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With Trump, for every election there’s been a villain.
In 2018, it was the migrant caravan heading for the southern border. In 2020, riots, “defund the police,” and urban unrest were central to Trump’s closing argument. In 2022, Republicans leaned heavily into crime and trans issues. In 2024, campus protests gave Trump another ready-made symbol of a left gone off the rails.
So what’s the 2026 version?
So far, it’s hard to tell.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is defending a resurfaced video of himself discussing Sydney Sweeney’s breasts on a podcast with his wife. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is posting workout videos. JD Vance is fielding questions about the End Times while explaining that he’s too busy to give them much thought.
Maybe this is the distraction. Maybe we’re all just swimming in the same flooded zone. Or maybe, eight weeks before the election, with views of ICE worsening, the bond market flashing warning signs, and the cost of living still grinding away at voters, Team Trump is still looking for a villain who doesn’t work in the Oval Office.
In today’s newsletter: Another piece of the Kennedy Center comes down. Two Democrats rescue the GOP Agenda. After 9 months at sea, 5,000 sailors hit Thailand. USPS’s ballot bottleneck. Massachusetts sticks with the old guard. Trump’s $1 coin comes at a premium. Americans agree the government is corrupt. Florida pulls back from Flock’s surveillance cameras. And in News That Doesn’t Suck: a Renaissance murder mystery meets modern DNA testing.
Torn Down: The Kennedy Center quietly removedJoel Shapiro’siconic and beloved24-foot sculpture, “Blue” from its grounds. Shapiro, who died last year,described itas a “celebration of possibility.” The Kennedy Center’s former curator for visual arts, who was pushed out last year, said “Blue” was “targeted early on” after Trump’s takeover. A foundation dedicated to Shapiro will relocate it. “First they came for the facade” of the Center, alocal activist group protested, “now they come for the grounds.” The Trump administration hasthreatened to demolish the Center entirelyif Trump’s proposed alterations are blocked.Stay These Couriers: Afederal whistleblower warnedthe USPS’s “secretive, rushed, chaotic” development of a new system to verify mail-in ballots could result in “millions of American voters” not receiving their ballot for the coming midterms. The new system iscalled the Federal Ballot Mail Portal. It allows the USPS to compare ballots to voter information before mailing them, a newrole for the Postal Service. According to the whistleblower report,which was publishedby Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), post office workers would test samples of ballot envelopes submitted by states to check they are valid. Here’s the key hitch: The policy reportedly requires a zero percent failure rate. That means if just one ballot from a batch of, say, 10,000 fails — because a voter moved or the system glitches or some other reason — the entire batch could be rejected and sent back to the state for reprocessing. The whistleblower says USPS only began building the system in June, leaving months for a process that shouldtake much longerand quotes one official calling it a “shit show.” The report says the USPS kept working on the system despitecourt orders mandating it stop. The USPSsays it complied. For now, the court order halting Trump’s executive order remains in place. USPS cankeep building the portal, but cannot require states to use it or reject ballots. The portal is still offline just days before the first mail-in ballots are due to be mailed.
Putting the “Me” in Team: House Democratic leadership is fuming after two centrist members, Reps. Jared Golden and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez,broke ranks and voted for a GOP rule. [A “rule” is a procedural vote that sets the terms for debating a group of bills in the House. This sounds technical but it matters because the majority party (currently the GOP) uses these votes to decide which bills reach the floor and how they’re debated. Members of the minority Party (Democrats) almost never help the other party pass one.] Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez’s votes rescued the measure after several Republicans opposed it, allowingthe GOP’s agendato move forward. Democrats will now be forced to vote on a set of mainly GOP bills. That includes a resolution denouncing socialism and endorsing the SAVE America Act, whichDemocrats believe is designedto put them on the defensive before the midterms. The incident exposed the Democratic leadership’s apparent limited sway with its own members. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosisaid that in her time“we didn’t even consider that anybody would do that.” Democrats areconsidering taking action against the two defectors.Get to High Ground: The remnants of Tropical Storm Edouard dumpedtorrential rainin parts of southeast Texas, triggeringlife-threatening flash floods. Some areas received30 inches of rainin 24-hours, while winds reached 60mph. Tens of thousandslost powerandcrews carried out multiple rescues. Edouard was thethird tropical storm to make landfall on the Gulf Coastthis year.A Break at Last: The USS Abraham Lincoln hasdocked in Thailand, ending arecord-breaking deploymentthat stretched almost 9 months. Its 5,000-strong crew isdescending on Pattayafor a much-needed break before heading home. U.S. service members have a long history there: An influx of U.S. troops during the Vietnam War transformed Pattaya from a sleepy fishing village into a global tourist destination known for its red light districts. The USS Abraham Lincoln’s crew is barred from entering those areas, as well as the city’s many cannabis shops and sea sports facilities. “It is their decision,”the mayor said. “The US military have done their homework.”
