Republican Senator Delivers Todd Blanche an Epstein Ultimatum

Senator Thom Tillis has announced that he will vote against Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination unless Blanche meets with the Epstein survivors he’s been avoiding for months. This could potentially kill Blanche’s nomination, as Blanche needs a “yes” vote from all 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee for his nomination to move forward.

“I have not made a final decision, but Mr. Blanche said very quickly yesterday that he would meet with the [Epstein] victims today if it could be arranged,” Tillis said, repeating Blanche’s earlier comment. “Because it seemed to me that Mr. Blanche was willing to say that he would meet with them and counsel … I expect that meeting to occur before I’m willing to vote out of this committee.”

Tillis had last month set a different requirement for Blanche: that he disavow the January 6 protesters.

His new ultimatum came shortly after Dani Bensky, who was abused by Epstein as a teenager, lambasted Blanche for still not meeting with her and other survivors, even after he promised he would—despite meeting with Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell for nine hours shortly before she was transferred to a cushier prison.

“In our nation, everyone deserves equal protection under the law. Todd Blanche has been unwilling to protect Epstein survivors’ personal information, and he has been resistant to investigate the people who helped Epstein and Maxwell commit those crimes. We need an attorney general committed to ensuring that everyone who facilitated Epstein’s crimes is held accountable,” Bensky said. “Please, I implore you. Please.”

Tillis noted that Blanche had two weeks to fulfill his demand.

The Trump administration is putting limits on how long foreign students can stay in the U.S. on student visas.

The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday finalized a plan to cap student visas to a maximum of four years, regardless of whether the person’s studies are still continuing. Any more time would require students to apply for an extension.

The new rule, which is expected to go into effect September 15, changes long-standing policy that made student visas valid for however long an educational program lasted. This helped Ph.D. students, for example, whose programs typically last six years.

The new rule will also change what’s known as optional practical training, which allows foreign students to work in the U.S. for up to three years after they graduate. In addition, students will have less time to change schools, leave the country, or change their status after graduation, with that period being shortened to 30 days from 60.

In a statement, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said that foreign students would no longer be able to “abuse” the system.

“For nearly half a century, the outdated ‘duration of status’ system has compromised national security and created an environment ripe for immigration fraud,” Mullin said. “For decades, foreign students have been admitted into the U.S. indefinitely, allowing thousands to abuse our immigration system by perpetually enrolling in courses to avoid having to leave the U.S.”

Under the new rule, students could be denied an extension of their visa even after years of work on final projects, dissertations, and theses.

International student enrollment has already plummeted in President Trump’s second term thanks to new visa restrictions on many countries, harsh immigration enforcement, and the prosecution of foreign students who engage in political activity that the administration disagrees with, such as pro-Palestine advocacy. This in turn has led to a big drop in revenue for universities and colleges, which have had to cut programs, and has negatively impacted a major economic engine for the U.S.

International students are turning to universities in Asia and Europe as a result. American colleges and universities, once highly ranked internationally, are already starting to slide in global rankings, and this will make things worse. The Trump administration’s anti-immigrant xenophobia is hurting one of the country’s highest-regarded institutions and is bad for the economy.

The Trump administration has repeatedly claimed without evidence that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s peeling lining was the work of vandals. An independent analysis has concluded otherwise.

After reviewing photographs and satellite imagery, and speaking with experts, The Washington Post found that the extensive gashes in the pool liner were likely the result of improper application. The Thursday report noted that the tears appeared in at least seven places “along seams that were created when the material was applied in large rectangular sections.”

Noting that reporters were not able to access the center of the pool during a June 25 visit, the Post chronicled that the peeling occurred in irregularly shaped patches along the edges of the patchwork seams, with sloughing pieces ranging in size from several inches to as much as six feet. Some sections of the lining were so damaged that reporters were able to see the bare concrete underneath.

Rhino Linings, a popular truck-bed coating company that received the no-bid contract to do the job, has been named in several lawsuits since 2021 alleging that its liners were inadequate and resulted in hundreds of leaks.

Nonetheless, Donald Trump and his entourage have pinned the problem on supposed troublemakers dead set on destroying his $16 million renovation project (a cost that’s a far cry from his promised $1.8 million price tag for the endeavor). The White House has not provided any great evidence for the theory but has raised tensions around the Reflecting Pool, anyway. By late June, at least seven individuals were arrested for allegedly destroying the pool, including former Olympic canoe racer David Hearn.

