Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday defended the Justice Department’s lawsuit — filed at President Donald Trump’s request — seeking to block Alaska from certifying its election results if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses.

In a contentious interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” he denied the president is laying the groundwork to contest the outcome of the midterm elections in just over one week.

“President Trump is not trying to take over a state election in any way, shape or form,” Blanche insisted.

But when pressed on what crime the administration alleges is being committed the attorney general said, “Well, it depends.”

“There could be a crime,” Blanche said. “But the real wrong here is that Alaskans are going to be confused and will not have their vote heard.”

With a little over one week to go before Election Day, Trump administration officials have set their sights on the key Senate seat, where Sullivan is facing a surprisingly competitive challenge from former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola. The lawsuit has heightened Democrats’ fears that Trump could try to undermine the integrity of the midterm elections.

Sullivan, the incumbent, is also being challenged by a retired elementary school teacher who shares his name.

“There is no dispute that the only reason the second Dan Sullivan is running is to pull votes away in a confusing and inappropriate manner from the Dan Sullivan incumbent,” Blanche said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Host Margaret Brennan pushed back, explaining that “Dan S. Sullivan” is clearly listed on the ballot as the incumbent while his opponent is listed without a party affiliation as “Dan J. Sullivan.” She also pointed out that early voting began in the state on Oct. 19.

The Alaska Supreme Court had already settled the issue in June, ordering that both Sullivans be placed on the August primary ballot.

Alaska’s senior Republican senator, Lisa Murkowsi, who frequently breaks with Trump, criticized his administration on Friday for filing the lawsuit. “Alaskans don’t need any help voting for their preferred candidates, and the State of Alaska has already handled this by clearly distinguishing the candidates on this year’s ballot,” she said.

Peltola, who narrowly leads Sullivan, according to MS NOW polling partner FiftyPlusOne, told MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace over the weekend that “this is exactly the kind of corruption that Alaskans are sick and tired of.”

The post ‘Could be a crime’: Todd Blanche doubles down on Alaska lawsuit appeared first on MS NOW.

JERUSALEM — He serves a mostly ceremonial role. But in a matter of days, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will wield significant power as he decides which political party will have the first chance to build a government — a move that could determine the fate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In an exclusive interview with MS NOW, Herzog said he would not bow to pressure from President Donald Trump to benefit his friend Netanyahu, whom Trump endorsed last week.

“I don’t think the president of the United States or anybody else can intervene in my discretion — the discretion has to be based on certain facts, and we will see what the facts are,” said Herzog. “There will be a lot of pressure, though, regardless.”

Herzog said he has “huge respect” for Trump and welcomes any dialogue, but the decision will be his, and his alone.

“I know how to deliberate with him or any other world leader,” he said. “It’s Israel’s democracy and Israel’s constitution, and that’s what counts for me.”

On Sunday, Trump re-upped his endorsement of the Israeli prime minister on Truth Social, writing, “As everyone is aware, including the enemy, Bibi and I have a great relationship in winning together.”

“We have to finish the job that we started!” Trump concluded.

With final election polling showing neither Netanyahu’s Likud party nor challenger Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party likely to win outright, an initial round of coalition building will likely ensue to reach the 61-seat majority threshold of the Knesset, Israel’s 120-seat Parliament.

The decision of who gets the first crack at that is one that weighs on Herzog.

“It’s going to be very delicate,” Herzog said, noting the leading candidates’ public commitments not to align with certain factions. “So it’s really an open game, especially if the results are going to be close.”

With a diverse set of parties in the anti-Netanyahu bloc, Eisenkot faces an uphill battle to solve the math problem of reaching a majority: He has ruled out including both the Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties in any government he leads.

Arab Israelis make up about 21% of the country’s population, but politicians vying to become prime minister have long excluded them from being part of the ruling government.

Though he noted Arab parties are “part and parcel of Israeli democracy,” Herzog wouldn’t say whether they belong in Israeli leadership.

“There’s a question about what happens if you have to take decisions now about war and peace, and this is the issue at stake in the political discussion and the decisions of the voters,” he said.

Herzog repeatedly said he would do whatever is within his power to avoid sending Israeli voters back to the polls for more rounds of elections — including pushing for a national unity government that would include both Netanyahu and Eisenkot, while excluding leaders from extremist parties.

“I don’t know if it’s feasible,” he conceded, noting the overall process could take long, drawn-out weeks. What that could mean for the Iran war, which Trump has hinted at restarting after the U.S. midterms, is unclear.

“I hope now there’s either negotiations or again a flaring up of the military escalation,” Herzog said, adding the decision is up to the negotiators, militaries and the U.S. president.

In the closing days of the election, the devolving situation in the West Bank has been at the forefront, highlighting the contrast between Netanyahu, who has repeatedly ignored violence against Palestinians, and Eisenkot, who has pledged to get tough on rising attacks, which have led to international condemnation and threats of sanctions.

But Herzog took exception with blaming Israeli settlers for violence in the West Bank, instead insisting the recent increase is the result of a small group of violent people “that everybody has to crack down on.”

“I can attest to the fact that strict decisions were taken by all relevant authorities, including the Israeli Security Cabinet, to that effect to crack down on this phenomena, and you will see more and more results, I hope, in the near future,” Herzog said, adding, “It’s despicable, it’s outrageous. We should take all necessary steps to arrest all of them.”

Herzog condemned a terror attack on Friday in which two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others in Hebron, prompting Netanyahu’s office to instruct security forces to immediately cordon off Hebron and prepare for a full closure of the West Bank.

“We have to fight terror without any limitations, subject of course to the law, and we have to crack down on all this violence so that we contain it fully,” he said.

Given his pivotal role in the outcome of Israel’s elections, Herzog has refused to wade into key electoral issues, including — and especially — holding Netanyahu accountable.

Last November, Trump wrote to Herzog urging him to “fully pardon” Netanyahu, who was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

At the time, Herzog’s office responded that he held Trump in the highest regard but that anyone seeking a pardon had to submit a formal request.

Herzog, the eleventh president of Israel and who has been in office since July 2021, is predicting “huge turnout” and is confident in the integrity of Israel’s elections, which he says will determine the course of the country’s debate over the independence of the judicial system and Israel’s borders.

“Israel is an incredible democracy,” Herzog said. “It’s a source of dignity and pride to all those who love to bash at us and criticize us and attack us day in, day out without knowing that we are the only democracy in this region and we protect the free world.”

The post Herzog reaffirms independence of Israeli elections amid Trump push for Netanyahu appeared first on MS NOW.

CLEVELAND — When asked about President Donald Trump’s strong defense of a GOP attack ad featuring her estranged mother calling her a liar, Amy Acton exercised prudence.

“I’ve worked with the president before,” the Democratic gubernatorial nominee told MS NOW, “but I think he needs to learn the facts of this case. They’re irrefutable.”

During an interview following a rally with former President Barack Obama on Saturday, Acton declined to attack Trump. Instead, the childhood sexual assault survivor praised Republican leaders in her state who have condemned the spot, including former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft and Mike DeWine, the current governor, who called it “deeply troubling.”

