Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
Trump’s beloved blonde aide once jumped into the trunk of a car rather than be left behind when his motorcade ran out of seats. Republican Rep. Randy Fine was caught on a Ring camera rifling through a stranger’s mailbox while canvassing for votes. The Trump administration plans to lock over 3,000 children in a new detention facility. And the Nevada ranchers who overwhelmingly voted for Trump are fighting with his Navy over lost grazing land.
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Most people who end up in the trunk of a car are trying to get out.
When Donald Trump’s motorcade left Trump Tower for a New York court appearance in October 2023, there was no room in any of the vehicles for Natalie Harp, his most devoted personal aide. So, after screaming at staffers in the lobby that Trump had “personally asked her to attend,” she climbed into the trunk.
Harp, a former One America News commentator, is in charge of passing the president messages, setting up his meetings, drafting his Truth Social posts, and carrying stacks of printed articles that praise him. Members of Congress have learned to copy her on correspondence because she’s one of the few people in the building who reliably responds.
The incident supports multiple reports of Harp’s dedication to the president. In Regime Change, their book on Trump’s second term, New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan quoted the president telling staffers: “All of you will go off and make money. She’ll never leave me.”
Randy Fine went through a voter’s mail and somehow that’s only the third most unhinged thing in this piece.
A Ring home security camera in Ormond Beach captured the Republican representative ringing a voter’s doorbell last Sunday, waiting, then lifting the lid of the mailbox so he could flip through the envelopes.
Fine confirmed the authenticity of the footage to TMZ, but insisted he did nothing wrong as he took nothing and destroyed nothing. The homeowner filed a police report but declined to press charges, meaning Fine will likely face no legal consequences.
As a stand-alone action, it may not be a big deal, but Fine likes to treat other people’s boundaries as open invitations. He sponsored Florida’s ban on teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom (the “Don’t Say Gay” law), and penned legislation to strip Disney of its tax district because it opposed that legislation. He sponsored legislation banning drag performances, which federal courts ruled violated the First Amendment, then said he was okay with “erasing” the LGBTQ+ community.
In October 2024, a judge held him in civil contempt after he spent over half an hour flipping off the camera, making “loser” signs, and mouthing “f*ck you” during a virtual court hearing over a ballot dispute. He was also ordered to complete eight hours of anger management classes.
Fine reportedly called the contempt hearing a “clown show,” which is at least half right.
The government’s pitch to contractors this week was, and this is a direct quote from officials, “We’re looking to see whatever you got.”
The Administration for Children and Families is seeking contractors for a new detention facility that will hold up to 3,000 migrant children who arrive without a parent or guardian.
The new facility would house eight children per room, all of whom would share one toilet, one shower, and one sink. Of the 3,000 beds planned, 300 must be reserved for quarantine.
Contractors must be ready to detain a minimum of 400 children within 30 days of signing. The government calls this “rapid site mobilization” with a “phased ramp-up.”
Meanwhile, roughly 20,000 immigrant children lost legal representation overnight when the government let its long-standing contract with the Acacia Center for Justice expire. A Texas firm with no apparent experience representing unaccompanied children was in line for $150 million before it withdrew.
The eventual no-bid contract, worth up to $244 million, went to Our Rescue, the group formerly known as Operation Underground Railroad whose founder resigned amid allegations of sexual abuse, forced labor, and trafficking.
Rural Nevada has voted Republican for decades, and a Republican Congress thanked them by giving the Navy their grazing land.
For decades, the Navy has wanted their land for the Fallon Range Training Complex, where TOPGUN pilots practice combat. In 2022, Congress finally gave it to them by burying the authorization in a 1,772-page defense bill that promised the Navy would make “full and complete payments” to grazing permit holders.
The ranchers hoped for a shared grazing schedule or a replacement allotment. The Navy did neither, instead opting to write them checks under the bill’s provision that mandates “the Secretary of the Navy shall make full and complete payments to Federal grazing permit holders for all losses suffered,” a directive based on the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act.
Last year the Navy fenced off about half of one family’s allotment without a deal in place, taking the section with the best grazing land and all the stock water wells they had built. A five-mile trip onto the remaining land became a hundred. The operation was no longer viable, so they sold two-thirds of their cattle.
The Navy’s offer for a century of lost grazing amounted to $14,000 a year, less than the family spends in a single month to keep the ranch running. Even the senator who wrote the deal, Jacky Rosen, says the Navy is “missing the mark.”
The ranchers say they still support the Navy, which is about as surprising as the fact that they’ll vote for the same people who did this to them.
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** GOP Rep. Cory Mills Loses His Florida Primary Amid Investigations.** Former television journalist Ryan Elijah defeated Republican Rep. Cory Mills in Florida’s 7th District primary Tuesday night. Mills had Trump’s endorsement but was dogged by a House Ethics Committee probe into sexual misconduct and campaign finance allegations, as well as a Justice Department investigation into his finances. Republican Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Mike Haridopolos had refused to endorse their colleague, citing character. Mills is the 11th House member to lose a primary this year and the second to lose with Trump’s blessing this month.
** Democratic Socialist Angie Nixon Scores an Upset in Florida’s Senate Primary.** Progressive state Rep. Angie Nixon beat former National Security Council aide Alex Vindman in the Florida Democratic Senate primary, setting up a general election against Republican Sen. Ashley Moody. Vindman, the retired lieutenant colonel who testified in Trump’s first impeachment, raised more than $16 million. Nixon brought in less than $1 million and won anyway. She ran on Medicare for All, universal child care, affordable housing, and an end to what she called senseless wars. Vindman said Nixon “ran a strong campaign” and pledged to stand by her against Moody.
** Gov. Josh Shapiro Restricts Data Center Development in Pennsylvania.** On Tuesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order mandating that data centers receive public approval before they can qualify for state permits. The order prohibits all data centers, including Amazon’s $20 billion Bucks and Luzerne County projects, from the state’s fast-track permitting process. It also prevents state agencies from executing nondisclosure agreements, and forces data center developers to secure their own power sources. Shapiro, who once championed the Amazon deal, said he was formally putting predatory developers “on notice.” A June Quinnipiac poll found 76% of Pennsylvania voters would oppose a data center in their community, and only 24% approved of Shapiro’s handling of the issue, which should explain the change of heart.
** San Diego County Will Stop Letting ICE Agents Train at Local Firing Ranges.** San Diego County supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday to end contracts allowing ICE and Customs and Border Protection to train at a county-owned range near the Mexican border and a leased Navy facility. Federal agents have logged more than 3,300 training hours at the center since 2024. Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe said the county did not want to be “complicit” in harm to communities, while CBP head Rodney Scott called the move “unprecedented.” Sheriff Kelly Martinez said she told ICE it no longer has access but is letting CBP continue, setting up a showdown among elected officials. As board chair Terra Lawson-Remer put it, if the administration wants to spend billions on deportations, it can use its own resources to do it.