Today in Politics, Bulletin 472. 10/2/26

… Trump’s economy continues to fail miserably for most Americans except for the uber-rich and people in the AI industry, as more bad economic numbers were reported today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

… CNBC: “The US economy created far fewer jobs than expected in Sept, pointing to a surprising soft spot in the labor market and broader economy. Nonfarm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 29,000 for the month while the unemployment rate increased to 4.2%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for job growth of 84,000 and an unemployment rate of 4.1%.

… In addition to the weakness in Sept, the August jobs count was revised lower to reflect a gain of 133,000 while July switched from a gain to a loss as payrolls fell by 10,000. The revisions in total showed 60,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.”

… From CNN live when the numbers were announced: “It came in cold - surprisingly cold. Job growth weaker than expected, unemployment unexpectedly went up, and paychecks aren’t keeping up with prices. This was disappointing all around.”

… CNBC: “A bit of a disappointment. Expecting 90,000, comes in at 29,000. And we see two month revisions down 60,000. Average hourly earnings down - this is a big miss. Big, big miss. We were expecting up three tenth. This comes in at one tenth.”

… WH economic advisor Kevin Hassett performed his usual role of going on Fox Business to lie about the new numbers. Except this time it wasn’t to Maria Bartiromo who was recently fired:

• Q - “Are you disappointed that you only got 29,000 jobs added to the economy? Hassett: Not disappointed even a little bit, and you knew I was going to say that.”

… I think we all knew. He’s basically admitting that he lies for a living. Regardless of how bad numbers are, he will always say they’re great. Ha, ha.

• “People are seeing the strong labor market and they’re saying, ‘Oh! I need to get back to the labor force because I’m going to make so much money.’ That’s one reason the unemployment rate just ticked in a different direction.”

… So his spin is that more people suddenly want jobs who didn’t want to work before because the economy is great and everyone is making tons of money and that’s why the numbers show more people looking for work than last month. Right.

• Q - “Mortgage rates are now well above 7%. Why is that happening? Hassett: “When the economy is growing really high, then longer-term interest rates can sometimes go up not because of inflation, but because, like, all these businesses have a high demand for capital because they’re building factories.”

… Former Trump economic advisor Stephen Moore was on CNN trying to spin the inflation numbers: Q - “We had much much higher inflation under Biden. Host: Let me stop you. Has inflation gone up or down since Trump took office? Moore: Well, it was about 3.2% when Biden left office, it’s 3.4% now. Host: So it’s gone up. Moore: That is true.”

… NYT: “When Sean Howarth started his independent trucking business last year, he made sure to reserve one week a month for his family - a girlfriend and her two children - at home in Miami between 3 weeks on the road. Then came the war in Iran, which sent the price of diesel fuel skyrocketing and turned a fill-up into an $1,000-a-tank ordeal.

… For now, the only way to make ends meet, Howarth said, is to get on the road and stay there. He has not been home since mid-Aug. He sleeps in his truck and has missed birthdays, volleyball games and date nights salsa dancing at a local club. He does not plan to return home until the holidays unless diesel prices fall sharply. ‘I am just trying to hang on,’ he said.

… Diesel prices are averaging $6.39 a gallon nationally, up from $3.71 a year ago. The high cost of fuel is battering owner-operator truck drivers, who help deliver food, construction materials, medical supplies, electronics and other goods across the country.

… Independent truckers, already dealing with stagnant freight rates, rising expenses, and wafer-thin profit margins, are doing all they can to stay afloat. Some have turned to crowdfunding to raise money for gas and maintenance. Others have simply parked their rigs as they hope for a reprieve.”

… Lewie Pugh, VP of the 135,000 member Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn: “This is crushing to our industry. When fuel goes up a dollar a gallon at the pump, that’s another $400 per week that they have to spend. That’s a huge, huge hit to a small business trucker.”

… Exit polls showed 75% of truckers voted for Trump in 2024.

… Semafor: “Overseas visitors to the US are on track to drop by almost two million year-on-year, with even the FIFA Men’s World Cup failing to arrest the decline in tourism. The slide is hurting the US economy, and is partly self-inflicted. There has been a significant drop in visitors from US allies like Canada and several European countries, which have been a target of Washington’s trade war and taunts.

… Meanwhile, China is attracting more visitors with its visa-free entry policies, and Japan’s weak currency is drawing in a record number of tourists. ‘We’re the only major country in the world losing visitation,’ the head of the US Travel Assn said. ‘It’s mind-boggling.’”

