Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin tried to rope Barack Obama into Donald Trump's Jeffrey Epstein scandal. It went horribly awry.

President Donald Trump has filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal in response to an article reporting that he sent a "bawdy" letter to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday. The article never accused Trump of being involved in any of Epstein's sex crimes, and many legal experts consider the lawsuit frivolous and devoid of merit — including MSNBC's Lisa Rubin and law professor/former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor Kimberly Wehle. But during a July 20 appearance on MSNBC, Michael Cohen, Trump's formerly personal attorney and fixer, predicted that the WSJ and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, will cave in and agree to pay a settlement regardless of how flawed Trump's lawsuit is. The Guardian's Ben Makuch, meanwhile, views the WSJ/Murdoch lawsuit as an example of Trump cutting his nose to spite his face — as Murdoch also owns Fox News and Fox Business, which have been extremely pro-Trump during his second presidency. READ MORE: 'Kicked a hornet’s nest': Backlash follows red state Republicans' repeal of voter-approved laws "In the wake of new revelations regarding the friendship of Donald Trump and disgraced and deceased billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein," Makuch explains in an article published on July 28, "Rupert Murdoch's media empire has both poured gasoline onto the story and come to Trump's loyal defense. Experts say that, much like the broader MAGA movement, the Epstein affair is testing Trump and Murdoch's mostly chummy relationship…. There is trouble in paradise. Murdoch's Wall Street Journal (WSJ) broke the story that Trump allegedly penned a seedy birthday message to Epstein in 2003." Makuch adds, "The president then did what he does best: filed a libel suit for billions in damages." The Guardian reporter stresses that Trump's lawsuit hasn't made Fox News any less pro-Trump. "While the WSJ, a more independent and centrist publication in comparison with the rest of Murdoch's media empire, cast a stone against the president," Makuch observes, "Fox News is more than making up for it. Perhaps, that is, to avoid the fates of Paramount and ABC, which paid off Trump in large sums to settle suits that ultimately involved freedom of the press issues. Both networks stood to beat Trump on the facts of the cases, but avoided more litigation in what many have seen as a veritable bribe to a suit-happy and powerful president." READ MORE: Trump just revealed his total contempt for the rule of law Makuch notes that Edward Ongweso Jr., a senior researcher at Security in Context, "believes WSJ reporters might smell blood in the water for the president and report on him accordingly. Ongweso told The Guardian, "There has been a trickle of additional Epstein-Trump material, most recently the resurfacing of photos showing Epstein at Trump's 1993 wedding to Martha Maples. There is certainly more that WSJ reporters will uncover and unless there's editorial interference, I can't see how Murdoch's empire can stop itself from uttering his name again." READ MORE: 'Total mental collapse': Trump brutally mocked after 'babbling rant' Read Ben Makuch's full article for The Guardian at this link.

Asked about Gaza, Donald Trump expressed disappointment about not receiving sufficient thanks for the United States' aid shipments, which was bizarre.

President Donald Trump was quickly mocked by political observers on Monday over his highly-teased threat to impose a 100% tariff on Russia if President Vladimir Putin does not agree to a ceasefire deal with Ukraine in 50 days. Now, it appears Russia is also mocking the American President’s “ultimatums,” declaring they refuse his terms and will continue to attack the sovereign nation of Ukraine until their goals are met: namely, seizing control of key Ukrainian territory and permanently blocking the country’s accession into NATO. “In response to President Trump’s threat to impose 100% secondary tariffs on countries that do business with Russia if Putin’s government does not agree to a deal to end the war in that timeframe, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Tuesday that ‘any attempts to make demands, especially ultimatums, are unacceptable to us,’ according to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency,” CBS News reported. READ MORE: ‘Divine Providence’: Johnson Paints Trump as ‘Miraculously’ Spared by God “If we cannot achieve our goals through diplomacy,” Ryabkov added, “then the SVO (war in Ukraine) will continue… This is an unshakable position. We would like Washington and NATO as a whole to take it with the utmost seriousness.” On Monday, Trump effectively tanked a bipartisan Senate bill that would have imposed a 500% tariff on nations doing business with Russia, saying he did not believe it was necessary, although he would not oppose it. Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune pulled the bill. “Trump’s Russia announcement is being portrayed as toughening his stance,” wrote The New York Times’ Peter Baker, “but in fact what he did was give Putin a 50-day free pass to do anything he likes in Ukraine without further US punishment as the Senate sanctions bill is now put on hold.” “Moreover,” he added, “the Russians have paid attention and realize that Trump deadlines tend to be less than firm so they have already indicated that they don’t take this one all that seriously.” READ MORE: ‘Dumb-Dumb’: Fox News Host Declares Rising Democrat a ‘Mental Deficient’ Amid Senate Buzz And on Tuesday, providing Russia with more good news, Trump said he did not think Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should be targeting Moscow with missiles. “Ukraine shouldn’t target Moscow even though Moscow targets Kyiv every day, and the U.S. is not looking to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles,” wrote the Wall Street Journal’s chief foreign-affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov. “Everyone in the Kremlin who thought for a few hours that Trump may be serious about pressure on Russia is popping champagne 🍾” During the 2024 campaign Trump promised to end the war “on day one.” Watch the video below or at this link. — (@) READ MORE: ‘Dumb-Dumb’: Fox News Host Declares Rising Democrat a ‘Mental Deficient’ Amid Senate Buzz

Oof, that's gotta sting 😂

Plus, right-wing weather conspiracy theories, ICE’s disturbing admission and the Trump administration goes all in on Grok, all in this week’s Tuesday Tech Drop.

Absolutely depraved.

North Carolina Lt. Gov, Mark Robinson was hospitalized Friday night.