Good morning.☕️

The headlines were loud this week. Some of the most important stories weren’t.

Pour the coffee. Let’s get into it.

1. Welcome to Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon

Here’s a story that gets more interesting when you put a few pieces together.

The Pentagon quietly brought conservative military influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers into government jobs. Some continued praising Pete Hegseth, attacking his critics and weighing in on Pentagon policy, without telling their audiences they were also working for the Pentagon. Meanwhile, three Stars and Stripes employees are being fired after two publicly defended the newspaper’s editorial independence and the third refused to fire them. On Friday, a federal judge declined to block their terminations while their lawsuit proceeds.

So friendly influencers get quietly brought inside. Journalists defending their independence get shown the door. Got it.

And here’s one more wrinkle: NBC reported last week that Hegseth and his wife have privately discussed a possible 2028 presidential run. Hegseth says that’s "100% false." Maybe he never runs. However, a Defense secretary with possible political ambitions overseeing a Pentagon that’s quietly employing sympathetic influencers while exerting greater control over an independent military newspaper?

That’s worth paying attention to.

🥸 Pentagon Secretly Hires Military Influencers (WaPo)

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2. The CDC Director Is Caving, Again

I’ve seen this movie before…from inside the White House.

In 2020, I watched Trump and his team pressure the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) when its science or public-health guidance became politically inconvenient. It was dangerous then. Watching it happen again is even more alarming.

Which brings me to what’s happening at the CDC right now.

CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz ordered the agency not to include two measles-associated deaths reported by Pennsylvania in its national tally while it conducts another review. Pennsylvania says it provided the required information, and former CDC officials say second-guessing a state’s determination this way is highly unusual.

And as of Friday night, nothing has changed. The CDC updated its national measles tracker Friday and again left out Pennsylvania's two reported deaths, putting an asterisk where the state's death count would otherwise appear.

Remember the concerns about Schwartz during her confirmation? Senators from both parties pressed her on whether she would stand up to RFK Jr. and Trump if politics collided with science. She promised she would "never compromise on the science." Well, here’s her first major test…

When politics starts influencing how the CDC counts deaths or communicates risk, we lose something essential: trust in the information meant to keep us safe. I watched what happens when politics bullies science into submission. We should not have to learn that lesson twice.

🦠 CDC Delays Counting Measles Deaths (CNN)

3. DHS Goes Fishing

Apparently investigating your social media posts wasn’t enough.

The Trump administration is using an obscure government tool to obtain private information about journalists, nonprofits and unions, without first getting a judge’s approval. Minneapolis journalist Georgia Fort learned the government had obtained six months of her phone records without notifying her.

It turns out your shopping history isn’t off limits either. In a separate anti-ICE investigation, DHS Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) subpoenaed REI for information on anyone in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area who bought a particular dark-green beanie over roughly two years. WIRED reports investigators issued 92 subpoenas to companies ranging from telecoms and social-media platforms to airlines.

Yes. The federal government wanted to know who bought a green beanie at REI.

I’ve worked at DHS. Investigators sometimes need access to records when pursuing actual threats, but that’s why we have rules, oversight, and courts. A few weeks ago, I told you about DHS building dossiers on protesters.

This week, it’s journalists’ phone records and REI shopping histories.

See the pattern yet?

📱 DHS Is Using an Obscure Law to Secretly Snoop (The Guardian)

4. About Those Forever Chemicals in Your Water...

You know those “forever chemicals” we keep discovering in our water, soil, and food? We seem to be taking the “forever” part a little too literally.

The EPA developed a first-of-its-kind national survey to figure out which industries are sending Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) into wastewater treatment plants, information that could help regulators trace the biggest sources and eventually limit the pollution. It was sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget for approval in October 2024. It’s still sitting there. Nearly two years later! (For context, a former OMB official told the Associated Press that these reviews typically take about 60 days.)

PFAS have been linked to certain cancers, developmental problems in children, reduced vaccine response, and other health problems. Wastewater plants generally aren’t equipped to remove them, meaning the chemicals can wind up back in rivers and in treated sewage sludge spread on farm fields as fertilizer.

Here’s where this gets particularly absurd: the Trump administration criticized an EPA assessment of PFAS-contaminated farm sludge in part because there wasn’t enough national data. The survey designed to collect that data? That’s the one sitting at the White House awaiting approval.

The administration says it’s committed to protecting Americans from PFAS and has kept some Biden-era drinking-water limits. But if you actually want to stop these chemicals from getting into our water and food, knowing who is dumping them in the first place is a good place to start.

Call me crazy.

☣️ PFAS Study Stalled at White House (AP)

5. Maybe Check That Barcode

Here’s something I want you to know.

While diarrhea jokes have gotten some laughs lately, here’s the less funny part: our food-safety system has some serious holes.

There were 320 food recalls last year, up from 296 in 2024. But the number that caught my attention was this: regulators investigated 28 foodborne illness outbreaks, and 17 never resulted in an announced recall for a specific brand. In 13 cases, investigators didn’t even identify what type of food caused the outbreak.

All of this is happening as the federal food-safety infrastructure is being weakened. ProPublica found that inspections of foreign food facilities fell to their lowest level in more than a decade, excluding the pandemic, following Trump administration staffing cuts.

So some journalists and data experts decided to build another set of eyes.

Recall411 is a new independent tool that monitors food and product-safety information from more than 100 sources, including federal and state agencies, retailers, manufacturers, and international regulators. You can even scan a barcode and see reported complaints and injuries before you buy.

We shouldn’t need a backup watchtower for the agencies charged with keeping us safe. But right now, I’m really glad someone built one. I personally tested it out and found it incredibly helpful.

🥫Check Your Food & Products on Recall411

❤️ One Thing For Your Soul

The stories coming out of the family detention center in Dilley, Texas, have been heartbreaking. Parents have reported children getting sick, struggling to eat, and going without basic necessities.

And in the middle of all that, there is Casey Revkin.

Through her nonprofit, Each Step Home, Casey is sending more than $10,000 a week to detained families so parents can buy food their children will actually eat, bottled water, medicine, and even candy bars for birthdays. She regularly helps nearly 80 children.

If there are angels on Earth, Casey is certainly one of them. I hope she inspires all of us to keep making a difference in our own way. No matter how big. No matter how small. It matters.

🪥 The Woman Feeding Kids in ICE Detention (WaPo)

Before I leave you this week, I want to take a moment to remember a woman who spent a lifetime showing us what it means to speak up. After the 2024 election, concerned about what the future would hold, I had the privilege of spending time with Gloria Steinem when she opened her home to an extraordinary group of women. We regrouped. We leaned on each other. I sat in that room listening as Gloria shared her wisdom with women I deeply admire. She spent a lifetime showing generations of women what it looks like to speak up, push forward, and refuse to accept that the world has to remain as it is.

Thank you for everything, Gloria. Your courage lives on in all of us.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend,

-Olivia

Federal agents are launching a voter-fraud surge across nine states, starting today, that will continue as Americans begin casting ballots in the midterm elections. I spent years inside the Department of Homeland Security and counterterrorism communities. The dates caught my attention, but the agency they chose got my full attention. According to internal federal guidance obtained by CNN, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is kicking off a "coordinated criminal voter fraud surge initiative." Field interviews, investigative leads, and potential prosecutions will take place from now through mid-October.

If this is your first introduction to HSI, don’t feel bad. ICE eats all the headlines, and FEMA soaks up whatever’s left, but I know this agency. HSI is not the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) with badges. It’s ICE’s principal investigative arm, built to go after things like terrorism financing, human trafficking, cyber intrusions, weapons smuggling, and the money behind cartels. Its agents sit on Joint Terrorism Task Forces with the FBI. This is serious machinery, built for serious threats. Which is exactly why it’s strange to watch it get pointed at your county’s voter rolls.

This isn’t the first stretch, either. HSI’s mission has already been bent during this Presidential term. ICE has two lanes: Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) handles immigration arrests and deportations, HSI handles criminal investigations. Almost immediately after Trump returned to office, Border czar Tom Homan folded HSI into a “whole of government” immigration surge alongside ERO, the FBI, DEA, ATF and the Marshals. It has been all hands on deck for arrest numbers. Specialized investigators trained for terrorism, cybercrime and transnational crime got reassigned to immigration enforcement. Now they’re being redeployed again. This time toward American voters in Washington, Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York and Connecticut (Anyone else notice some critical election swing states in there?)

To be clear, if someone knowingly votes while ineligible, that’s a crime, and crimes should be investigated. I’m not arguing otherwise. The question is narrower and much less comfortable: why does an agency built for cartels and terror cells suddenly have the bandwidth, and the mandate, to go door-knocking on election integrity, three months out from a national election? And does the evidence actually justify the size of the response? In national security, you don’t start with the response you want and reverse-engineer a threat to justify it. You start with the threat. What is it, how big is it, what does the evidence actually show, and what response is proportionate? I spent years in rooms where that sequence determined which agencies got involved and where resources went. So let’s run the numbers HSI is supposedly acting on.

The 250,000 number that isn’t

This summer, the White House and DHS announced it had found more than 250,000 registered noncitizens across California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada. That’s a big, scary, headline-ready number. Then you look at Nevada, one of the four states in that count. DHS told Nevada it had found nearly 16,000 noncitizens on the voter rolls. Somewhat alarming, until DHS clarified that 16,000 was just a raw list that still needed to be manually checked, person by person.

So how many did DHS say it was actually confident about?

185.

Another 6,200 were "higher confidence, needs more vetting." Over 14,000 needed further review before anyone could say anything about them. Nevada asked DHS for the underlying data to verify even the 185. DHS said no.

Nevada’s deputy secretary of state for elections put it plainly: "We are unable to conduct an analysis without real verifiable information."

Maybe some of those 185 turn out to be real. Investigate them. That’s the whole point. Investigate what you can substantiate; don’t build the scary number first and go looking for the crime after. That’s not how you run a national security operation, and it’s certainly not how you should run an operation aimed at American voters.

A database match is not a conviction

HSI’s real strength is connecting data across systems, which is useful when you’re tracking a cartel’s money. It’s considerably less reassuring when the dataset is your neighbors. Names overlap. Addresses go stale. Records lag. A match doesn’t mean you found a crime; sometimes it doesn’t even mean you found the right person.

Nevada officials said the quiet part out loud: they were worried about accusing an actual U.S. citizen of being a noncitizen and leaving them scared, harassed, or unable to vote. That’s not a clerical error, it’s a person’s ballot. Keep that in mind, because the disinformation machine around the midterms is already running hot, and a headline number is a lot easier to spread than a correction.

And DHS wants to take this national

Last week I flagged that ICE is exploring hiring a private contractor to collect voter-registration and voting-history files nationwide, all 50 states, D.C., the territories, feeding it to HSI for "fraud detection and data segmentation." Right now it’s only a request for information, not an awarded contract, and the draft says jurisdictions shouldn’t be picked based on politics. Sure…

Now put the pieces on the table together: HSI agents already stretched thin on immigration enforcement, redeployed onto a voter-fraud surge, built on numbers that dissolve under scrutiny, layered on top of a proposal to vacuum up voter data nationwide, all landing in the same eight-week window before Americans vote.

Each piece has an explanation if you squint. Stacked together, that’s not a coincidence, that’s a pattern.

Protecting elections is not the same as policing them

DHS absolutely belongs in election security: foreign hacking, physical threats to election workers, infrastructure attacks. That’s real, and it’s necessary; however, protecting the system is different from investigating the people inside it.

American elections are deliberately decentralized; your county clerk runs your polling place, not the federal government. The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) own guidance warns that overt investigations near an election can chill legitimate voting and drag the investigation itself into the political fight. DHS isn’t bound by that DOJ policy, and this new guidance doesn’t even mention the concern.

Sit with that.

Then there’s the military

This week, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dan Caine had to put something remarkable in writing, in an official letter to a sitting senator: the military has no plans to send federal troops or federalized National Guard members to polling places, and no plans to seize ballots or voting machines.

Good. That’s exactly the answer we should want. But I can’t shake the fact that in 2026, in the United States of America, someone had to ask. And I’ll say this plainly: I have been deeply concerned about Trump deploying troops as we get closer to the midterms. I still am.

Caine’s letter doesn’t erase that concern. Because troops don’t have to be stationed at polling places to affect what’s happening around an election. Having served in the White House during Trump 1.0, I know what the President does when he lashes out. As Trump grows increasingly angry about the possibility of Republicans losing Congress—and the investigations, subpoenas and accountability hearings that could come with it—I’m watching what happens in American cities very closely.

The justification for deploying forces doesn’t have to be the election. It can be immigration. An “invasion.” Crime. Riots. Disorder. Protecting federal personnel or property. Pick your emergency.

We’ve already watched this administration deploy federal forces into American cities over the objections of state and local leaders. In 2024 I publicly warned that this would happen should he return to office, and it did. That’s why I’m not only watching whether troops appear at polling places. I’m watching whether they’re deployed to the streets around them in the weeks leading up to Election Day.

Trump often says the quiet part out loud. Stephen Miller’s role has been different: turning the president’s impulses into executable policy that also benefits his conniving agenda.

So no, I don’t expect anyone to stand at a podium and announce, We’re deploying troops because of the election. I’m watching what they do, and what justification they use to do it because you don’t have to put a soldier inside a polling place to change the atmosphere outside of one.

Tonight, in one of those nine states, a local election official—Republican, Democrat, or neither—it doesn’t matter, is testing equipment and answering angry emails, bracing for the next round of harassment over a job most people don’t even know exists. Before you share the next viral fraud claim about them, ask the questions I learned to ask for a living: What’s the threat? What’s the evidence? Does the response actually match it?

And let me be clear about something else: none of this should scare anyone away from participating. Stay vigilant. Ask questions. Pay attention. But no matter what happens between now and Election Day, get out and vote.

Our elections don’t belong to ICE, DHS, the military, or any president.

They belong to us.

Until next time,

Olivia

Saturday, August 29, 2026

Happy Pumpkin Spice Latte season to all who celebrate. 🎃☕️ (It’s too early in my opinion, but I digress.)

Grab your coffee. No foam, no filter—let’s go.

1. ICE Wants Your Voting History. Seriously.

If you had ICE collecting voter data from all 50 states on your 2026 bingo card, congratulations.

This week, ICE sought a contractor capable of acquiring voter-registration and voter-history files from every state, D.C., and U.S. territory for what it calls "fraud detection and data segmentation." To be clear: voting history doesn’t tell the government who you voted for, but it can show whether you voted and include other information contained in voter files.

But here’s where this gets even more concerning.

In Wyoming, two Department of Justice (DOJ) officials showed up during the Republican primary to monitor polling places. According to Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee, they wanted to interview voters, questioned officials about poll-worker training, requested training materials, and asked to examine election tabulators. She refused some of their requests. Republican Gov. Mark Gordon called their behavior "aggressive" and "irregular" and has asked the state attorney general to investigate. DOJ says they were there to ensure compliance with federal voting-rights laws.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is fighting in court to impose new federal requirements on mail voting just weeks before ballots go out. A federal judge temporarily blocked the rules Thursday, and the administration is already appealing.