“All of our living governors have spoken in Ohio and condemned this ad, and that means the world to me,” Acton said in an interview. “What I am focused on is what these governors know: that the people of Ohio are struggling. They’re ready for change.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s decision to release and amplify the advertisement in his exceedingly tight race against Acton has divided Republicans ahead of the midterms. But Trump has remained firmly in his corner, advising Ramaswamy to “leave it up” and suggested it could clear the way for a Republican victory in the state.

“I told him, leave it up and look upstairs and say, ‘Thank you God, very much,’” Trump said at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, on Thursday. “I only wish I could have had an ad like that against somebody.”

When pressed by a reporter on his defense of a GOP attack that touches on the Democratic candidate’s childhood trauma, Trump doubled down, asserting the ad was not tied to the criminal histories of Acton’s mother or her late husband.

“You’re trying to take a horrible situation for a Democrat and make it look better. The mother said really bad things about a person that wants to be the Democrat governor of Ohio,” Trump said on Friday. “This has nothing to do with a stepfather or anything else.”

Acton’s decision to withhold criticism of Trump — while thrashing Ramaswamy — speaks to the fine line she has walked in her pursuit to become the first woman to lead Ohio, a state Trump won three times.

Her emergence as a viable Democratic contender for governor came after she broke from Democrats on a number of policy positions, including issues relating to federal immigration enforcement, transgender athletes and voter ID laws.

The controversial 60-second clip released by Ramaswamy’s campaign features Acton’s estranged mother, 82-year-old Donna Arthur, who calls her daughter a “liar.”

“She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true,” Arthur says in the ad. “Don’t vote for people who lie.”

Acton told MS NOW she has not spoken to her mother in nearly 50 years. She has long been vocal about the challenges she and her brother faced as children, one she alleges was rife with physical and sexual abuse, poverty and a period of homelessness.

Court records obtained by news outlets show Acton’s stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was charged with rape of a minor under the age of 13 before he fled the state and later died. Acton has identified herself as the victim. Her brother has said their mother remained married to Arthur until his death.

“The last time I saw my birth mother, I was 12 years old in a courthouse after a grand jury hearing, where my stepfather was indicted, and then he was a fugitive. They skipped on bail and left,” Acton told MS NOW.

Additional records obtained by NBC News show that both Donna and Cledith Arthur faced additional criminal financial charges over the course of several decades.

“I’m learning things that even I don’t remember, obviously, as a 12-year-old child,” Acton told MS NOW. “We’re learning more about the kinds of things he did to other children. We’re learning more about the troubled life of my mother, who was not well then, since I was probably three years old, and is not well now.”

Citing the negative reception to the Ramaswamy ad, The Cook Political Report on Friday shifted its rating of the race from “toss up” to “lean Democrat.” Acton told MS NOW that trend lines were already pointing in that direction.

”My opponent has spent $110 million and counting in the most abhorrent, lying, made up ads, and it never moved the needle one inch. We have started tied or ahead in every single polls in this race. We’re up double digits with independents and we have tons of Republicans crossing over,” Acton said.

For Ohio voters at Acton’s rally in Cleveland, alongside Obama and Democratic Senate nominee Sherrod Brown, the move by Ramaswamy to release the ad was a sign of “desperation.”

”I thought it was just so underhanded and I thought it was just such a bad choice for Vivek to do that,” 70-year-old Ken Salzbrenner said. “To bring up the situation that she was in, that she had no control over as a 12-year-old, I think was just outrageous, and it shows his lack of leadership that he would make that choice.”

During his remarks at the event, Obama hammered Ramaswamy as “thirsty” and framed his release of the ad as a desperate attempt to “get attention”

“There is no line he will not cross, there is no low he won’t sink to, to try to get in the limelight,” Obama said. “There’s got to be something inside you where you just say, you know, no office is worth stooping that low because, you know what, character matters.”

The post ‘Learn the facts’: Amy Acton schools Trump on her childhood trauma appeared first on MS NOW.

He recognizes a cool thing when he sees it.

Former President Obama poked fun at President Trump’s various Washington, D.C., renovation projects during a campaign stop in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was stumping for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton and Senate candidate Sherrod Brown (D). In his speech, Obama zeroed in on the changes Trump has made to the White House during his second…

Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for Ohio governor whose childhood sexual abuse became fodder for an attack ad by her Republican rival, Vivek Ramaswamy, directly addressed the widely-criticized video on Saturday.

“As you’ve probably heard by now, as a young child, my brother and I experienced a lot of child abuse and neglect. We moved countless times as kids, and even wound up living in a tent in the middle of the winter,” Acton said at a rally in Cleveland, alongside former President Barack Obama and former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is making a comeback bid to oust Republican Sen. Jon Husted.

“And now, my opponent has chosen to exploit, intentionally, my childhood to save to save his struggling campaign, but it’s not going to work,” Acton said to cheers from the crowd. “It’s not going to work because compassion and decency still matter.”

The former president took his star power to Cleveland to help carry his party across the finish line just 10 days before Election Day. He criticized Ramaswamy by name.

“There’s a decency we should expect from our public officials where the standards of behavior have gotten so low that somebody can run an ad like that,” Obama said. “There’s got to be something inside you where you just say, ‘You know, no office is worth stooping that low.’ Because you know what, character matters.”

Acton and Obama’s comments referred to a 60-second video released by Ramaswamy’s campaign last week that featured her estranged mother, Donna Arthur. In the clip, Arthur calls her daughter a “liar.”

“She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true,” Arthur says in the ad.

Acton has spoken about her and her brother’s difficult shared childhood even before entering politics. She said they were homeless for a time and lived in a tent one winter. She accused her mother’s husband of sexual abuse, and court records obtained by news outlets show Acton’s stepfather was arrested and charged with raping her when she was 12, before he fled the state and later died.

Arthur disputed Acton’s allegations against her husband in a interview with a conservative website in 2020, but said she stood by her husband. She and Acton have separately said they have not spoken since a last encounter in court over Arthur’s husband’s charges.

Ramaswamy’s ad was met with a wave of condemnation from Democrats and some Republicans almost as soon as it began circulating on the internet. The Ohio governor’s race is very tight, according to MS NOW polling. On Friday, the Cook Political Report moved the race from “toss up” to “lean Democrat,” pointing to the ad negative’s consequences of “perhaps creating some collateral damage.”

But Ramaswamy has stood by the video, saying it “had nothing to do with childhood abuse.” President Donald Trump also backed the Republican candidate and accused the media of engaging in a “well-coordinated attack” to get the ad taken down.

In her remarks Saturday, Acton said her difficult childhood experiences shaped who she is today.

“I know that I am not the only one in this room who saw a thing or two in their childhood, but our stories, Ohio’s stories, is one of resilience, of grit, of grace, and, yes, of hope,” she said.

“Hope is a very powerful thing. It’s what got me through living in a cold, dark basement when I wasn’t sure where my next meal was coming from,” Acton continued. “Hope is what got me through sexual abuse, living through cold nights, where all I could think about was how to keep my brother safe and warm.”

She called Ramaswamy “out of touch” and “a danger to my state.”

“Apparently, there is no low to which you won’t stoop,” she said. “But look, I am a scrappy kid from Youngstown. Scrappy kids from Youngstown, we never back down from a fight.”

The post Obama and Ohio Democrat Amy Acton slam Ramaswamy attack ad appeared first on MS NOW.

