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Politics in Richmond, Calif., have revolved around one company for decades: Chevron. The oil giant operates a massive refinery in the city, creating jobs and contributing millions of dollars in tax revenue that helps fund local government. Despite its outsized economic role, Chevron has remained the primary political target of Richmond's democratic socialist leaders, particularly the influential Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA).

The relationship between Richmond and Chevron has evolved from one of corporate dominance and influence to one of persistent conflict as the city's leadership moves further to the left.

"I think it's pretty much a fact that for 100 years Chevron pretty much controlled the city of Richmond," former Richmond Mayor Tom Butt told Fox News Digital.

"When I first got elected, the politics in Richmond were — the power in Richmond resided in big developers, industries, particularly Chevron, and lobbyists, that sort of thing. And so that was what I was fighting," Butt said. He added that the turning point came in the mid-2000s as the RPA began gaining influence. According to Butt, while he was skeptical of the RPA, the coalition was helpful in the city's fight against Chevron.

INSIDE THE CALIFORNIA CITY WHERE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS ARE TESTING THEIR 'ANTI-BUSINESS' AGENDA

The Chevron refinery, which is still operational, was completed in July 1902, according to the company's website, around three years before Richmond was incorporated as a city in 1905. Chevron noted that in 2002, as the refinery marked its 100th anniversary, it had over 1,300 employees and spanned 2,900 acres.

Current Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez, a member of the RPA and a democratic socialist, told Fox News Digital that he does not believe there are any communities hosting major oil companies that have achieved a balanced relationship between residents and industry.

"The imbalance we see today stems from a lack of accountability and compassion among multibillion-dollar corporations whose operations can affect the health and safety of surrounding communities. True balance will be achieved only when corporations operate responsibly and give equal consideration to the needs of the communities they impact, not solely to the interests of shareholders," he said.

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The city's frustrations with Chevron go beyond local politics. Over the years, refinery incidents have raised concerns among residents about safety, pollution and corporate accountability.

In March 1999, an explosion and fire at the Chevron refinery released toxic fumes and prompted a shelter-in-place warning. SFGate reported at the time that three Chevron emergency response team workers were injured, and multiple workers were seen coughing. A spokesperson for the company told SFGate in 1999 that an explosion led to "a very hot fire, and when you have burning liquid it's unpredictable. We're throwing everything we have at it."

A defining moment in Chevron's relationship with Richmond came in August 2012, when a ruptured pipe released flammable, high-temperature light gas oil that partially vaporized into a large opaque cloud. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) found that the vapor cloud ignited approximately two minutes after the release, triggering a massive fire.

While no one was killed, approximately 15,000 people sought medical treatment in the weeks that followed for ailments including breathing problems, chest pain, shortness of breath, sore throats and headaches. The CSB ultimately concluded that the rupture resulted from severe corrosion and found that Chevron had failed to effectively implement internal recommendations to inspect or replace vulnerable piping before the accident.

SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH CHEVRON, OIL COMPANIES IN LOUISIANA ENVIRONMENTAL LAWSUITS

The refinery incidents fueled longstanding skepticism toward Chevron among many Richmond residents and activists, creating political momentum for leaders who argued the company should face greater oversight and contribute more to the economy.

Politics in Richmond became increasingly focused on Chevron after the 2012 fire, with activists and city leaders pushing the company to contribute more to the community. The tension culminated in 2024, when the Richmond City Council approved a deal in which Chevron agreed to pay $550 million in exchange for the removal of a proposed refinery tax measure from the ballot.

Chevron told local news outlet Richmondside that the "agreement ensures Chevron Richmond can continue to provide Northern California with the affordable, reliable and ever-cleaner energy the region’s economy needs."

While Richmond leaders celebrated the deal as a victory, some residents questioned whether continued pressure on Chevron could push the company to leave, potentially triggering major economic consequences.

Butt argued that Chevron became an issue that helped the RPA go from a fringe movement to a major force in Richmond politics.

"I think the secret to the RPA's initial success has to do with Chevron," he said. "They identified an issue in Richmond that had enough sympathy that they could win an election on it."

