LIVE COVERAGE
Whoosh And They're Gone
Well that was fun. In last week's welcome bit of comic relief, we got the vapid rise and rapid fall - despite requisite blonde hair, faux smile and passing resemblance to Ivanka - of "manifestly unqualified" Barbie News Reader and fake Chinese lawyer Katie Zacharia after a brutal debut. So much for MAGA meritocracy. SAD! Zacharia set a new speed record - half a Mooch - in a job akin to Spinal Tap drummer. But the question remains: When will the incompetent male dolts get fired?
While by far not the most substantive Trump blunder, it was one of the most cringeworthy, exposing (again) the profound ineptitude of his shambolic rule just before voters go to the polls to render judgment on it. In less than a week, Zacharia managed to get plucked from right-wing obscurity, be "shoehorned" into a job far beyond her skillset, humiliate herself before millions, go on Fox and stammeringly fail to redeem herself, and get fired by a capricious, perennial loser who got famous fake-firing people on TV and now daily exposes his own clownish unfitness for his job. One astute observer: "I'm starting to think this Donald guy might not have any idea what he's doing."
Born Kate Sharon Black in 1984, Zacharia grew up in California in the "liberal cesspool” of Cambria; she was the conservative “black sheep” of her family "thanks to the great, late Rush Limbaugh, who raised me as a kid on the radio." Describing a clash with woke patrons of her "cardio kickboxing gym," she said the owner once asked her not to wear her "Trump 2024" hat but "I would never take my Trump hat off to appease the left." A Pizzagate, Qanon and Stop the Steal buff, she was a "huge fan of ICE and Border Patrol" who briefly worked for Kristi Noem and a commentator for right-wing TV before being spotted by Trump, maybe because she scheduled her gigs when she thought he'd be watching. Totally normal.
Officials looking to replace Karoline Leavitt had reportedly narrowed down the list of candidates "only to find that (they'd) said something negative about (Trump)," which of course wouldn't do for the fragile toddler. Thus did uber-obsequious, ringlet-bottle-blonde "lizard person" Zacharia take to the podium, blare "Good morning!!" in a sing-songy screech, and stumble through a smiley, halting, inflection-challenged briefing about Trump's "historic one-day war," "attendance at record highs as enthusiastic hardworking Americans are lining up and packing arenas," a "booming economy....and a, um, he, great relationship...with Venezuela...um, and...my president, excuse me, my husband, that's a good one..." Not.
After the one question on Ukraine, and the famous, “I’ll have to get back to you on that,” it was over. 14 minutes, or forever in bimbo time. It got worse. The oft-repeated claims of being a lawyer when she’d failed the bar - weirdly, thanks Hannity - and of working in China on “international transaction law” when she was basically a paid intern. The verdict: "A train wreck," "a joke hire," "talk about a public execution," "between the 3rd-grade level reading and the fake attorney in China thing, brutal." Anti-DEI,.scandal-plagued Rick Santorum's glowing review: She was "not even close to the worst." Trump's lazy excuse: "I told her, 'If I were you, I'd reconsider.'" Fox: She's "transitioning" out of the job she held for 14 minutes.
It was a made-for-the-Internet spectacle. The White House declared, "She’ll be remembered as one of the all-time greats." America proclaimed, "She's gonna be a punchline for a very long time." Democratic strategist Mike Nellis clarified, "She wasn't fired because she lied,” a Trump requisite, but because "she was a bad liar." Another requisite: Michael Steele mused no more "blonde white female pronouncing his noise in a way that makes him feel good.” Some selfishly mourned the loss: "Please let her last long enough to hold a second briefing - I need the joy." Some empathized with SNL writers stuck with Friday night rewrites. Some were shocked: "I can't believe her husband, I mean president, fired her."
Though no press secretary really matters because Trump daily lies, veers, makes things up, some speculated on the next one: Scott Jennings, Katie Miller, Melissa McCarthy doing Sean Spicer. The Borowitz Report announced it's George Santos, who was "thrilled...I will bring to this job my experience not only as a lawyer but as a doctor and astronaut.” Also, he was cutting short his reunion tour "with his fellow Beatles." Some noted Zacharia "was press secretary longer than she was a lawyer." Others asserted they'd had blueberries, bananas, takeout and lettuce in their fridge longer than she had her job. Also that the U.K's Liz Truss lasted longer, as did the head of lettuce that often competed with her.
Some mulled Zacharia's future: "Next: memoir and book tour," "Now she can go back to studying for the bar, or at least its cocktail menu," "She is leaving 'to spend more time with my children, who will teach me how to read.'" A guy met her years ago on a cruise ship: She was telling a friend she'd partied the night before and slept in. They told her she'd missed them crossing the equator that morning. She said, "Oh, what did it look like?" Some waxed lyrical: "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of Our Lives." Some lamented inflation: "I remember when you could get a few months of work out of a press secretary. Now they're like those new batteries - they look like they'll last but whoosh and they're gone."
In honor of her historic reign, Wikipedia’s “List Of Humorous Units Of Measurement” was updated to include the “Zacharia,” a “fractional unit of a Scaramucci,” the previous record for Anthony Scaramucci's 11 days as press secretary in Trump's first term. The change prompted heated debate, pained mathematical equations, admiration: "Nobody thought anything could go faster than the speed of Mooch, but here we are." There were questions - Are Mooches a metric system? Would that be 45 centi-Mooches? - and answers: "They convert at a 5/11 ratio." Talk turned existential: "A Scaramucci was a measure of time. A Zacharia is more ethereal, a measure of being, a disconnect between one’s story and one's purpose...Beautiful really."
And there was anger Zacharia got fired but Trump's still here, that the media and GOP have let him "get away with LYING ABOUT EVERY GODDAMNED THING...from 2015 SPOUTING THAT OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE SHIT AND EVERY OTHER FUCKING LIE HE’S TOLD SINCE." And, in the last few months, that half of eight female officials have resigned or been fired, all replaced by men. That consistently inept, unhinged, corrupt, sick idiots like Hegseth, Patel, Lutnick, Goebbels, Vance etc lie, cheat, rave, royally screw up yet keep their jobs. What the fuck. Meanwhile Zacharia, still sketchy, posts altered photos from the Oval Office and declares the guy who threw her under the bus "kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic and hard-working...No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to." Damn, we hope not.

Clean Power Funding Surpasses Fossil Fuels, But Rich Nations Keep Bankrolling Dirty Energy: Report
For the first time on record, major international public financial institutions are providing more financing for clean energy around the world than for fossil fuels. But wealthy nations, including the United States, continue to pour billions into oil and gas, hampering the global energy transition, according to a new report.
On Wednesday, two environmental advocacy groups—Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth US—published an analysis of new data on public financing from Group of 20 (G20) nations and multilateral development banks for clean energy projects, such as wind and solar, and planet-warming fossil fuels, including oil, gas, and coal.
