July 28, 2025

Good Monday evening. In this edition: Trump tightens deadline on Putin, breaks with Netanyahu on Gaza starvation.

• Plus, E.U., Mace, Epstein, Maxwell, Planned Parenthood, Cambodia and Thailand, and China.

Ukraine & Gaza

President Trump said he's "very disappointed" in Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine and that he would give Moscow less than two weeks to end the conflict or face even more sanctions.

• "I thought he would want to end this thing quickly. I really felt it was going to end. But every time I think it's going to end, he kills people," the president said in Scotland alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Earlier this month, the president said he would give Moscow 50 days to make progress toward ending the war or he would impose steep secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian exports.

• "I'm going to make a new deadline, of about 10 or 12 days from today," he told reporters Monday.
  
  
• "There's no reason for waiting. It was 50 days. I wanted to be generous, but we just don't see any progress being made."

President Trump came into office painting Ukraine as the obstacle to peace, but in recent months, he's increased pressure on Moscow, growing frustrated with President Putin repeatedly rebuffing his attempts to broker a ceasefire.

• "I'm not so interested in talking anymore," the president said. "He talks, we have such nice conversations, such respectful and nice conversation, and then people die the following night."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cheered the president's announcement, saying Moscow was "doing everything to undermine peace efforts and drag out the war."

• "Ukraine, as always, is ready to work with America, with President Trump, in the most productive way possible, to end this war with dignity and lasting peace," he said in a statement.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, also welcomed the new deadline.

• "This shorter deadline is a positive step, but long overdue. The President needs to match his words with real action and not let Putin cross yet another red line," she said.

On a separate front, President Trump said he does not "particularly" agree with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's assessment that there is "no starvation" in Gaza, marking a rare break between the two.

• "That's real starvation stuff. I see it, and you can't fake that," the president said in Turnberry, Scotland.

Starvation has dramatically risen in Gaza since May, with at least 56 Palestinians dying in the enclave this month due to malnutrition, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

• More than 1,000 people have also been killed by Israeli gunfire near aid distribution sites in Gaza, according to the United Nations.

Israel has been facing growing international pressure to allow more aid into the war-torn enclave — and key partners like the U.K. and Germany have called for the fighting to end, while France said it would recognize a Palestinian state.

• Condemnation has also grown within Israel, with two leading Israeli human rights groups on Monday concluding the country was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The Israeli government, however, contends there is "no starvation" in Gaza and that such claims were being promulgated by Hamas, which it has accused, without evidence, of stealing aid. 

• The Israel Defense Forces, nevertheless, started this weekend to implement daily humanitarian pauses in the fighting to allow aid to reach major population centers.
  
  
• The IDF also conducted its first air drops of food into Gaza on Sunday while the United Arab Emirates and Jordan conducted several of their own.

President Trump told reporters the U.S. will get more involved in aid delivery and will work with European allies to set up food centers.

• "We'll be helping with the food," he told reporters. "We're going to bring it over there, and we're also going to make sure they don't have barriers stopping people."

Watch the president's remarks.

In other news…

• President Trump on Sunday announced a trade deal with the European Union, the U.S.'s largest trading partner, ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline. The deal imposes a 15% tariff on most European goods to the U.S., lower than the 30% rate the president had threatened but higher than the 10% baseline tariffs the E.U. was hoping for. President Trump also said the 27-nation bloc would purchase $750 billion worth of U.S. energy and invest an additional $600 billion into the U.S. The announcement came after he met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland.
  
  

• Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) teased a "special announcement," likely signaling her entry into the South Carolina gubernatorial race that Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) jumped into over the weekend. The crowded primary already includes state Attorney General Alan Wilson, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Sen. Josh Kimbrell.
  
  

• President Trump called the push to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein "a hoax that's been built up way beyond proportion" and said he never had "the privilege" of going to the sex offender's infamous Caribbean island. "In one of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn't want to go to his island," he told reporters on Monday in Scotland.
  
  

• Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, filed an appeal with the Supreme Court to overturn her conviction on sex trafficking crimes. Ms. Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022, spoke with a top Justice Department official last week amid bipartisan calls to expose additional information about Mr. Epstein's crimes. President Trump on Monday again refused to rule out pardoning Ms. Maxwell, telling reporters he's "allowed" to do it.
  
  

• A federal judge in Massachusetts barred the Trump administration from implementing a law that would block Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving federal funding if they continue to offer abortion services. Judge Indira Talwani found the policy, which was part of the "big, beautiful" reconciliation bill, likely amounted to retaliation against the health care organization, therefore, violating its First Amendment rights through "legislative punishment."
  
  

• Cambodia and Thailand agreed to a complete ceasefire Monday, ending a border dispute that had killed dozens in recent days. President Trump took credit for ending the conflict after he threatened to not hold trade talks with two Southeast Asian countries if they didn't end the violence. Cambodia and Thailand are facing 49% and 36% tariffs, respectively, starting on Aug. 1 unless they strike a new agreement with the Trump administration.
  
  

• U.S. and Chinese officials began a third round of trade talks in Stockholm with the current 90-day pause in tariffs between the two countries set to expire on Aug. 12. The détente was agreed to in May as both sides were on the verge of an all-out trade war. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested last week that an extension of the pause was expected to come out of the talks.

For your radar…

• The Senate considers more of President Trump's nominees on Tuesday. Senators may also continue work on their first FY 2026 spending bill of the year. There's a possibility Senate leaders may delay the August recess to continue working on nominations. Watch LIVE on C-SPAN2 at 10am ET.

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