AFP USA

US lawmakers on Wednesday passed a sweeping defense policy bill, signaling ironclad bipartisan support for Europe and delivering a blistering repudiation of President Donald Trump’s increasingly hostile posture toward NATO and America’s closest allies.The comfortable 77-20 Senate vote sends the $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to the White House, closing out one of Congress’s few remaining rituals of cross-party cooperation even as foreign policy divisions sharpen elsewhere in Washington.”We ask a lot of the brave Americans serving in uniform. And they give a lot,” Republican Senate Majority leader John Thune said ahead of the vote.”And I’m proud that this year’s National Defense Authorization Act will help ensure that they have what they need to keep America safe in a dangerous world.”The action in the upper chamber follows House passage last week and comes amid unease in European capitals over Trump’s rhetoric, especially after the recent White House national security strategy painted Europe as over-regulated, culturally adrift and insufficiently committed to its own defense.The strategy questioned the continent’s strategic value and openly echoed themes championed by far-right parties, fueling fears of a widening transatlantic rift.By contrast, the NDAA reflects lawmakers’ determination to anchor the United States firmly in Europe. The bill bars US troop levels on the continent from falling below 76,000 for more than 45 days and restricts the removal of major military equipment, effectively tying the administration’s hands on any rapid drawdown.It also boosts resources for frontline NATO states, particularly in the Baltic region, reinforcing the alliance’s northeastern flank.The measure authorizes roughly $8 billion more than the administration requested, a signal of congressional assertiveness on defense priorities.Beyond Europe, the NDAA locks in $400 million in security assistance for Ukraine, aiming to preserve a baseline of support even as broader funding debates grind on, and places new limits on any reduction of the 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea.As ever, the NDAA drew fire from multiple directions — from conservative critics of Ukraine aid to safety experts warning about aviation provisions rolling back critical air-safety requirements for military aircraft operating in Washington’s restricted airspace.But none came close to derailing a package long seen as must-pass legislation.

Venezuela struck a defiant note Wednesday, insisting that crude oil exports were not impacted by US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a blockade.Trump’s announcement on Tuesday marked a new escalation in his months-long campaign of military and economic pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, shrugged off the threat of more pain, insisting that it was business as usual.”Export operations for crude and byproducts continue normally. Oil tankers linked to PDVSA operations continue to sail with full security,” state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) said in a statementTrump said on Tuesday that he was imposing “a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela.”Referring to the heavy US military presence in the Caribbean — including the world’s largest aircraft carrier — Trump warned “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America.”Oil prices surged in early trading Wednesday in London on the news of the blockade, which comes a week after US troops seized a sanctioned oil tanker near the coast of Venezuela.- ‘We are not intimidated’ -Venezuela’s battered economy relies heavily on petroleum exports.But the country’s military, which supports hard-left leader Maduro, said it was “not intimidated.””We say to the US government and its president that we are not intimidated by their crude and arrogant threats,” Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said at an event, surrounded by senior commanders who have repeatedly vowed loyalty to Maduro.The foreign minister of China, the main market for Venezuelan oil, defended Caracas in a phone call with his Venezuelan counterpart against the US “bullying.””China opposes all unilateral bullying and supports all countries in defending their sovereignty and national dignity,” he said, adding Venezuela “has the right to independently develop mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries.”Last week’s seizure of a tanker carrying between 1 and 2 million barrels of crude bound for Cuba marked a shift in Trump’s offensive against  Maduro.In August, he ordered the biggest military deployment in the Caribbean Sea since the 1989 US invasion of Panama, purportedly to combat drug trafficking.US strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have left at least 95 people dead since.Caracas believes that the anti-drug operations are a cover for a bid to topple Maduro, accused of stealing elections last year, and make a grab for Venezuela’s oil.Trump has sent mixed signals about a potential US intervention in Venezuela but says he thinks Maduro’s days are numbered.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum waded into the dispute on Wednesday, calling on the United Nations to step up to “prevent any bloodshed” in Venezuela.”The United Nations has been nowhere to be seen. It must assume its role to prevent any bloodshed and always seek peaceful solutions to conflicts,” the leftist leader told a press conference.- Oil lifeline -The US blockade threatens major pain for Venezuela’s crumbling economy.Venezuela has been under a US oil embargo since 2019, forcing it to sell its production on the black market at significantly lower prices, primarily to Asian countries.The country produces one million barrels of oil per day, down from more than three million barrels per day (bpd) in the early 2000s.Capital Economics analysts predicted that the blockade “would cut off a key lifeline for Venezuela’s economy” in the short term.”The medium-term impact will hinge largely on how tensions with the US evolve — and what the US administration’s goals are in Venezuela.”burs-cb/sms

