Conversation
-
Trump Tyranny Tracker | Day 613: Sept. 28, 2026
source
In advance of the upcoming midterm elections, the Trump administration has embarked on an intensive campaign to prove that noncitizens are voting illegally, despite evidence that it is very rare.Credit...Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York TimesWelcome to today’s Trump Tyranny Tracker…
Trump building a national citizenship database to screen voters, taxpayer money being used to air one of his 2024 campaign ads, and a Pentagon breach exposing sensitive information are among today’s top stories.
Today at a Glance
Trump expands a national citizenship database to screen voters weeks before the midterms.
Taxpayer money is being used to air a Trump 2024 campaign ad.
Pentagon breach exposes sensitive information on close to 3 million people.
What We Need to Pay Attention To
Here’s How Trump Is Building a National Citizenship Database to Check Voters
What Happened: The Supreme Court allowed Trump to use an expanded federal citizenship database that combines DHS records with Social Security data to check voter rolls. States can now search millions of registered voters at once, including U.S.-born citizens who previously had no records in the immigration system.
Why It Matters: Trump is turning a government benefits system into a tool for screening voters weeks before the midterms. Eligible U.S. citizens can be wrongly flagged as noncitizens and potentially purged from voter rolls. This is why it is so important to keep checking your voter registration.
Source: New York Times
Corruption
Watchdog Agency Pulls Back on Markets Enforcement Under Trump
What Happened: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has sharply reduced enforcement under Trump, filing an average of one new case per month, one-fifth the rate under Biden. The agency has also closed investigations and eased oversight of crypto and prediction market companies, including businesses connected to Donald Trump Jr.
Why It Matters: Enforcement is being gutted while industries tied to Trump family businesses benefit from weaker oversight. Farmers, investors and consumers are being left with less protection against fraud and market manipulation.
Source: New York Times
Power Consolidation
The Untold Origins of Trump’s Plan to Sharply Restrict Mail-In Voting
What Happened: The White House sought to require mail ballots to be sent by certified mail and signed for upon delivery. Postal officials warned the plan was unworkable and were later excluded from discussions as Trump moved ahead with new federal restrictions on mail ballots.
Why It Matters: Trump tried to make mail voting harder weeks before the midterms. Postal officials warned the changes could prevent eligible voters from having their ballots counted, while board members reportedly feared Trump would fire them if they pushed back.
Source: ProPublica
Weaponization of Institutions
Hegseth orders cyber, intelligence agencies to prioritize election defense
What Happened: Pete Hegseth ordered U.S. Cyber Command, the NSA, DIA and other military intelligence agencies to prioritize foreign threats to the 2026 elections. The order comes after Trump officials dismantled the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and cut election security operations in other federal agencies.
Source: Defense One
Second prosecutor resigns from Justice Department ‘grand conspiracy’ probe targeting Trump foes
What Happened: Kurt Olsen, a Trump ally who backed efforts to overturn the 2020 election, resigned from the Justice Department’s “grand conspiracy” investigation into former officials who investigated Trump. He is the second Trump-aligned prosecutor to leave the probe in weeks.
Why It Matters: Trump put his cronies in charge of investigating the people who investigated him. Two have now quit without bringing charges, and a career national security prosecutor was removed after questioning whether there was enough evidence to bring a case.
Source: Associated Press
Judge blocks Trump from tying anti-terrorism grants to election changes
What Happened: A federal judge blocked Trump from withholding 20% of counterterrorism grants unless state and local governments adopted election changes favored by the White House. The requirements included hand-marked paper ballots, manual audits and checks of voter rolls against a DHS database.
Why It Matters: Trump tried to use federal counterterrorism money to force states and local governments to change how they run elections. The judge ruled Congress never gave FEMA that authority.
Source: Reuters
Media Suppression & Authoritarian Tactics
Trump administration begins airing 2024 Trump campaign ad in latest taxpayer-funded messaging
What Happened: The federal government is spending taxpayer money to air a television ad virtually identical to one used by Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. The ad promises a “final battle” against “globalists,” “warmongers,” the “deep state” and the “fake news media,” and ends with “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” More than $319,000 has already been spent airing it.
Why It Matters: Taxpayer money is being used to promote Trump and his propaganda weeks before the election. Russia does the same thing, using state resources to push Putin’s propaganda.
Source: Politico
Human & Civil Rights Abuses
Gone in 90 seconds: an ‘invisibilized’ ICE is arresting more people than ever
What Happened: ICE is expanding operations nationwide while moving away from highly visible raids. Arrests have reached record levels, its workforce has more than doubled to over 22,000, and it has signed more than 2,500 agreements with local law enforcement.
Why It Matters: ICE is expanding its crackdown while making its operations harder to see. Record numbers of people are being arrested using tactics that are harder for families, lawyers and witnesses to track.
Source: The Guardian
Government Disruption
Pentagon breach exposed sensitive data on nearly 3 million people
What Happened: A Pentagon database breach exposed sensitive information on 2.76 million people, including Social Security numbers and details about military and civilian jobs. The system was accessed without authorization for months before the breach was discovered in July.
Why It Matters: A breach exposing millions of military personnel creates identity theft and national security risks, including information that foreign intelligence services can exploit to identify and target U.S. service members.
Source: ABC News
Food safety becomes an election issue as major outbreaks and recalls cause concern
What Happened: Nearly 20,000 laboratory-confirmed cyclospora infections were reported from May through August, compared with 1,180 during the same period last year, making it the largest recorded outbreak of the parasite. Food safety scientists have linked growing risks to federal public health cuts.
Source: CBS News
Trump rolls back car fuel efficiency standards
What Happened: Trump rolled back fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks, cutting the 2031 fleet target from 50.4 miles per gallon to 34.9 mpg. Trump says the weaker standards will reduce vehicle prices, while the previous rules were projected to save drivers more than $600 in lifetime fuel costs.
Source: The Hill
Kennedy Center put off planned repairs despite known structural issues, former employees allege
What Happened: Former Kennedy Center employees told Congress that Trump-installed leadership knew about serious structural problems and stopped repairs that had already been funded months before closing the center over safety concerns. Executive director Matt Floca disputes their account and says the repairs became part of a larger project after costs increased.
Source: PBS NewsHour
Imperial & Geopolitical Watch
Trump Offered to Sell Arms to China, U.S. Ambassador Says
What Happened: U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue said Trump asked Xi Jinping whether China wanted to buy American weapons. The State Department later said U.S. law prohibits arms sales to China and that there is no offer or plan for a sale.
Why It Matters: Trump reportedly offered weapons to America’s main military competitor while holding up a $14 billion arms package for Taiwan and treating it as leverage in negotiations with Beijing. U.S. law prohibits arms sales to China.
Source: New York Times
Far-Right & Russian Influence Watch
Ukraine’s city of Oleshky faces starvation as Russia blocks all aid
What Happened: Roughly 2,000 civilians, including dozens of children, remain trapped in Russian-occupied Oleshky without regular access to food, medicine, running water or electricity. Ukrainian officials say Russian forces are blocking evacuations, shooting down drones carrying food and confiscating humanitarian supplies.
Why It Matters: Russia is deliberately depriving civilians in occupied Ukraine of food and humanitarian aid. Starvation has long been a weapon of Russian repression, most notoriously during the Holodomor genocide, when the Soviet regime used hunger to kill millions of Ukrainians.
Source: Euronews
Economic News
American farmers are hurting — and worried about their futures
What Happened: American farmers are facing sharply higher operating costs and weaker export markets. Fertilizer prices are up 15% from last year and diesel has jumped 80%, while U.S. agricultural exports to China remain far below levels before Trump’s second term.
Why It Matters: Farmers are being hit by the Iran war and Trump’s trade war at the same time. Fuel and fertilizer costs are soaring while one of their biggest export markets has collapsed.
Source: NPR
Resistance
Check out 50501 for local and nationwide events…
Source: 50501
By the Numbers
2.76 million — People whose sensitive information was exposed in the Pentagon breach
$1.1 billion — Counterterrorism grants Trump tried to tie to changes in state and local election rules
$319,000 — Taxpayer money spent airing a Trump 2024 campaign ad
20,000 — Cyclospora infections reported from May through August, compared with 1,180 during the same period last year
22,000 — ICE personnel after more than doubling in size
2,500 — Agreements ICE has signed with local law enforcement agencies
80% — Increase in diesel costs hitting American farmers
12 — Months until the Pentagon breach was discovered after unauthorized access began
What to Watch Next
Trump is building a nationwide voter screening system weeks before election — How will states use the database, and how many eligible citizens will be wrongly flagged and purged from voter rolls?
Trump is using federal power and money to reshape the election environment — What other funding, agencies or government resources will be used to pressure states or promote his political agenda?
Trump has dismantled parts of the government’s election security infrastructure and shifted more responsibility toward the military and intelligence agencies — What role will those agencies play as the midterms approach?
Key Takeaways
Rising Costs — Farmers are facing soaring fuel and fertilizer costs while losing access to one of their biggest export markets.
Election Control — Trump is expanding a national voter screening database while trying to impose federal restrictions on mail voting and use counterterrorism money to force states to adopt his preferred election rules.
Government Breakdown — A Pentagon breach exposed sensitive information on nearly 3 million people while public health cuts leave agencies with fewer resources to protect the food supply.
Immigration Crackdown — ICE has more than doubled its workforce and expanded arrests while shifting toward tactics that are harder for the public to see.
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.
Contact Lawmakers: Demand accountability for Trump’s unchecked power and war on oversight.
Mobilize for Action: Organize or join legal efforts and resistance movements to protect democracy and human and civil rights.
Support Whistleblowers: Encourage legal defense funds for government workers facing retaliation for exposing corruption.
Follow my work on YouTube → Subscribe to Unmasking Russia
https://youtube.com/@unmaskingrussia
Preorder My New Book…
Putin’s Pawns takes you on a journey from the earliest days of the Cold War and Soviet KGB active measures through Russia’s attacks on Western elections, the rise of the far right, Trump and Russia, the genocidal war against Ukraine, influence operations across Europe, and the shadow war unfolding today.
It is the story of how Moscow spent decades learning to exploit the weaknesses of democracies and how those tactics brought us to this moment.
Thanks for reading the Trump Tyranny Tracker. Stay tuned for more updates.
