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🎶 Friday Listening: Coldplay – Fix You (Live in Sao Paolo). Coldplay is trending because of this mega-viral video of that tech CEO caught on the Jumbotron romantically embracing his HR chief/not wife at their concert in Boston this week. Every time Coldplay is in the news, it sparks this backlash online of people saying they suck. I’ve always liked Coldplay. They may be a bit long in the tooth these days, but whom amongst us isn’t? Watch this video of Chris Martin getting an entire Brazilian soccer stadium to sing/cry along to a 20-year-old song and tell me that’s not talent.
OK, I didn’t want to bring up Epstein again but we go where the news takes us here. There had been whispers all week that the Wall Street Journal was working on a big story related to President Trump’s past friendship with Epstein, and that story finally dropped last night. It’s both not good for the president, but also good at the same time. Lemme explain.
If you haven’t read the piece, it details a letter that, per the Journal, Trump wrote to Epstein on his 50th birthday back in 2003. The letter, which the paper describes but doesn’t publish, contains a drawing of a naked woman with Trump allegedly signing his name in the, uh, private part area. But the text of the letter, which is a fanfic-type of imagined conversation between the two, is I imagine why the president is said to have personally called the WSJ’s editor-in-chief to kill the story. The relevant passage, per the WSJ:
Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.
Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it.
Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?
Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you.
Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.
I can see why POTUS didn’t want that to come out. This is an extremely weird made-up conversation to have with a man who would, a few years later, plead guilty to soliciting minors for prostitution! So the article publishes and Trump immediately denies it all, saying he “never wrote a picture in my life.” Trump has actually always been something of a renowned doodler, fwiw. He used to even submit his drawings of the NYC skyline to charity auctions. They’re not bad.
He also announces he will sue the WSJ, its parent company and Rupert Murdoch for good measure. (Aside: there’s a very intriguing media story happening in parallel here. Murdoch probably could’ve killed this story if he really wanted to. But he didn’t. Does this suggest the Murdoch media empire is souring on DJT? It was notable that the first reporter to ask about Epstein at the White House briefing yesterday was from Fox…)
Anyway, Trump goes into “deny ’til you die” mode and gets backup from JD Vance, who calls the story “bullshit” and even Elon Musk chimes in from the cheap seats to say it doesn’t sound like Trump’s words. So you’ve got MAGA starting to coalesce around its favorite foil of the mainstream media (just as we predicted here earlier this week). This is how the WSJ report will probably end up being good for Trump, because it allows him to change the conversation from why his admin has been slow-walking the Epstein files to a story about how the media is perpetually out to get him.
Trump also said he directed AG Pam Bondi to ask a judge to release grand jury testimony related to Epstein, which she said she will do today. The hope, I guess, is that whatever comes out of GJ transcripts will be enough for MAGA to claim a win and move on, even though it is only a tiny fraction of what’s presumably out there. We’ll see if it works, I suspect it will. But I still do not understand why the president is keeping Bondi employed. It was she who 10 days ago would have had to approve the 2-page FBI memo—smack in the middle of a quiet summer news cycle—intended to put this story to bed and which ended up having the exact opposite effect.
If making the boss look bad by virtue of sheer incompetence isn’t a fireable offense in Trumpworld anymore, what is?
Pam Bondi Preparing To Release Epstein Grand Jury Testimonies
President Donald Trump has directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the public release of grand jury testimony related to Jeffrey Epstein’s prosecution, a move aimed at quelling backlash from his base over the administration’s handling of the case. Bondi said she will petition the court Friday, though legal experts caution that grand jury materials are rarely unsealed. Follow the latest updates.
Also happening:
Trump drawings: A number of drawings produced by President Donald Trump have resurfaced after it was reported that he sent a “bawdy” letter and sketch to Jeffrey Epstein to mark his 50th birthday. Take a look.
Education funding: Ten Republican senators signed a letter addressed to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), urging the Trump administration to unfreeze over $6 billion in federal funding for education programs. Read more.
This is a preview of The 1600—Tap here to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox.
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