“In a shot at ActBlue, the left’s major online donation platform, President Donald Trump plans to sign a presidential memorandum on Thursday cracking down on foreign contributions in American elections,” Politico reports.

“Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office is expected to be involved in the crackdown, the person said, though further details about the mechanism she will use were not immediately available. The order is expected to specifically target ActBlue, which Republicans have long claimed could be exploited by foreign actors.”

Don Moynihan: “Money is a an aggressive growing tumor at the heart of American democracy. The 2023 Wisconsin state supreme court race cost $56 million, a national record at the time. The 2025 version blasted that out of the water, and could end up costing almost twice that much.”

“To give a sense of out-of-kilter we are, a single state court race saw significantly more spending than the entire United Kingdom national election.”

“When White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s failed congressional campaign amended its filings last week — revealing that she appears to have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in excessive donations that she never paid back — the campaign also revealed that it broke another fundamental rule of political fundraising: don’t take money from businesses straight to the bank, NOTUS reports.

“Before spending donations from businesses, campaigns are supposed to do due diligence to make sure the contribution is allowable. But according to years of reprimanding letters from the Federal Election Commission, Leavitt’s campaign frequently failed to follow these basic legal guidelines. And now, as Leavitt takes the briefing room podium, her unsuccessful campaign from 2022 still owes businesses tens of thousands of dollars.”

“At least four Democratic political committees suspect their former campaign treasurer is behind the “misappropriation” of hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds,” Rolling Stone reports.

“The committees — including those led by Virginia’s two U.S. senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner — have alerted law enforcement officials and federal regulators and continue to internally investigate the matter.”

“The alleged misappropriations of funds are the latest in a string of high-profile thefts and unauthorized financial transactions that have recently walloped federal political committees of all partisan stripes, collectively costing them millions of dollars.”

A federal judge has rejected Elon Musk’s bid to move the Philadelphia lawsuit over his voter lottery scheme to federal court.

“Elon Musk and his political action committee are seeking to move the Philadelphia District Attorney’s lawsuit targeting their $1 million swing state voter lottery to federal court,” CNBC reports.

“Big-money operatives are taking advantage of lax rules at the end of the campaign to hide the true source of their money until after the election is called — or for forever,” the New York Times reports.

“The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a political action committee controlled by billionaire Elon Musk from awarding $1 million to registered voters in swing states,” CNBC reports.

Wall Street Journal: “What many Americans may not realize is that U.S. elections are an outlier, especially compared to other industrialized democracies. Canada’s campaign typically lasts between 36 and 50 days. The total campaign bill for its 2021 election: $69 million in today’s dollars—about 1/27th the price tag per voter south of the border. U.S. elections cost about 40 times more per person than the U.K. or Germany.”

Washington Post: “Save America, the leadership PAC that Trump has used to pay his legal bills and those of some of his associates, raised $1.4 million in September and spent $4 million, most of it on lawyers, demonstrating how the former president’s legal problems have continued to strain campaign resources.”

“The group had less than $2 million left in cash and owes nearly $5 million in legal debt.”