June, 04 2019, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
David Turnbull, david@priceofoil.org, 202-316-3499
Collin Rees, collin@priceofoil.org, 308-293-3159
Oil Change U.S. Response to Joe Biden Climate Plan
WASHINGTON
This morning, Joe Biden released his plan to combat climate change, committing to sign the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge and ban new oil and gas permits on public lands and waters. In response, David Turnbull, Strategic Communications Director at Oil Change U.S., issued the following statement:
"Today's climate plan from Joe Biden is the latest recognition that climate change is the defining issue of the 2020 election. The climate crisis has arrived not just in our backyards, but in our politics. After a weak trial balloon swiftly beaten back by a powerful movement demanding urgent action, Biden has responded by committing to take the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge and outlining some important actions that begin to approach the levels needed to address the climate crisis.
"We're thrilled that Vice President Biden has committed to join 16 of his fellow candidates in signing the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge. In so doing, he solidifies a near-consensus position amongst Democratic presidential contenders in finally rejecting the fossil fuel industry's influence on our politics.
"Ending reliance on fossil fuel money allows candidates to begin to consider actions commensurate with the challenge we face in the climate crisis, and Joe Biden's plan continues this trend. Our public lands should not be the scenes of climate crimes by way of fossil fuel extraction, and we're happy to see Biden join the Democratic chorus in calling for the end of fossil fuel extraction on public lands and waters.
"Vice President Biden's call for ending international fossil fuel subsidies and finance of 'high carbon' projects is an important step, but it should reflect the reality that all fossil fuels are high carbon at this late date in the climate struggle. Export credits and development finance should not only explicitly exclude coal, but also all other fossil fuel infrastructure including oil and gas.
"Unfortunately, Biden's plan remains problematic in several ways, and we hope he will listen to concerns from communities and scientists in the days and weeks ahead. Reliance on unproven techno-unicorns like carbon capture and storage promotes the interests of the incumbent fossil fuel industry, while forestalling critical action needed to swiftly move away from fossil fuels completely. It's especially troubling to see Biden commit to doubling down on government subsidies for carbon capture and storage, given his plan calls for a global ban on fossil fuel subsidies writ large.
"Overall, today's plan from Vice President Biden is another indication that the climate crisis has arrived. The Democratic Party would be wise to lean into this reality, by hosting a debate focused on the climate crisis and allowing the American public to see which candidates are ready to rise to the challenge. Not only is the climate crisis an issue of paramount importance for the next president, but showing climate leadership is clearly a political winner for candidates in the 2020 race."
Oil Change International is a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy.
(202) 518-9029LATEST NEWS
'Pathetic Excuse for a Man': Ramaswamy Slammed Over Ad Featuring Acton’s Estranged Mother in Ohio
Acton's brother said the ad was a "despicable low," noting that their mother stood by their stepfather after he was charged with raping Acton at the age of 12.
Oct 20, 2026
With just two weeks left until Election Day, Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is drawing criticism from across the political spectrum over a vicious attack video featuring his Democratic opponent Amy Acton's estranged mother, whom she has accused of abandoning her after she was sexually abused as a child.
The 60-second video, which surfaced on social media Monday and was amplified by conservative accounts, features Donna Arthur, Acton’s biological mother, urging Ohioans to vote against Acton and accusing her of lying about experiencing homelessness and living in a tent during her childhood.
"I love my daughter, but when I saw her lying about her opponent, it's not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy has a serious problem. She is a liar," Arthur said. "She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She's lied her entire life."
After the ad went viral on social media, Acton's brother, Philip Stearns, accused Ramaswamy of sinking to "a despicable low." In a statement Tuesday, he noted that "after he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy's rapist until he died."
Stearns called the ad an "attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at 12 years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point."
It remains unclear who produced the ad, which contains no sponsorship disclosure indicating whether Ramaswamy's campaign or a supporting political action committee was behind it. Acton's campaign, however, has blamed her opponent.
Ramaswamy's political allies have previously attacked Acton over therapy she received following the abuse. Ramaswamy himself drew criticism in April after claiming that his opponent had no vision for Ohio "other than to complain about what someone else did to her."
“This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core,” Stearns said, describing him as “a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.”
Though President Donald Trump won Ohio by double digits in 2024, several recent polls show Acton with a substantial lead over Ramaswamy, a staunch ally of the president.
In a statement to HuffPost, the Ramaswamy campaign did not take credit for the ad, but defended its substance.
"We don't know what happened between Amy and her mother, who first spoke out about Amy in 2020, but we know that Amy Acton is a serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of before deciding who to entrust as governor," said Connie Luck, a spokesperson for the Ramaswamy campaign.
She added: “Everyone who knows [Acton] best—her former boss, her former state colleagues, her fellow physicians, and now her own mother—are clearly warning Ohioans not to vote for her. Ohioans deserve to know that.”
Acton has spoken on the campaign trail about the hardships she experienced as a child and has made them central to her pledge to make life more affordable for struggling Ohio families.
"I know what it feels like to go hungry, to not have enough," Acton said during an interview in August. "My brother and I actually were in a tent in the middle of winter growing up, so these problems are real to me."
She spoke about these experiences long before she ran for governor. In a 2019 profile by The Youngstown Vindicator, Acton—then serving as the director of Ohio's health department under Republican Gov. Mike DeWine—recounted a childhood marked by poverty, neglect, and abuse.
By age 12, she said, she and her brother, Stearns, had lived in roughly 18 different homes. She said her stepfather had already faced molestation allegations when her mother married him—a claim confirmed by newspaper reports and court records from the time. She said her family was living in a tent at a campground outside Youngstown in the winter when her stepfather raped her.
