Good morning, everyone. Lots of news to cover this Saturday.
Overnight, while you were asleep, Trump and his family were behind one of the most brazen acts of corruption we’ve seen yet. His family’s crypto company just got preliminarily approved to become a federally chartered bank, and once that’s finalized, you may never fully know who is funneling money to the president.
Meanwhile, major new Epstein documents reveal the FBI flagged several records tied directly to Trump during its review of the files. And we have more exclusive reporting on the service members deployed overseas.
I just want to pause for a second and say how proud I am of our reporting over the last 48 hours. We broke several stories, and we got every major media outlet covering our reporting on the service members overseas.
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Here’s the news:
Trump Bank:
Overnight, while you were asleep, the President became a bank owner. The Trump-appointed Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved a federal trust bank charter for World Liberty Trust Co., a crypto venture in which Trump and his family retain a substantial financial stake, marking one of the administration’s most direct official actions touching the president’s private finances. The charter, still subject to additional requirements before final approval, will let the company directly manage its USD1 stablecoin, handle its reserves, and offer digital asset custody without an intermediary, while also letting it operate across state lines more easily. World Liberty’s chairman Zach Witkoff, son of Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff, welcomed “continuous scrutiny from Federal regulators,” while the company and White House maintain Trump has no operational role, even though DT Marks DEFI LLC, an entity tied to Trump and his family, owns roughly 38% of World Liberty’s holding company and holds 22.5 billion of its governance tokens. Trump disclosed nearly $600 million in income from World Liberty token and equity sales in 2025 alone, part of $1.4 billion in total crypto-related earnings that year.
Democrats and ethics watchdogs immediately blasted the decision as one of the clearest conflicts of interest of Trump’s second term. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, called it “the most brazen act of self-dealing our financial system has ever seen,” adding, “I’m introducing a bill to stop this kind of unprecedented corruption.” Warren and other Democrats unveiled legislation Friday that would bar regulators from approving banks owned or controlled by the president, vice president, members of Congress, or other top officials, and a Senate aide said the Banking Committee would likely investigate the approval next year if Democrats retake Congress. CREW CEO Donald Sherman separately called it “the most egregious example to date of the President’s businesses profiting from his government job,” accusing Trump of boosting crypto markets “at the expense of everyday Americans.”
Comptroller Jonathan Gould, a Trump appointee, rejected Democratic calls to pause the review, recuse himself, or share World Liberty’s full unredacted application, telling lawmakers in February the agency “process[es] applications in a fair and evenhanded manner.” Top OCC chartering official Stephen Lybarger wrote in Friday’s approval letter that the agency followed “established policies and procedures” and acted “consistently with their statutory duties and ethical obligations,” saying career staff reviewed the application against standard approval criteria; the OCC said it consulted career ethics officials during the process but declined further comment. The approval fits a broader pattern under Trump’s OCC, which has issued similar trust bank charters to crypto firms like Circle, Ripple, and Coinbase, with one crypto adviser describing World Liberty’s move as an effort to become “like Circle” rather than a traditional bank such as Chase.
Epstein News:
Newly released FBI documents, made public after Bloomberg reporter Jason Leopold sued the bureau under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that Sarah Ferguson, the ex-Duchess of York, tried to connect a British socialite with FBI Director Kash Patel in March 2025, just weeks after he was sworn in and placed in charge of reviewing the Epstein investigative files. Ferguson reportedly relayed the request through a senior diplomat at the US embassy in London, asking that contact information be passed along to Patel for Victoria Hervey, a socialite who previously dated Ferguson’s ex-husband, Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. According to the embassy attaché’s own email, Patel had already met both Hervey and Ferguson’s longtime personal assistant, Antonia Marshall, in person at Trump International Golf Course, and had asked them directly for their contact details at that meeting. Bloomberg and colleague Harry Wilson reviewed 715 pages of records released as part of this drop, which the FBI has been quietly posting to its FOIA reading room, The Vault, under the umbrella title “Records regarding the review of the investigative holdings related to Jeffrey Epstein,” and which stem from FOIA lawsuits filed by multiple watchdog organizations, not just Bloomberg.
