The Gov Hub Newsletter: October 14, 2025

A group chat more disturbing than Hegseth’s leaked war plans in Signal, has been unveiled by Politico, who obtained Telegram texts amongst Young Republicans leaderships across multiple states. The texts share their love for Hitler, gassing Jews, calling Black people monkeys, endorsing rape and torture.

In possibly the most Portland news ever, residents called for and acted on hosting an emergency edition of its annual “World Naked Bike Ride” to protest against Trump’s attempts and desires to occupy the city with the National Guard.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ former lover – who in this interview is giving ‘wants to still be his lover’ vibes – released a book that illustrates their two-year affair and what her time in the Mayor’s office was like.

MIT’s president said hard pass to the Trump Admin on a proposal that the Admin has been pressuring the school, along with eight other universities to sign. The proposal or pact rather would require the school to adopt the Trump agenda in exchange for favorable federal funding.

Only one press outlet so far has signed onto Hegseth’s new anti-free press media policy at the Defense Department, and that outlet is far-right outlet One America News [OAN]. Hegseth’s policy, which threatens to revoke press credentials for the reporters of any outlet that doesn’t sign on, had a deadline of signature of today, October 14, 2025. The new media policy is the antithesis of transparency in governance, and bans reporters that sign-on from seeking or soliciting info that hasn’t been approved by the Pentagon. This policy follows the Pentagon’s move of limiting where reporters are allowed on the grounds without an escort, as well as them having pushed reporters out of onsite workspaces. 

Steve Bannon said the quiet part out loud in this News Nation interview where he said that after the midterm elections, that they will pursue different routes to ensure that Trump is on the 2028 ballot despite that being unconstitutional [presidents are limited to two terms]. 

A 15-year old citizen from North Lake, Illinois was pulled from her car by ICE and kneeled on by ICE agents. As shared by Illinois State Rep. Norma Hernandez [D], the child had just undergone kidney surgery, and as a result of ICE’s physical attack on her, had to return to the hospital.

Spotted in Portland via reporting from Don Lemon: federal agents seen physically assaulting a protester.

ICE kidnapped non-verbal autistic teen who had gone on a bathroom break while out selling fruit with his mom. His mother reported missing and even local police couldn’t find him for six days because ICE never reported that they had him in custody.

In Jefferson County, Colorado, a massive Swastika was found on an interstate-facing hill, spurring an investigation and its removal.

Plain clothes, unidentified men that are assumed to be ICE continue to abduct people at their place of work. This instance shows them on camera tackling a market employee and taking him away.

The GOP candidate for governor in Virginia thinks that solar energy stops working when the sun goes down. No, literally, this is what she said on the debate stage last week.

Speaking of GOP candidates, the MAGA-supported, MAGA-loving Jack found himself trolled with this Reel from NJ Dems for calling women “females” like the Andrew Tates of the world and thinking it’s normal to be a Packers fan in Jersey.

Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist tapped into his Fetty Wap knowledge with this TikTok drop that Millennials will love.

Reporter Kaitlin Collins went on Jason Tartik’s podcast and talked about what it’s been like to cover Trump in general and some of its idiosyncrasies like the fact that he barely sleeps.

In the era of the run club, it should come as no surprise that candidates – runners themselves – are now running for office, and the campaign launch video for Adam Peters is no exception. Peters is running for Iowa state House.

In the year 2025, people still don’t seem to understand hot mics – and that became apparent over the long weekend when Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto was caught on a hot mic at the Gaza Peace Summit. The yap captured was him asking Trump for a business meeting with the mini Trumps [Eric and Donald Jr]  – like a business meeting where money exchanges hands and lines pockets.

The queen of misery herself, Kristi Noem filmed a government-funded video blaming Democrats for the GOP government shutdown and then sent it to airports for them to play while people went through TSA. Several airports however have announced that they will not be playing the low production value PSA because it likely violates the Hatch Act, which requires that government programs are administered in a nonpartisan way. Airports that have said nah dawg include: Portland, Las Vegas, Seattle, Phoenix, LA, Cleveland, Charlotte, and Buffalo.

In the already heavily gerrymandered in the GOP’s favor, North Carolina, has picked up the call from Trump to rig the maps some more with the goal of picking up another GOP House seat in the midterms. The state’s GOP majority state leg now plans to vote next week on redrawing the congressional maps and going after the one existing swing seat currently held by Dem Congressman Don Davis. The fine print: Dem. Gov. Josh Stein does not hold the ability to veto the redistricting plans.

