Inflation hit a three-year high last month as President Donald Trump's war in Iran continued pushing energy costs higher, and an analyst warned that could hurt Republican chances in the midterm elections.

Consumer prices rose 4.2 percent in May from a year earlier, surpassing the 3.8 percent hike the previous month, and CNN's Jeff Zeleny said those higher consumer prices could get baked in as a political issue even if they alleviate before the election.

"There is no question that this really just underscores what we've all been seeing all year long, that affordability and the rising costs of everything are really driving this election," Zeleny said. "Just a short time ago, we obtained a memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which makes this exact point."

Zeleny summarized that memo, which warned Republicans not to get complacent in Maine despite the Democratic primary win by controversial candidate Graham Platner because voter anger over affordability gives him a real shot of unseating GOP Sen. Susan Collins.

"They're talking about the economy," he said. "That is exactly what is driving this race and so many others. I was with the president just on Friday in Wisconsin and talking to so many voters there, and farmers and dairy farmers, they are just deeply concerned about the rising prices here, and everything is sort of connected. I mean, what we're seeing happening in the Middle East, there's no end in sight to the Iran war here."

"So it's all driving together," he added. "So huge warning signs for Republicans, no doubt."

- YouTube youtu.be

Add to the number of missteps Donald Trump’s White House has made with regard to the “explosive” Jeffrey Epstein files, Trump Chief of Staff Susie Wiles believed that the controversy would blow over after the FBI released a memo on their findings.

She could not have been more wrong and she had been warned, according to the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.

According to their forthcoming book "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump," Haberman and Swan wrote that a small group of White House and Justice Department officials drafted a memo designed to explain why the department would not release further information about Epstein. But the process of composing it was reportedly chaotic, with officials refusing to put their names on it and deep concerns emanating from FBI leadership.

FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino had grown increasingly infuriated as they realized the scale of the crisis they were being blamed for managing. They repeatedly raised internal alarms that the Epstein controversy was gaining dangerous momentum with Trump's supporters.

Bongino pushed hard for immediate release of surveillance footage from the federal facility where Epstein was found dead in his cell—a definitive gesture meant to satisfy the MAGA base's demand for transparency. But the Justice Department's "nothing-to-see-here" memo was being prepared for public release instead, the report notes.

Bongino objected strenuously. He told Patel the memo would undermine their promises of transparency and he refused to put the FBI seal on the letterhead -- but he was overruled.

Inside the White House, Trump had no interest in releasing anything, according to the upcoming book. Senior officials including Wiles and Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair were initially dismissive about the scope of the Epstein crisis and reportedly told colleagues Republican voters "didn't care," citing early polling data from Trump's chief pollster Tony Fabrizio. The Epstein controversy, in their view, was driven by "fringe conspiracy theorists" and amplified by noisy online influencers—not a meaningful voting bloc. Engaging with it, they argued, would only amplify the story and lend it official legitimacy.

Wiles, Blair, and Trump's inner circle had watched him weather countless scandals over years and they believed this wasn't "a storm," but instead "passing clouds."

Bongino disagreed vehemently. "It's not an online story," he reportedly told White House advisers bluntly. "You don't understand."

He was proven right almost immediately with Swan and Haberman writing, "The memo was an earthquake, and it was received by a part of the MAGA base as an outright betrayal.

Instead of closing the Epstein file, the Justice Department's carefully worded document landed like a bomb in the MAGA base. A significant faction of Trump's most ardent supporters received it not as reassurance but "as outright betrayal" —an abrupt disavowal of the sinister conspiracy theories that Trump's closest confidants had hyped during the Biden presidency and promised to expose once Trump returned to power.

A pro-MAGA Real America's Voice host declared he won't wear a single drop of sunscreen on an upcoming Florida trip — then played a clip of an anti-medicine influencer arguing against science that the sun doesn't cause cancer; it's the corn dogs.

Steve Gruber, host of the conservative network's morning program Day Break, made the announcement Wednesday alongside his guest and wife, Ivey Ramos Gruber, who agreed sunglasses might also be unnecessary. The segment fits neatly into the MAHA movement's growing anti-sunscreen wing — and straight into a public health nightmare.

Steve Gruber played a clip of Valerie Anne Smith, an Ohio-based social media influencer who bills herself as a medical and health authority on X, where she has more than 246,000 followers. Smith has no listed medical credentials.

"The sun that is giving life to all of us on this earth, this plane of existence, is not here to cause cancer," Smith said in the clip. She blamed cancer on seed oils, alcohol, and — specifically — people who drink Coors Light while baking in the sun.

"Cancer is a metabolic disease," she insisted.

Steve Gruber was sold. "There you have it," he said. "I will not be wearing sunscreen, Ivey, not one drop."

Reuters fact-checked nearly identical claims in 2022 and found them false. UV radiation from the sun directly damages DNA in skin cells, initiating cancer — a conclusion backed by decades of research. No foods have been shown to cause skin cancer.

The American Cancer Society is unambiguous: over 90% of all skin cancer is caused by UV radiation from the sun or indoor tanning devices. It recommends broad-spectrum SPF 30+ sunscreen as a core prevention tool. The FDA and the American Academy of Dermatology agree.

"Ultraviolet radiation is a known carcinogen," Adam Friedman, a professor of dermatology, told KFF Health News last August, as the MAHA-fueled anti-sunscreen trend drew alarm from medical professionals.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the architect of MAHA, acknowledged in November that he personally uses tanning beds — devices the ACS explicitly warns against.

"I'm not telling people that they should do anything that I do," Kennedy insisted at the time.

Ivey Ramos Gruber suggested coconut oil as a sunscreen substitute and mused that sunglasses might interfere with melatonin regulation — adding, "I'm not a doctor."