I will join my fellow Gulf War veterans in Washington on Saturday for the dedication of the Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial. Our journey began Sunday, Aug. 5, 1990, three days after Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Kuwait, when President George H.W. Bush stood on the White House lawn and declared, “This will not stand — this aggression against Kuwait.”

I was privileged to have been a battalion commander then and, soon after Bush’s speech, led roughly 700 soldiers from Germany to the Middle East. At the end of the ground campaign, my unit was astride the so-called Highway of Death that connects Kuwait City to Basra following the famous “left hook” into Iraq. This weekend, I am looking forward to seeing many of my men — some of whom I have not seen for more than 30 years — but I fear my pride in my soldiers’ bravery and accomplishments will be tempered by what I believe the nation has lost since that conflict.

We deployed to liberate a sovereign nation from a totalitarian government. Our approach was the same as our parents’ in World War II, when American soldiers freed Europe from fascist occupation.

I told my soldiers in 1990 that American interests as well as our values — democracy, freedom, justice and respect for international law — were the basis for our deployment. We deployed to defend and liberate a sovereign nation from aggression by a totalitarian Iraqi government. Our approach was the same as our parents’ in World War II, when American soldiers helped free Europe from fascist occupation.

But based on how President Donald Trump has approached Ukraine and its ongoing efforts to resist Russian aggression, it appears that the democratic values that have long guided our national security policy are no longer relevant, and the use of U.S. military power is now based solely on the cold calculation of economic gain. The United States no longer supports nations, even fledgling democracies, that are the victims of aggression, but aligns itself with totalitarian states.

Recent decisions by the Trump administration are not only contrary to American values but a watershed for the future of U.S. national security policy. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed in September that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been invited to attend December’s Group of 20 summit in Miami. The Trump administration has also proposed unfreezing Russian assets in Europe to encourage Moscow to participate in peace talks. European and Asian leaders were surprised, shocked, upset and deeply critical of these decisions, which effectively seek to normalize economic relations with Russia.

Trump said on Oct. 9 that he and Putin had talked on the phone and reached an agreement for Russia to supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to U.S. and global markets. This translates into $4 billion for the Russian war machine. The president said this deal would lower diesel prices — and he blamed Ukraine for the rise in fuel costs here — but it is brutally clear that Trump is simply trying to appeal to American voters in the final days before the midterm elections. Energy experts are nearly unanimous that this agreement will have a limited impact on the cost of fuel and that the overwhelming driver for skyrocketing fuel costs is the president’s war with Iran. The agreement has been condemned by U.S. allies as well as congressional leaders on both side of the aisle.

On Oct. 11, Trump announced a unilateral “energy ceasefire” on his social media platform. He said that the truce between Russia and Ukraine was “effective immediately” and that both parties had agreed to halt strikes on energy infrastructure. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy subsequently noted that Kyiv learned of the purported truce through media reports, and Russian forces continued striking Ukrainian power facilities immediately following Trump’s announcement.

The president subsequently declared that Russia “has been fine on Ukraine,” argued that Ukraine was largely responsible for the continuation of the war, accused Zelenskyy of ingratitude and called for him to be replaced.

The president subsequently declared that Russia “has been fine on Ukraine,” argued that Ukraine was largely responsible for the continuation of the war, accused Zelenskyy of ingratitude and called for him to be replaced. At the same time, his administration hasn’t explained the disruption of Ukraine’s use of SpaceX’s Starshield, which provides Kyiv with critical intelligence on both incoming Russian ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones as well as command and control. An increase in Ukrainian civilian casualties followed as Russia continued its relentless bombardment. The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. officials, reported Thursday that the president had called SpaceX chief Elon Musk to have those restrictions lifted.

Trump has waived the imposition of new sanctions against the Russian government, oligarchs and companies as well as nations purchasing Russian energy consistent with the so-called Graham Act, named in memory of the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham. The president argued that negotiations with Russia were ongoing, and he did not “want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.” As Bush told the nation from the Oval Office on Aug. 8, 1990, “Appeasement does not work.” History bears him out.

It is true that the Bush administration was also pursuing economic interests in thwarting Saddam’s occupation of Kuwait. Secretary of State James Baker argued that allowing Iraq to control the crucial economic lifeline of the Persian Gulf would trigger a worldwide recession and subsequent American job losses. Yet the Bush administration didn’t seek to avoid war by pursuing an agreement with Saddam for American economic advantage, like Trump is doing with Putin.

Trump has shown a problematic lack of support for Ukraine since the outset of his second term, and he is likely frustrated by his failure to deliver on his campaign promise to end the war in 24 hours. The Trump administration is no longer treating Ukraine as a victim of aggression but as an obstacle to the president’s admiration for Putin and desire for closer economic cooperation with Russia. Trump seems to believe this would be an economic bonanza. American national security policy is now transactional and bereft of values.

Oddly, as of Friday morning, there had been no announcement about who would speak at the dedication of the Gulf War memorial on Saturday. I suspect the president and senior members of his administration are too busy campaigning. In some ways, I hope they are too busy, because I fear the president would attempt to turn a day set aside to honor Desert Storm veterans into a campaign rally. But if he shows up, it may do him some good. We’ll gather a short distance from memorials dedicated to World War II, Vietnam and Korea, and not far from the Lincoln Memorial. To stand in that space is to reflect on the values our nation holds dear.

The post May the new Desert Storm Memorial inspire President Trump to forcefully defend Ukraine appeared first on MS NOW.

The Trump administration plans to lift 50% tariffs on certain Canadian goods critical to Maine’s agricultural industry less than two weeks before Election Day, while also imposing new duties on other imports.

The move, announced Friday, hands Republican Sen. Susan Collins a political boost as she fights to retain her seat in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races.

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation exempting certain Canadian products, including seaweed, packaging materials, plywood, refrigeration equipment and agricultural machinery, from the steep tariffs.

While the exemptions, set to take effect Oct. 30, ease some trade restrictions, the proclamation also imposes 50% tariffs on other Canadian imports, including certain cocoa powders, carpets and floor coverings.

Trump’s latest ease on tariffs marks another shift in his administration’s contentious trade relationship with Canada. The president has repeatedly imposed and modified tariffs on Canadian imports, prompting concerns among U.S. businesses and lawmakers about rising costs and disruptions to cross-border trade.

Tensions between Trump and the U.S.’ northern neighbor appeared to reach a boiling point earlier this year after Trump announced a round of tariffs of up to 50% on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney threatened to match those tariffs “dollar for dollar.” Days later, Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario, which forms part of the U.S.-Canada border, “Lake America” in the U.S.

Collins, who has sought tariff relief for Maine businesses amid Trump’s escalating trade tensions with Canada, celebrated the exemptions Friday, saying she had repeatedly pressed senior administration officials to ease the financial burden on farmers and growers.

“I am pleased to have secured additional tariff exemptions [for] products crucial to Maine’s agricultural industries, including blueberry, potato, apple, and seaweed producers,” Collins wrote on X.

The senator said she had raised the issue in repeated conversations with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other administration officials. She also pledged to continue seeking additional exemptions and a broader trade agreement with Canada, which she described as Maine’s “largest trading partner.”

