Trump May Get 5 Supreme Court Seats As Epstein Child Claim Surfaces

Iran offers $60k for missing American pilot, and Trump posts white nationalist slogan on Truth Social

Good evening. I’m John Byrne, founder of AlterNet America.

Trump may be about to hand himself a Supreme Court majority that lasts three decades. A missing American pilot is being hunted by armed Iranian civilians after a $60,000 bounty was placed on his head. Trump posted a white nationalist slogan on Truth Social while threatening Iran with a 48-hour ultimatum. And new reporting reveals that FBI interviews with a 13-year-old Trump accuser were stripped from the official Epstein file summaries.

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Now, let’s get into it.

Trump May Be About to Get Two More Supreme Court Seats

This is the story that should keep you up at night.

Progressive advocacy group Demand Justice is launching a multimillion-dollar preemptive campaign to oppose potential Trump Supreme Court nominees before they’re even named. As much as $18 million stands ready to deploy.

The reason: Justices Clarence Thomas, 77, and Samuel Alito, 76, are expected by multiple progressive legal groups to retire during Trump’s term. This would give him the opportunity to replace them with younger, more radical loyalists.

Josh Orton, president of Demand Justice, invoked the cautionary tale of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “If you think that Trump’s willing to leave two of the three justices he thinks are most loyal on the court in their 80s past when he leaves office,” he said, “you’re not paying attention.”

Trump’s already placed three justices on the court. Two more would give him a 5-4 majority of his own personal appointees, potentially for the next three decades. On abortion. On elections. On voting rights. On executive power. On everything.

Blocking a Trump nominee would require all Senate Democrats plus four Republican defectors. Orton believes as many as six Republicans could break ranks under the right political pressure. That math only works if Democrats hold together completely and if the political conditions are right. A Democratic Senate takeover in November would also change the calculation.

Armed Iranians Are Hunting a Missing American Pilot. Iran Put a $60,000 Bounty on His Head.

A U.S. F-15 was shot down over Iran on Friday — the first American warplane downed in enemy territory since the six-week war began. One pilot was rescued in a dangerous operation that left two Black Hawk helicopters damaged by enemy fire. The second pilot remains missing.

Iranian state TV wasted no time. Broadcasters urged civilians to scour the mountains for the downed airman, telling viewers: “If you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police, you will receive a precious prize.” The prize has since been reported as $60,000. Footage on Iranian social media shows armed civilians trekking through mountainous terrain, waving Iranian flags and telling cameras: “Don’t worry, we will find them, God willing.”

A second American aircraft, an A-10 Warthog, was also shot down near the Strait of Hormuz. That pilot managed to navigate into Kuwaiti airspace before ejecting and was rescued safely.

Trump told NBC News the shootdowns won’t affect negotiations, adding: “No, it’s war. We’re in war.” He then posted on Truth Social that the U.S. “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran,” promising to strike bridges and electric power plants next.

The administration blitzed Iran’s tallest bridge on Thursday, killing eight people and injuring 95 more. Iran has rejected a 48-hour ceasefire proposal, with its foreign minister stating the country will only accept a permanent end to the war.

Thirteen American service members have now been killed. Gas prices have topped $4 a gallon nationally. And the search for a missing pilot continues in hostile territory, with a bounty on his head.

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While His Pilot Was Missing, Trump Posted a White Nationalist Slogan

This morning, with a missing American airman being hunted in Iranian mountains, Donald Trump posted a 48-hour ultimatum warning that “all Hell will reign down” (sic) on Iran. Hours later, he pivoted to Truth Social with a different message.

“If you import the Third World, you become the Third World!” he wrote. “AND THAT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS LONG AS I AM PRESIDENT.”

The phrase is a long-standing white nationalist slogan, previously used by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, that frames immigration from developing nations as an existential civilizational threat. Historians have noted it’s closely aligned with Great Replacement theory — the same ideological current as Trump’s earlier remarks that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country.

This comes as 13 service members are dead, gas is at $4 a gallon, and the economy is contracting. Trump’s response, on a Saturday morning, was to post a white nationalist slogan. He also, separately, signed off his Iran ultimatum with “Glory be to GOD!”

Key Details About the 13-Year-Old Trump Accuser Were Stripped From the Epstein Files

New reporting from The Daily Beast, building on earlier work by The Post and Courier, reveals that FBI handwritten notes from interviews with a woman who accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was 13 years old contain details that did not appear in the official summaries released as part of the Epstein files.

The woman told the FBI she was abused and trafficked by Epstein, who introduced her to Trump in 1984 in New York or New Jersey. The official summaries — known as 302s — described some uncertainty about her travel with Epstein. The handwritten notes, according to the reporting, are “slightly less tentative,” and could constitute evidence of underage sex trafficking if accurate. The notes also record two additional interactions with Trump that the official summaries reference only briefly.

The FBI interviewed her four times in 2019. Approximately 30 pages of documents related to her claims have still not been publicly released. The DOJ has denied that any files are missing, calling it a “media-created myth.” The White House has denied the woman’s account entirely.

The three summaries that mentioned Trump were the only documents “accidentally” left out of the original Epstein files release. The DOJ called it a coding error. The handwritten notes with additional detail remain unpublished. The acting Attorney General who closed the Epstein investigation is Todd Blanche — Donald Trump’s former personal defense attorney.

Why I’m in This Fight

These are the stories that don’t fit neatly into the Iran war coverage.

Two Supreme Court seats could reshape America for a generation. A missing pilot being hunted while the president posts white nationalist slogans. The Epstein files being stripped from official records while the man who closed the investigation now runs the Justice Department.

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Thanks for being with us tonight. We’re in it to win it.

— John Byrne

Founder, AlterNet America