Trump vs. Fed Chair Powell, Clintons Subpoenaed on Epstein, Hulk Hogan Passes Away: AM Update 7/25

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Good morning, everyone.

I'm Megan Kelly.

It's Friday, July 25th, 2025, and this is your AM update.

I built a great hotel.

It's called the Old Post Office, and it's a much bigger project than this, and I spent $200 million building it.

President Trump taking his fight with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to the Fed's front door, literally, as questions grow about a multi-billion dollar renovation project and about the future of interest rates.

I never thought that we would be questioning the Clintons and others with respect to the Epstein files.

The House Oversight Committee approves a motion to subpoena the Clintons and other prominent former officials in relation to Jeffrey Epstein.

Let Tropomania make America great again!

And legendary wrestler and Trump fan Hulk Hogan passes away.

All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.

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President Trump putting on his hard hat and channeling his past career on Thursday afternoon, taking a field trip to the Federal Reserve Headquarters, currently a massive construction site, to inspect the costly renovations running wildly over budget.

The tour coming amid dozens of calls by President Trump for Fed Chair Jerome Powell to either lower interest rates or resign.

Chairman Powell insisting he will finish out the remainder of his term, which ends in May 2026.

On July 1st, Chairman Powell telling reporters his decision to leave interest rates steady is a result of President Trump's new tariffs.

Chair, would the Fed have cut more by now if it weren't for the tariffs?

So I do think that I think that's right.

In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs, and

essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs.

So

we didn't overreact.

In fact, we didn't react at all.

We're simply taking some time.

Trump administration officials contending the new tariffs are not fueling inflation, citing recent data showing the rate remaining within expected ranges.

President Trump post-tour on Thursday, reiterating his belief that rates need to come down.

We have a lot of cash coming in.

The tariffs have been unbelievable now.

People that didn't even believe in tariffs are saying, what a great move that was.

We should have the lowest interest rate.

And if you took it down three points, not a little bit, but three points, if you got us down to one, we would save more than a trillion dollars basically with just a paper transfer.

You wouldn't be cutting costs of anything.

You wouldn't be building anything.

Just a move of the hand saying we're going to lower interest rates.

You would save a trillion dollars a year.

While President Trump may often express displeasure with Powell as head of an independent body, the Fed chair cannot legally be fired without cause.

The renovation project, originally approved in 2017, estimated at about $1.7 billion, now running upwards of $2.5 billion, providing a potential line of attack for the Trump administration.

On July 10th, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vogt, writing a letter to Powell, reading,

The President is extremely troubled by your management of the Federal Reserve System.

Instead of attempting to right the Fed's fiscal ship, you have plowed ahead with an ostentatious overhaul of your DC headquarters.

Comparable federal building renovations cost many orders of magnitude less than the office you are building for yourself on the taxpayer's dime.

Powell defending the renovations as necessary given the scope of the project, renovating two historic buildings more than 90 years old, writing, quote, both buildings were in need of significant structural repairs and other updates to make the buildings safe, healthy, and effective places to work.

President Trump telling reporters last week the $2.5 billion price tag on the renovation to be, quote, sort of a fireable offense, though following up later to say it's unlikely he will fire Powell, unless, quote, he has to leave for fraud.

On Thursday, President Trump giving his impression of the project following the tour as only he can.

I see a very luxurious situation taking place, let's put it that way.

And I was given a very nice tour by the head of construction.

And, you know, look, if you look over here, they're trying to open up the basement.

When you open up a basement, first of all, it's the worst space.

Always a basement is the worst space in a building.

And it's also the most expensive space to build.

It would have been good if they didn't build it.

Would have been good if they didn't do certain other things.

If you look at the

kind of protection in the hall, have you been able to get in the hall?

You saw the protection apply with, I mean, that was a lot of money just to protect it for a period of time.

Look, there's always Monday morning quarterbacks.

I don't want to be that.

I want to help them get it finished.

It's been going around for years, and I want to help them get it finished.

Emily Jashinsky, host of the MK Media Podcast Network show After Party, which airs Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 p.m.

live on YouTube, asking the president whether what he saw at the Fed amounts to a fireable offense.

The president's response.

I would love to see it completed.

I don't want to put that in this category.

It's a very complex thing that could have been made simple.

I built a great hotel.

And the great hotel that everybody in this group knows very well, it's called the Old Post Office.

And it's a much bigger bigger project than this.

And I spent $200 million building it.

And it was taken down to the steel for the most part, taken down, you know, you've seen it go up.

And I built it quickly, and I built it for $200 million.

It was a much bigger job than this.

Spent $200 million.

That's got marble bathrooms, the top fixtures, the best of everything, all brand new.

So, you know, this is a very expensive job.

I don't know.

It got out of control.

And that happens.

That happens.

It's a shame.

Mr.

President, if the rates are hurting families in the country, why let that keep going for another eight months?

Why not just fire at the territories?

To do that is a big move, and I just don't think it's necessary.

And I believe that he's going to do the right thing.

The next Federal Reserve Conference is set for next Wednesday when Mr.

Powell is expected to announce his latest decision on interest rates.

Coming up, the House Oversight Committee votes to subpoena the Clintons in relation to the Jeffrey Epstein case as the DOJ interviews imprisoned associate Ghelene Maxwell and real American hero Hulk Hogan passes away.

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A House Oversight Committee voting on Wednesday to approve subpoenas to former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and other high-profile individuals with possible links to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghillain Maxwell.

In addition to the Clintons, the Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement approving subpoenas to all former FBI directors from 2001 through 2017, meaning James Comey and Robert Mueller, as well as former Attorneys General Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Bill Barr, Jeff Sessions, and Alberto Gonzalez.

The Oversight Committee also passing a motion directing Chairman James Comer to subpoena the DOJ to release the Epstein files.

That motion, including two amendments, the first requiring the DOJ to include the release of all communications between all Biden administration officials, including President Biden, and the DOJ relating to Jeffrey Epstein.

The second requiring the DOJ to redact any personally identifiable information of victims and possible child sex abuse material prior to release.

Chairman Comer on Thursday telling reporters the committee will move quickly to serve these subpoenas.

The others that happened yesterday, we're going to move quickly on that.

All the names that were mentioned are names that have been mentioned in the past with respect to the Epstein saga.

So I'm surprised that the Democrats went along with subpoenaing Bill and Hillary Clinton and others that have been involved in that.

I think we all know that Maxwell was at the wedding of Chelsea Clinton.

So certainly they had a relationship with Maxwell.

I don't know what that relationship was.

I never thought that we would be questioning the Clintons and others with respect to the Epstein files, but the Democrats voted in a bipartisan manner yesterday to do that.

So what I've told people all week, the Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have been very interested in this Epstein ordeal for weeks now.

And I told Mike Johnson that our members wanted to pursue that.

So it's not like there was any cover-up from the Republicans on the House Oversight Committee because our guys really want to know.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday, meeting with Ghelane Maxwell and her legal counsel in Tallahassee, Florida.

Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence on sex trafficking charges for her role in helping procure underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse, as well as her own acts of sexual abuse.

Details of that meeting are not yet available, and it's unclear if they will be made public.

This is the media erupts over a Wall Street Journal report headlined, quote, Justice Department told Trump in May that his name is among many in the Epstein files.

A sampling of the coverage from NBC, CNN, and MSNBC here.

Tonight, the Epstein files bombshell, a new report by the Wall Street Journal revealing the DOJ told President Trump months ago that his name is in the unreleased Epstein files.

President Trump was told by the Attorney General that he is in the Jeffrey Epstein files.

It comes as Trump, who previously helped stoke Epstein conspiracy theories, suddenly tries to tamp down questions about that guy.

Despite the attention-grabbing headline, the details proving less scandalous.

The article revealing A.G.

Bondi, quote, told the president at the meeting that the files contained what officials felt was unverified hearsay about many people, including Trump, who had socialized with Epstein in the past.

President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were once neighbors in Florida, socializing publicly for many years.

The two reportedly had a falling out in 2004 before Epstein was indicted for soliciting prostitution in 2006, then ultimately in 2008, pleading guilty to one count of soliciting prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Hello, that should never have been allowed.

Minors cannot be prostitutes.

That's called statutory rape.

Sorry, personal point of privilege always bothers me.

In any event, he reached those pleas as part of a highly controversial plea deal.

Epstein was sentenced to only 18 months, where he was allowed to leave the jail for 12 hours a day, six days a week, on a work release program.

Trump spokesman Stephen Chung responding to the journal's reporting: The fact is that the president kicked him out of the club for being a creep.

Iconic wrestler and American patriot Hulk Hogan, real name Terry Bolea, dead at the age of 71.

Clearwater police in Florida confirming on Thursday morning cardiac arrest as the cause of death.

In June, e-news reporting Hogan had undergone a reportedly successful neck surgery, though in recent weeks, rumors swirling that the legendary Hall of Famer was on his deathbed, unable to speak.

On Tuesday, former manager Jimmy Hart posting on X, Hulk is doing great, doing phenomenal.

Six-time World Wrestling Entertainment Champion, twice inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Hulk Hogan is credited with the explosive rise of wrestling's popularity in the mid-1980s.

Hulkamania sweeping the nation like wildfire, fans roaring as Hulk Hogan tore his shirt apart, flexing for the cameras his signature move.

That bravado later turning political.

Hogan embracing President Trump, even delivering a barn burner of a speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

With the power of Donald J.

Trump and all the Trumpites running wild, America is going to get back on track.

And like Donald J.

Trump said, America is going to be great again.

But what happened last week when they took a shot at my hero

and they tried to kill the next president of the United States?

Enough was enough.

And I said, let Trumpomania run wild, brother.

Let Trumpa media rule again.

Let Trumpa media make America great again.

He stole the show.

President Trump posting Thursday to Truth Social, quote, We lost a great friend today, the Hulkster.

Hulk Hogan was MAGA all the way, strong, tough, smart, but with the biggest heart.

He gave an absolutely electric speech at the Republican National Convention that was one of the highlights of the entire week.

He entertained fans from all over the world, and the cultural impact impact he had was massive.

To his wife Skye and family, we give our warmest, best wishes and love.

Hulk Hogan will be greatly missed.

In the words of his iconic theme song, I am a real American, fight for the rights of every man, I am a real American, fight for what's right.

He was, and he did.

And that'll do it for your AM update.

I'm Megan Kelly.

Join me back here for the Megan Kelly Show, live on SiriusXM Prime Channel 111 at Noon East, on youtube.com Megan Kelly, and on all podcast platforms.

Happy Friday.

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