President Trump has doubled down on his claims that the Epstein files were created by former FBI Director James Comey, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.
Last week, in a disappointing post, Trump downplayed the Epstein files and claimed Democrats created them.
Trump wrote, “For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again. Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration.”
Now he has repeated those claims while addressing reporters outside the White House.
The reporter asked Trump, “Did Bondi tell you your name appeared in the Epstein Files?”
He responded, “She’s giving us a very quick briefing, and in terms of the credibility of the different things they’ve seen.
“I would say, these files were made up by Comey, made up by Obama, and made up by Biden.”
Trump concluded that whatever Bondi thinks is credible, she should release them.
Biden.”
Trump concluded that whatever Bondi thinks is credible, she should release them.
ABC reported more on Trump’s comments on the Epstein files:
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Attorney General Pam Bondi should release “whatever she thinks is credible” on Jeffrey Epstein as he faces pressure from his MAGA supporters.
Trump, speaking to reporters as he left the White House, said he received a “very quick briefing” on the Justice Department and FBI review of the Epstein files. The briefing took place before the release of the DOJ and FBI memo last week.
The review found no evidence the deceased financier kept a “client list” of associates and no further charges are expected. The department also released hours of footage as part of its review, which officials say further confirmed Epstein died by suicide while in custody in his jail cell in Manhattan in 2019.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders asked the president what Bondi told him about the review, “specifically, did she tell you at all that your name appeared in the file?”
“No, no, she’s — she’s given us just a very quick briefing,” Trump responded before making baseless claims the files were created by some of his political foes.
“And in terms of the credibility of the different things that they’ve seen, and I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden — and you know, we and we went through years of that with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, with all of the different things that we had to go through,” Trump said.
“We’ve gone through years of it, but she’s handled it very well, and it’s going to be up to her,” Trump said of Bondi. “Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release.”
Here’s the moment he said it here:
JUST IN: President Trump doubles down and says the Epstein files are just “made up” by Comey and Obama, says AG Pam Bondi is handing it “very well.”
“These files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by Biden.“
What is in the Epstein documents that is causing Trump now to insist over and over that they’re all forged and fake documents fabricated by Comey, Obama, Hillary and Biden? https://t.co/TOFgUkx9qP
🚨 TRUMP: “I would say these (Epstein) Files were made up by Comey and made up by Obama, made up by the Biden info…” compares it to the “Russia Russia Russia Hoax.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “All In” that calls for a special counsel to investigate all the Jeffrey Epstein material were “just a diversionary tactic.”
Jeffries said, “At the end of the day the American people deserve to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth as it relates to this whole Jeffrey Epstein matter. Donald Trump and his MAGA extremist allies have fanned the flames of this conspiracy theory for years. So there’s only two options at this point, either Donald Trump, Pam Bondi and that whole crew have been lying to the American people over the last several years about what is actually in the Jeffrey Epstein files, or alternatively, Donald Trump, Pam Bondi and his allies in the Trump administration are hiding something from the American people right now. So we’re determined to get to the bottom of this on behalf of the American people who deserve transparency from their government.”
Host Chris Hayes said, “Reporter Annie Karni who was just on in the last block, said that the line from Republicans in the House today were talking about appointing a special counsel. I wonder if that’s something that you would support or other Democrats would support?”
Jeffries said, “Seems to me that a special counsel is just a diversionary tactic. If the files exist, produce them and produce them now to the American people.”
President Trump on Tuesday announced the United States reached a trade agreement with Indonesia.
“This morning I finalized an important Deal with the Republic of Indonesia after speaking with their Highly Respected President Prabowo Subianto. This landmark Deal opens up Indonesia’s ENTIRE MARKET to the United States for the first time in History,” Trump announced.
“Thank you to the People of Indonesia for your friendship and commitment to balancing our Trade Deficit. We will keep DELIVERING for the American People, and the People of Indonesia!” he added.
“This morning I finalized an important Deal with the Republic of Indonesia… Thank you to the People of Indonesia for your friendship and commitment to balancing our Trade Deficit. We will keep DELIVERING for the American People, and the People of Indonesia!” – President Trump pic.twitter.com/RSLscrBNKJ
President Donald Trump has ordered a formal investigation of his predecessor’s use of autopen signatures to sign a number of key documents throughout his tenure, including pardons. In total, the investigation is set to review more than one-million documents signed during the Biden presidency.
