MARTIAL BLAH

The FBI raided the home of one of Donald Trump’s most prominent critics, as the president’s authoritarian crackdown intensifies.

• Dictators always turn law enforcement into a weapon to jail their enemies and stifle dissent — it’s kinda their main thing. The likelihood that President Donald Trump would pull this move himself in a second term prompted dire warnings from many critics, including his own former national security adviser John Bolton, that he should never be allowed back into the White House. But Trump’s back in the Oval Office, and Bolton is back in the crosshairs.

• FBI agents swarmed Bolton’s home in Bethesda, Maryland at dawn this morning, reportedly looking for evidence that classified information was mishandled. This feud dates back to 2020, when Bolton enraged Trump by publishing a damning account of the president’s bumbling, mismanaged first term. Ever since, Trump has been out for revenge. First, his Department of Justice sued to stop the book from being published. When that failed, they opened a criminal probe against Bolton, which collapsed after Trump lost the 2020 election.

• “Today’s raid is an obvious act of intimidation,” the Democracy Defenders’ Fund’s Norm Eisen and Susan Corke said in a statement. Olivia Troye, a former Trump White House official, tweeted: “Today it’s John Bolton. Tomorrow it could be any other critic who dares defy Trump.”

• Trump’s urge for vengeance against Bolton appears boundless. The former natsec adviser was also the target of a foiled Iranian assassination plot last year. Months later, Trump revoked Bolton’s security clearance as one of his first acts in office.

The raid on Bolton’s home is just the latest development in a troubling trend.

• Other Trump critics are also facing scrutiny from Trump officials. New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook are all under federal investigation for alleged mortgage fraud. In each case, Trump has personally called for them to be fired from their jobs or thrown in jail.

• Ed Martin, one of Trump’s loopiest DOJ officials who’s investigating James, posed for a photo outside James’s home while wearing a trench coat, looking like he’s auditioning for a “Goodfellas” capo role. Intimidation, much?

• The DOJ’s actions are “part of the president’s effort to create this climate of fear,” Schiff recently told What A Day. “If I can threaten people with a suit, I can threaten them with prosecution. I can threaten universities by taking their money away, if I can threaten law firms with taking their access to the courts away, if I can threaten corporations with losing contracts, I can make the whole country afraid. That is really what he’s after.”

• Trump’s takeover of Washington, D.C. is yet another example of these fear tactics at work. Today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized National Guard troops — who appear to be doing nothing other than walking around local landmarks — to carry weapons around the city. This might only be the beginning: Trump said he’s willing to deploy “regular military” to other cities, and Chicago and New York could be next.

Trump’s concern for protecting classified documents is pretty rich, coming from a guy once criminally indicted for allegedly stashing secret documents in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom.

FILEFIGHTERS

The Trump administration released its long-awaited, much-hyped interview with the closest confidante of deceased child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, and… surprise, surprise! Epstein’s pal said Donald Trump appears to be a stand-up guy!

Trump was “never inappropriate with anybody,” Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell insisted to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, according to the transcript of an interview that took place last month.

The news dropped on the day when the Department of Justice is handing over a set of Epstein-related documents to the House Oversight Committee — but not making them public.

Maxwell, a convicted child sex trafficker, praised Trump — the man with the power to free her with a presidential pardon from the two-decade sentence she’s now serving in prison for her conviction for sex trafficking.

“I just want to say that I find — I — I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the President now. And I like him, and I’ve always liked him,” Maxwell said.

“I’ve never recruited a masseuse from Mar-a-Lago for that, as far as I remember,” she told Blanche, referring to Trump’s Palm Beach club and residence.

Reminder: Trump’s name is reportedly in the Epstein files multiple times. And the DOJ still isn’t releasing the files to the public!!!

NEWS NEWS NEWS

Parts of Gaza are experiencing famine, according to a new report from the United Nations’s hunger monitor. It’s the first time the monitor has said famine exists in the territory, a conclusion that Israel dismissed as fabricated. “Israel’s ongoing campaign of bombing and blocking aid has been allowed to go unchecked, and people are dying from starvation as a result,” Scott Paul, a top official at aid group Oxfam, said in a statement.

Pete Hegseth fired the top general who angered Donald Trump by leading a team that concluded U.S. strikes on Iran only set the country’s nuclear program back a few months. Trump’s motto: When you don’t like the facts, just fire the people who found them!

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested that he might cut interest rates as soon as next month, due to concerns that a weakening job market may pose a bigger threat to the economy than inflation caused by Trump’s tariffs.

More immigrants are leaving the U.S. than entering, according to new census data. It’s the first time in decades that has happened, showing the impacts of Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda. I’m sure Trump lackey Stephen Miller is over the moon about this news, but news flash! It’s actually really bad for the economy if no one wants to come here!!!

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy basically endorsed the use of nicotine pouches, which some folks claim he uses himself. “I think the nicotine pouches are probably the safest way to consume nicotine,” he told Brazilian media last month. “Vapes are second. But the thing we really want to get away from are cigarettes.” I don’t love when the nation’s top health official uses the term “I think” when it comes to the safety of drugs, but okay, Bobby!

Cracker Barrel lost nearly $100 million in value after unveiling its new logo, which drew monumental MAGA backlash. “WTF is wrong with @CrackerBarrel??!” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted this week. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) tweeted: “In college, I worked at @CrackerBarrel in Tallahassee. I even gave my life to Christ in their parking lot … No one asked for this woke rebrand.” The chain has since regained some of its losses. Sadly, I’ll never recoup the brain cells I lost while reading those deranged reactions.