THE EPSTEIN FALLOUT: The House is expected to vote today on a bill to order the Justice Department to release the full investigative files on the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. President Trump now says he supports the vote although he has the power to order release of the files on what he has called a “Democrat hoax.”

  Breaking at the same time, former Harvard President and Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said he is stepping back from public commitments in shame about his continuing communications with Epstein after the financier’s sex trafficking was publicly revealed.  Summers had sought donations for his wife’s poetry foundation but the electronic banter also contained romantic advice. 

  These are the kinds of people who will fall if and when the files are released. “I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused,” Mr. Summers said in a statement. “I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.”

  Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement, “If he had so little ability to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein even after all that was publicly known about Epstein’s sex offenses involving underage girls, then Summers cannot be trusted to advise our nation’s politicians, policymakers and institutions — or teach a generation of students at Harvard or anywhere else.”

  The 70-year-old Summers says he will continue to tech economics at Harvard, but we’ll see how long that lasts.

PEACE: In a major development, The UN Security Council has adopted the American plan for peace in Gaza. Russia and China abstained from the vote which provides a legal mandate for the Trump administration’s plan to move beyond the cease-fire to rebuild the ravaged Gaza strip after two years of war.

THE REGIME:

— President Trump announced that the US will sell advanced F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia despite warnings that the technology could then end up in the hands of China.

  “We will be doing that, we’ll be selling F-35s,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, explaining that the Saudis “want to buy them, they’ve been a great ally.”

  Trump’s announcement came the day before a visit by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in which the two are expected to discuss the purchase of 48 of the fighter jets. Even some Republicans object unless Saudi Arabia normalizes relations with Israel.

  Simultaneously, the Trump Organization is in discussions about building a Trump-branded property in one of Saudi Arabia’s largest government-owned real estate developments. Business and government are seamless with Trump.

— A federal magistrate judge in Virginia said there may have been misconduct by acting US Attorney Lindsey Halligan in bringing indictments against former FBI Director James Comey.

 Magistrate William Fitzpatrick wrote, “The court is finding that the government’s actions in this case — whether purposeful, reckless or negligent — raise genuine issues of misconduct, are inextricably linked to the government’s grand jury presentation and deserve to be fully explored by the defense.”

— A video posted online reveals  the attitude of US Border Commander Greg Bovino about nationalism and the law. Briefing about 20 of his officers Bovino says, “This is our fucking country! Somebody’s taping me? Continue to tape me. Nobody tells us where to go, when to go, how to go – in our fucking country!” 

  After descending upon Charlotte, Border Patrol agents are expected to begin operations in Raleigh , North Carolina today.

— President Trump defended the string of  US strikes on suspected drug vessels off South America claiming, “when we knock out a boat, we save 25,000 lives,” a statistic pulled out of thin air. The Defense Department has not said nor offered any proof of what kind of drugs the boats are carrying, but likely it’s cocaine, not fentanyl.

  Trump also said he has the authority to go after drug cartels on land — including in Mexico. “We know their address. We know their address. We know everything about every one of them,” he said, adding that he would “be proud” to go after them directly. 

— The President is condemning Indiana Republican State Sen. Rod Bray for opposing congressional redistricting in the state that would add Republican seats. Positing yet another conspiracy theory, Trump said; “This all began with the Rigged Census. We must keep the Majority at all costs. Republicans must fight back!”

THE SPIN RACK: The value of Bitcoin has lost all of its gains for the year, signaling turbulence for the cryptocurrency — The Cambridge Dictionary’s  word of the year for 2025, is  “parasocial,” which describes a connection that people feel with someone they don’t know – or even with an artificial intelligence bot. We’re wondering how “Word of the Year” could be a word no one’s ever heard before.

BELOW THE FOLD: Like Charlie the Tuna, Donald Trump believes he has good taste.

  The President is re-doing the White House to his gilded sense of beauty and recently revealed to Fox News host Laura Ingraham that he’s thinking about painting the historic and ornate Eisenhower Office Building, a French Second Empire treasure across the street from the White House.

  The building is gray granite and Trump told Ingraham, “Gray is for funerals.” Ironically, much of the interior matches Trump’s taste … the building has 553 ornately gilded rooms. 

  The President said he is getting estimates for painting the Eisenhower building a bright white. It would cost many millions and would then become a maintenance issue. “We’ll see. It’ll be a great addition to Washington,” Trump said.

  Just in case, a Washington preservation organization is already suing to stop Trump from touching the building. Greg Werkheiser, founding partner of Cultural Heritage Partners, said the proposed plans of a white Eisenhower building “looked like a giant marshmallow.” 

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