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Trump, again trying to curate museum, says exhibit would stay until 2032 for 300th anniversary of Washington’s birth

Donald Trump asked the Smithsonian Institution to install a 30ft “Colossus statue” of George Washington outside the National Museum of American History, and a special exhibit honoring the nation’s first president, in a social media post late on Friday.

The president requested that the exhibit continue through February 2032, the 300th anniversary of Washington’s birth.

Thousands of people gathered in Dublin on Saturday to protest against US president Donald Trump’s visit to Ireland. Trump said earlier at a press conference that a unified Ireland would be ‘fantastic’, wading into a complex and politically charged subject during a weekend visit to a major tournament at his Irish golf course. Some of the protesters showed anger over his comment and some said he should not have been invited

• Donald Trump says he would ‘love’ to see united Ireland

Lutnick said $500bn of estimated $1tn needed to fund checks to all US adults could come from new visa program

Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to give a $5,000 “dividend” to all US adults if Republicans maintain control of Congress in November’s elections would not be paid out from US tax revenues, according to the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick.

“It’s not tax money,” Lutnick said in an interview with NBC News, adding that the administration could “earn the money that Donald Trump wants to pay out, not from the deficit and not from taxpayers”.

US president says on visit to republic that unification will happen eventually so ‘may as well happen now’

Donald Trump has said he would “love” to see a united Ireland and that it “may as well happen now”.

The US president appeared to endorse the push for constitutional change on the island at the start of a two-day visit to Ireland on Saturday. The unexpected intervention prompted a swift rebuttal from the UK government and Northern Ireland’s unionist leaders.

The man who shepherded the creation of the National Museum for African American History and Culture discusses his tenure and interference from the White House

“For the last two years, everything has implied getting rid of me,” Lonnie Bunch III, the Smithsonian Institution’s secretary, said on Thursday. Following an unremitting pressure campaign from Donald Trump and his administration, Bunch, the founding director of the National Museum for African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), announced his retirement on 9 September.

Bunch insisted, however, that the pressure “was not part of my calculus”, and that his decision to step down was driven by having completed his personal checklist of goals: “First of all, I promised I’d stay a secretary for five years; It’s been eight.” Furthermore, he said that he realized that he wanted to stay through the country’s semiquincentennial celebrations and for the 10th anniversary of the NMAAHC, a museum for which he led the creation.

Host Jesse Watters says Trump’s offer to Americans if Republicans retain Congress is ‘an enticement’, not a bribe

I think I finally understand why Fox News pays Jesse Watters the big bucks. The network star, famous for hot takes like men shouldn’t “eat soup in public”, has an incredible talent for inserting misogyny into absolutely any news story.

Take, for example, Donald Trump’s ludicrous announcement on Wednesday night that he will give every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the US Congress in November’s midterm election. That’s a story about apparent bribery, right? A story about fiscal recklessness and empty promises. A story about how the president, whose popularity is plummeting, is so out of ideas that he’s resorted (yet again) to dangling cash in front of voters.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Sacked after less than two weeks as Donald Trump’s communications director, the financier and podcaster reflects on the mistakes he made in an exclusive extract from his new book

• Plus: What it’s like to be fired by Trump, by four people who know

19 July 2017. My phone rings. White House operator: “Please hold for the president.”

I do. Of course.

What’s it like to be shown the door by the US president? A former national security adviser, an Apprentice contestant and more share their stories

• Plus: The truth about my 11 days in the White House, by Anthony Scaramucci

Gene Folkes, 62, based in Manhattan, was a contestant on season 10 of The Apprentice, which aired in 2010. A former air force recruiter until 1991, he retrained as an investment banker, then launched his own business before appearing on the reality show. He was fired by Trump in episode 5. He now runs the technology consulting firm OshunX and hosts a podcast, Folkes Unfettered.

I didn’t audition to be on The Apprentice. I received the call out of the blue: “Would you be interested in doing this show?” I didn’t know a lot about it. However, like any young business person, you look for people who you consider titans. There’s this mythology around Trump. He was one of the people I wanted to emulate.

President the star of the show at two-day convention, but party’s plan to treat November elections as referendum on Trump himself poses grave risks

“We’re going to have a good time listening to music,” Donald Trump told thousands of supporters in downtown Dallas before handing the mic to an opera singer, “because I’m getting a little bit tired of politics now.”

Millions of Americans seem tired of politics after a decade dominated by Trump. So the US president’s decision to close out this week’s first ever Republican midterm convention with a plea – treat November’s congressional elections as a referendum on Trump himself – was received by his Democratic opponents with glee.

Canadians ‘angry’ at Trump for suggesting Canada should become 51st state, says mayor, as US businesses see sales fall amid trade war

Like many Canadians, Tom Reid isn’t crossing the US-Canada border as often these days. But he needed a haircut.

The woman who cuts his hair lives in International Falls, Minnesota – her “sister is married to my wife’s cousin”, he explained – and so Reid, whose duty free shop in Fort Frances, Ontario, has to travel to her.

The World Cup and its aftermath made clear that Fifa needs independent oversight by governments and NGOs dedicated to preserving the people’s game

The 2026 World Cup was a whirling swirl of scintillating soccer that prompted much-needed conversations about the vitality of diaspora, the fortitude of the underdog, the power of sport. In a world fractured along myriad cultural axes floating in an entertainment system dominated by on-demand content, the tournament provided a moment, perhaps unlike any other event, that brought together people from different backgrounds to simultaneously experience something meaningful.

After the tournament concluded, Fifa president Gianni Infantino dropped a political pipebomb into the after-party, proposing to privatize the World Cup by injecting $20bn in private capital, with an assist from JP Morgan and Thrive Capital, the investment vehicle orchestrated by Joshua Kushner, brother to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here:

• Full story: Donald Trump says he would ‘love’ to see united Ireland

Reuters has issued a series of alerts on Trump’s latest comments (he is currently meeting with Micheál Martin). Here is what the news agency has reported:

On Iran: War will end very soon.

Today’s Report

1. Overview

2. White House News

3. Truth Social Posts

4. Government Department News

5. Selected Democratic Officials

6. AI & Tech Company News

7. Congressional Watch

1. Overview

President Trump called on the Smithsonian Institution to exhibit a statue of George Washington by 2032 and requested the installation of an 11-foot Washington statue by September 17, 2026. He defended the proposed $5,000 “Trump Dividend” and highlighted support for himself and Vance at a recent convention.

The Department of State announced Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau visited Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, and Kiribati to advance economic and security priorities. The Department of War issued multiple contracts, including a $13.4 billion ceiling modification to The Boeing Co. The Treasury Department announced the release of a revised GloBE Information Return to implement an executive order by President Trump, which Secretary Scott Bessent stated rejects the previous administration’s global tax deal.

Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed September 11, 2026, as “Patriot Day” in California and welcomed 39 new CAL FIRE Company Officers. Governor Wes Moore launched the fourth class of the Maryland Corps/Service Year Option. Governor Andy Beshear announced various appointments to state boards and commissions, and Governor JB Pritzker announced the appointment of Nathan Catt to the Eastern Illinois University Board of Trustees and scheduled attendance at 9/11 memorial and service events. U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff commemorated the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, stating his intent to “honor and remember all of those who were killed.”

No news was found for the listed AI and tech companies.

On September 10, 2026, the Senate held a pro forma session with no business conducted. The House of Representatives met to introduce legislation and agreed to H. Res. 1520, which expresses the sense of the House regarding the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. No committee hearings or markups were held.

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2. White House News

No White House news found.

3. Truth Social Posts

President Trump called on the Smithsonian Institution to honor George Washington with a five-year exhibition at the National Museum of American History leading up to the 300th anniversary of his birth in 2032. He proposed that the museum replace the “Infinity” sculpture with a 30-foot “Colossus statue” of Washington, characterizing the existing modernist sculpture as something that “tells visitors nothing about America, inspires no one, and honors none of our Great American Heroes.” Trump further requested that the museum install an 11-foot Washington statue featured at the Freedom 250 Grand Prix Race in its Flag Hall by Constitution Day, September 17, 2026. He criticized the Smithsonian’s past leadership for focusing on “ideological activism” and a “Decolonization Plan,” arguing that the museum should instead establish a “Center for American Heroes” to tell the stories of those who “built great things” and “defended our Country.”

Regarding domestic policy and political events, Trump defended the proposed $5,000 “Trump Dividend” for U.S. adults, dismissing criticism from “Dumocrats” who he claimed are hoping the payment never occurs. He asserted that the dividend is supported by the country’s “Trillions of Dollars of Economic Development, Investment, and Pure SUCCESS,” and likened its prospects to his past legislative achievements, such as “THE GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL” and a $1,776 payment provided to military personnel, which he noted others had previously deemed impossible to enact.

Trump also highlighted media reports detailing a “Capacity Crowd” that “Goes Wild” for himself and Vance at a midterm convention. He shared additional coverage describing a “Sold-out crowd” in Dallas that was “energized for midterms” during his and Vance’s appearances at the Republican convention.

Reference: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump

4. Government Department News

State Department (state.gov)

Strengthening U.S. Ties with the Pacific: Deputy Secretary Landau Engages Partners in Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, and Kiribati

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau traveled to the Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, and Kiribati to advance “America First economic and security priorities.” In FSM, he pledged over $100 million for disaster relief. In Solomon Islands, he announced the return of the Peace Corps, funding for battlefield preservation, and infrastructure assessments for Honiara Airport and Parliament. In Kiribati, he announced a study to expand the Kiritimati Island wharf to support maritime security and trade, aligning with the “Kiribati 20-Year Vision.”

Department of War (war.gov)

Contracts for Sept. 11, 2026

The Department of War announced multiple contract awards: The Boeing Co. received a $13.4 billion ceiling modification for Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Japan, Israel, and future partners. Blue Halo LLC was awarded $99.8 million for the Leveraged Orbital Battlespace Optimization program. Olin Winchester LLC secured a $788.3 million contract for ammunition. Rolls-Royce Solutions America Inc. received a $39.1 million modification for Eitan power packs. Additional contracts were awarded to J & J Contractors Inc., Marinex Construction Inc., Orion Government Services LLC, and Onebrief Inc.

Treasury Department (home.treasury.gov)

Treasury Welcomes the Revised GloBE Information Return Implementing President Trump’s Day One Executive Order

The Treasury Department announced the release of a revised GloBE Information Return (GIR) to implement President Trump’s international tax agenda. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated the move fulfills a “Day One Executive Order” to reject the previous administration’s OECD global tax deal. The revised GIR enables a “side-by-side safe harbor” that exempts U.S.-headquartered companies from Pillar Two cross-border taxes, such as the Income Inclusion Rule and Undertaxed Profits Rule, while establishing standardized reporting for local minimum taxes to reduce compliance burdens.

5. Selected Democratic Officials

Gavin Newsom (gov.ca.gov)

Governor Newsom welcomes CAL FIRE’s newest leaders as they answer the call to serve

On September 11, 2026, Governor Newsom recognized the graduation of 39 new CAL FIRE Company Officers, the department’s 12th leadership academy of the year. Since 2019, the state has trained over 3,600 emergency response leaders. Fire Chief/Director Joe Tyler stated, “On this day of remembrance, as we honor the legacy of those who came before us, these graduates step forward as leaders.” The administration reports that the CAL FIRE workforce has grown from 5,829 to 11,436 positions over the past five years.

Governor Newsom proclaims Patriot Day

Governor Newsom issued a proclamation declaring September 11, 2026, as “Patriot Day” in California to honor the 3,000 victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, including 36 Californians. The proclamation highlights the “extraordinary courage” of first responders and civilians during the attacks. To mark the 25th anniversary, Governor Newsom ordered all flags on state buildings to be flown at half-staff, emphasizing the need to ensure future generations understand the “courage, service, and sacrifice” shown in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Wes Moore (governor.maryland.gov)

Governor Moore Launches Fourth Class of the Maryland Corps/Service Year Option Program on the Day of Service and Remembrance

Governor Wes Moore launched Class 4 of the Maryland Corps/Service Year Option on September 11, 2026. Administered by the Department of Service and Civic Innovation, the program places young adults in paid, full-time service roles. Since April 2023, over 1,200 members have participated. For Class 4, the program is expanding specialty corps to include technology, literacy, health, and the new Immigrant Opportunity Corps. Governor Moore stated, “On a day we will always remember, Maryland chooses to honor immeasurable loss with meaningful service.”

Andy Beshear (governor.ky.gov)

Gov. Beshear Makes Appointments to Kentucky Boards and Commissions

Gov. Andy Beshear announced several appointments to state boards and commissions. William Craig Miller was appointed Bracken County Judge/Executive. Other appointments include Andrew Carter to the Louisville/Jefferson County Tourism and Convention Commission, Ken Lewis to the Northern Kentucky Convention Center Corporation Board, John Garrity to the Equine Drug Research Council, Shena Link to the Kentucky Apprenticeship Council, and Eddie Campbell to the School Curriculum, Assessment and Accountability Council. Additionally, Beshear appointed or reappointed members to the Public Advocacy Commission, State Board of Medical Licensure, and Native American Heritage Commission.

JB Pritzker (gov.illinois.gov)

Gov. Pritzker Announces One Appointment to Boards and Commissions

Governor JB Pritzker announced the appointment of Nathan Catt as a member of the Eastern Illinois University Board of Trustees, effective September 11, 2026. Catt, currently a Senior Finance Director at Caterpillar, holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and an MBA from Eastern Illinois University. This appointment is subject to confirmation by the Illinois Senate.

Daily Public Schedule: Friday, September 11, 2026

On September 11, 2026, Governor Pritzker is scheduled to attend the Chicago Fire Department Engine 42’s annual 9/11 memorial ceremony at Navy Pier at 7:30 AM. At 9:00 AM, the Governor will deliver remarks and participate in a volunteer service event for the 25th anniversary of 9/11 at Union Station in Chicago. Both events have no additional press availability.

Jon Ossoff (ossoff.senate.gov)

Sen. Ossoff Commemorates 25th Anniversary of September 11th Terrorist Attacks

On September 11, 2026, U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff commemorated the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Senator Ossoff stated his intent to “honor and remember all of those who were killed” and “all of the extraordinary first responders.” He described the event as a “heinous terrorist attack on American soil” and affirmed that the nation will “never cease our vigilance in defending the United States.” Senator Ossoff characterized the service of those involved as an “example of American heroism and patriotism.”

6. AI & Tech Company News

No relevant AI & tech company updates found for this date.

7. Congressional Watch

Covers the 2026-09-10 session — the Congressional Record is published with a one-day delay.

Senate

The Senate met briefly in a pro forma session. No business was conducted, and the chamber adjourned until September 14, 2026.

• None — No floor activity occurred [None]

House of Representatives

The House of Representatives met for a short session to introduce new legislation and report on various committee filings. The House also agreed to a resolution regarding the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

• H. Res. 1520 — Expresses the sense of the House regarding the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on their 25th anniversary [Agreed to]

Committee Highlights

• None — No committee hearings or markups were held

Coming Up

The Senate will convene on September 14, 2026, for a period of morning business followed by a cloture vote on the nomination of Matthew R. Byrne. The House will convene on September 14, 2026, with a program to be announced.

Reference: Congressional Daily Digest — 2026-09-10

Leni Riefenstahl, the filmmaker of the Third Reich

I only saw brief clips of the Trumpapalooza, but one of the few I saw brought me up short. From Aaron Rupar on Bluesky (with video at the link), describing a point where Trump asked the crowd to stand:

Trump: “Please right your right hand. I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States. That loves us so much he can’t even breath. That I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it any way – I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try to cheat like hell…”

I physically shuddered as Trump began that pledge, because it reminded me so much of another pledge to another ruler. The photo below shows the pledge, as it appears in the Evangelisches Feldgesangbuch, the protestant field hymnal for the German Wehrmacht. The same pledge appears in the Katolisches Feldgesangbuch, which was the Roman Catholic military hymnal.

