The Daily - The Tangled Tale of the Tate Brothers and the Trumps

Episode Date: August 3, 2026

Warning: This episode contains strong language. Over the past decade, the Tate brothers have built a global empire around pornography, hypermasculinity and overt misogyny. At the same time, they have been repeatedly accused of assaulting and trafficking women. A Times investigation found that as their legal troubles mounted, the Tates found powerful allies in the Trump family and administration. Megan Twohey, who has been covering the story, explains just how important those alliances became and why they are now starting to unravel. Guest: Megan Twohey, an investigative reporter for The New York Times. Background reading:  How a manosphere star accused of rape and trafficking was freed last year. The Tate brothers were arrested in Miami last month as the British authorities filed new rape and trafficking charges. The brothers, in federal custody, are seeing their powerful backers go quiet. Photo: Eduard Vinatoru/Inquam Photos, via Reuters For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bobaro. This is The Daily. Over the past decade, the Tate brothers have built a global empire around pornography, hyper-masculinity, and overt misogyny, even as they were repeatedly accused of assaulting and trafficking women. Today, a Times investigation has found that as their legal troubles mounted, the Tates found powerful allies in the Trump family and the Trump administration. My colleague, Megan Toey, explains just how important those alliances became and why they're now starting to unravel.

It's Monday, August 3rd. Megan, welcome back to The Daily. Happy to be here. So about two weeks ago, there was this pretty remarkable scene. that played out in Miami, Florida, involving the Tate brothers, who you have been reporting on now for many months. Just describe that scene to us.

So on July 18th, Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are these, like, massively famous figures around the world with a huge online following in the Manosphere, they arrive at this bare-knuckle boxing map, that Andrew is actually scheduled to co-host. Which is very Manusphere adjacent.

Yes, exactly. And, you know, this is like classic Tates. Andrew is dressed in a tight-fitting purple shirt with the buttons open and these chains around his neck. Tristan is in this three-piece suit and hat. But as soon as they get out of their car, U.S. Marshals show up. And the brothers are handcuffed and arrested in front of their entourage.

And you could tell that the brothers were really surprised, and so were we. And why? Were they surprised? Why especially were you surprised? Well, U.S. Marshals are part of the U.S. Justice Department. This was a federal action, which means that it was done, with the sign-off of the Trump administration. And that's surprising because, you know, the Tates have actually had legal troubles in multiple countries prior to this.

They've also had some really powerful defenders here in the United States. That's what my reporting partner, Isabella Kauai and I have been actually digging into over the past, like, year and a half, how the Tates developed deep connections to the Trump-Rum. White House, the Trump family, and other players in the conservative MAGA world. So this very

public arrest that's carried out by the Trump administration really seems like a significant turning point for the Tates. Right. You and Isabella have become true experts on the Tates, their rise, their immense influence, all their legal troubles, and the role that the Trump administration ends up playing in all of that. So Megan, tell us the story of, how it came to be that the Tates formed a kind of alliance with Trump World and how we get to this point where the president of those around him maybe turning their backs on the Tates, which I think means telling the larger story of the Tates themselves, which I know at times involves some graphic and painful details.

It does, yeah. So the story of the Tates, I would say, is primarily. primarily the story of Andrew Tate, who has been the much more prominent figure of the two, although they've worked hand in hand for years. And listen, they have enjoyed telling the story of who they are, where they came from, and how they came to have this huge success. Okay, so, yeah, I am half English, half American. My father was in the Air Force. He was based in the UK.

He met my mother. They were fortunate enough to have this perfect child. Do you see you in front of you? So they are born in the United States to an English mother and an American father. I guess I was raised in a hyper, I call it hyper-traditional. The modern world will call it misogynistic household. My father was in charge. It was his household.

The parents had a troubled marriage, and eventually they split up, and the Tate brothers relocated to England with their mother. We had no money, and I grew up in Luton, which is the worst town in England, in an area called Marsh Farm, which is the worst. And as they tell it, we're living in public housing and really kind of struggling to get by. And once they've reached their teenage years, Andrew Tate goes into kickboxing. So I want something where there's no luck. It's just me. Brutal. War.

This is where he gets his first taste of fame. I became four-time kickboxing world champion. He goes pro, wins championships, but he's not making a lot of money. So I said to Tristan, we need to work out a way. We can get rich. And he and his brother kind of sit down and... I was watching some YouTube videos like financial advice and we're talking about assets, liabilities, etc.

