Week 102 — The Return

With two weeks left until the midterm elections, concerns about what Trump and his allies might do to interfere with voting and election outcomes were front and center. A poll by WAPO-ABC News-Ipsos found that 7 in 10 Americans believed the election would be fair and accurate, while 7 in 10 also believed that if the GOP lost, Trump would not accept the results.

Trump continued his not-so-subtle efforts to promise cash and bailouts in an effort to woo voters, as he and his party’s polling numbers continued to fall, and the prospects for Republicans looked increasingly bleak. Trump traveled to multiple states, including Kansas, where a Democrat had last won a Senate race in 1932, to encourage his voters to show up and vote, but already the blame game and circular-firing squad were underway within the regime.

A Fox News poll found 88% of Americans were “extremely/very concerned” about corruption in government, the top key issue in the poll. Yet, once again, this week’s list is chock full of breathtaking examples of corruption by both Trump and his allies. Trump reportedly complained to allies that information is not reaching him — something we have repeatedly speculated about in this project. That disconnect from reality may help explain how out of touch and tone deaf Trump has become to the reality of most Americans.

Finally, Trump’s strange bromance with Russian President Vladimir Putin took a dangerous turn, as he inexplicably shifted back to siding with Russia over Ukraine, in the war Putin started. Former house speaker Nancy Pelosi reposted her infamous October 2019 quote to Trump, “With you, Mr. President, all roads lead to Putin.” Meanwhile, a report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence found that Russia was the most active foreign adversary in using digital tools to try to undermine confidence in election integrity.

1. NYT reported that ahead of midterms, Trump and his regime members had systematically put forward unsubstantiated and false claims about the safety of the election system in an effort to sow doubt about the coming results, leading to fears that Trump will contest results.
2. At a rally in Arizona, Trump lied that “The damn machines were broken in Republican areas.” At a rally last week in Alaska, Trump lied that the state’s ranked-choice voting system was a “way to cheat.” Tina Peters met with Trump and urged him to take voting machines into custody.
3. Allies have publicly and privately told Trump he could declare a national emergency, and he has left open the possibility. Some state and local officials, including some Republicans, are for the first time preparing a response to defend against the federal government.
4. An NYT analysis found the Trump regime’s investigations into widespread noncitizen voting in the 2024 election had all fallen apart. In Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania, just 0.0002% of the votes investigated by the Trump regime turned out to be noncitizens.
5. Homeland Security told Nevada it had 16,000 noncitizens registered, but it turned out there were none; Iowa was told 2,176, which turned out to be one; Georgia was told 2,500, but no more than 150 voted. Overall, just 131 out of millions investigated were charged with few convictions.
6. On Thursday, the Justice Department sued California, seeking an injunction from the state counting 20,000 mail-in ballots, which the regime claimed could be from people who are not U.S. citizens. The state said the regime had not provided evidence of their claims.
7. The DOJ also warned ​Los Angeles County and California election officials that they could face jail time as abettors if they count the ballots returned by these 20,000 people. Trump shared the DOJ letter on Truth Social, adding,​ “They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!”
8. On Thursday, a computer glitch in software run by the Texas Department of Public Safety caused data of 600,000 people who requested voter registration when they applied for a driver’s license to not be processed or mailed, leaving election workers scrambling.
9. The Texas Tribune reported that Texas officials also discovered another state error that affected address updates made on the state’s website between September 1 and last week, impacting thousands of voter registration records. Early voting was set to start in four days.
10. On Friday, campaign finance records for September revealed Elon Musk had donated $158 million to a super PAC that immediately flipped that amount to a group backing Ken Paxton, who was running for senator in Texas, where Musk lived and several of his businesses operated.
11. NYT reported Trump’s political operation had spent $277 million on midterm elections, from September through mid-October. It was unprecedented for a sitting president to so actively court donors while in office. Many donors had business of varying sorts before the regime.
