Trump Falls into Major Trap as GOP Turnout Tanks

Five days. That's how Long Donald Trump has left to make his closing arguments before people vote on Tuesday and polls close in this year's midterm elections. With gas prices up because of his war and Iran voters furious about the cost of living and his approvals at his store of clothes, you think he'd spend every minute talking about the economy. Instead, he's spending them on the cheesecake factory, and it's not an accident. Barack Obama said a trap, Trump walked straight into it, and he can't seem to get out. And while Trump is busy fighting with Obama about restaurants and sidewalks, his administration is moving on the election itself in the courts at the polls and with the National Guard. Overseas, the United States military is preparing for significant strikes on Iran as soon as next Wednesday the day after the midterms. The person responsible for planning those strikes, however, was ousted in an overnight purge, another general gone by Pete Hexsa. And then there's Alaska. The New York Times and much of the National Press have made Alaska the story, but they're leaving out the rest of it. So, Republicans have been running this exact playbook for years, a ghost candidate scheme, and Florida that ended in criminal convictions, a Republican operative in Washington state who recruited two extra Bob Ferguson's to run for governor. Today I'm covering it all. Not just the narrative and the half that fits the president's narrative. This newsletter is the one place no platform can throttle. So, if you value reporting that tells this whole story, not just the White House wants, not just the story the White House wants, please consider subscribing today, like, comment, share, your support is fueling this work in the last few days of this election. And afterwards, because 2028 begins on Wednesday. I do want to start with how all of this happened. If you remember a few days ago, Barack Obama was in Michigan, took a shot at Trump's obsession with renovating Washington saying, "I don't know if you've noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovations. He should be on HGTV." And then came the line that got under Donald Trump's skin. That Trump has the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a cheesecake factory. It was one joke at one rally. And the Trump administration treated it like a national emergency. Republicans called Obama an elitist. The White House sent treasury secretary Scott Beset, the man who supposed to be figuring out how to lower your prices to a press conference outside of a cheesecake factory. And so, what did Obama do? He twisted the knife. At a rally last night in Georgia. Take a listen. That was the interesting thing about how the administration responded to the speech I did the other day. They did not dispute what I said about them being directly responsible for rising prices. They did not argue with that. They did not deny terrorists were contributing to higher costs for families. They didn't say anything about that. I accused this administration based on the facts that they were engaging in unprecedented levels of corruption. The president wasn't even mad about the Saddam Hussein comparison. That part didn't bother him. But he was very upset about the cheesecake factory comes. That's directly from President Obama. That's the trap. See, Obama didn't just make a joke. He made a joke that he knew Trump could have ignored and then used Trump's reaction as proof of his whole point. And here's where it gets smart. Obama turned the cheesecake factory into a closing argument about affordability and corruption saying they're not serious people. And then he went after the money saying we've never seen a president so intent on selling favors. Obama was rallying with Senator John Ossoff who leads his race by 8 to 10 points, Keisha Lance Bonham's who may flip George's governor's seat and Ossoff had a warning for Trump too. Next year you'll be raising your hand to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So what did Trump do? He took the bait again. He at his own rally in Ohio insisted that the White House is now more beautiful and in better shape than ever. He claimed Obama doesn't understand cleanliness or broken crack stone and sidewalk. He claimed Obama couldn't pass a cognitive test and once again he praised John Houston's physique. Then a heckler yelled about Jeff Reppstein and instead of moving on he decided to talk about Epstein saying I threw Epstein out of a club like 20 years ago because I thought he was a whack job. But that's not what happened. He did throw Epstein out of his club and it didn't stop there because overnight Trump went on this rant about his golf course. He plans to overhaul a public golf course in DC said he'd hold a federal judge fully responsible if anyone is hurt or killed in what he called a very dangerous dilapidated and unsightly golf course even claiming that a White House staffer was hit violently in the chest by a golf ball. So five days before an election this is where his head is and this is a real problem for Republicans and they know it. Republican turnout is suppressed and even some on the right like James Colmer the chairman of the oversight committee are admitting it. Democrats traditionally outperform Republicans in early voting but this year thus far unfortunately there are a lot more Democrats voting than that normally vote and a lot less than a lot less Republican. So we have a turnout problem. Now having said that we have five days to fix that. We have to get Republicans out to vote or the polls are probably unfortunately going to be right but I'm hopeful. We have a turnout problem. Trump can't win the argument on the economy. He can't stop fighting Obama and that brings us to the part of the story that should worry every single one of you because when you win when you can't win an argument what do you do? You go after the election itself. While Trump has been fighting about cheesecake his administration has been moving on the vote in the courts at the polling places and with the military and now a federal judge is calling it exactly what this. The Trump administration sued in California asking a federal court to order California to set aside 20,000 ballots claiming those voters may not be citizens. Judge David Carter said no and he didn't mince words. He said the administration had embarked on a broad ongoing pattern of attempted election interference. Never before in American history the judge wrote as the federal government on the eve of an election sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own constitutional election procedures and bend to will of the executive branch. He warned if the executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations then our democracy is in danger. Now here's what's actually happening at the polling places. The Justice Department confirmed in a court filing overnight that it's going to be sending prison guards to the polls DEA agents to the polls ATF agents to the polls. The filing came in response to an NAACP lawsuit arguing that sending law enforcement to the polls is voter intimidation. They say they're not sending ICE they're not sending FBI agents but they're going to send DEA they're going to send ATF and they're going to send prison guards. And then there's the military because according to new reporting from Ken Clippenstein the National Guard has now been quietly mobilized in all 50 states for the midterms. Military sources told him that the mission centers on cyber security with guardsmen will also observe ballot drop boxes and polling places and help protect what's called critical infrastructure. Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth has ordered military spy agents to mobilize every asset to defend the election and Clippenstein reports that cyber commands previously secret election operation task force raider is now in full swing. All well the United States military prepares for significant strikes abroad on Iran and overnight Pete Hexeth fired the general in charge of planning it. So let's put it all together. On one side you have a president who can't stay on message Obama baited him with a single joke and he spent the final week of the campaign fighting about cheesecake sidewalks golf course in Epstein while his approval rating hits historic lows and Republicans run away from him in their own ads. On the other end you have an administration trying to set aside ballots sending federal agents from the DEA and ATF to monitor polling sites mobilizing the National Guard in all 50 states and suing to block certification of races and may lose. Federal judge looked at all of this and called it a broad ongoing pattern of attempted interference. So when you can't win the argument you try to change the rules and that's why the only answer is turnout. Election night I'll be live from 6 a.m. Eastern time or 6 to midnight Eastern time on all my platforms. Make sure to vote before election day five days to go. Let's go let's do this and I'll see you soon.