The announcement comes as Collins faces a competitive re-election challenge from Democrat Troy Jackson in a race that could help determine control of the Senate.

Collins has sought to distance herself from some of Trump’s policies, particularly his tariffs on Canada, while emphasizing her ability to secure concessions from his administration for Maine residents.

The tariff relief gives Collins a tangible policy achievement to highlight in the final days before the Nov. 3 election, as voters remain concerned about rising costs and the economy.

The post Trump rolls back some Canadian tariffs with Maine Senate race on the line appeared first on MS NOW.

This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct. 22 episode of “The Briefing with Jen Psaki.”

This week, we learned about an incident that feels like a perfect metaphor for the moment we are in.

For decades, two globes used by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II had been carefully preserved in the custody of the U.S. Army. That is, until this year, when one of those globes ended up broken on the floor of the Defense Department — the bottom smashed down into its ornamental base, which punched a large hole directly through the continent of Antarctica.

So how did that priceless artifact end up broken? In the most predictable way possible, of course.

According to reporting from The Washington Post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wanted Eisenhower’s globe for his office and ordered the artifact to be moved earlier this year, and the Army office in possession of the globe “had expected to consult with experts at the U.S. Army Center of Military History on how to ensure its safe transport and properly document its relocation to Hegseth’s office, according to two people familiar with the matter.” But at the time, “the history staffers were furloughed due to a partial government shutdown.”

When the experts could not be reached, according to the sources who spoke to the Post, Hegseth’s staff decided to move the globe themselves. An “apparent lack of patience appeared to be a factor,” according to a person familiar with the situation. Their impatience was especially unfortunate, given that the partial government shutdown ended the very same day the globe was clumsily damaged.

After the Post published the story, a Defense Department official provided the outlet with a brief, unattributed statement acknowledging the broken globe, writing that accidents “happen.” The statement said the globe was in the process of being repaired but did not say how much those repairs would cost or when they are expected to be completed.

For an insecure man baby, there is nothing worse than when the people taking back control from them are women.

The story is a perfect metaphor for what it feels like to live in this country right now: a country run by small, insecure, petulant little men with too much power — men who will break the world if they don’t get what they want, when they want it.

We see it every day among the impulsive man babies in President Donald Trump’s inner circle. And often the world they are wrecking isn’t just a replica.

For example, consider what is happening in Ukraine right now: For over a week, the Ukrainian army has been blindsided by the sudden slowdown of Starshield, a critical military-grade satellite system run by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. Lives were at stake while the Ukrainian army could not operate its missile interceptor systems at full capacity, which meant more Russian missiles and drones were able to get through.

You would think when an ally like Ukraine raises the alarm about a life-threatening problem like that, leaders in the United States would immediately try to remedy the situation. But instead, we have spent the past week watching a game of “he said, he said,” as both Musk and the White House try to deflect blame for the fiasco. All the while, more Russian missiles and drones were getting through.

When members of Congress had the audacity to suggest they would investigate what happened, Musk lashed out like an angsty teenager whose parents took away his favorite video game. “Live by the sword, die by the sword,” he threatened in a statement posted to his social media platform, X. “Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets.”

For a full week, we have watched Trump and Musk deliver exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted, while they thumped their chests, pretending they are all-powerful but also not responsible for anything that has gone wrong.

It was only on Thursday, more than a week after Ukraine lost this critical service, that, as The Wall Street Journal first reported, Trump called Musk and told him to restore full access to Starshield.

This was all happening while Musk was hard at work trying to amass more power that he can wield recklessly. Musk-backed super PACs have now spent more than $400 million supporting Republicans in the midterm elections, according to the latest filings.

We also learned that he’s putting up $1 billion for a stake in a new megamedia company run by one of Trump’s allies. It’s a move I see as less about protecting the freedom of the press and more as an effort to exert control over the media.

There is clearly no amount of power Musk can obtain that will satisfy his own insecurity. To Musk, the world is one big, ornamental globe that he thinks he’s allowed to break.

For two years now, we have watched man babies like Hegseth, Trump and Musk act this way. Whenever their power is threatened, whenever someone dares defy them, they lash out. They hate losing control, and they hate it when someone takes power back from them. And for an insecure man baby, nothing is worse than when the people who are taking back control from them are women.

We saw that most recently on Thursday, when an angry Trump decided to jump headfirst into the controversy roiling the race for Ohio governor.

As you probably know by now, the Republican candidate in that race, Vivek Ramaswamy, has sparked national outrage for airing an ad featuring the estranged mother of his opponent, Amy Acton. The 60-second video shows Acton’s mother calling her a liar. However, it leaves out the important context that Acton was removed from her mother’s custody at age 12, when her stepfather was criminally charged with raping her (he fled the state before he could be put on trial).

The ad caused national outrage, and even Ohio’s sitting Republican governor called on Ramaswamy to take it off the air.

But when Trump was asked about his thoughts on the ad, he decided to go absolutely all-in on defending it and attacking a childhood rape victim. Speaking to reporters at the White House, the president said the press had “ganged up on a woman making a horrible statement about her daughter” and insisted Acton was “fair game.”

The truth is, Trump cannot stand the idea that he and his party have lost control of this moment. He cannot stand that most of the country has, understandably, taken the side of a woman who survived serious trauma at the hands of a man with power over her. And he cannot stand that a woman chose to take that power back.

Trump has not forgotten how a movement of women taking back power from their abusers overshadowed his first inauguration as president. He has not forgotten how a woman stood up to him in court and accused him of abusing her — and how a jury sided with that same woman against him.

There have been several moments over the last year when Trump seemed to be afraid. But nothing reveals his insecurity, nothing shows you the whites of his eyes, quite like these moments.

This moment can feel really dark at times, but here’s the good news: We are just over a week away from Election Day, when half the population will get a chance to show this group of insecure man babies exactly how they feel.

Allison Detzel contributed.

The post Trump’s man babies keep breaking what they can’t control appeared first on MS NOW.

One group is oddly overrepresented among those whom Donald Trump has trotted out during his recent rallies ahead of the midterms: dudes who used to take blows to the head for a living.

Yes, just like in 2024, Trump is leaning on aging boxers — including some with disturbing histories — in his late-stage voter mobilization push.

Convicted rapist Mike Tyson sang the president’s praises during a recent rally in upstate New York. In turn, Trump touted Tyson’s brutality during his prime, calling him a “very dangerous person.” Floyd Mayweather Jr., who served time for domestic violence, recently touted Trump at a rally in Arizona.

And Evander Holyfield appeared alongside Trump this week at a rally in South Carolina, where the president evoked Holyfield’s name to cheer on a supporter who punched a heckler in the crowd. The retired boxer made headlines in 2014 for making homophobic remarks, which certainly makes me wonder what he thinks about Trump’s lecherous observations about men’s bodies lately.

The racial component here is unavoidable. As his administration wages war on Black America in a host of ways reminiscent of the Jim Crow era, Trump is trotting out old Black boxers during rallies — events filled with bigoted diatribes — in a way that might suggest he’s not actually leading a movement fueled by blatant racism. It’s also easy to see how these kinds of men can be made into pawns in a conservative movement that is steeped in toxic masculinity and displays of bravado.