Officials familiar with the probe told Fox News that they already are reviewing tens of thousands of documents turned over by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The White House Counsel’s Office is taking the lead on the probe, while the Department of Justice is also assisting.
A senior administration official told the outlet that they are not yet able to discuss findings of the investigation, though NARA has confirmed that more than 27,000 records have already been turned over to investigators.
“Joe Biden was the worst, most incompetent, and senile president in our country’s history,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Tuesday. “It has been widely reported that Joe Biden handed the power of the presidency to an autopen controlled by unelected leftist staffers, who were allowed to make terrible decisions that destroyed our country.”
“The Trump White House is committed to finding the answers to the many outstanding questions the American people still have about how business in the Biden White House was conducted,” she said.
President Donald Trump has ordered a formal investigation of his predecessor’s use of autopen signatures to sign a number of key documents throughout his tenure, including pardons. In total, the investigation is set to review more than one-million documents signed during the Biden presidency.
Officials familiar with the probe told Fox News that they already are reviewing tens of thousands of documents turned over by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The White House Counsel’s Office is taking the lead on the probe, while the Department of Justice is also assisting.
A senior administration official told the outlet that they are not yet able to discuss findings of the investigation, though NARA has confirmed that more than 27,000 records have already been turned over to investigators.
“Joe Biden was the worst, most incompetent, and senile president in our country’s history,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Tuesday. “It has been widely reported that Joe Biden handed the power of the presidency to an autopen controlled by unelected leftist staffers, who were allowed to make terrible decisions that destroyed our country.”
“The Trump White House is committed to finding the answers to the many outstanding questions the American people still have about how business in the Biden White House was conducted,” she said.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of major layoffs at the Department of Education Monday. It’s a huge win for those who believe the department was a failure and in need of a huge reduction in size.
McMahon v. State of New York was a 6-3 decision, with the liberal justices dissenting. The case had been brought against Education Secretary Linda McMahon by a variety of lawsuits after she removed 1,400 employees from the Department of Education’s staff.
Specifically, the Supreme Court ruled that a lower-level federal court could not block the firing of Department of Education employees while the case was ongoing.
“Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies,” McMahon said in a statement.
President Donald Trump, who signed the executive order that led to the Department of Education layoffs, also celebrated the decision.
New reports have revealed that the U.S. Secret Service shut off all access to the North Lawn of the White House on Tuesday. Officials also ordered all members of the press to take shelter in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.
The lockdown was first reported by local media outlets, with posts on X revealing the actions of the Secret Service sometime around 11:00 a.m. A short time later, it was reported on social media that an “all clear” had been given.
According to the Dallas Express, another report emerged indicating that a tourist tossed an item over the White House fence, prompting the Secret Service’s response. However, the lack of official clarification on the matter has sparked speculation that a much more serious breach of security occurred.
Typically, when this sort of situation unfolds, the Secret Service will whisk protectees away to secure locations. One such place is the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. As of this report, no information has been released concerning the whereabouts of President Donald Trump at the time or the nature of the threat.
Later in the day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed in a statement that, “Somebody threw their phone over the fence.” No additional details were given concerning the lockdown.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced a “discharge petition” to force the full release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
A discharge petition in the House of Representatives is a mechanism for members to force a bill out of committee and onto the floor for a vote.
Discharge petitions may cover only a single introduced measure, not multiple bills.
It requires the signatures of a majority of the House (218 members).
“We all deserve to know what’s in the Epstein files, who’s implicated, and how deep this corruption goes. Americans were promised justice and transparency,” Massie said.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revealed in late March that it was downsizing its workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 employees as part of a broader overhaul intended to maximize efficiency, save taxpayers money, and help make America healthy again.
The agency sent notices of reduction in force to 10,000 employees. Another 10,000 workers apparently left voluntarily, accepting early retirement and buyout offers.
The threat of a proper housecleaning enraged Democrats and, of course, pink-slip recipients, who filed legal challenges. Democrat-appointed U.S. district judges proved more than willing to hold up the terminations, prompting the government to appeal and the Supreme Court to weigh in.
… The White House has launched an investigation into the Biden autopen scandal. The investigation is being led by the White House Counsel’s Office; however, they are coordinating with the Justice Department.
[S]enior administration officials telling Fox News Digital that they already are reviewing tens of thousands of documents turned over by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). [….]
A senior administration official told Fox News Digital that they are not yet ready to discuss any discoveries, but said NARA already has provided more than 27,000 records to the White House.
The White House is reviewing the communications and the procedures in place around the use of the autopen. But there’s a lot to go through.