I’ve worked at DHS. ICE collecting nationwide voter data while DOJ officials are showing up at polling places asking about voting machines is not something I shrug off. Neither should you. This isn’t normal, and we shouldn’t get used to it.

🗳️ ICE Seeks Nationwide Voter Data (Courthouse News Service)

Speaking of technology knowing a little too much about us…

I stumbled across What We Tell AI, a project asking strangers what they actually tell AI about work, relationships, decisions, and the things they might not tell another person.

The most 2026 project imaginable: humans telling humans what they tell the robots. 🤖 Take a look

2. We’re Running Out of the Missiles NATO Needs

While Washington ricochets from one outrage to another, here’s something that should be setting off alarm bells: U.S. Patriot missile interceptor stocks in Europe have reportedly fallen to “beyond critical” levels. The six-month war with Iran has consumed an estimated 65% of the U.S. Patriot inventory. The Pentagon disputes that there’s a critical shortage, but our adversaries are watching.

Fresh U.S. intelligence reportedly indicates that Putin sees America as weakened by the Iran war and may see an opportunity to escalate against U.S. interests and allies in Europe. Russia has already been threatening NATO countries while intensifying missile and drone attacks against Ukraine. Then came an extraordinary development: CIA Director John Ratcliffe quietly flew to Moscow this week to apparently warn Russian officials not to escalate against NATO allies, particularly Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and pressed Moscow to reduce its military and economic support for Iran. Trump, meanwhile, downplayed the concern, saying Putin isn’t going to attack NATO territory.

I spent years working on national-security crises. Readiness means planning for the threat in front of you and the one that comes next. We’re burning through critical air-defense weapons in one war while Russia is reportedly assessing whether America is too depleted and distracted to respond somewhere else.

Putin is watching, and apparently, he’s doing the math.

🚀 U.S. Patriot Stocks Fall to “Beyond Critical” Levels (AP)

3. RFK Jr. Said It Wasn’t About Vaccines, His Letter Says Otherwise

During his confirmation hearings last year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was repeatedly questioned about a 2019 trip he made to Samoa, months before a devastating measles outbreak killed 83 people, most of them young children.

Kennedy was emphatic that his trip had "nothing to do with vaccines," he told senators. He said it again the next day: "My purpose in going down there had nothing to do with vaccines."

There’s just one problem: a letter Kennedy himself sent before the trip.

New documents obtained by the Associated Press and The Guardian show Kennedy wrote Samoa’s prime minister proposing that his team conduct a "detailed health informatics assessment" of what happened with the country’s MMR vaccines. In that letter, he used the words vaccine or vaccination eight times.

Kennedy ultimately got confirmed after reassuring skeptical senators about his vaccine positions. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician, has since said Kennedy violated commitments he made to secure that support.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) insists the Samoa trip was unrelated to vaccines and calls allegations that Kennedy lied to Congress false and defamatory. Kennedy was not under oath during the hearings, although knowingly making materially false statements to Congress can still be a crime.

This isn’t ancient history. This is the man currently running America’s health department.

💉 RFK Jr.’s Samoa Story Unravels (AP)

4. Fired Over Climate Science

Dr. Adam Kalkstein spent 17 years teaching at West Point. He was the academy’s only climate scientist. Now he’s out of a job, and suing.

Kalkstein says West Point ordered him to remove information about the human causes of climate change from his curriculum. He refused, saying doing so would force him to “defy science.” Six months later, the tenured professor was told his contract would not be renewed.

And here’s a detail worth knowing: Kalkstein is a conservative Republican. His argument wasn’t about politics or “social justice.” He told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that understanding climate change is a national-security issue, from competing with Russia in a melting Arctic to preparing future officers for the world they’ll actually have to operate in.

This also comes as Hegseth pushes to remake America’s service academies. A draft Pentagon memo reportedly criticized “civilian academic norms,” proposed scaling back civilian professors, and called for reviewing courses for their “operational relevance.”

Think about the irony. If you’re serious about military lethality, wouldn’t you want future commanders to understand why the physical environment they’re going to fight in is changing? The enemy doesn’t care about our culture wars. Neither does melting sea ice.

🌡️ West Point’s Climate Science Fight (NY Times)

5. Your Tax Dollars at Work…on the Ranch

Remember all that talk about government waste? Apparently there may be an exception when the government official owns 480 acres nearby.

Senators are seeking an investigation into Michael Boren, a senior Trump administration official overseeing the U.S. Forest Service, after current and former officials raised questions about the firefighting response to a July blaze near his Idaho ranch. The fire reportedly burned only about seven acres, but officials described an unusually robust deployment of federal firefighting resources. Boren reportedly contacted Forest Service officials repeatedly as the fire approached the area surrounding his property. The Agriculture Department says his communications were appropriate for his position, and it has made no finding of wrongdoing. However, the allegations are serious enough that senators now want answers about who got those federal firefighting resources and why.

Government efficiency gets complicated when the smoke is visible from your own backyard.

🔥 Firefight at the Ranch (The Guardian)

🐾 One Thing For Your Soul

Milo Bear, a golden retriever, disappeared into the snowy mountains near Lake Tahoe on Christmas Day. For 72 days, his family searched. They put up thousands of flyers, followed sightings and snowshoed through drifts as deep as 20 feet. They never stopped looking.

Then came the call every dog owner dreams about: Milo had been found alive. A shelter scanned his microchip and reunited him with his family. He’d lost a lot of weight, but remarkably, had no major injuries.

Now Milo has been named the winner of Nationwide’s 2026 Hambone Award for the year’s most unusual pet insurance claim.

For 72 days, his family refused to give up on him and Milo wasn’t giving up on finding his way back to them either.

Good boy, Milo!

🐶 Milo’s 72-Day Journey Home

And before I go, I can’t end this week without saying goodbye to Dolly Parton. I was raised on Dolly. Her music was part of the soundtrack of my childhood and a reminder that you can go out into the world, become larger than life, and never forget where you came from.

Rest easy, Dolly. We will always love you.❤️

More soon,

Olivia

Saturday, August 22, 2026

$40 trillion.

That’s where the national debt landed this week. If you think that’s just a Washington Beltway number, it isn’t. The consequences can reach your mortgage, your car loan, your credit cards, etc.

And, as the national debt crossed a record $40 trillion, the President was showing off construction on his White House ballroom and helipad.

So there’s your cheerful Saturday morning financial update. Now on to the other things keeping me caffeinated.

1. He Spied For America, Now ICE Wants Him Gone

Blerim Skoro says he infiltrated al Qaeda for the CIA, provided intelligence to the FBI, and helped put terrorists behind bars. He was shot after his cover was blown and a federal judge later determined that sending him back to Kosovo could put him at risk of torture or death. So naturally, ICE arrested him while he was showing up to an immigration office to renew his paperwork.

Skoro’s story is complicated. He came to the U.S. from Kosovo, served prison time for drug trafficking, was deported, and later returned illegally. There’s a national security problem buried inside this immigration story: What happens the next time America asks someone to risk their life for us?

Intelligence work depends on people willing to enter rooms Americans cannot, build relationships we cannot, and take risks most of us will never know about. You can argue about Skoro’s immigration status. You can’t pretend the message being sent to future informants and assets overseas doesn’t matter.

Neither, presumably, did the people we’ll need to recruit tomorrow.

🕵️‍♂️ He spied for the U.S. Now ICE wants to deport him. (CBS News)

2. What Does Anti-Terrorism Money Have to Do With Your Ballot?

Last month we found out that the Trump administration is withholding federal anti-terrorism money unless states and local governments agree to changes in how they run elections. The money comes from FEMA’s Homeland Security Grant Program, created by Congress after 9/11 to help communities prevent and respond to terrorism.

That is quite a journey from al Qaeda to ballot audits.

New requirements cover voting equipment, how ballots are cast and audited, and citizenship checks of voters and election workers using a federal database that has faced questions about accuracy. Jurisdictions that don’t comply can lose 20%, or potentially all, of their grant funding. Now Harris and El Paso counties in Texas, Nashville, and Columbus are suing. FEMA says election security is national security and calls the requirements “critical, common-sense steps” to protect election integrity.

I spent years at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Protecting elections from cyberattacks, terrorism, and foreign interference absolutely belongs in the homeland-security mission. Using anti-terrorism funding as leverage to dictate how states and localities administer elections is something very different—especially months before the midterms. Whatever you think, ask yourself this: What happens to public safety when terrorism-prevention money becomes leverage in a fight over elections?

🗳️ Anti-Terrorism Funds Tied to Election Rules (USA Today)

3. When the Watchdogs Become Political Weapons

I’ve warned about this for years.

When I spoke out in 2020, I didn’t use the internal whistleblower process. I had spent my career inside the government and was already worried about what happens when the systems designed to expose wrongdoing are controlled by the people you’re reporting on.

Trump began his second term by firing or demoting at least 20 inspectors general. Some replacements are now openly praising Trump, attacking his political opponents and directing scrutiny outside the agencies they’re supposed to oversee.

Then came a DOJ whistleblower. Career Civil Rights Division attorney Haley Van Erem alleges the administration’s antisemitism investigations into Brown, Columbia and Harvard universities had outcomes "predetermined without regard to the evidence." At Brown, she says investigators found insufficient evidence of systemic violations; yet more than $500 million in federal funding had already been frozen.

Antisemitism is real and Jewish students deserve protection, but that’s exactly why investigations must follow the evidence, not a political directive. Put the stories together: fire the watchdogs, weaken their offices, install political allies, and then pressure career investigators when the facts don’t produce the desired result…

And you arrive at the question I worried about in 2020: Who do you report wrongdoing to when the watchdogs themselves have been compromised?

🚨 Trump’s IGs Become Political Weapons (NY Times); DOJ Whistleblower Sounds the Alarm (WaPo)

Someone I Want You to Know

I want to pause here for someone I know personally.

My friend and former colleague Julia Curlee told her story in The Atlantic this week. Julia and I spent years serving in the intelligence community, and we later served together on Vice President Mike Pence’s staff. During my tenure as his Homeland Security Advisor, she was his Presidential Daily Briefer. I knew Julia for what she was: an extraordinarily dedicated intelligence officer and public servant. I also watched Vice President Pence treat her with the professionalism and respect she had earned.

Julia is transgender. In her piece, she writes publicly about her career, her service, and what happened after the Trump administration returned to power.

She ends with a line that stayed with me:

She once wrote under a pseudonym so she could keep serving. Now she writes in her own name for the same reason.

🕵️‍♀️ Julia Curlee: The Wrong Kind of American (The Atlantic- Gift article)

4. ICE Had a Quiet Deportation Channel With Iran

And then there’s the one that almost made me spit out my coffee.

Newly released emails show ICE officials working with Iranian officials to arrange three flights that deported more than 100 Iranians in 2025 and early 2026. Coordinating with another government to obtain travel documents isn’t unusual. However, what happened next is. The emails show Iranian officials requesting changes to who would be sent back, and ICE apparently accommodating some of them.

"Per request from the Iran Embassy I added a few cases," one ICE official wrote. Another wrote: “Iran has requested that I amend the previous manifest and expedite the removal process.”

At least one Iranian was even put on a flight despite not appearing on the final manifest sent to Qatar. One U.S. official responded: “I have no idea how the case/person got through on the plane.” DHS disputes that anyone was mistakenly deported.

Days after Trump warned “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” during the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, ICE leadership was calling Iranian deportations a priority. An internal email urged officials to “identify a solution for this White House priority,” even as Iranians themselves were fleeing the country.

Previous reporting found asylum seekers among those deported. And eleven Iranian detainees have separately alleged they were forced to meet with Iranian government officials who knew details about their asylum claims. DHS vehemently denies sharing asylum records and says deportees received due process.

For decades, America offered refuge to Iranians fleeing that regime. Now we’re learning the regime may have had a say in who America sent back.

🇮🇷 ICE’s Quiet Channel With Iran (AP)

5. Dump Flock, but the Cameras Aren’t Going Away

Remember all that controversy over Flock Safety, the company with more than 120,000 AI-powered license-plate cameras across America? People fought back and at least 56 municipalities have deactivated, canceled, or rejected Flock contracts this year. Victory! Well, not exactly. New reporting finds that some cities dumping Flock are simply replacing it with another surveillance company: Axon. The $48 billion police-tech giant behind Tasers and body cameras has moved in to replace Flock in at least seven municipalities across five states.

And this is where the story turns into a bigger Flockin’ deal. See what I did there?

These cameras automatically scan license plates billions of times every month, creating searchable records of where vehicles have been. Police say they’re invaluable for finding missing people, stolen cars and solving crimes. We’ve also seen police use this technology to track a woman suspected of self-administering an abortion across state lines. Officers have allegedly used it to stalk romantic partners. Data has found its way to federal immigration enforcement. Now add artificial intelligence (AI)…Axon markets a platform that combines license-plate readers with city and privately owned cameras to, in the company’s words, "connect the dots across your entire data ecosystem."

This isn’t really a story about Flock anymore. It’s about building a surveillance infrastructure faster than we’re building the rules governing what can be done with it.

You can take down the Flock cameras. That doesn’t mean anyone stopped watching.

👁️ Cities Dump Flock. Surveillance Remains (The Guardian)

Meanwhile, Deep in the Heart of Texas…🤠

Okay, I’m originally from Texas, so indulge me. Cook Political Report just moved the Texas Senate race from Lean Republican to Toss-Up, as rural Republicans increasingly revolt over data centers, transmission lines, water, power and local control. Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat statewide in more than 30 years. So no, I’m not calling Texas blue. But I am saying: Watch Texas. I will certainly do my best to support James Talarico because I love my home state. Texans and the country deserve better than the corrupt Ken Paxton.

🐴 One Thing for Your Soul

Meet Yupia, a rescue horse who apparently looked at the music industry and thought: I can do that!

Singer-songwriter Mikayla Khramov discovered Yupia liked making music when he started strumming her guitar with his nose. He has since expanded his repertoire to guitar, harp and accordion, sometimes plucking strings with his teeth. Naturally, he’s now a featured artist on her upcoming album.

So after a week of $40 trillion debt, deportations, surveillance and government watchdogs…

Here’s a horse dropping an album. And frankly, I’m ready for his tour dates.

🎸 Meet Yupia, the Musical Horse (USA Today)

And on that note, I’m off to play my guitar. Thanks for the inspiration, Yupia.

–Olivia

Saturday, August 15, 2026

If there were ever any doubt that Trump does not understand the sacrifices military service demands, just remember the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Bring them home.

And apparently Trump now thinks he can declare parts of the world American territory. He says the Strait of Hormuz is next. Because international sovereignty works on dibs now. SMDH. (Translation for those of us raised on complete sentences: shaking my damn head.)

Now, let’s get into it.

1. The National Security Cloak Is Coming for the Midterms

I have long warned that “national security” is this administration’s favorite cloak, the phrase it reaches for when it wants extraordinary power with minimal scrutiny. Now Trump’s allies are saying the quiet part out loud.

During a Newsmax interview, MAGA personality Wayne Allyn Root suggested Trump declare a national security emergency to impose new voting restrictions before the midterms. Trump could have rejected the idea. Instead, he replied: "Stranger things have happened, okay? I’ll leave it at that."