In reality, Trump’s return to office has done very little for men, substantively speaking. He has failed to make good on his vow to bring back supposedly manly jobs — and, in fact, women have accounted for almost all of the net job creation that has occurred since he returned to office.

It’s a topic MS NOW’s Chris Hayes discussed with journalist Adam Serwer during a recent episode of “Why Is This Happening?” And it seems like at least part of the reason why Trump’s support among men has shown signs of softness.

Given all of that, prizefighters of past and present have basically become shiny objects that can distract MAGA men from the president’s failings. I’ve written previously about Trump’s use of combat sports — both boxing and mixed martial arts — to give his movement an air of toughness that he seems to lack on his own. Journalists like Luke Thomas have excellently homed in on this trend in even greater depth.

And the question for voters is whether they think these alliances serve any purpose other than to stroke fragile male egos. If political expertise were measured in jabs taken to the head, endorsements from Tyson, Mayweather and Holyfield might mean something of value. But that obviously is not the case.

These endorsements seem to me, more than anything else, like favors called in for a wannabe strongman whose clout is waning among a core constituency. In other words: weakness masked as strength.

The post Trump’s midterm closing message keeps featuring aging boxers appeared first on MS NOW.

Among the more amazing things about Donald Trump’s crusade against Rep. Ilhan Omar is how utterly brazen it is. The president and his team could at least try to keep up appearances, to maintain some kind of pretense that the scrutiny of the Minnesota Democrat is legitimate — but the Republican officials have largely decided not to bother.

On the contrary, Trump publicly demanded an investigation into a political opponent — which is itself an abuse — all the while making clear that he hoped to strip Omar of her citizenship and to deport a sitting congresswoman who dared to cross him. Soon after, federal departments did as they were directed to do, in pursuit of the president’s stated goal.

“It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say,” Barack Obama said in a statement. “But that’s exactly what the Trump Administration is doing to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.”

Despite highly dubious evidence of wrongdoing, federal agents seized the laptop, cellphone and passport of a sitting member of Congress, at which point the president who demanded this probe received a highly unusual briefing from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

While there’s still no evidence that the Minnesotan has done anything wrong, Trump took some time during his Thursday night rally in Iowa to insist that Omar resign. The Republican added that “the Democrat [sic] Party has conceded her seat” and she will no longer be permitted to serve in Congress.

Trump calls for Ilhan Omar to immediately resign & says, "please inform our great Speaker, James Michael Johnson that the Democrat Party has conceded her seat … she will not be allowed to me a member of that body any longer"Trump's crowd in Iowa then starts chanting "Lock her up! Lock her up!"

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-10-23T00:27:55.342Z

At that point, as if on cue, his followers chanted, “Lock her up! Lock her up!”

After the event, the president published a statement to his social media platform, again calling on Omar to “IMMEDIATELY resign from Congress,” adding that someone should inform House leaders that the congresswoman has “openly admitted to FRAUD, and she will not be legally allowed to be a Member of this August Body.”

In reality, of course, Omar has not “openly admitted” to any wrongdoing and has repeatedly denied the White House’s allegations. No one has conceded their seat — Omar is likely to be re-elected in 11 days — and she is absolutely still permitted to serve on Capitol Hill, doing the job Americans in her district elected her to do.

I have no idea what, if anything, will come of this relentless campaign. Given that Team Trump also ordered an investigation into Omar’s records in his first term and that probe was eventually abandoned for lack of evidence, the president might want to temper his expectations.

But that this is happening at all reflects unmistakable authoritarian tactics.

“The investigation of her is a chilling example of the federal government using its immense power to silence a critic,” the editorial board of The New York Times explained. “It is an affront to free speech, the rule of law and American ideals.”

The editorial added, “In the case of Ms. Omar, the administration has gone back more than a quarter-century to investigate a prominent critic. If her naturalization can be revisited, it suggests that no naturalized citizen is safe. It also indicates that the federal government can go searching for any decades-old problem to hound somebody who has criticized the White House. Those are the tactics of authoritarian societies.”

The post Trump’s crusade against Ilhan Omar follows a familiar authoritarian playbook appeared first on MS NOW.

While many Republican candidates are keeping Donald Trump at arm’s length, Iowa’s Joe Mitchell has moved in a far more obsequious direction, despite running in one of the nation’s most competitive congressional districts.

The 29-year-old former state representative, hoping to succeed Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa’s 2nd District, joined the president during a rally Thursday night and offered the kind of gushing praise Trump likes to hear. Mitchell said Trump has “kept this country more safe than any other president, ever,” before expressing outrage that Trump hasn’t been given a Nobel Peace Prize.

It was at that point when the Iowan decided to give the president a different honor — one he had made up.

Joe Mitchell gives Trump "the man of the century" award (that he just made up)

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-10-23T01:40:34.634Z

Mitchell held up a framed certificate and said, “So what I came up with, Mr. President, is a new award. It’s called the ‘Man of the Century Award.’” The congressional hopeful went on to insist that Trump has “fought more for humanity and for America than any other president ever” and has become “the greatest president we’ve ever had.”

The president accepted the certificate, handed it to an aide and continued with his rally.

Time will tell whether locals in one of the nation’s true toss-up House races are impressed with such sycophancy, but the presentation got me thinking about the larger pattern: Trump has struggled to earn the kind of awards he desperately wants, but he has managed to receive all kinds of fake honors.

Earlier this year, for example, several coal industry executives and miners in hard hats presented Trump with a trophy that labeled him the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal.”

This was not an isolated incident. Shortly after Trump lost his re-election bid in 2020, the National Republican Senatorial Committee made up an honor for him called the Champion for Freedom Award.

More recently, after the president’s begging didn’t lead to a Nobel Peace Prize, soccer’s global governing body, FIFA, concocted its own peace prize in the hopes of making Trump feel better.

A month after Trump picked up a trophy from coal industry representatives, House Speaker Mike Johnson held an event in which he announced another made-up honor, called the America First Award. The Louisiana Republican then handed the president, the first recipient, with a giant eagle statue.

Let this be a lesson to those hoping to curry favor with the White House: If you haven’t already visited a store that makes trophies and prizes, you’re making a mistake.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post ‘Man of the Century’: Republicans keep presenting Trump with made-up awards appeared first on MS NOW.

After months of arguments, a state judge in Alaska ruled in late June that retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan could run against incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, overturning the ruling from the Alaska Division of Elections. A few months later, after the first round of balloting, state election officials finalized the top four candidates for Alaska’s unique system, and both Dan Sullivans advanced to the general election.

That Donald Trump and his political team are worried about the race is obvious, but what the president’s team is doing about it is another matter entirely.

Late Thursday, Trump’s Justice Department filed a preemptive lawsuit that intends to block certification of the Senate race — but only if the Republican incumbent loses while the rival with the similar name remains on the ballot.

As The Associated Press reported, the litigation kicks off “what many have feared could become a lengthy battle between the U.S. government and states over certifying an election where the president’s party is struggling.”

What’s more, it’s entirely possible that former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola will win this race and the efforts by Trump’s DOJ will determine whether she’s seated — and which party ultimately holds a majority in the Senate.

The lawsuit is a dramatic escalation, but it didn’t come out of nowhere. At a White House event in early September, the president publicly urged Attorney General Todd Blanche to pursue a case in Alaska specifically focused on the competing candidates with nearly identical names.

