Good morning. I’m Thom Hartmann. A quick ask: take a few seconds to click that ❤️ and hit restack. That’s the best way to get these stories in front of the people who really need them.
A Republican senator wants the Senate to investigate whether Donald Trump’s eldest son is cashing in on his father’s presidency after a Russian billionaire with ties to Vladimir Putin helped pay for his lavish wedding. An ugly midterm map has forced Republicans to burn through their war chest on defending red states thanks to Trump’s historically low approval ratings. A House Republican lawmaker is now privately admitting his party will get “crushed” in November, and the only question now is by how much. And a new investigation reveals that Trump’s FBI quietly killed a bribery investigation into a Republican senator whose own reelection race could decide which party controls the Senate for the next two years.
But first, independent media needs your help now more than ever. David Ellison — the son of billionaire Trump donor David Ellison — is now about to own CNN, HBO, and a whole host of media properties after turning CBS into MAGA propaganda. This is on top of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta throttling Raw America’s content on Facebook and Instagram and Elon Musk’s X preventing our content from reaching our followers. A small handful of right-wing oligarchs wants to control what you get to know. Raw America will never take their money, but we can only survive with reader support. If you believe in media that refuses to bow down to billionaires or allow a corporate parent to censor coverage, make today the day you subscribe to Raw America. 22 cents a day is all it takes to keep us in the fight.
Today, Republican Senator John Curtis of Utah sent a letter asking the Senate Judiciary Committee to subpoena records on Donald Trump Jr.’s business dealings, his foreign relationships and every gift he’s received due to his last name.
ProPublica broke the story last week. Umar Kremlev, a man with verified ties to Vladimir Putin, helped pay for a private island rental and a fireworks display for Trump Jr.’s wedding to Bettina Anderson in the Bahamas back in May. Bettina called Kremlev a “dear friend” who threw them two nights of parties after her wedding.
The president didn’t personally attend his son’s wedding, but he did defend Kremlev’s involvement, insisting the money would eventually get paid back.
Curtis is suspicious about the arrangement. Last Friday he referred to the deal as “corruption.” And his letter also mentioned Hunter Biden — who Raw America interviewed last month — arguing there shouldn’t be one standard for a Republican president’s family and a different one for the son of a Democratic president.
That’s a valid criticism, considering how much time Republicans spent combing through Hunter Biden’s finances over the last several years. Curtis wrote in his letter that the GOP nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Biden’s family and shouldn’t unplug it now just because Trump is involved.
Curtis came into the Senate in 2024, replacing Mitt Romney after he retired. He vowed to be unafraid to break with Trump, and now he’s following through on that promise. It’s also one more sign that cracks are starting to show inside the GOP, especially as gas prices keep climbing and the president’s war with Iran drags on into its seventh month.
Republicans are now having to spend enormous sums of money to prevent losing on their own turf ahead of the midterms. That apparently even includes states Trump won by double digits just two years ago.
Since August, Republicans have dedicated more than $110 million in ad money to Republican-held House districts that were never supposed to be competitive. In the Senate, GOP leaders are scrambling to incumbent Senator Jon Husted of Ohio as diesel prices threaten to hit $7 a gallon and punishing tariffs squeeze consumers and farmers alike. Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance are expected to campaign there before Election Day.
Even rural states in the heartland like Iowa and Kansas are among Republicans’ worries. And Republicans are now appearing to back down in Georgia and even North Carolina, as Democrats appear poised to hold one and flip the other.
One senior GOP official observed the Senate map is hilariously big for Democrats right now. Nearly two-thirds of House ad spending in the last six weeks has been for races with Republican incumbents, according to data from AdImpact. That includes nearly $18 million defending Republican Congressman Max Miller of Ohio — who is defending his seat amid domestic violence allegations — and almost $15 million in a South Texas district that used to be safe Republican territory.
This is all happening while two Republican Senate candidates — Ashley Hinson in Iowa and Mike Rogers in Michigan — are publicly breaking with the White House by called for an immediate end to the Iran war due to persistently high gas prices. Internal GOP polling obtained by Politico shows Trump’s approval rating is underwater in several reliably red states, and a poll of Iowa voters conducted last week found a Democrat leading in a state Trump won by more than 13 points in 2024.
Republicans still have a significant financial advantage overall, and they’re hoping their gerrymandered maps from earlier this year will give them an edge in several House races. But campaign war chests can only go so far when voters are being confronted with sky-high gas prices on every street corner. One Michigan Republican confided to Politico they’re getting “hammered” on that issue in every state.
