“President Donald Trump is giving New Mexico another branding pitch, urging the state to swap ‘Mexico’ for ‘America’ and suggesting the change could boost everything from home values to state pride,” Fox News reports.
Said Trump: “New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America. We are not Mexico, we are the United States of America!”
“President Trump has embarked on a campaign swing across a remarkably conservative swath of America in a six-day blitz that began Monday, trying to boost Republican turnout in places the party did not view as competitive just a few months ago,” the New York Times reports.
“With just two weeks to go until the midterm elections, Mr. Trump’s itinerary reflects how worried the GOP is about its prospects for holding onto the House and Senate, and winning governor’s races nationwide.”
Bloomberg: Trump’s rally blitz tests his pull with midterm voters.
“Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate arrested last year by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents amid campus protests, appealed to the Supreme Court on Monday in an attempt to prevent his deportation,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Khalil, a legal permanent U.S. resident who is married to an American, became an early and high-profile example of President Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses.”
Deadline: “Attorneys for the BBC want to subpoena Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought an election conspiracy indictment against Donald Trump, as the network defends itself against the president’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit.”
“President Donald Trump said Monday that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss how to end the Ukraine war, while criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,” CNBC reports.
“Trump suggested that that meeting, which Putin reportedly proposed, could take place without Zelensky present.”
Bloomberg: Trump open to Putin, Xi summit but would focus on nuclear arms.
Ed Kilgore: “Fifteen days from the end of the 2026 midterm elections, the big picture is increasingly clear: Despite a Republican-leaning landscape (especially for the U.S. Senate), a blue wave is taking shape.”
“But its height and depth when it comes to the congressional results depend on the outcome of an extraordinary number of very close races that could hinge on late trends and hard-to-predict turnout patterns.”
“Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro launched a federal political action committee to support Democrats running in the state’s most competitive U.S. House races next month, stoking further questions about his 2028 presidential ambitions,” Bloomberg reports.
“Shapiro’s New Path PAC allows the governor to contribute directly to a slate of Democrats attempting to oust incumbents in four Republican-held seats. A sweep of those seats by Democrats, with Shapiro’s name at the top of the ticket, would be a victory for the party he could point to during a presidential primary.”
“Former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) is traveling to Maine this week to campaign with Republican Sen. Susan Collins, according to details shared first with Semafor,” Semafor reports.
“The moderate West Virginian said his visit is motivated by the attacks on Collins for voting too often in support of President Donald Trump.”
“A young man asked Abdul-El Sayed if he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. The Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan replied that he would, and then said that questions like that promote bigoted ideas about Muslim Americans,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The tense exchange at a Saturday event for El-Sayed has turned into a highlight for the candidate that he is now posting on social media.”
The Cook Political Report shifts Minnesota’s Senate race from Lean Democrat to Likely Democrat.
“We’re skeptical of some public polling that has shown the race close, and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan has only just now started spending after a brutal Democratic primary. Former NFL reporter Michele Tafoya has an interesting profile, and national GOP sources maintain that voters’ anger over the state’s widespread fraud scandal will stick to Flanagan. But given the economy and the state’s ICE raids, this is a difficult climate to try to make a major play in a state Kamala Harris won.”
“At rallies across the country, President Trump has implored voters to ‘pretend I’m on the ballot’ in the midterm elections,” the New York Times reports.
“But on the airwaves, his party is sending the opposite message.”
“Less than $1 of every $100 in Republican television ad spending on House and Senate races from Sept. 9 through Oct. 17 has gone toward commercials that mention the word ‘Trump.'”
A new Univision/YouGov poll in Florida finds Byron Donalds (R) leading David Jolly (D) in the governor’s race, 50% to 42%.
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“German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned against complacency over the dangers posed by Russia, saying that President Vladimir Putin is seeking to not only defeat Ukraine, but to also undermine democracy in Europe,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Merz: “My biggest concern is the underestimated Russian impact on our societies. Russia is on the way to destabilize the entire political order of our European continent.”
“The Republican state official in charge of Georgia’s elections rebutted false claims by President Donald Trump that sought to cast doubt on the integrity of vote-counting in the state with early voting already underway in the midterm elections,” Bloomberg reports.
“Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told Bloomberg Television that he expects the state’s election results by midnight on Election Day, calling the process ‘free, fair and fast.'”
Said Raffensperger: “We are very confident that at the end of the day you can trust the results.”
“The creator of a conservative blog who was among the first to raise questions surrounding Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar says federal agents interviewed him in January 2026, suggesting authorities were building a case before the congresswoman’s home was raided in October,” NewsNation reports.
“Three days after responding to reports that he’d discussed replacing the White House chief of staff by telling reporters there was ‘zero chance’ of that, President Donald Trump tasked Susie Wiles with leading a new initiative,” the Washington Sun reports.
“Trump praised Wiles as ‘tough’ in his remarks at a Rose Garden event to sign an executive order to launch a task force focused on women’s health. Trump mentioned her recent cancer diagnosis after initially expressing hesitation about whether she would want him to publicly discuss it.”
Said Trump: “Susie recently won her battle against a very tough opponent, breast cancer. It wasn’t easy. We went through it. We got her through it, and she got through it, and she’s tough.”
“Brazil’s Supreme Court justices are making cautious overtures to a political force they thought they had contained, but whose growing power could soon put their own seats on the bench at risk,” Bloomberg reports.
“The prospect of Flávio Bolsonaro winning the presidency in next weekend’s runoff, along with enough Senate support to impeach top court members, has prompted some justices to seek a rapprochement with his camp, according to people familiar with the discussions. Recent judicial decisions and meetings have been interpreted as conciliatory gestures toward a political movement that has long regarded the tribunal as an adversary.”
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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