Today in Politics, Bulletin 464. 9/21/26 Ron Filipkowski Sep 21 ∙ … MS NOW, CNN and Politico filed a lawsuit against Trump today seeking to reverse his total ban on those 3 outlets from the WH. From the lawsuit: “This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles.” “Presidents from the earliest days of the Republic have disagreed with and complained about the tenor and content of press coverage of their administrations. But the Constitution protects the liberty and property interests that news organizations and WH reporters have in their press credentials and the access those credentials afford them to cover the WH for the benefit of the public.” … Trump responded to the lawsuit on Truth Social: “The WH is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved USA. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!” … CNN: “Trump’s close aide Natalie Harp showed him clips of media coverage last week before he banned Politico, CNN and MS NOW from the WH. One source said a graphic from Politico was among the material that is believed to have infuriated the president and helped inform his decision to bar the 3 outlets from the WH grounds. The president also viewed clips from television.” … WSJ: “Trump’s frustrations reached a fever pitch on Friday, when close aide Natalie Harp showed him clips of anchors on MS NOW criticizing his admin. Hours later, Trump banned the network along with CNN and Politico from the WH.” … Natalie Harp is the most influential person in the Trump Admin. By far. … CNN: “Major TV networks stand with CNN, decline to replace its WH pool crew. The major TV networks are standing with CNN by declining to replace its WH pool crew after the Trump admin barred the network from fulfilling its assigned duties on Monday. The decision means the shared TV pool will not cover Trump’s events designated for pool coverage, according to Bryan Boughton, the Fox Washington bureau chief who currently chairs the pool.” … CBS WH correspondent Weijia Jiang: “The primary WH TV pool is made up of 5 networks: CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and FOX. We take turns covering POTUS for pooled events and trips, and then share footage with the other 4 plus other outlets. Today there is no TV pool, so Trump won’t have a crew with him at United Nations.” … Bryan Boughton: ”This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President. This follows the WH’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place.” … NYT reporter Michael Grynbaum: “The presidential TV pool has been suspended as networks react to the WH’s ongoing ban of CNN. That means, for now, that no major TV network will provide coverage of Trump’s events, including today’s appearances at the WH and his trip to the UN.” … C-SPAN said it relies on the TV network pool for coverage of the president: “Without a pool feed, we will not be showing the 1:45pm WH event.” … NBC correspondent Kelly O’Donnell: “The 5 networks expend considerable resources for staff, equipment, travel costs to provide coverage of the president anywhere in the world and have an established infrastructure for how the images, audio and editorial information is distributed for use by other outlets. That is how the public receives this coverage. … The print and radio pool also distribute their information to other outlets. Stills use their respective wire services to distribute images. WH has invited secondary and new media outlets into pool that do not have any responsibility to provide content beyond their own viewers/readers. Those outlets do not provide a collective product.” … NYT media reporter Ben Mullin: “This kind of joint response from the major networks, combined with the suspension of the TV pool, is very unusual. An extraordinary show of solidarity from the press.” … Huff Post WH correspondent S.V. Date: “This matters because Trump could not care less about print and radio pools. He only cares about still photography (to get his face in papers and on the internet) and TV. TV and stills have all the power in the WHCA when it comes to Trump, so the suspension of TV is big.” … Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked about it on CNBC: “The press cares more about the press than anything else. After the WH Correspondents’ Dinner, they didn’t come in there to kill the press, they came in to kill the president, but all we heard about is the personal experiences of the press people, because somehow they were more important.” … The WH attempted to put out video of Trump’s event today, but they apparently didn’t have access to a boom mic so it was impossible for anyone to hear anything that was being said. The right-wing network Real America’s Voice attempted to cover the event live but again - no audio available since they were using the WH feed. We at Meidas made the decision not to cover or clip the event for social media. … Trump’s approval rating in the new IPSOS/Reuters poll is at its lowest in both terms for that poll after dropping 3 more points: Approve: 