The White House denied that any mistakes had been made during the renovation process.

“Unfortunately, deranged individuals made several gashes in the side of the pool and destroyed over 300 feet of the pool’s siding,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told the Post. “Once the necessary repairs to fix the vandalism are complete, the Reflecting Pool will be restored to all its glory.”

The company that had handled the memorial’s last renovation in 2010, the New Jersey–based Sika Corporation, was offered the chance to do this renovation before the job was offered to Rhino Linings. Speaking with CNN last month, two employees at Sika said the company had declined the offer due to Trump’s demands. Those included requirements that the pool be painted “American flag blue,” and that the restoration be completed by July 4. Both demands made the project “unfeasible,” according to the employees.

A White House teleprompter operator appears to have made over $100,000 betting on President Trump’s speeches.

ABC News, citing unnamed sources, reports that a longtime staffer for the president, Gabriel Perez, was placing bets on Trump’s speeches on the prediction market Kalshi, sparking an investigation from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC.

Perez, a technical assistant, has operated Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, and is now speaking to federal investigators over allegations that he profited from inside knowledge. Perez allegedly bet on several of Trump’s speeches over three months, including the president’s prime-time address in December 2025, his remarks at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in January 2026, and a Trump speech in March at a Medal of Honor ceremony.

Kalshi reportedly alerted the CFTC about suspicious activity on its “Mentions” market, which allows bets on whether certain words, topics, or phrases come up in public speech.

“Our surveillance team promptly flagged and referred these trades to the CFTC, and we are cooperating and assisting regulators,” the lead lawyer for Kalshi, Bobby DeNault, told ABC News in a statement.

“The White House has strict ethics guidelines that we expect all staffers and officials to follow,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said to ABC News. “The staffer in question is fully cooperating with the CFTC.”

In late March, the White House warned its staffers not to bet on world events in prediction markets.

Perez usually is the last person to see Trump’s prepared speeches, even taking last-minute edits from the president. In some cases, investigators found that Perez would change his bets while Trump was in the middle of a speech after the president skipped over certain words.

After meeting with regulators in the last few months, Perez acknowledged making the trades, and the CFTC alerted federal prosecutors in New York, who decided against a criminal investigation. CFTC regulators are reportedly willing to settle with Perez, allowing him to return his profits and refrain from any future bets.

In April, a special forces soldier involved in capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was charged with using confidential intelligence to win $400,000 on the prediction market Polymarket. It seems some in the Trump administration see their positions as a way to make money, even trading in national secrets.

Harlan Crow, the billionaire patron of Republican-aligned causes, groups, and politicians, has found a new beneficiary in rightward-shifting Democratic Senator John Fetterman.

Crow, who is also a known Nazi memorabilia collector, has long heaped money on conservatives, most notably lavishing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with extensive gifts and favors for years, all of which Thomas failed to disclose and were only revealed thanks to a ProPublica investigation.

On June 30, Crow gave $7,000—the maximum allowed donation—to Fetterman’s campaign, according to a Federal Election Commission filing reported Wednesday by The Intercept.

Elected in 2022, Fetterman flipped a red seat after projecting a progressive image that quickly faded once he assumed office. He has taken a staunchly pro-Israel stance that borders on monomaniacal; this week, he stated he has “no plans” to leave the Democratic Party but would do so if it becomes “the anti-Israel party.” His unbridled support for Israel, and increasing alignment with President Donald Trump on other issues, led his staffers to jump ship en masse last year.

This metamorphosis has apparently attracted conservative donors other than Crow. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported earlier this year, Fetterman’s war chest has been lined by donors such as billionaire Ed Glazer and investor Matthew Ocko.

And while Crow usually wields his financial largesse in service of right-wingers, he has also given occasionally to corporate-friendly Democrats, such as Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Henry Cuellar, as well as former Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, according to the Revolving Door Project.

Numerous Pennsylvania Democrats are reportedly considering challenging Fetterman in 2028. A remarkable Quinnipiac University poll of registered Pennsylvania voters, released Wednesday, has his approval rating at 77 percent among Republicans and just 19 percent among Democrats.