Butt said that Chevron's waning influence in Richmond was evident in a 2014 municipal election. Chevron shelled out approximately $3 million to back a slate of preferred candidates, all of whom were defeated.

"They put $3 million, which is a lot of money in Richmond, into backing a slate of candidates and all their candidates lost. And that was kind of the turning point for them where they went from owning Richmond to not owning Richmond," Butt told Fox News Digital.

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Even some of Chevron's critics acknowledge that Richmond faces a difficult balancing act between trying to hold the oil giant accountable without completely pushing it out. However, Butt believes that the RPA is hoping Chevron will close its doors.

"The RPA basically would love to see Chevron closed down tomorrow, and then you know what they would do at that point for jet fuel and for gasoline for their cars and that sort of thing, I don't think they think that far ahead. That's just not it, it doesn't mean anything to them," he said.

The risk of Chevron scaling back its presence in California is not entirely hypothetical, as the company has already relocated its headquarters from San Ramon, Calif., to Houston, Texas. For some Richmond residents, the move reinforced concerns about the city's approach to the company.

"Chevron built Richmond because, you know, back in the day everybody used to live two blocks away from Chevron," Mark Wassberg, a Richmond resident and former Chevron worker, told Fox News Digital.

Wassberg argued that the refinery jobs are difficult to replace with newer positions in green-energy, saying that he was making $1,400 weekly and had no overtime limits.

Not all Richmond residents who expressed concern about Chevron's future were completely against the city working to hold the company accountable. Richmond resident Stephen London said pollution concerns are common in the area and praised city leaders for extracting concessions from Chevron.

"The city's on an upswing and, you know, we got a lot of money out of Chevron for their pollution. I think they get some of the credit for that from what I understand," London said.

However, London acknowledged that there were risks if the accountability push were to go too far.

"You don't really want to kill the golden goose, you just want to squeeze a bunch of eggs out of them," he later said.

For London and other Richmond residents, the challenge facing city leadership is to find a way to hold Chevron accountable while preserving the jobs and tax revenue that the company has provided for generations.

Fox News Digital reached out to Chevron for comment but did not immediately receive a response. 

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House Democrats are raising concerns about how race and jury selection may have impacted the guilty verdict in the Karmelo Anthony case, with several arguing the verdict highlights the racism they believe exists in the criminal justice system.

"A travesty, two lives ruined, and what struck me most is that you had an all-White jury," Rep. Christian Menefee, D-Texas, said when asked his thoughts on the guilty verdict. "You had preemptive strikes that were used in order to achieve an all-White jury."

After Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Tuesday for the stabbing and killing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a high school track event, many activists and Democratic lawmakers have claimed the trial to be unfair and racist. 

KARMELO ANTHONY VERDICT DRAWS ANTI-WHITE RAGE AND LIES FROM RADICAL DEM CONGRESSWOMAN, ANGRY ACTIVISTS

Many are claiming the jurors were all White, and that this contributed to the rejection of Anthony's self-defense claim.

"Juries should represent the diversity of this country, and if a White kid was convicted of murder and it was an all-Black jury that did the conviction, people would say this is patently unfair," Menefee said. "So why should it be fair if it's the other way around?"

But sources close to the trial told Fox News Digital that there were three jurors who were racial minorities. They said that of the 18 total jurors, including alternates, six were minorities. Additionally, four Black men testified in defense of Metcalf, saying Anthony was not provoked in any way to justify stabbing the 17-year-old.

SELF-DEFENSE CLAIM IN AUSTIN METCALF SLAYING IS 'UPHILL BATTLE': EXPERT

Supporters of Anthony claim that he stabbed Metcalf as an act of self defense, arguing he did not receive a fair trial. Some activists and Democratic lawmakers have called for further review of the case and urged Anthony to pursue an appeal.

"Here is a case where a young man certainly appears to have been being attacked and defended himself," Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., said about the case.

"It does bring in light the imbalance in our judicial system, as it relates to African Americans and people of color" Carter continued. "And that's a shame. So hopefully, there'll be an opportunity for some appeal and some further discussion."

