterward if the pair had pre-planned it.

“The American side seemed to be intent on provoking a fight,” said Daniel Fried, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland. “To have that kind of a blow up in the Oval Office when you’re getting what you demanded, which is a signature on the minerals deal, cannot be easily explained or understood in terms of American interest.”

White House officials deny the criticism of Zelenskyy was at all pre-planned. “Going in, everyone was expecting the exact opposite of what happened in the Oval,” one aide said.

The deal was aimed at the future sharing of Ukraine’s mineral wealth with the United States, and Zelenskyy had hoped to obtain security guarantees for his country from Trump as part of the talks. But a sit down in front of the press in the Oval Office quickly veered off course when Vance intervened to make the case for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

A visibly irate Zelenskyy responded by listing a series of failed diplomatic efforts intended to stop the war in eastern Ukraine, which had simmered since 2014, when Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. From there it descended into an argument with Trump and Zelenskyy talking over each other. “You’re gambling with World War III,” said Trump, while Vance challenged Zelenskyy to be more grateful for U.S. support. “Have you said ‘thank you’ once?”

Afterward, Trump asked Zelenskyy to leave the premises, according to two White House officials. The White House confirmed no mineral deal was signed. A dual press conference scheduled with Zelenskyy and Trump was canceled. Trump wrote on social media afterward that “President Zelenskyy is not ready for peace” and was, essentially, trying to take advantage of having the U.S. on his side.

“That was a display of a president and vice president standing up for America,” a White House aide said in the aftermath of the meeting.

Pentagon officials did not respond to a question if today’s events at the White House would have any impact on the continued flow of weapons and equipment to Ukraine pledged under the Biden administration.

As of Friday, weapons shipments to Ukraine were still scheduled to continue, although talks at the White House were happening Friday evening about next steps, according to one administration official.

Spokespersons for the State Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Those briefed on discussions ahead of the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting had been confident that a minerals deal was settled. Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said that when she spoke to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) just ahead of the Oval Office meeting, he was “quite optimistic” they were going to sign the critical minerals deal.

Graham told reporters at the White House after the meeting that it was “a complete, utter disaster” and that he had warned Zelenskyy to not “take the bait” by getting into an argument with Trump.

“I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelenskyy again … The way he handled the meeting, the way he confronted the president was just over the top,” Graham said. “He either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with or he needs to change.”

Trump supporters in Congress celebrated what they said was an assertion of an unapologetic “America First” worldview and negotiating style. Some saw it as justification for turning off the spigot of American aid to Kyiv.

“Not another penny,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), wrote atop a video of the exchange.

The fracas appeared to delight Moscow.

Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who often acts as a Kremlin attack dog, wrote on social media of Zelenskyy: “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office.” Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson said on a live streamed broadcast: “Zelenskyy is biting the hand that fed him.”

Michael Carpenter, who served as senior director for Europe on the National Security Council during the Biden administration, said the Kremlin was the main beneficiary of the quarrel.

“Certainly Zelenskyy could have expressed more gratitude for U.S. support and more openness to pursuing a diplomatic resolution of the war, but Trump and Vance’s harsh attacks have now greatly weakened his negotiating position vis-a-vis Russia,” Carpenter said. “Ukraine is desperately fighting for its survival, and now it’s just received a body blow from its biggest military supporter.”

For many Ukrainians, the moment was heart-wrenching, but some also saw it as clarifying.

“Trump demanded Ukraine’s surrender. This is what ‘you have no cards in your hand’ meant — it meant you lost, surrender,” the Ukrainian military analyst Mykhailo Samus, said in a Facebook post. “Was it possible to agree? I think there was no point. Because the U.S. was not going to help further.”

Zelenskyy himself took to social media to do what Vance — incorrectly — suggested he never did: Thank the United States for its help so far to his country.

“Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people,” he wrote. “Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”

He also retweeted the expressions of support from other leaders.

Seized boxes back to Florida....

Trump takes seized boxes back to Florida on Air Force One

By Kit Maher and Donald Judd

President Donald Trump on Friday transported back to Florida with him boxes of documents that the FBI had seized from Mar-a-Lago after executing a court-ordered search warrant in August 2022.

“The Department of Justice has just returned the boxes,” Trump said in a statement. “They are being brought down to Florida and will someday be part of the Trump Presidential Library,” he said, going on to claim that “justice finally won out” and that the investigation into his mishandling of presidential documents, including highly sensitive classified documents, was “merely an attack on a political opponent.”

The classified documents case against Trump, in which he pleaded not guilty, was dropped in November after he won the 2024 election.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, who said the boxes were loaded onto Air Force One, told reporters aboard the plane that the boxes contain “personal items that belong to the president.”