… The White House has launched an investigation into the Biden autopen scandal. The investigation is being led by the White House Counsel’s Office; however, they are coordinating with the Justice Department.
[S]enior administration officials telling Fox News Digital that they already are reviewing tens of thousands of documents turned over by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). [….]
A senior administration official told Fox News Digital that they are not yet ready to discuss any discoveries, but said NARA already has provided more than 27,000 records to the White House.
The White House is reviewing the communications and the procedures in place around the use of the autopen. But there’s a lot to go through.
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday narrowly advanced key legislation making good on President Donald Trump’s promise to defund publicly funded media outlets like NPR, but not without overriding opposition from three Republicans who almost derailed the bill.
Conservatives focused their anger on the three holdouts who bucked their party, forcing Vice President J.D. Vance to cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of stripping PBS and NPR of taxpayer funds. It was the sixth time this year that Vance had to intervene to avoid a defeat in the Republican-controlled chamber.
The vote came as Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) works feverishly to shore up several of Trump’s agenda items before Congress breaks for its annual August recess.
The 51-50 vote saw Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who is up for reelection in 2026, break with her party over a bill that sought to claw back public funds from both media outlets. Still, she voted to advance the legislation to the floor for its final vote.
“The rescissions package has a big problem — nobody really knows what program reductions are in it,” Collins said in a prepared statement released after the procedural vote. “That isn’t because we haven’t had time to review the bill. Instead, the problem is that (the Office of Management and Budget) has never provided the details that would normally be part of this process.”
The past week finally blew the lid off the worst political corruption scandal of the 21st century. And if you’re not sure what I’m talking about, that means the criminal conspiracy behind it is already winning.
The revelations of the last seven days indicate that the coverup and exploitation of former President Joe Biden’s deteriorating health by his inner circle were more treacherous than first suspected. Moreover, we now know for sure that their conspiracy is still active.
Exhibit A: Last Wednesday, Joe Biden’s White House Physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, finally appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after months of delays. He was subpoenaed as part of the committee’s investigation into the former president’s mental incapacity.
As the president’s official physician, O’Connor would have been consulted — and probably conducted neurological assessments on his patient — as soon as Biden started falling down in public in early 2021. He may have also tested and treated him for prostate cancer. O’Connor knows better than anyone when, how quickly, and how badly the president fell into cognitive and physical decline.
“Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding,” U.S. Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said Tuesday. “As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th IBCT) from the federal protection mission.”
In June, President Trump mobilized about 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 Marines to deal with the violent response to the administration’s immigration enforcement operations around Los Angeles.
LA Mayor Karen Bass falsely claimed the “retreat” was in response to Democratic pushback.
“This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court — all of this led to today’s retreat,” she said in a statement. “We will not stop making our voices heard until this ends, not just here in LA, but throughout our country.”
This retreat happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong.
My message today to Angelenos is clear — I will never stop fighting for this city. We will not stop making our voices heard until this ends, not just here in LA, but throughout our country. https://t.co/4kHMuZcsRQ
Absolute horse crap. The “retreat” happened because the administration considered the current operation a success and decided it was time to scale back. This had NOTHING to do with anything sorry a** Dems in CA did. Nothing. pic.twitter.com/LDAwi3a6AR
President Trump released a statement on Wednesday morning, labeling the Epstrin files the Democrats’ “new SCAM” and condemning his own supporters for talking about the Epstein case.
“My PAST supporters have bought into this “bullshit,” hook, line, and sinker,” Trump said. “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!”
“I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country’s history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax,” Trump added.
He also doubled down on his comparison of the Epstein files to the Steele Dossier, the Hunter Biden laptop, and Russiahoax, saying “these Scams and Hoaxes are all the Democrats are good at – It’s all they have – They are no good at governing, no good at policy, and no good at picking winning candidates.”
Full statement below:
The Radical Left Democrats have hit pay dirt, again! Just like with the FAKE and fully discredited Steel Dossier, the lying 51 “Intelligence” Agents, the Laptop from Hell, which the Dems swore had come from Russia (No, it came from Hunter Biden’s bathroom!), and even the Russia, Russia, Russia Scam itself, a totally fake and made up story used in order to hide Crooked Hillary Clinton’s big loss in the 2016 Presidential Election, these Scams and Hoaxes are all the Democrats are good at – It’s all they have – They are no good at governing, no good at policy, and no good at picking winning candidates. Also, unlike Republicans, they stick together like glue.
Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this “bullshit,” hook, line, and sinker. They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years. I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country’s history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.
Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore! Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
19-year-old Zayn Arcand, who describes himself as “he/they xe/she” and “demi boy, pansexual, emo artist and (high functioning) autistic,” has been arrested in his hometown of Iron Mountain, Michigan, after he was reportedly captured on a surveillance video attempting to throw a Molotov cocktail into a building where the local Dickinson Republican Party Committee has an office. Arcand goes by “Atomic Havoc” on social media.
Arcand was charged with manufacturing and possessing an explosive and arson by the Iron Mountain Police Department. According to the press release, on Saturday, around 3:55 pm (in broad daylight), Arcand was captured on surveillance video using a Molotov cocktail in an attempt to burn down the building containing the Dickinson County Republican Committee’s office.
Earlier today, Jeff Solka, Director of Police and Fire Services, released a statement to explain:
On Saturday, July 12, 2025, at approximately 3:55 p.m., the Iron Mountain Police Department received a report of a suspicious person in the area of 617 North Stephenson Avenue, the location of the Dickinson County Republican Committee Headquarters.
The caller observed the individual attempting to light a rag sticking out of a glass bottle, then throwing the unlit bottle at
the building.
Officers reviewed footage from surveillance cameras in the area, Officers were able to see the subject on video, attempting to light a rag sticking out of a glass bottle containing liquid. The subject did not get the rag to light and threw the glass bottle at the window, causing the bottle to shatter. A second broken glass bottle was located in the parking lot. This bottle contained an unknown liquid and had a rag sticking out of the top.
Officers were able to identify the suspect in the videos and located him at his home. Upon speaking with the suspect, he admitted to making the bottles in his driveway and he threw the bottle at the building, to send a message against the corruption. The suspect was hoping what he made was flammable and would ignite.
The suspect, a 19-year-old male from Iron Mountain, was arrested and booked into the Dickinson County Jail. His identity will be released following his arraignment on the following charges:
• Explosives – Manufacture/possession of a Molotov cocktail/explosive or incendiary
device causing property damage (MCL 750.211a)
• Arson – Preparation to burn property MCL 750.79(d)(i)
There’s a striking detail buried in the latest New York Times report on the unfolding autopen pardon scandal: the Biden officials now under scrutiny for signing off on controversial presidential pardons are being represented by some of the top law firms in Washington — at no cost in some cases.
According to the Times, a “flight of white-shoe lawyers” from firms like Latham & Watkins, Cooley and Steptoe, and Covington & Burling have swooped in to shield Biden’s inner circle, with some of the work being done pro bono.
What began as a legal curiosity has ballooned into a serious constitutional scandal that implicates some of the most powerful names in Democratic politics. At the heart of it lies a simple but damning question: Did President Biden personally approve a sweeping series of controversial pardons — such as that of Anthony Fauci — or were unelected aides quietly signing off in his name after he was no longer mentally competent to do so?
On June 4, President Trump issued a memorandum directing the Department of Justice to investigate “whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President.” The memo specifically raises the possibility that Biden’s aides “secretly used the mechanical signature pen to conceal this incapacity, while taking radical executive actions all in his name.”
President Donald Trump told a room full of Republican lawmakers that he will fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, after they signaled support for the move, a senior White House official told CNBC.
Amid repeated denials from administration officials and high-ranking Republicans, the exchange came Tuesday evening in the Oval Office, following Republicans blocking a vote on cryptocurrency legislation that Trump has favored.
“The President asked lawmakers how they felt about firing the Fed Chair. They expressed approval for firing him. The President indicated he likely will soon,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly on the issue.
Trump, however, indicated at a White House press event that a move is not imminent.
“We’re not planning on doing it,” he said. “I don’t rule out anything. It’s highly unlikely. … There could be something to that.”
Separately, the New York Times reported that Trump has gone so far to draft a letter for firing Powell and showed it to lawmakers during that meeting.
Though endlessly critical of his predecessor, President Trump has adopted a Ukraine strategy similar to that of former President Joe Biden: Arm the Ukrainians to the teeth and threaten Russian President Vladimir Putin with even more sanctions if he does not agree to a peace deal.
Some of Trump’s closest domestic allies are already warning that the “expanded American role in the Ukraine War” will be “quite shocking” to the America First voters who returned him to the Oval Office.