32%, Disapprove: 66% … He has a 17% approval in the poll on his handling of cost of living. … Dep. US Rep. to the UN Tammy Bruce on Trump’s speech to the UN tomorrow: “We all know how he speaks, and we love him for his transparency and passion. That’s in part why he’s the president. There’s no guess that this will be an inspiring speech. It’ll be forward looking. The American people voted in him in a landslide because they trust him. They know he knows things that we’re not aware of.” “The economy is doing well. Q - So why is he lows in the polls? Why is his approval rating in the low 30s? Bruce: When did we start believing the polls? My goodness. The polls are manipulated to try and shape the public’s view of this man. “ … Bruce is about as hardcore a Trump cultist as you can find. She speaks like a brainwashed robot. … Washington Sun: Ryan Marquardt, the VP of the Iowa Farmers Union, was working at an Iowa State Fair booth when the news broke that the US would import hundreds of thousands of tons of below-market-priced beef from Argentina and Brazil: “I’ve never seen farmers more pissed. That was the maddest I’ve seen farmers in a long time.” … “The decision was one of several actions by the Trump admin that experts and insiders say have dulled enthusiasm for Republicans among rural voters, who are already facing high input costs from the war in Iran and escalating trade wars with some of the country’s biggest buyers of American agriculture.” … Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins on Fox: “RFK Jr and I flipped the dietary guidelines and put beef at the very top. So instead of eating less beef as the price continued to rise, Americans began to eat more beef. And even though the price of a pound of ground beef was $6.50, most Americans say, ‘I’m good with that. I want this protein for my family.’ So they continue to buy.” … I don’t think most Americans are good with that. … Politico: “The Senate Leadership Fund, the top GOP-aligned Senate super PAC, is sounding the alarm in Iowa. A memo marked confidential tells donors, ‘An additional $7 million on top of the current budget would allow SLF to double down and capture voters’ attention’ to boost Rep. Ashley Hinson. The memo continues, noting Hinson is ‘running an incredible campaign,’ but that state Rep. and former Paralympian Josh Turek’s ‘image is net positive and a third of Iowa voters are still undecided.’” … Hinson posted: “Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran. We need to use every option at our disposal to provide some relief from high prices. That includes suspending the gas tax, pausing diesel exports, unleashing E-15 everywhere we can, reinstating the $1/gallon biodiesel tax credit, and creating a diesel relief program to help our farmers and truckers being crushed by the high costs. These actions to lower costs are needed ASAP, and the war needs to be brought to a successful and immediate end.” … Hinson’s opponent Josh Turek responded: “It’s easy to send a tweet but when you had the chance to vote to end this war, you chose not to. You voted 7 times to continue it, including just last week. It’s time to actually end the forever wars and put Iowa and Iowans first. Glad you’re finally following my lead after waffling on the proposals I put forward last week to address the rising costs of the war in Iran.” … Reuters: “Trump has invoked Joe Biden’s name almost 900 times this year, a Reuters review shows, keeping his predecessor at the center of debate as Republicans fight to hold their fragile grip on Congress in November’s midterm elections.” … “Trump has made Biden his political target on average 3 times a day across speeches, comments and Truth Social postings, blaming him for problems ranging from inflation and immigration to munitions shortages, even as the former president, 83 and battling Stage 4 cancer, has largely withdrawn from public life. … “The findings underscore Trump’s effort to keep the focus on Biden as his own approval ratings have sagged, the war with Iran has dragged on, and the cost of living remains stubbornly high. Since January 1, Trump has called out Biden by name at least 890 times, spanning almost 200 events and interviews and around 190 Truth Social posts this year.” … “He invoked Biden at least 210 times on the economy, 168 times on immigration and 138 times on foreign policy and national security matters, while also blaming him for a range of other domestic issues.” … On his trip to the UN, Trump met with Mayor Zohran Mamdani in NYC today, and Trump fell in love all over again as they came out together to speak to the media: “I’ve seen some great Mayors of NYC and some not so great ones. Hopefully, you’re gonna be a great one and I’ll be able to say that you are a great one. And you’re off to a start.” … Trump superfan Laura Loomer was fuming: “How will Mamdani be a great Mayor? He just got done suing the Trump admin this last week with Letitia James. What did we fight so hard for if we are going to even allow the Islamic communist