TRADE TRUCE: The Trump administration and the European Union have reached a deal that appears to divert a trade war between the US and the 27-nation economic bloc that is this country’s biggest source of imports.

  The deal sets a 15 percent tariff on most EU goods, including cars. The two sides also agreed to drop tariffs to zero on a range of goods, including aircraft, plane parts, certain chemicals, certain generic drugs, semiconductor equipment and some agricultural products.

  President Trump went to play golf at two of his clubs in Scotland over the weekend but called it a “working visit” because he was meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen.

  The President was met with protesters upon his arrival and the “wood” on the Scottish tabloid The National said, “CONVICTED US FELON TO ARRIVE IN SCOTLAND.”

    The Daily Record, Scotland’s biggest newspaper, described Trump in an editorial as  a “menace who has caused chaos at home and abroad.” 

  Trump implied that his global 50 percent tariff on steel and aluminum globally may remain for some products, saying it’s a “worldwide thing that stays the way it is.”  The 15 percent tariff applies to pharmaceuticals, an important export for the EU and equally important for the US. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU’s executive branch, said there could be further movement on pharmaceutical tariffs.

EPSTEIN AFFAIRS: Still looking to divert press attention from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking affair, President Trump posted on his Truth Social claims that Democratic political campaigns made illegal payments to celebrities for their election endorsement.

  “Eleven Million Dollars to singer Beyoncé for an ENDORSEMENT (she never sang, not one note, and left the stage to a booing and angry audience!),” he wrote. “Three Million Dollars for “expenses,” to Oprah, Six Hundred Thousand Dollars to very low rated TV “anchor,” Al Sharpton (a total lightweight!), and others to be named for doing, absolutely NOTHING!”

  There’s no record, for instance, of an $11 million payment to Beyoncé. CNN checked and found that her production company was paid $165,000 to cover the costs of her appearance, which is legal. 

  “Kamala, and all of those that received Endorsement money, BROKE THE LAW,” Trump wrote in his capital letters. “They should all be prosecuted! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”  

REGIME NEWS:

— Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was told by The White House to stop using lie detector tests to smoke out Pentagon employees who leak information to the press, The Washington Post reported. The order came after senior official and administration loyalist complained.

— The cost of refurbishing the Boeing jet donated by Qatar for use as a new Air Force One is being buried in a “black budget” … classified and secret … The NY Times reports. President Trump wants the plane in service before he leaves office.

THE RUMOR MILL: Sports blabbermouth Pat McAfee has apologized to a 19-year-old Ole Miss college student for amplifying a rumor that she’d had sex with her boyfriend’s father. Mary Kate Cornett said her phone number was posted online, that she received degrading voicemails, and that someone created a cryptocurrency meme coin in her name. She moved out of her dormitory and took her classes online.

  McAfee and his circle of bro’s chatted about it on his ESPN show and the story … a lie … was picked up by other members of the uninformed chattering classes. This is life in an online world in which truth is less important than filling the air with words.

  “The matter was settled to each party’s satisfaction,” Justin Cornett, Mary Kate’s father, told The Athletic.

THE OBIT PAGE: Harvard-educated university mathematics professor Tom Lehrer, whose fame was in a brief career as a satirical lyricist, has died at age 97 in Cambridge at age 97.

  Lehrer was a hit in the 1950s and 60s with songs about such things as World War III and the Catholic church. Some samples:

— So Long Mom:

  “So long mom, I’m off to drop the bomb, so don’t wait up for me.”

— National Brotherhood Week:

  “Oh, the white folks hate the black folks, And the black folks hate the white folks. To hate all but the right folks is an old established rule. But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week, Lena Horne and Sheriff Clarke are dancing cheek to cheek. 

— Send the Marines:

  “When someone makes a move of which we don’t approve, who is it that always intervenes? UN and OAS they have their place, I guess, but first – send the Marines.”

  But Lehrer’s first love was academia. He taught at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, and even had a stint with the Atomic Energy Commission. He was a graduate of the Loomis School in Windsor, Connecticut, which has many brilliant and sometimes sardonic alumni.

THE SPIN RACK:  A 42-tear-old Michigan man faces 11 counts of attempted murder and terrorism charges following a knife attack at a Walmart store near Traverse City yesterday. He was apprehended by citizens, including one with a gun. — Police in Arkansas are searching for a man who killed a husband and wife who had been hiking with their two young daughters in Devil’s Den State Park in the Ozarks. The children were not hurt. — Thailand and Cambodia agreed to a cease-fire in border fighting that has killed 36 people and prompted hundreds of thousands of civilians to evacuate. President Trump took credit. — Pet shelters are reporting a dramatic increase in animals being surrendered to their hands because the cost of owning a pet has risen so much. 

BELOW THE FOLD:  Hotel rooms are short of supply in the Brazilian city of Belém for the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference in November. The overflow reservations are going to “love” hotels with leopard print walls, mirrored ceilings, and stripper poles in the rooms.

-30-