Trump’s Surprising Ties to Another Russian Disinfo Scheme

Another burgeoning conservative outlet has been tied to Russia, with former advisers to Donald Trump coordinating directly with contributors for Kremlin state media.

Former Trump policy aide George Papadopoulos and his wife, Simona Mangiante, have become involved with Intelligencer, a growing conservative site heavily critical of the war in Ukraine (the right-wing site has no apparent connection with New York magazine’s Intelligencer). Nearly half of the company’s board members are former aides, surrogates, or fake electors for Trump’s previous campaigns, The Guardian reported Thursday.

The site’s financial backing did not indicate that it had received funds directly from the Kremlin. Instead, Intelligencer began as a subsidiary of a right-wing radio station in Australia that covers a host of conservative U.S. issues, including climate change denial and Covid-19 conspiracies, until George Eliason, an American journalist with experience in Ukraine, took over the website. In recent months, Intelligencer’s conspiracy-laden articles have been shared by the likes of Alex Jones and former Trump aide Roger Stone.

“Intelligencer appears to be one of several [Russia-friendly] operations targeting the upcoming U.S. elections, leveraging a network of far-right figures and disinformation tactics,” Olga Lautman, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told The Guardian.

Intelligencer is far from the only conservative site that’s been busted in a recent government crackdown ahead of the November election. Earlier this month, another pro-Trump media group—Tenet Media—folded under the pressure of a Justice Department investigation that found the company had been backed to the tune of millions of dollars from Russian state-controlled media.

The DOJ indictment accused Tenet and its founders of receiving nearly $10 million from employees of Russia Today as part of “a scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.

The Russian funds paid for videos by popular far-right personalities, including podcaster Tim Pool and Lauren Southern. Pool described himself as a “victim” in the Tenet scandal.

The switch to utilizing more overt methods to sway American voters, including relying on conservative influencers, is a decidedly new strategy for Russian propaganda outfits.

“Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has increasingly been forced to rely on networks of proxies and influencers whose conspiracist ‘brand’ generates income and audiences through social media monetization and some of whom Russia has now been caught covertly subsidizing,” Emma Briant, an associate professor of news and political communication at Monash University in Australia, told The Guardian.

But while conservative media tried to wash its hands of the Tenet scandal, the Trump campaign did not, with Trump campaign senior adviser Alina Habba chalking the indictment up to another “hoax.”

“A $10 million payment to some podcasters who had no idea from some ties allegedly to Russia is now going to make a spin on Russia backing Trump,” Habba told Fox News last week.

Speaking to the press Wednesday in front of a crowd of his supporters in North Carolina, J.D. Vance escalated his attacks on immigrants, claiming that even those here legally are in fact “illegal” and subject to deportation.

A reporter asked Vance about the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, whom he falsely accused of killing and eating pets. As the reporter noted, the majority of those immigrants are legally in the United States under Temporary Protected Status, so they wouldn’t be subject to a future Trump administration’s plans to deport all undocumented immigrants. 

Vance’s response was that he still considered them “illegal,” calling the question “a media and Kamala Harris fact-check.”

“Now the media loves to say that the Haitian migrants … they are here legally. And what they mean is that Kamala Harris used two separate programs: mass parole and temporary protective status. She used two programs to wave a wand and to say, ‘We’re not going to deport those people here,’” Vance said. 

“Well, if Kamala Harris waves the wand illegally, and says these people are now here legally, I’m still going to call them an illegal alien. An illegal action from Kamala Harris does not make an alien legal. That is not how this works,” Vance added as his supporters cheered. 

Vance’s remarks Wednesday are in line with his attacks on legal immigration on CNBC last week, claiming that “if the path to prosperity was flooding your nation with low-wage immigrants, then Springfield, Ohio, would be the most prosperous city in the world.” 

This stance flies in the face of what Vance was saying years before he entered politics. In 2012, Vance attacked the Republican Party’s immigration policies at the time, saying that a plan to mass deport “millions of unregistered aliens … fails to pass the laugh test.”  It also flies in the face of the fact that his wife, Usha, is the daughter of Indian immigrants. 

Vance’s North Carolina remarks are disturbing, as he is now calling legal immigrants illegal without knowing anything about how they entered the country, claiming that they were magically made legal by the Biden administration in an illegal action. If Trump or another Republican “waved a magic wand,” it’s doubtful that Vance would be making the same claim. It also sends the message that the chaotic and inhumane immigration policies from Trump’s first administration would be even worse if he is elected again.