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith was testifying behind closed doors on Wednesday before a Republican-led House committee looking into his past prosecution of US President Donald Trump.Smith, who had requested that his deposition be delivered in public, declined to speak to reporters as he arrived for the meeting with members of the House Judiciary Committee.Lanny Breuer, Smith’s lawyer, said the ex-special counsel, in testifying, was “showing tremendous courage in light of the remarkable and unprecedented retribution campaign against him by this administration and this White House.”Jack Smith, a career prosecutor, conducted this investigation based on the facts and based on the law and nothing more,” Breuer told reporters.Trump was accused by Smith of mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House and plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.Neither case came to trial and Smith — in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president — dropped them both after Trump won the November 2024 presidential election.Since taking office for the second time, Trump has urged the Justice Department to bring cases against Smith and a number of other perceived political opponents.Cases brought against Trump foes James Comey, a former FBI director, and New York Attorney General Letitia James collapsed last month after a judge ruled that the prosecutor who brought the charges was unlawfully appointed.Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has criticized the decision by the Republicans on the oversight panel not to allow Smith to testify publicly.”What are our colleagues so afraid of, that they won’t let the American people hear directly from the Special Counsel?” Raskin said.”The American people deserve to hear the full unvarnished truth about Special Counsel Smith’s years-long effort to investigate and prosecute the crimes committed by Donald Trump and his co-conspirators,” he said.

Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday rejected a hostile takeover bid by Paramount launched last week to trump plans by streaming giant Netflix to acquire the Hollywood giant and owner of CNN.In a statement, Warner Bros said the terms of the Netflix merger were better, while the Paramount offer “once again fails to address key concerns that we have consistently communicated… throughout our extensive engagement and review of their six previous proposals.””We are confident that our merger with Netflix represents superior, more certain value for our shareholders,” it said.Netflix shocked the industry on December 5 by announcing it had sealed an agreement to buy the film and television studio and HBO Max streaming business for nearly $83 billion, the entertainment industry’s biggest consolidation deal this decade.Three days later, Paramount — whose CEO is David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, an ally of President Donald Trump — launched an all-cash tender offer valuing the entertainment giant at $108.4 billion.But Warner Bros on Wednesday described the Paramount offer as risky, saying it was backed up by “an unknown and opaque revocable trust” and involved “no Ellison family commitment of any kind,” among other factors.Warner Bros. Discovery also stressed the dependence of the Paramount offer on foreign investors — $24 billion of the financing is from Middle East sovereign wealth funds — which will require further regulatory scrutiny.”Our deal structure is clean and certain, with committed debt financing from leading institutions,” Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, wrote in a letter to Warner Bros shareholders, according to Business Insider.”There are no contingencies, no foreign sovereign wealth funds, and no stock collateral or personal loans,” they added.Trump has repeatedly weighed in on the bidding war, saying Netflix’s deal “could be a problem” as it would leave Netflix with a huge market share of the film and TV industry.He later said that he wanted to ensure CNN gets new ownership as part of the Warner Bros. Discovery sale, targeting the outlet he has long blasted for airing critical news coverage that he repeatedly refers to as “fake news.”- ‘Strong rationale’ -The president’s powerful son-in-law Jared Kushner, was initially a minor investor in the latest Paramount bid through his Middle East-backed private equity company, but backed out of the deal on Tuesday.”We continue to believe there is a strong strategic rationale for Paramount’s offer,” the company, Affinity Partners, said in a statement to AFP.Unlike Netflix’s offer, Paramount’s latest bid included the buyout of cable channels such as CNN, TNT, TBS and Discovery — which would be added to its group of TV assets like CBS, MTV and Comedy Central.As Netflix emerged as the likely winning bidder for Warner Bros — the studio behind “Casablanca,” the “Harry Potter” movies and “Friends” — Hollywood’s elite launched an aggressive campaign against the acquisition.The streaming giant is viewed as a pariah in some Hollywood circles, largely due to its reluctance to release content in theaters and its disruption of traditional industry practices.In an interview Tuesday in Paris, Netflix co-chief executive Sarandos said it would continue to distribute Warner Bros films in cinemas if its takeover bid for the storied studio is successful.”We’re going to continue to operate Warner Bros. studios independently and release the movies traditionally in cinema,” he said, while admitting his past comments on theatrical distribution “now confuse people.”

