Trump Asked Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Shocking Question in Private Call

As President Trump’s heart hardens against Russian President Vladimir Putin, he recently asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy whether he could strike the Russian capital if provided long-range weaponry by the United States, according to recent reports.

On Tuesday, The Financial Times reported that Trump, in a July 4 phone call, asked Zelenskiy, “Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow?” and also inquired as to whether he could hit St. Petersburg, the second-largest Russian city.

“Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons,” Zelenskiy is said to have replied. Trump was apparently open to this, reportedly mentioning a strategy to “make them [Russians] feel the pain” to pressure Putin to negotiate a peace deal.

The Washington Post’s David Ignatius seemingly reported on the same conversation on Monday, writing that Trump had reportedly asked why Zelenskiy “didn’t hit Moscow,” and urged Ukraine to “put more pressure” on the two Russian cities in order to get Putin to the table.

Ignatius also wrote that Trump’s recently announced batch of military aid to Ukraine could include permission to use American-made long-range ATACMS missiles Ukraine currently possesses, which would allow it to strike deeper into Russia—but not so far as to reach the two cities Trump reportedly mentioned in his phone call.

President Biden in November 2024, to the chagrin of some Trump allies, had allowed Ukraine to use ATACMS, leading the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. to accuse him of trying to “get World War Three going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives.”

Ignatius reports that Trump has also considered granting Ukraine’s request for Tomahawk cruise missiles, which would be able to reach Moscow and St. Petersburg, but these remain off the delivery list for the time being.

The president has toughened his stance on Russia in recent days. On Monday, Trump threatened to slap massive tariffs on countries that trade with Russia and announced that the U.S. would send Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine.

Trump’s newly reported conversation with Zelenskiy provides the most recent—and perhaps most striking—evidence that he is beginning to sour on Putin, as he increasingly comes to grips with the notion that the Russian president might not be the good-faith actor he once took him to be.

House Republicans on Monday struck down a Democratic-led effort to release the Epstein files in their entirety. The Republican-majority House Rules committee voted 6-5 to block an amendment that would force the Department of Justice to make all files publicly accessible.

Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina was the only Republican to vote for their release.

“Whose side are you on? That’s really what this Epstein file issue has become,” Representative Ro Khanna, who introduced the amendment, told MSNBC on Monday. “It’s not just about knowing who’s being protected, the rich and the powerful, in terms of who had interaction with Jeffrey Epstein. It’s the sense that people have that the government is too beholden to certain interests, who have their thumb on the scale. And that they’re not working for ordinary people.... This is something that many Republicans believe should happen.”

This is perhaps the most intense test of allegiance that the MAGA movement has faced so far. Trump didn’t just break a major promise by closing the Epstein case; he did so with indignation, as if his supporters were crazy for still talking about it. And although many of his supporters are scapegoating Attorney General Pam Bondi rather than Trump, it doesn’t seem like this issue will just go away. After Monday’s vote, Khanna said he would try again to get the files released.

The Epstein files are especially likely to keep festering because the stars of the MAGA movement—like Steve Bannon, Elon Musk, Laura Loomer, and Marjorie Taylor Greene—are still genuinely upset by it. Whether other Republicans will move with the same compass as Representative Norman remains to be seen.

Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia are suing Donald Trump’s administration for withholding $7 billion in federal funding for education, The Washington Post reported.

A lawsuit filed Monday against Trump, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, and Office of Budgement Management Director Russell Vought claimed that the Trump administration had “caused chaos” for K-12 school districts by refusing to distribute funding to six long-standing grant programs.

Those grants provide funding for after-school care for children of working parents, English classes for non-native speakers, bullying and suicide prevention, and expanding science and arts curricula. The funding also goes toward recruitment and training for teachers, which is particularly crucial as 79 percent of public schools nationwide have reported difficulties with hiring in the last year.

When the funds were expected to roll in at the beginning of July, the Department of Education notified states that the money was under review for compliance with Trump’s agenda, and OMB stated that it was investigating if the funds had been used for a “radical leftwing agenda.”

