"If you run again, I will support you again." - Nicki Minaj, on her bizarre allegiance to Donald Trump.

Donald Rump

Donald Trump is down in the polls. Gas is up at the pump. MAGA candidates are stumbling. What’s Trump’s closing message for the midterms? He’s channeling Sir Mix-a-Lot: Trump likes big butts.

• It’s hardly a good sign for Republicans when the leader of their party seems more obsessed with staring at butts than lowering gas prices and ending an unpopular war, right before an election. Last week, President Donald Trump announced that he had recently checked out Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH)... and liked what he saw. “I looked at his ass, and then I looked at his legs,” Trump said at a rally. “I said, ‘His ass, shit, it’s like, it’s like a pile of muscle.’”

• A one-off? A misstep? Hardly. It’s a big new theme in Trump’s stump speech (or shall I say, rump speech). As if to erase any doubts about that, Trump re-upped this blatantly inappropriate line of commentary during a rally in Michigan last night, when he was joined onstage by recent MAGA convert Nicki Minaj.

• “I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before: Nicki Minaj,” Trump said, with the MAGA-pilled rapper sitting nearby. “That’s hard to miss. Stand up! That’s hard to miss.”

• Trump’s fascination with the human physique isn’t anything new. But this is just one example of how his latest comments on the campaign trail and social media — at a critical moment for the GOP’s future — are becoming increasingly unhinged, as if he doesn’t care about winning over voters, and just wants to keep the nation’s eyeballs on The Trump Show.

• Take his latest 1,300-word post on Truth Social. He could have posted a plan to end the war with Iran, bring down gas prices, or fight inflation. Instead, he posted a screed long enough to be a CVS receipt on an even more pressing topic: His relationship with comedian Bill Maher. Trump apparently got mad after Maher pressed Karoline Leavitt, the former chief White House propagandist, about Republicans possibly losing the midterms on his show.

• “Let’s talk about this COMPLETE AND TOTAL LOSER, Bill Maher. He’s got a Low Rated Show on equally Low Rated HBO, which was once, long ago, a Network of Quality and Excitement — But that’s all gone. It’s not ‘HOT’ anymore!” Trump posted last night. “Bill: Don’t call anymore. It’s useless.” Don’t you have more important things to care about???

Some of the president’s screwloose musings are simply unserious. Others could have dire consequences for Americans.

• Gas still averages well above four dollars per gallon across the country, thanks to Trump’s war in Iran, according to AAA. The average price of diesel, which the administration has been desperately trying to lower, remains at $6.34 per gallon.

• At the rally last night, however, Trump dismissed concerns about the high cost of gas. “It’s a small price to pay,” he said, for his incredibly awesome war in Iran.

• Most of the things that Trump spews have no immediate repercussions — but some do. One such example also came on Sunday, relating to Iran: “I have a decision to make: Do I finish it off, which would be very easy to do, or do I make a deal? That’s all,” Trump told Fox News.

• The suggestion that Trump might “finish off” Iran sparked widespread concern among diplomats that the U.S. and Israel might actually launch a fresh wave of attacks, despite Trump’s previous comments that he would hold off on new strikes until after the midterms.

• His seemingly offhand comment about renewing a war less than two weeks away from Election Day showcases Trump’s delusion and arrogance. “Trump continues to seemingly believe that he holds the strategic advantage,” a dumbfounded geopolitical analyst tweeted.

Why is Trump acting so weird? One theory: He genuinely thinks he’s incredibly popular. “I don’t believe I could be beaten by anybody,” he recently told a right-wing outlet.

Meanwhile On The Pod...

If Democrats Win in November, Here's What They Can ACTUALLY Do (10/23/26)

Look No Further Than Crooked Media

Six years after the 2020 Georgia election Trump is still questioning the results, the FBI is revisiting ballots in Fulton County, and Georgia is getting ready to vote all over again. This week, Long Play heads back to Georgia, to ask whether voter protections can withstand the political pressure surrounding them. Listen to a new episode of Long Play wherever you get your podcasts, or check it out on YouTube.

What Else?

The Department of Justice charged former FBI Director James Comey for a third time today, moments before we hit “send” on this newsletter. He was charged with “transmission of national defense information and conspiracy to transmit national defense information,” NBC News reports. We’ll have more details on this soon. In the past, Comey has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing.

