Trump Doubles Down on Midterm Manipulation

THIS WEEK'S RANKINGS

#1: THE MIDTERM VOTING SQUEEZE (2 weeks at #1)

For the second week in a row, Trump's efforts to manipulate the upcoming midterm elections — with help from congressional Republicans — is the number one story you should be paying attention to.

On Wednesday, the House passed the SAVE America Act, 218–213. Every Republican voted in favor. One Democrat — Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas — crossed party lines to join them. The bill now heads to the Senate, where its chances are slim. Republicans hold a narrow 53-seat majority, but Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitch McConnell have said they oppose it. Democrats are expected to filibuster, and Republicans don't have the 60 votes to overcome it.

House Republicans have passed some version of this bill three years running. It has never passed the Senate. What changed this week: Trump said he'll bypass Congress entirely if it stalls again.

On Friday night, Trump posted on Truth Social: "I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future. There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!" In a follow-up post: "If we can't get it through Congress, there are Legal reasons why this SCAM is not permitted. I will be presenting them shortly, in the form of an Executive Order."

Can he do that? No. Courts have already rejected this approach.

What Trump's threat tells you is that he believes — not incorrectly — that his party will lose power in the midterms and the consequences for him will be severe. A Democratic House would have the power to impeach. A Democratic Senate could convict. He needs to control who votes because he can't afford to lose.

Why it matters: Widespread noncitizen voting is not a real problem. Federal law already prohibits it. To register, you attest under penalty of law that you're a citizen. Most people aren't risking prosecution to cast a single ballot. So if the crisis isn't real, what is the SAVE Act actually about? Making it harder for eligible Americans to vote.

Related:

• The DOJ has sued 24 states for voter registration data and, as of this week, lost three straight — Michigan, California, Oregon. Twenty-one suits remain.
• The Fulton County FBI raid affidavit was unsealed. NPR found it omitted findings that undercut its own claims.
• Analilia Mejia won the NJ-11 special Democratic primary over former Rep. Malinowski after AIPAC's United Democracy Project spent $2.3 million against him. She faces Republican Joe Hathaway on April 16.
• The Virginia Supreme Court cleared a redistricting referendum for April 21 — if voters approve, Democrats' proposed map would flip the state's congressional delegation from 6-5 to 10-1. Early voting starts March 6.

#2: THE EPSTEIN FILES (Holds at #2)

Lawmakers got access to the unredacted Epstein files this week. What they found was a Justice Department that redacted the names of powerful men connected to a child sex trafficking ring — while leaving victims' names, addresses, and phone numbers exposed across thousands of pages.

Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie reviewed files for two hours Monday and found six men whose names were redacted without clear justification. On Tuesday, Khanna read the names into the Congressional Record: Leslie Wexner, founder of Victoria's Secret and labeled an unindicted co-conspirator by the FBI; Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of logistics giant DP World, whose files include a reference to a "torture video"; and four others. "If we found six men they were hiding in two hours," Khanna said, "imagine how many they are covering up for in those 3 million files." The DOJ said four of the six were unconnected — pulled from an FBI photo lineup. By Tuesday evening, the DOJ partially unredacted files labeling Wexner a co-conspirator. By Thursday, bin Sulayem resigned from DP World after international partners paused deals. Miami Herald reporter Julie Brown reported two survivors, unknown to each other, say they were trafficked to bin Sulayem. They won't go public because they're afraid.

Rep. Raskin reviewed files separately and said the DOJ redacted names "simply to spare them potential embarrassment." Trump's name appears 38,000 times in the public files — but more than a million times in the unredacted version, meaning over 96% of Trump references were redacted. Among them: a discussion from Epstein's lawyers contradicting Trump's claim he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.

AG Pam Bondi testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 11 in a five-hour hearing that devolved into shouting (and became the subject of some hilarious comedy skits on social media). She called Raskin a "washed up loser lawyer," accused Massie of "Trump derangement syndrome," and refused to face the 11 Epstein survivors in the room when asked to apologize. A Reuters photo captured Bondi during the hearing with a document labeled "Jayapal Pramila Search History" — a printout of the congresswoman's searches of the Epstein database. Raskin called it "spying on Members of Congress." Speaker Johnson called the tracking inappropriate.

Why it matters: Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in January requiring full disclosure. The DOJ is defying that law — redacting names to protect the powerful while leaving victims exposed, and tracking the search histories of lawmakers trying to provide oversight.

