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Greetings and salutations to the American political live blog. This is Tom Ambrose, and I will be providing you with all the latest news lines over the coming hours.

Trump Dismisses Marjorie Taylor Greene's Safety Claims

We start with the news that President Donald Trump intensified his attacks against GOP congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Sunday, despite his reversal on resisting the disclosure of the Jeffrey Epstein documents.

He continued to dismiss her claim that his criticism were putting at risk her and said he did not think anyone was focusing on her. The congresswoman said on Saturday that the President's social media posts had triggered a wave of threats directed at her.

“Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene,” he said, referring to the congresswoman. “I do not believe her life is in danger... I don’t think anybody is concerned for her,” Trump told reporters before entering Air Force One on Sunday night.

Greene, a US House of Representatives representative from Georgia who was long known as a staunch Trump supporter, has recently adopted stances contrary to the commander-in-chief. She said on the weekend she has been alerted by private security firms expressing concern for her security and that harsh attacks against her have in the past resulted in threats on her life.

Epstein Files Disclosure Initiative

The public fallout came as the President urged his fellow Republicans in the legislature to support the publication of files concerning the deceased disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, changing his prior resistance to such a action.

Trump’s post on his social media platform followed House speaker Mike Johnson said earlier that he thought a decision on releasing justice department documents in the Epstein case should help dispel claims “that he [Trump] has any involvement”.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on that day: “House Republicans should support unsealing the Epstein documents, because we have nothing to hide.

“And it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to distract from the significant achievements of the Republican Party, including our latest win on the Democrat ‘Shutdown’,” he added.

While Trump and Epstein were photographed together decades ago, the president has claimed the two men had a disagreement before Epstein's legal troubles. Emails released last week by a House committee showed the disgraced financier, who took his own life in jail in 2019, thought the President “knew about the girls,” though it was uncertain what that phrase signified.

Other Developments

• GOP representative Congressman Massie had questioned the President over whether the US president was making a “final attempt” to prevent the complete records on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from being disclosed by initiating a new probe. Massie and Democratic congressman Representative Khanna, the two US representatives leading the bipartisan push to make all the documents held by the authorities public both expressed new worries about the steps by the administration.
• US forces carried out a further attack on an alleged drug trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific on the weekend, resulting in the deaths of three individuals aboard, the Department of Defense said on Sunday. “Information verified that the boat was engaged in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying drugs,” the military command announced in a message on social media.
• The President indicated the US may begin discussions with President Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, who faces growing scrutiny from the US government during a significant military deployment in the Caribbean. “We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll observe how that turns out. Venezuela would like to talk,” the US president said on Sunday, in one of the first signs of a potential way to defusing the growingly strained situation in the area.
• Donald Trump on the weekend brushed aside worries about conservative commentator Tucker Carlson's latest discussion with a extremist figure known for his antisemitic views, which has caused a schism within the Republican party. The President defended Carlson, noting the ex-media personality has “expressed positive remarks about me in the past.” He added if Carlson wants to interview the activist, whose supporters see themselves as working to preserve the nation's white, Christian identity, then “individuals have to make up their own minds.” He did not condemn the commentator or Fuentes.
• Trump indicated on Sunday that he intends to have a discussion with NYC's incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani and said they will “work something out”, in what could be a detente for the Republican president and Democratic rising star who have portrayed one another as political foils. Trump has for months criticized the mayor-elect, incorrectly labelling him as a “communist” and predicting the decline of his hometown, New York, if the democratic socialist were chosen.
• A group of seventeen transgender military personnel has filed a lawsuit against the federal government for denying them early retirement pensions and benefits. The legal filing, filed in federal court, characterizes the government’s move against them as “illegal and unjustified”.