Donald Trump probably thought he had another week before he had to deal with Epstein again – now he’ll have to deal with a drip-drip release of photos for weeks
Donald Trump probably thought he had another week before he had to deal with Epstein again. The deadline for disclosure of the Justice Department’s Epstein files isn’t until next Friday. That’s a whole week where he was free to make the odd racist speech, be a Grinch about the cost of living, parade in front of the cameras wearing a cowboy hat. You know, President stuff. Unfortunately the House Oversight Committee had other ideas. The 19 new images from the Epstein files published last night were just the start of a drip-drip of images – some of them extremely unsettling – that could go on for the rest of the week, if not longer. As of last night, House Democrats said they’d only reviewed 25,000 of the 95,000 photos handed over to them by the Epstein estate. And sure they’ll have cherry picked some of the most interesting ones for that initial drop – but the ones they’ve held back sound like they could be even more damaging.
Meanwhile in Trumpworld
- Epstein files show people engaging in sexual acts
- Also Trump condoms and Trumpkins
- Trump takes the Fawlty Towers defence
- Venezuela land strikes on ‘horrible people’
- Also, he put on a cowboy hat
Here’s everything you need to know
1. Epstein files show people engaging in sexual acts
The latest trove of Jeffrey Epstein’s photos shows “people engaged in sexual acts”, a US congressman said last night. Virginia Democrat Suhas Subramanyam said the cache of 95,000 photos, found in the home of America’s most notorious paedophile, said there were “a lot of people involved in some of these acts.”
Asked if there were men other than Epstein taking part in the acts, he said Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, of which he is a member, were “going through that.”
“The last time when there was a big production [of photos], what we tried to do was release all the files eventually,” he said. “We’re trying to be selective about what we release now. And so in this case, we’re not really quite sure yet who is who.” Donald Trump appears in three of the photos released last night – which does not imply any knowledge of or involvement in wrongdoing.
Trump is seen with his shirt partially unbuttoned, posing with his arm around five unidentified women. The black and white photo appears to have been taken at a party or event, and all of the garland-wearing women’s faces were blacked out.
House Democrats did not say who the women were, when the photo was taken or why their identities had been obscured. But newspapers in the US have claimed the women were promotional models for the Hawaiian Tropic brand of sun cream. A second newly released photo shows Trump on a private jet alongside a blonde-haired woman, whose identity is also obscured. The interior of the jet matches the Gulfstream G550 Epstein that was among the aircraft used by Epstein.
Pilot records show Trump as a passenger on multiple flights aboard jets owned by Epstein in the 1990s. But Trump claimed on his Truth Social website last January (2024): “I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island.”
2. ‘I know nothing’
Trump dismissed being pictured Epstein’s photos released last night, saying it was “no big deal”.
“I haven’t seen them,” he said. “But I mean everybody knew this man. He was all over Palm Beach, he had photos with everybody. Almost, hundreds and hundreds of people are in photos with him. That’s no big deal. I know nothing about it.”
3. Trump condoms and Trumpkin
Elsewhere in the latest dump of Epstein’s photos are a couple of snaps he presumably took while out and about. One is of a bowlful of Trump branded condoms – on sale at a New York novelty shop. Another shows a “trumpkin” – a halloween pumpkin carved with Trump’s face and sporting a blonde bouffant.
Worth remembering that towards the end of his life, Epstein was not at all fond of Trump.
4. Trump sues states for refusing to hand over confidential voter data
Trump’s Justice Department is suing four more states as part of its effort to collect detailed voting data and other election information across the country.
The department filed federal lawsuits against Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Nevada on Thursday for “failing to produce statewide voter registration lists upon request.” So far, 18 states have been sued, along with Fulton County in Georgia, which was sued for records related to the 2020 election. The administration claims the suits are part of an effort to ensure the security of elections, and that refusing to hand over voter information, and lists of ineligible voters, is a violation of federal law. Some of the data sought includes names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said her office declined to provide unredacted voter data.
“We will not hand over Coloradans’ sensitive voting information to Donald Trump. He does not have a legal right to the information,” Griswold said Thursday after the lawsuit was filed. “I will continue to protect our elections and democracy, and look forward to winning this case.”
Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, a Democrat, said the Justice Department hasn’t provided clear answers about how the data will be used, and he has a duty to follow state law and protect voters’ sensitive information and access to the ballot.
“While these requests may seem like normal oversight, the federal government is using its power to try to intimidate states and influence how states administer elections ahead of the 2026 cycle,” Aguilar said in a press release. “The Constitution makes it clear: elections are run by the states.”
5. Obamacare prices going up “not so bad”
Trump was asked for his message to the 24 million Americans who face skyrocketing Obamacare premiums within weeks, after his administration refused to reinstate government subsidies.
“Don’t make it sound so bad,” Trump told the reporter in the Oval Office. “Obviously you’re a sycophant for Democrats. You’re obviously a provider of bad news for Republicans.”
He went on to suggest that what he wanted to see was his plan to implement “health savings accounts” – tax free bank accounts where people can save money for medical expenses or payments to insurance companies – a plan critics say works fine for healthy people with plenty of spare cash, but extremely badly for poor people who are sick.
Either way, these accounts, at this time, do not exist. The infrastructure has not been put in place and the expiration date of the subsidies is a few weeks away. Good job people don’t tend to get sick in winter, eh?
6. Trump threatens land strikes on “horrible people” in Venezuela
Trump keeps threatening to escalate his DEFINITELY NOT A WAR against Venezuela, adding land-based targets to the alleged drug boats it has been targeting since September.
“It’s not only land strikes on Venezuela,” he said in the Oval last night. “It’s land strikes on horrible people that are bringing in drugs and killing our people.” He went on to say that if America was in a war (which they DEFINITELY are not), and if 300,000 people died in that war, “that’s a war that would be unparalleled.” Presumably he meant by that the number of drug deaths each year in the US. Except it’s nowhere near that high. Some 80,391 people died of drug overdoses last year – far too many, to be sure, but that represents a drop of 110,037 since 2023. The number of deaths related to fentanyl or other synthetic opioids dropped from 76,282 to 48,422 over the same year.
7. He indicated he’d like to see a sitting congresswoman stripped of her citizenship
Trump was willingly baited into going on yet another racist rant about people of Somali heritage.
Asked whether he’d like to see Ilhan Omar, who has been a US citizen for quarter of a century, stripped of her citizenship and deported, he said: “There is nothing worse than a person who comes in and does nothing but bitch and comes from a place where she shouldn’t be telling us what to do. And everybody agrees with me.”
Not everyone agrees with him, not least the 75.3% of voters in her district who returned her to congress for a fourth term last year.
8. He put on a cowboy hat
He was applauded for putting on a cowboy hat by a bunch of elderly hockey players.
Trump’s Oval Office event last night was nominally to honour the US 1980 Olympic Ice Hockey team, was given a replica of the hats they wore at the opening ceremony of that year’s games in Salt Lake City.
Trump, a New York City native who is only ever photographed dressed in a suit or in golf clothes, looked the hat over and put it on. He posed for the cameras and said, “You’ve gotta take a picture.”
He then made a joke referring to Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988, who was mocked for the way he looked when he put on a helmet for a ride in a tank while campaigning.
“That was not good,” Trump said.
9. Mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew has some choice words for Trump’s press secretary
Regular readers will recall the remarkable story that the mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew had been arrested and detained by ICE.
Since released, she went on CNN last night and was understandably critical of the Trump Administration’s policy of rounding people up and separating families.
And in a swipe at Trump’s press secretary, she said: “I think what I would have to say to Karoline is just because you went to a catholic school doesn’t make you a good catholic.”