By midnight tonight, the Trump administration has to release the Epstein Files, with minimal redactions. If it doesn’t it will be breaking the law. Of course, they aren’t going to, and there will almost certainly be no consequences for breaking the law
Tick tock, Donald. By midnight tonight, the Trump administration has to release the Epstein Files, with minimal redactions. If it doesn’t it will be breaking the law. Of course, they aren’t going to. And they don’t really care about breaking the law – if they did, they wouldn’t have broken it already today by renaming the Kennedy Centre. And if past is prologue, there will be precious little consequence for either. For more on these and more wild stories from 24 hours in Trumpworld, read on.
1. He slapped his name on another thing
Donald Trump, as we all recall, has a favourite hobby. And that hobby is taking things that someone else made and slapping his own name on them. He’s done it with countless items over the years, including vodka, bottled water, frozen steaks, gaudy sneakers, gumball-looking watches, rickety buildings, his autobiography and the Gaza peace deal.
And now, not satisfied with naming the ballroom replacing the East Wing after himself, and the Institute of Peace in Washington DC, he’s even stealing naming rights away from JFK.
The Kennedy Centre was named for slain American icon, widely beloved president John F Kennedy. In fact, its official name is the John F Kennedy Memorial Centre for the Performing Arts.
So obviously, Karoline Leavitt announced last night, that the venue would be renamed the Donald J Trump John F Kennedy Memorial Centre for the Performing Arts, following a “unanimous” “vote” of the board.
A day later new signage has already put up reflecting the ridiculous new name, which rather suggests the “vote” of the “board”, which Trump has stuffed with MAGA people, was something of a formality.
“Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump,” she wrote, adding: “and likewise, congratulations to President Kennedy, because this will be a truly great team long into the future!”
As if there was nothing at all weird about congratulating a person who has been dead for 60 years on his legacy being diluted.
While the “vote” of the “board” was “unanimous”, several ex officio members – who do not have voting rights – denounced the move, and one, Democrat congresswoman Joyce Beatty, said she tried to speak during the virtual board meeting and found that she had been muted.
There’s also the small matter of it being totally illegal. The Kennedy Centre was named in an act of law, meaning congress has to consent to it being changed. They have given no such consent. So in changing the name on the building, Trump is breaking the law.
On our next trip to Washington we look forward to visiting the Trump Smithsonian museums, the Trump Washington Monument and the Trump Lincoln Memorial.
2. They’re about to break the Epstein law
The Justice department says it plans to release “several hundred thousand” of the Epstein files in a few hours time, as we reach the legal deadline for disclosure under the Epstein Transparency Act, which Trump signed last week.
But what they’re not going to do is release all the files, which they’re required to do under the law. A DoJ official said they would only release a partial tranche by the deadline, with “several hundred thousand more” to follow in the “next couple of weeks”
Congress Democrats are understandably displeased with this turn of events.
Reps. Robert Garcia of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland said in a joint statement that Trump and the Justice Department “are now violating federal law.”
Congress passed and Trump signed a law that requires the Justice Department to publish “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in DOJ’s possession that relate to the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein” with a deadline by midnight tonight.
3. In case you missed it, Trump did some writing about his predecessors
We glossed over this yesterday, while we were busy combing through the 50 lies he told in his address to the nation – but you should really have a read of the plaques Trump has added to the “Presidential Walk of Fame”. It’s the series of portraits of former presidents Trump had hung on a portico wall on the outside of the White House. It’s as tacky and gaudy as you’d expect, and Joe Biden’s portrait is a photo of an autopen.
But absolutely nobody expected him to add plaques to each picture where he – apparently himself – gave reviews of former presidencies, slagging off the ones he hated, and inserting himself into the successes of the ones he liked.
They also include a series of lies about some presidents, including claims that Biden had “the highest inflation ever recorded”, and that he took office “as a result of the most corrupt election ever seen in the US.”
He also refers to Biden as “Sleepy” and “Crooked” in the plaques, paid for with taxpayer dollars.
He refers to “Barack Hussain Obama” as “”one of the most divisive political figures in American history.”
And under Bill Clinton’s photo it reads: “”In 2016, president Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton, lost the presidency to President Donald J Trump!”
4. Trump blames unemployment increase on the number of government workers he fired
Trump blamed a horrifying increase in unemployment on the vast number of government workers he fired.
In a post on his social media network he wrote that the unemployment rate ticked up because “because we are reducing the Government Workforce by numbers that have never been seen before.”
The Labor Department reported this week that federal government job losses did play a role, but losses in the transportation and warehousing sectors did as well.
Trump in his post got the unemployment rate wrong: It rose last month to 4.6%, the highest since 2021. Trump in post said that it was 4.5%.
Trump said he could lower the unemployment rate to 2% “overnight by just hiring people into the Federal Government, even though those Jobs are not necessary.”
5. A random YouTuber’s live stream was broadcast on the White House website
The White House says it’s looking into how a YouTube creator’s livestream appeared to take over a White House website.
The livestream sharing commentary on investing appeared for at least eight minutes late Thursday on whitehouse.gov/live, where the White House usually streams live video of the president speaking.
It’s unclear if the White House website was hacked or if the video was linked accidentally by someone in the government.
Matt Farley, who posts as @RealMattMoney, says he has no idea what happened.
“If I had known my stream was going to go super public like that I would be dressed a bit nicer and had a few more pointed topics! And it likely wouldn’t have been about personal finance,” Farley wrote.