CovertAction Bulletin

Is Epstein the Final Straw for Trump’s Base?

In 2024, Donald Trump said he’d declassify and release the files the U.S. government has on notorious child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But recently, responding to disappointment and growing demands from his base to actually release the full files, he told a crowd of reporters in Pennsylvania that “I don’t understand why the Epstein files would be of interest to anybody. It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring. And I don’t understand why it keeps going.”

Even among the MAGA faithful, few minds have been changed and calls to release information continue to grow.

Investigation into Epstein’s life and sudden death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City often raises more questions than it answers. How did he go from teaching at the elite Dalton School to being a billionaire financier? Even his connections to Bear Stearns and former Limited Brands chairman Leslie Wexner don’t fully explain it, his friendships with royalty and the elite around the world, or the Austrian passport with a fake name and a Saudi Arabian address found in his home.

When he pleaded guilty to soliciting underage prostitutes, Epstein got a 13 month sentence - and was allowed to leave the jail for 12 hours every day so that he could continue working his home office. And in 2007, he entered into an agreement with federal prosecutors in Florida that he would not be prosecuted as part of another investigation. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Alexander Acosta, later said that he was told Epstein “belonged to intelligence” and to “leave it alone.”

Texas Flooding: The Real Culprit Is Capitalism

134 people have died and 101 remain missing after the Guadalupe River in central Texas overflowed as a result of 6.5 inches of rain falling over the course of three hours on the morning of July 4th. Though the floods are being called just a natural disaster, mounting evidence shows that climate change, budget cuts, crumbling infrastructure and political infighting contributed not just to the flooding but the resulting destruction and loss of life. Even in a real freak incident, a true once-in-a-century occurrence,  proper precautions and warnings could have been implemented. Plainly, no one had to die and the blame has to be not just on individual decision-makers but the entire capitalist system that neglects the basic needs of people in favor of profits.

We’re joined by Corrie Rosen, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation in San Antonio who’s been helping with the recovery efforts.

Support local volunteer efforts here and read more about it at Peoples Dispatch.

 

Then, we discuss the $200 million contracts given by the Department of Defense to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI - in the wake of xAI’s Grok going full-on antisemitic.

Who Is Musk’s “America Party” A Threat To?

Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill has passed and been signed into law. What the White House has deemed an “historic” is actually the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of the United States, benefiting the already-wealthy with massive tax breaks and devastating cuts to social programs. The bill also accelerates militarization at home and abroad, with millions more in funding for ICE to terrorize immigrants in the country and the military to terrorize others outside its borders.

The bill is simply an act of class warfare against working-class and oppressed people who are already struggling against capitalism and imperialism, paving the way for even more devastation. But is Elon Musk’s new “America Party” announced on July 4th a threat to Trump or any part of the ruling-class establishment? Or is it a billionaire’s way of getting what he wants by throwing an electoral tantrum and backing a few candidates in races that may have little impact?

Billionaires Try To Buy Out Democracy

What do Palantir, DoorDash, Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg have in common? They all joined the campaign against candidate Zohran Mamdani, the state Assemblymember who exceeded expectations and effectively won the Democratic NYC mayoral primary when Andrew Cuomo conceded around 11PM on election night. As of July 1st, with ranked choice calculations completed, Mamdani has officially won the primary.

A Cuomo-aligned super PAC, Fix the City, raised $20 million, much of which came through billionaire former mayor Michael Bloomberg. Food delivery service DoorDash donated a million dollars against Mamdani, who got the support of driver group Los Deliveristas Unidos, which organizes app-based delivery drivers.

But in the face of massive corporate backing against him and wild accusations of antisemitism and more, Mamdani will challenge current mayor Eric Adams who is running as an independent. The configuration of the race could drastically change before November as the ruling class tries to  consolidate around a candidate in order to oppose Mamdani’s popular message.

We also discuss the so-called Big Beautiful Bill - which should be called the Big Billionaires’ Bill as it provides significant benefits for the top while attacking poor and working people. As of recording on Tuesday, July 1st, the bill has passed the Senate and is on the way to the House of Representatives.

Mahmoud Khalil Freed as Anti-War Movement in U.S. Celebrates and Grows

Mahmoud Khalil is free! After spending 104 days unjustly held in an ICE detention center in Jena, Louisiana, he was reunited with his wife Noor, newborn son Deen and community over the weekend. At a press conference and rally at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine near Columbia University on Sunday, he said “I must call the hypocrisy of Columbia University, a university that just two weeks ago said that they want to protect their international students. Why? While over 100 [days] later, I haven’t received a single call from this university,” as he promised to continue his work in the movement for Palestine.

His release came after District Court Judge Michael Farbiarz ordered for him to be freed on Friday, the latest move in a long legal battle during which the Trump administration has tried to have him held indefinitely or just deported. The government has already appealed the decision, but the fact that Mahmoud Khalil is free is a legal and political victory that cannot be understated. 

On this episode, we also discuss developments in the quickly-unfolding situation between the U.S. and its imperialist outpost Israel on the one hand and Iran, after the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend.