The Trump administration is laying the groundwork to potentially treat millions of veterans struggling with PTSD and other mental illnesses with psychedelic drugs. Government regulators haven’t yet declared psychedelics, like magic mushrooms or MDMA, to be safe or effective for treating mental illnesses. Regardless, Trump signed an executive order earlier this year to speed up testing on psychedelics, and there’s some research that suggests the drugs could have mental health benefits.

GOP campaigns and PACs have spent about $3 million at Trump’s businesses since he started his second term, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Two Catholic bishops who posed for a prayer photo with Trump and other bishops in the Oval Office last week said they regret their participation, blaming the administration for using the photo for political gain. “I wish I had been more shrewd and less simple, like those who exploited our meeting for partisan political purpose,” one of the bishops wrote in a statement.

Trump went on a racist tirade against Abdul El-Sayed during a rally last night, describing the Michigan Democratic Senate candidate as a “jihadist” who should “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.” El-Sayed hit back with a joke about Trump’s fondness for bottoms: “This is like the third campaign stop where Donald Trump can’t help but mention somebody’s ass,” he said. “When I get to D.C., I’m just gonna make sure that I never let him see mine.”

Trump also lashed out at Norway for not giving him the Nobel Peace Prize during that rally. “Norway sucks. Norway has become a shithouse country,” he said. A shithouse country? What does that even mean? Did he intend to say shithole? That would still be offensive, but at least it would make sense.

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Light At The End...

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration illegally fired Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor and daughter of the former FBI director.

Punk band Turnstile drew an estimated 60,000 people to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for a benefit concert to raise money for crisis efforts in Palestine, Sudan, and Lebanon on Saturday. The photos and videos from the show are unbelievable. This looked 10,000x more fun than any of the Fourth of July events that Trump hosted on the Mall.

The SS United States ocean liner is expected to be sunk off the coast of Florida next month, becoming the world’s largest artificial reef. Artificial reefs provide shelter and food sources for local fish communities, while also generating money from scuba-diving tourists.

A California man who works as a systems engineer at a cybersecurity company has an alter ego: he’s the Picasso of Pumpkin Carvers. The man, who also goes by Farmer Mike, has been carving ghoulish faces, seasides scenes, dragons, and other images into giant gourds for four decades — and he doesn’t have any formal art training. We all have hidden talents!

Talk show personality Andy Cohen reflected on his famous friendship with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, and how their party days may be behind them. “I would say that our friendship — with no offense to him or me — has become a little more boring,” Cohen said. “Look, we’re both going through the same periods at the same life stage with our kids, so we’re talking about that and not, you know, ‘Did you go to Horse Meat Disco?’”

With Halloween right around the corner, get a load of this: Sugar doesn’t actually make kids hyper, according to decades of research. This Atlantic does a great job explaining what sugar actually does (it can even have “a slight sedative effect” for some kiddos). “If sugar really explained why kids became manic and naughty, parents could create peace by banning Skittles and soda,” the author writes. “But sugar isn’t to blame, which leaves us to accept our kids for the frenzied, irrational beings that they are.”

Enjoy

Matty McMeme on Instagram: "Elephant in the room: ADDRESSED. Ducks: In a fucking row. Horses: HELD. Eggs: In so many baskets. Bigger Fish: Fried. Ace: Up my sleeve. 2 Birds: Stoned"

As someone who loves Assembly Required I think they could maybe continue that theme with Beto O’Rourke,

I would also love to see them get a Gen z host

Lula wins!

Since they are the founders and faces of the company they immediately get attached to everything the company does both positive and negative. So like, when the msnow deals were announced and similar expansions i feel like reports from variety and deadline associate this with them, but when people get mad at the company they also get mad at them, but looking at it doesn’t the company have a ceo and board of directors, none of which are them?

Anyone else use the affiliated vote save America site to donate? I was apparently naive but I did, once, and within a few days the spam texts started. I'm up to 2-3 an hour! They are all asking for Dem donations. It has to be from this. Didn't donate elsewhere and, in Indiana, I have to vote Rep in primaries where i'd declare a party. It's disappointing in the pod and Dems in general.

How come no terminally online?

While I appreciate the enthusiasm and the work it takes to link the shows, I have to say, it’s absolutely killing this subreddit. Of the 14 specific episode-related posts made in the past day, only four have any engagement. And out of those three, it’s only a single comment. The other one has just two comments (that aren’t the OP’s synopsis of the episode).

