The Gov Hub Newsletter: March 17, 2026

The GOP civil war has opened up a new battle between its talking heads, Megyn Kelly and Mark Levin, with Kelly lobbing ‘micro penis’ accusations at Levin. Prior to the micro-ween bomb drop, Levin referred to Kelly as "emotionally unhinged, lewd, petulant wreck.” Somewhere in there, Marjorie Taylor Greene got involved, backing up Kelly’s side, with a Tweet that included “MAGA destroyed by micro penis Mark Levin. Um… yea.. So, anyways… 

MAGA has been falling for an AI-generated avatar named Jessica that posts AI-generated pics of “her” with Trump, in military installations, delivering political speeches, and most notably showing her “feet” – like the ones that earn the avatar cash on OnlyFans. The IG account for the AI avatar that has MAGAs and men of every age tricked, has 1M followers… and the comments are something else.

Jake Paul, the right-wing YouTuber known for attempting to create a boxing career for himself and certainly not hiring the right hairstylist, joined Trump at a rally in Kentucky. During the rally, where Paul sweated through his suit jacket, Trump gave him an endorsement in advance for the when/if Paul decides to run for office in the future. 

In a lunch with the Kennedy Center board, sitting alongside Speaker Mike Johnson [R-LA], Trump openly revealed that GOP Congressman Neal Dunn’s [FL] initial diagnosis was terminal, saying “he would be dead by June,” had he [Trump] not called in a favor with White House doctors to operate. Johnson tried to play the cleanup crew, following Trump’s statement with the note that that info hadn’t been public. 

The City of Social Circle, Georgia has cut off water and sewer services to a warehouse purchased by DHS that DHS plans to turn into a detention facility. From the jump, the city has said that it doesn’t have the water and sewer infrastructure capabilities to handle a 3x on its existing population, and has asked ICE continuously for details on how it would not exceed the infrastructure's capacity – according to reporting by WSB-TV2, ICE has failed to provide the city with any info. The result ATM, is the city has said that the water and sewer will remain off for the warehouse until they’re provided with more info.

An Afghan father – Mohammed Nazeer Paktiawal – who served alongside and assisted U.S. troops in Afghanistan, was picked up by ICE and died in custody less than 24-hours later. According to his family, Paktiawal was dropping his kids off at school in Richardson, Texas when he was surrounded, put into a car, and detained; the family also said that he was in the country legally and had a pending immigration case. ICE has claimed that Paktiawal didn’t provide a record of his military service, and that he’d been arrested previously for fraud and theft – something that CBS News couldn’t confirm or find record of.

According to reporting from NBC News, as of January 2026, 900 children had been  held in family detention for longer than 20 days, with 270 of those kids being confirmed for more than twice as long. The 20-day metric is particularly of note, because, per a 1985 class action suit and eventual 1997 settlement, the Flores Settlement Agreement, “children may be held only for the time reasonably necessary to arrange their prompt release or deportation – a process that federal courts have interpreted to mean no longer than 20 days. Naturally, the Trump Admin has been trying to overturn the Flores Settlement Agreement.

With 58% of Americans saying that the Trump Admin’s approach to deportations has gone too far, the White House told Republicans at a retreat in Florida last week to avoid “talking about mass deportations” ahead of the midterm elections.

Last week, the University of Florida shut down the school’s College Republicans chapter after a photo of two of the club’s members circulated showing them doing a Nazi salute. And this week, the chapter [UF College Republicans] is suing the university for shuttering the club, claiming that in doing so – despite the salute and other patterns of behavior being a violation of the university’s policies – that the university was violating the club’s First Amendment rights.

At another place of higher education, Georgetown University College Republicans are under fire for a tweet they sent out saying “Muslims have no place in American society.” The post was deleted, and this statement [shared in caption] was released in response to coverage of the Tweet.

The GOP’s Nazi issue was yet again in the spotlight when their pride and joy, far-right YouTube Nick Shirley re-shared a video from a fellow far-right YouTuber, that was framed as documenting the “Jewish invasion of New Jersey.” Translation: The fellow far-right YouTuber, Tyler Oliveira went to a traditionally Jewish town, harassing residents and accusing them of welfare fraud. The Democratic Party’s left-wing antisemitism was also on display in the response to the situation with known antisemite Hasan Piker commenting on his fellow content creator’s POVs.  

A new rule from the Trump Admin is expected to result in an estimated 200,000 immigrant truck drivers losing their commercial driver’s licenses as they expire, starting this week. The policy, which comes from Trump’s Department of Transportation, will now prohibit asylum seekers, refugees, and DACA recipients from obtaining or renewing commercial driver’s licenses. The move is expected to increase prices for consumers, and further strain the trucking industry, which according to reporting from The Washington Post, is responsible for 70% of freight moved across the U.S. 

Diesel prices have risen above $5 a gallon, rising to the highest price in four years. The pain at the pump is set to namely impact the trucking industry, making transporting goods, like food, more expensive. 

Following remarks by Trump’s National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on CNBC where he said that the economic squeeze caused by Trump’s war in the Middle East is “the last concern” for the Trump Admin, Congressman Ted Lieu [D-CA] suggested that Hassett be sent to  swing districts around the country to speak. 

