[{"id":145364,"date":"2026-09-25T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/?p=145364"},"modified":"2026-09-25T15:21:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:21:28","slug":"coming-ai-meltdown-oracle-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/25\/coming-ai-meltdown-oracle-data-centers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming AI Meltdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-custom-everlit-iframe-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_KDzNinv7DGP?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A new report <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/articles\/financing-the-ai-buildout\/\">to be presented today at the Brookings Institution<\/a> shows that the total cost of the AI build-out through 2032 will be $10.3 trillion. That amounts to 3.63 percent of GDP per year, many times that of previous large-scale infrastructure investments, from the 19th-century canals, the railroads, telephone, and electric grids, to the interstate highway system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And unlike AI, whose benefits are speculative, unproven, and with hard-to-fathom risks, these earlier investments in infrastructure more than paid for themselves in productivity gains to the broader economy. The Brookings report also raises the alarm that much of the funding for the AI build-out is financed by debt, some of it unknown because it is hidden in off-balance-sheet financing. That immense AI debt also crowds out more productive borrowing, and raises interest rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/author\/robert-kuttner\/\">More from Robert Kuttner<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of this debt will never be repaid. And a great deal of both the stock market boom and the surprising continued GDP and job growth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/finance\/investing\/us-economy-bond-market-0bfda8b3\">rests on the artificial and unsustainable stimulus of the AI bubble<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Combined with citizen pushback against giant data centers, the concern of some AI executives that they have overreached and need an excuse to pause, and the rising interest rates due to Fed policies and bond market panic, the stage is set for a financial collapse comparable in scale to 2008 or 1929.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Thursday, right on cue, it was revealed that Oracle, which is behind on its plans to develop a massive AI data center in New Mexico, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-09-24\/oracle-cites-force-majeure-to-shield-itself-on-controversial-data-center\">sent a notice to the center\u2019s property developer<\/a>, Blue Owl Capital, that it would be unable to meet its payments on time. Oracle is $18 billion in debt on the deal. Astonishingly, Oracle cited \u201cforce majeure,\u201d a boilerplate provision in contracts excusing failure to perform usually reserved for wars and weather disasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The force majeure in this case is delay of needed regulatory permits, and citizen protests\u2014not a war that Oracle wanted to fight. I\u2019ve researched the success of force majeure claims in similar cases, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quinnemanuel.com\/the-firm\/publications\/client-alert-force-majeure-and-the-ai-data-center-buildout-allocating-risk-in-ai-data-center-contracts\/\">courts have taken a dim view of them<\/a> when push comes to shove and the creditor litigates. There were several such claims during COVID, and courts tossed them out by demonstrating that despite the pandemic, the debtor had plenty of money to pay up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though both Oracle and Blue Capital sent out press releases putting a pretty face on Oracle\u2019s efforts to stiff its creditor, the stock of both companies fell sharply yesterday. Oracle, whose CEO Larry Ellison assisted his son David with <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/23\/business\/larry-ellison-risks-250b-oracle-fortune-with-40b-pledge-for-sons-hostile-warner-bros-discovery-bid\/\">$40 billion in personal guarantees<\/a> to build the Paramount empire, is sorely stressed on all fronts. Its stock is down 50 percent in the past year. Oracle\u2019s long-term debt stood at over $117 billion, representing a 43 percent year-over-year increase. S&amp;P has downgraded its credit rating to one notch above junk bond status, and Oracle will have to come up with billions more to satisfy the terms of its recent sweetheart settlement of its antitrust suit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-style-border is-vertical is-content-justification-stretch is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-14603c61 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-bitter-font-family\" style=\"font-style:normal;font-weight:600\">Today on TAP<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-bitter-font-family wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:18px\">This story first appeared in our free <em>Today on TAP<\/em> newsletter, a weekday email featuring commentary on the daily news from <em>Prospect<\/em> reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-newspack-newsletters-subscribe newspack-newsletters-subscribe is-style-modern\" data-success-message=\"Thank you for signing up!\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<form id=\"newspack-subscribe-1\" data-newspack-recaptcha=\"newspack_newsletter_signup\">\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"newspack_newsletters_subscribe\" value=\"1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"lists[]\" value=\"14\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-newsletters-email-input\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input id=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe-block-input-9164-email\" type=\"email\" name=\"npe\" autocomplete=\"email\" placeholder=\"Email Address\" value=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<input class=\"nphp\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" name=\"email\" type=\"email\" autocomplete=\"off\" placeholder=\"Email Address\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<button class=\"submit-button has-background-color has-secondary-variation-background-color\" type=\"submit\" style=\"background-color: #7f0000;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"submit\">Sign up<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/form>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe__response\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe__icon\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe__message\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It remains to be seen whether Oracle\u2019s force majeure ploy marks a Bear Stearns moment signaling that the party is over, or whether investors will keep whistling past the graveyard a little longer. At this writing, the broad stock market is up about half a percentage point. As Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince infamously told the <em>Financial Times<\/em> defending his speculative trades just before the market collapsed, \u201cAs long as the music is playing, you\u2019ve got to get up and dance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thus the genius of efficient unregulated private markets. We\u2019ll see how long this <em>danse macabre<\/em> will continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A deeper dive into the dependence of the massive AI build-out on unsustainable debt is even more troubling. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goldmansachs.com\/insights\/goldman-sachs-exchanges\/how-ai-debt-is-reshaping-the-credit-market\">recent report by Goldman Sachs research<\/a> found between 33 and 37 percent of all capital expenditures by AI hyperscalers is debt finance, and that doesn\u2019t count off-balance-sheet debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is now a kind of weird marriage of convenience between citizens blocking data centers, AI executives who want an excuse for a pause in delusional expansion plans, and advocates of some kind of regulation against the risk of rogue AI breakouts creating catastrophes. President Trump, by pushing hard for untrammeled AI expansion, is at odds with more and more vulnerable Republican House and Senate candidates, and much of the MAGA base. The AI bros, meanwhile, are promoting a cartel of soft self-regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In terms of an AI-led economic collapse, it doesn\u2019t much matter how the regulatory debate turns out, though that is a valid question in its own right, for the next Congress. For now, the almost certain pullback in the inflated AI expansion plans will show that much of the AI debt is unpayable. And that will have dire knock-on effects for the entire financial sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Warren Buffett once said, \u201cYou never know who is swimming naked until the tide goes out.\u201d Once more, we are about to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The whole economy has been pumped up by unsustainable investment in AI. The unwinding will not be pretty\u2014and could be catastrophic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1553,"featured_media":145363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-09-25T19:20:30Z","apple_news_api_id":"e6b9591f-21ef-4fa3-a63d-80d30cb01643","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-09-25T19:20:30Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A5rlZHyHvT6OmPYDTDLAWQw","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"everlit_article_id":"artl_KDzNinv7DGP","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"large","everlit_generation_settings":{"embed_ui_cover_art":false,"embed_ui_title_intro":"Listen to this article:","embed_ui_title_icon":"","primary_voice":"49","guest_voice":"653","default_publication":"pblc_yPNpMjtZdBK","default_conversation_mode":false,"podcast_duration_minutes":5,"default_sonic_optimization":false,"optimizer_level":2,"default_read_alt_text":false,"default_read_urls":false,"default_skip_article_image":false,"intro_mixable":281,"outro_mixable":258,"intro_duration":8,"outro_duration":11,"intro_padding":3,"outro_padding":4,"disable_music":false},"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"92d9df3a05e070a25eb6517093716e11","_everlit_metadata_hash":"b0eb35f4ffea31d7f7d0093f75c5211e","_everlit_embed_html":"<iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_KDzNinv7DGP?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>","newspack_collection_is_cover_story":false,"newspack_collection_post_order":0,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Today on TAP: The whole economy has been pumped up by unsustainable investment in AI. The unwinding will not be pretty\u2014and could be catastrophic.","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[4941],"tags":[6240,5305,6650,5174,5260,6012,13136],"newspack_collection_taxonomy":[],"newspack_collection_section":[],"coauthors":[9920],"class_list":["post-145364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tap","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-big-tech","tag-data-centers","tag-economy","tag-infrastructure-1","tag-blogs-tap","tag-oracle","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Coming AI Meltdown - The American Prospect<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A great deal of both the stock market boom and the surprising continued GDP and job growth rests on the artificial and unsustainable stimulus of the AI bubble.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/25\/coming-ai-meltdown-oracle-data-centers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Coming AI Meltdown - The American Prospect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The whole economy has been pumped up by unsustainable investment in AI. 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3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Kuttner-on-Tap-092526.jpg?fit=2000%2C1500&ssl=1","author_name":"Robert Kuttner","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1553"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145364"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145372,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145364\/revisions\/145372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145364"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_taxonomy?post=145364"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_section?post=145364"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=145364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":145293,"date":"2026-09-25T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/?p=145293"},"modified":"2026-09-25T08:14:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T12:14:46","slug":"republicans-had-690-days-to-oppose-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/25\/republicans-had-690-days-to-oppose-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Had 690 Days to Oppose Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-style-default has-cream-background-color has-background\" style=\"padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-efdcd2e1 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-cream-background-color has-background has-bitter-font-family has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-style:normal;font-weight:600\"><em>This article was featured in the Daily Prospect newsletter. <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/newsletter-sign-up\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sign up for it here.<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-custom-everlit-iframe-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_QdBki8GBLGa?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After a notable absence, an anti-war movement has emerged to finally challenge a president over the unpopular conflict in Iran. Not in the streets so much, but in ads and statements from Republicans trying to salvage their doomed election campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"393\" data-attachment-id=\"144301\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026_election_logo\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?fit=2550%2C979&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2550,979\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta='{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\",\"alt\":\"\"}' data-image-title=\"Electin 2026 logo\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?fit=1024%2C393&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=1024%2C393&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-144301\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=1024%2C393&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=300%2C115&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=768%2C295&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=1536%2C590&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=2048%2C786&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=1200%2C461&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=550%2C211&amp;ssl=1 550w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=800%2C307&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=2000%2C768&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=780%2C299&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=400%2C154&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=706%2C271&amp;ssl=1 706w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo-1024x393.png?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe war with Iran needs to end and end quickly,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MikeRogersForMI\/status\/2102115999025672433\">said<\/a> Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers in a digital ad. Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/22\/jon-husted-iran-war-quick-end-trump-01088614\">almost the same verbatim statement<\/a> to Politico, suggesting some coordination among this new iteration of the National Mobilization Committee. Even Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chair currently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/23\/nrsc-tim-scott-georgia-north-carolina-senate-01090764\">being left for dead<\/a> in North Carolina\u2019s Senate race against former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, <a href=\"https:\/\/punchbowl.news\/article\/campaigns\/whatley-iran-war-hurting-farmers\/\">tentatively conceded<\/a> that farmers were being hurt from the conflict due to fuel and fertilizer prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/author\/david-dayen\/\">More from David Dayen<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI just believe we should be exiting Iran, that it\u2019s time to move on,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mattsmith_news\/status\/2102500483671769161\">agreed<\/a> Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Rep. Tom Tiffany, who incidentally wasn\u2019t present for a vote to end the war when he had an opportunity last week. Two of Tiffany\u2019s Republican colleagues in the neighboring state of Iowa, Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn, <a href=\"https:\/\/clerk.house.gov\/Votes\/2026307\">did vote<\/a> for the war powers resolution to end the war, making a total of seven Republicans helping to pass that resolution through the House. Rep. Ashley Hinson, running for Senate in Iowa, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hinsonashley\/status\/2102046188249719095\">said<\/a> Monday that \u201cthe war needs to be brought to a successful and immediate end,\u201d despite voting against that war powers resolution just days earlier, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/politics\/articles\/iowa-gop-senate-candidate-ashley-181408973.html\">sixth time<\/a> she has done so this year. The Senate version of that war powers vote, held on Thursday, failed, with Husted and all other Republicans fretting about re-election (except Susan Collins, who has voted for war powers resolutions before) voting against stopping the war.<\/p>\n\n\n<span data-rich-text-format-boundary=\"true\" class=\"everlit-audio everlit-no-audio\" data-everlit-no-audio=\"true\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\" style=\"font-size:16px\"><blockquote><p>The key here is that on everything that matters, Trump and Republicans in Congress are fully aligned.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The national media loves itself some good intraparty conflict. Stories about the Republican \u201cfever breaking,\u201d egged on by Democratic leaders, have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/blogs\/politico44\/2012\/06\/obama-republican-fever-will-break-after-the-election-125059\">been a perennial<\/a> since before Donald Trump descended the golden escalator. Now, with less than 40 days to an election that is <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/22\/money-cant-buy-me-votes\/\">shaping up to be an epochal disaster<\/a> for the GOP, that long-anticipated distancing from the most unpopular president headed into a midterm <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davemanuel.com\/2026\/07\/20\/10-most-unpopular-presidents-midterm-elections\/\">since Harry Truman in 1946<\/a> is upon us. Not just the war, but a growing number of Trump\u2019s policies are being condemned, debated, and rejected, at rapid speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a policy and even a political matter, this shift is almost 700 days late and about <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/11\/trump-disastrous-reign-will-cost-you-more-than-5000-iran-war\/\">$3 trillion short<\/a>. For 99.9 percent of the past two years, Republicans have fallen in line with every insane maneuver and utterance from this administration; at best, they would pretend not to have heard them. Only when accountability from the voters is imminent have we seen the emergence of \u201cindependent\u201d thought and behavior\u2014that is, evasive action induced solely by panicked self-interest, like an amoeba shrinking away from a sharp object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To be heartened by the courage of Paul LePage, running in a Trump +9 seat in northern Maine that was recently shifted to a toss-up by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/map-shows-house-districts-most-likely-to-flip-as-fox-news-shifts-15-races-12475351\">none other than Fox News<\/a>, for speaking out that his son-in-law\u2019s father is \u201cbeing deported because he came from a country that\u2019s not liked by certain people in Washington,\u201d you would have to ignore LePage\u2019s long history of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/08\/31\/us\/paul-lepage-maine-governor.html\">anti-immigrant and racist remarks<\/a> and his ad released just this week proudly touting his record facilitating deportation as governor. To raise a fist in solidarity with Maria Elvira Salazar, in a +15 Trump seat, <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/greggiroux.bsky.social\/post\/3mvpqupdqts23\">running an ad<\/a> about Trump\u2019s deportation policies going too far, you would have to forget her vote to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govtrack.us\/congress\/votes\/119-2025\/h6\">set up<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/floridapolitics.com\/archives\/820479-maria-elvira-salazar-breaks-with-donald-trump-on-immigration-in-new-ad-aimed-at-hispanic-voters\/\">fund<\/a> the current mass deportation architecture. So did Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, who recently <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RogerMarshallMD\/status\/2102883203405242504\">castigated ICE<\/a> for not working with local law enforcement in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fact that Husted and Hinson and others wouldn\u2019t vote their own convictions on the Iran war shows how performative and inauthentic this distance is. Trump knows this, which is why you haven\u2019t heard much from him about it. If anything, in fact, his own administration is following the fair-weather detractors, swinging frantically at changes that they hope will make voters forget the last two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Domestic Policy Council is trying to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/23\/trump-beef-imports-midterms-gop-panic-01090261\">cut Trump\u2019s foreign beef imports<\/a>, which ranchers have <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/09\/trump-meat-cattle-ranchers-beef\/\">savaged<\/a> as destructive of their livelihoods and misaligned to bring down retail prices. But the White House denied that anything would change. The Senate is likely to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/09\/24\/congress\/senate-gop-data-center-vote-01091374\">stay in session<\/a> next week to try to save Sen. Husted\u2019s job with a roll call vote on a bill he co-authored, the Ratepayer Protection Act. This would mirror <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/ratepayer-protection-pledge\/\">the White House\u2019s voluntary pledge<\/a> by utilities that data center development will not raise the cost of power bills. But Trump\u2019s positive outlook on data centers, which is wildly out of step with public opinion, clearly hasn\u2019t changed given the <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/post\/215593\/trump-plan-data-centers-public-lands\">siting of new facilities on public lands<\/a>. Adding to a voluntary pledge with legislation that is also mostly voluntary\u2014it sets a framework for states to force data center developers to pay for utility upgrades, without requiring that states apply those rules\u2014won\u2019t erase this position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most farcical example of save-the-majority-based policymaking is how to handle the <a href=\"https:\/\/gasprices.aaa.com\/\">record high cost of diesel fuel<\/a>, a function of both the Iran debacle and Ukrainian pulverizing of Russian refining infrastructure. The easiest way to ease energy spikes stemming from war would be to, you know, end the wars, but instead Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), threatened with the loss of his seat, demanded an executive order to temporarily ban diesel exports. Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/joeygarrison\/status\/2102456663991026006\">lunged at this<\/a> and a 90-day ban is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/23\/white-house-ban-diesel-01089294\">in process<\/a>, even as Trump\u2019s own energy secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/politicalwire.com\/2026\/09\/24\/extra-bonus-quote-of-the-day-1054\/\">said it wouldn\u2019t work<\/a>. The problem is that diesel is largely refined on the Gulf Coast, and there is no easy way to move it domestically elsewhere in the nation. It follows that higher global prices (which an export ban would perpetuate) would <em>increase<\/em> costs within parts of the U.S. that get imported diesel. Plus, refiners are not guaranteed to pass through savings that come with higher domestic supply, and storage needs would likely slow down gas refining and shift the price spike toward that product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-the-american-prospect wp-block-embed-the-american-prospect\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"H7x2k3ISdJ\"><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/22\/money-cant-buy-me-votes\/\">Money Can\u2019t Buy Me Votes<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cMoney Can\u2019t Buy Me Votes\u201d \u2014 The American Prospect\" src=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/22\/money-cant-buy-me-votes\/embed\/#?secret=vnFavxF0PE#?secret=H7x2k3ISdJ\" data-secret=\"H7x2k3ISdJ\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The key here is that on everything that matters\u2014war and peace, the actual implementation of deportation policy, even absurd things like the diesel export ban\u2014Trump and Republicans in Congress are fully aligned. Anything above a meek plea that they feel the pain they inflicted on voters, or would do anything whatsoever about it the second the election is over, is not in evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since January 20, 2025, the Republican Congress could have stopped the imposition of tariffs through existing mechanisms. They could have cut off funding for wars they don\u2019t like. They could have tied continued defiance of appropriations laws they passed by cutting the personal presidential travel budget. They could have impeached and removed him from office, with Democratic support. Instead they support Trump\u2019s every whim in almost perfect lockstep, no matter how crazy. These deathbed conversions are preposterous, and everybody knows it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One final thought: I understand why congressional Republicans are worried about losing their fancy offices and the pretend trappings of a power they chose not to wield. I\u2019m less sure why Trump cares. Sure, in theory, a Democratic Congress could take up the countermeasures Republicans refused to enact and halt Trump\u2019s expansive agenda. But given <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/21\/bonta-gives-up-on-the-paramount-case\/\">what we\u2019ve just seen on the Paramount merger<\/a>, it\u2019s a real stretch to think that Democrats have the will or fortitude or even interest in doing that. So what\u2019s Trump so concerned about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They\u2019re trying to cram all the opposition into the last 40 before the election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":771,"featured_media":145295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-09-25T12:10:54Z","apple_news_api_id":"7eaff5b2-66bd-42bc-8637-fdb474a4a3cf","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-09-25T12:10:54Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Afq_1sma9QryGN_20dKSjzw","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"everlit_article_id":"artl_QdBki8GBLGa","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"large","everlit_generation_settings":{"embed_ui_cover_art":false,"embed_ui_title_intro":"Listen to this article:","embed_ui_title_icon":"","primary_voice":"49","guest_voice":"653","default_publication":"pblc_yPNpMjtZdBK","default_conversation_mode":false,"podcast_duration_minutes":5,"default_sonic_optimization":false,"optimizer_level":2,"default_read_alt_text":false,"default_read_urls":false,"default_skip_article_image":false,"intro_mixable":281,"outro_mixable":258,"intro_duration":8,"outro_duration":11,"intro_padding":3,"outro_padding":4,"disable_music":false},"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"fa28048ead1de9f002c9c65bde2bea50","_everlit_metadata_hash":"0f4f6eabb858bd310e11475d95b6e46f","_everlit_embed_html":"<iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_QdBki8GBLGa?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>","newspack_collection_is_cover_story":false,"newspack_collection_post_order":0,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"They\u2019re trying to cram all the opposition into the last 40 before the election.","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[4932],"tags":[5726,6961,6922,6687,5279,6458,6677,6920,5688],"newspack_collection_taxonomy":[],"newspack_collection_section":[],"coauthors":[9903],"class_list":["post-145293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-congress","tag-donald-trump","tag-election-2026","tag-energy-environment","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-politics","tag-republicans","tag-trade","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Republicans Had 690 Days to Oppose Trump - The American Prospect<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The key here is that on everything that matters, Trump and Republicans in Congress are fully aligned.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/25\/republicans-had-690-days-to-oppose-trump\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Republicans Had 690 Days to Oppose Trump - The American Prospect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"They\u2019re trying to cram all the opposition into the last 40 before the election.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/25\/republicans-had-690-days-to-oppose-trump\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The American Prospect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheAmericanProspect\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-25T09:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-25T12:14:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Dayen-GOP-Trump-092526.jpg?fit=1600%2C1200&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Dayen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@theprospect\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@theprospect\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Dayen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prospect.org\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/25\\\/republicans-had-690-days-to-oppose-trump\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prospect.org\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/25\\\/republicans-had-690-days-to-oppose-trump\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Dayen\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prospect.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d828f8165dd2e27373a5e6d69c11a024\"},\"headline\":\"Republicans Had 690 Days to Oppose Trump\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-25T09:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-25T12:14:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prospect.org\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/25\\\/republicans-had-690-days-to-oppose-trump\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1292,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prospect.org\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/prospect.org\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/25\\\/republicans-had-690-days-to-oppose-trump\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/prospect.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/Dayen-GOP-Trump-092526.jpg?fit=1600%2C1200&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"Congress\",\"Donald Trump\",\"Election 2026\",\"Energy &amp; 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He is the author of Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power and Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street\u2019s Great Foreclosure Fraud. He co-hosts the podcast Organized Money with Matt Stoller. 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the environment","iran","middle east","politics","republicans","trade"],"dateCreated":"2026-09-25T09:30:00Z","datePublished":"2026-09-25T09:30:00Z","dateModified":"2026-09-25T12:14:46Z"},"rendered":"<meta name=\"parsely-title\" content=\"Republicans Had 690 Days to Oppose Trump\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-link\" content=\"http:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/25\/republicans-had-690-days-to-oppose-trump\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-type\" content=\"post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-image-url\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Dayen-GOP-Trump-092526.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-pub-date\" content=\"2026-09-25T09:30:00Z\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-section\" content=\"Politics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-tags\" content=\"congress,donald trump,election 2026,energy &amp; the environment,iran,middle east,politics,republicans,trade\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"David Dayen\" \/>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/prospect.org\/p.js"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":138181,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/05\/06\/billion-in-taxpayer-money-trumps-ballroom\/","url_meta":{"origin":145293,"position":0},"title":"A Billion in Taxpayer Money for Trump\u2019s Ballroom","author":"Robert Kuttner","date":"May 6, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"In his vanity, Trump seems determined to alienate Republicans in Congress from most voters.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Newsletters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Newsletters","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/blogs-and-newsletters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-060626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-060626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-060626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-060626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-060626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":143410,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/08\/25\/will-republican-justices-ok-trumps-efforts-to-winnow-midterm-electorate\/","url_meta":{"origin":145293,"position":1},"title":"Will the Republican Justices OK Trump\u2019s Efforts to Winnow the Midterm Electorate?","author":"Harold Meyerson","date":"August 25, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday\u2019s ruling doesn\u2019t foretell where they\u2019ll go, but their Republican bias is an established fact.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;TAP&quot;","block_context":{"text":"TAP","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/blogs-and-newsletters\/tap\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"An election worker places a vote-by-mail ballot into a secure bin","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Meyerson-on-Tap-082526.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Meyerson-on-Tap-082526.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Meyerson-on-Tap-082526.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Meyerson-on-Tap-082526.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Meyerson-on-Tap-082526.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":140923,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/07\/13\/budget-consequences-of-lindsey-grahams-sudden-departure\/","url_meta":{"origin":145293,"position":2},"title":"Budget Consequences of Lindsey Graham\u2019s Sudden Departure","author":"Robert Kuttner","date":"July 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump\u2019s effort to use budget reconciliation for his scheme to take over elections now becomes even more of a stretch.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;TAP&quot;","block_context":{"text":"TAP","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/blogs-and-newsletters\/tap\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaking at a March hearing of the Senate Budget Committee.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kuttner-on-Tap-071326.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kuttner-on-Tap-071326.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kuttner-on-Tap-071326.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kuttner-on-Tap-071326.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kuttner-on-Tap-071326.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":144866,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/17\/republican-nominee-in-texas-using-trumps-5000-dollar-promise-to-deceive-voters\/","url_meta":{"origin":145293,"position":3},"title":"Republican Nominee in Texas Using Trump\u2019s $5,000 Promise to Deceive Voters","author":"Whitney Curry Wimbish","date":"September 17, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Eric Flores is an Army veteran and lawyer running to unseat Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in Texas District 34.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Eric Flores speaks at a podium","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Wimbish-TX-Flores-091726.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Wimbish-TX-Flores-091726.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Wimbish-TX-Flores-091726.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Wimbish-TX-Flores-091726.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Wimbish-TX-Flores-091726.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":138693,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/05\/20\/trump-trips-up-trump-senate-house-primaries-paxton-texas\/","url_meta":{"origin":145293,"position":4},"title":"Trump Trips Up Trump","author":"Susanna Beiser","date":"May 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The continuing negative fallout from Trump\u2019s crusades against his own party\u2019s incumbents","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Newsletters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Newsletters","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/blogs-and-newsletters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"President Donald Trump speaks to the media with the White House ballroom construction behind him","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-052026.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-052026.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-052026.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-052026.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-052026.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":144668,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/14\/pac-spending-reveals-republicans-screwed-in-midterms\/","url_meta":{"origin":145293,"position":5},"title":"PAC Spending Reveals: Republicans Are Screwed in the Midterms","author":"David Dayen","date":"September 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The analysis shows that Republican-affiliated groups are spending in a number of seats that should be almost automatic wins for their party.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A sign directs voters to an entrance for City Hall during early voting","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Dayen-GOP-spending-091426-rev.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Dayen-GOP-spending-091426-rev.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Dayen-GOP-spending-091426-rev.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Dayen-GOP-spending-091426-rev.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Dayen-GOP-spending-091426-rev.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Dayen-GOP-Trump-092526.jpg?fit=1600%2C1200&ssl=1","author_name":"David Dayen","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/771"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145293"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145338,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145293\/revisions\/145338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145293"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_taxonomy?post=145293"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_section?post=145293"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=145293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":145302,"date":"2026-09-25T05:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T09:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/?p=145302"},"modified":"2026-09-25T08:13:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T12:13:42","slug":"after-missouri-mid-decade-redistricting-may-die-a-natural-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/25\/after-missouri-mid-decade-redistricting-may-die-a-natural-death\/","title":{"rendered":"After Missouri, Mid-Decade Redistricting May Die a Natural Death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-style-default has-cream-background-color has-background\" style=\"padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-efdcd2e1 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-cream-background-color has-background has-bitter-font-family has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-style:normal;font-weight:600\"><em>Read the top story of the day in your inbox. <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/newsletter-sign-up\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sign up for the Daily Prospect newsletter here.<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-custom-everlit-iframe-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_amyZH0g6oqa?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Monday, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals further confounded Missouri\u2019s ongoing mid-decade redistricting debacle. The three-member federal panel sided with a lower federal court and directed the state to use a new map gerrymandered in 2025 and specially designed to propel Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver into retirement\u2014part of President Trump\u2019s effort to secure the largest possible advantages for Republicans in the midterm elections.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"393\" data-attachment-id=\"144301\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026_election_logo\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?fit=2550%2C979&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2550,979\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta='{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\",\"alt\":\"\"}' data-image-title=\"Electin 2026 logo\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?fit=1024%2C393&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=1024%2C393&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-144301\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=1024%2C393&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=300%2C115&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=768%2C295&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=1536%2C590&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=2048%2C786&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=1200%2C461&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=550%2C211&amp;ssl=1 550w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=800%2C307&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=2000%2C768&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=780%2C299&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=400%2C154&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo.png?resize=706%2C271&amp;ssl=1 706w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026_Election_logo-1024x393.png?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In early September, the Missouri Supreme Court had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/government\/blow-trump-missouri-top-court-blocks-republican-drawn-congressional-map-2026-09-03\/\">unanimously ruled<\/a> that the 2025 map could not be used without first being approved in a voter referendum, especially since People Not Politicians, the Missouri referendum advocacy group backing the map question, had met all of the constitutional requirements to secure a slot on the ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/author\/gabrielle-gurley\/\"><strong><em>More from Gabrielle Gurley<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But using an older map, the appeals court warned, is at odds with <a href=\"https:\/\/constitution.congress.gov\/browse\/article-1\/section-2\/\">Article I, Section 2<\/a> of the Constitution, which establishes the timing for selecting members of Congress. They also argued that the 2022 map violates the \u201c<em>Purcell<\/em> principle,\u201d an inconsistently applied Supreme Court precedent holding that election procedures should not be changed close to an election\u2014even though the Eighth Circuit was doing precisely that by imposing a map change of its own, leading one legal analyst to argue that the decision interjected \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/appeals-panel-orders-use-of-trump-backed-missouri-map-what-we-know-12470550\">a reverse-<em>Purcell<\/em> issue<\/a>\u201d into a perplexing collection of decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The appeals court\u2019s ruling further complicated the Missouri Supreme Court\u2019s decision on the 2022 map that also relied on <em>Purcell<\/em>, for the moment. But there\u2019s a strange aspect to all these maneuvers that the Eighth Circuit set aside: The Supreme Court has already backed up the state high court not once but twice.<\/p>\n\n\n<span data-rich-text-format-boundary=\"true\" class=\"everlit-audio everlit-no-audio\" data-everlit-no-audio=\"true\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\" style=\"font-size:16px\"><blockquote><p>The Trump administration\u2019s election-rigging exercise isn\u2019t quite panning out, but Missouri Republicans have tethered themselves to it just the same.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Tuesday, the curtain went up on the third act of the melee, the U.S. Supreme Court vs. Missouri Republicans vs. the Missouri Supreme Court vs. the Eighth Circuit. People Not Politicians and its executive director Richard von Glahn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/26\/26A388\/425276\/20260922233012092_2026.09.22%20Von%20Glahn%20v.%20Hoskins_%20Emergency%20Stay%20Application.pdf\">turned right around<\/a> to the U.S. Supreme Court again, asking for clarification of their September 10 decision that failed to clear up this ball of confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though these decisions have been universally described as \u201ca mess,\u201d what is clear is this unusual clash between state and federal courts is the product of an inept series of own goals by the Missouri Republicans who effectively control all three branches of state government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Committed as they are to the Trump administration\u2019s egregious mid-decade redistricting power play, protecting the current Republican majority in Congress remains Missouri\u2019s primary objective. But it\u2019s one that most Republican and Democratic states declined to take up for fear of exactly what\u2019s now backfiring in real time for Missouri: massive confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Trump administration\u2019s election-rigging exercise isn\u2019t quite panning out, but Missouri Republicans have tethered themselves to it just the same. The legal debacle, electoral payback, and surging voter fury over everything from the affordability crisis to another Middle East war, and now <em>this<\/em>, should send the administration\u2019s massive calculation off to die a natural death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMissouri has, in some ways, been a test case of \u2018Can all of these branches of government really check one another to be coequals?\u2019 And when the answer was yes, some politicians\u2019 response to that is, well, then we need to eliminate this idea of coequal branches of government,\u201d von Glahn told the <em>Prospect<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEven where <em>conservative<\/em> members of the judiciary,\u201d he adds, \u201care asserting their role in protecting equal branches of government, and you have seen some Republicans as response to that say we need to eliminate [the state\u2019s] nonpartisan <a href=\"https:\/\/yourmissourijudges.org\/the-missouri-plan\/\">court plan<\/a> and we need elected judges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the Supreme Court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Missouri\u2019s designated interlocutor, compounded this crisis by failing to offer more precise reasoning that might have dissuaded the appeals court from going so far out on a limb, especially since the state supreme court\u2019s decision was an unequivocal 7-0 decision. Five of the Missouri judges were appointed by Republicans and two by Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet Allen Rostron, a constitutional law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, doesn\u2019t see the high court changing direction to support the Eighth Circuit\u2019s decision. This situation, he says, \u201cis not ideal, but if you step back from it, this whole thing was driven by a desire not to let the people of Missouri vote on the referendum. If [state lawmakers] had just said, \u2018All right, let\u2019s get this referendum voted on, and then we\u2019ll change the districts,\u2019 none of this would have come up in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/10\/missouri-election-congress-redistricting-gerrymander-supreme-court\/\">debate<\/a> over the state supreme court\u2019s conclusion\u2014it \u201cwas legally improper\u201d to use the 2025 map in the primary\u2014\u201chas settled down,\u201d he says. As for the Eighth Circuit\u2019s reasoning, \u201cthe U.S. Supreme Court is already well aware of all the arguments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the Supreme Court\u2019s \u201ccryptic\u201d instructions to the lower courts didn\u2019t help, Rostron surmises. Even so, the justices might be perturbed that their Eighth Circuit brethren didn\u2019t get the memo the first <em>two<\/em> times\u2014and then set a deadline for the high court\u2019s own response, a move which Rostron says is \u201cpresumptuous.