They found that from 2023-25, public financing for clean energy averaged at least $52.7 billion annually, compared with just $36.3 billion for fossil fuels. The report attributes the shift mostly to multilateral development banks, while G20 nations' own development and export financing continued to favor fossil fuels.
“This new dataset represents a tipping point. Clean energy financing overtaking fossil fuel financing for the first time is an important milestone," said Claire O'Manique, public finance researcher at Oil Change International. "But it doesn't mean we can sit back and count our wins.”
The level of clean energy financing, the group said, is still far below what is needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, a threshold beyond which the risks of devastating climate impacts increase.
That's largely thanks to four main culprits. Canada, Japan, the United States, and Italy accounted for around 75% of fossil fuel financing from G20 countries during this period.
Canada provided an annual average of $12.5 billion in fossil fuel financing—mostly for domestic projects. Japan averaged about $4.5 billion annually despite a G7 commitment to end public support for new international fossil fuel projects by 2022. Italy likewise averaged $3.8 billion annually, breaking a pledge to end international fossil fuel financing.
Over the same period, the US provided an annual average of about $3.6 billion in fossil fuel financing, mostly through its Export-Import Bank, compared with just $1.5 billion for clean energy.
The data from 2025, the first year of President Donald Trump's second term, is particularly striking. That year, the US provided nearly $8 billion in financing for fossil fuel projects compared with just $2.5 million for clean energy—roughly 3,200 times as much.
This included a loan of up to $4.7 billion for a liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique, despite allegations that soldiers guarding the project committed war crimes. British and Dutch backing has since been withdrawn from the project.
"Important progress is being made to move the world’s largest economies away from supporting fossil fuels and shift that financing toward renewable energy projects," said Kate DeAngelis, economic policy deputy director at Friends of the Earth US. "Unfortunately, laggards, including the United States and Japan, are continuing to prop up the fossil fuel industry instead of helping countries transition to sustainable economies.”
The report also found that less than 2% of the clean energy financing tracked reached low-income countries, despite their unmet energy needs. Meanwhile, nearly half of the funds went toward projects in the highest-income countries, according to World Bank classifications.
The five largest recipients of clean energy financing were all high- or middle-income countries: France, Poland, and Spain fall into the former category, while Brazil and India fall into the latter.
"A just transition will not happen at the scale required without governments actively steering it through redirecting and mobilizing public finance," O’Manique said. "Wealthy governments must move first and fastest to phase out fossil fuels at home and meet their climate finance obligations."
"We are running out of time," she said. "Without a fossil fuel phaseout and public finance being redirected to drive a just energy transition, we will continue to see escalating climate disasters that come at a huge human and economic cost, such as the deadly glacial flood disaster in Nepal.”
Inflation Hits Highest Level in Months as Costs From Trump's Illegal War Eat Workers' Paychecks
Data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday showed inflation grew faster than expected in September, driven in large part by costs related to President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran.
The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report showed overall prices in September posted a yearly increase of 3.7%, marking the biggest rise in prices since May.
The main drivers of inflation in September were related to energy, which has surged in cost since Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year in retaliation for Trump's unlawful attack in February.
Energy prices increased by an annual rate of 20% in September, with the price of gasoline growing by an annual rate of 34% and the price of fuel oil growing by an annual rate of 74%.
University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers noted in a Wednesday social media post that average wages are not keeping up with the rate of inflation, meaning workers have seen their purchasing power decrease.
"Real wages are falling," Wolfers wrote, "and have been falling for months."
Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and who served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under former President Joe Biden, said the September data showed that "working families are getting squeezed on both sides (wage, price) of the affordability crunch," as workers' inflation-adjusted earnings are now back to where they were at the start of Trump's second term.
Bernstein's observations were echoed by Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, who pointed out that "inflation has nearly wiped out all wage gains since January 2025."
"This is a very different picture from President Trump's first term when wages were up over 15%, well above about 8% inflation," Long added. "It helps explain the frustration many households feel right now with the economy."
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) said that accelerating inflation was yet another sign of Republicans' governing failures.
"Trump and Republicans have no answer for rising inflation caused by soaring gas prices and the war in Iran," Kim wrote. "They're more focused on enriching Trump and his friends and family. This is why we're fighting to take back Congress so we can end the war and bring prices down for you and your family."
Alex Jacquez, senior vice president of policy, advocacy, and research at Groundwork Collaborative, said the CPI report shows why "Americans have lost faith in Trump’s economy."
"The president has repeatedly made promises he can’t keep," Jacquez said, "and despite the band-aid attempts from the White House, there is a gaping hole in our economy just weeks from the midterms. Between the president’s war in Iran and reckless tariffs, his economy is on life support."
'My Name Is Abdul': El-Sayed Confronts Trump's Racist, Anti-Muslim Attacks Head-On in New Ad
In his latest campaign ad released late Monday, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic US Senate candidate in Michigan, struck a resilient and matter-of-fact tone that suggested the recent racist attacks on him, his Arabic name, and his Muslim faith are no secret—but he has no plans to try to hide his identity to appease Republicans and Democrats who have claimed he's an "extremist" or accused him of terrorist ties.
"My name is Abdul," said El-Sayed in the 30-second ad. "It means servant. I pray every day. I reflect on my role in this life, on this Earth—how we leave it better than we found it."
He continued by linking his own faith traditions to those of millions of Michiganders who also "pray"—many of whom, he suggested, "feel hopeless" in President Donald Trump's America, as they face rising costs and struggle to afford groceries, healthcare, childcare, and other essentials.
As a man of faith, I pray every day. Faith is a thing there’s just too little of in Washington. https://t.co/1OUOb51AC8
— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) October 19, 2026
The ad, subtly connecting El-Sayed's Muslim faith to people of all belief systems across Michigan, comes as Trump and others ramp up Islamophobic attacks on the progressive former public health official, with two weeks to go until Election Day.
The president explicitly, baselessly slandered El-Sayed as "a jihadist" at one recent rally, mocking his name as he told the crowd that El-Sayed "is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood." The Republican Senate candidate in Michigan, former Rep. Mike Rogers, has also attempted to tie El-Sayed to the political movement that was founded in Egypt in 1928.
On Monday, as El-Sayed's ad was released, Trump took aim at the candidate's name once again, calling him by his middle name, Mohamed.
"He knows my name is Abdul," El-Sayed said of the president earlier this month. "He says it every day. But he’s not just attacking me. He’s attacking all of us. He thinks so low of us. He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us at the pump, at the grocery store, and at the doctor’s office. He thinks we don’t know any better. It’s time for change."
The Republican claims regarding El-Sayed's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood made their way into an exchange the candidate had with a town hall attendee identified as "Tommy" in Caro, Michigan over the weekend, where Tommy demanded that El-Sayed "disavow" the group.
