At 11:51 this morning, Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, and both of their wives arrived at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and began walking up the steep red-carpet-lined stairs to the entrance. Without looking back at the others, Donald Trump took the lead, stopping on the first landing for pictures as his mouth worked hard, opening and closing to take deep enough breaths to continue climbing the rest of the stairs. After a long pause, he gave a thumbs up to the cameras, appeared to mumble “okay” as he turned around, signaling it was time to keep moving. Now at the top of the stairs, he paused for one last awkward picture before they all disappeared into the building.
At 11:54 am they were seen walking directly over to the Declaration of Independence. Three minutes after that, they were standing in front of the US Constitution. Minutes later, the president came over to the waiting press and explained how China’s Communist leader and the President of the United States were comparing China’s founding documents to America’s, saying: “We’re just comparing. Ours goes 250 years. Which is great, and we’re proud of. Theirs goes 6,000 years. So there’s a little difference between 6,000 and 250. But we’re very proud of our 250.”
Not too long after that, President Trump led Xi Jinping to view the Bill of Rights, where President Trump was seen asking when the building was built. He was told “in 35”; Trump responded “middle of the Depression,” and “that’s a tough thing,” before making a point of telling the gathered press that it was a “great building.” When asked about Iran, he replied, “I think we’re going to do great.” At 12:04 pm, just 10 minutes after their visit began, they were all seen leaving the building. The two leaders said their goodbyes with a final handshake and got into separate cars, with Donald Trump heading back to the White House and Xi Jinping and his wife heading to the airport and back to Beijing.
During the short time they were in that building, there was no talk about what those founding documents actually meant. Nothing about the freedom of the press. He did not mention the right to vote, the separation of powers, or the protections guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. But he still made a point of adding this stop to the itinerary during the 3-day visit. He intentionally took an authoritarian leader of a country that does not allow free elections, or have a free press, to view our own founding documents that do, and the only thing the President of the United States had to say about the Constitution was that it is not as old as China’s documents.
After hours to reflect on his time with Xi, Donald Trump posted a photo on Truth Social at 8:55 tonight with his thoughts about the past few days. The picture was of him and Xi Jinping standing side by side on the White House balcony, wearing matching dark suits and purple ties, with the Presidential Seal right in front of them. Their wives, Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan, stood behind them. The two leaders were posed to look like equals, and the caption written above said: “America is back.”
I stared at that picture for a long time tonight, trying to make sense of a world where the United States is somehow rejuvenated and “back” because an authoritarian leader has convinced our president, who increasingly appears diminished to me, that he likes him and sees him as an equal, and what that means for our country that was created on the promise of being a democratic republic. I had spent the entire day, as I have for the last 550+ days, keeping track of his authoritarian takeover of our country and all of the terrible things he has done to the entire world, and here he was, not even hiding who he aspires to be seen as an equal to. The shame of what has become of our country has been building by the day, while seeing our fellow Americans encourage and support the destruction he is overseeing, and on the same day watching the Supreme Court once again pander to his insanity. All while reminding myself that, for better or worse, we are 38 days away from the most important election of our lifetimes.
When I looked at my notes for today, they showed a new level of desperation coming from Donald Trump. We can clearly see him and his enablers ramping up their efforts, and that there might just be nothing off limits when it comes to him holding onto power. We saw some disturbing emails he is sending out, and new ads being played on strategically selected networks like Fox News and Newsmax. Both a reminder that there is truly nothing this president won’t say or do. But what made these ads specifically different was that he is now using our taxpayer dollars to pay for his propaganda on those channels to scare his own followers.
The ads were labeled “Paid for by the U.S. Government,” and the message they were pushing was clear. They wanted Americans to be afraid that communism, socialism, and Marxism were somehow an existential threat spreading in our country and that Donald Trump was the only person who could save us from this made-up crisis.
“America will never be a communist country” flashed across the screen as images of Donald Trump quickly appeared one after the other while a song with the words “Love Me,” played over and over again in the background. UFC head Dana White’s voice said Trump was “the toughest, most resilient person I’ve ever met” in the ad too.
These ads were another test being carried out by the Trump administration who has since realized that there are, at least not right in the moment any ramifications for breaking the law. They know that they can do practically anything at the point, that they will get sued and maybe have to stop what they are doing, but until then, they still get to do it. Experts like Richard Painter, who served as the chief White House ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush presidency, noted that a political ad cannot legally be paid for with federal funds. Senator John Kennedy said he questioned whether it was legal to use public money this way. Even the artist whose song played throughout the ad said he never gave them permission to use it and was looking into his legal options.
When more information was requested of the federal government, and which agency actually paid for these ads, the White House would not say.
