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Greetings and salutations to the US politics ongoing coverage. This is Tom Ambrose, and I will be providing you with all the latest developments over the coming hours.

Trump Rejects Marjorie Taylor Greene's Danger Claims

We begin with the development that President Donald Trump doubled down on his criticism of Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene on the weekend, even as his reversal on resisting the disclosure of the Jeffrey Epstein documents.

He persisted in rejecting her claim that his criticism were endangering her and said he did not believe anyone was targeting her. The congresswoman said on Saturday that Trump’s social media posts had unleashed a wave of menaces aimed at her.

“Greene the ‘Traitor’,” he remarked, speaking of the congresswoman. “I don’t think her life is in danger... I don’t think anybody cares about her,” Trump informed the press before boarding his presidential plane on Sunday night.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a House representative from Georgia who was long known as a staunch Trump supporter, has lately taken positions at odds with the commander-in-chief. She said on the weekend she has been contacted by security companies expressing concern for her security and that strong criticisms against her have previously led to death threats.

Epstein Files Release Push

The public fallout occurred while Trump urged his fellow Republicans in the legislature to vote for the release of files concerning the deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, changing his earlier opposition to such a move.

His message on his social media platform followed Speaker Johnson said earlier that he thought a decision on releasing DOJ documents in the Epstein case should help put to rest allegations “that he [Trump] has something to do with it”.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday: “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have no secrets.

“Now is the moment to put behind us this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to distract from the Great Success of the GOP, including our latest win on the government funding issue,” he said.

While Trump and Epstein were photographed together years back, the president has said the two men had a disagreement before Epstein's legal troubles. Emails disclosed recently by a congressional panel indicated the convicted sex offender, who took his own life in jail in recent years, thought the President “knew about the girls,” though it was not clear what that statement signified.

Additional Updates

• GOP representative Congressman Massie had challenged Trump over whether the US president was making a “final attempt” to keep the full files on the deceased sex offender Epstein from being disclosed by ordering a new probe. Massie and Democratic representative Ro Khanna, the two US representatives leading the cross-party effort to have all the files in the possession of the authorities available both raised fresh concerns about the actions by the administration.
• US forces conducted a further strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Pacific region on the weekend, killing three people on board, the Pentagon said on Sunday. “Information verified that the vessel was involved in illegal drug trafficking, transiting along a established drug route, and transporting narcotics,” the military command announced in a post on social media.
• The President said the US may open talks with President Maduro, the Venezuelan president, who is under escalating pressure from Washington amid a huge military deployment in the Caribbean region. “We could initiate some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll observe how that turns out. Venezuela would want to talk,” the commander-in-chief said on that day, in one of the initial indications of a possible path to easing the increasingly tense situation in the area.
• Trump on the weekend dismissed worries about conservative commentator Tucker Carlson's recent interview with a extremist figure known for his antisemitic views, which has created a division within the Republican party. The President defended Carlson, saying the former Fox News host has “said positive remarks about me in the past.” He said if Carlson chooses to interview Nick Fuentes, whose supporters see themselves as defending the nation's cultural heritage, then “individuals have to decide.” He did not criticize the commentator or the activist.
• Trump suggested on Sunday that he plans to meet with NYC's incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani and said they will “work something out”, in what could be a detente for the GOP leader and Democratic rising star who have cast each other as opponents. Trump has for months criticized the mayor-elect, falsely describing him as a “socialist” and predicting the ruin of his hometown, New York, if the progressive were elected.
• A group of seventeen trans US air force members has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for refusing them retirement benefits and benefits. The complaint, filed in a US court, describes the government’s move against them as “illegal and unjustified”.