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Trump Admin Installs Chain-Link Fencing, Surveillance Cameras at Reflecting Pool

(Mediaite) President Donald Trump has not yet been able to offer evidence of the “vandals” he claims damaged the Reflecting Pool, but the administration is not taking any chances, installing surveillance cameras and chain-link fencing around the area on Tuesday. Trump’s decision to drain the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and paint the bottom “American Flag Blue” has been criticized for its cost, plus the no-bid $14 million contract that was given to an ally. Since the pool was refilled, the water has been plagued with spreading bright green algae, and the paint has been peeling away.

BumRushDaShow

Epstein Ex-Secretary Says She Set Up Phone Calls Between Trump And Epstein For Year

(Huff Post) Lesley Groff, former executive secretary for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, told lawmakers that she set up phone calls between her boss and President Donald Trump several times a year for at least a decade, according to a transcript released Tuesday by the House Oversight Committee. Groff, who was hired by Epstein in 2001, told lawmakers she didn’t remember setting up any in-person meetings between the two men, but said it was possible, adding later that she would describe their relationship as “friendly.”

Dulcinea

Trump heads to Capitol to speak with GOP senators who have grown increasingly frustrated with him

(AP) President Donald Trump is headed to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with Republican senators who have grown increasingly frustrated with his efforts to divert their agenda. Trump, who will attend a closed-door Senate GOP luncheon for the first time in more than a year, has pressured senators for months to focus on his proof-of-citizenship voting bill even though it doesn’t have the votes to pass. At the same time, he has blocked them from confirming one of his own nominees, asked them to fund parts of his White House ballroom project despite opposition and forced them to defend his Iran war even as they question the strategy and endgame.

dalton99a

Trump's Pick for Top I.R.S. Lawyer Works at Firm That Represents Him

(NY Times) President Trump has nominated a lawyer from a firm that worked on his taxes to become the top attorney at the Internal Revenue Service, an arrangement that could add to the scrutiny that the nomination was already likely to face after the administration granted the president protection from tax audits last month. The White House said on Tuesday that Mr. Trump was nominating James R. Gadwood, a tax lawyer at Miller & Chevalier, to be the chief counsel of the I.R.S. Miller & Chevalier represents DJT Holdings LLC, Mr. Trump’s holding company, in tax matters, according to three people familiar with the matter.

KS Toronado

Wednesday's Condensed News Cartoons & Memes

RandySF

NY-17: Cait Conley wins Democratic primary in blow to Rep. Mike Lawler

(Politico) Republican Rep. Mike Lawler didn’t get the outcome he appeared to want in Tuesday’s election. Army veteran Cait Conley has emerged victorious in the bitter Democratic primary for New York’s 17th Congressional District, setting up a general election fight between a past national security staffer for former President Joe Biden and Lawler. Conley, who served six tours overseas before becoming the National Security Council’s director for counterterrorism, leaned on her military service during her campaign, casting herself as a tough-as-nails political outsider who could cut through the noise and find pragmatic solutions.

BumRushDaShow

Democrats seek probe of Secret Service disbursements

(Roll Call) Top Democratic appropriators are calling on the Government Accountability Office to probe the Trump administration’s release of nearly $400 million of taxpayer funds for a White House East Wing modernization project that includes a ballroom. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, who is the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, requested an investigation in a letter to acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown.

riversedge

Dead ducks add to Trump's reflecting pool drama

(Politico) A local wildlife organization collected two deceased ducks, found at a pond adjacent to the pool Sunday. The same day, a Washington Examiner journalist documented another dead adolescent duck floating in shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. The presence of deceased waterfowl has sparked speculation of toxic algae, sometimes known as blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, in the lime-green gunk that swiftly proliferated after the Trump administration installed a commercial pool liner earlier last month.

marmar

Why MAGA buys Trump�s Reflecting Pool hoax: The GOP would love to arrest people who laugh at them

(Salon) The same man who threatened to sue and ban comedians for satirizing him is now overseeing an effort to falsely accuse people of “vandalism” as a pretext to cuff them for laughing at his Reflecting Pool calamity. Trump has gone hard on the “vandalism” conspiracy theory in recent days, telling reporters in a breathless tone on Monday that someone took a “box cutter” and “start(ed) hacking it up,” somehow putting “a 300-foot long gash” in the pool. The tale contradicts comments he made to reporters on May 4, when he bragged that the new lining was “very strong” and “if you had a knife, you can’t even cut it.”

BumRushDaShow

Bill Gates told House panel Epstein was plotting to blackmail him about extramarital affairs

(ABC News) After Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates tried to end his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender attempted to use compromising information about Gates' extramarital affairs to force his way back into Gates' life -- but never explicitly threatened him, Gates told the House Oversight Committee earlier this month, according to a transcript of the closed-door session released Tuesday.