12. A WAPO-ABC News-Ipsos poll found that while 7 in 10 Americans were confident that the election would be fair and accurate, 7 in 10 believed Trump would not accept the results if the GOP lost, including 36% of Republicans, 77% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.
13. On Tuesday, National Democrats, including party leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, sued Trump and the DOJ, saying their “demands and threats” related to lists of supposed noncitizens to purge voters violated the separation of powers, and trampled on states’ rights.
14. Former treasury secretary Robert Rubin warned in an op-ed that if Trump and his allies interfered with the election, “the economic impact could be felt immediately, and it could last long after Mr. Trump’s presidency ends,” calling on business leaders to protect elections.
15. On Monday, at a rally in Kansas, Trump promised $8 billion in economic aid to farmers hurt by higher diesel prices, his latest effort to promise cash or bailouts to win over voters. The Senate race in Kansas was close, where Democrats last won in 1932.
16. Trump also evoked widespread, violent protests in France, suggesting the U.S. would burn if Democrats are elected, saying, “When you see burning steeples and raging fires in ⁠France, just remember that is what the radical Dumocrats want to do to America.”
17. On Tuesday, Trump again offered cash to win over voters, announcing at an Oval Office event that a new program would reward up to $30,000 to Americans for reporting tips about government fraud.
18. Also on Tuesday, Trump and his allies floated the idea of expanding the so-called Trump Accounts to include adults under 40 years-old. When asked by reporters, Trump said, “We’re looking at something as an alternative,” citing, “because it really is somewhat of a different thing.”
19. Later Tuesday, at a rally in North Carolina, Trump promised that if Republicans kept control of the House and Senate, he would fast-track veterans’ claims brought against the U.S. over contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.
20. WAPO reported that after the White House task force Trump created, led by John Solomon, was unable to uncover any evidence of election fraud, the task force instead released records on the people who investigated Trump to build a public case against those officials.
21. Solomon contrasted his work as not seeking indictments in court like the work of the fruitless Florida grand conspiracy case formerly led by Joseph diGenova, but by releasing documents, albeit haphazardly, “something that can serve the court of public opinion.”
22. Bloomberg reported that a Russian state-backed operation known as Matryoshka, or Operation Overload, had targeted 29 of the 36 Democrats running for governor, and 20 of the 25 running for the Senate, with false stories, some AI-generated, spread through bots.
23. A report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that was shared with Congress said that foreign adversaries were using AI to spread disinformation, and that Russia was the most active in using digital tools to try to undermine confidence in election integrity.
24. On Thursday, the FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service started investigating letters containing “suspicious substances” that were sent to state election offices in 26 states, as well as dozens of members of the House and Senate of both parties. The white powder was not harmful.
25. WAPO reported as midterm losses loomed, regime officials were bracing for internal upheaval. Several regime members were angling for Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’s job, after her daughter, James Blair, and Chris LaCivita were linked to lobbying and advising Republika Srpska.
26. Internal polling showed support for GOP candidates tumbled after the party’s midterm convention in Dallas, and that voters felt Trump was consumed with hosting China’s leader and his pet projects. Trump has told allies that he is concerned that information is not reaching him.
27. Reuters reported that Trump was faulting senior aides, including Wiles and Blair, for a failing midterms strategy. Wiles also blamed Blair, and Blair blamed the White House team, a circular firing squad. Trump also complained that $200 million spent on redistricting efforts did not help.
28. On Friday, Katie Zacharia was ousted as White House press secretary after five days on the job. After a disastrous first briefing in Week 101, she appeared on several Fox News shows, but failed to impress. Trump told reporters she should “reconsider,” and shortly after, she resigned.
29. NYT noted senior regime officials who were fired or pushed to resign, including four cabinet members, were overwhelmingly women, and all had been replaced by men. Mike Waltz was fired, then named ambassador to the U.N., which Trump had promised to Elise Stefanik.
