It’s Saturday, October 31. Happy Halloween! Let me just say, the SCARIEST thing I can think of today is if people don’t vote. So please, make sure to get to the polls!
Here are the top headlines right now:
Iran’s Supreme Leader orders a “geographically unrestricted” response to any attack and updates the military target bank
A U.S. official tells Axios that Trump may do “something bold” in Iran if Republicans lose badly…in other words, he may make a catastrophic decision in the war
The Pentagon quietly updates the death toll in the Iran war to 23
A federal judge orders DOJ to stop threatening election officials with prosecution
Democrats lead the generic ballot by 8 to 9 points and are spending big in Trump +20 districts
Trump keeps body-shaming a Reuters reporter and keeps posting about Obama
Raskin and Garcia demand Trump preserve his chats with Grok
The administration plans to deport Afghans and pays a Cameroonian unit accused of war crimes to take deportees
Carney says Canada will wait out Trump if needed, and North Korea brushes off sanctions
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DOJ Tried to Scare Election Officials. A Judge Said No.
Let’s start with the threat to the vote itself. Three secretaries of state confirmed they got letters from the Department of Justice reminding them to preserve election records. That’s already required by law for 22 months. The letters went further and warned that willful noncompliance is “punishable by up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.”
Late Friday, Judge Trina Thompson of the Northern District of California shut this down. She ordered DOJ to stop threatening election officials with criminal prosecution, retract prior threats, and report to her every pending search warrant application and grand jury subpoena tied to so-called ineligible voters. The case was brought by SEIU, AFSCME, LULAC, and the NAACP against DOJ, Attorney General Todd Blanche, DHS, and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Judge Thompson opened her order by writing that “one of the hallmarks of a fair election is the freedom to exercise the right to vote free from threat, fear, or intimidation.” She noted ballots are already out, people are already voting, and workers are already processing ballots, so she saw no reason to wait. The court found DOJ and DHS officials had engaged in “a campaign to intimidate, threaten, and coerce” the people running this election. That’s what a desperate regime looks like days before it loses.
The Blue Wave Is Building
Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot by roughly 8 to 9 points in the major averages, with even Republican-leaning pollsters showing Democrats ahead. Forecasters give Democrats a clear edge in the House and a narrower one in the Senate.
And look where the money is going. A new FEC filing shows House Majority PAC (a major Democratic PAC) dropped more than $8.5 million into five Republican-held seats:
FL-09: $2.47M against Dan Green (Trump +18)
FL-27: $1.67M against Maria Elvira Salazar (Trump +15)
FL-07: $1.53M against Ryan Elijah (Trump +12)
NY-21: $1.48M against Anthony Constantino (Trump +21)
NE-01: $1.37M against Mike Flood (Trump +13)
Republicans, meanwhile, are playing defense in Trump country. DeCalibrate’s data from last week shows GOP super PACs pouring money into Ohio ($12.75M), Iowa ($6.95M), Kansas ($5.24M), South Carolina ($4.69M), Nebraska, Alaska, and even Mississippi, a Trump +23 state. On the House side, they’re spending in TX-15, KY-06, AZ-02, and Trump +20 seats in Texas and Tennessee. You don’t spend money in Mississippi unless you’re scared.
Even Steve Bannon sees it coming. He told the Financial Times that Republicans will break out into a “civil war” after November 3, with “monster” legislative fights before the new Congress is sworn in.
We’ll be live all Tuesday night from our studio in Washington, D.C. Scott MacFarlane, Katie Phang, and Ben will be hosting, joined by our White House correspondent. Come watch with us. Set your reminder here.
Iran Says Trump’s Threats Aren’t Working
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei met with his top commanders and ordered that any threat be met with an immediate response “without geographical limits.” Iran’s official readout says the target bank was updated so that “all types of material and immaterial assets of the American-Zionist enemy” are within range. According to the Hormuz Letter, Iran has previously defined those “non-physical” assets to include the seven undersea cables in the Gulf, plus U.S.-linked data centers and AI facilities across the region. Iran’s armed forces chief of staff also warned Iran won’t wait for an attack if it sees signs one is coming.
