“Less than 24 hours after the White House launched a TikTok page, its videos have been inundated with comments about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal,” the Daily Beast reports.

Ed Kilgore: “It’s possible Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to ‘federalize’ law enforcement in Washington, D.C., was just a one-off power grab, reflecting the federal government’s unique control of the capital city and Trump’s own obsession with Washington as a symbol of the American greatness he claims to be restoring. In other words, maybe he took over D.C. because he could.”

“But the exotic and rather fascistic appearance of National Guard units on the streets of Washington absent a riot or some other historically relevant pretext makes you wonder if the 47th president has something far worse in store.”

“Most citizens in Washington D.C. are Black. This is not a city that has had any safety for its Black citizens for generations, and President Trump is the one who is fixing that. So we’re going to ignore these stupid white hippies. They all need to go home and take a nap because they’re all over 90 years old.”

— White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, quoted by USA Today, on protesters angry with the federal takeover of D.C. police.

“Pam Bondi has emerged from self-exile following right-wing blowback over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and is reasserting control over the Justice Department and her role as attorney general,” CNN reports.

“Bondi moved this week to install a new co-deputy FBI director alongside Dan Bongino, who had a heated confrontation with the attorney general in July and threatened to resign over the Epstein debacle. It’s a signal, Trump administration officials say, that Bondi won the power struggle and Bongino is likely to exit.”

“At least two large law firms that struck deals with President Trump to avoid punitive executive orders have committed to doing free legal work for the Commerce Department,” the New York Times reports.

“The firms — Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Kirkland & Ellis — are working on a range of matters for the Commerce Department, including trade deals.”

“Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is moving forward with the next phase of plans to eventually cut staffing in her department by almost half,” Axios reports.