Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
A former associate of Melania Trump claims on tape that the first lady met Donald Trump through Jeffrey Epstein, not a modeling agent. The Pentagon banned reporters from its own press office by reclassifying the room. Pete Hegseth blocked the promotions of nine Navy officers and produced a one-star admiral list with zero women. And a Trump-organized event for America’s 250th birthday dumped more than 30 gallons of fuel into the cisterns that irrigate the National Mall.
Corporate media is running cover. The FCC chair is making sure they know what happens if they don’t. And independent outlets are being bought out one by one. AlterNet America is the people-powered response to the MAGA billionaire takeover of American media. We are reader-funded, editorially independent, and not for sale. We exist because of you. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, please upgrade today.
Now, let’s go.
New Recording Claims Epstein Introduced Trump to Melania
Melania Trump held a press conference in April to deny rumors that didn’t publicly exist yet. Turns out she knew something was coming.
Former Brazilian model Amanda Ungaro, locked in a bitter custody battle with presidential envoy Paolo Zampolli, has revealed in a bombshell WhatsApp message that Melania met Trump through Epstein, not Zampolli.
“It was Jeffrey Epstein, as she was escort of Jeffrey Epstein,” Ungaro says on the tape. “That’s how she met Donald Trump.”
The MAGA folklore version is that Zampolli introduced the couple at a 1998 party. The complicating detail is in the Justice Department’s own files: a former assistant to Epstein told the FBI, under penalty of perjury, that the financier introduced Trump and Melania.
Ungaro was 17 in 2002 when she boarded Epstein’s private jet from Paris to New York, accompanied by Epstein recruiter Jean-Luc Brunel. Zampolli is now a Special Envoy for Global Partnerships and sits on the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees.
The First Lady has not updated her statement.
The Pentagon Turned Its Press Office Into a Classified Room
Forget the nukes. Someone decided the most dangerous thing at the Defense Department is a reporter with a notebook.
On Monday, Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez announced that the press office had been redesignated a “Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility.” The reason is that Pete Hegseth’s speechwriters share the space and handle classified material on SIPRNet.
As a result, journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space. Access to the press secretary remains available by appointment only.
This is not the first round. In October, dozens of journalists turned in their Pentagon badges rather than agree to Hegseth’s rule asking them not to report unapproved information. Even Fox News, where Hegseth used to host a weekend show, and Newsmax rejected the rules.
The New York Times has now sued the Pentagon twice. A federal judge struck down key restrictions in March. The Times sued again last month over a requirement that reporters be escorted everywhere in the building.
Hegseth’s response was unsurprising: “The Pentagon press corps can squeal all they want.” The squealing is only available by appointment.
The Pentagon just made it a federal security matter to ask a public affairs officer a question. We don’t have a press badge to revoke, a broadcast license to lose, or an advertiser to placate. We just have you. If that’s worth something, please consider upgrading your subscription today.
Hegseth Purged the Navy Promotion List of Women
Pete Hegseth reviewed a promotion list for the U.S. Navy and somehow could not find a single woman worth promoting in a force that is 21 percent female.
According to five current and former defense officials, Hegseth blocked the promotions of nine Navy officers selected by a board of senior admirals for one-star rank. Three were women. Two were Black men.
The board that picked them spent up to two weeks reviewing hundreds of files. Only about 5 percent of eligible officers are chosen, making it the most competitive board in the U.S. military. Hegseth struck the names anyway.
Under Pentagon rules, the defense secretary is supposed to remove officers only for moral, mental, physical, or professional failings. The officers struck appear to have been targeted instead for taking part in a diversity-related event years, or in one case, two decades earlier.
The new list, released in late May, includes no women and appears to include only two nonwhite officers, in a Navy where sailors who identify as racial minorities make up about 38 percent of the force.
In a break with protocol, Hegseth also urged officials to add his own special assistant, a Navy SEAL who lacked the command experience required for promotion. This is what a merit-based military looks like.
Trump’s Christian Nationalism Rally Spilled 30 Gallons of Fuel on the National Mall
Nothing says reverence for America like leaking generator fuel into the underground cisterns that keep its capital alive.
That is what happened after the May 17 “Rededicate 250” rally for Christian Nationalism. More than 30 gallons of fuel from commercial generators spilled into the Mall’s cisterns — the reservoirs that collect rainwater to irrigate the grass.
Freedom 250’s explanation is that vandals did it. Spokeswoman Rachel Reisner said the group’s lighting equipment had been “repeatedly targeted,” and that the leak was the “direct result of that tampering.”
On Monday, NBC News observed a Lewis Environmental “Mobile Command Center” and more than a dozen “Rain for Rent” trailers parked at the site. Cleanup is underway.
The Park Service typically holds the permit holder liable for environmental mitigation after a spill this size. It is unclear whether Freedom 250, a public-private group created by the Trump administration, is on the hook for the cost.
The grass was already in trouble, with a state fair, a Fourth of July “Salute to America,” and an August IndyCar race all booked for the same lawn. They’re celebrating 250 years of America by poisoning the ground under it.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Trump’s Approval Hits an All-Time Low With the Pollster Who Loved Him Most. Big Data Poll, a survey firm that historically handed Trump some of his strongest numbers, now puts his approval at 39.4 percent. It’s the first time he has dipped into the 30s this term, and down from 55.5 percent when he took office. The May 24–27 survey of 3,121 registered voters found 57.4 percent disapprove, with the firm’s “intensity index” hitting -26.3, the widest negative gap it has ever measured. Director Rich Baris, a longtime Trump supporter, wrote that “voters have run out of patience,” with the steepest drops on cost of living and the war in Iran.
Trump Drops His $1.8 Billion “Slush Fund” for His Own Allies. The administration is tabling its nearly $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” a scheme to pay Trump’s supporters and alleged “victims” of government targeting, after a federal judge in Washington blocked it from transferring money or mailing checks. The plan blew up Republican plans to fund ICE before Memorial Day and triggered a heated closed-door briefing with Acting AG Todd Blanche, who would have controlled the secret payouts. Plaintiffs warn it isn’t truly dead until Congress kills it for good.
Journalist Katie Phang Sues Todd Blanche Over the Buried Epstein Files. Investigative journalist and legal analyst Katie Phang filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to hold Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche personally responsible for the Justice Department’s alleged failure to release the full Epstein files. A transparency act authored by Democrat Ro Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie required a complete release by December 19, 2025. Blanche is accused of missing deadlines, over-redacting, and declaring the investigation effectively over after putting out only about 3 million documents.
Federal Judge Blocks Trump From Dismantling a Boulder Weather Lab Out of Spite. Senior U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson issued a preliminary injunction Monday halting the National Science Foundation’s plan to strip the Boulder nonprofit UCAR of control over the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center, calling the move “arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.” The court found the decision was less a policy choice than a punishment of Colorado, alongside terminated transportation funds, canceled NOAA agreements, denied FEMA requests, and a vetoed water pipeline.