A classic Trump threat, left hanging in the air. The president does not control federal elections. The Constitution gives states primary responsibility for administering them and Congress the power to regulate them. An emergency declaration cannot erase that, and any attempted takeover would face immediate legal challenges, but legality is only part of the danger.

This is how the national security cloak works: manufacture an emergency, call it "security" and dare anyone to intervene. Protesters become "domestic terrorists." Migration becomes an "invasion." A trade deficit becomes a "national emergency." Falling crime in Washington justifies troops in the streets. Now they are testing that language on our elections.

Trump just told us what he may do. This time, let’s not pretend we weren’t warned.

🗳️ Trump Is Hinting at an Election Emergency (The New Republic)

2. Bombing Fishing Boats Near the Galápagos…

This story reads like a spy thriller. Unfortunately, the people and the explosions are real.

Three Ecuadorian fishing boats were attacked near the Galápagos Islands this year. The Fiorella disappeared in January with eight crew members still missing. Two others were struck by explosive drones in March. Survivors say armed men then hooded and handcuffed them, transported them to El Salvador and eventually sent them home without charges or explanation.

The Washington Post reports that the attacks were part of a covert CIA program authorized by President Trump. Flight data shows a surveillance-equipped American jet repeatedly flying from El Salvador toward the boats before the strikes. It operated from Ilopango, the same airport used for covert U.S.-backed operations in Central America during the 1980s. This is separate from the Pentagon’s campaign of bombing suspected drug boats, which has killed 221 people without meaningfully slowing the cocaine trade, as I recently wrote. No evidence has been publicly released tying these Ecuadorian crews to trafficking. The survivors say they were fishing. If this was a legitimate counternarcotics operation, where is the evidence? If it wasn’t, what exactly did our government do?

🛥️ Now the CIA Is Reportedly Bombing Fishing Boats, Too (WaPo)

3. Federal Agents Killed Him, DHS Investigated the Protesters

Four days after federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old VA nurse who was filming Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) opened an investigation. The target of that DHS inquiry was not the conduct of the agents who killed him. It was labor unions, climate activists, socialist groups and ordinary residents protesting the crackdown. Newly released documents reveal that DHS launched a sprawling surveillance effort called Operation Puppet Master. Undercover agents infiltrated Signal chats and attended meetings in churches, libraries and parks. They recorded names, political opinions and license plates. Investigators obtained three years of financial records from the Sunrise Movement and the Communications Workers of America. They scrutinized wire transfers from the nation’s largest health care workers union as possible "domestic terrorist financing."

Prosecutors later showed a grand jury a slide claiming that 18 organizations, including the AFL-CIO, teachers’ unions, the Democratic Socialists of America and even a Minneapolis bicycle shop, were connected to a conspiracy to obstruct immigration officers. Fifteen individuals were eventually charged with interfering with federal agents, and the indictment describes some allegedly violent or obstructive acts. None of the organizations swept into the investigation has been charged with a crime. A significant portion of the documented activity involved constitutionally protected speech discussing protests, monitoring ICE vehicles, and criticizing the administration. This wasn’t investigators following evidence. It was the government choosing political opponents, then working backward to find a crime. This is incredibly alarming.

They called it Operation Puppet Master. For once, the name tells you everything.

🕵️ DHS Put Political Dissent Under Surveillance (NY Times)

4. The Name That Won’t Stay Gone

Remember when we stayed up late watching Donald Trump’s name finally come off the Kennedy Center? Well, someone kept the ladder.

This week, the Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted, again, to put his name on the building. This time, the proposed inscription reads: "The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump."

Subtle.

A federal judge blocked the board’s previous attempt to rename the center and ordered Trump’s name removed in June. So rather than accept the ruling, the board has apparently returned with a thesaurus and a workaround. It also voted to close the main building for two years for renovations, shifting some performances elsewhere. However, some have said the shutdown is less about construction and more about concealing declining ticket sales after Trump took the place over. The judge who blocked the earlier closure plan would still need to approve this one. Apparently we’re doing this ridiculous performance again, only this time the show is happening outside of the theater.

🎭 Trump’s Name Is Going Back on the Kennedy Center, Again (Politico)

5. The Teenagers Did Their Homework and the Adults Panicked

Given what is happening to journalism and the First Amendment across this country, I want you to read this story. What happens to the next generation of journalists matters just as much as what is happening in today’s newsrooms.

Ben Mueller, a California high school senior, was assigned to tell a news story through an Instagram slideshow for his journalism class. He chose the Epstein files. Mueller spent five hours searching the Justice Department’s database for references to his Marin County community. He found thousands, including a 2013 email associated with a woman connected to a French modeling agency. He accurately summarized the public document in a post for his school newspaper, The Redwood Bark. After the post went viral, the woman threatened to sue the school district for defamation. Worried about legal costs, the superintendent demanded that the students remove her name or delete the slide. So the teenagers spent lunch consulting lawyers and then showed administrators the document and cited California law protecting student journalists from censorship. The post went back up and no lawsuit followed.

The Student Press Law Center says requests for legal help from school newspapers have risen 42 percent in two years as students report on immigration, Gaza, campus protests and the Epstein files. This is how censorship often works: not with a government order, but with enough pressure to make people silence themselves. These teenagers refused.

📰 A Teen Reporter, the Epstein Files and a Legal Threat (Wired)

🌠 ONE THING FOR YOUR SOUL

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may have discovered an entirely new cosmic object: a “black hole star.” Seen as it existed 660 million years after the Big Bang, it is the size of our solar system and produces 100 billion times more energy than any known star. Except, it’s not a star! It may actually be a black hole wrapped in gas so dense that the whole structure glows. Scientists believe objects like this could have helped shape galaxies, stars, planets, and eventually, life.

There is something comforting in knowing the universe can still surprise us. A light we never knew existed has traveled billions of years to reach us, and we are finally able to see it.

If Earth felt especially heavy this week, here’s your reminder to look up. Even something as dark as a black hole can surprise us with light. Take that with you.

🌌 Meet the Black Hole Star (The Guardian)

And on that bright note, see you next time,

Olivia

Some of this week’s biggest stories barely made a ripple. They should have set off alarms, but at this point, the fire alarm would never stop ringing. Pour the coffee. Here are five things worth knowing before the next outrage buries them.

1. The Tired_Thumb Surveillance of Dissent

Say something mean about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) online and there’s a decent chance that a federal contractor is already building a dossier about you. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has spent $258 million (a tiny 57% bump from the Biden years) on an army of analysts, including Amivero, a small Virginia firm that scored an $8 million contract, who then subcontracted to Guidehouse. Their teams scrape Instagram, Facebook, X, Reddit, Discord, even Snapchat (your snaps aren’t private either), hunting for "threats." What counts as a threat? Using the phrase ACAB "all cops are bastards," or pretty much any hint of a side eye could make you a target. Definitely don’t post after ICE shoots someone in cold blood.

Welcome to the Trump police state era.

Take Tired_Thumb, the Reddit user who mentioned an ICE agent’s home state after news outlets already reported it. Six months, two subpoenas, and a grand jury later, the feds still don’t know who he is and haven’t filed a single charge, but they’re still trying! Or Paigelynne Gonyea, a poll worker cornered at her voting site by agents waving a folder with her birthdate, address, and an airport surveillance photo, over an Instagram post she can’t even find anymore.

Putting my former DHS hat on: THIS. ISN’T. NORMAL.

DHS blames an "8,000% increase" in death threats. Sure, some of that’s real. But civil-rights lawyers keep asking: if these are real crimes, where are the charges? Mostly what’s getting flagged is people being annoyed online, who are still protected by that pesky First Amendment. Nothing chills speech like a home visit and a letter saying your post “may” be illegal, no court required.

🕵️ The Surveillance State Wants Your Reddit Comments (WSJ)

2. Big Law’s Surrender Tour

Remember when President Trump began targeting law firms with executive orders?

Some refused to back down. Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, and Jenner & Block fought the administration in court and won early injunctions. Veteran attorney Abbe Lowell, who has represented clients across the political spectrum, including Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Hunter Biden, left Winston & Strawn to launch Lowell & Associates, a boutique firm representing individuals and institutions facing what the firm describes as politicized investigations and government actions.

Others made a different calculation.

Take Paul Weiss, once the firm of the Scottsboro Boys and Brown v. Board, the firm that reunited migrant families during Trump’s first term and put chairman Brad Karp on magazine covers for "standing up to the White House." This time, Karp didn’t fight. He rushed to the Oval Office and folded within days, agreeing to $40 million in free legal work for Trump-approved causes. Trump then rewrote the deal on Truth Social anyway, tacking on a "no DEI" pledge Karp never agreed to and a fabricated quote claiming Karp admitted "wrongdoing." Karp’s own email to partners: "He changed the agreement... and came up with a completely false quote...My god."

The fallout was brutal. Over 100 firm alumni called it "a craven surrender." Partners quit in waves, including litigator Karen Dunn, who wanted to sue in protest and got overruled. Then in January, the Epstein files revealed Karp hadn’t just represented Leon Black, he’d personally advised Epstein on discrediting his own accusers. His own partners pushed him out months later.

Moral of the story: fold for Trump, and you don’t just lose your spine. You lose your firm too.

⚖️ How Paul Weiss Folded (NY Times)

3. US Gov Advice on Hackers Breaching Water Systems: Try a Password

Hackers have hit water utilities in at least 12 states, and two weeks in, the government still can’t get facilities to set a password. Acting Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) director Nick Andersen told reporters at the Black Hat cyber conference this week that his agency is still finding programmable logic controllers, the tiny computers running pumps and valves, sitting wide open on the public internet with no password or the factory default. "We’re not making ourselves hardened targets," he said, which is putting it mildly given some utilities lost remote control entirely and had to run pumps by hand.

Minnesota alone had 30-plus systems targeted; Georgia’s Clayton County Water Authority, serving 300,000 people near Atlanta, had a pressure drop and boil-water advisory. Drinking water has stayed safe throughout, small mercy.

CISA’s own memo flagged tactics matching a known Iran-affiliated hacking campaign. Trump’s response, when asked directly: he doesn’t "think there was an Iranian cyberattack." Andersen, notably, says CISA isn’t touching attribution at all right now, just cleanup. No formal blame, no consequences, nothing. (Welcome to payback for an endless unnecessary war that Trump started…)

And Andersen’s fix for chronically underfunded utilities running on decades-old equipment? "A degree of personal responsibility." Cool, very reassuring for the water treatment plant with a skeleton crew and a 1990s server. The only actual backstop that exists right now is DEF CON Franklin, a volunteer program pairing hacker conference attendees with small rural utilities that has all of 21 utilities enrolled nationwide, out of roughly 50,000 community water systems in the country. Volunteers with laptops, doing the job the federal government won’t fund.

Tip of the white hat to them!

🔓 Your Water Utility’s Password Is Still “admin123” (NextGov)

4. The DNC Is Getting Ghosted

Some of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors are still writing enormous checks. They’re just no longer writing them to the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

The Soros family and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman have reportedly given the DNC nothing this cycle. Meanwhile, the DNC is carrying roughly $18.5 million in debt, with about $16 million on hand, while the Republican National Committee has amassed more than $128 million without debt.

No, the donors haven’t become Republicans. They’re bypassing the party establishment and putting money directly behind candidates they believe in, including Texas Senate candidate James Talarico and Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff. Having seen some prominent political consultants, and former DNC alumni, in action firsthand, I can’t say I blame them. There’s apparently even a new joke circulating among Democratic donors: DNC now stands for "Do Not Contribute." Ouch.

🫏 DNC: "Do Not Contribute" (WSJ)

5. It’s the Economy, Stupid!

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll has Democrats beating Republicans on the economy for the first time in nearly a decade, 37% to 36%, according to a survey of 4,505 adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 points. It’s razor thin, but Republicans have owned this question through Trump’s first term, all of Biden’s, and most of Trump’s second, so "tied" is basically a five-alarm fire for the GOP.

Here’s the data behind it: gas prices are up more than 25% since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, over a dollar more per gallon, and Americans are noticing. Trump’s approval on cost of living sits at 23%, with 70% disapproving. On inflation: 22% approve, 70% disapprove. His overall approval dropped to 35%, down from 37% the month before and just a point off his term low.

It gets worse for the GOP on the generic congressional ballot: Democrats lead 42% to 37%, with independents breaking for Democrats by 12 points. Republicans are defending narrow majorities in both chambers with roughly three dozen competitive House races and eight Senate contests heading into November.

Trump’s response, posted to Truth Social before the poll even dropped: "My REAL Polling Numbers, not those made up by the Fake News Media, are the best they have ever been." Sure, Don.👌

📉 Dems Beat GOP on Economy (The Independent)

One Thing For Your Soul

Dave Bell usually spends Christmas playing Santa across Central Virginia. This July, he gave a stranger the gift of a lifetime: one of his kidneys.

Bell lost roughly 40 pounds to qualify as a living donor, then anonymously donated through the National Kidney Registry. His recovery, he reports, went "slicker than reindeer snot on a glass doorknob." But beneath the Santa jokes is something genuinely beautiful. Bell had two kidneys, decided he could live with one and the other should give a stranger another chance at life. "If we all made the world a better place," he asked, "what kind of place would this be?"

Apparently, the kind where Santa shows up for Christmas in July, and I’m here for it!

🎅 Santa Gave the Gift No Sleigh Could Carry (WRIC)

Have a wonderful weekend,

Olivia

This week, I was on Capitol Hill for the unveiling of the Trump-Epstein Bookmobile. Survivors were there. Members of Congress were there. Cameras were rolling.

As for Todd Blanche? Stay tuned. His nomination fight isn’t over yet.

It all left me wondering: What happens when our institutions adapt to problems they still haven’t solved?

1. Welcome to the Drone Patrol

This fall, some schools in Florida, Georgia, and Colorado will deploy drones designed to respond to active shooters. The aircraft can reach a threat in about 15 seconds, blast sirens, spray pepper gel, smash windows, and even ram an attacker. Yes, that’s a real sentence.

The company behind the technology says it was inspired by the 2022 massacre in Uvalde, where law enforcement waited more than an hour before confronting the shooter. The goal is simple: buy precious seconds while first responders are on the way.

Everyone agrees on the mission: protect children. The debate is over how. Proponents see the drones as another tool that could save lives during the deadliest moments of an attack. Others question whether schools should rely on technology rooted in military applications rather than investing more in preventing school shootings in the first place.

That’s what makes this story so striking. It isn’t really just about drones. It’s about how America adapts to problems it hasn’t solved. Parents don’t care whether the first responder is a police officer or a drone. They just want their kids to come home.

The fact that this is now a serious public policy debate says as much about America as the technology itself.

🚁 Schools Turn to Anti-Shooter Drones (WaPo)

2. Before the Government Takes Your Kids, It Better Get the Facts Right

Few powers the government possesses are more extraordinary than separating a parent from their child. That's why this story is so deeply disturbing. If these facts are accurate, this represents a profound failure of investigative judgment.

