July 24, 2025: Donald Trump presidency news

Our live coverage of Donald Trump’s presidency has ended for the day. Follow the latest updates or read through the posts below.

Todd Blanche leaves the New York State Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in New York, on January 7.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said he will continue his interview with Ghislaine Maxwell tomorrow.

“Today, I met with Ghislaine Maxwell, and I will continue my interview of her tomorrow,” he said in a post on X. “The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time.”

Blanche met with Maxwell earlier today at the US attorney’s office in Tallahassee.

Remember: Maxwell, a British socialite and ex-girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in federal prison for carrying out a years-long scheme with the disgraced financier to groom and sexually abuse underage girls. She has attempted to appeal her conviction.

Blanche’s meeting with Maxwell today came with the backdrop of fierce public backlash, including from members of President Donald Trump’s base, over the administration’s perceived lack of transparency surrounding documents related to Epstein’s case.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren conducts a special forum on the rising cost of education on May 14, in Washington, DC.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is asking the Social Security Administration’s inspector general to audit the agency’s customer service amid concerns that the Trump administration-spurred reorganization has hurt the agency’s ability to assist the public.

Warren wants to know whether telephone and in-person wait times and other key metrics have worsened and how Commissioner Frank Bisignano is calculating the data, according to a letter the Democratic senator sent to the inspector general today and obtained exclusively by CNN. Also, Warren is asking whether the agency is providing accurate information to the public about its customer service metrics.

The request from Warren, who met with Bisignano yesterday, comes at a time when the agency has shed roughly 7,000 employees and implemented a new AI tool on its national 800 number.

Bisignano has promised to quickly improve customer service. However, he has greatly reduced the performance metrics that were previously posted online. A survey conducted by Warren’s staff last month found that telephone wait times averaged nearly an hour and 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, the agency has touted its customer service achievements.

Social Security handled nearly 70% more calls on its 800 number last week than the same period a year ago, while cutting its average speed of answer to six minutes, from 30 minutes last year, according to a press release posted yesterday.

Warren has requested detailed data about customers’ ability to access phone services and have their issues resolved. She has also asked how staffing decisions have affected phone and in-person services.

Sen. Kevin Cramer speaks with CNN's Manu Raju on Thursday.

Some Republican lawmakers signaled today that they would prefer the Trump administration put out more information about the Jeffrey Epstein case, as the party and President Donald Trump face persistent public pressure.

Here’s what some GOP senators said today on the matter:

Sen. Kevin Cramer, the conservative from North Dakota, suggested the White House facilitate the release of Epstein documents to avoid the appearance of impropriety, given that Trump’s name is reportedly in them. “The appearance is that if, if the same administration is blocking the information that isn’t you know implicated in it, that it can look bad … sometimes you do the right thing, even if it makes you look bad in the short run,” Cramer said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committe, called on the administration to “release all the Epstein stuff.” “I want to protect victims but be as transparent as you can with Epstein,” he said.

Sen. John Cornyn took a different tack, saying he would defer to the Justice Department on how to handle the situation. “I think there’s a file sitting on Pam Bondi’s desk, which is an investigation,” Cornyn said, when asked why he’s not directly calling for an Epstein investigation.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who introduced a non-binding resolution which would require the courts to release documents related to Epstein, defended Trump’s handling of the matter. “The president has been very transparent on this, and I’m not concerned about that at all,” Mullin told reporters, when asked if he was concerned about any possible exposure for Trump if the files were released.

Sen. Rand Paul, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, was blunt on if his committee will investigate the Epstein situation: “No,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks on the Senate floor on Thursday.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded an all-Senate briefing on documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case following reports that President Donald Trump’s name appears in the files.

“The Senate deserves to hear directly from senior administration officials about Donald Trump’s name appearing in these files and the complete lack of transparency shown to date,” Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor today.

While bipartisan members of a House panel have voted to subpoena Epstein case material, and House Oversight Chairman James Comer announced his panel would seek testimony from Ghislaine Maxwell, Senate Republicans have been less focused on the controversy.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters yesterday that the Epstein files are “clearly a bigger issue” in the House than in the Senate.

However, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee attempted today to push the administration to release more information on the Epstein case — a move which was ultimately blocked — and GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin introduced a non-binding resolution requiring the courts to release more information as well.

Thune would not say if that could come up for a full Senate vote.

“We’ll see where our conference is. Obviously, there’s some interest in taking action on it, and we’ll see how intense that feeling is,” he told CNN.

President Donald Trump signed a $9 billion spending cuts package into law today after Congress passed it late last week.

The package, which codified Department of Government Efficiency-recommended cuts, was passed under an obscure presidential budget law used to circumvent the Senate filibuster.

Trump is the first president in roughly 30 years to successfully use the maneuver, in a show of deference to the White House from the legislative branch — which is specifically given the power of the purse in the US Constitution.

