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The president’s former press secretary has learned all the right lessons, but how come it took him so long?

The most interesting chapter in Anthony Scaramucci’s All the Wrong Moves is the one where the hedge funder turned podcaster goes to work for Donald Trump. It’s summer 2017, and he’s been given the job of comms director, which he doesn’t know how to do, but he and Trump think it’ll work out because they’re both from New York. Or maybe he took it because he had “Potomac fever”, which afflicts Wall Street financiers who find themselves on the riverfront in Washington DC thinking they know how to run a country just because they’re “full of power and judgmental insight … about to fix everything”.

This appointment lasts only 11 days, not even enough time to be truly tainted by Trump’s first term, though it is enough time for Scaramucci to miss the birth of his son. The account is a mea culpa soup, with the author full of regrets for his hubris, his impulsivity, his “pride, egotism and asinine stupidity”, the fact that, despite the clear-sightedness bestowed by his humble beginnings, he’d come to assume the collective biases of the rich people he hung out with.

President has dismissed anxieties over AI’s dangerous potential even as Democrats and some Republicans acknowledge risks

• Analysis: Why a decade of doomsday warnings failed to slow AI race

Donald Trump is facing a rare backlash from the US Congress as Democrats and some Republicans push for guardrails on the world’s most powerful AI companies.

Concerns over the dangerous potential of AI reached fever pitch this week after tech leaders sounded the alarm over the rapid advancement of the technology and its potential threat to humanity.

November is the IMPEACHMENT MIDTERMS.

If we’re going to hold Trump and his cronies accountable, we need representatives who are willing to do it. That’s where our Courage Candidates come in! They have committed to bringing impeachment on their first day in Congress. Find your Courage Candidate today!

Rep. Al Green intends to force an impeachment vote on Tuesday! Now is the time to email and call your rep, and demand impeachment. Ask them: Are you in favor of unjustified killings of Americans, or are you ready to impeach Donald Trump. Because that’s what’s at stake.

Let’s let them know which side we’re on.

Use the following template to schedule an email to the appropriate office. Send the email as soon as possible.

DON’T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME AT THE BOTTOM OF THE EMAIL.

As a constituent of Rep. {{Rep Last Name}}, I demand that they vote to advance the impeachment proceeding, titled H.Res.1486, submitted by Rep. Al Green, to impeach President Donald Trump for flagrant abuses of power and high crimes and misdemeanors against the American people. Their vote to table or advance impeachment is a vote for or against the unjustified killings by ICE and CBP.

Want to grow your power?

We put out regular calls to action. Clear, simple ways that you can use your voice to fix our democracy. We’re here to empower you — because holding Trump and his ghouls accountable is going to take all of us. Sign up today.

The post Take Action: Tell your Rep. to impeach! appeared first on Citizens' Impeachment.

US president’s eldest child married Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson in three-day celebration across two exclusive private islands

Donald Trump Jr and his wife, Bettina, confirmed on Monday that a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin partially paid for the couple’s wedding celebrations in May, following a ProPublica report revealing Umar Kremlev spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the events.

Trump Jr, the US president’s eldest child, married the Palm Beach socialite in a lavish three-day celebration across two exclusive private islands in May.

Donald Trump’s blithe comments at the weekend were characteristically unhelpful. A careful and considered discussion on the subject has yet to begin

A decade ago, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) viewed Brexit as a potential gamechanger in the struggle to resist future pressure for a united Ireland. As the author and journalist Fintan O’Toole wrote in an essay published last year, the DUP hoped that the 2016 referendum would deliver “a double exit. Brexit would not simply mean the UK’s departure from the EU. It would also be an act of separation from the Republic. It would reverse the slow drift towards integration.” That proved to be, to put it mildly, a deeply flawed judgment.

The direction of travel since 2016 has instead been the opposite. Rather than leading to a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, which would have disastrously undermined the Good Friday agreement, the UK’s divorce agreement from Brussels eventually placed one in the Irish Sea. The logic of further economic integration between north and south within the EU’s single market was reinforced.

The truth continues to come out, and not via Truth Social. Everything former Olympian David Hearn might need to pursue a malicious prosecution lawsuit against the Trump DOJ has been leaking more steadily than the botched Lincoln Reflecting Pool repair job itself.

This time, it’s the contractor admitting its repair job didn’t go as planned, which means most of the stuff Trump (and his toady at the Interior Department, Doug Burgum) claimed to be the work of anti-Trump vandals was just shoddy workmanship.

The contractor that renovated the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has told the Trump administration that errors in its own work and flaws in the repair plan, not vandalism, caused the pool’s new blue liner to peel and break loose, according to government documents reviewed by The New York Times.

[…]

[T]he documents, which have not previously been reported, make clear that the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, found problems in both the design and the execution of the renovation. The documents include Atlantic’s reports to the government as well as daily progress updates from the National Park Service over the past two months.

The time frame for these revelations is the “past two months.” That would jibe with the DOJ’s decision to (sort of) drop its prosecution of David Hearn. Those court filings made it pretty clear that any alleged “vandalism” was actually just the result of a mishandled resurfacing effort floating to the surface of the pool.

Still, the DOJ has refused to fullly dismiss charges against alleged vandals with prejudice, which would prevent it from re-filing charges should Trump still demand some (metaphorical) public hangings in response to his administration’s failure to ensure this job was handled competently, promptly, and under budget.

At this point, Atlantic Industrial Coatings is on its third attempt to produce an “American flag blue” undercoating that won’t immediately divorce itself from the application area and float to the surface, where it can be easily grabbed by visitors to the reflecting pool, like David Hearn and the handful of others who have been criminally charged for daring to handle physical manifestations of Trump’s hubris.

While there may have been a few people doing a bit more than grabbing pieces of reflecting pool flotsam, the documents delivered by the pool repair contractors make it clear no serious “vandalism” ever took place.

The documents also show that Atlantic did blame vandals for cuts in the caulking around the pool’s edge that National Park Service workers had previously reported to the police. But the company did not link those cuts to the peeling of the blue liner on the pool’s floor, which Mr. Trump repeatedly blamed on “sick people” wielding knives or razors.

Now, there are real and serious questions about who knew what and when. According to the dismissal documents filed by US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the Department of Interior apparently deliberately withheld documents linking damage to the pool repair contractors, rather than “sick people” who were apparently able to slash 250′-350′ cuts into the pool lining undetected.

Since the DOI head (Doug Burgum) has done nothing but ape and amplify Trump’s lies about pool vandalism, the burden of proof (or proof of buried proof) falls back on the Interior Department. As for Trump himself, it’s hard to tell what exactly has happened here, but it’s easy to believe Trump wasn’t made aware of this evidence until long after he’d doubled-down and his “vandalism” claims.

After all, Burgum didn’t bring this evidence to Trump’s attention, preferring instead to fully engage with an obviously false Trump narrative. It took a visit to the Oval Office to fully apprise Trump of the situation, at which point Trump doubled down again, while trying to distance himself from the zero-bid contractor he previously referred to as the ultimate in patriotic pool repair surfaces.

It probably doesn’t matter how this all shakes out on the Trump side. Trump is going to continue to post his way through this, vocalizing whatever brief synapse flashes flicker through his lizard brain, hoping against hope to push completely through the facts and emerge victorious in yet another one of his Wars on Undeniable Facts.

As for David Hearn and those similarly situated, these documents will buttress claims of malicious prosecution. While the DOJ may be able to honestly claim it wasn’t aware of these facts until after it had secured indictments, it won’t change the malicious prosecution math because prosecutors are, at minimum, supposed to gather all relevant facts well before trying to pursue criminal charges. That the DOJ — under the direction of US Attorney Jeanine Pirro — decided its priority was assuaging Trump’s vindictive bloodlust rather than actually pursuing justice isn’t going to help it much when the people falsely accused of federal crimes start fighting back.

Zohran Mamdani, the New York mayor, announced on 14 September that New York City, alongside several other major cities, will sue the Trump administration over a new rule that would make it more easy to deny green cards and visas to immigrants based on their need of public benefits

Subpoena is among a flurry issued in recent weeks as part of DoJ inquiry into alleged conspiracy against Trump

The former CIA director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to testify next month before a Florida grand jury as part of a Department of Justice investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against Donald Trump, one of his lawyers said Monday.

Ken Wainstein, an attorney for Brennan, disclosed in a court filing that prosecutors last Thursday presented him with a subpoena for Brennan to appear before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida, on 15 October.

By now it’s old hat to point out that the mainstream media bends over backwards to pretend that Donald Trump is a “normal” president. The number of times you could point to the coverage and question how the media would cover things if a Democratic president did anything even remotely similar is impossible to keep track of.

But there were two separate things that happened at Trump’s fake GOP “midterm convention” (there was no convention, it was just a rally) and the way the media handled each tells you plenty about how stupid things have become. First up, Trump stated that if the Republicans win the midterms, every American would get a $5,000 check. This is both illegal and ridiculous.

