First Lady Melania Trump took to X Thursday to claim victory after Democratic strategist James Carville took back comments about an alleged connection with Jeffrey Epstein the night she first met Donald Trump. The First Lady let two images do the talking after her lawyers secured the retraction. They were screen captures of the transcript of Carville’s apology and a crossed-out image of his face and video of the episode titled, “The Epstein Connection: Trump & Melania.” Carville opened his latest episode of the Politics War Room podcast on Thursday with the retraction and apology. The objection apparently concerned Carville’s characterization of how she met her future husband. That claim was connected to an article in the Daily Beast that reported allegations by journalist Michael Wolff that a modeling agent connected to Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump. After the First Lady’s lawyers objected, the Daily Beast took down the article and issued an editor’s note in its place with a detailed apology as well. “First Lady Melania Trump’s attorneys are actively ensuring immediate retractions and apologies by those who spread malicious, defamatory falsehoods,” aide to the First Lady Nick Clemens told Fox News digital. “The true account of how the First Lady met President Trump is in her best-selling book, Melania.” The book details that Trump introduced himself at a New York fashion event in 1998 at the Kit Kat Club. Donald Trump had another woman on his arm that night and she didn’t take his interest in her seriously, she wrote. Vice President JD Vance’s office is shredding “leftists” and “fake news” outlets for continuing to spread “outright falsehoods” about a recent vacation the vice president took with his family for his birthday. “The vice president took a canoe trip down the street from his house in Ohio with his wife and three young kids on his 41st birthday, and Democrats are trying to turn it into a story about elitism,” Vance communications director Will Martin told Breitbart News exclusively. The matter, which some are calling “Canoe-Gate,” stems from how the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) ordered local government officials to raise the water level of a river in Ohio so their watercraft could easily patrol the area. But since the publication of that story, the U.S. Secret Service’s spokesman has gone on record to make it absolutely crystal clear that the vice president and his office had nothing to do with raising the water level in the river and that it was purely a U.S. Secret Service decision for security reasons. USSS spokesman Anthony Guglielmi even told Breitbart News that when the USSS conducted a trip to the Ohio area ahead of the vice president’s trip there for his birthday, a local vessel actually ran aground necessitating for security reasons the raising of the water level. Guglielmi noted that USSS regularly does this type of thing, saying in a brief phone call on Friday that “it’s very normal, it’s very routine,” and that agents need to have access to watercraft for security and safety reasons in a given area—and that the decision was made without input or involvement from the vice president’s office. But the fake outlets that ran with the original stories on this continue to refuse to correct them or significantly update them. While it remains to be seen what happens next, it would seem like there is potentially some kind of legal action that the vice president may want to take... President Trump has signed a directive authorizing the Pentagon to deploy U.S. military force against select Latin American drug cartels designated as terrorist organizations. This marks the most aggressive step yet in his administration’s campaign against fentanyl and other illicit drugs, framing the fight as a national security issue and aligning with closed-border policies that have already reduced illegal immigration to a fraction of previous levels. The directive builds on Trump’s executive order at the start of his second administration, instructing the State Department to designate cartels and transnational gangs as foreign terrorist organizations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained that designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations gives the U.S. government expanded legal authority to act against them. “It’s no longer a law enforcement issue. It becomes a national security issue,” he said. Rubio noted that the designation enables the U.S. to deploy broader tools of national power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, and others, to target these groups whenever opportunities arise. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/08/president-trump-orders-military-take-drug-cartels-flow/ The anticipation is mounting for the historic Friday summit in Alaska between US President Donald J. Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Today (12), the White House confirmed Trump-Putin summit in Anchorage, Alaska calling it ‘listening exercise’ New York Post reported: ‘There were many sites discussed, but of course, Alaska is a state within the United States of America, so the president is very honored’, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during her regular briefing.” The Trump administration has also confirmed that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky ‘has been sidelined’ from the summit. Fox News reported: “’The president is agreeing to this meeting, at the request of President Putin’, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday. ‘And the goal of this meeting for the president is to walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war.'" https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/08/confirmed-zelensky-not-invited-fridays-trump-putin-alaska/ The regime media tried and failed to gaslight Americans on crime in the nation’s capital, and US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro wasn’t having it for a single second. Speaking after President Donald Trump’s bold federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department, an unprecedented move to clean up the lawless swamp, a smug reporter suggested crime in DC was “down.” Pirro unleashed. “It’s NEVER ENOUGH. You tell these families that crime has dropped. You tell the mother of the intern who was shot going out for McDonald’s near the Washington Convention Center, ‘oh, crime is down.’ Pirro’s comments come as the DC police department’s credibility is in tatters following revelations that crime statistics were being manipulated to hide the city’s violent crime wave. Back in July, NBC Washington reported that DC Police Commander Michael Pulliam, then head of the 3rd District, was suspended and placed on paid administrative leave after accusations surfaced that he altered crime data to make it look like violent crime had plummeted. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/08/judge-jeanine-obliterates-dc-crime-spin-shreds-reporter/ 
Melania Trump Unleashes Lawyers to Get Retractions on Fake Epstein Connection:
Exclusive — Canoe-Gate: Team Vance Scorches ‘Leftists,’ ‘Fake News’ for ‘Outright Falsehoods’ Secret Service Debunked on River Level:
President Trump Orders Military to Take on Drug Cartels – The Flow of Illegal Drugs and Gangs Stops Now!
CONFIRMED: Zelensky NOT INVITED to Friday’s Trump-Putin Alaska Summit:
Judge Jeanine OBLITERATES DC Crime Spin — Shreds Reporter for Claiming “Crime Is Down” After Brutal Attacks on Innocent Victims:
You tell the kid who was just beat to hell and back with a severe concussion and a broken nose, ‘crime is down.’
No, that falls on deaf ears. My ears are deaf to that and that’s why I fight the fight. Thank you.”