Related:

• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed under oath he visited Epstein's island on Dec. 23, 2012 — four years after Epstein's guilty plea — contradicting his previous claim he'd cut off contact years earlier.
• Ghislaine Maxwell invoked the Fifth in a closed session but offered to "speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump."
• Documents show Epstein directed an aide to obtain hidden cameras; Channel 4 uncovered spy-cam footage from his Palm Beach residence.
• Internationally: UK PM Starmer faces resignation calls over appointing Epstein associate Peter Mandelson as U.S. ambassador. In France, Jack Lang resigned from the Arab World Institute.
• Goldman Sachs lawyer Kathy Ruemmler — a former Obama official — stepped down after emails showed she described Epstein as "like an older brother."
• A widely shared claim that Epstein purchased hundreds of gallons of sulfuric acid to dissolve bodies on his island is likely false — the acid was consistent with the reverse osmosis system needed to make the island's water supply habitable.

#3: THE EPA DECLARES ITS OWN SCIENCE INVALID (NEW)

On Wednesday — the same day the House was voting to restrict who can vote — EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stood next to Trump in the Roosevelt Room and revoked the agency's 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health. That finding was the legal foundation for every federal climate regulation since Obama: vehicle emissions standards, power plant rules, oil and gas facility limits. It was based on decades of peer-reviewed science and upheld by the Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA. Zeldin killed it in an afternoon.

He called it "the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history." He's not wrong about the scale. He's leaving out that the fossil fuel industry — including the company Chris Wright ran before joining the cabinet as Energy Secretary — is the primary beneficiary.

The EPA's argument is legal, not scientific: the Clean Air Act, they now claim, never gave them authority to regulate greenhouse gases — directly contradicting the Supreme Court's 2007 ruling that said it did. The agency's supporting analysis relied in part on a Department of Energy report produced in secret by five climate skeptics handpicked by Energy Secretary Chris Wright — a former fracking CEO. Revoking the endangerment finding was a Project 2025 goal, achieved on schedule.

California Governor Newsom filed suit within hours.

Why it matters: Every vehicle emission standard from 2012 through 2027 is now void — 15 years of air quality protections erased in one rule. Nature estimates the repeal will add billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions through 2050.

#4: THE KUSHNER COMPLAINT (NEW)

The WSJ reported this month that Jared Kushner — the president's son-in-law — is the subject of a classified whistleblower complaint that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard buried for eight months.

Here's what happened. Last spring, the NSA intercepted two foreign nationals — possibly intelligence officials — discussing Iran and someone close to Trump. An intelligence official believed Gabbard mishandled what she was told about that intercept: instead of briefing congressional intelligence committees, she went to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. In May 2025, that official filed a formal whistleblower complaint accusing Gabbard of suppressing the intelligence for political reasons. (WSJ)

By law, Gabbard had 21 days to transmit the complaint to Congress. She didn't. For eight months, Congress didn't even know it existed. They only found out in November, when the whistleblower's attorney sent a letter accusing Gabbard of stonewalling. The WSJ's reporting this month added the missing piece: the person "close to Trump" in the intercept was Kushner.

Gabbard's office says the complaint didn't meet the "urgent concern" threshold and the claims have no merit. But that call is made by the inspector general — and Gabbard fired the career IG who said it did qualify. She replaced him with Christopher Fox, a loyalist confirmed on a party-line vote. Fox disagreed with his predecessor. Senior Trump officials told the WSJ the claims were "demonstrably false" but wouldn't say how.

Why it matters: Kushner said he'd take no role in Trump's second term. He's taken millions in fees from Middle Eastern governments seeking White House access while continuing to advise Trump on the region. The Intercept reported in 2018, citing U.S. intelligence intercepts, that Crown Prince MBS told associates he had Kushner "in his pocket." Now a classified complaint about a man with those ties sits buried — by an intelligence chief who answers to his father-in-law. If the complaint has no merit, there's a simple way to prove it: send it to Congress, as the law requires.

#5: THE "SEDITIOUS SIX" (NEW)

A federal grand jury in Washington rejected the DOJ's attempt to indict six sitting members of Congress on Tuesday. Their alleged crime: a 90-second video urging service members to refuse illegal orders — which is exactly what the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires. Federal grand juries indict in more than 99% of cases. This one didn't.

The six: Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin, and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Chrissy Houlahan, and Maggie Goodlander. All military veterans. Defense Secretary Hegseth coined the "seditious six" label. Trump posted that the lawmakers had engaged in "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!"