The timing of him hosting a communist leader, talking about how good of a relationship they have, and then turning around and running an ad like this says a lot about how little respect he has for the intelligence of the American people. Without coming right out and saying it, he is showing us that he believes he can tell us one thing while doing another and that we simply won’t notice.
That was not even the most dangerous thing that happened over the past 48 hours. Today, the Supreme Court voted 6-3, down party lines, to allow the Trump administration to resume using the SAVE database, a federal system that allows states to cross-reference their voter rolls against immigration records to flag potential noncitizens. A lower court had blocked it after finding it violated federal privacy laws and that the flawed system was removing eligible voters. Today, the Supreme Court overrode that decision, allowing the Trump Administration to begin using it again so close to the midterm elections.
In Missouri, 70 Republican and Democratic county clerks wrote a joint letter warning that SAVE was repeatedly flagging “individuals we know to be U.S. citizens, our neighbors, colleagues and even voters we have personally registered at naturalization ceremonies.” In Texas, where 18 million registrations were screened using SAVE, the state later confirmed that one in five people flagged as noncitizens were American citizens who had to be reinstated. There were a total of 7 people actually charged with voting illegally as a noncitizen out of those 18 million. The widespread crisis of “illegal voting” that Donald Trump uses to justify all of this does not exist. Both sides know this. Donald Trump and his enablers’ goal is to limit voting in general, and with the high error rate with SAVE, it is helping them do that.
It is important to note that this ruling does not force every state to use SAVE, and its impact is going to depend heavily on which states choose to use it. Federal law also prohibits states from systematically removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election, which limits how broadly the system can be used this close to the midterms. But individual records can still be checked, and that means it can still become a very dangerous tool in places where even a small number of eligible voters being wrongly flagged could affect an election. They do not need to suppress voters everywhere. The reality of this moment is that they just need to do it in the places where it counts.
Under the National Voter Registration Act, states are supposed to stop any large-scale effort to remove voters from the rolls at least 90 days before a federal election. We are already deep inside that time limit. But the Trump administration argued that the rule does not apply here because they are checking voters one at a time, rather than carrying out one large purge. The Court allowed those checks to continue and said it would deal with the larger question of whether this is legal next term, which is after the midterms.
Which means that if eligible voters are wrongly removed from the rolls now, some may not find out until they show up to vote and are told they are no longer registered.
Donald Trump is also still actively going after the press. After a federal judge ordered the White House to restore access to CNN, MS NOW, and Politico yesterday, the White House stalled, eventually let some journalists back in, and then blocked others from covering the Xi Jinping state dinner that same night. When MS NOW reporter Laura Barrón-López asked why she was being turned away, a White House staffer told her to “talk to Steven.” The Steven being referred to was Steven Cheung, Donald Trump’s communications director and a truly evil-minded person. Some of the worst talking points Trump repeats over and over again are said to actually be Steven’s ideas and thoughts.
Tonight, the White House once again started playing games with press access even after the court ruling and pulled CNN from Air Force One for tomorrow’s trip to Tennessee. CNN is the designated pooler for the weekend, meaning they would be the ones who would be filming Donald Trump while he was away. After they did this earlier in the week, we saw the impact of not having a pooler when the White House provided video without legible sound.
But maybe the biggest sign that Donald Trump, or at least his enablers, know that their power is on the verge of collapse was seen in the emails they sent out to their supporters this past week. Trump’s PAC, Never Surrender, Inc., sent very concerning emails to their supporters with the subject line “YOU’VE BEEN AUDITED.” In the emails, it said that “President Trump checked your file and found something concerning: You haven’t pledged to vote for MAGA Republicans during the midterm elections. Your file has officially been flagged for ACTION REQUIRED.” Days before those emails, they sent another one with the subject line “I searched the entire plane for your contact info,” trying to make it look like Donald Trump had lost his phone aboard Air Force One and was desperately trying to contact individual supporters. Other past emails have told supporters their “SUPPORTER STATUS HAS BEEN CANCELLED” unless they send him money as a donation immediately.
These emails are direct threats to American citizens by their president, or at least that is how they are being read by them. They were written to manipulate through fear and also guilt. Donald Trump and his people are preying on loyalty and others’ sense of loneliness. These are emails coming from a movement that knows it is losing, and they are trying to hold their base together through fear coming from their own president.
Desperate people do desperate things, and that is what we are watching happen with Donald Trump right now. But according to new reporting from The Atlantic, there are people close to him already talking openly about what happens if none of this works, if all of their attempts to interfere in the election fail and Democrats still win.