New reporting reveals that when Michigan authorities temporarily separated former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg from his four-year-old twins last month, they had not first verified the accusation against him. According to police records, investigators only began seriously vetting the complainant after Buttigieg had already been told he couldn’t be alone with his own children. Authorities later concluded the allegation was unfounded and are now investigating whether it was politically motivated.

Children must always come first. Every credible allegation of abuse deserves to be taken seriously. But taking allegations seriously is not the same as abandoning investigative rigor.

During my years in government, I learned that speed and recklessness are not the same thing. Good investigators gather enough facts before taking actions that can permanently alter people’s lives. Separating a family is among the most consequential decisions the government can make. It should never become routine.

If this can happen to a former Cabinet secretary with lawyers, resources, and a national platform, it can happen to anyone.

⚖️ Buttigieg Investigation Raises Due Process Questions (The Independent)

3. We’ve Been Bombing Drug Boats. So…Did It Work?

When the Trump administration launched Operation Southern Spear, it marked a dramatic shift in America’s war on drugs. Instead of simply intercepting traffickers, the U.S. military began destroying suspected drug-smuggling boats in international waters. At least 221 people have been killed since the campaign began. The goal was straightforward: reduce the flow of cocaine into the United States.

However, according to internal DEA assessments and Pentagon briefings to Congress obtained by the Washington Post, the cocaine supply hasn’t meaningfully changed. Prices remain low. Purity remains high. Traffickers have simply adapted, switching to larger vessels, commercial ships, aircraft, and new routes that avoid U.S. forces.

None of this means the military is failing. Criminal organizations have always evolved under pressure, but it does raise a fundamental question about strategy. In national security, tactical success and strategic success aren’t always the same thing. Destroying boats makes for dramatic headlines. Reducing the flow of drugs into American communities is the mission. If criminal networks can quickly change tactics while the product keeps reaching U.S. streets, then success can’t be measured by the number of boats destroyed. It has to be measured by whether the strategy actually changes the outcome.

If you’re using military force and taking lives in the process, the American people deserve to know whether it’s making America safer or simply changing the route on the map.

🚤 Bombs vs. Cartels (NPR)

4. The Musk Factor Is Back.

Remember when Musk and Trump had their very public breakup? Musk blasted Trump’s spending bill, declared America’s two-party system was broken, and announced he was starting a brand-new political party.

Yeah…about that.

Apparently, that chapter didn’t last very long. Now he’s back, not with a third party, but with the same Republican political operation that helped elect Trump. Musk is reviving America PAC and preparing to spend heavily in the 2026 midterms, focusing on door-knocking, digital advertising, and turning out Republican voters. His PAC spent more than $260 million helping elect Donald Trump in 2024, making Musk the largest individual political donor in a single election cycle in American history.

We’ve reached a point where a single billionaire can function almost like a national political party, and it’s become clear that modern campaigns aren’t won just by candidates anymore. They’re powered by turnout operations, sophisticated data, digital advertising, and the money to build them. Money doesn’t guarantee victory. We’ve all seen well-funded campaigns lose. However, it absolutely changes who gets organized, who gets contacted, and who shows up to vote.

💸 The Musk Machine Returns (Axios)

5. Who Gets to Decide You’re Eligible to Vote?

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to revive an executive order aimed at creating a new federal system for verifying U.S. citizenship in federal elections. A federal judge blocked key parts of the order in 23 states and Washington, D.C., warning it could create confusion and disenfranchise eligible voters. A federal appeals court declined to lift that block, so the administration has now asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

Here’s what makes this case so significant.

The Trump Administration and its allies argue the order is about protecting election integrity by ensuring only eligible citizens vote. Opponents argue it would expand federal authority over elections and make it harder for some eligible Americans to cast a ballot. And while the Supreme Court weighs that question, Texas is already offering a real-world reminder of how complicated citizenship verification can be. This week, state election officials acknowledged that some registered voters who had been flagged as potential noncitizens through the federal SAVE database were, in fact, U.S. citizens and instructed counties to begin reinstating those voters as officials continue reviewing the data.

The legal fight is complicated. The underlying question isn’t. For generations, states have largely administered elections. This case asks how much authority the federal government should have in determining who is eligible to vote in federal elections, and how that determination is made.

Presidents come and go. The rules governing how Americans vote tend to last much longer.

🗳️ Who Decides Who Votes (NY Times)

🤠 One Thing for Your Soul: You Never Know What Will Save a Life

Fourteen-year-old Jory Thomas brought his rodeo lariat on a family camping trip in Montana because he’d recently started practicing roping cattle. He had no idea it would save a man’s life.

After four people were thrown into the fast-moving Yellowstone River, Jory grabbed his lasso, ran along the riverbank, and caught a struggling man on his very first throw, pulling him safely to shore until first responders arrived.

Afterward, he simply said:

"I just thought I could help with cattle. Not really helping humans...but I’m glad I was here to help."

That’s my favorite line of the week. You never know when the skills you’re quietly building today will become exactly what someone else needs tomorrow.

🪢 Rodeo Skills Save a Stranger (People)

Until next time,

Olivia

But the focus of today’s event wasn’t just about the truck, it was also about the survivors.

One after another, survivors and their families described how the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) handling of the Epstein files compounded their trauma by exposing victims while, they argued, failing to fully pursue those responsible. The central theme throughout the event was that the DOJ exists to pursue justice without fear or favor and bluntly stated: the Department has failed them.

Their message to the Senate was direct: the Attorney General’s duty is to the Constitution, the rule of law, victims, and the American people, not to any president. They urged senators to reject Todd Blanche’s nomination, arguing that he has not demonstrated the judgment, impartiality, or commitment to accountability required to lead the nation’s top law enforcement agency. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) also addressed the crowd, pledging to continue pursuing the financial networks that enabled Epstein’s trafficking operation and arguing that accountability requires following the money wherever it leads.

On a personal note, I left today’s press conference thinking less about the politics and more about the extraordinary courage of the survivors I met. For years, they have endured unimaginable trauma, relentless public scrutiny, online abuse, and repeated disappointments from institutions they believed were supposed to protect them. Yet they continue to show up, not just for themselves, but for every survivor whose voice has yet to be heard.

Courage isn’t measured by the absence of fear. It’s measured by the willingness to keep speaking the truth despite it. Watching these women stand before cameras and lawmakers, refusing to be silenced, was a powerful reminder that accountability often begins with those willing to tell the hardest stories.

Whatever happens with Todd Blanche’s nomination, I hope these survivors know that their courage has already made an impact. Their strength, resilience, and unwavering commitment to seeking justice deserve to be recognized and remembered.

Thank you for joining me. One of the reasons I do this work is because I believe it’s important to be in the room: to listen, to ask questions, and to bring you the moments that don’t always make the headlines. Thanks for coming along. I’ll see you on the next story.

-Olivia

Welcome back to Saturday Covfefe.

The World Cup may be over, but Washington clearly hasn’t run out of plot twists.

Before we dive in, one thing worth watching this week: if you’ve noticed gas prices creeping up, this may not be temporary. After months of fighting in the Middle East, energy analysts say oil markets are finally beginning to price in long-term disruption to global supplies.

Translation: the pain at the pump may just be getting started.

If someone shared this with you, welcome. Every Saturday, I break down five stories worth your time—and one reason to stay hopeful. If you'd like to join us each week, I'd love to have you subscribe.

Pour the coffee. Let’s get into it.

1. FIFA’s U.N. Tryout

The World Cup came to a close. Spain lifted the trophy. Argentina came up just short. Millions of us finally got our sleep schedules back. And then Donald Trump looked at FIFA President Gianni Infantino and reportedly thought: You know who should run the United Nations?

Yes. Really.

According to multiple reports, Trump has been privately pitching Infantino as the next U.N. Secretary-General once António Guterres steps down later this year. His reasoning? Infantino is “respected by everyone around the world” and knows how to bring people together.

Now, as someone who has spent years working with the United Nations from inside the U.S. government, let me translate what this would actually mean.

Running FIFA and running the U.N. are not the same job.

One manages the world’s biggest sporting event. The other tries to prevent wars, negotiate peace agreements, coordinate humanitarian crises, oversee refugee operations, manage sanctions, and somehow keep 193 countries from storming out of the room. Those are very different job descriptions.

The irony is that Infantino’s World Cup wasn’t exactly controversy-free. Between political pressure, officiating disputes, and criticism over FIFA’s decision-making during the tournament, many fans walked away questioning the organization’s credibility. So naturally, Washington’s next thought was: promotion.

Because in 2026, apparently every job is transferable if you’ve been photographed next to Donald Trump enough times.

⚽ From FIFA to the United Nations (The Independent)

2. Eight Countries and Counting

Remember when Donald Trump promised to end America’s “endless wars”? Well, the Pentagon may soon need another map.

This week, reports emerged that the administration is considering military strikes in Mali, targeting an al-Qaeda affiliate known as JNIM. If approved, Mali would become the eighth country where President Trump has ordered military strikes since returning to office. It may sound like another faraway conflict. It isn’t.

The Sahel region of Africa has quietly become the world’s epicenter for terrorism. Groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS have expanded dramatically, governments have fallen in military coups, and Russia has stepped in as the region’s security partner, with mixed and often disastrous results.

Military force can eliminate terrorists. It can also create new ones. That’s why this isn’t a simple “good guys versus bad guys” decision. After more than a decade of French military operations and years of Russian involvement, the security situation in Mali has actually gotten worse, not better. Some analysts worry U.S. strikes could strengthen ISIS by weakening its rival, or pull America deeper into yet another conflict with no clear endgame.

One of the administration’s strongest advocates for expanding military action has been counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka. The administration hasn’t made a final decision, but it’s another reminder that campaign slogans are easy. Counterterrorism is hard. Confidence and competence aren’t the same thing.

🌍 Trump Eyes Military Strikes in Mali (WaPo)

3. Proximity to Power Pays

Donald Trump Jr. says there’s nothing wrong with making money while your father is president.

Legally, he may be right. Ethically? That’s a different conversation.

A fascinating New York Times investigation this week details how Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, has exploded in value by investing in companies whose fortunes have been boosted by policies coming out of the Trump administration. The firm has grown from managing a few hundred million dollars to more than $3 billion in assets in just two years. The investments include defense companies, AI firms, critical minerals, and even Polymarket—the prediction market that, after years of regulatory hurdles, recently received approval to operate in the United States. Its valuation jumped from roughly $300 million to $15 billion.

One venture capital professor summed it up in a sentence that should make every American pause: “People are paying for proximity to power.”

Now, let’s be fair. Nothing in the reporting alleges that Donald Trump Jr. broke the law. However, government ethics has never been just about what’s illegal. It’s also about avoiding the appearance that public power can be converted into private wealth. Those norms exist for a reason.

Once people start believing that political connections matter more than innovation, competition, or merit, trust in government doesn’t just erode. It becomes another commodity that can be bought and sold.

💰 How Trump Jr.’s Firm Is Cashing In (NY Times)

4. The White House Wants to Rewrite the Museum

This week, President Trump signed an executive order declaring that the Smithsonian has been “ideologically captured” and directing federal agencies to pressure the institution to change course.

But this executive order isn’t really about one museum. It’s part of a broader governing strategy that’s become increasingly clear throughout the past year. Rather than simply changing policy, the administration is using executive authority to reshape institutions it believes have become ideologically biased, from universities to museums and other cultural institutions. The Smithsonian is simply the latest example, but it almost certainly won’t be the last. Here’s the part that made me stop scrolling.

The order directs the National Park Service to install government signage outside the National Museum of American History warning visitors that the museum’s exhibits are biased and directing them to what the White House considers more accurate historical information. This is an extraordinary use of executive authority.

Visitors won’t just be walking into a museum. They’ll be walking past government-issued commentary telling them how to interpret what’s inside. And that, my friends, is Putin-style government propaganda.

🇺🇸 The White House vs. the Smithsonian (White House Executive Order)

5. America’s New Flash Flood Reality

There’s a Walmart in Weston, West Virginia, where floodwater burst through the automatic doors this week like it owned the place. Four and a half inches of rain fell in just 37 minutes. Two people died. Governor Patrick Morrisey declared a state of emergency in all 55 counties and activated 500 National Guard troops. This wasn’t an isolated disaster.

Just days earlier, the Guadalupe River in Texas surged roughly 30 feet in a matter of hours during catastrophic flooding. Missouri rescued hundreds of people from rising water. Tropical Storm Bertha brought flood threats from Louisiana through the Carolinas and into Virginia. As of this week, the National Weather Service had issued 32 flash flood emergencies, its highest warning level, putting July on pace to challenge the record. This isn’t just one state having a bad week. It’s becoming a pattern.

Whether you see this through the lens of climate, infrastructure, emergency management, or simply common sense, communities are getting less time to prepare and more to recover from. Preparedness isn’t partisan.

Cafecito... but maybe keep the life jacket nearby.

🌧️ Another Week. Another Flash Flood Emergency (CNN)

❤️ One Thing For Your

We’ve all seen how these videos usually go: a fender bender, two frustrated drivers, and an argument that’s about to go viral. But in Brazil, this one ended with something no one expected.

After a minor car accident, Paulo Amaral walked over to check on the other driver, Eduardo Santos. Instead of yelling, he noticed something was wrong. Eduardo had recently lost his father and was carrying more than the stress of a damaged car. So Paulo asked a simple question: “Do you want a hug?” The two embraced in the middle of the road, and then prayed together before exchanging insurance information. They have since become friends.

It struck me because so much of our public life teaches us to assume the worst about one another. Every disagreement becomes a battle. Every inconvenience becomes a reason to lash out. But we never really know what someone else is carrying.

Sometimes the kindest thing we can do is ask if someone is okay, and, even in the middle of life’s collisions, offer a hug instead.

Grateful for you. See you soon,

Olivia

P.S. If you found this edition worth your time, I'd be grateful if you'd share it with a friend. Word of mouth is still the best way this community grows.

President Trump’s prime-time address Thursday night wasn’t just another political speech. It was an attack on Americans’ confidence in our elections.

As someone who spent more than two decades working in intelligence and homeland security, let me set one thing straight: raw intelligence is not finished intelligence. Raw reporting is often incomplete, contradictory, and unverified. Finished intelligence is analyzed, corroborated, challenged, and presented with confidence levels that explain both what we know and what we don’t.

This week, the administration presented selected intelligence as proof of a sweeping election narrative. That’s not how intelligence is supposed to be used. It should inform policy, not be selectively presented to support a political conclusion.

Then came the escalation.

The following day, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said election officials who refuse to comply with the administration’s directives could face fines and even prison. He also vowed to withhold federal election security funding from states that don’t comply.

Let’s also be clear about what the administration stated and the actual reality: it has no evidence that the noncitizens it identified on voter rolls actually voted. Election experts have long warned that the database comparisons being used can generate false positives, while documented cases of noncitizen voting remain exceedingly rare. By repeating unsupported claims about widespread noncitizen voting, the president isn’t simply questioning election integrity. He’s reinforcing the false narrative that immigrants are a threat, making it easier to justify increasingly aggressive immigration enforcement.

