President Donald Trump risks reviving an Espionage Act prosecution over his alleged mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago as his Justice Department lays the groundwork with its fights to beat a deadline in a case against former FBI Director James Comey.

Comey’s lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden in a court filing Tuesday to throw out the charges, which prosecutors filed as a criminal information, a charge they can sign without a grand jury. Prosecutors argue it meets the 10-year deadline Congress set for Espionage Act crimes.

That same deadline covers Trump, whose Espionage Act charges for keeping classified documents rest mostly on files the FBI seized on Aug. 8, 2022, CNN reported. If prosecutors win against Comey, the next Justice Department to weigh charges against Trump would have an easier time beating it.

Prosecutors filed the charges on Oct. 5, the last day of the 10-year window after a 2016 leak to a reporter they say Comey directed, the charging document shows.

“An indictment for any violation” of the Espionage Act “may be found at any time within ten years,” says Section 19 of a 1950 law, which Comey’s lawyers quoted Tuesday. An indictment is a charge approved by a grand jury of citizens.

A Justice Department official told CNN that filing such a charge to pause a deadline is “a widely recognized practice in federal court.” Prosecutors have also told McFadden that the court “is powerless to entertain” Comey’s challenge until a grand jury indicts him.

The new DOJ position would give any future prosecutor racing a deadline, including one weighing charges against Trump, a way to pause the clock without a grand jury and keep the charge beyond a judge’s review.

Comey's lawyers pointed out that the government would allow the allegations to "hang over Mr. Comey indefinitely, with the courts incapable of addressing the defect in its filing."

To go to trial, prosecutors would still need a grand jury to indict and would argue the indictment counts from the earlier filing date, a step three federal appeals courts have allowed under the ordinary five-year deadline, Comey’s lawyers wrote in an Oct. 16 motion.

Trump faced the same law in 2023, when special counsel Jack Smith charged him with 31 counts of willfully keeping national defense information at Mar-a-Lago.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed that case in July 2024 over how Smith was appointed. But Trump’s term ends in January 2029. The deadline on most of those charges runs until August 2032, 10 years after the seizure, according to CNN.

“I found myself wondering if Trump could one day rue arguing in favor of 10 year statutes of limitation here,” national security journalist Marcy Wheeler wrote after seeing Comey's motion to dismiss the charges on Wednesday.

The leak case is the third the Justice Department has brought against Comey in 13 months, his lawyers wrote in the Oct. 16 motion.

In a recent podcast, Attorney General Todd Blanche dismissed the idea that the DOJ could act independently of the president's wishes, making it clear that a department serving Trump brought the Comey case.

“I work for President Trump," he stated.

Comey's lawyers said in Tuesday's filing that prosecutors wanted to indict their client on Oct. 9 but agreed not to seek an indictment for 30 days, a pause that runs out in early November. McFadden will hear arguments on the charges Friday at 11 a.m.

President Donald Trump suffered another legal setback Wednesday after a federal judge blocked his administration from using $20 million in taxpayer money for television advertisements praising the president.

U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan ordered officials to stop developing and airing the advertisements and halt their distribution, Bloomberg reported.

“The court is unpersuaded,” AliKhan wrote of the administration’s promise to stop using public money for the ads.

The sharply worded ruling follows a separate court order in New York blocking the taxpayer-funded advertisements through mid-November, well beyond the Nov. 3 elections, according to Bloomberg.

AliKhan concluded Wednesday that officials “likely used public dollars to unlawfully finance a national campaign in the final weeks before the November 2026 elections.”

The judge also questioned Trump’s Oct. 5 pledge to have his political operation pay for the advertisements instead of taxpayers.

“But that promise went unfulfilled—the ads continued to air with the ‘Paid for by the U.S. Government’ disclosure for at least another week,” she added in the blistering rebuke of the administration.

“This sequence of events gives the court reason to doubt Defendants’ assurances that the same injury will not recur,” AliKahn concluded.

The Trump administration must submit a report by Friday detailing its compliance with the ruling.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) could push Donald Trump over the edge if he ignores “pressure” from the president to prevent the seating of a Democratic majority in the House.

During an appearance on MS NOW with host Peter Alexander, former Trump deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews pointed out that Americans saw what happened when Trump didn’t get his way on Jan 6, 2020, and losing both chambers of Congress next week might lead to a replay.

After watching a clip of Johnson telling reporters, “The Constitution says when a state certifies the election of members of Congress, and they administered the oath, that's what I'll be doing on January 3rd to everybody who's there. I may not like some of those outcomes, but that's our system. And for anybody to suggest otherwise is absurd," Matthews was asked to weigh in.

“I think the last time we saw Donald Trump lose an election, we saw an insurrection at our nation's Capitol, so it is not a silly question," she told Alexander.

“It is a very real scenario that we have to prepare for and that we have to act,” she cautioned. “I appreciate his answer and him saying that he's going to abide by the Constitution, but he's probably going to face immense pressure from Trump in the days after the election.”

“I think that Trump is going to be upset, particularly if Democrats regain control of the Senate,” she predicted. “I think it's more than likely that Democrats will regain control of the House; the Senate is still up in the air, but Trump is going to absolutely spiral if that's the case. And Speaker Mike Johnson is going to face a lot of pressure from him.”

- YouTube youtu.be

Mississippi Democratic Senate nominee Scott Colom says President Donald Trump’s visit to the state is a sign that Republicans are worried, and he’s using it to raise money.

“Just a few nights ago Donald Trump got on stage at his Mississippi rally, where he immediately started spreading hate and lies about me and this campaign,” Colom wrote in a fundraising email sent Wednesday.

Trump held a rally Monday at Crossroads Arena in Corinth to boost Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), whom Colom is trying to unseat in a race that has tightened in a state Republicans usually take for granted.

“I think we’re under their skin,” Colom wrote. “I know we must be doing something right if the President of the United States is coming to Mississippi to talk about me — but it means that the entire Republican party is about to come crashing down against us.”

Colom said Trump “did tell the truth about one thing”: that the only reason he came to Mississippi was to “make sure” Hyde-Smith wins.

“But bad news for him, no matter how much he tries to bail Cindy out, polls show this race is a statistical tie and that our campaign has the momentum,” Colom wrote.

He predicted the attacks from “the President, Cindy Hyde-Smith, and their billionaire buddies” will keep coming before Election Day on Nov. 3.

“They’re desperate and pulling out all their tricks,” he wrote.

Colom, a district attorney in northeast Mississippi, has drawn national Democratic attention in the final stretch of the race. Former Vice President Kamala Harris rallied with him in Columbus last week. If he wins, he would be the first Democrat to represent Mississippi in the U.S. Senate since the late 1980s, and its first Black senator since Reconstruction.

A group of Senate Democrats is demanding that Dr. Mehmet Oz reveal whether his agency coordinated with far-right activists pushing a baseless conspiracy theory that left-wing groups are stealing the votes of nursing home residents.

Eight senators, including Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Alex Padilla, Ron Wyden and Cory Booker, wrote to Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, asking him to “urgently” rescind a July memo and restore the agency’s 2020 and 2024 guidance on helping nursing home residents vote, reported WIRED.

“This is as low as it gets,” Warren told WIRED. “The Trump administration’s unfounded allegations of election fraud are inspiring election denial groups to harass nursing home residents and staff.”

The July memo scrapped earlier guidance explaining how nursing home staff could help residents vote, such as assisting with mail ballots or arranging transportation to the polls. In its place, CMS warned of prosecution for staff who “engage in inappropriate coercion or other violations of residents’ rights.”

Last month, election denial groups seized on the memo to claim voter fraud was happening inside care facilities. The effort was led by the Election Integrity Network, headed by former Trump adviser Cleta Mitchell.

“These left-wing groups go into the nursing homes, and they go into the group homes, and they basically steal the votes of these most vulnerable,” Mitchell said on Steve Bannon’s “War Room.”

The senators want Oz to disclose any communications between CMS and Mitchell, her group and Project Civica, a New York-based election denial organization, including “the dates and nature of those communications, and any recommendations provided to CMS.”

They also pressed Oz on an apparent contradiction. In a September letter to Warren, Oz wrote that helping a resident request a mail ballot, complete it according to the resident’s wishes or get to a polling place “is not the type of conduct that would give rise to a voter fraud investigation.”

“Why has CMS not reinstated its previous guidance clarifying nursing homes’ responsibilities to facilitate residents’ voting rights?” the senators asked.

A CMS spokesperson did not answer questions about the agency’s communications with election denial groups and instead referred WIRED to the July memo. Mitchell, the Election Integrity Network and Project Civica did not respond to requests for comment.