30. On Thursday, nine former FBI employees, who were fired in February over their involvement in the investigation of Trump hiding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, sued the Trump regime to get their jobs back, saying their firings were unlawful acts of “political retribution.”
31. WAPO reported on the list of donors behind the $333 million for Trump’s ballroom, which included several companies and individuals with business before the regime, and $77 million from donors who remained anonymous. Trump did not donate despite earlier statements.
32. Donors on the list benefited from regulatory decisions, government contracts, and a pardon for a family member. Several Trump cabinet members also donated. Ethics experts and scholars expressed deep concerns about influence buying and coerced giving.
33. On Wednesday, a White House lawyer said in a court filing related to the Kennedy Center that Trump was invoking executive privilege “with respect to information, documents, and communications requested.” Lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty said there were no grounds for privilege.
34. Axios reported former Trump attorney Alina Habba met with Trump and told him that adviser Richard Grenell had failed to a deposit a $5.6 million donation from her new husband, Turkish billionaire Turhan Mildon, for the Kennedy Center, made a year ago.
35. NYT reported that after Habba made the public claim, her husband told her he had not donated the money to the center directly. Kennedy Center records showed that he owed the center a $270,000 pledged amount. Mildon and Grenell had a falling out over business dealings.
36. Instead, the money came from a bank account affiliated with the Congolese government, and was sent in 2025 to TX-AT, a Texas security and defense firm, which Grenell previously consulted for. In a June text to TX-AT, Grenell asked about payment related to a “software system.”
37. Axios reported that Grenell had offered Mildon access, texting him, “Once the money comes to the company here, I will arrange the donation to Kennedy Centre [sic], and you’ll be joining the VIP events and get close with the administration, even with POTUS.”
38. On Tuesday, NYT reported Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan billionaire, hired Habba, then an adviser at the DOJ, and guaranteed her more than $50 million over four years as general counsel of a shell company, Concord Partners, in exchange for a pardon.
39. Herrera’s daughter, a U.S. citizen, set up Concord in October 2025, and Habba finalized her deal days later, while still serving as U.S. attorney in New Jersey. Habba formally started work at Concord on January 1. Weeks later, Trump granted Herrera a full and unconditional pardon.
40. On Thursday, a judge refused an usual request by Gemini Trust and the CFTC to reverse a court-approved settlement reached in January 2025, just before Trump took office, that required the company to pay $5 million for misleading the CFTC.
41. Trump’s CFTC had claimed that former agency lawyers had unduly pressured Gemini to settle. Gemini was founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who backed Trump’s re-election, donated towards his ballroom, and backed ventures by Donald Jr. and Eric.
42. Watchdog group Public Citizen found that more than 200 corporations who collectively donated $210 million toward MAGA Inc. and other Trump-aligned super PACs had benefited from the Trump regime canceling federal enforcement against them.
43. Propublica reported after George K. Kollitides II was brought into the Pentagon, Alvarez & Marsal, a company where he was a partner, was given $350 million in Pentagon consulting contracts, including $281 million to advise his new office, unusually large amounts of contracts.
44. WSJ reported that Nxum, a consulting firm started by Bo Hines, a White House crypto adviser, was paid $6.3 million by crypto giant Tether, at the same time Hines was leading the White House’s push to pass the Genius Act, from which Tether would greatly benefit.
45. The Cato Institute’s Government Ownership Dashboard showed the Trump regime had taken equity stakes in at least 35 companies since last June, an unprecedented equity portfolio. Cato said the Trump regime had failed to offer solid public justifications for the investments.
46. A Fox News poll found Trump’s approval at a new low of 36%, and found the issues voters were most concerned about included corruption in government (88%), inflation and higher prices (85%), gas prices (83%), and healthcare (80%).
47. On Wednesday, WAPO reported that Trump regime officials warned staffers at the Ukrainian Embassy in D.C. that if there are more strikes on Russian energy sites, the U.S. would halt intelligence sharing. Access to SpaceX’s Starshield had been limited without prior notice.
48. On Wednesday, Axios reported that Ukrainian officials made calls to their counterparts at the White House, CIA, and Pentagon. The White House claimed they did not have control over Starlink, but said the regime was reaching out to SpaceX to see what happened.
49. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said with the U.S. withholding early warning of strikes, Russia launched more than 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 attack drones overnight, killing six civilians and leaving 600,000 without power.
50. FT reported that last week in Miami, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had floated the idea of unfreezing some Russian sovereign assets, which were frozen after Russia invaded Ukraine, in order to revive peace talks. European countries had strongly pushed back against the idea.
51. On Thursday, Zelensky told FT that Ukraine paused energy strikes on Russia for three days at Trump’s request, but Russia continued bombing Ukrainian energy sites, killing more than 100 civilians. Zelensky expressed anger for Trump withholding intelligence that would be a warning.
52. On Thursday, a bipartisan group of Senators demanded an investigation by the Pentagon inspector general into whether the Trump regime or its contractors were responsible for the disruptions in Starshield service to Ukraine.
53. Elon Musk posted on X on Wednesday, “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government.” On Friday, when pressed by reporters on who paused Starlink, Trump claimed, “I don’t know if it was anybody, because it wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon.”
54. Later Friday, the Telegraph reported that Musk proposed to Trump the idea of throttling the Starshield satellite networks used by the Ukrainian military, and Trump did not push back. Musk became alarmed about the consequences for SpaceX’s business, and denied involvement.
55. Late Friday evening, Trump signed an executive order exempting Russia from new sanctions that passed in Congress last month, in a measure that was named for his former ally senator Lindsey Graham, and which passed the House and Senate with overwhelming support.
56. On Saturday, NYT reported in a meeting last month with European and Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky, in Kyiv, Witkoff and Kushner urged Ukraine to reopen pipelines to allow gas from Russia to flow to Europe. European officials reportedly recoiled at the idea.
57. On Sunday, after Zelensky told “Meet the Press” that the Trump regime was responsible for slowing down Starshield, Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent said Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had denied that claim, and warned Zelensky to “be very careful” about the claim.
58. On Sunday, the U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Andrew Puzder threatened “devastating” retaliation to European companies, if the European Commission moved forward with a plan to reserve part of its spectrum band for European players.
59. On Monday, WSJ reported that Putin had floated the idea of a summit with Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in China, to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Zelensky would not be included. Trump told reporters on Monday that he was open to the idea of a meeting.
60. Despite bipartisan pushback from Congress, Trump continued to criticize Ukraine, even after Russia struck and killed civilians, telling reporters, “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine, they haven’t been doing much,” adding of Ukraine, “they’ve given us nothing.”
61. Later Monday, WAPO reported that the Trump regime was holding the transfers of Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine from their allies. The transfer required approval of Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth, who had not formally rejected the transfer, nor had he signed off.
62. On Tuesday, WSJ reported Musk ordered the slowdown of the military-grade version of Starlink, rendering it virtually useless. Regime officials claimed Trump and Musk spoke only after the slowdown became public, but that Trump was busy campaigning and not involved.
63. After the backlash, SpaceX officials called the Trump regime and pushed for a unified message. Some regime officials said Musk acted unilaterally, one said Musk spoke to several senior regime officials, and one said Musk and Trump discussed the throttling back beforehand.
64. Hegseth also tried to put the blame on Musk, saying Tuesday, “we haven’t pulled anything back,” but “Starlink has the option to make decisions concerning its terms of service,” adding, “We haven’t made any directives or anything like that.”
65. On Wednesday, Putin released an American prisoner who had been baselessly detained, at Trump’s request. While in Moscow, Witkoff celebrated Putin, calling him a “humanitarian” like Trump, adding, “I salute that.” Putin was wanted for being a war criminal.
66. On Friday, Hollywood Reporter reported that TikTok had suspended an account associated with a documentary “Musk,” which offered a less than flattering portrayal of Musk and the outsized influence he had on the world, days before the film was set to be widely released.
67. On Sunday, TikTok reinstated the account’s ability to advertise, amid widespread backlash, with a spokesperson citing an “error” as the reason for the suspension. The film company said it missed out on key advertising on the weekend before the film’s release.
68. On Saturday, the Instagram account for the “No Kings” protest movement was suspended amid thousands of nationwide events that afternoon, with Meta claiming the shutdown occurred due to a sharp ​increase in activity that looked like automated bot traffic.
69. Meta later Sunday offered a differing explanation, which came without warning, and apologized. No Kings organizers said, “Meta’s explanation still doesn’t add up,” adding, “early voting content was inaccessible, restricted, or ​seemed suppressed across Meta platforms.”
70. On Saturday, Trump hosted a lavish event at Mar-a-Lago for MAGA Inc., in a dining room adorned with decorations made of gold. Images revealed that the event was attended by many of the leaders of technology companies.
71. On Sunday, a WAPO-ABC News-Ipsos poll found Trump’s approval at a record low 33%, with his approval of handling the economy at 28%. Nearly half said they were financially worse off since Trump took office, with many saying gas (71%) and groceries (60%) were “unaffordable.”
72. The poll also found 66% of Americans said Trump was using the presidency to enrich himself; eight in 10 said it was inappropriate for him to put his name on the Kennedy Center; and two-thirds said Trump was too extreme.
73. On Wednesday, at a rally in Montana, Trump opened by referencing the Qatari-gifted Air Force One behind him, “When they give you a 747, you say two words: ‘Thank you.’” Trump also bragged about his White House ballroom and new helipad.
74. Trump also downplayed concerns about the cost of living, blaming the “fake news media,” which he said “doesn’t talk about how well we’re doing,” complaining that instead the media asked him about “affordability,” pronouncing the word in a dismissive tone.
75. On Thursday, the producer price index rose 6.3% from a year ago, the fastest pace in more than four years, as higher energy costs reverberated throughout the economy.
76. On Thursday, the U.S. budget deficit rose to nearly $2 trillion for fiscal year 2026, up 12% from Trump’s first year in office, and the highest in U.S. history other than the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
77. WAPO reported that traffic on Trump’s Truth Social platform had plunged by more than 30% in the past year, from a peak of daily users 420,000 in June 2025, to 260,000 last month, despite Trump posting on the platform multiple times each day.
78. CNN reported that a report by the Government Accountability Office found budget cuts made to the program for developing new geostationary weather satellites would impact weather forecasting. One expert said the loss of data would set the country back nearly a decade.
79. WSJ reported that the Trump regime’s goal in investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar was to build a case to strip her of her citizenship and deport her. In addition to searching her home in Week 101, the regime issued more than a dozen subpoenas, including to some of Omar’s relatives.
80. Later Wednesday, at a rally in Arizona, Trump again claimed that Canada would “end up being the 51st state,” baselessly claiming, “Canada treats us very badly. They always have,” and adding, “Not anymore. It’s a whole different ball game now that Trump is in town.”
81. Trump also said that those who leak military plans should be shot, saying, “In my opinion, leakers should be shot,” adding, “In the old days we used to shoot leakers, you know?” The crowd cheered, but it was unclear which military operation he was referring to.
82. CNN reported that the U.S. military had developed plans to use the “mother of all bombs” to target Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites, as Trump looked for ways to end the Iran war. Privately regime officials questioned whether that strategy could end the war.
83. On Thursday, in an interview with Newsmax, Trump said the U.S. may need to strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, “We may have to go there. ​We’ll take a shot at that one. We’ll knock it out fast.” Notably he had said the site was “obliterated” in last year’s strike.