Counselor to the president Alina Habba rebuffed questions on what the documents included, where they will be stored or if the White House is changing any storage protocol following the FBI search.

“These are President Trump’s things. These are his items, and they needed to be returned to him,” Habba said. Asked about concerns around the storage of sensitive materials at Mar-a-Lago, Habba said, “They were personal items. You can’t just go into somebody’s home in this country. This is what differentiates us from a third world country.”

As CNN previously reported, Trump allegedly kept classified documents at his Florida club, including in a public ballroom, bathroom and a bedroom.

33 times.....

33 times Zelensky thanked Americans and US leaders

Daniel Dale

During a remarkably combative Oval Office meeting on Friday, both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he was insufficiently thankful.

“You have to be thankful. You don’t have the cards,” Trump said, adding a bit later, “You gotta be more thankful.”

“Have you said thank you once this entire meeting?” Vance asked.

Trump might have been referring to Zelensky’s posture toward Trump in particular, as Vance appeared to be. But as their heated exchange with Zelensky reverberates around the world, it’s worth noting that Zelensky has thanked the United States on numerous occasions since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 – expressing gratitude to Trump and President Joe Biden, to members of Congress from both parties, to US defense companies and their employees, and to the American people.

After Zelensky left the White House on Friday, he wrote on X: “Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”

Here are 33 previous examples of Zelensky thanking or expressing gratitude toward the United States, its officials or its people for their support. This is not a comprehensive list. Notably, we did not review Zelensky’s many domestic remarks in Ukrainian.

January 21, 2022, on X: “Thank you @POTUS for the unprecedented (American) diplomatic and military assistance for (Ukraine).”

July 1, 2022, on X: “I commend US historic decision to provide UA with new security assistance package, including modern air defense systems. Thank you @POTUS for your continued leadership and support of UA in its fight against the aggressor. Together towards the victory!”

August 19, 2022, on X: “I highly appreciate another (American) military aid package in the amount of $775 million. Thank you @POTUS for this decision! We have taken another important step to defeat the aggressor. (Ukraine) will be free!”

December 21, 2022, meeting with Biden: “Thank you so much, Mr. President. Of course thanks bipartisan support. Thanks Congress. And thanks from our, just, ordinary people to your ordinary people, Americans. I really appreciate.”

December 21, 2022, address to US Congress: “Now, on this special Christmastime, I want to thank you, all of you. I thank every American family which cherishes the warmth of its home and wishes the same warmth to other people. I thank President Biden and both parties, at the Senate and the House, for your invaluable assistance. I thank your cities and your citizens who supported Ukraine this year, who hosted our Ukrainians, our people, who waved our national flags, who acted to help us. Thank you all, from everyone who is now at the front line, from everyone who is awaiting victory.” And: “Financial assistance is also critically important, and I would like to thank you, thank you very much, thank you for both financial packages you have already provided us with and the ones you may be willing to decide on.”

September 21, 2023, meeting with Biden: “Thank you so much, Mr. President, so warm and strong words to all the Ukrainians from you. Thank you. Thank you, appreciate – I’m glad to meet you…Thank you for the invitation. Our regular dialogue is proof that our countries are really, truly allies and strategic friends. And we greatly appreciate that vital assistance provided by the United States to Ukraine to combat Russian terror, really terror.”

September 21, 2023, address at the National Archives: “There is not a single soul here today who would not care what happens to freedom. And there is not a soul in Ukraine that does not feel gratitude to you, America. To you – the people who help us not because you have to, but because your heart cannot let you do otherwise. Thank you. That is humanity. This is what makes us Ukraine. That’s what makes you America.” And: “Thank you, America!”

November 20, 2023, on X: “I am grateful to @POTUS Joe Biden, US Congress, and the entire American people for the new military aid package announced today.”

November 23, 2023, on X: “On behalf of all Ukrainians, Olena @ZelenskaUA and I wish all Americans a happy Thanksgiving. We thank you, the people of America. We know how many of you sincerely sympathize with our struggle and wish Ukraine victory. We saw how many of you took to heart the illegal and unprovoked attack on Ukraine and felt that it was also an attack on your values. Thanks to American support and global leadership, millions of Ukrainian lives have been saved. Ukraine is grateful to you!”

December 6, 2023, on X: “I am grateful to @POTUS Joe Biden, Congress, and the American people for the new military aid package announced today.”