“Sure. Yeah, absolutely,” El-Sayed said, before challenging Tommy to explain why he was asking a Muslim candidate to do so.
This is Tommy. Tommy had a question about my allegiances. Listen to the end to hear about his. https://t.co/p09eMtsh0x
— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) October 18, 2026
Anti-Muslim attacks have come from both sides of the aisle since El-Sayed began his campaign, with Democratic strategists spending months fixating on his decision to campaign with popular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and tying the candidate to Piker's earlier remarks about September 11 and Israel.
On Monday, former Michigan Democratic Party chair Lon Johnson accused El-Sayed of "extremism" and said his rhetoric threatens Jewish communities, calling on Democrats in the state to "leave the Senate race blank" to represent "a rejection of ideological absolutism." El-Sayed is a strong supporter of Palestinian rights and, like a majority of Americans, is deeply critical of US support for Israel as it continues its assault on Gaza and the West Bank.
In the ad released Monday, El-Sayed suggested that "faith" like his could bring positive change to Washington, DC, where political leaders have long claimed that big changes to systems in the US—such as its for-profit healthcare system, which El-Sayed strongly believes must be replaced by Medicare for All—would be impossible to make.
"Faith is a thing that there's just too little of in Washington," he said. "We don't have faith in our future. We don't have faith that we can actually fix things."
Mussab Ali, a former school board official in Jersey City, New Jersey, said the ad took "courage" to release.
"I think this might be the first time in American history you’ve seen a Muslim candidate demonstrate a part of their prayer in an ad like this," said Ali. "In response to attacks about his faith, Abdul doubles down on who he is."
Mahmoud Khalil Asks Supreme Court to Weigh In On Fights Against 'Unlawful Attempts to Detain and Deport People'
Attorneys representing former Columbia University student organizer Mahmoud Khalil on Monday asked the US Supreme Court to hear a challenge to an appellate ruling that overturned a judge's determination that his 2025 detention by federal immigration officials was unconstitutional.
Khalil, a legal US permanent resident who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in March 2025 and detained on claims that his activism was "adverse to the foreign policy interests of the United States."
US District Judge Michael Farbiarz, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, freed Khalil from ICE custody, arguing that his detention was unwarranted since he was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community.
However, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals overruled Farbiarz's decision on the grounds that federal courts did not have jurisdiction to rule on immigration cases.
In making his appeal to the Supreme Court to hear his case, Khalil said the outcome would determine "whether I, and all immigrants in this country, can actually challenge this administration’s unlawful attempts to detain and deport people solely in retaliation for their First Amendment protected speech."
Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents Khalil, argued that the appeals court's decision was in error because federal courts should always have jurisdiction over cases involving core rights such as habeas corpus petitions.
"Our most fundamental constitutional principles have always prevented the president from sending people into detention on a whim or out of spite," said Azmy. "Access to the critical protections of habeas corpus is an essential check on the kind of arbitrary detention here, which the administration wants free rein to accomplish, by punishing Mr. Khalil for nothing other than constitutionally protected speech."
Alina Das, director of the New York University Immigrant Rights Clinic, which is also representing the former student, said the Trump administration's detention of Khalil violated his core constitutional rights, while also chilling the speech of both US citizens and noncitizens who "fear retaliation against themselves or their loved one."
"The Supreme Court must uphold the power of habeas courts to free people from retaliatory detention," said Das, "and prevent the weaponization of the immigration system to punish dissent."
Israeli Strike Burns Gaza Mother Alive in Front of Toddler, 'Without Generating Any Headlines'
A Palestinian toddler watched, screaming in horror, as her mother was burned alive in an Israeli airstrike on their Gaza City home early Wednesday that left the wounded girl orphaned—and received almost no coverage in US corporate media.
Reem Asaad Awad was killed when an Israeli helicopter attacked her family's apartment in the Rimal neighborhood at approximately 3:48 am local time Wednesday, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported.
Trapped inside the burning apartment was Awad's daughter, Maryam Ahmed Ghanem, whose age has been reported as between 2 and 4 years old. Prominent Palestinian author Mosab Abu Toha said family friends confirmed the child was born in February 2024.
Palestinian journalist Ali al-Jaafrawi witnessed and recorded the immediate aftermath of the strike.
"There are children are screaming alive inside," al-Jaafrawi is heard saying as he approached the building.
"I went up to the apartment. There were flames everywhere," al-Jaafrawi told Al Jazeera. "I went in despite the fire and smoke and heard a little girl screaming inside. I went in, found her, and rescued her immediately. I carried her and handed her to people so they could take her to hospital."
"I went back to rescue others and to document what happened, but I suffocated and lost consciousness because of the thick smoke," he added. "I saw a woman on fire inside the apartment."
Photos and video recordings show Ghanem being treated for injuries, including burns, at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which is struggling to operate after much of the facility was destroyed or damaged by Israeli forces, who besieged and raided the complex multiple times since October 2023.
Abu Toha, who saw Ghanem in the hospital, said the child "kept repeating the same heartbreaking words: 'I want my mum. My body hurts. There was a lot of fire.'"
Ghanem—whose father, Ahmad Ghanem, was reportedly killed by Israeli forces early in their genocidal assault—has joined the ranks of the more than 56,000 Gaza children who have lost at least one of their parents in the war, according to the United Nations Children's Fund.
"Reem and Ahmad had waited four years to conceive Maryam," Abu Toha wrote. "Four years of waiting and hoping to bring a child into this world. Ahmad never lived to see his daughter’s face. Reem lived long enough to watch her little girl grow for two-and-a-half years before she was burned alive in front of her. Now Maryam is an orphan, fighting to survive her horrific burns."
Ghanem's grandfather told Middle East Eye that the child and her mother "did nothing wrong."
"They were sleeping quietly at night," he said. "There was no one in the apartment except the two of them."
Israel said it is investigating the strike, which it claimed—without providing evidence—targeted a member of Hamas.
Dismissing a nominal yearlong ceasefire during which at least 1,500 Palestinians have been killed and over 5,000 others wounded by Israeli attacks, the grandfather said that "honestly, there is no security."
"I fear for my family," he added. "All people are afraid, not just me. There is still assassination, war, hunger, poverty, and destruction... Nothing has changed."
The horrific footage of the strike's fiery aftermath evoked imagery from earlier in Israel's onslaught, including video of a 7-year-old girl trying to escape an inferno caused by bombing that killed dozens of Palestinians—among them her mother and siblings—and a teenager photographed burning alive after Israeli forces bombed a tent encampment.
Some observers noted the almost complete absence of US media reporting on the story, with the apparent exception of CBS News, which published video of the burning apartment in a Facebook Reel.