It’s illegal because 18 USC 597 makes it a crime to offer an expenditure to induce someone to vote a particular way — which is precisely what dangling $5,000 checks in exchange for a Republican Congress is. It’s ridiculous because Trump promises this kind of bullshit all the time and never delivers. Here’s a compilation of him making unfulfilled promises of “dividend” checks over and over again:

@thebulwark.com did a supercut of all the prior times Trump said he was going to give Americans a $5000 check or whatever. It is glorious

— Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social) 2026-09-11T19:32:49.093Z

The proper way to cover this story is something along the lines of “President Trump, facing dismally low approval ratings, tries to illegally bribe voters to support the GOP.” The checks are never going to happen, and everyone (including Trump) knows it’s never going to happen. But, instead, the mainstream media pretended that this was a serious proposal worth taking seriously.

Yes, some of those headlines express skepticism, but within the range of normal policy proposal skepticism. The NY Times coverage, for example, focuses on what “experts say” about the proposal, and how much it would cost (over $1 trillion) and that it would require Congressional approval. It gets quotes from people to argue both the pros and cons of the whole thing, and literally says “it’s complicated” after asking whether such payments “could face legal challenges.” It even tries to “both sides” it by comparing it to a totally distinguishable situation where — in the midst of COVID shutdowns — some Democrats expressed policy support for general stimulus checks.

Then, the next night, in his next speech, the President of the United States — who has spent years falsely accusing others of “rigging elections” and “cheating” despite the near total lack of evidence of any significant voter fraud in the US — had people pledge allegiance to him personally (not the flag, not the Constitution, not America, but to him personally). He then literally told them to cheat and commit voter fraud in the election, before adding that anyone who doesn’t vote (presumably for MAGA candidates) would go to hell.

“Please raise your right hand,” Trump told a stadium packed with his supporters as he was met with some laughter. 

“I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States that loves us so much he can’t even breathe, that I will go out with my family, my friends,” he continued.

“I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m going to try and cheat like hell like they do. There’s never been bigger cheaters. I don’t care,” he said. “I am going to go out and I am going to get my friends, my family, and we are going to vote on Nov. 3rd or we are going to vote before that.” 

Trump said it went without saying that people would vote Republican.

“OK. So help me God,” he concluded the pledge.

“You know what happens if you don’t vote? You go to hell,” he added. “You know that, OK? You go to hell, and I don’t want that to happen to you. So please go and vote, because together we will defeat the communists.”

Here’s video of the first part of that, with the pledge and telling everyone to cheat and commit voter fraud:

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…"

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-09-11T02:32:28.497Z

And yes, Trump defenders will claim that he was joking. And everyone is laughing. Or they will claim that he’s only saying this because (as he notes as he says it) he claims (falsely) that the Democrats are cheating. But this kind of facetiousness is the whole point: to anyone offended, he can claim he was joking and mock you for taking him literally, while the MAGA faithful hear it and know exactly what he means.

Frankly, if any Democratic president (or, hell, almost any other Democratic politician) did either thing — having supporters pledge loyalty to them personally, or telling them to cheat in the election — it would generate headlines for weeks. There would be all sorts of hand-wringing among the pundit class about how un-presidential it was, and how the president is expected to bring decorum and support election security and isn’t supposed to be part of a personality cult.

Hell, when Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president in 2008, the NY Post had a freakout that he would do so on a stage with Greek columns, attacking him for acting like a Greek god with the headline: “Temple of Dem on Mt. O-Lympus.”

But the mainstream media basically played the whole thing down. There were a few headlines about it, but mostly side stories, or just the video clip, not a story about the statement or what it means. But just look at the NYT’s “midterm” coverage the day after (this screenshot is from Friday morning):

Nothing in any headline or promo line gets at the pledge or the demand to cheat. The main article goes with the title that he’s “a bit tired of politics” (which is hardly newsworthy), and then the text totally plays down what Trump actually said:

In 2026, he closed out an unusual midterm convention organized in his honor by saying he was a little bored of politics. He seemed more interested in telling supporters to swear on something holy — which seemed to be himself — that they would go out and vote for Republican candidates in November.

“Please raise your right hand,” Mr. Trump instructed a rowdy crowd of thousands inside a Dallas arena on Thursday evening. Many of them complied. “I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States that loves us so much he can’t even breathe that I will go out with my family, my friends, I will do it any way — I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try and cheat like hell, like they do.” (Mr. Trump usually frowns on election fraud.)

He added: “I am going to go out, and I’m going to get my friends, my family, and we are going to vote on November 3.”

And that’s basically it on the topic. Even the parenthetical “usually frowns on election fraud” is laughably misleading. All of this just seems like an attempt to sanewash the insane.

Yes, covering every crazy thing that Trump says or does makes you seem like you’re crazy too. But it’s incredible which stories the media focuses on and which they minimize. These two examples in quick succession make it clear that in an attempt to make the Trump presidency seem more “normal” than the out-of-control authoritarian cult-of-one-man that it actually is, they will treat an illegal and ridiculous bribe as a legitimate policy proposal, while burying the part where he has supporters swear fealty to him personally and then tells them to break the law.

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 released a Presidential Message on the Anniversary of the Battle of Fort McHenry, noting that 1,000 Americans “heroically defended our young Nation’s sovereignty” against a British naval assault in 1814. The White House characterized the event as a “critical turning point” and stated that Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” after observing the flag “gallantly streaming high in defiance.”

On Truth Social, Trump asserted that a new ballroom project at the White House is “Massively expensive, but free of charge to the American Taxpayer” and a “Gift to the U.S.A. from me and other American Patriots.” He claimed the ballroom will be the “GREATEST of its kind anywhere in the World.” Trump also stated that the White House was a “dump” before his arrival and that his renovations with the Department of Interior have left the building in “better shape than when built in 1792.” Additionally, Trump congratulated Shane Lowry for a win at Trump International Golf Links and highlighted a report regarding the Iranian economy.

Governor JB Pritzker published his daily public schedule for September 13, 2026, stating that he has no public events scheduled.

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2. White House News

Presidential Message on the Anniversary of the Battle of Fort McHenry

The White House marks the 1814 Battle of Fort McHenry, stating 1,000 Americans “heroically defended our young Nation’s sovereignty” against a British naval assault. The White House describes the event as a “critical turning point” where soldiers’ “unflinching resolve” saved the fort. According to the White House, Francis Scott Key witnessed the victory and wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” after seeing the flag “gallantly streaming high in defiance.” The White House honors the forces’ “unwavering determination” and reflects on their sacrifice while “reclaiming our sovereignty, and restoring our national pride.”

Reference: Original White House release

3. Truth Social Posts

Trump shared interior renderings of a new ballroom being built at the White House, describing the project as “Massively expensive, but free of charge to the American Taxpayer.” He further characterized the construction as a “Gift to the U.S.A. from me and other American Patriots,” asserting that it will be the “GREATEST of its kind anywhere in the World” and confirming that no taxpayer funds will be used. Regarding the broader state of the residence, Trump stated that the White House was in “very bad condition” and a “dump” prior to his arrival. He noted that he has been renovating the structure with the help of the Department of Interior and various contractors, claiming the building is now in “better shape than when built in 1792” and that his actions saved the property from being “destroyed.”

Turning to sporting events, Trump congratulated Shane Lowry on a “GREAT Win” at Trump International Golf Links, Ireland, describing the golfer as a “Great Champion” and a “total WINNER.”

Regarding international affairs, Trump highlighted a report regarding the Iranian economy by sharing a link stating that Iranians are “Running Out of Gas as Economic Squeeze Takes Hold.”

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

4. Government Department News

No relevant government department updates found for this date.

5. Selected Democratic Officials

JB Pritzker (gov.illinois.gov)

Daily Public Schedule: Sunday, September 13, 2026

Governor JB Pritzker has no public events scheduled for Sunday, September 13, 2026.

6. AI & Tech Company News

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

7. Congressional Watch

Covers the 2026-09-12 session — the Congressional Record is published with a one-day delay.

No Congressional Record found for 2026-09-12.

Families have asked Trump to declassify records that could shed light on Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the 2001 attacks

Donald Trump said on Sunday that he will look into requests from families of 9/11 victims to release records that could shed light on Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the attacks 25 years ago.

Several families have long alleged that a group of extremist religious leaders in Saudi Arabia gained influence in the kingdom’s government and aided the hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, but the Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks.

Those of you who followed the stolen documents case surely appreciate the irony that one reason Joe DiGenova quit his position leading the Grand Conspiracy conspiracy last week had to do with DOJ’s refusal to give him his own SCIF.

Among the disputes that added to tensions between diGenova and his bosses in Washington was diGenova’s request for a high-security room known as a SCIF to be built at the Fort Pierce office, to make it easier for the prosecution team to store highly classified materials, two people familiar with the investigation told CNN. The team worked in an office with a special room where sensitive, but not the highest-classified, evidence could be handled. Justice Department officials told diGenova he and his team should use a SCIF at an FBI office miles away, two people familiar with the investigation told CNN.

As part of then Defense Attorney now Attorney General Todd Blanche’s successful 2023 attempt to delay Trump’s stolen documents prosecution, he demanded that the FBI build Trump a new SCIF at Mar-a-Lago so Trump could store the documents he stole and once stored there in a ballroom back in his beach resort again. Then, months later, then Defense Attorney now Attorney General Todd Blanche complained that Trump needed more time to prepare because some of the documents Trump stole were so sensitive, his defense attorneys needed special read-ins for the documents to be left in the SCIF they were using, at all.

Effectively, then, one-time Defense Attorney and current Attorney General Todd Blanche told Joe DiGenova he should make do, just as prosecutors told Todd Blanche to make do (among other things, with the SCIF in DC that would be available while they were defending against the January 6 charges).

