This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 473.

… NYT: “One month until Election Day, voter dissatisfaction with the economy, concerns about political extremism and frustration with Trump have Democrats within reach of flipping 4 Republican-held governorships, opening a wide lead in IA and an expanding advantage in OH among likely voters, according to new polls by NYT/Siena.

… In TX, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican fixture in the state for decades, is now narrowly behind his Democratic challenger, Gina Hinojosa. The Democratic candidate also has an advantage in the race for governor of AK. The only place surveyed where the Republican is ahead in the campaign for the governor’s office in KS, now held by a retiring Democrat.

… The polls also show Democrats with an advantage in the Senate in these states, with Democrats ahead in TX and AK, and with the edge in OH, while the races in KS and Iowa are neck-and-neck.

… While national attention has fixated on the fight for control of Congress, governorships will be important heading into a wide open presidential election in 2028. Not only will governors influence the electoral process, they will help shape the redistricting wars that are likely to spill into 2027 and beyond.”

… AP: “Sipping tea from beer mugs with his co-workers, Kyle Bos listed the ways his life is changing. Bos has two daughters, with a third due in January. At the grocery store, 5 items cost as much as a full cart once did. And on Wed, Bos and nearly 1,400 other people were laid off from their jobs at what had been the Navistar truck factory in SW OH.

… The layoffs - occurring just 3 days before Trump’s rally on Sat at a nearby high school - were large enough to basically erase an entire year of job growth in the greater Dayton area. And they are one reason why Bos plans to spend the final weeks before the Nov election canvassing votes for Democrats.

… Asked how many times he had voted for Trump, Bos held up 3 tattooed fingers. But he said he’s done with the president: “Something has to change politically in this country. Seems like it just kept getting worse and worse and worse.”

… “This year’s election is a test for the working-class coalition that lifted Trump into the WH and gave majorities to Republicans in the House and Senate. Trump’s blunt talk and status as a celebrity businessman initially helped him around Dayton. Republicans secured wins in the larger metro area, but this year, the party is vulnerable with voters who are disgruntled about inflation, the Iran war and a president who seems unsympathetic to their struggles.”

… Politico: “Republicans know they have to spend big to save Ken Paxton. They’re increasingly worried MAGA Inc. won’t throw down in time. In private conversations over recent weeks, senior Hill Republicans and GOP officials have nudged Trump’s team to start spending more on the TX Senate race before it’s too late.

… Those fears escalated after audio leaked of Paxton privately trashing Trump’s midterm convention, with some worrying it could impact whether MAGA Inc. continues spending after a current wave of GOP ad bookings run out Oct. 12.

… A Trump operative said MAGA Inc. and its affiliates are expected to spend near $45 million on direct mail, TV, and digital advertising in TX through Oct. 12, an increase from its previous $20 million to boost Paxton. But they said the team is still assessing how much more money to send in the final weeks. Republicans expect the cost of salvaging Paxton’s campaign will only skyrocket. And, they’ve started to panic:

… One GOP senator: “It’s a 5-alarm fire, no doubt. Can we put it out? I hope so.”

… A TX GOP strategist: “This is a slow-moving car crash that we’re witnessing right now. And there’s a 75% chance that the ultimate result here will be catastrophic from a GOP Senate majority standpoint.”

… A national GOP operative: “While it’s money we shouldn’t have needed to spend, it needs to be spent now.”

… Ken Paxton’s ex-wife Angela Paxton released this video: “People have asked my thoughts about this election and turns out, I have some. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. In a general election, it’s not about the individual players on the team - it’s about getting the whole team across the finish line. I’m voting for the Republican ticket on Nov 3rd.”

… Ken cheated on Angela multiple times which led to her filing for divorce. One of the grounds for his impeachment was that he dropped fraud charges as AG against a contractor after he put a new kitchen into the home of one of Paxton’s mistresses. The prosecutors who were ordered to drop charges resigned in protest. On her hostage video telling people to vote Republican, Angela couldn’t even mention her beloved ex by name.

… James Talarico: “Asking Texans to close their eyes and vote for a political party instead of the best person for the job is exactly what’s wrong with today’s politics. People are tired of being divided into teams. They’re tired of politicians serving mega-donors instead of constituents. Republicans, Democrats and Independents are welcome in this movement to help working people. My team isn’t any political party, it’s the people of TX.”