The demand comes as Trump said Tuesday he would accept the midterm results if they are “honest elections,” even as his administration has spent months promoting unfounded claims about mail-in and noncitizen voting.

A Florida congressional district that the Republican-controlled legislature carved out to add to the GOP’s House total could end up in Democratic hands because the Republican candidate is barely campaigning.

According to the Washington Sun, Republican House candidate Casey Askar, a wealthy pizza franchise owner and entrepreneur, lives about a 5-mile drive outside the district he is running in. It’s one of four seats Florida Republicans redrew to favor their party.

Askar’s home "is an extravagant mansion where he cannot be seen, isolated behind a massive gatehouse," which the Sun's Oriana González said could "serve as a metaphor for his campaign" in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District. He isn’t especially visible there either, he has spent a lot of his own money, and he still might lose to Democrat Pia Dandiya, a former educator and Apple lobbyist.

“I haven’t seen him around here at all,” said Republican state Rep. Anne Gerwig, who represents Wellington, one of the largest municipalities in Palm Beach County. Palm Beach is one of four counties in the district.

The new GOP map eliminated one of South Florida’s largest Democratic seats, the majority-Black 20th District, once represented by former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. That district was created by a federal court in 1992 as a remedy for racial exclusion. It is one of four seats Gov. Ron DeSantis redrew in May to lean Republican, along with those held by Democratic Reps. Kathy Castor, Jared Moskowitz and Darren Soto.

The new 22nd District, called a “Frankenstein district,” was supposed to be a GOP-friendly blank slate, the report notes. It stretches from the western parts of Palm Beach and Broward counties into more rural, Republican-leaning territory in Hendry County and southern Collier County.

On paper, Askar looked like a "good fit" for Republicans with net worth between $97.5 million and $480.5 million but, according to the Sun, Askar has largely "left the field to Dandiya."

The GOP's Gerwig said friends on the district’s eastern side have Dandiya yard signs at their homes. Asked whether she had seen any for Askar, she said, “I haven’t seen them around here.”

On the western side, Marco Island resident Dave Shepard told the Sun he votes Republican “most of the time” but couldn’t name Askar “off hand.” He said he had seen plenty of yard signs for city council races, but none for Askar. None of the voters the Sun interviewed had attended or seen an Askar campaign event in their community.

Askar also doesn’t appear to have a campaign headquarters, the Sun reported. The only physical address in public records is a UPS Store P.O. box in Naples, outside the district, about 10 minutes from his house in the Port Royal neighborhood.

Nobody appeared to be home when a Sun reporter visited Askar’s house. He did not respond to a note left in his mailbox or to multiple attempts to reach him by phone and email.

"While Askar has been pictured at some local events, some only for registered Republicans, there are no public ones listed on his campaign website," the Sun reported, adding, "The Florida Republican Party and the four Republican county parties in the district did not have any events with Askar in the last week before the election, and a website listing events in Southeast Florida did not show anything with Askar."

Republicans have not released polling on the race. A September poll from House Majority PAC, the main Democratic House super PAC, found Dandiya leading Askar by 2 points.

Conservative provocateur James O’Keefe has been criminally charged over a polling place stunt meant to expose supposed weaknesses in Minnesota’s election laws.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced charges Wednesday against O’Keefe and Cam Higby, members of the Florida-based O’Keefe Media Group, accusing them of identity theft and unlawful voting, reported KSTP-TV.

The charges stem from videos the pair posted online in August during Minnesota’s primary election. In the footage, one member of the group, which calls itself the “Justice League,” is dressed in a burqa, while another man can be heard using an accent as he tries to vouch for others.

At Pratt Elementary School in Minneapolis, someone in the group gave a poll worker the first name “William” and, when asked for a last name, replied “Pomeranz,” before asking about the state’s vouching law. William Pomeranz is an actual registered voter in Minneapolis.

O’Keefe’s group denied wrongdoing.

“The Justice League did not impersonate anyone. At no point did we claim to be William Pomerantz or any other voter,” the group said in a statement, using another spelling for the voter's name. “We stated a name and asked election workers questions about Minnesota’s vouching process.”

The group apparently left the polling place after being told the man would need to sign an oath to vouch for someone.

Under Minnesota law, residents who have recently moved or lack a document showing their current address can register on Election Day if another registered voter from the same precinct vouches for their address. The voucher must sign an affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that they personally know the person lives in the precinct. The new voter must still provide a driver’s license or state ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

Secretary of State Steve Simon said just 0.6 percent of Minnesota voters were vouched for in 2024, and he does not recall a single case of vouching fraud during his tenure.

The law has drawn fire from the Trump administration. In January, the Justice Department demanded Minnesota hand over all records related to its vouching system, and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon tweeted that the law “seems facially inconsistent with the Help America Vote Act of 2002.” The department has taken no further action, and a judge dismissed an earlier DOJ lawsuit against the state over voter registration.

Simon said O’Keefe’s group apparently set out “to cast doubt on one or more Minnesota election laws.”

“Instead, they revealed their ignorance of how those laws actually work — while putting themselves in legal jeopardy,” he said.

I’ve been talking to MAGA supporters for years, and here’s why some are sticking with Trump — and others are not

Audience members cheer as President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a campaign rally at Crossroads Arena on Oct. 26, 2026, in Corinth, Miss. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Alex Hinton, Rutgers University - Newark

President Donald Trump’s approval ratings are cratering. Even his Make America Great Again, or MAGA, diehards have reservations.

This fact was evident to me when I attended MAGA rallies in three states on Oct. 24-25, 2026. One was a Turning Point USA get-out-the-vote event outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Along with a few dozen America First stalwarts wearing white “America the Beautiful” caps, I sat on a wooden table under a small picnic pavilion listening to speakers such as MAGA activist Scott Presler and Trump-endorsed U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser. Meuser reeled off MAGA talking points, including the supposed threat posed by transgender athletes and bathroom use, immigrant voter fraud and the “billionaire anarchist George Soros.”

Remarkably, the speakers barely mentioned Trump. The audience clapped politely, but the energy was tepid compared to the many MAGA rallies I attended in 2024, when the Pennsylvania landscape was dotted with Trump and MAGA signs. This time I saw none.

The numbers bear out what I observed.

A mid-October 2026 poll found that only a third of U.S. adults approve of the job Trump is doing; 71% feel the country is on the wrong track. The majority of Americans are pessimistic. A growing number worry about government corruption.

The reason?

There’s the war with Iran that has resulted in U.S. soldiers being killed and wounded. The conflict is costing billions of dollars and spiked the price of gas. But most of all, Trump has lost support on the economy amid growing inflation and an affordability crisis.

Remarkably, despite the headwinds, many of Trump’s MAGA loyalists still back him. This point was underscored by the Harrisburg event I attended as well as Trump’s midterm rallies, where attendees still enthusiastically chant “U.S.A.” and are decked out in red caps and MAGA merch.

Why?

I’m an anthropologist who has been studying Trump and his MAGA movement for years. I wrote a newly updated book, “It Can Happen Here,” on Trumpism and U.S. history. I have previously written about why people voted for Trump in 2024.

Based on my research, I see three key reasons some voters still back him. Meuser stressed all three at the Harrisburg rally as he warned of “lunatic” left socialism while extolling the Trump administration’s track record, including the immigration crackdown.

President Donald Trump on June 26, 2026, warned that “godless communists” taking over the Democratic Party pose “the most serious threat” to the U.S. since its founding.

1. Socialist doomsday ‘fear porn’

While nervous about the war and inflation, many Trump supporters respond to fearmongering about “radical left” Democrats, some of whom, Trump contends, want to drive the country off a communist cliff.

If Trump has long harped on this putative radical left danger, his warnings have gained new traction with the visibility of progressive hard-liners like Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and the democratic socialist mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani.

Beyond the threat of socialism, Trump claims that under Democrats the U.S. would fall back into a “dark age” of economic mayhem, curtailed rights and religious freedoms, rampant crime and imperiled national security. MAGA stalwarts echo his warning of “Doomsday” scenarios.

To underscore this point, Trump and his loyalists are connecting the massive and sometimes destructive protests in France to democratic socialists and the “radical left.”

For example, the White House posted a video on X featuring rioting and arson in France which warns, “Pay attention before it’s too late. This is the future Democrats want for America.” Other Trump supporters warn the unrest illustrates the civilizational threat of immigration and a looming “global Islamic takeover.”

MAGA pundits like Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld are encouraging this use of what they call “fear porn” to drive the 2026 midterm vote.

