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Donald Trump’s super PAC is sitting on more than $400 million while Republicans wonder if he plans to spend any of it to help them in the midterms. Texas Republicans are locked in an intense game of chicken with Trump with each waiting on the other to spend money to help Ken Paxton’s floundering campaign. Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine showed visible symptoms of the tremor condition she covered up for decades during a lengthy new interview, all while dodging questions about whether she’s still capable of doing her job. And a Missouri Republican candidate is now facing federal charges after allegedly trying to plant cocaine on his own political opponent.
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Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC is currently sitting on more than $400 million. Early voting in key midterm races is about to kick off in several states. And Republicans are increasingly worried that the president has no plans to help stop a Democratic wave.
For months, Trump’s team assured party leaders they would get an infusion of cash before Labor Day. But now, people close to the talks are saying Trump may intend to keep most of it.
Nobody around the president seems to know exactly how he plans to spend the money. Some think he wants to protect his influence over the 2028 presidential primary by giving it to his handpicked successor. Others think he coud be holding onto it to fund legal costs, post-presidency travel or dedicating it to legacy projects like his presidential library in Miami, which is already projected to cost more than $1 billion.
Others are proposing Trump and his team expect the donor spigot is dry up in the event a Democratic Congress renders him to be little more than a veto pen, so he wants to hold onto what he’s already raised while he can.
Whatever Trump has planned for his super PAC cash, Republicans are becoming increasingly nervous about their midterm chances. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told local reporters in his home state of South Dakota that there’s a real possibility Democrats sweep back into power in both chambers of Congress.
Meanwhile, The MAGA Inc. super PAC’s first midterm ads of the cycle dropped this week. And instead of attacking Democrats, they’re featuring glowing footage of the president hyping his record. In one of the ads, UFC CEO Dana White is seen praising Trump on egg prices and an extension of Trump’s tax cuts that were geared toward the rich. One Republican consultant mocked the strategy, pointing out that Trump’s is historically unpopular with approval rating is stuck in the mid-30s.
Democrats are cautious about celebrating before the votes are counted. They fully expect both Trump and Elon Musk’s super PACs to eventually flood the airwaves this fall. Musk’s America PAC has already started running ads aimed at helping Republicans in marquee Senate races in states like Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire and Texas.
For now, though, there’s $400 million of money that Republicans could really use sitting untouched in a bank account, all while Democrats are preparing for a blue wave.
That's the world the Supreme Court built when it ruled in Citizens United that corporations and billionaires could pour unlimited money into our elections. Four hundred million dollars sitting untouched in one man's super PAC is exactly the kind of unaccountable power that ruling unleashed on the rest of us.
That uncertainty over money is currently playing out in Texas, which was considered a safe Republican stronghold up until this year.
Attorney General Ken Paxton cruised to victory in the Republican Senate primary over longtime incumbent Senator John Cornyn thanks to Trump’s endorsement. But Paxton has since been significantly out-raised by Democratic state representative James Talarico, and Republicans are reportedly fuming at Trump for so far refusing to step in.
Senate Republicans are effectively in a game of chicken with the president. They notably left Texas out of their midterm ad spending plans in a gambit to force Trump’s hand in covering the gap. Republican Senator John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana recently went on Fox News to call out Trump for sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars, and challenged him to spend a big chunk of it in Texas.
John Thune has also done the same, making it clear to Trump that his money will decide whether Republicans even have a chance of holding onto the Senate in November.
Whenever Paxton is asked about the race, he doesn’t waste any time pointing out that he’s way behind in fundraising. Trump has promised to help and that he’ll campaign for Paxton in Texas, but he has yet to commit to any actual dollar amount.
While Republicans fight over money, GOP infighting has intensified. Congressman Troy Nehls suggested Cornyn of quietly hoping Paxton loses so he can say he was right about him being a poor general election candidate. Cornyn is denied that accusation, but he’s also notably said Paxton is a lazy campaigner who’s bad at raising money.
Conservative commentator Erick Erickson has also gone out of his way to attack Paxton’s character, prompting a direct rebuke from Fox primetime host Laura Ingraham. Erickson then accused Ingraham of hypocrisy, reminding his audience that Fox personalities like Ingraham and others were caught in private communications disclosed in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit making fun of Trump’s stolen election claims.
