Trump Files Fresh $10 Billion Lawsuit Against Wall Street Journal

President Trump on Tuesday again refiled a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over a July 2025 report that he submitted a letter and explicit drawing to a birthday album for Jeffrey Epstein.

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit last month, ruling he couldn’t claim the paper published the story with actual malice. Then Trump refiled and ran into another stumbling block on May 13, when U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles ruled that he couldn’t use the discovery process in his claims that the newspaper defamed him. In the new lawsuit, Trump’s lawyers wrote that the Journal’s reporters tried to “falsely pass off as fact that President Trump, in 2003, wrote, drew, and signed this letter” but “failed to show proof.”

Trump’s reasoning for the lawsuit is hollow, especially considering that the House Oversight Committee included the birthday book, complete with the drawing from Trump, in a September release of Epstein materials from his estate. It’s more likely that Trump is trying to shake down the Journal for a big settlement and intimidate its owners, the Murdoch family, into favorable coverage.

It’s a pattern that Trump has followed against other media companies, which ended up forking over money that supposedly is going to Trump’s presidential library. Trump also has pending defamation lawsuits against The New York Times for $15 billion and the BBC for $10 billion. It seems that he won’t stop until he’s made them pay for reporting that he doesn’t like.

The Trump administration is giving Venezuela’s new leadership a free pass.

The White House has instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid criminal investigations into acting President Delcy Rodríguez, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Rodríguez has been on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s radar since at least 2018, and has been tied to all sorts of criminal activity ranging from drug trafficking to gold smuggling. But all of that is apparently being brushed under the rug, as the Trump administration shows blatant favoritism toward the leader it installed earlier this year.

It is not clear if prosecutors were working toward charging Rodríguez with a crime. A Justice Department spokesperson told the AP in an email that “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.”

U.S. officials told the AP that the directive was intended to ease Rodríguez’s transition into power in Venezuela, and to avoid further destabilizing the oil-rich nation.

Donald Trump ordered U.S. forces to invade Venezuela in early January, sending hundreds of troops through its capital city, Caracas, to capture the country’s 13-year ruler, Nicolás Maduro. Maduro and his wife were transported to New York to face federal narcotics charges, to which they both have pleaded not guilty.

Trump failed to notify Congress before doing so, but he didn’t forget to tip off his friends at America’s biggest oil companies, which stand to gain the most from America’s newfound control over Venezuela’s oil supply—the largest in the world.

Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president, was the major political benefactor of his sudden abduction. Despite her criminal affiliations, the Trump administration has opened the door for her to do business with the U.S., lifting sanctions (that were placed during Trump’s first term after she undermined Venezuelan democracy by supporting Maduro’s authoritarian rule) and allowing her to reestablish ties with U.S. banks, according to the Associated Press.

Beyond that, Trump has uplifted her name in an effort to sanitize her character, describing her as a “terrific person.”

Katie Miller doxed the Democrats’ social media manager after the party’s official account called her husband an “ugly fuck” following his transphobic comments towards Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico.

“The Democrats made history in Texas by nominating their first transgender senate candidate,” Miller wrote Wednesday over a post of Talarico, a baseless and nonsensical insult. Talarico is not trans, but has expressed support.

“Shut up you ugly fuck,” the Democrats responded, easily ratioing Miller’s original post.

That harsh, scary language got his wife, Katie Miller posting in his defense.

“Paulina Mangubat is who runs @TheDemocrats account. She’s 30, unmarried with no kids. Put your name on it next time,” Miller wrote, posting a picture of Mangubat. “This is what a sad, unhappy, female Liberal looks like. It’s why Pew reports 50% of them have been diagnosed with a mental condition.”

For what it’s worth, Miller’s post is pure projection. In the single picture she posted Mangubat looks nice, put together, and professional—much better than her husband who started this entire exchange in the first place.

Miller then went on Fox News to talk about how saying “ugly fuck” on X to her husband is the kind of behavior that led to the multiple failed assassination attempts on Donald Trump, even calling it “violent”—a ridiculous argument given Trump’s own violent rhetoric. Meanwhile, her husband is part of an administration that has shot and killed American citizens in the street. They know very well what real violence is. And what’s lost here is that this is all part of a last-gasp GOP attempt to slander Talarico because they’re afraid he’ll beat their boy Ken Paxton in the midterms.

