At 6:07 tonight, the president of the United States and the governor of Florida made a beeline straight to the press that were waiting beside Qatari Air Force One on the tarmac in Fort Myers, Florida. As they got closer, Donald Trump fumbled with a coin in his hands just as DeSantis grabbed it and thrust it directly in front of the reporters and their cameras. With Donald Trump standing behind him, the right side of his mouth drooping downwards, DeSantis grinned from ear to ear as he showed the journalists the shiny gold-plated coin he had presented to the president, embossed with the words “YOU MISSED BITCHES” and a distorted image of Donald Trump holding up his middle finger.
What was apparently intended to exaggerate his “near-death experience” in Butler, PA, also made a perfect distraction from the news of the rampant corruption in Donald Trump’s administration.
On the eve of one of the most important elections of our lifetimes, Donald Trump is already trying to interfere with the election process before the votes are even counted. Yesterday, Trump’s Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Alaska seeking to delay certification of the Senate election if the results are close between incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan and another candidate on the ballot, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., in case there is confusion over their similar names. The DOJ argues in the lawsuit that if the margin is narrow enough for those potentially confused votes to change the outcome, the state should not certify the results until the issue is resolved.
The Alaska Supreme Court had already addressed this situation after state election officials tried to block Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. from the ballot, claiming his candidacy was intended to confuse voters. In June, after he challenged the decision in court, the Alaska Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling allowing him to stay in the race, with the state taking steps to prevent any such confusion by making sure the ballot clearly distinguished the two candidates with party designations and an incumbent label. The issue had already been settled by the state’s highest court, but the federal government still filed its lawsuit before a single vote had even been counted.
Derek Muller, a Notre Dame election law professor, described the case as “strange and unusual.” Former DOJ voting rights attorney Justin Levitt said he knew of no legal path for blocking certification simply because the government believed a candidate should not have been permitted to run. Democracy Docket identified this as the first Trump administration lawsuit seeking to block certification of a 2026 midterm result.
Earlier today, reporters had a chance to ask Donald Trump about the case, and he didn’t play his usual game of ignorance. Instead, he admitted he was the one who personally ordered it, saying, “I’m the one who said, ‘do it.’” That is the president of the United States of America admitting to meddling in our elections by personally ordering his DOJ to file a federal lawsuit against a state. All to potentially block the certification of a Senate election his party might lose, simply because he wants them to win instead. It is an insult and an attack on the very foundation of our democratic republic.
This was just the tip of the iceberg as far as the corruption coming out of the White House. We also learned about a different type, this time coming from inside the Trump family. Vanity Fair published an article with details from investigative journalist Matthew Cole’s new book, Princes and Thieves. His investigation details how Russian military intelligence allegedly hacked the personal iPhone of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, while he was serving as a senior White House adviser during Trump’s first term. It also shares a disturbing account of how Dutch intelligence supposedly discovered the breach after flipping a Russian hacker who gave them access to screenshots taken directly from Kushner’s phone. What they reportedly found went far beyond the regular messages that many of us might have on our own phones and allegedly exposed Kushner’s access to at least two foreign bank accounts containing roughly two billion dollars in funds linked to the leaders of Middle Eastern countries and showed that he transferred approximately 700 million dollars, some of which went to a mercenary, a warlord, and a hit man.
Beyond the enormous question of what the president’s son-in-law was doing paying these people and what the payments were for, Cole’s investigation featured four former senior Trump administration officials who told him that they knew of no presidential authorization that would have allowed Kushner to access a foreign government’s bank account. What this investigation alleged was that the president’s son-in-law, who held a security clearance he initially could not even obtain on his own, had access to billions of dollars in foreign government money while his White House position involved helping shape American policy in the Middle East.
Kushner called the allegations “completely insane and never happened.” Trump called it “a totally false story.” Kushner’s lawyers stated that he “does not know if his iPhone was hacked or monitored while serving in the White House.” They threatened legal action, but did not deny the possibility of a hack, which raises an urgent national security question: What did Russia collect, and could it give them leverage over a man who has played such a significant role in Donald Trump’s foreign policy while we are embroiled in a war in the Middle East and supposedly working hard to stop Russia’s war in Ukraine?
That is where we are right now, but we do not have to keep living like this. We do not have to wake up every morning wondering what fresh hell this president has unleashed or what we are going to learn about him trying to interfere in our elections or how much someone in his family or inner circle has profited at our expense.