December 11, 2023, on X: “I met with leaders of US defense companies and expressed my gratitude to every American worker who manufactures weapons that help us safeguard our people and defend our land.” The post included a video clip from a Zelensky meeting with US defense industry executives, in which he said, “I want to thank you, all of you, and your partners, and of course please pass from me messages to your workers, people who really work – and they did a lot for Ukraine.”

December 11, 2023, speech at the National Defense University: “I want to start by saying thanks to (Defense) Secretary (Lloyd) Austin. A huge man, big friend of Ukraine. Thank you very much for your – personal – no really, thank you for your personal leadership during this time, for supporting us, supporting Ukraine, and defending all free world. Chairman (Charles Q.) Brown, thank you for your vision and support. And special thanks to (Navy) Secretary (Carlos) Del Toro and (Army) Secretary (Christine) Wormuth, for all your invaluable support to the Ukrainian Navy and Army. Thank you very much.” And: “I thank you, America, for your support.”

December 12, 2023, joint press conference with Biden: “I’m glad to be here and personally thank you and tell you how Ukraine values what we’ve achieved together defending life and freedom.” And: “And we’ve shown no – no Russian missiles can overdo the powerful American Patriot systems. Thank you very much.” And: “First, air defense and destroying Russian logistics on Ukraine’s land. Mr. President, thank you very much for your supporting – supporting us and in these areas – like our victory in the Black Sea.” And: “Today’s discussions in the White House and in Congress, across both parties and both chambers, with the Speaker were very productive. And I thank you for the bipartisan support.” And: “Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you, America.”

January 16, 2024, on X: “I met with @SecBlinken to thank the United States, President Biden, Congress, and the American people for their unwavering support and leadership in supporting Ukraine.”

March 12, 2024, on X: “I thank @POTUS Joe Biden, his administration, Congress, and the American people for the $300 million military aid package that addresses Ukraine’s immediate needs for artillery, antitank weapons, and air defense.”

March 20, 2024, on X: “Today, I hosted National Security Advisor to @POTUS @JakeSullivan46 for a meaningful and focused meeting. I am grateful to the United States for supporting our country and people. It is vital that American leadership in protecting international order remains firm.”

April 20, 2024, on Telegram and X, after Congress passed a bill to provide additional aid to Ukraine: “Thank you, America!”

May 24, 2024, on X: “I am grateful to @POTUS Joe Biden, U.S. Congress and its both parties, as well as the American people for the new military aid package announced today.”

June 7, 2024, meeting with Biden: “Thank you so much, Mr. President. First of all, thank you so much for your significant support - you, your administration. We’re very thankful from all Ukrainians to your military support, financial support, humanitarian one. And, of course, it’s very important…It’s very important that you stay with us. This bipartisan support with the Congress - it’s very important that in this unity, the United States of America, all American people stay with Ukraine. Like it was during World War Two, how the United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe - and we count on your continuing support and standing with us shoulder to shoulder. Thank you so much.”

June 13, 2024, joint press conference with Biden: “Mr. President, thank you, your team. I would also like to thank the United States Congress for their support — both parties, both chambers. Thank you. And thanks to every American heart that does not betray freedom and supports us.”

June 13, 2024, message to Ukrainians: “Importantly, the agreement with the United States now stipulates support for Ukraine both during wartime and in peacetime. It is truly long-term. We have the same vision of peace – peace that is just for our people. Thank you, President Biden, thank you to both parties and chambers of Congress, thank you, America!”

July 3, 2024, on X: “I am grateful to @POTUS Joe Biden, both parties in Congress, and the entire American people for today’s military aid packages.”

July 4, 2024, on X: “Thank you, America. Thank you to every American heart that beats in solidarity with brave Ukrainian hearts fighting for independence. I wish the United States and all Americans strength, unity, and unwavering belief in the triumph of good over evil, liberty over tyranny, and life over terror. #4thOfJuly”

July 9, 2024, address at Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute: “Mr. (Mitch) McConnell, I am grateful for your firmness in defending freedom, and for your visits to Ukraine to see how important it is to win, to win now. To prevail over the Russian war and terror.” And: “And all these steps would strengthen us – as today’s exceptional decision of the US and partners to provide Ukraine with additional five Patriot air defense systems and dozens of others, and prioritize air defense interceptors for Ukraine. Ukrainian people are grateful for that. Thank you so much!”

July 11, 2024, meeting with Biden: “And I’m grateful to you; your team; your administration; of course, Congress - both parties, both chambers; and all Americans - for their vital and your strong support of Ukraine and Ukrainian people.”