2. Border ‘invasion’ shut down

Trump won in 2024 largely due to two bread-and-butter election issues: the economy and immigration.

While those on the left focus on the abuses of Trump’s immigration agents, many Trump supporters I have spoken to credit him for clamping down on what they view as a Biden-era border “invasion.” It resulted, they claim, in the influx of millions of “illegal aliens,” some dangerous criminals, who have strained U.S. cities and taken jobs from citizens.

These Trump-supporting immigration restrictionists argue that reports of abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are exaggerated and the need for mass deportations is urgent. If anything, some contend that Trump hasn’t done nearly enough in this regard.

MAGA loyalists give Trump higher marks on immigration than any other major issue, which is why the Trump administration foregrounds immigration as one of its top “promises kept.” This is why, in Harrisburg, attendees were told that when they went to knock on doors later in the day, they should mention Trump’s promises kept, including “No. 1, a closed border.” The tax cuts and drop in crime were Nos. 2 and 3.

Interviews with some of the thousands of Trump supporters gathered for a rally in Port Huron, Mich., on Oct. 25, 2026.

3. ‘America is winning … bigly!’

Trump supporters feel the economic pinch. Some are unhappy about the war. But, they contend, Trump – who wrote the book “The Art of the Deal” – always has a long-term strategy and winning hand.

The proof?

Supporters point to Trump’s long and self-described successful business career and note what they perceive as the many successes of Trump’s first term.

And they contend that Trump has already delivered. As pro-Trump radio host Dan O’Donnell recently put it, under Trump “America is winning … bigly.”

Trump’s 2025 “One Big Beautiful Bill” cut taxes and government spending while delivering on campaign promises such as “no tax on tips” or overtime. Meanwhile, crime rates have plummeted, while the stock market has reached new highs.

A White House Jan. 20, 2026, press release – “365 WINS IN 365 DAYS; President Trump’s Return Marks New Era of Success, Prosperity” – lists a win for each day of the second term’s first year, some of which fact-checkers have shown are exaggerated. They range “from negative net migration for the first time in 50 years to the largest homicide drop on record, trillions in reshored investments, peace deals ending multiple wars, record energy production and massive bureaucracy cuts.”

MAGA stalwarts, like Trump, are sharing lists of such accomplishments, including Top 25 lists, to turn out the vote.

Trump’s bad polling numbers, some suggest, are the result of an anti-Trump “fake news” psyop. The reality, they say, is that Trump has launched, as he calls it, the “golden age of America.”

A Trump midterm ‘golden wall’?

Does this hardcore base of Trump voters create a “golden wall” that will head off the major midterm gains many expect Democrats to make? This possibility emerges especially in light of polling that has historically underestimated Trump voter strength.

But from my perspective, probably not.

There are splits in MAGA that I have observed firsthand at MAGA gatherings, such as the Conservative Political Action Conference and Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest. The war in Iran has been at the center of the dispute, with some – including former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and commentators Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly – condemning what they call an “Israel First” faction for betraying MAGA’s “America First” principles.

In contrast, Democrats appear more energized.

Historically, the opposition party almost always makes gains during midterm elections – especially when there are economic troubles. And some wonder whether Trump supporters will turn out when he isn’t on the ballot.

Given the war and affordability crisis, it seems likely Trump’s “golden wall” of MAGA diehards, like those I saw at the Harrisburg rally, won’t be enough to stave off significant midterm losses, including control of the House of Representatives.

The question then will be what, if anything, Trump and his MAGA supporters will do about it.

Alex Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University - Newark

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Border czar Tom Homan, one of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s fiercest critics, appears to be making use of the same luxury jet fleet that helped land her in hot water before her firing.

According to the Substack newsletter The PunchUp, Homan is “rubbing salt in Kristi Noem’s wounds.” He appears to have flown to Puerto Rico last week aboard a $53 million Gulfstream that was bought in late March, while Noem was still serving as secretary.

Flight-tracking data shows that a Gulfstream G650, tail number N472US, flew from Washington’s Reagan National Airport to San Juan last Tuesday and left the island for West Palm Beach the next day, according to the report.

Homan and Noem’s feud was so vicious that they barely spoke to each other, as their rival factions fought behind the scenes over contracts, immigration operations and who got to call the shots at DHS.

Noem was already under fire for her department’s expensive taste in aircraft. In October 2025, DHS spent roughly $200 million on a pair of Gulfstream G700s and leased a luxurious Boeing 737 for her use, complete with a bedroom, showers and a bar.

Tensions between her and Homan came to a head in January, after two American citizens were killed during the administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Trump sent Homan to take charge of the operation, a move widely seen as a rebuke of Noem, PunchUp reported.

Trump fired Noem on March 5 after two disastrous congressional hearings over a string of scandals. Those included her use of the Boeing 737 to fly around the country with her chief adviser, Corey Lewandowski, with whom she was accused of having a personal affair.

She formally remained in office until her replacement, Markwayne Mullin, was sworn in on March 24.

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department absorbed a rapid series of courtroom setbacks this week, and the prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey could be the next to fall, according to former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance.

"[It was] another really bad day in court for Trump," Vance wrote on her "Civil Discourse" Substack. “Increasingly, most days in court are bad days for the Trump administration."

The losing streak began with news that a grand jury in Washington, D.C., refused to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump aide who testified to Congress about Jan. 6. That, Vance argued, explains why prosecutors bypassed a grand jury altogether to charge Comey for a third time, filing a criminal information instead of an indictment.

“The case was apparently too weak for even this Justice Department to think it could get it past a grand jury,” Vance wrote.

That shortcut could prove fatal to the case. Comey is charged under the Espionage Act, which carries a 10-year statute of limitations, and prosecutors filed on the final day. But while the general five-year federal statute accepts either an indictment or an information, the espionage provision specifies that only an indictment will do.

Supreme Court precedent holds that when Congress uses different language in different laws, it means something different, Vance noted.

“Comey’s defense team has the better of the argument by far, and it would be unsurprising to see the judge dismiss the case,” Vance wrote. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, will hold a hearing Friday.

The administration fared no better in California, where the Justice Department is trying to force the state to set aside thousands of mail ballots from voters it claims are noncitizens. After the 9th Circuit declined to take up its appeal, U.S. District Judge David Carter appointed a special master to examine how the department built its list.

“This court thinks it would be wise that any threats to state or local officials should cease immediately,” Carter warned.

Vance called that “judge-speak for ‘you’re in deep trouble,’” noting that Carter, 82, is a Marine veteran who earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart in Vietnam. “If the Justice Department thinks it’s going to push him around, I suspect it’s in for a rude awakening.”

Separately, a federal judge disqualified Bill Essayli, Trump’s pick to lead federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, from overseeing several cases, finding he was serving as acting U.S. attorney in violation of the Vacancies Reform Act. The order is paused for a week to allow an appeal.

Ed Martin, whom the Senate declined to confirm as Washington’s top federal prosecutor, responded on X: “Impeaching Judges is Necessary at Times.”

The one bright spot for the administration came at the Supreme Court, which allowed it to restrict immigration judges’ power to close deportation cases.

There is no remedy against President Donald Trump being Donald Trump. No matter the situation, he's going to Trump.

Nowhere is this truer than the cynical expediency with which he's approaching the Iranian war, stating that he is putting off the next major offensive until after the election.

The Iranians sure thank the American president for admitting that the matter is so politically unpopular that he is all but giving them a breather to prepare. There is no conceivable way that Iran won't use the time to assess weaknesses and plan some of their own responses, whatever they may be, against a United States military that has freedom in the sky and newly appreciated use of drones.

Trump also lies, and Iran surely knows that. It could be a fake. Except there is no way he would lie about something that could hurt him politically right before an election. Laughably, Iran has already announced that it is "actively" using the admission for its own purposes.

For once he is telling the truth and the whole world knows it. Of course, the truth comes only in response to his selfish political needs.

There certainly are likely legitimate reasons to put off such a bombing. It may well be that the U.S. has to move pieces around to adequately prepare. It could be that the country wants to see what Iranians do in response to a threat. It could be that we are not adequately prepared ourselves yet. Or it could be that Trump has faith in the "diplomatic talks" that he mentioned earlier this month — though that one is the least likely.

If one must warn the enemy that the timetable is being put off, then give the reason! Trump does give the reason, the worst reason, the most telling reason, by sharing with the Iranian government that this war is not at all popular and thus, to even keep going, it needs to wait until after the election.

Were that Trump's (and our) only problem. Trump then faces a Congress that, if things go well, would defund the whole thing altogether, giving Iran one big window to consider and plan around.