"This little girl watched her mother be burned alive in Gaza. If she was Israeli, this image would be front-page news. But Israel can kill Palestinians in the most horrific ways without generating any headlines," US historian, author, and political analyst Assal Rad said on social media.
"Video has been circulating all day; you can hear the little girl cry and see her engulfed in smoke," Rad said in a separate post. "I can’t find headlines in Western media *because* the story is horrific. They want you to forget."
The Washington, DC-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a statement calling on members of Congress "to condemn Israel for burning a Palestinian mother alive while her daughter watched in Gaza."
“The horrific video of a little girl surrounded by fire as her mother burns to death in their home exemplifies the reality of Israel’s genocide in Gaza," CAIR said. "We cannot comprehend how any political leader with a conscience could continue to fund the sheer cruelty of the Israeli government and the war criminals who carry out its orders."
"Members of Congress must condemn this atrocity and demand an immediate end to all US support for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza," the group added.
The US has provided Israel with tens of billions of dollars in armed aid, as well as diplomatic cover, including repeated vetoes of a series of United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolutions, throughout the three-year annihilation of Gaza, which has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead or wounded.
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, weighed in on the attack on Bluesky.
"I have reached the limits of my ability to put words to pure evil," he wrote. "Once again, Israel burned another family in Gaza alive. But the image of the... daughter in the family watching the rest of her family die in the flames will haunt me for the rest of my life."
"But," Parsi added, "will it haunt Israel?"
'I'd Like to Report a Theft': Sanders Mocks Corrupt Trump's Anti-Fraud Tipline
"A man inside our government illegally spent nearly $22 million in taxpayer dollars on bogus campaign ads praising himself," Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote. "He now resides on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."
US President Donald Trump, widely considered the most corrupt president in American history, announced a $25 million initiative on Tuesday designed to reward tipsters who report people defrauding the federal government.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) responded sardonically to the announcement, writing on social media, "I'd like to report a theft." Referencing the administration's illegal use of federal funds for pro-Trump propaganda, Sanders added: "A man inside our government illegally spent nearly $22 million in taxpayer dollars on bogus campaign ads praising himself. He now resides on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."
"Taxpayers want to know when they’ll get their money back," the senator wrote.
Trump's new Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program will be administered by the Justice Department and will offer up to $30,000 in taxpayer-funded rewards for tips that result in criminal charges. People can submit reports through a dedicated government website.
The president, who has profited massively from his second White House term and freely handed out pardons to convicted fraudsters, told reporters on Tuesday that he would "be the arbitrator" of who gets rewards under the new program. The first cash gift went to far-right YouTuber Nick Shirley, creator of a viral video on Minnesota childcare facilities that the Trump administration seized upon as a pretext to cut off funding to states.
"There's never been an incentive for anyone to ever expose fraud," Shirley said, falsely, at the White House on Tuesday.
Naomi Seligman, president of the advocacy group Whistleblower Aid, said in a statement that her organization "would of course applaud any legitimate program that supports lawful whistleblowing."
"However, President Trump has been overtly hostile to public interest whistleblowers who have bravely exposed fraud and corruption within his administrations," said Seligman. "If the president is truly interested in rooting out wrongdoing, Whistleblower Aid invites him to start by examining the violations perpetrated by his own administration, including senior officials. We would happily work with him on this vital accountability effort to help save our democracy."
Trump announced the new initiative on the same day that The New York Times published a story examining the case of Julio Herrera Velutini, a billionaire Venezuelan banker who "faced felony bribery charges in the United States and struck an unusually lenient plea deal in August 2025 for a misdemeanor campaign finance violation."
"But he felt that reduced charge was still a stain on his record," the Times noted, so he instructed his lawyer—a former member of Trump's personal legal team—to push the White House for a clemency agreement. Additionally, Herrera's daughter, an American citizen, made a $3.5 million donation to a pro-Trump super PAC.
"Then the Herrera family hired Alina Habba, who had been one of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers and at the time was an adviser at the Justice Department. They offered her $10 million a year for four years along with a range of bonuses," the Times reported. "Under the agreement, Ms. Habba would become general counsel at Concord Partners, a company that Ms. Herrera set up in late October 2025 in Florida... She formally began her work for Concord Partners on January 1. Weeks later, Mr. Trump granted Mr. Herrera a full and unconditional pardon."
"Someone should send this to the new Trump fraud tipline," quipped Bulwark reporter Sam Stein.
ADL, Creator of Infamous ‘Mamdani Monitor,’ Won't Even Say Trump's Name After Antisemitic Slur
The statement exposed the ADL as "a deeply unserious organization that has drifted far away from its stated mission, and one that has lost all credibility," said one critic.
A brief statement from the Anti-Defamation League sharing the history of the antisemitic term "shylock," made a day after President Donald Trump used the slur at a campaign rally, illustrated "two paths for American Jews," according to Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg.
"Throw in to fight for multiracial pluralistic democracy or seek junior partner status in the MAGA coalition," said Greenberg, who is Jewish. "This is where the latter path leads."
The ADL was founded in 1913 to protect Jewish people from antisemitic attacks, but has focused heavily on promoting the United States' support of Israel and conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel's violent treatment of Palestinians.
Considering the ADL's roots, Greenberg was among several observers who noticed that the group's response to Trump's recent comment on US Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) failed to mention the president by name.
Trump used the term to defend Marshall, a doctor, from criticism over his suing of more than 700 patients for their unpaid medical bills.
Marshall's opponents had portrayed him as “some kind of a Shylock-type guy,” said the president, who has used the term before. The word comes from the name of a Jewish moneylender in the William Shakespeare play "The Merchant of Venice," and has been used as an anti-Jewish slur indicating greediness and unfair lending practices.
In response to Trump's comments, the ADL wrote on social media that the term "is rooted in a longstanding antisemitic stereotype. Regardless of intent, its use can reinforce harmful tropes about Jews and normalize language that has long been used to target the Jewish community."
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy (CIP), called the ADL's response "meek and endangering response" that contrasted sharply with the ADL's treatment of progressive lawmakers who condemn Israel.
The ADL's focus on anti-Israel criticism has become especially pronounced in recent years, as Americans' sympathies have turned toward Palestinians and away from Israel's US-backed government and military, which has waged war on the entire population of Gaza since October 2023 and is pushing to violently force Palestinians out of the illegally occupied West Bank.
The group, led by CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, has been incensed by student-led protests demanding an end to US military support for Israel by the electoral victories and campaigns of numerous Palestinian rights supporters, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Last year, the ADL saw fit to launch a "Mamdani Monitor" aimed at tracking the popular progressive mayor's supposedly "antisemitic" policies. The monitor has highlighted Mamdani's revocation of New York City's recognition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, which has been rejected by dozens of Jewish historians and Holocaust experts who say it conflates antisemitism with criticism of Israel.
