JUST TALKING:  Before flying off to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis, President Trump suggested that he’s been talking to China’s Xi Xinping about his tariffs that have roiled the world economy. Trump said, “I spoke to him numerous times,” dodging the question of whether he is actively talking to Xi about tariffs and trade. 

  Using Trump’s own label, Chinese representatives called his claims that they are talking “fake news.” What you have here is two world leaders and governments that who have no credibility … you can’t believe a word they say. But we’re leaning toward believing China on this one.

  Regarding talks about settling the Ukraine war, Trump said, “I think Russia and Ukraine, I think they’re coming along, we hope, very fragile,” although Russia is still attacking and Ukraine says it will not give up conquered territory as part of a peace deal. Trump’s remarks came just days after Vice President JD Vance said a peace agreement needs to be settled within days or the US is walking away.

  Trump made everything sound great, even nuclear talks with Iran. But he left himself an out because it is never his fault when things don’t go well. He said; “None of this should have happened, this should have been taken place by Biden, it should have been fixed by Biden, but he couldn’t do it. Nor could he come close to doing it.”

THERE GOES THE JUDGE: FBI agents yesterday arrested a Milwaukee judge on the charge that she had spirited out of her courtroom an undocumented immigrant while federal agents were waiting outside to arrest him. The Trump administration has been battling the courts about deportation, but this is the first time they’ve gone after a sitting judge.

  Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Fox News, “Some of these judges think they’re above the law. They are not.”

  The Mexican man in question, Eduardo Flores- Ruiz, had appeared before judge Hannah Dugan on a domestic violence complaint. Informed that agents were waiting in the hall to make an arrest, Dugan took Flores-Ruiz through a jury door into an area where they could not get him.

  Flores-Ruiz was later seen in the public areas and arrested outside the courthouse. Dugan is charged with obstructing immigration agents. 

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

— In a poll conducted by The NY Times/Siena College, responders rated the following words for description of Donald Trump’s presidency.

• “Chaotic,” 66 percent
• “Scary,” 59 percent
• “Exciting,” 42 percent 

  The poll also has Trump’s overall approval rating at 42 percent.

— Speaking of “scary,” Attorney General Pam Bondi Attorney said that federal authorities may pursue the phone records of reporters and compel their testimony in investigations of leaks of “classified, privileged and other sensitive information” from government officials. It’s a rescinding of Biden-era protections for journalists by an administration that doesn’t like the press.

  Bondi wrote in her memo that the Justice Department “will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies, victimize government agencies, and cause harm to the American people.”

– The Trump administration yesterday moved unexpectedly to restore visas and the ability to study in the US for as many as 1500 international students. But immigration officials said they would still try to terminate that legal status despite a wave of legal challenges.

— The revered New England Journal of Medicine and at least three other medical journals received letters from a federal prosecutor questioning whether they may be biased against certain views and influenced by external pressures. Dr. Eric Rubin, the editor of NEJM, told the NY Times the letter was “vaguely threatening.” 

  The letters from Edward Martin Jr., a Republican activist serving as interim US attorney in Washington, accused the publications of being “partisans in various scientific debates,” according to the Times.

  Martin asked such questions as do they accept submissions from scientists with “competing viewpoints”? and whether they are transparent about influence from “supporters, funders, advertisers and others”? 

  It’s unknown whether Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is behind this. Kennedy had once in an interview threatened medical journals saying, “I’m going to find a way to sue you unless you come up with a plan right now to show how you’re going to start publishing real science.”

 — Fired staff members from USAID, the dismantled foreign aid agency, have been told that they can keep their government issued electronic devices including iPhones, iPads, and laptops that would “be remotely wiped and marked as disposed.” 

THE OBIT PAGE: Virginia Giuffre, a central figure in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case who said that as a teenager she had been “passed around like a platter of fruit” to rich and powerful predators, including Britain’s Prince Andrew, died by suicide at her farm in western Australia. She was 41.

  Giuffre had sued Epstein, accusing him and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell of recruiting her to join his sex-trafficking ring. She also won money from Prince Andrew. Epstein hanged himself in jail and Andrew has been sidelined from the royal family.

  Giuffre had three children and was separated from her husband. She told the Miami Herald that when she met Epstein and Maxwell they seemed like nice people and;  “I’d been a runaway, I’d been sexually abused, physically abused. That was the worst thing I could have told them, because now they knew how vulnerable I was.”

THE SPIN RACK:  Former New York Rep. George Santos served just one year in Congress but yesterday he was sentenced to spend seven years and three months in federal prison for corruption while in office. Santos, who spun fiction about his life while running for Congress, was sobbing during the proceeding. — Cornell University dropped a performance by the popular R&B singer Kehlani because she has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza.

BELOW THE FOLD:  The Trump Organization is selling red baseball caps that say, “Trump 2028.”  

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