“It’s a five-alarm fire.” A “slow moving car crash.” Republicans are “hemorrhaging” and “should brace for losing everything.”
Republicans have been full of doom in recent days, as they confront the reality that their political prospects do not seem to be improving. And their candidates are rapidly running out of time for a turnaround.
With less than 30 days before the election, Democrats are reaching deeper into traditionally conservative areas while Republicans find themselves fighting to save their incumbents.
Decisions last week by Republicans to pull money out of the North Carolina Senate race and divert resources to Kansas demonstrated the depth of their party’s challenge, as new New York Times/Siena University polls found strength for Democrats in five reliably Republican states that could determine control of the chamber.
Turning to Chump, Chump's 2026 Desperation Tour continues with him dashing around the country trying to woo voters who no longer like him. Sean James (MEDIAITE) reports that in Vandalia, Ohio he urged voters to turn out and vote GOP, "And we're gonna shove it up their a**, okay?" Okay, He was back in Mobile, Alabama where, in better years for him, he once filled a 30,seat auditorium. But this go round? Shawn McCreesh (NEW YORK TIMES) explains, "These days, Mr. Trump is in political trouble, even with members of his famously loyal base. The indoor arena that he spoke at on Friday was a fraction of the size of the football stadium he once spoke in — security concerns are such that he rarely speaks in outdoor venues anymore — and still the place was not full. Some upper sections were almost completely empty." Low turn out and crazy, sleazy statements.
Arianna Coghill (MOTHER JONES) reports:
On Saturday, President Donald Trump hosted a campaign rally for Ohio senatorial and gubernatorial candidates, John Husted and Vivek Ramaswamy. As part of his campaign to revive GOP turnout and avoid what is widely predicted to be a Democratic sweep, he appeared in Ohio following weekend visits to Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama. With his signature lack of subtlety, he encouraged the state’s voters to head to the polls.
“Just get out and vote,” Trump told a crowd that barely filled a high school gymnasium in the city of Vandalia. “If you do that, we’re going to win, and we’re going to win big. And we’re going to shove it up their ass.” Ohio, a state that Trump has won three times, has become a battleground for the same reasons that the GOP is predicting a bleak forecast in this year’s midterms: skyrocketing gas prices, bipartisan disdain for data centers, high costs for food and utilities, and Trump’s unpopular war with Iran.
On the sad spectacle that Chump has turned himself into, Katie Rogers (NEW YORK TIMES) adds:
If President Trump’s earlier political rallies felt like standing-room-only rock concerts, the latest ones are starting to feel like the first stops of a farewell tour.
The events are a ritual. He will attack Democrats. His words will probably stop making actual, logical sense for a moment, or for many moments. (It’s “the weave,” you see.) He will accuse Democrats of rigging the 2020 election (they didn’t). He will attack the news media. Then he will dance to a Village People song.
At a time when embattled Republican candidates could use concentrated attention — and money — to elevate a prospective new crop of leaders, Mr. Trump is clinging to an old strategy that has served him for years: talking mostly about himself. With a month until the midterms, he is again rallying, talking up his record, offering cash prizes and asking supporters to play pretend.
Chump plays pretend along with the small number that shows up to see him -- they bother pretend he's still capable of drawing huge crowds:
The president has maintained that the events have “sold out” and that there are overflow crowds in each town. The rallies are, in fact, more modest — and at times more sedate — than they used to be.
In Oklahoma, visitors nearly filled an event center on a casino complex with a capacity of 4,920. In Alabama, the same state where 30,000 people attended a Trump rally in a 30,000-person stadium in August 2015, there were swaths of empty seats at the 10,000-capacity athletic center where Mr. Trump spoke on Friday. In Ohio a day later, several areas of an upper deck were empty by the time Mr. Trump finished speaking at a 4,500-capacity high school student activity center.
If you're thinking things are going better for Vice President JD Vance, think again. Alexander Willis (RAW STORY) reports:
Vice President JD Vance's rally ended with a Democratic candidate behind bars Friday, but the heckler quickly became a hero to countless onlookers after video of the confrontation went viral.
“Thank you so much, Vice President Vance, for the gas prices!” shouted Ben Braver, a Democratic candidate for the Florida House, during a GOP rally in Lakeland, Florida on Friday.
