Donald Trump is sending the Justice Department after a woman he raped.

BREAKING: Look at this. #$DELL just won a five-year $9.7 billion Pentagon software agreement for the US military. But Trump also bought #$DELL. He bought multiple times since February 10th, up to more than $5,000,000. On May 8th, he said: "Go out and buy a Dell." Unusual.

yeah you gotta willie horton ken paxton. have the party committees and super pacs run ads explicitly accusing paxton of covering up for a child abuser. “you love your children and would do anything to protect them. so why would you vote for a man who lets child abusers run free”

It's good that universities are making six-figure payouts to people who got fired for their comments about Charlie Kirk, but now the universities need to do some new firing, of administrators who carried out those illegal actions. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/u...

NEW: “We’re all paying heavily for sprawl, whether we live there or not, and we’re all financially benefitting from infill housing, whether we live there or not.” Happy to be part of this outstanding, devastating, evidence-based article on the BIG COSTS of bad planning. Via @nationalobserver.com.

Authoritarian Tennessee Republicans continue to punish Black Democrats for speaking out against their racist redistricting👇🏽

The Squamish people of what is now Vancouver were illegally dispossessed of their land 100 years ago. They sued, got the land back, and used their sovereignty to ignore local zoning and build 6,000 new homes over the loud objections of nearby wealthy NIMBYs. Now other tribes are getting in the game.

this is incredible

Hoffman “was first arrested and charged in 2022 for repeated instances of sexual abuse with a 10-year-old boy, a first-degree felony, and was facing life without parole.” Corrupt Ken Paxton is endangering children.

the challenge for talarico and dems will not just be repeating this accusation over and over again, but telling the story over and over again, so that voters understand the words "adam hoffman" as a synecdoche for the entire case against Paxton every time they are invoked.

Lee Atwater was evil, but he understood this point perfectly. Mike Dukakis started the 1988 campaign with a 17-point-lead but Atwater leaned in on the weekend furlough of William Horton, bragging that his negative ad blitz was going to "make Willie Horton his running mate." It worked.

Source: @gelliottmorris.com Americans blame Trump for the cost-of-living crisis.

Truly low turnout in some counties in South Texas. In Starr County, Trump got roughly 9,500 votes in 2024. 90 votes counted in the GOP runoff today. In Webb County, Trump got roughly 33,300 votes in 2024. Roughly 2,300 voters today.

Scoop: NSF has been quietly blocking new funds and grants to four top universities: Duke, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Dozens of proposals from PIs at these universities—and their collaborators—have been stuck at the Office of Award Management awaiting finalization for months.

The next piece in our series on Stephen Miller's America looks at the Miller Doctrine in foreign policy, which is more like a policy for foreigners, the same one applied in this country: unilateral violence on a maximum scale. Ellen Ioanes did this report: prospect.org/2026/05/27/j...

Some context: there's a 6-year statute of limitations on false claims. The Trump administration can dismiss any individual case (known as a qui tam case) but they won't be able to do that throughout. Dem candidates can say right now that they would pursue this or not stand in the way of qui tams.

the move towards openly embracing being a terrible person has been very bad for us, it’s not good that so many folks are just proud racists these days but my god the weaseling excuses from these insufferable assholes who still want to pretend they’re moral are excruciating

Prediction: Universities will continue to pay exorbitant amounts for AI even as the prices continue to rise and it's abandoned by businesses.

Another interesting avenue into court for private plaintiffs, or at least the threat of a potential avenue that could chill claims, courtesy Adam Levitin & @ddayen.bsky.social: prospect.org/2026/05/27/t...

Your ideological positioning is I'm sure a pleasant distraction, but all that matters is whether or not you're a weakling. abcnews.com/Politics/ame...

Reporter: Ken Paxton has taken to calling you ‘Talafreako’ @JamesTalarico: If Ken Paxton is worried about freaks, he should stop giving Epstein-style sweetheart deals to pedophiles. This is the guy who just released Adam Hoffman from jail, an admitted child rapist.

New deep dive on the House generic ballot from my colleague Mary Radcliffe and me (mostly Mary): The Dem lead on the generic ballot is now as large as it was at this point in 2018. That’s due to sky-high loyalty from Dems and notable defection among Rs open.substack.com/pub/fiftyplu...

The latest weekly @economist.com / @today.yougov.com Poll just dropped, and we're into new territory. Only 34% of Americans approve of how Donald Trump is having his job as president. That's lower than Trump has ever received, in either term — and lower than Biden ever got. Read more:

Good thing nobody covered Trump’s 2024 win as a mandate for dramatic policy change & a right-wing vision of America’s future — instead of, say, a close win driven mainly by the price of eggs and gas going up (then back down!) in 2022-23. That would have been irresponsible. Good thing nobody did that

holy shit apocalyptic numbers with hispanic voters showing a shit back to 2018 Beto baselines *without* undecideds x.com/PollTracker2...

