President Donald Trump has repeatedly tried to act beyond the limits of the law and his responsibilities to the U.S. Constitution. Federal courts have ruled against his attempts to control elections at least 34 times, including eight rulings from judges he appointed. If Republicans lose control of the House, or both chambers, Americans should be prepared for him to take desperate, or possibly lawless action right after the November 3 midterm elections.

“National security officials have been secretly bracing for the possibility that Donald Trump refuses to accept the midterm election results,” The Daily Beast reported.

“A small group of U.S. national security officials has been discreetly advising state governments and congressional lawmakers on how to prepare for the possibility that the Trump administration will attempt to interfere in November’s midterm elections,” The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

Here are five desperate actions Trump could conceivably take.

Bomb Iran

News reports for weeks, and as recently as Wednesday, state there are plans for Trump to restart bombing Iran after the midterms.

“President Trump has rejected Iran’s proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the midterm elections,” The Wall Street Journal reported last month.

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“The US military has developed new strike plans that include potentially using the so-called ‘mother of all bombs’ to target Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites should President Donald Trump give the order to resume combat operations either before or after the midterm elections,” CNN reported one week ago, citing multiple U.S. officials.

“The U.S. and Israeli militaries have developed specific plans for renewed strikes against Iran after the American midterm elections,” The New York Times, citing U.S. officials, reported on Wednesday.

Pin the Blame on Scapegoats

The White House is reportedly already bracing for what polls suggest could be a massive blue wave. If Republicans suffer extensive losses, people close to Trump told CNN, he is certain to find someone to blame, and it won’t be him.

“Trump administration officials are bracing for a White House purge should Donald Trump take a beating in the Nov. 3 midterm elections,” The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday. “With just 13 days to go, officials told CNN that the Republicans are preparing for a potentially disastrous result that sees them lose control of both the House and Senate. Some are convinced that the president would then fire key aides in a massive shakeup of his Cabinet as he looks to shift the blame.”

Reports suggest White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has drawn scrutiny, following a Politico report Trump had sounded out allies about replacing her. Trump said there was “zero chance” he would.

“Some are preparing for widespread dismissals within the administration after Election Day,” The Daily Beast noted.

“If we lose both the House and the Senate, there’s really no telling what happens,” one Trump adviser told CNN. “Everyone is fair game.”

Seize Voting Machines and Ballots, Declare Martial Law

Trump has not announced plans for either step. But he has mused about the first. In January, he told The New York Times he regretted not directing the National Guard to seize voting machines after the 2020 election.

“Well, I should have,” Trump said.

Meanwhile, Axios reported last week that “MAGA activists are pushing for President Trump to resort to extraordinary measures — including martial law — if they believe the midterm elections are ‘rigged.’”

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“Some of the proposals go far beyond Trump’s legal authority — and there’s no evidence that the elections will be rigged. But people in this orbit have close access to the president.”

One of those people is attorney Peter Ticktin, Trump’s childhood friend. On a Sept. 30 video call for MAGA election activists, Ticktin said “there would have to be martial law in the event... [of] another rigged election.” He later told Axios, “They’ll probably need to be commandeering of ballots and election equipment to make sure that we can get to the bottom of it before anything further occurs.”

Ticktin represents Tina Peters, the election activist convicted in 2024 of crimes tied to a breach of election equipment. Peters left prison this year after Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis commuted her sentence. Peters and Ticktin visited Trump at the White House in late June, and Peters met with Trump again this month.

“Emergency powers do not allow Trump to override state election laws or constitutional restrictions,” Axios reported, summing up the analysis of Derek Tisler, counsel for the Brennan Center’s elections and government program. “Martial law would not give Trump authority to seize control of election materials or override federal and state election laws.”

The White House told Axios that Trump believes “every legal vote must count.”

On Tuesday, the Brennan Center for Justice noted, “Since taking office, the Trump administration has tried to meddle in the voting and elections process in unprecedented ways, such as trying to change rules for mail voting and voter registration. Individuals and groups, as well as state and local governments, have filed dozens of federal lawsuits challenging these actions.”

Push Through More MAGA Judges

Trump has appointed fewer judges at this point in his second term than he did in his first, but he might decide to ramp up the nominations process before January should the Senate go blue.

“Trump’s pace of judicial appointments trails that of most other recent presidents, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Judicial Center,” Pew noted. “The analysis comes ahead of midterm elections that will decide control of the U.S. Senate. If Democrats take control of the chamber from Republicans in November, they could further slow Trump’s judicial appointments.”

Flood the Zone With Preemptive Pardons — Including for Trump Himself

During his first term, Trump tweeted, “As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?”

Last week he doubled down.

Asked by Newsmax whether he was seriously considering a self-pardon, Trump said, “I don’t think about it because I did nothing wrong.” Then he added, “I’m allowed to do a pardon, a self-pardon.”

He extended the idea to his staff. “I don’t want to see people that work for me go through years of nonsense, hire lawyers and everything else, all for nothing,” Trump said.

Trump might take action on any or even all of these extreme measures after November 3. And unlike in his first term, there’s no one left in the Oval Office to stop him.

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Several former Trump administration officials have turned against Donald Trump, but few have done so with such damning specificity.

Anthony Scaramucci, the former Trump ally who served 11 days as White House communications director in 2017, is publishing lists of actions he says prove that Trump has been “compromised.”

“I’ll stipulate that Trump is an agent of Putin,” Scaramucci wrote on Tuesday.

“I think he’s been compromised by Putin,” he said in a video (below) he posted to social media. “One of the greatest foreign policy successes in post-czarist Russian history is the election of Donald Trump.”

“You can stipulate he’s not an agent of Putin, but let me tell you something,” Scaramucci continued. “He does every single thing that Putin wants. And if you look down the checklist he’s executed, he would get an A+. There’s no way another American president would have this behavior.”

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Scaramucci said that Trump has “pulled himself out of an intermediate nuclear pact. Putin wanted them to do that, he pulled that out of it. That’s what Putin wants.”

On social media, Scaramucci offered a list of Trump’s actions, including threatening a NATO ally over Greenland and withdrawing tens of thousands of troops from Western Europe “while Russian bellicosity is rising.”

And this: “Russian satellites giving coordinates to Iranians killing our soldiers, and his response is ‘they kill us, we kill them’? What American president says that?”

Former Bloomberg Opinion columnist Noah Smith, who writes Noahpinion on Substack, responded to Scaramucci: “a lot of people try very hard to avoid the conclusion that our president is in Putin’s pocket, but at this point it’s not really a question. The only question is whether Putin is controlling him with bribes or with threats, or both.”

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Also on Tuesday, Scaramucci laid out his evidence:

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Two weeks before Election Day, as early voting is surging in battleground states, a newly released survey finds that nearly six in 10 Americans (58%) say they believe President Donald Trump is a “potentially dangerous dictator” who could destroy American democracy.

A Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey of over 5,000 adults in all 50 states, conducted in partnership with the Brookings Institution, also found that nearly two-thirds (64%) of independents and Hispanic Americans believe “President Trump is a potentially dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.”