The German Soldier’s Oath, August 1939

The text translates like this:

I swear by God this holy oath, that I will render unconditional obedience to the Führer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht, and that, as a brave soldier, I will be prepared to risk my life at any time for this oath.

They were published in August 1939 by the Luftwaffe, and handed out to the soldiers of the German military. Right before they invaded Poland the following month.

It wasn’t always like this. During the Weimar Republic, members of the military swore an oath to the German constitution, but after the death in 1934 of President Paul von Hindenberg, the oath changed. It became a pledge to Adolf Hitler personally, the leader of the state and the leader of the people. Shortly thereafter, civilian members of the government were made to take a similar oath.

I lived in Germany for a time as an exchange student, right after they showed the NBC miniseries “The Holocaust” on national television. It was the first time there was such a public discussion of that subject, telling the story from Kristallnacht to the ghettos and finally to the death camps and gas chambers. I had conversations with old women whose husbands, fathers, uncles, brothers, and sons had gone off to war, with middle-aged folks who were kids at the time (including men who had been part of the Hilter youth as young boys – much the way that young American boys would join the Cub Scouts – “it’s what everyone did at that age”), and especially with my classmates at school. Beyond the horrors of the Holocaust itself, the stories of the cult of personality were gripping. “How could you have allowed that to happen?” said the folks my age to their grandparents, who mainly had little answer. A few talked about being connected with the “Confessing Church” which opposed the Deutsche Christen, the nationalistic Aryan folks who tried to take over German religious life. But for most, the older folks felt embarrassed at best, if not guilty and ashamed.

“I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States . . .”

So yeah, I shuddered when I heard those words. Shuddered, not in surprise but in pain. Trump has made it clear that he expects this kind of unconditional obedience from the attorneys of the DOJ, and Todd Blanche has done his best to clean out those who do not share that view of the DOJ’s attorneys. Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Excursions, has the same mentality at the DOD, and has similarly worked hard to clean house of problematic generals and admirals. When Trump rails at the Supreme Court, it carries clear anger that the justices he nominated and got onto the court are not living up to an oath demanding unconditional obedience to him personally, even if they never actually took such an oath.

Or look at how Trump reacted to Senator Mark Kelly and his former military and intelligence community colleagues, when they pointed out that in our military, we not only do NOT demand unconditional obedience, but we demand exactly the opposite. Soldiers who are given illegal orders are not just given permission to disregard these orders but are REQUIRED not to obey them. Oh, the horror, says Trump, and he sicced DOJ and the DOD to go after Kelly et al., threatening not only their ranks and their pensions, but their very liberty.

That’s how Trump views being president. Everyone owes him — not the country or the constitution or the law, but him — unconditional obedience. And look at what he demanded his obedient minions do: cheat like hell.

Here in Missouri, we’ve seen what demands for unconditional obedience can do. We’ve been dealing with more than just the gerrymandering mess, but also anti-abortion zealots, some of the worst anti-trans laws in the country, and ballot measures that would have neutered the ability of the voters to use initiative petitions to overturn the most idiotic laws the legislature comes up with.

When a leader — any leader — demands unconditional obedience, be afraid. In a religious setting, that’s when you get to Jim Jones or pedophile priests. In an academic setting, this is when you get researchers who twist their data to fit the views of their superiors rather than letting it speak honestly. In a military setting, this is when you get My Lai. In a political setting, this is when you get Adolf Hitler.

We have less than 8 weeks before the elections in November. Many of the races are between candidates who act as if they have sworn unconditional obedience to Trump and candidates who have not. I envision my hypothetical grandkids asking me “How could you have allowed that to happen?”

I don’t want to shrug my shoulders in embarrassment, or bow my head in guilt and shame. And neither should you. It’s time to keep making good trouble.

The post We Do Not Swear Unconditional Obedience appeared first on emptywheel.

Vice President JD Vance gave the keynote address on the second night of the Republican midterm convention, which also featured Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., House Speaker Mike Johnson and a final send-off from President Donald Trump. Here’s what we found in fact-checking their remarks:

• Several Republicans credited the Trump administration for a large drop in the violent crime rate in 2025 and a historically low murder rate. But the recent statistics continue a trend of declining crime in recent years, and criminologists say there are many possible reasons for the drop.

• Kennedy falsely claimed Democrats “closed every church in our country for a year” during the pandemic. Restrictions on religious gatherings were implemented by both parties and typically capped attendance, rather than prohibiting services altogether. Many of those restrictions ended or were made less strict within months.

• Trump vowed to end no cash bail, misleadingly saying that under the policy, “Somebody kills somebody and they’re out in the streets two hours later.” In states that have cashless bail policies, that almost never happens.

• Vance made the dubious claim that U.S. citizens account for all of the job growth during the current administration. Experts told us last year that the specific federal employment data supporting that claim are misleading.

• Johnson inaccurately claimed that Republicans inherited “record high” inflation from the Biden administration. They didn’t. The annualized inflation rate had declined to 3% when Trump entered office — a lower rate than it is now.

• Trump falsely claimed, “I built almost 2,000 miles of [border] wall.” The actual number is about a third of that, and only if including replacement wall rather than new wall in places where there was none before.

• Kennedy made the unsupported claim that Democrats “lost 360,000 children,” who he suggested went on to be trafficked. He’s distorting the findings of a 2024 report from the Department of Homeland Security inspector general.

• Kennedy misrepresented the available data to suggest that the Trump administration deserves credit for reversing decades of rising obesity rates and declining lifespans. Obesity was already falling before Trump took office, according to one survey, and life expectancy has generally been trending upwards for decades, with the exception of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Kennedy falsely said that U.S. has the “sickest children in the history of the world.” Given that long ago it was common for as many as half of all children to die, this is not remotely true. Most countries today also have higher childhood mortality rates than the U.S.

The convention, the first for the Republican Party during the midterms, was held Sept. 9 and 10 in Dallas. For more on the convention, see our story on Trump’s keynote speech on the first night.

Claiming Credit for Crime Decline

Multiple speakers at the convention lauded a drop in violent crime in 2025 — the largest one-year decline in the violent crime and murder rates since the FBI began releasing the nationwide crime estimates in 1936. But they misleadingly framed it as a consequence of Trump taking office last year and wrongly cast it as a turnaround from Biden’s time in office.

Violent crime has been falling for several years, after a spike during the 2020 pandemic, which began in Trump’s first term. Criminologists also say there are many factors affecting the crime drop in 2025 and the exact reasons are unclear, as we’ve explained.

“In America right now, because elections have consequences, you are enjoying the lowest violent crime rate in 126 years,” Johnson said. Vance raised the issue in his remarks, falsely claiming that under Biden’s time in office, the U.S. “became a country where violent crime exploded, unless of course you could afford private security,” and later adding that under Trump: “We’ve seen the largest drop of violent crime in the history of the United States of America because we back the police and throw the bad guys in prison. It’s not rocket science.” Trump similarly said, “And it was just announced, you saw that, that we achieved the lowest level of violent crime in 125 years since the year 1900.”

The violent crime rate, per local law enforcement data collected by the FBI, was 389.2 per 100,000 population in 2020, the last year of Trump’s first term. In Biden’s last year, 2024, it had dropped to 362.9 per 100,000. In 2025, it dropped further, to 327.6. (See Table 1 after downloading the FBI’s 2025 estimations for crime in the U.S.)

The murder rate declined from 5.1 per 100,000 in 2024 to 4.1 last year. It had been 6.6 in 2020.

Johnson’s and Trump’s references to the U.S. achieving the lowest violent crime rate in 126 or 125 years is actually a reference to the murder rate being the lowest since 1900, per a report by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonprofit think tank, which used FBI statistics dating back to 1960 and public health data going back to 1900.

“The homicide drop is historic and crystal clear. But right now, what’s driving it is about as clear as a glass of milk,” Adam Gelb, the president and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice, said in a statement. “Rates are falling in cities with very different public safety strategies, economic conditions, and political leadership.”

In an interview last month, Gelb told us that there could be some impact on crime from what the administration is doing, but we don’t know what that is yet. He cited many plausible factors affecting crime. “You know the movie ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’?” Gelb asked. “That’s what we’ve got here. And when you have so many, so many things happening at once, it can be extremely hard to disentangle.”

Democrats Didn’t Close ‘Every’ Church ‘for a Year’

Kennedy claimed that Democrats “closed every church in our country for a year” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is false. In March and April 2020, states issued orders or guidelines limiting in-person interactions in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. Some states did prohibit religious gatherings — as they did with other kinds of mass gatherings — but most had exemptions allowing at least some in-person religious gatherings to continue. These restrictions applied not just to churches but to all places of worship.

According to a Pew Research Center analysis of state stay-at-home orders as of April 24, 2020, religious gatherings were barred entirely in just 10 states, while more than 20 states allowed religious services with size limitations and 15 states allowed religious gatherings of any size. 

While most of those 15 states were led by Republicans, a few — including Pennsylvania and Michigan — had Democratic governors at the time. And three of the 10 states that barred religious gatherings of any size at that time had Republican governors — Idaho, Alaska and Vermont.

States also began relaxing those restrictions within months. For example, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced that businesses and entities, including churches, could “fully reopen” in late May 2020. An archived version of a New York Times page that tracked state reopening plans shows that, as of July 1, 2020, houses of worship were allowed to be open in all 50 states.

Some states continued to enforce limits on attendance or implemented risk-based frameworks that tightened or loosened restrictions according to an area’s level of spread. California, for example, barred indoor worship in areas experiencing widespread transmission before the Supreme Court blocked that provision the measure in February 2021. But that doesn’t mean “every church in the country” was closed for an entire year.

We asked HHS about the basis for Kennedy’s claim and haven’t received a response.

Cashless Bail

As he has for years, Trump vowed to end no cash bail, misleadingly saying that under the policy, “Somebody kills somebody and they’re out in the streets two hours later.”

As we have written, some states that require cashless bail have exemptions for violent felonies and murder. And in the states where it is possible for a murder suspect to be freed pending trial without cash bail, per a judge’s discretion, it is exceedingly rare.

Numerous states and cities have passed laws limiting the use of cash bail, though each is a little different, and the laws are constantly being revised. Some states with cashless bail policies still allow cash bail for violent felonies and murder, such as New York. Most include some sort of risk assessment to determine whether someone can be held in jail pending trial.

The move in some states toward cashless bail was prompted by those who argued cash bail unfairly punishes those who can’t afford to pay it, leaving them to await trial in jail. Opponents have criticized the laws as soft-on-crime policies that worsens crime.

As we wrote last year, the balance of crime data doesn’t support the idea that crime has worsened as a result of the policies. Violent crime is dropping across the country, including in states that limit the use of cash bail.

When we looked into this issue in 2025, we found just one instance of a defendant facing murder charges being released without bail in any of the handful of states that have enacted some form of cashless bail. In 2024, a Rockford, Illinois, judge released from jail a man accused of first-degree murder pending his trial. The judge said she had concerns about the case and the evidence against the man.

“In Illinois, every case has the discretion of the judge on whether or not to release the accused,” David Stovall, a faculty member in the Department of Criminology, Law and Justice at the University of Illinois Chicago, told us in 2025. The idea that accused murders are routinely released without cash bail is “a misconception that’s rampant unfortunately.”

Kellen Funk, a legal historian and law professor at Columbia Law School, told us in 2024 that states that limit cash bail often “replace cash bail with judicial discretion,” which gives judges the option to detain defendants until trial, release them with “nonfinancial conditions” such as drug testing and a curfew, or release them without conditions except a requirement to appear in court.

For “felony homicide,” he said, “the law might recommend detention or set a presumption in favor of it, and in most cases in practice judges are inclined to order detention when the charges involve violent felonies.”

A Problematic Employment Comparison

Vance repeated a dubious Trump administration claim about American citizens — rather than “illegal aliens” — accounting for all of the job growth during Trump’s second term.

“Under Donald Trump’s leadership, we’ve created 1 million new jobs,” the vice president said. “And unlike the last administration, where most of the job growth went to illegal aliens, 100% of the job growth in the United States of America is going to American citizens, which is exactly where it belongs.” 

Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that employment for the native-born population in the U.S. increased by more than 1.3 million from January 2025 to August 2026. In that same period, employment for the foreign-born population decreased by about 994,000. 

To be clear, the foreign-born population is not just “illegal aliens.” It includes “legally-admitted immigrants,” some of whom may have since become citizens, “refugees, temporary residents such as students and temporary workers, and undocumented immigrants,” BLS says.

In addition, under the Biden administration, the latest BLS data show that native-born employment increased by about 7.5 million, more than the roughly 6.5 million increase in foreign-born employment. 

But multiple economists and labor experts have said that particular BLS employment data – which is based in part on its Current Population Survey, or CPS, a monthly survey of 60,000 households conducted by the Census Bureau and BLS – should not be used for comparisons like the one Vance made. 

Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former undersecretary for economic affairs at the Department of Commerce during the Biden administration, told us in a 2025 interview that with the CPS, the foreign-born and native-born population add up to a predetermined Census Bureau forecast that is done a year in advance. “So, a big decline in the reported foreign-born population” based on the survey “is going to be offset by a reported increase in the native-born population.” He wrote in an August 2025 piece that in the unlikely event that the entire foreign-born population in the U.S. disappeared, the CPS would automatically report that the native-born population increased by millions of people to equal the predetermined Census population estimate.

And, as another economist noted, when the estimated native-born population increases, so does the estimated number of U.S.-born workers. BLS data show that the native-born population has increased by almost 4.7 million since Trump took office, while the foreign-born population in that time has decreased by about 1.9 million. Kolko and other experts said the estimated increase in the native-born population is not realistic or plausible, and suggests the estimates are likely influenced by an increase in foreign-born residents not responding to the household survey or providing inaccurate information to administrators, meaning they said they were born in the U.S. instead of another country.

In his August 2025 piece, Kolko wrote that it’s best to check the unemployment rate for the native- and foreign-born populations. “Ignore the levels of population and employment: they mislead,” he said.

BLS data show that the unemployment rate for the native-born population has increased from 4.3% in January 2025 to 4.6% as of last month. On the other hand, the unemployment rate for the foreign-born population over that period went down from 4.6% to 3.4%.

Johnson’s Deceptive Inflation Tale

In spinning an economic narrative complimentary of Trump, House Speaker Johnson omitted key details, making it seem like Trump had inherited very high inflation when he hadn’t.

Accurately noting that inflation was just 1.4% at the end of Trump’s first term, Johnson proceeded to inaccurately claim that Biden handed Trump back a “total disaster.”

“Joe Biden came in and he reversed the policies and he brought us to a 40-year high of 9.1% inflation,” Johnson said. “So the very moment that Republicans were put back in charge, we started working around the clock to help you and your family — to make life more affordable, and to do everything within our power to bring down the cost of living for everyone in this country. And we’ve succeeded in so many ways. But it takes more than just 20 months to fix the total disaster that we were handed. And to turn the ship of state around.”

This distorts how inflation changed over time. Inflation did hit a high of 9.1% under Biden, but that was for the 12 months ending in June 2022. By the time Trump was back in office, inflation had cooled to a 3.0% annual rate, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. Under Trump, inflation has risen slightly. As of August, inflation for the past 12 months is at 3.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It’s worth noting that Trump’s low inflation in 2020 and Biden’s very high inflation in the summer of 2022 were both partly due to the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. Very low inflation in 2020 — below the Federal Reserve’s 2% benchmark — was driven by pandemic-related decreases in the prices of travel-related and in-person goods and services, such as gas, airline tickets and hotels. As we’ve reported previously, some of Biden’s high inflation could be ascribed to his stimulus policies, but the root of the problem was the unprecedented circumstances created by the pandemic. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the time also pushed up gas prices.

