The Gov Hub Newsletter: November 18, 2025

The House Oversight Dems released over 20K emails they’d received from Epstein’s estate – and the takeaways are extensive. Of the topline: Epstein was highly aware of Trump’s schedule during the first admin, to a degree where he spent Christmas with Trump at the White House and looks to have been fielding meetings with foreign leaders; Trump knew about the girls; Epstein thought Trump was gross and dumb; Epstein admitted he could bring Trump down and then he ended up dead; Epstein described a Russia-Trump money laundering scheme in Florida; Epstein seemed to have Putin’s ear; Peter Thiel, Steve Bannon, and Howard Lutnick are all mentioned and more – to search the email files by a name, check Courier’s database here.

Taking a sharp 180, Trump has now told the House to go ahead and vote to release the Epstein files. Seem odd? Yea, well, here’s the play: he’s opening a new investigation via the DOJ, which gives cover for not releasing files “in an active investigation,” and then enables him to blame the House GOP members and/or the Senate, which he’s lobbying to vote no. The fine print: he could and has been able to tell the DOJ to release the files at any point.

In Michigan, the GOP bullshit is heating up, with the current state Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, who is running for governor, making an official ask to Trump’s DOJ to oversee the state’s 2026 election. For the fine print: on the Dem side, the current Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson is also running for governor.

Amongst the Swiss execs that visited Trump recently was none other than the CEO of Rolex, who gifted Trump a massive gold-plated desk clock. Following that kiss the ring-style meeting, Trump decided to lower tariffs on imported Swiss goods from 39% to 15%. Alas, here’s the 411 on giving, accepting, and keeping gifts as a member of the executive branch. 

Trump pardoned Florida woman and Jan. 6’er, Suzanne Kaye, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for threatening to shoot the FBI agents that were seeking to interview her about her Jan. 6 activities. 

A ProPublica investigation has unveiled that FBI Director Kash Patel granted exemption waivers for taking the polygraph exam that’s part of the bureau’s standard background check process, for Deputy Director Dan Bongino, along with two other newly hired FBI staffers. The polygraph exams are normally required for gaining access to classified info. 

Sec. of Homeland Security is in hot water after an investigation revealed that DHS has invoked “a national emergency,” so that it could bypass the competitive bidding rules that are standard procedure. The bypassed rules allowed DHS to spend $220M of taxpayer dollars on an advertising campaign at an expedient rate – but that’s not all. The firm brought in for the campaign is run by the husband of DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. And it gets worse – per the investigation – the firm isn’t in federal contracting records, and $143M of the money can be found going to a new entity called Safe America Media, with the main contact for the entity being… McLaughlin.

Nicole Kidman’s ex-husband with the dated hair, Keith Urban performed Chappell Roan’s infamous song, Pink Pony Club at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago this past weekend. Must be a hella expensive divorce.

The Epstein emails continue to be a sea of WTFs of all stripes, including a claim that Trump had told his friends circa 2017 that he was banging Trump Tower’s former elevator assistant turned White House assistant, Madeleine Westerhout. The former assistant was fired at a later date when she allegedly drunkenly told reporters that Trump didn’t like taking pictures with his daughter Tiffany Trump because “he thinks she’s fat.” Anyways, that former assistant is claiming this was not the case.

Speaking of affairs of the extramarital variety, Olivia Nuzzi who allegedly got nuzzled up with RFK Jr. digitally speaking, has a new book dropping, titled “American Canto.” The book is set to cover her and brain worm guy’s alleged affair, and their admissions to one another, which includes RFK Jr. admitting that he still uses psychedelics, even smoking DMT.

Despite Trump’s executive order trying to change the name of the Dept. of Defense to the Dept. of War, it requires an act of Congress to actually make that happen [right now, think of it as a nickname of the second tier]. If that were to happen, i.e. Congress approving the change would also require an estimated $2 billion in taxpayer money to change everything from signs to letterhead, and beyond around the world.

In a case of GOP on GOP crime, Laura Loomer successfully lobbied for the withdrawal of the latest conservative pick to act as the Assistant General Counsel in the Department of Treasury, David Korb. The announcement was made on Truth Social by Trump, followed by Loomer tweeting “#LOOMERED.”

Despite an obsession with Biden using an autopen, and making it his whole personality to invalidate documents signed by Biden using an autopen, a number of pardons allegedly “signed” by Trump and posted online by the DOJ, showed an identical signature on them. The identical signatures were blamed on a “technical error,” with the copies being replaced on the DL.

Cases of the vaccine-preventable disease whooping cough are skyrocketing in Texas, with more 3,500 cases reported this year, which is the highest number of reported cases since 2013. The volume of cases has been connected with an increase in parents not getting their children vaccinated. 

A devastating new report has found that 74,000 people enrolled in experiments testing everything from cancer treatments to methods on combatting infectious diseases, have been impacted by billions in dollars funding cuts to NIH instituted via the Trump Admin, with 383 studies having their funding cut off entirely. The result? Solutions on hold and participants who’d been receiving treatments that were working, left in the dust.

A race for insights in the traditionally underfunded and underresearched arena of women’s health is underway amongst a group of mainly women-led femtech start-ups that are analyzing period blood to better understand and test for gynecological health conditions. According to The Guardian, a central pillar of the testing these companies are doing is to better diagnose conditions like Endometriosis, PCOS, Adenomyosis, Fibroids, and ovarian and endometrial cancers, and at an earlier stage.

RFK Jr. made yet another unsubstantiated claim – this time it’s blaming peanut allergies on vaccines.

Despite 1 in 3 North Carolina residents relying on Medicaid, the state's GOP lawmakers are refusing to return for a special legislative sesh called by Gov. Josh Stein [D] to address Medicaid’s funding short-fall.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has released a notice of price rates for Medicare Part B beneficiaries, and those rates are scarytown, USA – citing a 10% increase in costs for 2026.

In an Oscar-worthy performance, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro [D] mimicked the format of a day-time tv ad for a class action lawsuit with this Reel that called out GOP Senators amending the gov funding bill to include payouts for eight of them involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Of the 20K+ Epstein emails released by the House Oversight Dems, one stood out – one that had Epstein’s brother telling Jeffrey Epstein to ask Steve Bannon if Putin had “the photos of Trump blowing Bubba.” The particular email took the internet by storm because former Bill Clinton’s nickname is “bubba,” and which led to theories that Trump was Clinton’s side-piece. And while Epstein’s brother came out with a statement that the email does not refer to that bubba [while not denying that Putin has a pic of Trump blowing someone], some of the TikTok edits are too good not to share, like this one, this one and this one.

These two state AGs announced with this Reel that they’re reaching across the aisle to launch a task force on AI, with the goal of creating safeguards to protect from the dangers of AI and an industry moving at warp speed with no care for the consequences.

North Carolina State Rep. Julia Greenfield [D] did not hold back when talking about ICE coming to Charlotte, NC, calling them out for their racist, hate-driven actions.

Some Republican state senators in Indiana have been holding out and pushing back against a request from Trump to redistrict the state’s house map in the Republican’s favor [tbd on where it lands]. And that pushback led first to Trump having a primary threat-ladened Truth Social posts, followed by state Sen. Gregory Goode [R] reporting that his family had been victims of a false-swatting event at their home.

DHS announced the start of an ICE operation in Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend, which they creepily named “Charlotte’s Web.” So far, they’ve terrified people across the state’s largest city; made an arrest in a church without a warrant in front of children; stopped a U.S. citizen TWICE, breaking into his car, and tackling him to the ground; and disappeared over 100 people.

The current Sec. of Transportation Sean Duffy went on the Shawn Ryan show to declare that “a career is a false promise for girls” and that they should focus on their families. Meanwhile, his wife has a full-time career as a tv host.

In Louisiana, video footage has emerged of ICE punching a mother in a minivan as she begs them to stop.

Not to be confused with Mrs. Iglesias, a mythical character in Bridesmaids, Paul Ingrassia, a man who has admitted he has a “Nazi streak,” has landed him a promotion in the Trump Admin. The former podcaster will now lead the Office of Special Counsel, after Trump personally called him into his office to offer him the job.

The Trump Admin are trying to stop California’s new voter-approved Congressional maps, claiming it violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Mind you, that very Admin has dialed the digits of several GOP governors, asking them to redistrict their states in Trump’s favor, with Texas Gov. Abbott being the first to oblige, handing over five congressional seats to Republicans with voter approval. 

Following questionable at best assignments by the Trump Admin involving striking alleged drug traffickers [heavy emphasis on alleged], as well as deployments in U.S. cities, there’s been an increase in military service personnel seeking out legal advice from organizations like The Orders Project on the legality of their assignments.

NJ Attorney General Matt Platkin dropped deats on a new $100M settlement made with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey over claims made against the insurance giant that they had fraudulently overcharged the state for its public employee health plans. While the line items of the settlement include Horizon denying any wrongdoing, in a win for the state, the insurer is paying significantly more than the amount the state had been overcharged. 

The Trump Admin is suing California for another reason – it views the state’s ban on ICE/federal immigration officers from wearing face masks as unconstitutional, and claims that the state doesn’t have the authority to regulate federal workers.

22 states are now in or near a recession according to a new Moody’s Analytics report – these are the states on the list.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent falsely claimed in a TV appearance that the reason that beef prices are so high is because he thinks that immigrants are bringing diseased cattle with them when they come to the U.S. The actual reason for high prices? On/off again Trump tariffs, Trump selling out American cattle ranchers who are trying to re-up their herds, and climate change.

A rule proposed under the Biden Admin that would’ve required airlines to pay passengers for big-time flight disruptions [put money back in customer’s pockets], was officially killed by the Trump Admin, following an announcement of intent to do so in September. 

In an attempt to bring down price increases caused by the Trump Admin’s tariffs and other policies, the Trump Admin is rolling back its own tariffs on certain products. On the list of products getting their tariff tattoo removed are: bananas, tropical fruit, coffee, tea, beef, wood, and iron.

Trump and his crew are claiming they’re the “party of affordability” – like literally posting that on social, while also saying that affordability isn’t an issue, the economy is “great,” and things like “you’re so damn lucky I won,” in reference to the economy. Meanwhile, AP is reporting that grocery prices are 2.7% higher than they were in 2024.

Politico: These Reagan-appointed judges have had it with Trump

The Assembly: To Protest Gerrymandering, This N.C. Democrat Is Running as a Republican

The Guardian: National parks facing ‘nightmare’ under Trump, warns ex-director of service

Forbes: Americans Want Billionaires Out of Politics –And Think They’re A Threat To Democracy, Poll Shows