Trump Signs Bill to Release Epstein Files—and Immediately Freaks Out

The public is on the verge of accessing the Epstein files, and Donald Trump is not happy about it.

After fighting for months to keep the files under lock and key, Trump expediently signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act Wednesday evening, hours after the Senate advanced it to his desk. Then, he went on a sprawling rant on social media in an apparent effort to twist his public image away from the longtime cozy relationship he maintained with the child sex trafficker and refocus on Democrats in the scandal that he has long branded as a “hoax.”

“Perhaps the truth about these Democrats, and their associations with Jeffrey Epstein, will soon be revealed, because I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!” Trump posted after accusing a slew of high-profile Democrats of financially benefiting from their own relationships with the deceased financier.

“As everyone knows, I asked Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, to pass this Bill in the House and Senate, respectively,” Trump said, referring to a missive he gave to Congress mere days ago.

At the time, that directive seemed to be little more than an effort to save face. House Republicans were lining up alongside Democrats to release the files, despite private meetings with Trump in which the president (unsuccessfully) begged his congressional allies to change their minds.

“At my direction, the Department of Justice has already turned over close to fifty thousand pages of documents to Congress. Do not forget—The Biden Administration did not turn over a SINGLE file or page related to Democrat Epstein, nor did they ever even speak about him,” Trump continued.

“Democrats have used the ‘Epstein’ issue, which affects them far more than the Republican Party, in order to try and distract from our AMAZING Victories, including THE GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL TAX CUT BILL, Strong Borders, No Men in Women’s Sports or Transgender for Everyone, ending DEI, stopping Biden’s Record Setting Inflation, lowering Prices, Biggest Tax and Regulation Cuts in History, ending EIGHT Wars, rebuilding our Military, knocking out Iran’s Nuclear capability, getting Trillions of Dollars INVESTED in the U.S.A., creating the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World, and even delivering a HUGE DEFEAT to the Democrats on the recent Shutdown Disaster.”

Epstein, a New York socialite who orchestrated an international child sex trafficking ring to service the sick desires of the ultra wealthy, is believed to have abused hundreds of young girls.

The Trump administration first bungled the release of the files in July, when the Justice Department issued a memo that contradicted Attorney General Pam Bondi on the alleged existence of Epstein’s so-called “client list.” Since then, Trump has attempted to brush off the scandal, repeatedly referring to it as a Democrat-invented “hoax.”

“For years our Great Nation has had to endure RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, IMPEACHMENT HOAX #1, IMPEACHMENT HOAX #2, and many other Democrat created Witch Hunts and Scams, all of which have been so terrible and divisive for our Country, and have been done to confuse, deflect, and distract from the GREAT JOB that Republicans, and the Trump Administration, are doing,” Trump concluded. “This latest Hoax will backfire on the Democrats just as all of the rest have! Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Trump has claimed he cut off contact with Epstein after the financier was convicted in 2009 for soliciting underage prostitutes, referring to Epstein as a “creep.” But recent releases from the Epstein estate indicate that Epstein was still hypervigilant of his old pal even as Trump ascended to the White House.

The House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 emails last week that they had obtained from Epstein’s estate. The documents included multiple mentions of Trump, such as in a 2011 email, when Epstein expressed he was grateful Trump had stayed quiet about details of Epstein’s life. The “dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” Epstein wrote, despite the fact that Trump had spent hours at one of Epstein’s properties with a known victim.

In a 2017 exchange with former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Epstein said that Trump was the worst individual he knew.

“I have met some very bad people, none as bad as Trump,” he wrote. “Not one decent cell in his body.”

When queried by Trump biographer Michael Wolff in 2019 about the extent of the president’s knowledge of abductions of young girls, Epstein remarked: “Of course he knew about the girls he asked Ghislaine to stop.”

President Trump and Larry Ellison—the conservative billionaire behind Oracle who wants to “retrain” the TikTok algorithm to be more pro-Israel—met to discuss which CNN hosts to fire if Ellison acquired the media company in a Paramount Warner Bros. Discovery deal, according to a Guardian report.

The two discussed firing Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar (both of whom Trump has issues with) and putting CBS’s 60 Minutes—now controlled by another Zionist, Bari Weiss—on CNN. While Paramount is run by Ellison’s son David, the senior Ellison owns the biggest share of the company.

This casual conversation shows that billionaires with agendas and a direct line to Trump have the power to change what Americans are seeing in the entire media landscape—from their TikTok for You page to their television. But FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who made news earlier this fall for his active muzzling of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, doesn’t foresee any antitrust or corruption problems.

“I’d be very surprised if there was an FCC role at all in that type of transaction,” Carr previously told The Guardian, also mentioning that he was “not focused on the rumor mills around those transactions.”

Paramount’s initial bid for Warner Bros. is due Thursday, November 20.

A former congressional aide to a Republican congressman staged a fake anti-Trump attack against her over the summer and is now facing federal charges.

