Forbes: “For decades, the president has claimed charitable deductions on golf courses he never gave away. Now, facing one of the most significant tax bills of his life, he’s pushing the scheme even further—and appears to be using the presidency to get away with it.”
Daily Archives
October 19, 2026
93 posts · Monday
Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 193
The Magnificent Seven
Trial Balloon · Ep. 193: The Magnificent Seven
Talarico Narrowly Leads in Texas Senate Race
A new University of Houston poll in Texas finds James Talarico (D) leading Ken Paxton (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 48% to 46%, with Ted Brown (L) at 3%.
Texas Senate Race
James Talarico (D) 48%
Ken Paxton (R) 46%
The same poll in Texas finds Greg Abbott (R) leading Gina Hinojosa (D) in the governor’s race, 49% to 46%, with Pat Dixon (L) at 2%.
Texas Governor’s Race
Greg Abbott (R) 49%
Gina Hinojosa (D) 46%
France’s Far Right Seizes the Moment
“After riots erupted this weekend in cities across France, its centrist government blamed the main far-left party, accusing its politicians of inciting the violence. That party blamed the government, accusing it of stirring public anger through years of bad governance and heavy-handed policing,” the New York Times reports.
“What did the main far-right party do? It blamed both, and launched into campaign mode.”
Said National Rally president Jordan Bardella: “We are paying for decades of being soft on crime, of weak authority, of the moral, psychological, and material disarmament of our internal security forces.”
Josh Shapiro Way Up in Pennsylvania Governor’s Race
A new PennLive poll in Pennsylvania finds Josh Shapiro (D) leading Stacy Garrity (R) in the governor’s race, 58% to 28%.
Pennsylvania Governor’s Race
Josh Shapiro (D) 58%
Stacy Garrity (R) 28%
The AI Attack-Ad Nightmare Is Coming True
“AI is producing reality-bending midterm ads about defaced Bibles, upscale dinners and a board game with a ‘Death to America’ playing card,” Axios reports.
“The warnings about deepfakes are coming true. Election laws haven’t kept pace with a world where campaigns can put words in opponents’ mouths and create realistic-looking scenes that didn’t happen.”
“The Wesleyan Media Project found $137 million had been spent on 220 AI-generated ads through Oct. 11, mostly from Republicans.”
Democrats’ Sudden Revulsion Toward Big Tech
Michael Scherer: “The sudden Democratic revulsion toward Big Tech and all its offspring—data centers, artificial intelligence, tech oligarchs—has defined this midterm election and will likely continue through the early innings of the 2028 presidential campaign.”
“For most of the past few decades, Democrats cast themselves as a futurist party heralding a digital utopia, a posture founded by Al Gore and solidified when Barack Obama traveled to Google’s headquarters in 2007 to announce his presidential campaign’s commitment to ‘use technology to reach ever-expanding horizons.’ Republicans were the ones warning about censorship and centralized power, as corporate executives clumsily adjusted the levers of permissible speech on social media.”
“But partisan passions on tech have been realigning from the moment President Trump delivered his second inaugural address in 2025, with Silicon Valley’s centibillionaires as background props. The president’s hostility toward attempts to rein in AI has solidified the shift.”
Ramaswamy Struggles in Race Once Seen as Easy Win
Time: “The very connections to Trumpism that fueled Ramaswamy’s fast political rise are now giving his party reason to worry, as polls show him trailing Democrat Amy Acton, a former state health chief and a first-time candidate.”
Said one Ohio Democratic strategist: “Something is happening here. I just can’t tell you what.”
“On the campaign trail, Ramaswamy occasionally moderates his image as the brash MAGA warrior railing against ‘the woke left,’ pitching tax cuts and economic development when he’s with suburban crowds and chamber of commerce types. But he can still come off at times as a pugilistic troll.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I would be disappointed if it comes in at 225 House seats. That would almost be – I would rather the Republicans keep the House by five than the Democrats to win by five because if that happens, they’re hostage to the DSA.”
— Democratic strategist James Carville, quoted by Mediaite.
Trump Appointees Wanted a Voting Machine Hacked
“A few months into President Donald Trump’s second term, political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security made an unusual request of its agency focused on cybersecurity: Secretly acquire a voting machine and hack it,” ProPublica reports.
“The appointees wanted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to procure the machine, examine it and report back the findings so they could be given to the White House, according to two former administration officials with knowledge of the request.”