July 11, 2024, on X: “We appreciate President Joe Biden’s decision to strengthen our air defenses with five new Patriot systems and dozens of other systems. This strong decision will help us combat Russian terror. I’m grateful to President @POTUS, his team, the administration, Congress – both parties, both houses – and the entire American people for their vital support of the Ukrainians. Together, we are saving lives of our people.”

July 21, 2024, on X: “Ukraine is grateful to President Biden for his unwavering support for Ukraine’s fight for freedom, which, along with strong bipartisan support in the United States, has been and continues to be critical…We will always be thankful for President Biden’s leadership. He supported our country during the most dramatic moment in history, assisted us in preventing Putin from occupying our country, and has continued to support us throughout this terrible war.”

September 6, 2024, on X: “I am grateful to @POTUS Joe Biden, both parties in Congress, and the American people for the security assistance package announced today.”

September 22, 2024, remarks at ammunition factory in Pennsylvania: “You said that 400 people work here. But I wanted very much to come here and thank you; 400 people saved millions of Ukrainians, because of the result of your work. I am very thankful. Just from ordinary Ukrainians to you.”

September 26, 2024, meeting with Biden: “Mr. President, thank you for your strong support, for the decisions that are helping us protect Ukraine, Ukrainians, our hope. We deeply appreciate that Ukraine and America have stood side by side from the very first moments of this terrible Russian invasion. Your determination is incredibly important for us to prevail.”

December 7, 2024, on X: “I had a good and productive trilateral meeting with President @realDonaldTrump and President @EmmanuelMacron at the Élysée Palace. President Trump is, as always, resolute. I thank him. I also extend my gratitude to Emmanuel for organizing this important meeting.”

January 10, 2025, on X: “I spoke with @POTUS and expressed my condolences over the devastating wildfires in California and the tragic loss of lives…I also thanked him for the unwavering support of Ukraine’s independence and for the vital role the United States has played in uniting the international community.”

February 12, 2025, on X: “I had a meaningful conversation with @POTUS. We long talked about opportunities to achieve peace, discussed our readiness to work together at the team level, and Ukraine’s technological capabilities—including drones and other advanced industries. I am grateful to President Trump for his interest in what we can accomplish together.”

Vast Right-Wing Feud

The Trump Administration’s Epstein Stunt Is Turning Into a Vast Right-Wing Feud

After a hailed document release reveals nothing new, Pam Bondi is pointing fingers.

Anna Merlan

On Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi boasted that she had “declassified and publicly released files” related to the crimes of the dead and well-heeled pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Because this is the Trump administration, though, that release was carried out in a bizarre and hamfisted fashion, with binders of materials handed out to 15 right-wing, pro-Trump figures handpicked by the administration. While the recipients exuberantly waved them around for the cameras just outside the White House, it quickly became obvious that these particular files, which included flight logs and a heavily redacted contact list, presented nothing new. Some had already been public for close to a decade. 

Over the course of the day, the “release” devolved into a broad-scale civil war on the right, with Bondi accusing the FBI of failing to follow her declassification orders, and the MAGA influencers who were involved in the stunt trying to defend their role. In a predictably short period of time, some of those influencers quickly suggested that a deeper conspiracy was afoot. 

“These swamp creatures at SDNY deceived Bondi, Kash, and YOU,” tweeted conservative commentator and binder recipient Liz Wheeler, who seemed to be pinning the blame on FBI agents in the Southern District of New York, the federal court district where both Epstein and Maxwell were charged. “Be outraged that the binder is boring. You should be. Because the evil deep state LIED TO YOUR FACE.”

“I had no idea what a furious frenzy this binder would cause,” wrote Jessica Reed Kraus, aka “Houseinhabit,” a gossip blogger who was given one of the binders at the White House. Kraus, who’s spent years trying to build relationships with Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has written a long series of blog posts arguing that Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, while guilty, was also scapegoated by powerful men and took the fall for their misdeeds. Mike Cernovich, a men’s rights activist turned Pizzagate promoter turned self-styled journalist, was also on hand to receive a binder; later in the day, he released a 45-minute long live broadcast on X denouncing people who’d criticized the release as “cunts” and “hyenas.”  

The MAGA right has long said that releasing new Epstein files, particularly his supposed “client list” detailing other celebrities who engaged in sex crimes against children alongside him, would be a priority under a new Trump administration.

But Julie K. Brown, a Miami Herald journalist who’s spent years breaking stories about Epstein’s crimes explained on Twitter/X before the White House’s event, there is no such definitive roster of names. “There is no Jeffrey Epstein client list,” she wrote. “Period. It’s a figment of the internet’s imagination—and a means to just slander people.”