"Case after case, after case you see that if it is a young Black person, they're not allowed to be fearful, they're not allowed self-defense, they don't get the same standard ground opportunities that other people get," Menefee said. "But then other races do."

AUSTIN METCALF'S DAD EXPRESSES EMPATHY FOR KARMELO ANTHONY AS KILLER'S PARENTS SAY 'THEY DID A NUMBER ON US'

Some lawmakers were less likely to directly blame the trial as unfair due to race, but were still sympathetic toward Anthony and were not blatantly opposed to the idea of looking further into the evidence in the case despite a verdict already being made.

"We've got to stop this loss and the killing of these young children, number one," Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Ill., said. "First of all, they need to reopen it and all the evidence needs to come forward."

"I think it's an unfortunate circumstance all the way around," Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala., said.

He continued, "You have one young man who was killed. His family will never get to be with him again. You have another young man who, for all intents and purposes, thrown a lot of years of his life. A lot of the years of this life. If he does 35 years, he’ll be 50 — in his 50s — when he gets out. And it's just totally unfortunate."

Throughout their criticism of the verdict, several lawmakers framed the case as part of a larger debate over race, self-defense claims and equal treatment for minorities under the law.

"The American justice system does not work equally for everybody," Menefee said.

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For 67 years, the Castro regime has survived by convincing the world that communism in Cuba is a permanent condition. It rules through fear, propaganda, prisons and repression while generations of Cubans have been forced to live without freedom, prosperity or hope. But, today, that illusion is crumbling.

As the only Cuban-born member of the United States Congress, I never thought I would witness a moment where the dictatorship in Havana appeared this weak, this isolated and this vulnerable. The regime can no longer hide the reality of its failure. Cuba is suffering blackouts that leave entire cities in darkness, hospitals without medicine and food shortages that have become routine.

What is happening in Cuba is not simply a humanitarian crisis. It is a direct national security threat to the United States. The dictatorship in Havana has transformed itself into a strategic outpost for America’s greatest adversaries.

Communist China has expanded its presence on the island through suspected intelligence and surveillance facilities, capable of monitoring sensitive U.S. military activity across the southeastern United States. Russia continues to coordinate both politically and militarily with Havana. Meanwhile, Iran is deepening its influence across Latin America, using anti-American regimes like Cuba and Venezuela as gateways into the hemisphere. The Cuban dictatorship has become a platform for hostile foreign powers operating just 90 miles from our shores.

TRUMP UNDERSTANDS WHAT WASHINGTON POLITICIANS FORGOT: CUBA IS A MAJOR THREAT TO AMERICA

Now, history is catching up to the architects of the dictatorship themselves. Former Cuban dictator Raúl Castro has been indicted by the United States for his alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two unarmed Brothers to the Rescue planes, one of the most infamous crimes committed by the regime against civilians.

Four innocent men – Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña, and Pablo Morales – were flying unarmed civilian aircraft in international airspace when Cuban military pilots in Soviet-built MiG fighter jets opened fire with missiles. The attack was not accidental. It was a deliberate operation intended to terrorize the Cuban exile community and silence those who dared oppose the regime. For decades, the families of the victims waited for justice while Havana acted with impunity. Today, the dictatorship is finally being forced to answer for its crimes.

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At the center of the regime’s survival is the Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), the military-controlled conglomerate that dominates nearly every major sector of the Cuban economy. Hotels, ports, construction, banks, retail stores, remittances and tourism all flow through the hands of the military elite while ordinary Cubans struggle to survive.

That is why the recent arrest in Miami of Adys Lastres Morera, the sister of GAESA’s executive president, was so significant. Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked her residency status after accusing her of benefiting from life in the United States while helping sustain Havana’s communist apparatus. It exposed the hypocrisy of a regime elite that condemns America publicly while privately enjoying the freedoms and opportunities denied to the Cuban people.

President Donald Trump and Rubio understand something previous administrations refused to accept. Dictatorships do not reform when rewarded. They become stronger. The Obama-era opening handed economic relief and legitimacy to the Cuban regime while political prisoners remained jailed, dissidents were beaten and the military elite expanded its control through entities like GAESA. Strength, not appeasement, is the only language Havana understands.