Experts have said not providing the stimulus could have hindered the post-pandemic recovery.

Just before his selective economic history, Johnson also made the false claim outright. “While Republicans inherited from the Biden administration record high inflation and prices,” he said, “we’ve been working every single day around the clock to bring policies to bring down those costs.”

Border Wall

On night one of the convention, Trump claimed his administration has “built over 1,400 miles of wall right on your Texas border.” On night two, Trump said, “I built almost 2,000 miles of wall.” Both numbers are wildly exaggerated.

A total of 458 miles of “border wall system” was built during the first Trump administration, according to a Customs and Border Protection status report on Jan. 22, 2021. Most of that, 373 miles of it, was replacement for primary or secondary fencing that was dilapidated or outdated. In addition, 52 miles of new primary wall and 33 miles of secondary wall were built in locations where there were no barriers before.

According to data from CBP as of Sept. 9, another 216 miles of wall have been constructed in Trump’s second term. About 72 miles of that is new primary wall in locations where there were no barriers before.

The construction is largely funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by Trump in July 2025, which allocated $46.5 billion for border wall.

In any case, to date, combining Trump’s first term and second term so far, the Trump administration has built 124 miles of border wall where none existed before. And counting all border wall construction, including replacement wall and secondary walls, a total of 674 miles of wall has been built. As we have written, that is substantial, but it’s about a third of the number Trump claimed.

Another 299 miles of new primary wall are under construction, CBP reported, and 255 miles are in the design phase.

The land border itself is 1,954 miles long, according to the US-Mexico International Boundary and Water Commission. With the new fencing constructed under Trump, there are now about 778 miles of barriers, about 40% of the total southwest border.

Misleading Claim of ‘Lost’ Children

Kennedy, while criticizing Democrats, said, “They somehow lost 360,000 children, and they turned our federal government into the biggest child trafficking operation in world history.” But, as we’ve written, it’s a distortion to claim the children were “lost,” or that only Democrats were responsible for what actually happened.

In an August 2024 report, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general said about 323,000 unaccompanied minors who illegally entered the U.S. had not shown up for immigration court between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, or had not received a summons to appear in court. That time frame includes periods during the Biden administration and Trump’s first administration. 

Furthermore, the report did not describe the minors as “lost.” The report said more than 32,000 children did not show up for their immigration court hearings in that period, and that, as of May 2024, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not issued a Notice to Appear in court – which goes out at the start of removal proceedings – to more than 291,000 minors.

The report said not sending the notices makes it difficult for ICE to “monitor the location and status” of the minors and assure they “are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.” But it did not say those things had happened to the children.

ICE responded to the inspector general’s assessment in a letter that was included in the report’s appendix. ICE said notices go out after a child has been released to a sponsor, and that notices can be delayed for several reasons, such as if the child has already applied for asylum or another legal status with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Kennedy Distorts Stats on Obesity, Life Expectancy

Kennedy suggested the Trump administration deserves credit for reversing trends related to diet, obesity and lifespan. But he distorted the available data on obesity and life expectancy, and experts say there’s little evidence to suggest Americans are eating much healthier.

“Today, two years into this administration, Americans are eating more real food,” Kennedy said. “Real food sales were up 8% in 2025. Americans are eating less processed food. Since President Trump took office, obesity is down by 7% after 40 years of increasing. And this is best of all. Preliminary data that I received two days ago from CDC indicates that we have now reversed a 30-year decline in longevity.” 

Kennedy has repeatedly boasted about a decline in obesity. On Aug. 13, he said obesity had “dropped, for the first time, 3% in the last year.” Eleven days later, he told an audience that the obesity rate had “dropped in this country, for the first time in 40 years, by about 3%.”

But as we wrote at the time, Kennedy’s numbers don’t hold up. 

Surveys from the polling organization Gallup, which are based on self-reported height and weight data, do show obesity declining by about 3 percentage points. But that decline happened over several years, not one, and started around 2022. It has continued under Trump, but not on the scale Kennedy claims. The latest Gallup figures put the decline between 2024 and 2026 at 0.7 percentage points.

If Kennedy was referring to the percent change, rather than percentage point, the numbers are still off. Gallup’s latest figures show the obesity rate declining from 37.5% in 2024 to 36.8% in 2026, a difference of 1.9%. The total change from 2022 to 2026 would be 7.8% — but most of that decline happened before Trump took office. 

It’s possible Kennedy has access to some early government data on obesity that haven’t yet been released, but we couldn’t find any publicly available source backing up this claim. We’ve asked HHS but have not received a response.

Kennedy is also wrong about a “30-year decline in longevity.” According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. life expectancy rose from 75.4 years in 1990 to 78.8 years in 2019. It fell in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, but rebounded to an all-time high of 79 years in 2024. 

We asked HHS about the source for this claim as well, but haven’t heard back. 

As for Kennedy’s claim that “Americans are eating more real food,” he may be referring to a recent analysis by the bank BNP Paribas finding that, between June 2025 and June 2026, sales of unprocessed or minimally processed foods in certain categories grew 7% faster than sales of ultraprocessed foods in the same categories.

As we’ve explained before, the study measured whether consumers were shifting from more-processed to less-processed products in five specific categories — yogurt, nut butters, frozen meals/vegetables, fruit snacks/candy and cereal/granola. It doesn’t say anything about whether Americans are buying, say, more fresh produce, or spending more or less on ultraprocessed foods outside of those categories. Experts told us there’s little evidence to suggest that Americans are eating healthier diets overall.

Childhood Health

In repeating one of Kennedy’s favorite lines, but with an added twist, the Health and Human Services secretary claimed that “this country pays two to three times what every developing nation in the world pays, and yet we have the sickest children in the history of the world.”

Compared with peer nations, the U.S. does have poor childhood health outcomes and spends a lot on healthcare. But it is an exaggeration to say the U.S. has the sickest children in the world, much less the sickest children in history.

The U.S. has for decades had a relatively high rate of death before age 15 for a high-income nation. That’s according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, which is based on comparisons with 11 other high-income nations. Still, childhood deaths have fallen significantly over time in the U.S. and peer nations alike. KFF explained that “childhood deaths in the U.S. have declined since 1980 on a similar trajectory to comparable countries.”

In the global context, the U.S. has relatively low mortality in childhood. In 2024, 0.8% of U.S. children died before age 15, according to data from the United Nations compiled by Our World in Data. This is slightly higher than the rate of 0.6% among high-income nations overall, but lower than the rate of 1.6% for upper-middle-income countries, 5.2% for lower-middle-income countries or 7.7% for low-income countries.

Again, this is an improvement compared with the historical data. In 1950, 4.3% of children in the U.S. died before age 15. And long ago, of course, children died far more regularly. Historical estimates of child mortality, compiled by Our World in Data, show that roughly half of all children died in many societies across time, including as recently as several hundred years ago in Europe. Historically, many deaths were due to poor nutrition, infectious diseases or a lack of sanitation. Today, many of those infectious diseases are preventable with vaccines.

As for the claim that the U.S. pays “two to three times what every developing nation in the world pays” for healthcare, it is possible Kennedy meant to compare the U.S. to other developed countries. The U.S. does spend the most per capita on healthcare among high-income countries, according to the most recent data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Americans pay around 2.5 times more per capita than the average. But it’s not the case that the U.S. pays that much more than each and every country. In the case of Switzerland, for example, the U.S. pays just 1.5 times more per capita.

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The post FactChecking Day Two of the GOP Midterm Convention appeared first on FactCheck.org.

Atlantic Industrial Coatings was given $14.7m no-bid contract and its findings contradict president’s claims of vandalism

The company hired to renovate the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool has acknowledged that “human oversight” and flaws in the repair plan caused the newly installed blue liner to peel and tear, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times that challenge Donald Trump’s repeated claims of vandalism.

The president has repeatedly said vandals armed with knives or box cutters were responsible for tearing apart the pool’s “American flag blue” liner. But documents reviewed by the Times show that Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the company awarded the renovation contract, blamed its own execution of the repair work and a flawed design plan.

Trump Administration’s Mail-In Ballot Scheme Dealt Another Blow

On Sunday, the Trump administration once again appealed to the Supreme Court to intervene in its scheme to restrict the distribution of mail-in ballots through the United States Postal Service. This new appeal came days after Judge Indira Talwani issued a new preliminary injunction that “barred the Trump administration from requiring states to comply with provisions of the [USPS] rule indefinitely while the states’ challenge continues.” Trump’s Solicitor General, John Sauer on Sunday told the Court that Talwani’s order “nullif[ies] the Postal Service’s efforts to address the risk that the federal mails will be used to perpetrate voter fraud.” In his filing, Sauer warned, “Ballots have already begun to be mailed in North Carolina, and more States will begin the mailing process as the injunction remains in place — including Alabama on September 9 and at least five States the week of September 13.” He added, “Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them.”

While the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the legality of the USPS mail-in ballot rule, on Thursday, the Boston-based First Circuit Court of Appeals issued the Trump administration a new blow by declining to put Talwani’s order blocking the rule on hold. In its nine-page opinion, the appeals court ruled that “the Final [USPS] Rule is likely a regulation of the manner of holding elections for members of Congress, which the Elections Clause of the Constitution assigns to the States and Congress, and not to an executive agency, such as the Postal Service, acting without congressional authorization.” The three-judge panel further ruled, “Appellants have not made a strong showing that the district court erred in determining that the Final Rule is likely unlawful.”

Trump Headlines “Trump-a-palooza” Convention, Issues $5k Voting Bribe

On Wednesday and Thursday this week, Donald Trump headlined a two-day “Trump-a-palooza” Republican convention purportedly designed to turn out Republican voters ahead of the November midterm elections. Despite Trump’s claim that the American Airlines Center in Dallas was “packed” with “lines out the door,” the convention hall reportedly had thousands of empty seats, including the entire upper section of the arena.

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President and defense secretary try to link worst terrorist attack in US history to current unpopular war

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth used remarks at the memorial ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11 to defend the US-Israel war on Iran – and suggest the controversial conflict was part of the legacy of the worst terrorist attack in US history.

While such ceremonies on September 11 typically focus on the victims of the 2001 attacks, the US president and his defense secretary each pointed to the war they launched on Iran more than six months ago, with no end in sight.

Café Niederegger | Reading’s Bayeux tapestry | Trump’s renaming spree | The Amerigo Round

In her piece on Lübeck (‘Fabulous museums and no queues’: five of the best under-the-radar city breaks in Europe, 6 September), Rachel Dixon didn’t mention the German city’s sweetest treat, the Café Niederegger. Many will know the city’s name from Niederegger marzipan as much as Thomas Mann. Their museum on the floor above the cafe includes a lifesize marzipan statue of the writer, whom they claim was also a fan.
Elizabeth Card
Leeds

• It is surprising that Reading Museum has not used the publicity surrounding the arrival of the Bayeux tapestry in the UK to blow its own trumpet more loudly. Its superb copy of the Bayeux tapestry, produced by 35 women in just over a year, finishing in 1886, is free to view.
Joyce Quarrie
Leytonstone, London

Twenty-five years ago today I was woken up by a phone call from a close friend, who, like me, grew up in New York and, like me, was now living in California. She told me that something horrible had happened in New York and to turn on the TV. She said something about a plane flying into the World Trade Center, and I assumed it was a small Cessna or something that went horribly off-course. It was only once I turned on the TV news (and started searching the internet) that I began to comprehend what was happening.

I’m guessing there aren’t many Techdirt readers from back then still reading today, but after a few hours of staring blankly at the TV — scared by what had happened and already uneasy about what the world would do in response — I put up a post saying that I had nothing else to say and wouldn’t be posting (other than to link to some resources). The next day, I was already expressing concern about how the world would respond, and calling out the people rushing to play the blame game. I pointed to a quote from a New Yorker saying “we aren’t in a state of war, we’re in a state of mourning.” But it wasn’t difficult to see where things were heading. Late that night I warned (in a poorly written, rambling post) about how people blindly reacting via ignorance was going to lead to bad outcomes, and how mass surveillance of the internet was likely coming.

A few days later, I pointed to a satirical piece on a now defunct website, entitled: “Why the Bombings Mean That We Must Support My Politics,” which can be found here in the Internet Archive. It does a great job of showing how basically everyone saw the attack as a chance to push forward their own existing political views:

Many people will use this terrible tragedy as an excuse to put through a political agenda other than my own. This tawdry abuse of human suffering for political gain sickens me to the core of my being. Those people who have different political views from me ought to be ashamed of themselves for thinking of cheap partisan point-scoring at a time like this. In any case, what this tragedy really shows us is that, so far from putting into practice political views other than my own, it is precisely my political agenda which ought to be advanced.

Not only are my political views vindicated by this terrible tragedy, but also the status of my profession. Furthermore, it is only in the context of a national and international tragedy like this that we are reminded of the very special status of my hobby, and its particular claim to legislative protection. My religious and spiritual views also have much to teach us about the appropriate reaction to these truly terrible events.

That satirical take turned out to have been pretty prescient, right? The politics that won out almost immediately was the pure politics of fear from power-hungry politicians, many of whom squeezed 9/11 for every political desire they had already wished for regarding surveillance, control, and expanded governmental powers. They had plans ready to go in a drawer, and pointed to 9/11 as the reason they had to be enacted. And quick. And much of that is still with us, leading to a much greater cynicism and distrust in government.

That alone helped the grievance politics of MAGA succeed — though, as I’ll get to below, the Mamdani administration in NYC is demonstrating something that’s been sorely lacking for years: a politics that doesn’t need you to be afraid of anything and is built on real love for the place and its inhabitants.

Still, it was obvious from the day it happened that the attacks were going to set in motion a bunch of horrible ideas from the political class. The always thoughtful Radley Balko has a piece in the NY Times looking back at the past 25 years, and noting that almost every prediction made by those warning about how the political reaction would erode our civil liberties turned out to be true.

Civil libertarians questioned these new powers’ connection to the 2001 attacks. Some provisions had long been on the wish lists of federal law enforcement agencies, and it was not clear that the new powers would have prevented the attacks. They also cautioned that if history was any indication, the government would use the new powers primarily for routine law enforcement. They urged Americans to imagine those powers in the hands not of an altruistic and conscientious president, but one with little respect for norms, institutions or democratic principles.

The civil libertarians were mostly ignored, and as one new threat followed another — Iraq, ISIS, “lone wolves” — the president’s reach continued to grow. Across the Bush and Obama administrations, the commander in chief was given, or simply took, new powers to prosecute, shut down and seize the assets of alleged terrorist groups and their supporters. With the arrival of armed drones, the president assumed the right to remotely assassinate anyone, anywhere outside U.S. borders, at any time, including American citizens.

And, as he notes, we’ve arrived at the worst-case scenario: a president handed every one of those powers by a frightened nation, abusing them at every opportunity. Many of us who warned about the PATRIOT Act and the surveillance apparatus it made possible were dismissed and ignored. When we pushed back on centralized monitor and control points of the internet, the “adults in charge” mocked us as “internet shut-ins.” But, as Balko points out, the internet shut-ins had a point. As he says, “welcome to the worst-case scenario” that lots of us were, in fact, worried about.

The piece is long and thorough, and we’re only scratching the surface here. But Balko draws a straight line from the entirely predictable overreaction of September 2001 to today: the media and the political class sold a narrative of fear, Congress handed over a sweeping set of powers without even the slightest concern for potential risks, and those powers have since curdled into one abuse after another.