Another legitimate reason would be to announce that the U.S. might be preparing for another massive wave, but it first wants to see if Iran is willing to pull back itself. Iran is surely aware of Trump's political calculations and is known to fight with terrorism. Now that is a legitimate reason to warn Iran.

And defend the country, because they know excuses go out the window.

Did you see anything suspicious while voting? Raw Story wants to know. Contact our investigations team at tips@rawstory.com

Instead, Trump tells the truth, likely because it is the truth. Otherwise, just come out and SAY that we are waiting to see if Iran pulls back! Such a statement is surely the best way to get what we want, no terrorism here. But he manages to find the most atrocious act of political recklessness. Trump chooses to announce the war's precarious political position to the world. It is like he's telling them, "I have got to prevent even more seats being lost, and then I know I'm going to have trouble with the new Congress; I have one window, and I'm using it."

Iran? "Thanks, really good to know."

So that's the story... No. It is not. This kind of decision-making is not remotely fair to our troops. How would you feel if you were about to put your life even more on the line, but your Commander in Chief wants to tell you that he can't afford to leave Iran confused by not announcing the launch, or use it as a warning to Iran, all because it hurts him politically, so he's chosen to make the situation more dangerous for you?

Now that is the story. It really doesn't require much more analysis than that, which is awful. He makes it so simple that the Iranians understand the situation better than Hegseth.

Sigh. He is going to Trump. Even at war.

Jason Miciak is a Raw Story columnist, former editor at Occupy Democrats, author, attorney, consultant, and single-parent girldad. Please follow on Bluesky, and he can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com

A former Defense Intelligence Agency staffer’s warning that Americans need to start preparing for a crisis has caused a stir with observers, and they can’t agree on whether to start stockpiling or roll their eyes.

Farijah “Doc” St. Clair is head of technology and intelligence at the risk firm Crisis24. He wrote on X that “something is brewing” and that Americans’ “window to prepare, even with the basics, is closing.” He warned that “you will be on your own” in a national-scale crisis, urged people to prepare quietly and even “feign poverty,” and closed with: “It’s going to get rough.”

Some readers took the warning seriously.

“I have no idea what’s coming, if anything,” wrote novelist Danielle Langlois. “But when a former Defense Intelligence Agency employee shares advice like this (on top of the announcements I’ve seen from other nations), I take note. Go buy more food, maybe. Because this is weird.”

Don Shift, a post-apocalyptic fiction author and Ventura County Sheriff’s veteran, called it “probably a very sober take on what’s really ‘up.’”

Others wanted to know what, exactly, they’re supposed to be getting ready for.

“What. Are. We. Preparing. For??” wrote Martin Skold, a geostrategist, policy adviser and author. “I’ll grant the premise: Having useful things on hand is useful, but anything more than that requires specifics.”

“Preparing for an internet outage is not the same as preparing for a gasoline shortage is not the same as preparing for a nuclear strike is not the same as preparing for riots is not the same as preparing for a bank hack is not the same as preparing for a market crash,” Skold wrote. “I’m old enough to remember when telling people to stockpile necessities was considered pointless panicmongering.”

Rebecca V., opinion editor at the publication Wrongspeak, dismissed it outright.

“This is all a psyop to get people scared,” she wrote. “Power hungry elites just want more power. This is the way it’s been forever and will be until the end of time.”

AI researcher David Bellamy, who works on training infrastructure for open-source AI and holds a PhD from Harvard, responded with a joke about AI-powered cyberattacks: “Yeah…so anyways, thrilled to release Claude Fable 5.5, which is a step change in cyberattack capabilities. Good luck everybody else!”

St. Clair didn’t say what kind of event he believes is coming, telling readers “to not focus on the ‘what.’”

Vice President JD Vance has been pulled into a Brazilian police investigation of whether a donor network he co-founded illegally aided Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro’s losing presidential bid.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino ordered the investigation Tuesday in a 38-page decision, two days after Bolsonaro lost a runoff election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The order focuses on the Rockbridge Network, a donor group Vance co-founded in 2019, The Washington Post reported. Vance spoke at the network’s donor gatherings as recently as a year ago, and his office declined to comment Tuesday.

Dino’s order lists five questions for federal police, and two of them name Rockbridge directly.

The order says police must examine talks between Rockbridge representatives and Brazilian businessmen Tallis Gomes and Pedro Sang. A petition filed in the case named the two men, described as allegedly tied to Rockbridge, as possible go-betweens for financial support to Bolsonaro’s campaign, Dino wrote.

“[It is] necessary to verify if there was the effective furnishment of resources — including human resources — services, or other measurable economic advantages, identifying its origin, its destination and its eventual use in the campaign,” Dino added, according to the Post’s translation.

Brazil law makes it a crime for a candidate to accept money or other campaign help from a foreign source, the Post reported.

Dino also ordered police to determine whether those funding talks were tied to foreign interest in Brazil’s rare earths and critical minerals, according to the order.

Police must find out who made any proposal, who received it and what was offered in return, Dino wrote. He added that those minerals belong to the federal government and can be mined only with its permission.

Dino placed the investigation under the Supreme Court’s direct supervision because members of Congress may have taken part, the order says. Bolsonaro is a sitting senator.

Bolsonaro's opponents filed complaints that reached Brazil’s courts before the Oct. 25 runoff, including Lula’s Workers’ Party, the Post reported.

Renan Santos, a presidential candidate eliminated in the first round, alleged that Brazilians claiming to represent Rockbridge discussed U.S. support with Bolsonaro campaign officials, the Post reported. A person with direct knowledge told the Post that the same representatives also helped the Santos campaign.

“The Brazilians made false representations about their relationship with Rockbridge and created documents representing or referencing Rockbridge without Rockbridge’s knowledge or consent,” the network said in a statement Tuesday.

Still, Dino’s order directs police to identify who took part in contacts between Rockbridge representatives and Brazilian businessmen, and what those contacts were for.

The order also covers paid posts by foreign accounts that promoted Bolsonaro using odds from Polymarket, a prediction market banned in Brazil, and any deliberate manipulation of algorithms by internet companies to favor or hurt candidates.

Bolsonaro fled Brazil for the United States on Tuesday, the day of Dino’s ruling, in defiance of a separate Supreme Court order, three people with knowledge of the matter told the Post. A senior State Department official told the newspaper that he and his family will be issued visas to stay.

Dino also sent his decision to 10 federal agencies, including Brazil’s intelligence agency and its central bank, and told the federal police director to report the new case number back to the court, according to the order.

More poor ratings and an embarrassing loss in a key demographic suggest the revamped “60 Minutes” under CBS News chief Bari Weiss continues to be a flop with viewers.

According to Status’ Oliver Darcy, Sunday’s episode averaged just 5.64 million total viewers, with only 558,000 in the 25-54 demographic, according to Nielsen figures the newsletter obtained.

As Variety’s Brian Steinberg pointed out, since 2000 the sixth episode of a “60 Minutes” season had "never drawn fewer than 7 million total viewers" or fewer than 1 million in the advertiser-coveted demo.

The report notes that CBS didn’t have an NFL lead-in this weekend. Still, “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “The Price Is Right” drew more viewers in the key demo than “60 Minutes,” to which Darcy added, "Oof."

Darcy noted the numbers are especially bad because Weiss’ "radical overhaul of the show was supposed to improve its performance, not lead to ratings losses," adding the caveat that it’s "early in the season" and Executive Producer Nick BiltonNick Bilton and his team could still turn things around. But a clear trend is forming in which “60 Minutes” struggles to match last season’s numbers. Inside the show, Darcy reported, this week’s ratings are being discussed, “and not in a good way.”

“Their view was that, ‘Who was Sharyn Alfonsi? Who was Cecilia Vega? This woke show! It can’t get any worse.’ And in fact, Bari and Nick and team have shown it actually can get worse,” a veteran TV executive told Darcy. “This is not a surprise to anybody who understands television or television viewing habits or the star system at ‘60 Minutes’ or how television audience work.”

Notorious election forecaster Nate Silver says a big Democratic win in next week’s midterms would be a “normal, unsurprising outcome,” and he points to several factors beyond gas prices, the Daily Beast reported on Wednesday.

On the Central Air podcast, Silver said history is the starting point: the president’s party typically takes heavy House losses in midterms, as Republicans did in 2018 when Democrats picked up 40 seats.

Silver then listed conditions specific to this cycle. Gas prices are above $4, he said, but that's only the start of it.