\u201d \u201cThey could see a sentence or something from the Supreme Court that reminds them essentially of who\u2019s the higher court, and that they need to be careful to respect the spirit as well as the letter of what the Supreme Court\u2019s telling them to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There will undoubtedly be some post-election jockeying in the courts. Losing candidates, voters, and others could file suits alleging that they were disadvantaged by using the 2025 maps in the primary and the 2022 maps in the general. Could those kinds of suits prevail? \u201cI would be skeptical that anybody\u2019s going to succeed on a lawsuit in court after the election because the issues have been litigated,\u201d says Rostron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-the-american-prospect wp-block-embed-the-american-prospect\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"teaTLXX0HW\"><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/10\/missouri-election-congress-redistricting-gerrymander-supreme-court\/\">How Many Judges Does It Take to Sort Out Missouri?<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cHow Many Judges Does It Take to Sort Out Missouri?\u201d \u2014 The American Prospect\" src=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/10\/missouri-election-congress-redistricting-gerrymander-supreme-court\/embed\/#?secret=4B29xUnDol#?secret=teaTLXX0HW\" data-secret=\"teaTLXX0HW\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Several dominoes have fallen during these displays of judicial one-upmanship. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins was found in <a href=\"https:\/\/electionlawblog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/SCOMO-Hoskins-Contempt-Order.pdf\">contempt of court<\/a> for defying the state supreme court and directing state election officials to use 2025 maps\u2014before the issue was definitively settled\u2014after another federal judge ruled in favor of those maps. He also is directly responsible for all the <em>Purcell<\/em> back-and-forth, because while the referendum petition was completed last December, he deliberately sat on it for eight months and then certified it <a href=\"https:\/\/statecourtreport.org\/our-work\/analysis-opinion\/chaos-missouris-redistricting-litigation\">literally one hour<\/a> before his legal deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ultimately, with the threat of penalties hanging over him, Hoskins switched back to the 2022 maps. There will be a spotlight on him for the rest of the election season, but now that beam is even brighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, local election officials <a href=\"http:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/missouri-election-workers-warned-switching-maps-this-late-is-practically-impossible-but-the-8th-circuit-ordered-it-anyway\/\">haven\u2019t received<\/a> any further instructions from the secretary of state\u2019s office since they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/missouri-election-workers-warned-switching-maps-this-late-is-practically-impossible-but-the-8th-circuit-ordered-it-anyway\/\">were notified<\/a> that old maps were back in play. Military, overseas, and absentee ballots are all being mailed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A voter backlash is also brewing against the Missouri GOP\u2019s imperial impulses. During the August primary, not only did voters reject referendums to phase out the state income tax (83 percent voted no) and to switch to congressional district majority votes instead of a statewide majority vote to approve initiative petitions (80 percent voted no), but they also punished their legislative proponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Republican state Sen. Curtis Trent, the sponsor of the income tax referendum, <a href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2026\/08\/04\/missouri-senator-running-for-majority-leader-loses-gop-primary\/\">lost<\/a> his primary race. He was on track to be the next majority floor leader in the Senate. State Rep. Ed Lewis, the sponsor of the initiative petition change, also lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beyond Missouri, voters realize that mid-decade redistricting is a farce. A recent Common Cause national <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/indiana\/press\/poll-shows-mid-decade-redistricting-unpopular-with-republicans-independents\/\">poll<\/a> of 2,000 registered voters nationwide and 400 to 500 more voters in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/indiana\/press\/poll-shows-mid-decade-redistricting-unpopular-with-republicans-independents\/\">revealed<\/a> that striking majorities of Democrats, Republicans (including Trump 2024 supporters), and independents want mid-decade redistricting banned. The alternative? Voters support independent redistricting commissions and removing state lawmakers from the process altogether and replacing them with average citizens who will set the parameters to select their representatives, rather than the other way around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republican gerrymandering in the state might be too shameless even for the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":747,"featured_media":145292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-09-25T12:10:19Z","apple_news_api_id":"afd3a5c5-3593-4c85-bf6c-0e18ea275d8e","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-09-25T12:10:19Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Ar9OlxTWTTIW_bA4Y6iddjg","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"everlit_article_id":"artl_amyZH0g6oqa","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"large","everlit_generation_settings":{"embed_ui_cover_art":false,"embed_ui_title_intro":"Listen to this article:","embed_ui_title_icon":"","primary_voice":"49","guest_voice":"653","default_publication":"pblc_yPNpMjtZdBK","default_conversation_mode":false,"podcast_duration_minutes":5,"default_sonic_optimization":false,"optimizer_level":2,"default_read_alt_text":false,"default_read_urls":false,"default_skip_article_image":false,"intro_mixable":281,"outro_mixable":258,"intro_duration":8,"outro_duration":11,"intro_padding":3,"outro_padding":4,"disable_music":false},"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"4f0964b52cde5547466dfd8cf5a81a4a","_everlit_metadata_hash":"52ccb46a4f092313b041158999ef864f","_everlit_embed_html":"<iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_amyZH0g6oqa?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>","newspack_collection_is_cover_story":false,"newspack_collection_post_order":0,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Republican gerrymandering in the state might be too shameless even for the Supreme Court.","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[4932],"tags":[5613,5726,6922,6477,6364,6677,5625,6920,6818],"newspack_collection_taxonomy":[],"newspack_collection_section":[],"coauthors":[9905],"class_list":["post-145302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-ballot-measures","tag-congress","tag-election-2026","tag-justice","tag-missouri","tag-politics","tag-redistricting","tag-republicans","tag-supreme-court","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - 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At its best, the results help to reveal the way our modern masters of the financial universe think, and it garners a few scoops, too. But it\u2019s not conducive to telling an actual story in a compelling or critical way, as Cohan\u2019s latest book, the bloated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/739893\/money-to-burn-by-william-d-cohan\/\"><em>Money to Burn: The Unvarnished Truth About Leon Black, Apollo, and the Rise of a New Wall Street<\/em><\/a>, demonstrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-style-border\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"298\" height=\"450\" data-attachment-id=\"145262\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/oct26-olen-cover-image\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-cover-image.jpg?fit=298%2C450&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"298,450\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta='{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\",\"alt\":\"\"}' data-image-title=\"OCT26 Olen cover image\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-cover-image.jpg?fit=298%2C450&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-cover-image.jpg?resize=298%2C450&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-145262\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.6622140001653162;object-fit:cover;width:300px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-cover-image.jpg?w=298&amp;ssl=1 298w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-cover-image.jpg?resize=199%2C300&amp;ssl=1 199w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-cover-image.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-cover-image.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/54985\/9780593716342\">Money to Burn: The Unvarnished Truth About Leon Black, Apollo, and the Rise of a New Wall Street<\/a><\/strong><\/em><br>By William D. Cohan<br><em>Portfolio<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, Cohan, a former investment banker, got insider access, interviewing friend-of-Jeffrey Epstein Black and other figures at the shadow-banking juggernaut Apollo Global Management: current leader Marc Rowan, co-founder Josh Harris, the head of Apollo\u2019s life insurance affiliate Athene, Jim Belardi, as well as several other key people in the company\u2019s operations and history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But to what end?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/author\/helaine-olen\/\"><strong><em>More from Helaine Olen<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cohan, in telling the story of this investment behemoth, often substitutes access for judgment. Many events in <em>Money to Burn<\/em> are told in he-said, she-said style, going on for pages when a sharp summary paragraph or two would do. As a result, it reads more like stenography than reporting, with long transcript-like quotes, not to mention exhaustive accounts of Black\u2019s early career working with Michael Milken at Drexel Burnham Lambert and various Apollo acquisitions and conquests (Here\u2019s Harrah\u2019s Entertainment! There\u2019s Executive Life!), along with, for some odd reason, where almost everyone he interviewed attended high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What\u2019s rarely mentioned: the downsides of the immense financialization of American life over the past several decades\u2014something that both Black and Apollo benefited from and fueled\u2014and what role that plays in our fractured civic and economic lives. The story of Apollo could serve as an excellent window into the story of the U.S. economy in the neoliberal era, but in Cohan\u2019s hands, we just get an endless scroll of self-justifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>COHAN TIPS HIS SYMPATHETIC HAND<\/strong> in the introduction. \u201cLeon Black is a bit of a reluctant Wall Street billionaire,\u201d he writes. Little evidence is ever presented for this. How could there be? There are no reluctant self-made billionaires, for the rather obvious reason that acquiring such a status requires <a href=\"https:\/\/flora.insead.edu\/fichiersti_wp\/inseadwp2021\/2021-30.pdf\">a preternatural level<\/a> of focus, intensity, and want\u2014something, Cohan reports, Black possesses in large quantities. Incidentally, in 2012 Black <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/SB10001424052702304373804577521240470769420\">paid $120 million<\/a> for one of four existing versions of Edvard Munch\u2019s <em>The Scream<\/em>, which doesn\u2019t, well, scream that the guy is embarrassed about his fortune or reluctant to show it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Apollo Global Management was founded in 1990, with a specialty in distressed debt and leveraged buyouts, then a relatively tiny corner of Wall Street. The firm is both partially responsible for and a beneficiary of an explosion in financialized innovation and growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The business titans who, beginning in the 1980s, championed hostile takeovers and mergers with high-interest debt (known as \u201cjunk bonds\u201d) they then loaded onto the newly purchased company claimed this would force more efficient operations. But after a string of bankruptcies and the indictment of Drexel Burnham Lambert\u2019s Milken for securities fraud in the 1980s, practitioners of the \u201cleveraged buyout\u201d came to be seen as distasteful. So the industry pivoted to something more neutral-sounding: \u201cprivate equity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<span data-rich-text-format-boundary=\"true\" class=\"everlit-audio everlit-no-audio\" data-everlit-no-audio=\"true\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\" style=\"font-size:16px\"><blockquote><p>From the time of the Roman emperors onward, extreme inequality has led to decadence and indulgence.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This was a remarkable boost\u2014for the finance bros, that is. With promises of big returns, investors crammed into private equity funds, where Apollo and others waited to collect \u201ctwo and twenty\u201d: a 2 percent annual management fee, as well as a 20 percent share of all profits. In 2011, Apollo went public, turning the founders into billionaires. Today, Apollo has more than $1 trillion in assets under management alone, and spans not just private equity and distressed debt, but also insurance, retirement annuities, and private credit, making it one of the world\u2019s largest and most powerful alternative asset managers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Others did not do so well. Take RegionalCare Hospital Partners, which Apollo used as a platform to roll up numerous other small and rural health care facilities, ultimately becoming, under the name LifePoint, a large operator of rural hospitals. It\u2019s quite lucrative, at least as far as Apollo is concerned, since they absorb almost none of the financial downside. That accrues to places like Ottumwa Regional Health Center in Iowa, which paid a $2.7 million management fee even while understaffed and operating at a loss, while LifePoint, in turn, turned $9.2 million over to Apollo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All of this is in <em>Money to Burn<\/em> because of a 2022 congressional investigation that ensued after a nurse sexually assaulted multiple patients at Ottumwa. Cohan quotes from the report, but does not, as far as I can tell, speak with a single victim (or a victim\u2019s family member). Instead, Cohan quotes an unsigned statement from Apollo, saying they \u201cinvested billions of dollars in Lifepoint.\u201d Good to know!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are other things about how Apollo and private equity have made the U.S. worse that you won\u2019t learn from this book. Here are some others, just in the health care category: Studies have found that <a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jama\/fullarticle\/2813379\">patient falls and hospital-acquired infections<\/a> increase at private equity\u2013owned hospitals, while <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/40982974\/\">staffing decreases<\/a>. At the same time, the amount <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/382\/bmj-2023-075244\">charged to patients and insurers goes up<\/a>. In nursing homes, the data is even starker: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nber.org\/papers\/w28474\">Private equity ownership increases mortality<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A reader will also search in vain for any discussion of the attempts to crack down on the worst private equity predations, like the <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2019\/07\/18\/last-legislation-stop-private-equity-abuses\/\">Stop Wall Street Looting Act<\/a> from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) or the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/119\/bills\/s4085\/BILLS-119s4085is.pdf\">Take Back Our Hospitals Act<\/a> by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), which would simply ban private equity from owning hospitals or nursing homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another thing barely mentioned? The carried interest loophole, which allows hedge fund managers like Black and his partners to pay a lower capital gains rate on much of their compensation. Barack Obama campaigned on doing away with it; Donald Trump and Joe Biden did, too. It still exists. The book mentions it once, simply to allow Rowan\u2019s contemptuous claim that Democrats don\u2019t want it to go away because they can fundraise off of it, which Cohan fails to challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What about the unemployed workers left in the wake of various mergers? Cohan devotes more attention to the \u201cRosebud\u201d of Black\u2019s father, who committed suicide after getting implicated in a corporate bribery scandal in Honduras known as \u201cBananagate.\u201d (No, Black doesn\u2019t use that term; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1975\/04\/28\/archives\/bananagate-is-deplored-at-yale-law-convocation.html\">newspapers in 1975 did<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, a reader will learn more about the punishing work hours at Apollo (brutal even by Wall Street standards) and Black\u2019s struggles with his weight than they do about the hardships faced by employees at the firms it financially ravaged. One of the most negative takes on Apollo quoted in the book comes toward the end from the <em>Prospect<\/em>\u2019s own Moe Tkacik, when Cohan quotes at length\u2014and seemingly approvingly\u2014from her <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2023\/10\/21\/2023-10-21-moral-authority-of-marc-rowan\/\">takedown<\/a> of Rowan\u2019s efforts to prove the University of Pennsylvania administrators took a cavalier approach to antisemitism on campus, noting that if Rowan really wanted to rehabilitate Apollo\u2019s reputation, he would \u201cforswear wage theft or dividends that leave large employers insolvent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One can only wish that viewpoint was more integrated into the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-attachment-id=\"145266\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/oct26-olen-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1200,900\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta='{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\",\"alt\":\"\"}' data-image-title=\"OCT26 Olen 2\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Black\u2019s partners at Apollo Marc Rowan (left) and Josh Harris use their wealth to bully stakeholders and buy sports teams, respectively.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-145266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?resize=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?resize=400%2C300&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?resize=200%2C150&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?resize=550%2C413&amp;ssl=1 550w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?resize=706%2C530&amp;ssl=1 706w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen-2-1024x768.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Black\u2019s partners at Apollo Marc Rowan (left) and Josh Harris use their wealth to bully stakeholders and buy sports teams, respectively. <span class=\"image-credit\"><span class=\"credit-label-wrapper\">Credit:<\/span> Yolanda Ruiz\/Prensa Internacional via ZUMA Press Wire\/Alamy; Javier Rojas\/Prensa Internacional via ZUMA Wire\/Alamy.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>FROM THE TIME OF THE ROMAN EMPERORS ONWARD<\/strong>, extreme inequality has led to decadence and indulgence. The Apollo bros prove no exception, and this is where <em>Money to Burn<\/em>, finally, acquires a bit of an edge. While Harris begins buying sports teams (the Philadelphia 76ers, the New Jersey Devils, the Washington Commanders, and a WNBA Philadelphia team that will start in 2030, at last count) and Rowan uses his billions to bully administrators, stakeholders, and residents at places as varied as the University of Pennsylvania and the Hamptons resort town of Montauk, Black finds his billion-dollar art collection isn\u2019t enough and also indulges what polite society once called appetites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Black\u2019s downfall is not just his decade-long acquaintance with Jeffrey Epstein and his, well, consorts, but the fact that he paid him $158 million for financial and tax advice, even though no one has been able to satisfactorily explain how the louche Epstein possessed expertise that sophisticated Wall Street lawyers lacked. <em>Money to Burn<\/em> devotes many pages to a somewhat skeptical, but not skeptical enough, tit-for-tat over Black\u2019s claim that a lawyer\u2019s legal malfeasance led to a potential estate tax problem that only Epstein could solve. (Left unmentioned: why a \u201creluctant billionaire\u201d would spend millions upon millions of dollars to save on estate taxes, though I suppose wanting to hoard wealth upon death as well is a matter of consistency.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Almost no one thinks Black is telling the truth. He was, after all, spied around town many times with Epstein and any number of younger\u2014much younger\u2014women. As one anonymous insider tells Cohan, \u201cLeon\u2019s <em>disgusting<\/em>. Can you imagine a girl that would want to sleep with Leon?