The plaintiffs, who sought relief for their own states, alleged that by freezing the funds, the Trump administration had overstepped Congress’s power of purse, violating the Impoundment Control Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

“The federal government cannot use our children’s classrooms to advance its assault on immigrant and working families,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a statement. “This illegal and unjustified funding freeze will be devastating for students and families nationwide, especially for those who rely on these programs for childcare or to learn English. Congress allocated these funds, and the law requires that they be delivered. We will not allow this administration to rewrite the rules to punish the communities it doesn’t like.”

The lawsuit was joined by attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, as well as the governors of Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

Andrew Cuomo just doesn’t know when to quit.

The former New York governor officially reupped his flailing bid for New York City mayor Monday, weeks after losing the Democratic primary by double-digits to New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.

“Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that the Democratic primary did not go the way I had hoped,” Cuomo said in a video posted to social media, thanking the voters who’d ranked him and apologizing for his tremendous loss.

“But as my grandfather used to say: When you get knocked down, learn your lesson and pick yourself back up and get in the game,” he said. “And that is what I am going to do. The fight to save our city isn’t over.”

Cuomo’s video appeared eerily similar to many of Mamdani’s viral campaign videos, which show the young politician encountering New Yorkers around the city. But Cuomo failed to capture the voters’ excitement seen in Mamdani’s, performing a stilted stump speech over footage of him gladhanding people on the street, with no background music. One might say it lacked any Cuo-mentum.

Mamdani replied to Cuomo’s video by simply posting a link to contribute to his own campaign in the comments—which immediately ratio’d the original post. Mamdani’s link had 38,000 likes and 3,000 reposts within hours of the original post, while Cuomo’s video had 1,500 reposts and only 1,100 likes.

In another post, Mamdani joked that Cuomo’s video was a blatant attempt to copy him. “We got him making man on the street videos with a guy in carhartt. By next week, he’ll be sipping adeni chai and eating khaliat al nahl,” he wrote.

People online couldn’t help but notice how off-putting Cuomo’s video was.

“If you watch this, in 7 days you’ll start to cough,” New York City Councilperson Chi Ossé wrote on X. Ossé, who represents Bedford-Stuyvesant, has been a vocal critic of Cuomo’s mayoral run.

“Nothing more energizing than a video of a politician saying ‘I’m sorry I let you down’ in a voice that sounds like aphasic Christopher Walken,” wrote Erik Baker, senior editor at The Drift.

“No means no, Andrew,” wrote an X account for Don’t Rank Evil Andrew for Mayor, a group that had organized to prevent people from ranking Cuomo in the Democratic primary, referring to the more than a dozen women that Cuomo sexually harassed.

And many, many people remarked on the most obvious gaffe: that Cuomo still can’t seem to pronounce “Mamdani.”

Dan Bongino’s future as FBI deputy director is still up in the air on Monday after his no call no show on Friday, as the fallout from the Justice Department’s dismissal of the Epstein case continues into its second week.

Bongino has apparently iced out all communications with his DOH colleagues, not having spoken with anyone at the department since Wednesday, according to a CNN report. The feud between Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi has reportedly gotten so bad that Vice President JD Vance spent the weekend trying to mediate. Bongino, Bondi, and FBI Director Kash Patel have been the eye of the storm of incensed MAGA supporters who once viewed the trio as potential arbiters of the Epstein client list and the exposure of the greater deep state. All three made promises along those exact lines, Bongino particularly.

Sources told CNN Bongino’s future in the administration is basically untenable, and he is unlikely to stay in this role in the long-term.

“I think so. I spoke to him today,” Trump said when asked if Bongino was still FBI deputy director on Sunday. “Dan Bongino is a very good guy. I’ve known him a long time. I’ve done his show many, many times. And he sounded terrific, actually, no, I think he’s in good shape.”

Some MAGA supporters, like Laura Loomer, have called for Bondi’s firing, to no avail. Patel has denied any rumors of his resignation.