… NYT: “US and Allies Agree to Release Diesel Reserves as Prices Soar. The Group of 7, which includes Britain, France and Japan, announced the release of 100 million barrels over 4 months, effective immediately.”

… Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: “Under Trump’s leadership, the US is delivering on its commitments to help stabilize global energy markets. Our European partners should accelerate delivery on their existing commitments and make additional supplies immediately available to address ongoing disruptions.

… American farmers, truckers, and businesses should not be left carrying the burden of a global diesel shortage. America is doing its part. We look to our allies to match their commitments with action.”

… After drawing down our strategic reserve to record low levels, other countries with large reserves are now doing it too under relentless pressure from the Trump admin.

… NYT: “AI’s role in the overall U.S. economy is harder to quantify, but it is substantial. Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said that AI accounted for a hefty chunk of the US economy’s growth this year. The latest govt report says real GDP grew at an annual rate of 2.3% in Q2. Zandi estimated that 0.6-0.7% of that - or perhaps 30% of the economy’s inflation-adjusted growth this year - came from the AI boom, directly or indirectly.

… But this may be a precarious economic foundation. Concerns about the dangers of the technology have mounted, after reports that rogue AI agents hadn’t merely escaped their confines but also appeared to hide their tracks. Trump has denounced such concerns as a ‘hoax.’ The president worries that if the AI boom falters, the stock market could crash and a recession could quickly follow.

… AI has driven stock prices so high that it has formed a giant market ‘bubble’ that is likely to burst - perhaps not quite yet, but before the end of next year. In the meantime, rising bond yields and energy prices are testing the resilience of world stock markets.”

… USA Today: “Trump’s approval rating hit a new career low in AP-NORC polling, with less than one-third of surveyed Americans approving of his job performance in the WH. The poll found Trump’s approval rating at 31%, the lowest the president has seen in either of his two terms. Trump’s performance in the poll also marks a 2% drop compared to the last AP-NORC poll in July.

… Trump’s previous career low of 32% was recorded in two separate AP-NORC polls between late Sept and early December 2017, during his first term in the WH. The president’s record low approval rating comes as only 26% of Americans said they approved of his handling of the economy.”

… WaPo: “House Democrats’ campaign arm announced Friday that it added 8 additional districts to the party’s ‘Districts in Play’ list, expanding the battleground map deep into Republican territory as the party grows increasingly confident that November’s elections could bring upset wins.”

… That means the candidates in these races will get additional funding from the national Democratic PACs and campaign committees. These are the districts:

KS-02: Trump +20
MI-01: Trump +21
NC-13: Trump +17
NJ-02: Trump +13
OK-05: Trump +18
TX-09: Trump +20
VA-06: Trump +24
WA-05: Trump +11

… The Atlantic: “As Democrats have grown more hopeful that they might win control of the US Senate, congressional investigators have gathered regularly in a conference room in the office of Sen. Maggie Hassan. The team in recent months has assembled a list of people in Trump’s orbit and admin whose actions are worthy of a probe, and they have brainstormed possible witnesses, drafted information requests, and gamed out how the admin might respond.

… Across the Hill, Rep. Robert Garcia, who could soon chair the House Oversight Committee, has been preparing even longer. He said he keeps a ‘running list of the most corrupt things that the Trump family has done’ on a whiteboard in his home in Long Beach where senior staffers this week wrapped up several days of strategy meetings. ‘There’s a lot of ideas and possible investigations on there,’ he said.

… With the midterms just weeks away, an army of committee staffers has been quietly preparing to launch numerous investigations in the new year. When the 120th congressional session begins in January, Trump and his admin could suddenly find themselves under the type of scrutiny they have thus far avoided.”

… Axios: “The Democrats’ main Senate super PAC is turning an explosive ProPublica investigation into Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) into a 30-second, $3.4 million attack campaign in one of the closest Senate races of the midterms. The big buy from Senate Majority PAC suggests Democrats think they can turn a complicated investigation into a simple message attacking Collins’ willingness to put Maine first.

… It also suggests they don’t think the allegations in the ProPublica story have broken through with Maine voters. In a sea of positive developments for Senate Democrats this cycle, ME remains a stubborn outlier. Collins led Democrat Troy Jackson 49% to 46% in a mid-Sept NYT/Siena poll.

… In the campaign’s final weeks, Republicans have reserved $34 million of air time in ME, compared to $24 million for the Democrats. The new ad comes as Senate Majority PAC is pleading with its top donors for more money to help it compete on an expanding map.”

