Hugo Lowell
@hugolowell
White House correspondent @Guardian covering the Trump administration's national security and legal policy. Signal: hugolowell.15
NEW: White House officials have abandoned an effort to find a new chief of staff to Pete Hegseth, allowing senior adviser Ricky Buria to continue in the job in an acting role despite once viewing him as a liability, per people familiar. @guardian exclusive theguardian.com/us-news/2025/j…
“I can confirm that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully. We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.” David Oscar Markus We have no other comment at this time.
Justice demands courage. For the first time, the Department of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: what do you know? At @AGPamBondi’s direction, I’ve contacted her counsel. I intend to meet with her soon. No one is above the law—and no lead is off-limits.
Summary of Pres Trump’s truth social posts last night via @playbookdc
The timing and optics are terrible, but Stephen Colbert’s show costs more than $100M a year to produce and is losing more than $40M a year. CBS execs had been mulling for a long time whether to pull the plug. Details ⬇️⬇️ puck.news/was-colberts-c…
Trump knows SDNY prosecutors seeking to indict Epstein and Maxwell didn’t ask questions about him in their grand jury presentations while he was POTUS. It’s a red herring to distract from the evidence that matters: witness interview notes, videos, photos, etc.
President Trump—we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.
New: Trump says on Truth Social that he’s told AG Bondi to produce “any and all grand jury testimony” from the Epstein case subject to court approval
New: Trump says he personally told Rupert Murdoch that the letter to Epstein with the drawing was fake and Murdoch would take care of it “but obviously did not have the power to do so” — Trump says he will be suing WSJ for publishing the story
Trump & NATO Sec Gen Rutte announce a deal where European countries in NATO will buy weapons from the US and send them to Ukraine. Rutte says some European nations may also move weapons fast to Ukraine and later backfill with weapons from the US "because speed is of the essence"
Trump vows 'very severe' secondary tariffs on Russia if no Ukraine deal in 50 days. Rutte says Ukraine to get 'massive numbers' of weapons under US-NATO deal
New: Trump says the US-NATO weapons deal for Ukraine would invoke Patriot batteries and missiles — notable since whether the US should send Patriot batteries or whether Germany should send them has been a topic of debate for months since around March inside the Trump admin