left to ‘have potential’?” “Mamdani endorsed a candidate this cycle who said she uses the American flag as a napkin. Every candidate he has endorsed says they want to ‘Impeach Trump’. What did we fight so hard for if we are going to work with the radical left? Mamdani is an Islamic communist. We voted for less Islam and no communism in America.” … Trump posted: “The United States is working on a massive Deal with respect to the purchase of Potash from Belarus. The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our Farmers and Ranchers.” … NBC reporter Garrett Haake: “The President says that instead of buying Potash from Canadian suppliers, he’s working on a deal to get it from Belarus, which is Russia’s closest ally and currently subject to US sanctions.” … Two social media posters from anonymous accounts weighed in: “Except Lukashenko said Belarus doesn’t have a single ton of potash available. Sanctions originally forced them into locking 100% of production into long-term contracts with China, Russia and Asian markets. EU sanctions still block the Baltic shipping ports needed to get fertilizer to Western markets.” “I was an Owner/Operator for 20 yrs. Potash is what you back haul from Canada. You cant load a truck in Belarus, drive to a boat, load the boat, sail 7k miles to unload the boat on trucks, drive to a drop yard to unload where it finally gets loaded out to a customer. It’s fucking ridiculous. This will cost 8-10X more.” … Art of the deal. … Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): “The media keeps reporting Trump’s international deals as if they are real. But they never are. In Trump’s China deal, he claimed China would buy $17 billion of US goods. The media eagerly reported this. The actual number? $3.9 billion. No change from pre-deal.” Ask the Editor will be out tonight a little while after this Bulletin is published. Once again, lots of great questions - thank you very much for submitting them. These were the 5 that I picked to answer this week: Do you think Trump has an October Surprise planned for the midterms? If so, what is your prediction on what it could be? How is the deal with Denmark on Greenland different than the 1951 agreement that was already in place? How is Meidas handling the media boycott of Trump that began today with the pool coverage? What is really going on with Trump’s latest claim that he will have drones and snipers in the arch? What is the main point of Dems conducting oversight investigations if they take the majority if they don’t control DOJ and aren’t able to initiate prosecutions? If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin recapping the weekend, you can find it here. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. … Daily Mail: “Burner phones. Pay phones. Borrowed devices. Whatever it takes to reach us without being traced. Pentagon staffers are risking their careers to blow the whistle on the disarray and discontentment consuming DOD under Secretary Pete Hegseth.” … “6 insiders – each with at least 6 years inside the Pentagon – spoke with us about working for a man they call the least qualified, most explosive defense secretary in American history: a former Fox & Friends host who rebranded the agency the ‘Dept of War’ and, they say, is now running it like a personal fiefdom.” One Army officer: “People should know what a mess it is. Things have gone from bad to worse. It’s unbelievably chaotic and demoralizing.” A civilian staffer: “This is an urgent SOS. There’s a real sense of paranoia. He’s created an environment where his siege mentality makes sense because personnel see him as a poser, an imposter.” Another on Iran: “This isn’t a war we have any business continuing.” A staffer: “The gulf between his spin and reality on the ground is insane.” … MS NOW: “If Democrats win control of Congress next year, they’ll be faced with a familiar question: Should they impeach Trump? But one of the president’s most outspoken critics from within his own party has some advice for Democrats: Don’t underestimate the power of impeaching cabinet secretaries.” … Just last week, Rep. Thomas Massie demonstrated the potential power of impeachment when he introduced a resolution targeting Pete Hegseth. Massie suggested there’s a lesson in the whole mess: “Impeaching cabinet members is highly underrated. I would think a lot of these cabinet secretaries are going to get pardons at the end of their tenure.” … “In the aftermath of Trump’s two impeachments, he used the failed convictions to rally his base, casting himself as a martyr and playing into their fealty. That history is forcing Democrats to weigh not just whether to impeach, but whom to impeach.” … “The GOP skittishness over defending Hegseth is suggesting an alternative approach, particularly if Democrats focus on cabinet members who have less political loyalty from Republicans than Trump himself. Some Democrats are open to the idea, as they figure out how to signal to their base that they’re resisting Trump while not inspiring a voter