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When combined with allegations of rape by Russian model Guzel Ganieva, with whom he had a yearslong on-again, off-again affair, Black\u2019s peccadilloes cause a reputational crisis at Apollo. This leads to him getting pushed out of the leadership ranks. Rowan takes over, and Black goes on to sue Harris, alleging he conspired with journalists, public relations operatives, and Ganieva to drag him through the public mud in a failed plot to become CEO himself. The litigation was dismissed, with the federal court calling the case \u201cnebulous and overtly conjectural,\u201d and arbitration between the two men recently concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Black goes into \u201cyou are there\u201d detail on the succession battle at Apollo, which no doubt is of much interest to the sort of people who enjoy Wall Street gossip, but is unlikely to be of concern to anyone else since Apollo is going to continue to screw the little people no matter who is in charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More relevant is what, in part, drove Rowan\u2019s ultimate victory: his championing of integrating annuities business Athene into Apollo and using its gusher of insurance money to leverage up and finance involvement in private credit markets to turbocharge profits. This has the rather nasty potential of seriously damaging the entire global economy, since there is evidence that private equity firms like Apollo are stuffing life insurance balance sheets with risky loans rather than boring investments like Treasury debt. But it\u2019s all good for Apollo, since a <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/08\/03\/ai-bailout-could-be-baked-into-bubble-private-equity-life-insurers-loans\/\">convoluted state bailout structure<\/a> is already in place, whereby every surviving life insurer will have to pay if one becomes insolvent\u2014and those assessments are offset with tax credits, meaning that the ultimate payers are poor schlubs like you and me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book closes with a discussion with two Cassandras about Apollo\u2019s business model, and a warning that financial crises happen when people don\u2019t expect them. Duly noted. As I said earlier, this book is best for those who want the insider nitty-gritty, and don\u2019t much care to find out about what it means to anyone except Leon Black. As for the nation\u2019s other 330 million or so people, I suggest 2023\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/These-Are-the-Plunderers\/Gretchen-Morgenson\/9781982191290\"><em>These Are the Plunderers<\/em><\/a> by Gretchen Morgenson and Josh Rosner, a much more critical look at how Apollo does business and how it impacts all of us for the worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unfortunately, author William Cohan thinks the ousted Apollo co-founder is fascinating enough to quote him at length, while neglecting the impact of private equity predators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":876,"featured_media":145267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-09-25T12:09:43Z","apple_news_api_id":"94e1d72b-af49-4fdc-8690-46328e56ff6c","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-09-26T01:24:25Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AlOHXK69JT9yGkEYyjlb_bA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"everlit_article_id":"artl_QemEu7qVxkQ","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"large","everlit_generation_settings":{"embed_ui_cover_art":false,"embed_ui_title_intro":"Listen 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\/>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/prospect.org\/p.js"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":139893,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/06\/16\/nothing-is-safe-from-private-equity-rollups\/","url_meta":{"origin":145272,"position":0},"title":"Nothing Is Safe From Private Equity Rollups","author":"Susanna Beiser","date":"June 16, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Is antitrust enforcement equal to the challenge of defeating the most prevalent abuses?","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Economic Policy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Economic Policy","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Firefighter waves an American flag out the window of a fire truck","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Kuttner-Rollups-061626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Kuttner-Rollups-061626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Kuttner-Rollups-061626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Kuttner-Rollups-061626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Kuttner-Rollups-061626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":141919,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/08\/03\/ai-bailout-could-be-baked-into-bubble-private-equity-life-insurers-loans\/","url_meta":{"origin":145272,"position":1},"title":"The AI Bailout Could Be Baked Into the AI Bubble","author":"David Dayen","date":"August 3, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Private credit companies are key owners of AI-related assets. Many of their parent private equity firms own life insurers that are dumping grounds for bad loans\u2014and subject to state bailouts.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Economic Policy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Economic Policy","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"AI chip inside a bubble with financial stock market chart","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dayen-AI-bailout-080326.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dayen-AI-bailout-080326.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dayen-AI-bailout-080326.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dayen-AI-bailout-080326.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dayen-AI-bailout-080326.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":136674,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/04\/06\/private-credit-cartels-crisis-wall-street\/","url_meta":{"origin":145272,"position":2},"title":"The Private Credit Cartels","author":"Maureen Tkacik","date":"April 6, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Wall Street wants you to believe AI is to blame for the incipient credit crisis. But the crappy software loans spooking investors are the products of old-economy greed and brazen collusion.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Money, Politics, and Power&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Money, Politics, and Power","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/power\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Six views of a cockroach","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Tkacik-Private-credit-cartels-040626.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Tkacik-Private-credit-cartels-040626.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Tkacik-Private-credit-cartels-040626.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Tkacik-Private-credit-cartels-040626.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Tkacik-Private-credit-cartels-040626.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":145309,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/25\/private-equity-landlords-double-dipping-in-imminent-bailout\/","url_meta":{"origin":145272,"position":3},"title":"Private Equity Landlords Double-Dipping in Imminent Bailout","author":"Zachary Groz","date":"September 25, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Companies like Starwood Capital Group, which benefited greatly from financial assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic, want a federal bailout on top of that.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Housing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Housing","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/infrastructure\/housing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Starwood Capital Group company logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Groz-Starwood-092526.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Groz-Starwood-092526.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Groz-Starwood-092526.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Groz-Starwood-092526.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Groz-Starwood-092526.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":138181,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/05\/06\/billion-in-taxpayer-money-trumps-ballroom\/","url_meta":{"origin":145272,"position":4},"title":"A Billion in Taxpayer Money for Trump\u2019s Ballroom","author":"Robert Kuttner","date":"May 6, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"In his vanity, Trump seems determined to alienate Republicans in Congress from most voters.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Newsletters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Newsletters","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/blogs-and-newsletters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-060626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-060626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-060626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-060626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Kuttner-on-Tap-060626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":144742,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/16\/trump-administration-creates-monopolization-machine-small-business\/","url_meta":{"origin":145272,"position":5},"title":"The Trump Administration Creates a Monopolization Machine","author":"Zachary Groz","date":"September 16, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"New rules could grant \u2018small business\u2019 benefits to companies with up to $5 billion in assets. Actual small businesses may have no choice but to sell.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Economic Policy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Economic Policy","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Data center under construction","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Groz-SBA-091626.jpg?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Groz-SBA-091626.jpg?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Groz-SBA-091626.jpg?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Groz-SBA-091626.jpg?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Groz-SBA-091626.jpg?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/OCT26-Olen.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1","author_name":"Helaine Olen","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145272"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145336,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145272\/revisions\/145336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145272"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_taxonomy?post=145272"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_section?post=145272"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=145272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":145309,"date":"2026-09-25T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/?p=145309"},"modified":"2026-09-25T08:08:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T12:08:58","slug":"private-equity-landlords-double-dipping-in-imminent-bailout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/25\/private-equity-landlords-double-dipping-in-imminent-bailout\/","title":{"rendered":"Private Equity Landlords Double-Dipping in Imminent Bailout"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-custom-everlit-iframe-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_KDzNinv0WvP?client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2&amp;ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, I <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/08\/14\/trump-landlord-bailout-funnel-billions-private-equity-starwood-dominium-morgan\/\">reported<\/a> on a \u201chighly likely\u201d multibillion-dollar federal bailout that would settle a five-year-long court battle between predominantly corporate landlords and the feds over the national eviction moratorium imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since that time, the number of rental property owners seeking a piece of the action has grown, with nearly a thousand landlords signing on over the past few months. Plaintiffs in the case initially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/government\/us-wont-ask-supreme-court-hear-lawsuit-over-pandemic-ban-evictions-2025-11-06\/\">sought<\/a> $26 billion, though that\u2019s come down over the years. In all likelihood, the final number will fall between $2 billion and $3 billion, which still would rank among the biggest payouts of its kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/author\/zachary-groz\/\"><em><strong>More from Zachary Groz<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though marketed as relief for \u201cmom-and-pop\u201d lessors, private equity groups and other large institutional real estate investors have lined up hundreds of LLCs in the class action suit, demanding compensation over income they claim they lost during the eviction moratorium. Property owners in the suit\u2013\u2013with few exceptions subsidiaries of larger investment firms\u2013\u2013on average control more than 250 rental units each, per the most recent data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chief among the litigants is Florida-based Starwood Capital Group, the country\u2019s third-largest private equity apartment owner, whose LLCs account for more than 10 percent of the property owners and investment vehicles suing the feds, and close to 15 percent of rental units covered so far. Starwood\u2019s national footprint is smaller: The firm\u2019s multifamily investments account for less than 1 percent of all rental units in the country, though that portfolio is concentrated in a handful of metro areas, giving Starwood greater market power over its tenants.<\/p>\n\n\n<span data-rich-text-format-boundary=\"true\" class=\"everlit-audio everlit-no-audio\" data-everlit-no-audio=\"true\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\" style=\"font-size:16px\"><blockquote><p>By the end of 2021, Starwood\u2019s rental portfolio was posting \u201crecord\u201d profits.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The past few years haven\u2019t exactly been smooth sailing for Starwood, which declined to comment for this article. Right as the pandemic began, the firm saw its credit rating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spglobal.com\/ratings\/en\/regulatory\/article\/-\/view\/type\/HTML\/id\/2402082\">downgraded<\/a>, and months later it defaulted on debts owed on its portfolio of shopping malls. The headwinds at the time didn\u2019t deter Starwood\u2019s CEO Barry Sternlicht from mobilizing the firm\u2019s substantial cash reserves and access to emergency liquidity to double down on apartment investments. \u201cWhen it\u2019s really ugly, it\u2019s a good time to invest,\u201d Sternlicht said in May 2020 at the apex of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the end of 2021, Starwood\u2019s rental portfolio was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/rent-apartment-housing-price-landlords-profits-eviction\/\">posting<\/a> \u201crecord\u201d profits, as the firm <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/earnings\/call-transcripts\/2022\/02\/25\/starwood-property-trust-stwd-q4-2021-earnings-call\/\">hiked<\/a> rents, in some cases by more than 20 percent, buoyed by significant government support during lockdowns and increased demand for housing. \u201cIt is a very healthy market and tenants seem capable and willing to pay these rent increases,\u201d Sternlicht told investors on an early-2022 earnings call. The rent increases would continue throughout the year, at some properties <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2023\/01\/02\/starwood-rents-apartments-private-investors\/\">reaching<\/a> more than 90 percent, boosting evictions and leading Starwood to a banner year, with net income of close to $900 million, up from roughly the $450 million it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1465128\/000162828022003913\/stwd_pressrelease-ye2021.htm\">reported<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet the eviction moratorium lawsuit, dominated by Starwood-owned properties, paints a different picture of the economic environment at the time, alleging that landlords \u201csuffered significant financial damage\u201d at the hands of the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the pending lawsuit entering potential settlement discussions, the landlords and the feds are in the process of developing a method to determine how the government might compensate each plaintiff in the case. The parties don\u2019t expect to go through \u201cevery rent roll and every income statement of every single property,\u201d Creighton Magid, lead attorney for the property owners, told the <em>Prospect<\/em> last month, and will instead be developing a generalizable economic model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the feds asserting earlier this month that the landlords had \u201cfailed to take reasonable steps to mitigate any just compensation due including by failing to seek back rent, fees and costs from their tenants,\u201d at a time when the federal government was providing billions of dollars in rental assistance for exactly that purpose, all signs point to a settlement. The landlords and the feds, per a recent court filing, are now seeking the \u201cmost efficient way to resolve the case\u201d in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Starwood and other property owners, any windfall from the case would come as gravy atop substantial federal assistance received during the pandemic. During and in the aftermath of the pandemic, state and local agencies worked to distribute billions of dollars of rental assistance to property owners and tenants facing mountains of rental debt. In Florida, where almost a quarter of the plaintiffs and most of the listed Starwood properties are based, agencies distributed more than $1 billion in rental assistance, which, according to Alexei Alexandrov, a former chief economist at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, by various means \u201cpercolated down to the landlords.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About $200 million of that came through Florida\u2019s housing finance agency, which offered direct relief to property owners who had originally been funded by the agency. According to publicly available documents, dozens of Starwood properties now seeking a piece of the bailout were approved for more than $10 million in federal disaster relief in Florida through that pot of money alone. That figure does not include other federal assistance that may have been distributed to Starwood\u2019s tenants to help them pay rent. Starwood did not answer questions about the amount of federal assistance the firm received during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-the-american-prospect wp-block-embed-the-american-prospect\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"eUpBA7Pck0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/08\/14\/trump-landlord-bailout-funnel-billions-private-equity-starwood-dominium-morgan\/\">Trump\u2019s Planned Landlord Bailout Would Cost Billions<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cTrump\u2019s Planned Landlord Bailout Would Cost Billions\u201d \u2014 The American Prospect\" src=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/08\/14\/trump-landlord-bailout-funnel-billions-private-equity-starwood-dominium-morgan\/embed\/#?secret=YxkxtUJSQg#?secret=eUpBA7Pck0\" data-secret=\"eUpBA7Pck0\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to a crisis management expert who worked closely with states, localities, and property owners to distribute federal rental assistance during the pandemic, the investment firms, like Starwood, that stand to benefit the most from a potential settlement also happen to be the ones that were best equipped to rake in federal aid during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn most programs we administered, the large developers had the greatest incentive to participate in the program, and so they came to the table with bulk data,\u201d the source said. Instead of having to go to every tenant one by one to see how much rent they owed, \u201cthere were multiple programs in which we built API connections directly into [companies\u2019] property management solutions to be able to systematically validate data.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A settlement, which according to court filings would likely be announced between November 2026 and May 2027, would come at an opportune moment for Starwood. Despite recent banner years, the firm has been facing new pressures, after a stock market correction in 2022 and post-pandemic inflation that spiked interest rates. Starwood\u2019s net income for the first half of the year dipped substantially to less than $60 million, and the firm has <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/markets\/stocks\/articles\/starwood-faces-default-265m-hotel-185235267.html\">struggled<\/a> to service a $265 million loan covering part of its hotel portfolio. The $130 billion private equity giant meanwhile has raised a new $10 billion fund to make <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-07-01\/starwood-raises-10-2-billion-for-bets-on-data-centers-housing\">plays<\/a> in the data center market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis case is pretty troubling,\u201d said Sam Garin of the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a watchdog group. \u201cBut unfortunately, it is yet another example of the super private equity\u2013friendly Trump administration being unwilling to stand up for tenants and consumers against corporate interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Companies like Starwood Capital Group, which benefited greatly from financial assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic, want a federal bailout on top of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11705,"featured_media":145308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-09-25T12:09:12Z","apple_news_api_id":"0bc90570-2a73-48a5-969f-f37f20ae653e","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-09-25T12:09:12Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AC8kFcCpzSKWWn_N_IK5lPg","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"everlit_article_id":"artl_KDzNinv0WvP","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"large","everlit_generation_settings":{"embed_ui_cover_art":false,"embed_ui_title_intro":"Listen to this article:","embed_ui_title_icon":"","primary_voice":"49","guest_voice":"653","default_publication":"pblc_yPNpMjtZdBK","default_conversation_mode":false,"podcast_duration_minutes":5,"default_sonic_optimization":false,"optimizer_level":2,"default_read_alt_text":false,"default_read_urls":false,"default_skip_article_image":false,"intro_mixable":281,"outro_mixable":258,"intro_duration":8,"outro_duration":11,"intro_padding":3,"outro_padding":4,"disable_music":false},"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"a8f4d178503d9e886eba70dbe672a77b","_everlit_metadata_hash":"8cda3e00a10adf1da3f68f65ad6ff77e","_everlit_embed_html":"<iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_KDzNinv0WvP?client=wp&amp;preview=true&amp;client_version=3.3.2&amp;ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>","newspack_collection_is_cover_story":false,"newspack_collection_post_order":0,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Companies like Starwood Capital Group, which benefited greatly from financial assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic, want a federal bailout on top of that.","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[4950],"tags":[6362,6825,5831,5080,5468,5119,13793,5260,6477,6198,5124,5510,6304],"newspack_collection_taxonomy":[],"newspack_collection_section":[],"coauthors":[14139],"class_list":["post-145309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-housing","tag-bailouts","tag-coronavirus","tag-corporate-power","tag-evictions","tag-florida","tag-housing","tag-housing-transportation","tag-infrastructure-1","tag-justice","tag-private-equity","tag-real-estate","tag-rental-assistance","tag-rental-housing","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - 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Reject ICE\u2019s Underhanded Attempt to Maintain Third-Country Removals"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-custom-everlit-iframe-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_ap4wUdoj1wa?client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2&amp;ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Peruvian man threatened with removal to the Central African Republic is safe for now after an appeals court reiterated late Wednesday night that its decision last week overturning the Trump administration\u2019s third-country removal policy was effective immediately. But hours after that decision came down, flight data shows an ICE charter jet landed in two known third-country removal \u201chost\u201d countries in Africa, while another appeared to be heading toward the continent, raising the possibility that other immigrants may have been or are about to be removed unlawfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/author\/gillian-brockell\/\">More from Gillian Brockell<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Peruvian man, identified in court filings as \u201cJohn Doe,\u201d has judicial protections from deportation to Peru and has been held in ICE custody in Massachusetts since July, one of his attorneys previously told the <em>Prospect<\/em>. On Tuesday, the Department of Justice asked a federal judge to lift her stay on Doe\u2019s case so that ICE could transfer him to another facility where he would be put on a plane to the Central African Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The First Circuit Court of Appeals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ca1.uscourts.gov\/sites\/ca1\/files\/opnfiles\/26-1212P-01A.pdf\">decision<\/a> in the landmark <em>D.V.D. v. Department of Homeland Security<\/em> case last week struck down DHS\u2019s third-country removal policy. But a Department of Justice attorney in Doe\u2019s case claimed that because the appeals court had not yet issued a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/mandate\">mandate<\/a>\u201d (an official notification to the lower court of its decision), its stay on the lower court\u2019s decision\u2014which also overturned the DHS policy\u2014was still in effect, and Doe could still be subjected to third-country removal.<\/p>\n\n\n<span data-rich-text-format-boundary=\"true\" class=\"everlit-audio everlit-no-audio\" data-everlit-no-audio=\"true\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\" style=\"font-size:16px\"><blockquote><p>Hours after the decision came down, flight data shows an ICE charter jet landed in two known third-country removal \u201chost\u201d countries in Africa.