If the ratcheting diminishment of our liberties came slowly and sometimes without much outcry under Presidents Bush, Obama and Joe Biden, the consequences of all those years of expanded presidential power are plainly visible now. Mr. Trump is using every authority we have given the president since Sept. 11, 2001, and some we haven’t, in ways the civil libertarians had tried to warn us about at the start.

Mr. Trump has used the president’s post-9/11 “national emergency” loopholes more than any other president. He claimed the country faced an emergency caused by crime to justify sending National Guard troops to Washington, and he used a 1903 law concerning “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion” to deploy them to Chicago, Portland, Ore., and Los Angeles. (He also sent active-duty Marines to Los Angeles.) It was the first time since the civil rights era that a president had sent troops over the objections of a state governor. When Mr. Trump tried to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants to a notoriously inhumane prison in El Salvador, a federal judge asked for information about deportation flights and Mr. Trump invoked the State Secrets Privilege.

Mr. Trump has tried to categorize leftist activists, as well as advocacy and funding groups, as terrorism supporters in an effort to use antiterror tools to shut them down, despite no evidence that those groups have any ties to terrorism. The administration has called Americans protesting against the deployment of militarized ICE officers “domestic terrorists.” It has claimed that activities protected by the First Amendment, including criticizing, naming and recording ICE officers, are acts of terrorism.

Mr. Trump and his team are taking full advantage of the immunity granted by the courts. The administration’s summary executions of suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean have been denounced by legal scholars as illegal under both domestic and international law, and as likely crimes against humanity. The strikes have not only continued; the administration celebrates them. Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, according to multiple reports, has openly encouraged immigration officers to use more violence and force more confrontation with protesters while regularly reminding them of their “immunity,” even after the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. After Ms. Good’s death the “border czar,” Tom Homan, went on Fox News to warn that “there’s still gonna be more bloodshed” unless ICE critics “shut their mouth,” a threat that’s likely a First Amendment violation in and of itself.

These are the abuses of post-9/11 powers we know about; there are almost certainly more that we don’t. The expanded surveillance authorities have such restrictive rules for disclosure that only a handful of people will know if they are being deployed against Americans. Mr. Trump’s handpicked prosecutors are going after the kinds of leaks that helped reveal abuses in prior administrations, which means more disclosure today is even less likely. And under Mr. Trump, the intelligence agencies have at times abandoned the post-Watergate practice of telling Congress what secret powers they are using.

The whole thing is worth reading, and it’s a good reminder of why we’ve spent so much of the last two and a half decades calling out these issues, and warning about further government control and intrusion into platforms and attacks on our privacy. It’s why we were concerned about draconian command-and-control copyright laws fifteen years ago just as much as we’re concerned about age verification laws today.

They’re all tools for control and surveillance, built to shrink what the public can do and expand what the government can get away with. And every single one of them was sold to the American public based on fear.

But there’s an important thing to understand about a ratchet built entirely out of fear: it only turns as long as people stay afraid. Which brings me back around to New York City. This past week there has been an entirely ridiculous and fabricated culture war-driven dispute regarding whether or not NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani should attend NYC’s commemorations of 9/11. There is no fathomable reason for him not to attend other than rank ignorance and bigotry against him for being Muslim.

For all the fuss and fear — much of it driven by a former NYC mayor who spent many years (including while mayor) leading by spreading fear across the city — the whole spectacle is the post-9/11 playbook running one more time, just scaled down: declare an out-group, never quite say that they did wrong, and insist that “they” are inherently opposed to “us.”

But also, Mamdani is running a fundamentally different kind of politics than the one 9/11 left us with. He has quite high approval ratings, in part because he is governing from a position of love for New York City and all its residents and visitors, rather than one of fear. This is what we saw during his campaign, when he did things like run a massive, fun, and educational scavenger hunt across NYC. But campaigning like that is one thing; carrying it into an actual administration is quite another — and somehow he’s done it.

Over and over again Mamdani has focused on what’s amazing about NYC and the ways he can and is improving it on a daily basis, from the little things to the big things. After years and years of expecting politicians to try to scare you into supporting them with “only I can protect you” rhetoric, it’s astounding to be reminded of what politics of love and community can actually be like. Sometimes it looks like this:

Parents, what would you do with four hours of child-free time?
We launched a Parents’ Night Out program with NYC Parks to give NYC parents a little time back for themselves, because we’re committed to making it easier to raise a family in the greatest city in the world.

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@mayor.nyc.gov) 2026-08-19T16:27:02.142Z

Or this:

People come to New York City from all over the world to experience Broadway. The kids who grow up here should be able to do the same.We’re partnering with TDF to give away over 2,000 free Broadway tickets to NYC High School students at on.nyc.gov/broadway. Break a leg, high schoolers!

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@mayor.nyc.gov) 2026-08-13T14:52:53.743Z

You can argue Mamdani is a once-in-a-generation political talent, and that what works for him won’t work for everyone. Fine. But plenty of what he’s doing is entirely replicable, and the rest of the political class should be taking notes. He clearly loves New York City and the people there, and still believes in ways to make it better, not through fearmongering and hate, but through putting in the hard work of actually listening to people and helping them with real problems. It’s also a reminder of what good government can look like.

Twenty-five years ago this morning, I had two fears: what had just happened in NY and DC, and what the world was going to do about it. The second one was the one that stuck. Over the past twenty-five years, that fear has helped write dangerous laws, many of which are still on the books, and drive more and more division in our society. And where we’re at now is that a uniquely dangerous president has all those tools at his disposal, and is using them to anger and divide us further.

NYC’s mayor can’t repeal those laws. He can’t stop a president hell-bent on rancid politics of hate and fear. But that ratchet only ever turned because enough Americans were scared enough to let it, and because no one was offering them anything else as an alternative. This week, in the very city that was the primary target that morning, the guy running the city isn’t telling anyone to be afraid of anything. He’s showing up, doing the work, and reminding us of what’s good.

Twenty-five years is a long time to be told that’s naive.

May the next twenty-five years be more the politics of community building and hope, over the politics of fear and division.

Many are rooting for vocal critic Catherine Connolly to let rip in Dublin meeting, but others hope she holds back

Catherine Connolly, Ireland’s president, once said she abhorred Donald Trump’s policies. In his sole previous comment on Connolly, the US president seemed to think she was a man. Now that they are about to meet, Ireland is holding its breath.

Trump is to fly into Dublin on Saturday morning for a two-day visit centred on golf. But before making it to his beloved greens, protocol obliges him to meet a woman who has given every impression of loathing him.

The reluctance of later administrations to repudiate Bush-era torture and endless detention laid the groundwork for recent violence

If George W Bush’s abusive response to the September 11 attacks had been prosecuted rather than swept under the rug, Donald Trump would be less able to pursue his lawless policies. We can’t rewind history, but we can learn from our historic failure.

Twenty-five years ago, on a clear and crisp morning, I was sitting in the Human Rights Watch office in the Empire State Building with an unobstructed view of the World Trade Center towers as al-Qaida operatives flew two commercial jets into them. The horror of the attack required a response, but Bush and his vice-president, Dick Cheney, chose to react by throwing out the rulebook. They deployed torture and endless detention without trial in Guantánamo.

The US president is ever more wayward – and has little interest in defending Europe. The constitution may hold him to account, but we can’t wait

If Americans vote for a Republican majority in both houses of Congress in November, “I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.” But they must not spend it in Canada or China or anywhere else outside the US. So said Donald Trump in Texas on Wednesday in advance of the forthcoming midterm elections. He further told voters to “Pretend that I’m on the ballot”. It was a climactic moment in an almost two-hour rant.

Trump does not have the required trillion dollars in his pocket, and it would be illegal to disperse such a sum without congressional approval. In any case, JD Vance now appears to have rowed back on the promise.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Donald Trump has thrown a convention to amp up the Republican base ahead of the midterm elections, but not everyone is thrilled about it. Dozens of officials running for re-election have stayed away, choosing instead to campaign locally. Are they worried about Trump’s current unpopularity weighing down their ticket?

The president’s chaotic schemes of aggrandizement, from Venezuela to Iran, have no larger rationale

Trumpism is the lowest stage of imperialism. “We’re not going to invade Greenland. We’re going to buy it,” Donald Trump reportedly told the annual black-tie dinner on 1 February of the private Alfalfa Club, an assemblage of prominent Washington figures, a number of whom he had publicly humiliated, and others he was investigating or suing. “It’s never been my intention to make Greenland the 51st state. I want to make Canada the 51st state. Greenland will be the 52nd state. Venezuela can be 53rd.” The room greeted several of his remarks with dead silence. His cosplay as the Pirate King was not received as a good-humored takeoff from a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. He went on. “So many people in the room I hate,” he said in a display of honesty. “Most of you I like,” he claimed. Then, at his peak euphoria, he flew off to Mar-a-Lago to plan his attack on Iran, which took place 27 days later.

Trump’s imperialism of piracy and plunder is less of a system even than that of the earliest imperialism of 17th-century privateers raiding the Spanish Main, the divine right of kings, and monarchs dividing up the spoils as favors to create their lords and earls. His schemes of aggrandizement operating by threat and force are justified by no larger rationale, nothing as exalted as “the white man’s burden”, marauding wherever and however he can to seize resources.

As ABC first reported, Joe DiGenova quit his job yesterday as the chief enforcer of Trump’s grievances.

Joe diGenova submitted his resignation to Attorney General Todd Blanche amid what sources described as growing frustrations from Trump and senior DOJ officials regarding his work on the so-called “grand conspiracy” investigation based out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida.

NYPost had the most detailed explanation of the departure: People at DOJ claimed he was slow-rolling his task, and had sidelined people Main DOJ sent down to help — though DiGenova has tried to claim his “no evidence” comment was taken (by the NYPost!) out of context.

Sources said diGenova had lost support from Department of Justice leaders and the White House amid his “grand conspiracy” investigation, with one source suggesting that the 81-year-old prosecutor and former Trump defense lawyer was “slow-rolling” indictments and getting lost down “rabbit holes.”

Asked whether he had lost focus, diGenova dismissed the accusation and shot back: “If you want indictments where there’s no evidence, you have an ethical problem.”

Another source added that the diGenova had been sharing “unrealistic expectations” for the probe with the president about what was possible and not possible, leading to a confrontation with Attorney General Todd Blanche.

John Solomon, who has been laundering false claims for use in this conspiracy theory, insists the investigation is still ongoing, with what he calls “Senior DOJ prosecutors” still working on it.

With a tiny handful of exceptions, there are no senior prosecutors left at DOJ. There are mediocre lawyers who’ve been promoted for the fealty and willingness to commit crimes in the service of Trump’s demands.

The move came a week after Aakash Singh — who played a key role in Todd Blanche’s most egregious abuses and who has made stupid demands about the timing of other investigative steps — was promoted to Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General.

The Justice Department promoted Aakash Singh, an aide responsible for the aggressive overhaul of US attorneys’ offices to meet Trump priorities, to a top leadership role, said two people familiar with the move.

Singh, 34, is now principal associate deputy attorney general, overseeing operations at DOJ field offices and the litigating divisions within department headquarters.

Singh, in his prior role as associate DAG, became known for a brash style during signature weekly meetings in which he once directed leaders of all 93 US attorneys offices that President Donald Trump is their “chief client.”

Attorney General Todd Blanche, in one of his first major personnel changes since being sworn in last month, is now handing Singh a more sprawling portfolio. Past PADAGs, including Trump’s initial pick in this administration, Emil Bove, have wielded significant law enforcement power behind the scenes by applying tough tactics — at times making unpopular decisions affecting the career workforce.

Thus far, Singh has always found some lackey to do his dirty work for him, with increasing effects on those lackey’s ethical profile. Curiously, Mike Davis, the powerful blowhard and Singh associate who often orders up investigative steps from Xitter, was silent about DiGenova’s departure.

We’ll soon see whether Singh finds another lackey to destroy their legal career in service of Trump’s grievances.

The post Time Runs Out on the Grandest Conspirator appeared first on emptywheel.

The president demonised Democrats in an attempt to wangle votes in midterms despite backlash over Iran war

With his approval rating at a historic low, Donald Trump has brought down the curtain on the Republicans’ first ever midterm convention by pleading with supporters to do him “the biggest favour” and “pretend” they are voting for him in November’s US elections.

The president is facing a growing backlash over rising prices and the war in Iran. Sweeping losses for the Republican party could effectively turn Trump into a lame duck for his final two years in the White House.

Donald Trump has thrown a convention to amp up the Republican base ahead of the midterm elections, but not everyone is thrilled about it. Dozens of officials running for re-election have stayed away, choosing instead to campaign locally. Are they worried about Trump’s current unpopularity weighing down their ticket?

This week Jenna Amatulli is in for Jonathan Freedland and speaks to Guardian US politics correspondent Rachel Leingang

Watch Jonathan Freedland on our new Politics Weekly YouTube channel

Send your questions and feedback to politicsweeklyamerica@theguardian.com

Subscribe to The Guardian Investigates podcast and listen to season 2 of Black Box

Vice-president dog-whistled, exaggerated claims of success and echoed Trump talking points to excited audience

JD Vance made a clear pitch that he should be the heir to Donald Trump on Thursday night, closing out the Republicans’ midterm convention with a blistering speech that featured exaggerated claims of success, criticism of Democrats as “lunatics” and an aggressive dismissal of a protester waving a Mexican flag.

Speaking in Dallas, the vice-president showed he could channel the basest instincts of his boss, filling his remarks with dog whistles and echoing Trump’s false claims that Democrats “cheered” the 7 October massacre of Israelis.

Today’s Report

1. Overview

2. White House News

3. Truth Social Posts

4. Government Department News

5. Selected Democratic Officials

6. AI & Tech Company News

7. Congressional Watch

1. Overview

The White House announced that President Donald J. Trump signed S. 858, the “Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act,” into law on September 10, 2026. President Trump also proposed a $5,000 cash payment for every adult American citizen, which the White House stated is conditioned on Republicans winning control of the House and Senate. Additionally, the White House announced that the federal government will issue $500 refunds to nearly 1 million Americans, an action the White House describes as addressing “Obamacare overcharges” from the Biden Administration.

On Truth Social, President Donald J. Trump described the Republican Midterm Convention as a “major, sold out hit” and asserted that it achieved “really big numbers.” Trump also noted that the Supreme Court sided with Republicans regarding broadcast ad rates and praised a response given by Jared Kushner to a reporter.

The State Department announced the launch of Operation Economic Outcast, an effort to target the financial networks of Kata’ib Hizballah and Hizballah, and the Space Catalyst Partnership to foster international commercial space cooperation. The Department of War announced multiple contract awards, including $989,996,050 to Ernst & Young LLP for audit services, and stated the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial will be closed on September 11, 2026. The Department of Health and Human Services awarded nearly $25 million to 132 small rural hospitals, while the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned individuals and entities supporting the aforementioned terrorist proxies.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation to regulate companion chatbots and ban addictive social media features for users under 16, receiving support from Hillary Rodham Clinton and various state lawmakers. Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Governor Andy Beshear ordered flags to half-staff to honor Patriot Day on September 11, 2026. Governor Beshear also announced a $1 billion investment from Ford Motor Co. at the Kentucky Truck Plant and bridge construction updates for Louisville. Governor JB Pritzker announced over $26 million for the Illinois Grocery Initiative, and Governor Tim Walz announced the Blatnik Bridge replacement project and several state appointments. Senator Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock announced $500 million in federal funding for Georgia water infrastructure, and Senator Ossoff cosponsored the Homegrown Fertilizer Act.