If a Democrat used the term Trump did, said Matt Duss, executive vice president at CIP, "Jonathan Greenblatt would be knocking people over to get in front of a camera to condemn them by name, but it was Trump so it’s just a general public service announcement."
The statement exposed the ADL as "a deeply unserious organization that has drifted far away from its stated mission, and one that has lost all credibility," said Adam Carlson of Zenith Polls.
The group has previously come to the defense of Republican megadonor and Trump adviser Elon Musk, a vehement supporter of Israel, when he made what appeared to be a "Sieg Heil" Nazi salute at a Trump inaugural event. Greenblatt said the apparent salute was simply an "awkward gesture."
"The ADL is apparently too busy chasing down college students with 'Free Palestine' stickers," said Tariq Kenney-Shawa of the Institute for Middle East Understanding, "to worry about the president of the United States casually dropping some medieval-age antisemitism at a campaign rally."
Rights Group Says Polling Places Should Be 'No ICE' Zones During Midterm Elections
"Voters should not have to fear being caught in an ICE dragnet when they head to the polls.”
Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called for the establishment of “No ICE” zones around polling places, early voting locations, and ballot drop boxes ahead of next month's midterm elections, warning that the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could deter eligible Americans from exercising their right to vote.
“ICE officers’ abuses have already seriously affected US citizens who have been stopped, beaten, detained, deported, and even killed,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) executive director Philippe Bolopion said in a statement. “Voters should not have to fear being caught in an ICE dragnet when they head to the polls.”
As HRW noted:
Federal law generally prohibits federal officials from sending “troops or armed men” to voting sites. Several state laws prohibit any armed officers, including police, from engaging in acts that could interfere with the elections or intimidate voters by their presence near polling places. Some states bar law enforcement officers, including police, from being in close proximity to polling places at all unless they are responding to a specific incident.
Despite these robust prohibitions, neither President Donald Trump nor the heads of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been willing to rule out the possibility that federal agents, including ICE, may be at places where people vote.
While Trump administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, have indicated there are no plans to deploy ICE agents to polling stations, many voters—especially nonwhite ones—are nonetheless wary amid mixed signals and an often violent, and sometimes deadly, anti-immigrant crackdown that's harmed both immigrants and citizens.
In a survey released last month by the Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections at the University of California, San Diego School of Social Sciences, 40% of respondents said they expected some kind of ICE presence at polling places, with nonwhite respondents even more likely to anticipate seeing immigration enforcers where they vote.
Critics point to Trump's efforts to cast doubt on the integrity of US voting, as well as the push by some of the president's allies for a martial law declaration, as cause for alarm. Trump has repeatedly promoted unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud and noncitizen voting—even after his own administration's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency called the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.”
The president's "Big Lie" that Democrats stole that election fueled the deadly January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, while sowing doubt in the minds of right-wing voters, 82% of whom believe that the biggest problem in the nation’s elections is “ineligible people casting votes,” according to a Public Religion Research Institute survey released Tuesday.
HRW noted that three lawsuits are pending in federal courts to prevent ICE from conducting operations at polling places, with an additional case seeking to compel the federal government to disclose any plans for such deployments. Additionally, the Washington, DC Board of Elections recently asked the National Guard to limit troops' presence near midterm drop box locations after Guard members were spotted near one such box in Foggy Bottom.
“ICE agents should be publicly ordered to stay away from the polls, and anywhere ballots are being cast,” Bolopion said.
Private Medicaid Contractors Set to Cash In as Trump-GOP Cuts Take Care From Millions
"It’s plain wrong for these companies to boost their profits by kicking people off their healthcare."
As millions of Americans lose Medicaid coverage due to the unparalleled cuts that President Donald Trump signed into law last year, large private contractors are poised to make a financial killing as states move to implement draconian new work reporting requirements that are already wreaking havoc in several states.
A report published Tuesday by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee warns that "a small handful of companies—some whose technology has a history of grievous errors—will be in charge of implementing historically harsh Medicaid work reporting requirements that never should have been enacted in the first place." The report spotlights five firms that hold contracts with states for Medicaid eligibility and enrollment work: Maximus, Gainwell, General Dynamics Information Technology, Conduent, and Deloitte.
"This investigation began by asking contractors a series of questions to determine whether they are up to the task of implementing Medicaid work reporting requirements on behalf of states, and the committee’s interim findings show that we cannot conclude they are," the report states. "The companies who stand to profit from new Medicaid work reporting requirements evaded hard questions about past performance, current process, and the potential for errors that cause widespread harm."
The Democrats' report comes as states are rushing to implement the new Medicaid work reporting requirements ahead of the January 1, 2027 deadline. The mandates require certain Medicaid recipients to document at least 80 hours per month of work or other qualifying activities—or lose coverage.
As KFF Health News reported earlier this year, state governments rely on private firms to "design and operate computer systems that assess whether low-income people qualify for Medicaid."
"Those state systems have a history of errors that can cut off benefits to eligible people," the outlet added, pointing to its 2024 investigation of Deloitte, which holds Medicaid-related contracts in at least 25 states.
States are paying Deloitte and other for-profit firms millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to help their governments comply with the new federal Medicaid rules, which could strip coverage from more than 10 million people by 2028.
None of the five vendors that Senate Democrats are investigating agreed to provide data on how many people their systems have reported to state Medicaid offices as potentially ineligible for coverage—though all of them denied having contract provisions that incentivize kicking people off the program. The companies also declined to disclose the compensation of their CEOs.
Nebraska, Montana, and Arkansas are so far the only US states that have begun implementing work requirements included in the Trump-GOP budget law. Preliminary data out of Nebraska indicates that red tape stemming from the work reporting mandates accounts for most of the coverage loss and denials so far.
Across the country, around 4 million people have lost Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program coverage since Trump signed the Republican budget package into law last July.
"The nation is just weeks away from Republicans rolling out the red tape on unsuspecting Americans who have life-or-death healthcare needs. This rushed rollout is going to be a disaster," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement on Tuesday. "It is essential to hold these contractors to a higher standard and implement commonsense accountability measures that make fast, simple, and durable enrollment in healthcare coverage the bar for earning taxpayer dollars."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) added that "as President Trump and Republicans gut healthcare for millions of Americans, big corporations are cashing in by running systems that snarl Americans in red tape and strip them of their Medicaid coverage."
"It’s plain wrong for these companies to boost their profits by kicking people off their healthcare," the senator added, "and I’ll keep fighting to end this corporate greed."
'The Public Deserves Answers': No Kings Coalition Gives Zuckerberg 24 Hours to Come Clean on Instagram Block
"Critical voter information or civic participation should not be blocked, throttled, or otherwise interfered with if Meta aspires to be a trusted actor in our democracy."