After charges were filed, Acton and her brother went to live with their biological father and his relatives, who had been granted custody. She recalled trying to kiss her mother goodbye at the courthouse, only for her mother to turn her cheek away.
"That was the last time I ever saw her," Acton said. According to the profile, her mother and stepfather subsequently fled town while he was out of jail on bond.
The attack on Acton has drawn bipartisan outrage.
Ohio state Rep. Allison Russo (D-7), who is running for secretary of state, described the ad as "among the most vile political attacks I’ve ever seen."
"Millions of adults from all walks of life are estranged from a parent, often because of childhood abuse and trauma that are far too common in our society," she said. "Exploiting that deeply personal pain for political gain is cruel, shameful, and deserving of unequivocal condemnation."
US Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) agreed that it was “one of the most despicable things I’ve ever seen in politics.”
"He’s arguably the most unlikable person in the history of people… because of stuff like this," he said of Ramaswamy. "By the end of the day, Ohioans will learn what happened to Amy as a 12-year-old girl, how her mother lost custody of Amy as a result, and what a disgrace Vivek is for pulling this."
Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.), who previously prosecuted child sexual assault cases, said that Arthur’s defense of her late husband despite her daughter’s assault allegation is something he has witnessed “too frequently.”
"A child victim discloses the abuse by a stepdad or mom’s boyfriend, and mom takes the abuser’s side because she can’t bear to think that she had exposed her own child to a monster," he said. "Mom is protecting mom—not the child."
He added that "Ramaswamy has embraced the Trumpian role of taking the side of the predator."
While right-wing influencers, including Donald Trump Jr., amplified the ad and treated it as a “bombshell” October surprise that could upend Acton’s campaign, some conservatives also expressed dismay.
GOP strategist Liz Mair called the ad "terrible" and said it is "going to remind people of that one family member who hates them for no rational reason at all and make them feel sympathetic towards Acton."
“In brief, it pushed me towards Acton, not away from her,” Mair continued. “And this is genuinely the only thing I’ve seen or read about Acton to make me think anything positive of her."
"It seems crazy to me [that] one would assume this would work and not backfire," said conservative commentator Mary Katharine Ham. "An estranged mom from a rough childhood going straight to camera to trash her daughter as a trustworthy messenger?"
Washington Examiner columnist Tim Carney predicted bluntly that "This ad could sink Vivek."
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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.
Oct 20, 2026
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."
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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.”
Oct 20, 2026
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.
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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."
Oct 20, 2026
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."
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'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."
Oct 20, 2026
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.
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Alberta Secession Effort by Trump's Right-Wing Canadian Allies Goes Down in Flames
"The separatists and Trump lost," said one commentator. "Canada won."
Oct 20, 2026
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."
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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.
Oct 20, 2026
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%).
[image or embed]
— 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.”
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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.
Oct 20, 2026
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.”
Photos posted on October 19, 2026, show Israeli Maj. Sean Glass standing on the Brooklyn Bridge and riding the New York City subway. (Photos from the Hind Rajab Foundation)
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.”
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Talarico Takes Direct Aim at Elon Musk as Early Voting Shatters Record in Key Texas County
"Elon Musk wants our land, he wants our water, he wants his very own personal United States senator."
Oct 20, 2026
Texas Democratic US Senate candidate James Talarico on Monday took direct aim at far-right billionaire Elon Musk, the single biggest donor to the campaign of Republican rival Ken Paxton.
Speaking at an event in Denton, Texas, Talarico decried Musk's attempts to flood the Senate race with money, as recent financial disclosures show the SpaceX CEO has spent at least $158 million trying to boost Paxton's campaign.
"Musk is trying to buy this Senate seat in Texas," Talarico said. "We just found out that he is almost singlehandedly bankrolling this effort to install Ken Paxton in the US Senate and defeat this movement that we've built in our state."
Talarico: "We just found out that [Elon Musk] is almost single-handedly bankrolling this effort to install Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate and defeat this movement...Elon Musk wants our land. He wants our water. He wants his very own personal United States senator. He is trying to buy Texas."
— Bulwark Clips (@BulwarkClips) October 19, 2026
Talarico outlined the ways Musk's money has impacted the Senate campaign.
"In all likelihood, if you have seen an attack ad on your TV, that was Elon," Talarico said. "If you've gotten lies in your mailbox, that was Elon. If you've received a text message saying scary things about me, that was Elon too."
The Texas Democrat contrasted Paxton's reliance on Musk with his own campaign receiving funding from over 1.3 million individual donors.
"Ken Paxton is funded by one dude," Talarico said. "Elon Musk wants our land, he wants our water, he wants his very own personal United States senator. He is trying to buy Texas. But on November 3, we are going to send a crystal-clear message... Texas is not for sale."
Talarico's remarks on Musk came amid a historic surge of early voting in the Texas Democratic stronghold of Harris County.
According to a Monday report from Click 2 Houston, Harris County recorded nearly 105,000 ballots cast on the first day of early voting, shattering the previous first-day early voting record of 63,000 votes set during the 2018 midterm elections.
In 2018, Democrat Beto O'Rourke came within two-and-a-half percentage points of ousting incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the closest a Democrat has come to winning a US Senate race in the Lone Star State in decades.
The most recent polls aggregated by elections analyst Nate Silver show that Talarico holds a narrow lead over Paxton heading into the final stretch of the campaign.
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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."
Oct 20, 2026
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."
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