For another thing, he said, President Donald Trump is more unpopular than at any point in either of his terms. He added that Democratic voters tend to turn out strongly in midterms and special elections, that the country is in an Iran war he called "stupid," that Trump is 80 and clearly showing signs of slowing down, and that some Republicans feel betrayed over the Epstein files. He also said Trump is on the unpopular side of an 80-20 issue involving AI and data centers.

The Beast reports Democrats are almost certain to retake the House, while the Senate is harder, requiring them to flip at least four Republican-held seats.

Silver said they’d need some combination of Texas, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas and Alaska, all states Trump won by roughly 10 to 20 points in 2024, with better odds in places like North Carolina and Maine.

His forecast model gives Democrats about a 75 percent chance of taking the Senate, which he likened to flipping a coin twice and needing one heads.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority could deliver another major victory to religious conservatives, and doing so may require dismantling a landmark ruling written by the late Justice Antonin Scalia, according to an analysis by CNN's Joan Biskupic.

In St. Mary Parish v. Roy, two Catholic preschools and the Archdiocese of Denver are asking the justices to let them participate in Colorado’s universal preschool program without signing the state’s nondiscrimination agreement, which covers sexual orientation and gender identity.

A federal appeals court sided with Colorado, relying on Employment Division v. Smith, a 1990 decision holding that states don’t need a “compelling” interest to justify laws that are neutral toward religion and apply to everyone. “The nondiscrimination requirement exists in harmony with the First Amendment,” the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

Lawyers for the Catholic groups are now pressing the court to overturn Smith entirely.

The irony is hard to miss. Scalia, long revered as a conservative icon, wrote the ruling against two members of a Native American church who were fired for using peyote in a religious ceremony and then denied unemployment benefits. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor slipped a private note to Justice Harry Blackmun as Scalia announced the decision: “Harry, the Court took the wrong turn today in the free exercise case in my view. It pains me.”

Three decades later, the picture looks very different. Recent challenges have largely been brought by Catholics and other Christians, and they’ve almost always won, according to CNN. Under Chief Justice John Roberts, the court has repeatedly ruled for religious conservatives while sidestepping Smith, often by finding a disputed law wasn’t truly neutral.

Three justices want to go further. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, Scalia’s successor, have openly called for overturning the ruling.

“No fewer than ten Justices – including six sitting Justices – have questioned its fidelity to the Constitution,” Gorsuch wrote in 2021. “So what are we waiting for?”

When Roberts declined to revisit Smith in a 2021 case involving a Catholic agency that refused to certify same-sex foster parents, Alito mocked the majority’s reasoning, writing that the decision “might as well be written on the dissolving paper sold in magic shops.”

The Trump administration is backing the Catholic preschools but offering the justices a narrower path, arguing Smith “has no force” when the government restricts public benefits based on religious exercise.

Colorado’s lawyers reject the claim that Smith is unworkable, noting that a trial judge found no evidence of religious hostility behind the rule, which protects preschoolers of same-sex couples.

Even a leading critic of Smith doubts the justices need to reach that far.

“St. Mary’s has a very good claim, even under Smith as the court has recently interpreted it,” said Stanford law professor Michael McConnell.

Mary Trump says her uncle’s push to police the midterm elections is no longer just talk, and she’s urging voters to treat it as an emergency.

“This is a five alarm fire, and it is indeed the most important election of our lifetimes,” the psychologist and author wrote in her Substack newsletter, The Good in Us, under the headline “SCAM: Donald’s Plan to Rig the Midterms.”

Mary Trump argued that for President Donald Trump, the stakes are as much financial as political. “Donald’s family has made billions through its business and cryptocurrency ventures, while wealthy allies and donors have benefited from an administration that makes decisions based on how much money it can make them and their cronies,” she wrote. “That is why hanging onto power matters so much to him.”

She took aim at Trump’s recent move to declassify what he called “critical intelligence revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure.”

“What we are being told is that Donald knows he cannot win without cheating,” she wrote. “When he claims elections are fraudulent, what he really means is any election that Democrats win.”

Talk of fraud is one thing, she argued, but what the administration is doing now is “far more consequential.” She wrote that it is “using the federal government and the institutions created to protect our civil liberties, including our right to vote, to investigate voters, challenge their eligibility, and attempt to prevent certain ballots from being counted.”

She pointed to a whistleblower’s account of a Department of Homeland Security program to investigate suspected ineligible voters. Under that program, according to the disclosure, staffers with less than two hours of training were told to review 40 people a day. She called it “the operation that should keep every American awake at night.”

She also cited the Justice Department’s lawsuit against California over more than 20,000 voters it flagged as likely noncitizens. In an early review of 200 of those names, Los Angeles County found that 112 registrations had already been canceled or were inactive.

“Clearly, openly, and right in our faces, the Trump regime is making it plain that it will do anything in its power to steal this election from the American people,” she wrote.

Mary Trump saved some of her harshest words for Attorney General Todd Blanche, “a sycophant the likes of which I have never seen before.” She highlighted his Oct. 22 answer when he was asked whether DOJ might try to stop states from certifying results.

“To say that there’s no circumstances that we would ever do that, of course I’m not going to say that,” Blanche said, according to her transcript. He added that he wasn’t “planning my days around the election to be somewhere to not certify.”

“Of course he won’t rule it out,” Mary Trump wrote. “His boss is not the American people. His boss is Donald.”

She closed with a plea to voters ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3.

“I need you to act like your rights depend on it, because they do,” she further wrote. “Please vote.”

Fox News viewership is in freefall as the conservative news network grapples with the fallout from Donald Trump’s faltering popularity.

According to the media newsletter Status, which obtained Nielsen ratings ahead of their release Wednesday, October 2026 will be Fox News’ lowest-rated month since December 2023.

Ahead of closely-watched midterms like the 2026 contest, networks would normally be expected to gain viewers as audiences tune in for coverage of consequential races, the report noted.

Among viewers ages 25 to 54, the demographic advertisers covet most, "the picture is even worse." Fox News is set to post its lowest-rated month in that group in 25 years, averaging just 98,000 viewers. That’s a 27% drop in total viewers from last October and a 32% plunge in the 25-54 demo. Fox News still dominates cable overall, even beating ESPN in total day despite the return of football, but the declines stand out "given the political moment."

Weekday prime time show numbers hosted by mainstays Sean Hannityity and Laura Ingraham are just as bleak. According to Status, the Rupert Murdoch-controlled network is set for its lowest-rated prime-time month in both total viewers and the 25-54 demo since December 2023.

According to Oliver Darcy of Status, while TV ratings aren’t a scientific measure of voter enthusiasm, “the eye-popping decline in Fox News’ audience should be a flashing warning sign for Trump and his Republican allies as voters prepare to head to the polls.”

Meanwhile, progressive-leaning MS NOW is averaging 588,000 total day viewers, up 16% from last year, which suggests "enthusiasm has shifted to Democrats." CNN is averaging 402,000, up 3%.

Darcy noted, "Trump's favorite morning show, 'Fox & Friends,' is also struggling. October will mark Fox News' second straight month with less than 1 million total viewers between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. It will also mark the second consecutive month with less than 100,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo. The numbers make October 2026 the show's lowest-rated month among total viewers in more than 11 years, since July 2015."

The report continued, "Fox News executives are, of course, highly attuned to what rates and what does not," adding, "the network conspicuously started declining to air Trump's rallies live. It was a notable shift for the outlet, which has often treated the president's speeches as must-see television, though it has started airing them closer to the midterms, including on Tuesday evening. The decision appeared reflective not only of Trump's record low approval numbers, but also of his ability to draw an audience. Indeed, if Trump's rallies were a big ratings draw, Fox News would likely be thrilled to air them live as the network once did."

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) brushed off coverage of an ethics complaint accusing her of sexual relationships with staff, telling New York Magazine's Intelligencer, “Screw the media.”

The complaint was filed last month with the House Ethics Committee by David Wheeler, who runs American Muckrakers. Wheeler alleges Boebert had sexual relationships with both male and female staffers and that hush-money payments were involved. Boebert denies it. She told the magazine the press ran with the claims because Wheeler said he filed under penalty of perjury, and she said he has targeted her and her family for six years.

Wheeler said that if any of it is false, she can say so under oath or sue him for defamation. He says he plans to sue her in North Carolina. A Colorado judge granted Boebert a protection order against him this month.

In 2022, Wheeler published an allegation that she once worked as an escort, which she denied. She obtained an earlier protection order against him, and he sued her for defamation in a case that was later settled.

