PopInfo Weekly: Max Miller, Mitch McConnell, and medical misinformation
Congressman Max Miller (R-OH) is facing serious allegations of domestic abuse. Several companies, including Elevance, Altria, Pfizer, John Deere, and TD Bank, sent donations to Miller that were received after the Daily Mail published its report. Dozens of other corporations, including AT&T, Kroger, DraftKings, Nike, and Walmart, are maintaining their financial support for Miller’s campaign.
Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, pledged not to be involved in a second Trump administration, instead claiming that he would be focusing on his private equity company. But Kushner has been involved in nearly every consequential foreign policy negotiation since Trump returned to office. These negotiations are not going well. The Strait of Hormuz is closed, the Russia-Ukraine war has intensified, and Israel is rejecting U.S. leadership in Gaza.
Polymarket has touted its prediction market as a “global truth machine.” Yet official Polymarket accounts on X have repeatedly spread brazen misinformation. Most recently, a Polymarket account posted a false graphic claiming babies in the U.S. receive 72 vaccine injections.
Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been absent from the Senate for two months after suffering a fall in June. McConnell is still being paid his $174,000 Senate salary while out sick. This is a luxury many Americans don’t have, in part because of McConnell. Popular Information identified at least 23 times since the start of his Senate career that McConnell has voted against creating or expanding medical leave, paid or unpaid.
The best of the rest
A Texas Tribune analysis of federal government data found that at least 60 children have been held by the Trump administration “in the Dilley detention center for 100 days or more — far exceeding the 20-day limit for detaining immigrant children.” (Texas Tribune)
General Dynamics was paid $533 million in taxpayer money for an artillery factory that never produced one usable shell. Despite this, “the Army has not held General Dynamics or a key Turkish subcontractor… publicly accountable for the failures. Nor has it made General Dynamics pay a penny back.” (ProPublica)
House Democrats opened an insider trading investigation this week after the CEO of Energy Fuels bought 74,000 shares of his own company just a week before the Trump administration drastically shrank Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument. The change will be a boon to Energy Fuels, which owns the last conventional uranium processing site in the U.S. Previously, the mill was just a mile from the monument border, meaning much of its surroundings were closed to mining. Now, there are over 1 million acres of uranium-rich land ready to be mined nearby. (The Salt Lake Tribune/Grist)
The Trump administration has awarded a contract worth up to $244 million to Our Rescue to represent unaccompanied minor children. The company was founded by Tim Ballard, a former ICE agent who quit to join efforts to rescue children in sex trafficking rings. Ballard is currently facing two lawsuits accusing him of coercing sexual acts, sex trafficking, and forced labor. (The Washington Post)
Numerical information
Over $238 million: Trump Media & Technology Group’s net loss for its second quarter. The company had a revenue of less than $2 million.
$2.1 trillion: The projected fiscal 2026 federal deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This is $200 billion more than originally projected.
Up to $2.9 million: The amount that a judicial watchdog estimates Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has earned from his fossil fuel industry investments since being nominated to the Supreme Court in 2005.
Quote of the week
“Prices are dropping fast. Iran is going absolutely fine. We totally control the Strait of Hormuz… and things are going great for our country.”
In fact, the Consumer Price Index is up 3.4 percent compared to last year and the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed, with traffic through the strait near a three-month low.
Photo of the week