Natalie Greene, who used to work for Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, allegedly paid a body modification artist $500 to physically wound her, tie her up with zip ties, and write “Trump Whore” on her stomach and “Van Drew is a racist” on her back, the New Jersey Globe reports.

All of this took place in July, with Greene’s friend calling 911 claiming the two had been ambushed by three men on a hiking trail in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. When police arrived, they found Greene with her shirt pulled over her head, bound with black zip ties, and the words written on her body. She also said the attackers threatened her with a gun.

According to federal prosecutors, Greene, a Rutgers law student, was lying about nearly everything. She drove to Pennsylvania to hire the modification artist, providing a pattern she had already made. Greene had matching zip ties in her car, and according to cellphone records, and her friend had searched for “zip ties near me” two days before the supposed attack.

Days after the incident, while Greene was getting treated for her wounds, FBI investigators interviewed her and her friend, and their stories did not match. She has been charged with one count of conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes and one count of making false statements to federal law enforcement.

In a statement, Drew’s congressional office said they were “deeply saddened by today’s news,” adding, “While Natalie is no longer associated with the congressman’s government office, our thoughts and prayers are with her and hope she’s getting the care she needs.”

Donald Trump’s major electoral setback in Texas is thanks, in no small part, to Ted Cruz.

A three-judge panel ruled against the Lone Star State’s gerrymandering effort Tuesday, ordering Texas to return to its 2021 maps for the upcoming midterm elections. The decision was written by Judge Jeffrey V. Brown, whom Cruz recommended to the bench in 2019.

That realization has enraged some members of Trump’s base, who have questioned how the Houston native could have recommended someone who would rule against the president’s agenda.

“Brown was a clear miss by Ted Cruz,” argued conservative political strategist Mike Davis in a Fox News op-ed Wednesday.

Brown wrote in the Tuesday ruling that “substantial evidence” proved Texas had “racially gerrymandered” its latest districts.

Trump suggested in July that Texas could give Republicans five more House seats by flipping a handful of blue districts next year via “a very simple redrawing.” The Justice Department then threatened to take legal action on the matter, asserting that at least four Texas congressional districts were “unconstitutional” since the presence of multiple racial groups had made white people the regional electoral minority.

Redistricting is perfectly legal—so long as it complies with federal law. Trump’s directive for Texas forced the state to focus on race rather than politics, in defiance of national nondiscrimination laws. Brown noted in the legal opinion that if the effort had intended to thwart Democratic strongholds in the state, it would have also targeted majority white Democrat districts,” but those were “conspicuously absent.”

Brown determined that reverting to the 2021 map was a more adequate solution than providing Texas with the opportunity to draw up another plan, since not only was the 2021 iteration developed by the state legislature (as opposed to the state judiciary) but it has successfully been used in two previous congressional elections, as well as an ongoing special election. The judicial ruling effectively crushed Trump’s dream to reshape Texas to help Republicans in Washington.

Meanwhile, Cruz is laying the groundwork to run for president in 2028, though it’s unclear who in the MAGA movement will rally to his side.

The White House is so desperate to scrape together some “good news” that it’s trying to tout a decline in the number of new international students enrolling at American universities. That would actually be really bad—if it were the whole story, that is.

The number of new international students enrolling at American universities has decreased 17 percent since last year, according to the White House’s Wednesday “good news” roundup, which cited a recent survey from the Institute of International Education. The Trump administration celebrated the dip, claiming it was “reclaiming spots for American students on college campuses.”

But there’s more to this number than meets the eye. In fall 2025, 29 percent of institutions reported an increase in the number of new international students enrolling, 14 percent said the number was stable, and 57 percent said there was a decrease, according to the IIE study. However, the total number of international students only declined by 1 percent, and the number of international undergraduates actually increased by 2 percent. So it doesn’t look like too many spots were actually “reclaimed.”

The high percentage drop of enrollment can be explained by a significant drop in the number of students signed up for Optional Practical Training programs, which allow students to remain in the United States after they have completed their studies—a program that the State Department is planning to gut. It seems that international students are still studying in the United States; they’re simply taking their newfound knowledge with them after they finish school to make their home countries great instead of ours.

An enrollment dip is still not good news, however. International students paying full tuition and higher fees can help to cross-subsidize lower in-state tuition for American citizens. Outside of the financial incentive, involving international students in U.S. higher education has had tremendous positive outcomes for American society and higher education.

This study comes after the Trump administration revoked more than 6,000 student visas in August and arrested multiple foreign-born students and faculty over their speech or political affiliation, making clear that international students are not safe to remain in the United States. Ninety-six percent of institutions said that the dip was the result of concerns about visa applications, and 68 percent said it was due to travel restrictions, according to the study.

At the same time, the Trump administration has moved to increase the cost of an H-1B temporary visa by a factor of more than 10,000 percent, creating a sky-high financial barrier to those wishing to come to the United States for work.