Guessing Epstein’s clients has long been a crude parlor game, with MAGA figures suggesting or outright declaring specific liberal celebrities would be on the supposed client list. (Epstein’s “little black book,” an address book showing his many celebrity contacts, was first published by the now-defunct Gawker in 2015. In 2020, author and filmmaker Leland Nally called everyone in that book and wrote about the results for Mother Jones.) A widespread conspiracy theory holds that Epstein was murdered in jail in 2019 to prevent more names from becoming public; far more persuasive evidence shows that Epstein was frequently left unattended and died by suicide when unmonitored by guards. 

Many Trump supporters believed his return to the White House would bring more information about Epstein’s associates to light. “If Trump wins, that Epstein client list is gonna become public,” Elon Musk declared in a November conversation with Tucker Carlson. Those remarks were shared by Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok just after Trump won the election, who added, “Nobody in Hollywood is sleeping tonight.”

Trump, of course, knew Epstein himself, having crossed paths with him in New York social circles; in 2002, he told New York magazine, “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it—Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

Besides Cernovich, Kraus, and Wheeler, the people invited to the White House to get binders included Pizzagate promoter and Trump administration friend Jack Posobiec, MAGA activist and election conspiracy theorist Scott Presler, MAGA influencer Rogan O’Handley, better known by his online handle “DC Draino,” who said in a live broadcast that several powerful administration officials were present for the binder handoff, including Kennedy, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and CIA director John Ratcliffe. (In a 2023 appearance on Fox News, Kennedy Jr. said he twice flew on Epstein’s plane.)

In the end, though, the release was less an explosion and more of a long and strangled fart. As the influencers involved began to realize that what they’d been handed wasn’t new or newsworthy, they spun new explanations—and claimed they’d been surprised by photographers outside the White House, and hadn’t meant to do a photoshoot with the binders held aloft.

Wheeler offered the most detailed set of allegations, claiming that the binder was a dud due to misdeeds on the part of New York-based FBI agents. “A whistleblower contacted Bondi,” Wheeler tweeted, and “revealed that the SDNY was hiding potentially thousands of Epstein files, defying Bondi’s order to give them all to her. We’re talking recordings, evidence, etc. The juicy stuff. Names.” 

Other MAGA figures who weren’t given binders, like provocateur Laura Loomer, denounced the release in its entirety. “I hate to say it, but the American people can’t trust the validity of the Epstein files released today,” she tweeted. “It was released in an unprofessional manner with paid, partisan social media influencers to curate their binders for us. I can’t trust anything in the binder. Neither should you.”

“Stop messing with people,” tweeted another right-wing journalist, Breanna Morello, who wrote that she believed the binder recipients had been dragooned into being part of a PR stunt without being prepared. “Children were raped by these monsters and we just want justice.”

Bondi took steps to frame her actions on Thursday as first step in “President Trump’s commitment to transparency and lifting the veil on the disgusting actions of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators.”

“The first phase of files released today sheds light on Epstein’s extensive network,” she declared in a press release, “and begins to provide the public with long overdue accountability.” In an interview with Fox News last week, she explicitly promised an actual Epstein client list would be released soon, telling the outlet, “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review. That’s been a directive by President Trump.”

But in an open letter sent to FBI director Kash Patel on Thursday afternoon, she complained about lacking access, writing that despite being “repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents,” that late on Wednesday, she “learned from a source that the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein.”

“Despite my repeated requests, the FBI never disclosed the existence of these files. When you and I spoke yesterday, you were just as surprised as I was to learn this new information,” Bondi wrote, demanding that Patel’s office turn over these supposed other files no later than 8 a.m. on Friday.

“I am also directing you to conduct an immediate investigation into why my order to the FBI was not followed,” Bondi added. “You will deliver to me a comprehensive report of your findings and proposed personnel action within 14 days.” 

To date, the biggest “new” release of Epstein files came in 2023, not from the FBI or a presidential administration, but from the federal Bureau of Prisons. Those documents shed light on Epstein’s last days and the administrative and legal chaos that ensued after his suicide—although those files, too, were often duplicative, poorly organized, and heavily redacted.

In the end, the real Epstein scandal occurred long ago, when a wealthy financier preyed on women and girls, was given a 2008 sweetheart deal to avoid federal charges, and whose victims were never afforded the opportunity to face him in court. There is, of course, a chance that Bondi will succeed in shaking loose genuinely new documents. For now, though, the whole saga looks like little more than a distraction from the Trump administration’s ongoing dismantling of the federal government—and a bitter disappointment to the people who believed he’d keep at least this one promise.