No Campaign, No Gain

THE LATEST

Off to the races: Donald Trump kicks off his midterm travel today, stumping for candidates in Oklahoma — and neighboring Texas — after announcing ambitious plans to host dozens of rallies before November.

Senate candidate Ken Paxton recently criticized the president’s Dallas midterm convention as “not good” for his campaign. Today, Trump dismissed those concerns to reporters, saying he hasn’t spoken to the Texas attorney general since those comments leaked and calling the event a “tremendous success.”

• While the decision to host the convention in Texas was “maybe” for Paxton, Trump said, “I can tell you — we were there for a lot of reasons.” He also emphasized how his endorsement directly boosted Mike Mazzei in Oklahoma’s gubernatorial race.

• John Thune is also heading to North Carolina to campaign for Senate hopeful Michael Whatley.

THE ADMINISTRATION

White House renovations dominated Trump’s contentious interview with Time Magazine. The president also complained about the tone of news coverage regarding his tenure, at one point swearing at the reporters.

• Asked about sending ICE agents to polling places, Trump replied, “Haven’t thought of it.”

• The Defense Department sent a letter to Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) on Wednesday, saying it has “no plan to deploy active-duty troops or Federalized National Guard to polling sites” nor interfere with “election-related materials” like ballots or voting machines.

Want dinner with the president? Buy his meme coin.

President Lee Jae Myung pushed back on Trump’s assertion that South Korea had agreed to commit hundreds of billions of dollars in new U.S. investments, including up to $54 billion for a natural gas pipeline project in Alaska.

The Interior Department is paying a Maryland landscaping company almost $3.4 million to repair turf damaged during the National Mall celebrations for America’s 250th birthday.

Funding cuts will paralyze the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s work, a department watchdog wrote in a letter.

ICE officers are ordered not to engage in high-speed car chases and to make vehicle stops only if they have completed specific training, under new internal guidance.

THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

For the first time this decade, Republicans are leading Democrats in broadcast spending in more than four Senate battlegrounds through the end of September, ad-tracking service AdImpact reported.

• Republicans outspent Democrats by $188 million and led Senate battleground spending by 26% — but only saw an advantage of 7% in actual broadcast airings.

Three billionaires have given Wisconsin Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany a big cash boost ahead of his gubernatorial election.

THE COURTS

The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that will determine whether the Trump administration can detain millions of immigrants without bond hearings.

A federal judge ruled that Trump lacks the authority to fire court-appointed U.S. attorneys, Politico reports.

The DOJ is reviewing whether the special prosecutor’s office that investigated the famed Watergate break-in committed misconduct, The Wall Street Journal reports, decades after that the scandal led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

WHAT’S THE TEA

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