For decades, the Castro regime cultivated an illusion of absolute invincibility; today, for the first time in a generation, that facade has cracked, leaving the dictatorship profoundly vulnerable thanks to the decisive policies of President Trump.

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A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison Friday in a case that accused him of ordering drone flights over North Korea in an effort to justify his declaration of martial law.

Yoon, 65, was sentenced alongside former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun by the Seoul Central District Court.

The ousted president was previously sentenced to life in prison for leading an insurrection following his declaration of martial law in December 2024.

North Korea accused South Korea of flying drones over Pyongyang to drop propaganda leaflets on three occasions in October 2024.

SOUTH KOREAN LAWMAKERS SUPPORT SUSPENDING PRESIDENT’S POWERS AFTER SHORT-LIVED MARTIAL LAW DECLARATION

Then-Defense Minister Kim initially issued a vague denial before South Korea's Defense Ministry said it could neither confirm nor deny the allegations.

Although tensions between the two Koreas escalated following the incident, the drone flights did not lead to any military clashes.

Prosecutors accused Yoon of attempting to create a crisis with North Korea while plotting an authoritarian power grab aimed at removing political opponents and consolidating control.

SOUTH KOREAN COURT RULES EX‑PRESIDENT YOON SUK YEOL GUILTY IN INSURRECTION TRIAL

Before declaring martial law, Yoon delivered a televised address accusing liberal lawmakers of sympathizing with North Korea.

Yoon has argued that he possessed the constitutional authority to declare martial law and said the move was intended to draw attention to what he viewed as obstruction by opposition parties.

His attempt to impose martial law lasted roughly six hours before lawmakers voted to overturn it amid mass public protests.

Yoon was arrested in July 2025 and continues to face multiple criminal proceedings.

The insurrection verdict has been appealed by both Yoon and prosecutors, who had sought the death penalty.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Why does Donald Trump love inflation?

Why does Donald Trump keep saying the Iran war is about to end – and then tell a Fox reporter he’s going to "bomb the s—- out of them"? 

Why does Donald Trump try to revive the controversial slush fund after saying it’s dead?

Why does he insist on putting an unqualified housing hack in charge of national intelligence despite an outcry from his own party?

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: REBELS THREATEN TO UPEND GOP AGENDA AMID GROWING FRUSTRATIONS WITH TRUMP

Something strange is happening here–but what?

Is Trump "increasingly frustrated with everyone," as Politico quotes a MAGA operative close to the White House? "He’s pissed and people are not recognizing the level of pissed that he is."

If there is connecting tissue here, it’s that Trump and his far-reaching agenda are running smack into reality.

STATE OF WAR: HOW TRUMP IS FIGHTING A 9-FRONT BATTLE

He even got blamed for his presence causing the Knicks to lose Game 3 of the NBA Finals (while Taylor Swift’s T-shirt got credit for Wednesday’s miracle comeback).

The opposition, led by the courts, has blocked much of what the president wants to do. His name is coming off the Kennedy Center. His prized ballroom is tied up, as is his proposed 250-foot arch. 

Republicans were so upset with his temporary appointment of Bill Pulte, who launched mortgage fraud investigations of Trump’s enemies, as director of national intelligence that they refused to renew an expiring domestic surveillance law. After digging in, the president bowed to political reality yesterday and nominated Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.

TRUMP DOWNPLAYS SIGNS OF MAGA UNREST OVER POSSIBLE MILITARY STRIKE ON IRAN

Publicly, Trump dismissed the Jeffrey Epstein uproar as a "hoax" perpetrated by the Democrats and a few renegade Republicans. But he and his team were privately obsessed with the scandal, according to a new book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. 

Trump refused to do what most advisers were urging him to do, which was to get ahead of the Epstein disclosures before Congress made the files public. He insisted his MAGA base was behind him, when in fact many of its members were angry over his past ties to the late pedophile and complaining of a coverup.  

Trump accused California of running a rigged election on Tuesday. But when late ballots boosted his candidate, former Fox host Steve Hilton, into one of two November slots, he took credit for it.