The son of famed Hollywood director Rob Reiner could be medically cleared to appear in court as soon as Wednesday to face charges over the killing of his parents, the man’s lawyer said.Nick Reiner, 32, who has a history of substance abuse stretching back to his teenage years, is facing two counts of first-degree murder over the killing of his parents, the chief prosecutor of Los Angeles said Tuesday.District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s office said in a statement that Reiner had been charged with “two counts of murder with the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders.”If convicted, he could face life in prison without parole or the death penalty, given the special circumstances included in the charges.Reiner is expected to be arraigned as soon as he is able to appear at a Los Angeles courthouse.His lawyer, Alan Jackson, told reporters on Tuesday that Reiner had so far not been medically cleared to appear, a process he described as “procedural.””The bailiff has indicated that the sheriff’s department will take it on a day-by-day basis, and so hopefully he’ll be cleared tomorrow, and we can get him here.”Reiner was arrested on Sunday after the bodies of his 78-year-old filmmaker father and mother, photographer Michele Singer Reiner, 70, were discovered at their home in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.Prosecutors said Rob Reiner — who directed huge hits including “When Harry Met Sally” and “A Few Good Men” — and his wife were stabbed to death.According to US media reports, Nick Reiner had argued with his parents at a glitzy Hollywood party the prior evening.Entertainment outlet TMZ said the couple’s daughter found the bodies on Sunday afternoon.Rob Reiner, the son of legendary comedian Carl Reiner, started his showbiz career in acting.He won fame as the oafish son-in-law Michael “Meathead” Stivic on groundbreaking 1970s sitcom “All in the Family,” before transitioning to directing. Even while leading behind the camera, he often appeared in cameo roles in his own films.As a director, he struck Hollywood gold.His output included classic films like 1984’s rock music mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap,” fantasy gem “The Princess Bride” from 1987, and seminal coming-of-age movie “Stand By Me.””A Few Good Men,” starring Hollywood heavyweights Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.- ‘Heartbroken’ -Entertainers and politicians paid tribute to the beloved filmmaker following his death.Actor-director Ben Stiller described Reiner as “a kind caring person who was really really funny,” and someone who “made some of the most formative movies for my generation.”Former Democratic president Barack Obama said he and his wife Michelle were “heartbroken.””Beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people,” he said on X.The former first lady said on the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show on Monday that she and her husband had planned to see the Reiners Sunday night.California Governor Gavin Newsom said Reiner had “made California a better place.”President Donald Trump, meanwhile, unleashed an extraordinary broadside, suggesting that Reiner brought on his own murder by criticizing him.Trump claimed the Reiners had died “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.””He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession,” the Republican leader wrote.The comments were blasted by two prominent right-wing Republicans, including Representative Thomas Massie, who called them “inappropriate and disrespectful.”Reiner was politically active, an outspoken supporter of progressive causes, and had warned that Trump was mounting an authoritarian takeover.