… Houston Chronicle reporter Jeremy Wallace: “Last night, Elon Musk’s America super PAC dropped another $500K into the US Senate race. Now up to over $8.7 million in that race to stop James Talarico, who frequently targets Musk in campaign speeches.”

… Houston Chronicle: “Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Don Henley really wants to see his native TX turn blue for the first time in more than 30 years. Henley, who grew up near Texarkana, has become the number one donor to Democratic candidates for Lt. Gov, AG commissioner and the Railroad Commission, and is a major force behind Lone Star Rising, a super PAC supporting Talarico’s bid for the US Senate.

… In all, the Eagles icon had poured out $300,000 in TX campaigns during the first 6 months of this year. Henley has spent another nearly $2 million on federal campaigns in TX and around the nation. He’s sent individual donations to Talarico and South TX congressional candidate and fellow musician Bobby Pulido.

… He’s also sent much bigger donations to several left-leaning super PACs, most notably $250,000 to Lone Star Rising, the group trying to help Talarico on the airwaves in TX. That group has funded more than $6 million in digital ads in TX in support of Talarico.”

… NBC: “Latino voters helped propel Trump back to the WH. Now, they are turning on him - a shift that gives Democrats a major opportunity to capitalize in a 2026 election that could hinge on states and districts with sizable Latino populations. Like the broader electorate, Latino voters are racked by major concerns about high prices and Trump’s approach to immigration enforcement.

… The president’s approval rating sits at 27% among Latino voters. Two-thirds say his admin’s deportation policies have gone too far and 75% disapprove of how he has handled the economy and the cost of living. A greater share of Latino voters hold negative views of the GOP than at any time since 2016, and Democrats have leads on issues like dealing with the economy, immigration, the cost of living, corruption and healthcare.

… Two years ago, Latino voters gave Trump a 4-point edge over Kamala Harris on handling the economy. Today, they give Democrats a 21-point advantage on the same question. Against that backdrop, Democrats have a 24-point lead on whom Latino voters want to see in control of Congress, 59%-35%. That’s double the lead they had among Latino voters at this point in 2024.”

… NBC: “Interviews with more than 3 dozen Houston-area Latinos, elected officials, activists and political strategists reveal a distraught community whose members feel degraded by the messages they hear out of DC during Trump’s second term.

… They said they have been terrorized by the constant stories of those detained, many wrongly, and left to languish. They were aghast that the govt was sending immigrants to countries they had never heard of. Their refrains were in the same vein: That could have been my dad, my brother, my uncle, my son - or me.”

… Julio Roa, a Houston resident: “They’re being unfair. They’ve lied about a lot of things. They’re killing innocent people, breaking families apart. It’s just not right. They have no sympathy for other people. I come from Mexican parents. I’m born a US citizen, but I live it day by day when they’re scared to go to the corner store.”

… “It all illustrates a political environment in which Republicans and Trump are bleeding support from Latinos. A new NBC News/Telemundo poll showed that 69% disapproved of the job Trump was doing as president, and 54% said they intended their midterm vote to be a signal of opposition to the president.”

… Houston area plumber Alberto Riseno: “I’m guilty as charged. I voted for Trump. But I never thought it was gonna happen the way that this happened. There’s no words to describe what’s going on. Everybody’s scared.”

… NYT: “In the last hours of Kristi Noem’s tenure as DHS secretary, her agency delivered a windfall to one of her political donors by buying 5 airplanes from the man’s firm at a substantial markup, documents show. DHS agreed to pay the donor’s firm $108 million for a Boeing 737 airliner that had been converted into a massive private jet, complete with a stand-up bar, two bedrooms, marble showers and a table covered in manta ray skin.

… The firm, Daedalus Aviation, had bought the same plane a few months earlier from a seller who had asked for less than $90 million. At the same time, the agency agreed to buy two smaller Gulfstream luxury jets at prices that also seemed to yield a hefty profit for the seller. Daedalus spent about $83 million to buy the pair, but resold them to the agency for $106 million.