PRRI reported nearly seven in 10 Americans (68%) — including 35% of Republicans — say their opinion of Trump has mostly changed for the worse over the last two years. Twenty-seven percent say their opinion has changed for the better.

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Presenting the survey’s results on Tuesday, PRRI president and founder Robert P. Jones explained, “We asked people, ‘Do you think that Trump is a potentially dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy?’”

“That’s clearly a leaning question,” he acknowledged.

“On the other side, ‘Do you think he’s a strong leader, who should be given the power he needs to make America great again?’ So that was the statement on the other side.”

Jones said that in 2025, the response to the question, is Trump a potentially dangerous dictator, came in at 52%. “Today, it is 58% in the general population.”

As part of its 2026 American Values Survey, PRRI found that 37% of Americans agree “President Trump is a strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America’s greatness.”

PRRI reported that “Americans have grown more pessimistic about the country’s direction.”

“Over seven in ten Americans say the country (71%) and the economy (76%) are headed in the wrong direction, up from 62% and 65%, respectively, in 2025,” PRRI revealed.

Even Republicans are more pessimistic.

Forty-three percent of Republicans now say the country is on the wrong track, PRRI found, “up from 24% last year, and 52% saying the economy is going in the wrong direction, a dramatic shift from 29% last year.”

PRRI’s survey was conducted August 20 to September 7.

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The American president is now operating in partnership with neither Ukraine nor America’s NATO allies. Instead, Donald Trump has openly aligned with their adversary — and ours: Russia.

And Russia is helping Iran, a country U.S. forces have fought since February 28, target American troops, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“Russia has been expanding its intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Iran, providing satellite imagery and improved drone technology to aid Tehran’s targeting of U.S. forces in the region, people familiar with the matter said,” the Journal reported in March.

Around the same time, Trump’s own envoy, Steve Witkoff, asked Moscow to stop, AFP reported.

On Monday, October 12, Trump insisted he did not believe Russia and China were helping Iran “at all.” Six days later, his story changed.

“Russia is doing very little, if anything, to help the Islamic Republic of Iran, compared to what they could be doing,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.

“Very little.” Compared to what they could be doing. Should Americans be grateful?

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Trump’s own government contradicts him. Reuters reported U.S. intelligence assessments show Russia and China supplying Iran with satellite imagery for targeting and with weapons components. An official told Bloomberg that Russia is providing Iran with missiles. The Kremlin denies all of it. Trump’s denials echo the Kremlin’s.

Michael McFaul, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, on Monday observed, “Trump has given Putin concession after concession — ending aid to Ukraine, keeping Ukraine out of NATO, celebrating Putin with a red carpet summit, dissing Zelenskyy, [waiving] sanctions, disrupting intelligence sharing with Ukraine — and Putin has never changed his position on continuing the war. Not one inch.”

Conservatives have noticed.

On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board published “To Russia With Love, Signed Donald.”

“President Trump’s assistance to Vladimir Putin keeps growing by the day,” the editorial begins.

“Mr. Trump is now Mr. Putin’s best friend in the world, after perhaps China’s Xi Jinping,” the editors wrote. They added Trump has spent two years “courting” Putin.

The editors closed with a demand: “When the election is over there needs to be a bipartisan reckoning for Mr. Trump’s budding alliance with the Kremlin against Ukraine, Europe and American interests.”

The Bulwark, founded by conservative critics of Trump, reached the same conclusion. Pointing to Trump’s “birthday call” to Putin last week, Andrew Egger wrote: “Over and over again since the birthday call, Trump has made his new position on the war clear: Nothing but incentives and wheedling praise for Russia, the war’s imperial aggressor, and nothing but threats and insults for Ukraine, the war’s blameless defender.”

Egger added that Trump “argues, openly and explicitly, that it’s better for the United States to be allied with Russia,” which he calls “music to Putin’s ears.”

Retired U.S. Naval War College professor Tom Nichols, an expert on Russia, national security, and nuclear weapons, on Sunday went further, writing at The Atlantic: “America Is Now an Ally of Russia.”

“In the past week, the president of the United States has conclusively turned America into an ally of the Russian Federation,” wrote Nichols, a never-Trump conservative. He said that Trump “abandoned pretense and is openly aiding the Kremlin.”

“To judge from the available evidence, he has not done so out of a cold calculation of the national interest,” Nichols continued. “Instead, he has based his decisions on his own interests; his open admiration for Russia’s dictator; his resentment of Ukraine’s democratically elected president; and quite possibly other factors that so far have remained obscured from the American public.”

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The Lincoln Project, founded by GOP strategists, on Monday published a new video declaring “Trump is Putin's slave.”

Hillary Clinton was right. At the final presidential debate on October 19, 2016, Clinton warned Putin would rather have “a puppet as president.”

Every president swears to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States” and to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The cracks have already appeared. The Wall Street Journal’s editors demand a bipartisan reckoning. Other conservatives are now echoing the warning Hillary Clinton issued ten years ago this week. The reckoning has started. On November 3, voters will decide how it ends.

In two weeks, the American people will have their voices heard. If they speak loudly enough, a Democratic House will impeach the president of the United States.

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Prices are high. Everyone knows this except President Donald Trump.

Trump is just making up numbers here. Inflation never hit 19% — consumer prices peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. Last month, prices rose 3.7% from a year earlier, more than double the 1.7% Trump claims.

On Wednesday, we learned consumer inflation — known as CPI, the prices we pay at the checkout, the pump, and everywhere else — made its biggest monthly jump since April. Gas costs a third more than a year ago, and gas alone drove more than half of September’s increase. On Thursday, we learned wholesale prices — known as PPI, what producers charge for goods and services before those costs reach you — posted their biggest annual gain in nearly four years.

That means the price of groceries, eating out, and new clothes is about to climb even higher than today.

This is Trump’s doing.

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CNBC reported Thursday, “there are signs that soaring energy prices are having downstream effects on other categories.” According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly half of September’s increase in processed goods for intermediate demand traces to rising diesel prices.

Diesel prices have broken records.

“September was the only month in history we've seen an average diesel price over $6 per gallon, and we're likely to break that again in October with average prices currently at $6.287 per gallon,” reported petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan.

Why have diesel prices hit record highs?

“Diesel prices have reached historic highs as a result of the U.S. war in Iran and Russia’s war in Ukraine, and consumers will bear the brunt of the rising cost, experts say,” PBS News reported last month.

Who’s responsible for the U.S. war in Iran?

President Donald Trump.

Who’s responsible for breaking his promise to end Russia’s war in Ukraine “on day one”?

President Donald Trump.

These recent headlines tell the story:

“Americans brace for brutal winter as heating oil costs rise.” (ABC News)

“Wholesale prices hit highest level in 4 years thanks to fuel costs.” (AL.com)

“Get ready for grocery prices to get even more painful.” (Business Insider)

Inflation, grocery prices, gas prices, and diesel prices hit every household budget in America. Democrats should talk about them every hour of every day for the next 19 days, through Election Day.

