DEAN IS OUT THIS WEEK

5️⃣ Melania’s Epstein Press Conference Backfires

In an unprecedented move, First Lady Melania Trump held a surprise press conference in front of the White House press corps to deny any knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, any relationship with Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell, and any involvement in criminal activity. The denial came just hours after Brazilian former model Amanda Ungaro — who was brought into Epstein’s orbit at age 16 by modeling agent Paolo Zampoli, the same man Melania claims introduced her to Donald Trump — posted a blistering message on Twitter addressed directly to the First Lady: “I was around you for 20 years. Shut your mouth when speaking about me because I will expose everything I know.” Ungaro, who recently described in a Globo Television interview being on the Lolita Express as a teenager surrounded by 14-to-16-year-old girls while Epstein and Maxwell disappeared into the back bedroom, went further: “I will take legal action against you and your pedophile husband.” Lev Parnas, who has sources close to both Ungaro and the Trump inner circle, revealed that he’s been working with Congress to secure sworn testimony from Ungaro before the Oversight Committee, and to subpoena the Epstein confession tapes author Michael Wolff is reportedly sitting on. Meanwhile, FBI 302s and archived emails place Melania squarely in Epstein’s world during the late 1990s — including a sworn statement from one of Epstein’s assistants that it was Jeffrey who introduced Melania to Donald, not Zampoli. “She perjured herself so many times in that statement yesterday, just from my sources and the things we’ve been looking into,” Parnas said. The question isn’t whether Melania was part of Epstein’s world — the evidence overwhelmingly suggests she was. The question is what she did there, and why the cover-up continues from the White House itself.

4️⃣ Trump’s 250-Foot Monument to Himself

The White House released new designs for a proposed 250-foot triumphal arch to be built near the Lincoln Memorial along the Potomac River. When a CBS reporter asked President Trump who the arch was for, he pointed to himself and said, “Me.” The structure would tower 100 feet above the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and 150 feet above the Lincoln Memorial — a monument to a president who preserved the Union, now dwarfed by a vanity project for one who is dismantling it. This comes on top of the $400 million White House ballroom, the renaming of the Kennedy Center, and a planned presidential “library” that more closely resembles a condo hotel. “We’re living in an authoritarian country right now, folks, because in normal democracies, things like this don’t happen,” Parnas said. “There would be people that would tell them no. But we threw that out the door because now Donald Trump says I want an arch and you got people lining up saying, where do we sign, sir?” With inflation surging to a two-year high and Americans struggling with rising energy and food costs, the ostentatious monument is the ultimate let-them-eat-cake moment from a president who keeps building palaces while the country burns.

3️⃣ Iran Peace Talks: The Three Amigos Head to Pakistan

Vice President J.D. Vance departed Joint Base Andrews for Islamabad to lead weekend peace talks with Iran, joined by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — a delegation Zev Shalev described bluntly as “a Russian asset, a Saudi asset, and probably an asset for Peter Thiel and the Russians.” Before boarding, Vance offered his negotiating philosophy on Iran’s nuclear enrichment: “My wife has the right to skydive, but she doesn’t jump out of an airplane because she and I have an agreement.” The talks come as the two-week ceasefire buckles, with Israel killing 300 people in Lebanon on Wednesday alone while claiming Hezbollah isn’t covered by the truce. Iran accuses the U.S. of violating the ceasefire. The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed. And Russia, as Parnas pointed out, is laughing all the way to the bank — profiting from the chaos on both sides of the oil price swings while its ally Pakistan hosts negotiations that go nowhere. “What I’m hearing is the people that Trump is dealing with are people that Vladimir Putin has connected them to,” Parnas said. The talks aren’t designed to succeed. They’re designed to look like diplomacy while the war machine keeps running.

2️⃣ Hungary Could End Orban’s 16-Year Reign Sunday

Hungary holds parliamentary elections this Sunday that could end Viktor Orban’s 16-year grip on power, with independent polls showing opposition leader Peter Magyar of the Tisza Party leading by double digits. In a remarkable display of election interference, Trump posted a full endorsement on Truth Social urging Hungarians to vote for Orban, calling him “a truly strong and powerful leader with a proven track record of delivering phenomenal results.” Three days earlier, J.D. Vance stood on a stage in Budapest and called Trump on speakerphone to deliver the endorsement live — though Trump sent him to voicemail the first time. The critical question now is what happens if Orban loses. “Does he leave? How does he leave?” Parnas asked. “If Trump didn’t leave, is Viktor Orban just going to say, you know, OK?” Vance has already laid the groundwork, pointing to supposed Ukrainian interference in Hungary’s elections — an absurd claim given Ukraine is fighting for its survival. Expect Orban to contest any loss, claim fraud, and lean on Trump for support. It’s the authoritarian playbook, running in real time.

1️⃣ Kamala Harris Signals 2028 Run — But Is This the Right Time?

At Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network convention in a packed Times Square hotel ballroom, former Vice President Kamala Harris gave her most explicit signal yet about a 2028 presidential run. When Sharpton asked directly if she’d run again, the crowd erupted chanting “Run again! Run again!” Harris waited for silence, then said simply: “I might.” Parnas was unequivocal in his response: the timing is wrong. “We need fresh blood. Enough with the Trumps, the Bidens, the Harrises. We need to move on,” he said. His argument was strategic, not personal — any 2028 announcement now plays directly into Trump’s hands by giving MAGA something to unite against ahead of the midterms. “Right now it’s Trump against Trump’s accomplishments or problems. You put somebody into that race, now all of a sudden Biden’s in the mix, the past is in the mix.” With the economy cratering, inflation surging to 3.3 percent, a war with no exit strategy, and a government still partially shut down, Democrats have everything they need to win the midterms on the merits. The last thing they need is a premature 2028 horse race handing Trump a foil.

The Epstein cover-up, the monuments, the sham peace talks, the authoritarian playbook abroad and the 2028 question at home — every story today comes back to one thing: whether Americans are paying close enough attention to stop what’s happening before it’s too late.

The FiveStack is available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The FiveStack is a co-production of deanblundell.substack.com and narativ.org.

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