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Welcome to the Saturday Wrapup, where I give you my thoughts on the week’s biggest news as I consume my caffeine with you.
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The advertisements have the same refund policy as Trump University.
This week, the White House confirmed that Trump would not be reimbursing the government for the millions of dollars in taxpayer money he used to produce TV ads promoting himself ahead of the midterm elections. As of Monday, at least $10.1 million had been spent on the television spots.
The ads feature Trump speaking at campaign rallies and attacking so-called “communists” and “Marxists.” In one, a chorus sings “love me” over footage of the president with the line “Paid for by the U.S. government” on screen.
Trump said on Truth Social he would no longer use taxpayer money for future commercials. Asked whether he would pay the government back for the ads he already ran, a White House aide said the post “was not referring to reimbursement.”
Trump said his super PAC, MAGA, Inc., will pay for future ads. That raises another legal issue, as federal law also prohibits a president from directing spending by an affiliated super PAC.
Trump has blamed “radical leftists” for the backlash, but a Reuters/Ipsos poll found 86 percent of Americans say the ads are inappropriate, including four in five Republican-leaning voters. Just 9 percent support using taxpayer dollars to fund them.
Stephen Miller saw Schindler’s List and took notes on the set design.
A government contractor told NPR this week that the Department of Homeland Security turned down a proposal to build immigration detention facilities that would have been more humane than the warehouse megaprisons the administration is currently using.
The contractor had proposed a FEMA-style camp at a meeting with the DHS deputy director, figuring it would be a better alternative to the warehouses. It was rejected immediately.
The contractor said the deputy director acknowledged that warehouses are terrible places to hold people, but the White House pushed back hard against anything better. The directive to build the toughest facilities possible came directly from White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
Miller reportedly did not want facilities that were comfortable and did not want facilities that were humane. The administration was adamant about moving forward regardless of the consequences.
Under Miller, ICE has kept people in phone booth-sized cages and denied them clean water and medical care until they died. So far this year, 28 people have died while in ICE custody, after 33 deaths in 2025, the most in two decades.
The phone has Trump’s name on the outside and China on the inside, just like his policies.
Senator Maggie Hassan this week sent a letter to Trump Mobile expressing concern that the company is providing international phone service without FCC approval, and putting thousands of customers’ personal data at risk of cybercriminals.
Trump Mobile advertises international calling to over 230 countries. FCC records show the company never bothered to seek authorization to offer those services. The authorization process requires companies to disclose foreign ownership so the FCC can assess national security risks, which means that disclosure has likely never been made either.
Trump Mobile also failed to submit a required robocall prevention plan and doesn’t appear to have a process for verifying customer identities. Hackers stole the personal data of 3,615 customers after a vendor left that data exposed on the internet, and when a ransomware group contacted Trump Mobile, the company reportedly told them it had no team to handle it.
Trump Mobile began taking preorders in June 2025, but the phone wasn’t shipped for almost a year. By the time it arrived, the price had risen from $499 to $749. It later turned out the device was a near perfect copy of the HTC U24 Pro, a Chinese phone that has been available since 2024.
Ken Paxton has the same work ethic on the job that he has at home.
Senate candidate Ken Paxton took nearly 1,000 out-of-state trips during his time as Texas attorney general, each with a taxpayer-funded security detail, a new report from ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found. Of those, only 138 were actually attached to any real work, and Paxton didn’t even bother to log the rest as business trips.
Paxton made 53 trips to Florida, 24 to Utah, where his family trust owns property, and 19 out of the country. The security detail cost taxpayers $3.3 million, or about $24,000 per month.
His office said the security was necessary because Paxton faces threats as a consequence of his work fighting cartels and dangerous criminals. That doesn’t explain why more than 850 of his trips had no documented connection to his job.
Paxton was indicted in 2015 on felony securities fraud charges and later impeached on charges of corruption and abuse of office, including allegations that he used his office to help a real estate developer who had hired Paxton’s affair partner. His wife, state senator Angela Paxton, filed for divorce last year after 38 years of marriage, claiming adultery.
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