This is one of the most dangerous moments for America’s free and fair elections that I’ve witnessed in my career. When selectively presented intelligence is used to revive unsupported claims of widespread fraud and is followed by threats of fines, withheld funding, and even prison for election officials, we’re no longer talking about election security. We’re talking about political pressure on the people entrusted with administering our democracy.

Let’s get into it.

1. The Pause Was Never the Policy

Earlier this week, while covering the news live with , I said I didn’t believe the administration’s announced pause on ICE traffic stops would last.

Less than 24 hours later, it didn’t.

After two fatal ICE shootings in Maine and Texas, DHS temporarily halted many vehicle stops while the incidents were reviewed. But after President Trump publicly praised traffic stops as one of ICE’s “most important and effective” enforcement tools, the administration quickly reversed course. That wasn’t surprising.

During my conversation with Jim, I also raised concerns about the administration’s rapid hiring and shortened training for new ICE officers. Reporting later revealed the officer involved in the Maine shooting was a recent recruit, while veteran ICE officials had already warned that officers receive limited training for high-risk vehicle stops. The officer’s ex-wife and a former close friend also described a history of violence and racist beliefs, raising new questions about ICE’s hiring, vetting, and oversight.

Despite moments when operations appeared less visible, I’ve warned that ICE’s aggressive enforcement had never truly slowed. The administration has continued expanding arrests, hiring thousands of new personnel, and preparing for a broader mass deportation effort. Having seen Stephen Miller’s approach firsthand, this isn’t a bug in the system. It’s the strategy.

🚔 ICE’s Traffic Stop Pause Lasted Less Than 24 Hours (The Guardian)

2. Who Gets Called a Terrorist?

This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened officials from more than 60 countries in Washington to address what the administration calls the “resurgence of transnational far-left terrorism.” International counterterrorism cooperation isn’t unusual. I spent much of my career helping coordinate it. What makes this different is the threat being prioritized.

The administration has increasingly focused on violent left-wing extremism while considering broader use of counterterrorism authorities against groups associated with antifa. Career officials have warned that doing so could expand powers originally intended for foreign terrorist organizations into the domestic political arena.

That distinction matters. One of the core principles of counterterrorism is that these extraordinary authorities must be grounded in credible intelligence and the rule of law, not politics. (Anyone seeing a pattern here overall?)

At the same time, a troubling pattern has emerged. In several recent ICE shootings during the Minnesota protests, DHS officials publicly labeled individuals “domestic terrorists” before investigations were complete. In some cases, charges were later dropped, or evidence contradicted the government’s initial claims.

Words matter in national security. The terrorism label isn’t just rhetoric. It shapes investigations, intelligence priorities, and government power. Once those labels become untethered from evidence, public trust becomes far harder to restore.

🚨 Counterterrorism or Political Strategy? (ABC)

3. Justice, According to Trump

This week, Todd Blanche appeared before the Senate for his confirmation hearing to become Attorney General. Just a few years ago, Blanche was defending Donald Trump in criminal court. Now he’s on track to become the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

“I’m his lawyer.”

Todd Blanche quickly corrected himself.

“Was his lawyer. And now I’m the deputy attorney general.”

That brief exchange during his hearing captured the larger story unfolding at the Justice Department.

He’s hardly alone.

Former Trump attorney Emil Bove has already gone from Trump’s legal team to senior Justice Department leadership and now the federal bench.

Then came Seattle.

After a bipartisan panel of federal judges unanimously appointed veteran prosecutor Roger Rogoff as interim U.S. attorney under a process authorized by federal law, the Trump administration fired him less than an hour after he was sworn in.

The message was unmistakable: if the administration doesn’t choose the prosecutor, it doesn’t want the prosecutor.

This wasn’t an isolated case. Federal judges have now appointed multiple interim U.S. attorneys after legal disputes over the administration’s appointment tactics. In several instances, including Seattle, the administration promptly fired the judges’ selections rather than allow court-appointed prosecutors to serve.

Every president appoints officials who share their legal philosophy. What’s different is the growing emphasis on personal loyalty and direct presidential control over positions that have traditionally operated with a measure of independence. Public confidence depends on Americans believing justice is administered independently. When personal attorneys, career prosecutors, and even court-appointed U.S. attorneys are evaluated primarily through the lens of loyalty to a president, the independence of the Justice Department is inevitably called into question.

🏛️ From Trump’s Defense Table to the Justice Department (NY Times)

4. Fix the Plane? Find the Leaker Instead.

Many of us in national security have raised concerns about rushing a Qatari-gifted Boeing 747 into service as Air Force One. This week, instead of reassuring the public about the aircraft, the White House launched an aggressive leak investigation. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly coordinated the effort to identify officials who raised security concerns, while the Justice Department subpoenaed New York Times reporters who covered the story.

Leaking classified information is wrong, but so is ignoring legitimate security concerns. Those concerns were not hypothetical. President Trump ultimately did not fly home from the NATO summit aboard the new aircraft after officials determined the existing Air Force One was safer.

That is the real story. When an administration focuses more on finding the messenger than fixing the problem, accountability runs backward. Bad headlines may embarrass a White House. Bad security can put the presidency at risk.

🛩️ The Air Force One Leak Hunt (CNN)

5. Ukraine Loses Its Trump Translator

For years, Sen. Lindsey Graham was one of the few Republicans who could speak directly with both Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, helping keep U.S. support for Ukraine on track. Now he’s gone.

His death comes as Ukraine faces another difficult winter, dwindling air defenses, and uncertainty over whether the Trump administration will follow through on tougher sanctions against Russia. Just one day before his death, Graham was in Kyiv meeting with President Zelenskyy, calling it a “magic moment” to increase pressure on Russia. Graham had helped assemble a bipartisan sanctions package with more than 80 Senate cosponsors, but the legislation still leaves President Trump with broad discretion over whether and when many of those sanctions are enforced. The bigger loss isn’t just the bill. Graham served as what former Trump officials called a “Trump translator,” someone who understood both Kyiv and Trump’s decision-making. Ukrainian officials are now scrambling to build new relationships inside the administration while allies wonder who, if anyone, can fill that role.

Foreign policy runs on relationships as much as institutions. Losing one of the few people with direct access to the president doesn’t just leave a vacancy in the Senate; it creates a vacuum at one of the war’s most consequential moments.

🕊️ Lindsey Graham's Final Mission (WSJ)

🌤️ One Thing for Your Soul: She Didn’t Wait for the Adults

Sixteen-year-old Elise Raurell noticed something surprising: despite living in hurricane country, her South Florida school wasn’t teaching students how to prepare for one. So she fixed it.

As part of her Girl Scout Gold Award, Elise created Storm Smart, a hurricane preparedness curriculum that teaches students everything from building emergency kits to staying safe around floodwaters and downed power lines. More than 500 students have already participated. Preparedness isn’t just about surviving the next storm. It’s about building communities that are stronger before it arrives.

Keep asking questions, keep choosing courage, and keep the coffee strong. ☕️

See you soon,

Olivia

Today’s Saturday Covfefe is a little different.

I broke from our usual format because this issue is too important, and the deadline is too close to wait.

This morning, I sat down with my longtime friend, , a medical anthropologist and former senior advisor at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, to discuss a little-known proposed Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rule that could fundamentally change how the federal government decides which research receives funding.

While the proposal sounds technical, its consequences could reach every American. We discussed how the rule could shift decisions about scientific research away from independent expert peer review and give greater authority to political appointees. That could affect everything from cancer research and clinical trials to disaster preparedness, patient safety, environmental science, veterans’ programs, education, and technological innovation. Dr. Bruna shared one example of the kind of research that could lose funding under this proposal, and it almost made me spit out my coffee: his work to prevent surgical instruments, sponges, and other objects from being accidentally left inside patients during surgery, a problem he estimates occurs 80,000 times each year in the United States. Yikes!

Having worked closely with OMB during my time in the first Trump White House and with Russ Vought, I know firsthand how much influence this office has across the federal government. That’s why I felt it was important to bring this conversation to a broader audience before the public comment period closes. If you want to see how the Trump Administration and this Project 2025 author are spinning this effort, here’s a glimpse:

The good news? This proposal is not final. Every American still has an opportunity to make their voice heard. The deadline is THIS Monday, July 13 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

During our conversation, Dr. Bruna also highlighted the work of Stand Up for Science, which has created resources to help people understand the proposal and participate in the public comment process. For helpful guidance on how to prepare and submit your comment, click HERE. Your voice truly matters!

⚖️ One Thing for Your Soul

I couldn’t let a Saturday pass without sharing something hopeful. Earlier this week, I hit the road to follow a bus full of retired judges traveling across the heartland to meet Americans where they are and talk about why the rule of law matters. It was one of the most inspiring acts of civic courage I’ve witnessed in a long time.

If you missed that story, you can watch it here:

Thank you to everyone who joined us live, asked thoughtful questions, and continues to engage on issues that often fly under the radar. Democracy isn’t only about elections. Sometimes it’s about paying attention to the rules that quietly shape how our government works, and making your voice heard before those rules become permanent.

Thank you , , , , , and many others for tuning into my live video with , and spending part of your Saturday morning with us. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Until next time,

Olivia

When I first heard about the Justice in Motion bus tour, I knew I had to see it for myself. So I got in my car and started driving.

From Pennsylvania to Ohio to Michigan, a remarkable group of retired judges, lawyers, and civic leaders has hit the road to meet Americans where they are, not in courtrooms or conference halls, but in schools, community centers, courthouse squares, and small towns, to talk about something that should never be partisan: the rule of law and an independent judiciary. Organized by Democracy Rising Collaborative and Keep Our Republic, the tour is creating space for conversations our country desperately needs.

Over the next two days, I watched these judges sit with elementary school students, answer questions from community members, and remind people that the Constitution belongs to all of us. They weren’t there to campaign. They weren’t there to lecture. They were there to listen, to teach, and to reconnect with the people they served throughout their careers.

At a time when so much of our politics rewards outrage and division, they chose something different. They chose conversation. They chose community. And more importantly, they chose courage.

One of the most moving moments came as they donned their black judicial robes and marched together to the Ohio Supreme Court, inspired by Polish judges who took their own fight for judicial independence directly to the people in the March of 1000 Robes. It was quiet. It was dignified. And, it was one of the most inspiring acts of civic leadership I’ve witnessed in a long time.

(And yes...Carlo 🐾, the tour’s unofficial four-legged mascot, was every bit as beloved as you’d expect.)

I left Ohio convinced that this shouldn’t be the last Justice in Motion tour. More communities deserve these conversations. We need more young people to meet judges. Americans deserve the opportunity to talk face-to-face about why the rule of law matters, not as a political slogan, but as the foundation of our democracy.

It was an honor to be invited aboard the Justice in Motion bus and witness this journey firsthand. I hope this journey reaches many more communities across America. It reminded me that courage is contagious, and I hope you'll see why.

Thank you, as always, for supporting this work. Your curiosity and willingness to engage with stories like this are what make this community so special.

I can’t wait to take you with me on the next stop.

-Olivia

Happy 250th Birthday, America! 🇺🇸

A quick public health advisory before we celebrate: if you’re planning to attend President Trump’s massive Fourth of July fireworks display scheduled to begin at 11:30pm ET on the National Mall, in Washington, DC, the National Park Service and health experts are recommending you consider wearing an N95 mask because the smoke could create unusually hazardous air quality.

Nothing says "Happy Birthday, America" quite like needing respiratory protection to watch the fireworks. If that’s not the most 2026 sentence you’ve read all week...

1. Quietly. Systematically. At Scale.

If you thought the immigration crackdown had slowed down, think again. This week, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) arrested more than 10,000 people in just five days, roughly doubling its daily arrest rate. Unlike the highly publicized raids that dominated cable news earlier this year and last, this enforcement surge is happening much more quietly and it’s barely being discussed on national media outlets.

People are being arrested during routine immigration check-ins, traffic stops, outside courthouses, and in everyday encounters. Internal documents obtained by the New York Times report that ICE has been directed to target 2,000 arrests every day, with approximately 80% of enforcement personnel focused on arrest operations. Meanwhile, the agency’s detention population has climbed above 63,000 people, reflecting the scale of the administration’s expanded immigration effort.

From a homeland security perspective, this represents an important operational shift. Rather than relying on highly visible raids designed to dominate the news cycle, the administration appears to be building a sustained, high-volume enforcement system that operates largely out of the spotlight.

Whether you support stricter immigration enforcement or oppose it, one thing is clear: this doesn’t look like a temporary surge. It looks like the new baseline. And, if you’re wondering how ICE’s detention system is handling the growing numbers, here’s one glimpse: in my hometown of El Paso, Texas, a recent Government Accountability Office report found that the nation’s largest ICE detention facility wasted millions of taxpayer dollars while unsafe conditions contributed to detainee deaths, inadequate medical care, a tuberculosis outbreak, and serious security failures. Scaling up arrests is one thing. Scaling up detention safely and responsibly is another.

🚨 ICE Arrests Surge to 10,000 in Five Days: NY Times

2. The Court Ruled. The Fight Didn’t End.

As you likely know, I’ve been closely following the birthright citizenship case before the Supreme Court. Having witnessed firsthand discussions during the first Trump administration about the desire to advance this agenda, I was genuinely concerned about how the Court would rule. The Constitution prevailed this time, but don’t mistake that for the end of the story.

Within hours of the decision, President Trump urged Congress to end birthright citizenship through legislation, even though many constitutional scholars argue doing so would require amending the Constitution, not simply passing a law. At the same time, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller floated another possible workaround: restricting visas for pregnant women to curb so-called “birth tourism.” Justice Clarence Thomas’s 91 page dissent also laid out an alternative interpretation of the 14th Amendment that could serve as a roadmap for future legal challenges.

This is how major policy fights evolve. When one avenue closes, another opens. Sometimes it’s legislation. Sometimes it’s executive action. And, sometimes it’s a legal argument designed not to win today, but to persuade a future court tomorrow.

The Supreme Court protected birthright citizenship this week. But make no mistake: the fight to preserve this constitutional right is far from over. Please don't lose sight of that.

👶 Birthright Citizenship: Round Two Begins: WaPo

3. When Homeland Security Gets Hacked, We Should All Pay Attention.

As someone who spent years working in homeland security, let me translate why this story matters. DHS is investigating a cyber breach involving the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN), one of the department’s primary platforms for sharing sensitive but unclassified information with federal agencies, state and local law enforcement, fusion centers, emergency managers, critical infrastructure partners, and even international security partners.

No, this isn’t where the nation’s nuclear secrets are stored, but that’s not the point.

HSIN is where agencies coordinate major events, share threat information, exchange intelligence leads, and maintain situational awareness during emergencies. With the World Cup underway and security operations spanning the country, understanding whether attackers gained access to planning documents, operational procedures, or partner communications is critically important.

What also caught my attention? This isn’t the first warning sign. Last year, a WIRED investigation revealed that a configuration error exposed sensitive intelligence, including information related to surveillance, cybersecurity, and law enforcement, to thousands of unauthorized users, including contractors and some foreign personnel. Different incident. Same system. That’s a pattern, not just bad luck.

