Per Leavitt, it reads:

In recent weeks, President Trump noted mild swelling in his lower legs. In keeping with routine medical care, and out of an abundance of caution, this concern was thoroughly evaluated by the White House medical unit. The President underwent a comprehensive examination, including diagnostic vascular studies. Bilateral lower extremity venous doppler ultrasounds were performed and revealed chronic venous insufficiency, a benign and common condition, particularly in individuals over the age of 70. Importantly, there was no evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease.

There were neither signs of renal impairment, heart failure, nor “systemic illness,” according to Leavitt.

“An echocardiogram was also performed and confirmed normal cardiac structure and function. No signs of heart failure, renal impairment, or systemic illness were identified,” she read.

Results from the president’s lab tests, including a complete blood count, metabolic panel, and coagulation profile, among other tests, “were within normal limits,” per Leavitt.

Leavitt also acknowledged bruising on the top of the president’s hand, which she said stems from frequent handshaking and aspirin use.

“This is consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin, which is taken as part of a standard cardiovascular prevention regimen. This is a well-known and benign side effect of aspirin therapy,” she said.

Johns Hopkins Medicine states that chronic venous insufficiency “is not a serious health threat,” though it can cause pain. The condition is when veins in the leg have trouble returning blood to the heart, causing swelling in the legs, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Leavitt said that Trump “remains in excellent health.”

The Education Department’s civil rights branch lost nearly half its staff amid mass layoffs in March, raising questions about its ability to address a deep backlog of complaints from students alleging discrimination based on disability, sex or race. Pressed on the issue in June, Education Secretary Linda McMahon denied a slowdown.

“Not only are we reducing the backlog, but we are keeping up with the current amount with a reduced staff because we are doing it efficiently,” McMahon said at a Senate budget hearing.

By several measures, however, the output of the Office for Civil Rights appears to have fallen sharply in comparison with previous years. A public database of the office’s resolution agreements — cases in which schools or universities voluntarily agreed to address civil rights concerns — suggests the office’s work has slowed.

The database lists just 65 resolutions so far this year, on pace to fall far below previous years’ totals. Last year the office logged 380 resolutions in total, following 561 in 2023. During President Donald Trump’s first term, the office averaged more than 800 resolutions a year, including 1,300 during his first year in office.

Other internal data obtained by The Associated Press show a similar trend. Since Trump took office, the total number of resolved cases is down about 40% from the same time frame last year — including cases that were dismissed, mediated or reached a voluntary resolution. Compared with last year, there also has been a 70% decrease in the number of cases resolved through resolution agreements or action taken by a school to comply with federal law, the internal data shows.

Meanwhile, new complaints have increased 9%. The total number of cases has now climbed beyond 25,000.

An Education Department spokesperson said the Trump administration is fixing a broken system.

“When staff levels were at their peak, OCR’s processes still proved to be ineffective, as evidenced by the chronic backlog of tens of thousands of cases that left students’ discrimination claims languishing over many presidential administrations,” spokesperson Julie Hartman said.

Many families are waiting for US intervention to address complaints

Parents and advocates say they’ve noticed a difference.

Adrienne Hazel filed a complaint in April after her 20-year-old son Ricky, who has autism, was placed in a public school program without a certified teacher and was not given an individual learning plan. Hazel, of Southfield, Michigan, has not heard from the federal office after receiving an automatic reply when she filed the complaint.

Things moved faster last year when Hazel filed a separate complaint for her son. The office notified Ricky’s school, which Hazel says spurred the district to reach an agreement with her within about three months. This time, she said, it feels like she’s on her own.

“There has been zero response to this,” she said. “He’s basically going into a babysitting situation. He’s not getting the things that he needs to grow into independence. And he’ll just be aging without getting an education.”

Marcie Lipsitt, a special education advocate in Michigan who worked with Hazel, said such stories are common. She helps families file complaints but warns it could take at least a year before an investigation opens. Some schools have backtracked on previous agreements, she said, yet parents can’t get a response from the federal office.

“It’s horrible. I’m watching children suffer like they’ve never suffered,” she said. “There is no accountability.”

The fate of the Education Department itself is in question as the Trump administration moves ahead with a plan to wind down the agency. A Supreme Court decision Monday cleared the way for the agency to continue mass layoffs and outsource some functions to other agencies. McMahon previously suggested the civil rights work could be managed by the Justice Department.

Still, McMahon said in June that the office was making headway after inheriting a backlog of 20,000 cases from the Biden administration. She told senators the office was catching up on the backlog and keeping up with new complaints.

With half the staff, many question how that’s possible. In a June court order pausing the termination of Office for Civil Rights employees, a federal judge in Boston said the branch is “currently incapable of addressing the vast majority” of complaints. More than 200 of the office’s employees remain on leave while that case is decided.

Caseloads have grown for remaining Office for Civil Rights staffers

The Office for Civil Rights is responsible for enforcing civil rights laws across the nation’s schools and is often a last resort for parents and students facing discrimination from schools. The office reviews complaints and, for those that meet certain criteria, opens investigations. Others are dismissed or move to a mediation process.

Of the 65 resolution agreements reported this year, 57 were signed after Trump took office. Of those, the vast majority involve complaints of discrimination based on disability, with smaller numbers based on sex or race. Most of the sex discrimination findings deal with keeping transgender athletes out of women’s sports, one of Trump’s campaign promises.

“OCR will continue to meet its statutory responsibilities while driving to improve efficiency and resolve the longstanding backlog,“ Hartman said.

Multiple workers in the office who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation said caseloads have grown too big to manage. In last year’s budget request, the office said it was becoming difficult to keep up when investigative staff averaged 42 cases per person. Some estimates put the current caseload beyond 200.

The employees said it means more cases will languish.

Another parent in Michigan, Casie Clouse, hasn’t heard from the department since she filed a complaint in May. Her son, Brady, who is blind in one eye and has a learning disability, wasn’t getting the type of help his school promised, including access to teachers’ notes and reduced coursework. Brady, 14, made no academic progress in eighth grade, and he’s now heading to high school without the support he needs, his mother said.

“It’s been so frustrating not to even have an update at all,” said Clouse, of Ann Arbor. “He is going to go to high school and fail. I feel like my child will not get a high school diploma if he stays in Ann Arbor Public Schools.”

___

Key Influencers Rally Behind Trump After Wall Street Journal’s Epstein Hit Backfires

Key MAGA influencers who were critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files are rallying behind President Donald Trump following the Wall Street Journal’s hit piece on the president, contending he sent a lewd letter to disgraced dead financier Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Journalist Megyn Kelly, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, and journalist Jack Posobiec were among the infleuncers who took to X on Thursday night to question the Journal’s report of an alleged letter Trump supposedly wrote to Epstein in 2003, which Trump says is “FAKE”  and has vowed to sue the outlet, News Corp., and Rupert Murdoch over it.

The alleged letter in question includes a third-person dialogue between Trump and Epstein inside the drawing of a naked woman, which includes Trump’s signature, the Journal claims, though White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says the outlet admitted to the administration it did not have possession of the letter it bases the story on.

“This is the dumbest attempted hit piece I’ve ever read,” Kelly, host of the Megyn Kelly Show, wrote in a post, to which Musk responded, “Yeah, the letter sounds bogus.”

Kirk, who has had a personal relationship with the president for years, said the language in the letter bore no resemblance to Trump’s.

“This is not how Trump talks at all. I don’t believe it,” he wrote in a post.

Posobiec, who hosts Human Event Daily on Real America’s Voice, said that if Trump were in the Epstein files, the documents would have been released long ago.

“If Trump was in the Epstein files it would have been released a decade ago and there wouldn’t have been any need to make up a fake Russian hooker dossier,” he wrote.