An FBI spokesperson downplayed the exchange when Bloomberg asked about it, saying Patel “does not know who this Victoria Hervey person is” and adding that he’s “taken photos with thousands of people.” Notably, that response doesn’t dispute any of the underlying facts, it doesn’t deny the golf course meeting happened, doesn’t deny contact information was exchanged, and doesn’t deny Ferguson’s outreach through the embassy; it simply questions how well Patel actually knows Hervey personally. The emails themselves contain no direct mention of Jeffrey Epstein by name, but the FBI made the choice to release them as part of its official Epstein records collection rather than withhold them as unrelated, which suggests the bureau itself considers the exchange relevant to the broader review it’s supposed to be conducting.
This new reporting builds on already well-documented ties between Epstein and the royal family. DOJ-released emails from this past January showed that Prince Andrew maintained a close friendship with Epstein for years after publicly claiming to have cut him off, and that Ferguson herself stayed in contact with Epstein even after his 2008 guilty plea for soliciting prostitution from a minor, at one point asking him directly for financial advice and help paying off her personal debts. That history is part of why a member of that same social circle attempting to reach the FBI director overseeing the Epstein review, through a US embassy back channel no less, is drawing scrutiny now.
Separately, the broader trove of FBI records tied to this review includes a striking detail about how internal flagging worked: 16 separate entries on an internal review list had their reason for being flagged listed simply as “POTUS,” shorthand for the president. Those 16 items span a range of material, including magazine and newspaper articles, message pads, phone message books, and one record that remains unidentified in the documents. The vague, single-word justification offers little insight into why those specific items were singled out or what about them connected to the president, and it fits into the pattern raised by Bloomberg’s earlier reporting on the FBI’s “special redaction project,” which has already raised questions about how much of the Epstein material has been fully disclosed versus filtered before release.
Service Members/Navy:
Roughly 200 family members brought urgent concerns about mental health and the risk of self-harm directly to senior Navy leadership, including the acting Navy secretary and top admirals, during town hall meetings this week in San Diego, with one spouse describing a message that same day from her husband saying he “hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow.” Officials didn’t directly respond to that account but stressed that sailors have access to mental health counselors, chaplains, and doctors, and said the Navy is working to send more mental health professionals aboard. The ship has logged 250 consecutive days at sea and supported 40 straight days of combat operations, and officials at the meetings declined to give a return date, citing operational security. One attendee told leadership the situation had “broken trust” between families and Navy command.
The roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard have endured food and water shortages, disrupted mail, long stretches without laundry, and workdays with little rest, largely because the carrier has gone most of its deployment without the regular 30-to-45-day port calls carriers typically rely on for resupply and crew breaks. A brief stop in Oman in early July allowed some resupply and limited time off ship within a secure compound, and the Navy says food, clean water, and air conditioning access have since improved, though sailors describe morale as having cratered to the point that many would rather skip further port stops entirely just to get home sooner. The Navy attributes the supply disruptions to operating in a contested environment where normal Middle East logistics hubs were affected by combat operations, and says it prioritized food, then hygiene items, then mail as conditions allowed. I spoke with Laura Coates on CNN about the major issues they are facing:
Separate interviews with active-duty sailors and family members, along with public social media posts from crew members, describe widespread exhaustion, declining morale, and at least one instance in which a crew member had to be physically stopped from jumping overboard, an incident the crew learned about through a ship-wide announcement. Research on deployment stress backs up what families are describing: a 2025 study of nearly 1,000 sailors found that inability to rest, limited access to mental and physical healthcare, and difficulty communicating with family ranked among the most distressing aspects of long deployments. The uncertainty of an open-ended deployment compounds the strain further, since sailors have no fixed date to count down to and morale tends to erode the longer that uncertainty drags on.