According to reporting from Semafor, the Pentagon is recruiting from Wall Street’s ranks, with the goal of assembling a 30-person team of investment bankers to deploy $200 billion+ in defense-focused investments allegedly with the goal of countering China. The document that shared the deats, was apparently put together by Heidrick & Struggles, and positions the roles as a way to get access to high-level gov officials and foreign royal families, gov secrets, and connections for them to raise capital for their own ventures in the future. In short, as shared by Congressman Mike Levin [D-CA], “This is the swamp.”

The former-ish Kennedy Center turned focus of the current president’s narcissism, following an unanimous vote by the Trump-appointed board, will close after July 4, 2026 celebrations for a two-year, $250M renovation. Notably, Congressman Joyce Beatty [D-OH], an ex-officio board member for the Center, had sued with the goal of being allowed to attend the meeting, was granted that right by a judge, but was not granted the right to vote on the matter. 

Senator Dick Durbin [D-IL] and Congressman Jamie Raskin [D-MD] have referred former-ish Homeland Sec. Kristi Noem to Trump’s DOJ for lying under oath during her oversight hearings in the House and the Senate on March 3rd and 4th, 2026. Since this is Trump’s DOJ, DHS responded by calling the Dems liars and saying that the DOJ isn’t going to pursue a criminal investigation. 

Two former DOGE employees' depositions that were released as part of a civil lawsuit related to funding cuts, revealed that they used ChatGPT to identify and cut grants involving “DEI.” Additionally, they defended what they claimed to be the goal of reducing the federal deficit to zero, despite not reducing the federal deficit at all. One of the deposition moments going viral is Justin Fox defending qualifying a documentary on Holocaust survivors as DEI, as well as another where he can’t even define the term “DEI.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey [D] clapped back at a corner of the internet for his support of his city’s multi-cultural communities with this car chat featuring yap on gingers and leprechauns. 

Congressman Dan Goldman [D-NY]  took a pit stop in the EV to try out the best of neighborhood icon Veselka's menu, alongside Adrij Dobriansky.

Spotted at the Frick Collection’s Young Fellows Ball: Jack Schlossberg wearing an almost all-black ensemble. 

Out yonder, Congressman Joe Neguse [D-CO] visited the Walking Donkey and fed him peppermint molasses treats.

Three teenagers in Tennessee have filed a class action lawsuit in California against Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, accusing it of enabling the creation of nonconsensual explicit images and videos for them as minors. According to the complaint, the perpetrators used a third-party app powered by xAI’s underlying technology–not its chatbot Grok or Twitter–to make the content. Those suing argue that xAI licensed its AI tools to external developers, including those located out of the U.S., in a way that may have allowed the company to avoid legal responsibility for misuse. The lawsuit marks a major first – the first time minors depicted in alleged AI-generated child sexual abuse material have taken legal action directly against xAI.

A federal judge – U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy – has blocked core tenants of RFK Jr.’s effort to overhaul the nation’s childhood vaccine policy, including plans to reduce recommended vaccines. The lawsuit was brought forth by medical groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics, which argued that changes were not only illegal, but would harm public health. Murphy’s ruling noted that the federal officials had ditched long-standing science-based processes, and thus undermined the credibility of their policy changes. In addition, Murphy hit stop on RFK Jr’s newly appointed vaccine advisory panel after concluding that it wasn’t created legally, and voided a number of its decisions. 

U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks has permanently blocked several Arkansas school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. Brooks ruled that the law violates the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, as well as, the religious freedom of the plaintiffs. To note, the ruling impacts several school districts but isn’t a statewide ban.

There might be another moment for AG Pam Bondi to say the “Dow is over 50,000” after being subpoenaed by House Oversight Chair, Congressman James Comer [R-KY] to testify before Congress in April over handling of the Epstein files. 

Last week, Richard Kahn aka Epstein’s long-time accountant and man who has been called “Epstein’s fixer,” testified behind closed doors in front of the House Oversight Committee. During the testimony, he claimed he was unaware of Epstein’s wrongdoings while working for him. Meanwhile, House Oversight Chair, Congressman James Comer [R-KY] shared that Kahn was able to ID several people and entities who paid Epstein, such as Les Wexner and Glenn Dubin.

According to Reuters, circa 2023 a foreign hacker breached an FBI server and accessed files tied to the Epstein investigation. Specifically the reporting calls out that the hack happened when a server at the FBI’s NY Field Office was "left vulnerable” by a special agent in February 2023, and that he discovered a text file that warned him that his network had been compromised. 

The Wall Street Journal has pulled together this cheat sheet of 40 of the most famous names mentioned throughout the Epstein Files, as well as the teeny-tiny list of those that have faced even a dash of accountability professionally speaking.

In a move that clearly wasn’t run by anyone that spends time on 2026’s internet, Hillary Clinton launched Epstein deposition-themed merch that shares one the lines she said response to Congresswoman Lauren Boebert [R-CO] sharing a pic of her to a far-right influencer: “hold me in contempt until the cows come home.”