The coalition of organizations behind the No Kings demonstrations on Monday demanded answers from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about why Instagram suspended the movement's primary account on Saturday.
In a letter to Zuckerberg, No Kings took issue with the explanations given by the company so far about the account's removal, which lasted approximately 90 minutes at the peak of rally activity.
"Public comments from representatives of Meta do not sufficiently explain these actions or the significant delay in remedying the so-called 'technical glitch,'" the letter states. "This raises serious questions among the public about why these actions were taken and the implications during the election season. Critical voter information or civic participation should not be blocked, throttled, or otherwise interfered with if Meta aspires to be a trusted actor in our democracy."
"The public deserves answers," the letter continues. "As such, the No Kings Coalition demands public response to the following questions. Americans are voting, and the election is fast approaching. Time is of the essence."
The letter then lists several questions that Meta needs to answer about the incident, giving the company until Wednesday at 5:00 pm PT to respond.
Among other things, No Kings wants Meta to release enforcement logs related to the account's suspension, to divulge any communications company officials have had with the Trump administration, and to explain any role that artificial intelligence agents potentially played in getting the account taken down.
Meta's suspension of the No Kings Instagram account is just one of many recent incidents that have raised concern about Big Tech platforms putting their thumbs on the scale on behalf of right-wing interests.
In Brazil, the campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva filed a legal complaint last week accusing Meta of shutting down accounts promoting his candidacy while using its algorithms to promote content produced by the campaign of far-right rival Flávio Bolsonaro.
As The Associated Press reported on Thursday, a judge in Brazil’s top electoral court sided with Lula’s campaign, ruling that Meta “cannot reduce the distribution of political content, restrict searches, or remove posts in a way that creates an imbalance between Lula and Bolsonaro.”
Bleecker Street, the distributor of director Alex Gibney’s four-hour documentary about SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, told The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday that TikTok had permanently suspended the film’s promotional account.
Messages shared with The Hollywood Reporter revealed that TikTok accused the Musk documentary account of violating its rules regarding political content, but it was not clear what those violations were.
Alberta Secession Effort by Trump's Right-Wing Canadian Allies Goes Down in Flames
"The separatists and Trump lost," said one commentator. "Canada won."
The leader of the movement that opposed separatists' efforts to achieve independence for the Canadian province of Alberta said Monday night that voters' resounding rejection of the secession push would "send a very strong message to the rest of the world," after Trump administration officials backed the effort.
"Don’t mess with Canada," said Thomas Lukaszuk, a former deputy premier of Alberta who led the Forever Canadian campaign.
With more than 1.8 million votes counted Tuesday morning, 75.7% of Alberta voters had supported remaining in Canada with no further referendum. Just over 24% voted in favor of holding a second referendum on separating from the country, which would have been binding.
Separatist leaders, many of whom came to prominence after leading protests against public health precautions during the coronavirus pandemic, were welcomed to meetings at the US State Department in recent months, where they sought advice on their "Let Alberta Decide" campaign from Republican operatives. The meetings, said British Columbia premier David Eby, amounted to "treason."
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressed support for the separatist movement, which does not have a central leader but is backed by groups in Alberta including the Alberta Prosperity Project and Stay Free Alberta.
Bessent said in January that the province, which holds the world's fourth-largest proven oil reserves, could be “a natural partner for the US."
"I think we should let them come down into the US," Bessent told right-wing podcaster Jack Posobiec. "They have great resources. The Albertans are very independent people... Alberta has a wealth of natural resources, but they won’t let them build a pipeline to the Pacific."
Former Trump administration adviser and Republican megadonor Elon Musk also said on social media this month that Alberta "should separate" from Canada.
The referendum came as President Donald Trump has threatened to take over Canada and make it "the 51st state," accusing the Canadian government of treating the US "very badly." He has imposed 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian imports, setting off a trade war.
Separatists in Alberta, whose views have long been in the minority, have complained that the province "sends $20 billion more to Ottawa every year than it gets back," and fumed over any environmental policies that threaten Alberta’s oil industry, one of the most polluting in the world.
Canceled oil pipelines, a bill banning oil tankers from stopping and unloading at ports on British Columbia's coast, and an emissions cap have been decried as evidence that the federal government has treated Alberta as "a colony," as one separatist told The Associated Press Monday—despite the fact that the emissions cap was dropped for the province's oil and gas sector last year.
“They want to take and take and take from us, and not return anything," Dustin Degenhardt said while voting.
Danielle Smith, the leader of the United Conservative Party and the premier of Alberta, said she supported the province remaining in the country and applauded the vote results.
But at a recent online forum, Smith outlined the concerns of separatists, saying families face growing affordability struggles and asserting the province has been forced to provide hundreds of thousands of immigrants whom the federal government has resettled there.
A report released in June by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce found that seceding from Canada would shrink Alberta's economy by $62 billion per year.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said after the vote Monday night that the decision by a large majority of voters was "a great result for Canada."
"Albertans have chosen unity," said Carney. "They've chosen to build together. They've chosen to continue to take care of each other, to move forward together."
Podcast host Laura Babcock said Tuesday that "the separatists and Trump lost. Canada won."
Poll: Majority Fear Trump as Dictator
The survey also found that people in the country see the president's far-right MAGA movement as "more threatening" than Democratic Socialists of America.
A majority of Americans believe President Donald Trump is a “potentially dangerous dictator” whose power must be checked, a new national survey released Tuesday revealed amid deepening public pessimism about the country's direction ahead of next month's midterm elections.
The 2026 American Values Survey, conducted by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in partnership with the Brookings Institution, found that 58% of Americans agree that “President Trump is a potentially dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.”
That's up from 52% who said the president is a possibly dangerous dictator in last year's survey.
Among Democrats, 90% consider Trump a dangerous dictator, while 64% of independents and 20% of Republicans felt the same way.
Two-thirds (68%) of respondents said their opinion of Trump has mostly worsened over the last two years, including in communities that had been among his core supporters. Trump’s favorability among Hispanic Protestants has dropped from 51% in 2024 to 31%, and Hispanic Trump voters were twice as likely as white Trump voters to say they regret supporting the president.
“The coalition that put Donald Trump back in the White House is breaking apart, with 76% of Americans saying the economy is on the wrong track,” PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman said in a statement. “His 2024 gains are clearly not a long-term realignment, as we see Black, Hispanic, and young male voters moving back to Democrats.”
Meanwhile, just 37% of those surveyed agreed with the statement that Trump is “a strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America’s greatness.”
Regarding one of those powers—the ability to set immigration policy—a majority of Republicans (62%) and white evangelicals (53%) said they support locking up undocumented immigrants in "internment camps," a policy backed by 16% of Democrats and 28% of independents.