Peter Ticktin, a lifelong friend and attorney who went to school with Trump when they were teenagers, told The Atlantic that he sees three possible ways the midterms could play out. The first is simply having a normal election, which he dismissed outright. The second is Trump taking some kind of action before Election Day to stop what Ticktin baselessly claims will be Democrats cheating. And the third is Donald Trump declaring martial law on or around November 3. When he was asked what would happen if that led to riots, Ticktin did not seem concerned. “Believe me, our armed forces are a lot bigger than they are,” he said.
Ticktin is not the only person putting ideas like this out there. Wayne Allyn Root, a television and radio host and vocal Trump ally, has been publicly pushing Trump to declare a “national security emergency” before the election. He even brought the idea directly to Donald Trump, telling him that he could use an emergency declaration to get around Congress and change the rules surrounding the election. Donald Trump could have immediately rejected the idea. Instead, he said, “Let me just say that stranger things have happened, okay? I’ll leave it at that.”
This is all very concerning. We knew it was going to get worse before it (hopefully) got better. In this moment, we need to remind ourselves and those around us who are feeling weary and tired not to let them scare us with their lies and propaganda. We can’t let them push us around. We hold the line every single chance we get. We check our voter registration tonight, and we tell everyone we know to do the same, and then we keep checking weekly until the midterms. We also need to educate ourselves on our provisional ballot options if we were to find ourselves removed from the voter rolls. We need to prepare ourselves for what comes after November, not just what comes before it too. What are we willing to do if Mike Johnson’s House refuses to seat duly elected representatives?
Tonight though, our mission is clear. The free press is under direct attack once again, and it is on us to hold the line and make sure Donald Trump can’t hide the truth of what he is doing to this country from the American people and the people of the world. Like I promised to do every single time he attacks the First Amendment, I’ll be supporting those he is trying to silence by paying for more subscriptions to people who are speaking out, sharing the news as it is happening, countering disinformation, and standing up for what is right and against what is wrong.
Your paid memberships have enabled me to write these posts day in and day out for over a year and a half now, never missing a single night. Thank you all for supporting me in this way and allowing me to publish these each night, and for helping me keep everything that I write free for everyone and never behind a paywall. Tonight, I’m once again asking you to please think beyond just supporting me. Please support the other people you go to day in and day out to understand what is happening in our country. If they too offer a paid membership option, please consider joining. We need as many people speaking out in this moment as possible.
If we do not stop him, Donald Trump will not stop trying to turn our country into one where the president gets to decide what the American people are allowed to see and hear. It is on us to hold the line now and every single time he tries. Donald Trump knows that he is in trouble. Everything that we are seeing him do is coming from a place of desperation. The thing he fears the most is an educated and empowered voter base letting their voices be heard. He is right to fear that, because that is exactly what we will be doing a little over a month from now. 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: A true picture of the day today. When I started taking these back in 2020, I did so to remind myself that there was still good in the world, even during those terrible days when thousands of people were dying every day and refrigerator trucks were parked outside of hospitals to hold the bodies. I wasn’t trying to forget those horrible days. I was trying to make sure that when my memories popped up on my phone years later, there were good ones too. I also wanted to remind myself to look for the good in the world in the small ways too.
Tonight, I had already been back in our room writing for hours when the fireworks started, but my family sent me pictures, and I could see a little bit of them from my window too. Fireworks remind me of when my kids were little and the wonder in their eyes as each new shower of color exploded above them. That was my little bit of happiness today.
Links to sources used in writing this article:
Site Visit with the President of China and Madame Peng: YouTube Video
https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/24/politics/trump-ad-government-funded-love-me
https://www.complex.com/music/a/will-lavin/jmsn-love-me-donald-trump-ad-lawyers
https://thehill.com/media/6112790-trump-cnn-barred-air-force-one/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-pac-threatens-ice-track-215222156.html
Thanks Heather . Another excellent article .
I kept looking to see if one of the stole the constitution and carried it out 🥺
I am deeply concerned about what Trump will do to keep Dems from winning the midterms. We all know he will stop at nothing. I just don’t know if Americans are prepared to stand against what may come at us. Are we willing to die for our country, for our freedom, for democracy? Because it very well may come to that. Or are we so used to things working like they always have that we are caught off guard and unable or unwilling to react timely? He staged a coup before. He will do it again, but this time HE has nothing but sycophants surrounding him. and in control of ICE, his personal militia armed to fight against Americans who protest. I’ll be 80 next year and I’m grateful for that. Growing up in this country I always found it curious how newsmen made such a big deal during every telecast of a change in the WH about the PEACEFUL transfer of power. Now I know. It is the thing that sets democracies apart from other forms of government. I took that so for granted, it seemed silly to make a big deal about political rivals greeting each other on the steps of the WH as one moved out and the other moved in. Donald Trump did not greet Biden and had the front door locked as a welcome. He is such a deeply flawed, petty, and pathetic individual.