Make No Mistake: The U.S. Wants War with Iran

Donald Trump posted to his social media site Truth Social on Monday evening that “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” as he made an early departure from the G7 summit in Canada to “attend to many important matters,” according to the White House. The U.S. government is also moving the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz away from the South China Sea canceling a planned port call in Da Nang City, Vietnam scheduled for this week as the ship continues to move West towards the Arabian Sea where it could join the USS Carl Vinson carrier striker group. At least three Navy destroyers have been moved to the Mediterranean Sea over the past week, including the USS Thomas Hudner.

This happens at the same time that the U.S. is claiming it won’t directly join Israel’s war on Iran, reignited last Thursday when Israel bombed the country, but the military moves both signify that Israel is unable to defend itself militarily, and that the U.S. is preparing for its own offensive role in the conflict.

It’s also increasingly clear that despite initial claims to the contrary, the U.S. government knew and approved of Israel’s plans, really making this a US-Israeli war. In fact, Donald Trump himself said to the Wall Street Journal a few days ago, “It wasn’t a head up. It was – we know what’s going on.”

The war against Iran isn’t just Trump’s and Netanyahu’s war. It’s part of a long offensive against the country for maintaining independence from the imperialist world system, and for being a stalwart supporter of the Palestinian people.

Are we yet again on the verge of yet another regime change attempt by the United States in Iran as Trump threatens Ayatollah Ali Khamenhei? Have Israel and the US put the world on the verge of a new World War by igniting a regional conflict that could spread like wildfire? 

Find an action against the war in Iran at answercoalition.org/iran. 

The LA Uprising and Trump’s Authoritarian Agenda

Over the weekend, ICE agents invaded Los Angeles and its suburbs, kidnapping dozens of people on Friday and threatening more near a Home Depot on Saturday. These masked and heavily-armed forces are part of Trump’s promised 30-day surge in anti-immigrant attacks in the LA area. But wherever there is repression, there is resistance - and the people of LA are fighting back. The community in LA and the suburbs continues its anti-deportation mobilization as we record this episode.

Donald Trump has sent thousands of federalized California National Guard troops to the area against the wishes of Governor Newsom, and under seemingly murky legal authority. US Northern Command announced Monday that at Trump’s order it sent 700 Marines with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division from the base at Twentynine Palms, about 2 and a half hours from LA. Trump. The resulting legal and political battle happening at the same time as the pitched street battles and the solidarity and community defense mobilizations that are spreading across the country all but guarantee a larger crisis should Trump not back down.

We also react to the breaking news that the government is planning to send 8,000 people to “free up bed space at detention facilities on domestic American soil,” according to Politico.

Palantir, Surveillance and Technofascism

Big data and surveillance tech firm Palantir is working with the U.S. government to bring its software into multiple government agencies under the Trump administration. In April, Wired reported that the company had a $30-million contract with ICE to provide “near real-time visibility” on immigrants in the country. Late in May, the New York Times revealed that the company is expanding its government work across agencies including the Social Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services and more in $113 million in new contracts - on top of the $795 million they were just awarded by the Pentagon.

CIA-connected Palantir counts the Agency’s investment firm In-Q-Tel as an early backer, and was founded in 2003 by hardcore conservative libertarian Peter Thiel along with current CEO Alex Karp and two others. It’s worked with the U.S. government as well as allies in Ukraine, Israel, Australia and many private companies. Its growth as a private partner in the extension of U.S. government surveillance and data collection in the age of AI should be a cause of concern for all people no matter which party is in the White House.

NATO Dayton Assembly Exposes Outrageous War Spending

NATO held its 2025 Parliamentary Assembly in Dayton, Ohio between May 22 and 26. Though it promotes itself as a force in defense of peace and security, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s history exposes its true purpose: propping up Western imperialism and hegemony. It’s an international body started with the goal of containing and threatening the Soviet Union, and since the fall of the USSR has expanded well out of its target areas of North America and the Northern Atlantic, causing death and destruction from Ukraine and Yugoslavia to Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond

NATO is an existential threat to countries that seek to challenge the U.S.-centered status quo and manage their own path of development that doesn’t include subservience to the capitalist global order.

People from Dayton and around the area recognized the severity of this threat and called for protests outside the Parliamentary Assembly. CovertAction’s Rachel Hu was there to cover the events and reports on how the city spent millions of dollars on security, keeping residents away from the summit and holding extravagant fireworks events while people go hungry and don’t have their basic needs met on the ground.

Does Trump Really Want Peace in Ukraine?

Donald Trump held phone calls with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, then announced that the two countries will “immediately start negotiations toward a ceasefire” in the 3-year-long conflict between the two. His announcement also touted a goal of increased trade and economic ties with Russia. It also comes weeks after the U.S. and Ukraine signed what’s been called a “mineral for muscle” deal, giving the United States the ability to profit from Ukraine’s natural resources. While an end to the conflict that’s gone on for over 3 years now, and has its origins further back in recent history, is more than welcome, it’s important to understand how we got here and how the “peace” process is playing out. The way the Trump administration is going about this ceasefire isn’t really from a desire for peace, but a desire for greater control in the region overall - over both Russia and Ukraine - and the ability to focus the U.S. military on China.