South African authorities have arrested and will expel seven Kenyans accused of working without the correct documentation on a US government programme to accept white Afrikaners as “refugees”, the home affairs department said Wednesday.US President Donald Trump’s administration in May offered refugee status to the minority white Afrikaner community, claiming they were victims of discrimination and even “genocide”, which the Pretoria government strongly denies.The US government reportedly engaged Kenyans from a Christian NGO based in Kenya to come to South Africa to fast-track the processing of applications for resettlement under the programme.During a raid on an application processing centre in Johannesburg on Tuesday, “seven Kenyan nationals were discovered engaging in work despite only being in possession of tourist visas, in clear violation of their conditions of entry into the country,” the South African home affairs department said.”They were arrested and issued with deportation orders, and will be prohibited from entering South Africa again for a five-year period,” it said in a statement.The raid came after “intelligence reports indicated that a number of Kenyan nationals had recently entered South Africa on tourist visas and had illegally taken up work at a centre processing the applications of so-called ‘refugees’ to the United States,” it said.Trump essentially halted refugee arrivals after taking office in January but made an exception for the Afrikaners despite Pretoria’s insistence that they do not face persecution.A first group of around 50 Afrikaners — descendants of the first European settlers of South Africa — were flown to the United States on a chartered plane in May. Others have reportedly followed in smaller numbers and on commercial flights.The South African home affairs department said no US officials were arrested in the raid, which was not conducted at a diplomatic site. No prospective “refugees” were harassed, it said, adding that the government had contacted US and Kenyan officials over the issue.- ‘Unacceptable’ -Ties between Washington and Pretoria have plummeted since Trump took office in January, with his administration lashing out at South Africa over a range of policies, expelling its ambassador in March and imposing 30-percent trade tariffs.After reports emerged of a raid, US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement to US media that “interfering” in US refugee operations was “unacceptable”.Washington officials were “seeking immediate clarification from the South African government and expect full cooperation and accountability,” he said.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday sharply expanded a travel ban by barring people from seven more countries including Syria, as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders, from entering the United States.The latest move brings to nearly 40 the number of countries whose citizens face restrictions in coming to the United States solely by virtue of nationality, with Trump also tightening rules for routine travel from Western nations.It comes as Trump, who has long made hostility to immigration a signature issue, orders mass deportations and takes an increasingly strident tone against non-white new Americans.The White House in a proclamation said it was banning foreigners who “intend to threaten” Americans.Trump also wants to prevent foreigners in the United States who would “undermine or destabilize its culture, government, institutions or founding principles,” the proclamation said.Syrians were banned days after two US troops and a civilian were killed in the war-torn country, which Trump has moved to rehabilitate internationally since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a member of the security forces who was due to be dismissed for “extremist Islamist ideas.”The Trump administration had already informally barred travel for Palestinian Authority passport holders as it acts in solidarity with Israel against the recognition of a Palestinian state by other leading Western countries including France and Britain.Other countries newly subjected to the full travel ban came from some of Africa’s poorest countries — Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone and South Sudan — as well as Laos in southeast Asia.In a series of new actions, Trump also imposed partial travel restrictions on citizens of other African countries including the most populous, Nigeria, as well as Ivory Coast and Senegal, which qualified for the World Cup set to be played next year in the United States as well as Canada and Mexico.The Trump administration has promised to let in athletes for football’s signature competition, but has made no such promises for fans of blacklisted countries.Other countries slapped with partial restrictions were from Africa or largely Black nations in the Caribbean — Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe — plus the Polynesian country of Tonga.Angola, Senegal and Zambia have all been prominent US partners in Africa, with former president Joe Biden hailing the three for commitment to democracy.- Ramping up anti-immigrant tone -Global Refuge, a Christian-based group that supports refugees, warned that the travel ban would push vulnerable people further into harm’s way.”The administration is once again using the language of security to justify blanket exclusions that punish entire populations, rather than utilizing individualized, evidence-based screening,” said the group’s president and CEO, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah.Trump has used increasingly loaded language, complaining at a rally last week that the United States was only taking people from “shithole countries” and instead should seek immigrants from Norway and Sweden.He also recently described Somalis as “garbage” following a scandal in which Somali Americans allegedly bilked the government out of money for fictitious contracts in Minnesota.Trump had already banned the entry of Somalis. Other countries remaining on the full travel ban are Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Sudan, and Yemen.Trump last month made the ban even more sweeping against Afghans, severing a program that brought in Afghans who had fought alongside the United States against the Taliban, after an Afghan veteran who appeared to have post-traumatic stress shot two National Guards troops deployed by Trump in Washington.The White House acknowledged “significant progress” by one initially targeted country, Turkmenistan.The Central Asian country’s nationals will once again be able to secure US visas, but only as non-immigrants.Trump has also all but ended refugee admissions, with the United States now only accepting South Africans from the white Afrikaner minority.