Last week, Trump went further, claiming that federal authorities were “looking into” the matter and pushing assorted conspiracy theories for which there was no evidence. As recently as Wednesday of this week, the president used his social media platform to publish a statement that read, in part, “Dan S. Sullivan is leading by a lot, but this is CHEATING in an Election, and the Judge that allowed this to happen should be ashamed of himself. We are looking at powerful legal options to remove the fraudulent Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. from the Ballot, and holding the Democrats accountable for their Election Interference, in the pursuit of Justice and Fairness.”

The statement included obvious falsehoods — most recent polling in Alaska shows the Republican incumbent trailing, not “leading by a lot” — and there is nothing to suggest Democratic officials have engaged in “election interference,” other than championing their party’s nominee.

Nevertheless, there have long been concerns that the Trump administration might try to derail election results it doesn’t like, and the DOJ’s new lawsuit regarding Alaska suggests those concerns are well grounded.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The post Trump administration sues to block possible Democratic win in Alaska Senate race appeared first on MS NOW.

US First Lady Melania Trump has secured an agreement for a localized ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, Kherson Oblast, to allow humanitarian aid deliveries and civilian evacuations to begin on 29 October, the White House announced on 23 October.

The proposed truce comes after months of worsening conditions in Oleshky, where Russian restrictions have left residents without reliable access to food, drinking water, medicine, and medical care. Ukrainian officials and international monitors have called for a humanitarian corridor as civilians face hunger, landmines, and regular attacks, with residents unable to leave safely.

Update: Ukraine launches humanitarian mission to occupied Oleshky after US-mediated agreement

Update 21:31: Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets announced the launch of a humanitarian mission to Russian-occupied Oleshky in Kherson Oblast, saying an agreement had been signed following negotiations coordinated by the US side, with mediation by US First Lady Melania Trump. 

The agreement provides for several stages, including preparations for a ceasefire, clearing routes of mines, delivering humanitarian aid, and unblocking evacuation routes. 

Lubinets said his office had been raising the alarm about the looming humanitarian catastrophe in Oleshky since late February 2026 and would report on each stage of the mission.

Ceasefire aims to open evacuation route

According to the White House, Trump and her representative worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to agree on the ceasefire's terms, timing, and procedures. Civilian representatives from both countries are expected to visit residents to assess their needs, while those wishing to leave will receive transportation to their preferred destination.

The White House said an American media organization would accompany the teams to document the process and help ensure families' wishes are respected.

Trump said she initiated discussions after learning about the crisis during a private conversation at an event in New York during the 81st United Nations General Assembly. She said the agreement also involves technical preparations, including demining.

Oleshky residents face hunger and isolation

Oleshky, on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River, had around 24,000 residents before Russia's full-scale invasion. Recent estimates put the remaining population at roughly 1,700 to 2,000, including about 50 children.

Residents face severe food and medicine shortages, while Russian forces have restricted movement and attacked vehicles attempting to deliver humanitarian supplies. Ukrainian officials have also said Russian troops have seized food parcels delivered by Ukrainian drones and detained or beaten some residents who received them.

The crisis has drawn growing international attention. Pope Leo XIV appealed to Russian leader Vladimir Putin for a truce to allow aid deliveries and safe civilian evacuations, while Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said on 18 October that negotiations over a ceasefire and evacuation had advanced to the stage of agreeing on final details.

The White House announcement sets 29 October as the start date for the localized ceasefire. Its implementation will determine whether aid can reach residents and civilians can leave safely after months of isolation.

“If Donald Trump defies court orders because the Supreme Court said he cannot be prosecuted for actions he takes as president, could those people who carry out his illegal requests be prosecuted or fined even though they are acting on his orders?” — Kit Read

Hi Kit,

Maybe.

The Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in Trump v. United States only dealt directly with criminal immunity for presidents, holding that they have at least presumptive immunity for all official acts, as well as absolute immunity for acts within their “conclusive and preclusive” constitutional authority.

What all that means in practice hasn’t been fully fleshed out. It would take a follow-up case to clarify the ruling’s limits, and it’s unclear if or when such a case will come.

At any rate, the court focused on presidents in that ruling. It did not grant immunity to aides acting on the president’s behalf.

Yet, while arguments have been made against subordinate immunity, it’s technically an open question that the justices haven’t decided one way or the other.

So the answer to your question at the moment is: maybe.

But you might wonder: What could the argument be for immunizing presidential underlings?

One scholarly account argued that the logic of the immunity ruling “renders the President’s subordinates absolutely immune for a potentially broad range of official acts, even if those acts are otherwise unlawful.” That’s because if the president has complete power over executing the law, then, the argument goes, subordinate actions that implement that power are lawful, as opposed to being unlawful but immune from prosecution.

As with clarifying the immunity ruling’s limits as it applies to presidents, whether the Supreme Court will decide the subordinate immunity question depends on the court taking an appeal that raises that issue in the future. And as with presidential immunity itself, there is no clear candidate for an appeal the court would take to answer that question.

Either way, if a president wants to ensure that any of his henchmen won’t be federally prosecuted, he could always pardon them.

Please submit “Ask Jordan” questions through this form for a chance to have your question featured in a future edition of the Deadline: Legal newsletter.

The post Ask Jordan: Does presidential immunity extend to subordinates who carry out illegal orders? appeared first on MS NOW.

Any story about a family dispute is bound to be complex, but the politics surrounding Vivek Ramaswamy’s abhorrent attack ad are relatively straightforward. Amy Acton, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Ohio, was allegedly raped by her stepfather when she was a child.

Her Republican opponent, Ramaswamy, is trying to weaponize this in despicable fashion, pushing a campaign commercial that features Acton’s estranged mother, who sided with the stepfather even after his arrest and stayed with him until his death.

But in recent days, it’s become clear that this ad has taken on far greater significance than one commercial in one gubernatorial election. As The New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg summarized in her latest column:

It’s quite a feat, in this numb and debased era, to create a political advertisement so shocking and indecent that people from across the political spectrum feel the need to denounce it. The Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has long fashioned himself as a kind of Donald Trump 2.0 — younger and brainier but just as brash — has managed it.

By releasing what may be the most disgusting ad in American political history, he’s done more than just reveal his own low character. He’s opened a kind of proxy debate on the right about whether a post-Trump conservatism should try to reclaim some base-line morality or continue along its current smashmouth course.

Donald Trump has changed his party and his nation’s politics in a great many ways, but among the most important shifts is the degree to which the president has championed the politics of cruelty and dishonor. There are messages — from attack ads to speeches to social message postings — that Republican officials used to avoid, even when they agreed with the underlying point, in part to avoid backlash and in part to maintain their public reputations and credibility.

In recent years, however, those scruples have been cast aside. GOP officials and candidates no longer hedge on depraved messaging: After having seen Americans twice elevate a malicious television personality to the nation’s highest office, they now routinely echo his amorality and cynicism, seeing it as a way to satisfy the party’s far-right base, to advance their own ambitions or both.

Most decent people can and will agree that Ramaswamy’s attack ad is indefensible, but the ad has also taken on totemic value.