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Put simply, DOJ claimed the criming could continue until the paperwork was done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Attorneys for the <em>D.V.D.<\/em> plaintiffs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/72347392\/00108513219\/1\/dvd-v-us-department-of-homeland-security\/\">filed<\/a> an emergency motion for clarification Wednesday evening, asking the appeals court to weigh in on the claim. They cited the <em>Prospect<\/em>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/23\/ice-trying-to-ignore-courts-decision-striking-down-third-country-removals\/\">story<\/a> about Doe and revealed they had learned the impending ICE flight was scheduled to depart out of Alexandria, Louisiana, and make third-country removal stops to Rwanda and Burundi, in addition to the Central African Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hours later, shortly before midnight, the appeals court\u2019s three-sentence <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/72347392\/00108513248\/dvd-v-us-department-of-homeland-security\/\">response<\/a> was unequivocal: \u201cConsistent with this court\u2019s September 18, 2026, Judgment, the March 16, 2026, stay pending appeal is dissolved.\u201d The lower court\u2019s decision that the policy is unlawful is in effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an emergency hearing Thursday morning, one of Doe\u2019s attorneys said a DOJ attorney continued to argue the mandate issue, but the judge refused to budge that the appeals court\u2019s clarification said what it said. No final ruling was made on Doe\u2019s request to be released from detention, but the judge also didn\u2019t lift the stay barring his removal from his current location, the attorney, Mary Holper, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ICE and DHS did not respond to requests for comment on the rulings, but the <em>Prospect<\/em>\u2019s earlier story about Doe\u2019s case spurred some bizarre responses from DHS. When asked about DOJ\u2019s claims in Doe\u2019s case and flight data showing an ICE charter plane preparing to fly to Ghana, a DHS representative who did not identify themselves responded, \u201cPlease provide an A# or DOB\u201d\u2014referring to Doe\u2019s \u201calien\u201d number and date of birth, a ludicrous thing to ask for given that neither were needed to respond to court filings or flight data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hours after the story published, DHS spokesman Micah Bock sent another email, writing: \u201cWhen you fail to provide us with the necessary information to verify your claims, you\u2019re wasting our time, which is ironic considering we at DHS can\u2019t think of a bigger waste of time than writing for the <em>American Prospect<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a matter of logic, a writer wasting time at the <em>Prospect<\/em> and also wasting DHS\u2019s time would have been fitting, not ironic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While ICE followed the court order barring the agency from removing Doe from Massachusetts, the deportation machinery was still moving in a way that may violate the appeals court\u2019s immediate bar on third-country removals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the clarification was filed at 11:36 p.m. Eastern time, a Gulfstream V chartered by ICE was flying over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, headed toward West Africa. It was the same plane the <em>Prospect<\/em> had mentioned a day earlier as having a flight plan to Ghana, which has taken more third-country nationals from ICE than any other African country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Typically in immigration cases that involve an ICE flight, the jurisdiction of the departure location applies until the aircraft lands somewhere else. (This is why activists have built the <a href=\"https:\/\/habeasflightwatch.org\/dashboard-v5\/\">Habeas Flight Watch<\/a> live map, to help legal teams file accurate flight data, since Trump officials have been <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-deportations-el-salvador-venezuela-gang-boasberg-e0ac99970c7429c82d54b681c96e4d2e\">cagey<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bangordailynews.com\/2026\/05\/29\/mainefocus\/mainefocus-police-courts\/judge-admonishes-ice-maine-joam40zk0w\/\">misleading<\/a> in the past.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flight data <a href=\"https:\/\/globe.adsbexchange.com\/?icao=a63864&amp;lat=5.519&amp;lon=-0.428&amp;zoom=11.0&amp;showTrace=2026-09-24&amp;timestamp=1790236357\">shows<\/a> the plane landed in Ghana, at approximately 7:53 a.m. local time, 3:53 a.m. Eastern time. Three hours later, it landed in <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/08\/20\/liberia-joins-trumps-third-country-deportation-network\/\">Liberia<\/a>, another of ICE\u2019s third-country removal \u201chost\u201d countries. At time of publication, it was in Dakar, Senegal, where ICE charter crews typically lay over for crew rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DHS, ICE, and Talon Air, the Farmingdale, New York\u2013based charter operator, did not respond to requests for comment about the ramifications of the court\u2019s clarification or if there were third-country nationals on board the aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of the approximately 90 planes in ICE\u2019s charter fleet, only a handful are used for flights to Africa. And of those, only one was in Alexandria\u2014where the <em>D.V.D.<\/em> plaintiff\u2019s attorneys said the third-country removal flight to the Central African Republic was supposed to depart from\u2014late Wednesday and early Thursday: a Gulfstream IV operated by Boca Raton\u2013based Journey Aviation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-the-american-prospect wp-block-embed-the-american-prospect\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"RHGlBq3zl2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/23\/ice-trying-to-ignore-courts-decision-striking-down-third-country-removals\/\">ICE Is Trying to Ignore Court\u2019s Decision Striking Down Third-Country Removals<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cICE Is Trying to Ignore Court\u2019s Decision Striking Down Third-Country Removals\u201d \u2014 The American Prospect\" src=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/23\/ice-trying-to-ignore-courts-decision-striking-down-third-country-removals\/embed\/#?secret=F85JzLPMXJ#?secret=RHGlBq3zl2\" data-secret=\"RHGlBq3zl2\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flight data <a href=\"https:\/\/globe.adsbexchange.com\/?icao=a3ec5c&amp;lat=31.362&amp;lon=-92.464&amp;zoom=11.0&amp;showTrace=2026-09-24&amp;timestamp=1790227938\">shows<\/a> the aircraft took off at 12:32 a.m. local time, 1:32 a.m. Eastern time, early Thursday\u2014about two hours after the appeals court\u2019s clarification immediately stopping the third-country removal policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About three hours later, the aircraft landed in the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba\u2014a first for Journey in the 18 months it has been flying for ICE. Approximately 12 Somali men in ICE custody have been imprisoned at Gitmo since last month, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2026\/09\/the-trump-administration-is-imprisoning-somali-immigrants-in-gitmo\/\"><em>Mother Jones<\/em><\/a> and other news media have reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The plane next landed in San Juan, Puerto Rico\u2014a common fuel stop for ICE charter planes headed to Africa\u2014and at time of publication was flying east over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A dispatcher for Journey Aviation reached by phone said Journey did not comment on its charter flights and directed questions about the legality of removing any possible third-country nationals on board the aircraft to its charter client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both of the planes are leased by their respective charter companies from billionaires with ties to President Trump. The Journey plane that landed at Gitmo is owned by Michael and Gil Dezer, father-son developers who built Trump-branded condos with the president in the 2000s and have donated hundreds of thousands to Trump\u2019s campaigns and PACs, as I first reported for <a href=\"https:\/\/zeteo.com\/p\/this-family-made-billions-on-trump\">Zeteo<\/a> last October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Talon plane is owned by Jordache founder Joe Nakash and his real estate partner, Eli Gindi, who have also donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trump PACs, as I first reported for my <a href=\"https:\/\/gillianbrockell.com\/more-maga-billionaires-linked-to-private-jet-used-for-ice-flight-to-african-prison\/\">newsletter<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Together, the two jets have made at least two dozen ICE removal stops since last October, according to my analysis of public flight data, including third-country removals to Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p 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This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Judges Reject ICE\u2019s Underhanded Attempt to Maintain Third-Country Removals - The American Prospect<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An appeals court made clear deportation flights to third countries must stop immediately, but flight data showed ICE may be violating the order.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/24\/judges-reject-ices-underhanded-attempt-to-maintain-third-country-removals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judges Reject ICE\u2019s Underhanded Attempt to Maintain Third-Country Removals - The American Prospect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An appeals 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Many were then illegally returned to their home countries.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;America and the World&quot;","block_context":{"text":"America and the World","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Brockell-ICE-deportation-082726.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Brockell-ICE-deportation-082726.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Brockell-ICE-deportation-082726.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Brockell-ICE-deportation-082726.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Brockell-ICE-deportation-082726.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Brockell-ICE-flights-092426.jpg?fit=2000%2C1333&ssl=1","author_name":"Gillian Brockell","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145284"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145291,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145284\/revisions\/145291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145284"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_taxonomy?post=145284"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_section?post=145284"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=145284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":145233,"date":"2026-09-24T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/?p=145233"},"modified":"2026-09-24T09:59:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T13:59:44","slug":"trump-administration-ignores-statutory-deadline-to-declassify-fisa-court-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/24\/trump-administration-ignores-statutory-deadline-to-declassify-fisa-court-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Administration Ignores Statutory Deadline to Declassify FISA Court Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-style-default has-cream-background-color has-background\" style=\"padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-efdcd2e1 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-cream-background-color has-background has-bitter-font-family has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-style:normal;font-weight:600\"><em>This article was featured in the Daily Prospect newsletter. <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/newsletter-sign-up\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sign up for it here.<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-custom-everlit-iframe-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_PvkGH3Owk6Q?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It has been almost two weeks since the statutory deadline to declassify a potentially damning Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) opinion passed on September 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The judge who wrote that opinion in March <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/09\/us\/politics\/section-702-surveillance-fisa.html\">found serious issues<\/a> with the <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/05\/11\/government-surveillance-spying-fisa-nsa-fbi-republicans\/\">filtering tools<\/a> U.S. intelligence agencies use to sift through queries for information on individuals who have communicated with foreign intelligence targets. Such agencies have the authority to collect the communications of foreign nationals abroad under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), but are not allowed to spy on American citizens. In practice, the program has enabled agencies like the FBI and NSA to amass troves of Americans\u2019 communications data, which they do not need a warrant to access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/author\/james-baratta\/\"><em><strong>More from James Baratta<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FISC opinions with <a href=\"https:\/\/epic.org\/foreign-intelligence-surveillance-court-fisc\/\">significant legal interpretations<\/a> are subject to a declassification review, and must be made public within a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/116th-congress\/house-bill\/6172\">period of 180 days<\/a>. The onus to do both falls on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), now headed by former federal prosecutor <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/07\/16\/claytons-trump-loyalty-becomes-a-problem-for-warrantless-spying\/\">Jay Clayton<\/a>, and the Justice Department\u2019s Office of the Attorney General.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite ignoring that deadline, DNI has <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/national-security\/6096900-fisa-section-702-congress-fisc-national-intelligence\/\">reportedly<\/a> warned members of Congress that Section 702 will \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/09\/16\/congress\/key-spy-law-could-go-dark-if-congress-doesnt-act-by-november-trump-admin-says-01080296\">go dark<\/a>\u201d if they fail to pass a clean reauthorization of the program by November 20. In reality, and as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/research-reports\/section-702-surveillance-authority-will-not-lapse-if-reauthorized-march\">Brennan Center for Justice explains<\/a>, the FISC certification actually lasts until March of next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other words, DNI is exerting pressure on congressional lawmakers to renew Section 702 by presenting a false looming deadline, and hence implied security risks, while simultaneously withholding potentially highly relevant information from Congress and the public alike about how much U.S. intelligence agencies are violating Americans\u2019 constitutional rights.<\/p>\n\n\n<span data-rich-text-format-boundary=\"true\" class=\"everlit-audio everlit-no-audio\" data-everlit-no-audio=\"true\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\" style=\"font-size:14px\"><blockquote><p>Privacy advocates say the administration is deploying the same scare tactics used many times in the past to manufacture a false sense of urgency around Section 702.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe administration\u2019s failure to follow the law on disclosing what is reportedly quite a damning FISA court opinion is just further evidence of why the internal self-policing reforms that have been put forward by surveillance hawks in Congress are not sufficient, and why there needs to be a warrant requirement,\u201d Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of liberty and national security at the Brennan Center for Justice, told the <em>Prospect<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She continued: \u201cCongress has plenty of time to get that done, and there is no practical reason for trying to rush something through by November.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/50\/1872\">U.S. code<\/a> permits the government to waive the FISC declassification requirement if necessary to protect national security, classified sources, or intelligence-gathering methods, the law still directs the attorney general to produce a public statement \u201csummarizing the significant construction or interpretation of any provision of law\u201d that is reflected in an opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Neither agency would disclose to the <em>Prospect<\/em> whether they have invoked this waiver, and no such statement has been released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At his confirmation hearing in July, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judiciary.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/98781d53-bdcc-75d8-c507-1b1bca492142\/2026-07-15_QFR-Responses_Blanche_687007f1-363d-40d9-b7da-356b52dc448d.pdf\">testified<\/a> that DNI and the Justice Department had been \u201cworking diligently with the intelligence community\u201d to declassify the opinion. Blanche went as far as to say that they \u201canticipate being able to make the public release in advance of the statutory deadline.\u201d His testimony came after the Senate Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence conveyed its expectation that the Trump administration would expedite declassification and make the opinion public <a href=\"https:\/\/www.demandprogress.org\/trump-admin-misses-friday-deadline-to-declassify-alarming-fisa-court-opinion\">by mid-May<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe administration\u2019s response was to literally ignore it,\u201d Goitein said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conversely, Clayton, and presumably the intelligence community, want Congress to think that the sky is falling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe one grain of truth is that there does need to be a statute in place at the point that the government submits its applications,\u201d Goitein told the <em>Prospect<\/em>. \u201cThe real question is when the government has to submit its applications, and that is the effective deadline for when Congress has to act.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recertifying Section 702, the government submits a draft application 30 days before submitting its final application. FISC has 30 days to render a decision, meaning there are 60 days between the government filing its initial application, and when FISC must rule on it. Moreover, as Goitein observed, \u201cthe mere filing of an application automatically extends the existing certifications until the FISA court rules on that application.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To avoid an actual lapse, the government would need to file an application before March 17, 2027, making that roughly the deadline for Congress to renew Section 702. If the government does need more time, there is nothing stopping Congress from temporarily extending the existing certifications for a brief period. By contrast, passing a short-term extension of the statute without reforms would allow the government to obtain new yearlong certifications,\u00a0making it the functional\u00a0equivalent of a clean one-year reauthorization, according to the Brennan Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Incidentally, it is not obvious why it is so important to grant the Trump administration\u2014whose authoritarian tendencies include routinely disregarding the law, including surveillance regulations, as we have seen\u2014more legal surveillance powers, particularly when it has also transferred immense quantities of federal law enforcement resources away from fighting crime, drug trafficking, and terrorism, and <a href=\"https:\/\/democrats-judiciary.house.gov\/media-center\/press-releases\/judiciary-democrats-highlight-how-trump-s-immigration-crackdown-is-pulling-federal-agents-away-from-fighting-serious-crime\">onto mass deportation instead<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>AS CLAYTON CHANNELS CHICKEN LITTLE<\/strong>, privacy advocates find themselves shouting into the void in the face of a <em>Groundhog Day<\/em>\u2013esque dilemma. They say the administration is deploying the same scare tactics used many times in the past to manufacture a false sense of urgency around Section 702.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those tactics were on full display in the run-up to the program\u2019s lapse in June. At the time, intelligence hawks <a href=\"https:\/\/therecord.media\/major-us-surveillance-program-set-to-lapse-702-fisa\">insinuated<\/a> that telecommunications companies may not comply with FISA court orders if Section 702 were to expire. But the statute includes a grandfathering provision that makes clear companies must continue complying through March 2027, so while the program did lapse, \u201cthat didn\u2019t happen,\u201d Goitein said, \u201cbecause the law is clear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite this, intelligence hawks have doubled down amid DNI\u2019s attempt to strong-arm members of Congress into passing a clean reauthorization of Section 702. One such hawk, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, suggested in an <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/national-security\/6096900-fisa-section-702-congress-fisc-national-intelligence\/\">interview with<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/national-security\/6096900-fisa-section-702-congress-fisc-national-intelligence\/\"><em>The Hill<\/em><\/a> <em><\/em>that \u201cthe companies decided they weren\u2019t going to sue and stop providing information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Could it be that they decided to comply because the law says they have to? Clearly yes, but admitting that would undermine his position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe administration ignoring the demand from the Senate Intelligence Committee leadership months ago, and now the law to release the FISA court decision, tells us everything we need to know about how out of control things have become,\u201d Donald Bell, policy counsel at the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), told the <em>Prospect<\/em>. \u201cThis is part of the reason why the effort to manufacture pressure on Congress to reauthorize FISA without reform is falling flat on Capitol Hill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-the-american-prospect wp-block-embed-the-american-prospect\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"Da01NHmEzp\"><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/09\/legacy-of-9-11-surveillance-society\/\">The Legacy of 9\/11: A Surveillance Society<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cThe Legacy of 9\/11: A Surveillance Society\u201d \u2014 The American Prospect\" src=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/09\/legacy-of-9-11-surveillance-society\/embed\/#?secret=FbgLn2IZ82#?secret=Da01NHmEzp\" data-secret=\"Da01NHmEzp\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the intelligence community has been, and continues to be, on the offensive. At a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cornyn.senate.gov\/news\/cornyn-questions-fbi-director-on-fisa-section-702-expiration\/\">recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing<\/a>, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) asked FBI Director Kash Patel whether he believes it is \u201cimportant\u201d for Congress to renew Section 702, and about the implications of the FISC certification expiring, to which Patel responded: \u201cWhat the FBI does not do is collect on U.S. citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Patel went on to say that if the program were \u201cto go dark, we would have a lot of problems, or we would have no ability to trace that information.\u201d His comments evoked a collective eye roll from privacy advocates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs soon as the government gets the data, it goes rifling through it, looking for the communications of Americans,\u201d Goitein said. \u201cPatel didn\u2019t mention that last part.