Nearly half of those surveyed (48%) said the Make America Great Again movement "poses a serious threat to the country," compared with 36% who said the same of the Democratic Socialists of America. More than 8 in 10 Democrats (82%) see MAGA as a serious threat, while 7 in 10 Republicans (72%) said the same of the DSA.
The survey showed that only about half (52%) of respondents have confidence in US elections, and that 82% of Republicans believe that the biggest problem in the nation's elections is "ineligible people casting votes," while 80% of Democrats said the biggest problem is "eligible voters being denied the right to vote."
More than one-third (35%) of respondents said that “if there are serious concerns about voter fraud in a local voting location, the president should order federal agents to seize the ballots and take over the vote counting,” with 6 in 10 Republicans agreeing with the statement.
A slim majority (51%) of respondents were more likely to agree with the statement, “Socialism is best understood as a system in which the government provides benefits such as health insurance, retirement support, and access to free higher education” than with the statement, “Socialism is best understood as a system in which the government controls major parts of the economy, such as utilities, transportation, communications, and banks," with which 43% concurred.
Four in ten Americans (41%) agree that capitalism is no longer working for average Americans and the country should consider adopting some aspects of socialism – including nearly half of Americans ages 18-29 (48%).
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— PRRI (@prri.org) October 20, 2026 at 5:43 AM
The survey showed growing dissatisfaction regarding the country's trajectory. Seven in 10 respondents (71%) said the United States is headed in the wrong direction, while 76% said the same of the economy. Both figures have risen substantially since last year.
The survey also found that an "empathy gap"—the level of belief in the importance of empathy—is growing between white conservatives and other Americans. While two-thirds of Americans, including 84% of Democrats and 70% of independents, said they believe that “empathy is a foundational moral value that helps build a healthy society," only 54% of Republicans and 48% of white evangelical Protestants agreed.
Fifty-four percent of white evangelical Protestants said they believe the opposite: that “empathy can become dangerous when it leads people away from building a society guided by God’s truth.”
“As Christian nationalist leaders attack the sentiment of empathy, a disturbing ‘empathy gap’ has opened, separating Republicans and white evangelicals from most other Americans,” PRRI president and founder Robert P. Jones said in a statement. “Such orchestrated attacks are typical of violent authoritarian movements and should be disturbing to all who care about the moral foundations of our pluralistic democracy.”
Tlaib Calls to Arrest Commander of IDF Unit Accused of Killing Hind Rajab as He Travels the US
The Michigan congresswoman said the US government was “obligated to arrest and investigate” Israeli Maj. Sean Glass, who is believed to have given the orders that resulted in the killing of the 5-year-old girl in Gaza.
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib called Monday for the US Department of Justice to arrest the commander of the Israel Defense Forces unit believed to have killed 5-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza back in 2024.
Maj. Sean Glass, who commanded the “Vampire Empire” Company of the 52nd Armored Battalion in the 401st Armored Brigade, is traveling in the United States, according to an urgent legal complaint submitted by the Hind Rajab Foundation.
"The commander of the Israeli military unit likely responsible for killing 5-year-old Hind Rajab is currently in the US," Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American member of Congress, wrote on social media. "As a party to the Genocide Convention and the Geneva Conventions, our government is obligated to arrest and investigate him for these war crimes and acts of genocide."
An investigation by the foundation, in collaboration with Al Jazeera, concluded that Glass’ unit opened fire on a car, killing six of Rajab’s family members on January 29, 2024, as they attempted to flee Gaza City.
Rajab spent hours pleading with emergency dispatchers to rescue her. But Israeli forces also attacked an ambulance sent to save her, killing two paramedics. Rajab's body was discovered 12 days later.
Following international outrage, Israel initially denied responsibility for the attack, before admitting in August 2026 that its troops had fired upon the family's car and toward the ambulance.
Using satellite imagery, forensic evidence, and Israeli soldiers’ social media activity, the Hind Rajab Foundation said it established that Glass’ unit was operating a few hundred meters from Rajab’s vehicle when the attack occurred. However, the allegations have not been proven in court.
On Monday, the foundation posted photos of Glass standing on the Brooklyn Bridge and riding the New York City subway. It is not clear why he is traveling in the US or where he is currently located.
The group filed a request with the Justice Department on Monday demanding that it investigate, arrest, and prosecute Glass under the US War Crimes Act and federal genocide statutes.
"Glass is not just another man implicated in the killing of Hind Rajab," said Dyab Abou Jahjah, the foundation's general director. "He is the man who most likely gave the order to open fire on the vehicle carrying Hind and members of her family, including other children. That Glass can walk the streets of the United States as though nothing has happened is intolerable. He must be brought to justice.”

The foundation has already filed a submission with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and authorities in other countries, calling for Glass and members of his unit to be held accountable.
Glass, the foundation noted, has often publicly celebrated destruction in Gaza during Israel’s genocidal military campaign there, which has led to the deaths of more than 74,000 people, including over 21,000 children, according to official tallies. Experts warn the true death toll is likely much higher.
According to the foundation:
On Instagram, in interviews, and in a self-published book, [Glass] has proudly recounted the destruction of hospitals, UN buildings, entire neighborhoods, and the Rafah Crossing, the lifeline on which Palestinian survival depended.
Celebrating 100 days of the war, he described the campaign as a "war of existence of the eternal people" and urged his troops to "attack, attack till victory." Marking seven years in the army, he wrote there was "no more significant way to celebrate" than in Al-Shifa, "the terror nest," posting side-by-side satellite images of Al-Shifa Medical Complex before and after his forces destroyed it.
In his farewell speech to his company, he boasted that they had "destroyed every part to where we were asked to go, in all areas of the Gaza Strip," and described emptying the Zeitoun neighborhood of its residents. Days after the ceasefire took effect, still in Gaza, he filmed himself promising, "I'll rush at the opportunity to return to the battle and finish the work."
"The War Crimes Act and the Genocide Statute were written precisely for men like Sean Glass," said Jake Romm, the Hind Rajab Foundation's representative in the United States. "Congress and successive administrations promised that the United States would never be a refuge for war criminals; instead it has condoned and aided their crimes."
Calls for Glass' arrest come amid the Trump administration's efforts to "dismantle" the ICC over its attempt to prosecute Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes in Gaza. Earlier this month, after targeting individual judges and prosecutors, the administration placed the ICC itself under sweeping financial sanctions. Human Rights Watch executive director Philippe Bolopion said the administration's clear goal was to "shield US and Israeli officials from facing charges before the court."
US law allows foreign nationals like Glass to be prosecuted for certain war crimes when they are present on US soil. Such prosecutions require the approval of the US attorney general or deputy attorney general.
As of Tuesday morning, Tlaib appeared to be the only US lawmaker who had issued a statement calling for the US government to arrest Glass.