“The proposition was shocking to CISA’s career staffers, according to one of the former officials. CISA typically worked to thwart hackers. Moreover, the agency had been directed not to alert the voting machine company if it uncovered flaws, contrary to its standard practices. The request made the CISA employees fear they were being asked to take part in political interference.”
Trump Urges France to ‘Close the Borders’
“President Trump urged France Monday morning to seal itself off from the rest of Europe following a weekend of rioting that led to at least 2,400 arrests and reduced the country’s major cities to a state of anarchy,” the New York Post reports.
Said Trump: “The migrants have taken over France.”
Trump Doubles Down On Golf Course Renovation Plan
“President Donald Trump early Monday doubled down on his plan to close and renovate a public Washington, DC, golf course, saying construction would begin ‘IMMEDIATELY’ despite a judge’s order to provide three days’ notice ahead of any construction,” CNN reports.
Trump Hints at a Hostage Deal with Russia
“President Trump, defending his decision to ease tariffs and other sanctions against Russia, said on Sunday that he was making ‘great progress’ in a peace deal with the Kremlin and suggested for the first time that the process included ‘hostage negotiations,'” the New York Times reports.
“He did not specify whose release he was seeking.”
MS NOW: Trump’s latest pro-Putin moves prompt bipartisan backlash and awkward questions.
America Is Now an Ally of Russia
Tom Nichols: “In the past week, the president of the United States has conclusively turned America into an ally of the Russian Federation.”
“Donald Trump has now abandoned pretense and is openly aiding the Kremlin in its war against a friend and partner of the U.S. The American commander in chief has abandoned the Western order, the most successful—and powerful—security arrangement in human history.”
“To judge from the available evidence, he has not done so out of a cold calculation of the national interest. Instead, he has based his decisions on his own interests; his open admiration for Russia’s dictator; his resentment of Ukraine’s democratically elected president; and quite possibly other factors that so far have remained obscured from the American public.”
Flávio Bolsonaro and Lula Tied in Runoff Poll
“Right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are locked in a tie less than a week ahead of Brazil’s runoff election, according to a new poll,” Bloomberg reports.
“Bolsonaro would take 50.3% to Lula’s 49.7% of valid votes, excluding blank and null ballots, according to a BTG Pactual/Nexus survey published Monday.”
Super PAC Propping Up ‘Decoy Dan’ Sullivan in Alaska
“A mysterious super PAC propping up retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan in Alaska’s closely watched Senate race is funded by progressive donors, new financial disclosures reveal,” the New York Post reports.
“Dan J. Sullivan, aka ‘Decoy Dan,’ shares the same first and last name as incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R-AK) and is listed on the ballot as a Republican despite voting against Donald Trump in each of the past three presidential elections.”
French Officials Toughen Response After Riots
“French officials, acknowledging law-enforcement failures, rolled out tougher security measures and pledged aid for businesses after cost-of-living protests this weekend degenerated into violence, vandalism and looting,” Bloomberg reports.
The Iran War Has Changed the World Forever
Foreign Policy: “Many of the immediate consequences of the Israeli-American war with Iran are already clear. The further emergence of drones and missiles as dominant weapons of war; the danger to the global economy from the threats to vital chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb; and the inadequacy of U.S. weapons procurement, among other issues, have garnered widespread and entirely merited attention.”
“Yet as important enough as those developments are, the Iran conflict could also have far wider and longer-term implications—changes that could be truly transformative for the Middle East region and the rest of the world. Decades from now, we might look back on this conflict as a watershed event that fundamentally reshaped what had been bedrock principles of modern geopolitics.”
GOP Bemoans a Distracted Trump in Final Stretch
“Republicans are playing whack-a-mole with President Donald Trump in the final two weeks of the midterms,” Politico reports.
“GOP candidates are desperate to stick to tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill, Trump accounts for children and the president’s work to lower the cost of prescription drugs.”
“Instead, in the midterms’ final stretch, Trump and his administration have forced Republicans on the trail to respond to live streaming the firing squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter, his taxpayer-funded political ads promoting his achievements and an announced deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to bring down diesel costs. His latest move, exempting Russia from a new sanctions law sponsored by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, even provoked mild criticism on Saturday from South Carolina Sen. Darline Graham, the late senator’s sister who is running for re-election.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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