84. Trump also lied that the U.S. was running low on munitions, because former president Joseph Biden gave “massive amounts of Patriots, of Tomahawks, of everything” to Zelensky, whom he referred to as “PT Barnum.” The U.S. did not give Tomahawks to Ukraine.
85. CBS News reported that Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, whom Sec. Hegseth fired in April, had warned two months before Trump launched the Iran war that there was a critical shortage of missile defense munitions that would last another five years.
86. Bloomberg reported that the Pentagon planned to hold back on releasing an internal report on the strike on a girls’ school in Iran until after midterms, despite growing political pressure to release the findings of the months-long investigation.
87. NYT reported that after the Trump regime cut funding for legal aid, 55% of the 50,000 unaccompanied minors who faced deportation hearings through August did not have legal representation. In Arizona, an immigration judge ordered a 1 year-old to file an asylum application.
88. On Thursday, an ABC/Post/Ipsos poll found 80% of Americans, including 64% of Republicans, opposed livestreaming the firing squad execution of former Army officer Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood.
89. Hours later, Trump reversed on livestreaming the execution, posting on Truth Social that “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die,” and adding, “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.”
90. WSJ reported that two-thirds of home builders that were surveyed in September said Trump’s immigration crackdown had affected their labor pool, and raised cost of labor by 4.2% from a year ago. Confidence among home builders dropped to a 14 year low.
91. On Friday, the Trump regime released final plans for Trump’s 250-foot high triumphal arch, which did not include the drones, snipers, or other features of the “military complex,” which Trump had claimed, as a basis for the arch, were necessary for national security.
92. On Friday, in a court filing, the DOJ called on U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes to recuse herself from the planned overhaul of East Potomac Golf Links, accusing her of “histrionics,” belittling government lawyers, and displaying “open hostility” toward the regime.
93. The DOJ also asked for the public release of the audio from the hearing in Week 101, claiming Americans should be able to hear what it called Reyes’s “animosity” for the Trump regime.
94. On Sunday, days after the regime said in court that a plan had not been finalized for the golf course, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had finalized a plan to transform it into a “World Class Championship Golf Course,” which would be ready for play in 15 months.
95. On Sunday, Judge Reyes denied the DOJ’s motion for her to recuse, saying she approached the case as a “pragmatist,” and “It is easy to weaponize selective quotations to bring a baseless recusal motion,” but that “the government fails to meet the standard for recusal.”
96. On Monday, ahead of a hearing on the course, Trump posted on Truth Social that Reyes “is a crazed lunatic whose courthouse tapes will reveal, may be insane,” and adding that “Work is scheduled to begin IMMEDIATELY!”
97. On Monday, Judge Reyes summoned several Trump regime officials to court, with only a few hours of notice, to testify on who was responsible for decisions about the golf course, including cutting down the trees, and whether plans to overhaul it were kept from the court.
98. Reyes pressed DOJ attorneys on Trump’s post being counter to what was said in court. A senior DOJ official defended the lower ranking DOJ attorney who said that, claiming she did not go through Senate confirmation, and that contradicting Trump would put her in a “difficult” position.
99. On Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social that “New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America,” adding, “We are not Mexico, we are the United States of America!” The post came as Americans said he was not paying attention to their pressing issues.
100. The Texas Tribune reported Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias, 56, who had lived in Dallas for decades and raised a family, died in ICE custody, after being detained on June 2, and not administered necessary medication. Andrade-Covarrubias was a lawful permanent resident.
101. NYT reported that Trump had repeatedly discussed the idea of evicting the press corps from the White House, including during one of Karoline Leavitt’s final meetings in August, and converting the current press briefing room into an indoor swimming pool.
102. At a discussion at Catholic University, Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan said some of their recent rulings had damaged democracy, citing limiting the Voting Rights Act, loosening campaign finance restrictions, and removing the court’s oversight of partisan gerrymandering.