"Glass and his company are responsible for some of the worst atrocities of this genocide—that he now walks free and unbothered in the US is not only an insult to his victims, but to all people of conscience here in the US as well," Romm said. "Some politicians in the US have claimed to be committed to accountability for Israeli war crimes—this filing is a good opportunity to test the sincerity of that commitment.”
Top Economist Says Elon Musk Needs to 'Pay More Taxes,' Not Just Donate SpaceX Shares
"The American people don’t need billionaires making grand promises of generosity," said University of California, Berkeley professor Gabriel Zucman. "They need billionaires to pay their fair share."
A world-renowned economist said Monday that Elon Musk's pledge to donate a share of his company, SpaceX, to every American child is not nearly enough to redress the exploding wealth inequality that he personifies.
Gabriel Zucman, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a leading inequality expert, wrote in a series of social media posts directed at Musk that "if you really want to help the American people, I have a better suggestion than charity: pay more taxes."
"You, like your fellow billionaires, pay a lower effective tax rate than the average American," Zucman wrote, pointing to his research on the tax rates of the wealthiest Americans.
Zucman and his colleagues estimated in a 2025 paper that the total effective tax rate of the 400 wealthiest US households "averaged 24% in 2018–2020 compared with 30% for the full population and 45% for top labor income earners."
Based on available data and tax records obtained by ProPublica, Musk's effective tax rate has been far lower than average. Between 2014 and 2018, Musk—whose wealth is mostly tied up in stock that is only taxed when it is sold—paid an effective federal rate of 3.27%.
"The American people don’t need billionaires making grand promises of generosity," wrote Zucman. "They need billionaires to pay their fair share. All of them. Each year. How is it acceptable that billionaires pay a lower tax rate than the average American? The most effective way to do is with a billionaire wealth tax."
Billionaires’s extremely low tax rates are fueling oligarchic power in the United States.Look at the wealth held by the richest billionaires relative to what’s produced in a given year in the US—a good measure of the influence their wealth can buy. The economic weight of extreme wealth now far exceeds its Gilded Age peak.
— Gabriel Zucman (@gabriel_zucman) October 19, 2026
Musk, whose net worth briefly surpassed $1 trillion earlier this year following SpaceX's debut on the public market, pledged to distribute a share of the company to every American child. Based on the company's current stock price, the donation would be worth around $11 billion—a tiny percentage of Musk's total wealth.
"Giving 1% is better than giving 0%, and I applaud that," Zucman wrote in his social media thread on Monday. "But Americans don’t need charity, as in 19th Century Britain. They need everybody to contribute through the tax system, in proportion to their ability to pay."
Zucman expressed support for the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, legislation introduced earlier this year by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). The bill would impose a 5% annual wealth tax on US billionaires, whose combined net worth surged past $9 trillion over the summer.
"This would still be small relative to your wealth," Zucman said of the tax, "and yet would generate more than $4.4 trillion in revenue over the next decade. That would make a real difference to the lives of the American people. Owning one share in SpaceX won’t."
'My Name Is Abdul': El-Sayed Confronts Trump's Racist, Anti-Muslim Attacks Head-On in New Ad
"In response to attacks about his faith, Abdul doubles down on who he is," said one observer.
In his latest campaign ad released late Monday, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic US Senate candidate in Michigan, struck a resilient and matter-of-fact tone that suggested the recent racist attacks on him, his Arabic name, and his Muslim faith are no secret—but he has no plans to try to hide his identity to appease Republicans and Democrats who have claimed he's an "extremist" or accused him of terrorist ties.
"My name is Abdul," said El-Sayed in the 30-second ad. "It means servant. I pray every day. I reflect on my role in this life, on this Earth—how we leave it better than we found it."
He continued by linking his own faith traditions to those of millions of Michiganders who also "pray"—many of whom, he suggested, "feel hopeless" in President Donald Trump's America, as they face rising costs and struggle to afford groceries, healthcare, childcare, and other essentials.
As a man of faith, I pray every day. Faith is a thing there’s just too little of in Washington. https://t.co/1OUOb51AC8
— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) October 19, 2026
The ad, subtly connecting El-Sayed's Muslim faith to people of all belief systems across Michigan, comes as Trump and others ramp up Islamophobic attacks on the progressive former public health official, with two weeks to go until Election Day.
The president explicitly, baselessly slandered El-Sayed as "a jihadist" at one recent rally, mocking his name as he told the crowd that El-Sayed "is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood." The Republican Senate candidate in Michigan, former Rep. Mike Rogers, has also attempted to tie El-Sayed to the political movement that was founded in Egypt in 1928.
On Monday, as El-Sayed's ad was released, Trump took aim at the candidate's name once again, calling him by his middle name, Mohamed.
"He knows my name is Abdul," El-Sayed said of the president earlier this month. "He says it every day. But he’s not just attacking me. He’s attacking all of us. He thinks so low of us. He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us at the pump, at the grocery store, and at the doctor’s office. He thinks we don’t know any better. It’s time for change."
The Republican claims regarding El-Sayed's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood made their way into an exchange the candidate had with a town hall attendee identified as "Tommy" in Caro, Michigan over the weekend, where Tommy demanded that El-Sayed "disavow" the group.
“Sure. Yeah, absolutely,” El-Sayed said, before challenging Tommy to explain why he was asking a Muslim candidate to do so.
This is Tommy. Tommy had a question about my allegiances. Listen to the end to hear about his. https://t.co/p09eMtsh0x
— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) October 18, 2026
Anti-Muslim attacks have come from both sides of the aisle since El-Sayed began his campaign, with Democratic strategists spending months fixating on his decision to campaign with popular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and tying the candidate to Piker's earlier remarks about September 11 and Israel.
On Monday, former Michigan Democratic Party chair Lon Johnson accused El-Sayed of "extremism" and said his rhetoric threatens Jewish communities, calling on Democrats in the state to "leave the Senate race blank" to represent "a rejection of ideological absolutism." El-Sayed is a strong supporter of Palestinian rights and, like a majority of Americans, is deeply critical of US support for Israel as it continues its assault on Gaza and the West Bank.
In the ad released Monday, El-Sayed suggested that "faith" like his could bring positive change to Washington, DC, where political leaders have long claimed that big changes to systems in the US—such as its for-profit healthcare system, which El-Sayed strongly believes must be replaced by Medicare for All—would be impossible to make.
"Faith is a thing that there's just too little of in Washington," he said. "We don't have faith in our future. We don't have faith that we can actually fix things."
Mussab Ali, a former school board official in Jersey City, New Jersey, said the ad took "courage" to release.
"I think this might be the first time in American history you’ve seen a Muslim candidate demonstrate a part of their prayer in an ad like this," said Ali. "In response to attacks about his faith, Abdul doubles down on who he is."

