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U.S. Treasury will oversee frozen Iranian funds when they're released, Bessent says

13 min ago - Published Wed, Jun 24 2026 7:50 AM EDT Updated 5 Hours Ago The Treasury Department will oversee Iranian funds when they are released under President Donald Trump’s interim Iran agreement, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday on CNBC&# ... (CNBC)

US judge blocks DOJ from obtaining transgender care records from New York hospitals

1 hr ago - June 24, 2026 11:36 AM EDT Updated 37 mins ago June 24 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the U.S. Department of Justice from ‌using subpoenas to obtain medical records of transgender patients who as minors received gender-affirmin ... (Reuters)

Postmaster general says USPS won't deliver mail ballots if states don't give Trump admin voter rolls

1 hr ago - June 24, 2026 Postmaster General David Steiner told senators that, under a new proposed rule, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will not deliver mail ballots unless states hand over their voter lists to the Trump administration. “Under our propos ... (Democracy Docket News)

Federal firefighters will be encouraged to wear N95 respirators in major policy reversal

2 hrs ago - June 24, 2026, 11:19 AM EDT For the first time, federal firefighters will be encouraged to wear respirators to protect them against smoke-related hazards as they work to put out wildland blazes. The Forest Service announced Wednesday that firefighter ... (NBC News)

Federal judge bars Trump from implementing proof of citizenship requirement to vote

2 hrs ago - BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday permanently barred President Donald Trump's administration from implementing most of his first executive order on elections, part of which sought to require people to show documentary proof of citizensh ... (Yahoo News)

Key Army general relinquishing command

3 hrs ago - One of the Army's most seasoned and high-profile officers is abruptly relinquishing command next week, according to the service. Gen. Chris Donahue has spent the past 18 months leading U.S. Army Europe and Africa, the command responsible for Army ope ... (ABC News)

Chief of staff to former NYC Mayor Eric Adams, 3 others charged in federal bribery probe

4 hrs ago - By DAVE COLLINS, JAKE OFFENHARTZ, MICHAEL R. SISAK and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Updated 9:42 AM CDT, June 24, 2026 Leer en español NEW YORK (AP) — A chief of staff to former New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been charged with accepting more ... (AP)

Trump cancels signing of bipartisan housing bill, demanding voter-ID provision

5 hrs ago - Published Wed, Jun 24 2026 10:30 AM EDT Updated 4 Min Ago President Donald Trump on Wednesday canceled via Truth Social a scheduled Capitol Hill signing of a landmark bipartisan housing bill that leaders in both parties had heralded as a win. "Today' ... (CNBC)

Camp Mystic in Texas files for bankruptcy after catastrophic floods killed 28 people

5 hrs ago - Updated Jun 24, 2026, 9:27 AM ET PUBLISHED Jun 24, 2026, 9:18 AM ET AP - Camp Mystic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on Wednesday, nearly a year after catastrophic floods killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors at the all-girls Chri ... (CNN US)

'This is injustice': how leftist zines were used to sentence anti-ICE protesters to decades in prison

5 hrs ago - Last year on the Fourth of July, a small group from Dallas-Fort Worth held a night-time noise demonstration, setting off fireworks outside the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility south of the cities, in solidarity ... (The Guardian)

Marjorie Taylor Greene says she's 'DONE' with the Republican Party

5 hrs ago - ATLANTA — Former Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she is “DONE” with the Republican party. “There is A LOT of us that are absolutely fed up and will not support a party that betrays its voters and country,” G ... (WSBTV)

Trump's Gaza Board of Peace will hit the reset button in Cyprus

6 hrs ago - June 24, 2026 12:59 pm CET U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace is set to convene at a Cyprus resort on June 30 to “adjust its strategy,” an official familiar with the matter told POLITICO. Two senior EU officials, involve ... (Politico (EU))

Trump Calls for Probe Into Gasoline Price 'Gouging'

7 hrs ago - June 24, 2026, at 12:26 a.m. June 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on ⁠Wednesday ⁠that he has instructed ⁠the Department of Justice to look into oil companies for not lowering gasoline pump prices in line with ... (US News & World Report/Reuters)

Epstein Ex-Secretary Says She Set Up Phone Calls Between Trump And Epstein For Year

7 hrs ago - Jun 23, 2026, 08:21 PM EDT Lesley Groff, former executive secretary for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, told lawmakers that she set up phone calls between her boss and President Donald Trump several times a year for at least a decade, accordi ... (Huff Post)

Republicans brace for Trump SAVE Act showdown

8 hrs ago - 11h Sens. Mike Lee and Rick Scott have teed up what could be a tense, confrontational lunch Wednesday with President Trump and Senate Republicans. The two spent months pressuring Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on the SAVE America Act. Now ... (msn/Axios)

Workers plan to strike at 6 Illinois Prime Healthcare hospitals

8 hrs ago - By Lisa Schencker | lschencker@chicagotribune.com | Chicago Tribune PUBLISHED: June 23, 2026 at 12:20 PM CDT | UPDATED: June 23, 2026 at 7:06 PM CDT Skilled maintenance workers at six Prime Healthcare hospitals in Illinois plan to go on strike July 2 ... (Chicago Tribune)

Kristi Noem's Husband Bryon Used Work Phone for Paid Calls: Sex Worker

8 hrs ago - Published Jun 23, 2026 at 07:02 PM EDT updated Jun 23, 2026 at 07:03 PM EDT A Colorado sex worker says Bryon Noem used a phone number tied to his insurance business for paid calls over several years. A new interview details his reported interest in ... (Newsweek)

Trump Rages Against Senate and 'Four Republican Losers' for Crossing Him On Iran, Accuses Them of Giving 'Aid and

8 hrs ago - President Donald Trump raged against the Senate and "four Republican losers" for delivering a stunning rebuke of his war in Iran. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 50-48 to pass a war powers resolution -- which instructs the president to end the war in Ir ... (Mediaite.com)

ODNI under Pulte fires 6 staff, sends 45 back to home agencies

8 hrs ago - Updated on: June 23, 2026 / 6:54 PM EDT / CBS News Just over 50 career and political intelligence staff at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have been removed from their roles since Bill Pulte became the agency's acting director, Fr ... (CBS News)