“What the ad represents … is an opening salvo in the post-midterms fight for the Republican Party’s future,” Politico’s Jonathan Martin explained. “It’s a battle that will accelerate next year but may not culminate until the 2030s. Put simply, what sort of party does the GOP want to be — and what will the market bear?”

Trailing in polls and short on options, Ramaswamy made his choice, and the stain on his character is likely to be permanent. What the Ohioan might not have anticipated, however, is just how much his disgusting tactic has divided his own party.

Several prominent Republicans in the state, including outgoing Gov. Mike DeWine, have publicly condemned the ad, and others outside of Ohio have taken similar steps. Former GOP presidential contender Nikki Haley, for example, said via social media that Ramaswamy is “a bad guy.” A day later, Rep. Ashley Hinson, the party’s Senate hopeful in Iowa, called the commercial “absolutely terrible.”

On the other side, there’s the White House, where the politics of cruelty and dishonor still thrive, and where there are Republican leaders who still believe repugnant messaging will dominate for the foreseeable future.

JD Vance, for example, declared this week that he’s “a little bit disgusted,” not by Ramaswamy’s gutter politics, but by members of his own party who are “whining” about civility.

The vice president’s reaction itself drew swift rebukes — The Bulwark published a piece that described Vance as a “sociopath” — but that didn’t stop Trump from picking up where his vice president left off.

On Wednesday, the president told reporters he didn’t “know anything about it,” before shifting gears and talking about how important he considers it to see a mother “hate her daughter that much.”

A day later, Trump went much further and spent much of Thursday defending the ad, urging Ramaswamy to keep running it, demanding the public take the underlying claims “seriously” and at Iowa rally, predicting that the ad would work in the GOP candidate’s favor.

In other words, Trump took care to keep dividing Republicans — with less than two weeks remaining, during the early voting period — in one of the nation’s most important gubernatorial races, by leaning into support for one of the most repulsive campaign ads in recent memory.

Election Day is 11 days away. Watch this space.

The post Ramaswamy’s vile ad is dividing the Republican Party. Trump is leading the wrong side. appeared first on MS NOW.

The move comes amid increased attention to the worsening humanitarian crisis in the city, which over the past weeks has gained international attention, including from Pope Leo XIV.

For nearly two years, Donald Trump’s Justice Department has been unusually aggressive in pursuing the White House’s political opponents. Now, however, it appears that a presidential ally is the one facing scrutiny from federal law enforcement.

MS NOW has confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department over allegations that Corey Lewandowski profited from his role at DHS.

A Lewandowski spokesperson issued a statement Thursday saying that the former DHS official hadn’t been contacted by the Justice Department, adding that Lewandowski “denies any wrongdoing when he was proudly serving his country in a voluntary capacity.”

For those who would benefit from a refresher on Lewandowski, around this time 10 years ago, it appeared that his role as a member of Trump’s team had run its course. The Republican operative was Trump’s campaign manager for several months in 2016, but after clashing with his colleagues and facing a criminal charge after a confrontation with a reporter, the future president ousted Lewandowski from his political operation.

Although it seemed implausible, the operative gradually worked his way back into Trump’s good graces, and when the president returned to power after the 2024 election, Lewandowski received a striking reward: Trump tapped him to serve as a “special government employee” to help run the Department of Homeland Security alongside then-Secretary Kristi Noem.

Predictably, Lewandowski’s tenure proved controversial — in part because of the policy agenda he championed; in part because he wanted to carry a gun (for reasons that were never fully explained), to the alarm of DHS officials; and in part because of the nature of his close relationship with Noem.

But it’s the corruption allegations that are of particular and ongoing significance.

In July, for example, The Wall Street Journal reported that federal investigators found evidence that Lewandowski “may have been involved in improperly awarding government contracts” during his time at DHS. Last month, the Journal published a separate report, alleging that the operative used his role in the department to pursue side deals for himself with officials in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. (Lewandowski slammed the reporting as “fiction.”)

Time will tell what, if anything, comes of the inquiry, though if it reaches a more serious stage, it will create a difficult test for the president and his political operation.

Indeed, if Trump’s former campaign manager faces a possible federal criminal indictment, it’s an open question as to whether the president will intervene and derail the case, or whether he’ll add Lewandowski to his list of close allies whom he pretends not to know.

Complicating matters further, it was just last week when Trump sat down with Newsmax for a lengthy interview, and when the discussion turned to pardons, the Republican said, “I can tell you this, I don’t want to see my people go through — because these people are lunatics on the, on the left — I don’t want to see people that work for me go through years of nonsense, hire lawyers and everything else, all for nothing.”

This came a few weeks after Trump also told Time magazine that he’s prepared to issue pardons to members of his administration. Watch this space.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post Corey Lewandowski faces Justice Department inquiry, creating key test for Team Trump appeared first on MS NOW.

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr issued a threat this week that adds a sinister new dimension to the Trump Censorship Industrial Complex.

Without citing specifics, Carr decried what he called “a significant surge in entirely Fake Polls and Suppression Polls designed to do nothing more than interfere with the regular functioning of the electoral process and alter the normal patterns of voter turnout and enthusiasm.”

“Broadcasters are advised to avoid engaging in News Distortions or running Broadcast Hoaxes by airing Polls that would violate their regulatory obligations,” Carr warned Wednesday.

It’s possible Carr was referring to news this week that an obscure group called Wedgewood Polls had propagated fraudulent polling data that, despite news outlets’ due diligence, made its way into polling aggregations at several outlets, including The New York Times and MS NOW. The problem of apparently malevolent actors fudging poll numbers before an election is not something to take lightly, but responsible news organizations have been transparent with their audiences, appending corrections, editor’s notes and updating their aggregations as needed. (The commission’s lone Democratic appointee, Anna Gomez, posted to X on Wednesday, “FCC rules on news distortion or hoaxes do not apply to a station that reports this data in good faith.”)

This would hardly be the first time Carr has used his office to threaten broadcasters from airing bad news about his boss.

But Carr’s track record as an anti-free-speech warrior for Trump makes it hard to see his comments as an earnest effort to prevent the distribution of incorrect information before an election. In nearly two years as FCC chair, Carr has demonstrated that he’s an unprincipled, hyperpartisan hack who cosplays as an advocate of free speech and limited government. Examples abound of him using his office to try to silence Trump critics and strong-arm risk-averse media corporations that prioritize nothing more than their bottom lines.

More likely, Carr is helping lay the groundwork for Trump to — once again — falsely claim fraud in the event of a GOP wipeout in the midterm elections, lest Trump’s historic unpopularity be blamed for Republicans losing control of one or both houses of Congress or any number of statehouses.

In March, as it became evident that Trump’s war on Iran was destined to become an unwinnable quagmire, Carr threatened broadcasters from airing “hoaxes and news distortions” in war coverage. Those words, in MAGA-speak, typically translate to “reports that accurately reflect the president’s incompetence.”

Carr also effectively censored Jimmy Kimmel after the September 2025 assassination of Charlie Kirk by jawboning ABC’s corporate parent, The Walt Disney Company, into suspending the late-night comic, even boasting, “When we see stuff like this, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.” So egregious was this government gangsterism that no less a Trump lickspittle than Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, condemned it as “mafioso” behavior. When Carr wasn’t acting as the comedy police, he went after ABC’s daytime talk show “The View,” claiming the program violated the FCC’s antiquated “equal time” rules regarding political candidate interviews, despite the fact that talk shows had historically been considered exempt from that regulation.

