MAGA Inc., President Trump’s super PAC, has spent nearly $2.5 million on ads attacking Democrats for making stock trades while in Congress and in some instances failing to disclose the trades on time. What the ads don’t mention is that Trump himself has traded more securities since returning to office than all members of Congress combined (and often reported them late). Trump’s trades since 2025 could be worth up to $2.87 billion.
Between September 5 and September 21, Elon Musk’s America PAC spent about $1 million on ads accusing Democratic candidates of supporting “taxpayer-funded sex change surgeries on kids.” The catch? None of these candidates have said they support taxpayer funding for such surgeries (which are extremely rare), and several explicitly oppose the proceedures.
On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) and 11 other state attorneys general settled a lawsuit to block Paramount, which is controlled by the Trump-supporting Ellison family, from acquiring Warner Bros. A real settlement would have included an agreement from Paramount to divest important assets. But the deal did not require any divestiture, or any meaningful concessions by Paramount.
This week, New York City announced a historic enforcement action against DoorDash for underpaying or delaying payments to workers. The company will pay $131.5 million, with over $115 million going to more than 260,000 workers who were underpaid. The city said it was “the largest worker settlement in New York City history and the largest settlement involving food delivery workers in the United States.”
The best of the rest
In 2020, the FBI launched an investigation into the relationship between the former CEO of a defense contractor and the staff of Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). “The senator’s office steered government contracts worth millions toward the company while her campaign was pumping [the CEO] and his network for donations,” ProPublica reported, citing emails it reviewed. But then Trump began his second term and purged the unit working on public corruption investigations. (ProPublica)
The Associated Press reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding thousands of detainees who are subject to final deportation orders,” making it harder for their families and lawyers to find them or to file additional legal challenges. (Associated Press)
Last year, when Trump administration housing chief Bill Pulte looked into the mortgages of prominent Trump opponents like New York Attorney General Letitia James, he also pulled mortgage records for Attorney General Todd Blanche. According to officials who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, Pulte investigated Blanche, who was the deputy AG at the time, in order to pressure him into more aggressively investigating Trump’s opponents. (Wall Street Journal)
In 2025, journalists were arrested 32 times and assaulted 170 times in the United States. This year, things are not looking better as journalists covering the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown have been assaulted by federal agents. Reporters who are immigrants themselves have been detained by ICE, and at least one has been deported. (The Guardian)
Numerical information
$6.50: The price of a gallon of diesel, an all-time record.
760,000: The number of people Vice President JD Vance announced that the Trump administration was removing from Affordable Care Act coverage, alleging fraud.
20%: According to a new report from the Urban Institute, one in five middle-income renters could not afford to pay their rent at some point in 2025. In 2024, that number was 14%.
Quote of the week
“I struggle to understand the mindset and the psychology of a person who makes billions of dollars in the greatest country in the history of the world and decides to use that money, not to maybe provide health care to people who need it…”
– Vice President JD Vance at a Tuesday press conference during which he announced the ACA removals.
Photo of the week