One of the biggest lessons from 9/11 was that information sharing saves lives. Protecting those systems is just as important.

💻 DHS Investigates HSIN Cyber Breach: Homeland Security Today

4. Trump Got Rich. His Investors Got Wrecked.

ICYMI: This week we learned President Trump is rich. Really rich. According to the president’s 927-page financial disclosure, Trump reported an extraordinary financial windfall in 2025, including $636 million from his $TRUMP memecoin and about $1.4 billion from the cryptocurrency industry since returning to office.

The catch? Apparently, a lot of regular investors did not share in the windfall. While Trump and his partners collected fees and revenue as the coin traded, hundreds of thousands of wallets lost money on $TRUMP. In other words, or in Vegas terms (since I was just recently out there), the house did just fine. The people buying in? Not so much.

This is not just a crypto story. It's a story about the presidency, ethics, and self-enrichment. When a president's personal business interests overlap with industries seeking favorable treatment from his administration, the public deserves answers.

The grift didn't disappear. It just went digital.

💰 Trump’s Crypto Windfall: NY Times

5. What Really Happened at the Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center drama somehow managed to get even stranger.

A new court filing revealed that during the board meeting where members voted to add President Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center, Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio board member, was reportedly muted and prevented from speaking before the vote. The filing also acknowledges there was no advance notice that a name change would even be considered, no discussion of legal risks, no debate over possible conflicts of interest, and no board vote before President Trump publicly announced plans to close the Kennedy Center for renovations. In other words, many of the biggest decisions appear to have happened without the kind of deliberation you’d expect from one of America’s premier cultural institutions.

Governance matters. Institutions function best when people know what's on the agenda, everyone gets a chance to be heard, and major decisions follow established rules—not surprise announcements. Unfortunately, that's becoming a lost art.

Apparently, transparency showed up after the meeting...in court.

🎭 Kennedy Center Court Filing: NPR

💍 One Thing for Your Soul: America's Love Story

As a proud Swiftie, I’m delighted that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got married last night at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Between all the wedding buzz and the National Mall’s air-quality advisory, it’s shaping up to be quite the Fourth of July.

But it’s what they did before the wedding that deserves just as much attention. Taylor and Travis quietly donated $26 million to food banks, children’s hospitals, music education programs, after-school initiatives, animal welfare organizations, and pediatric cancer care across the country. Leaders at several food banks described staff members crying, sitting in disbelief, and wondering if the phone call was real. For thousands of families, this wasn’t celebrity news. It was groceries, medical care, music lessons, and hope.

Now that’s the kind of love story worth celebrating.

Happy 250th Birthday, America! May we always remember that patriotism isn’t measured by the size of the fireworks display. Sometimes it’s measured by the quiet generosity that helps your neighbors when they need it most.

🎶🏈 Taylor & Travis Donate $26 Million: People

If you’re in the D.C. area, join me tomorrow (Sunday, July 5, 2026) evening at Piece Out in Del Ray, Alexandria, as Mexico takes on England in the World Cup. Every dollar raised will support Access4ALL, helping ensure every child, regardless of ability or financial circumstances, has the chance to play soccer. Whether you're Team Mexico, Team England, or just Team Good Pizza and Soccer, please come join us.

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

-Olivia

P.S. Thank you for reading and for being part of this community. If you enjoy Saturday Covfefe, please share it with someone who appreciates thoughtful analysis, a little snark, and a reason to stay hopeful.

Welcome back to Saturday Covfefe.

Some weeks are defined by the headlines. Others are defined by the decisions made behind them. This was one of those weeks…

1. When Ideology Starts Practicing Medicine

The Trump administration wants pregnant women looking for help to visit crisis pregnancy centers. The problem? Many of those centers have been advertising that they can “rule out” ectopic pregnancies—a potentially life-threatening medical emergency that experts say typically cannot be diagnosed with a single ultrasound. An ectopic pregnancy isn’t a political talking point. It’s a medical emergency that can become life-threatening if it isn’t diagnosed and treated promptly.

A watchdog organization found roughly 100 examples across 49 states of crisis pregnancy centers making those claims online. The organization is now urging investigations into whether those advertisements are misleading.

Many crisis pregnancy centers provide diapers, clothing, parenting resources, and emotional support to families; however, support services are not the same thing as medical care. When organizations present themselves as medical providers while making claims that licensed experts say they cannot reliably make, vulnerable people may delay seeking the care they actually need.

Regardless of where someone stands on abortion, Americans should agree on one basic principle: medical decisions should be guided by evidence, transparency, and qualified healthcare professionals.

Politics has increasingly found its way into our schools, our libraries, our courts, and our public health agencies. It shouldn’t replace medicine, too.

When someone believes they’re receiving medical advice, they deserve information grounded in science, not ideology. In a country that prides itself on innovation and healthcare, that shouldn’t be a controversial standard.

🩺 Crisis Pregnancy Centers Under Scrutiny (NPR)

2. After the Ruling Came the Panic

The Supreme Court’s decision allowing the Trump administration to move forward with ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and thousands of Syrians wasn’t just another immigration ruling. Within hours, nursing homes began preparing for staff shortages. Manufacturers worried about losing experienced workers. Families started making plans for who would care for their children if they were detained or deported.

TPS was created to temporarily protect people already living in the United States from being returned to countries devastated by war, natural disasters, or other extraordinary crises. Over the years, many recipients have become nurses, caregivers, factory workers, homeowners, taxpayers, and parents. They built lives here while legally authorized to work.

Whether someone agrees or disagrees with the administration’s immigration policies, this story is a reminder that court decisions don’t stay inside courtrooms. They ripple through workplaces, neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, and families.

Policy is often debated in numbers. Its consequences are almost always measured in people.

⚖️ The Human Cost of the TPS Ruling (WaPo)

3. China Tests the Limits

China just announced that people outside its borders can be held legally responsible for violating a new law promoting "ethnic unity." Read that sentence again.

Reminder: governments normally enforce laws within their own borders; authoritarian governments increasingly claim authority beyond them.

Beijing describes the law as a way to combat separatism. Human rights organizations warn that it creates another mechanism for intimidating overseas dissidents, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kong activists, and potentially Taiwanese officials.

China can’t simply arrest someone living in America because it passed a law. Still, it can pressure foreign governments, seek international notices, intimidate families back home, and make international travel risky for critics.

For Taiwan, the implications are especially significant. Beijing already claims the island as its own territory; this law could become yet another legal justification for targeting people it labels as separatists. This is part of a broader trend known as transnational repression—when authoritarian governments try to silence critics well beyond their own borders.

Borders still matter. But increasingly, authoritarian governments are testing whether fear can travel farther than geography.

🐉 China’s Long Arm (Reuters)

4. When Home Is Thousands of Miles Away

Two powerful earthquakes devastated parts of Venezuela this week, killing hundreds and leaving thousands more injured or displaced. But thousands of miles away, something else happened.

In Houston, home to one of the largest Venezuelan communities in the United States, people immediately began filling garages, markets, and community centers with diapers, canned food, medicine, clothing, and handwritten messages of hope. Many had spent the night desperately trying to reach loved ones back home. Once they knew their families were safe, or even while they were still waiting for answers, they showed up to help complete strangers.

One message taped beside a Venezuelan flag read: "Estamos contigo, Venezuela." We are with you, Venezuela.

Natural disasters remind us how fragile life can be. Communities remind us how strong people can be. Sometimes the first responders aren’t wearing uniforms. They're simply neighbors who refuse to let distance become indifference.

🇻🇪We Are With You, Venezuela (NPR)

5. Who Decides What’s Required Reading?

Texas just became the first state to require public school students to read selected passages from the Bible as part of a mandatory statewide curriculum. The new requirements will eventually affect more than 5.5 million students and follow last year’s law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom.

This isn’t really a debate about whether the Bible has historical value. It unquestionably does. It’s a debate about whether the government should decide that one sacred text belongs in every public school curriculum. As someone who was raised Catholic and later embraced my Jewish heritage, I believe deeply in religious freedom. That’s precisely why I don’t believe the government should be in the business of deciding which sacred text belongs in every public school classroom.

Religious freedom has never meant freedom for only one faith. It means protecting everyone’s freedom to believe differently, or not at all. The separation of church and state wasn’t designed to keep religion out of America. It was designed to keep the government from deciding which religion belongs to all of us.

📖 Texas Requires Bible Readings (The Guardian)

If you enjoy Saturday Covfefe, please consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might too. Your support genuinely helps me keep this work going.

🌅 One Thing for Your Soul: The Sun Kept Rising

In case you missed it: for the first month on record, solar generated more electricity in the United States than coal.

In May, solar supplied 12.8% of America’s electricity. Coal generated 12.2%. Five years ago, coal produced nearly one-fifth of the nation’s electricity. Today, its share has nearly been cut in half, while solar’s has more than doubled.

Why does that matter? Because progress is often quieter than politics. It unfolds through years of innovation, investment, and people building something better.

Politics matters. So do innovation, markets, and the choices people make every day. The future doesn’t always arrive with a headline. Sometimes it arrives one sunrise at a time.

And for that, I’m grateful.

☀️ A Quiet Energy Revolution (Ember Org)

Until next time,

Olivia

Welcome back to Saturday Covfefe.

Yes, I know. It’s Sunday. I’m late.

In my defense, I spent the week in Los Angeles for the No ICE in the Cup watch party cheering on Mexico and later the U.S. in their World Cup matches, joined the Stephanie Miller Show live in studio, and then headed back to D.C.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads, grandfathers, father figures, and those carrying someone's memory today. And happy first day of summer! Thank you, as always, for reading and supporting this community. Consider this week’s Covfefe less of a morning coffee edition and more of a Sunday brunch issue.

Now, let’s get into it. ☕️🥂

1. The American Dream Is Running on Empty

America is about to celebrate its 250th birthday, and apparently half the country would like a refund.

A new national survey found that pride in being American has fallen from 82% in 2013 to just 51% today. Even more alarming? Only 18% of Americans say they’re proud of how democracy is actually working right now. The American Dream isn’t doing much better. Less than half of Americans still believe hard work gets you ahead, and among young adults that number has dropped to just 36%.

For years we’ve argued about taxes, immigration, and culture wars, but this feels different. The real warning sign isn’t that Americans disagree with each other—it’s that more and more Americans are losing faith in the idea that the system works at all.

It turns out "Make America Great Again" and "Save Democracy" are both symptoms of the same problem: a country searching for something to believe in.

Happy 250th, America! We may need more than fireworks this year…

🇺🇸 American Pride Falls Off a Cliff Ahead of America’s 250th Birthday (Axios)

2. The Taxpayer-Free Ballroom That Apparently Has Taxpayers

Remember the White House ballroom that President Trump promised would be funded entirely by private donors? Well, about that.

According to internal contractor estimates obtained by The Washington Post, the project’s actual cost may be closer to $600 million, not $400 million. More than half of that could come from taxpayers through the Secret Service, White House Military Office, and other government accounts.

That’s awkward.

Trump has repeatedly described the project as “taxpayer-free” and said private donors would foot the bill. The administration argues that some of the government spending is tied to security upgrades and underground facilities. Critics counter that when you build one giant structure, it’s hard to separate the ballroom from everything attached to it. As one procurement expert put it: “It’s one structure.”

Washington has many traditions. One of them is discovering that government projects cost more than originally advertised. Then again, this is Donald Trump we’re talking about. New Yorkers have seen this movie before.

🏛️ The $600 Million Ballroom (WaPo)

3. Dismantling Education, One Office at a Time

The Trump administration took another swing at the Department of Education this week, announcing that oversight of special education programs will be shifted to Health and Human Services while much of the department’s civil rights enforcement work moves to the Justice Department.

Officials call it a “partnership.” Critics call it dismantling the agency without asking Congress.

The stakes here are bigger than an org chart. For fifty years, the federal government has guaranteed that students with disabilities have access to an education and that students facing discrimination have somewhere to turn when schools fail them. Now those responsibilities are being broken apart and reassigned to agencies whose primary missions are health care and law enforcement.

One former employee put it bluntly: "We’re not going to our surgeon to learn how to read." That’s really the debate in a nutshell.

The more concerning reality is the lack of accountability for civil rights that is likely to follow. If you’re trying to dismantle an agency Congress created, you don’t necessarily have to close the building. You can simply move enough of the furniture out that the building stops functioning the way it was intended to. Washington has a fancy term for that. It’s called “reorganization.”

Most people would call it something else.

🧩 The Department of Education, Piece by Piece (NPR)

4. The Republican Case Against Execution

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine spent nearly half a century defending the death penalty. He helped write Ohio’s capital punishment law and built a career enforcing it. This week, he said Ohio should abolish it.

After 50 years of prosecuting cases, writing laws, and governing, he has reached a remarkable conclusion: the death penalty isn’t doing what it was intended to do. DeWine said the death penalty isn’t deterring crime, rarely results in actual executions, prolongs pain for victims’ families, and places enormous burdens on the people tasked with carrying it out.

"I do not believe that argument today can be successfully made, nor do I believe that there’s any chance in the future the facts that I’ve cited to support that belief will change," he said. "Therefore, I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty."

What’s remarkable here isn’t the politics. It’s the intellectual honesty. After spending a lifetime helping build the system, DeWine concluded it wasn’t delivering what it promised. In modern politics, changing your mind is often treated as a liability. It shouldn’t be.

⚖️ Fifty Years Later (CBS)

5. America, Hand-Stitched

As America prepares to turn 250, a group of artisans across the country are doing something refreshingly un-American for 2026: They’re slowing down.

A tailor is hand-sewing George Washington’s inauguration coat. A shipwright is rebuilding the boat Washington used to cross the Delaware. Printers are recreating wallpaper from Mount Vernon. Conservators are preserving one of the few surviving Revolutionary War flags. No shortcuts or power tools. No artificial intelligence. Just people spending thousands of hours making things the way they were made 250 years ago.

What struck me most wasn’t the history. It was their patience. In a country obsessed with the next thing, these craftspeople are reminding us that some things are worth preserving, repairing, and passing on.

That’s a pretty good lesson for America at 250. Not everything needs to be torn down to build something better. Some people might want to write that down.

🇺🇸 Keeping 1776 Alive (NY Times)

✨ One Thing for Your Soul: Emily’s Graduation

Every parent imagines their child’s graduation day. The photos. The food. The celebration.

What Emily Matejovitz’s parents never imagined was hosting that gathering without Emily there. Emily died at 16 after struggling with her mental health. In the midst of unimaginable grief, her family learned something they never knew—she had quietly registered as an organ donor when she got her driver’s license.

This month, on what would have been her graduation night, several of the people whose lives she saved traveled from across the country to be there. A teenage boy who received her heart. A four-year-old who received her kidney. Families who wanted Emily’s parents to know that she had not been forgotten.

One moment stopped me in my tracks. Emily’s mother placed a stethoscope on the chest of the young man carrying her daughter’s heart. And she listened. For a moment, the thing she thought she had lost forever was still there. Beating. I sat with that image for a long time.

Emily’s story feels like a reminder that the measure of a life isn’t how long it lasts. It’s how many lives it touches.

💝 Emily’s Legacy (KTVB)

More very soon,

Olivia

Congratulations to the U.S. Men’s National Team on their 4–1 World Cup victory over Paraguay!

And kudos to everyone who tuned in, showed up, or stayed awake into the early morning hours to witness history as Trump’s name came off the Kennedy Center and the institution was restored to its original name. Special thanks to my friend , who live-streamed from the scene for more than 12 hours!

The Kennedy Center was never meant to honor one politician. It was built to honor President John F. Kennedy and the ideals of public service, arts, culture, and civic life that continue to inspire generations.

Now, pour the coffee, I might need it to be extra strong…

1. Democracy, Meet the Search Warrant

The FBI raided not a cybercriminal ring or an international money laundering operation, but the offices of a voter registration organization in Ohio this week.

Federal agents reportedly seized phones, computers, and electronic devices from the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a grassroots group that works to register voters and increase civic participation. Agents also reportedly visited the homes of people affiliated with the organization across the state.

According to the group, investigators appeared to be examining allegations related to the 2024 election. What exactly they’re looking for remains unclear. The timing, however, is hard to ignore. Just weeks ago, the Department of Justice leadership instructed prosecutors to prioritize voter fraud cases. At the same time, federal investigators have reportedly been collecting voter records in multiple Ohio counties.

To be clear: if there is credible evidence of wrongdoing, it should be investigated. But when federal law enforcement shows up at the offices of organizations whose primary mission is helping people vote, transparency matters. A lot.

The concern here isn’t just about one organization in Ohio. It’s about the message. If you’re a community group helping people register to vote, are you now wondering whether you’ll be next? If you’re a volunteer knocking on doors or helping someone fill out a registration form, do you think twice? That’s how chilling effects work. Nobody has to tell you to stop. You just start looking over your shoulder.

The midterms are only months away, and suddenly the people registering voters are the ones answering questions from federal agents.

🗳️ Register Voters, Get Raided (The Guardian)

2. The Court Filing Said the Quiet Part Out Loud

Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Congress this week that claims the administration targeted clean energy projects in Democratic states were, and I quote, "bullshit."

Across town, government lawyers were telling a federal judge something very different. According to court filings, attorneys representing the administration acknowledged that a primary reason certain grants were terminated was because they were located in blue states. The grants were part of programs created under the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the administration has been aggressively trying to unwind many of them. That’s a legitimate policy fight. Elections have consequences, and administrations are allowed to change priorities.

What they’re generally not supposed to do is decide that a project is good or bad based on whether it sits in a county that voted for the right candidate.

The result?

A federal judge ordered the restoration of another 11 grants after concluding the projects had been targeted based on geography and politics rather than merit.

It’s a remarkable story for a simple reason. Most administrations spend enormous amounts of time crafting legal justifications that avoid saying the quiet part out loud. This one apparently filed the quiet part with the court.

Whatever your views on clean energy policy, federal funding decisions should be based on the merits of the projects, not the presidential election map.

🔵 It’s Not Political. Also, We Targeted Blue States.(WaPo)

3. Government by Loophole

I witnessed this firsthand during Trump 1.0. There were moments when the law wasn’t viewed as a guardrail. It was viewed as something far more malleable—a Gumby-like obstacle to be stretched, bent, and worked around until it produced the desired outcome.

That’s what makes this essay worth reading. The authors argue that many of the administration’s most consequential actions aren’t necessarily about breaking laws. They’re about identifying loopholes, ambiguities, and powers that were never intended to be pushed to their limits.

Whether it’s emergency authorities, acting appointments, executive power, or simply running out the clock through endless legal maneuvering, the piece argues that some of the biggest challenges facing our democracy aren’t happening outside the system. They’re happening within it.

Our system relies on more than laws. It relies on norms, restraint, and people acting in good faith. America’s founders designed checks and balances. They didn’t anticipate a president who would treat the rulebook like a puzzle to solve rather than a principle to uphold.

🕳️ The Fine Print Presidency (Time)

4. Jared Kushner vs. The Flamingos

If you had told me a year ago that one of the most interesting protest movements in the world would involve flamingos, I would have assumed you had started drinking before breakfast. Yet, here we are.

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Albania over a proposed luxury resort project linked to Jared Kushner that would be built near a protected coastal ecosystem home to flamingos, sea turtles, monk seals, and hundreds of migratory bird species.

The result?

The flamingo has become the unlikely mascot of a growing grassroots movement. Protesters are carrying giant flamingo cutouts through the streets, social media has embraced the bird as a symbol of resistance, and the movement has even adopted a name: “The Flamingo Revolution.”

What began as an environmental dispute is increasingly becoming something larger. Many Albanians see it as a fight over who gets to decide the future of their country and who benefits from major development projects.

History has taught us that sometimes the most powerful symbols are the ones nobody sees coming.

🦩 The Flamingo Revolution (Politico Europe)

5. The Influencer, the Empire, and the Allegations

Every generation gets a con artist. Ours got one with a Bugatti, a podcast microphone, and hundreds of millions of social media views.

This week, The New Yorker published a devastating investigation into Andrew Tate’s business empire and the allegations surrounding how it was built. As I read it, I kept more and more nauseous and I also kept thinking about another name.

Jeffrey Epstein.

Not because the allegations are identical. They’re not. But because the reporting describes a familiar pattern: the cultivation of power, the manipulation of vulnerable women, the creation of systems that allegedly benefited from exploitation, and the belief that wealth, influence, and celebrity place someone beyond accountability. Millions of young men were taught to see him not as a warning sign, but as a role model.

That’s what makes this story bigger than Andrew Tate. The question isn’t whether one influencer abused his platform. It’s why so many people were willing to celebrate him while he did it. Because if we don’t answer that question, someone else will eventually fill the algorithm.

🚩 Andrew Tate and the Lost Boys (The New Yorker)

⚽ One Thing for Your Soul: A Goal Six Years in the Making

You probably know by now that I’m a huge soccer fan and an unapologetic supporter of El Tri.

Like so many Mexico fans, I found myself emotional watching Raúl Jiménez score in Mexico’s opening World Cup match. Not just because it sealed the win, but because of everything it took to get there. In 2020, Jiménez suffered a devastating skull fracture. There were serious questions about whether he would survive, let alone play again. Six years later, at age 35, he scored his first-ever World Cup goal in Mexico’s 2-0 victory over South Africa. Through tears, before his own country’s home crowd, he looked to the sky, remembering his father, who passed away earlier this year.

We spend so much time talking about what divides us. Sports remind us of something else: resilience, second chances, and the joy of seeing someone get back up after life knocks them down.

🇲🇽 The Miracle of Raúl Jiménez (The Athletic)

Mom and I had a wonderful time cheering on El Tri in the World Cup opener.

Thank you to everyone who came out and helped us support Latino and immigrant families in Northern Virginia. The World Cup is ultimately about more than soccer. It’s about community, culture, and the connections that bring us together. I wrote about this: HERE.

See you in Los Angeles this coming week!

-Olivia

Driving through Washington this week, I noticed something unusual on the National Mall. Blue trailers. Lots of them.

It turns out they were there because more than 30 gallons of fuel reportedly spilled during a Freedom 250 event celebrating America’s upcoming 250th birthday. Nothing says “patriotism” quite like an environmental remediation project. Which, now that I think about it, was a fitting introduction to this week’s news. Every story below is really about what happens when the people running the systems we’re supposed to trust leave someone else to clean up the mess. You’re going to want some really strong coffee or maybe something more for this one…

1. The White House Presents: Aliens

This week, the White House launched a webpage called "Aliens."

At first glance, it looks like a parody site about extraterrestrials. Green lettering. X-Files references. An "Alien Arrest Map." A running counter. Even a message assuring visitors that if they’ve witnessed an "alien abduction," the alien will be returned safely to its place of origin.

Then comes the punchline. The "aliens" are immigrants.

Not a campaign website. Not a meme account.

The White House.

Words matter.

As a former White House homeland security adviser, I spent years tracking extremist movements and the spread of dangerous conspiracy theories, including Great Replacement narratives that portray immigrants as invaders threatening American society.

I repeatedly warned that this kind of rhetoric is not harmless. It dehumanizes people. It turns neighbors into threats. It creates permission structures for hatred. I know this because I’ve seen where it can lead.

In 2019, a gunman drove hundreds of miles to my hometown of El Paso, Texas and murdered 23 people at a Walmart after embracing anti-immigrant and replacement-theory rhetoric.

That’s why this isn’t funny to me.

The issue isn’t immigration policy. Reasonable people can disagree about that. The issue is whether the White House of the United States should be using language that reduces human beings to something less than human.

History has taught us where that road can lead. We ignore those lessons at our own risk.

👽 Aliens (The White House)

And from Aliens → Dead…

2. Declared Dead

The government considered marking living people as dead. Not metaphorically, not rhetorically, in actual government records.

According to a whistleblower, Trump administration officials explored placing 2.7 million living people into Social Security’s Death Master File, a database used by banks, employers, and government agencies to determine whether someone is alive. The list reportedly included lawful permanent residents and some U.S. citizens.

If you’ve never heard of the Death Master File, here’s why it matters: When the government says you’re dead, the financial system tends to believe it.

Bank accounts can be frozen. Benefits can stop. Credit can disappear. Getting paid becomes difficult. In some cases, proving you’re alive becomes your problem.

The Social Security Administration says the broader plan was never carried out. (That we know of…) That’s good news.

But the fact that it was reportedly considered at all should give people pause. This isn’t just an immigration story. It’s a government power story.

One of the most important responsibilities government has is maintaining accurate records about the people it serves. Once political objectives start influencing who exists on paper and who doesn’t, the guardrails begin to disappear.

Every American should care about that. Government databases are supposed to reflect reality, not create a new one.

⚰️ The Government’s Death List (Washington Post)

3. Stop the Steal Goes to Work

The Justice Department’s Voting Section has a new lawyer. His resume includes working on lawsuits that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

According to reporting this week, William Mohrman has joined DOJ after previously participating in multiple unsuccessful legal efforts to block certification of Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona, Georgia, and Congress itself. Courts repeatedly rejected the claims.

Normally, attorneys who lose election challenges become cautionary tales. In 2026, they become voting lawyers at the Department of Justice. The hiring comes as the Voting Section increasingly shifts away from its traditional role protecting voting rights and toward efforts to obtain voter registration data from states around the country. Now it appears some of the people who questioned the outcome of an election are being tasked with overseeing the machinery of future ones.

File that under "things that should probably concern us."

⚖️ From Stop the Steal to DOJ Payroll (Democracy Docket)

4. Less Shackled

This week, President Trump said he wants Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte to begin firing intelligence-community employees and shrinking the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the agency responsible for coordinating America’s 18 intelligence organizations.

There’s just one problem. Pulte has no intelligence or national security experience. Trump defended the appointment by saying Pulte is “less shackled.” That’s not usually the quality we look for in intelligence oversight.

ODNI plays a critical role in election-related intelligence, foreign influence monitoring, and election threat assessments. At the same time, Trump has publicly discussed having Pulte review and potentially release intelligence related to the 2020 election. That’s a remarkable amount of authority for someone chosen for loyalty rather than expertise.

As someone who spent years working at DNI alongside intelligence professionals, I can tell you that intelligence only works when it’s insulated from politics. Analysts aren’t supposed to start with a conclusion and work backward. They’re supposed to follow the facts wherever they lead.

And if your goal was to weaken America’s ability to identify foreign influence operations and inject politics into intelligence analysis, this is exactly what Russia would want us to do.

This is an odd moment to decide that expertise is the problem. Because when you start dismantling warning systems, you don’t just change the bureaucracy. You change what leaders are able to see.

🕵️ Dismantling the Warning System (WSJ)

5. Flying Blind

One of the challenges of government is that some of its most important functions are also the least visible. Most Americans have never heard of the Ocean Observatories Initiative, but many have relied on it.

Scientists are warning that the Trump administration’s plan to significantly reduce a major ocean monitoring system could weaken weather forecasting, storm prediction, climate monitoring, and early warning systems used around the world. The network helps track ocean temperatures, currents, marine heatwaves, and the conditions that influence hurricanes, cyclones, and El Niño events. In other words, it helps us see what’s coming.

Warning systems rarely get credit for the disasters that never happen. Nobody notices the buoy quietly collecting data in the middle of the ocean—until hurricane forecasts become less accurate, or until farmers can’t reliably anticipate drought conditions. There’s a simple lesson from emergency preparedness: information is often the cheapest part of preventing a crisis. The expensive part is dealing with one after you’ve lost visibility.

Scientists describe these ocean observation systems as the "eyes and ears" of the ocean. The administration describes the cuts as a cost-saving measure. The problem is that when you start turning off sensors, you don’t just save money. Sometimes you stop seeing what’s coming. And that’s usually when things get expensive.

🌊 Turning Off the Sensors (The Guardian)

⚽️ One Thing for Your Soul: Arsenal’s Most Unexpected Fans

Since soccer is top of mind for many as we head into World Cup fever, this one felt especially fitting. Arsenal Football Club recently donated old player socks to Redwings, a UK charity that rescues horses and donkeys.

What sounds like the beginning of a joke turned out to be genuinely useful. The socks help protect sensitive legs from flies, hold bandages in place, prevent rubbing from equipment, and even serve as enrichment toys for curious donkeys.

After a week of aliens and chaos, I thought we could all use a reminder that some people are still finding creative ways to make the world a little better. The socks stayed out of a landfill. The animals benefited. And somewhere in England, a donkey is proudly sporting Arsenal gear. That’s a win no matter which team you’re rooting for.

🫏 Arsenal’s Assist of the Week (Redwings Horse Sanctuary)

I’ll be cheering on Mexico in the opening match of the World Cup this coming Thursday, June 11th and hosting a watch party at one of my favorite local pizza places—if you’re in the DC/Virginia/Maryland area, come hang out with me! A portion of proceeds will benefit Casa Chirilagua and its work supporting immigrant and Latino families in the area.

More details on my instagram:

I’ll also be supporting the work of The Welcome Standard and No ICE in the Cup throughout the tournament. Because despite everything happening in the headlines, I still believe there’s value in the moments that bring people together.

-Olivia

Grab a seat. We’ve got some dots to connect. Pour yourself a Café Bustelo horchata coffee over ice and enjoy while contemplating why the government is painting buildings, renaming cultural institutions, subpoenaing social media accounts, and expanding its footprint across the hemisphere.

Just another week in 2026. Let’s get started.

1. Paint It White, Fix Nothing

Newly obtained documents reveal the Trump administration is fast-tracking plans to paint the historic Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the granite landmark next to the White House that houses the Vice President’s office, the National Security Council, and other key government functions. I spent 2.5 years working there. Trust me, it’s beautiful as is.

The estimated cost? About $7.5 million.

Preservation experts have blasted the proposal, with one historic preservation office calling it "architectural vandalism of the highest order." More than 2,000 public comments were submitted, most opposing the project. But the paint isn’t really the story.

It’s about the underlying mindset.

At a time when Americans are worried about costs, housing, healthcare, national security, and the state of democracy itself, the White House is debating whether a perfectly functional historic building is the wrong shade of gray.