backlash.” … WSJ: “The Iran war has created a new shortage on the oil market. This time the scarce commodity isn’t just crude—it is the ships that carry it. Drone attacks that shut Saudi Arabia’s bypass pipeline earlier this month have forced more crude back through the Strait of Hormuz and onto a tanker fleet already stretched thin.” … “The impact has spread worldwide, as longer voyages and shuttle runs around Hormuz tie up ships and push the daily rate of hiring oil tankers to records. Fewer available tankers are slowing oil deliveries just as record shipping costs squeeze refiners’ margins, threatening to keep fuel prices high even if global crude prices fall. That could add fresh pressure on gas prices before the midterm elections.” … Market analyst Adi Imsirovic: “What matters for refiners is the delivered cost of the crude, and that includes freight. The price at the pump includes all of it and the consumer has to pay the full price.” … “The sudden supply crunch among oil supertankers has boosted the cost of hauling oil through the strait to the highest on record. Earlier this month, the cost of hiring an oil supertanker to load inside the Persian Gulf and transit the Strait of Hormuz topped $1 million a day. That works out to $26 a barrel, or roughly a quarter of the crude’s value based on the current market price. Normally, shipping costs are a fraction of the value of a crude cargo.” … Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler was asked about record-high diesel prices on Fox: “Small businesses are looking through this right now. Prices are elevated. But we can’t have the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism have their thumb on oil prices and Trump is taking care of that.” … NYT: “For two weeks, the question of whether to yield to pleas from Saudi Arabia and order the US military to strike targets in Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis has bedeviled Trump. A decision to go forward could open another front in the war against Iran that Trump started but has been unable to end as it spreads economic shock around the globe.” … “The president had wavered for weeks over the Saudi appeals for help in fighting the Houthis, who took advantage of the instability in the Middle East and reignited their war with the kingdom this summer. But things came to a head on Thursday: MBS called the president to implore him, again, to step in to help blunt the rapidly advancing group.” … “Trump had met with advisers just the day before and told them he did not favor strikes. But after speaking with the Saudi crown prince, he reversed himself and told the Pentagon to prepare for airstrikes against the Houthis. But by midday Sunday, the president appeared to have reversed himself again. There would be no US airstrikes against the Houthis - at least not for the time being.” … “Most of the president’s inner circle was either deeply skeptical or outright opposed to joining the Saudi fight against the Houthis, especially given the existing strains facing the US military in the war with Iran. Trump’s decision to pull back from striking Houthi targets came as commanders had approved target lists, troops were loading bombs onto US warplanes selected for the missions and the wave of attacks was just about to begin.” … Bloomberg: “The heads of America’s leading AI development labs have started a national conversation about tapping the brakes on a technology that’s offering so much promise for society, while at the same time showing it can do a frightening amount of harm. It’s a debate that needs to be had, and a real solution invariably will be hard to come by. … But considering the trillions of dollars of investment gains and market value that have been built on the assumption that AI will keep growing at breakneck speed for years and years to come, what happens to Wall Street - and more importantly Main Street - if it doesn’t?” … Jim Morrow, CEO of Callodine Capital: “People may not fully grasp just how wound up the market and the economy is in all of this. There are just so many things to unravel if it starts.” … “The stakes have grown alarmingly high over the past 4 years as AI became the foundation upon which the economy and stock market rest. AI-related spending accounts for about half the growth in US GDP, rivaling the level of internet investment during the dot-com bubble.” … “Nearly $33 trillion in market value has been added to the S&P 500 Index since the AI boom began in late 2022 when OpenAI publicly released ChatGPT. The vast majority is from companies with futures tethered to the tech, like the tech giants spending hundreds of billions of dollars to create more data centers, and the makers of chips and networking gear, providers of electricity and manufacturers of cooling systems needed to generate all that computing power.” … Trump posted: “Russia has unfortunately lost control of its Diesel Oil Industry due to its War with Ukraine. A large number of their Diesel refineries have been blown up and are, at least