And I'm writing down all my assets. And I'm trying to work out what I have that's worth money. Andrew says, like, in this moment, I kind of looked around my life and decided that I needed to work with what I had. The only thing I had was, because I'd been fighting all around the world, I had these six girlfriends. And what I had were girlfriends. I messaged my six girlfriends and told them they're all coming to live with me and

had a job for them in London. Two of them wouldn't come. Four of them agreed. And he wants to seize on that and make money from it. I said, listen, I've been with you all. I'm starting a webcam business. I'm going to get rich. Some of you're either going to come with me to the top of the mountain

or if you're pissed off, you can fly home. And they convince them to start making sexual content. Two of them left. Two of them agreed to stay. And they went on cam to start making money. And perform live on webcams for paying customers. Two girls made money. a bigger apartment, three girls, four girls, five girls, bang, bang, bang, bang.

Four, you know what, I had a fucking empire of women. And as they had hoped, this porn business turns out to be much more lucrative than kickboxing. At the peak, I was turning over 400 grand a month. In the years since, we've learned what their strategies were for bringing women into their business. They would identify women that they wanted to recruit, actively romance them. once they had them in relationships, seek to exert control over them, and then steer them into making this content and making it in a way in which the brothers made most of the profit.

And Andrew has described himself as a pimp. People always say pimp as if it's a negative thing, but I think a pimp is a very positive thing. And it's not long after they start this business that women are going to the police and complaining about them. And what were those complaints? So Tristan was arrested in 2014 for an alleged assault of a woman, and Andrew was arrested the next year, actually three times. One woman who had worked for him said that he had strangled her during sex.

Another said that he had raped, beaten, and pulled a gun on her. And a third woman said that he had raped and strangled her while they were dating. Neither brother was charged at the time, but Andrew has said the attention from law enforcement led them to leave the UK and move to Romania. And why Romania? As they tell it, they saw Romania as being a place that they could get away with more stuff. And listen, like, Romania has been known for its corruption, for having a pretty weak criminal justice system. and it's also notably been a major hub of sex trafficking. Well, what does their life look like after they arrive in Romania?

Well, they expand their webcam business. They are overseeing women who are working for them. They're in Romania. They're still operating out of the UK. They are making more and more money. And they are also continuing to get into trouble. Such as... Well, in...

In 2016, Andrew actually gets cast to participate in the British version of Big Brother, the reality TV show. But pretty quickly, a videotape surfaces that shows him in a bedroom beating a young woman with a belt. Wow. And he actually gets kicked off the show. But he defends himself. I know something came out in the paper, whatever, but things came out in the paper about everybody. And he and the woman involved, say, it was totally consistent. And the thing that came out in the paper of this bullshit anyway and it was refuted by anyone involved.

So that's bullshit. And he really just doubles down on his bad boy image. And the result is that this scandal ends up in the headlines everywhere and more people pay attention to him. And his public presence just grows. And another thing that happens around this time is the 2016 presidential election. After Donald Trump is elected, Andrew also decides to lean into Trump and the MAGA movement. How so? He's talking about how much he admires Trump.

He's grabbing bitches by the pussy. I like that guy. He's tweeting his support for him. Trump is a guy who says what he means and means what he says. And one of his tweets of support catches the attention of Donald Trump, Jr. I was running my mouth and I was defending Trump. And Junior just liked from my tweets. And they end up in communication. I followed him.

He followed me back. I DMed him and said, you guys are literally the heroes of the West. I would absolutely love for picture. And Don Jr. actually invites him to New York to Trump Tower. I was like, all right, I booked the first class ticket. Bang, I was there. Guy is cool. Donald, the president's son, he made me a company.

Like, he's a cool dude. We talked for about three or four hours. We still inbox each other every couple days and stuff. So, yeah, that was crazy. just off Twitter, just depend on Trump. So this is the first real link between the Tate's and the Trumps. For now, yes. And in the following years, the Tate brothers get even more rich, more visible, more influential.

They start selling these online courses. So if you've joined this course to learn how to run a business and get rich, congratulations. your worldview is about to change forever. Teaching men how to make money. Lesson five, command respect. If you want to run a business, that one of the best things you can do is go to the gym. How to be manly.

Command of physical presence. It shows discipline. It shows that you understand hard work. And they have courses actually teaching men how to build porn businesses of their own, just like the Tates did. You're effectively taking girls, teaching them how to make unlimited money from home.

and then making sure they give it all to you. And Andrew outlines in just extraordinary detail his instructions for how to exploit women. You cannot do a purely professional business relationship with a female. They have to be in love with you, which means you have to have sex with him. And in his online content and in the interviews he starts to do. When men try and act in a masculine way, they're toxically masculine. They demonize us. Andrew is really presenting this worldview and spreading these messages about how men have been sidelined.

We are the backbone of every economy. They want us to be worker ants. They want us to be semi-depressed, paying taxes as tax slaves in a sexless marriage with kids who don't respect us. He also preaches about the need to dominate women. Females are barely sentient. Females don't have independent thought. They're just empty vessels waiting for someone else. to install the programming.

He at times openly talks about violence against women. Show her so she can barely fucking breathe, tell her she's yours forever. They're going to believe it. You can program them. They are programmable beings. And promotes this intensely misogynistic worldview. You can't slander me because I will state right now

that I am absolutely sexist and I'm absolutely a misogynist. So I'll say what I want because I'm a realist. And when you're a realist, you're sexist. Megan, when I think of the Manosphere, I don't think about messages that are this violent. And so am I right to think of this as being on the extreme edge of the Manusphere? Yes, it's absolutely on the extreme end of the spectrum of the Manosphere. And, you know, it's actually like at the same time complicated because there are these moments where the Tates are downplaying the more violent and demeaning comments as just bravado. And they're also mixed in with these messages of male empowerment.

You know, go to the gym, start your own business, be strong, drive a cool car. Have a purpose-driven life. Yeah. And this is the moment when the Me Too movement has taken off. And they're telling boys and young men that they need to rise up and that feminism has gone too far. I need to interrupt because, Megan, you're pretty central to the growth of the Me Too movement. through your journalism here at the Times, along with our colleague Jody Cantor

and a large cast of others, when the Times broke the story of powerful men like Harvey Weinstein and the sexual abuse that they committed, it unleashes this wave of accusations against many men, becomes a movement unto itself. And it sounds like you're saying

that the Tate brothers seize on that and they come to embody the backlash against it. Oh, absolutely. You know, I think that while Me Too proved to be this empowering moment for a lot of girls and women, there also came to be this sense that it was disempowering for boys and men. And there's this growing feeling among certain male demographics that boys are being ignored, that they're being treated unfairly, that they're being blamed for being themselves. Right. And in that sense, the Tate's timing was crucial.

Yeah, and the Tates are sort of swooping in and being like, you're right. Everything that you're feeling is right. We're going to kind of show you the way out. And we're going to help restore masculinity. We're going to restore confidence. We're going to restore the power of men. And you have eventually like millions of boys and young men who gravitate to the Tates. It's hard to overstate just how big these.

guys are getting. And in 2022, Andrew Tate is one of the most Googled names on the internet. And then, in December of that year, at the height of their fame and influence, their home in Romania gets read. The Matrix has attacked me. And it is the beginning of the authorities in Romania, launching, launching, launching this huge criminal investigation against them in which they're eventually accused of trafficking multiple women into their porn operation, human trafficking. Andrew's accused of raping one of those women and of having sex with and beating a 15-year-old. They're both accused of basically forming a criminal enterprise. Now, I should add that the Tates strongly deny all the

criminal allegations against them. Understood. So at this point, the legal troubles that had started for the Tate's in England were now finding them in Romania, this place where they thought that they would be safe from those kinds of investigations. Yes. And while those initial police complaints that they had faced in 2014, 2015, those hadn't been made public.

This Romanian investigation is a very public affair. And the Romanian authorities are actually prohibiting them from leaving the country while they follow through with their investigation. But once again, the Tates do what they've done so well, which is to seize on this moment and use it to their benefit. And in the following months, you see them pursuing even more alliances and eventually find real support from none other than the Trump White House. We'll be right back. So, Megan, how exactly do the Tates use this Romanian investigation to forge even stronger alliances in President Trump's orbit? So one of the first strategic moves that they make is to hire as an attorney, Joseph McBride, a lawyer here in the United States, who actually came to prominence and into the MAGA world.

world by representing people accused of insurrection on January 6th. So they hire a lawyer very much in the Trump mold. Yes. And McBride turns around and pitches his new client to Tucker Carlson, who has in this moment recently left Fox News and is working to start his own show. And so McBride goes to him and says, listen, you should come to Romania and interview Andrew Tate, you guys will break the internet. Hey, it's Tucker Carlson.

Imagine being a sixth grade boy in the United States right now. And that's exactly what Tucker does. What are they telling you on the internet? Well, they're telling you to stop being yourself. Sit still. Suppress your aggression, obey. And this is a really important turning point. So it's probably not surprising that Andrew Tate

was the most Googled man in the world last year. He offers a different vision. Tucker Carlson, sit down, speaks with Andrew for more than two hours. And it's a very warm, sympathetic interview. What is it about your message, do you think, that infuriates certain people? Well, my message is traditional masculinity. My message is to stand up and say what you mean and mean what you say.

They spend much of the two hours discussing what they consider to be like a left-wing war on masculinity and their other shared conservative beliefs. And when discussing the criminal case in Romania, they misrepresent the allegations. But you're not actually accused of rape, selling anyone, pimping. Correct. With Carlson saying, you haven't been accused of rape. You haven't been accused of any violent crime. When in fact he had.

But you can't send a guy to jail because you disagree with him. You shouldn't. And this interview is a sensation. I think it has ultimately been viewed more than 110 million times. That really is breaking the internet. I mean, that's an astonishing audience. It is, and other people notice. All right, let's just jump right into this.

Andrew Tate. Within a matter of weeks, Candice Owens, who is also this conservative media figure who's working to build her audience, she travels over to Romania. I see conservatives assigning like real meaning to you saying stuff that is just so obviously content for young boys. To also do a sympathetic interview.

with Andrew. This is how guys have fun, the same way that girls stood around and talk about real housewives. Yeah, absolutely. It's bravado. Even Charlie Kirk

comes out and says that Andrew is a very smart man, and I'm not going to get into all the accusations against him. I don't know the truth. We'll find out. But I will say this.

What he says is so powerful. He doesn't approve the Tate's porn business, but... What Andrew Tate is doing is he's communicating a warning of what happens when society becomes too feminine.

He understands why their messaging is resonating. with so many people. Hmm. Now, if I offend you with this good, because honestly, it's the truth. And you need to hear it. So all of a sudden,

these big voices on the American right, who at the time are allies of promoters of President Trump, they're finding common cause with the Tates and they're seemingly identifying with their central message. Yeah, I mean, listen, these figures have their own audience and their own supporters, but I think that what's happening in this moment, is that they're realizing that the Tates have a huge audience of their own

and that if they can sort of interface with them, whether that's interviews or talking positively about them publicly, that they can tap into that audience and bring it into their fold. And that includes Donald Trump. In 2024, he is running for re-election and trying to reach audiences of young men. And remember, Donald Trump, is already a fan of the Tates. In fact, he's publicly defending them

against the Romanian criminal investigation. And now Trump's youngest son, Baron, is also a fan. Barron is very much tapped into the many voices in the manosphere. And he's encouraging his dad to connect with them. Go on their shows. Talk to Joe Rogan, Aidan Ross. He knows this landscape. He knows these guys.

He is that young man. He is that young man. And in 2024, he actually hosted a dinner in which he brought together some of these online influencers, including one of the Tate's best friends, a guy named Justin Waller. He is widely seen as being like the third Tate brother. They become friendly. And we learned that Barron has a Zoom call with Andrew Tate. Waller told me that on the call, they talked not just about the presidential election,

but also about the Romanian criminal case and how they both thought it was unjustified. So at this point, you've got two of the president's sons in communication with Andrew Tate. Correct. And in 2024, as they had been, the Tates are extremely supportive of Trump, and they are telling their massive following,

vote for this guy. Right. And as we know, young men in particular end up being a very potent constituency, For Trump, his ability to connect with the Manosphere really works to his benefit. And when Trump is reelected in 2024, I remember reading this, Kamala Harris goes so far as to say that she missed the boat with Amazphere. And she even cites the support of people like Tate for Trump as helping to defeat her. Yes. And after Trump is reelected, Andrew Tate isn't shy about his beliefs that it's going to have a real benefit for him in his.

