{"id":194161,"date":"2025-12-19T16:13:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T16:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-administration-live-updates-epstein-files-release-expected-today-under-bill-passed-by-congress-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T16:13:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T16:13:20","slug":"trump-administration-live-updates-epstein-files-release-expected-today-under-bill-passed-by-congress-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-administration-live-updates-epstein-files-release-expected-today-under-bill-passed-by-congress-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration live updates: Epstein files release expected today under bill passed by Congress – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump told NBC News in a phone interview yesterday that he is leaving the possibility of a war with Venezuela on the table.
<\/span>President Donald Trump said yesterday that he would not rule out war with Venezuela amid his administration's efforts to stem the alleged flow of illicit drugs..<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Tasos Katopodis \/ Getty Images<\/span>
The Trump administration is ringing in the holiday season by repurposing holiday movies, songs and sayings to promote their platform of mass deportation on social media.\u00a0
\u201cTis the Season for mass deportations,\u201d reads a\u00a0post<\/a>\u00a0from the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s X account, which has also added Christmas lights and Santa hats to\u00a0images<\/a>\u00a0of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and promoted their \u201cWorst of the Worst\u201d\u00a0list<\/a>\u00a0as \u201cSanta\u2019s Naughty List.\u201d
The White House TikTok account has posted multiple holiday-themed video compilations of migrant arrests \u2014\u00a0one<\/a>\u00a0set to the song \u201cJingle Bells\u201d;\u00a0another<\/a>\u00a0to promote \u201cCuffing Season\u201d; and\u00a0one<\/a>\u00a0that sets video of a deportation flight to sounds from “The Polar Express” movie. The caption reads, \u201cAll aboard the Deportation Express! Next stop: Back to where you came from.\u201d And \u201cThe Polar Express<\/a>\u201d is not the only holiday movie the administration has used in these posts.\u00a0
Recreating a scene from \u201cHome Alone,\u201d they\u00a0replaced<\/a>\u00a0the image of Buzz\u2019s girlfriend with a crying migrant \u2014 to which Buzz’s younger brother Kevin, played by actor Macaulay Culkin, reacts with a \u201cWoof!\u201d A Department of Homeland Security\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0used the line \u201cThis is my house; I have to defend it\u201d from the movie to apply to the \u201chomeland.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
The newly-created TikTok account for the Cabinet has also leaned in \u2014 with the\u00a0third video ever posted by the account<\/a>\u00a0being an old-school style TV commercial for Customs and Border Protection’s CBP Home app disguised as a holiday deal to \u201cgo home for the holidays.\u201d
The posts have received some backlash, including from R&B artist SZA, whose song was used in the \u201cCuffing Season\u201d video. \u201cWhite House rage baiting artists for free promo is PEAK DARK ..inhumanity +shock and aw tactics ..Evil n Boring,\u201d she\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0on X.\u00a0
The trolling tone<\/a>\u00a0is not new for the White House\u2019s social media accounts, but it remains notable that they are leaning in around the holiday season.\u00a0
Trump said yesterday that he is leaving the possibility of war with Venezuela on the table. \u201cI don\u2019t rule it out, no,\u201d he told NBC News\u2019 Kristen Welker in a phone interview. The president’s comments come after he ordered a \u201cblockade\u201d of sanctioned oil tankers coming and going from Venezuela.
Trump\u2019s hand-picked board at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has voted to rename the iconic institution the Trump-Kennedy Center. The move is raising serious legal questions and intense backlash from members of the Kennedy family. NBC\u2019s Garrett Haake reports for “TODAY.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin told NBC News\u2019 Keir Simmons that \u201cthe ball is entirely in the court\u201d of Ukraine and the West in peace talks as he praised Trump\u2019s \u201cserious\u201d and \u201csincere\u201d efforts to end the war.
Simmons asked Putin during a news conference in Moscow today whether, given that Kyiv has agreed to enormous compromises, he would be responsible for the deaths of Russians and Ukrainians next year if there is no deal.
The Russian leader said no. \u201cWe do not consider ourselves responsible for the loss of life, because it was not us who started this war,\u201d he said.
\u201cAt the meeting with President Trump in Anchorage, we coordinated our positions and almost agreed with President Trump\u2019s proposals,\u201d Putin said, referring to the duo\u2019s summit in Alaska.
