There are secret Epstein meetings happening, Trump might be about to make Washington into his own personal fiefdom and a new poll reveals exactly how unpopular he and his team are
Donald Trump did his best Michael Scott impression yesterday, swanning about on the roof of the White House and accidentally making a particularly unfortunate gesture with his arm.
But that was just the start of a particularly newsy day in Washington DC.
RFK has been waging war against vaccine manufacturers and researchers again – but remember, that doesn’t make him an Anti-vaxxer.
And there’s a secret meeting happening today at JD Vance’s house to discuss what they’re going to do about the Epstein files…
Meanwhile, there’s a mysterious announcement coming later, Trump is mulling the idea of making Washington DC into his own personal fiefdom and we learn exactly how unpopular he and his team are.
Get your favourite snack or drink and get comfy. Here’s what you need to know.
READ MORE: Donald Trump makes bizarre arm gesture after saying he’ll put nukes on White House roofREAD MORE: UK’s ex-Ambassador trashes Donald Trump in public roasting after being forced to quit
1. Trump says he wants nukes on the roof – and does an unfortunate arm gesture…
Yesterday morning people noticed some commotion on the White House roof.
They looked up and there he was, Donald Trump, wandering the tiles with a few protection officers and a handful of hangers-on, surveying the parts of the building he might want to irrevocably alter in his plan to ‘renovate’ the most iconic building on earth.
Reporters shouted up at the President, asking what he was doing up there, and what he wanted to build next. And it was then that two very odd things happened.
First, he shouted “Missiles. Nuclear missiles” at the gathered reporters on the ground.
He then did a mime, which was presumably meant to be a missile being launched, but really just looked like a nazi salute.
2. RFK scraps mRNA
Robert F Kennedy announced last night that he was pulling $500 million worth of contracts for developing mRNA vaccines.
It comes after RFK’s Department of Health and Human Services scrapped $600 million contract with Moderna to develop a vaccine against bird flu.
Explaining his decision in a Twitter video, RFK made a series of arguments that have been refuted by scientists – who believe mRNA vaccines are the best way to protect against future pandemics.
“Had we not used lifesaving mRNA vaccines, we would have had millions of more Covid deaths,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University
“This is a bad day for science,” said Scott Hensley, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania told The New York Times.
3. Unpopular. You’re gonna be un-pop-u-lar
Gallup has done a wonderful poll, asking Americans whether they like or dislike a list of well-known people.
Topping the “like” list? The Pope, with a whopping +46 net rating. Which is probably fair enough.
He’s followed by Volodymyr Zelensky on +18, then by Bernie Sanders on +11. They are the only people with a net positive approval rating.
Bubbling just under the positive line are Emmanuel Macron (-1) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (-4) – who is one point more net popular than Robert F Kennedy Jr (-5).
So let’s have a look at the other end of the list…
Most unpopular, by quite a margin is Elon Musk (-28).
Benjamin Netanyahu is slightly less unpopular, on -23.
And then it’s a tie for third and fourth place – between Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, who both get -16 ratings.
Pete Hegseth is next on -12, before a three-way tie of California Governor Gavin Newsom, Joe Biden and JD Vance all on -11.
No members of the Trump administration score higher than -11.
But sure, Trump’s numbers are through the roof.
4. Epstein ‘strategy’ meeting
A group of senior Trump officials are set to meet at JD Vance’s place today, to discuss their future strategy for handling the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
According to CNN, the meeting will include White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Todd Blanche, the Deputy Attorney General who interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell days before she was moved to a cushier prison camp.
If you were thinking it’s not entirely normal behaviour for senior Justice Department figures, the White House Chief of Staff and the Vice President to have a private meeting to discuss “strategy” for a case like this, and that it looks awfully to the public like they might be colluding on a cover-up, you’re not wrong.
5. Ghislaine transcripts could be published within weeks
Transcripts of prison interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell could be released within weeks.
Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison on sex trafficking charges linked to her relationship with dead paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, was interviewed twice last month by Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche – who used to be Trump’s personal lawyer.
Last night CNN claimed several senior sources had told them a tape and transcript of the conversation exists – and the administration is discussing whether to release it.
“A final decision has not been made,” one of the officials is quoted as saying.
Two officials are said to have told CNN the release would “likely be sooner rather than later.”
One said it could be “several weeks from now.”
6. And subpoenas have gone out to loads of pople
Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department yesterday for files in the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein, part of a congressional probe that lawmakers believe may show links to Trump and other former top officials.
The Republican-controlled committee also issued subpoenas for depositions with former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and eight former top law enforcement officials.
