Donald Trump is back in Washington after his trip to Scotland – but the jetlag hasn’t slowed him down
If I were Donald Trump, I’d have stayed in bed today and slept off the jetlag.
He’s back in Washington after a nice relaxing trip to Scotland, where he played a lot of golf, signed a trillion dollar trade deal with the EU and met Keir Starmer – costing UK taxpayers tens of millions to police and protect his golf courses.
He managed to make even more news on Air Force One last night, giving more details about his falling out with Jeffrey Epstein.
He’s done a bunch of posting on his Truth Social account – including some which will probably make India a bit nervous.
And this morning, his White House has upset a genuine national treasure.
Here’s everything that went on in Trump World in the last 24 hours that you need to know about.
1. The White House has upset Jess Glynne with deeply weird Twitter video
The official White House Twitter account posted this video, which pastiches UK Jet2 holidays ads for some reason.
The video juxtaposes footage of people being deported from the US with the well-known Jet2 TV ad, featuring Jess Glynne singing “Hold My Hand”.
Ms Glynne is not amused. She posted a response, saying: “This post honestly makes me sick. My music is about love, unity and spreading positivity – never about division or hate.
2. Trump ‘seriously considering’ pardoning…Diddy
Because a day can’t go by in Trump World where there isn’t talk of the US President pardoning a convicted sex offender, an administration source tells Deadline that “serious consideration” is being given to pardoning Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Combs, previously known as Puff Daddy, is facing up to ten years behind bars on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
He’s been denied bail and remains in prison pending his sentence.
Given how his supporters feel about high-profile sex offenders, handing him a pardon would certainly be a …choice.
3. The White House has decided greenhouse gases is no longer a danger
The Trump administration is moving to scrap the scientific finding that provides the basis for most US action to cut emissions and fight climate change.
It would scrap the Environment Protection Agency’s 2009 declaration that determined carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.
The so-called “endangerment finding” is the legal underpinning of a host of climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.
Repealing the finding “will be the largest deregulatory action in the history of America,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said yesterday.
“There are people who, in the name of climate change, are willing to bankrupt the country,” Zeldin said on the conservative “Ruthless” podcast.
“They created this endangerment finding and then they are able to put all these regulations on vehicles, on airplanes, on stationary sources, to basically regulate out of existence, in many cases, a lot of segments of our economy. And it cost Americans a lot of money.”
The EPA proposal must go though a lengthy review process, including public comment, before it is finalised, likely next year. Environmental groups are likely to challenge the rule change in court.
4. Trump claims Jeffrey Epstein ‘stole’ his most well-known victim from him
Donald Trump has claimed Jeffrey Epstein “stole” his most well-known victim from him.
The US President described for the first time during his trip to Scotland on Monday the events that led to his falling out with former friend Epstein.
He told reporters during a Q&A session with Keir Starmer that the bust-up had been caused by Epstein doing something “inappropriate” – namely, poaching staff from him.
Trump said he’d told him not to do it once, but that Epstein had repeated the behaviour, and so he’d ordered him to stay away from his Mar A Lago club in Florida’s Palm Beach.
As the Mirror noted the same day, Epstein’s most well known victim, Virginia Giuffre, was allegedly ‘hired’ by Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein while she was working in Trump’s spa at Mar A Lago.
Aboard Air Force One last night, Trump said he was upset that Epstein was “taking people who worked for me.”
The women, he said, were “taken out of the spa, hired by him – in other words, gone.”
“I said, listen, we don’t want you taking our people,” Trump said. When it happened again, Trump said he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.
Asked if Giuffre was one of the employees poached by Epstein, he demurred but then said “he stole her.”
The White House originally said Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago because he was acting like a “creep.”
5. Trump gets rough with India
Trump announced on Truth Social this morning that India is “our friend” but its “tariffs are far too high” on US goods.
He threatened to impose a 25% tariff on goods from India, plus an additional “penalty” because they still buy Russian oil.
The threat comes after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the White House in February, not long after Trump took office – and promised to start buying American oil and gas.
But months later, the outlines of a trade deal haven’t been finalised.
6. No victims testified in Epstein grand jury case
The federal grand juries that indicted Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking charges didn’t hear evidence from any of Epstein’s victims, according to Justice Department officials.
Trump has ordered the release of evidence presented to the grand jury – which decides whether a prosecution should go ahead.
There had been concerns that releasing the documents would be detrimental to survivors.
But according to documents filed in court last night, there were only two witnesses – and both of them were law enforcement officers.
While the memo didn’t detail what was in the grand jury testimony, it dampened expectations that the transcripts would contain new revelations, saying that “certain aspects and subject matters” contained in them became public during Maxwell’s trial in 2021 and that other details have been made public through many years of civil lawsuits filed by victims.
Trump ordered the release of the evidence after he faced a huge backlash for failing to publish the files held by the FBI relating to the investigation.
We don’t know what’s in the transcripts, but it seems unlikely his angry supporters will be satisfied by them.