\u201cTherefore, to say that we are rejecting anything is absolutely incorrect and has no basis whatsoever. At the preliminary meetings in Moscow, proposals were made to us and we were asked to agree to certain compromises. When I arrived in Anchorage, I said that these would not be easy decisions for us, but that we agree to the compromises being proposed. Therefore, to claim that we are rejecting something is completely incorrect and has no grounds,\u201d Putin said.
He added: \u201cThe issue lies entirely on the other side, the ball is entirely in the court of our so-called Western adversaries, first and foremost the leaders of the Kyiv regime and, in this case especially, their European sponsors. We are ready for negotiations and to settle the conflict by peaceful means.\u201d
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said this morning that the Justice Department plans to release documents today from the government’s files on Epstein, but added they won’t all come out at once.
“I expect that we\u2019re going to release several hundred thousand documents today, and those documents will come in all different forms \u2014 photographs and other materials associated with all of the investigations into, into Mr. Epstein,” he said on Fox News.
Blanche said that the DOJ has been “working tirelessly” since Trump signed the law requiring the release of the files “to make sure that we get every single document that we have within the Department of Justice, review it and get it to the American public.”
“I expect that we\u2019re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks,” he said. “So today, several hundred thousand, and then, over the next couple of weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.”\u00a0
Trump suspended the green card lottery program yesterday that allowed the\u00a0suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings\u00a0<\/a>to come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump\u2019s direction, she was ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to\u00a0pause the program<\/a>.
\u201cThis heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,\u201d she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the\u00a0shootings at Brown University\u00a0<\/a>that\u00a0killed two students\u00a0<\/a>and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead last evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Read the full story here.<\/em><\/strong><\/a>
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released\u00a068 photos<\/a>\u00a0yesterday from the estate, including photos of Epstein with high-profile people. The release and\u00a0another one last week<\/a>\u00a0by Oversight Democrats include dozens of photos of Epstein posing with Trump, his top ally Steve Bannon, former President Bill Clinton, former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, movie director Woody Allen and others. All have denied any wrongdoing, and none have been charged related to Epstein\u2019s crimes.
The U.S. military said yesterday that it had conducted two more strikes against boats it said were smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing five people.
U.S. Southern Command posted on social media, \u201cIntelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations,\u201d though it did not provide evidence. It posted videos of each boat speeding through water before being struck by an explosion.
The military said three people in one vessel and two in the other were killed.
Read the full story here.<\/em><\/strong><\/a>
A jury found a Wisconsin judge accused of helping a Mexican immigrant dodge federal authorities guilty of obstruction yesterday, marking a victory for Trump as he continues his sweeping immigration crackdown across the country.
Federal prosecutors charged Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan with obstruction, a felony, and concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor, in April. The jury acquitted her on the concealment count, but she still faces up to five years in prison on the obstruction count.
The jury returned the verdicts after deliberating for six hours.
Read the full story here.<\/em><\/strong><\/a>
Trump said yesterday that he is leaving the possibility of a war with Venezuela on the table.
\u201cI don\u2019t rule it out, no,\u201d he told NBC News in a phone interview.
Trump on Tuesday ordered a \u201cblockade\u201d<\/a> of sanctioned oil tankers coming and going from Venezuela, increasing pressure on the country\u2019s president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. The U.S. recently seized an oil tanker<\/a> captured near Venezuela, as well.
The administration\u2019s campaign has already resulted<\/a> in 28 boat strikes that have killed more than 100 people, including a \u201cdouble tap\u201d strike<\/a> facing congressional scrutiny.
In his phone interview, Trump said \u201cI don\u2019t discuss it\u201d when he is asked whether he rules out the possibility that such actions could lead to war.
But when he was pressed, he confirmed it was a possibility and said there will be additional seizures of oil tankers. Asked for a timeline, Trump replied: \u201cIt depends. If they\u2019re foolish enough to be sailing along, they\u2019ll be sailing along back into one of our harbors.\u201d
Read the full story here.<\/em><\/strong><\/a>
NBC News<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump told NBC News in a phone interview yesterday that he is leaving the possibility of a war with Venezuela on the table.President Donald Trump said yesterday that he would not rule out war with Venezuela amid his administration's efforts to stem the alleged flow of illicit drugs..\u00a0Tasos Katopodis \/ Getty ImagesThe Trump administration is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-194161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}