… Semafor: “Senate Republicans’ top super PAC is making a tactical change, pausing its ad campaign in NC’s Senate race and launching a new one in KS. Senate Leadership Fund is plowing 7 figures into KS to help incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall against Democrat Adam Hamilton.

… After spending more than $30 million in NC’s Senate race, the super PAC is putting further spending there on hold. A Trump-aligned group also has no further spending on the books past this week either. The move to shore up Marshall and put NC on the back burner reflects a shifting Senate battleground map – and Republican Michael Whatley’s struggles in NC against former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.”

… Punchbowl reported the national Republicans also just pulled their ads in the GA senate race between Sen. Jon Ossoff and Rep. Mike Collins. They are essentially giving up on NC and GA so they can shore up places that they never thought would be close just two months ago. Conceding senate races in GA and NC a month out. Amazing.

We have lifted the paywall on all our content, including these Bulletins, until election day because we want as many people as possible to access info during this crucial period. A special thank you to all the paid subscribers who support our work and make it possible.

I’m off tomorrow and reports are this is going to be one of the most amazing fall foliage seasons in New England in 25 years. We aren’t at peak yet in southern Maine, but they are further north. We have a great road trip planned along rivers and lakes into NW Maine then crossing into northern NH and heading back down through the White Mountains. Should get some amazing pics, but they never compare to seeing it in person.

This is my front yard today. Tomorrow I get to do it all over again.

I will be back with the next Bulletin on Sunday night to recap the entire weekend. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.

… Bloomberg: “Democrats Narrow Fundraising Gap with $833 Million Haul. The Democratic fundraising organization ActBlue raised $833 million for the party’s candidates and causes in Q3, a record amount that will help narrow the financial advantage the GOP enjoys with big donors in what is projected to be the most expensive election in US history.”

… “The total - which includes money raised for federal, state and local candidates as well as Democratic and progressive political and advocacy groups - surpassed the previous midterm record of $586 million in Q2.”

… The Hill: “Senate Republicans say Trump has become increasingly toxic with independent voters critical to winning Senate races in battlegrounds such as NC, OH, IA and AK. Some GOP senators are warning Trump to stay away from key Senate races, cautioning that his presence would likely turn off independent voters.”

… Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): “40% of our electorate is unaffiliated. You can’t win with just a pure MAGA base.”

… “Trump is planning to stump in several Senate battleground states before the election, including OH, IA, NE, AK, TX and FL. But some Republican senators think that Trump’s visit could backfire on candidates such as John Husted in OH or IA’s GOP Senate candidate Rep. Ashley Hinson, who has recently stepped up her criticism of the Iran war and its impact on gas and food prices.”

… Politico: “Last year, a super PAC supporting TX Senate hopeful Ken Paxton received a $250,000 donation from a man calling himself ‘Paul McLaren,’ a supposed ‘entrepreneur’ living in Plano, TX. But there is no ‘Paul McLaren’ residing in Plano, and the address listed on the campaign finance record is for a rented mailbox in a strip mall.

… The donor, it turns out, is a TX businessman whose father was a well-known construction executive who received a pardon from Trump years after he pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return. Ben Pogue, who said he and his wife made the $250,000 donation to support Paxton, said he chose the name because his middle name is ‘Paul’ and he owned a McLaren sports car about a decade ago.”

… Right. He didn’t explain why he used a rented mailbox.

… TX Democratic senate nominee James Talarico just released a devastating new ad: “Ken Paxton is lying about my record, even making fake AI videos of me. No, I’m not a member of the Chinese Communist Party. No, I don’t support sex change surgeries for kids. I don’t have to use AI because the truth about Ken Paxton is bad enough. He let a pedophile back on our streets. He was impeached by his own party for bribery. He increased his net worth by $27 million on a govt salary.”

… HuffPost: “When Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, they knew Democrats would hit them for cutting rich people’s taxes, but they never expected a provision titled ‘Full expensing for certain business property’ to blow up in their faces.

… Democrats have latched on to the policy as one of several tax breaks in the new law benefiting data centers, and they’re using it for brutal attack ads amid a public opinion nosedive for the projects.”

… Ad against Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI): “He took thousands from one of the biggest data center developers in America. Days later, he voted to give them $70 billion in tax breaks. Now, Wisconsin families are paying his tab twice: Once for his massive tax giveaway to data centers, then again with higher utility bills.”

… Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): “People see that there is a deep integration between these big, billion-dollar tech companies and the Trump admin, and they don’t like it. That’s why the last bill they’re doing is an attempt to change two years of this corruption story.”

… Politico: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) privately tore into Trump this summer in a pair of extraordinary text messages published on Friday, telling the president he does not take “bullshit” from anyone and saying he would have told the president to “fuck yourself” had Trump personally threatened him with a primary challenge. These were the messages:

• “As I have said before, you NEVER threatened me with a primary challenge. I get that you may have me confused with so many Republicans that you have threatened in the past, but NEVER me. If you had ever threatened me directly with a primary, I would have immediately told you to fuck yourself, and I would have announced my retirement immediately. Save those threats and head games for cowards and fools.”

• “I still want to help but I don’t take this bullshit from anyone, including you Mr. President. Save that shit for the cowards who don’t care if you fail. I care if you fail and right now we are failing.”

… Guardian: “By installing the tech billionaires Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey to advisory roles in a Pentagon project about the future of warfare, Pete Hegseth bestowed extraordinary influence on two of MAGA’s most significant campaign donors – and both men own companies that benefit from federal defense contracting.”

… “The new project, which Hegseth dubbed ‘Project Meridian’ in an event in Quantico, VA, will be led by Pentagon official Emil Michael, a former Uber executive. Michael made millions in profits off non-public Musk company AI stock while in federal office – and while guiding DOD’s AI efforts.”

… WSJ: “The top Democrats on the Senate and House foreign affairs committees urged the State Dept to review the conduct of Kimberly Guilfoyle, the US ambassador to Greece, for her efforts to promote gas deals with a Greek company across southeastern Europe.

… NH Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described concerns in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio about Guilfoyle’s ‘inappropriate uses of an official position,’ including her inclusion of a registered lobbyist in meetings with foreign officials and her promotion of one of the lobbyist’s Greek clients and its joint venture with a Greek state-backed company.”

… WH budget director Russ Vought speaking at the Hudson Institute: "We fund what we need to fund. I'm not at all shy about wanting to spend billions of dollars on a new shipyard. We're up there defending the $1.5 trillion that the Dept of War needs. But it's also coming at a ton of reduction on the non-defense side."

… Cutting health care, SNAP benefits and other programs to fund Trump and Hegseth’s war machine.

… Jared Kushner posted this today: “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, not to every allegation. But when the truth matters, I’ll put the facts and supporting info out publicly, and people can judge for themselves.”

… Washington Sun: “The Trump admin has classified its accounting of what happened to $300 million in military aid Congress provided for Taiwan, leaving lawmakers without a public answer about whether the money was ultimately committed after a Sept. 30 deadline.

… The classification obscures the admin’s handling of the Taiwan aid money just days after Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at the WH. Lawmakers in both parties have previously voiced concerns that Trump could use US security assistance for Taiwan - something the president has called ‘a very good negotiating chip’ - as leverage in talks with Beijing.

… Now the classification is constraining lawmakers and aides from speaking publicly about what happened to at least one part of that assistance. The money was not obligated by the deadline. Because the admin classified the status of the funding, it remains unclear whether officials preserved it through another mechanism or allowed it to expire on Wed.”

… Trump was asked outside the WH to weigh in on the Cornell University rape case: Q - “What do you think about NY's governor appointing a special prosecutor in the Cornell rape case, Letitia James. Trump: Letitia James is a corrupt person. I feel badly for whoever she's looking at.”

… An hour later, Trump posted this on Truth Social: “Why would the Governor of NY, Kathy Hochul, appoint a Corrupt Prosecutor, Letitia ‘Peekaboo’ James, to represent the State in the highly controversial Cornell University rape case?”

… ProPublica: “We have no business running a private school. We’re reporters, not teachers. That doesn’t matter. Inexperience has hardly been a barrier for those who want to start their own schools, as we have reported this year. And it didn’t stop us, either.

… Over the last few months, to test the process, reporters from ProPublica partnered with local journalists in 3 states to establish private schools. None required much effort. In AR, all it took was a few clicks on the AR secretary of state website, $45 and an American flag to form a bona fide private school with the Arkansas Times.

… We established a school with Mountain State Spotlight in WV after filing our new school’s name and location with authorities on a piece of notebook paper, then exchanging a few emails.

