Trump live updates: President says Elon Musk ‘off the rails’ as tech boss hits back over Jeffrey Epstein

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence bot on X summarized a post from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt over the weekend about the devastating Texas floods by providing information on how global warming increases the likelihood of extreme weather.

On Saturday, Leavitt re-posted a Truth Social message from President Donald Trump acknowledging the intense flooding that has killed at least 82 people and informing the public that the administration is working with local Texas officials to assist.

When asked to summarize the post, Grok provided background information on how climate change is making flooding worse, a point unlikely to be appreciated by Trump who has called the issue a “hoax.”

With the opening of the MAGA-approved “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center in the Florida Everglades imminent, other states with Republican leadership have reportedly been in touch with the White House about opening equivalent facilities on their own turf.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained several people in the Los Angeles area on Independence Day.

The agency has detained more than 1,600 people in the region in recent months, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Among those arrested on the Fourth of July were two car wash workers who had been employed there for decades and a beloved food vendor who runs a birria stand, the outlet reports.

Here’s the latest from Katie Hawkinson.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI have ruled that there is no “client list” belonging to the late billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, just a month after Elon Musk accused the president of being on it.

The disgraced financier also died by taking his own life in a New York City jail cell in August 2019 and was not murdered, the DOJ and FBI determine in a two-page memo seen by Axios.

Epstein has been the subject of conspiracy theories ever since his death, with many alleging that he kept a private list of wealthy and well-known public figures whom he trafficked underage girls to for sex.

There has also been long-standing speculation that he was assassinated under orders from one of his powerful former clients so as to prevent his revealing their involvement in his crimes.

The memo in question also reveals that the Trump administration is planning to release CCTV footage from the Manhattan prison in which Epstein spent his final days, in both “raw” and “enhanced” versions, in the hope of definitively establishing that no one else was involved in his death.

European leaders have redoubled their efforts to prise Donald Trump away from Russia by warning that the U.S. president is being “mocked” by Vladimir Putin, alleging that Moscow is using chemical weapons in Ukraine and demanding that the U.S. restore weapons supplies to Kyiv.

Here’s the latest from Sam Kiley.

If the “trainwreck” Tesla boss goes through with launching his new “America Party,” bankrolling a new presidential candidate with his almost limitless wealth, it could do much more than just derail Trump’s second term, says Sean O’Grady.

America’s largest trade partner, the European Union, is among the entities awaiting word Monday on whether U.S. President Donald Trump really will impose punishing tariffs on their goods, a move economists have warned would have repercussions for companies and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Trump imposed a 20 percent import tax on all E.U.-made products in early April as part of a set of tariffs targeting countries with which the United States has a trade imbalance. Hours after the nation-specific duties took effect, he put them on hold until July 9 at a standard rate of 10 percent to quiet financial markets and allow time for negotiations. He has since extended that pause to August 1.

Expressing displeasure, the E.U.’s stance in trade talks, however, the president said he would jack up the tariff rate for European exports to 50 percent. A rate that high could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals much more expensive in the U.S.

Here are important things to know about trade between the United States and the European Union.

One of Bessent’s predecessors in the job, Larry Summers, was also interviewed on the Sunday shows and hit out angrily at the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which was forced through the House of Representatives last week and threatens to slash welfare and hike up the national debt to pay for defense spending and tax breaks.

“In my 70 years, I’ve never been as embarrassed for my country on July 4th,” Summers told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week.

“These higher interest rates, these cutbacks in subsidies to electricity, these reductions in the availability of housing, the fact that hospitals are going to have to take care of these people and pass on the costs to everybody else, and that’s going to mean more inflation, more risk that the Fed has to raise interest rates and run the risk of recession, more stagflation, that’s the risk facing every middle-class family in our country because of this bill.

“And for what? A million dollars over 10 years to the top tenth of a percent of our population? Is that the highest priority use of federal money right now? I don’t think so. This is a shameful act by our Congress and by our president that is going to set our country back.”

John Bowden was watching.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent got into a row with Dana Bash on Sunday over the administration’s claim that it would be announcing 90 deals in 90 days in response to its tough tariff policy.

“The president has a reputation, a self-described dealmaker, so why haven’t we seen the kind of deals that he promised in the last 90 days?” Bash asked.

Bessent, rightly, pointed out that it was trade adviser Peter Navarro who had made that ill-advised claim, not Trump, and continued: “When we send out the 100 letters to these countries, that will set their tariff rate. So we’re going to have 100 done in the next few days.”

Bash responded: “But that’s not a deal. That’s a threat.”

“No, that’s the level,” Bessent insisted. “That’s the deal.”

He continued: “President Trump’s going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don’t move things along, then on August 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level.”

With at least 82 people dead and 10 girls still missing in the Lone Star State after torrential rain caused the Guadalupe River to burst its banks over the weekend, the president has issued a major disaster declaration and pledged to visit bereaved families and exhausted rescue workers later this week, most likely on Friday.

You can follow all the latest updates on the recovery effort with James Liddell right here.

A blame game has meanwhile already erupted over the tragedy, with some officials claiming the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Weather Service meant it could not deliver sufficient forecasts warning of the imminent danger.

Here’s the latest from Katie Hawkinson and Erin Keller.