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Twenty days before the midterm elections, Trump’s America has become Putin’s America — an America now helping fund Russia’s war against Ukraine. And it is all worse than you think.

Here’s why, and stay with me here while I make the case.

Inflation

Wednesday morning you awoke to learn that despite President Donald Trump saying, “We're bringing prices way down,” “All your prices have been tumbling down,” and, “You know, we've already stopped the inflation,” prices have gone up a lot, led by gasoline.

The government’s official inflation report dropped Wednesday morning. It revealed prices made the biggest jump in five months — thanks to Trump’s Iran war, Trump’s tariffs, and investment in artificial intelligence, according to The New York Times.

“The Consumer Price Index rose 3.7 percent in September from a year earlier, faster than a month earlier, as gas prices surged 34 percent,” the Times reported. The 34 percent covers the past year, and consumers are paying 9.1 percent more at the pump than one month ago. “The uptick in consumer prices will also keep the Federal Reserve under pressure to raise interest rates again after last month’s move.”

That means your mortgage and credit card rates might go up.

Even Fox News reported just how damaging Trump’s policies have been.

“Americans aren’t just seeing the price tag increase for imported goods,” the right-wing outlet wrote. “Thanks to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, they are now paying more for products made in the U.S.A., according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.”

It gets worse.

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“In fact, the research finds that prices for many everyday goods would have fallen last year and into early 2026 without Trump’s tariffs,” Fox noted.

The conservative media outlet did not hold back:

“The findings offer new evidence of how the sweeping tariff policy, a centerpiece of the president’s economic agenda during his second term, have affected Americans’ wallets — and it’s only getting worse.”

The price of gas is one of the leading drivers of inflation, yet Trump’s solution — buying diesel from Russia — is not going to make prices at the pump drop, experts told ABC News.

Trump also lifted sanctions on Russian diesel. Sanctions relief puts money in Moscow’s pockets.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon wrote, “the drop in sanctions enriches Russia, funding their war against Ukraine.”

Professor and historian of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder this week observed, “since Russia and Iran are allies, the shift in US policy and any US taxpayer money that Trump gives Putin will help both the Russian war on Ukraine as well as the regime in Iran.”

Russia’s Illegal War on Ukraine

You also awoke to news that Ukraine has accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of restricting its Starlink internet service, and Russian missiles struck without the usual advance warning from Ukraine’s allies.

“Ukraine has accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of disrupting its military operations by limiting Starlink internet services, as the country reeled from a pair of intense Russian missile attacks that it said came without the usual advance warning from allies,” NBC News reported.

Critics are warning that Trump is bowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin — or worse, is working with him.

“The United States is now officially allied with Vladimir Putin and Russia,” attorney Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch News, wrote last week. “We will fund Russia’s genocidal war machine in exchange for Putin helping Trump and the Republican Party in the midterms. One of the most shameful and disgusting days in the history of this Republic.”

Wednesday morning, Filipkowski added: “Pretty clear that Trump/Hegseth are doing everything they can to force Ukraine to surrender to Putin by withholding all US assistance while actively helping fund the Russian war machine to kill as many civilians as possible including kids. What a dark, evil chapter in US history.”

Pointing to a New York Times article titled, “Ukraine’s Vulnerability Grows as Starlink Is Restricted and Russia Escalates,” Republican U.S. Rep. Don Bacon slammed the Trump administration on Wednesday.

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“The Administration’s decision to reduce intel sharing to Ukraine & access to Starlink equates to aiding the invader & the war criminal who bombs cities,” the Nebraska GOP lawmaker wrote. “Does the Administration think it will get ANY support for the remainder of the 119th Congress? Their agenda is dead unless they change paths.”

The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol on Wednesday wrote, “Trump and Musk are doing their best to help Putin kill Ukrainians.”

“It's no mystery,” added former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, an MS NOW contributor. “Trump is now openly backing Putin because he's preparing for what comes after his second term in office ends.”

Russia, Putin, Trump

Even before the Starlink news, Trump had been handing victories to the beleaguered Russian leader.

“The wins for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia came in rapid succession from Washington,” The New York Times wrote in a piece published Tuesday. “President Trump proffered sanctions relief for Russian diesel fuel. He publicly called for Ukraine to get a new leader. And he pressured Kyiv to stop a strike campaign against Russian oil facilities that has damaged the Russian economy. Mr. Putin, in return, offered more war.”

It gets worse.

“President Trump is indulging his fondness for Vladimir Putin at a moment of acute political peril, forcing Republicans in the midterms to take cover as he showers Moscow with one-sided concessions,” Axios reported.

After Trump announced his deal to buy billions of dollars worth of Russian diesel, “Russia launched an attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia that killed 22 people, including four children,” the Times reported. “It was the latest in a near daily drumbeat of devastating Russian strikes, which have dramatically increased the civilian toll in Ukraine as Kyiv sorely lacks air-defense missiles.”

Conservative commentator and political journalist Jay Nordlinger, a senior resident fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative, on Wednesday wrote: “To be neutral between Ukraine and Russia -- invaded and invader, victim and aggressor -- would have been bad enough. But it now seems that we, the United States, are on Putin’s side. This shame will last a very long time, and should.”

He did not stop there.

“If the United States is not now on the side of evil -- and I have used the strongest word (strongest negative word) in our language -- I would like someone to explain to me how. Are we not enabling Putin's military to murder innocents?” Nordlinger asked.

Ask yourself why Trump chose this dramatic embrace of Putin twenty days before the midterm elections. Then ask yourself what the two have planned for after Election Day.

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With three weeks to Election Day, Fox News is forecasting a Democratic House majority so strong that even a good night for Republicans would leave the GOP two seats short. The Senate, Fox says, remains within Democrats’ reach.

“Republicans face rural voter backlash over gas and diesel prices as 20 more House races shift toward Democrats,” Fox News reported on Tuesday, noting, “the GOP is in trouble with rural voters.”

“Gas, diesel and grocery prices are to blame,” the right-wing outlet acknowledged. “In dollar terms, the cost of living is higher in cities and suburbs, but voters across the country keep saying they are feeling the pressure of those increases and blame Republicans for them.”

House

On Tuesday, Fox News reported, “this forecast sees the Democrats taking control” of the House.

“On a good night for the Democrats, the party will hold around 237 seats, or a gain of 22 from their current position. That’s because toss-up seats have mostly fallen in one party’s direction in previous elections.”

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Fox sees room for more.

“A ‘great night’ for the Democrats, which would see the party take some Lean R seats as well, would mean a Democratic majority of up to 249.”

Even Fox’s best case for Republicans falls short. A good night for the GOP, the outlet projected, would leave the party with around 216 seats, two short of a majority.

The conservative media outlet noted that the president’s approval rating “is lower now than it was during President Donald Trump’s first term in 2018 or President Joe Biden’s term in 2022.”