But the same president who vowed to end the war in 24 hours has lost patience with Putin after six months. “He’s fooled a lot of people,” Trump said of the Russian leader. “He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden. He didn’t fool me.” Seated in the Oval Office next to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the president offered a glimpse into the negotiation process and his seemingly shifting mood on the war.
“I felt we had a deal about four times,” Trump admitted. “But it just kept going on and on.”
So Trump will sell weapons to NATO to supply Ukraine, and if Russia does not yield in 50 days, Trump promises another 100% tariff on all Russian goods.
New Hampshire state Rep. James Thibault, a Republican, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FBI July 14, seeking records related to a Biden-era memorandum that targeted traditional Catholic communities.
The request focuses on a 2023 memo from the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, field office that flagged “radical traditionalist” Catholics as potentially linked to violent extremist groups. The memo implied that the FBI had infiltrated and spied on Catholic groups.
In a July 14 press release emailed to CatholicVote, Thibault called the memo “a systemic pattern of religious discrimination that must be exposed and stopped.”
“The First Amendment of the US Constitution and Part I, Article 5 of our state constitution protect every citizen’s right to worship God unimpeded by the government,” Thibault said, “so to think that federal intelligence may be infiltrating our churches and targeting our citizens for their worship is especially concerning to me.”
Twenty Palestinians were killed Wednesday in the crush of a crowd at a food distribution site run by an Israeli-backed American organization in the Gaza Strip, the group said, the first time it has acknowledged deadly violence at its operations. The deaths came as Israeli strikes killed 41 others, including 11 children, according to hospital officials.
The Gaza Humanitarian Fund accused the Hamas militant group of fomenting panic and spreading misinformation that led to the violence, though it provided no evidence to support the claim.
It said 19 people were trampled in a stampede and one person was fatally stabbed at a hub in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Gaza’s Health Ministry and witnesses said GHF workers used tear gas against the crowd, inciting a panic. The ministry said that it was the first time people have been killed by a stampede at the aid sites.
It was also the first time that GHF has confirmed deaths at one of its distribution sites, although Palestinian witnesses, health officials and U.N. agencies say hundreds of people have been killed while heading to the hubs to get food.
Russia’s economy is facing fresh turmoil as its once-buoyant property market plunges into crisis, with sales of new apartments collapsing by nearly 39% over the past year, according to new government data. From July 2024 to June 2025, just 458,727 apartments were sold across the country, representing a staggering 38.7% drop in the number of transactions compared to the previous 12 months.
The total area of property sold fell by 37.2%, down to 21.9 million square metres, according to a report by the state-owned housing firm Dom.RF. The figures are echoed by real estate platform Cian, which recorded a 39% decline in property deals year-on-year, down to 477,000 units.
The dramatic decline has been linked to the abolition of Russia’s preferential mortgage program on July 1, 2024.
On Monday night’s episode of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, viewers were treated to a familiar ritual in left-wing media: the exploitation of tragedy to advance a partisan agenda. This time, the devastating floods in Texas served not as a moment of national unity, but as a launchpad for attacking political opponents with science as the supposed casualty.
Maddow’s conversation with meteorologist Eric Holthaus was less an interview and more a political indictment dressed up as weather commentary. Holthaus, a frequent contributor to progressive publications like The Guardian, wasted no time blaming the Trump administration for climate-related disasters, claiming it had “systematically undercut science.”
Missing from the conversation? Any acknowledgment that disaster preparedness and environmental policy were shared responsibilities across local, state, and federal levels, something that the large state of Texas had often struggled to meet.
Maddow’s leading question was a perfect example of that (click “expand” to read):
MADDOW: The rescue and recovery operations in Texas are still underway. It is heartbreaking. It’s also, I think, increasingly infuriating that we’re in this situation. Is it fair to say that we are taking action as a country to basically lessen our readiness, to lessen our ability to protect people and warn people in the face of this kind of disaster?
HOLTHAUS: Yeah. I mean, unfortunately that’s exactly right. I think that what the Trump administration has been doing is systematically undercutting science. I mean, let’s take a step back. Here we are in the middle of the most severe problem our species has ever faced in climate change. And that problem is accelerating. Emissions are accelerating, and this administration has really decided to just say, “nope, we’re not going to pay attention to that and we’ll hope that everyone can, you know, fend for themselves.” And it’s really, really infuriating as someone who’s been covering this beat for 20 years now. I have little kids, you know, like I wake up at night and am just worried for, you know, when’s– where’s the next flood going to be? We haven’t entered hurricane season yet and it’s just it’s going to be bad and it’s heartbreaking.