Clarice Navarro, a former Boebert district director named in the complaint, said the claims about her are “entirely false” and “defamatory.” Her ex-husband, Jace Ratzlaff, denied to CBS that he was a source for Wheeler and cited a polygraph. The other two staffers haven’t commented publicly. The Ethics Committee can’t act on the complaint now because it was filed within 60 days of an election.

Boebert is in a tighter race than expected against Democrat Eileen Laubacher, in a district Trump carried by 18 points in 2024. Intelligencer says she polled about five points ahead, and Cook Political Report now rates the race “lean Republican.” Laubacher has outraised her $13.7 million to $1.2 million, according to the Denver Post.

Boebert has largely stayed loyal to Trump on key issues, but publicly broke with him over the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case files. She is one of the only Republican members of Congress to publicly lead the charge on that issue who is still seeking re-election.

President Donald Trump boasted this week that every resident living near a Louisiana data center got a $10,000 check, but the state’s economic development agency and the people living next to the project say no such payments exist.

The 80-year-old president made the claim Monday to Fox2 Detroit’s Roop Raj, but investigative reporter David Hammer of WWL-TV in New Orleans looked into the issue and found no evidence of those payments to anyone.

“So, we had a community in Louisiana and they were really, you know, opposed (to the data center) and everything else,” Trump told Raj. “All of a sudden, they got paid $10,000. Everybody living in the community got a check for $10,000, and everybody loved it. They said, ‘Where do we do our next data center?’”

Louisiana Economic Development, which brokers the state’s big data center projects, told WWL it isn’t aware of any direct payments to nearby residents.

“If there were $10,000 payments, I’d be shouting it from the rooftops,” said spokesperson Emma Wagner.

Wagner guessed he was thinking of bonuses of up to $50,000 paid to Richland Parish public school teachers, funded by a surge in sales tax revenue during construction of Meta’s massive Hyperion data center in the tiny community of Holly Ridge.

Holly Ridge residents Tatiana Thompson and Diane Cobb, who have opposed the project, told WWL they haven’t received any payments from Meta or anyone else.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request to clarify Trump’s remarks.

Raj had asked Trump about data centers in Michigan, where Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee in a razor-tight U.S. Senate race, has called for a one-year moratorium on new projects. When Trump brought up the supposed Louisiana checks, Raj noted, “In Saline (Mich.), they’re not getting paid.”

Trump did correctly note that taxes are falling in some communities hosting data centers. In West Feliciana Parish, construction of a Hut 8 data center has driven a 10 percent jump in sales tax revenue, allowing the parish to cut tax rates for residents and businesses.

The president also took credit for forcing tech companies to generate their own electricity.

“The data centers, because of what I did … they make their own electricity,” he said. “So, we don’t take from the electricity, we give it back.”

Entergy Louisiana is seeking approval to build more than 5 gigawatts of new power plants to supply the Hyperion site.

The utility says its 20-year deal with Meta could save other customers $4 billion, but it has kept most of the details secret, and opponents worry some of the $20 billion in new infrastructure costs will be passed on to ratepayers.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping hunt for noncitizen voters has produced a scattering of cases, no evidence of an organized scheme and a revelation that undercuts his narrative.

The crackdown has turned up only a smattering of cases nationwide, but a Washington Post investigation found that Republicans and Trump voters keep turning up among those being charged.

Authorities have charged more than 180 people with illegally voting or registering to vote as noncitizens since the start of Trump’s second term, the Post found. Roughly 70 percent of them were charged in the last two months as the midterms approached, and nearly two dozen have been convicted.

None of the cases alleges an organized effort by Democrats or anyone else to bring noncitizens to the polls. Among the 61 defendants whose party affiliations the Post could verify, Democrats and Republicans made up about an equal share. Several told investigators they voted for Trump in 2024.

One of them, Jacqueline Wallace, a Jamaican green card applicant, registered as a Republican after a junior college employee asked her to sign up, and she voted in the 2024 Florida GOP primary, her attorney said. At her sentencing, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker called it an honest mistake and said it was “everybody from the leader of the free world all the way down” who was undermining faith in elections. He sentenced her to time served.

The administration has thrown enormous resources at the push. The Justice Department told all 93 U.S. attorney’s offices to prioritize the cases, and the Department of Homeland Security temporarily reassigned hundreds of fraud detection officers to look for illegal voters. DHS says it has reviewed more than 100 million records, but internal agency records reviewed by the Post show those efforts produced few results.

“In the course of my investigations, I found no widespread voter fraud,” said one Homeland Security Investigations agent, who spoke anonymously.

Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged investigators haven’t uncovered a pattern and that some defendants may have been confused, but he insisted the growing tally should matter.

“At some point, it has to become meaningful to the media,” he said.

Some cases have collapsed in court. A federal judge in Miami dismissed one after ruling that the misdemeanor statute prosecutors use most often is unconstitutional. In another Florida case, an HSI agent testified that superiors told her to credit a Trump executive order at the top of every investigative report, and that federal agent refused to say, when asked, that Joe Biden's 2020 election win was legitimate. The jury acquitted the defendant in that case on all charges.

“It’s not happening at scale, and it’s isolated incidents across the country with no clear partisan pattern,” said Derek Muller, an election law professor at the University of Notre Dame.

The Justice Department played down the criticism.

“A noncitizen ballot for a Republican is just as illegal as one for a Democrat, and the Department will prosecute both,” spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said, adding that many defendants falsely swore they were citizens.

Joe Rogan, the popular podcaster who helped propel Donald Trump to the White House, has grown increasingly critical of the embattled president. That’s bad news for Republicans heading into the midterms.

According to a Bloomberg report, Rogan has peppered his shows with anger and dismay over Trump’s second term, ranting about broken promises.

It’s a sharp turn from 2024, with Bloomberg reporting, "By the time Joe Rogan formally endorsed Donald Trump on the eve of the 2024 election, the nod felt like it had been a long time coming, adding, all summer, Rogan had used the world’s most popular podcast "to amplify the chosen themes of the Trump ticket, mocking political correctness and challenging government authority, while reveling in Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt that year on the campaign trail."

This time, Rogan has been far more skeptical, particularly about Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran.

“What Trump stood for, some of it turned out to not be real,” Rogan told actor Michael Douglas this month. “Like one of them was the no wars. Well, look, we’re at war with Iran. So that wasn’t real.”

“I do not like this Iran war in any way, shape or form,” he added, calling the conflict “a giant quagmire.”

According to the report, Rogan has also been more outspoken about what he sees as pro-Israel groups’ outsized influence on U.S. foreign policy, and he has recoiled at signs that Trump is using his office to enrich himself and his family.

In January, he condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics in terms that wouldn’t have been out of place in a Democratic stump speech.

“Are we really going to be the Gestapo? ‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?” Rogan asked.

Rogan’s politics have never been "easy to pin down" beyond his support for anti-establishment figures like Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who appeared on the podcast in 2019 and 2025, the report states before noting that last year Rogan hosted James Talarico, a Democratic state representative from Texas who is now in a tight U.S. Senate race. The interview was seen as Talarico’s breakout moment and ended with Rogan telling him, “You need to run for president. We need someone who’s actually a good person.”

There’s "still time before the election" for Rogan to endorse Republicans or host Trump or a key GOP candidate, but Bloomberg noted that his boost might not be the same this time. According to YouGov, Rogan’s popularity dipped in the months after Trump returned to office, though it has rebounded since the summer.

His real value to Trump was never just audience size. It was his connection with younger men, a group that helped power Trump’s win and is now souring on the administration or tuning out altogether.

A recent Cygnal poll cited by Bloomberg found that male likely voters ages 18 to 30 prefer Democratic congressional candidates over Republicans, 57% to 40%. Only a third said they were extremely determined to vote, Bloomberg reported.

About 2,900 absentee voters in Georgia’s Cobb County are still waiting on their ballots, and a lawsuit filed Tuesday blames a vendor the county hired from out of state, Democracy Docket reported.

A Cobb County voter, suing for himself and others in the same position, wants a judge to order the election board to send ballots by overnight delivery so affected voters can return them by the Nov. 3 deadline. The complaint says the board contracted New York-based Fort Orange Press to handle its absentee ballots.

According to the suit, voters who requested ballots from Oct. 6 through Oct. 15 haven’t received them, even though the state’s voter website shows them as sent. Georgia law gives counties three days to issue ballots during early voting.

Using state data, the complaint says fewer than 14 percent of Cobb’s absentee ballots have come back, versus 44 percent in Fulton, 71 percent in Paulding and 50 percent statewide. Cobb’s rate at this point was 32 percent in 2024 and 56 percent in 2022. Gwinnett (12.5 percent) and DeKalb (8 percent) are also low, and both use the same vendor, which Democracy Docket says also managed ballots in counties with delivery problems in Pennsylvania, Colorado and New York.