US President Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC, seeking $10 billion in damages over a misleading edit of his 2021 speech before the US Capitol riot.Here’s what we know about the row:- Why Florida? – Trump filed the lawsuit in a federal court in Miami, Florida, the state where he is a legal resident and where he has filed previous lawsuits against US media outlets.His lawyers argue that many of the scenes in the Panorama documentary — which aired in Britain in October 2024 — were shot in Florida, including around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.He was too late to file a libel claim in the UK, which generally has a one-year time limit to bring such cases.- What are the arguments? -The documentary spliced together two separate sections of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021 in a way that made it appear he explicitly urged supporters to attack the Capitol, where lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.The lawsuit alleges that the edit was a deliberate attempt to give a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction” of Trump to try to “interfere and influence” the 2024 presidential election.They say it harmed Trump’s reputation as a “politician, leader, and businessman”, even though he went on to win the election and his team was apparently unaware of the broadcast for about a year.- Can Trump win? -While the BBC has previously apologised for its “mistake”, it insists there is no basis for a defamation case and said on Tuesday it would fight the lawsuit.The broadcaster contends that the documentary did not air in the United States and its streaming platform cannot be accessed outside the UK.Trump is arguing that people in Florida would have been able to view the documentary through the use of VPNs and the broadcaster’s US distributor.But Canadian company Blue Ant, which owns the rights to the documentary outside the UK, told AFP on Tuesday that “none” of its buyers “have aired it in the US”.Legal experts say the BBC has a strong case.”Defamation cases are difficult to win,” University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias told AFP, noting a 1964 Supreme Court ruling that “requires plaintiffs to prove actual malice, which is an onerous proof burden”.Trump has launched several recent legal actions against media companies, including CNN and The New York Times, but these have not yet gone to court.The BBC could choose to settle, but Mark Damazer, a former BBC Radio 4 controller, said it would be “damaging” to the BBC’s reputation not to fight the case.- Could it cost the British public? -British taxpayers largely fund the cash-strapped broadcaster through an annual licence fee that is mandatory for anyone in the country who watches television.Some commentators in the UK have speculated that the legal costs of fighting or settling the defamation case could result in an increase to the £174.50 pound ($234) annual license.In December 2024, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million in a defamation case brought by Trump. In July, CBS forked out $16 million to settle another case.- Why it’s bad timing for the BBC -The lawsuit coincides with the launch in the UK of a politically sensitive review of the BBC’s Royal Charter, which outlines the corporation’s governance.The current charter ends in 2027 and will need to be renewed, with the BBC’s funding model and editorial priorities up for debate.It also comes as the broadcaster seeks a replacement for outgoing director general Tim Davie who announced his resignation over the edit. In the decade to 2020, the BBC’s income overall fell by about 30 percent in real terms, Davie said last year.Last month, lawmakers revealed that the BBC is losing more than £1 billion a year from households evading the licence fee.

US President Donald Trump will boast of his achievements in an address to the nation Wednesday as voters sour on his handling of the economy after nearly a year back in power.Republican Trump is also expected to tease policies for 2026, following a blitz of hardline protectionist and nationalist policies at the start of his second term.With next year’s US midterm elections looming, the 79-year-old faces mounting anger among Americans about the high cost of living.Trump did not say what he would talk about in the primetime speech from the White House at 9pm, saying only on social media that “it has been a great year for our Country, and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”But the White House said it would focus on his “historic accomplishments” including tackling inflation, which Trump blames on his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, and tackling immigration.”It’s going to be a really good speech. I was just in the Oval Office with the President discussing it,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing on Tuesday.”He’s going to talk a lot about the accomplishments over the past 11 months, all that he’s done to bring our country back to greatness, and all he continues to plan to do to continue delivering for the American people over the next three years.”Leavitt separately told Fox News that Trump would be “maybe teasing some policy that will be coming in the New Year as well.”Billionaire Trump, the oldest elected president in US history, has boasted of a new “golden age” in America.He recently rated the economy as “A++++” and rages against what he called an “affordability hoax” by rival Democrats.- ‘Make America affordable again’ -But US voters are increasingly angry about high prices of everything from gas to and groceries, which experts say are partly fueled by the tariffs he has slapped on trading partners. According to a poll by the University of Chicago for The Associated Press, published last week, only 31 percent of Americans are satisfied with Trump’s economic policy.He also faces criticism from within his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement for focusing on peace deals in Ukraine and Gaza and on tensions with Venezuela instead of domestic issues.Now there are signs that his team have started to realize the issue could hurt Republicans in next year’s midterm elections for the control of Congress.Republicans lost heavily in elections in November for the mayor of New York and governorships in Virginia and New Jersey, while running them close in a previously safe area Tennessee.The president is ramping up his domestic travel to push his economic message.Last week in Pennsylvania he promised to “make America affordable again,” and on Friday he is due to give another campaign-style rally in North Carolina on Friday.Vice President JD Vance — who is rapidly becoming Trump’s messenger on the issue as he eyes his own presidential run in 2028 — urged voters to show patience during a speech on Tuesday.”They know Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Vance said in the key, blue-collar swing state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday. “They know what Joe Biden broke is not going to get fixed in a week.”Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles said in a Vanity Fair article published Tuesday that his program would feature “more talks about the domestic economy and less about Saudi Arabia.”