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In fact, Trump’s insistence, a half-dozen years later, that he actually won the 2020 election, despite never providing a shred of evidence in court, remains a classic example of him seeing the world as he wants it to be. The same goes for the Jan. 6 rioters that he is trying to recast as patriots. That was the impetus for the $1.8-billion "anti-weaponization" fund, to get money into their pockets, although we all watched on live television as many of them attacked police officers and threatened lawmakers. 

Now, why would the president make the politically clunky comment that "I love the inflation"? Especially when the annual rate just surged to 4.2 percent, the highest in three years? 

Trump’s explanation: "Do you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran — until right now."

HOW TRUMP HANDED THE DEMOCRATS A GIFT BY SEEMING TO DISMISS FINANCIAL WORRIES OF AMERICANS

Yet this was no secret. The New York Times reported it last month.

The war offers the most vivid illustration of Trump’s fierce tendency to see a foggy picture through blurry glasses. For more than two months, the president has declared again and again that he was close to making a deal with Iran, that they were desperate for an agreement, that he was giving the mullahs a few more days. And yet no deal emerged.

Instead, the administration and Tehran wound up trading bombing attacks in the wake of the downing of a U.S. helicopter, with the crew quite fortunately rescued. Yet Trump clung to the fiction of an ongoing ceasefire.

WHY TRUMP, IRAN SEEM LIGHT-YEARS APART ON ANY POSSIBLE DEAL TO END THE WAR

In a call to "Fox & Friends" yesterday, he took aim at one of his favorite targets.

The problem was "fake news," he said. The media are "crooked," he said. "The New York Times writes stories like they’re doing great, and they’re not," he said of Iran. He included CNN and MSNOW in that indictment.

"The press just covers it so crazily."

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While media hostility toward Trump has influenced some war coverage, what I’ve seen most recently is an attempt to reflect the zig-zag nature of Trump’s actions and pronouncements on Iran. If Iran’s defenses are so depleted, as Trump says virtually every day, how did the terror state manage to shoot down an Army helicopter? 

He also said he plans to take over Kharg Island, the epicenter of Iran’s oil infrastructure.

And then came the ultimate in blame-shifting…to his fellow countrymen.

TRUMP PIVOTS ON STRIKES WHILE DANGLING IRAN DEAL, TESTING WHETHER TEHRAN BLINKS

"I don’t know that America has the stomach for it…I think they’d like to see us come home," he told Fox. "I’m not sure the country has the appetite for it."

That may well be true, but it’s not something a leader would generally say out loud. 

Still, Trump posted that Iran would be "HIT VERY HARD TONIGHT."

TRUMP PUSHED IRAN TO THE BRINK — BUT DID WE WIN ANYTHING THAT LASTS?

And then, yesterday afternoon, as I was finishing this column, Trump flipped again, canceling the threatened airstrikes.

He said the negotiations had been "brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved." The stock market "likes the deal." There would be a signing "very soon," maybe in the next few days.

I never believed that Trump would actually attempt to destroy Iranian civilization. His heart wasn’t in it. That’s not how he wants to be remembered by history. It’s always been a pressure tactic.

Now I’m not one of those people who writes off Trump, having spent decades watching him bounce back from a thousand different investigations and controversies. He’s the Houdini of politics.

None of this is exactly helping the Republicans keep control of the House in the midterms. But if Trump gets out of Iran, even with an arrangement that is sharply criticized for not definitively ruling out nuclear weapons, the country may move on and the environment may feel very different in November.

The overriding question is whether the president will see his preferred vision of the world or recognize the actual landscape with all its roadblocks and frustrations.

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Congressional Republicans spent four years opposing the Biden administration’s energy policies, asserting that they raised prices from the gas pump to our utility bills. Now it’s the Democrats’ turn to hit President Donald Trump on energy affordability, and they can point to the boost in the price of gasoline since the start of the Iran war as well as still-rising electric rates. But Trump is doing the one thing absolutely essential to affordability over the long-term, and that is dismantling the climate change agenda.