I guess one-time Defense Attorney and current Attorney General Todd Blanche now concedes that the documents his current and former client stole were far too sensitive to store in a ballroom, which really raises the question what the fuck are we doing here? You’ve just conceded it was wise to investigate Trump!

CNN’s report on the dispute describes what a busy day it was last Thursday, the day DiGenova quit.

DiGenova resigned Thursday on what was a busy day for the inquiry, as investigators were presenting a witness for testimony to a grand jury in the probe, one of President Trump’s top priorities, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. DiGenova’s abrupt departure could mean more delays in an investigation that has stumbled past internal expectations of charges earlier this year. More recently, officials at Justice Department headquarters had anticipated possibly seeing the first charges to come as soon as this month, CNN previously reported.

With diGenova gone, Justice Department officials feel confident in the team and expect to see momentum pick up, a US law enforcement official said.

DiGenova declined comment beyond what he told CNN last week, calling it a privilege to serve the president and the Justice Department and adding: “As an old prosecutor of more than 50 years, I make cases the old fashioned way: witnesses, evidence, etc. That takes time.”

But a declaration from Ken Wainstein, representing John Brennan in his bid to require DOJ to retain evidence of Trump’s malice targeting Brennan, reveals that’s just the half of it.

That same day — Thursday — DiGenova also served a subpoena, dated the day before, on Brennan himself.

6. On Thursday, September 10, 2026, I accepted service on behalf of Plaintiff for a subpoena to testify on October 15, 2026, before a federal grand jury sitting in Fort Pierce. The subpoena was signed by Joseph E. diGenova on September 9, 2026. The accompanying email directed me to contact Mr. diGenova with any questions regarding the subpoena. The morning of September 10, I, along with co-counsel, reached out to Mr. diGenova by text message, to coordinate a conversation to discuss the subpoena. He responded that he would “arrange counsel” to speak with us.

And while DiGenova is corrupt, he’s not dumb.

With DiGenova gone, that left dumb and corrupt Kurt Olsen to provide this explanation for the subpoena, probably an explanation of why they were subpoenaing a guy who was given a target letter months ago.

9. On September 11, 2026, I along with co-counsel, participated in a conference call with Kurt Olsen and three other members of the prosecution team to discuss the grand jury subpoena served on my client. In that call, Mr. Olsen fielded our inquiries and indicated there are multiple “viable” grand jury investigations, including a “far-reaching” investigation in Fort Pierce that includes “issues at Mar-a-Lago and beyond” into whether President Trump had his civil rights violated. Mr. Olsen also confirmed there continued to be an additional investigation relating only to Director Brennan’s statements before Congress in the District of Columbia. Mr. Olsen explained that Director Brennan was a “target” of the narrower investigation, and the investigation for which he was now being subpoenaed was the “more wide-ranging conspiracy,” as to which our client was a “subject.” However, he explained that the narrower investigation was “still viable,” and that the issues in the narrower investigation might also be part of the larger investigation, such as being overt acts.

10. Mr. Olsen also indicated that he was reporting to the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida, Jason Reding Quiñones, and then to the Deputy Attorney General and Attorney General Todd Blanche.

That is, Olsen (who was no prosecutorial experience) explained that Brennan was just a subject for the Grand Conspiracy conspiracy, whereas he was a target of the investigation — the one that still has venue in DC, where Brennan is trying to push everything — into whether he lied to Congress, which he did not. None of this makes sense from a prosecutorial perspective. But these people are dumb and corrupt and insane, so they don’t care.

Olsen, the day after Joe DiGenova quit, insisted everything was still “viable,” perhaps in an attempt to explain why a guy being targeted could be coerced to testify before a grand jury. That’s an opinion that will show up in a slew of filings from everyone involved.

And remember, this is all an attempt to deny that it was right to investigate Trump’s secret pursuit of a Trump Tower offered by a Georgian oligarch, but he’s now building a Trump Tower in Georgia. It is all an attempt to deny that Kirill Dmitriev was trying to recruit Jared Kushner so he could be enticed to trade riches for sanctions relief, but there Jared is on TV demanding that Ukraine cede lands Russia has never succeeded in seizing so Jared can cash in. It is all an attempt to deny it was right to investigate Don Jr for accepting secret gifts from Russian oligarchs, but the secret gifts Don Jr keeps accepting get bigger and bigger, now to include his wedding party.

All this investigation has succeeded in doing is prove that Russia was attempting to recruit Trump and his family, with great success, and that the documents Trump stole were too sensitive to be stoled in a gaudy bathroom.

Guilty as charged! Trump’s defense Attorney General has now conceded.

The post The Grand Conspiracy … Adrift on a Skiff appeared first on emptywheel.

Donald Trump dismisses attempts to increase controls on artificial intelligence as ‘sick conspiracy’

AI-linked stocks tumbled on Monday after the bosses of Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX called for a slowdown in AI “reckless” development, citing fears the technology could soon run out of control.

Shares in the semiconductor designer Nvidia – the world’s most valuable company – were down 3.3% by market closing in New York City, while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) slid 4% and Micron Technology and Sandisk shares slumped by 5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index fund was down 0.5% by the end of the day.

Trump’s EPA strips itself of regulation ability, gutting Clean Air Act in what experts say is a gift to planet polluters

On the heels of the hottest summer ever recorded in the US, the Trump administration has said it will erase any limits on emissions from coal and gas plants that are dangerously heating up our planet.

The US Environmental Protection Agency said it will strip itself of its ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions coming from power plants under the Clean Air Act, removing a key tool to address the climate crisis.

Critics say segment about airman’s rescue was made to boost public perception of Trump’s unpopular war

A US airman has spoken of climbing a 7,000ft ridge with a broken back, arm and shoulder after he was shot down in Iran – and of being rescued by a team of American special forces as hostile locals closed in on him.

The air force colonel, identified only by his codename Bravo, appeared on camera Sunday night on CBS’s 60 Minutes in a segment some critics have labelled Pentagon propaganda to boost public perception of Donald Trump’s unpopular war.

Center’s Trump-installed leaders also say it is on brink of bankruptcy and could close as early as Tuesday

Leaders of the John F Kennedy Center for ⁠the Performing Arts say it is reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy and could ⁠close as early ⁠as ​Tuesday.

The center’s Donald Trump-installed leaders argued that putting the president’s name on its facade may be the only way ⁠to avoid imminent and “certain fiscal collapse”, the Washington Post first reported, ​citing documents it ‌obtained.

Until Pierre Damas Bel’s death on 31 August, the story of Haitian adolescents in Springfield was one of triumph

At a pavilion west of downtown Springfield, Ohio, 32 high school students dressed in black T-shirts stand silently at a vigil in the warm fall evening air.

Some are holding signs depicting the number 11, as worn on the soccer field by Pierre Damas Bel, the 20-year-old Haitian student and athlete who died in an apparent suicide on 31 August. Other students hold signs that read “live like Pierre” and “Pierre was selfless”.

But their habitat is threatened by bottom trawling in the region and Trump’s plan to expand seafloor mining

Scientists have discovered nine new deep-sea sponge species off Alaska, offering new insights into the region’s largely unexplored marine biodiversity.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) announced the discovery on Thursday, saying the species were found in the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The findings bring the total number of known sponge species in Alaska to 232.

The 42-year-old liberal commentator regularly co-hosts the network’s 5pm talk show, taking flak from her conservative colleagues and harsh insults from the president.

Jessica Tarlov is the left-leaning Fox News host that some of the network’s most conservative viewers, including Donald Trump, love to hate.

The US president regularly bashes Tarlov on his Truth Social platform, in April calling her “one of the Least Attractive and Talented People on all of Television”, and demanding that Fox “GET HER OFF THE AIR.”

Trump dismisses threat of AI as a ‘hoax’ after tech CEOs call for slowing pace of development; Republican House speaker says he will meet with AI execs ‘soon’ alongside president

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Donald Trump has claimed there is a “SICK conspiracy” against artificial intelligence and data centers in response to the growing calls for greater checks on AI development.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, insisting that the administration has stopped leaders of AI companies from “doing bad, or potentially bad” things. However, he didn’t point to any concrete examples for how he has curbed possible abuse or malfeasance in the industry.

There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China … We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!

Project will prepare volunteers across US to monitor polls, encourage early voting and respond to disinformation

The Democrats intend to train tens of thousands of volunteers to monitor the polls and counter possible voter intimidation under a new plan to protect November’s US midterm elections from anticipated interference from Donald Trump and his allies.

The nationwide initiative, dubbed the New Battlefield Project, will help state Democratic committees build up a vast coalition of volunteers to monitor the polls, push voters to cast their ballots early and create a network to respond to disinformation.

Forget the bombing: the Trump administration keeps insisting this isn’t a war. But it’s not just a matter of semantics

“I will not send you to fight and die in stupid foreign wars that never end,” Donald Trump promised a crowd in Pennsylvania in 2024. While the disastrous conflict in Iran, which has escalated in recent days, may make it seem like the president has reneged on that promise, that’s inaccurate. It would be wrong to say that the president has dragged the US into yet another disastrous forever war in the Middle East because, as government officials keep insisting, what’s happening in Iran isn’t actually a war.