OpenAI and the U.S. General Services Administration announced an agreement providing government employees with discounted access to OpenAI tools. Anthropic’s Threat Intelligence team published a report detailing how it disrupted threat actors utilizing Claude for malicious activities. Palantir and Method Security announced “The Cardinal Program” to integrate autonomous cyber systems, and Palantir and NVIDIA announced a collaboration to create an AI stack for supply chain operations.

No Congressional Record was available for September 9, 2026.

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2. White House News

S. 858 Signed into Law

On September 10, 2026, the President signed S. 858, the “Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act,” into law. According to the White House, this measure “authorizes the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation to establish a commemorative work on the National Mall” to celebrate the “extraordinary acts of valor, selfless service, and sacrifice” of Medal of Honor recipients.

Reference: Original White House release

Trump Dividend: America Is Winning — and Americans Should Win With It

President Donald J. Trump announced the “Trump Dividend,” a proposed $5,000 cash payment for every adult American citizen. The White House stated this is “possible by the strength of the American economy under his leadership.” President Trump conditioned this proposal on Republicans winning control of the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, asserting, “only I can make this promise to you.” The White House claimed the announcement proves President Trump “delivers for the American people” and cautioned that “Democrat control means America loses.”

Reference: Original White House release

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Announces the Working Families Obamacare Refunds

President Donald J. Trump announced that the federal government will issue $500 refunds to nearly 1 million Americans across 30 states to address what the White House describes as “Obamacare overcharges” collected by the Biden Administration. The White House states these actions refund individuals “most exposed to the higher costs imposed by the Biden Administration’s gross mismanagement of Obamacare.” Additionally, the White House claims President Trump is “delivering on promises to lower costs for American patients” by challenging health insurance companies and corporate entities.

Reference: Original White House release

3. Truth Social Posts

Trump described the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas as a “major, sold out hit” that was “far bigger, better, and more important than anyone thought possible.” He asserted that the event achieved “really big numbers,” which he claimed beat the NFL, and noted that the arena broke its own attendance records with a “packed” house and thousands of people remaining outside to watch on screens. Trump stated that the convention featured a “packed house” last night, and he announced plans to attend again tonight to “close out the show” regarding what he characterized as “Exciting Stuff!”

Regarding legal and media matters, Trump shared a report noting that the Supreme Court sided with Republicans in a dispute concerning broadcast ad rates. Additionally, he praised a “Classic answer by Jared” given in response to what Trump described as a “hostile, Trump Deranged Reporter.”

Reference: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump

4. Government Department News

State Department (state.gov)

U.S. Takes Action Against Iran’s Terrorist Proxies

The United States launched Operation Economic Outcast to target Kata’ib Hizballah, Hizballah, and their financial networks. According to the State Department, these groups serve as “Tehran’s instruments for projecting violence and subversion” globally. The action, taken under Executive Orders 13224 and 13902, aims to disrupt IRGC-QF efforts to fund terrorism and evade sanctions. Officials state these measures support a stable Iraq and protect Lebanese institutions from Hizballah’s financial interference, as the U.S. continues working to isolate the regime from its financial lifelines.

Launch of the Space Catalyst Partnership to Secure American Commercial Space Superiority

Launched in Lima, Peru, the Space Catalyst Partnership (SCP) is the State Department’s initiative to foster civil and commercial space cooperation with Artemis Accords signatories. The program utilizes diplomatic outreach, industry engagement, and foreign assistance to integrate U.S. space technology into partner economies. A $6.5 million rural connectivity project in Peru serves as an initial pilot. The Department intends for the SCP to help American firms compete globally while assisting partner nations in developing space industries and scientific capabilities.

Department of War (war.gov)

National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Temporary Closure

The National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial will be closed to the public from 3 a.m. to 12 p.m. EDT on September 11, 2026, to support the 25th Anniversary 9/11 Observance Ceremony. The closure excludes survivors and victim’s families, who are encouraged to contact the Pentagon Special Events Office regarding visits during this period.

Contracts for Sept. 10, 2026

The Department of War announced multiple contract awards, including $989,996,050 to Ernst & Young LLP for audit services; $480,365,950 to Accenture Federal Services for a task management system; $223,577,265 to Harper Construction Co. Inc. for a depot maintenance facility; $49,997,842 to Charles Reed Knight Jr. for sniper systems; $22,755,475 to Manson Construction Co. for dredging; $15,500,977 to American Ordnance LLC for facility equipment; and $9,612,429 to HGL-APTIM Technologies JV LLC for remedial action. A correction was issued for a September 4, 2026, Griffon Aerospace Inc. contract awarded September 8.

Department of Health and Human Services (hhs.gov)

HHS Awards Nearly $25 Million to Strengthen Small Rural Hospitals and Preserve Access to Care

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), awarded nearly $25 million to 132 small rural hospitals across 13 states. According to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the funding aims to help hospitals “keep doctors and nurses on the job, protect lifesaving services, and deliver care close to home.” The program seeks to mitigate financial challenges and reduce the risk of hospital closures, ensuring rural communities maintain access to emergency and inpatient services.

Treasury Department (home.treasury.gov)

Operation Economic Outcast Strikes Iran’s Global Terrorist Proxy Network

On September 10, 2026, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned entities and individuals supporting Kata’ib Hizballah and Hizballah. OFAC also initiated an enforcement action against an individual for providing services to Iranian companies and updated its Iran Statement of Licensing Policy to a presumption of denial. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent stated, “Operation Economic Outcast is targeting those who continue to stand with the failing Iranian regime,” adding that the department aims to “dismantle the networks keeping the regime afloat.”

5. Selected Democratic Officials

Gavin Newsom (gov.ca.gov)

National leaders and lawmakers celebrate Governor Newsom’s signature on landmark child safety chatbot and social media laws

Governor Newsom signed legislation regarding chatbot and social media regulations. Hillary Rodham Clinton stated, “I’m glad to see California take steps to protect children from the harms of social media and chatbots.” Lawmakers including Assemblymembers Bauer-Kahan, Lowenthal, Wicks, Addis, Hoover, Irwin, and Senators Padilla, Rubio, and Stern expressed support for the bills, citing goals to protect children from online exploitation, data privacy risks, and addictive design features, while establishing safety models for other states.

Governor Newsom announces appointments 9.10.26

Governor Newsom appointed Melinda Grant as Undersecretary, Tad Egawa as Deputy Secretary and General Counsel, Nicole Hisatomi as Deputy Secretary of Legislation, and Claire Cullis as Deputy Secretary at the California Business and Consumer Services Agency. These positions do not require Senate confirmation. Grant’s compensation is $224,940, Egawa’s is $228,984, and Hisatomi’s is $174,948. The appointees are Democrats with professional backgrounds in state government, legal counsel, and policy consulting.

Governor Newsom signs the strongest child safety chatbot and social media laws in the nation

Governor Newsom signed legislation to regulate companion chatbots, ban addictive social media features for users under 16, and expand privacy protections. “Adam’s Law” mandates crisis protocols and safety audits for chatbots. The legislation also expands definitions of child sexual exploitation to include AI-generated content. Governor Newsom stated, “California will not stand by while unregulated technology puts our children at risk.” First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom added, “safety must not be an afterthought – but baked into design and a necessary requisite for all innovation.”

Gretchen Whitmer (michigan.gov)

Gov. Whitmer Lowers Flags to Honor Patriot Day

Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered U.S. and Michigan flags to be lowered to half-staff on September 11, 2026, to honor those who died and responded to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Governor Whitmer encouraged Michiganders to observe a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. and participate in community service. Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II stated, “Today, I encourage all Michiganders to stand together, give back to their communities, and honor the heroes who sacrificed their lives for others.” Flags are to return to full staff on September 12.

Andy Beshear (governor.ky.gov)

Gov. Beshear Orders Flags to Half-Staff for Patriot Day

Gov. Beshear ordered flags at all state office buildings to be lowered to half-staff on Friday, September 11, 2026. The action commemorates Patriot Day and honors those lost in the 9/11 terrorist attacks 25 years ago. The Governor encouraged businesses, individuals, and organizations throughout the commonwealth to participate in the tribute.

Gov. Beshear: I-65 Construction Updated To Support Louisville Residents, Traffic Flow

Gov. Beshear and Secretary Rebecca Goodman joined Mayor Craig Greenberg to announce updates to the I-65 Central Corridor project. Nine bridges are being upgraded, with the first three expected to be completed in March 2027. Work on the remaining six bridges will involve local detours, while maintaining one lane in each direction downtown. Gov. Beshear stated the work is intended to ensure “safer travel for our families” and support residents. Through truck traffic remains diverted to I-264 to manage congestion.

Gov. Beshear: Ford Motor Co. Reaffirms Commitment to Kentucky With $1 Billion Investment at Kentucky Truck Plant

Ford Motor Co. plans to invest $1 billion to build a new paint shop at its Kentucky Truck Plant, with groundbreaking expected by the end of 2026. Gov. Beshear stated the announcement “highlights Ford’s longstanding commitment to our state and to our workforce.” Ford CEO Jim Farley said the investment demonstrates “confidence in Kentucky’s workforce.” The project follows Ford’s previous $2 billion investments in the Louisville Assembly Plant and Ford Energy Systems in Glendale.

JB Pritzker (gov.illinois.gov)

Gov. Pritzker Announces $26 Million for Illinois Grocery Initiative Grant Program

Governor JB Pritzker and the DCEO announced over $26 million for the Illinois Grocery Initiative. This includes $20.8 million for the New Stores program, $750,000 for Equipment Upgrades, and $4.5 million for a new Grocery Rescue Program to reopen stores closed within the past year. Governor Pritzker stated local grocery stores are the “backbone of communities,” while Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton described the grants as “innovative solutions to combatting food deserts.” Applications are open through a competitive process.

Daily Public Schedule: Thursday, September 10, 2026

Governor Pritzker has no public events scheduled for Thursday, September 10, 2026.

Tim Walz (mn.gov)

Governor Walz Orders Flags at Half-Staff in Honor of September 11

Governor Tim Walz proclaimed Friday, September 11, 2026, as Patriot Day. He ordered all United States and Minnesota flags at state buildings to fly at half-staff from sunrise to sundown to honor the victims and events of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Commission on Judicial Selection Recommends Candidates for Fifth Judicial District

The Commission on Judicial Selection announced it is recommending five candidates to fill vacancies within Minnesota’s Fifth Judicial District.

Governor Walz Celebrates First Day of 2026-2027 School Year

Governor Tim Walz visited elementary schools in Northfield and Coon Rapids to mark the start of the 2026-2027 school year. During the visits, he greeted students and participated in meal service. The Office of the Governor stated that families are saving $1,000 per student annually due to the Free School Meals program.

Minnesota Reaches Milestone in Free School Meals Program

Governor Tim Walz announced that the state’s School Meals Program has served more than 150 million free meals in its third year. This brings the total number of meals served since the program’s inception to nearly 450 million.

Governor Walz Appoints John Bowen to the Minnesota Court of Appeals

Governor Tim Walz announced the appointment of John Bowen to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Governor Walz Breaks Ground on Blatnik Bridge Replacement

Governor Tim Walz, alongside Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, federal partners, and labor leaders, broke ground on the $1.8 billion Blatnik Bridge replacement project. The Office of the Governor described the initiative as “one of the largest public works projects in state history.”

Office of the Governor Announces Appointments

The Office of the Governor announced a series of appointments on August 28, 2026.

Minnesota Credit Rating Affirmed at AAA

Governor Tim Walz announced that Moody’s Investors Service, S&P Global Ratings, and FitchRatings have affirmed Minnesota’s AAA credit rating and stable outlook. According to the Governor, this represents the “highest possible mark” from these agencies.

Governor Walz Orders Flags at Half-Staff in Honor of Dolly Parton

In accordance with a proclamation by President Donald Trump, Governor Tim Walz ordered United States and Minnesota flags at state buildings to fly at half-staff. This order was effective immediately until sunrise on September 1, 2026, in honor and remembrance of Dolly Parton.

Governor Walz Appoints District Court Judges to Second Judicial District

Governor Tim Walz announced the appointment of Wesley Abrahamson and Devona Wells to serve as District Court Judges in Minnesota’s Second Judicial District.

Jon Ossoff (ossoff.senate.gov)

Sens. Ossoff, Rev. Warnock Delivering Nearly $500 Million to Improve Water Infrastructure Damaged by Hurricane Helene

Senators Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock announced $500 million in federal funding to upgrade Georgia’s water infrastructure following Hurricane Helene. The package includes approximately $360 million for drinking water and $125 million for wastewater projects, sourced from a December 2024 bipartisan disaster relief measure. The Georgia Environmental Finance Authority will oversee distribution. Sen. Ossoff described the funding as a means to “improve Georgia’s water infrastructure,” while Sen. Warnock stated the storm served as a “wake-up call” regarding the state’s readiness for extreme weather.

Sen. Ossoff Working Across the Aisle to Lower Fertilizer Costs for Georgia Farmers

Senator Jon Ossoff has cosponsored the bipartisan Homegrown Fertilizer Act to incentivize domestic fertilizer production through USDA grants and loans. Sen. Ossoff stated that “input costs are soaring for Georgia farmers” due to the “Trump Administration’s war in Iran” and noted he is working to “strengthen critical supply chains.” The legislation aims to address challenges faced by farmers struggling with high fertilizer prices and low crop margins. Sen. Ossoff continues to advocate for agricultural support, including tax relief and resources for growers impacted by Hurricane Helene.

6. AI & Tech Company News

OpenAI (openai.com)

Expanding AI access and cyber defense for federal, state, local, and tribal governments

OpenAI and the U.S. General Services Administration have announced a multi-year agreement providing U.S. federal, state, local, and tribal government employees with free license fees and 50% off usage for OpenAI tools, including GPT-6 Astra. The initiative expands eligibility to approximately 23 million public-sector workers. Additionally, verified government cyber defenders can access “Daybreak Blue” at a 50% discount and request “Daybreak Red” for vulnerability research. OpenAI states the goal is to make government services “faster, easier, safer, and more reliable.”

Anthropic (anthropic.com)

Detecting and countering misuse of AI: September 2026

Anthropic’s Threat Intelligence team reported disrupting operations between December 2025 and August 2026 where threat actors used Claude for malicious activity, including cyber operations, influence campaigns, and fraud. The company states it shares these findings to help “strengthen collective defenses.” Anthropic notes that AI has “collapsed the labor and tooling gap,” allowing smaller operators to conduct sophisticated campaigns. While Claude Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus models were involved in these cases, Anthropic reports that no misuse involved Claude Fable or Mythos-class models, except for one instance.

Palantir (palantir.com)

Method Security and Palantir Announce The Cardinal Program

Method Security and Palantir have announced The Cardinal Program, an initiative designed to integrate Method’s autonomous cyber systems into Palantir’s Ontology for Cybersecurity.

NVIDIA and Palantir Bring Sovereign Intelligence to Critical Supply Chains

Palantir and NVIDIA announced a collaboration to create an AI stack for complex supply chains by combining Palantir’s Foundry and Artificial Intelligence Platform with NVIDIA’s Nemotron open models. The system aims to provide visibility and orchestration for supply chain operations while maintaining data ownership. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated, “NVIDIA and Palantir are transforming this vast operational graph into sovereign intelligence.” Palantir CEO Alex Karp noted the stack delivers “capabilities that exceed the frontier while providing alpha protection qualities unavailable otherwise.”

7. Congressional Watch

Covers the 2026-09-09 session — the Congressional Record is published with a one-day delay.

No Congressional Record found for 2026-09-09.

Pick your favorite zombie movie or television show and you’ll eventually be confronted with dialogue justifying the killing of the zombies with the idea that they are no longer human.