Uncritical Mass: Massachusetts Democrats, unlike their counterparts in several high-profile races elsewhere, are sticking with the old guard. Three incumbent Democrats, all above the age of 70,won their primaries against younger opponentswho called for generational change. Sen. Ed Markey easily fended off Rep. Seth Moulton byrunning to his left. Reps. Richard Neal and Stephen F. Lynch each defeated progressive challengers,though by closer margins than their previous races.Illegal Tender: The U.S. Mintofficially launched a gold-colored $1 coinfeaturing Trump’s face, despite a federal law thatbans living presidents from appearing on US currency. Each coin, which is actually made from a mixture of four cheaper metals,costs about $2.44if you buy 25, or $1.55 if you shell out for 100.Finally, Bipartisan Consensus: 89% of US adults say corruption is widespread in the U.S. government,according to a new Gallup poll. That’s 10% higher than last year and the highest percentage in the two decades Gallup has tracked this issue.
Drill, Baby, Drill: Oil giant Chevron announced it willinvest $7 billion in its operations in Venezuelato double its oil production over five years. This is separate from Trump’scontroversial deal with Venezuelagiving the U.S. significant control over oil fields withone-fifth of the country’s vast reserves. Trump haspushed U.S. oil companies to move into Venezuelafor months, but so far only Chevron, the one U.S. oil company with a meaningful preexisting presence there, made a big new commitment. In January,Exxon Mobil’s CEO saidVenezuela was “uninvestible,” and a spokesperson said this week “nothing has changed.” Meanwhile, the national average for gasremained above $4 per gallon every day in Augustfor the first time ever.Can Has Been Kicked: The House passed a short-term funding bill thataverts a government shutdownandkeeps the government fundedat roughly current levels until December 11. Negotiations over the full-year budget remain deadlocked, with Democrats rejecting Trump’s unprecedented military budget and cuts to domestic programs.
Flock Off: Two days ago we flagged the growing backlash against Flock’s license-plate surveillance cameras. Now, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has moved to restrict them statewide. DeSantisblocked automated license plate readers(ALPRs), including the AI-powered cameras made by Flock Safety, from being installed along state roadways. Hisorder cited“recent exponential increase in deployments along our roadways, coupled with concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes,” and gave local police departments 30 days to remove the cameras. Since the order,more than two dozenof the state’s 67 counties said they’ll remove their ALPR cameras. The order does not cover cameras installed on private property. DeSantissaid the cameras were spreading“out of control” andhe doesn’t want Floridato “become a surveillance state.” There’s a twist: DeSantis previouslyapproved millions of dollars in requests from local law enforcement agenciesfor ALPRs used for immigration enforcement. His reversal comes asopposition to the technologygrows across party lines. Flockargues the escalating backlashagainst its technology is driven by misinformation about how cameras work. Decide for yourself by catching up on our piece from Mondayhere.
Love in the Time of Malaria: For nearly 440 years, historians have wondered whether one of Renaissance Italy’s most powerful couples died of malaria or murder. DNA testing may have finallysolved the mystery. The year was 1587, and the Medici family, a dynasty of bankers whose patronagefunded the Renaissance, were near theheight of their power in Florence. Grand Duke Francesco de Medici and his mistress-turned wife, Bianca Cappello, fell violently ill aftervisiting the family’scountryside villa. The Grand Duke died after days of fever. Bianca died the next day. Doctorsblamed malaria, a com…