This subreddit can never thrive if there’s a post for every single Crooked podcast episode, most of which obviously aren’t being watched by the Reddit community. Like I said, I get the idea behind it and appreciate the initiative of the poster, but it’s obviously having a negative effect.

I get that she's excited to be able to do it after years on TV but it's cringe as hell and counterproductive.

All the other hosts do it from time to time too, just like all of us, but she does it soooo much.

She's so great otherwise, love that she was brought on board.

"Our goal is to create 10,000 Stephen Millers." - Nick Solheim, a conservative activist who is training right-wing staffers.

Half-Baked Alaska

Donald Trump is already trying to claim that the midterms will be rigged against Republicans. Americans aren’t buying it.

• If you can’t beat ‘em, cheat ‘em! President Donald Trump is doing everything he can to give Republicans a fighting chance at snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in the upcoming midterms — despite polls suggesting the country’s in the mood for a big blue shift. Some of his schemes look comically ill-conceived and doomed to failure. Others are downright chilling.

• Today, he’s throwing a Hail Mary deep into the Land of the Midnight Sun. Remember the two Dan Sullivans running for Senate in Alaska? One of them is a sitting GOP senator, while the other has faced accusations of being a spoiler candidate (which he vehemently denies). Both will appear on the general election ballot against Democrat Mary Peltola, who has been leading in the polls.

• Trump’s team is already preparing to launch a legal battle against a Peltola victory. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit that would block the certification of the election if Peltola wins, arguing that “voter confusion” could cause Trump’s preferred candidate to lose. It’s not the first time Trump’s team has resorted to desperate measures in this race: They previously launched an investigation into the “spoiler” Sullivan.

• Funny enough, Trump’s team actually should be worried about that other Dan Sullivan. Two recent polls showed that Peltola could narrowly beat the senator — seemingly thanks to the “spoiler.”

• State election officials are trying to make it clear who’s who. The so-called “spoiler” Sullivan won’t be listed on the ballot with a party affiliation, despite running as a Republican. The senator will be listed as the incumbent Republican. Also, Alaska’s ranked-choice system allows voters to rank both men if they’re confused.

• The stakes are high. A single state could be the difference between holding the Senate and losing it — which, for Republicans, could mean the power to cement their grip on the Supreme Court for years to come. Trump’s team also plans to remove tariffs on some goods to help Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, as well as other Republican candidates.

If lawsuits don’t work, Trump presumably whispers to himself, rubbing his tiny hands like Mr. Burns, perhaps voter intimidation will!

• Federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security have been knocking on doors across the country in recent weeks to check immigration statuses, and asking residents if they’ve voted previously or are registered to vote. This comes as Trump’s team sounds the alarm about (basically nonexistent) voter fraud.

• California has been Trump’s main target. Agents arrested 28 green card holders in the state earlier this week, accusing them of illegally registering to vote. The administration is also trying to block California from counting as many as 20,000 mail-in ballots from voters who it claims are “likely noncitizens.”

• “I do think he’s using us as a testing ground,” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) told What A Day. “This administration seems hell bent on suppressing the vote and intimidating people from voting … People don’t try to take something from you that doesn’t have any power.”

• Despite Trump’s scheming, most Americans believe the midterm election results will be accurate, according to a new poll. Kamlager-Dove is also working to convince people that the election process is secure, recently leading a delegation of lawmakers on a tour of the L.A. County Ballot Processing Center this week and promoting the center’s livestream that records the ballot workers.

• “I predict that there will be long lines at the polls” on election day, Kamlager-Dove said. “I predict that there will be some shenanigans at some of the polls. I predict that votes will be counted. I predict that the Republicans will lose. I predict that [Trump] will then blame everybody except himself.”

The root cause of Trump’s desperation is obvious, Kamlager-Dove said. “This guy’s approval ratings are in the gold toilet,” she said. “He’s afraid.”

Meanwhile On The Pod...

Trump Believes THOUSANDS Vote Illegally: They Charged 28 People (10/22/26)

Look No Further Than Crooked Media

The midterms are coming up on November 3rd! To celebrate, commiserate, or both, on election night, join us 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT for Crooked Media Presents: Live Election Results — a live stream hosted by top-notch journalist Alex Wagner, featuring a bunch of Crooked hosts and very special guests to help make sense of the results. Expect hot takes, catharsis, and as many results as we can possibly analyze!