The committee is also demanding interviews under oath from former attorneys general spanning the last three presidential administrations: Merrick Garland, William Barr, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Alberto Gonzales. Lawmakers also subpoenaed former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller.
But it was Democrats who sparked the move to subpoena the Justice Department for its files on Epstein. They were joined by some Republicans to successfully initiate the subpoena through a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee.
7. Maxwell opposes release of grand jury records
Maxwell’s lawyer, to his credit, has a way with words.
“Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not,” her attorney David Markus wrote in a filing opposing the release of grand jury testimony relating to Epstein, which has been requested by Attorney General Pam Bondi at the apparent request of Donald Trump.
“Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain.”
8. Trump says Maxwell moving prisons is ‘not uncommon’
Trump last night signed a bill setting up a task force for the 2028 Olympics in LA.
But after the order had been signed, and he’d been given a set of medals from the 1932 Olympiad, also held in LA, everyone else filed off the back of the stage, leaving Trump to take questions from the people there.
There was a noticeably higher proportion of soft-ball questions than usual, but a couple of proper ones got through.
He was asked whether he had anything to do with Ghislaine Maxwell’s move to a cushier prison in Texas.
He said, of course, that he did not.
“I didn’t know about it at all,” he said. “I read about it just like you did.”
He quickly added: “It’s not a very uncommon thing.”
To be clear, it absolutely is a very uncommon thing for a sexual offender to be moved to a lower security prison this early in their sentence.
9. For the sake of Big Balls, federalise DC!
Trump’s scheduled to make “an announcement” this evening at around 9.30pm UK time.
It’s not clear yet what the announcement will be, but there’s been some chatter overnight about Trump trying to take over Washington DC, so it could be that.
The District, as it’s known, is a self-governing region with an elected Mayor and local assembly. Not quite a state, but more autonomous than a city, if that helps.
And Trump has been itching to do away with the local governance of the District for ages. Mostly because DC itself is one of the most heavily Democrat voting parts of the country, and he doesn’t like that.
Last night he issued an ultimatum on Truth Social.
“Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control,” he claimed.
It’s not, but we’ll come back to that later.
“Local “youths” and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released. They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now!”
He said the District “must” start prosecuting children aged over 14 who commit crimes as adults and “lock them up for a long time”.
And he said if things don’t change he would “federalise” the city – effectively putting it under, we guess, military direct rule.
To make his point, he included a picture of a man, bloodied, sitting on the pavement at night in Washington, claiming this was “the most recent victim”, who had been “beaten mercilessly by local thugs.”
We’re not going to re-publish the picture, because it’s quite unpleasant. But the figure in the photo may look familiar. He is, it turns out, Big Balls – the 19-year-old who Elon Musk hired to be part of his DOGE bully squad.
Musk also tweeted about the incident, but didn’t name Big Balls.
“A few days ago, a gang of about a dozen young men tried to assault a woman in her car at night in DC,” he wrote.
“A Doge team member saw what was happening, ran to defend her and was severely beaten to the point of concussion, but he saved her. It is time to federalize DC.”
The picture was taken by Marko Elez, a software engineer who was forced to quit DOGE over a racist social media post.
“My friend Big Balls is a hero. I took this photo after Edward protected a young woman from an attempted carjacking by eight thugs near Dupont Circle,” Elez wrote on Twitter.
The police report of the incident tells a slightly different tale.
The “young woman” was Balls’ girlfriend. He didn’t “rush to the scene”, it was an attempted carjacking of his car. But the assailants did indeed assault Balls.
“During the assault, an MPD cruiser pulled into the block causing the suspects to flee. Two of the suspects were apprehended by the on-scene officers.”
As for the streets of DC being a lawless wasteland with crime out of control, no.
Crime in DC in 2024 was projected to be the lowest in 30 years.
Violent crime has dropped by 34%, with homicide dropping by 31% compared to the previous year.
Overall crime is down 15%.
10. Ex-UK ambassador roasts Trump in public
The UK’s former ambassador to the US gave Trump a public roasting – saying he was acting like a “medieval King”.
Lord Kim Darroch – who was forced to quit in 2019 after he describe Trump’s first administration as “dysfunctional” and “inept” – accused the American leader of turning the “Oval Office into a reality TV set”.
“He’s sort of like a medieval king – that sort of capricious decision-making – than he is like a modern politician where consistency is seen as important,” he said at the Edinburgh Fringe.
“He doesn’t think that’s important at all. He thinks that every day is a fresh day. You’re basically battling with media.
“You’re battling with your opponents. If it suits you today to reverse something you did last week, just do it.
“If you look at tariffs, that’s a perfect example of unpredictability of capriciousness.”