Despite the rhetorical pivot to affordability, supporters of climate policy can’t help but take us in the opposite direction. Their entire agenda is based on the premise that fossil fuels – the coal, oil and natural gas that provide about 80% of America’s energy needs – are far too cheap for our own good because the price we pay fails to account for the environmental damage they inflict.

For those supporters, preventing the apocalypse starts with making these energy sources more expensive, if not unavailable at any price. Of course, this viewpoint is at odds with the vast majority of Americans who want access to the cheapest sources of energy.  

Everything this agenda touched was becoming less affordable. The regulatory crackdown on coal-fired power plants added to retirements of existing facilities while discouraging construction of any new ones. This undoubtedly contributed to the upward pressure on electric rates.

THE REAL REASON YOUR ELECTRIC BILL IS SOARING THIS SUMMER WILL SURPRISE YOU

Natural gas was also a regulatory target, including its use in home appliances like furnaces and water heaters (a similar assault on gas stoves in 2023 met with a strong public backlash and was shelved). Ironically, the same Biden Department of Energy cranking out the rules discouraging natural gas appliances in favor of electric versions admitted that using gas costs only a third as much as electricity on a per-unit energy basis.

Even today’s gasoline prices are a better deal for drivers than a return to the climate agenda. President Joe Biden was curtailing oil leasing on federal lands and offshore areas while blocking much-needed oil pipelines.

At the same time, he was raising sticker prices for gasoline-powered cars via regulations – now being repealed by Trump – designed to push us towards electric vehicles that most people reject due to high overall costs as well as range and charging issues. The temporary jump at the pump from the Iran war is harmless compared to the permanent pain that would be imposed by these climate measures.

ANTARES REACHES REACTOR CRITICALITY UNDER TRUMP PILOT PROGRAM, MARKING MAJOR NUCLEAR MILESTONE

In addition to strangling conventional fossil energy sources with regulations, taxes, permitting roadblocks and other price-hiking measures, Washington’s climate crusaders also heaped big handouts on wind, solar and other favorites of the so-called clean energy transition. They now tout this transition as a means to reduce electric bills as well as emissions – and criticize Trump for opposing it.  

But how can alternatives too expensive to compete without hefty subsidies be the solution to affordability? Good question. They can’t, unless you ignore the fact that the subsidies are also coming out of our pockets – and that the vast sums already spent on green energy just to buy them a small share of the electricity mix are a mere down payment on what it would take to complete the hoped-for transition away from fossil fuels.

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The new transmission lines needed to incorporate more wind- and solar-generated electricity come with cost estimates into the trillions of dollars. And since these electricity sources don’t work 24/7 like coal, natural gas or nuclear can, they will necessitate investments in battery storage that may tack on trillions more.  And that’s on top of the cost to build all of these new green power plants, none of which have ever moved forward without generous taxpayer contributions. 

The misleadingly named Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 included up to $4.7 trillion for this stuff. But three years later, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut back on many of the giveaways.

Even if the subsidies are fully restored and wind and solar generation is greatly expanded, would it actually lead to lower electric bills for homeowners and businesses? That hasn’t happened anywhere it has been tried – not in the U.S., where California and other states with the most aggressive climate policies also have the nation’s highest electric rates, nor in climate-obsessed Western Europe, where costs are higher still.

Swapping out the energy sources that have succeeded in the marketplace with those favored by government for their supposed climate friendliness is a recipe for higher costs, not lower ones. We can have affordable energy, or we can have intrusive climate change policy, but we can never have both. Trump has chosen the former, and doing so may prove to be the most important part of his legacy.

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Even if you’re sick of hearing about Jeffrey Epstein – and who among us hasn’t felt that way at times – President Donald Trump and his team have been far more fixated on the relentless controversy than they have ever acknowledged.

That (and plenty of other juicy revelations) is based on three years of reporting for a forthcoming book. "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump" is by New York Times correspondents Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan and slated to be published in two weeks.

Whether you’re a Trump supporter or detractor, the book is packed with facts that make clear that most or all of the major participants cooperated with them. The president also granted Haberman and Swan an hour-long interview in March.