It’s not just us in the United States being rocked by everything Donald Trump is doing. He continues to cause havoc and mayhem across the entire planet. His increasing instability is making nations rethink so many things, including their own protection, their very survival, not to mention their economies and financial stability. My heart hurts just thinking about the impact this is having outside our borders. I think back to a conversation I had in Hungary with a taxi driver back in 2019 and how he felt like they were just starting to fully recover from the Great Recession all those years later, long after our economy had recovered. And here we are again, causing economic hardship and uncertainty for people who are stuck living through the consequences of our failure in voting this corrupt man back into office.
When I learned that the United Kingdom had launched a nationwide emergency preparedness campaign this week called “Be Ready,” urging every household to stockpile at least three days of supplies, my stomach dropped. The government cited increasing hostile Russian activity, conflict in the Middle East, and major cyberattacks as part of a changed security environment. Without explicitly saying so, the United States is not innocent in its role in creating the very instability these countries are now scrambling to protect themselves against.
Of course, the UK is not the only one doing this. The European Union issued similar guidance last year, and Sweden has also begun building national reserves of food, fuel, and power. CNN reported that the EU’s renewed push for emergency preparedness was driven by Russia’s war in Ukraine and also by “the Trump administration’s confrontational approach towards Europe, particularly on contributions to NATO and on the war in Ukraine, which has sparked a race on the continent to shore up its own military readiness.”
Most Americans care about their fellow human beings. They want people to be fed and housed, and they want peace for all people. They do not want wars, and they don’t want our allies suffering. They want to have good relations with our friends around the world. They simply don’t know how this is impacting people around the world. Our news organizations rarely cover news outside the US, especially during the Trump years when there are nonstop scandals coming from inside the White House. That is why it is on those of us who think as globalists to continue speaking out and make sure more Americans know how far Donald Trump’s destruction actually reaches.
We are not just voting for ourselves and the future survival of our country in eleven days. We are also voting for every person on this planet who has been caught in the crossfire of Donald Trump’s reckless decisions. I still believe in our country and the people in it to do the right thing. Donald Trump and his enablers have put us through hell, forcing us to live in a constant state of chaos and uncertainty, but that is going to change very soon. We are going to show up and vote in numbers never seen before and start the slow and painful process of building our country back into one that doesn’t cause fear and instability across the planet. One that stands by our allies, treats other nations with respect, and understands that our actions have consequences for people far beyond our own borders. We are going to vote like our lives and the lives of people everywhere depend on it, because they do. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather
PS. You can make a significant difference right now by subscribing to my Substack. Your support helps me cover more ground and keep telling the truth about the lies and destruction unfolding in this country.
This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.
Picture of the day: I was so excited to hear about a shop in my town whose owner is on the right side of history, so my daughter and them paid it a visit. It was part of our economic resistance, where we support those taking a stand against this authoritarian takeover. That includes supporting independent media, individuals, and businesses that are putting their livelihoods and often their safety on the line to make sure the truth about what is happening here gets out and that people know they are not alone in standing up against it. I bought a new sweater, perfect for the weather finally getting a bit cooler, and some other odds and ends, including these stickers. I’m planning to put them on my laptop so there is no question where I stand on what is happening today when I am out and about.
Links to sources used in writing this article:
President Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Arrival at Fort Myers, FL, Oct. 23, 2026: YouTube Video
President Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Departure from the White House, Oct. 23, 2026: YouTube Video
https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/united-states-v-alaska/
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6168997-donald-trump-justice-alaska-senate-lawsuit/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jared-kushner-pushes-back-report-hacked-phone-spies-transfer/
https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/journalism/jared-kushner-vanity-fair-book-legal-threat/
https://www.npr.org/2026/10/23/g-s1-149534/justice-fbi-charged-hunter-biden-laptop
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/23/fbi-hunter-biden-criminal-charges.html
https://semafor.com/article/08/26/2026/uk-urges-public-to-stockpile-food
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/12/world/live-news/hungary-election-orban-magyar
My recommendation for White House vampire Stephen Miller: convict - denaturalize - deport.
Thanks Heather for another courageous slog through the endless swamp of what has become our maladministration.
Last night’s post about the Amy Acton ad made me sick to my stomach from disgust and anger.
Tonight’s post was even more frightening as you expose the corruption on a global scale. That ridiculous coin epitomizes how far we have fallen as a country, and anyone who actually buys one shows how many people we’ve lost to the cult.
I only hope there are enough sane voters to begin turning the tide, and breaking the hold that the maladministration has on all of us.
I’m so tired of daily “fresh hell.”
I need to see the sunlight back - maybe think of all our votes collectively creating a light bright enough to drive out the vampires.