FiveStack LIVE: — Hegseth Purges Generals and Trump Eyes the Insurrection Act as Key Economic Approval Slumps To 26%

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5️⃣ Trump campaigns only where Republicans cannot lose

Donald Trump heads to a Peterbilt plant in Denton, Texas, and a rally in Durant, Oklahoma. "I want all of them by a lot. I'm going there just to make sure," he told reporters before leaving. Ken Paxton explained the itinerary on a leaked tape: "everyone's numbers dropped" after the Republican midterm convention. No candidate on the bubble wants Trump near their district, Zev said, because voters blame him for the price of groceries and gas. "Wherever he goes, it turns to garbage, not gold," said Anne P. Mitchell, sitting in for Dean Blundell.

4️⃣ Trump keeps Insurrection Act in reach for midterms

Trump told TIME he keeps the Insurrection Act within reach a month before the vote: "I could use it. A lot of people think I should use it sometimes." Asked about ICE agents at polling places: "Haven't thought of it." Mitchell called it the January 2025 script, built to frighten people out of voting: "If your individual vote did not count, he would not be trying so hard to suppress it." The Pentagon did its part on paper, filing emergency requests in late August to drop the overseas-ballot box, in place since 2013, for Americans who have "never lived in the United States"; the two options left require a sworn statement of intent to return, or uncertainty. Mitchell expects the states, which print the ballots, to challenge it.

3️⃣ Hegseth cuts generals, adds testosterone testing

Pete Hegseth told the generals at Quantico that he fired 10 percent of the generals and admirals, "and I know because I directed it," and cut general officer slots by another 10 percent. Then: "The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in with testosterone testing on top." Zev's question is whether the officers who would refuse to deploy into American cities are the ones going. Mitchell, an Army veteran, said she was appalled: Hegseth is building "his own troop of Hessians." Both hosts landed in the same place: the rank and file swore an oath to the Constitution, and handed an illegal order, "they're just not going to do it," Zev said.

2️⃣ Trump sinks to 26 percent on the economy

Twenty-six percent of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the economy, the American Research Group found in a poll fielded September 21; the Associated Press numbers Zev put on screen have his overall approval at 31 percent against 69. That 24-to-26 zone is where Republican senators told Richard Nixon he had to go.