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also failed to acknowledge the findings of a <a href=\"https:\/\/documents.pclob.gov\/prod\/Documents\/OversightReport\/e9e72454-4156-49b9-961a-855706216063\/2023%20PCLOB%20702%20Report%20(002).pdf\">2023 report<\/a> from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which determined that there was relatively <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/research-reports\/pclob-report-fisa-section-702-pclobs-words\">little national security value<\/a> to warrantless backdoor searches involving U.S. persons. Even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/fbi-section-702\/\">members of Congress<\/a> have been subject to these searches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The arbitrary deadline manufactured by DNI is part and parcel of the intelligence community\u2019s continued efforts to scare Congress into rushing through another clean reauthorization of Section 702, privacy advocates say. They have urged congressional lawmakers not to take the bait, and instead establish safeguards to protect Americans from unchecked government surveillance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEverything we\u2019ve seen this year illustrates why there needs to be real guardrails, and importantly, penalties, in this space,\u201d Bell told the <em>Prospect<\/em>. \u201cCongress cannot give this or any future administration a blank check for warrantless surveillance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The director of national intelligence appears to be withholding an explosive court opinion that could give lawmakers all the more reason to meaningfully reform surveillance law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":495,"featured_media":145236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-09-24T13:13:36Z","apple_news_api_id":"ea7a5e36-eeda-465c-9b9e-4477e8ba1f60","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-09-24T13:57:00Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A6npeNu7aRlybnkR36LofYA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"everlit_article_id":"artl_PvkGH3Owk6Q","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"large","everlit_generation_settings":{"embed_ui_cover_art":false,"embed_ui_title_intro":"Listen to this article:","embed_ui_title_icon":"","primary_voice":"49","guest_voice":"653","default_publication":"pblc_yPNpMjtZdBK","default_conversation_mode":false,"podcast_duration_minutes":5,"default_sonic_optimization":false,"optimizer_level":2,"default_read_alt_text":false,"default_read_urls":false,"default_skip_article_image":false,"intro_mixable":281,"outro_mixable":258,"intro_duration":8,"outro_duration":11,"intro_padding":3,"outro_padding":4,"disable_music":false},"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"310e1c38f90605bd8493216a469aac6b","_everlit_metadata_hash":"e31a76028b3e0b14022b05a12a9a791d","_everlit_embed_html":"<iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_PvkGH3Owk6Q?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>","newspack_collection_is_cover_story":false,"newspack_collection_post_order":0,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"The director of national intelligence appears to be withholding an explosive court opinion that could give lawmakers all the more reason to meaningfully reform surveillance law.","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[4932],"tags":[5726,6679,4972,5976,14111,6195,6918,6677,14061,14247],"newspack_collection_taxonomy":[],"newspack_collection_section":[],"coauthors":[9944],"class_list":["post-145233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-congress","tag-dni","tag-fisa","tag-intelligence","tag-jay-clayton","tag-justice-department","tag-national-security","tag-politics","tag-surveillance","tag-todd-blanche","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - 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He is currently based in New York City.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/jamesjbaratta"],"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/author\/james-baratta\/"}]}},"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/24\/trump-administration-ignores-statutory-deadline-to-declassify-fisa-court-opinion\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Trump Administration Ignores Statutory Deadline to Declassify FISA Court Opinion","url":"http:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/24\/trump-administration-ignores-statutory-deadline-to-declassify-fisa-court-opinion\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/24\/trump-administration-ignores-statutory-deadline-to-declassify-fisa-court-opinion\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Baratta-FISA-092426.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Baratta-FISA-092426.jpg?fit=2000%2C1500&ssl=1"},"articleSection":"Politics","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"James Baratta"}],"creator":["James Baratta"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The American Prospect","logo":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/cropped-cropped-TAP_Site-Logo_Tagline-scaled-1-e1760478223796.png"},"keywords":["congress","dni","fisa","intelligence","jay clayton","justice department","national security","politics","surveillance","todd blanche"],"dateCreated":"2026-09-24T09:30:00Z","datePublished":"2026-09-24T09:30:00Z","dateModified":"2026-09-24T13:59:44Z"},"rendered":"<meta name=\"parsely-title\" content=\"Trump Administration Ignores Statutory Deadline to Declassify FISA Court Opinion\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-link\" content=\"http:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/24\/trump-administration-ignores-statutory-deadline-to-declassify-fisa-court-opinion\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-type\" content=\"post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-image-url\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Baratta-FISA-092426.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-pub-date\" content=\"2026-09-24T09:30:00Z\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-section\" content=\"Politics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-tags\" content=\"congress,dni,fisa,intelligence,jay clayton,justice department,national security,politics,surveillance,todd blanche\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"James Baratta\" \/>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/prospect.org\/p.js"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":137099,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/04\/13\/congressional-black-caucus-support-spying-powers-blm-activists-fisa-702\/","url_meta":{"origin":145233,"position":0},"title":"Congressional Black Caucus to Support Spying Powers Used on BLM Activists","author":"Daniel Boguslaw","date":"April 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The Congressional Black Caucus will support the clean reauthorization of FISA Section 702, a warrantless surveillance authority that has been used to spy on African Americans.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Boguslaw-Baratta-FISA-Section-702-041326.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Boguslaw-Baratta-FISA-Section-702-041326.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Boguslaw-Baratta-FISA-Section-702-041326.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Boguslaw-Baratta-FISA-Section-702-041326.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Boguslaw-Baratta-FISA-Section-702-041326.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":139660,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/06\/11\/pulte-or-not-surveillance-state-wont-stop-fisa-congress\/","url_meta":{"origin":145233,"position":1},"title":"Pulte or Not, the Surveillance State Won\u2019t Stop","author":"Susanna Beiser","date":"June 11, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The government\u2019s sweeping spying powers will remain in place for a year, regardless of who becomes director of national intelligence. Both sides are pretending that\u2019s not the case.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"William Pulte, seated at a congressional hearing","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Baratta-Pulte-FISA-Congress-061126.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Baratta-Pulte-FISA-Congress-061126.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Baratta-Pulte-FISA-Congress-061126.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Baratta-Pulte-FISA-Congress-061126.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Baratta-Pulte-FISA-Congress-061126.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":136717,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/04\/06\/jim-himes-warrantless-spying-fisa-house-committee-intelligence-ai-surveillance\/","url_meta":{"origin":145233,"position":2},"title":"Himes Fact-Checked on \u2018Misleading\u2019 Claims About Warrantless Spying","author":"James Baratta","date":"April 6, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Jim Himes keeps telling his constituents that U.S. intelligence agencies don\u2019t spy on them, and \u2018have no reason\u2019 to buy Americans\u2019 data. Advocates say that\u2019s untrue.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Baratta-04062026-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Baratta-04062026-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Baratta-04062026-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Baratta-04062026-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Baratta-04062026-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 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https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Baratta-FISA-update-041726.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Baratta-FISA-update-041726.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Baratta-FISA-update-041726.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":138302,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/05\/11\/government-surveillance-spying-fisa-nsa-fbi-republicans\/","url_meta":{"origin":145233,"position":4},"title":"Surveillance Reform Hinges on How Congress Defines \u2018Query\u2019","author":"James Baratta","date":"May 11, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Congress wants to declassify a secret court opinion on the government\u2019s warrantless spying program, but it may also need to clarify what constitutes a search for your communications data.\u00a0","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Man hiding behind american flag and looking out as one looks through gaps in a blind.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Baratta-05112026-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Baratta-05112026-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Baratta-05112026-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Baratta-05112026-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Baratta-05112026-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":139084,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/06\/01\/washington-still-bows-to-surveillance-state-congress-fisa-license-plate-readers\/","url_meta":{"origin":145233,"position":5},"title":"Washington Still Bows to the Surveillance State","author":"James Baratta","date":"June 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite some bipartisan pushback, much of Congress remains unwilling to take on the national security establishment.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pile of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) buttons with American flag pattern","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Baratta-FISA-surveillance-060126-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Baratta-FISA-surveillance-060126-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Baratta-FISA-surveillance-060126-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Baratta-FISA-surveillance-060126-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Baratta-FISA-surveillance-060126-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Baratta-FISA-092426.jpg?fit=2000%2C1500&ssl=1","author_name":"James Baratta","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/495"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145233"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145257,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145233\/revisions\/145257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145233"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_taxonomy?post=145233"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_section?post=145233"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=145233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":145220,"date":"2026-09-24T05:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T09:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/?p=145220"},"modified":"2026-09-24T09:16:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T13:16:53","slug":"new-union-way-to-build-progressive-power-deep-canvass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/24\/new-union-way-to-build-progressive-power-deep-canvass\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Union Way to Build Progressive Power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-style-default has-cream-background-color has-background\" style=\"padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-efdcd2e1 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-cream-background-color has-background has-bitter-font-family has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-style:normal;font-weight:600\"><em>Read the top story of the day in your inbox. <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/newsletter-sign-up\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sign up for the Daily Prospect newsletter here.<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-custom-everlit-iframe-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_PvkGH3OwqjQ?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Labor leaders in three swing states, Maine, North Carolina, and Texas, have launched a very promising initiative called the \u201cContract with Working America.\u201d The idea is to use a deep canvass\u2014extensive in-depth conversations\u2014to learn what\u2019s on the minds of working families, and then distill the results into an explicit plan of action that reflects actual worker views rather than top-down policy wonkery. The canvass has already reached hundreds of thousands of union members and nonmembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to labor leaders in the three states, the process has spillover benefits both in organizing drives and in political campaigns. In Texas, Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico and gubernatorial contender Gina Hinojosa <a href=\"https:\/\/saobserver.com\/talarico-hinojosa-sign-working-class-contract-as-texas-labor-groups-target-2-million-voters\/\">have already signed the Texas variant of the contract<\/a>. In Maine on Labor Day, Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson announced a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/maineaflcio.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2026-09\/contract_with_maines_working_class_-_endorsed_at_cope.pdf\">Pledge to Working Mainers<\/a>\u201d drawing on the contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/author\/robert-kuttner\/\">More from Robert Kuttner<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Braxton Winston, president of the North Carolina AFL-CIO, told me, \u201cDeep canvassing allowed us to affirm and adjust what we thought we knew, rather than just assuming. It helped us reach out to a part of our membership that often doesn\u2019t vote with us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The details of the contracts are not all that different from standard progressive policy platforms, but they have an authenticity and legitimacy that top-down programs lack because they are built directly on the expressed concerns of rank-and-file workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe labor movement needs to lead and we need to have a broader moral vision that connects to a better life for working people,\u201d says Matt Schlobohm, executive director of the Maine AFL-CIO. \u201cThat theory of change informs this whole project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I asked the organizers what surprised them from what they learned. One thing was that many working-class people put corruption ahead of even the cost of living. In the Texas version of the contract, the top three items are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Stop Washington corruption;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Shift political power from special interests and wealthy elites back to everyday working families; and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Make the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then come several items related to the cost of living; gas prices and drug prices; reliable and affordable health care; and not just affordable child care but \u201cEnd a rigged system that punishes working parents. Guarantee access to essential benefits like paid sick days and family and medical leave and cap the cost of childcare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPeople are expressing real-life hardships,\u201d says Derrick Osobase of the Communications Workers of America, an executive board member of the Texas AFL-CIO. \u201cThe folks we listen to on the doors feel that necessary change can\u2019t be done because the system is captured by big business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the Maine version of the contract, called \u201cContract with Maine\u2019s Working Class,\u201d health care, housing, wages, energy, and child care rank at the top. This contract is powerful because it reflects, and speaks to, the lived experience of working families. And of course it provides a natural foundation for further political work, both union organizing and support for labor-friendly politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThese are people we are mobilizing not just to go and vote but to be a part of changing their economic conditions,\u201d Osobase adds. \u201cWe are going to be back to those folks. The process feeds into organizing and building a coalition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All three states are instructive because of their low percentage of unionized workers. In North Carolina and Texas, both right-to-work states, economic elites have long resisted unions as part of their strategy to divide Black and white workers. Maine used to have a larger labor movement but has been a victim of deindustrialization. Yet in all three states, labor punches above its weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Maine, when Graham Platner suddenly exited the Senate race, the labor movement quickly demonstrated its prowess at on-the-ground organizing that nobody else in the state could match. While the other candidates to succeed Platner were struggling with local meetings and slates, the AFL-CIO and its affiliates, long close allies of Troy Jackson, moved quickly to get him the nomination by an overwhelming margin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Maine labor leaders see the movement\u2019s future not just in political alliances but in on-the-ground organizing. \u201cWe have to define an agenda created by us,\u201d says Schlobohm. \u201cIf we don\u2019t define this, somebody else will. The framework of a contract is key because union members understand contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet as Winston observes, the broad canvass process doesn\u2019t come naturally to labor. \u201cThe core of labor is collectively bargained contracts, not this kind of outreach and active listening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-the-american-prospect wp-block-embed-the-american-prospect\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"SyF5FzbjdY\"><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/21\/medicare-for-all-universal-health-care-jayapal-democrats\/\">\u2018Stunning\u2019 Level of Support for Universal Health Care: Jayapal<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201c\u2018Stunning\u2019 Level of Support for Universal Health Care: Jayapal\u201d \u2014 The American Prospect\" src=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/21\/medicare-for-all-universal-health-care-jayapal-democrats\/embed\/#?secret=7bUQ7cdcdc#?secret=SyF5FzbjdY\" data-secret=\"SyF5FzbjdY\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s also noteworthy that in all three states, this process has been led by private-sector unions, notably UNITE HERE, CWA, and the UAW, as well as the SEIU and the AFT. This is also hopeful because the revival of the labor movement will depend on private-sector organizing as well as public workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And there are two other big benefits. As Osobase points out, a substantial portion of union members voted for Donald Trump because of the perception that neither party establishment was serving their interests. A vision and contract that flow from actual worker concerns can help get those members back and bridge over divisive cultural differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Within the Democratic coalition, a mobilized worker-led movement also serves as a counterweight to the corporate Democrats whose self-interested advice to move to the center would be lethal in general elections. America\u2019s working class may have less class consciousness than in the era when unions were built by organizing blue-collar workers in large factories, but working people are getting screwed just as thoroughly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPeople learn through action,\u201d says Maine\u2019s Matt Schlobohm. Rather than seeking common ground with corporate centrists, \u201cwe need to listen to people and devise polarizing campaigns around pocketbook issues. That\u2019s how we revive class formation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A deep canvass of union members produces an agenda that can rally working families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1553,"featured_media":145219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-09-24T13:12:56Z","apple_news_api_id":"793b6df6-80ec-4bbe-9361-7ae55dc1ea50","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-09-24T13:12:56Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AeTtt9oDsS76TYXrlXcHqUA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"everlit_article_id":"artl_PvkGH3OwqjQ","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"large","everlit_generation_settings":{"embed_ui_cover_art":false,"embed_ui_title_intro":"Listen to this article:","embed_ui_title_icon":"","primary_voice":"49","guest_voice":"653","default_publication":"pblc_yPNpMjtZdBK","default_conversation_mode":false,"podcast_duration_minutes":5,"default_sonic_optimization":false,"optimizer_level":2,"default_read_alt_text":false,"default_read_urls":false,"default_skip_article_image":false,"intro_mixable":281,"outro_mixable":258,"intro_duration":8,"outro_duration":11,"intro_padding":3,"outro_padding":4,"disable_music":false},"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"25c04efda376bae03aa0238b5dab7575","_everlit_metadata_hash":"a91c30d79d7903d9d394ea43bee33b25","_everlit_embed_html":"<iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_PvkGH3OwqjQ?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>","newspack_collection_is_cover_story":false,"newspack_collection_post_order":0,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"A deep canvass of union members produces an agenda that can rally working families.","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[4932],"tags":[4999,6482,5170,6282,6407,6677,5171,14212,5066,13522],"newspack_collection_taxonomy":[],"newspack_collection_section":[],"coauthors":[9920],"class_list":["post-145220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-afl-cio","tag-democrats","tag-labor-1","tag-maine","tag-north-carolina","tag-politics","tag-texas","tag-troy-jackson","tag-unions","tag-working-class","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - 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A New Bill Could Change That.","author":"Keyian Vafai","date":"July 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The Faster Labor Contracts Act, pending in the Senate, could compel employers to bargain with their unionized workers.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Working in America&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Working in America","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/labor\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"People with signs rally outside a Starbucks store for better labor conditions","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Vafai-unions-8126-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Vafai-unions-8126-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Vafai-unions-8126-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Vafai-unions-8126-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Vafai-unions-8126-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":144136,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/08\/union-busting-campaigns-labor-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":145220,"position":2},"title":"How Much Do Union-Busting Campaigns Cost?","author":"Ryan Cooper","date":"September 8, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Is your boss making you sit through anti-union propaganda meetings? It turns out those are pricey.