For her part, Mangubat responded in good nature to Miller’s deranged post.

“Well, now seems like a good time to share that I’m getting married! We just put down the deposit on the venue and bought my dress lol,” she wrote. “I didn’t end up picking this one but I thought it looked nice.”

President Trump wants something else with his name and face on it: American currency.

U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach and his senior adviser Mike Brown, both political appointees, have been pushing staff at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for prototypes of a $250 bill with Trump’s name and face on it, The Washington Post reports. U.S. law doesn’t allow for living people to be placed on bills, and employees were alarmed enough to anonymously speak to the Post.

Last August and September, Beach presented staff at the bureau with mock-up designs of the bill, with one of them featuring Trump’s face in the middle between the signatures of the president and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.

The Post spoke to the designer, British painter Iain Alexander, who said Trump suggested changes such as adding the colors red, white, and blue, as well as a logo commemorating the country’s 250 anniversary in July.

“He likes to call me his favorite British artist,” Alexander told the publication. Alexander is a former competitive swimmer and DJ who calls himself a royal portrait artist of Queen Elizabeth II and other royal figures.

Putting pictures of living people on American currency has been illegal since 1866, and a bill to allow Trump’s face on a $250 bill was introduced last year but has stalled in Congress. The bureau’s printing director, Patricia Solimene, was reassigned from her position after she tried to explain the legal and procedural hurdles to producing the Trump money, saying it would take years.

“She had told them we’re not authorized to do this. We can’t progress any further, and all the stakeholders have not even met to discuss the next steps,” an employee anonymously told the Post. “Currency often takes six to eight years to produce a new bill, particularly one of such high value.”

On April 27, Solimene said she was reassigned, telling employees the next day that she was leaving with a “heavy heart” and that it was “not my choice.” She said she “never sacrificed the values or character of myself or the organization and always prioritized the U.S. Currency Program and the value each employee brings to the mission.” Brown was named the bureau’s acting director soon afterward.

Trump’s second term in office has been a vanity project, as he has plastered his face and name on federal buildings and the U.S. passport. He has also sought to build a massive ballroom at the White House, a gigantic arch in Washington, D.C., and a golf course near the Potomac. He’s even trying to name an entire class of battleships after himself. Will he get his own money too?

Three major performing artists have bailed on President Trump’s America 250 celebrations on the National Mall since the administration included them in the lineup.

Freedom 250 on Wednesday announced a list of performers for the “Great American State Fair,” which will take place from June 25 to July 10 in Washington, D.C.

Just hours later, Morris Day and the Time dropped out.

“Contrary to rumor, Morris Day & the Time will not be performing at the ‘“GREAT AMERICAN STATE FAIR,’” they posted in a graphic on Facebook captioned “It’s a no for me.”

Rapper Young MC, best known for his song “Bust a Move,” followed suit, announcing that he’d be refusing to perform at the “Trump-backed” event.

“I HAVE INFORMED MY AGENTS THAT I WILL NOT BE PERFORMING AT THE FREEDOM 250 EVENT,” he wrote on Facebook. “The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event. And despite the claims by the organizers that the event is non-partisan, SPIN magazine describes it as Trump-backed”. I hope to perform in D.C. in the near future at an event that is not so politically charged.”

Millia Vanillia also dropped out Thursday afternoon, stating that they were “shocked” to see themselves listed. “My sister and I were shocked to see our name, ‘Milli Vanilli’, as one of the performers,” Jodie Rocco wrote to the AP.

Vanilla Ice doubled down, as a representative told AP he was “proud” to be there.

The other scheduled acts—the Commodores, Flo Rida, and Martina McBride—have yet to make any announcements. This lineup of artists was already questionable given most of them haven’t been relevant in years. But now performers who were announced are dropping out, and at least one of them directly blamed Trump for it. More withdrawals may soon come.

This story has been updated.