Trump Moves to Fund Putin’s War While Betraying Ukraine (ft. Sarah Longwell)

Jessica Tarlov is joined by The Bulwark’s Sarah Longwell, host of the Focus Group podcast, and NYT bestselling author of How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time — for a wide-ranging conversation 22 days before the midterms.

They open with Ukraine and Russia, where Trump is claiming there is now an “energy ceasefire” — even as senators from both parties call on him to reverse plans to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian diesel. Sarah breaks down the current state of the Ukraine war, whether Trump really thought a Putin energy deal would go over well domestically, and what Trump’s weekend comments that Ukraine needs a new president mean for the relationship with Kyiv and America’s allies.

Sarah also talks about how all of this information means an opportunity for Democrats, and whether they can capitalize on it in the midterms. 

Elon Musk is running a misinformation operation at home. Election officials in Colorado and Washington have warned about misleading texts from Musk’s America PAC asking voters to confirm “ballot requests” they never made. The PAC also runs VoteSafe.org, a registration site that collects and may share users’ personal information. And Musk amplified a false claim — pushed by conservative commentators including Spencer Pratt and GOP strategist Caroline Wren — that Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico had been at an Ohio mental health facility rather than recovering from the flu at home. Both Talarico’s campaign and the facility denied the claim. 

Federal agents raided the Washington residence of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) Monday as the Trump administration investigates her immigration paperwork — 22 days before the midterms, raising immediate questions about DOJ policy against election-period interference. No findings of wrongdoing have been announced, and Rep.  Omar denounced the raid as the “weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies.”

There is ongoing controversy over whether the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed — which would make it the first military execution since 1961. Trump has said he hasn’t made a final decision after the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced their intentions, and Vice President Vance is now distancing himself from Hegseth’s position. 

The White House has a new press secretary: conservative lawyer and commentator Katie Zacharia, who takes over from Karoline Leavitt. The Bulwark reported that Zacharia