Barak Ravid of Axios reports Qatari mediators held marathon talks in Tehran trying to get a deal before the midterms. Then a U.S. official told him Trump might be more inclined to order a major military operation if Republicans get crushed. “If he feels embarrassed or disenfranchised he will do something bold,” the official said. Bold?! You mean the guy will throw a tantrum and potentially make catastrophic war decisions if his feelings get hurt?! The message to Iran is basically “help Trump now or he’ll throw a tantrum later.” That’s how a toddler negotiates, and it’s exactly why we need checks and balances in Congress, and why we need Trump and his sycophants out of the Oval Office
Meanwhile the human cost keeps climbing. Air & Space Forces Magazine’s Chris Gordon reports that two Air Force airmen assigned to CENTCOM died this month in “non-hostile” incidents, which only came out through an updated Pentagon database. No announcement from the Trump regime. At least 23 U.S. service members have now died in this conflict.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went on CNBC to mock Iran’s currency collapse, saying you can be arrested for printing the exchange rate. We’ve heard “it’s almost over” for months now while Americans pay record prices for gas, diesel, electricity, and groceries. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, speaking at the Manama Dialogue, warned that a “second round [of full-blown war] will be more dangerous, more destructive, and it will lead nowhere.”
Meanwhile, surface-to-air missile systems are now deployed at Mar-a-Lago and the Palm Beach airport at the Secret Service’s request, including a launcher on a barge across the water. He’s turned his club into a bunker.
Trump’s Final-Weekend Meltdown
At his Daytona Beach rally Friday, Trump stopped mid-speech, said he had “a little thing” in his eye, dipped a towel in water, and wiped his face on live TV. He then went after rumors about his health.
Then he AGAIN went after a Reuters reporter on Truth Social with a photo and the line “Put yourself in shape. You look like hell!” We responded with a Reuters photo of Trump himself from October 29. I’ll let the picture speak.
He can’t get Obama off his mind, either. The guy is obsessed. He posted a “Life Before Obama” meme claiming there was “no TDS” before Obama and told Benny Johnson that Obama “doesn’t understand quality and cleanliness.” Obama is packing arenas and mocking him, and it’s clearly getting under his skin.
In that same interview, Trump said a Ukraine deal is close and claimed he hadn’t been saying that before. He has said literally nothing else since 2024. He also said making Nicki Minaj press secretary was “a good idea.” And around 12:30 a.m., he was reposting Ali vs. Frazier fight footage.
Grok in the Situation Room
Per Politico, Reps. Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia, who are positioned to lead House Judiciary and Oversight if Democrats win, demanded Trump preserve his conversations with AI chatbots, including Elon Musk’s Grok. They cited reports that Trump asked Grok how Venezuelans would react to Maduro’s capture before ordering a military operation. They’re accusing him of consulting AI instead of Congress. Expect subpoenas.
Deportations at Any Cost
The New York Times reports the administration has detained dozens of Afghan immigrants in Louisiana, including relatives of people who helped the U.S. military, and plans to deport them to Afghanistan despite the risk of persecution. And per the Wall Street Journal, the administration agreed to give $35 million in military aid, including armored personnel carriers, to Cameroon’s Rapid Intervention Battalion, a unit that previously lost U.S. support over torture allegations, in exchange for taking deportees. Cameroon has accepted at least 36 people from third countries so far.
Quick Hits
Trump’s proposed seawall at East Potomac Park could cost taxpayers up to $400 million.
Asked by Politico if he’d wait for the next U.S. president to get a trade deal, Mark Carney said “we’ll have to if that’s what it takes,” adding that American families and businesses lose out too.
Per Reuters, Pyongyang rejected Western sanctions, saying pressure “may work on the weak but never on us.” Its estimated arsenal has grown to roughly 60 warheads, up from 10 to 20 in 2018.
At the G20 foreign ministers’ gathering, Russia argued the group should better reflect the Global South and East and called the U.S. decision on Poland “very misguided.”
That’s it for today. Thank you to everyone who picked up WTF America?!, which my brothers and I wrote. It hit #2 on the New York Times bestseller list because of you. Now let’s keep it going! Grab the hardcover, ebook, or audio, and tell me what you think.
Happy Halloween. Three days. Make your plan to vote. And please be safe today.
Shoutout to the Meidas Mighty!