“They aren’t people, Rick. They’re just bodies. We have to stop thinking of them as if they’re still alive.” – The Walking Dead

“They’re not human. Look at them. They’re just… meat.” – Shaun of the Dead

The point is that there should be no ill feelings towards the treatment of a zombie, because they aren’t like us any more. They aren’t worthy of compassion. They deserve no quarter, only violence. They are a threat to our very survival and doing away with them, or at least keeping them away from where humanity exists, is the only solution.

Or, if you’re the Trump administration, you use this same justification as a bank-shot for immigration policy by hosting a Tetris clone game on the White House website.

The White House’s “Build the Wall” game asked players to stop a “Zombie Border siege” by stacking Tetris-styled bricks in an attempt to “hold the line.” Unlike in Tetris, though, the blocks in “Build the Wall” don’t disappear when you complete a line, meaning each brick contributes to an impassable barrier for the pixel-art “zombies” marching in from the “Southern Border.” That change makes the gameplay pretty uninteresting for anything but cheap propaganda, and it also means that every game quickly and ironically ends with a “Border Breached” message when the blocks inevitably fill up the well.

Amerika Garcia Grewal, co-director of Texas migrant rights group Frontera Federation, told AFP last week that the makers of the game “have lost touch with what it means to be human and care for others.”

The game is now thankfully gone from the site, though several other obvious game clones remain. This is not new ground for this administration, of course. Team Trump has made a habit when campaigning and while in office of using video game imagery for all kinds of things, such as touting MAHA nonsense, shitposting about the horrors of its own immigration activity, or bragging about the body count of the wars Trump promised he’d never start.

So, why did the game get taken down? Did someone in the administration realize how horrible and racist the whole thing was? Did Trump himself suddenly suffer from a spasm of moral clarity?

Doubtful. More likely it was this.

In a statement on Friday, a spokesperson for The Tetris Company said it was “reviewing the matter” and that the company “was not involved in the creation of ‘Build the Wall’ and did not authorize or license the Tetris brand or intellectual property for the game.” The company reiterated that message in a social media post Friday afternoon, writing that it “believe[s] in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them.”

Now, I’m not going to sit here and cheer on the enforcement of our overly broad copyright system. But I sure as hell understand why the Tetris people don’t want there to be even the barest chance for them and their game to be associated with something as disgusting as Trump’s Build The Wall “game.” And ArsTechnica is right to note that the Tetris Company has a long history of being very protective of its intellectual property rights, which government lawyers almost certainly are aware of.

Whether taking the game down will be enough to keep the Tetris Company from acting, I do not know. What I do know is that this administration is filled with deeply unserious, racist, and troubled people. Immigrants, illegal or otherwise, are not zombies. They shouldn’t be compared with zombies. Whatever immigration policy you prefer, they are people.

And that really shouldn’t have to be said out loud.

Joe diGenova led investigation focused on intelligence assessment that Russia interfered in 2016 election

A longtime ally of Donald Trump resigned from his post leading a Department of Justice investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against the Republican president.

“Sometimes people want things done faster and that’s all you can do,” Joe diGenova told the Guardian on Thursday. He appeared to be referring to concerns among other Trump loyalists that the president’s retribution cases were not moving quickly enough.

In a nearly two-hour speech at the first Republican midterm convention, President Donald Trump promised to pay Americans if Republicans won, and he repeatedly said communists could take over Congress if they didn’t, among other familiar claims.

• Trump said every adult citizen would get a “dividend” of $5,000 if Republicans won the House and Senate. He suggested his tariff policies would pay for that, but it would take more than six years for tariffs to cover the $1.2 trillion price tag.

• Democratic socialists are not the same as communists, despite Trump conflating the two and warning that Congress could be “controlled by a communist caucus.” Democratic socialists make up a small minority of congressional candidates.

• The president repeated the unsupported claim that an unprecedented $20 trillion has been invested in the U.S. from “outside countries and companies.” Trump’s number is nearly double the figure provided by the White House, whose number is itself speculative and dubious.

• He made false and misleading claims about the One Big Beautiful Bill’s tax reduction. It wasn’t the “largest” tax cut in history. Trump said Democrats voted against no taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security, but the lawmakers’ opposition stemmed from the tax cuts for the wealthy and reductions in Medicaid spending to pay for the legislation.

• Trump twisted the facts in order to indirectly blame North Carolina Senate candidate Roy Cooper for the murder of a woman on train in 2025.

• Trump boasted that more people are working than ever before “by a lot.” About 800,000 more people are working now than in January 2025, but that is largely because the population has also grown. When factoring that in, the labor market is doing slightly worse than when Trump started.

• He falsely claimed that “food prices and almost every other item are rapidly going down.” With some exceptions, prices have gone up, rising even faster than during the latter part of the Biden administration.

• The president claimed that Americans now “pay the lowest prices in the entire world for prescription drugs,” thanks to his policies. There’s no evidence that’s the case.

• Trump made several exaggerated or misleading claims related to immigration. Though the number is low, he wrongly claimed that “zero illegal aliens have entered our country from the southern border in the last 15 months.” He claimed 25 million immigrants poured into the country illegally during the Biden administration. That’s vastly inflated. And he wrongly claimed the Biden administration “allowed” in 11,888 murderers.

• He again falsely suggested that the U.S. became the world leader in oil and gas production during the current administration.

• Trump sought to link Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to a 2019 remark by left-wing commentator Hasan Piker that “America deserved 9/11.” El-Sayed has specifically disavowed those comments.

• The president claimed children “born into poverty or families with very little money … will be potentially rich when they turn 18 or 21” due to the new, so-called Trump accounts. Financial experts say it’s unlikely poor parents could contribute enough to such accounts to make that happen.

Trump gave the keynote speech on the first of the two-night convention, which he held to encourage Republican voters. “Please pretend that I’m running and get out and vote on Nov. 3 or sooner,” he said.

The president continued to push the falsehood that he “won the presidency three times,” claiming that “numerous people on the other side are actually admitting it.” Trump lost the 2020 election, and some of his own aides in his first term told him that his claims of election fraud were baseless.

Dubious ‘Dividend’ Math

Trump promised every American adult a $5,000 check if Republicans win in November, framing it as a “dividend” from his administration’s economic policies.

“Because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000” if Republicans win both the House and Senate this year, Trump said.

Trump did not say exactly how he planned to pay for that proposal, though he suggested the money would come from tariffs.

“The reason the Democrats can’t do that is because they don’t do tariffs, they don’t take in money,” he said. “All they know is poverty and how to ruin our country. But we’re making a fortune. So if the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000. It will be called the Trump dividend.”

He also said people would have to “spend the money in the United States of America,” but did not offer details about how that would be enforced.

There are around 245 million U.S. citizens over the age of 18 in the country, according to Census data. Sending each one of them a $5,000 check would cost around $1.2 trillion. 

Revenue from tariffs has certainly increased under Trump — but the levies are not bringing in “trillions of dollars,” as he claimed elsewhere in the speech.

The U.S. brought in $264 billion in net tariff revenue in 2025, up from $79 billion in 2024, according to an analysis of Treasury statements by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a D.C.-based think tank. However, that doesn’t account for refunds issued this year after the Supreme Court held that a number of Trump’s tariffs exceeded his authority. This year, factoring in money paid out in refunds for invalidated tariffs, net tariff revenue came to about $64 billion through July, according to the Treasury Department’s monthly statements.

Trump’s tariffs “are generating less than $200 billion a year,” Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and senior policy director at the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told us in an email. “It would take 6+ years of tariffs to fund one year of these checks, and then the money wouldn’t be available for deficit reduction (or to partially offset [the One Big Beautiful Bill Act]) as intended.”

Nor is there evidence of a “tremendous” economic boom filling government coffers.

“The economy has been growing around 2% a year – consistent with recent trends,” Goldwein said. “With some weak spots, the economy is strong overall – but it isn’t surging.”

A trillion-dollar payout “would almost certainly worsen inflation and lead to higher interest rates,” he added.

Similarly, Robert McClelland, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, told us the proposal would “substantially increase the federal government’s budget deficit” and likely increase inflation.

“I do not see a basis for the idea that current tariff revenue or total revenue from all sources could support this,” he said. “So far in FY 2026, the government has spent about $1.8 trillion more than it has collected.”

Trump has previously promised Americans checks that never materialized, including a $2,000 tariff “dividend” he floated last November. The “Trump dividend” proposal would likely need congressional approval, and at least some Republicans are skeptical, according to Politico. 

The proposal could also raise legal questions, as federal law outlaws offering money in exchange for votes. Some election-law experts, however, told The New York Times that Trump’s promise is probably close enough to a pledge to cut taxes or enact other economic policies that will financially benefit voters to pass muster; a 1982 Supreme Court decision considers such promises protected political speech. Democrats running in Georgia’s Senate runoff in January 2021, for example, pledged to vote for $2,000 stimulus checks. 

No ‘Communists’ Running for Congress

Trump claimed that if Democrats retake control of Congress, the federal legislature would be run by “crazed” democratic socialists, who he said are really “communists.” The president said the word communist or communism 15 times in his speech.

“In state after state, the Democrat establishment has been overthrown and replaced by crazed lunatics and radicals. They call themselves democrat socialists, but actually, they’re communists,” Trump said in his remarks. He later said, “If they win, the greatest legislative body in history will, for the first time ever, be controlled by a communist caucus.”

But democratic socialists and communists are not one and the same. And democratic socialists make up a small minority of congressional candidates.

In their remarks at the convention, Reps. Steve Scalise and Tom Emmer also raised the prospect of “communists” getting elected among democratic socialist candidates.

“Communists are figures who support the Marxist, Leninist and later Maoist models of social organization,” Matthew McManus, an assistant professor of political science at Spelman College, told us in an interview. “Typically, what that means is a dictatorial or authoritarian party that’s in control of the political apparatus of society and that organizes the economy on a command economic basis. So, everything is centralized from the state downward.”

“Democratic socialists refer to a much different ideology,” he said. “By and large, democratic socialists were committed to achieving socialism through reformism, working within the apparatus of liberal democratic states, and they also tended to be much more pluralistic in terms of the economic and social models they were willing to accept.”

McManus said in the 19th century, people, such as the famous German philosopher Karl Marx, would simultaneously refer to themselves as communists and socialists. But he said that changed in the early 20th century, when “social democrats” began to distance themselves after the Bolsheviks, under Vladimir Lenin, won power in the Soviet Union and quickly instituted an authoritarian state, horrifying Western socialists.

The modern political organization known as the Democratic Socialists of America says it advocates replacing capitalism, a free market economic system, with a system of democratic socialism in which there is collective ownership of “the key economic drivers that dominate our lives,” including energy production and transportation. “We believe that working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few,” the organization says on its website.

McManus called it a “very long-standing trope” for conservatives to refer to democratic socialists as communists. “Conservative discourse intentionally, in many cases, obscures the distinctions between liberals, social democrats, democratic socialists, communists, by trying to conflate them all together and suggest that they’re all part and parcel of the same thing,” he said.

There are few democratic socialists already in Congress, and they are also a small minority of Democratic congressional candidates. But Trump said if just 10 are elected this fall, “that’s enough to control Congress,” suggesting that a Democratic majority would have to bend to the will of those new members to implement a legislative agenda. 

In an August analysis, Brookings Institution researchers said they identified 64 DSA-endorsed congressional candidates, only 19 of whom won their Democratic primaries – with two races undecided as of Aug. 12. One DSA-endorsed candidate, Gregory Levy, a socialist running for U.S. Senate in Ohio as an independent, advanced directly to the November general election.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are two well-known DSA members already in Congress. Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont also identifies as a democratic socialist but is not a member of the DSA.

As for communists, Joe Sims, co-chair of the Communist Party USA, told PolitiFact for a July story that there are no communists in Congress and that he knows of none running for the House or Senate.

Overstated Investments

As he does in most speeches — in ever-increasing amounts — Trump claimed that since he took office, more than $20 trillion has been invested in the U.S. from “outside countries and companies.” Trump has never provided a full accounting for this claim, and the data that has been provided by the White House is far less than the figure Trump cites — and is highly speculative.

The White House has a webpage dedicated to “The Trump Effect” that purports to list “total U.S. and foreign investments” of $11.2 trillion.

Most of it is from announced investments from domestic companies, many of which have nothing to do with Trump’s policies and are routine expansion plans stretching over years or decades. Experts have warned us that many of the announcements are speculative or vague promises and may never happen.

“Unfortunately, announcements are not even commitments, much less investments,” Alan Reynolds, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, wrote in February when Trump repeated a version of the investments claim. Reynolds called the president’s boast “totally imaginary.”

A little more than half of the total on the White House webpage, $6 trillion, comes from foreign investments from eight countries and the European Union. But as Derek Scissors, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, points out, the alleged investments don’t appear to be showing up in Department of Commerce data on foreign direct investment in the U.S., which showed an increase of about $266 billion in 2025 compared with 2024. That’s nearly equivalent to the roughly $260 billion increase in President Joe Biden’s last year in office.

Consider the big-ticket foreign investment pledges listed by the White House: $1.4 trillion from the United Arab Emirates, $1.2 trillion from Qatar and $1 trillion from Japan. Those countries increased their investments in 2025 by $3.5 billion, $20 million and $26.7 billion, respectively, according to foreign direct investment data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Foreign direct investment in the U.S. jumped 50% in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the previous quarter, $92.2 billion (though it was slightly higher in the third quarter of 2023 under Biden.) But even at that higher pace, Scissors notes, “it would take until 2041 to achieve $6 trillion.”

Attack on North Carolina Senate Candidate

Trump twisted the facts in order to indirectly blame North Carolina Senate candidate Roy Cooper for the murder of Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed to death on a train in Charlotte in August 2025.

Trump claimed that as governor, Cooper “worked with anti-police radicals to release thousands and thousands of dangerous criminals and murderers all over the once safe streets and countryside of beautiful North Carolina.” That’s a reference to a court settlement to release prisoners during the COVID-19 pandemic. To describe it as “worked with” distorts the facts.

As we have written, Cooper resisted calls early in the pandemic to release prisoners to ease safety concerns. He was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union and other activists. After a judge issued a preliminary injunction in favor of the ACLU and called on the state to come up with a plan to reduce the prison population, Cooper reached a settlement to allow the release of 3,500 prisoners.

Trump went on to say that Zarutska “would be alive today if North Carolina had a different governor, because that animal [the man accused of murdering Zarutska] would’ve been in prison or worse. He wouldn’t have been let go to be on the streets and be in a train sitting right behind that beautiful young lady.”

The murder suspect, DeCarlos Brown Jr., was released from prison on Sept. 20, 2020, after serving more than five years for robbery with a dangerous weapon. Fox News reported that Brown’s inmate ID number was among those listed in the settlement record, though it did not determine whether his release was part of the settlement or not. But Trump’s account distorts the facts of the situation.

Brown was released from prison five months before the settlement was reached. A spokesman for the Department of Corrections in North Carolina told PolitiFact in February that Brown’s release was “entirely unrelated” to the settlement, and that Brown “was not released early or paroled. With credit for jail time served before conviction, he served 100% of his minimum sentence.”

Although Brown was released prior to the settlement, he was able to be retroactively counted toward the settlement’s requirement to adjust the sentences of 3,500 inmates because Brown was given credit for time served while awaiting sentencing, state prison officials told the Charlotte Observer. But even if he had not gotten credit for the time served, he would have been released years prior to Zarutska’s murder.

OBBBA Tax Cuts

The president made some false and misleading claims about his signature tax law and Democratic opposition to it.