What’s in the package: Roughly $8 billion will be cut from congressionally approved foreign aid programs as part of the White House’s efforts to dismantle the US Agency for International Development. Another $1.1 billion comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund NPR and PBS.

The US Department of Agriculture plans to slash its staff and office locations in the Washington, DC, area as part of the Trump administration’s effort to overhaul and shrink the federal workforce.

That’s one of several key politics headlines to catch up on this evening:

President Donald Trump, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell and US Sen. Tim Scott visit the Federal Reserve in Washington, DC, on July 24.

President Donald Trump, after a tour of the Federal Reserve’s $2.5 billion renovation that saw him openly spar with Fed Chair Jerome Powell, said he does not want to fire Powell.

Trump said there was “no tension” between him and Powell on the tour, despite some public feuding at one stop in which Trump challenged Powell over the cost of the renovation.

“I feel good about it,” Trump said of the tour and his relationship with Powell.

“I mean, look I have one dispute,” Trump added, urging Powell to lower interest rates. The Fed has kept interest rates steady during Trump’s term after lowering rates twice toward the end of former President Joe Biden’s term as inflation fell. But Powell has said that inflation may creep higher because of Trump’s trade policy, and the Fed believes it is prudent to keep rates steady.

Trump has accused Powell of playing politics, an accusation that Powell has routinely denied.

But Trump, in an unusual show of support for Powell, said he had confidence in the chair.

Nevertheless, Trump maintained that he has plans to replace Powell when his term expires in May 2026.

The meeting between US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Ghislane Maxwell and her lawyer has ended.

Maxwell’s lawyer was seen leaving the US attorney’s office in Tallahassee a short while ago.

Maxwell was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in federal prison for carrying out a years-long scheme with Jeffrey Epstein to groom and sexually abuse underage girls. She has attempted to appeal her conviction.

The former Epstein associate answered every question posed to her during the meeting, according to her lawyer.

Maxwell, Markus said, “answered every single question. … She never invoked a privilege. She never declined to answer. She answered all the questions truthfully, honestly and to the best of her ability.”

Markus said he wouldn’t comment on the substance of the meeting “for obvious reasons.”

“We’ll go from there,” he said before leaving.

This post has been updated with additional comments from Maxwell’s lawyer.

President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell tour the Federal Reserve’s $2.5 billion headquarters renovation project on July 24, in Washington, DC.

The long-simmering clash between President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was on full public display this afternoon during a tour of the renovation site at the central bank’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

The tension between the two men was apparent during an exchange about the total cost of the Fed’s renovation project. Trump cited a $3.1 billion figure that includes the cost of a third Fed building that was refurbished several years ago and reopened in 2021.

Powell appeared shocked by Trump’s comment, shaking his head in disagreement, and said, “I’m not aware of that.”

“Well, it’s a building that’s being built,” Trump replied, prompting Powell to again correct the president.

“You just added in a third building, is what that is,” the Fed chair said. “It was built five years ago.”

In recent weeks, the administration has trained its ire on Powell for the costly renovation project, but renovation of the campus’ Martin Building, which Trump seems to have included in Thursday’s figure, was completed in 2021.

Watch a portion of the exchange below:

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'It's not new': Jerome Powell corrects Trump over building plan

02:03 • Source: CNN

President Donald Trump, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, and US Sen. Tim Scott tour the Federal Reserve Board building, which is currently undergoing renovations, in Washington, DC, on July 24.

President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell are on a tour of the central bank’s $2.5 billion renovation project.

It marks the pair’s first meeting since Trump summoned Powell to the White House in May.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said the following people were joining him and Powell on the tour:

Although presidents sometimes meet with Fed chairs to discuss the economy, their meetings are purposefully infrequent in order to maintain the central bank’s independence from politics. Trump has been routinely pressuring Powell to lower interest rates, and he and members of his administration have publicly attacked Powell almost daily.

Powell’s handling of the massive renovation and its cost overruns and design changes have become the focus of a White House pressure campaign, setting up a potential avenue for Trump to fire Powell.

Read more: The Federal Reserve is embroiled in a crisis communications strategy battle with the White House.

Emil Bove arrives to testify during his Senate Judiciary Committee nomination hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on June 25 in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump’s nominees for United Nations ambassador and judge on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit advanced in Senate votes today — despite some Republican opposition.

GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin has introduced a non-binding resolution that calls on federal and state courts to unseal materials related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as President Donald Trump and Republicans face persistent calls for more information on the case.

The resolution calls on courts to “immediately unseal all materials, including grand jury materials,” that were part of any investigation into Epstein or his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who’s serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring with Epstein.

In addition to introducing his own resolution, Mullin blocked a resolution from Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego to urge the Justice Department to release its Epstein files.