Separately, the Navy is now considering an even more disruptive change: relocating the “island,” the multistory command tower on its newest Ford-class carriers, back toward the middle of the ship so it resembles older, World War II-era vessels, a shift driven by presidential preference for how the ships look. A similar study during Trump’s first term found the redesign would cost billions of dollars and cause major construction delays, and the island’s current rear placement exists specifically for efficiency and landing safety reasons. This follows a separate directive ordering the Ford class to revert from modern electromagnetic aircraft catapults back to older steam-powered systems, another change expected to run into the billions and worsen delays in a shipbuilding program already known for being years behind schedule.
These design changes are unfolding as the carrier fleet is already stretched thin by the ongoing Iran war, with the Ford previously sidelined by an onboard fire that made crew quarters uninhabitable and separate toilet system failures. It follows an earlier proposal for a new “Golden Fleet” of battleships that independent budget analysts estimated would cost roughly $275 billion over 30 years, a plan that already drew criticism from naval analysts and lawmakers as a wasteful use of limited shipbuilding capacity.
Iran war:
Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi dismissed Trump’s claim that he’ll soon declare the Strait of Hormuz “a territory of the United States,” saying the waterway “cannot be seized with a tweet, nor with an aircraft carrier, nor by issuing an order,” and that it will only open and close “under Iran’s command” as Tehran continues enforcing its blockade until the US “accept[s] the reality of defeat.” Trump made the claim Friday at a New York police academy, saying Iran was being “very badly defeated” and defending higher gas prices as worth the cost of preventing “a very evil country” from getting a nuclear weapon, which Iran continues to deny pursuing. The 60-day negotiating window set under a June US-Iran memorandum expires Monday with little direct talks having occurred, and Iran’s foreign minister said this week there are currently “no negotiations taking place between Tehran and Washington,” despite Qatar and Pakistan exchanging messages as mediators. Traffic through the strait remains a trickle of its peacetime volume, with only two vessels passing Friday and no crude shipments visible, while a bulk carrier was struck by an unknown projectile in the strait that same day, and oil prices have ticked back up with Brent on track for a 6% weekly rise. Vice President JD Vance, leading the negotiations, said keeping oil and gas prices low for Americans remains the administration’s top goal, with preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon ranked second.
Iran’s state-sponsored propaganda has turned sharply more violent since Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in a February airstrike on the war’s first day, with billboards across Tehran now depicting Trump lying in a casket, the White House engulfed in flames with “blood for blood” written in Persian, and a parody American flag with skulls replacing the stars and bombs falling from the stripes. One recent billboard referenced the sailors killed aboard the Iranian warship Iris Dena in a US submarine attack and carried an explicit death threat against Trump, while another, following it within two weeks, showed Trump being strangled with the message “Revenge is inevitable.” Much of the newer imagery appears AI-generated, part of a broader Iranian propaganda push that has included AI-made Lego-style videos mocking Trump’s administration from a group called Explosive Media, which claims it isn’t state-directed even as it operates within Iran’s information space; Trump himself has posted AI-generated images depicting Iranian ships and energy infrastructure being destroyed by the US military. As of the latest Central Command figures from July 18, 17 US service members have died in the nearly six-month war, while Iran’s Forensic Medicine Organization has reported roughly 3,375 Iranian deaths as of April.
An Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon killed seven people and wounded three early Saturday, targeting a home on the edge of Ansar village in one of the deadliest attacks since the precarious Israel-Hezbollah truce took effect June 20. Separate strikes that morning also hit the strategic Ali Taher hill overlooking Nabatiyeh, part of Israel’s continued near-daily attacks north of the Litani River despite the ceasefire. The truce, formalized in a June 26 framework agreement, calls for Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament and eventual peace talks, but Hezbollah has refused direct negotiations and wasn’t party to the deal, while accusing the Lebanese government of conceding too much without a guaranteed Israeli pullout. The current round of fighting began March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets across the border two days after the US and Israel struck Iran, and since then more than 4,000 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, against roughly 40 Israeli soldiers and three civilians killed. Lebanon and Israel have held seven rounds of talks, most recently in Rome earlier this month, though earlier this month two Israeli soldiers were also killed in an explosion in southern Lebanon, the first Israeli deaths since the truce began.
