Epstein, Ukraine, Rescissions: What to Watch This Week
A new week begins.
Good morning! It’s Monday, July 14, 2025. I hope you all had a great weekend. Here’s what I’m watching in the week ahead…
BONGINO VS. BONDI — The MAGA movement has been divided in recent days over criticism of the Justice Department’s decision to close its investigation into the 2019 death of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a memo last week, the DOJ concluded that Epstein died by suicide (despite some administration officials spending years asserting otherwise) and that Epstein left behind no “client list” of powerful associates (despite Attorney General Pam Bondi suggesting in February that such a list was sitting on her desk for her review).
Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, who frequently promoted conspiracy theories about Epstein on his podcast before joining the Trump administration, has reportedly confronted Bondi behind the scenes and is teetering on the brink of resignation.
MAGA figures are now lining up behind either official — but the most important voice in the movement has already spoken: “LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB — SHE’S GREAT,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social this weekend, urging his supporters to “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.” Trump and Epstein were friends in the 1980s and ’90s, although they had a falling-out in 2004, before the financier was convicted for sex crimes.
What to watch: Now that Trump has spoken, will MAGA activists follow his lead and drop the Epstein issue, long a cause célèbre of theirs? So far, it doesn’t seem like it. “I am one of the founding figures of MAGA, one of the President’s earliest, most effective supporters,” Milo Yiannopoulos, the far-right commentator, wrote on X last night. “I’ve thought hard. I’ve prayed. I can’t accept his answer on Epstein. The Epstein case and the issues it raises go to the heart of why 2016 even happened. We must have answers.”
We’ll see if pressure from his base leads the administration to make any more disclosures about Epstein, or pressures Trump into making any personnel change.
TRUMP’S UKRAINE ANNOUNCEMENT — Trump has promised a “major statement” on Russia and Ukraine today, where he is expected to announce a new weapons package for Kyiv, including Patriot missiles.
The announcement marks a stark turnabout for the Trump administration, going from pausing weapons shipments to Ukraine earlier this month (a decision that was reportedly made without the president’s sign-off) to now expanding the number of weapons being made available to the U.S. ally at war with Russia.
The move comes as Trump has been increasingly airing his frustrations with Russian president Vladimir Putin. “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said last week. “He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
What to watch: Internationally, of course, pay attention to whether Trump’s most forceful statement yet taking Ukraine’s side in the war successfully pressures Putin into coming to the negotiating table, or pushes him even farther away. Domestically, how will MAGA activists feel about Trump breaking with some of them on another issue, at the same time they are already grappling with the Epstein fallout? Also, will Trump’s change of heart on Ukraine mean the Senate’s most popular bill (slapping new sanctions on Russia) will finally pass?
SHUTDOWN WATCH — Republicans face an end-of-week deadline to approve Trump’s $9.4 billion rescissions request, which seeks to give the president permission not to spend funds for USAID and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (which provide grants to PBS and NPR) approved in last year’s appropriations package.
Several GOP senators have expressed concerns about the funding cuts; if the Senate were to make changes to the package, the House would have to pass the revised package by Friday in order to meet the statutory deadline for a rescissions request.
What to watch: Of course, I’m watching senators like Susan Collins (R-ME) who have called for the rescissions package to be amended. (Note: Trump said last week that any senator who blocks the package won’t receive endorsements from him in the future.) But why did I title this “Shutdown Watch”? Because rescissions requests are essentially a backdoor way to adjust appropriations levels (which are agreed to with 60 votes) by only 51 votes. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) suggested has suggested that Senate Republicans passing a rescissions bill will complicate bipartisan appropriations negotiations, since it will call into question whether any agreed-upon spending levels will be preserved. With a government shutdown deadline looming on September 30, that’s one dimension of the rescissions fight to pay attention to.
ALOHA...
always love supposed “news” outlets make their partisan positions known by, in this case, artful leanings as shown by anti-Trump news deftly supplied in neutral tones. Just another Dem/DEI/ Legacy Media organ. Glad I don’t pay for this nonsense.