Fox News also conceded Democrats’ generic ballot lead “is wider and more enduring than it was in the 2018 ‘blue wave’ election and much larger than the edge the GOP had in 2022.”

“Combined with Democrats’ candidate quality improvements and a Republican-led redistricting effort that could fall short of expectations, the House is likely out of reach for the GOP this year.”

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson responded on Tuesday.

“I’ve been doing this for almost two years and I’m telling you the polling is wrong,” Johnson told Fox News. “Republicans don't want to respond to polls anymore.”

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Johnson also warned Fox News viewers, saying that if Democrats took over, “they would turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body. They'd spend every day investigating the president, the first family, the cabinet, donors to the party, leaders of business and industry, it would roil the markets, and it would empower our enemies around the world.”

Senate

Fox News rates the Senate a toss-up, with each party at 47 seats, and says Democrats have “plentiful paths to 51 seats” on election night. Republicans keep pouring money into six toss-up states and Kansas, Fox reported, but “those efforts haven’t much moved the needle.”

Voters in those six states — Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas — will likely decide the Senate majority, and with the majority, the future of the U.S. Supreme Court.

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President Donald Trump is growing more dangerous right now than he has ever been before. Why? Because he’s cornered and he’s losing — and he knows it.

Last week, former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci warned that as Trump “gets worse, he becomes less powerful, and that makes him more dangerous.”

On Monday, columnist Ian Birrell warned, “A desperate man is a dangerous man – especially when his name is Donald Trump and his popularity is sliding due to self-inflicted wounds.”

Trump has told his MAGA supporters to pretend he is on the ballot. Voters don’t have to pretend. They feel him in every corner of their lives. Midterms often serve as a referendum on the sitting president, and this year Trump has made the referendum explicit.

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Not in recent memory has Trump been on the losing side of so many scandals and crises, so much so that even members of his own Republican Party are backing away from him.

Here are five signs Trump is growing more dangerous than ever.

1. He’s Inventing Diplomacy

Trump is now in so much trouble over the price of gas and diesel he is making up an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine that Ukraine was not even aware of until the president announced it.

“Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, Axios reported.

Zelensky declared it was “news to me,” The Guardian reported, after Trump’s announcement. Ukraine has since said it would honor the ceasefire if Russia does as well. Russia, of course, immediately violated it, as CNN reported.

Trump made a similar announcement last month, and neither country confirmed a deal then, either. The fake ceasefire follows Trump’s fake claims of peace deals, which somehow did not lead to a Nobel Peace Prize.

2. He’s Buying Diesel From Putin

That fake ceasefire also came right after Trump’s U.S.-Russia diesel deal, a deal whose first shipment reportedly amounts to about a dozen hours’ worth of U.S. diesel demand. That’s fuel that could have come from nearby Canada if Trump had not blown up the very trade agreements he negotiated.

Some Republicans are vocally opposing the deal, in part because Trump just signed sanctions against Russia that Congress had passed, and in part because there is existing U.S. law prohibiting the U.S. from buying oil from Russia.

One Republican U.S. senator, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, says the deal may be illegal.

Over the weekend, David Frum at The Atlantic wrote that for the “American truckers and farmers Trump claims to be serving, the deal means little or nothing. Trump may not know or may not care that his latest gambit will not reduce diesel prices. His poll numbers are plunging to Herbert Hoover levels. He needs a last-minute electioneering gimmick.”

“But while the deal will not benefit American consumers, it has immense consequences for others,” Frum noted. “For Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the deal is a potential lifesaver. For war-ravaged Ukraine, it is the most outrageous and heartless Trump betrayal to date. For Trump’s entourage, the deal promises corruption opportunities on a multibillion-dollar scale. And for people trying to understand the Trump presidency, the deal is further proof of the accusation that Nancy Pelosi flung in Trump’s face in 2019: ‘With you, all roads lead to Putin.’”

3. He’s Turning an Execution Into a Livestream

Republicans are also speaking out against the administration’s plan to livestream the December 3 military firing squad execution of former U.S. Army major Nidal Hasan, convicted of the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead. If carried out, it would be the first U.S. military execution by firing squad since World War II, and the first ever in the nation to be livestreamed.

Trump said he “absolutely” approves of the livestream, CBS News reported.

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BBC News reported that the “UN human rights office told AFP that livestreaming it would be ‘tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture.’”

Even Trump’s own vice president, JD Vance, said if it is livestreamed, “I'm not going to be watching it.”

4. He’s Sending Federal Agents After a Democratic Member of Congress

Trump’s Homeland Security broke norms once again, this time with a raid on the home of a Democratic member of Congress weeks before Election Day.

“Federal agents on Monday searched the home of Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar as part of a criminal investigation, a startling escalation that brings renewed scrutiny to the frequent target of Trump administration derision in the final weeks of her reelection bid,” the Associated Press reported. “Longstanding Justice Department protocol cautions against overt law enforcement actions in the weeks before an election that could influence public opinion.”

Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz responded, saying, “Americans see this for what it is - President Trump is abusing his power to go after political opponents weeks before an election.”

Journalist and author Ryan Grim added, “Trump has engaged in more brazen criminality and corruption than any president ever, and is now sending immigration investigators after his political enemies.”

5. He’s Saying Out Loud He Has No Limits

Last week, Trump declared, “I can do whatever I want,” when claiming he could have done “very bad things” to former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Scaramucci also said, “I think it will end in darkness for Donald Trump.”

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America, this is a big week. Four events, past and present, trace back to Donald Trump, and Republicans hope voters forget every one of them.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of The Washington Post uncovering Trump’s “Access Hollywood” tape — the infamous video that should have ended his first presidential campaign.

At the time, some rightly claimed his remarks described sexual assault. Trump later would be found liable for sexually abusing journalist E. Jean Carroll.

“Donald Trump bragged in vulgar terms about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women during a 2005 conversation caught on a hot microphone, saying that ‘when you’re a star, they let you do it,’ according to a video obtained by The Washington Post,” the newspaper reported in 2016.

In case you need a refresher, here’s a clip of the video from the DNC’s FactPost social media account:

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Three years ago today, Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Last February, after months of lobbying from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump joined Israel in a war against Iran. In April 2024, President Joe Biden rightly told Netanyahu the U.S. would not support an Israeli counterattack on Iran. The Pentagon’s own count lists 19 U.S. service members dead, and U.S. officials say the real number runs higher. A United Nations fact-finding mission found reasonable grounds to believe a U.S. strike on a girls’ school in Minab, which killed scores of children, constituted a war crime.

This week in 2018, the Republican-led U.S. Senate confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) was the deciding vote. Now she faces a tight re-election fight with that damning vote hanging over her head.

On Tuesday, CNN aired video of Collins from 2018 predicting that Kavanaugh would not vote to overturn Roe v. Wade — which he did in 2022.

Last night, in her debate against Democrat Troy Jackson — which fell on the eighth anniversary of her fateful vote — Collins said she does not feel Kavanaugh lied to her.