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The current national average price for a gallon of gas sits just under $4.50 a gallon. Last week, GOP leaders got into a shouting match behind closed doors over how to address it, and the meeting ended with no plan. The vice president even traveled to Kansas of all places to campaign for Republicans, which shows just how nervous the party has gotten even in deep red territory.
One anonymous House Republican described this midterm election cycle as a gasoline and ground beef election, given that a pound of ground beef is now close to $9 at most grocery stores and a gallon of diesel is approaching $7. That lawmaker added that Republicans are being “screwed” by the cost of living. Another GOP member of Congress told MS NOW that any Republican who isn’t worried right now is being “stupid.”
The polls show how dire the situation is for Republicans. A recent NBC News poll found Democrats have a five-point lead on the generic congressional ballot this November, while the latest Fox News poll showed a seven-point Democratic lead. And instead of staying in Washington to address the affordability crisis, House Republicans skipped town two weeks early. House Speaker Mike Johnson said it was to allow members to campaign in their home districts. But several other members said GOP leaders wants to stop the bleeding before things get even worse for them.
Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana also unleashed on his own party, criticizing the GOP for working on a college sports bill instead of addressing the high cost of basic necessities like food and fuel. Kennedy said nobody back home is asking about the status of legislation on name, image and likeness deals for college athletes, but why it costs to much to fill up their fridge and their car.
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska blamed Trump’s war with Iran on the rising costs of fuel and fertilizer. She also pointed out that she has yet to hear anyone in the White House plainly acknowledge how the war is impacting prices.
A bombshell report from ProPublica reveals that former President Joe Biden’s FBI was quietly conducting a major bribery investigation against Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, until Trump’s Justice Department shut it down.
The allegations involve defense contractor called Navatek. According to ProPublica, the head of Collins’ super PAC asked the company in 2019 to spend $500,000 to help re-elect Collins in 2020. That ask came right after Collins had helped Navatek score a massive Navy contract in Maine. Then-Navatek CEO Martin Kao apparently set up a shell company to funnel $150,000 to Collins’ super PAC in order to circumvent laws banning federal contractors from contributing to congressional campaigns. Two months later, Kao bragged to company executives that Collins arranged for Navatek to get another $32 million in additional contracts.
Prosecutors would call that bribery. Collins is adamantly denying any wrongdoing, and her office told the outlet that the matter was already resolved back in 2021 when the campaign returned Kao’s illegal contributions.
But the outlet reported that the FBI had built up enough evidence by the end of 2024 to launch an even broader bribery and corruption probe that may have led to investigations of additional lawmakers. That even includes a steak dinner the late Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had with Kao. That investigation got sidelined once Trump took office and gutted the Department of Justice, firing FBI agents who had worked on Trump-related cases.
This is all happening while Collins is trying to get reelected in a state Democrats won in 2024, and this story is almost certain to play a role when Maine voters cast their ballots in November. The FBI insists that its earlier review found nothing that directly implicated Collins, but the broader congressional bribery probe remains closed, and the public still has no idea how many lawmakers were engaging in potential pay-for-play schemes.
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I’m Thom Hartmann. Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting independent media. If you haven’t yet, take a moment to tap the ❤️ and restack this newsletter so we can break through and reach the people who need these stories the most.
Here are some stories you may have missed:
More Republicans are publicly breaking with President Donald Trump over his war with Iran, as an increasingly large majority of Americans register their disapproval. According to a new SSRS poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. isn’t winning the war and Trump isn’t doing enough to end the conflict. Only 29 percent of American adults approve of how Trump has handled the Iran war. Republican U.S. Senate candidates Ashley Hinson in Iowa and Mike Rogers in Michigan are now demanding Trump end the war as they run increasingly uphill campaigns against their Democratic opponents.Republicans Distance Themselves from Trump’s War.South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson officially endorsed Democratic nominee Terrence Davis in the November election, over GOP nominee Heather Baxter. Johnson was heavily criticized by MAGA activists in South Dakota for acknowledging that Joe Biden was the winner of the 2020 election, and rejected the GOP’s calls for switching from machine-counting of ballots to hand counting (the latter of which is prone to error and can take multiple days). Davis said in a public statement that he was “deeply grateful for Johnson’s endorsement despite them coming from “different political parties.”South Dakota Republican Official Endorses Democrat to Replace Her.Just days after Donald Trump announced he was banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from covering the White House, the White House’s official YouTube account launched a 24/7 streaming initiative dubbed “Trump TV.” The stream describes its content as “top videos, major remarks, and must-see highlights streaming 24/7 and updated in real time,” where viewers can “watch the Trump Administration’s biggest moments all in one place.” California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed the project as “literally state-run TV.”White House Launches ‘Trump TV’ After Banning Media Outlets.