• You know how it is when two people end a toxic relationship: It’s only a matter of time before one of them comes crawling back. “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Musk tweeted at 3 a.m.​ this morning. Of course, Musk didn’t specify which posts were keeping him up so late at night…

• But The Bulwark’s Tim Miller asked the question on everyone’s mind: “What about the one calling him a pedo?” He was referring, of course, to Musk’s post about the president being closely tied to financier Jeffrey Epstein, the child sex predator whose suicide is a hot conspiracy among the far-right. Trump is “in the Epstein files,” Musk tweeted last week. “That is the real reason they have not been made public.” (For the record, the gazillionaire didn’t accuse Trump of any crimes.)

• You can’t put toothpaste back in the tube, pal! He can delete the tweet, but nothing on the internet is ever really gone… especially when it was viewed by tens of millions of people.

• Musk’s claim had an immediate impact. FBI Director Kash Patel was forced to address the Epstein files in real-time while on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and the same thing happened to Vice President JD Vance on Theo Von’s podcast. While Trump’s relationship with Epstein is well-documented — the two men partied together at Mar-a-Lago — the president’s closest aides aren’t usually cornered into addressing the topic in front of millions of listeners.

DEMOCRATS SEE MUSK’S BLUNDER AS A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY

An often overlooked indicator of environmental health? Birds. Think of them as very real canaries in the coal mine. Crooked’s Climate Correspondent Anya Zoledziowski warns us about declining bird populations — and why it’s not all doom and gloom. 

A recent study published in Nature found that bird populations in North America are rapidly vanishing, with 75 percent of species in decline. That’s largely due to environmental degradation, pollution and climate change. Birds like red-winged blackbirds, snowy owls, little herons, and dark-eyed juncos are all struggling. Worse yet, the losses were the worst in habitats where they’ve traditionally been abundant.

This is known as a “pattern of mass decline,” Richard Gregory, a University College London professor, told the Washington Post. This matters for all of us: when bird populations suffer, it usually means humans aren’t safe either. After all, we share environments, and bird species decline reveals a lot about pollution, contamination and worsening air quality. So, it’s worth paying attention to all of this as the Trump administration attempts to gut environmental and biodiversity protections, and climate action.

There’s a glimmer of hope, though: We already have solutions! Science-based conservation efforts, including coastal restoration and forest renewal, can do a lot to recover bird populations. Those, in turn, improve environments for the rest of us by giving us cleaner water, landscapes resilient to fire and flood, and more. Now we just need the political will…

National Guard troops in Los Angeles temporarily detained civilians before turning them over to authorities Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman announced. Uh, are they allowed to do that??? Across the country, cities are preparing for more anti-ICE protests. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott pledged to deploy the National Guard ahead of planned demonstrations.

Even with all the unrest, ICE raids aren’t slowing down. Agents stormed a meat production facility in Omaha, Nebraska, in what the Trump administration described as the “largest worksite enforcement operation” since the president took office. Senegalese-Italian influencer Khaby Lame, the world’s most popular TikTok star, left the United States after being detained by ICE in Las Vegas.

Donald Trump touted a trade deal with China, which includes keeping 55 percent tariffs on Chinese goods. Beijing would also send Washington rare earths and magnets, and Chinese students would be allowed to attend American universities. Chinese leader Xi Jinping still needs to give final approval, Trump said.

The Trump administration may start sending thousands of migrants who are in the United States illegally to Guantanamo Bay as soon as this week, Politico reports. That includes people who are from countries allied with America, including Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, to name a few. Who needs friends anyway?! Make America Ghastly Alone!

Trump is having a tough time in the Friend Department: Most GOP lawmakers are skipping his birthday parade in Washington, D.C. this weekend (the official excuse is that the parade is for the Army’s 250th anniversary), according to a Politico survey. “We were always different than the images you saw of the Soviet Union and North Korea,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said, bashing the parade​. Don’t worry, Donald, there will be tons of people there… but not for the reasons you want.

Bulldozers began tearing up the White House Rose Garden this week, as part of Trump’s vision to install new flagpoles and build a Mar-a-Lago-style patio. Apparently, Trump is concerned about women wearing high heels on the garden’s grass. So… this is a DEI initiative? The irony!

Brian Wilson, the mastermind behind the Beach Boys, died today at 82 years old. Rest in peace to a legend — we need “Good Vibrations” more than ever right now.

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