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Greetings and salutations to the US politics ongoing coverage. This is Tom Ambrose, and I will be bringing you all the most recent news lines over the coming hours.

The President Dismisses Marjorie Taylor Greene's Safety Concerns

We start with the development that Donald Trump doubled down on his attacks against Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene on Sunday, despite his shift on opposing the release of the Jeffrey Epstein documents.

He persisted in rejecting her claim that his remarks were endangering her and said he did not believe anyone was targeting her. Greene remarked on Saturday that the President's social media posts had unleashed a surge of menaces directed at her.

“Greene the ‘Traitor’,” he remarked, referring to the congresswoman. “I don’t think her life is in danger... I doubt anybody is concerned for her,” Trump informed the press before boarding Air Force One on Sunday evening.

Greene, a US House of Representatives representative from the state of Georgia who was long known as a staunch Trump supporter, has recently adopted stances contrary to the president. She said on the weekend she has been contacted by private security firms expressing concern for her safety and that strong criticisms against her have in the past resulted in death threats.

Epstein Files Release Initiative

This dispute occurred while the President urged his GOP colleagues in Congress to support the publication of records related to the deceased disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, changing his earlier opposition to such a action.

His message on his social media platform came after Speaker Johnson said earlier that he believed a vote on releasing DOJ documents in the Epstein case should help put to rest claims “that he [Trump] has any involvement”.

Trump wrote on his social media account on that day: “House Republicans should support unsealing the Epstein documents, because we have nothing to hide.

“Now is the moment to put behind us this Democrat Hoax orchestrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown’,” he said.

While Trump and Epstein were photographed together years back, the president has claimed the two men fell out before Epstein's legal troubles. Messages disclosed recently by a congressional panel indicated the convicted sex offender, who took his own life in jail in 2019, thought the President “knew about the girls,” though it was not clear what that statement signified.

Other Updates

• GOP representative Thomas Massie had challenged Trump over whether the US president was making a “final attempt” to keep the full files on the deceased sex offender Epstein from becoming public by initiating a fresh investigation. Massie and Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, the two US representatives leading the cross-party effort to have all the documents held by the government available both raised fresh concerns about the actions by the White House.
• US forces carried out a further strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Pacific region on Saturday, killing three people aboard, the Pentagon announced on the following day. “Intelligence confirmed that the boat was involved in illegal drug trafficking, traveling on a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” the military command stated in a message on social media.
• The President indicated the US may begin discussions with President Maduro, the Venezuelan president, who is under escalating pressure from Washington amid a significant US military buildup in the Caribbean region. “We could initiate some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll observe how that develops. Venezuela would want to talk,” the commander-in-chief said on that day, in one of the initial indications of a potential way to defusing the increasingly tense circumstances in the area.
• Trump on Sunday brushed aside concerns about conservative commentator the commentator's latest interview with a far-right activist recognized for his anti-Jewish sentiments, which has caused a division within the Republican party. The President supported the host, noting the former Fox News host has “said good things about me in the past.” He said if Carlson chooses to speak with Nick Fuentes, whose supporters consider themselves working to preserve the nation's white, Christian identity, then “people have to decide.” Trump did not criticize the commentator or the activist.
• Trump suggested on that day that he intends to meet with New York City’s incoming mayor Mamdani and said they will “reach an agreement”, in what could be a detente for the GOP leader and Democratic political star who have portrayed one another as opponents. He has for an extended period slammed Mr Mamdani, incorrectly describing him as a “socialist” and predicting the decline of his hometown, NYC, if the progressive were chosen.
• A group of 17 transgender military personnel has sued the federal government for refusing them retirement benefits and entitlements. The complaint, filed in a US court, describes the administration's action against them as “illegal and unjustified”.