On Monday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago following the attempt on Trump’s life. Two days later, the Republican presidential nominee is publicly pressuring Johnson and his fellow Republicans in Congress to follow his orders on the spending bill, pushing the entire country to the brink of a government shutdown.

On Wednesday, the House is set to vote on a continuing resolution to extend government funding—to which Johnson is attaching the SAVE Act, a MAGA-backed bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.

The spending plan with the SAVE Act attached is expected to fail, and, as NOTUS reports, “at that point, the question is whether [Johnson] can just bring up a clean continuing resolution to avoid a shutdown, or if he’ll have to engage in more … ‘failure theater.’”

On Wednesday afternoon, Trump chimed in on Truth Social, exhorting Republicans to take a hard line on the SAVE Act. “If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” Trump wrote, recklessly indifferent to the prospect of a government shutdown.

Trump’s post asserted, baselessly, that “Democrats are registering Illegal Voters by the TENS OF THOUSANDS,” and concluded, “BE SMART, REPUBLICANS, YOU’VE BEEN PUSHED AROUND LONG ENOUGH BY THE DEMOCRATS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN.”

The Brennan Center has deemed the SAVE Act a “misguided” piece of legislation, since noncitizen voting is already illegal and “vanishingly rare.” David Dayen at The American Prospect writes that the act is largely aimed at sowing doubt about the legitimacy of the 2024 election and making “people who have the legal right to vote … too nervous about potential harassment by law enforcement to do so.”

A network of county election officials in Georgia is strategizing behind the scenes to help Donald Trump in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

The Guardian, along with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, obtained emails through a public records request from a group calling itself the Georgia Election Integrity Coalition, which includes election officials from at least five counties in the state. The emails show favoritism by the group toward Trump, as well as efforts by the group to show fraud in the 2024 elections, despite no vote yet having been cast.

Emails were sent between the officials, as well as election deniers in Georgia and around the country. These included groups like the Tea Party Patriots, or TPP, and the Election Integrity Network, or EIN, a group founded by former Trump adviser Cleta Mitchell. Members include Michael Heekin, a Republican member of the Fulton County board of elections, and his colleague Julie Adams, Debbie Fisher of Cobb County, Nancy Jester of DeKalb County, and Roy McClain of Spalding County. All of them have a history of refusing to certify election results, and Adams works directly for the TPP and EIN.

In the emails, members discuss how to combat scrutiny, in one case regarding a letter from a Democratic attorney warning officials against refusing to certify election results. Adams sent a different email under her Tea Party Patriots address with a meeting agenda including an item about a “New York Times reporter traveling to several counties in Georgia.”

Trump’s supporters on the Georgia state election board, despite facing ethics complaints, have already changed the rules to make it easier to delay or refuse to certify election results. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, despite being criticized by Trump, now says the former president’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election wasn’t a big deal. These emails show further evidence of what could be a plan to not only cast doubt on unfavorable election results in two months but also to swing the state in Trump’s favor, in a much more coordinated manner than the fake electors effort in 2020.

MAGA Republicans seem weirdly upset that inflation is going down.

The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it will cut interest rates by half a percentage point, a move that signals inflation has decreased significantly. The announcement comes after Donald Trump and J.D. Vance spent months attacking the Biden administration for high levels of inflation, even as it fell to the lowest rate in years.

At a Vance rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Ohio senator’s audience didn’t seem too happy about the change.

Vance was asked for his reaction to the Fed cutting rates, which would “alleviate inflation for a lot of people.” Before he could answer, his crowd started to boo.

This response was particularly odd considering the fact that cutting interest rates has the potential to actually be good news for everyone.

Lowering the prices of consumer goods, such as groceries, is an issue affixed at the center of the presidential race, despite the fact that it’s not necessarily within the president’s control.

There are a few reasons for what’s happening here. The first is that the crowd just plainly didn’t understand what cutting interest rates would mean. The second is the same reason that Vance responded with, saying that “a half a point is nothing compared to what American families have been dealing with for the last three years.” So, in that way, the first option and the second option are pretty much the same thing.

And then there is the third option, which was illustrated by Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville.

“The Fed’s drastic rate cut is so shamelessly political,” Tuberville wrote in a post on X. “Our nation’s central bank has no business moving rates this close to an election and is clearly trying to tip the balance in favor of Kamala Harris.”

So, good news isn’t really good news unless Trump is the one behind it. That’s what you get for trying to govern, I guess.

Donald Trump took his promise of the largest mass deportations in U.S. history to horrific new heights over the weekend, when he promised to begin a policy called “remigration.”