“I wouldn’t call it a war,” JD Vance told reporters early this month, for example, after being asked whether the fighting in Iran might be over by the November midterms. “Right now, there is no active shooting.”

A bloated ballroom, a six-storey military HQ, a helipad-cum-cocktail patio, a gilded angel on a giant arch honouring himself … our architecture critic deplores the decorator-in-chief’s mutilation of Washington

When you have a developer as US president, you might expect some zhooshing up of the capital. A few buildings renovated, maybe some parks replanted. But when you have a megalomaniac builder in charge, things can get out of hand. A decade ago, when Donald Trump was first elected, I asked what it might mean for the US to be led by a real estate tycoon whose career had left a trail of broken promises, angry buyers and endless lawsuits, with rules flouted, heritage trampled and the world pockmarked by a fleet of aspirational towers clad with a flimsy veneer of luxury. The answer is worse than I could have imagined.

With the air of a nightmarish Hollywood sequel, Trump 2 has seen the president’s true architectural ambitions unleashed: The Blingpire Strikes Back. As America’s self-styled decorator-in-chief, Trump has not only overseen the gilded mutilation of the White House, but embarked on the Mar-a-Lagofication of Washington DC itself, applying his gold paintbrush to statuary, daubing ponds with flaking pool liner, and brewing plans for a colossal triumphal arch – all procured in a blizzard of no-bid contracts. And, in true dodgy salesman style, this programme of bauble-building is turning out to be a high-profile decoy for deeper damage being wrought elsewhere.

This week’s Judicial Notice is sponsored by

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Last Friday marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Many of us have our own stories from that fateful day (and I previously shared my own, which I won’t repeat here). I would just like to take this opportunity, a quarter century later, to honor the memory of the almost 3,000 people who were killed in the 9/11 attacks—and to urge everyone to never forget.

It’s also important for us to remain vigilant and take steps to prevent future terrorist attacks. For more on that subject, see pieces by former attorneys general Bill Barr and Michael Mukasey in The Free Press and by Professor Philip Bobbitt in The New York Times. While reasonable minds can disagree on which specific policy proposals should be adopted, we should at least be considering and discussing them.

On a happier note, Friday at sundown was the start of Rosh Hashanah, the two-day observance of the Jewish New Year. My husband Zach and I, along with our two boys, celebrated the holiday with a lovely dinner on Saturday night with Zach’s extended family. To all who celebrate, shana tova.

Now, on to the news.

Lawyer of the Week: Joseph diGenova.

Back in April, Joseph diGenova was tapped by the Trump administration to oversee the so-called “grand conspiracy” investigation. This sprawling, multifaceted probe, run out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, is looking into a supposed conspiracy hatched by political enemies of Donald Trump to investigate and prosecute him.

At the time of diGenova’s appointment, most observers viewed him as an unorthodox pick. Yes, he had been the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia—but that was back in the Reagan administration. Now 81, diGenova hasn’t worked as a prosecutor in decades; instead, he’s become a pro-Trump media personality, aggressively pushing conspiracy theories claiming that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and that foes of the president have been out to get him for years.

Not much has happened in the investigation since diGenova took over in April—and then, last Thursday, diGenova abruptly resigned. First reported by ABC News, diGenova’s departure garnered widespread coverage (collected by Howard Bashman over at How Appealing).

When he first commented on his resignation, diGenova told ABC News, “I resigned by letter today at 3 o’clock. It was an honor and a privilege to serve the president and the department. I’m not going to say anything further.” As for the Trump administration, a U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson said, “We are grateful to Joe diGenova for his many years of service to the Department.”

Despite telling ABC News that this was all he had to say, diGenova wound up making a few more comments to other outlets. He told the Washington Examiner, “Conducting investigations is arduous work, and there are always differences of opinions.” Other sources told the Examiner that the “differences of opinion” weren’t minor—and that White House and DOJ officials had lost confidence in diGenova.

Along similar lines, the New York Post reported that diGenova had lost the Trump administration’s support, with at least some administration officials holding the view that diGenova was “slow-rolling” indictments and getting lost down “rabbit holes.” When asked to comment on this claim, diGenova retorted, “If you want indictments where there’s no evidence, you have an ethical problem”—which suggests that perhaps he found building cases against Trump enemies to be harder than expected.

There’s no indication that the investigation itself is going away—and, to the contrary, “a lot of people are being brought in” to testify before the grand jury, per the Post. But will the evidence being collected result in indictments and convictions, or is it totally weak sauce? Stay tuned.

In lawyer news of a very different sort, Business Insider published an article of the legal eagles it deemed to be New York’s 9 Best-Dressed Lawyers. It’s a fun piece that’s definitely worth a read (or at least a skim, for the pictures). But as one tweeter noted, the opening paragraph’s reference to a black suit being a safer choice than a navy one suggests that “the authors have no idea about traditional business fashion, at least for men.” (Back when I practiced, I generally stuck to navy and grey suits; although I own a black suit, I wear it almost exclusively to funerals.)

In memoriam: tax lawyer Linda Sherman, the first woman partner at Hale and Dorr (now part of WilmerHale), passed away at 76. May she rest in peace.

Judge of the Week: Judge Cornelia “Nina” Pillard.

I’m surprised that over the five-plus years I’ve been writing Judicial Notice (which will turn six this December), Judge Cornelia “Nina” Pillard has never been Judge of the Week. After all, she’s a leading liberal voice on the D.C. Circuit, generally regarded as the nation’s most important circuit court.

Judge Pillard’s formidable intellect is reflected in her estimable résumé. After graduating from Yale College and Harvard Law, she clerked for the legendary Judge Louis H. Pollak (E.D. Pa.), a district-court feeder judge to the Supreme Court (back when district-court feeders were extremely rare); worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; served in the Office of the Solicitor General, arguing nine cases before SCOTUS; and advised on important issues of executive power, as a deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s influential Office of Legal Counsel. After leaving OLC, she became a tenured professor at Georgetown Law.

In 2013, President Obama nominated Professor Nina Pillard to the powerful D.C. Circuit—and her nomination sent shivers up the spines of conservatives across the country. Writing in National Review, Ed Whelan cited sources who described her as “Reinhardt in a skirt”—referring to the late Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit, who was unabashedly liberal (and wouldn’t have looked good in a skirt).

After a political fight, which included the Democrats nuking the filibuster for federal appellate judges, Pillard was confirmed. During her dozen or so years on the bench, she has been, as predicted, a liberal lioness of the D.C. Circuit (as well as a top SCOTUS feeder judge).1

And last week, Judge Pillard penned a pair of important opinions. Let’s start with People of the State of Michigan v. U.S. Department of Energy, which has the more sweeping practical consequences. As Professor Jonathan Adler explained at the Volokh Conspiracy, “One of the more unusual, and controversial, elements of the Trump Administration's energy policy has been to force some coal plants slated for closure to remain open and operational.” Not surprisingly, “some have questioned whether the Department of Energy has the legal authority to issue such orders”—and on Friday, Judge Pillard wrote an opinion holding that it does not.

Given this issue’s importance, Adler predicted the administration will file a petition for rehearing en banc or a petition for certiorari. I agree, but predict that they’ll just go straight to SCOTUS (because, given the 7-4 split of Democratic to Republican appointees on the D.C. Circuit, rehearing en banc would be a waste of time).

Now let’s turn to Center for Taxpayer Rights v. Internal Revenue Service. Writing for another unanimous panel—coincidentally, Judges Millett, Pillard, and Wilkins, the trio of Obama nominees who were confirmed together post-filibuster—Judge Pillard wrote an opinion affirming a preliminary injunction blocking an IRS policy that disclosed thousands of taxpayers’ addresses to immigration authorities.

This opinion generated lots of controversy—not just for its substance, but its style. Here’s the relevant passage (citations omitted):

The IRS also asserts that the preliminary injunction is “highly unusual and harmful” because it requires the IRS to provide the district court with “prior notice of criminal investigatory activity.” That argument is weak sauce where the district court has permitted the IRS to file any necessary notifications “under seal,” thereby shielding any criminal investigative activity from disclosure.

Can you see what’s setting people off? Yes, that’s right: Judge Pillard using the term “weak sauce,” which you’ll see not in Black’s Law Dictionary, but Urban Dictionary (which defines the term as “weak,” “insignificant,” or “not living up to expectations”).

The criticism showed up mainly on social media—predictably, X (not Blue Sky). Here are some highlights, via Fox News:

• “Why would anyone put that language in a professional document of any kind? That goes beyond legal decorum. It’s just unprofessional across the board.”

• “I’m all for using accessible language, but the insertion of popular slang in judicial opinions is getting out of hand.”

• “Make legal writing formal again.”

But is “weak sauce” really so objectionable? What if she had simply dismissed the argument as “weak”? And is it any worse than, oh, I don’t know… “swinging dicks”?

Readers, what do you think?

[UPDATE (11:16 p.m.): Readers drew my attention to the fact that “weak sauce” has been used in at least 14 judicial opinions before, including the majority opinion in Allen v. Louisiana—by Judge Kyle Duncan (5th Cir.), a prominent conservative jurist.]

In other news about judges and the judiciary:

• The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court publicly reprimanded Judge Shelley Joseph, a state-court trial judge who was criminally charged during the first Trump administration for allegedly helping a defendant escape federal immigration authorities at her courthouse. The criminal case was dismissed, on the condition that Judge Joseph formally refer herself to a judicial-conduct commission (which ultimately led to this reprimand).