Not the “largest” in history. Trump claimed that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which he signed into law in July 2025, amounted to “the largest tax cuts in the history of our country.” While it was a “big” bill, the legislation was the sixth largest tax cut, according to the Tax Foundation, when measured as a percentage of gross domestic product, economists’ preferred measure. The OBBBA is projected to reduce tax revenue by $5 trillion over 10 years, or 1.4% of GDP. That puts it behind the 1981 tax cuts (2.89% of GDP), as well as tax measures in the 1940s, 2012 and 1964.

Factoring in Trump’s higher tariffs on imported goods, which economists consider a tax on consumers, would put the president’s combined policies further down the list, the Tax Foundation said. The foundation’s latest estimate, as of August, is that Trump’s imposed and scheduled tariffs are an average tax increase of $820 in 2026 per household.

Impact of tax cuts. The president described the 2025 tax law as putting “thousands of dollars into the pockets of working families.” Depending on how one defines “working families,” that could be the case over time or even in a given year for some families. Overall, the OBBBA was an estimated average individual income tax cut in 2026 of nearly $2,300 or $2,900 per taxpayer, according to Tax Foundation and Tax Policy Center estimates, respectively. But the average was skewed by much larger tax benefits for upper-income earners.

The Tax Policy Center estimated last summer that households earning nearly half a million to $1 million would see an average tax cut of $21,000 in 2026, and those earning less than about $35,000 would get an average benefit of $150. “Middle-income households,” earning between $67,000 and $119,000, would get an average tax cut of about $1,800.

To be clear, the OBBBA extended the expiring tax cuts in Trump’s 2017 tax law, so some of the practical impact for families was that their taxes didn’t go up, as opposed to an additional tax decrease.

Democratic opposition. The skewed impact of the OBBBA, as well as the 2017 tax law, for upper-income taxpayers garnered Democratic opposition. But Trump said Democrats were opposed to some of the popular aspects of the law for certain groups of taxpayers. “And every single Democrat in Congress voted against our tax cuts,” Trump said. “They voted against no tax on tips. They voted against no tax on overtime. They voted against 100%. No tax on Social Security for our great seniors.” He went on to say that Democrats wanted to “raise your taxes” on tips, overtime and Social Security.

These weren’t the provisions in the law that Democrats voiced overwhelming opposition to — instead they repeatedly framed the tax cuts as benefiting the wealthy. As we’ve written, each party has misleadingly emphasized only certain aspects of the law, which benefited all income groups on average, with most of the tax gains going to the top earners. Democrats also objected to the way the OBBBA paid for its tax cuts — by making cuts to Medicaid, the joint federal-state healthcare program for those with low incomes, and reductions in spending on federal food benefits. The Medicaid spending reductions led Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Thom Tillis to vote against the final legislation.

The tips, overtime and senior provisions Trump highlighted all expire after 2028. A future Congress would need to act to extend them. The tips measure — while criticized by economists because it taxes people with similar levels of income in unequal ways — is politically popular with both parties, particularly in a service-industry-heavy swing state like Nevada. Democrat Kamala Harris proposed the same policy in her 2024 presidential campaign.

These provisions provide tax deductions up to certain limits; a deduction reduces the total income subject to taxes. The overtime measure applies to the extra 50% income earned on time-and-a-half overtime, up to a limit. The Tax Policy Center estimated that “3 percent of taxpayers benefit from the tips deduction, with an average tax reduction of about $1,480 among those who benefit, and that 10 percent of taxpayers benefit from the overtime deduction, with an average tax reduction of about $1,200.”

The Social Security provision is a tax deduction, too — $6,000 for those age 65 and older, whether they get Social Security benefits or not, and it phases out for those earning $75,000 or $150,000 for couples filing jointly. The Tax Policy Center found that the deduction “would benefit fewer than half of older adults,” with seniors earning $80,000 to $130,000 benefiting the most. They get an average tax cut of about $1,100, TPC said, in 2025.

Jobs

In discussing employment, Trump repeated a favorite brag, saying, “Right now, in the United States of America, we have more people working than we have ever had before by a lot.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of August, a little over 159 million people are working in the U.S. This is up about 807,000 from when Trump started in January 2025. But as we’ve noted before, this impressive-seeming claim is almost meaningless, since with population growth, there are almost always more people working than ever before unless there is a recession. Trump has been spinning his employment achievements this way since 2017.

Better measures of how the labor market is doing include the employment-population ratio, which, at 59.1%, is down a full percentage point from January 2025, or the labor force participation rate, which is also down a percentage point to 61.6%. The “prime-age” labor force participation rate is largely holding steady.

The latest jobs report, which exceeded expectations, showed an increase of 162,000 jobs in August. Generally, however, job growth has been lower under Trump than Biden. For the last 18 months of the Biden administration, ending in December 2024, about 2.4 million jobs were added, an increase of 1.6%. Since February 2025 — a similar period under Trump — the U.S. gained 765,000 jobs, a rise of 0.48%.

The unemployment rate has also ticked up from 4.0% in January 2025 to a high of 4.5% last November, before falling back to 4.1% last month.

Affordability

Trump addressed affordability, calling it “fake” because, he said, Democrats were the ones that “caused the affordability — to use their word — crisis.” 

“I’m bringing the prices way down, way, way down,” he continued. “They caused the price. But we’re fixing it. We’re fixing it.”

“We got eggs down lower than during my administration,” he added later. “And food prices and almost every other item are rapidly going down. And by the way, oil will be going down as soon as we win the war with Iran, which is taking place right now.”

Egg prices have declined under Trump, but not to a price lower than his last administration. They are $2.19 a dozen as of July, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about the same as they cost in November 2023. This is down from $4.95 in January 2025 and a peak of $6.23 in March 2025. Those sky-high egg prices were in large measure due to outbreaks of avian influenza, or bird flu, which required killing chickens to prevent viral spread and resulted in a shortage of eggs.

Most other groceries and many other goods and services have increased in price. As we recently explained, the Consumer Price Index, which captures average prices for consumer goods and services, is up 3.4% over the last 12 months ending in July — higher than the annualized 3.0% that Trump inherited. 

While certain grocery items, such as bacon and bread, have decreased, many more have increased. Average grocery prices between January 2025 and July have gone up 3.35%, more than the 2.58% increase in the last year and a half of the Biden administration. Energy costs have risen 14.7% in the last year, including a 24.6% increase for gasoline.

Drug Prices

Trump made the unsupported claim that “we went from the highest prices by far in the world, and now we pay the lowest prices in the entire world for prescription drugs,” attributing the drop to his administration’s actions. “I think it’s one of the biggest things to happen medically, healthcare-wise, in history,” he said. “I’m giving you the largest prescription drug price cuts in history, with differences of 400%, 500% and even 600%.”

Trump’s policies do not mean Americans now pay the lowest prices in the world for drugs. And there isn’t evidence Trump’s prescription drug deals have led to a dramatic reduction in the prices Americans pay, although they may have led to lower prices in certain situations.

The administration has made temporary “most favored nation” deals with pharmaceutical companies, giving them three years of tariff relief in exchange for prices that are more comparable to the prices paid in other high-income countries, specifically the second-lowest price out of a set of eight high-income nations, after adjusting for gross domestic product per capita. The U.S. has long paid far more for brand-name prescription drugs than peer countries.

As we explained previously, the impact of these deals is more limited than Trump’s statements imply. While some individuals may be able to save money on certain drugs, such as pricey GLP-1 obesity drugs, many people can already get lower prices using their insurance.

Trump also claimed that “we will make our most favored nation agreements on prescription drug prices permanent,” but that seems unlikely. Rena Conti, a health economist at Boston University Questrom School of Business, previously told us that the notion the policy would be codified was “hypothetical at best, as there is no movement in Congress to pass legislation.”

Trump’s claims of “differences of 400%, 500% and even 600%” appear to refer to how much higher a drug’s list price — which people rarely pay — is compared with its price on TrumpRx, the website the administration launched to promote direct-to-consumer MFN prices. This, of course, is not the discount percentage, which cannot be more than 100%.

Regardless of how one does the math, it’s clear that drug prices overall have not fallen as dramatically as Trump claimed.

Consumer price data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a 3.1% drop in drug prices between July 2025 and 2026, based on a measure of prices people and insurers pay to pharmacies. Trump has claimed his policies are behind this decline. But experts told us other factors, such as drugs losing patent protection and increased competition among costly obesity drugs, are likely behind most of the reduction. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed under former President Joe Biden, which allows for price negotiation for some Medicare drugs, may also be a contributing factor.

Immigration

Illegal immigration has dramatically declined since Trump took office in January 2025, and the Trump administration has also stepped up interior enforcement and deportations. But the president exaggerated several points to contrast his record with Biden’s.

Trump wrongly claimed that “zero illegal aliens have entered our country from the southern border in the last 15 months.” As we wrote in our latest “Trump’s Numbers” story in July, there was a 91% decrease in the number of immigrants apprehended attempting to illegally cross the southern border over the last year, compared with the last year under Biden. In July, 9,295 people were apprehended trying to cross the border illegally, the third highest monthly figure since Trump took office.

Because it’s hard to know exactly how many people successfully sneak into the country illegally, we have used those apprehension figures as a proxy to measure illegal border crossings. U.S. Customs and Border Protection keeps, but does not often publicly release, figures on so-called gotaways, immigrants who are detected via electronic surveillance crossing the border but evade apprehension. Rosario “Pete” Vasquez, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, reported on social media that there were 2,123 gotaways in May 2025 and 986 in June 2025. Data obtained by the Cato Institute via a Freedom of Information Act request indicated another 6,491 gotaways in the following three months.

We asked the administration for more recent data, but did not get a response. In any case, even using that older data, it is not accurate for Trump to say “zero illegal aliens have entered our country from the southern border in the last 15 months.”

What Trump may have meant to say — and as Customs and Border Protection announced on Aug. 13 — is that there have been no releases at the border over the last 15 months, meaning no one caught crossing the border illegally was temporarily released into the U.S., for example, to apply for asylum. On his first day in office, Trump enacted a policy effectively barring asylum applications.

Trump’s estimate that 25 million immigrants poured into the country illegally and unchecked during the Biden administration is also vastly inflated. We calculated in June 2024 that the figure would be about a third of that, including an estimated 2 million “gotaways” who evaded capture by Border Patrol and about 3 million people released with notices to appear in immigration court or report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the future, or other classifications, such as parole.

In August 2025, the Pew Research Center estimated the unauthorized immigrant population at a record-high 14 million in 2023. That’s nearly 4 million more than 2019, and Pew estimated the growth of the overall unauthorized immigrant population “continued to grow at a record pace” in 2024. But that would still not get anywhere near the president’s claim of 25 million more.

Finally, the president claimed the Biden administration “allowed” in 11,888 murderers. As we have written repeatedly, there were about that many noncitizens who had been convicted of murder but were not in ICE custody as of September 2024 — a list known as the agency’s non-detained docket. But the “vast majority” of them entered the country prior to the Biden administration and had their custody status determined “long before this Administration,” the Department of Homeland Security told us in September 2024, noting that many were in prison. Also, the noncitizens include those who entered the country legally, such as green-card holders. Some of them may also have been deported.

Oil and Natural Gas Production 

When talking about energy production, Trump suggested that the U.S. became the world leader in oil and gas production during his current administration – which isn’t accurate.

“With the help of our great energy workers here in Texas, our country is producing more oil and gas today than ever before,” Trump said. “Now listen to this, more than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined.”

Later, he added, “We’re now the biggest in the world. We were nowhere near that. Now you’re – we’re the biggest in the world.”

The U.S. is producing more oil and natural gas than ever before, but that was also the case under Trump’s predecessor. The U.S. has had record crude oil production each year since 2023, during the Biden administration, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. There has also been record natural gas production annually since 2021, which was Biden’s first year as president. Generally, U.S. production of oil and natural gas has been increasing for many years.

We’ve also written before that the U.S. being the global leader in oil and natural gas production was not a recent achievement. It became the world’s No. 1 producer of petroleum, which includes both crude oil and refined petroleum products, such as gasoline, in 2013, and it has produced the largest amount of crude oil, including lease condensate, since 2018. The International Energy Agency said as far back as 2012 that the U.S. was expected to become “the largest global oil producer” by “around 2020” because of advances in shale extraction technology.

In addition, the U.S. has been the leading producer of natural gas production since 2009, overtaking Russia. In fact, the U.S. has produced more natural gas than Russia and Saudi Arabia, together, in all but one year since 2014.

Individually, the U.S. surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia in petroleum and crude oil production years ago. But it only began producing more petroleum than both combined in 2024, and Russia and Saudi Arabia, together, still produce more crude oil than the U.S.

El-Sayed Disavowed Streamer’s 9/11 Remark

Trump also sought to link Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to a remark by left-wing commentator Hasan Piker that “America deserved 9/11.” El-Sayed has specifically disavowed those comments and says he has no plans to keep campaigning with Piker.

During his speech, Trump said El-Sayed “campaigns with a Marxist agitator who says that America deserved 9/11.”

As we wrote last month, Piker, a popular Twitch streamer, made those remarks during a 2019 livestream while responding to a prior comment from a Republican congressman that American involvement in the Middle East was not the reason for the 9/11 attacks. Piker later walked back his remark.

El-Sayed, who did appear with Piker at campaign events earlier this year, disavowed Piker’s statement about 9/11 when asked about it in an April interview on “Fox & Friends.”

“Of course I don’t think 9/11 was justified,” El-Sayed said. “Because you appear with somebody, doesn’t mean you agree with them on everything.”

El-Sayed told Semafor in August that he has “no plans” to campaign with Piker again.

Trump Accounts

Trump claimed that “children, and many of them born into poverty or families with very little money or future, will be potentially rich when they turn 18 or 21” due to the establishment of so-called Trump accounts, new federal investment and savings accounts for children.

As we’ve explained before, as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the federal government will seed new accounts with $1,000 for children born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, who have a valid Social Security number. Parents can open accounts for other kids, but they won’t get the seed money. In addition, the first 25 million children under the age of 10 and residing in a ZIP code with a median income of $150,000 or less will receive an additional $250, which was funded by Michael and Susan Dell’s donation of $6.25 billion to these investment accounts.

The seed money would grow to several thousand dollars by the time a child reaches adulthood. Trump has previously said that the accounts “could grow to hundreds of thousands of dollars” by the time children turn 18, but that’s the only case if additional yearly contributions are made.

Parents, relatives, friends, employers, state governments, philanthropic organizations and individuals can contribute up to a total $5,000 annual combined limit per account. The White House Council of Economic Advisers estimated that the $1,000 seed money, if supplemented by the maximum annual contributions, could grow to more than $300,000 at age 18, assuming an average annual return of 10.3%.

But financial experts said it’s unlikely that parents in low-income households would be able to afford to contribute enough for their children’s accounts to reach such balances.

According to an analysis by the Urban Institute, “Without additional deposits into the accounts of kids from families with low incomes, children of wealthy parents will primarily benefit” from the program.

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We’re less than two months away from the November midterms, which also means we’re mere months from the launch of the 2028 presidential cycle. If past is prologue, at least one Democratic 2028 campaign could go live as soon as January, particularly in a cycle with a potentially massive field of Democratic candidates.

Democratic leaders toying with the idea of a 2028 presidential run typically insist they are singularly focused on winning back congressional majorities this November. But many are already jockeying for positions on key issues that could play outsized roles in the 2028 presidential race.

The 2026 primary season, which officially comes to a close on Tuesday, has been the ultimate focus group for would-be candidates, indicating which issues carry the greatest salience among Democratic primary voters. As Usamah Andrabi of Justice Democrats aptly put it after New York City’s dramatic congressional primaries back in June,

“Every candidate considering running in 2028 should see last night’s victories as a clear sign of what the Democratic base wants.”