Sadly, the FCC’s censorship campaign has been such a success that ABC’s lawyers claimed in court recently that the network’s news division has been tempering its election coverage to avoid further harassment by the Trump administration.

This spring, Carr himself bragged about how effective Trump’s authoritarian attacks on the free press have been: “Look at the results so far. PBS defunded. NPR defunded…[Stephen] Colbert is leaving. CBS is under new ownership. And soon enough, CNN is going to have new ownership as well.” (Skydance, the company controlled by the Trump-friendly billionaire trust fund baby David Ellison, now owns CBS and CNN.)

The FCC’s censorship campaign has been such a success that ABC’s lawyers claimed in court recently that the network’s news division has been tempering its election coverage to avoid further harassment by the Trump administration.

Thankfully for Carr, his efforts earned him a good-boy pat on the head from Trump at an Alaska campaign rally this month, when the president praised his FCC attack poodle as “the most-feared man in government.” If you were wondering, yes, it is bizarre that the head of the historically bipartisan FCC would be attending a partisan political rally. But then, Carr — who’s known for wearing a lapel pin in the shape of Trump’s head — broke decades of precedent when he told a Senate committee in December 2025 that the FCC is not an independent agency. References to “independent” have also been removed from the FCC’s website.

Twelve former FCC officials — who served in both Republican and Democratic administrations — issued a joint statement Wednesday condemning Carr’s “dangerous and unconstitutional” attempt to “censor and control the information available to Americans as they prepare to vote.” They added, “Make no mistake: this is a direct attack on free and fair elections, which is especially concerning in the days and weeks when Americans are heading to the polls.”

In an X post Wednesday, The Bulwark’s Will Saletan aptly summed up Carr’s pathology: “Stephen Miller might look the part, but Brendan Carr is actually Trump’s most dedicated authoritarian apparatchik. In a fascist regime, he would do anything the boss ordered.”

Trump’s recent claim that Carr is the “most feared” person in government is in keeping with the president’s flattery of thugs, and Carr no doubt appreciated the ego-stroking. That’s probably overstating the case a bit — the Trump administration does have high-ranking officials who brag about committing likely war crimes, after all — but Carr is most certainly a giddy soldier in Trump’s war on the Constitution.

The post FCC Chair Brendan Carr is bringing Trump’s Censorship Industrial Complex to our elections appeared first on MS NOW.

STERLING HEIGHTS, Michigan — President Donald Trump promised that his tariff policies would make the country richer and would bring in enough revenue to eliminate the need for income tax and to pay down the country’s debt. Instead, Trump voters in Michigan told MS NOW they feel poorer, as income tax is still on the books and the national debt has soared to $40 trillion.

Increased prices due to tariffs continue to pinch consumers across the country, and few are paying a higher price than Michiganders.

In September, a study for the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, a nonpartisan “small government” research group, estimated that the impact of tariffs on Michigan households since January 2025 has been somewhere between $23 billion and $26 billion, which breaks down to an estimated burden of about $6,000 per household.

“I hate them. They suck,” Dennis Walls, a three-time Trump voter who works in landscaping and is looking for a second job, said of tariffs.

Walls, who is from Imlay City, said the tariffs have made groceries more expensive and cost his landscaping business more for equipment.

“Our backpacks, leaf-blowing backpacks, stick edges, weed whackers, machines, even keep going up higher and higher,” he said.

Michigan’s exposure to Trump’s trade war is amplified by its proximity to Canada and the deep ties between their economies. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative estimated that Michigan exported $23.2 billion in goods to Canada in 2025. The Canadian government estimated it exported about $43.5 billion in goods to Michigan that same year.

This year, Trump imposed significant tariffs on Canada, drawing retaliation from Canada — which ended in a stalemate this September, when tariffs on billions of dollars of goods went into effect.

Kenneth Matthews, 57, is another three-time Trump voter who’s juggling work at a factory and his own lawn care business.

“I’m pissed off about them,” he said. “It’s even harder when you’re running your own business.”

Matthews said he regrets his support for Trump.

“He’s not making America great again. He’s putting us farther in the hole,” he said.

His message to the president is simple: “Knock the tariffs off. Get rid of them. We shouldn’t have them.”

Michigan’s historic automotive industry is on the front line of the trade wars Trump has picked with Canada and Mexico. But it’s the small businesses that keep the industry humming that are being hit hardest.

Andi Asliwa, 28, is an owner and mechanic at New Testament Auto Service in Sterling Heights. The entrepreneur told MS NOW that the tariffs are making his business untenable as he has to pass on higher prices for parts to his customers.

I think the richer people got richer, but the average person — no, it’s tearing us apart.”

—Andi Asliwa

“I used to get brake pads for $35, $25. Now they’re $70 and up,” said Asliwa, who voted for Trump in 2024. He said his brake pads are imported from China, and he’s sticking with them as they remain less expensive than domestically produced brake pads, which he said are worse quality.

Asked how the tariffs have affected the country, Asliwa said, “I think the richer people got richer, but the average person — no, it’s tearing us apart.”

Last month, Trump announced an import ban on select Canadian alcoholic beverages, and Canada retaliated, putting bars on both sides of the border on the rocks. But it’s not just the booze that’s drying up; it’s also the boycott by Canadian tourists, spurred by the escalating trade war, that’s making a dent on Michiganders’ bottom lines.

Bob Roberts owns McShane’s Irish Pub & Whiskey Bar in Detroit, which employs 32 people. Roberts, who voted for Trump in 2016, said Canadian tourists from just across the border in Windsor, Ontario, have stopped their patronage.

You would see Canadian plates everywhere. Now you walk around, you don’t see any Canadian plates at all.”

—Bob Roberts

“We used to enjoy a pretty big crowd from Canada, because they have no sports teams there,” Roberts said. “You would see Canadian plates everywhere. Now you walk around, you don’t see any Canadian plates at all.”

Roberts put the damage to his revenue from the Canadian tourism boycott at about 15%, or about $30,000. He said the hospitality industry in Detroit right now is “fragile.”

“If you continue down the road that we’re on, there’s not going to be any way that I can survive as a restaurateur, and because of that, you know, I’ll go out of business,” Roberts said.

Roberts said he is still undecided on whether he will vote for Democrat Abdul El-Sayed or Republican Rep. Mike Rogers for Michigan’s Senate seat.

“If these tariffs don’t get cleared up, if the Republicans win either the House or the Senate — I mean, there needs to be a dramatic change in Washington,” he said.

“Otherwise, I mean, quite frankly, we’re screwed,” he added.

El-Sayed has opposed Trump’s tariff policy from the beginning of his campaign, in contrast to Rogers, who only came out against the president’s trade war with Canada with less than a month before Election Day.

“As a politician, he came out in support of Canada and against the trade wars; in my opinion, [he] came out a little late,” Roberts said of Rogers.

“It doesn’t pass the sniff test: It smells like politics, as opposed to being genuine,” he added.

The post Trump voters in Michigan plead for an end to trade wars appeared first on MS NOW.