I am curious about the effect that almost everyone I know, even people who are doing relatively well, thinks they would be more successful economically if they sacrificed their ethical principles and just became a grifter of some sort.

To me this is by far the top explanation for Gen Z nihilism. If you don't brand and commodify every aspect of your life, you're falling behind. If you're not getting one over on the next guy in crypto or prediction markets, you're a sucker. Beyond Marx's alienation of labor--alienation of personhood

It's so easy to forget that people, even elected officials, can at any moment simply choose to do the right thing.

Absolutely nothing is stopping John Cornyn, Tillis, Murkowski, & Paul from caucusing immediately with Democrats & giving them control of the Senate. The same is true of Thomas Massie & any 2 retiring GOP Reps in the House. It is a choice to continue caucusing with the authoritarian personality cult.

Fascinating story of how IRS enforcement of wealthy tax cheats has been continuously roadblocked since the 70s. "President Richard Nixon promptly installed Donald Alexander—a tax attorney who represented ultrawealthy clients and was openly hostile to enforcement—as his new IRS commissioner."

This plan is actively *insane.* Airlines cannot divert large numbers of international flights from one city to another; they'd just have to cancel flights en masse, causing enormous economic damage that splashed waaaaay beyond a few big cities that were the target.

Cornyn is on track suffer the largest defeat for a U.S. Senator in a primary since 1978. And in that 1978 race (a Democratic primary in Montana won by Max Baucus), the defeated incumbent had just been appointed—nothing like the longtime Cornyn .

Fine, I'll say it: The Texas Senate race is a tossup www.gelliottmorris.com/p/the-texas-...

I've been on the road for a couple weeks, but I'm back to review @chrismurphyct.bsky.social's book, which releases today. He details America's spiritual crisis and answers why we're all so damn unhappy. In doing so he shows a rare attribute in Democratic politicians: believing in something.

Our June issue takes Stephen Miller literally & seriously: what would his vision of America look like? Paul Starr calls it "white replenishment," a combination of net-negative immigration & pronatalism. It's an impossible prescription for the kind of country most Americans want America to be.

Both chambers of Congress have passed bipartisan housing bills that both improve supply and bar Wall St. investor purchases of existing homes. There's a lot of work to go but Bob Kuttner says this bill represents what Congress once was and can be. prospect.org/2026/05/26/w...

Abigail Spanberger vetoing a bill legalizing collective bargaining for state and local workers shows that she's fine with a government that offers worker benefits but not one that gives workers power, Harold Meyerson writes. prospect.org/2026/05/25/h...

Taking it seriously, this would shut down essentially every major international airport in the US that's not in Florida or Texas.

New: Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio said he's in "a lot of group chats" with "the J6 community" & "a lot of them want to use this money to start some type of political act," like "run for office" Tarrio also thought many would "spend their money on firearms." www.mediamatters.org/january-6-in...

Talarico: I’m an eighth-generation Texan. I’ve been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton’s first indictment. And if all they have on me is lying about me being a vegan, I feel pretty good about our chances this November.

American politics is bananas. I can’t believe there is a whole generation growing up to think that it’s normal for known criminals to win party nominations and public office.

This is Ken Paxton's mugshot. He was indicted on 3 felony counts for investment fraud. He was reported to the FBI by his own staff for bribery. He was impeached by his own party for corruption. Now he’s the Republican nominee for US Senate in Texas. Together we will stop him.

North Carolina Bill Would Legalize Killing Abortion Providers and Advocates—Seriously jessica.substack.com/p/north-caro...

As a candidate, Zohran Mamdani promised to fund the city’s three library systems at 0.5% of the city’s budget. But as mayor, his executive budget proposal coughs up just 0.42% of the budget — less than his predecessor allocated.

Donald Trump told Texas Republicans to turn back a four-term incumbent senator and to vote for a man who is basically a walking Thomas Nast illustration of corruption and the cult members said, yes sir, right away, sir.

NEW Strength In Numbers/ @verasight.io poll: Trump approval on prices falls to -47; new high says inflation is the “most important problem” (39%); voters say they trust Ds over Rs to handle their personal most important problem by 13 points; D+8 for House vote www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-05-26...

Washington state has issued $800,000 in penalties against landlords for violations of the state's new rent control law, but so far hasn't collected any fines as landlords enter compliance.

ICYMI: @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social and Adam Jentleson dig into why voters don’t think in partisan boxes, how some surprising Democratic figures are breaking ideological molds, and what a genuinely big-tent coalition actually looks like in practice:

Twelve professors and faculty members write about how A.I. is changing their work. Attitudes range from cautious optimism to abject despair. www.newyorker.com/news/fault-l...

Federal antitrust enforcement is on vacation But State AGs aren't CA AG Bonta is amongst the most vigilant in the country — Live Nation, Nexstar, now Paramount-WBD in his sights The coalition is growing & the pressure is mounting #BlockTheMerger www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/b...