After announcing he would be suing the Journal, its parent company, and owner, Murdoch, Trump instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi “to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony” regarding Epstein, subject to court approval.

Trump Denies WSJ Claim He Sent Birthday Letter to Jeffrey Epstein

President Donald Trump has denied a report from the Wall Street Journal claiming he sent a rather coded birthday letter to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a letter bearing the president’s name, dated 2003, that was described as featuring “several lines of typewritten text surrounded by the outline of a naked woman, sketched in marker,” per Newsweek.

The illustration also includes two small arcs representing breasts, with Trump’s signature written below the waist and resembling pubic hair, the report said.

The letter reportedly concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

The WSJ did not produce the original letter nor specify that it had confirmed its authenticity.

President Trump, as well as Vice President JD Vance, strongly denied the report while threatening to file a lawsuit.

“This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story. I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”

“I’m gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else,” he said, according to the newspaper.

“Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter bullshit. The WSJ should be ashamed for publishing it. Where is this letter? Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?” JD Vance said on X.

As Breitbart News reported, the Trump administration’s DOJ and FBI “released a memo that found that there was no evidence that Epstein had a client list, and that an investigation had found that Epstein had committed suicide.” Despite criticisms from certain corners of the right, Trump defended Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the situation.

“She’s given us just a very quick briefing, and in terms of the credibility of the different things that they’ve seen, and I would say that you know, these files were made up by Comey,” Trump said. “They were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden … and we went through years of that, with the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax. With all of the different things that we had to go through, we’ve gone through years of it, but she’s handled it very well, and it’s going to be up to her. Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release.”

Brazil’s Lula calls Trump’s tariff threat ‘unacceptable blackmail’

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday slammed Donald Trump’s threat to impose 50 percent tariffs on Latin America’s largest economy as “unacceptable blackmail.”

Lula’s comments during a nationally televised speech were the latest in series of tense exchanges between the leaders, with the US president launching especially blistering attacks on the government in Brasilia.

Trump announced on July 9 his intention to slap steep tariffs on Brazil as punishment for what he termed a “witch hunt” against his far-right ally, former president Jair Bolsonaro.

The United States has also said it is investigating Brazil’s “unfair trading practices,” and Brasilia said it was committed to negotiations.

The tariffs on all products from Brazil would kick in on August 1 if Brasilia and Washington do not reach an agreement.

In his speech, leftist leader Lula slammed Brazilian politicians who back Trump’s policies as “traitors to the homeland.”

He said he would continue “betting on good commercial and diplomatic relations” but warned: “Brazil has only one owner: the Brazilian people.”

Bolsonaro is facing trial over accusations he plotted a coup after his narrow 2022 election loss to Lula. If found guilty, he could face up to 40 years in prison.

Earlier on Thursday, Trump posted a letter addressed to Bolsonaro on his Truth Social platform in which he insisted Lula’s government “changes course” and “stop attacking” his political ally.

“I have seen the terrible treatment you are receiving at the hands of an unjust system turned against you,” Trump wrote to Bolsonaro.

“I have strongly voiced my disapproval both publicly and through our Tariff policy,” he added.

Trump also said he was “concerned about the attacks on free speech” in Brazil and in the United States.

He appeared to be alluding to the suspension in Brazil of Rumble, a video-sharing platform popular among conservative groups, over its refusal to block a user accused of spreading disinformation.

‘Interference’

Trump’s intervention in the Bolsonaro case has improved Lula’s popularity, who has appealed for national unity in the face of US “interference.”

Unlike the tariffs Trump is slapping on economies around the world, including top US allies, the measures against Brazil were announced in openly political terms.

Brazil had not been among dozens of trade partners previously threatened with duties above a 10 percent baseline.

The United States runs a goods trade surplus with Brazil, which said it had repeatedly requested that Washington point out areas of particular concern.