Paxton’s polling isn’t looking good for Republicans. Multiple recent surveys show him losing independents to Talarico by a significant margin, including by more than 40 points in some cases. Nearly 60 percent registered voters told one pollster that they believe Paxton lacks the character to serve in the Senate.
Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat to a statewide office in more than three decades, so Republicans still view the Lone Star State as safe territory regardless of money issues. But with the clock steadily ticking down to November, Texas Republicans don’t seem especially confident that Trump is going to swoop in and fix everything.
Texas Republicans have seen this kind of intraparty knife fight before. Back in 1948 a mysteriously discovered ballot box handed Lyndon Johnson his Senate nomination by just eighty seven votes, and the state's political machine shrugged it off because winning mattered more than how you won it. That same old instinct is what's keeping real money out of Ken Paxton's campaign right now.
Senator Susan Collins finally disclosed back in May that she has a what’s known as a benign essential tremor, which she says she’s actually had during her entire Senate career. She argues that while the condition is inconvenient, it doesn’t impact her ability to be a senator.
That condition — which causes uncontrollable tremors in her hands, face and voice — was on full display this week during a lengthy sit-down with Politico at a lobster shack in Maine. Cameras caught Collins shaking as she ate chowder and drank from a glass. She notably didn’t try to crack open the lobster in front of her.
Doctors say Collins’ benign essential tumor isn’t a symptom of cognitive decline, and that it’s different from debilitating conditions like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. However, medical experts caution that the shaking in patients with a benign essential tumor are known to get gradually worse over time.
During the interview, Collins was asked about public concerns over the how many members of Congress are in their seventies and eighties. The Maine Republican pinned the blame on former President Joe Biden, telling Politico that he was primarily responsible for so many voters becoming worried about gerontocracy (defined as rule by the elderly).
Colins also left the door wide open to running again in six years, when she’d be 79 years old, despite having promised during her 1996 campaign that she’d only serve two terms in the Senate.
The septuagenarian is running against Democrat Troy Jackson, a 58-year-old logger and former president of the Maine Senate. Most political forecasters say the race is a toss-up, though some are giving Jackson the edge. Collins has agreed to four debates against Jackson, while the Democrat says he prefers a town-hall debate format where regular attendees, rather than moderators, ask candidates direct questions.
Woodrow Wilson's aides hid his stroke from the American people for months while his wife quietly ran the basic functions of the presidency in his place. It took decades and a constitutional amendment just to catch up with that kind of concealment, and we still haven't figured out how to be honest with voters about the health of the people holding power over their lives.
Thomas Ross, a Republican candidate for the Missouri House of Representatives who narrowly won his primary for by just 32 votes, is now facing federal charges for conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance.
Court documents reveal that Ross allegedly asked his campaign manager to plant a mixture of cocaine and Adderall on his GOP opponent, Louise Secker. Federal agents say the campaign manager went behind Ross’ back, bringing a black nylon glove to the Joplin Police Department, informing officers that Ross gave it to him. The glove contained a bag of white powder that tested positive for cocaine. Investigators believe Ross mixed the cocaine with a capsule from his own Adderall prescription.
The FBI later equipped Ross’ former campaign manager equipped with a recording device. During a meeting at Ross’ home, the campaign manager was reportedly recorded telling Ross he still had “the bag and addies” if Ross wanted him to go through with the plan. Ross greenlit the scheme, and the two allegedly discussed calling in an anonymous tip to law enforcement claiming Secker had drugs in her car. When asked directly if that’s what he wanted done, Ross affirmed that if it could be done, that his campaign manager should execute the plan.
Ross is now being held in the Joplin City jail while he awaits his transfer to federal custody. Missouri Republicans are now calling on him to withdraw from the race. No hearing date in Ross’ case has been scheduled as of this writing.
Congress passed the Federal Corrupt Practices Act back in the 1920s because lawmakers understood that a democracy doesn't survive if campaigns get to win by any means necessary. A candidate accused of trying to frame his own opponent with drugs is a pretty stark reminder of why laws like that had to exist in the first place.
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Here are some stories you may have missed:
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