… The agency also paid the company $45 million apiece for a pair of 17-year-old Boeing 737 passenger planes. The Times spoke to 6 aviation experts, who said that those prices were millions of dollars higher than the typical market value for jets of that age.”

… NYT: “The Trump admin’s talks with Russia about ending the war in Ukraine have expanded to include a multibillion-dollar oil deal that would benefit Middle Eastern business executives with ties to the two main US negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

… The deal, which is contingent on approval from the US govt and the Kremlin, is for a sprawling set of oil fields, refineries and gas stations around the world owned by Lukoil, one of Russia’s biggest energy companies.

… The leading group seeking the deal includes an American investor, Todd Boehly, who has donated $2 million to Trump’s political causes; two Middle Eastern groups that have done business with Kushner or Witkoff’s family; and an arm of the US govt itself.

… The pending deal represents a striking intermingling of personal business ties with geopolitics, even for an administration that has regularly dismissed concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Putin brought up the deal when he met with Witkoff and Kushner at the Kremlin on Sept. 5.

… The Americans responded that they would work on it, seeing it as a way to build good will with the Kremlin while also lowering global energy prices. But the deal is also a lucrative one for the buyers: US approval for the sale would release the assets from American sanctions, instantly increasing their value.”

… Daily Mail: “Jared Kushner and the Trump sons’ crypto empire sit atop the hit list for Democrats plotting to probe Trump’s family if they seize either chamber of Congress this Nov. Sen. Ruben Gallego said that Jared Kushner is at the top of his list of people to investigate.”

… Gallego: “The President’s son-in-law is negotiating with Saudi Arabia. He’s negotiating on behalf of us, and also having clients in Saudi Arabia. While they’ve driven up the cost of living for everybody. You can’t buy a home. Gas prices are going to the roof.”

… “Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee blocked a measure earlier this year to bring Kushner, as well as fellow Steve Witkoff and Marco Rubio, in over the Iran War.

… Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has World Liberty Financial in his sights. The crypto firm was founded by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr alongside Zach and Alex Witkoff, sons of Special Envoy Witkoff. Blumenthal wants to examine ‘the financial ties between the administration and Tether’, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer.

… Cantor-Fitzgerald, the financial services and investment firm formerly led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, has ties to Tether, which has been characterized as a ‘dream currency’ for money launderers. Although Lutnick has divested his stake in his former company, his children still benefit from a trust that has received a loan from Tether.

… Blumenthal claims Tether’s dollar-pegged token is ‘enabling Iran to evade sanctions during the war’ and has aided ‘money laundering and gun trafficking’.”

… Kushner posted: “For the last 10 years, I have ignored false and misleading stories about me and focused on the work. But the cycle has gotten out of control where old lies get repeated as fact, new ones get added, and the record becomes increasingly distorted. So from time to time, I’m going to respond. When the truth matters, I’ll put the facts and supporting info out publicly, and people can judge for themselves.

… CNN published a deeply misleading story and headline suggesting that my diplomatic work in the Middle East somehow benefited investments in Israeli defense companies. Phoenix is not a defense company. It is one of Israel’s largest publicly traded financial institutions, highly regulated and managing approximately $220 billion across thousands of investments.”

… Which is heavy invested in companies that manufactures weapons that the Israeli govt buys. So Kushner personally profits whenever Israel is at war. Not great for someone who is supposed to be a peace envoy.

Tomorrow is the Ask the Editor show where I choose 5 of your questions to answer on the podcast. Please submit a question for the show or a topic you would like me to talk more about in the comments below.

Yesterday was an amazing 9-hour road trip up through western Maine and back down through the White Mountains in NH. After a disappointing year last year caused by a summer drought, this was the best in a couple of decades. Everywhere you looked there was a burst of yellow, orange and red. My favorite trees are white birch, and I took this photo of some on the shore of Aziscohos Lake in Maine.

If you missed Friday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.

… OH GOP governor nominee Vivek Ramaswamy brought a child up on stage at Trump’s rally in OH and almost dropped him on his head for yet another embarrassment for the hapless candidate. He said he wanted to lift him up to the crowd because he had a sign that said his dad was deployed overseas in the military. He was widely mocked on social media by people in both parties.