• Judge Lawrence Wheeler, a state-court trial judge in Oklahoma, admitted that he issued a ruling containing AI hallucinations—specifically, two citations to cases that do not exist. Fortunately for Judge Wheeler, it appears that he won’t be sanctioned over this (perhaps the embarrassment is punishment enough).

Job of the Week: an opportunity for a real estate associate in Chicago.

Lateral Link is spearheading a search for an Am Law 100 firm in Chicago seeking a real estate attorney with 4+ years of experience representing corporations, private equity firms, developers, and family offices in complex transactions. This role focuses on the acquisition, disposition, financing, development, and leasing of commercial, industrial, and multi-family properties. Experience with joint ventures and the real estate aspects of mergers, acquisitions, and capital markets transactions is a plus. This hybrid role offers top of the market compensation, direct client contact, tremendous resources, and the opportunity to work on cutting edge deals for sophisticated blue-chip clients in a flexible, supportive working environment. Please email Zain Atassi at zatassi@laterallink.com for more information.

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Counterterrorism Cuts: “Reassigning seasoned counterterrorism investigators to immigration enforcement degrades post-9/11 threat coverage in ways that will only become visible after a missed plot,” concludes IC Brief, a public-facing independent intelligence analysis site founded by Anthropic founders Daniela and Dario Amodei. “Reallocating resources toward China, Russia and border/narco-trafficking priorities leaves counterterrorism capacity thinner than at any point since 2001, a vulnerability that becomes visible only after an attack.” IC Brief cites “a Democratic staff report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released July 30, which “found the Trump administration has removed more than 1,300 DHS personnel from roles preventing, countering, and responding to terrorism, and cut 15,000 positions across the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI.”

Misguided DHS: “Today, 25 years after 9/11, DHS’s core original mission of combating and responding to terrorism seems all-but forgotten in the public eye — and it seems particularly ill-poised to respond to the modern terrorism or national security threats as they currently exist,” 9/11 historian Garret M. Graff wrote at Politico on the eve of the anniversary. “It’s a threat that has grown even more serious in the years since — and yet still remains largely off the radar of DHS.” he added. “Most acts of terrorism now — by any objective measure — in this country are from within,” Obama’s DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson told him. “There are not a whole lot of DHS cops running around the interior looking for terrorists. That task has always been with the FBI.” Over at Lawfare, Paul Rosenzweig, a former deputy assistant secretary for policy at DHS, said the department had gone from hunting al-Qaeda to hunting immigrants. “The result of this organizational mismatch has become an all-too-obvious mission creep—as a department ill-poised to do the thing it was created to do instead became a politically useful and opportunistic cudgel for a president with authoritarian impulses.”

Deep State: “By most all accounts, the U.S. is safer at home. The country has not been hit on U.S. soil with anything remotely comparable to the 9/11 attack, which killed nearly 3,000 people. Yet 25 years later, the U.S. national security industry is undergoing another dramatic change,” NPR’s Greg Myrer reported. “President Trump is waging an ongoing campaign against the so-called ‘deep state,’ which he describes largely as national security officials trying to undermine him.” Former CIA senior executive John Sipher opined that “We have allowed our partisan anger, and specifically the Trump administration, to create this narrative that there’s a deep state and that the intelligence services work for one party or another. I think it’s a real danger.”

Trump Turns JTTFs Inward: “Trump has directed that Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which spread nationwide after 2001 to harness federal and local resources, investigate groups that challenge White House views on immigration, gender and religion,” Warren P. Strobel wrote Thursday at The Washington Post. “Another post-9/11 creation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has aggressively surveilled and rounded up immigrants on Trump’s watch, sometimes catching or killing U.S. citizens in its dragnet.”

NSA’s Musical Chairs: Yet another chart scramble is coming at the code-breaking, eavesdropping, cyber-snaking National Security Agency. Gen. Joshua M. Rudd’s “initiative calls for the creation…of five new organizations inside the agency, in artificial intelligence, China, cybersecurity, combat support or warfighting, and global intelligence,” reports The Washington Post. “Each will be led by a newly elevated ‘mission director,’ according to former officials.” A prior re-org initiated in 2016 under then-Director Mike Rogers, estimated to take two years, “still remains unfinished.”

Opportunity Missed: 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed could’ve and should’ve been tried in New York, former DOJ prosecutor David Raskin wrote at The Washington Post.

“Unlike the military commissions underway at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba — which had planned to use so-called clean team FBI interrogations that were conducted after years of abusive detention until a military judge recently suppressed them in Mohammed’s case — a civilian prosecution would have had no need to flirt with legal gray zones. The admissible evidence was overwhelming. It included financial records, communications, co-conspirator testimony, physical evidence, Mohammed’s own uncoerced admissions and some surprises that have never been made public.” Raskin, who specialized in terrorism and national security cases for more than 20 years, maintained “that trial would have ended in conviction long ago, as the evidence demanded.” A conservative backlash barring the transfer of Guantánamo detainees to the mainland for civilian trials aborted the chance of real justice for the perpetrators—and victims. President Obama should’ve rejected the pressure and backed civilian trials, Raskin says.

Snap Back: Pegged to the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, “the CIA released dozens of intelligence documents it had sent to Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, outlining what was known about Al Qaeda.” Tucked at the end of a Sept. 10, 1998 report, a CIA analyst wrote that AQ “may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a U.S. city,” but “Intelligence provides no conclusive information on Bin Laden’s future attacks.” Another report said CIA suspected that “several recent walk-ins to our embassies may be part of an effort by Bin Laden to case US facilities,” and, for sure, in August 1998, AQ attacked U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. But “bin Laden late last month said his preferred option is to attack the U.S. on its own soil in Washington.” (NYT)

In case you missed it: See “CIA Officers Recall the Shock of 9/11.” Only at SpyTalk.

Saudi Bedfellows: Despite new evidence of official Saudi ties to two of the 9/11 hijackers and the reported order of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s to assassinate exile journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Trump administration is forging closer intelligence ties with Riyadh, reports CNN. “More than 100 US military advisers are on the ground in Saudi Arabia providing intelligence and targeting support to the Kingdom in its military campaign against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, multiple sources familiar with the effort say. The assistance comes as fighting on the peninsula intensifies and risks spilling into open war with the Houthis, threatening a second major shipping corridor out of the Middle East,” CNN said. Video released on Friday showed the Houthis’ capture of “U.S.-made Oshkosh M-ATV vehicles, technicals, armored vehicles, and artillery left intact” by retreating government forces. (Open Source Intel)

Don’t miss master CIA spy recruiter James Lawler with our Michael Isikoff on lessons of the game, on the SpyTalk podcast.

The Witkoff Deception: Trump envoy-at-large Steve Witkoff “hauled in more than $250 Million” while in government service last year, including millions from his stake in World Liberty, the Trump cryptocurrency firm with ties to the UAE, specifically Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the emirate’s spy chief, whose firm “bought nearly half of the company last year, a transaction that blurred the line between foreign policy and private enterprise and enriched Mr. Witkoff’s family and Mr. Trump’s,” as the New York Times’ Ben Protess and Andrea Fuller put it. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly claimed Witkoff has “fully divested from World Liberty Financial” and that his business dealings are “completely unrelated” to his diplomacy.

China Spying: Senior U.S. officials accused China of providing Iran with satellite images that helped the regime in July target a U.S base in Jordan, but Beijing “pushed back and demanded proof,” U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal. London’s iPaper, meanwhile, revealed that former Housing Minister Angela Rayner had “secretly” raised the espionage risk posed by China’s new London “mega embassy.” For its part, Beijing “urged the United States to “immediately stop all espionage activities targeting Chinese companies, warning that it had ‘firm resolve and abundant means’ to retaliate after a senior CIA official defended spying on China’s artificial intelligence (AI) and chip sectors.” (South China Morning Post)

Clumsy Russian Spy Ploy: A German journalist posed as a Putin fangirl online and Russian intelligence soon came calling. “Angelique Geray ran a fake channel for several months under the name ‘Katya’ — a Russia supporter,” the Eastern European news site Nexta reported. “She posted videos featuring the Russian flag and soon received assignments from people” who asked her “to photograph sites in Germany, monitor people from the CDU, arms companies and NGOs, as well as collect the personal data of their employees.” One of her dupes: German politician Jovica Jovitch, from the pro-Russian Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance. “He gave advice on developing the channel. For example, the politician suggested making a video of ‘Katya’ dancing on a NATO flag.” Achtung, baby! Postscript: “After Geray revealed her fake identity,” Nexta said, “unknown individuals threatened to kill her.”

Taking It to Russia: “Europe’s spies are finally taking off the gloves to face Putin,” claims a headline in the U.K. iPaper.

Goldfinger Deal: DOJ is quietly negotiating a plea deal with former senior CIA executive David Rush, who is accused of stashing $40 million worth of gold bars, cash and other valuables in his home (for purposes that remain unclear), according to a court filing Friday reported by CBS News. No doubt that’s one big can of worms the agency does not want opened in public.

Beirut Station: “The CIA station in Beirut was considered a plum assignment in the early Cold War, when the bar of the city’s St George’s Hotel was a centre of intrigue with ramifications across the Middle East,” writes Tom Griffin in a colorful brief history. Not so much anymore.

Strange Bedfellows: Espionage writer extraordinaire Ben McIntyre has yet another great-looking yarn out this week, Redwood: The Untold Story of the Cold War’s Most Extraordinary Spy. An excerpt in The Washington Post this week, set in Tehran in 1981, two years after the Islamic revolution, tells the story of how a desperate KGB agent in Iran offered to swap Moscow’s secret plan for a communist coup there in exchange for Viagra.

What’s in Your Garage? Fascinating story on how a Waterloo, N.Y. man rooting around in his garage discovered a box of classified World War Two files on the 1945 debriefings of U.S. prisoners of war in Germany. (Meryl Kornfield, The Washington Post)

People Get Ready: A Bob Woodward memoir is coming in November. “In Secrets, Woodward tells his story—from his Illinois youth to his Navy service during the Vietnam War to his tenure at The Washington Post, where his reporting with Carl Bernstein on Watergate captivated the world and became the book All the President’s Men,” plumps Simon & Schuster. “Like never before, Woodward takes readers inside his reporting on the White House, Supreme Court, CIA operations, and the Pentagon.”

Thank you for reading this. To support the work of all of us here at SpyTalk, please consider taking out a paid subscription. We can’t do it without you. Just click below for a no-obligation free trial.

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WaPo did a story about the investigations Democrats would like to do if they win the House. It’s a decent list:

• Trump family looting and corruption (building on this running tracker House Oversight Dems have done), including contracts won by Trump’s failsons, his IRS “settlement,” and his conversion of Truth Social into an insider trading scam
• Giveaways to supporters, whether in the form of pardons or mining and gas deals
• His replacement of American landmarks with tributes to himself, including the no-bid contracts that have destroyed those landmarks
• ICE, including Lewanoemski’s corruption, the death rates in ICE concentrations camps, and goon misconduct
• Various abuse of power in the government, including politicizing intelligence
• Politicized prosecutions, including the weaponization fund
• Coercion on private companies like Apple and Google to pull ICE apps, law firms to do free work, and quid pro quo for propaganda for regulatory approval for the Warner deal
• Epstein Epstein Epstein
• Foreign policy issues, including the replacement of career diplomats with Trump’s son-in-law and his developer buddy and the role of crypto investment in that deal and Trump’s acceptance of the Flying Bribery Palace from Qatar

This is, admittedly, a list designed to gin up support in advance of the midterms; in two places, the WaPo notes that Trump obstruction may make it very hard to pursue some of these investigations (at least via traditional methods, I would add). I don’t expect Democrats to share how they plan to bypass Trump’s obstruction.

But there’s something that’s is barely mentioned that I think does deserve some focus: Iran. It is mentioned, three times, in these contexts:

The politicization of intelligence:

Rep. Jim Himes (Connecticut), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said there has been a purge of intelligence officials who have contradicted the president, including the authors of an assessment that undercut Trump’s rationale for deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process and a report that found limited damage from U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites last year.

The aforementioned use of conflicted family members in lieu of actual diplomats and then — in the same section on foreign policy — “other:”

Trump’s close adviser Steve Witkoff, and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner have served as leading peace negotiators with countries including Iran, Israel, Russia and Ukraine, even without formally joining his administration.

[snip]

Other Democratic targets include the Board of Peace, a multinational group meant to end conflicts; the new presidential plane gifted by Qatar; tariffs and trade deals; the Iran war; military intervention and strikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats in Venezuela; and the redevelopment of Gaza.

Again, I have no problem with this list, as a pre-election talking point. But I suspect Iran may be a far more urgent issue, if it doesn’t become one before then. That’s because Iran seems to be playing for strategic advantage, with the help of Russia and China.

Mid-week last week, Philips OBrien vocalized something I’ve been obsessed about: Iran can do great damage to the US, strategically, by forcing it to use PATRIOT interceptors even with relatively innocuous attacks on US partners in the region, effectively bleeding out the US.

Iran has no interest in just sitting back and letting the US strangle its trade with no response. The Iranians seem to want (quite sensibly from a strategic point of view) to both impose itself on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and to bleed the USA of vital military equipment. They have one particularly vital area that they are clearly aiming for, to denude the USA of Patriot interceptors.

This is all part of an Iranian ability to opt for sideways escalation, a phrase I have been using for a while. That is by attacking facilities in US partner states in the region, which force the US to expend weapons such as Patriots, to defend them. In that way, even successful US interceptions end up weakening the US position.

On the evening of September 8 we had a prime example of this sideways escalation in operation. Jordan said that evening Iran had fired 20 ballistic missiles at it, 18 of which had been intercepted (and claimed that the other two failed to hit their target). If normal US protocol had been followed, and two patriots had been fired at each incoming missile, that means 36 more Patriots were used on just this one interception mission. That seems, unfortunately for the US, a gross underestimate. The skies over Jordan were full of Patriots, and different OSINT accounts are indicating that at least 60 patriots were fired in the operation (some say up to 100, but I would stay with the lower figure).

Presumably, both Russia and China would be happy to sustain Iran for some time if they can guarantee that the US will complete the process of shooting its wad. If that happens, the US will be left helpless against certain kinds of attacks, and Iran and Russia and possibly even China can launch offensive attacks on US targets.

Meanwhile, Iran’s clients in Yemen have succeeded in a two-fronted attack on the Saudis — hitting both their pipeline to the Red Sea and taking control of a key island in the Bam al-Mandeb — the very strait DOD shot its wad trying to reopen in early 2025, after discussing the “strategy” behind doing so on Signal.

Sal Mercogliano explains why this is important (and how expensive this has already made shipping).

And in his weekend post, OBrien returns to how suddenly things are going south for the US in the Middle East and speculates that the US refused Saudi Arabia’s request for help responding to the Houthis because the missile shortages make it impossible.

what we are seeing is a weakening US, having to abandon its key strategic and economic allies, as its flounders around running out of munitions and losing advanced equipment fighting Iran.

The US might (and arguably should) never recover from this disaster, at least in the eyes of its once allies and partners in the region. The idea of US military might has sustained the US for almost 80 years in this area. What states like Saudi Arabia did, was outsource much of their security to the USA based on the assumption that not only was the USA strong, but also that it was reliable.

The Saudis purchased such masses of weapons from the USA not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because they believed that this meant that if they were faced with real peril (like they are now) that the US would come to their aid.

Now, the USA is too weak to do so. What the Saudis are experiencing will also accelerate a move away from military dependence on America from other states in the Gulf. The US destroying its own strategic position was something I worried about in this August 2 piece in the Atlantic (Gift link). However, it has happened far more quickly than I imagined.

In its actions and military failures of the last six and a half months, the American Age in the Middle East seems to be unravelling at an accelerating rate.

Importantly, this will have increasingly urgent repercussions domestically. Diesel is already over $6, a record high, which puts pressure on truckers and therefore on all the goods they ship. Trump already significantly emptied the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, so he has fewer ways to intervene to insulate American consumers from rising prices. And all that’s before additional instability that Iran, at least, seems determined to attempt before the election.

Tomorrow, Iran and some countries (though not all) from the Gulf Cooperation Council will hold talks that could lead to a separate solution — or at least, add to the pressure on the US to capitulate to Iran.

Yes, underlying all this is the scandal that Jared and Witkoff didn’t understand the least little thing they were discussing in their last bid to forestall this war and likely hope to profit off any “deal” to end the war. Underlying this all is the corruption that drives every single thing Trump has done in his second term.

But the Iran War will not only provide a way to get to the corruption, it will present the kind of humiliation and — increasingly likely — not just short term economic pain but long term structural readjustment. It will also provide a way to demonstrate that white supremacists fuck everything up.

Most of all, it may create the kind of emergency that Democrats must prepare to exploit before the Disaster Capitalists get there first and before the white supremacists who got ass-handed move to scapegoat someone else.

The post The Iran Disaster Will Likely Be Job One appeared first on emptywheel.

We are now officially in the final post-Labor Day stretch of the midterm election campaign. And Democrats’ momentum is only building.

On the generic ballot, multiple polls this week have Democrats up 11 points, portending a possible massive blue wave coming this November.

Qunnipiac:

YouGov/The Economist:

Both of which follow last week’s Honest Poll, which found Dems with the same margin.

And as such, we are starting to see a consolidation of voters behind Democratic candidates.

A new poll out of Iowa shows Josh Turek ahead in the Senate race and Rob Sand up 10 for Governor.

A similar dynamic is playing out in Michigan.

And even more good news in Senate polling where those came from!

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US president brushes off Andy Burnham’s opposition to referendum and says he will remove Irish whiskey tariff

Donald Trump has reiterated his support for Irish unification and brushed off Andy Burnham’s opposition to a referendum.

“Everybody says that. Then things happen,” the US president said on Sunday of the British prime minister’s response.

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Welcome to today’s Trump Tyranny Tracker…

The Justice Department escalating pressure on state election officials, thousands of children suffering in immigration detention, and NATO allies disrupting a Russian operation targeting critical undersea cables are among today’s top stories.

Today at a Glance

• Children in Detention — Thousands of children have been held at the Dilley immigration detention center, with reports of prolonged detention, illness and severe psychological distress.

• Election Pressure — DOJ is threatening election officials with civil or criminal penalties as it demands records from the 2024 election and sensitive voter data.

