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Alternet: ‘He was an FBI informant’: Mike Johnson makes stunning admission about Trump

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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) appeared to say that President Donald Trump once doubled as a confidential informant for the FBI before he ran for office.

Johnson made the comment while speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday about Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) effort to force a vote on releasing the Department of Justice’s remaining evidence on convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. When CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju asked Johnson about Trump calling the ongoing controversy over Epstein a “hoax,” the speaker insisted that Trump’s statement was being misconstrued by the media.

“I’ve talked with him about this many times,” Johnson said. “It’s been misrepresented. He’s not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax. It’s a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself. When he first heard the rumor he kicked [Epstein] out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.”

Trump’s status as an FBI informant remains unconfirmed. However, he has a history of being willing to cooperate with the FBI in the past. BuzzFeed News reported in 2017 on a 1981 FBI memo in which he said he would to “fully cooperate” with the bureau. Trump reportedly agreed to accommodate undercover FBI agents at his Atlantic City, New Jersey casino who were investigating organized crime.

In 2016, the Washington Post reported that Trump “welcomed [agents] in” to his Manhattan office, and that the meeting came at a pivotal time in Trump’s career when he was trying to cement himself as a real estate tycoon in New York. The report detailed how Trump became close friends with both an FBI informant who worked for Trump as a labor consultant and investigator Walt Stowe, who at the time was one of the informant’s handlers.

If Trump indeed worked as an FBI informant to take down Epstein, it may have happened sometime between 2004 and 2005, when the two had their famous falling-out over a $41 million mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. The New York Post reported last year that the mansion became a “centerpiece of an intense rivalry” between the two men who were formerly close friends. The initial investigation into Epstein’s exploitation of underage girls began in March of 2005, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Trump previously said that he ended his friendship with Epstein after he “stole” Virginia Giuffre — one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers who died by suicide earlier this year — from the Mar-a-Lago spa in 2000. However, journalist and author Barry Levine said that Epstein maintained his paying membership at Mar-a-Lago as late as 2007, which was well after his initial arrest and subsequent prosecution for preying on teenage girls.

They’re trying to infer that perhaps Trump was an FBI informant who ratted out Epstein.

But the math just doesn’t work out: Epstein was a due-paying member of Mar-A-Largo for years after Trump claimed to have shown him the door.

‘He was an FBI informant’: Mike Johnson makes stunning admission about Trump

https://www.alternet.org/trump-fbi-informant-2673962593

Reuters: Trump cancels $4.9 billion in foreign aid, escalating spending fight with Congress

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  • Trump bypasses Congress with ‘pocket rescission’ tactic
  • Funds earmarked for foreign aid, UN peacekeeping, democracy efforts
  • Republican Senator Collins calls action illegal, urges bipartisan process

President Donald Trump has moved to unilaterally cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid authorized by Congress, escalating the fight over who controls the nation’s spending.

In a letter posted online late Thursday, Trump told House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson that he plans to withhold funding for 15 international programs.

The U.S. Constitution grants funding power to Congress, which passes legislation each year to fund government operations.

The White House must secure Congress’ approval if it does not want to spend that money. Congress did this in July when it approved the cancellation of $9 billion in foreign aid and public media funding.

The latest move — known as a “pocket rescission” — bypasses Congress entirely.

Trump budget director Russell Vought has argued that Trump can withhold funds for 45 days, which would run out the clock until the end of the fiscal year on September 30. The White House said the tactic was last used in 1977.

According to a court document filed on Friday, the money at issue was earmarked for foreign aid, United Nations peacekeeping operations, and democracy-promotion efforts overseas. Most of that had been handled by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which Trump’s administration has largely dismantled.

“This is going to make our budget situation or liquidity situation that much more challenging, but we will follow up with U.S. authorities to get more details,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.

Democrats say the administration froze more than $425 billion in funding overall.

Most Republican lawmakers have said they support spending cuts in any form even if it erodes Congress’ authority.

But Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who oversees spending legislation as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the action is illegal.

“Instead of this attempt to undermine the law, the appropriate way is to identify ways to reduce excessive spending through the bipartisan, annual appropriations process,” she said in a statement.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump is aiming to force a government shutdown at the end of September by indicating that he is willing to ignore any spending laws passed by Congress.

“Republicans don’t have to be a rubber stamp for this carnage,” Schumer said in a statement.

Trump cancels $4.9 billion in foreign aid, escalating spending fight with Congress
President Donald Trump has moved to unilaterally cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid authorized by Congress, escalating the fight over who controls the nation’s spending.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-cancels-49-billion-foreign-aid-escalating-spending-fight-with-congress-2025-08-29