The Trump Admin fired the majority of the Education Department’s special education staff. By the numbers, since Trump took office again, his crew has caused unemployment by taking the department from one with 4,100 employees to that of less than 2,000.

153 unvaccinated young students in South Carolina are currently quarantined for 21 days because they’ve been exposed to measles – a highly contagious virus that you can get vaccinated against. The outbreak currently includes 8 cases of measles, and is inclusive of two schools.

Late Friday night, the Trump Admin fired over 1,300 public health officials at the CDC – like 9pm on a holiday weekend late, including those that keep tabs on diseases like Ebola. Then just to cause more chaos, they reportedly rescinded somewhere between 600-700 of those firings, with the Admin claiming those were the result of a “coding error.” The American Federal Government Employees has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the firings.  

Similarly filed under Friday firings, the Trump Admin fired more than 100 employees at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the nation’s top dog on mental health. Meanwhile, a study from Johns Hopkins released this August showed that 1 in 10 adults in the U.S. have experienced a mental health crisis in the last year…

Mississippi experienced three mass shootings at three separate high school homecoming celebrations across the state. The gun violence resulted in the deaths of eight people. 

Missouri’s AG has subpoenaed the medical records of abortion patients from Planned Parenthood with the goal of using these records to argue in favor of limiting abortion access.

In simple math, lower food production equals higher prices for consumers, and that math is being acted out in real time according to Trump’s very own Labor Department as a result of its inhuman immigration enforcement. 

The Trump trade war with China has continued to escalate with China announcing restrictions on rare earth exports, many of which U.S. tech companies depend on. Trump retaliated by threatening to put a 100% tariff on Chinese imports, which China has reacted to by threatening  more countermeasures if Trump doesn’t back down. TBD on where this lands, but apparently Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are still set to meet this month… for now.

Trump’s tariffs have become nightmare fuel for UPS, which is now just disposing of some shipments and packages because of a backup at warehouses caused by an onslaught of confusing new customs requirements. The nightmare fuel also applies to UPS customers who now are unsure if they’ll receive their packages ranging from those of high monetary value to those of irreplaceable sentimental value.

The Trump Admin went buck wild with firings at the Treasury Department, firing 1,450 staffers.

The gender pay gap has now widened two years in a row according to new reporting. Tantamount to widening the gap are more companies mandating a return to office, which in a country with limited to no affordable childcare options is also booting more women from the workforce.

Chicago-area pastor, Reverend David Black, who sustained injuries from ICE shooting him in the head with pepper ball projectiles as he prayed outside an ICE facility, has joined a lawsuit against the Trump Admin. The lawsuit, led by the ACLU, alleges that the first amendment rights of clergy members, protesters, and media orgs on site, were not just violated by met with violence. 

In an exclusive interview with MSNBC, former VP Kamala Harris shared that she doesn’t believe that we can trust what’s currently coming out of Trump’s DOJ.

Wyoming’s Campbell County, its library board, and several officials will have to cough up $700K in a settlement with librarian Terri Lesley, who had filed a federal lawsuit alleging that they had wrongfully terminated her from her post after she refused to their bully-style campaign to force her to remove books about race and LGBTQ people.

A former typhoon spun its hell at Alaska, resulting in devastating flooding that killed one, left several missing, and displaced more than 1,000 people. First responders to the storm had to rescue 51 people, as rising waters swept homes away.

Elon Musk’s coming, Boring Co is under fire from Nevada state regulators who have accused the company of violating almost 800 different environmental regulations on a Las Vegas located tunnel project dubbed the “Tesla-powered people mover.” The violations range from beginning to dig the tunnel without approval to releasing untreated water onto Vegas streets, according to reporting from ProPublica.

The Trump Admin has canceled the country’s Esmerelda 7, largest solar project. The Nevada based project was set to provide up 6.2 gigawatts of upon completion or as CNN Climate translated, enough power for two million homes. 

Vanity Fair: Ivanka Trump’s Former Lawyers Has A new Client: Letitia James

The Texan: DOJ Official, Gun Groups Clash Over Claim That Pam Bondi Sought Membership Lists in Lawsuit

CBS News: Brooklyn Public Library launches new resources for delivery workers

NPR: Media companies thought late night TV was irrelevant. Kimmel proved them wrong.