Donald Trump said Tuesday he stood by his chief of staff Susie Wiles after she said the US president had an “alcoholic’s personality” in an astonishing interview with Vanity Fair.Wiles also called Vice President JD Vance a “conspiracy theorist,” branded tech tycoon Elon Musk an “odd, odd duck,” and gave juicy opinions on other Trump administration figures in the lengthy piece.Trump has previously described Wiles, the first female White House chief of staff, as the “ice maiden” and credited her for her role in driving forward his second presidency behind the scenes.But the 68-year-old Wiles now finds herself firmly in the headlines after the Vanity Fair story, which the magazine said was based on a series of interviews with veteran political journalist Chris Whipple over the past year.Wiles dismissed the article as a “disingenuously framed hit piece,” accusing the magazine of trying to “paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative” about Trump’s team.”Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story,” she wrote.Trump himself told the New York Post that Wiles was right to describe him as having an alcoholic’s personality — even though he is teetotal.”You see, I don’t drink alcohol. So everybody knows that — but I’ve often said that if I did, I’d have a very good chance of being an alcoholic. I have said that many times about myself, I do. It’s a very possessive personality,” Trump said.He added that Wiles had “done a fantastic job.”Vanity Fair quoted Wiles — whose own father, the NFL announcer Pat Summerall was an alcoholic — as saying that Trump has “an alcoholic’s personality,” and “operates (with) a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”In the wide-ranging series of interviews, Wiles said she was “not an enabler” to Trump, who has unleashed an unprecedented display of presidential power since his return to power in January, adding “I’m also not a bitch.”- ‘Conspiracy theorist’ -But she was forthright about Space X and Tesla boss Elon Musk’s role as head of the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency in the first months of Trump’s term.Describing billionaire Musk as a “complete solo actor” and “avowed” ketamine user, she criticized DOGE’s shutdown of the USAID international aid department. “No rational person could think the USAID process was a good one,” Vanity Fair quoted her as saying.Wiles hailed what she called a “core team” of Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller but said Vance had been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade” regarding the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.Trump’s chief of staff had barbed comments for Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying Bondi “completely whiffed” on the promised release to right-wing influencers of documents about convicted sex offender Epstein.She called Russ Vought, the hardline chief of the White House Office of Management and Budget, a “right-wing absolute zealot,” Vanity Fair said.The magazine said Wiles gave revealing insights into Trump’s policies on key domestic and foreign policy issues too.She said she had a “loose agreement” with Trump to end the “score settling” against his political enemies after 90 days, even as he has continued to target his foes with calls for their prosecution.On Ukraine, Wiles said that Trump believes Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants the whole country,” despite Washington’s push for a peace deal.Top Trump cabinet members lined up to defend Wiles and lash out at the Vanity Fair piece.Vance said in a speech in Pennsylvania that he and Wiles had “joked in private and in public” about him believing conspiracy theories.”We have our disagreements, we agree on much more than we disagree, but I’ve never seen her be disloyal to the president of the United States,” Vance said in a speech in Pennsylvania.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X that there was “absolutely nobody better!”White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing that Wiles was “incredible” and accused Vanity Fair of the “bias of omission.”