One major takeaway: Even as Trump and White House officials repeatedly tried to dismiss the endless brawl, which stems from Trump’s long-ago friendship with the late pedophile and sex offender, as old or irrelevant news, they repeatedly met in the Situation Room to try to manage the crisis.

WHY MELANIA TRUMP IS DENYING ALLEGED SMEARS RELATED TO JEFFREY EPSTEIN–AND WANTS VICTIMS TO TESTIFY

In the initial meetings, Vice President JD Vance argued strenuously that more detailed allegations about Trump – some suspect or totally unconfirmed – were going to surface eventually, and they should get out ahead of the story.

Some argued that Vance "appeared panicked," according to the book, and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who led the meetings, told others he was a conspiracy theorist. But Vance said Congress would force the release of the complete Epstein files no matter what they did.

In my view, the vice president was proven right.

REVEALED: TRUMP CALLED POLICE CHIEF TO SUPPORT EPSTEIN PROBE, AND LAWMAKERS NAMED 6 MEN SHIELDED FROM EXPOSURE

At another meeting, talk turned to whether Trump should pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s enabler, who has defended Trump and is now serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking of a minor. 

"Pardoning Maxwell, a trafficker of young girls, would create a huge P.R. problem," Communications Director Steven Cheung warned.

Trump posted that he had asked his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to seek release of grand jury testimony – which is almost never approved – "based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein." 

At a session last summer, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, who had demanded release of the files as a podcaster, started shouting at Bondi, according to the book.

"You f----- this thing up from the start," he declared. "The way you’ve been talking about this — that dumb f------ charade with the Epstein files, the ‘They’re on my desk’ nonsense, all the promises to the folks out there."

Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel told a White House official that Bondi needed to resign.   

At a meeting with Wiles meant to smooth things over, Bongino accused the White House of ignoring his warnings, in which he predicted what would happen, and burst out of the Situation Room.

Bongino resigned in December and returned to his podcasting business, where he felt he’d given up millions of dollars. Trump fired Bondi in April.

Separately, Trump scolded conservative activist Charlie Kirk for allowing one of his events to turn into a "grievance fest" over the Epstein files. Kirk was tragically murdered in September.

HOW PAM BONDI AND THE DEMOCRATS TURNED A HEARING INTO HYSTERIA, RIGHT IN FRONT OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S VICTIMS

One other allegation is drawing media attention and is almost certainly untrue, given the accuser’s lack of credibility. It comes second-hand from a woman who had already made claims about sexual abuse and then retracted them.

This woman, who was named by the Times, had claimed in an email that she knew a second woman who alleged that Trump had a special focus on nipples. One official called these discussions "surreal."

Here’s my analysis: 

Donald Trump did not want to do what his advisors wanted him to do. He resisted at every turn.

By last summer, the president started calling the Epstein matter a "SCAM" and a "hoax" by Democrats, and attacked some pro-release members of his own party as "weaklings" – while later helping to oust them in primaries.

His public stance was that the whole thing was a nuisance, even as his private frustrations kept growing.

Part of the behind-the-scenes friction focused on whether average voters cared about the mess.

BILL GATES SAYS EPSTEIN TRIED TO USE HIS MARITAL AFFAIRS TO GAIN 'LEVERAGE' OVER HIM

What Trump seemed to have difficulty grasping is that his MAGA base indeed cared deeply about the issue. There was something about it that touched a raw nerve. Some podcasters, such as Megyn Kelly, were criticizing the president for not releasing all the documents.

Trump aides debated putting it all on a website, but as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche pointed out, the files included child porn that obviously could not be made public.

A memo from Trump’s pollster, Tony Fabrizio, said "Epstein files" was the sixth most important issue named, and discussed negatively, by focus groups – behind such matters as inflation and foreign policy but ahead of such issues as crime and the military.

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE'S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY'S HOTTEST STORIES

The fiasco was back in the news yesterday when Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates testified on the Hill that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes but showed poor judgment in associating with him – and, according to Politico, said he was pressured by Epstein, who had discovered he had been unfaithful to his wife. They are now divorced.

What’s clear is that the publication of this book will add further fuel to the fire.

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