President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Iran “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego is quickly exiting the news stream. It’s too important to disappear so quickly.

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For those who might not have seen it, here’s video, with the most important words: “Let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego.”

Here’s how Trump is responding to his own remarks:

The Lincoln Project on Tuesday came out with a stunning ad that looks back in history to the famous “Daisy” ad of 1964, from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign. The original 1964 video aired only once, but news outlets replayed it repeatedly.

Here’s the 1964 ad:

And here’s The Lincoln Project’s ad:

We are now less than four weeks from Election Day, with many Americans in states participating in early voting already.

Democrats are projected to take back the House of Representatives, and experts — such as Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin — say they are favored to re-take the Senate as well.

But only if we all vote.

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On Monday night, President Donald Trump delivered a rambling riff about war, gas prices, and victory. Some of what he said leaves room for interpretation. Six words about Los Angeles followed by another six about San Diego do not.

“Let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego,” Trump said to a cheering Nebraska crowd of supporters.

Those words should put an end to any argument supporting a generous reading of the president’s damning remarks. Here they are in context:

“And again, remember, with the war, it’s just artificial,” he said, appearing to talk about the high price of gas. “It’s a little bit high.”

“It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city,” he continued.

“Let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay and it’s going to be over with very soon.”

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The crowd, which had been somewhat quiet as Trump was speaking, erupted into cheers when he mentioned Los Angeles and San Diego.

USA Today wrote, “California leaders condemn President Trump after he suggested Los Angeles and San Diego could be ‘a small price to pay’ amid conflict with Iran.”

ABC News reported that Trump “suggested that Iran could ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego if it were allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, drawing condemnation from California leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called the remarks ‘deranged and dangerous.’”

“Los Angeles is the second-most populous city in the United States, while San Diego is home to several major American military installations, including the Naval Base San Diego -- principal homeport of the U.S. Pacific Fleet,” ABC noted.

The Los Angeles Times headline read, “Trump suggests letting Iran ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego at campaign rally.”

The official White House Rapid Response social media account blasted the LA Times, tweeting: “No, he didn’t, you buffoons. He was saying the U.S. is fighting to STOP Iran from having the ability to take out LA and San Diego with a nuclear weapon — which they would if they had the chance.”

Zeteo News media columnist Justin Baragona commented, “We're gonna get a news cycle parsing through Trump's ‘let 'em take out Los Angeles’ comments, with media folks straining to give the most charitable interpretation of what he actually meant.”

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“But one thing's clear,” he added, “that Nebraska crowd cheered on the prospect of LA getting nuked.”

Jim Acosta, the former CNN chief White House correspondent, responded to Trump’s remarks, writing: “The crowd starts to applaud as Trump fantasizes about LA and San Diego being wiped out by a nuclear attack. WTF. This is not normal.”

“Trump and his allies are going to try desperately to clean up his completely insane comments last night about Los Angeles and San Diego being blown up,” Acosta continued. “Don’t listen to them. They’ve been trying to sanitize and normalize this dangerous rhetoric for a decade now.”

What’s not up for interpretation is that the president of the United States said, “let them.” To read Trump’s words as a warning, you have to add words he never said. What he said was:

“Let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego.”

That alone is inexcusable and should leave every American furious.

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Nearly four years ago, the House January 6 Committee found that Donald Trump had incited an insurrection after losing the 2020 election. More than 1,500 people faced federal charges, seditious conspiracy among them, for carrying out his attack on the Capitol.

We’re now four weeks from Election Day, and some experts are saying that Democrats are poised to win back both the House and the Senate — while others are warning that Trump will try to interfere with the results once again.

Former GOP strategist Steve Schmidt, co-founder of The Lincoln Project, is predicting the midterms will be a “historic wipeout.”

“Donald Trump will be repudiated,” Schmidt declared on Monday. “MAGA will be crushed, and I believe it will never again function as a viable national political coalition. It will endure as a poisonous minority movement, committed to extremism and fascism, sustained by grievance, and organized around the worship of one man.”

But in a stern warning, Schmidt predicted electoral defeat will not make MAGA harmless.

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“Its shrinking reach may intensify its fanaticism,” he continued. “A movement that regards its leader as the embodiment of the nation cannot easily accept that the nation has rejected him.”

Schmidt said that MAGA must then “invent a betrayal,” “identify enemies,” and “explain why the people are no longer entitled to decide.”

Trump, he continued, will “deny the results.”

“He will allege conspiracies. He will tell his followers that their country has been stolen because the country has voted against his movement. I expect his allies to translate that accusation into a coordinated effort to obstruct the verdict,” Schmidt wrote.

Here’s Schmidt’s timeline:

“On election night, the repudiation will be unmistakable,” he wrote. “Within a day, a score of MAGA candidates will refuse to concede. Within a week, Trump’s lie will have found its footing. Results that seemed certain will be presented as uncertain, despite no evidence sufficient to overturn them.”

Trump ran the same playbook after losing in 2020.

“Within two weeks, Trump will be on offense. The conversation will shift from the scale of his defeat to his demands. His accusations will dictate the questions. His allies will demand investigations, delays and exceptions. The country will be asked to prove, repeatedly, what its voters have already decided,” Schmidt added. “By December 1, I expect corporate media to be filled with stories asking whether the new Congress should be seated, or can be seated. The obstruction will supply the controversy. The controversy will supply the coverage. The coverage will confer legitimacy on the obstruction.”

Schmidt is far from the only one issuing warnings about what Trump could do post-election.

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“In 1 month, Trump will be openly seeking to overturn the Nov 3 results,” said SiriusXM host and attorney Dean Obeidallah. “We all know that's coming. That is why Democratic AGs should announce now if anyone tries to interfere in their election—including Trump—they will prosecute under state law.”

Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias on Monday offered up a warning.

“Earlier this year, The New York Times asked Donald Trump whether he regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines in swing states after the 2020 election,” Elias wrote. “His answer was chilling: ‘Well, I should have.’ Trump is telling us what he plans to do in this year’s midterms. He is trying to rig the elections and subvert their results. While we have been able to stop him so far, there is no guarantee that we will continue to prevail in the weeks ahead.”

Elias added that what is “most dangerous” is what Trump “has been saying for more than a year about the counting, tabulation and certification of election results. Despite what the U.S. Constitution says, he has repeatedly claimed the power to direct this process.”

“This is not a new idea,” Elias wrote. “It has been his plan all along.”

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s creation of a new Office of Religious Affairs — his latest push to fuse Christian nationalism with the Department of Defense — has one U.S. congressman warning of a “road to Gilead” dystopia. Some online critics are comparing it to the Nazi-era Reich Ministry for Church Affairs, while one noted religion scholar says Hegseth’s Christian nationalist language represents a “very dangerous” and “anti-democratic conflation of military service & religion.”

Quoting the Bible, Hegseth announced the new religious office will report directly to him.