Kristi Noem’s appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this Sunday was a textbook example of how to dismantle media bias with poise and facts. Faced with a predictably hostile Kristen Welker, Noem didn’t just hold her ground—she flipped the script. In a setting designed to put Trump administration officials on the defensive, Noem calmly exposed the hollowness of NBC’s narrative and reminded viewers what real leadership looks like under pressure.
The interview focused on the Trump administration’s rapid response to the devastating Texas floods and recent high-profile immigration enforcement actions. True to form, NBC leaned on anonymous sources to push a tired smear—this time suggesting Noem had personally delayed FEMA aid by requiring her approval for contracts over $100,000. But Noem dismantled that narrative without breaking a sweat.
“Those claims are absolutely false,” she said. “Within just an hour or two after the flooding, we had resources from Homeland Security on the ground. The Coast Guard was deployed immediately and rescued countless Texans. Border Patrol tactical teams were there. FEMA arrived within hours. Call centers were fully staffed. This was the fastest FEMA deployment in years—maybe decades.”
“Within just an hour or two after the flooding, we had resources from @DHSgov there helping those individuals in Texas,” says @Sec_Noem.
“This is the fastest, I believe, in years, maybe decades, that FEMA has been deployed to help individuals in this type of a situation.” pic.twitter.com/H97L2QdzRW
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 13, 2025
One year ago Sunday, presidential candidate Donald Trump turned his head to point to a graphic at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Milliseconds later, gunshots — or, if you’re MSNBC, “popping noises” — rang out. Trump recoiled and was immediately buried by a pile of Secret Service agents.
For 59 seconds, Americans watching the livestreamed rally wondered if the former president was hurt or even alive. Screams from rallygoers punctuated the televised audio feed; as we would later learn, three attendees had been shot. A beloved wife and daughter were realizing that Corey Comperatore, a firefighter from Buffalo Township, had been fatally shot while shielding them from the gunfire.
You know what happened next. Despite the best efforts of the Secret Service, Trump stood up and pumped his fist, shouting “Fight! Fight! Fight!” It was immediately clear the image of the bloodied, defiant president would be the single most iconic moment of his political career.
Within hours, Trump would arrive at the Republican National Convention, where his announcement of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate would cement the tone of the third Trump campaign. This was no compromising choice designed to appease the old guard of the Republican Party; Trump was all in.
Propaganda and psychological manipulation to push more government control always depend upon how people react without reason as crisis events are presented devoid of historic context. Most people’s historic perspective begins when they were born, so recent events loom large in their memories as things never being worse. While past events are unknown, they aren’t perceived as significant or softened by time. This explains why this works with younger people and less and less those with the wisdom of age — those who have seen it all before.
Thus, when the national socialist media reports on what are regularly occurring weather events, or crime, fear is instilled, and people ripe for leftist authoritarian manipulation call for even more government control.
Just a little historical perspective of the hype of past weather events easily destroys this almost subliminal manipulation, because the fear of global cooling, global warming, or climate change is built upon ignorance of the past. So, we’re going to counteract the effect with a little bit of research of the recent past — the last 100 years or so — and report on the way these were headlined back then, see if these sound vaguely familiar.
Since it’s summer and the weather gets seasonally hot this time of year, you can be sure to see sensational, front page headlines designed for an emotional response such as the following from the New York Times:
This week, Townhall covered how a pediatrician was fired after she posted a comment on social media claiming that supporters of President Donald Trump who died in the Texas floods got “what they voted for.”
Dr. Christina B. Propst, a Houston-based doctor, wrote on Facebook, “May all visitors, children, non-MAGA voters and pets be safe and dry.”
“Kerr County MAGA voted to gut FEMA. They deny climate change. May they get what they voted for. Bless their hearts,” she added.
To be clear: this is a doctor who works with children. There are many children who died in these floods after they were swept away in their cabins at a Christian summer camp. Many others are unaccounted for.
Now, Propst said she is taking “full responsibility” for what she said. Sort of.
In a statement shared by KPRC, Propst claimed that she made the comment “before we knew that so many precious lives were lost to the terrible tragedy in Central Texas.”
“I understand my comment caused immense pain to those suffering indescribable grief and for that I am truly sorry. I would like to make clear that my regrettable comment was in no way a response to the tragic loss of human life. But the words written were mine and regardless of how they are being presented, that is a fact that I deeply regret,” she continued, before attacking how her comment was construed.