temporarily, out of commission. This ridiculous and never ending War with Ukraine must be ended. The whole World suffers as 25,000 people, mostly soldiers, are being killed each month. What a shame!” … It is not unfortunate that Ukraine is blowing up Russian refineries. If this war is going to end, it will happen because Ukraine now has the military capabilities to strike refineries deep inside Russia for the first time which will cripple their economy. Also, Trump promised dozens of times that he would end this war in 24 hours, he “knows just what to say” to Putin to make it happen, and “it wouldn’t even be tough.” But here we are. … Zelenskyy responded to Trump’s post: “From the very first minute, Ukraine has sought peace. We have already made dozens of diplomatic proposals on how to end this war with dignity, guarantee security, and prevent new Russian invasions. Right now, there is a dialogue with President Trump and America. There are also ideas on the table for bringing peace closer, starting with strong de-escalation steps. Ukraine’s energy sector, critical infrastructure, and our food exports must stop being targets for Russia, and this will lead to matching de-escalation steps on our part. Solutions are possible. We are ready to work on this, and we will discuss it with our partners on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. It will no longer be the case that only the country under attack suffers. The nature of war is now such that the aggressor will suffer as well. Technology makes this possible.” … LA Gov. Jeff Landry was asked on CNBC about his embrace of data centers: "Unfortunately, I don't think the American people are digesting all of the information. I mean, look, nothing against golfers out there, but golf courses use 40 times more water than data centers, and we welcome them." … Meidas reporter Luke Radel asked Pete Buttigieg in TX if he thinks the Biden Admin made mistakes with it’s handling of the southern border: “Yes, I do. If you look at the numbers and the things that were happening at the border in 2022-23, the Admin was slow to act. If the executive actions that happened in the last year of the Admin had come earlier, things would have looked very different. This was a problem and Democrats were slow to acknowledge it.” “But now we see an Admin that has taken things way to the extreme in the other direction. We don’t have to choose between those two things. We can have reasonable, safe, humane and legal policy for a secure border with actual immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship and a sane lawful immigration system.” … If any of you have watched my weekly podcast Uncovered for a while, you know I said repeatedly during the Biden Admin that if Pete Buttigieg and Alejandro Majorkas had switched jobs with Buttigieg at DHS and Mayorkas as Transportation Secretary things would have played out a whole lot differently on both policy and communication on immigration and the border. For the better. Just my personal opinion. … Semafor: “House Democrats are fighting over the pecking order in their extended leadership hierarchy as they hope to win the majority. In recent days, allies of both Reps. Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Ted Lieu (D-CA), have laid claim to the 4th-ranking slot in the majority as they look to potentially convert their current titles (asst Dem leader and caucus vice chair, respectively), into the equivalent roles in the majority (asst speaker and caucus chair).” … “There’s not much practical implication of the leadership hierarchy besides dictating the speaking order at press conferences, but it can give lawmakers bragging rights or set them up for future jobs. Members of the current top trio - Hakeem Jeffries, Kathleen Clark, and Pete Aguilar - all previously served in the rung of leadership below Pelosi’s top tier, though the order of those roles didn’t make a difference for the jobs they hold now. … Politico: “An influential and controversial senior adviser to US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee solicited cash gifts from Israeli citizens to celebrate his upcoming wedding. David Milstein, who holds a top-secret security clearance, sent a wedding invitation on Sept. 16 soliciting ‘monetary wedding gift[s]’ in either ‘US dollars or Israeli shekels’ along with a QR code.” … Source in the intelligence community: “This is a counterintelligence red flag. The fact that he is blatantly soliciting donations is absolutely jaw dropping.” … “Milstein did not respond to Politico’s text messages or phone calls. A spokesperson for the State Dept declined to comment.” … Center for Strategic Politics: “We polled 5 routes for Trump to leave office before the end of his term. A plurality of Dems support 4 of them, including a military coup and death by natural causes. The only one underwater, an assassination, is still supported by 29%.” Invite your friends and earn rewards If you enjoy Meidas+, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe.