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News for the public, not the powerful.
Trump Picks the Felon Over the Senator in Texas
Donald Trump just torched one of his own. In a bombshell Truth Social post Tuesday, the president endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s primary campaign against sitting Republican Senator John Cornyn. Trump called Paxton a “MAGA Warrior” who’s “always been extremely loyal to me.” That loyalty test is the whole game. Cornyn has the Senate establishment and most of the Republican machine behind him. Paxton has been dogged for years by public corruption scandals and personal baggage. None of it mattered. Trump was reportedly set to back Cornyn months ago, then Paxton hit him for not helping kill the filibuster to ram through Trump’s agenda, and Trump flipped. Cornyn’s real sin was simple. He wasn’t there when Trump needed him, and now he pays. A senator with a clean record gets discarded for insufficient worship while a scandal-plagued AG gets the crown. That’s not a political party anymore. That’s a loyalty cult, and the price of admission keeps climbing.
Did the Supreme Court Just Rig Itself for One Side?
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson isn’t staying quiet. Speaking to lawyers in Washington Monday, she hammered her own colleagues for an “unusual” move she says has happened maybe three times in twenty-five years. Back in late April, the conservative majority effectively gutted a core piece of the Voting Rights Act in that Louisiana congressional map case. Republicans had challenged a lower court order to draw a second majority-Black district. The court skipped its usual thirty-two-day waiting period and rushed the ruling out, and that speed cleared the runway for the GOP gerrymandering blitz now tearing across the South. Jackson was the only justice who objected. “The parties who came to us said please alter your rules,” she said, so they could “have an advantage.” In her lone dissent she wrote the court could have stayed on the sidelines and used its default rules. It chose the opposite. When the highest court in the land bends its own procedures for one party, the rule of law stops being a rule. It becomes a weapon.
Is Trump’s Own Attack Dog Now Biting Him?
Remember Ivan Raiklin? The self-styled “Secretary of Retribution,” a former Green Beret turned operative who built a “Deep State Target List” of more than three hundred fifty officials, journalists, and lawmakers he vowed to hunt down once Trump returned to power. He was a central figure in trying to overturn the 2020 election. Well, the enforcer just turned on the boss. In a post Monday, Raiklin declared flatly that “Trump has betrayed Massie and KY-04,” blasting the president’s move against Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie. The day before, he warned his quarter-million followers that the very coalition that got Trump elected in 2024 is “breaking ranks” to back Massie. He even mocked Trump as “Israeli President, Donald Trump,” ripping Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for campaigning against Massie. When a man who built a literal enemies list starts aiming it at the king himself, that tells you something. The coalition isn’t fraying at the edges. It’s cracking from the inside.
Whose Jobs Did the Deportation Machine Actually Cost?
Here’s the one they don’t want you to hear. A landmark study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, by University of Colorado economists Chloe East and Elizabeth Cox, looked at what Trump’s mass deportation surge actually did to American workers. It’s the first of its kind on the second-term ICE blitz. The promise was always that kicking out immigrants would free up jobs and raise wages for the native-born. The data says the opposite. In regions hit hardest by ICE arrests, employment fell among US-born men, especially those with a high school degree or less, in construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. In construction, the drop was about three percent, twice the average. “We see no evidence that employers increase wages to attract US-born workers,” the researchers wrote. No wage bump. No new openings. Just fewer jobs all around. Why? Because immigrant and native workers build things together, not in competition. When agents drag people out of schools and churches, employers can’t fill the work, so jobs vanish and everyone loses. The cruelty wasn’t the smart play. It was the only result, and working Americans are paying for it too.
Can the Resistance Outvote Trump in Tuesday’s Primary Bonanza?
Now to the big one. Polls are open today across Georgia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, and five fights tell the whole story.
First, Kentucky. Can Congressman Thomas Massie survive a Trump-backed challenger in his deeply conservative fourth district? Trump has made ousting Massie a personal mission. Massie has been a thorn in his side since day one of the second term, voting against Trump’s priorities for ballooning the deficit and helping force the release of the Epstein files, then ripping the administration for hiding them. That made Trump furious. His operation has poured millions in. According to The New York Times, it’s now the most expensive House primary since tracking firm AdImpact started measuring in 2018. Massie is no progressive hero. But if he wins, it’s a thunderclap rebuke of a president who’s used primary threats to keep every Republican in line. Don’t hold your breath, though. Trump’s endorsement has vanquished plenty who crossed him.
Second, Georgia turnout. Will Democrats hold their edge? They walked into Election Day with a massive fifteen-point early-voting margin. That gap narrows as Election Day voters show up, but the head start matters most in two critical state Supreme Court races. Republicans are so spooked they smeared the liberal judicial candidates just two days out, claiming they broke ethics rules by stating positions on abortion rights. It’s a lame attack, but it shows how desperate the GOP is to keep its grip on a court that could block more abortion bans and racist gerrymanders.
Third, Georgia’s open governor’s seat. Democrats have a real shot this fall. Trump’s approval is in the toilet and Democratic voters are amped to punish his party. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is the Democratic favorite. On the Republican side, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones and wealthy businessman Rick Jackson are slugging it out. A GOP poll already shows Bottoms beating either by six points. Both contests likely head to a June sixteenth runoff.
Fourth, the Senate seat. Which Republican gets to lose to Democrat Jon Ossoff? Frontrunner Mike Collins has Republicans terrified about a repeat of the Herschel Walker disaster from 2022. Governor Kemp backed former football coach Derek Dooley as more electable, but Collins still leads. A runoff is almost certain, meaning another month of Republicans bloodying each other while Ossoff sits on a giant war chest and a polling lead.
Fifth, Pennsylvania’s House battles. Four competitive races, three rated toss-ups by the Cook Political Report, could decide who controls Congress. In the first district, Democrats pick between Bucks County commissioner Bob Harvie, backed by the party, and scientist Lucia Simonelli, backed by liberal groups, against Republican Brian Fitzpatrick. In the seventh, firefighter Bob Brooks has Governor Josh Shapiro and Senator Bernie Sanders behind him, facing Ryan Crosswell, the ex-Republican who quit Trump’s Justice Department rather than drop the case against former New York Mayor Eric Adams.
Add it up. Every one of these races is a test of whether Trump’s grip is real or just loud. Today, the voters answer back, and the powerful are about to find out who’s in charge.
And that’s the way it is, Today Tuesday, May 19, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
