{"id":207134,"date":"2026-04-10T02:15:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T02:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-news-at-a-glance-melania-trumps-weird-disavowal-of-epstein-is-getting-weirder-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T02:15:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T02:15:41","slug":"trump-news-at-a-glance-melania-trumps-weird-disavowal-of-epstein-is-getting-weirder-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-news-at-a-glance-melania-trumps-weird-disavowal-of-epstein-is-getting-weirder-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump news at a glance: Melania Trump\u2019s weird disavowal of Epstein is getting weirder &#8211; The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was unclear which specific accusations spurred the first lady to respond publicly  \u2013 key US politics stories from Thursday 9 April at a glance<br \/>Melania Trump stood at a podium in the same room <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/donaldtrump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Donald Trump<\/a> used to address the nation on the war in Iran last week to make an announcement: she \u201cnever had a relationship\u201d with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/ghislaine-maxwell\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Ghislaine Maxwell<\/a>.<br \/>It was unclear which specific accusations spurred Trump to respond publicly. The first lady went on to say that she and the president were invited to the same parties as Epstein \u201cfrom time to time\u201d as \u201coverlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach\u201d.<br \/>That claim is undermined by the fact that the most well-known images of the two couples together were taken at Trump\u2019s own club, Mar-a-Lago, on 12 February 2000.<br \/>Adding to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/09\/melania-trump-epstein-lies\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">swirl of confusion over the reasoning behind the first lady\u2019s statement <\/a>are reports the president has been telling reporters he had no idea his wife would give them. A spokesperson for the first lady initially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/09\/us\/politics\/melania-trump-jeffrey-epstein.html\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">told the New York Times<\/a> the president knew his wife planned to make a statement. That report was later updated to note that the spokesperson \u201clater said it was not clear if Mr. Trump was aware of the topic of her remarks\u201d.<br \/>US congressional leaders seized on the first lady\u2019s call for Congress to take sworn testimony in a public hearing from Epstein victims.<br \/>\u201cWe agree with First Lady Melania Trump\u2019s call for a public hearing with the survivors of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/jeffrey-epstein\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>,\u201d said Robert Garcia of California, ranking member of the House committee on oversight. \u201cWe encourage Chairman Comer to respond to the first lady\u2019s request and schedule a public hearing immediately.\u201d<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/09\/melania-trump-jeffrey-epstein\" data-link-name=\"in body link\"><sub class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Read the full story<\/sub><\/a><br \/>A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the Pentagon has not complied with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/mar\/20\/us-judge-blocks-pentagon-policy\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">a March order that undid much of a restrictive new press pass policy<\/a> implemented by the Department of Defense, and ordered the return of credentials to seven New York Times reporters.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2026\/apr\/09\/pentagon-judge-press-access-case\" data-link-name=\"in body link\"><sub class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Read the full story<\/sub><\/a><br \/>A high-profile US Department of Defense official who oversees the agency\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/artificialintelligenceai\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">artificial intelligence<\/a> efforts made a profit of up to $24m selling a private investment he held in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/elon-musk\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s AI company earlier this year, according to government ethics records released this month. The value of his stake totaled a maximum of a million dollars when he joined the department.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/09\/pentagon-ai-xai-emil-michael\" data-link-name=\"in body link\"><sub class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Read the full story<\/sub><\/a><br \/>The long-running war of words between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/georgeclooney\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">George Clooney<\/a> and the White House has ignited again after the Oscar-winning actor criticized Trump\u2019s threat to Iran that \u201ca whole civilization will die tonight\u201d.<br \/>On Wednesday, in a speech to 3,000 high school students in Cuneo, Italy, Clooney said the US president had committed a war crime with his threat.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2026\/apr\/09\/george-clooney-trump-civilisation-will-die-tonight-war-crime-comments\" data-link-name=\"in body link\"><sub class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Read the full story<\/sub><\/a><br \/>An attempt by House Democrats to pass a long-shot<strong> <\/strong>resolution on Thursday curtailing Trump\u2019s war powers over Iran failed after the Republican pro forma speaker, Chris Smith, did not recognize lawmakers from the opposite party on the floor.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/09\/house-democrats-trump-war-powers-resolution-iran\" data-link-name=\"in body link\"><sub class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Read the full story<\/sub><\/a><br \/>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/california\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">California<\/a> man shot by US immigration agents <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/09\/california-ice-shooting-man-accusation\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">said officials have falsely accused him of being a gang member<\/a><\/strong> and that officers fired on him without justification during a traffic stop.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/california\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">California<\/a> authorities have <a href=\"https:\/\/oag.ca.gov\/news\/press-releases\/attorney-general-bonta-dismantles-los-angeles-hospice-fraud-ring-responsible-267\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">filed<\/a> felony charges against 21 people, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/09\/california-felony-charges-hospice-scheme\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">who they say orchestrated a hospice fraud scheme that cost the state $267m<\/a><\/strong>, the state\u2019s attorney general, Rob Bonta, announced on Thursday.<br \/>The Democratic National Committee\u2019s resolutions committee <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/09\/dnc-resolution-aipac-israel-lobby-group\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">voted on Thursday to kill a measure targeting the pro-Israel lobby group Aipac<\/a><\/strong> and deferred two further resolutions on Middle East policy to a working group that critics say exists mainly to avoid difficult decisions.<br \/><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/apr\/09\/us-cuban-doctors-program\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Cuba\u2019s foreign minister has accused the United States of \u201cextorting\u201d Latin American countries<\/a><\/strong> by putting pressure on them to cancel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2020\/feb\/11\/trump-puts-cuban-doctors-in-firing-line-as-heat-turned-up-on-island-economy\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">decades-old deals<\/a> with Havana for the supply of doctors.<br \/>The US Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/09\/epa-toxic-coal-ash-rollback-trump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">proposed weakened rules governing the safe disposal of ash produced by burning coal<\/a><\/strong>. Those regulations were strengthened under the Biden administration as part of a wider crackdown on pollution from coal-fired power plants.<br \/>Catching up?<em> Here\u2019s what happened <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/08\/trump-news-at-a-glance-latest-updates-today\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Thursday 9 April<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMilgFBVV95cUxPa2ZNU1doVmRKX2hOWUtnQ2l6WXZqUkd6M3JYZzNFeWdCVHVWaFZIeGs5NzRlVDZSVGVVTXpucFE5M1AyVmJhWXl1bTZyZWVnRGtOU09mRkZDVkNsNVVqQXZnUFp6dndIYzBhM3p1bmNiaDZhZ3lZdnNuTm1kTFZzUXRsSTRtd2xXdWdEa0I4bjl0cndjWHc?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was unclear which specific accusations spurred the first lady to respond publicly \u2013 key US politics stories from Thursday 9 April at a glanceMelania Trump stood at a podium in the same room Donald Trump used to address the nation on the war in Iran last week to make an announcement: she \u201cnever had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207135,"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-207134","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\/207134","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=207134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}