Reacting to Hegseth's announcement, atheist activist Hemant Mehta wrote, “The Christian Nationalist coup continues.” At Friendly Atheist he argued, “Pete Hegseth is centralizing religious power inside the military.”

Hegseth invoked Christianity throughout his speech.

“Our department is, you might say, putting on the full armor of God because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual,” the Defense Secretary said on Wednesday, as Military Times reported. “God is good. Evil is not. And America’s military must understand the difference.”

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The Freedom From Religion Foundation responded, saying, “Treating belief in God as synonymous with goodness is theology, not military leadership.”

“America’s military must know the difference between defending the Constitution and imposing one man’s theology on everyone who serves,” it added.

Hours after he invoked Christianity in his speech, Hegseth posted Psalm 33:12 to his personal social media account.

Hegseth also specifically cited the sixth chapter of the Book of Isaiah, recasting the prophet’s answer to God as a call to fight “the redcoats,” “the communists,” and “the Islamists.”

Democrats in Congress responded with alarm.

“Hegseth is a full-throttle Christian nationalist who hates separation of church and state,” wrote U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA). “He chips away at it all the time - through his monthly Christian church service at the Pentagon auditorium, his endless proselytizing, by removing religious minority faith codes from the Chaplaincy program, etc., etc.”

Huffman issued a warning: “The road to Gilead is paved with dystopic crap like this.”

“Hegseth is waging an illegal, immoral Holy war,” declared U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA). “We are not in the time of the crusades. We need to pass [Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie’s] resolution the day Congress is back to remove him.”

Massie’s resolution consists of articles of impeachment against Hegseth.

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CNN’s Erin Burnett reported U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) said that Hegseth is “weaponizing religion.”

Pointing to Hegseth invoking Psalm 33:12 while declaring “An appeal to Heaven” and “In God We Trust,” author and First Amendment attorney Andrew L. Seidel said: “Whole lot of Christian Nationalism in this speech.”

Democratic strategist Mike Nellis wrote: “Every clip I’ve caught of this Hegseth speech is batshit insane. What a delusional moron. Impeach his ass now, before he gets more Americans killed.”

“Pretty clear Hegseth’s primary mission is to transform the military ideologically by overtly indoctrinating troops with Christian nationalism and apocalyptic holy war messaging while rooting out those who don’t want to participate and just want to serve their country admirably,” wrote attorney and MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski.

“Our troops swear an oath to the Constitution, not to Pete Hegseth’s God,” wrote the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “Atheists don’t need a ‘heavenly king’ to defend this country. We need a Defense secretary who understands he isn’t one.”

Quoting Hegseth, the Foundation added, “The United States is not a nation ‘whose God is the Lord.’ It is a nation whose Constitution protects Christians, atheists, and everyone else equally. The Pentagon answers to the Constitution, not the Book of Psalms.”

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Thirty-four days before Election Day, U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), a former CIA analyst and Defense Department official, laid out the “authoritarian playbook” a leader facing defeat might use to interfere with the midterms, in remarks C-SPAN described as a warning about President Donald Trump. “Do not let him get away with that,” she warned.

“The authoritarian playbook is very clear,” Slotkin told attendees Wednesday at an event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program.

“When you’re at risk of losing, you either, A, make up a threat that only you can protect the American people from, or, B, find a way for federal law enforcement or the military to seize ballots or voting machines,” said Slotkin, who once served as the acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.

“In Hungary, Orbán used Plan A,” Slotkin explained. “One week before his election, he falsely claimed that there was a major threat to an oil pipeline — an attempt to be seen as the only true protector of the state. Luckily, Hungarians saw right through it. They knew it was a ruse.”

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“So there’s a lesson for us,” she warned. “In the run up to Election Day, we need to be alert and ready. If you hear in the next 34 days that there is a new security threat that you’ve never heard of, that somehow requires federal law enforcement or the military and not local police, an alarm bell should go off in your brain. Do not let him get away with that.”

Coincidentally, perhaps, also on Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin called voting machines “a concern,” and claimed, “we've had some trouble with some machines.”

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“Can’t say that it was fraud or not fraud, that may had [sic] a glitch, may have been something else,” Mullin said.

President Donald Trump earlier this month led supporters at the Republican Party’s midterm convention in a pledge to “cheat like hell” in November, because Democrats, he claimed, do.

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There are two important Jack Smith stories today: One in which a MAGA Republican U.S. Senator is accused of beclowning himself by not checking basic facts before falsely accusing the former Special Counsel of perjury, and the other, where Smith — testifying under oath — essentially declared the current president is a crook.

It’s important to ask, why would Senate Republicans allow Smith to testify under oath, after months of Democratic pressure, just 35 days before the midterms? Especially when the GOP is now expected to lose control of the House, and possibly even the Senate?

They must have thought they had a bombshell.

They did, but it exploded in their faces, thanks to U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO).

MS NOW’s Matt Fuller sums it up: “Sen. Eric Schmitt does a whole theatrical reading of text messages to accuse Jack Smith of going to a Hawks game in Atlanta and potentially colluding in some way with Fani Willis,” he writes. “Turns out, it was a Maryland-Iowa game (Hawkeyes), in Maryland, and Fani Willis was 600 miles away.”

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U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) figured out where Schmitt went wrong — and blasted him.

Schmitt, by the way, was being floated this week as a potential vice presidential running mate to JD Vance in 2028.

Now to Smith’s historic testimony, which should be the real story of the day.

“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation,” Smith told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “If asked whether to prosecute a former president today based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat.”

“The charges against President Trump were the result of the evidence,” Smith continued. “Grand juries in two separate districts reached this conclusion based on his actions, as alleged in the indictments they returned.”

“Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power.”

Smith did not stop there.

“The criminal scheme we investigated was predicated upon Donald Trump preying on party loyalty,” Smith told the Committee. “He preyed on party loyalty and fear. Fear that he could force people to do things.”

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“The reality is, one of the reasons our democracy held up, one of the reasons he was not able to take power, even though he was seeking to do these things, is because Republicans stood up,” Smith continued. “Our witnesses, the strongest witnesses, would have been Republican members of Congress. I personally find it very hard to understand how our investigation can be viewed as partisan when the strongest witnesses, the people who were the difference between the rule of law standing and not in our case, were Republicans.”

Finally, Smith’s full opening remarks, which include the declaration that he stands by his decision to prosecute Donald Trump:

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CNN senior data analyst Harry Enten on Monday sounded stunned by the size of the swing among 18- to 29-year-olds — the voters whose shift toward Donald Trump helped return him to the White House two years ago — and the swing runs deep on the issue behind his comeback: the economy.

“Donald Trump is in big trouble with the youths,” Enten said. “This is a historic shift away from the president of the United States.”

Enten pointed to the “40-point shift away from the president of the United States, in a group that he did historically strong with back in the 2024 election. For a Republican candidate, it is no bueno when you see shifts like this.” Trump’s net approval with voters under 30 now stands at -47 points, Enten wrote on social media.