Speaking on the Senate floor, Mullin accused Gallego’s resolution of “blurring the lines between the separation of powers.” The Oklahoma Republican, however, offered to work with the Arizona Democrat, acknowledging that they’re both in favor of more transparency on the matter.

Senate GOP leader John Thune was noncommittal about a possible vote on the resolution, telling CNN he’d wait to see where his conference is on the resolution.

How we got here: Facing pressure from supporters, Trump ordered the Justice Department last week to pursue the release of the sealed evidence. But a federal judge declined yesterday to release grand jury documents. Additional requests to release information are still pending.

Mullin defended the scope of his resolution as it relates to any future judicial decisions, telling CNN’s Manu Raju, “It’s non-binding because the clear separation of powers here — the court still has to move forward.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, the former associate of Jeffrey Epstein, in Florida today, according to sources.

CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez explains what to expect:

GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn are calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate the Obama administration’s intelligence assessments of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The move comes after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified and released a congressional report on intelligence related to Russian interference, a move that critics say was meant to distract from controversy surrounding the Trump administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The report, originally written by the House Intelligence Committee during President Donald Trump’s first term, argued that the intelligence assessment that Russia sought to help Trump win the 2016 election made analytical leaps based on relatively thin sourcing and failed to weigh contradictory intelligence highly enough.

“For the good of the country, we urge Attorney General Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate the extent to which former President Obama, his staff, and administration officials manipulated the U.S. national security apparatus for a political outcome,” Graham and Cornyn wrote in a statement today.

Bondi announced yesterday that she is creating a “strike force” at DOJ to assess the intelligence. Congressional Democrats have accused Gabbard of endangering intelligence sources and methods by declassifying the report, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s own review of the Russian interference intelligence assessment does not match Gabbard’s insistence that the allegation regarding Trump was “manufactured.”

A special counsel spent four years investigating a wide range of matters related to Russian interference in the 2016 election and never accused US officials of any crimes related to the 2017 intelligence assessment.

Go deeper: Here’s a closer look at how the administration’s claims conflate and misrepresent the intelligence community’s conclusions on Russian interference.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on July 16.

House Oversight Chair James Comer told reporters he’ll move promptly to issue a subpoena to the Justice Department for Jeffrey Epstein files and seek depositions from major figures, including Bill and Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey.

The Kentucky lawmaker also said he spoke with House Speaker Mike Johnson during the panel’s meeting to let him know there was bipartisan support for the Democratic-led effort.

“We spoke yesterday afternoon during the subcommittee meeting,” Comer said.

Comer reiterated that he warned Johnson last week that his members wanted to take action on Epstein, as CNN has previously reported.

“I told Speaker Johnson last week, if we were in session this week, that Republicans on the Oversight Committee were going to move to be more aggressive in trying to get transparency with Epstein file.”

Senate Democrats have made another attempt to force their GOP counterparts to respond to the growing furor over the Trump administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee tried but failed to add language about Epstein to an unrelated opioid bill.

The push to require the White House to release more information on Epstein, led by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, was ultimately unsuccessful. The committee’s Republicans agreed to a different measure that would neuter Booker’s language. Booker later agreed to withdraw his amendment.

Republicans, including Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, argued that Democrats’ push to tie the bipartisan opioid bill to Epstein would interfere with the legislation and delay its results. Grassley repeatedly asked Booker to withdraw his amendment, but the Democrat initially refused.

But Democrats, including Booker, strongly pushed back.

After the committee meeting, Cornyn told reporters that if Booker had insisted on continuing to pursue his amendment, it would have “cost American lives” by stymieing the opioid bill. “Fortunately, he was finally persuaded that was a bad idea,” Cornyn said.

Audrey Strauss, the then-acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell during a news conference in New York on July 2, 2020.

British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was the ex-girlfriend turned social companion of Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in federal prison for carrying out a years-long scheme with Epstein to groom and sexually abuse underage girls. She has attempted to appeal her conviction.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is expected to meet with Maxwell today, sources told CNN.

The meeting comes after a judge declined to release grand jury documents from the criminal probe into Epstein and amid growing backlash against President Donald Trump and his administration for not releasing more information on the Epstein case.

More on Maxwell’s relationship with Epstein:

People stand on campus at Columbia University in New York City, on April 8.

President Donald Trump is having another busy week outside of the Jeffrey Epstein saga. His administration reached a settlement with Columbia University and is quickly approaching a tariffs deadline, while the president faces pushback within his own party on a judicial nominee.

Catch up on the latest developments:

This post has been updated with details on negotiations with Harvard and Trump’s nominee for US attorney in DC.

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Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus arrives at courthouse

00:19 • Source: CNN

Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus arrived at the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, this morning.

Markus and Maxwell are expected to meet with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.