In Part One of this piece, I’ll discuss two “clear sign” issues: military aid to Israel and universal healthcare. For purposes of this discussion of where the 2028 Democratic hopefuls stand on these questions, I’m including those seen as most likely to be exploring 2028 presidential runs, but excluding Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and State Rep. James Talarico (D-TX) whose positioning on issues are shaped more by their current 2026 campaigns. (Ossoff has also ruled out a 2028 run.)

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Military Aid To Israel

On June 23rd, AIPAC’s backing and support for military aid to Israel played a central role in ousting two sitting Democratic Representatives in New York’s primary. Weeks later, on July 8, Rahm Emanuel delivered a speech at Tel Aviv University criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza. Emanuel—the former Mayor of Chicago, Chief of Staff to Barack Obama, and U.S. Ambassador to Japan—is considering a run for president in 2028.

As Emanuel said in his speech:

“I want to be very clear about this. The pursuit of a so-called greater Israel is as self-destructive and fanatical as the chant from the river to the sea. Your government has been complicit in the horrors now being inflicted on innocent families in the West Bank.”

In giving that speech, Emanuel was planting a 2028 flag. He wanted to be seen as a candidate on the “right side” of the issue among Democratic primary voters, mitigating the perception that he is a more establishment and less progressive Democrat. But as a Jew himself and the son of an Israeli immigrant, Emanuel was also giving Democrats permission to distance themselves from Netanyahu and Israel without being perceived as antisemitic.

It was also an acknowledgement that, as Chris Hayes predicted earlier this summer, the issue of support for Israel’s war in Gaza has become what Hayes called “a threshold issue” in the 2028 presidential race. Hayes likened it to support for the Iraq war back in 2008, when Barack Obama leveraged his opposition to the war to peel anti-war voters away from Hillary Clinton, who had voted for it. As Hayes put it, “Support for the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza after October 7 has become a similar issue for a lot of primary voters.”

Several of the 2028 hopefuls have now weighed in on issues related to Israel and AIPAC. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), for example, gave this blunt response the morning after the June 23 New York primary, when asked if Democrats should “reject AIPAC money”:

“Yes, because what AIPAC demands of candidates it backs is unconditional support for the actions of the government of Israel, regardless of what those actions are. We don’t do that for any other country in the world.”

But how far would Emanuel and Van Hollen go on the thornier questions of whether Israel should be cut off from all U.S. military aid and whether Israel has committed genocide in Gaza?

Polling shows support for Israel cratering among Democratic voters. As Al Jazeera reported in May,

A new poll from The New York Times/Siena has found that nearly three-quarters of voters aligned with the Democratic Party oppose US military aid to Israel, up from 45 percent three years ago, as support for Israel continues to drop among US voters.

The poll found that 60 percent of Democratic voters said they were more sympathetic to the Palestinians than to Israel, while just 15 percent said they were more sympathetic to Israel.

This would seem to put Democratic primary contenders on safe footing were they to call for an end to military aid to Israel, as Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) did during the DNC’s summer meeting in Austin last month. Khanna, who is positioning himself as a far left truth teller of the 2028 crowd, spoke before DNC delegates gathered in Austin last month:

“Zero aid to Israel,” Khanna declared Saturday. “No military sales of weapons used to kill civilians. And let me be clear: If our party cannot stand for these principles, it will never convince a generation that watched the horrors of Gaza on their iPhones that we mean what we say about justice.”

Khanna took it one step further than many Democratic contenders likely would, declaring,

“Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza, and we should have the courage to say so.”

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY), however, rejects this tack, calling the use of the “genocide” label to define the horrors in Gaza “one of those new litmus tests that we said we would never do as a party again.” Harkening back to the 2020 primary, Beshear is concerned “It’s trying to throw out a word and, ‘Are you going to raise your hand or are you not going to?’”

In this way, Beshear, a red state governor who will likely be granted some leeway on certain issues by voters, appears to be staking out his spot as the middle ground candidate on the Democratic debate stage.

Governor Wes Moore (D-MD) on the other hand, while he would not take the bait on the “genocide” question, made waves back in May for accusing Netanyahu of committing war crimes, leveraging his own status as U.S. Army combat veteran to claim the authority to make the accusation.

It’s notable that during the DNC meeting in Austin, the delegates passed a resolution by voice vote that

…states that the DNC supports the “full, consistent, and impartial enforcement” of the so-called “Leahy Laws” to prevent military aid to Israel or any other countries that violate US human rights law.

These laws, named after their sponsor, former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), state that the US cannot provide training, weapons, equipment, or other assistance to a foreign military unit when the government has credible information that it has committed a “gross violation of human rights.”

Meanwhile, in Congress, as Common Dreams reports,

In late July, more than half of the House Democratic caucus—including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)—voted against an amendment backed by Khanna that would have cut off $3.3 billion in US assistance to Israel, which has repeatedly used American weapons to commit atrocities against Palestinians.

Not surprisingly, among the Ayes on this amendment was Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has led on the issue well before she was seriously talked about as a possible 2028 contender. As far back as 2024, AOC warned of an “unfolding genocide” in Gaza, and during a Munich security conference panel last February, when asked if the 2028 Democratic nominee should “re-evaluate military aid to Israel,” she replied,

“To me this isn’t just about a presidential election. Personally, I think that the United States has an obligation to uphold its own laws, particularly the Leahy laws.

“I think that, personally, the idea of completely unconditional aid, no matter what one does, does not make sense,” she added. “I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza, and I think that we have thousands of women and children dead … that was completely avoidable.”

In the U.S. Senate last April, two measures sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to block the sale of arms and equipment to Israel failed, with only 40 Senators in support of a bill banning the sale of bulldozers and only 36 in favor of blocking the sale of 12,000 1,000-pound bombs. It’s telling that every sitting U.S. Senator considering a 2028 run voted in favor of both measures.

It was particularly notable to see Senator Mark Kelly among the Yea votes, considering his past support for the transfer of arms to Israel. Kelly indeed appears to be a reluctant Yea, saying on the floor:

“First, let me say that I cannot and will never abandon Israel. Israel is one of our closest partners. They have a right to defend themselves, and I will always support Israel’s right to exist as a successful and prosperous nation.”

But in the end, he got to yes by couching his support for these measures in his opposition to Trump’s and Netanyahu’s war in Iran, which is much more comfortable terrain. As he said at the time,

“And we can all look at what is happening in the region right now and understand that this is not business as usual—and it is not making us safer. The United States and Israel are fighting a war against Iran without a clear strategy or goal. I’ve been clear I oppose this war in Iran and the reckless decisions being made by Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump.”

Kelly’s colleague Senator Elissa Slotkin adopted a similar strategy in justifying her own Yea votes for the resolutions. First, Slotkin made a distinction between the transfer of these weapons to Israel versus the transfer of “defensive weapons,” saying

“In the future, I will continue to assess U.S.-funded offensive weapons to Israel on a case-by-case basis, and I will continue to support sending Israel much-needed defensive weapons, like Iron Dome.”

Like Kelly, she ultimately pivoted to the safer terrain of opposition to the war in Iran.

That war will no doubt be another important issue on the 2028 Democratic debate stage, albeit one where there is likely to be little daylight among the candidates. On June 23rd, the U.S. Senate passed a nonbinding war powers resolution 50-48 “that rebukes President Donald Trump by calling for an end to the U.S. war against Iran.” The only Democrat who voted against the resolution was John Fetterman (D-PA).

Medicare for All

Universal healthcare has been a flashpoint issue in many primaries around the country this year, most notably in the Michigan Senate race. Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed has made “Medicare for All” a core pillar of his progressive reform package.

But what exactly does El-Sayed, or any other Democrat for that matter, mean when they say they support “Medicare For All”?

For El-Sayed, that’s easy. As he reminds us on his campaign website,

I literally wrote the book on Medicare for All. And I am the only candidate for the U.S. Senate in Michigan running to guarantee healthcare for every single American.

He also lays out what exactly he means by the phrase:

I will fight to expand Medicare to cover all necessary healthcare, including vision, dental, and hearing, and extend it to every single American from cradle to grave without premiums, copays, or deductibles. Medicare should be automatic, for everyone, and accepted everywhere. Medicare for All does not have to ban additional private insurance through unions or employers, although Medicare for All should make those choices redundant and unnecessary.

Expanding Medicare and providing it to every single American would make it stronger. As a nation, Americans hold more than $225 billion in medical debt. I think it shouldn’t exist–and I erased it for upwards of 300,000 Michiganders in Wayne County. I favor abolishing it for every American immediately.

El-Sayed shares his passion for insuring every American through a government-run program with his biggest supporter and endorser, Senator Bernie Sanders, who introduced the Medicare For All Act back in April. Among the 2028 Democratic contender pool, only Senator Van Hollen has signed on as one of the bill’s 17 Senate co-sponsors. Both Reps. Ocasio-Cortez and Khanna were among the House version’s 105 original co-sponsors.

As for Democratic governors readying 2028 presidential campaigns, Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has planted his flag rhetorically in the Medicare For All camp, saying during an interview this week,

“I believe in universal healthcare, and I believe in Medicare for All, the party does overwhelmingly.”

Governor Pritzker of Illinois, on the other hand, has not gone quite as far, instead content to focus on implementing expansions of access to healthcare programs such as Medicaid to Illinoisans. At the national level, Pritzker is more comfortable speaking in terms of “Universal Healthcare,” as he did in April when he planted his “non-negotiable” flag, declaring,

When Democrats take back the White House, two things are non-negotiable:

Raising the minimum wage.

Universal healthcare.

Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania has stuck by advocating for expanding Medicaid coverage (while railing against Trump’s budget cuts to Medicaid) and extending Obamacare premiums, which Republicans ended last year. This position would appear to be the absolute minimum for any Democrat running in 2028.

Governor Wes Moore, too, has focused on expanding access and lowering costs for his constituents in Maryland rather than taking a public stand on what he would advocate nationally. His silence on what model of national universal healthcare he favors will not be sustainable if he ultimately does decide to launch a 2028 campaign.

These governors are not the only ones seeking to stake out ground to the right of “Medicare For All.”

For instance, this past June, Senator Elissa Slotkin introduced the Affordable Consumer Health Options and Insurance Competition Enhancement (CHOICE) Act, which would “add a publicly operated health insurance option to the Affordable Care Act’s individual marketplaces on healthcare.gov and state level exchanges.”

This is similar to Pete Buttigieg’s “Medicare For All Who Want It” proposal from his 2020 campaign, in which, as NPR reported,

Buttigieg would offer public health insurance to those who want it while also keeping private health care plans available.

As Buttigieg said at the time,

“We make sure that everybody can afford [public health insurance], but we don’t require you to take it. And partly I think that’s just the right policy, because I think people should be able to choose.”

Whether such an incremental approach is going to fly in 2028 is unclear. But one core facet of these incremental approaches is that they keep Obamacare intact rather than replacing it with a fully universal government program. As Democrats jockey for the support of the former president, the question “Will your healthcare plan get rid of President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law or build upon it?” may become a threshold question of its own.

In a later installment, I’ll take on several other core threshold questions, including federal regulation over AI tech advancement, the development of AI data centers and use of Flock cameras by local law enforcement, as well as calls to reform the Supreme Court as the movement to expand the Court to 13 justices continues to gain traction.

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Democrats are targeting Trump’s relationship with Epstein as part of strategy ahead of midterm elections

James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, accused his rival Ken Paxton of “ignoring” survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, as Democrats seek to increase pressure on Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Speaking in Dallas, where Republicans are holding a midterm convention this week, Talarico appeared alongside one of Epstein’s victims at an exhibit that featured about 3.5m pages of Department of Justice’s files related to Epstein.

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel‘s planned Thursday interview with Texas Senatorial hopeful James Talarico didn’t air on ABC broadcast TV because network lawyers were worried about Trump FCC censorship and reprisal. Instead, the interview will air on the late-night show’s YouTube channel, Kimmel stated during his latest late night Jimmy Kimmel Live monologue:

“You know, for a lot of years, for the whole 20-plus years of our show, in fact, I’ve been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all, just like Letterman did, Leno did, Arsenio, etc. etc., I’ve interviewed a lot of political candidates. From Hilary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Donald Trump. I interviewed Donald Trump when he was running for president in 2015, and at that time, when he was the one sitting next to me, he seemed to have no problem with the idea of talk show hosts interviewing candidates. In fact, he was very eager to come back for another interview, which he did just before he became the nominee in 2016. But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed.”

“Now that Trump is president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates and our local stations based on simple traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings, it would seem, [that] they don’t like.”

Trump Republicans clearly feel Talarico is a threat to their chance to hold on to the Texas Senate. So earlier this year Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr launched a fake investigation and early review of ABC’s broadcast licenses, claiming that it broke FCC rules by hosting Talarico on The View back in February.

To support his sham inquiry, Carr claimed Talarico’s appearance violated the dated FCC “equal time” rule, which used to mandate that an election season prime time TV appearance by one party’s politicians had to be countered by an appearance by the other party’s politicians. The rule is no longer meaningfully enforced because television obviously has waning impact in the internet era.

But more importantly, The View had struck very clear agreements with the FCC that it has been exempt from this rule since 2002. Carr knows this. But he still falsely claimed The View violated the law, and to sell the violation appears to have worked closely with right wing broadcast affiliates to try and make it look like ABC’s Houston affiliate broke the law (something I suspect will resurface in court).

ABC recently sued the FCC for clearly violating the First Amendment, but while the case plays out their lawyers aren’t taking any chances. In addition to shuffling the Talarico interview off to YouTube (where it’s likely to see a bigger audience due to the sloppy attempt at censorship), The View has simply stopped hosting politicians entirely for fear of adding fuel to the fire.

The payments amounted to 30% of each aide’s $150,000 annual salary

Donald Trump may have committed “serious” ethical violations by giving three officials including his close personal aide Natalie Harp cash gifts of $45,000 each, according to a former White House “ethics czar”, as a watchdog group called for an investigation.

The non-partisan Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the US Office of Government Ethics over the US president’s handouts to a handful of staff, arguing that an investigation was “clearly warranted”.

Trump’s promise to pay $5,000 to every adult US citizen if the Republicans win in November was only one questionable moment in a nearly two-hour speech

• This was originally published in This Week in Trumpland. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday

Hello, from the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, where on Wednesday night Trump definitely, definitely, did not try to bribe the American public into voting for his party in November.

Speaking for almost two hours at the American Airlines Center, Trump promised to pay every adult citizen in the US $5,000 if Republicans retain the House and Senate in the midterm elections. The speech felt very much like a desperate last pitch to voters: the electoral equivalent of a dumped boyfriend offering to take his estranged girlfriend on a mini-break to Venice.

Court declined to ⁠put on hold ⁠injunction preventing the USPS from tightening rules around postal voting

A US appeals court has rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to impose sweeping restrictions on mail-in voting before November’s high-stakes midterm elections, dealing a fresh blow to the president’s attempted crackdown.

The Boston-based first US circuit court of appeals declined on Thursday to ⁠put on hold an ⁠injunction issued by a ​lower court judge last week, preventing the US Postal Service (USPS) from tightening rules around postal voting.

Donald Trump has pledged a payment of $5,000 to every adult American citizen if the Republicans win in the November midterms. The outlandish proposal, which would cost over $1tn, immediately raised legal and ethical concerns. It comes as the president’s approval rating has hit a record low, hovering at about 38%. Lucy Hough speaks to global editor Devika Bhat – watch on YouTube

Donald Trump has pledged a payment of $5,000 to every adult American citizen if the Republicans win in the November midterms. The outlandish proposal, which would cost over $1tn, immediately raised legal and ethical concerns. It comes as the president’s approval rating has hit a record low, hovering at about 38%. Lucy Hough speaks to global editor Devika Bhat – watch on YouTube