• Russian Sabotage — NATO allies disrupted a Russian operation to disable critical undersea cables.

What We Need to Pay Attention To

D.O.J. Escalates Threats to States in Battle for Election Records

What Happened: The Justice Department ordered election officials in 29 states and D.C., to preserve records from the 2024 election, warning that officials are under investigation and that failure to retain records could bring civil or criminal penalties. DOJ has also sued 30 states and D.C. seeking unredacted voter registration lists containing sensitive personal information.

Why It Matters: DOJ is threatening state election officials with civil or criminal penalties while demanding sensitive voter data from an election held two years ago. This is part of Trump’s broader effort to sow distrust and take control over elections.

Source: New York Times

Corruption

RFK Jr. uses military aircraft as he campaigns for GOP in midterms

What Happened: RFK Jr. is using military aircraft for domestic travel, including a trip to Iowa where he appeared with Republican candidates for the midterms. The Air Force aircraft used for the trip costs about $9,000 per flight hour, compared with approximately $250 for a commercial ticket between D.C. and Des Moines. The White House and HHS lawyers approved the arrangement.

Source: The Washington Post

Trump’s Special Envoy Hauled In More Than $250 Million While in Government

What Happened: Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff reported at least $257 million in income in 2025, including around $107 million from a holding company that included his stake in World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency business founded by the Trump and Witkoff families. An investment firm tied to the UAE bought nearly half of World Liberty while Witkoff was conducting Middle East diplomacy and meeting with the UAE national security adviser who backed the investment.

Why It Matters: Witkoff went from Trump’s shady real estate friend to conducting U.S. foreign policy while making millions from private business interests tied to the countries he is negotiating with. This is yet another example of the mass corruption and cronyism in Trump’s regime.

Source: New York Times

As He Backs ICE Crackdown, Nebraska Governor Employs Undocumented Workers

What Happened: An investigation found that at least 20 hog farms owned by Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s family business employed undocumented workers, including some who used fake or stolen identities. Meanwhile, Pillen has partnered state police with ICE, provided a state facility for immigration detention, and backed Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Source: New York Times

Power Consolidation

Sending armed ICE agents to polling places would be a federal crime, lawsuit says

What Happened: Latino civil rights groups, Common Cause and the city of Denver sued to block armed immigration agents from polling places, citing an 1865 federal law that prohibits federal officials from deploying “troops or armed men” where elections are being held. DHS says it is not planning operations targeting polling places but has said agents could appear to respond to “threats” or serve warrants.

Why It Matters: This is part of Trump’s broader effort to seize control over elections. Putting armed federal agents anywhere near polling places is meant to cause fear and chaos.

Source: The Washington Post

Weaponization of Institutions

Prosecutor brought in to lead investigation of Trump foes tells AP that he has resigned his position

What Happened: Joe diGenova resigned five months after the DOJ brought him in to lead an investigation into former law enforcement and intelligence officials who investigated Russia and its attack on the 2016 election. His departure comes amid reported frustration inside DOJ and the White House over the pace of the probe, which has produced no charges.

Source: Associated Press

Europeans investigating Epstein say DOJ has not agreed to requests for help

What Happened: Law enforcement agencies in Poland, Norway and Latvia say DOJ has not responded to requests for evidence in their Epstein investigations. Poland requested unredacted files in April as part of an investigation into possible ties between Epstein and Russian intelligence, while Norway and Latvia are pursuing separate criminal investigations.

Why It Matters: European investigators are trying to uncover Epstein’s international network, including possible links to Russian intelligence, while DOJ continues to sit on evidence they requested months ago. Keeping those files from investigators keeps parts of Epstein’s network hidden.

Source: The Washington Post

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Media Suppression & Authoritarian Tactics

Kimmel says interview with James Talarico won’t air on TV under pressure from the FCC

What Happened: Jimmy Kimmel said his interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico will air on YouTube instead of ABC because of pressure from the FCC. Kimmel said the agency has threatened his show, ABC and its affiliates over editorial decisions and guest bookings.

Why It Matters: The FCC has a lot power over broadcasters. Using that power to influence political coverage gives the Trump regime another tool to punish unfavorable speech and pressure networks into compliance.

Source: Associated Press

‘The White House is watching this’: Fired immigration judge alleges retaliation by DOJ

What Happened: Former immigration judge Chloe Dillon says she was fired two days after reporting that ICE had unlawfully detained an unaccompanied minor who had just appeared in her courtroom. In a whistleblower lawsuit, Dillon says a supervisor had also warned her that “the White House” was watching after she challenged an ICE policy she believed was illegal.

Source: MS NOW

Human & Civil Rights Abuses

‘Will we ever get out?’: Thousands of children are suffering in Dilley detention center in abhorrent conditions

What Happened: Around 3,000 children have been held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas since family detention resumed in 2025, according to an attorney representing detained families. Some children have reportedly been held for months, with inadequate medical care, unsafe food and water, repeated illness and severe psychological distress. One 5-year-old reportedly tried to strangle himself after months in detention.

Why It Matters: These are serious human rights abuses. Children are being held for months in conditions that are making them physically and psychologically sick. Immigration detention is not supposed to become indefinite punishment, especially for children.

Source: MS NOW

Salvadoran TPS deadline nears, impacting 200,000 immigrants

What Happened: Temporary Protected Status for about 200,000 Salvadorans who have been allowed to live and work legally in the U.S. since 2001 reached its expiration date Wednesday with DHS yet to announce whether the protections will continue.

Source: NBC News

Government Disruption

Gold Star family calls on Army to release internal probe into deadly attack on Kuwait base: “My son died unnecessarily”

What Happened: The Army completed an investigation in July into the March 1 Iranian drone strike that killed six U.S. troops at a tactical operations center in Kuwait, but has not released its findings. The family of Army Reserve Capt. Cody Khork, one of those killed, is demanding the report and answers about potential security failures before the attack.

Source: CBS News

Trump administration fires prosecutor in dropped case against politically linked Indian billionaire

What Happened: DOJ purged a federal prosecutor who worked on the fraud and bribery case against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani. The prosecutor had asked to withdraw after Trump officials moved to drop the charges. A federal judge later dismissed the case but called DOJ’s handling “highly unusual” and pointed to irregularities in how it was handled.

Source: NBC News

How Trump administration threats could affect medical school admissions

What Happened: Trump officials are threatening medical schools with investigations, loss of federal funding and even their tax-exempt status over admissions policies meant to increase diversity. The regime says schools could be “breaking the law” even when they consider race-neutral factors like economic hardship if the goal is greater racial diversity. Courts have not settled that question.

Why It Matters: Billions in federal funding are on the line. Schools could be forced to drop admissions policies that have not even been ruled illegal.

Source: The Washington Post

Imperial & Geopolitical Watch

Houthis Seize Strategic Red Sea Port, a Major Victory for Iranian Ally

What Happened: Iran-backed Houthi forces captured the Yemeni port city of Mokha from Saudi-backed government forces and advanced onto nearby Red Sea islands, putting them closer to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The offensive was coordinated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which also provided additional weapons support.

Why It Matters: Trump’s war with Iran is creating economic chaos with no end in sight. Two of the world’s most important shipping routes are now under threat, pushing energy and shipping costs even higher.

Source: New York Times

Iran attack on base in Jordan damaged American military aircraft, US official says

What Happened: An Iranian missile attack on a U.S. air base in Jordan damaged an A-10 and eight F-15 fighter jets, according to a U.S. official. American forces fired about 30 Patriot interceptors during the attack as the military faces growing concerns over depleted air-defense stockpiles after six months of war with Iran.

Source: Reuters

Empty Seat: U.S. Absent as Western Powers Meet on Wartime Protections for Civilians

What Happened: The U.S. skipped a NATO meeting of an international group it helped create to reduce civilian casualties in war. This comes after Pete Hegseth dismantled much of the Pentagon program focused on civilian harm. Staffing has dropped from nearly 200 people to about two dozen, despite objections from senior military commanders.

Why It Matters: The U.S. is walking away from safeguards meant to protect civilians during military operations. With American forces involved in conflicts across the Middle East, dismantling those protections puts civilians at even greater risk.

Source: ProPublica

Iran Is Producing Ballistic Missiles Again

What Happened: U.S. and Middle Eastern officials say Iran is producing ballistic missiles again despite U.S. and Israeli strikes that badly damaged its missile industry. Iran is using stockpiled components and assembling missiles at underground facilities. Production is still below previous levels, but Iran is building new underground sites and is believed to have thousands of ballistic missiles left.

Source: Wall Street Journal

US pressures NATO allies to destroy International Criminal Court

What Happened: The U.S. is pushing NATO allies to leave the treaty that created the International Criminal Court and help “systematically dismantle” it, according to three NATO diplomats. U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker reportedly warned them, “We will be watching closely who stands with America.” DOJ has also confirmed that the U.S. rejects the court’s jurisdiction over Americans.

Why It Matters: The ICC prosecutes genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity when countries fail to do it. Dismantling the court would make it much harder to hold people accountable for some of the world’s most horrific crimes.

Source: Politico EU

Far-Right & Russian Influence Watch

NATO allies foil Russian subsea cable sabotage plot

What Happened: Britain, Norway and the U.S. tracked and confronted Russian vessels near Svalbard after detecting an operation by Russia’s secretive GUGI undersea warfare unit. Russian deep-sea submersibles were testing new technology designed to disable critical subsea cables without leaving evidence behind. NATO allies stopped the vessels from completing the exercise, and no cables were damaged.