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro brought the case. She tapped Steven Vandervelden — who maintains an active photography studio specializing in dance photography and spent 34 years as a local prosecutor in Westchester County under Pirro — to present federal charges against sitting members of Congress. NBC confirmed Vandervelden had no prior DOJ experience.

Why it matters: The president called for the death penalty for lawmakers who cited existing military law. A grand jury of everyday Americans stopped it — because citizens recognized what the administration hoped they wouldn't: this was punishment for dissent, not prosecution of a crime. A federal judge ruled separately this week that Hegseth "trampled" the law by demoting Sen. Kelly for his part in the video.

THE HEADLINES

• Canada spent $5.7 billion building a new bridge between Detroit and Windsor. It was set to open March 2. Then Commerce Secretary Lutnick met with the Moroun family, which owns the only other crossing — and has spent $30 million trying to kill this bridge since 2012. Lutnick called Trump. Hours later, Trump blocked it from opening.
• DHS funding lapsed early Saturday. Over 260,000 employees affected — TSA, Coast Guard, Secret Service staff work without pay. ICE and CBP remain funded through last summer's OBBBA. Democrats demand body cameras after two U.S. citizens were killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis.
• Measles hits 733 cases. Quadruple the pre-2025 average. Ninety-five percent unvaccinated.

• In Minneapolis (↓ from #4), Tom Homan says Operation Metro Surge is winding down.
• Florida Republican Neal Dunn may resign from the House before his term ends. Speaker Johnson personally asked him to stay. If Dunn leaves: 217–214, the thinnest majority since 1930. A special election takes 5–6 months.
• A sweeping WSJ investigation finds that 80% of career ICE field leadership were fired or demoted under Secretary Noem and adviser Corey Lewandowski. A Coast Guard pilot was fired for forgetting Noem's blanket on a plane — then rehired when no one could fly them home.
• This headline says it all: Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn't stopped.
• DOJ asked the Supreme Court to dismiss Steve Bannon's contempt conviction. Bannon defied a Jan. 6 subpoena, was convicted by a jury in 2022, served four months. Deputy AG Todd Blanche's argument — that the Jan. 6 committee was improperly formed — was rejected by the trial court, the jury, and the appeals court. Notably, DOJ made no such request for Peter Navarro, who served time for the same charge.

• A judge dismissed the Rumeysa Ozturk case. Ozturk was abducted off a street for writing an op-ed about Gaza, held 45 days.
• The House voted 219–211 to overturn Trump's 35% tariffs. Six Republicans crossed: Massie, Bacon, Fitzpatrick, Kiley, Hurd, Newhouse. Trump threatened primary challengers. Johnson called it "fruitless" — Trump will veto.
• The Pentagon authorized a high-energy counter-drone laser near El Paso without FAA coordination. CBP fired at objects they believed were cartel drones. They were mylar party balloons. The FAA closed El Paso airspace; 14 flights canceled. Medical evacuation flights had to reroute 45 miles to Las Cruces.
• Secretary Rubio called the US and Europe "the greatest civilization in human history" and got a standing ovation at the Munich Security Conference. Last year, Vance told the same audience that European complaints about democratic backsliding were "an insult." Germany's leader opened by saying the world order "no longer exists."

ON MY RADAR

Gaza: "Evaporated." An Al Jazeera investigation found that US and European-supplied bombs used in Gaza generate temperatures exceeding 3,000°C — and that at least 2,842 Palestinians were effectively vaporized, leaving rescuers with nothing but blood spray or bone fragments. Dr. Munir al-Bursh, Gaza's Health Ministry director general: "When a body is exposed to energy exceeding 3,000 degrees combined with massive pressure and oxidation, the fluids boil instantly. The tissues vaporise and turn to ash." Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric: "What we have seen in Gaza exceeds all legal, ethical, moral, and humanitarian norms." Fifteen ICRC colleagues have been killed.

Related:

• Israel took formal control of the West Bank this week in violation of international law.
• The Knesset is advancing a death penalty bill that mandates execution for Palestinians and imprisonment for Israelis for identical offenses.
• An Israeli court blocked a 5-year-old boy with cancer from receiving treatment.

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEK

• Feb 18: Leslie Wexner deposition in the Epstein files
• Feb 19: Gaza peace summit at US Institute of Peace
• Feb 26: Hillary Clinton deposition on Epstei
• Feb 26–27: ACIP meeting — RFK Jr.'s reconstituted vaccine advisory panel. Medical groups have asked a federal judge to block it.
• Feb 27: Bill Clinton deposition on Epstein
• March 6: Virginia redistricting referendum early voting begins