Trump promised every adult American $5,000 Wednesday night if Republicans win in November — "I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000," from the stage of the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. By breakfast Vance, on Fox with Bret Baier, would not repeat the number or total it; he called it "fundamentally a dividend for American workers" and said tariffs would pay. Congress has voted none of the money and would have to. Republicans were criticizing the promise to Politico inside twelve hours; Axios called it a familiar one. Then Trump told the room to "pretend I'm on the ballot." He is buying a midterm he cannot run in, with money the country does not have, and his own vice president won't say the number. At 8:10 this morning he added, on tape, that gas prices stay high until after the election. We did the sum — $5,000 times every adult, against a two-trillion-dollar deficit. Trump has 54 days to convince anyone the check is coming.
Denver sued this morning to keep armed ICE agents away from its polling places. Todd Blanche's Justice Department has sued 30 states and Washington for their voter files, the Brennan Center counts, and Trump's Homeland Security secretary said agents could turn up at polling places "if we're serving a warrant." Nobody needs a law to suppress a vote; an armed agent at the polls does it. Karen Brownfield wrote to us at 5:24 this morning: "The Hispanic people I know are afraid to register. I told them I would take them and protect them, and they said no way." The Latino vote is bigger than the margin in all seven swing states. Other swing cities now have a suit to copy.
Brent crossed $105 this morning after the Houthis seized the Red Sea port of Mocha; Hormuz traffic is in single digits. Trump holds energy investments that gain millions as the price climbs, CNBC found, and told voters Wednesday the war ends "immediately" after the midterms. His advisers are planning for it to last through his term, the Wall Street Journal reports. This morning he said it on tape: gas stays high until after the election. He set the war's end to his own election date, and holds the oil that rises until then.
Jimmy Kimmel pulled his interview with James Talarico, the Democrat running against Ken Paxton for the Texas Senate seat, off ABC and put it on YouTube — after what Kimmel described as threats from the FCC. Anyone with a phone can still watch it. Brendan Carr's FCC now decides which Senate candidates reach network television. Paxton's opponent reached it through the side door.
Victoria Drake says in federal court that Trump's envoy Paolo Zampolli drugged and raped her in his Manhattan basement in October 2023. Zampolli hasn't answered Wednesday's summons. Epstein wrote of him in 2011: "Be careful. He is trouble. Lots." Narativ published at 1:40 a.m. No other outlet among the sixteen we checked has.
Apple priced its new folding iPhone Duo at $1,999 Wednesday, on sale October 23. Zillow puts the typical American rent at $1,948 a month. When the phone costs more than the roof, America has become unaffordable.
Trump is out of time and out of runway, so he reached for the oldest trick in politics: buy the vote. The $5,000 says two things in one sentence. His efforts to rig this election before the polls open have not worked, but he’s still desperate enough to run an operation to suppress Latino voters. The Latino vote is one example. In every swing state, it is bigger than his margin, and Denver is now asking a federal court to rule that armed agents at the polls are exactly what the law forbids. Fifty-four days.
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