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Greetings and salutations to the US politics live blog. This is Tom Ambrose, and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the coming hours.

Trump Dismisses Greene's Danger Concerns

We begin with the development that President Donald Trump doubled down on his criticism of Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene on Sunday, despite his reversal on opposing the release of the Epstein files.

He continued to dismiss her assertion that his criticism were endangering her and said he did not believe anyone was focusing on her. The congresswoman said on the previous day that Trump’s online criticism had triggered a wave of menaces directed at her.

“Greene the ‘Traitor’,” he said, referring to the lawmaker. “I do not believe her life is in danger... I don’t think anybody is concerned for her,” the president informed reporters before entering his presidential plane on Sunday night.

Greene, a House representative from the state of Georgia who was previously considered a Trump loyalist, has lately taken positions contrary to the commander-in-chief. She noted on the weekend she has been contacted by private security firms expressing concern for her safety and that harsh attacks against her have in the past resulted in threats on her life.

Epstein Files Release Push

The public fallout occurred while the President urged his GOP colleagues in the legislature to vote for the release of records concerning the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, reversing his earlier resistance to such a move.

Trump’s post on his social media platform came after Speaker Johnson previously stated that he thought a decision on releasing DOJ documents in the Epstein investigation should help put to rest claims “that he [Trump] has any involvement”.

He posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday: “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein documents, because we have no secrets.

“And it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax orchestrated by far-left activists in order to distract from the significant achievements of the GOP, including our recent Victory on the government funding issue,” he said.

Although Trump and Epstein were seen together decades ago, the commander-in-chief has claimed the two men fell out before Epstein’s convictions. Messages disclosed recently by a congressional panel indicated the disgraced financier, who took his own life in prison in 2019, believed the President “was aware of the girls,” though it was not clear what that phrase meant.

Other Updates

• GOP representative Thomas Massie had challenged the President over whether the US president was making a “last-ditch effort” to keep the complete records on the late convicted criminal Epstein from being disclosed by ordering a new probe. Massie and Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, the two lawmakers leading the cross-party effort to have all the files in the possession of the authorities available both expressed new worries about the actions by the White House.
• The United States conducted a further strike on an alleged narcotics smuggling vessel in the eastern Pacific on the weekend, resulting in the deaths of three individuals on board, the Department of Defense announced on the following day. “Information verified that the vessel was engaged in illegal drug trafficking, traveling on a known narco-trafficking route, and transporting drugs,” the US Southern Command announced in a post on social media.
• Trump said the US may begin discussions with President Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, who is under growing scrutiny from the US government during a huge US military buildup in the Caribbean. “We could initiate some talks with Maduro, and we’ll observe how that turns out. They would want to talk,” the commander-in-chief remarked on Sunday, in one of the first signs of a possible path to easing the increasingly tense circumstances in the region.
• Trump on the weekend brushed aside worries about conservative commentator Tucker Carlson's recent interview with a extremist figure recognized for his antisemitic views, which has caused a schism within the Republican party. The President defended Carlson, noting the ex-media personality has “expressed good things about me over the years.” He added if Carlson chooses to speak with Nick Fuentes, whose supporters see themselves as defending the nation's white, Christian identity, then “individuals have to make up their own minds.” Trump did not criticize Carlson or Fuentes.
• Trump suggested on that day that he plans to have a discussion with NYC's mayor-elect Mamdani and stated they will “reach an agreement”, in what could be a detente for the Republican president and Democratic rising star who have cast each other as political foils. Trump has for months slammed Mr Mamdani, incorrectly labelling him as a “socialist” and forecasting the decline of his city, New York, if the democratic socialist were elected.
• A group of seventeen transgender military personnel has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for refusing them early retirement pensions and entitlements. The legal filing, filed in a US court, characterizes the government’s move against them as “unlawful and invalid”.