Subscribe to the Pod Save America YouTube channel now so you don't miss it!

What Else?

The price of oil hit $116 per barrel today, the highest it’s been since April. That bad news came with even more bad news: Iran threatened to attack airports, pipelines, and other civilian infrastructure in nearby countries if the U.S. and Israel resume their strikes on the country.

Melania Trump apparently secured a limited ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in Oleshky, a Russia-controlled town in Ukraine, according to the White House. “It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible,” Melania said in a statement. Stay humble, Melania.

On that note, you know how Trump thinks he can strike a deal between Russia and Ukraine? Well… dictator Vladimir Putin doesn’t seem in the dealmaking mood. “I think that it is not their territory but the historical territory of Russia,” Putin told a Kremlin journalist. “The latest genetic studies show that Russians and Ukrainians are in fact one people.” Doesn’t sound like a guy who will leave Ukraine alone!

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered what he described as the most intense military operation in the occupied West Bank in decades, after Hamas militants killed two Israeli soldiers. Netanyahu’s threat further inflames tensions in the territory, where settlers recently attacked civilians while they were harvesting olives, as well as a Washington Post photojournalist. Israel’s military also detained (then released) New York politician Brad Lander during his trip to the West Bank this week.

Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and James Blair donated all the money they made from their controversial foreign consulting gig to Trump’s presidential library, according to the New York Post. Trump wasn’t happy when the news broke about their side hustle — but the president “was ‘gloating’ and ‘very braggadocious’ in private conversations this week” after hearing about the donations, which could be in the six figures, the outlet writes.

Three federal agents near a secure U.S. facility recently spotted a “matte black triangle” moving silently through the night, as fast as a fighter jet, according to new reports released by the FBI and Pentagon. This is part of the Trump administration’s push to make more information about supposed UFOs publicly available.

Another newly declassified report in those files pertains to the so-called Skinwalker Ranch in Utah. “Witnesses have reported unidentified balls of light at close range, daytime sightings of ‘dog-like’ creatures running on two legs, unnatural animalistic howling/screaming, ‘little people,’ prehistoric-like birds and a maggot which measured about 8 feet long and 2- to 3-feet in diameter,” the report reads. There are even sketches of the creatures in the report on page 27 and 28!

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Light At The End...

Boards at the Navy and Marine Corps have voted to allow transgender troops to remain in the military in nine of 12 cases, bucking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s orders. That’s a small number of cases, and the same pattern hasn’t followed at the Army and Air Force. But in a profession where following orders is paramount, the defiance is stunning.

An experimental vaccine from Merck and Moderna is being touted as a potential breakthrough in the fight against cancer. Patients with melanoma who received the vaccine were 42 percent less likely to see their cancer come back within two years, according to the drug makers. This is your reminder that vaccines are one of humanity’s most amazing inventions.

The Dallas Cowboys officially recognized the cheerleaders team’s union today. Can I get a yee-haw?

A new, wholesome social media trend has arrived just in time for spooky season: Content creators are visiting cemeteries and meticulously cleaning old gravestones, then doing research into the deceased. Videos of the cleaning and history lesson often go viral. “It’s like journalism, but for dead people,” one Vermont creator joked. (I guess I do journalism, but for living people? Never thought of it that way.)

A New York couple have poured almost all their time and savings into running a raccoon rehabilitation center since 2018. They’ve taken care of some 800 raccoons so far, and even have the critters engraved on their wedding rings. “There’s an intelligence behind their eyes that, once you connect to that intelligence, it’s not like any other animal,” said one of the center’s owners. “It takes your breath away.”

Here’s a way to unwind this weekend: Turn off the cable news, and switch on a 24/7 puppy livestream. Millions of people around the world have been tuning in to watch six newborn puppies on Finland’s national broadcaster, which follows their development until they find homes. You can expect to see a lot of wiggling and wobbling, as well as a naming ceremony on Sunday.

A golden retriever named Thurgood was recently caught on video frolicking through a river in Tennessee to greet kayakers. I don’t know why the news thinks he’s a dog. Thurgood is clearly a dolphin.

Enjoy

Meet Georgia, a 7-year-old chocolate lab!

“She’s easily the laziest lab you’ve ever met, except when there is snow on the ground… and then she can’t stop playing. She loves listening to Crooked Media podcasts with me!”

— Brian