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Hello and welcome to the US politics ongoing coverage. This is Tom Ambrose, and I will be providing you with all the most recent news lines over the next few hours.

The President Dismisses Marjorie Taylor Greene's Danger Claims

We begin with the news that Donald Trump intensified his criticism of Republican lawmaker Representative Greene on the weekend, despite his shift on resisting the disclosure of the Jeffrey Epstein documents.

He continued to dismiss her claim that his criticism were putting at risk her and said he did not believe anyone was targeting her. The congresswoman said on the previous day that Trump’s social media posts had triggered a surge of threats aimed at her.

“Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene,” he remarked, speaking of the lawmaker. “I do not believe her life is in danger... I doubt anybody cares about her,” the president informed reporters before boarding Air Force One on Sunday night.

Greene, a US House of Representatives member from Georgia who was long known as a staunch Trump supporter, has recently adopted stances at odds with the commander-in-chief. She noted on the weekend she has been contacted by private security firms expressing concern for her security and that strong criticisms against her have in the past resulted in threats on her life.

Jeffrey Epstein Documents Disclosure Initiative

The public fallout came as Trump encouraged his fellow Republicans in Congress to vote for the publication of records concerning the deceased disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, reversing his earlier resistance to such a action.

Trump’s post on his Truth Social came after Speaker Johnson said earlier that he thought a decision on making public justice department files in the Epstein investigation should help put to rest allegations “that he [Trump] has something to do with it”.

Trump wrote on his social media account on that day: “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have no secrets.

“Now is the moment to put behind us this political stunt orchestrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to distract from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our latest win on the government funding issue,” he said.

While the President and Epstein were photographed together decades ago, the commander-in-chief has said the two men fell out before Epstein's legal troubles. Messages released recently by a congressional panel showed the disgraced financier, who died by suicide in prison in 2019, thought Trump “knew about the girls,” though it was uncertain what that phrase meant.

Other Developments

• Republican congressman Congressman Massie had challenged Trump over whether the US president was making a “last-ditch effort” to prevent the full files on the deceased sex offender Epstein from being disclosed by ordering a fresh investigation. The congressman and Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, the two US representatives leading the bipartisan push to make all the files held by the government public both raised fresh concerns about the steps by the administration.
• US forces carried out a further attack on an suspected narcotics smuggling vessel in the Pacific region on the weekend, resulting in the deaths of three individuals on board, the Pentagon announced on the following day. “Information verified that the vessel was engaged in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and transporting narcotics,” the US Southern Command announced in a message on online platforms.
• The President said the US may open talks with Nicolas Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, who is under escalating pressure from the US government during a huge military deployment in the Caribbean region. “We may be having some talks with Maduro, and we’ll see how that develops. Venezuela would want to talk,” the US president remarked on that day, in one of the initial indications of a possible path to easing the increasingly tense circumstances in the region.
• Trump on Sunday dismissed concerns about conservative commentator the commentator's latest interview with a extremist figure recognized for his antisemitic views, which has created a division within the GOP. The President supported the host, noting the ex-media personality has “expressed good things about me over the years.” He said if he chooses to speak with Nick Fuentes, whose supporters consider themselves working to preserve America’s white, Christian identity, then “individuals have to decide.” He did not condemn Carlson or Fuentes.
• Trump suggested on that day that he intends to have a discussion with NYC's mayor-elect Mamdani and stated they will “work something out”, in what could be a truce for the GOP leader and Democratic political star who have portrayed one another as political foils. Trump has for months slammed Mr Mamdani, falsely describing him as a “socialist” and predicting the ruin of his hometown, New York, if the progressive were elected.
• A group of 17 transgender US air force members has sued the Trump administration for denying them retirement benefits and benefits. The legal filing, submitted in a US court, characterizes the administration's action against them as “unlawful and invalid”.