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Working in America&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Working in America","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/labor\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Nurses on strike","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Cooper-Union-busting-090826.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Cooper-Union-busting-090826.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Cooper-Union-busting-090826.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Cooper-Union-busting-090826.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Cooper-Union-busting-090826.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":144142,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/07\/labor-day-2026-record-high-popularity-record-low-power-for-americas-unions\/","url_meta":{"origin":145220,"position":3},"title":"Labor Day 2026: Record-High Popularity, Record-Low Power for America\u2019s Unions","author":"Harold Meyerson","date":"September 7, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Wages now constitute the lowest share of the nation\u2019s income since the government began measuring them in 1947.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Working in America&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Working in America","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/labor\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"UNITE HERE Local 17 hospitality workers strike","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Meyerson-Labor-Day-090726.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Meyerson-Labor-Day-090726.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Meyerson-Labor-Day-090726.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Meyerson-Labor-Day-090726.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Meyerson-Labor-Day-090726.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":142437,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/08\/07\/regulators-review-americas-biggest-rail-merger-norfolk-southern-union-pacific\/","url_meta":{"origin":145220,"position":4},"title":"Regulators Finally Poised to Review America\u2019s Biggest Rail Merger","author":"James Baratta","date":"August 7, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The $85 billion proposed merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern would create the nation\u2019s first transcontinental railroad. Workers, shippers, and even business rivals are against it.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Transportation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Transportation","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/infrastructure\/transportation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Closeup of Norfolk Southern logo on diesel locomotive","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Baratta-Rail-merger-080726.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Baratta-Rail-merger-080726.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Baratta-Rail-merger-080726.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Baratta-Rail-merger-080726.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Baratta-Rail-merger-080726.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137399,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/04\/20\/union-now-americas-new-strike-fund\/","url_meta":{"origin":145220,"position":5},"title":"Union Now Is America\u2019s New Strike Fund","author":"Whitney Curry Wimbish","date":"April 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The new nonprofit will put money directly into the hands of workers so they can fight harder and win bigger.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Working in America&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Working in America","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/labor\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bernie Sanders waves to rally attendees","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Wimbish-Union-Now-042026.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Wimbish-Union-Now-042026.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Wimbish-Union-Now-042026.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Wimbish-Union-Now-042026.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Wimbish-Union-Now-042026.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Kuttner-Labor-contract-092426.jpg?fit=2000%2C1333&ssl=1","author_name":"Robert Kuttner","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1553"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145220"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145255,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145220\/revisions\/145255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145220"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_taxonomy?post=145220"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_section?post=145220"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=145220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":145231,"date":"2026-09-24T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/?p=145231"},"modified":"2026-09-24T09:19:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T13:19:32","slug":"paramount-settlement-trump-antitrust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/24\/paramount-settlement-trump-antitrust\/","title":{"rendered":"The Paramount Settlement Started With Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-custom-everlit-iframe-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_Po8xtxg0kJQ?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:19px\"><em>This article originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesling.org\/\">The Sling<\/a>, a source for economic analysis and competition policy research.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are witnessing the collapse of antitrust enforcement at the federal level under the second Trump administration. State enforcers have attempted to fill the void. But absent a muscular federal cop on the beat, state efforts will often be in vain. The exceedingly weak settlement between Paramount and the states, <a href=\"https:\/\/oag.ca.gov\/news\/press-releases\/attorney-general-bonta-announces-settlement-warner-brosparamount-litigation\">announced<\/a> on Monday by the attorney general of California, illustrates this dynamic. In return for dropping their merger challenge, the states secured the creation of an editorial board, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BedoyaUSA\/status\/2102122216687079933?s=20\">appointed<\/a> by Paramount CEO David Ellison, to monitor the content of CBS and CNN. In other words, the states got nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why fold when you\u2019re holding a strong hand? The post-merger concentration levels in wide theatrical film releases <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesling.org\/hollywoods-labor-market-just-lost-a-bidder-and-nobody-in-washington-noticed\/\">satisfied<\/a> the requirements under the <em>Merger Guidelines<\/em> to create a presumption of anticompetitive effects. Despite these findings, the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division officially closed its investigation into Paramount\u2019s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery in June. According to <em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em>, the career staff were \u201cleaning moving toward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/business\/media\/justice-department-decision-to-allow-paramount-deal-surprised-staff-investigators-a18f70da\">recommending<\/a> a challenge\u201d but were overturned by senior DOJ officials. A shareholder lawsuit <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/news\/david-larry-ellison-sued-paramount-side-deal-trump-warner-bros-1236812034\/\">alleged<\/a> that Trump interfered on behalf of the Ellison family, which has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/policy\/how-a-45-million-donation-brought-larry-ellison-deeper-into-trumps-circle-b3e26c03\">contributed significantly<\/a> to Trump\u2019s campaigns over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/author\/hal-singer\/\"><em><strong>More from Hal Singer<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not only did the DOJ refrain from pursuing the merger, the agency actively worked in support of the merger, filing motions against the states, including one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/litigation\/us-doj-backs-bond-demand-paramount-warner-bros-antitrust-fight-2026-09-15\/\">seeking that the states<\/a> \u201cpost a proper bond covering the costs of any delay\u201d in completing the deal. From a judge\u2019s perspective, DOJ\u2019s active support of a merger could cast doubt on the merits of the states\u2019 claims. How could an expert federal antitrust agency see things so differently?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The payoff for Trump for intervening in these affairs potentially extends beyond campaign contributions. Last year, concurrent with its attempt to receive clearance of its acquisition of Skydance, Paramount reportedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/07\/02\/business\/media\/paramount-trump-60-minutes-lawsuit.html\">agreed<\/a> to pay Trump $16 million as part of a settlement of Trump\u2019s lawsuit concerning \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d The acquisition was later approved by Trump\u2019s Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Some have speculated that another payoff is that Paramount will remake CNN, which is hardly progressive in its current state, into the image of Fox News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump\u2019s interference in the DOJ\u2019s investigation likely led to this week\u2019s dreadful outcome with Paramount. Alas, the administration\u2019s deal with the Hollywood giant is only one example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Across multiple industries, in exchange for regulatory favor, companies have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/investigations\/inside-trump-familys-global-crypto-cash-machine-2025-10-28\/\">purchased<\/a> Trump\u2019s cryptocurrency, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/show\/leaders-in-tech-ai-and-cryptocurrency-make-big-donations-to-trump-inauguration\">contributed<\/a> to his inaugural fund, silenced a late-night talk show host, or simply paid cash for his various vanity projects. A July piece in <em>The<\/em> <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/policy\/trump-donations-company-fundraising-1e34a78f\">spelled out<\/a> the precise channel by which Trump could be compensated for a deregulatory intervention: \u201cTrump has been demanding large checks from companies for a range of political and legacy projects\u2014telling executives and lobbyists that their companies should give $25 million or $50 million.\u201d The story, which was hardly news in our corruption-laden era, did not make the connection to Trump\u2019s interference in antitrust matters before the DOJ. But it provided a related episode of a tobacco giant, Reynolds American, explicitly buying off regulatory scrutiny from a different regulator:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:19px\">At a meeting with tobacco executives in May at Trump\u2019s golf club in Jupiter, Fla., the president promised to do much of what executives wanted on policy related to vaping and the Food and Drug Administration. He also took in millions of dollars in contributions for his political committees. O\u2019Rourke [Trump\u2019s chief fundraiser] sat in on the meeting. Shortly after the meeting, the FDA lifted restrictions on some flavored vaping products, and the FDA\u2019s chief was gone.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is no reason to think that special favors in the antitrust realm would work any differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other recent DOJ settlements reviewed below reveal that companies are hiring Trump allies and using various <em>indirect<\/em> mechanisms to influence antitrust outcomes. Those efforts may fall short of direct monetary payoffs to Trump. But corruption is not a binary variable. What we are observing today can easily progress towards <em>direct<\/em> payments of cold hard cash tomorrow, if that\u2019s not happening already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A Quick Review of Recent DOJ Settlements<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In several high-profile cases, the DOJ\u2019s Antitrust Division has pulled back from enforcing antitrust laws at the behest of Trump (and whatever lobbyist caught his ear that day) after initially filing lawsuits or opening investigations. It bears repeating that there is zero evidence, at least not yet, of money having passed to Trump; the evidence instead shows money passing to a Trump ally who brokered a back-door deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Live Nation<\/em>: In May 2024, the DOJ, along with 29 states plus the District of Columbia, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/atr\/case\/us-and-plaintiff-states-v-live-nation-entertainment-inc-and-ticketmaster-llc\">filed<\/a> a complaint against Live Nation, alleging monopolization of various concert and event-related services. After a reported personal intervention by Trump, the DOJ unexpectedly reversed course and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/atr\/media\/1443801\/dl\">settled<\/a> in the middle of a jury trial. The states, now acting alone, persisted and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/stateattorneysgeneral\/2026\/04\/17\/states-prevail-in-live-nation-antitrust-trial-lessons-from-the-verdict\/\">secured<\/a> a jury finding of antitrust liability in April 2026, suggesting the merits of the DOJ\u2019s original case were sound.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>HPE-Juniper<\/em>: In late January 2025, ten days after Trump\u2019s second inauguration, the DOJ filed a complaint to stop the merger of two large enterprise tech companies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Juniper Networks. HPE <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/us-news\/law\/lobbyists-antitrust-trump-davis-f6a02e04\">hired lobbyists<\/a>, such as Mike Davis, a staunch Trump ally, who negotiated directly with aides to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, bypassing the DOJ\u2019s career antitrust lawyers. It was money well-spent, as the DOJ ultimately reversed course and settled the case in June 2025. In Tunney Act hearings on the settlement, the district court found the proposed settlement to be in the public interest, despite the evidence of corruption. (Read Darren Bush\u2019s excellent <em>Sling<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesling.org\/the-fatally-flawed-hpe-juniper-decision\/\">piece<\/a> for a review of how the court erred.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Compass-Anywhere Real Estate<\/em>: In October 2025, the DOJ was investigating Compass\u2019s proposed acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate, first- and second-biggest U.S. brokerages, respectively, by volume. Compass <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/us-news\/law\/lobbyists-antitrust-trump-davis-f6a02e04\">hired<\/a> Davis, on the acquisition, who reportedly appealed to then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche\u2019s office that the merger did not warrant a second request for information, over the objections of Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater, head of the Antitrust Division at the time. The deal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/us-news\/law\/real-estate-brokerages-avoided-merger-investigation-after-justice-department-rift-e846c797\">closed<\/a> at the beginning of this year without a second request.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In each of these instances, career staff, tasked with enforcing the antitrust laws and often with decades of experience of doing just that, have been sidelined by their politically appointed bosses. Indeed, reporting in <em>The<\/em> <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> suggests that Trump has directly entangled himself in these matters. For instance, the CEO of Live Nation CEO, Michael Rapino, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/business\/media\/trump-live-nation-antitrust-doj-f82b2c55\">reportedly visited<\/a> the White House twice (once with Trump himself) in the lead-up to the DOJ\u2019s course reversal. Given Trump\u2019s transactional nature, it is reasonable to infer that he only does something if he stands to benefit. So what explains his personal involvement in any antitrust matter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If Trump and his DOJ appointees, like AAG Slater, were libertarian, as in some prior Republican administrations, then the DOJ\u2019s unwillingness to enforce the antitrust laws could be chalked up to ideology rather than corruption. But Trump\u2019s crowd is decidedly interventionist\u2014and not just when it comes to tariffs or government equity in companies. They even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/11\/25\/opinion\/trump-antitrust-corporations-consumers.html\">campaigned<\/a> on populist ideas that at least suggested some promise to enforce the antitrust laws. A president cannot extract a payment from a corporate giant unless and until he feigns interest in enforcing the antitrust laws; the credible threat of enforcement serves as leverage. In sum, Trump created the perfect fact pattern for a quid pro quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Non-cash payments can also complete a quid pro quo. The Nexstar-Tegna merger, which the DOJ did not even bother to challenge, would allow the combined entity to reach approximately 80 percent of U.S. television households; such levels vastly exceed the long-lived 39 percent cap set by the FCC. (In August 2026, the FCC\u2019s broadcast ownership rules were relaxed on a 2-1 vote.) Some reporters have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/policy\/trump-takeover-regulators-130b57a3\">speculated<\/a> that Trump\u2019s payoff there, in return for permitting Nexstar to flout the cap, was Nexstar\u2019s silencing Jimmy Kimmel on its affiliated networks. Eight states sued to block the Nexstar-Tegna merger, and a federal judge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/business\/story\/2026-04-17\/judge-blocks-nexstar-tegna-merger\">halted<\/a> the deal in April, indicating the merits of such a challenge were sound. A trial date on the matter is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbs8.com\/article\/news\/nation-world\/trial-date-set-for-suit-over-nexstar-tegna-merger\/507-aef47788-66ce-4006-8af6-f1cc5c33089f\">set<\/a> for July of next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Comfortably Numb<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Consistent with Steve Bannon\u2019s theory of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/28\/us\/politics\/trump-policy-blitz.html\">flooding the zone<\/a>, the unending stream of this administration\u2019s corruption has caused previously presidency-ending activities to seem hardly worthy of a footnote. Trump\u2019s repeated market-moving announcements of the start (or end) of the Iran War\u2014a conflict that has killed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/2026\/09\/18\/more-us-troops-have-died-amid-iran-war-than-pentagon-has-disclosed-publicly\/\">as many as 22 American service members<\/a> and over 3,000 Iranian civilians\u2014have provided myriad opportunities for insiders to cash in, as the price of oil (and the stock market generally) have predictively moved in response to Trump\u2019s manufactured events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If that weren\u2019t bad enough, Trump now offers a premium version of Truth Social that allows early access to his market-moving announcements. Trump is seeking to monetize the office of the presidency in broad daylight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the face of such blatant corruption, it is natural for us all to go numb. Even if a reporter were to identify an explicit payment to Trump in return for an antitrust waiver, it is not clear whether that act would spur Democrats into action, as many corporatist Democrats enjoy the same patronage as Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So who cares about corruption? Well, if you don\u2019t believe in antitrust enforcement (think Matt Yglesias and his ilk), and you learn that the president (hypothetically) has been monetizing his powers to terminate antitrust investigations, then you likely will not be moved by news of the monetization. This is just the price of getting deals done. Who cares if the president gets to wet his beak?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If, on the other hand, you believe in antitrust enforcement, and you learn that the president (hypothetically) has been monetizing his powers to terminate antitrust investigations, then you also likely will not be moved. What upsets you is the lack of enforcement; that Trump may have personally benefited from the decision to settle a case is of secondary importance. Absent the executive meddling, however, enforcement would have continued; in this case, the purported monetization was pivotal to the outcome. Moreover, to the extent that career officials at DOJ or FTC perceive that any meritorious case can be reversed at the eleventh hour (via a Trump intervention, compensated or not), fewer cases might be developed. Why invest the energies and resources if the process is ultimately rigged?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s possible that those who hold no views on antitrust enforcement\u2014potentially a large swath of Americans\u2014upon learning that the president (hypothetically) has been monetizing his powers to neuter antitrust investigations or active cases, would be freshly upset by news. It might seem unjust that only the largest (and unscrupulous) companies can purchase their way around law enforcement. As affordability becomes a central political issue, voters might connect consolidation and exploitation (in the case of Live Nation) with higher prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But would enough people care about the news to demand Congressional inquiries and passage of legislation that would prevent future presidents from monetizing their powers? There are some indications that blatant corruption could move voters. A milder form of corruption occurs via campaign contributions, by which large corporations made contributions in exchange for an implicit promise for hands-off treatment. At least three Senate candidates\u2014Abdul El-Sayed (Michigan), James Talarico (Texas), and Jon Ossoff (Georgia)\u2014have campaigned on a pledge to eradicate this form of corruption. One could imagine explicit corruption easily being folded into their campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Key to Meaningful Reform<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As an alternative strategy to acquiescence, we can try to restore the democratic principle that antitrust law applies equally to all firms, regardless of political influence. How can we do that? One can look at attempts at political reform to curb executive overreach in the post-Nixon era, including how they fell short. In 1974, Congress passed the Election Campaign Act Amendments, which overhauled campaign financing by setting strict limits on political contributions and expenditures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the same year, Congress passed the Tunney Act, in response to perceived meddling by the Nixon administration into the DOJ\u2019s investigation of ITT\u2019s acquisition of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company. As Darren Bush <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesling.org\/no-the-tunney-act-wont-save-democracy\/\">recounts<\/a> in <em>The Sling<\/em>, ITT \u201coffered to help finance the 1972 Republican National Convention. While no quid pro quo was proven, the appearance of impropriety sparked significant debate.