Trump's tax-funded ads about HIMSELF

The Trump administration has now aired at least three taxpayer-funded advertisements promoting Donald Trump's political agenda in the weeks before the November midterms.

The White House insists these are not ads but "Presidential public service announcements" — one recycled directly from Trump's 2024 campaign, another built around his July 4 speech.

One ad is nearly identical to one that aired in the 2024 election cycle, with just one key change.

The previous version aired during the election read, “Join President Trump’s Fight For America.” The new version includes a disclaimer that reads, “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”

Under federal law, agencies can’t use taxpayer funds for “publicity or propaganda.”

Republican Senator John Kennedy went on CBS and said "there ought to be a rule" against this kind of spending, then admitted it is "probably" illegal.

The administration is not hiding it — they’re betting that no one will stop them before November — and if recent history is any indication, they are right.

Donald Trump sat across from the leader of America's biggest military rival and made a sales pitch. His own ambassador to China, David Perdue, says Trump asked Xi Jinping during last week's Washington visit whether Beijing would like to buy American weapons.

Perdue told the story on Fox News Sunday as if it were a charming anecdote: "President Trump continues to say, 'Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world.' He actually asked President Xi — would he like to buy some?"

On the day Xi landed in Washington, Bloomberg reported that the Chinese government had taken possession of F-35 parts: a stealth cockpit canopy and a weapons-bay door. They were from an Australian jet and headed to the US when the shipment was rerouted to Hong Kong. China hasn't returned them.

The US hasn't sold weapons to China since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. China's military regularly runs war games around Taiwan. US law requires America to arm Taiwan, and Trump already floated its $11.1 billion arms package as a bargaining chip back in May.

China already has pieces of America's stealth fighter without paying a cent. Trump wanted to know if it would like to become a customer.

Hakeem Jeffries now calls it "out-of-control settler violence" and says it "cannot continue." The House Democratic leader says he’ll back Rep. Jerry Nadler's bill to sanction violent settlers in the West Bank and ban them from the U.S.

He'd make it a priority next year — but only if Democrats flip the House.

Settlers aren't waiting for November. The UN counted 2,803 settler attacks on Palestinians between January 2025 and June 2026. Over the same stretch, settlers and Israeli troops killed 295 Palestinians. Settlers also advanced about 28,000 new housing units last year, more than twice the old record.

So what was Jeffries doing? In May, AIPAC's PAC sent him $149,300 earmarked by a single billionaire, the largest earmark in the PAC's history. In July, he opposed Thomas Massie's amendment to cut $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel.

AIPAC's PAC has steered more than $1 million in donations to him.

Palestinians are being attacked right now. Hakeem Jeffries says he plans to start caring on January 3, if voters cooperate.

Angie Nixon beat Alex Vindman in the primary even though he outraised her 16 to 1. A new poll has her tied 45-45 with Ashley Moody, the senator nobody elected. When Nixon called Chuck Schumer to ask for help, she says his answer was "basically a 'we will see.'"

Moody had banked $11.3 million through July. Nixon had less than $1 million.

Nixon told MS NOW that party leaders are "gun-shy" about funding Black women, especially in the South, since Kamala Harris lost. She said anyone who claims to care about Black voters needs to "put some respect on our names" by spending money in Florida.

In fairness, the DSCC did send out a very nice statement with Schumer's name on it the night she won. Thanks for that.

Nixon is trucking ahead anyway: she just proposed building data center on Mar-a-Lago.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis said Trump made a "colossal mistake" by backing Ken Paxton over incumbent John Cornyn in the Texas Senate primary.

Paxton defeated Cornyn in May — with Trump's full-throated support — and Tillis is now warning the seat is in danger for Republicans heading into November.

Tillis, a frequent Trump critic from North Carolina, is not exactly a reliable progressive ally, but when a Republican senator goes on national television six weeks before the midterms to say the president cost his party a Senate seat, that is a story. Texas was supposed to be a firewall. It is becoming a liability.

On Saturday night, Trump shared at least 14 posts on his failing social media platform targeting Florida Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, calling her a "back stabber" and amplifying calls to primary her out of her seat.

Salazar — whom Trump once gave his "complete and total endorsement" — released a video earlier this month criticizing his immigration tactics. The posts included users writing "Primary her in two years" and "we need a NEW Republican to replace Salazar.”

This is the MAGA feedback loop in real time: a congresswoman from a heavily Cuban-American district tries to protect her constituents from mass deportation, and the 80-year-old president responds by posting about her fourteen times before bed. The coalition is not as solid as it looks.

A former Cornell student says she was drugged with ketamine at the Chi Phi house in October 2024. She says she was then raped for hours after someone posted in the frat's "Chi Phi Actives" group chat that she was “available.” On September 14, she sued Cornell and seven members.

Cornell held more than a dozen hearings. It expelled two of the men and gave the rest suspensions, workshops and essays. The Tompkins County DA declined to charge anyone in 2024, and his office says it never received the group chat.

On Sunday, DA Matthew Van Houten reopened the case.

"Not one of these guys was arrested. Not one," her lawyer said. She dropped out. At an Ithaca town hall, AOC said Doe "lost her education" while elite schools protect a "culture of rape."