Brazil expressed “indignation” at the stiff proposed tariff in a letter addressed to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

US Congress approves $9 bn in Trump cuts to foreign aid, public media

US Republicans early Friday approved President Donald Trump’s plan to cancel $9 billion in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, vowing it was just the start of broader efforts by Congress to slash the federal budget.

The cuts achieve only a tiny fraction of the $1 trillion in annual savings that tech billionaire and estranged Trump donor Elon Musk vowed to find before his acrimonious exit in May from a role spearheading federal cost-cutting.

But Republicans — who recently passed a domestic policy bill expected to add more than $3 trillion to US debt — said the vote honored Trump’s election campaign pledge to rein in runaway spending.

“President Trump and House Republicans promised fiscal responsibility and government efficiency,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement just after the vote.

“Today, we’re once again delivering on that promise.”

Both chambers of Congress are Republican-controlled, meaning a party-line House of Representatives vote of 216 to 213, moments after midnight, was sufficient to rubber-stamp the Senate-passed measure.

Most of the cuts target programs for countries hit by disease, war and natural disasters but the move also scraps $1.1 billion that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was due to receive over the next two years.

Conservatives say the funding — which goes mostly to more than 1,500 local public radio and TV stations, as well as to public broadcasters NPR and PBS — is unnecessary and has funded biased coverage.

Trump: Coca-Cola to Start ‘Using Real Cane Sugar in Coke’ in U.S.

President Donald Trump revealed that Coca-Cola had agreed to start “using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke” in the United States, adding that “it’s just better.”

“I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better.”

The ingredients of Coca-Cola Original consist of carbonated water, high-fructose corn syrup, and caramel color, among others, according to Coca-Cola’s website.

Coca-Cola Caffeine Free products consist of ingredients such as; carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, and caramel color,” as well.

In comparison, in countries such as Mexico and the United Kingdom, Coca-Cola products contain cane sugar, the New York Post reported.

Trump’s announcement comes as, under the Trump administration and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., several food companies such as J.M. Smucker Co., Nestlé, and Kraft Heinz have previously announced that they will be working to remove artificial dyes from their products over the course of the next several years.

As Breitbart News reported, candy company Mars Inc. also confirmed that it had stopped making Skittles with titanium dioxide, which is a food additive that is used to whiten foods and products such as toothpaste.

On Tuesday, the White House celebrated how more than two dozen major food companies had made the commitment to making changes to how their products were being made and what ingredients were in them.

POLL: Trump’s Popularity Grows with Republicans amid Epstein Uproar

New polls show President Donald Trump’s approval among Republicans has risen—not fallen—despite nonstop social media backlash over the Epstein case.

 CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten admitted this week he was surprised to find that Trump’s standing with Republican voters has strengthened despite widespread complaints on social media about the Epstein files.

“You might think his approval ratings were going down with Republicans—if anything, they’re going up,” Enten said, referencing recent polling from CNN and Quinnipiac. According to CNN’s numbers, Republican approval of Trump rose from 86% in the previous poll to 88% this week. Quinnipiac’s poll showed a similar jump, from 87% to 90%.

“He is at the apex, or close thereto, in terms of his popularity with Republican voters,” Enten added.

Enten also highlighted how little the Epstein issue appears to matter to Republican voters. “On X, all you hear about is the Epstein files,” he said, “but how about out in the real public?” In CNN’s polling, only one Republican named the Epstein case as the nation’s most important problem. “Not 1%—one respondent,” Enten emphasized, crediting polling colleague Ariel Edwards-Levy with flagging the data point.

“Not much of a surprise that therefore Donald Trump’s approval rating has not suffered with Republicans,” Enten concluded. “Because the bottom line is most Americans say it’s not high up on their priority list.”

This comes after Trump blasted what he called the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” in a recent Truth Social post, accusing the “Radical Left Democrats” of launching yet another smear campaign to distract from his “incredible and unprecedented success.” Comparing the renewed focus on Epstein to past media-driven “scams and hoaxes,” Trump rejected former allies who have embraced the narrative and declared, “I don’t want their support anymore.”