First lady Melania Trump denied ever having a relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and said the claims about it are defaming her, Reuters reports.
Said Trump: “The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today.”
She added: “I have never had any knowledge of Epstein’s abuse of his victims. I was never involved in any capacity. I was not a participant.”
President Trump told NBC News that he was “very optimistic” a peace deal with Iran was within reach as a diplomatic delegation led by Vice President JD Vance prepared to head to Pakistan for high-stakes talks aimed at ending the nearly six-week conflict.
He claimed Iran’s leaders “talk much differently when you’re at a meeting than they do to the press. They’re much more reasonable. They’re agreeing to all the things that they have to agree to. Remember, they’ve been conquered. They have no military.”
He added: “If they don’t make a deal, it’s going to be very painful.”
NBC News: “Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call yesterday to scale back Israel’s strikes in Lebanon to help ensure the success of the Iran negotiations.”
“While the Trump administration and Israel have both said Lebanon is not covered by the ceasefire, Israel agreed ‘to be a helpful partner.'”
Aaron Blake: “This weekend’s talks to end the war with Iran are some of the most high-stakes negotiations not just of Donald Trump’s presidencies, but of recent American history.”
“One big problem, though: The U.S. can’t even seem to agree with Iran on what they agreed to for the ceasefire.”
The final GDP report for the last quarter of 2025 was downgraded to 0.5% from the previous 0.7% estimate which had already been revised downward from 1.4%.
Wired: “Candace Owens spent years building a pro-MAGA audience by supporting President Donald Trump. Now, she’s calling for his removal from office.”
“Over the past few months, right-wing media figures like Owens have broken with Trump on a number of issues, including the Epstein files and the administration’s intervention in Venezuela. But the fracturing among the MAGA media coalition appears to have reached the point of no return after the president’s threats to annihilate ‘a whole civilization’ in Iran this week.”
“The rise of violent rhetoric and threats against politicians has led federal election campaigns and committees to spend more than five times the amount on security measures in the 2023-2024 election cycle than during the 2015-2016 election cycle,” The Independent reports.
“Roughly $41 million was spent on personal, event-related or cyber security for federal candidates in the latest general election.”
New York Times: “The war in Iran has dealt a new blow to the world economy, which the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday will mean slower growth this year because of the destruction of energy infrastructure and supply chain disruptions.”
Bloomberg: “The US Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether the National Football League is engaging in anticompetitive tactics that drive up the cost for consumers of watching games.”
Dan Drezner: “Trump’s last-minute cease-fire acceptance is an example of the Madman Theory only insofar as the madman gambit has a lousy track record of securing greater concessions — and this cease-fire also failed to gain anything for the United States. Meanwhile, the strategic losses caused by this war will continue to mount.”
“Of course, calling this a ‘deal’ or an ‘arrangement’ is an overly generous description — What actually happened sounds more like a series of coordinated social media posts…”
“I’m serious: what tactical gain did the Trump administration secure by agreeing to the two-week cease-fire beyond the cease-fire itself? Sure, President Trump saved himself from committing war crimes, but that’s not exactly a tactical win.”
Matt Welch: “Why has this administration shredded all precedent by going whole-hog campaign mode for the fading autocrat of a country whose GDP ranks somewhere between Greece and Uzbekistan?”
“Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said on Thursday that he represents a proud nation seeking to maintain global order, pushing back against the latest comments about the Arctic island by President Donald Trump,” the South China Morning Post reports.
Trump on Wednesday vented his frustration with NATO, noting that he still remembered the alliance’s position on Greenland, a “BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE.”
Said Nielsen: “We are not some piece of ice. We are a proud population of 57,000 people, working every single day as good global citizens in full respect for all our allies.”
The Atlantic: “It sure feels like 1979 again. Iran is fighting the West. The price of gas has been rising for weeks. Moscow is aiming to take advantage of a distracted White House. The party in control of Washington is anxiously looking at the polls. Flared pants and jumpsuits are back! So are cigarettes. Steven Spielberg is riding high after doing a movie about humans encountering aliens. (Not to be outdone, actual space missions are back too.) U2 put out new music. Even the Pittsburgh Pirates are good.”
“And if we do seem to have returned to that moment in time, then, well, Donald Trump would seem to be ready for whatever comes next, because the guy has lived his whole life like it’s the 1980s.”
“Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained blocked Thursday, limited to a handful of Iran-linked ships, another sign that a fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran has yet to improve flows through the world’s key energy chokepoint,” Bloomberg reports.
“Just seven vessels, all of which have either called at Iranian ports or were carrying Iranian cargo, were observed making the voyage out of the Persian Gulf on Wednesday and into Thursday morning. Normal transits in both directions are more like 135 a day.”
CNBC: “The Strait of Hormuz has not opened to ship traffic after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire.”
USA Today: “Eligible men will be automatically registered into the U.S. military draft pool by December in an effort to streamline the existing self-registration process, according to the agency that oversees the system.”
“The new automatic registration process was approved by Congress under the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026, which President Donald Trump signed into law in December 2025.”
David Frum: “The most important thing to understand about the “madman theory” of foreign policy is that it was designed by losers for losers.”
“The world first heard of the madman theory from a 1978 memoir by President Richard Nixon’s former chief of staff H. R. Haldeman. According to Haldeman, Nixon said: ‘I want the North Vietnamese to believe I’ve reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war.’ Faced with an otherwise hopeless war in Vietnam, Nixon would pretend to be crazy to intimidate the North Vietnamese into allowing him some face-saving escape.”
“Nobody executes a madman strategy when he feels that he’s winning. Strong and successful powers emphasize consistency and predictability. So do powers that hope to be seen as strong and successful.”
“I love working for President Trump. It’s the greatest honor of a lifetime. And if President Trump chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I’ll say, ‘Thank you very much, I love you, sir.'”
— Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to reporters.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
This issue takes a deep dive into one of the most interesting House races in the country.