\u201d In 2004, Congress revised the Tunney Act to compel a public interest determination. But we\u2019ve already seen in HPE-Juniper why the Tunney Act is insufficient, at least in its current form, to protect against presidential meddling. Courts have shown uniform reluctance to question proposed final judgments, or engage in anything more than performative questions before using the rubber stamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">None of these Nixon-inspired safeguards, to the extent they even resemble what Congress intended, prevent Trump\u2019s effort to sell regulatory waivers to the highest bidder. Trump\u2019s abuses make Nixon\u2019s appear quaint by comparison. The rationale for making the FTC an independent agency, as opposed to an executive one, was to insulate career officials from executive interference. There is little wonder why Trump is trying to convert the FTC into an executive agency, by firing its two Democratic commissioners. Alas, the Supreme Court seems pliant to this usurpation of power, making a special exemption for the Federal Reserve to remain independent but not the FTC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite his timid approach to price gouging and other corporate abuses, President Joe Biden never sought to unwind an FTC or DOJ antitrust investigation. We can either hope to elect presidents who respect the independence of antitrust agencies, or we can build in certain protections against future abuses. In an ideal world, we can make the FTC independent again, with full authority and resources to prosecute antitrust cases ignored by the DOJ. And even within the DOJ, we should have a law ensuring that once a political appointee such as Abigail Slater or Jonathan Kanter decides to open an antitrust inquiry, those leaders and supporting career officials are shielded from executive interference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, we need to stop the revolving door from agency to lobbyist. Some of the worst abuses here occurred under the Obama administration. After \u201cinvestigating\u201d Big Tech, many of Obama\u2019s FTC appointees <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/03\/16\/google-files-power-players-475578\">landed jobs<\/a> in Big Tech. Working for the DOJ or FTC should be career paths with much higher compensation. They cannot be stepping stones into cushy jobs defending the same conduct they were previously tasked with policing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are ways to prevent future presidents from monetizing the White House. The meager settlement between the states and Paramount is the latest consequence of the Trump administration\u2019s evisceration of antitrust enforcement. If we fail, we will continue to experience the concentration of power in the hands of a shrinking set of oligarchs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The media conglomerate\u2019s sweetheart deal is just the latest consequence of Trump\u2019s interference in federal antitrust enforcement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2055,"featured_media":145229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-09-24T13:12:25Z","apple_news_api_id":"5421897b-c541-451b-8ade-28030cc13a8c","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-09-24T13:12:26Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AVCGJe8VBRRuK3igDDME6jA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"everlit_article_id":"artl_Po8xtxg0kJQ","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"large","everlit_generation_settings":{"embed_ui_cover_art":false,"embed_ui_title_intro":"Listen to this article:","embed_ui_title_icon":"","primary_voice":"49","guest_voice":"653","default_publication":"pblc_yPNpMjtZdBK","default_conversation_mode":false,"podcast_duration_minutes":5,"default_sonic_optimization":false,"optimizer_level":2,"default_read_alt_text":false,"default_read_urls":false,"default_skip_article_image":false,"intro_mixable":281,"outro_mixable":258,"intro_duration":8,"outro_duration":11,"intro_padding":3,"outro_padding":4,"disable_music":false},"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"9072706fc98f11ca856beea175dacc07","_everlit_metadata_hash":"d416598612c3442293dfaa975c5c2c68","_everlit_embed_html":"<iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_Po8xtxg0kJQ?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>","newspack_collection_is_cover_story":false,"newspack_collection_post_order":0,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"The media conglomerate\u2019s sweetheart deal is just the latest consequence of Trump\u2019s interference in federal antitrust enforcement.","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[4899],"tags":[6629,6961,5000,6195,6477,6678,5545,13131,14362,13523],"newspack_collection_taxonomy":[],"newspack_collection_section":[],"coauthors":[10550],"class_list":["post-145231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-power","tag-antitrust","tag-donald-trump","tag-federal-trade-commission","tag-justice-department","tag-justice","tag-mergers","tag-money-politics-power","tag-paramount","tag-the-sling","tag-warner-bros-discovery","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - 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justice","mergers","money, politics &amp; power","paramount","the sling","warner bros. discovery"],"dateCreated":"2026-09-24T09:00:00Z","datePublished":"2026-09-24T09:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-09-24T13:19:32Z"},"rendered":"<meta name=\"parsely-title\" content=\"The Paramount Settlement Started With Trump\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-link\" content=\"http:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/24\/paramount-settlement-trump-antitrust\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-type\" content=\"post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-image-url\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Sling-092426.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-pub-date\" content=\"2026-09-24T09:00:00Z\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-section\" content=\"Money, Politics, and Power\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-tags\" content=\"antitrust,donald trump,federal trade commission,justice department,law &amp; justice,mergers,money, politics &amp; power,paramount,the sling,warner bros. discovery\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"Hal Singer\" \/>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/prospect.org\/p.js"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":143897,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/01\/paramount-cbs-trump-ellisons-ultimate-corruption\/","url_meta":{"origin":145231,"position":0},"title":"Paramount, CBS, Trump, and the Ellisons: The Ultimate Corruption","author":"Robert Kuttner","date":"September 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A new documentary, \u2018Murdering 60 Minutes,\u2019 brilliantly connects the dots.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Money, Politics, and Power&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Money, Politics, and Power","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/power\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image of 60 Minutes stopwatch exploding","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kuttner-Murdering-60-Minutes-090126.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kuttner-Murdering-60-Minutes-090126.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kuttner-Murdering-60-Minutes-090126.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kuttner-Murdering-60-Minutes-090126.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kuttner-Murdering-60-Minutes-090126.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":142829,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/08\/14\/paramounts-merger-strategy-empty-promises-threats-justice-department-antitrust\/","url_meta":{"origin":145231,"position":1},"title":"Paramount\u2019s Merger Strategy: Empty Promises and Empty Threats","author":"David Dayen","date":"August 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The studio is alleging that the state attorneys general challenge to the merger with Warner Bros. is all about CNN, and that they\u2019ll leave Hollywood if they don\u2019t get their way.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Money, Politics, and Power&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Money, Politics, and Power","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/power\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/paramount.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/paramount.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/paramount.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/paramount.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/paramount.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137847,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/04\/28\/objective-news-coverage-not-on-ellisons-watch-cbs-warner-bros-paramount\/","url_meta":{"origin":145231,"position":2},"title":"Objective News Coverage? Not on the Ellisons\u2019 Watch!","author":"Harold Meyerson","date":"April 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"With their mega-purchase up for administration approval, they compelled CBS News to honor Trump last week.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Newsletters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Newsletters","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/blogs-and-newsletters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"CBS logo on a building","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Meyerson-on-Tap-042826.jpg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Meyerson-on-Tap-042826.jpg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Meyerson-on-Tap-042826.jpg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Meyerson-on-Tap-042826.jpg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Meyerson-on-Tap-042826.jpg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137416,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/04\/20\/deal-that-could-destroy-hollywood-paramount-warner-bros\/","url_meta":{"origin":145231,"position":3},"title":"The Deal That Could Destroy Hollywood","author":"Harold Meyerson","date":"April 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Paramount\u2019s purchase of Warner Bros. would be a huge blow to filmmakers and film lovers alike.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Money, Politics, and Power&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Money, Politics, and Power","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/power\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A person shows a \"#BlockTheMerger\" pin","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Meyerson-Paramount-Warner-042026.jpg?fit=1200%2C778&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Meyerson-Paramount-Warner-042026.jpg?fit=1200%2C778&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Meyerson-Paramount-Warner-042026.jpg?fit=1200%2C778&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Meyerson-Paramount-Warner-042026.jpg?fit=1200%2C778&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Meyerson-Paramount-Warner-042026.jpg?fit=1200%2C778&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137336,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/04\/16\/live-nation-verdict-serves-as-warning\/","url_meta":{"origin":145231,"position":4},"title":"Live Nation Verdict Serves as a Warning","author":"David Dayen","date":"April 16, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Companies thought they could get away with anything while Donald Trump was in office. But today they have a new problem: state attorneys general, and juries full of ordinary Americans.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Law and Justice&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Law and Justice","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/justice\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Live Nation logo displayed on a mobile phone with Ticketmaster branding in the background","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Dayen-Live-Nation-041626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Dayen-Live-Nation-041626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Dayen-Live-Nation-041626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Dayen-Live-Nation-041626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Dayen-Live-Nation-041626.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":140956,"url":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/07\/14\/challenge-to-paramount-warner-bros-merger-focuses-on-theaters-basic-cable\/","url_meta":{"origin":145231,"position":5},"title":"Challenge to Paramount\u2013Warner Bros. Merger Focuses on Theaters, Basic Cable","author":"David Dayen","date":"July 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The lawsuit, filed by 12 states, makes the case that a merged studio will have more leverage to dictate terms to distributors, leading to higher prices for everyone.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Money, Politics, and Power&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Money, Politics, and Power","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/category\/power\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Paramount Skydance Corporation logo is seen on a smartphone and Warner Bros. in the background.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dayen-Paramount-Warner-merger-071426.jpg?fit=1200%2C818&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dayen-Paramount-Warner-merger-071426.jpg?fit=1200%2C818&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dayen-Paramount-Warner-merger-071426.jpg?fit=1200%2C818&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dayen-Paramount-Warner-merger-071426.jpg?fit=1200%2C818&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dayen-Paramount-Warner-merger-071426.jpg?fit=1200%2C818&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prospect.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Sling-092426.jpg?fit=1587%2C1190&ssl=1","author_name":"Hal Singer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2055"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145231"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145254,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145231\/revisions\/145254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145231"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_taxonomy?post=145231"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_collection_section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_collection_section?post=145231"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=145231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":145214,"date":"2026-09-23T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/?p=145214"},"modified":"2026-09-23T15:28:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T19:28:21","slug":"kamala-harris-for-president-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prospect.org\/2026\/09\/23\/kamala-harris-for-president-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamala Harris for President Again?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-custom-everlit-iframe-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_QdBki8Gy7Na?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.2\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other day, California\u2019s lame-duck Gov. Gavin Newsom made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/09\/14\/politics\/gavin-newsom-presidential-run-ooo\">what looked like a high-minded promise<\/a> in an interview with CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper. If Kamala Harris ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, Newsom said, he would not run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI know her base of supporters, I know her friends,\u201d Newsom told Tapper. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t do that to people. I wouldn\u2019t put them in that position.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Is Newsom just being gracious and courtly? Not exactly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Far more likely is that Newsom is trying to smoke out Harris\u2019s intentions, since they would indeed be drawing on the same donor base. Newsom and his backers need Harris to declare, or get off the (donor) pot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/author\/robert-kuttner\/\">More from Robert Kuttner<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am no fan of Gavin Newsom as the Democratic nominee in 2028, but Harris would be even worse. It is astonishing that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.racetothewh.com\/president\/2028\/dem\">polls and pundits rate her as the front-runner<\/a>. This has to be just inertia and name recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Harris, let\u2019s recall, performed dismally in the 2020 primaries because she wasn\u2019t clear about what she stood for. She suffered from the same deficits when she became the party\u2019s accidental nominee in 2024 and her campaign lacked a coherent, forceful message. She both tacked intermittently populist and campaigned with billionaire Mark Cuban. In one memorable fudge, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/04\/us\/politics\/harris-tax-break-small-business.html\">Harris said<\/a> she would increase taxes on the wealthy but not as much as Joe Biden would have. Say what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But is Harris planning to run? At the very least, she is testing the waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/22\/us\/politics\/kamala-harris-el-sayed-michigan-midterms.html\"><em>The New York Times<\/em> got hold of a July memo<\/a> in which aides to Harris proposed a pitch to donors, emphasizing Harris\u2019s value in turning out the Democratic vote this November, especially among Black voters. The memo proposed, \u201cWhat is needed is the operational funding to move the principal at the cadence required to Turn Out the Vote and win in November 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Harris\u2019s people offered to have her come and campaign with Democratic candidates. However, candidates in Alaska, Iowa, and Kansas, according to the <em>Times<\/em>, \u201chave pre-emptively and publicly uninvited her from campaigning with them.\u201d That speaks volumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One candidate who did invite Harris in is Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, who has a lot of fence-mending to do with Michigan\u2019s African American community. Black voters supported his primary opponent, Haley Stevens, by wide margins (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2026\/08\/09\/michigan-senate-race-abdul-el-sayed-must-unite-democrats\/\">she carried Detroit by 28 points<\/a>). Harris is said to be esteemed by older Black voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-style-border is-vertical is-content-justification-stretch is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-14603c61 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-bitter-font-family\" style=\"font-style:normal;font-weight:600\">Today on TAP<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-bitter-font-family wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:18px\">This story first appeared in our free <em>Today on TAP<\/em> newsletter, a weekday email featuring commentary on the daily news from <em>Prospect<\/em> reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-block-newspack-newsletters-subscribe newspack-newsletters-subscribe is-style-modern\" data-success-message=\"Thank you for signing up!\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<form id=\"newspack-subscribe-2\" data-newspack-recaptcha=\"newspack_newsletter_signup\">\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"newspack_newsletters_subscribe\" value=\"1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"lists[]\" value=\"14\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-newsletters-email-input\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input id=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe-block-input-14847-email\" type=\"email\" name=\"npe\" autocomplete=\"email\" placeholder=\"Email Address\" value=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<input class=\"nphp\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" name=\"email\" type=\"email\" autocomplete=\"off\" placeholder=\"Email Address\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<button class=\"submit-button has-background-color has-secondary-variation-background-color\" type=\"submit\" style=\"background-color: #7f0000;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"submit\">Sign up<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/form>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe__response\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe__icon\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"newspack-newsletters-subscribe__message\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the Black electorate has been lukewarm overall on Harris. Black turnout was higher in 2020 than 2024, and Biden won a larger percentage of the African American vote (over 90 percent) than Harris, who got 83 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let\u2019s not forget: Harris has never successfully competed to win a nomination in a presidential primary. The 2028 field will have some fresh and compelling contenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If Harris does run again, she is likely to get trounced once the primaries get serious, for the same reasons that she did so badly in the 2020 primaries\u2014even more so because she blew an urgently winnable election in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Harris\u2019s failure left us with a second Trump term and incipient fascism. I doubt that primary voters will forgive that and take the huge risk of giving Harris a second chance to fail again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Newsom, meanwhile, has just facilitated a sellout settlement of the state\u2019s antitrust suit against Paramount and vetoed a bill that passed the legislature almost unanimously to enhance California public-worker pension rights. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/opinion\/gavin-newsom-vetoes-pension-bill-california-jerry-brown-38987fc2\">A <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> editorial<\/a> called the veto \u201cGavin Newsom\u2019s Finest Hour.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/commentary\/2026\/09\/gavin-newsom-political-right-vetoes\/\">Newsom vetoed two other progressive bills for good measure<\/a>. He\u2019s also on the wrong side of the ballot initiative for a one-time tax on billionaires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If we can take Newsom at his word, at least one of them will not run. That\u2019s a mercy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>She blew an urgently winnable race in 2024. Why do polls show her as the front-runner for 2028?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1553,"featured_media":145213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-09-23T19:17:46Z","apple_news_api_id":"424377d9-4d80-4625-90fe-cb657691fe64","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-09-23T19:17:46Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AQkN32U2ARiWQ_stldpH-ZA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"everlit_article_id":"artl_QdBki8Gy7Na","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"large","everlit_generation_settings":{"embed_ui_cover_art":false,"embed_ui_title_intro":"Listen to this article:","embed_ui_title_icon":"","primary_voice":"49","guest_voice":"653","default_publication":"pblc_yPNpMjtZdBK","default_conversation_mode":false,"podcast_duration_minutes":5,"default_sonic_optimization":false,"optimizer_level":2,"default_read_alt_text":false,"default_read_urls":false,"default_skip_article_image":false,"intro_mixable":281,"outro_mixable":258,"intro_duration":8,"outro_duration":11,"intro_padding":3,"outro_padding":4,"disable_music":false},"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"d4217930c829a4c89560a7d2e7fab31b","_everlit_metadata_hash":"d6f922cc08358ba3e4403015b4272b26","_everlit_embed_html":"<iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_QdBki8Gy7Na?ui_cover_art=false&amp;ui_title_intro=Listen+to+this+article%3A&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.3.0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>","newspack_collection_is_cover_story":false,"newspack_collection_post_order":0,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Today on TAP: She blew an urgently winnable race in 2024. Why do polls show her as the front-runner for 2028?","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[4941],"tags":[6482,14035,7125,5199,6012,6677],"newspack_collection_taxonomy":[],"newspack_collection_section":[],"coauthors":[9920],"class_list":["post-145214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tap","tag-democrats","tag-election-2028","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-kamala-harris","tag-blogs-tap","tag-politics","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kamala Harris for President Again? - The American Prospect<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Harris performed dismally in the 2020 primaries because she wasn\u2019t clear about what she stood for. 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