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Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. This is Tom Ambrose, and I will be providing you with all the latest news lines over the next few hours.

Trump Dismisses Marjorie Taylor Greene's Danger Concerns

We start with the news that Donald Trump intensified his attacks against GOP congresswoman Representative Greene on Sunday, even as his shift on opposing the release of the Jeffrey Epstein documents.

He continued to dismiss her assertion that his criticism were endangering her and stated he did not believe anyone was focusing on her. The congresswoman said on Saturday that Trump’s online criticism had unleashed a surge of menaces aimed at her.

“Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene,” he said, referring to the congresswoman. “I do not believe her life is in danger... I don’t think anybody is concerned for her,” Trump told the press before boarding his presidential plane on Sunday night.

Greene, a House member from the state of Georgia who was long known as a Trump loyalist, has lately taken positions contrary to the president. She noted on the weekend she has been contacted by private security firms expressing concern for her safety and that harsh attacks against her have previously resulted in threats on her life.

Jeffrey Epstein Documents Release Initiative

This dispute came as the President encouraged his GOP colleagues in Congress to vote for the release of files concerning the deceased disgraced financier Epstein, changing his prior opposition to such a move.

His message on his social media platform came after House speaker Mike Johnson previously stated that he believed a vote on making public justice department documents in the Epstein case should help put to rest claims “that he [Trump] has something to do with it”.

He posted on his social media account on Sunday: “GOP lawmakers should support unsealing the Epstein files, because we have no secrets.

“Now is the moment to put behind us this political stunt perpetrated by far-left activists in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown’,” he added.

Although the President and Epstein were photographed together years back, the commander-in-chief has said the two men had a disagreement before Epstein's legal troubles. Emails disclosed recently by a House committee showed the disgraced financier, who died by suicide in jail in 2019, believed the President “knew about the girls,” though it was not clear what that phrase signified.

Additional Developments

• Republican congressman Thomas Massie had questioned the President over whether the commander-in-chief was making a “last-ditch effort” to keep the complete records on the deceased sex offender Epstein from becoming public by ordering a new probe. The congressman and Democratic representative Ro Khanna, the two lawmakers spearheading the cross-party effort to have all the documents in the possession of the authorities public both raised fresh concerns about the actions by the administration.
• The United States conducted another strike on an suspected narcotics smuggling vessel in the eastern Pacific on Saturday, resulting in the deaths of three people on board, the Pentagon announced on the following day. “Information confirmed that the boat was involved in illegal drug trafficking, transiting along a established drug route, and carrying narcotics,” the military command announced in a message on online platforms.
• The President indicated the United States may begin discussions with President Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, who faces escalating pressure from the US government amid a huge military deployment in the Caribbean region. “We may be having some talks with Maduro, and we’ll observe how that turns out. Venezuela would like to talk,” the commander-in-chief remarked on Sunday, in one of the first signs of a potential way to defusing the growingly strained circumstances in the region.
• Trump on Sunday dismissed concerns about conservative commentator the commentator's latest interview with a extremist figure known for his antisemitic views, which has created a division within the Republican party. Trump supported the host, saying the former Fox News host has “said positive remarks about me over the years.” He added if he chooses to interview the activist, whose supporters consider themselves defending the nation's white, Christian identity, then “people have to make up their own minds.” Trump did not criticize Carlson or Fuentes.
• Trump indicated on that day that he intends to meet with NYC's mayor-elect Mamdani and stated they will “reach an agreement”, in what could be a truce for the Republican president and Democratic rising star who have cast each other as opponents. Trump has for months slammed the mayor-elect, incorrectly describing him as a “communist” and predicting the ruin of his hometown, New York, if the progressive were chosen.
• A group of seventeen transgender military personnel has sued the Trump administration for denying them retirement benefits and entitlements. The legal filing, filed in federal court, describes the government’s move against them as “unlawful and invalid”.