Other News:
While speaking to law enforcement officials in Garden City, New York, on Friday, Trump got unusually specific describing hair products that give the impression of "4 percent" more hair, using it as an example while complaining about pharmacy items being locked behind glass. He said, "You want a little of that good hair that can puff up your hair a little bit more, so it makes it look like you have 4 percent more than you had, they charge you for it," before pivoting to blame lax prosecution of shoplifters. The comment comes amid heightened scrutiny of Trump's hair after it appeared unusually fluffy during a Las Vegas appearance last week and a shade darker days later; his first-term medical records listed the anti-balding drug Propecia, but it hasn't appeared in any records released since he returned to office, with the White House saying prior disclosures reflected all "clinically relevant" medications.
During the same ‘law-and-order rally’ with New York police officers in Garden City, Trump repeatedly described "young, beautiful girls" he claims regularly approach him at the White House to thank him for his federal takeover of D.C. law enforcement, telling the audience, mostly male officers plus AG Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, that these "gorgeous, beautiful girls" tell him they used to be "afraid to open the door to my apartment" but now walk to the White House "with absolutely no fear."
Trump told law enforcement officers that "a tiny little bit more" at the pump, with gas prices now around $4 a gallon nationally, was worth it to keep "a very evil country" from getting a nuclear weapon, adding "I'll never apologize" for the decision.
A series of shootings in Missaukee County, Michigan, about 170 miles northwest of Detroit, left five people dead along with the suspect on Friday. Police responding around noon to a shooting at one home found three people dead and a fourth in critical condition, while suspect Chad Hickman, 39, had already fled; a fourth victim was later found dead at a second home during the search. Authorities warned the public that Hickman was armed and dangerous before locating his vehicle near Whitlock Lake, which led them to his body and that of another deceased person. Names and ages of the victims haven’t been released pending family notification, and Lt. Ashley Miller called the situation “heartbreaking for the community and challenging for the investigators involved,” noting teams would work through the night processing each scene. Governor Gretchen Whitmer said she’d been briefed and was monitoring the situation, offering condolences to the victims, their families, and the Missaukee community.
US Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office filed felony charges Friday against Melissa L. Farris, accused of filling the World War II Memorial fountain with bubbles and spray-painting "Clean hands dirty $" on a nearby stone balcony, charges of depredation against US property and destruction of veterans' memorials carrying up to 10 years in prison; the complaint puts the damage at over $1,000. Park Police were alerted to a "disorderly" person spray-painting and filming herself around 2 p.m. Thursday, and she fled when a ranger approached, later identified through a Kentucky driver's license tied to an Aug. 10 arrest. Social media videos reviewed by Politico show Farris describing homelessness, mental health struggles, and fear of being stalked, and in a tearful Friday Facebook post she said she was turning herself in and had "only been trying to get help for myself" after feeling law enforcement and media hadn't taken her seriously.
Five years after seizing power, the Taliban are increasingly breaking out of diplomatic isolation as regional and global powers deepen ties despite what the UN in March called a "graveyard for human rights," citing a "cascade of edicts" banning women from universities and most jobs, denying teenage girls education, and imposing strict dress codes, alongside persecution of minorities, activists, and journalists. India, Qatar, China, Iran, and several Central Asian states have all welcomed Taliban officials recently, Russia signed a military cooperation agreement last month after recognizing the Taliban government just over a year ago, and the EU held talks in Brussels in June about returning failed asylum-seekers to Afghanistan, its first formal Taliban meeting since 2021.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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