Today’s notice: The privacy cost of Trump TV. Parts of MAGA reel over the China summit. John Brennan’s parallel legal woes. The GOP’s Senate plan that’s gone sideways. And: The AI bros celebrate data centers.
THE LATEST
The White House app got very popular as the administration launched its own 24/7 stream amid Donald Trump’s newest effort to choose who gets to cover him. Social media channels teased “something’s coming” in the lead up to the launch of Trump TV, and that something came with a hefty privacy price.
The White House app covertly collects excessive user data and shares it with third-party trackers while sidestepping federal security rules, The Washington Sun’s Gavin J. Quinton reports. For example, the app includes scripts to monitor a user’s location several times per minute.
Trending
While networks halted their pool coverage in solidarity with the White House’s banned media outlets, the Trump administration heralded the app as a legitimate source for news.
“The people who do want to hear that message are going to the White House for it, and in doing so, they’re giving up a lot of information about themselves, and that provides the White House with an advantage going into the midterms,” Philip Fields, a cybersecurity researcher and former FBI intelligence analyst who has researched the app, told Gavin.
Cybersecurity experts have tried to sound the alarm about the app since its release in March, and pushback over its security forced White House developers to delegate tracking software to third-party services.
The app is already preloaded on government-furnished mobile devices across the executive branch and has more than 2 million downloads, but where the user data ends up and what it’s being used for remains a mystery. The White House did not respond to requests for comment and left its app-store-required “privacy manifest” completely blank — implying it collects no data from users despite contradicting findings from cybersecurity experts.
“The bottom line is this app is just not very stable or secure,” said Joseph Gera, a former Apple App Store developer and senior platform engineer. “It’s asking for your location data in real time. It also asks for personal information to access your financial data, to access your messages, to access all kinds of information.”
More: MLB Pitched the Trump Administration About a Game in a National Park • Trump’s Approval Rating Hits a Historic Low Going Into the Midterms • DHS Denies Agents Were Told to Stand Down Arrests for Non-Criminals • Five Men Arrested on Suspected Terrorism Near a U.K. Air Base Used by the U.S.
Open tabs:
- Bill Gates says AI ‘powerful enough’ to cause ‘a billion deaths’ (NBC)
- These Democrats are making Christianity a centerpiece of their campaigns (NPR)
- In Knoxville, cheers for Trump — and some quiet doubts (WaPo)
- Philadelphia’s DA, the Dean of Progressive Prosecutors, Has His Own Legal Trouble (WSJ)
FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
MAGA vs. MAGA on China visit: “It is astonishing what is going on right now — Trump is functionally a China dove right now,” a Trump administration ally told The Sun, illustrating the thinking of a cadre of Trump supporters who were enraged by the optics of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit last week. Our Jeff Stein reports those disaffected, including Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer, are going public with their concerns, and voicing them privately to the White House.
Surprisingly, Peter Navarro, one of the most vocal China hawks in the president’s orbit, defended the red carpets, fawning toasts and blue ribbon tour of D.C. as part of a consistent strategy to pressure China. “Frequent one-on-one meetings allow POTUS to express obvious concern and at times displeasure with promises made but unkept, and this helps keep things on track,” he told The Sun in a statement.
More: A 2024 Trump Campaign Ad Is the Latest Taxpayer-Funded Messaging • Trump Says He Has Reversed Biden-Era Fuel Efficiency Standards • White House Bars CNN From Air Force One • Trump Rejects Iran’s Proposal to Reopen the Strait of Hormuz
FROM THE DOJ
The John Brennan squeeze: The former CIA director and focus of Trump’s vendetta is facing two separate, parallel federal criminal investigations. In Florida, Brennan has been subpoenaed as a “subject,” or someone under investigation but not yet accused of a crime, in a far-reaching investigation into whether Trump had his civil rights violated. In D.C., federal prosecutors are pursuing criminal charges against Brennan as a “target,” or a likely defendant, in an investigation into lying to Congress. This is not a normal approach, The Sun’s Jose Pagliery reports.
“Either they don’t know what they’re doing, or … it could be a Trumpian strategy to just make life as miserable and legally expensive as possible, even in cases you can’t possibly win,” Robert Weisberg, a Stanford Law School professor, told Jose.
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
The Republican’s Senate map ain’t what it used to be: Earlier this year, the party had a straightforward view of the midterms, The Sun’s Al Weaver writes. The plan was to compete and limit damage in a trio of battleground states (Georgia, North Carolina and Maine), while successfully playing defense in Republican territory and limiting big financial outlays where they didn’t have to. That plan is going sideways. Al dives into the battleground races to detail how surprising the current polling moment is.
NEW ON THE WASHINGTON SUN
‘Virginia is for Servers’: While three-quarters of Americans oppose local data centers, hundreds of people lined up over the weekend in D.C. to celebrate the very infrastructure that communities are fighting tooth and nail. The Sun’s Mara Hoplamazian and Emily Kennard take us inside the AI bro party at PubKey, planned as counterprogramming against what the invite called a “bipartisan psychosis” over data centers. Partygoers included engineers, the executives of small AI-driven companies and nonprofits, the owner of a bitcoin mining operation, federal workers and trade group representatives.
A few protesters got kicked out, but overall, organizers said it was better than conversing over social media. Mara and Emily reported that the “Loudoun County Iced Tea,” an homage to Virginia’s data center alley, was peach-forward and watery, with a flat finish.
More: Former Employees Say the Kennedy Center Put Off Repairs Despite Known Structural Issues • Ranchers Criticize ICE Raids for Disrupting Livestock Operations • OpenAI Says Rogue AI Agents Accessed Government Websites
NOT US
- ‘Zombified’ C.D.C., Hobbled by Cuts, Struggles to Fulfill Scientific Mission, by Apoorva Mandavilli for The New York Times
- Men who allegedly targeted Trump’s UFC fight converged online. Most never met. By Olivia George for The Washington Post
- The Cost of Transporting Pretty Much Everything Just Won’t Stop Going Up, by Esther Fung, Laura Cooper and Costas Paris for The Wall Street Journal
WEEK AHEAD
Today
The Senate is expected to vote on the Protect College Sports Act.
Tuesday
Former special counsel Jack Smith is set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
U.S. import bans on certain Canadian goods take effect.
Wednesday
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to give a “State of the Force” speech.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee holds a hearing on “Rogue AI.”
Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton face off in a California gubernatorial debate.
Thursday
Maine congressional candidates, Republican Paul LePage and Democrat Matt Dunlap, participate in a debate.
Friday
Monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report released.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear visits South Carolina.
A WASHINGTON SUN EVENT
Join us for a live podcast taping of The Washington Sun Cast featuring Igor Bobic, Kadia Goba and Paul Kane. They’ll open their reporter’s notebooks for a 2026 midterm preview, and share what they’re hearing on Capitol Hill, on the campaign trail and what the election results could mean for Congress, including the lame-duck session and the final stretch of the congressional year. Request an invite at inviterequest@WashSun.com.
Presented by BGR Group.
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The newsletter was produced by Thomas Burr and Gaby Morera Di Núbila.
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