CBS Cancels The Late Show With Stephen Colbert – But did President Trump cancel the host? CBS announced The Late Show will end in May 2026 – the show itself and not just Colbert as hoar. He recently criticized his employer for its $16 million settlement with Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with then-VP Kamala Harris. CBS says the cancellation is a financial decision, but many – as the president would say – question whether Colbert’s fate was part of that settlement.
FRI-SAT 7/18-19/25
Trump v. Murdoch – Perhaps buoyed by his success in reaching settlements with ABC News and CBS owner Paramount – including cancellation of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert -- President Trump has filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit in Florida late Friday against The Wall Street Journal, its owner Rupert Murdoch and two reporters for its Friday scoop that Trump in 2003 sent a lewd 50th birthday greeting to Jeffrey Epstein, NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday reports. Trump says he has never drawn pictures in his life and is not responsible for the birthday message and its drawing described in the WSJ report.
Meanwhile, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) has introduced a bipartisan bill calling for the Justice Department to release all files from the Grand Jury investigation of Epstein, who committed suicide while in federal custody from a conviction of sexual abuse of underage girls.
It would not be the first time a defamation lawsuit hit Murdoch’s properties. In 2023, Fox News paid Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million for false reports about voting machines manipulating the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden over then-incumbent Trump. --TL
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FRIDAY 7/18/25
Happy 50th, Jeffrey Epstein – Ghislaine Maxwell collected special messages from friends – including Donald J. Trump -- and family for a special, leather-bound 50th birthday book for Jeffrey Epstein, in 2003, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing documents it has reviewed. That was three years before Epstein was first arrested over charges he had sexually abused underage girls.
“The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy – like others in the album,” the WSJ exclusive reports. “It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker.”
A squiggly signature, “Donald,” appears below the drawing’s naked waist, “mimicking pubic hair.”
President Trump responded in an interview with the WSJ Tuesday evening that he would sue the Murdoch-owned newspaper “just like I sued everybody else,” responding that he has never drawn anything and did not send a message to Epstein.
DOJ Fires Prosecutor Comey … The WSJ scoop appears two days after Trump’s Justice Department fired without cause Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey and prosecutor in the Epstein and Maxwell cases, as well as the recent trial of Sean Combs (per The New York Times). Comey had worked for nearly a decade in the Manhattan prosecutor’s office, formerly known as the Southern District of New York. --TL
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THURSDAY 7/17/25
CPI Rises to 2.7% -- Trump tariffs pushed the Consumer Price Index up to 2.7% in June. Read Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary, “The Cost of Inputs Rising” in The Gray Area. Scroll down with the trackbar on the far right to read details of the CPI at “Tarifflation Kicks In.”
Senate Approves Clawback – The Senate passed a Trump administration request to rescind $9 billion in foreign aid and Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding Congress had previously approved for the 2025-26 fiscal year. Vote was 51-48, with Republicans Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Susan Collins (ME) voting with Democrats, Roll Call reports. Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) missed the vote as she was taken to hospital with an unspecified illness.
While Democrats in the bill’s vote-a-rama had tried and failed to pass amendments that would retain up to $1.1 billion in CPB funding, according to NPR’s Morning Edition, senators did restore funding established in the Bush 43 administration for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and barred additional recissions for agricultural and nutrition assistance for some countries.
The recissions bill now goes to the House, which has until Friday for passage.
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Perhaps This Isn’t The Apprentice – President Trump showed about a dozen House Republicans a draft letter Tuesday night saying he would fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, The New York Times reports. It’s a threat to which he has alluded to for months, even before his January inauguration.
On Wednesday the New York Stock Exchange tanked on the news temporarily, prompting Trump to back down again, saying he was “highly unlikely” to fire Powell, The Associated Press reports.
Biden’s fault, again … “He’s a terrible Fed chairman,” Trump repeated Wednesday, as what he says is a rejuvenated economy deserves lower interest rates (which would reduce the federal deficit interest payments). “I was surprised, frankly, that Biden extended him and put him in,” Trump said, referring to the former president, who kept Powell on after Trump appointed him Fed chairman during his first term.
Epstein, Epstein, Epstein … As the Jeffrey Epstein files, real or not, continue to split MAGA and Trump, the president is now calling the issue a “Democratic hoax.” Trump says he has “lost faith in certain people” because “they got duped by the Democrats.”
--TL
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WEDNESDAY 7/16/25
Recissions Up – The Senate began a vote-a-rama Wednesday to cut $9 billion in foreign aid and Corporation for Public Broadcasting appropriations already approved for 2026-27 in a recessions package, ahem, requested by the Trump White House. On Tuesday the Senate passed, 51-50, a procedural vote on the recissions package only with Vice President Vance casting the tiebreaker, Punchbowl News reports.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Mitch McConnell (KY) joined all 47 Democrats against the test vote.
With Collins appearing staunchly against the package and Murkowski a potential “no” vote because of her concerns over losing remote local Alaska radio stations from the CPB cuts, McConnell’s vote – he retires from the Senate in 2027 -- will be key. Congress must pass the bill by Friday, or the White House must spend the funds as appropriated. Democrats warn that if the recissions bill is passed it will affect bipartisan agreement on the next appropriations bill in the coming months.
“The recissions package has a big problem,” Collins told reporters. “Nobody really knows what program reductions are in it.”
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Epstein File Lives – We might learn more from the so-called Epstein Files as President Trump has left the issue open to Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi, despite her recent efforts to shut it down (per The Guardian).
“She’s handled it very well, and it’s going to be up to her,” Trump said early Tuesday. “Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release.”
Trump’s comments came as House Speaker Mike Johnson sided with MAGA who want Bondi to release everything she has on Epstein, who killed himself while in 2019 while in federal custody on child trafficking charges.
Or did Epstein kill himself?
That was the subject of a “deep state” conspiracy theory Trump exploited in his 2024 presidential campaign.
In February, Bondi told Fox News’ America Reports she had Epstein’s client list “sitting on my desk right now to review. …” But apparently after a review she concluded that Epstein did commit suicide and was not killed by a deep state cabal, and the list, which MAGA faithful and more extreme conspiracy theorists believe contains the names of mostly Democratic elites should not be released.
Her hot-potato drop of the case drew the ire not only of those clinging to Pizzagate but also of FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.
Last weekend, before his statement that more documents could be forthcoming, Trump Truth Socialed: “One year ago our country was DEAD, now it’s the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World. Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that no one cares about.”
In his rare split with the president Tuesday, Speaker Johnson told podcaster Benny Johnson; “I agree with the sentiment that we need to put it out there. … We need DOJ focusing on the major priorities, so let’s get this thing resolved.”
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Grijalva’s Daughter Wins Primary – Adelita Grijalva handily won the Democratic primary Tuesday to run in a special election in September to replace her late father in a deep blue Arizona congressional district, according to Roll Call. Grijalva, 54, garnered 62% in the primary to face small-business owner Daniel Butierez, winner of Tuesday’s GOP primary, for the seat of her father, Raúl M. Grijalva, who died in March while in office, from complications of lung cancer treatment.
The senior Grijalva defeated Butierez by 27 points last November to retain his seat in a district that stretches from the US-Mexican border into Tucson and parts of Metro Phoenix.
Grijalva defeated four other Democrats in the primary, including social media influencer Deja Foxx, 25, who took 21% of the vote, and former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez, with 15%.
On CNN Tuesday evening, CNN pundit Van Jones gave a shout-out to Foxx as the future of the Democratic Party even as she was projected to lose to Grijalva. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa