The Gov Hub Newsletter: March 24, 2026

Over the weekend, 49 Republicans in the Senate voted down funding TSA, further pushing airports in full on chaos mode, with travelers waiting in multi-hour lines that wrapped outside, many missing their flights. Trump, in response, sent in untrained ICE agents with the task of checking people’s papers before they even get to TSA. The agents, so far, have done a mix of walking around like a bunch of overstuffed hall monitors, and running away from being photographed. Trump then further chimed-in on the sitch, blaming Dems on one-hand, while telling Republicans he won’t greenlight any funding for TSA until they pass the voter suppression bill, the SAVE Act, that he wants to use to sway the midterm elections. **ICYMI, the DHS shutdown is over ICE funding, with the shutdown blocking additional taxpayer money being poured into the pockets of Trump’s goon squad. TSA agents have not been paid in weeks as a result of the shutdown.

Trump is raising eyebrows amongst the Wall Street crowd and yet again fielding TACO accusations [“Trump always chickens out”], as well as market manipulation accusations. The accusations stem from a mix of his Truth Social fingers and a back-and-forth [mostly with himself but in public] on threatening to bomb the IRGC’s power grid in retaliation for the IRGC keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed. His back-and-forth, which landed on him telling the Pentagon to hold off on the bombing for five days, based on talks that he claimed happened over the weekend with the IRGC, changed the markets, poising them for the up and up… until the IRGC came out and said that Trump was 1. A liar and 2. Those talks never happened. …and then went the markets…back down. 

Joe Kent, who came to GOP notoriety for his keeping company like the Proud Boys and Nick Fuentes, along with two failed Congressional runs, is back in the news for quitting his job in the Trump Admin as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. The exit, which he branded to be about the IRGC war, found Kent on an eppy of fellow right-winger Tucker Carlson’s podcast, where Kent claimed that he was blocked from investigating Charlie Kirk’s assassination further. 

The treatment of red states and blue states, and the difference between the two is evident as hell in numbers shared by Politico that revealed that the Trump Admin has only approved 23% of blue state requests for disaster aid in contrast with approving 89% of disaster aid requests in red states.

NPR has found at least six people who were arrested without provocation by ICE and then reported being swapped for their DNA. Per NPR’s reporting, while the federal government does have “broad authority” to take DNA from people that have either committed crimes or that they’ve arrested, it does appear that there’s a growing gray area or exemplification of overreach, with many people sharing that they haven’t even remotely done any of the crimes that ICE is claiming they are and/or are allegedly falsely arresting them for.

Filed under the domino-effect of consequences from ICE’s actions: a U.S. Army reservist, who flies Black Hawk helicopters has forgone staying current with his training requirements since ICE detained his wife in late December when she went in for her routine check-in with ICE in Houston, Texas. The situation to keep his wife in the country is a race against the clock before her next time before a judge on April 1, 2026, which could result in her being deported – mind you, if she’s deported, she’ll be sent to Ecuador, despite being an asylum seeker from Venezuela. 

Despite a penchant for violent rhetoric, a beef with Senator Rand Paul [R-KY], and a reality that seems to conjure up the belief that dueling is still legal, Senator Markwayne Mullin [R-OK] has been confirmed by the Senate to lead DHS [formerly Kristi Noem’s job]. 

Far-right conspiracy theorist and certified weirdo, the current lead at FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, Gregg Phillips, claims that he was teleported to a Waffle House in Rome, Georgia, on the way to church. In his tale, he claims his car was “lifted up.” Phillips said of the incident – hold your laughter, I dare you – “Teleporting is no fun.”

Irony appears to be alive and well, following what appeared to be a flop of a launch for Polymarket’s situation monitoring bar during the opening night of its pop up. The boots on the ground reports shared that the spot designed for crypto bros who’ve left Miami, didn’t have internet or power, causing a major delay – and when doors opened, most of the activations inside i.e. “situation operating tv’s” were off.

In an emerging and incredibly strange, yet on-brand story, Courier Newsroom is reporting that a journal entry of RFK Jr.'s has revealed that he cut off a dead raccoon’s penis while his kids allegedly waited for him in the car.

The former de facto leader of DOGE – a sh*t storm effort that was found to have reduced the federal deficit by $0 – Elon Musk, was found  liable by a jury for deliberately driving down Twitter’s stock price and misleading investors. Elon separately took that very platform to tell users that they should use his AI chatbot, Grok when doing their taxes. 

In Florida, where banning things is seemingly top of mind, the state legislature failed to pass a ban on marrying your first cousin. Notably, marrying your cousin is legal in 15 other states, including a few blue states.

The White House spent time and energy on this project – bringing a statue of Christopher Columbus to its grounds.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell shared that job creation in the U.S.’s private sector has slowed to basically Z E R O. The assessment Powell revealed also that in addition to decreased labor demand, the labor force has been flat in terms of growth.

The U.S. national debt has broken new records – not in a good way. It has now surpassed $39 trillion with a T, adding $1 trillion in just five months.

The race against data centers eating up towns whole continues, including as Spotlight PA reports in Archbald, PA, where six data centers are being proposed. The six, if they go forward, would cover 14% of the whole town, be located next to residential areas, and evict an entire trailer park amidst a housing crisis. 

In the same vein as above, Fed Chair Jerome Powell shared that consumers are correct in blaming data centers for making their bills more expensive, as well as for the inflation they’re seeing.

The largest water utility in Alabama, Central Alabama Water announced that it’s no longer going to be putting fluoride in the water. By the numbies, that’s 770,000 residents who will no longer have fluoride in their water. 

With the goal of keeping the doors open across 30 Planned Parenthood locations in mid-California and Northern Nevada, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte announced that they’re starting to offer Botox, IV drips, fillers, and laser hair removal. The med-spa style service offerings are focused on addressing a $100M revenue shortfall caused by federal budget cuts [Republicans].  

A Georgia woman -- Alexia Moore -- has been charged with attempted murder under the state’s restrictive abortion law, the LIFE Act, which bans abortion at six-weeks. Moore, a 31-year-old Army veteran, was arrested after giving birth to a severely premature baby who survived for about two hours following an ER visit. Authorities allege Moore attempted an illegal abortion, charging her with attempted murder and possession of a controlled substance and dangerous drug. The mother of a six-and nine-year-old now sits behind bars.

The Recount received and published an exclusive video of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary at the HHS National Conference on Women’s Health that happened on March 12, 2026. And when you roll the tapes as they say, Makary is seen saying loud and proud that, “he would not give his “young baby” antibiotics “unless he is on his deathbed or suffering.”

NJ Gov. Mikie Sherrill [D] learned how to make pizza and flip some dough from the best of them at Carluccio’s in Northfield, NJ, and took viewers along with her.

Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari [D-AZ] spoke about the absolutely horrific conditions detainees at ICE detention facilities are facing, and described what she witnessed as “modern day slavery.”

MI Gov. Gretchen Whitmer [D] shared who she loves - hint: he’s from 8 Mile.

Senator Chris Van Hollen [D-MD] snapped a pic of the gas prices near him and then hit post to grid, revealing these insane prices per gallon.

A gaggle of Real Housewives across franchises took to the Hill last week to advocate for making PrEP accessible, whether someone has insurance or not. Spottings included Melissa Gorga [RHONJ] and Erika Jayne [RHOBH] who chatted with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell [D-MI]

MD Gov. Wes Moore [D] dropped a grilling ASMR Reel on IG and tbh, it’s giving big summer countdown energy.

According to the Miami Herald, a federal corrections officer at the prison Epstein was being held at, called the FBI to report a suspicious amount of documents being shredded and tossed just days after Epstein’s death. In the report, the officer shared that the behavior he witnessed seemed strange and that the quantities of shredded documents seemed extreme. Interestingly, as shared in this Forbes explainer, a man who was ID’d as removing some of the shredded documents, had told the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General that he didn’t have any info on what was shredded…

Amongst the recently released docs from the Epstein Files, is a check from the former head of Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, Nick Ribis to Epstein in 2018 [when Trump was president, btw] for $158,025.

SecDef Pete Hegseth was handed an “L” by U.S. District Judge Paul Freidman when he ruled that several parts of the Defense Department’s restrictive press policy are unconstitutional. The provisions that got the “X” in the ruling, ones that had allowed the Pentagon to suspend or revoke press credentials based on the reporting journalist churned out. In response to the ruling, the Pentagon has said it’s not only going to appeal, but it’s going to close the ‘Correspondents’ Corridor,’ where reporters typically have worked from, as a more “creative” way of controlling the narratives leaving the building.

Circa December 2025, RFK Jr. made statements that essentially warned hospitals and medical professionals that if they provided gender affirming care, they could face federal funding consequences – think Medicare and Medicaid. Following that, 21 states sued the Department of Health and Human Services, arguing that they had sprinted past the required rule-making procedures. Fast forward to now, a federal judge in Oregon – Mustafa Kasubhai – agreed with the coalition of states, ruling in their favor, while underscoring that RFK Jr. has overstepped his legal authority with his statements. 

NJ Gov. Mikie Sherrill and NJ AG Jennifer Davenport have teamed up with the Township of Roxbury, to jointly sue ICE and DHS to block their plans to turn a vacant warehouse into a massive detention facility. The lawsuit alleges that ICE and DHS failed to address environmental, infrastructure, and public safety concerns, nor did they properly evaluate the site's suitability.

The Chicago Transit Authority is suing the Trump Admin after $2.1 billion in infrastructure funding was frozen, stopping planned updates to key train lines in their tracks. In its complaint, the CTA has argued that the move was political retaliation tied to the government shutdown this past fall, while federal officials claim the agency failed to meet new standards on DEI. The CTA maintains it followed both past and current federal requirements and is seeking to restore the funding via the lawsuit.

The Spokesman-Review: Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco seizes more than half a million ballot

Esquire: In Case It Wasn’t Clear, Joe Kent Is a Wing Nut

The Hill: Lyme disease vaccine 70 percent effective: Pfizer

Politico: The Epstein files’ cottage industry