… Trump posted a long rant about Fox not caring much about covering or talking about his rallies. This is part of it:

• “Sad to see that Fox & Friends is not covering our packed house and incredibly enthusiastic (beyond!) Rally that took place in OH last night, or the ones in AL, TX, or OK over the past two days. Our people want to see our Rallies, and reports on our Rallies, on FoxNews, or they will very quickly stop watching (like I am doing right now!). Fox spends more time talking to Communists, Socialists, and Dumocrats, often without rebuttal, and MAGA is not, to put it mildly, happy. We don’t like stupid Jessica Tarlov, and all of the others, that are forced down MAGA’S throats. Who makes these decisions at FoxNews? Probably the same loser that fired the great Maria Bartiromo because she complained about not being allowed to cover TRUMP.”

… These are some quotes from the rallies Trump did this weekend for Republican candidates:

• “All these fake polls don’t account for one thing - they don’t account for the fact Trump is out campaigning. They never thought this was gonna happen. And it’s their fault because they unleashed us and we’re gonna really gonna do - as Coach Tuberville would say, ‘let’s go and kick ass.’”

• “Just get out and vote, and if you do we’re gonna win big. We’re gonna shove it up their ass, ok. They’re a bunch of dumb son of a bitches.”

• “Husted, now that he’s a senator, he’s a pain in the ass. He calls me all the time. He always wants money. Think of it - if an Amy Acton got in, I’m not gonna help her probably.”

… Trump’s message to the people of OH: I will personally screw you over if you don’t vote Republican. What a patriot.

• “I had a nice simple life before this. I didn’t have to be here on Sat night going like this, working my ass off in front of your people. I could’ve been home. I could’ve been in Monte Carlo.”

• “I take an aspirin a day. I don’t know if it works but psychologically I need it. It thins the hell out of your blood I guess. I don’t know if it works or not but I’ve been doing it for a long time. I like Bayer aspirin. And I take the big one. They want me to go down to the 80. I take the 386. I don’t know what the hell it is. It’s a monster. They said, ‘Sir, you don’t need that!’ I said, do me a favor, I’ve been doing okay for 35 years. Leave me alone.”

• “I know more about inflation, I know more about everything than anybody in this room. Anybody anywhere in the world. Well, there’s a woman sitting right over there. She’s a housewife but she’s very good. She got a natural instinct for business. She perhaps knows more than I do but I actually don’t think so.”

• “When I see that Talafreako in Texas. So he’s been a vaygan all his life. He’s a vaygan vaygan, I didn’t even know what the hell a veygan was. A veygan is vegetables. A vaygan is eating a piece of lettuce all day long.”

… I spelled it how he pronounced it.

• “Even if you hate Jon Husted, even if you hate Vivek Ramaswamy, you’re gonna go out, you’re gonna vote.”

… Hell of a closing argument.

• Trump goaded the crowd into booing Kaitlan Collins: “She’s such an unhappy person. She never smiles. She’s a very unhappy person.”

• “A great Republican strategist, a great person, a killer. When she’s angry at you, it’s a very terrible situation, Laura Loomer. Thank you. She’s great.”

… Every Democrat is asked in interviews about Abdul El-Sayed’s ties to podcaster Hasan Piker, but nobody ever asks Republicans about Trump’s “great strategist” and advisor Laura Loomer.

… Former Rep. Marge Greene posted:

• “Trump finally publicly told everyone that Loomer is a Republican strategist. Also, she has been one of his closest advisers. And look at the absolute SHIT SHOW his presidency has become with all time lowest approval ratings and the GOP on the verge of a midterm blood bath. That’s what Trump and Republicans get for listening to two time congressional candidate LOSER, Laura Loomer!

• They are going to lose BIGLY. Trump and the GOP deserve it for making their bed with her insanity and betraying their campaign promises and voters. When Democrats sweep the midterms and impeach Trump, Loomer will be one of the top ‘Great Republican Strategist’ to blame! LOL!!”

… Katie Rogers, NYT reporter from the WH print pool, at Trump’s rally in OH: “People began streaming out from an upper deck and seats along the side of the auditorium once the speech hit the 45-minute mark. Around that point, the president read the poem ‘The Snake’ and dedicated it to the town of Springfield OH.”

… Natalie Harp traveled with Trump again to each rally and then returned to the WH with him late in the evening on Saturday. Video journalist Brendan Gutenschwager took this video of protesters outside one of Trump’s rallies:

… Politico: “Sen. Ted Cruz fired back at JD Vance for suggesting he’s already focused on a 2028 presidential bid, calling the VP ‘insecure’ while insisting he’s focused on the 2026 midterms. Cruz’s comments came in response to an interview with Vance in which the VP suggested Cruz was prematurely eyeing a WH run.”

… Cruz: “In my experience, people engage in political bomb-throwing when they’re feeling insecure. So he’s welcome to make whatever comments he likes. I’m going to keep focusing on the midterms and helping us win on Election Day in the next 30 days.”

… Vance: “It is really obvious to me that, at this very moment, Ted Cruz is running for president. At this moment, I’m not. I’m trying to help elect Republicans. That’s what I’m going to keep on doing.”

… Cruz said that people shouldn’t just assume that Vance will be the Republican nominee in 2028: “I’ll certainly be part of the discussion.”

… WaPo: “Democratic House members are writing bills to rein in a president’s emergency powers. Lawyers are strategizing about how to insulate DOJ from presidential influence. A House measure would block a president from unilaterally remodeling the WH. Ethicists are writing rules to prevent a future first family from self-dealing.

… Throughout Washington and beyond, Trump’s opponents are scrambling to ensure that after he leaves office, the changes he has imposed on the presidency, and the country, will fade with him. Whether they succeed could determine whether Trump’s aggressive exercise of executive powers will be limited to a finite stretch of US history or will instead become a model for every president to come.”

… Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said that Trump’s uses of presidential power can and must be reversed - but doing so will take decades: “We have a massive reconstruction task ahead of us. Fortunately, reconstruction has a great history in our country, and when it’s allowed to work, it has been a lot more successful than either authoritarianism or revolution.”

… We will have to go department by department, subject by subject, and public purpose by public purpose to determine what we salvage and what we re-create.”

… Democratic nominee for AL governor Doug Jones on MS NOW: “The entire AL Republican delegation voted against building a bridge in AL. Joe Biden got the money approved. They built the bridge. Now Trump wants to name it after himself and Republicans in the state legislature are making that a priority.”

… Jones’s Republican opponent Tommy Tuberville continued his obsession with trans people at Trump’s rally for him in AL: “Can you imagine if your kid would come home one day and says, ‘I’m taking these drugs. And I’m getting ready to have surgery because my teachers and my principal says I can.’”

… AG Todd Blanche on Fox: Q - “DOJ is planning to send 1,000 monitors to the polls. Sen. Tammy Baldwin says 'our democracy depends on people being able to have their voices heard, but that's at risk as Trump weighs sending in armed agents.' How do you answer her? Blanche: Senators should be saying 'thank God. Thank God we have a govt that's ready to show up.'“

… Kobeissi Letter: “US data center construction spending surged +73% year on year in August, to a record annualized rate of $85 billion. This follows a +65% YoY increase in June and marks the largest YoY increase since April 2025. Since the start of 2021, data center construction spending has soared +$76 billion, or +823%.

… Meanwhile, general office construction spending fell -10% YoY in Aug, to $46 billion, the 5th-lowest reading since Dec 2015. Since the start of 2023, construction spending on general offices has declined $25 billion, or -35%. As a result, the gap between data center and general office construction spending has surged to a record $39 billion.”

… A US Marine was arrested in Okinawa on suspicion of murdering and robbing a 39-year-old Japanese woman whose body was found in a hotel in Naha. Japanese media identified the suspect as 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Devin Ballard. PM Sanae Takaichi called the killing an ‘extremely brutal and heinous incident’ and said Japan lodged a strong protest with the US.”

… But Pete Hegseth wants to start shooting them up with testosterone now.

… Dave Grohl trolled Sen. Eric Schmitt’s humiliating performance questioning Jack Smith in a Senate hearing by wearing an Iowa Hawkeyes shirt during the Foo Fighters set in the Power to the People concert.