… We used our names and news organization email addresses, following each state’s rules for starting private or microschools, a type of private school intended for just a few students. Experience running a school wasn’t needed. No one from any of the states asked us about our backgrounds or qualifications, though WV did ask for proof of a high school diploma. No one questioned what we plan to teach or how we would measure whether students are learning.

… And yet we could enroll students in two states right now, if we wanted to. AR even suggested ways our school could accept public money through the state’s voucher-style program.”

… MS NOW: “Two people detained outside a Chicago-area immigration detention center last year are suing right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson for defamation, saying he falsely portrayed them as violent extremists who assaulted federal officers. IL residents Kyle Frankovich, a data scientist at Harvard, and Maureen Foody, a contract court reporter, filed the lawsuit in the US District Court.

… They said they were detained while protesting peacefully outside the Broadview detention center, but that Johnson knowingly framed them as criminals and ‘left-wing terrorists’ in videos he posted to millions of viewers.

… Johnson, a former writer for BuzzFeed who was fired for plagiarism, remade himself as a right-wing activist, creating content for Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA and then his own online video channels. He is one of several creators the second Trump admin has leaned on to promote its narratives and celebrate its agenda.

… In 2025, Johnson was invited to sit in a special ‘new media’ seat in the WH briefing room and brought on ride-alongs with DHS officials. He was part of a gaggle of influencers given special access to document ICE operations and anti-ICE protests, who parroted Trump admin claims that left-wing domestic terrorists were waging a nationwide campaign of violence against federal agents.

… The documentary-style videos Johnson posted to X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Rumble show the podcaster seemingly taunting the protestors as federal agents stood between them: ‘These are exactly the kind of people that we want to be pissing off. It’s your tears that keep us going!’

… In the next scene, Johnson shows around 10 detained protesters, including Frankovich and Foody, lined up along a guardrail outside the Broadview detention center, their hands bound by zip ties. He refers to them as ‘left-wing terrorists arrested for attacking police officers and ICE officers.’”

… The Atlantic: “Earlier this year, FBI Director Kash Patel vowed before God, Fox Nation, and Trump that he would punish the ‘deep state’ for its manifold transgressions, especially the (actually nonexistent) conspiracy to steal the 2020 election.”

… Patel in an interview with Maria Bartriromo: “I’ve been with the president nearly since day one on this. I can announce on your show that we’ve got all the information we need. We’re working with our prosecutors at DOJ under AG Todd Blanche, and we are going to be making arrests, and it’s coming, and I promise you, it’s coming soon.”

… “That was 5 months ago. Patel has not yet delivered on his promise. But in interviews with more than 40 current and former admin officials, FBI employees, and members of Congress and their staffers, as well as others close to the WH, it is not for lack of trying. They described Patel as desperate to help DOJ indict putative malefactors and stimulate headlines to please the president.

… In recent months, Patel has been briefed on the FBI’s ‘election integrity’ investigations in AZ, FL, NJ, OH, and beyond. Many of the election-related investigation requests came directly from the WH, many times with the instruction that ‘this is a big deal for the president’ or ‘this is a push from 47.’ But all of that attention hasn’t yielded results.

… In meetings, Patel has expressed frustration that there have been no new findings, and instructed staff to ‘look harder’ or ‘look again.’”

… Daily Beast: “Elon Musk’s longtime girlfriend and mother of 4 of his children has dramatically announced their breakup on X. Shivon Zilis’ lengthy post came after an account that tracks Musk’s X account flagged that the world’s richest man had unfollowed her—an act that appears to have been the final straw for Zilis.”

… From her post:

• “It’s hard to go from in love to let go in a week with no warning, but that’s just how it is sometimes 🤷🏻‍♀️. I feel happy that I got to show Elon how it feels to be deeply understood, nurtured, and peacefully loved with stability and gentleness. Given the tumultuous nature of his early life, his often tortured soul, and how hard he fights for humanity I wanted him to feel the deepest and most stable form of love this world can provide.

• We were always his safe space. A place where all of us were overjoyed to see him and one that was always full of happiness and love, not war, in contrast to his otherwise militant existence (a needed break from the battlefield where he could recharge his heart and soul before heading back out). I loved being that counterbalancing place of safety, sense of calm, and love - and delighted in bringing a smile back to his face when he was down. I will miss him dearly.

• I’m hurting, but care deeply about E and will always be cheering for his happiness. God speed, Elon, the world is lucky to have you.”

… Another right-wing weirdo love affair comes to an end. Oh well.

… DC photographer Joe Flood with an update on the Reflecting Pool: