The Narativ | Know Sooner
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Trump sat with TIME at the White House on Monday and planned for a defeat. Asked whether he would pardon members of his administration before his term ends, he said yes, and pointed at Biden's pardon of Fauci as his license. Asked whether he will ramp up the bombing of Iran after the midterms, he gave one word: "Possible." Asked about Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett, he said he regrets putting them on the Supreme Court: "They voted against me too often." TIME published the transcript this morning. Overnight, two US officials told the AP that Marco Rubio ordered Iran's foreign minister and his delegation out of New York on Monday; Iran says it left on a schedule it filed with the State Department on Sept. 17, and the department has said nothing on the record. On Tuesday Jack Smith told the Senate under oath that Trump committed crimes. On Thursday Trump is talking about pardons for the people around him. Which of his aides does he think will need one?
Pete Hegseth handed Elon Musk a co-lead of Project Meridian on Wednesday, a 120-day Pentagon study of how America fights next, with Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and Newt Gingrich. Musk sells the Pentagon its tools: SpaceX took $6.45 billion in two Space Force awards in four days in May, and Pentagon staff can now use his Grok chatbot on their own AI portal. On Tuesday he sat beside Trump at the White House AI lunch. At Quantico Hegseth also said he fired 10 percent of the generals and admirals and cut another 10 percent of their posts, and named none of them. The names are public anyway. Who went, and what did Trump tell those same generals a year ago?
Trump campaigns today at a truck factory in Denton, Texas, then a rally in Durant, Oklahoma — 350 miles from the nearest competitive House seat, the Center for Politics says. Alabama Friday, Ohio Saturday, Nebraska Monday: a "32-day campaign blitz" through deep-red states. American Research Group and AP-NORC both put his approval on the economy at 26 percent, the AP's a new low. Quinnipiac has 65 percent disapproving on it. Republican Senate candidates in Iowa, Ohio and Michigan want the Iran war over. Who in those states will stand beside him on stage?
Mark Zuckerberg circulated the draft of the AI pledge Trump released on Tuesday, Semafor reports, after a word with Speaker Mike Johnson at last week's state dinner for Xi. Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Google and Nvidia signed the "White House Accord on Super Intelligence." It is voluntary. Trump named no one to police it. The FTC opened a probe of OpenAI and Anthropic the same week. What did Meta promise to do?
Ron Wyden says the FBI holds a record of its interview with a banker tied to Jeffrey Epstein, one Justice left out of the files Congress ordered released. His letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel names no banker and no bank. Which bank, and why omit this one?
Tennessee gave Christa Pike both doses of pentobarbital Wednesday night and she kept breathing. An ambulance took her away. Governor Bill Lee ordered an outside review and called off December's execution. How long did the state keep going?
Trump is preparing for a loss. He told TIME he would pardon his own people before he leaves office and that heavier bombing of Iran after the midterms is "Possible." He is spending the 33 days to Nov. 3 in Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio and Nebraska because 26 percent of the country approves of how he runs the economy and those are the states that will still have him. And Hegseth has cut the generals by a fifth while handing a satellite contractor, a drone maker and a former speaker the job of mapping how America will fight. Trump regrets the judges he picked because they voted against him. He has told us what comes after the vote. Voters decide on Nov. 3 only who is left to say no.
FiveStack LIVE — 3 PM ET
FiveStack LIVE, Tuesday: Jack Smith swears Trump committed crimes, and the GOP brings the Easter Bunny.
https://www.narativ.org/p/fivestack-live-smith-swears-trump-committed
LIVE: Jack Smith testifies to the Senate.
https://www.narativ.org/p/live-jack-smith-testifies
The day after Trump told TIME he would pardon his aides, Jack Smith told the Senate under oath what he found.