criminal case. He posts on X that the patriarchy is back and the Tate's will be free. Trump is the president. Wow. He really makes that linkage. Yeah, that's what he's saying publicly. And we found that privately he was also expressing a belief that the Trump administration was helping him. In a January text to somebody close to him that we reviewed, he wrote, I had word from the Trump admin that they're on top of things. I've been told I'll be free soon. And after all of your investigating, what do you come to understand Andrew Tate means when he says that the Trump administration is on top of things? What does that mean in this context? Well, listen, I can't be sure exactly who he's referring to in this text, but there were multiple people in the administration who were openly supporting and

defending of the Tate's. In the White House, Paulingrosia, who served as liaison to the Justice Department and Alina Haba, who was serving as legal counsel to the president at the time, they both publicly backed the Tates. And then there was Richard Grinnell, who is a special diplomatic envoy to the president. And we learned that behind the scenes, he discussed the Tate's criminal case with at least two Romanian officials. One of them was a top advisor to the Romanian prime minister. Grinnell met him at Moralago. The other was the Romanian foreign minister.

Grinnell spoke with him at this security conference in Germany. And what we learned was that just weeks after that second conversation, this extraordinary order comes down from the highest levels of the Roman. Romanian government to the Romanian prosecutors who had been investigating the Tates saying, you need to reach a compromise with these guys. And they eventually agreed to lift the travel ban that they had used to keep the brothers in the country. And according to our sources, the Romanian prime minister believed that this would please the Trump administration. I just want to say how absolutely striking it is to me that one of the most senior officials in the Trump administration

Rick Grinnell, speaks to two of the most senior officials in the Romanian government about, of all things in the early days of this second Trump administration, the Tate brothers, and within a few weeks, the Tate's circumstances change dramatically. They suddenly get to leave Romania. Correct me if I'm wrong. It feels like the Trump administration's role in getting them to that point seems pretty crucial. It is. Now, a spokesman said the White House was not involved in the Tate's case. Still, our reporting found that support from the Trump administration played a crucial role in the Tate's release. You feel that? It's the feeling of leaving Romania soil. We're off the ground. And as soon as the travel bans are lifted, they get on a plane and fly to Florida. All we do is win in the end. All we do is win.

And, you know, not surprisingly, they make a video of themselves on this plane, gleefully celebrating, leaving Romania. And what happens once the Tate's land in the U.S.? What is the reception? Their return to the United States actually turns out to be a bit more complicated than they likely expected. Hmm, meaning what? They arrive in Florida, and Governor Ron DeSantis immediately speaks out again. them says you're not welcome here. The Florida Attorney General launches an investigation. These are two Republicans, we should say. Two Republicans. And other conservatives are speaking out, like Ben Shapiro and Megan Kelly, who are saying it's a huge mistake to embrace these guys.

You know, you can really see that there is not uniform support for them here on the American right. And in fact, while they are in the United States, Andrew picks up another out. allegation of assault. Which is what? So one of Andrew's girlfriends at the time, Brianna Stern, went to police and reported that he had sexually assaulted her and choked her when they were in Beverly Hills. The incident happened on March 10th, and after that, I was in a concussed state for the next couple of days. She does some interviews with the press. I was scared to death. I was terrified. that I might die.

And also shares her account on social media. And she includes text messages. In one text, Tate allegedly writing, You backtalk too much, so I beat you. Where he says things like, I really love hitting you. It's good for me. I mean, that's a pretty direct line, it would seem,

between the Trump administration's alleged intervention on the Tate Brothers' behalf, which allows them to leave Romania and come to the United States and an act of alleged abuse in Beverly Hills that occurs as a result, right? Yes, that's the allegation. I mean, you know, her police complaint didn't result in a criminal charge, but the two of them are now in a legal battle in civil court.

And Brianna Stern at this point is one of several women who have started to publicly speak out about their experience with Andrew Tate over the years. We were having sex, and he strangled me until I passed out. And then when I came back around, he was still having sex with me while I'd been passed out. Others, including women from the UK, who interacted with Tate over a decade ago,

have also talked to the press. Andrew would call us lazy hose. I saw him smack girls with a belt. He used to strangle us as well. And there's a clear. pattern in what these women describe of strangulation, of rape, of beating. And the new criminal charges against the Tates don't include names of the women, but they describe exactly this type of behavior. So what exactly are these new charges and why are they coming right now?

Prosecutors in Britain have issued 38 charges against the brothers, including rape and sex trafficking, for alleged incidents that occurred between 2010 and 2017. And Andrew has also been charged with extreme pornography and indecent images of children. And these are actually the second round of criminal charges that the. British prosecutors have brought against them. And so it's clear that their investigation of the brothers has been expanding and that not only are they issuing new charges, but they also made an extradition request to the United States government that allowed for the brothers to be arrested here. And that's what those U.S. Marshals were doing in Miami. The Tates are now in jail while a federal judge considers the extradition request.

And, you know, once again, the brothers deny all of this as they have all criminal allegations against them. Well, given everything you have told us about what happened after the raid in Romania with the Trump administration coming to the Tate Brothers' defense and discussing the Tate's with Romanian officials, you might think that the Trump University would once again be activated

and come to the Tate Brothers defense. Is that happening? It is not. What we found is that with the kind of escalation of these charges, with the extradition request, being followed through by the administration, with the Tate's now behind bars, many of their one-time powerful allies

are distancing themselves. Like who? So those administration officials that I mentioned, they now, deny having any ongoing connection to the Tates or aren't commenting. There's been no word from the president's sons, Baron or Don Jr. Some of the media figures who defended them are declining to comment. And on Thursday...

Thanks, Caroline. Is President Trump or the administration, do they have any plans to intervene in the extradition process for the Tate brothers? When asked whether President Trump intended to... to intervene in the case in any way. No, we've already answered that question. Elizabeth. His press secretary said no.

Right, and not much more than that. And not much more than that. Just simply no. So the president's orbit is very clearly turning on the Tates. Why do you think that is now? Well, the Tates are facing more serious charges than ever before. And with the extradition request, the Trump administration has been forced to participate. It's had to take an official stand.

If the administration said no, that would be a very brazen, very public act. I mean, it's extremely rare for the U.S. to reject an extradition request from the U.K. Right, a close ally. And just more broadly, the benefit of associating with the Tates has gone down, and the risks have gone up. I think that President Trump and others have actually come to realize through Jeffrey Epstein just how politically damaging an association with even an alleged trafficker can be. Right. I mean, I would argue that the Epstein story has been the dominant scandal of the president's second term, and the parallels to the Tates are obvious. And it's hard to imagine the administration

wanting to do that all over again. Yeah, I think that's exactly right, Michael. And to that point, I have to wonder if the reporting that you and Isabella did that demonstrated what seems to be meaningful efforts by those around the president to help the Tate's last time would be a strong discouragement from them pursuing that strategy once again. I think our exposing the role that the support from the Trump administration had played in the Tate's being freed from Romania has shown. that there's going to be ongoing scrutiny of this that people are watching.

I'm curious, given the wide range of investigations you've been involved in, when it comes to men accused of sexual abuse, and the varying levels of accountability that those men have faced, where the Tates fit in and stack up. Well, listen, after reporting on so many of these figures over the past decade, I can say that the Tates really stand out, not just because of the really serious criminal allegations against them, but how they've managed to use them to their benefit. You know, they've made these allies in high places. They've used the notoriety to build their fame, to push their brand, and spread what many people would see is a deeply misogynistic message to men around the world.

Right. What's very clearly unique about the Tate Brothers is not just the allegations against them, as horrific as some of those are, but the reality that they have evangelized and proselytized a entire mindset that demeans and disrespects women. Right. And I've watched as they've pushed the limits to the backlash to me too, And I've wondered, like, how far will they take it?

How far will this go? And I think in this moment, with these new charges, with the extradition, with some of their powerful allies backing away, we may have finally found that limit. Well, Megan, thank you very much. Thank you, Michael. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. The saga of the botched renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool took a dramatic turn over the weekend. After originally blaming left-wing vandals for damaging the pool's new lining,

federal prosecutors led by U.S. attorney Janine Piro reversed course, withdrawing charges against an accused vandal, and instead blamed contractors hired by the Trump administration for shoddy workmanship. That reversal infuriated President Trump, who blasted Piro's office in a social media post, writing, quote, I disagree with Janine Piro, 100%. And President Trump said he canceled a series of major airstrikes against Iran over the weekend because progress had been reached on a peace deal that would include the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. But Trump offered no specific details, and it's unclear if his claim of a diplomatic

diplomatic breakthrough is true. Today's episode was produced by Caitlin O'Keefe and Stella Tan, with help from Nina Feldman and Alex Stern. It was edited by Michael Benoit and Patricia Willens, with help from Brendan Klingenberg. It contains research help from Susan Lee, and music by Marion Lazano, Dan Powell, and Pat McCusker. Our theme music is by Wonderly. This episode was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. That's it, the Daily. I'm Michael Bobarro. See you tomorrow.