The administration calls it beautification. Critics, myself included, call it vanity. Either way, taxpayers may soon be funding a makeover nobody asked for.

🎨 The Great Whitewash (Bloomberg)

2. The Masculinity Police

For a movement that never stops talking about free speech, MAGA spends a remarkable amount of time policing what people say. This week, a Democratic National Committee staffer fired off a blunt insult aimed at Stephen Miller. Was it classy? No. Was it worthy of a full-blown online pile-on? Apparently.

Within hours, Katie Miller publicly identified the staffer, mocked her personal life, and helped unleash a wave of harassment. The episode quickly became about more than a tweet. It became another example of a movement obsessed with deciding who is a "real man," who is a "real woman," and who deserves public humiliation. The irony is hard to miss. The same crowd that built an entire brand around "mean tweets" suddenly discovered standards of civility when the insult was directed at one of its own.

But beneath the drama is something bigger: a politics where strength is measured by cruelty, disagreement is treated as weakness, and intimidation has become a strategy all its own.

💥 The MAGA Masculinity Test (The New Republic)

3. Watching the Watchers

The Department of Justice apparently has a new investigative priority: figuring out who’s criticizing ICE online.

Federal prosecutors have apparently subpoenaed the Reddit and X platforms seeking personal information, including names, addresses, and even banking records, associated with anonymous accounts that posted criticism of immigration enforcement operations. The government hasn’t publicly explained what crimes, if any, are being investigated. Attorneys representing the users say their clients have not been told why they are being targeted and argue the effort appears designed to identify anonymous critics rather than prosecute legitimate criminal conduct. That’s what makes this story so unsettling.

Democracy depends on citizens being able to criticize government power without fear of retaliation. Anonymous political speech isn’t some modern internet invention; it’s as old as the country itself. The Federalist Papers were published under a pseudonym for a reason.

If someone threatens violence, that’s one thing. If someone doxxes agents or commits a crime, investigate it. But if the government starts demanding personal information from social media platforms whenever citizens criticize federal policy, the message becomes clear: We know who you are.

Even if no charges are ever filed, that warning alone can be enough. The danger isn’t just surveillance. It’s self-censorship. Because when people start wondering whether a tweet, post, or comment could put them on a government list, many simply stop speaking at all.

🕵️ Anonymous No More? (Bloomberg Law)

4. The Monroe Doctrine Returns

Remember when I wrote about the Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy and warned about what I called the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine?

This week, we got another glimpse of what that looks like in practice.

Reports emerged that Guatemala was discussing expanded security cooperation with the United States against drug trafficking organizations. Guatemala quickly pushed back on suggesting it had authorized U.S. military strikes on its territory, emphasizing that any cooperation would remain under Guatemalan control and within existing agreements.

That denial matters. Because this story isn’t really about Guatemala. It’s about a broader strategy taking shape across the Western Hemisphere.

The Trump administration has increasingly framed Latin America as America’s primary security theater, tying together migration, cartels, organized crime, and China’s growing influence into a single justification for expanding U.S. power in the region. The language is partnership. The reality is a steadily growing military footprint, and Guatemala isn’t the only place this is showing up. From renewed pressure campaigns against Cuba to discussions about expanded security operations elsewhere in the region, the same strategic framework keeps appearing: a more muscular U.S. posture throughout Latin America, justified by security concerns but carrying significant implications for sovereignty.

I’ve sat through enough Situation Room meetings to recognize the pattern. Military power can disrupt networks. It cannot replace diplomacy, economic investment, or trust. The question isn’t whether the United States should remain engaged in the region. Of course it should. The question is whether Washington is building partnerships, or rebuilding spheres of influence.

🌎 The Guatemala Denial (AP News)

5. The Kennedy Center Is Not About You

On what would have been President Kennedy's 109th birthday, a federal judge delivered a blunt reminder: the Kennedy Center is named after John F. Kennedy, not Donald Trump.

The court blocked Trump’s effort to rebrand the institution as the "Trump-Kennedy Center" and halted plans to close it for two years for renovations. The judge ruled that federal law is clear: the center was established to honor President Kennedy and "President Kennedy alone."

This isn’t just a Washington spat; it’s part of something bigger.

Over the past year, we’ve watched a growing effort to reshape both public institutions and public spaces around a single individual. The Kennedy Center became the latest battleground, but hardly the only one. What happens next remains unclear. Trump responded by saying he’s backing away from the renovation effort, while Kennedy Center officials signaled they may continue fighting the ruling.

Either way, the damage has already been done. The artists who canceled. The musicians who walked away. The audiences who no longer feel welcome.

The Kennedy Center was never just a building. It was a symbol of American creativity, cultural exchange, and the idea that art belongs to everyone, regardless of politics. A judge can order a sign removed. A court can restore a name. Rebuilding trust is much harder.

🎭 Kennedy Wins (AP News)

❤️ One Thing For Your Soul:

In a refugee camp in Beirut, a group of girls and young women are learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu. But the lesson isn’t really about self-defense.

Their coach teaches them to keep their heads up. Make eye contact. Use their voices. Take up space. Believe they belong in the world. One young woman said that before the class, she couldn’t even scream for help. Her voice simply wouldn’t come out. Now she’s finding it. At the end of class, the coach told the girls to imagine the changes they wanted to see in their community. Then she said: “You know when you throw a stone into a pool of water and it creates ripples? We are the stones.”

A good reminder for all of us. Courage isn’t always public or dramatic. It can mean trusting yourself, speaking up, and believing you matter.

🪨 We Are the Stones (NPR)

One Last Thing...I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in Washington, DC this week. When Bruce played American Land, it felt like a reminder of something that’s easy to forget these days. America wasn’t built by fear. It was built by people willing to risk everything for a chance at something better. That’s the story of us. 🇺🇸

I’ll have some updates on my end next week. I can’t wait to fill you in! Also, for paid subscribers, keep an eye out for an invite to ask questions in my first live Ask Me Anything!

Until next time,

Olivia

Tonight, Ken Paxton won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Texas. And whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, or independent, this should stop you cold.

We are witnessing the continued normalization of scandal, extremism, and ethical collapse inside one of America’s major political parties.

Ken Paxton was impeached by Republicans in his own state. Not Democrats. Republicans.

He has spent years surrounded by allegations of corruption, abuse of office, and conduct that would have ended most political careers long ago.

Yet instead of accountability, he’s being elevated.

The Cook Political Report’s move of Texas from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican” after Ken Paxton’s win is significant. It confirms what many Republicans privately feared: Paxton’s ethical baggage and scandals make him a far riskier statewide candidate.

Having been raised in Texas and still having deep ties there, I can tell you this plainly: if Democrats think this race suddenly becomes easy because Ken Paxton won the nomination, they’re badly misreading Texas.

Yes, Paxton’s scandals and ethical baggage make Republicans more vulnerable. And yes, someone like James Talarico could energize a different coalition of voters.

But, this is still Texas. Winning statewide as a Democrat remains a very uphill battle.

This isn’t conservatism. It’s a power cult.

And the damage doesn’t stay in Texas. People like Ken Paxton shape national policy, influence the courts, undermine public trust, and erode democratic institutions from the inside. Americans should be paying attention. Because this pattern keeps repeating itself: Scandal becomes survival. Extremism becomes a strategy. And accountability disappears entirely.

That’s not strength. That’s decay.

And when the decay and rot already sit comfortably in the Oval Office, why would anyone expect a different outcome from today’s Republican Party?

More soon,

Olivia

This week’s edition of “perfectly fine, nothing to see here” includes: the government suing the Catholic Church for a sacred mountaintop, Democrats releasing a postmortem while the house is still on fire, and Ebola screenings at Dulles, courtesy of the same administration that dismantled the infrastructure designed to prevent exactly that.

Cafecito. Now please.

1. Holy Ground, Seized for Politics

The Trump administration is suing the Catholic Church to seize land surrounding Mount Cristo Rey near El Paso, Texas, so it can expand the border wall. Yes, really.

If you didn’t grow up on the border, it may sound like just another land dispute. It’s not.

I’ve actually made the pilgrimage up Mount Cristo Rey. Many members of my family have too. If you’re from the region, you understand what that mountain represents: faith, family, culture, and generations of border communities tied together across two countries.

So yes, this is incredibly insulting and upsetting.

The same political movement that spent years screaming that Christianity was "under attack" is now trying to seize Catholic land tied to one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites in the Southwest, all for more border wall construction.

And before people turn this into a simplistic "pro-border" versus "anti-border" debate: border security matters. I worked these issues inside the Trump White House. Serious people can disagree on immigration policy.

But this? This feels like ideological theater masquerading as security policy.

Especially because the mountain is already heavily monitored by helicopters, drones, Border Patrol agents, cameras, and ground sensors. Even local restoration leaders have accused the government of starting construction first and only afterward trying to legally "cover their behinds."

That’s becoming the pattern now: If something stands in the way politically, culturally, or institutionally, they try to crush it.

✝️ Sacred Ground Seized (NPR)

2. The Math Didn’t Work

The Democratic Party finally released its long-delayed 2024 election autopsy this week and…honestly? It reads less like a strategy memo and more like a public group therapy session with footnotes.

The 192-page report says Kamala Harris "wrote off rural America," failed to define herself beyond “not Trump,” and didn’t hit Trump with enough negative firepower. One line stood out: "The math doesn’t work." Because apparently Democrats are rediscovering that you can’t lose huge chunks of working-class, rural, and non-college voters and magically make it up in wealthy suburbs forever.

The report also admits Democrats failed to engage male voters directly, especially young Latino and Black men, and relied too heavily on anti-Trump sentiment instead of building an affirmative case for Harris herself.

But here’s the part that really jumped out at me: The DNC itself repeatedly attached disclaimers throughout the document, basically saying: we can’t verify a lot of this because the sourcing and data weren’t fully provided. HUH?

Meanwhile, Democrats spent the day publicly fighting over a report about an election they already lost instead of focusing on Trump’s current chaos: Iran, rising costs, corruption, mass deportations, and the increasingly authoritarian behavior unfolding in real time.

Voters don’t reward parties that feel disconnected, performative, or trapped in consultant-land. Right now? Too many Americans still don’t believe Democrats do.

Really need to teach Democrats how to fight like Republicans do. I give you my word that I’ll keep working on this!

🧭 Inside the DNC’s 2024 Autopsy: AP News

🧾 FULL LINK TO THE REPORT: HERE

3. The Green Card Trap

On Friday, the Trump administration announced that people in the United States on temporary visas, students, workers, even some tourists, who want to apply for green cards must now leave the country and apply from their home nation. No more adjusting status from inside the U.S., as has been standard practice for decades.

Half a million people a year do this legally. Following the rules. Building lives.

Now they may have to leave to have any shot at staying.

Remember that Trump has already banned nationals from more than 100 countries from returning to the United States. So for many people, "go home and apply through your consulate" isn’t really a process. It’s a door that may never reopen. A real Stephen Miller special.

A former USCIS official put it bluntly: "The purpose of this policy is exclusion."

World Relief, a Christian humanitarian organization, called the move "cruel" and "anti-family," warning it could separate husbands from wives and parents from children who came here legally and followed the rules. I met repeatedly with World Relief during my tenure as Vice President Pence’s homeland security advisor. Back then, they raised serious concerns about how refugee and immigration issues were being distorted inside the administration by hardline political operatives pushing fear over facts. Since then, all of these issues have escalated.

This isn’t about people crossing illegally. This is about people who did everything right, and are now being told the finish line moved while they were running.

✈️ Legal Immigration, Rewritten (NBC News)

4. Trump’s Most Dangerous Executive Order Yet?

I saw former prosecutor Elie Honig’s breakdown of Trump’s March executive order on elections this week. More people should be paying attention.

Because buried beneath the bureaucratic jargon is something deeply dangerous.

Trump’s order would require DHS to create federal "State Citizenship Lists" pulled from government databases and handed over to states to cross-check voter rolls.

Even Trump administration lawyers admitted in court that the lists would almost certainly be flawed. Which means eligible voters could suddenly find themselves flagged, purged, or blocked from voting by mail because they don’t appear correctly in some massive federal database Frankenstein list.

And that’s before you get to the mail ballot piece. The order also directs the Postal Service to create a new election-only "super envelope" system tied to those citizenship lists. If you’re not on the list? Good luck getting a valid mail ballot.

The Constitution gives states and Congress authority over elections, not the president. But this administration keeps testing how far executive power can stretch before somebody stops it.

That’s the pattern now. Not one giant authoritarian move. A thousand confusing procedural ones most people won’t notice until the damage is already done.

🗳️ The Quiet Election Power Grab (New York Magazine)

5. Public Health on Autopilot

DHS quietly announced this week that travelers arriving from parts of Central and East Africa will now face enhanced Ebola screening at Dulles International Airport. Most people probably scrolled right past the headline. I didn’t.

I was inside the Trump White House during the COVID crisis in 2020, including Oval Office discussions about shutting down flights from China and managing international travel restrictions. And even with experienced career officials, public health experts, and people who understood crisis management in the room… it was still an operational mess behind the scenes.

Today? Many of those people are gone. That’s what worries me.

The current public risk remains low. But preparedness matters before a crisis spirals, not after cable news discovers it.

Reminder: the same administration expanding Ebola screening also weakened many of the systems designed to prevent outbreaks in the first place. USAID epidemic-response programs were frozen or dismantled during the DOGE-driven cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s government overhaul operation. Staffing tied to Ebola and outbreak prevention collapsed, while CDC and NIH global health capabilities were reduced as well. One NIH Ebola research lab was reportedly shut down entirely.

You can only spend years attacking expertise, hollowing out agencies, and treating government itself like the enemy before eventually discovering those systems were the thing standing between stability and catastrophe. Most Americans never think about those systems until something goes wrong. I do. I’ve seen firsthand how fragile they already are, even when competent people are trying their best.

Now? The guardrails inside the public health system are thinner than people realize.

☣️ DHS Expands Ebola Screening at Dulles (ABC 4 News)

🎾 One Thing For Your Soul

Last year, I told you about something that genuinely made me smile: Billie Jean King returned to college at 81 to finish the degree she started in 1964. This week, she graduated. At 82. Sixty-one years later. Absolute icon behavior.

Before the Grand Slam titles and the "Battle of the Sexes," Billie Jean King was a first-generation college student from a working-class family trying to figure out her future. At commencement this week, she reflected on realizing at age 12 that nearly everyone at elite tennis clubs was white and asking herself: "Where is everybody else?"

"We can never understand inclusion unless we’ve been excluded," she told graduates.

Her final advice: "Have fun. Be fearless. And make history." Not bad guidance for the rest of us either.

🎓 Billie Jean King Finally Graduates From College (The Guardian)

As we head into Memorial Day weekend, take a moment to remember the Americans who never made it home. Beyond the barbecues and sales, this weekend exists because of sacrifice, and because families across this country carry that loss with them every single day.

Until next time,

Olivia

P.S. If this week’s Covfefe made you think differently, laugh, rage, or connect a few new dots, share it with someone else. And if you want to support this work directly, becoming a paid subscriber genuinely helps.