“Thank you for helping us win in Iran! Thank you, President Trump! Thank you so much, JD, you are such a good vice president, you pedophile protector! I’m excited for the $5,000 check, I’m so excited!”
CBS' FACE THE NATION Sunday featured a conversation from Margaret Brennan and Senator Mark Kelly:
SENATOR MARK KELLY: But you got to remember this is a guy that gave a big tax cut to the wealthiest Americans, to billionaires and millionaires, and then, to partially pay for it, he's kicking people off of their health care, off of Medicaid. He's taken food benefits away from people that are having a hard time affording food, even children, in order to help out his family and his friends.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
SENATOR MARK KELLY: So I think people should see this for what it is, especially this $5,000 payment if Republicans maintain control of the House and the Senate. I mean, this is just a – a payoff, and he's trying to buy votes. I mean, are you surprised with this president, who, in my view, is the most corrupt occupant of the Oval Office ever? I'm not surprised, but it's not right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But what is the affirmative Democratic message here, other than, we're not him?
SENATOR MARK KELLY: Well, we're going to lower costs for the American people.
MARGARET BRENNAN: How?
SENATOR MARK KELLY: We've got to win the House and/or the Senate. Well – well, how will we do this? I have legislation with – with Chris Van Hollen. We've got to get Republicans on board. It raises taxes for people who make over a million dollars a year in income, and it provides tax cuts for people, individuals and even couples up to – who make up to about $160,000 a year. That's some relief. Ending this war in Iran that he started without a – any kind of a strategic goal or a plan has jacked up prices for the American people. Ending that would help. Getting this tariff policy reversed, these ridiculous tariffs that have also jacked up prices, the American people pay this. For some reason, the president thinks that foreign countries are paying for these tariffs. That is not true.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning and welcome to "THIS WEEK."
I have experienced political waves from the inside. Thirty-two years ago this week, I was working in the White House when a red wave was building. The economy was growing, but voters were not feeling it. After the collapse of his health care plan, President Clinton's approval ratings were stuck in the low 40s. So, he was advised to stay off the campaign trail, where he might hurt more than help.
That did not quite happen. And the red wave crested on Election Day in a big way. The GOP won 54 House seats, eight Senate seats, gaining control of Congress for the first time in 40 years.
Flash forward to today. With voters unhappy about the economy and his approval ratings stuck in the 30s, the president is also being warned against making the midterms a referendum on himself. And like Clinton, Trump is resisting that advice, barnstorming in deep red states and taking his campaigning to another level, personally commissioning ads, paid for by taxpayers, that put the president front and center. One even titled "God made Trump."
Four weeks from the final midterm votes, that's where we begin this week. Here's Jay O'Brien.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAY O'BRIEN, ABC NEWS CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): You're watching an ad you paid for. Part of a series airing across the country praising President Trump that this week set off a political firestorm less than a month out from the midterms. One championing the war in Iran.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To the great, proud people of Iran.
O'BRIEN (voice over): Another decrying socialism and communism. And one featuring President Trump speaking at Mount Rushmore. At the bottom of each, this disclaimer, paid for by the U.S. government.
"The New York Times" reporting President Trump personally directed the Office of Management and Budget to find government funds for the ads. At least $3.5 million of taxpayer money spent so far according to one estimate.
The funds coming from the Department of Homeland Security, which last month awarded a $20 million contract to a Maryland ad agency days before the TV spots rolled out. Federal records show it came via a section of the Customs and Border Protection budget for commemorative events typically used to pay for things like memorials for officers killed in the line of duty, or commendation ceremonies, according to a congressional report. Democrats and even some Republicans charging the ads could violate federal law, which prohibits public funds from being used to campaign.
SEN. THOM TILLIS, (R) NORTH CAROLINA: That's not how we should be spending taxpayer dollars.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, (D) CONNECTICUT: They are absolutely illegal.
TRUMP: We are the freest people on earth.
O'BRIEN (voice over): The White House has repeatedly called these ads public service announcements to justify using taxpayer funds.
TRUMP: This is the final battle.
O'BRIEN (voice over): But decide for yourself. One of the ads, titled "the final battle," features a long, continuous shot of Trump. It was used in 2024 as a campaign ad. President Trump defending the spots, arguing he's not on the ballot.
TRUMP: I'm not promoting myself because I'm not running for office. I'm promoting the country.
O'BRIEN (voice over): The president had a different message, though, at the midterm convention.
TRUMP: To pretend that I'm on the ballot.
O'BRIEN (voice over): And again Friday night.
TRUMP: Close your eyes and pretend I'm on the ballot.
O'BRIEN (voice over): Some Republicans we pressed insisted they hadn't seen the ads.
SEN. ERIC SCHMITT, (R) MISSOURI: I have not see it.
O'BRIEN: But they appear to be political ads using taxpayer money. Wouldn't that be illegal to do that?
SCHMITT: I don't know that they're taxpayer dollars. I don't know that.
O'BRIEN: They are.
SCHMITT: I don't know.
O'BRIEN: The White House has said that.
O'BRIEN (voice over): Several GOP lawmakers claiming both the Bush and Obama administrations took out similar ads, but those were for specific issues, like Medicare and the Affordable Care Act. And this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune voicing their disapproval, too, saying of the president's ads, "I like the message, but it shouldn't be paid for with taxpayer dollars."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN (on camera): Democrats on Capitol Hill have sent a number of letters demanding answers from the administration, and they've also asked a government watchdog agency to investigate. But bottom line here, George, the White House shows no signs of backing down. So, unless something changes, these ads are likely to continue to run at least until Election Day.
George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Sure seems that way. Thanks, Jay.
With more on Chump's illegal theft of US tax dollars, Jason Linkins (THE NEW REPUBLIC) reports:
This week, one of the most talked-about stories has been President Donald Trump’s decision to spend taxpayer money on campaign ads that the administration is misleadingly characterizing as “public service announcements.” The move is vintage Trump in that the ads are both staggeringly corrupt—the administration is spending $20 million of the Department of Homeland Security’s money on them, in violation of the Hatch Act—and propagandizing slop. One ad, which uses a song without the artist’s permission, has Trump asking people, “Love me.” Another warns of a “final battle.” So far, the administration has only spent a fraction of the money that’s been allocated to this endeavor, so you can count on seeing many more iterations of these fake PSAs, which Trump is said to be guiding.
But rather than think of this as some kind of flex, or one more scandalous abuse of the public trust, I want to suggest that what these ads represent is desperation—an acknowledgment that if Trump’s goose isn’t cooked yet, the pot is at least boiling. I also think, if anything, this fusillade of propaganda will likely backfire.
These ads haven’t generated good news for Trump; very few people outside of the administration and its obvious sycophants have tried to defend them. Moreover, the media seems resistant to give this story the “both sides” treatment. As with Trump’s 25-minute prime-time ramble last July, the political press seems wise to what’s going on. Of that aforementioned speech, TNR editor Michael Tomasky said, the overall reaction to the president’s attempt to shine us on “tells us that that power he had over people and institutions a year or 15 months ago has evanesced.” I think these PSAs do little else than advertise that fact.
I am not sure that Republican lawmakers necessarily agree with that assessment, but their own appraisals range from avoidant to withering. As MS NOW reported this week, “even congressional Republicans are expressing concern that the ads may violate the laws governing PSAs.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune is quoted in the piece as saying that he didn’t mind the message of the ad but believed “it shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars.” That’s about the nicest thing any Republican who made their way into the story had to say about it, with Senator Mike Rounds saying, “It’s not something I would have done” and the outgoing Thom Tillis comparing it to Viktor Orbán. “I hate it,” said Tillis, bluntly.
Trump’s midterm activities aren’t limited to these controversial ads. According to reports, the president is planning to spend 32 of the next 35 days on the road campaigning for Republicans. As Politico notes, many of his intended destinations suggest the GOP is in tremendous peril. Instead of swing states and traditionally competitive districts, Trump is visiting “bastions of conservatism” like Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Texas. He’s even going to trek out to Alaska, “a significant commitment of time and presidential resources that underscores how dire the situation is for Republicans.” As one GOP donor told Politico, “The problem is that the fires are everywhere right now
In the last hours of Kristi Noem’s tenure as the homeland security secretary, her agency delivered a windfall to one of her political donors by buying five airplanes from the man’s firm at a substantial markup, documents show.
The Department of Homeland Security agreed to pay the donor’s firm $108 million for a Boeing 737 airliner that had been converted into a massive private jet, complete with a stand-up bar, two bedrooms, marble showers and a table covered in manta ray skin.
The firm, Daedalus Aviation Corporation, had bought the same plane a few months earlier from a seller who had asked for less than $90 million, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.
At the same time, the agency agreed to buy two smaller Gulfstream luxury jets at prices that also seemed to yield a hefty profit for the seller. Daedalus spent about $83 million to buy the pair, but resold them to the agency for $106 million, the documents show.
President Trump announced on March 5 that he was firing Ms. Noem after a series of controversies, including questions about her agency’s awarding of contracts. But she remained in the position until her successor, Markwayne Mullin, was approved by the Senate and could take over on March 24.
After taking over, Mr. Mullin explored backing out of the deal, according to two White House officials, but feared a significant financial penalty. The officials said that Mr. Mullin consulted the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who shared his concerns about the possible financial ramifications and told him that he should not seek to block the purchase. He did not.
Paolo Zampolli, 56, who has served as Trump's special envoy for global partnerships since March 2025, is named in a civil complaint filed by tech entrepreneur Victoria Drake, 33, according to The Daily Beast's investigative unit PunchUp.
Attorney General Todd Blanche moved on October 1 to end journalist Katie Phang’s Epstein-files lawsuit at the pleading stage, asking U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to rule that she cannot prevail as a matter of law.
Phang has been providing updates on her case exclusively on her podcast, Sidebar with Katie Phang.
The move comes after Sullivan granted Phang preliminary-injunction relief in June, rejecting the Trump administration’s attempt to keep the case from moving forward after the Justice Department declared that its Epstein-files release was complete. The department had produced about 3.5 million pages and announced compliance on January 30. The court’s June opinion records both the declaration and the ruling.
Blanche’s latest filing attacks the same core questions that have already put his department under a federal judge’s supervision: whether the Justice Department can withhold covered records, retain disputed redactions and avoid explaining each secrecy decision.
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) reintroduced the National Institutes of Clean Energy Act (NICE), legislation that would invest $400 billion over the next decade to establish and operate a new system of institutes at the Department of Energy focused on research and development of advanced clean energy technologies. The National Institutes of Clean Energy, modeled after the National Institutes of Health, would invest in clean energy science, innovation, and research and development to support projects that help reduce carbon emissions and build climate resilience.
The United States has the highest GDP in the world but ranks 13th globally for capital invested in public research and development. Because these funds directly contribute to the generation of knowledge and advanced technologies, how much the United States spends on research and development provides a snapshot of how innovative the economy truly is. By making smart investments in the nation’s future, the United States can begin developing new technologies to combat the climate crisis and strengthen the nation’s resilience.
“The United States must be at the forefront of the fight for a cleaner and greener planet,” said Senator Warren. “We need to continue prioritizing the climate-related innovation that will get us there.”
“Investing in clean energy research and development is essential to boosting our economy and addressing the climate impacts pummeling our communities,” said Representative Huffman. “The NICE Act is a prime example of how the United States can accelerate the transition to a clean energy future by fostering innovative green technology.”
The funding established in the bill would support:
- Developing advanced energy technologies in hard-to-decarbonize sectors, like aviation and shipping;
- Focusing on clean energy research areas that are underrepresented in existing federal research and development funding;
- Developing projects on the impacts of energy production in frontline communities, including communities of color and low-income communities, that have been disproportionately impacted by environmental injustices;
- Supporting research and development projects focused on the impacts of clean energy and energy production on job loss, job creation, and workforce development.
Moreover, the National Institutes of Clean Energy Act prioritizes R&D of technologies that:
- Minimize environmental harms and negative public health impacts on frontline and disadvantaged communities and create high-quality jobs in these communities;
- Are conducted at public universities, consortiums of land grant colleges and universities, or minority-serving institutions, including historically Black colleges and universities;
- Are developed in areas that have seen the worst job losses over the past five years – including rural areas and areas impacted by deindustrialization.
This legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.); and Representatives Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), and Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.).
The legislation is endorsed by MoveOn, GreenLatinos, Center for Progressive Reform, League of Conservation Voters, Friends of the Earth, New Consensus, Public Citizen, and Climate Hawks Vote.
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Low T JD2 days ago
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The verdict is in on Chump2 days ago
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Chump cannot out run his lies2 days ago
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