The suit argues the likeliest cause is “a breakdown in the out-of-state private vendor’s ability to deliver ballots.”

Cobb is a Democratic stronghold where former Vice President Kamala Harris won 57 percent in 2024, and Georgia has a pivotal Senate and gubernatorial race in less than a week. Elias Law Group, founded by Democracy Docket’s founder Marc Elias, represents the plaintiff.

A year after far-right activists forced historian Mark Bray to flee New Jersey with his family due to death threats and doxxing, the Rutgers University professor is back in the United States with a defiant message — and a new book.

“Turning Point and their allies tried to run me out of my job and out of my country, and I didn't want to let them win,” Bray told Raw Story.

“I wanted to do what I can to make this place a better place.”

Bray's book, "Unpunctuated Death Threats," is coming out in January. It describes how he was targeted for writing the bestselling book “Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook” after President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring “antifa” a terrorist organization.

Despite “antifa” being shorthand for “anti-fascist” and referring to a decentralized political ideology focused on opposing fascism, white supremacy and racism — rather than an organization with a figurehead — Bray was targeted by the conservative student group, Turning Point USA, which pushed for him to be fired.

“This is not a new story that something that's decentralized and bottom-up is being portrayed by the right as top-down, paid, George Soros-money, secret leadership," Bray said about the right's attacks on antifa.

"That's a playbook that's even older than Occupy [Wall Street], but that has come back around now, and it's not accurate.

“The game seemed to be establishing the notion that antifa is terrorism, then introducing the concept of the antifa-aligned, and trying to spread this bogeyman term as broadly as possible in order to be able to say more and more and more of the left and the Democratic Party are antifa or are aligned to antifa or adjacent to antifa.”

When Fox News reported on Turning Point's push, Bray said he started receiving death threats, one including his home address. Then his address was posted publicly to X.

Book cover for Unpunctuated Death Threats. (provided image, used with permission)

"We were concerned about the larger political situation and concerned that there might be some sort of bogus charges thrown at me,” Bray said.

When Bray and his family arrived at the airport in Newark, New Jersey, in an attempt to head to Spain, he was notified their reservations had been canceled right before boarding.

“I do believe it was a politically motivated act, even if I don't know who did it,” Bray said.

After staying at an airport hotel, the family returned to the airport the next day. Bray and his wife were then questioned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents for an hour, he said.

“I think part of it was intimidation, part of it was phishing,” Bray said. “I think they really very much would have liked to have found something illegal on my possession to have charged me with, but fortunately, we've not reached the point in authoritarianism where they planted something, so I was allowed to go.”

Bray and his family made it to Spain, a "second home" to them after living there on a sabbatical two years prior, but the story of his attempt to flee blew up in the press around the world.

Turning Point USA did not immediately respond to Raw Story's request for comment.

'The ingredients'

With the Trump administration being “unpredictable,” Bray said he isn’t sure what will happen in next week's midterms — whether it’s immigration agents at the polls to intimidate voters or Republicans claiming Democrats stole the election, again.

“What I say in the book is the ingredients for a more formally authoritarian structure are largely in place, but not all of the criteria have been satisfied, and so we're in this kind of strange in-between position, and the midterms may help clarify just which way we're leaning,” Bray said.

While Bray said he doesn’t take much "umbrage" when people call Trump a fascist, he considers him to be “very fascistic,” rather than a full-out fascist leader.

“I think that Trump, more than anything, is someone who seeks his own self-aggrandizement, and in the context that his political career emerged, he rightly diagnosed the far-right as a good vehicle for that,” Bray said.

“I don't think he actually deeply cares about long-term political outcomes so much as he cares about what works for him, and a part of what fascism has meant historically is this vision of radically transforming society in a fascist direction. I'm not so sure how much he cares about that as long as he has power and money and influence.”

On the other hand, Bray said Trump’s Make America Great Again movement aligns with the traits of fascism, which historically seeks “to return to a past before what they considered to be natural values and hierarchies were perverted by fill in the blank — feminists, Jews, leftists, what have you. It is this pursuit of this imagined past through a redemptive violence, and often builds on the occult of personality of the key leader," Bray said.

“The MAGA movement … by virtue of its interest in returning to this past, its glorification of violence, its anti-democratic and conspiratorial mindset, I would call a fascist movement."

Other members of the Trump administration like White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller could be more directly called fascist, Bray said. And U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has “essentially created a jobs program for fascists,” he added.

After spending about nine months in Spain, the threats reduced to a trickle, and Bray felt comfortable coming back to the U.S to resume his university job.

His family sold their house, and Bray said he’s optimistic they can “let the storm pass and move on” if the threats start again.

“I wanted to make lemonade out of lemons. I wanted to take this difficult, traumatic experience and make a work of art from it, and that's what I see this book as, primarily as an artistic expression. It also has political argumentation, historical analysis, and other things,” Bray said.

“It was therapeutic and cathartic to write it, and it's what happened on my terms.”

A conservative commentator's attacks on the Muslim faith were quickly tamped down by fellow panelists on "CNN This Morning."

The panel was discussing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s false claim this week that modern Arab Muslims don’t produce science and literature like they had in the past or win prestigious awards, and anti-trans activist Terry Schilling agreed despite host Audie Cornish providing specific examples of award-winning Arab Muslims in recent years.

"I think it's a mistake to categorize this as a race thing," Schilling said. "This is about worldview, and we can't deny that Islam is a worldview. It is a political ideology, it's a religion. There's a lot of things come to it, and I will point out something –"

Cornish cut in to say that Schilling was missing the point.

"But what we can deny is that 500 million Arabs in the world don't produce literature," she said. "Well, look, that is insane. That is not remotely [true] – you want to talk about ideology, you want to go after Islam, I understand, I understand where you are trying to go. What I don't understand is saying half a billion people haven't produced anything."

"Well, they're not producing our quality of literature," Schilling argued.

"They are!" Cornish exclaimed. "It is the national book award for fiction."

Schilling stammered before landing on his line of attack.

"So what have they produced?" he said. "Look, this is getting, okay, here's the problem, stagnant societies. When Christians vote together as a bloc, it's attacked and derided as Christian nationalism. But apparently it's only okay to do that if you're Islamic and part of the Muslim faith. It's a total double standard, and I will just say Islam is not. How is it that Islam is the same coalition –"

Cornish interrupted to point out that Kennedy was speaking specifically about Arabs, and fellow panelist Antjuan Seawright took a whack at his argument.

"Terry, you are losing your argument by the second," Seawright said. "Look, the bottom line is this is consistent and a pattern of behavior by Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. They moisturize and bathe in racism and bigotry. This is another layer of that. Why do you think Donald Trump takes to the podium and calls Abdul [El-Sayed] out of his name intentionally, and tries to raise this?"

The Hill's Julia Manchester then tried to place Kennedy's remarks in context.

"He is in Michigan, a state where we have seen the Arab American vote very clearly have an impact," Manchester said. "He is pushing those voters away. We're not, I'm not saying that those Arab Americans in Michigan were going to vote for [Republican] Mike Rogers, but he is not adding people to the coalition there."

Cornish rolled a clip of a Black Democrat in Michigan who said that he's had to explain to fellow autoworkers that El-Sayed was an American citizen who was born in their state, and Seawright piled on the racist attacks that Schilling was amplifying.

"These people are sick – it's terrible, it's frustrating, and it's sick for you to say Abdul does not belong in Michigan or not Michigan-adjacent, because he's an American," Seawright said, "and I think – let me say this – he's an American and he should be able to enjoy the American experiment. What they're trying to do is get a response and an anger out of a certain group of people who believe that Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen, had a fake certificate."

"They washed and bathed and moisturized in racism, bigotry, and they want to divide this country," he added. "America is not like this because Donald Trump's president. Donald Trump is president, because America is like this. They know this, and they're trying to tap into the MAGA base to activate those voters who are arguably going to stay home."

- YouTube youtu.be

President Donald Trump finished last among nine men whom Americans were asked to rate as male role models, according to a poll from The Bulwark and “Pablo Torre Finds Out.”

YouGov surveyed 1,417 adults October 10 to 14, with a 3.6-point margin of error.

The result: 55 percent said Trump is not a strong male role model, while just 37 percent said he is.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom Bulwark writer Brendan Hartnett says “obviously sees himself as a paragon of masculinity,” was second-worst. About 28 percent of adults called him a strong role model, and 39 percent did not. Only 18 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds did, against 34 percent who did not.

