In Panic Mode

Today’s top story comes from the Atlantic, entitled Fear of Losing the Midterms Is Driving Trump’s Decisions.

The article notes that “The specter of investigations and impeachment has fueled many of the president’s most dramatic actions.”

It continues: “Trump’s unprecedented (and, Democrats say, illegal) mid-decade redistricting push, the deployment of the National Guard to Washington, his unceasing pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates—all can be seen as part of a sweeping, frantic attempt to swing next year’s midterm elections.”

Also: “The president has told confidants that he does not want a repeat of what happened after Republicans lost control in 2018 and is not going to cost himself this time by adhering to political norms. He has been pushing aides to focus on the midterms, and he is making more of an effort than he did seven years ago to nationalize the races and to motivate Republican voters who haven’t turned out when his name isn’t on the ballot. Trump believes that not just the tenor of his final two years in office, but the shape of his legacy as a whole, ride on whether he can reverse historical political trends and hold on to the House and the Senate in 2026.”

HEADLINES:

• Fear of Losing the Midterms Is Driving Trump’s Decisions (Atlantic)

• Trump Tramples Congress’s Power, With Little Challenge From G.O.P. (NYT)

• The White House’s review of Smithsonian content could reach into classrooms nationwide (AP)

• Russia’s largest-ever air attack on Ukraine burns Kyiv government building (WP)

• White House envoy sends new proposal to Hamas through Israeli peace activist (Axios)

• States face massive new costs under Trump budget cuts (WP)

• Despite a California judge ruling that it would be illegal for Trump to send federal troops to allegedly fight crime in cities, Chicago officials anticipate that efforts to occupy the city will begin any day now. [HuffPost]

• Trump threatens Chicago with apocalyptic force and Pritzker calls him a ‘wannabe dictator’ (AP)

• ICE begins immigration crackdown in Massachusetts, DHS says (WP)

• Grand Juries in D.C. Reject Wave of Charges Under Trump’s Crackdown (NYT)

• Trump’s ‘Apocalypse Now’ moment (Politico)

• Riots and abuse troubled these former prisons. ICE plans to reopen them. (WP)

• Trump is breaking Social Security (The Hill)

• RFK Jr.’s Dangerous Rewriting of the COVID Pandemic (The Bulwark)

• RFK Jr. says anyone who wants a covid shot can get one. Not these Americans. (WP)

• Trump is turning the White House into Mar-a-Lagoland (Financial Times)

• The History of The New Yorker’s Vaunted Fact-Checking Department (New Yorker)

• Patriots To Stop Serving Alcohol To Players After 3rd Quarter (The Onion)