Donald Trump’s revenge – third act. The situation in the morning

Good morning, dear readers,

John Bolton was once one of Donald Trump’s closest confidants; between April 2018 and September 2019 he served as national security advisor to the US President – then Bolton resigned in the dispute. The final break between the two came when Bolton published a tell-all book in 2020 that painted a catastrophic picture of Trump. In it, Bolton called Trump an “unpredictable” and “astonishingly uninformed leader.” Five years later, the (long-awaited) revenge of the US President follows. Bolton was charged on Thursday. The accusation: Transmission and storage of secret documents.

After former FBI chief James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, Bolton is the third of Trump’s “enemies” to be indicted within a month. But the indictment against Bolton differs significantly from the other two – because in contrast to Comey and James, it is much more well-founded.

There were already investigations against Bolton during the term of office of former President Joe Biden. Even then, the secret services were collecting evidence that investigators described as “disturbing.” In August 2025, Bolton’s home was raided by the FBI. According to the US Department of Justice, the documents found at Bolton’s home contained “information about future attacks, foreign adversaries and foreign policy relations.”

Bolton’s lawyer condemned the Accusation. The underlying facts in this case were investigated and clarified years ago, it says. The charges were based on Bolton’s personal entries. These are records that were not classified and were only shared with his family. The FBI had been aware of these since 2021.

The path taken by the prosecution is also unusually normal in the age of Donald Trump. The indictment was signed by Kelly O. Hayes, a veteran prosecutor who was appointed by Donald Trump in February to lead the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland. Other prosecutors were also present when the lawsuit was filed.

The lawsuits against Comey and James, however, were filed by Lindsey Halligan. Trump had specially appointed his former personal lawyer, who brought the charges within days. According to the US media, the evidence in both cases is significantly weaker than in Bolton.

But all three charges have one thing in common: They came about at the urging of the US President, who only publicly called for his enemies to be prosecuted in September. The New York Times also reported that government officials had increased pressure on Kelly O. Hayes. It is only a matter of time before the next act in Trump’s revenge plan is written. A possible leading actor for this: Democratic Senator Adam Schiff. The person who initiated the investigation against him was Kelly O. Hayes.

Let’s do a small but simple puzzle. I’ll give you four song titles and you can guess which artist is behind them. Then there would be “Bochum”, “Mensch”, “Planes in the stomach” and “Time for something to happen”. Do you think so? If not, here is the quick answer: Herbert Grönemeyer is the singer of all these songs.

No contemporary German artist is more successful in this country than the man who grew up in the heart of the Ruhr area. He has sold around 20 million albums in four decades, almost all of them reaching the top of the album charts. A few more will be added soon, because this Friday the new album “Unplugged 2 – Von alles anders” will be released – 30 years after his last “Unplugged” album.

“The nice thing about this album is that in many moments you can hear Grönemeyer explaining how it all began. How he sits at the piano, singing, groping; the voice and the melodies are the focus. “That sounds romantic, almost old-fashioned – in times of bombast productions,” writes my colleague Hannes Roß. He tells you what the album’s strengths and weaknesses are here.

It’s about gas, about Vladimir Putin, about a dubious climate foundation: This Friday, Gerhard Schröder has to testify before the Nordstream investigative committee of the Schwerin state parliament. The investigators have wanted to question the former chancellor about his role for months, but his health has not yet allowed this. The idea now: Schröder will be connected from his home office in Hanover.

What did he know? How did he thread the Gazprom pipeline? And what role did he play in founding the alleged climate foundation that the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania set up in 2021 to shield the construction of the pipeline from the threat of US sanctions? The starPolitical leaders Veit Medick and Jan Rosenkranz are discussing a project whose consequences are still affecting Germany today.

At the University of Virginia, a research team is investigating supposed cases of reincarnation. Some reports are too precise to be dismissed as mere fantasy.

Anger, joy, love, anger or fear – we all live from our emotions and feelings. But what do these emotions mean? My colleague Helen Bömelburg is investigating this, and from now on she will introduce you to an emotion every week, the feeling of the week, in our new psychology newsletter. Every Friday morning she brings us closer to a feeling, explains where it comes from, how we can use and enjoy it and how we can perhaps use it to understand other people better. Are you curious?

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I wish you a good start to the day!