As for who actually placed strongly, actor Matthew McConaughey rated highest, followed by former President Barack Obama and athlete LeBron James. Obama was called a strong role model by 59 percent, including more than a quarter of Trump voters. California Gov. Gavin Newsom landed slightly underwater.

The survey also found a plurality, 44 percent, think legal sports betting has hurt sports, and 36 percent want prediction markets regulated more. Only 5 percent said a TV-commentator background makes them more likely to back a candidate, versus 43 percent less likely.

Obama is a frequent target of anger and resentment from the president. His Ohio rally comment last week that Trump has decorated the White House "like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory" has left the MAGA movement stung and scrambling to make The Cheesecake Factory into a new culture war.

A veteran GOP adviser has coined the term “Red Scream” to describe the frustration conservatives and independents feel at being ignored by Donald Trump and Republican leaders ahead of the midterm elections.

According to Axios, that frustration could keep those voters home and cost the GOP control of the Senate.

“The Red Scream is my biggest concern, not the blue wave,” warned Alex Castellanos, a veteran Republican consultant. “Republicans and independents are going to be screaming for attention, and many of them, including those who voted for Trump, may show their frustration by not showing up.”

According to the Axios report, Senate Republicans see Iowa "moving their way" and Ohio "slipping," with pessimism growing over Alaska and Kansas. According to half a dozen senior operatives, "even when they squint, top Republicans struggle to see a majority beyond 51 seats, according to half a dozen senior operatives."

Republicans are fighting on two fronts: unprecedented Democratic enthusiasm and undeniable Republican apathy. Trump’s strategy has been to fire up the MAGA faithful with rallies in the reddest parts of red states.

Axios compared Texas to "a late-season football showdown against an SEC rival": Republicans are still in the game, but defeat is a real possibility.

In Kansas, Sen. Roger Marshall "has stopped the bleeding," but it’s unclear whether there’s enough time left to save his seat, the report notes.

According to Axios, Republicans "are quietly bullish" on Michigan, though they acknowledge they need key groups, especially Black voters, to break heavily in their favor.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sees multiple paths to 51 seats. No one disputes that North Carolina will elect a Democratic senator, and Republicans’ talk of flipping Georgia now seems a foregone conclusion.

According to the report, "If just two of the next tier of Ohio, Kansas and Alaska flip, the Senate would be split 50-50 before factoring in other competitive races, like Michigan, Iowa and Maine. In Maine, Republicans and Democrats are consumed by competing fears. Republicans are terrified that a national wave will be big enough to wash away Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)."

A former Defense Intelligence Agency staffer is warning Americans that time is running out to prepare for a crisis. His post has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.

“Your window to prepare, even with the basics, is closing,” wrote Farijah “Doc” St. Clair on X. “For those tracking the indicators that an event is increasingly likely, you know that it is now undeniable that something is brewing.”

St. Clair is head of technology and intelligence at Crisis24, a GardaWorld-owned risk firm. There he leads AiiA, an AI-driven intelligence product built with Palantir that gives corporate executives a daily briefing modeled on the President’s Daily Brief. A combat-wounded Army veteran, he says he spent more than a decade in the Army and the “Defense Intelligence Enterprise,” including a stint at DIA around 2015 and 2016. His company bio says he supported efforts to counter Russian influence and deployed to multiple combat theaters.

In his post, St. Clair wrote that during his intelligence career he worked on “counterintelligence threats to Continuity of Government (COG) and Continuity of Operations (COOP).”

“Something I can say for absolute certain is that once governments signal that their citizens need to prepare, those preparations have already been conducted for national leadership,” he wrote.

He pointed to European governments urging citizens to keep supplies on hand. He also cited reports that the Pentagon wants U.S. military bases to be able to sustain themselves for 90 days, which he called “the loudest signal concerning how significant the situation is.”

“The gravity of this can’t be understated,” he wrote. “The calls for preparedness will escalate in their time frames. 3 days will turn into a week. A week will turn in to a few weeks. A few weeks into a couple months.”

His message to Americans was blunt.

“What Americans should know is that you will be on your own,” St. Clair wrote. “FEMA does not have the resources to help people in a time of need during an event at national scale. Your local authorities don’t either.”

He described a grim scenario that he said comes from an Army study of how big cities collapse when “just in time” supply chains fail.

“In 3 days, a major city is out of food in the major stores. Looting starts,” he wrote. “Suburbia is then the next harvest location. People organize and target food distribution warehouses. Then people head out into the country where people are prepared and things get ugly.”

St. Clair’s advice is to prepare, and to do it quietly.

“You, at some point, will hear, ‘well if something happens, I’ll just come to your house,’ stated as a joke. But this is not a joke. You have now become someone’s backup plan. Don’t allow this,” he wrote.

He urged readers to “randomize when you go to the store,” cut back on visible Amazon deliveries, and “start to think about how to feign poverty.”

He recommended stocking “water, rice, protein, canned foods,” along with basic medicines, and told people to watch the 1980s nuclear war films “The Day After” and “Threads.”

“We are now at the part of both movies where governments are telling people to prepare and some degree of panic is setting in,” he wrote. “This will get worse.”

He signed off with: “For everyone, hang in there. It’s going to get rough.”

St. Clair didn’t say what kind of event he believes is coming. He told readers “to not focus on the ‘what.’”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly ordered U.S. military installations to become more self-sufficient, an effort covered by outlets including Fox News and the Daily Wire.

Journalist Scott MacFarlane flagged what he called an obvious mistake in a Justice Department announcement about an alleged noncitizen voter, in his “Day Ahead” newsletter on Wednesday.

MacFarlane said DOJ has been putting out releases on individual noncitizens accused of voting in 2022, each showing a blurred image of the suspect with an agent’s windbreaker. One of the entries alleges a Greek national voted for President, Vice President, US Senator and Member of the House of Representatives in 2022.”

The problem is that “2022 was not a Presidential or Vice Presidential election year,” MacFarlane noted.

MacFarlane says the handful of cases couldn’t sway a federal election, and haven’t been proven in court.

Separately, he noted, DOJ is also pressing a suit to block certification of Alaska’s Senate race over the fact that two candidates' names on the ballot are similar, and seeking to set aside tens of thousands of California ballots over alleged noncitizen voting that local officials dismiss as “hogwash,” though an appeals court denied DOJ’s request Monday.

He adds that DOJ plans to use 1,000 election monitors, with deployments reportedly concentrated in Democratic areas such as Georgia’s Fulton and DeKalb counties and Indiana’s Marion and Lake counties.

Just hours prior to the suit being filed in Alaska, Attorney General Todd Blanche had told reporters the DOJ would not intervene against a state certifying its own election unless there was a "doomsday scenario."

Democrats are making a play for President Donald Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” voters, betting that frustration over the administration’s stalled food-safety agenda could pry loose a key piece of his coalition.

MAHA voters, drawn by promises to clean up the food supply, are credited with helping Trump win a second term, but infighting over issues like pesticides has fueled speculation they may not turn out for Republicans in next week’s midterms, reported Axios.

The cracks widened last week when Trump health adviser Calley Means resigned, reportedly over the slow pace of food-policy changes. Means insisted on X that the “movement is just getting started,” but other MAHA leaders aired their grievances publicly.

Vani Hari, the influencer known as Food Babe, wrote that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “commitments to our movement are being stalled by corporate capture and special interests at the very top of the White House.”

“The progress he is trying to make is getting killed by the corporations poisoning us,” she added.

Democrats see an opening. The Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, released a proposal on healthier food and reducing harmful chemicals, along with polling that found 37 percent of Trump voters are open to backing a Democrat running on core MAHA issues.

“If you’re looking at who are the swing voters in this electoral environment, they overlap very highly with voters who care about these issues,” said Becca Siegel, CAP’s chief insights officer.

Topher Spiro, an author of the CAP report, conceded that “Democrats haven’t done a great job of prioritizing” the issues.

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has called for banning certain pesticides, while House Democrats’ health care working group included a section titled “Reclaiming MAHA and Protecting American Families," and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) has pushed legislation increasing companies’ liability for harm from pesticides.

Nonpartisan polling from the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that while only a quarter of Americans call themselves MAHA supporters, 80 percent back labeling ultra-processed foods and 76 percent support removing artificial dyes from food.

The movement’s vaccine skepticism remains a nonstarter for many Democrats, but the Annenberg survey found those priorities are far less popular than the food agenda.

The White House brushed off talk of a fracture.

“The MAHA coalition has never been stronger or more empowered,” said White House spokesperson Allison Schuster, touting an overhaul of federal dietary guidelines.