The Constitution is not ambiguous about who controls the power of the purse, but for the second year in a row, the president is standing in the way. The president has announced that he is withholding $810 million in congressionally approved funding from various agencies, including a $567 million from programs that provide “services to refugees, asylees, and other non-citizens.”

Regardless of where the money is going, the president simply does not have the power that he is claiming here. Instead of working with Congress to change the budgeting priorities of the federal government, Trump is simply asserting that he alone can control how the tax money of every American is spent. That is not how our system of government is designed to work, and it’s up to Congress to reassert its authority over every aspect of the budget.

Todd Blanche is now the Attorney General of the United States.

Blanche has served as a willing agent of Trump’s retaliatory agenda, overseeing inquiries into Governor Gavin Newsom, Senator Adam Schiff, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, and former FBI Director James Comey. Blanche bragged about the DOJ purging lawyers who worked on January 6 prosecutions and personally signed off on the $1.8 billion dollar “anti-weaponization” fund as part of a settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS.

As The New York Times describes, Blanche’s confirmation “represented a powerful endorsement by Congress of the philosophy that has guided him under a meddling, demanding boss — that he has a constitutional obligation to execute every lawful White House order, even if it shatters longstanding policy and rule-of-law norms, or contradicts what he thinks is right.”

Blanche was a featured speaker at the Republican mid-term convention in Texas. If the Attorney General had any shred of apolitical status left, that speech is likely the end of it.

On Oct. 12, federal agents raided the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar — a prominent critic and longtime target of the president’s racist attacks. One of the things that made this outrageous action even more troubling is that the agents weren’t from the FBI; they were from Homeland Security Investigations, which is a unit within ICE.

This is the same sprawling federal policing operation that the administration has turned into a lever of power to do its political bidding. HSI has already been deployed across the country as part of an attempt to intimidate naturalized Americans citizens ahead of the midterms. They also continue to take part in the brutal crackdown on multiple cities over the last year and a half.

Raiding the home of a political opponent who immigrated to America without so much as naming an alleged crime is a blatant attempt to try to demonize and frighten naturalized citizens. Declaring certain citizens loyal and others a threat is standard practice for authoritarians trying to entrench their positions of power. Rep. Omar’s public statements indicate that she is unlikely to let this raid intimidate her, and regular Americans should trust that just because an administration is working to tamp down dissent does not mean they will succeed.

In a post on Truth Social, President Trump vilified the Somali community in Minnesota, before encouraging others in Minnesota to take action against them:

“The once Great State of Minnesota is being taken over by Somali Immigrants. There is Violence, Murder, and Mayhem all over the State. The people of Minnesota must fight back. You have been robbed, and abandoned by your State Government. Your Governor is an incompetent thief who doesn’t want to get involved. He just wants to get out of town with as much as he can steal, and then, lead a quiet life. The Somalians should not be allowed to get away with what they are doing. They view you as weak and stupid people. Fight back Minnesota, fight back! If you need, the Federal Government will come to your rescue.”

This is a direct call to violence from the president of the United States, one designed to reinforce existing prejudices in parts of Minnesota. It’s not the first time that he has spoken this way about the Somali community, but that does not make these kind of calls for racist violence any less startling. Thankfully, these calls do not appear to have resulted in any actual violence in the state yet. Nevertheless, they undermine the safety of American communities that have done nothing to deserve the ire of the president or his millions of supporters.

Under a new state law, Florida officials have designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the most prominent Muslim advocacy organizations in the country, as a “domestic terrorist” organization. They are one of dozens of nonprofits now subject to this new law, but the inclusion of this organization is particularly revealing. Under the new law, five Florida executive officials now have the authority to designate certain nonprofits as terrorist organizations without any due process.

Once designated, it becomes virtually impossible for an organization to conduct legal activities in the state. The consequences of violating the prohibitions are severe, and can include up to lifetime imprisonment.

CAIR has already filed a lawsuit asserting that the law is unconstitutional, but the brazen attempt to undermine the Muslim community in the state is a clear signal that vulnerable communities are facing discriminatory attacks at both the state and federal level.

More than 5 million Americans have already cast their ballots, and tens of millions more have requested ballots. The midterms are happening right now, and the administration is turning the volume up on their interference machine.

Take the $20 million in taxpayer money the administration has spent running ads glorifying Trump himself labeled as public service announcements. This latest attempt at election interference paired with a promise of $5,000 checks if his party wins are examples of the kinds of abuses of power and authority you would expect from an authoritarian worried about losing power and facing accountability.

The single most important thing to understand about how successful the administration’s efforts is that it all depends on the vote total margins. Some developments are baked in and will happen regardless of how close the races are; others only come into play if specific contests are close enough that changing the outcome looks possible.

The good news is that these kinds of actions are not a surprise to those who have been getting ready for this movement. Here’s what else we’re preparing for in the weeks ahead:

• Claims about ineligible voters on the rolls, timed so officials can’t respond before in-person voting begins. Federal law bars states from completing systematic voter purges within 90 days of a federal election — a window that’s already open, so mass removals aren’t legal.
• Last-minute lawsuits seeking to change voting procedures this late in the game. These rarely succeed, but they generate noise, and that’s often the point.

Make a plan to vote by election day, and vote early if you can. Every ballot cast makes it harder to deny, delay, or dispute what voters actually decided.

Ahead of the midterm elections, the president is using taxpayer money to pay for a series of television commercials that are nearly indistinguishable from campaign ads.i In one, he can be heard warning of a “final battle” against “globalists” and “warmongers.” The ad is factually questionable, but even more jarringly, it’s coming from money that Congress appropriated for border security.

The White House has defended using taxpayer money on these advertisements, describing them as “public service announcements.” The reality, however, is that these ads are designed to promote the president and his administration, and are overtly political.

A judge ruled on Oct. 11 the airing of these ads must stop immediately, a ruling that the administration appeared to ignore as it continued to air ads into Oct. 12, and has also posted the ads on YouTube in violation of the order.

What’s more, there are dozens of ways that the administration, or the party in power more broadly, could use this as an opening salvo in a broader push to fund campaign ads with public funds. American taxpayers do not give their money to the government so that the government can promote themselves to the American people. It’s blatant propaganda, and it’s illegal.