He noted that with voters under 30 in the 2024 election, Trump beat then-Vice President Kamala Harris on the economy by 11 points. His net approval on the economy with the group now sits at -62 points, a “shift of 73 points away from the president of the United States on the issue that got him re-elected back in 2024,” Enten said.

“It is now the issue that is dragging him down, and maybe dragging down Republicans who are running for re-election as well,” he added.

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Trump, who as recently as Monday told voters to “pretend I am on the ballot,” has “terrible, terrible, terrible numbers, with those under the age of 30,” Enten said, and noted that those numbers are “likely to drag Republicans down with them who are running this year for Congress.”

In the 2024 race for Congress, Democrats led by 10 points with voters under 30. Today, Enten said, Democrats lead by 33 points.

Trump’s Approval Hits Lowest Pre-Midterm Mark Since 1990

“This is the week where it felt like the bottom started falling out in earnest,” Republican strategist Colin Reed told The Wall Street Journal. “President Trump is the Republican Party right now, and by virtue of his lower approval ratings, the entire party is dealing with that political reality.”

The paper reported that its latest poll “shows that voters have soured on the president, portending trouble for members of his party in November.”

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“Just 37% of Americans approve of the job that Trump is doing, according to the poll, which was conducted earlier this month,” the Journal reported. “It is the lowest approval rating of any president heading into a midterm election in Journal polls dating to 1990.”

What Happens When Allies Try to Tell Trump the Truth?

Some Trump allies have attempted to express to the president just how bad things are for Republicans, according to the Journal.

“But Trump has at times cut off those conversations, according to a person familiar with the matter,” the Journal added, noting that a “senior White House official said that Trump’s political team regularly presents him with candid assessments of the midterm environment and polling.”

Election Day is 36 days away, and early voting has already begun in some states. With Trump’s approval at 37%, according to the Journal, the odds of Trump and the GOP turning public opinion around are slim, and the numbers keep moving in the wrong direction for them.

Trump has told his MAGA base to “cheat like hell.”

The goal for Democrats: win back the House and the Senate by margins no amount of cheating can overcome.

Vote.

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A television ad promoting President Donald Trump aired Wednesday night and early Thursday on Fox News and Newsmax. The spot ends with a disclaimer declaring the ad was “paid for by the U.S. government.” Sparking anger and outrage, the ad has one top Democratic congressman warning the spot might violate federal law and two Republican senators questioning its appropriateness.

“This may be felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes,” wrote U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and a former constitutional law professor. “It is a Hatch Act violation for any government employees who worked on it or used government resources to make it. It is blatantly unethical under numerous federal ethics provisions proscribing the use of government resources for political campaigns.”

The Washington Post reported the ad also aired in the Los Angeles and Chicago markets, “despite a federal prohibition on using taxpayer dollars for ‘publicity or propaganda.’”

“There is no immediate precedent for a government-sponsored political ad during a campaign,” the Post noted.

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Two Republican U.S. senators also questioned the appropriateness of the ad.

U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), referring to the far-right former Hungarian prime minister, told the Associated Press that “using taxpayer dollars, it feels like Viktor Orban.”

The AP also reported that U.S. Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) “questioned whether it was legal.”

“I don’t generally like to see politicians use public money to pay for their own campaign ads,” he told the AP.

As singers repeat the words “love me,” from the song by JMSN, the ad flashes image after image of President Trump. In it, Trump vows, “Together we will defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America,” and declares, “America will never be a communist country.”

“Just hours earlier,” The Lincoln Project noted, “Trump rolled out the red carpet for a communist.”

Once again, Trump had members of the U.S. military on their hands and knees rolling out a red carpet for an authoritarian leader. Last year, it was for Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and on Wednesday it was for China’s Xi Jinping.

The ad closes with audio from UFC CEO Dana White’s 2024 Republican National Convention speech, in which White called Trump the “toughest, most resilient person that I’ve ever met.”

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Trump’s ad also promotes what he has, reportedly falsely, claimed are the “largest tax cuts in history.”

Mediaite reported the ad “aired during the overnight broadcasts of Jesse Watters Primetime, Hannity and Gutfeld! on Fox News early Thursday.”

Critics blasted the ad.

“Unmistakable signs you live under an authoritarian, fascist government,” warned MS NOW analyst Fernand R. Amandi.

“We're really deep into the banana republic zone here,” observed New York Times contributing opinion writer Matthew Yglesias.

Florida Democratic Party chairwoman Nikki Fried called the ad “pure communist propaganda” that is “right out of the Florida Republican playbook.”

CBS Miami journalist Jim DeFede posted a copy of the ad to social media.

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Harry Enten on Wednesday laid out devastating numbers for President Donald Trump’s standing with the voting bloc the CNN senior data analyst says determines the outcome of elections: pure independent voters.

Trump won pure independents by 15 points in 2024, according to Enten’s average of two validated voter surveys.

“Look at his net approval rating now with pure independents, those who don’t lean towards either the Democratic or Republican Party,” Enten said. “It’s negative 71 points. I mean, these are the deep depths of the ocean. You never see numbers like these.”

“This is an 86-point shift away from the president of the United States, with the group that ultimately really does determine elections,” he continued. “As pure independents go, usually so goes the nation, and right now, Donald Trump is at a depth that truly you rarely ever see.”

It gets worse for Trump and the GOP.

The president, Enten explained, has seen a 99-point shift away from him among pure independents on the economy. In 2024, those voters trusted Trump over Kamala Harris on the economy by 22 points.

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“Except what if you ask pure independence about Donald Trump and the economy?” Enten said. “Okay, look at this. This is a 99-point shift. What are we talking about? Pure independents, Trump on the economy.”

“That’s why pure independent voters decided to vote for Donald Trump and put him back in the White House for a second term,” Enten said.

And it gets worse still.

“What is driving these numbers to the deep depths of hell, as far as you’re concerned, if you’re a Republican, you’re running for re-election this fall?” he asked. “It’s gas prices.”

Among pure independents, Enten explained, just 8 percent approve of Trump’s performance on the price of gas.

“Ninety-two percent of pure independents disapprove of Donald Trump on gas prices,” he noted. “We have seen this disapproval rating hitting record levels with the electorate overall.”

“When you get 8 percent of folks agreeing on something, that is below the percentage of the Americans who actually think the moon landing was fake,” he said.

Enten said Republicans’ odds of holding the Senate have dropped as gas prices have climbed. “As those gas prices have gone one way, those chances for Republicans holding on to the United States Senate have gone the other way,” he said, adding pure independents are driving the shift with “92 percent near uniformity.”

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The prediction markets back Enten up.

“The Election Betting Odds tracker, which consolidates numbers from popular prediction markets, shows that bookmakers now believe Democrats have a 63.8% chance of taking control of the Senate,” Forbes reported on Wednesday. “Bookmakers also peg Democrats as massive favorites to retake control of the House of Representatives, with consolidated odds at 89%.”

The Economist’s forecast shows the same trend.

“Dems keep rising in our Senate forecast, now up to 62% chance of winning control,” writes The Economist’s Owen Winter, who points to the outlet’s prediction model: “A friendly map may not be enough for Republicans to hold the Senate.”

The election is 41 days away, with early voting in some states already underway. We have a president who recently told his base to “cheat like hell.” Just barely winning the House and the Senate will not be enough: This election comes down to margins. Vote.

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Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced Tuesday the administration will cancel at least 760,000 Obamacare enrollments, and warned the total could top one million. Oz called the group “phantoms,” citing unanswered outreach and a lack of claims as proof of “100 percent fraud.” Vice President JD Vance, who leads the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, joined Oz at the news conference and said the removals will save $2.2 billion.

A Democratic congressional nominee for Missouri, Fred Wellman, slammed the administration: “They are kicking people off their healthcare for being healthy. Many people are perfectly healthy…until they aren’t. This is stupid and evil.”

Oz said, “760,000 people, we call them phantoms, because we believe most of them don’t exist or had no idea they had coverage, we believe that, because we have been writing them, telexing them, you know, walking to them, FedExing them, whatever we could possibly do to get into touch with them, they won’t answer, and they have never filed a claim.”

“Why didn’t we take off the other 450,000 people?” he continued, suggesting the total removed might break one million. “They’re coming. But they had something about their story that was a little bit different than what we expected from the 100 percent fraud story.”

“So we’re giving another chance to them to be able to try to tell us that they really have a Social Security number, or they really did have the insurance.”

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“Frankly, if you’ve had a claim, it gives us confidence, you at least know you have insurance,” the CMS administrator also said, adding, “we’re not interested in taking innocent people off the rolls, we’re interested in protecting them from the bad guys. $2.2 billion is the money that they were stealing from the government. It wasn’t the money that people were getting.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that “Tuesday’s enforcement action, directed by the Vance-led White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, represents one of the largest administrative purges targeting individual insurance exchanges since the Trump administration’s crackdown on fraud began last year.”

Healthcare policy and data expert Charles Gaba noted on Substack that “It’s important to note that this doesn’t clarify whether ‘removing enrollments’ means actually canceling their policies (which is a contract between the enrollee and a private insurance carrier) or if it just means canceling their federal subsidies (which would mean that the enrollees have to start paying full price, and may have subsidies from earlier this year clawed back).”

Others joined in the pushback.

Back in June, Oz claimed that 40 percent of Affordable Care Act exchange enrollees who signed up “never use the insurance.” He said, “we have a lot of fake people.”

At the time, journalist James Surowiecki responded to his remarks, writing, “This is such an extraordinarily stupid claim by Oz. There was a 15-year stretch where I had individual health insurance and never used it once. Same is true of many many men from their 20s to their 40s (and men older than that if they’re lazy about physicals and the like).”

On Tuesday, a social media account for David Dolkart, whose bio says he is a “healthcare leader with a solid background in medical practice management, information technology, electronic medical records,” wrote: “Insurance company actuaries love those healthy people who don’t file claims. Oz doesn’t understand risk pooling.”

Attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick asked, “Wait, it’s now ‘fraud’ to pay for health insurance that you don’t use?”

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A top House Republican is calling prices at the pump — top of mind for many Americans — mere “headwinds.” It's his second economic miss this week, after he wrongly claimed days ago that ground beef costs less than $2.00 a pound.

Fox Business host Stuart Varney on Friday told House Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, “I think you’ve got a problem.”

“$4.00 gas, $6.00 diesel, 7 percent mortgages,” Varney pointed out. “It’s hard to argue that you’re better than them when it comes to the economy.”

“Them,” of course, being Democrats.

“Well,” Emmer replied, “we do have a lot to sell.”

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“We have accomplished a ton,” he continued. He rattled off GOP talking points, like “no taxes on overtime,” “no taxes on tips,” and said Republicans raised the child care tax credit.

“Yes, there are headwinds that are created by $6.00 diesel, $4.00 gas, groceries, I mean, these are headwinds that you’ve got to deal with,” Emmer said.

Congressman Emmer may call the price of gas at the pump and the price of groceries at the checkout “headwinds,” but polls make clear the degree of hardship for the average American.

“Roughly three-quarters of voters have rated economic conditions negatively for the past year, and more than three times as many say they are falling behind financially as getting ahead, according to a Fox News survey released Wednesday,” the media outlet reported. “And by a wide margin, the Democrats are considered the party that would better handle inflation at a time when the cost of living and the economy are voters’ top concerns.”

Fox dove into the numbers: “Costs of everyday items are a hardship for voters: 61% say gas prices are a major problem, up from 48% two years ago, while 52% say the same for healthcare costs, up from 44%. Majorities also view housing costs (54%, down from 60%) and grocery prices (62%, down from 66%) as major problems.”

The midterms are now 46 days away, with early voting already underway in some states — including Congressman Emmer’s.

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He’s already demolished the East Wing of the White House, but would President Donald Trump dare to demolish the Kennedy Center — just because a federal judge won’t allow him to add his name to the nation’s beloved performing arts center?

Public Notice’s Aaron Rupar on social media posted photos taken by AFP’s Brendan Smialowski that show Trump with a placard that appears to say “Kennedy Center Demolish” or “Demolished.”

“The images were published on Wednesday evening, shortly after the president said the performing arts center could ‘close’ or be ‘ripped down’ if his administration doesn't receive recognition on the performing arts site,” ABC News reported on Thursday.

Trump told reporters, “I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down.”

Trump — or rather, the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, whom Trump installed — has already closed the building. On Thursday, they were forced to tell a judge just how long it will be closed, after claiming last month it would be a two-year closure.

Now they claim one week.

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“The Trump administration tells the court it has closed the Kennedy Center for a week ‘unless extended’ to deal with acute safety hazards, not as part of a broader demolition or renovation of the center,” reports Politico’s Kyle Cheney.

But in a sworn statement a legal observer reportedly noted that they had seen a forklift hitting the Kennedy Center’s pillars.

“I saw the forklift run into and hit the pillars on the building several times,” they said.

Even before news Trump might demolish the Kennedy Center, the mere closure has been of great concern.

“After driving away artists and audiences, the Trump team closes the Kennedy Center and Trump, indicating his real priority, says he will cancel a $257 million renovation of the venue if his name is not returned to the building,” The New York Times’ Peter Baker wrote on Wednesday.

“Closing the Kennedy Center, the official national memorial to John F. Kennedy, unless and until the name Donald J. Trump is added to it isn’t the act of a president,” noted political analyst David Axelrod. “It’s the act of a petulant child.”

“The nation is mired in a costly war. Inflation caused by it and senseless tariffs is burdening so many Americans,” Axelrod continued, saying that Trump “is spending his time stamping his feet and tantruming because the law prohibits him from adding his name to the national memorial for President Kennedy.”

Writer Charlotte Clymer warns: “If you think Trump wouldn’t demolish the Kennedy Center, that this is all some kind of bluff or only a calculated distraction, you clearly haven’t been paying attention all this time.”

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