Source: Reuters

Unmasking RussiaNew Investigation Reveals Russia Has Spent Decades Training Iran’s Defense SpecialistsNote: I am linking to both the Russian language (Svoboda) investigation and RFE/RL’s English version. The Russian investigation is much more detailed, while the English version summarizes the main findings…Read more4 days ago · 173 likes · 13 comments · Olga Lautman

Economic News

Wholesale inflation picked up in August, as energy costs kept rising

What Happened: U.S. wholesale inflation accelerated to 5.4% in August, up from 4.8% in July, as rising energy costs pushed prices higher. Energy prices jumped 4.2% in a single month, including a 24.1% surge in diesel prices.

Why It Matters: Businesses are paying more for energy and transportation, and those costs will be passed down to consumers. Americans already dealing with higher gas and energy prices will soon see those increases show up in the cost of everyday goods.

Source: CNN

US average diesel price passes $6 a gallon for the first time, GasBuddy says

What Happened: The national average price of diesel surpassed $6 a gallon for the first time due to Trump’s war with Iran. Brent crude climbed above $107 a barrel, while U.S. diesel inventories remain 13% below their five-year average.

Source: Reuters

Resistance

Check out 50501 for local and nationwide events…

Source: 50501

Dozens of protesters take to the streets outside the convention.

What Happened: Around 150 protesters marched outside the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention in Dallas to protest against Trump’s Iran war and immigration crackdown.

Source: New York Times

By the Numbers

• $257 million — Income reported by Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff in 2025

• 3,000 — Children held at the Dilley immigration detention center since Trump’s family detention resumed in 2025

• 200,000 — Salvadorans whose Temporary Protected Status is now in limbo

• 29 states + D.C. — Ordered by DOJ to preserve records from the 2024 election

• $6+ a gallon — National average diesel price, the highest ever recorded

• $107+ a barrel — Brent crude as the Iran war continues to disrupt global energy supplies

• ~30 — Patriot interceptors fired during a single Iranian attack on a U.S. base in Jordan

What to Watch Next

DOJ is escalating pressure on state election officials — How much further will the regime go in its effort to obtain voter data and records before the midterms?

Trump’s Iran war is spreading across the region — Will fighting around the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb cause even greater disruption to global shipping and energy supplies?

Diesel has crossed $6 and wholesale inflation is rising again — How quickly will higher fuel and transportation costs show up in everyday goods?

Russia is targeting NATO’s undersea infrastructure — Is Moscow preparing for another attack on critical undersea cables, and how will NATO respond?

Key Takeaways

Election Interference — DOJ is threatening state election officials over 2024 records while the prospect of armed ICE agents appearing at polling places has civil rights groups and Denver trying to stop it in federal court.

Immigration Crackdown — Thousands of children have been held for months in immigration detention as roughly 200,000 Salvadorans who have legally lived in the U.S. for decades wait to see if they lose their TPS.

Rising Costs — Trump’s Iran war is disrupting global energy and shipping routes as diesel passes $6 a gallon, oil climbs above $107 and wholesale inflation accelerates.

Government Weaponization — Federal power is being used in disputes involving election records, broadcasters, immigration courts and federal prosecutions.

Iran War Expands — Iran-backed Houthis have seized a strategic Red Sea port, American military aircraft were damaged in Jordan, and Iran has resumed producing ballistic missiles.

Call to Action

Document Everything: Document purges, corruption, and power grabs. Share credible information with journalists, watchdogs, and legal experts. Silence enables authoritarianism—see something, say something.

Defend Press Freedom: Support independent journalism by subscribing to and sharing reporting that challenges Trump’s power grab.

Mobilize for Action: Organize or join legal efforts and resistance movements to protect democracy and human and civil rights.

Thanks for reading the Trump Tyranny Tracker. Stay tuned for more updates.

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Trump’s toga | Reform UK donations | Ben Delo | Word watch | Andy Burnham | The name game

Octavian (later Emperor Augustus), following his victorious battles of Illyricum and Actium, announced he would give 400 sesterces to adult male citizens. Will we see the US president wearing an emperor’s purple and gold toga soon (Trump promise of $5,000 for US citizens after midterms decried as ‘bribery’, 10 September)?
David Shannon
Ashton under Hill, Worcestershire

• Can we assume that the donations to Reform UK from the billionaires Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo (Report, 12 September) will be followed by some sort of cash offer for every adult in the UK should Mr Farage win the next election?
Phil Thomas
Frodsham, Cheshire

Plan to give US adults $5,000 has been greeted with incredulity across the political spectrum as well as outrage

Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his controversial pledge to give US adults a $5,000 “dividend” if his Republican ⁠party keeps control of Congress after November’s midterm elections.

The plan has been greeted with expressions of incredulity across the US political spectrum as well as outraged accusations of seeking to bribe voters. The plan – which would cost more than a trillion dollars – also comes amid huge concern over the US national debt, which topped $40tn for the first time in August.

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

Trump commented on Truth Social that he is a “great golfer,” though he stated it is “too bad” he has “very little time to play.”

The State Department announced on September 12, 2026, the approval of $1 million in forensic support for the Nepal Police to assist with disaster victim identification following flooding. The Department noted this contribution brings total U.S. assistance to over $5 million, provided through partners including the World Food Program and Catholic Relief Services. The Department stated that U.S. military assets have delivered recovery supplies and equipment, and that it is prepared to provide further assistance based on Nepal’s needs.

Governor JB Pritzker reported in his daily public schedule that he has no public events scheduled for Saturday, September 12, 2026.

2. White House News

No White House news found.

3. Truth Social Posts

Trump commented that he is a “great golfer,” though he added that it is “too bad” he has “very little time to play.”

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

4. Government Department News

State Department (state.gov)

United States Approves Additional Funding for the Nepal Floods Response

The State Department approved $1 million in forensic support for Nepal Police to assist with disaster victim identification following recent flooding. This brings total U.S. assistance to over $5 million, including food, logistics, shelter, and health resources provided through the World Food Program, Catholic Relief Services, and other partners. Additionally, the U.S. military has delivered recovery supplies and equipment, and FBI specialists are working with local authorities. The Department states it is prepared to provide further assistance based on Nepal’s needs.

5. Selected Democratic Officials

JB Pritzker (gov.illinois.gov)

Daily Public Schedule: Saturday, September 12, 2026

Governor Pritzker has no public events scheduled for Saturday, September 12, 2026.

6. AI & Tech Company News

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

7. Congressional Watch

Covers the 2026-09-11 session — the Congressional Record is published with a one-day delay.

No Congressional Record found for 2026-09-11.

President has hyped growth of federal investment accounts to help US children – for his own political gain

Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has scrapped rules that made childcare more affordable and pushed to cut funding for the nation’s public schools. But with midterm elections fast approaching and his approval ratings very low, the US president has repeatedly trumpeted a two-month-old program designed to help the nation’s children. That program, unhumbly named “Trump accounts”, calls for the federal government to give a one-time $1,000 seed deposit to every newborn whose family applies.

In campaign speeches this summer, Trump has sought to milk these accounts for maximum political advantage, making big promises about how much these accounts will help the nation’s children. In a speech in Las Vegas last month, Trump hailed the program, saying: “It’s really giving [children] a head start on the American dream… They start off with $1,000 … and they can end up with $100,000, $200,000, $300,000” and if the stock market booms, “you’d end up with $1m”.

As Muslims win historic victories, experts describe rise in anti-Islamic sentiment that rivals post-9/11 climate

Within hours of Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic US Senate primary, Republican senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama declared that the party had “just voted to send a TERRORIST” to Washington.

El-Sayed – or “Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed”, as Tuberville called him on X – was a “RADICAL ISLAMIST” who would “do everything he can to destroy America”, he claimed.

President and allies have tried to ram through changes to the US voting system, but his efforts are being challenged

Voting by mail is a “hoax”, according to Donald Trump, despite about 29% of American voters casting their vote this way in 2024. The US president has repeatedly done so himself.

But the Trump administration is nevertheless attempting to ram through a sweeping crackdown on the practice, pushing for changes to federal law.

As John Healey drafts his autumn budget, the US president’s policies continue to inflate debt servicing costs

Britain is not entirely in control of its own destiny, from the rising cost of the weekly shop, to the vaulting cost of government borrowing. What is said and done in Westminster matters. But the global backdrop is making life tough, not least in the deeds and words of one man: Donald Trump.

As John Healey drafts his plan for next month’s autumn budget, the perilous economic conditions the chancellor must navigate can be traced back to the door of the US president.

Vice-president wears religion on his sleeve but winding spiritual path could alienate evangelicals and Catholics

US vice-president JD Vance has worn his religion on his sleeve since converting to Catholicism in 2019. He recently published a book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, and memorably met the late Pope Francis at the Vatican on Easter Sunday in 2025, a day before the pontiff died.

But his religious identity could take on new weight as he positions himself for a presidential run in 2028, in which a successful campaign would make him only the third Catholic president in US history. Vance’s winding spiritual path – combined with his avowed evangelical roots – have the potential to stymie him, as he seeks to retain the Christian nationalist voters that have sustained Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) movement while wooing fellow Catholics.