In one of the former president’s several outlandish missives, Trump ranted about his anti-immigrant immigration policy. Among promises to “stop all migrant flights” and “suspend refugee resettlement,” he vowed Saturday to “return Kamala’s illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration).”

Stephen Miller, the ghoul behind some of Trump’s harshest immigration policies, reshared the post. “THE TRUMP PLAN TO END THE INVASION OF SMALL TOWN AMERICA: REMIGRATION!”

Whenever Miller, with his affinity for white nationalism, backs up an immigration policy, one can usually assume it’s for the purpose of making America a white nation—and lo and behold, that’s exactly what “remigration” means.

The Associated Press described “remigration” in 2019 as “the chilling notion of returning immigrants to their native lands in what amounts to a soft-style ethnic cleansing.” Essentially, remigration would mean forcing non-ethnically European immigrants and their families to leave the U.S., even if they are citizens. The horrific policy proposal is a direct response to the racist “great replacement” theory, which has been pushed by many right-wing U.S. politicians, including J.D. Vance.

While “remigration” is not a commonly used word in U.S. politics, it is slightly more in evidence in European politics, where far-right politicians have pushed to maintain a homogeneous cultural and ethnic society.

For example, Herbert Kickl, the leader of the Austrian far-right party, advocated in June for a “remigration commissioner.” In August, Kickl urged “remigration” while introducing the party’s manifesto advocating for “homogeneity” in Austria, rather than diversity. He also has previously said that remigration could be used to revoke the citizenship of non-whites who “refuse to integrate.”

Martin Sellner, the activist head of the so-called Identitarian Movement, which extols the superiority of European ethnic groups, posted about Trump’s use of the word on X. “#Remigration has had a massive conceptual career,” Sellner wrote in German. “Born in France, popularized in German-speaking countries and now the term of the hour from Sweden to the USA!”

So did Trump know he was using the obscure language of the far right? It seems likely.

“He knows what he is doing,” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor who studies fascism and authoritarianism, told Mother Jones. “He chooses his words carefully.”

This story has been updated.

An Ohio sheriff who threatened local supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris is doubling down on his dangerous rhetoric, insisting that people need to “accept responsibility” for their political leanings.

Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski took to Facebook on Tuesday to elaborate on his controversial remarks that spurred the sudden, protesting resignation of a county commissioner from the local Republican committee.

“As the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of Portage County, I have sworn to protect ALL citizens of my County. Recently, I placed a post on my personal facebook page that may have been a little misinterpreted??” Zuchowski wrote on his official page.

“I … as the elected sheriff, do have a First Amendment right as do all citizens. If the citizens of Portage County want to elect an individual who has supported open borders (which I’ve personally visited Twice!) and neglected to enforce the laws of our Country … then that is their prerogative,” Zuchowski continued. “With elections, there are consequences. That being said … I believe that those who vote for individuals with liberal policies have to accept responsibility for their actions! I am a Law Man … Not a Politician!”

The warning came days after Zuchowski willingly threw himself into electoral politics in their yards in a Facebook post that referred to the vice president as a “Flip-Flopping, Laughing Hyena.” He suggested Friday that his constituents send him the personal addresses of locals with Harris’s campaign signs in their yards.

“I say … write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards!” Zuchowski wrote on Friday. “Sooo … when the Illegal human ‘Locust’ (which she supports!) Need places to live … We’ll already have the addresses of their New families … who supported their arrival!”

The post was seemingly made in reference to a virulent conspiracy theory spread by top Republicans, including Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, about Haitian immigrants eating other residents’ pets in Springfield, Ohio—roughly 200 miles away from Zuchowski’s district.

Since Vance and Trump began elevating the myth last week, Springfield has received at least 33 bomb threats, forcing it to evacuate and temporarily shutter several of its schools, colleges, festivals, and a significant portion of its government facilities, including City Hall, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Ohio License Bureau, the Springfield Academy of Excellence, and Fulton Elementary School.

Multiple city officials, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, and even Vance himself have stated in no uncertain terms that the conspiracy is false.

The Trump campaign would rather sow more chaos in Springfield, Ohio, over the Haitian immigrant conspiracy than make it right.

The MAGA leadership is reportedly “not displeased” that its virulently racist pet-eating conspiracy has drawn widespread condemnation, according to The Bulwark. Instead, the campaign would seemingly rather keep the topic in the news, believing Trump could win big on immigration in November as opposed to thornier issues that Republicans have routinely lost over in recent elections, such as abortion.

“We talk about abortion, we lose. We talk about immigration, we win,” one Trump adviser told The Bulwark.

Multiple city officials and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine have categorically denied the conspiracy, and local authorities have said there were no reports or evidence of pets being stolen or eaten. On Sunday, Republican vice presidential pick J.D. Vance effectively admitted himself that the anti-immigration conspiracy was bogus.

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” he told CNN.

But having no evidence and, frankly, not believing the lie themselves doesn’t seem to matter to the Trump-Vance ticket.

“We’ll take the hit to prove the bigger point,” the adviser told The Bulwark.

Springfield, the epicenter of the conspiracy, is practically on its own with regard to the fallout of becoming a national punch line. Since Vance and Trump began elevating the myth last week, Springfield has received at least 33 bomb threats, forcing it to evacuate and temporarily shutter several of its schools, colleges, festivals, and a significant portion of its government facilities, including City Hall, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Ohio License Bureau, the Springfield Academy of Excellence, and Fulton Elementary School.

Trump, meanwhile, will likely not be paying a visit to the location of his pet conspiracy, according to a source familiar with his travel who spoke with Columbia Journalism Review.

At a Tuesday night campaign rally in Michigan, Donald Trump briefly strayed from a point about international affairs to make an absurd remark about climate change.

Claiming that nuclear proliferation is the true “global warming” (even as the former president has faced criticism for accelerating the nuclear arms race), Trump said, “When I hear these people talking about global warming, that’s the global warming you have to worry about, not that the ocean’s going to rise in 400 years an eighth of an inch.”

Trump then went on to speak rosily about rising sea levels: “You’ll have more seafront property, right, if that happens. I said, is that good or bad? I said, isn’t that a good thing? If I have a little property on the ocean, I have a little bit more property—I have a little bit more ocean.”

According to a CNN fact-check of similar claims Trump has made in the past, his estimate is a severe lowball: “Sea level rise is already more than an eighth of an inch annually—and it is accelerating.” But perhaps more baffling is the idea that climate change will create more opportunities for real estate.

Shared on social media by the Kamala Harris campaign and other accounts, Trump’s comments immediately generated ridicule.

Users on X, for example, have pointed out that the Michiganders Trump was addressing would probably not “have more seafront property,” barring an impossible catastrophe in which oceans rose hundreds of feet. (In reality, climate change reportedly threatens the region in other ways, including rising lake levels.)

Reporter Tom McKay posted, “Won’t there actually be less ‘seafront’ property because the land area necessarily contracts when sea levels rise.” Jim Swift of The Bulwark shared a meme noting that rising sea levels could threaten Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

Others criticized Trump’s comments for trivializing the grave threat climate change poses to human life. The youth climate group Climate Defiance, for example, cited the World Economic Forum’s estimate that 410 million people “could be displaced or harmed by sea level rise this century.”

Senator Bernie Sanders is attempting to block over $20 billion in arms sales to Israel through a series of resolutions.

The Associated Press reports that Sanders wrote a letter to his fellow senators Wednesday saying that “we must end complicity in Israel’s illegal and indiscriminate bombing campaign, which has caused mass civilian death.”

Sanders plans to introduce the resolutions next week under Senate rules that would quickly force a vote on stopping the weapons sales. The Vermont senator is using a joint resolution of disapproval of the sales, a means of congressional oversight of foreign issues.

Sanders said he has support for the proposal, which would halt the sale of missile systems, tank rounds, new fighter jets, and other weapons responsible for the destruction in Gaza. Israel’s war in the territory has killed more than 41,000 people, including nearly 16,500 children, and injured over 95,000, according to Al Jazeera, very likely an undercount.

“We cannot ignore what the Netanyahu government has done in Gaza,” Sanders wrote, adding that “much of this carnage in Gaza has been carried out with U.S.-provided military equipment.”

“We cannot be complicit in this humanitarian disaster, we must act.”

It’s not the first effort from Sanders to halt weapons sales to Israel. In January, the Vermont senator sought to require the State Department to document human rights abuses committed by Israel after October 7, 2023. The Senate rejected that effort at the time 72–11. Similarly, this effort is a long shot and is likely to encounter significant opposition, not just in the Senate but in the Republican-controlled House.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions are considered war crimes by many experts, and the International Criminal Court is also seeking arrest warrants against him and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The response from the United States has been almost unequivocal support for Israel’s actions, and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris hasn’t offered any new solutions to end the war, instead refusing to engage on the issue.