The Gov Hub Newsletter: September 30, 2025

Oregon AG Dan Rayfield and the city of Portland have teamed up to sue the Trump Admin for what they’re calling an illegal deployment of 200 National Guard troops to the west coast city. The suit hinges on four core arguments, including that the order violates the 10th Amendment and the Posse Comitatus Act.

A federal judge in Minnesota ruled that the founder of MyPillow, Mike Lindell had defamed voting tech company Smartmatic via false claims that their machines had rigged the 2020 election. Following his legal “L,” Lindell doubled down and sparked rumors about running for governor in Minnesota.

Trump’s DOJ has charged the man who is ironically partially responsible for Trump’s first election to the Oval Office — James Comey — with perjury. The DOJ alleges that he had lied in his testimony to Congress. The highly unlikeable man to [likely] the Clintons, Martha Stewart, and a boatload of people on both sides of the aisle, has caused a stir because it appears to be the result of a politically motivated vendetta from Trump – who btw has now promised, that this is just the start. 

Trump’s rubber-stampers at SCOTUS paused a lower court ruling that had required the Trump Admin to do its job and pay out $4B in Congressionally-appropriated foreign aid funds.

Trump signed a chilling two national security directives going after “left-wing” organizations and individuals. One of the directives labels “antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization — only there’s one problem, “antifa” is a vague AF movement that’s been used as a left-wing boogeyman of sorts by conservatives. In other words, when Trump says “antifa” he means anyone he doesn’t like and thus labels as “antifa.” In addition, amongst the WTF directives, Trump instructed government agencies like DoD to go after “antifa” and what it broadly dubs as “left-wing groups.” Per reporting from Ken Klippenstein who dug into what “left-wing groups” means, the directive “targets individuals and "entities" that can be identified by any of the “following indicators of violence:” anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity, support for the overthrow of the US government, extremism on migration, extremism on race, extremism on gender, hostility toward those who hold traditional American views on family, hostility toward those that hold traditional American views on religion, and hostility toward those who hold traditional American views on morality.”

ICE has detained Des Moines [Iowa] Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Ian Roberts, alleging that he’s in the country illegally. The split screen on the response is as follows: The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners has revoked Dr. Robert’s license, resulting in him being put on unpaid leave, while protests in support of Dr. Roberts have broken out demanding his release. 

ICE has also been busy tackling hardworking grocery store workers, tackling a 79-year old American business owner [and injuring him] while he tried to show them his worker’s papers, throwing a woman calling for her husband to the ground, shooting and smoke bomb into a CBS reporters car causing her to be blinded and vomit.

In a highly unusual move that jeopardizes national security ironically enough, Trump will attend Hegseth’s last minute, urgent, mystery-style meeting of the military’s top leaders. The event, which has the government spending an estimated millions of dollars to fly top brass back to the states has some people speculating that it will be about loyalty to Trump, while others are saying that it’s a meeting about the “warrior ethos” with Hegseth wanting attendees with “impressive uniforms” for the photo-op. As for the official event agenda, the Pentagon has refused to share with the class.

Tragedy struck at a Michigan church on Sunday, where a man drove into the building, shot at parishioners with an assault-style rifle, set the building on fire, and then was neutralized in a gun fight with law enforcement. At the time of publishing, four casualties have resulted from the actions of a man identified by authorities as Thomas Jacob Sanford. The man’s motivations for violence are still under investigation, although a local candidate did share this disturbing anecdote about encountering him while door knocking. On Monday, the day after, police at the scene stopped a man who then tried to drive through the barricade made around the church and was found to have a long gun in his front seat.

A mass shooting also happened in North Carolina over the weekend claiming three innocent lives and injuring several others [one is in critical condition], while they were dining at the waterfront-located American Fish Company restaurant. The suspected murderer, Nigel Max Edge, shot and then fled up the Intracoastal Waterway before being apprehended. 

Also a part of the now 321 mass shootings that have happened in the US this year, was one on Sunday at the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino in Southern Texas on Sunday. Two people died as a result of the gunman.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has continued to delay the swearing in of newly elected Dem Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva [D-AZ]. The alleged reason? Trying to block/delay a vote on releasing the Epstein files.

The QAnon shaman who stormed the capital during the January 6th insurrection attempt has filed a lawsuit against Trump. The shaman, who is suing for $40 trillion, alleges in a 26-page complaint, that he’s the rightful president of the United States, that the NSA catfished him, and an array of other head scratcher claims.

Former NFL footballer Charles “Peanut” Tillman resigned from the FBI after seven years on the job, citing disagreement with the Trump Admin’s immigration policies. He also noted that he wanted to “be on the right side of history.”

Bad Bunny was announced as this season’s Superbowl halftime performer and MAGA lost its shit.

Furniture and movies make for an odd pairing, but together are now a focal point in Trump’s ‘tariffs when he feels like it campaign.’ Per Truth Social, the current president announced that he was going to put a 100% tariff on foreign-made films and put major tariffs on countries that don’t make furniture in the U.S. Will that actually happen? TBD.

Soybean farmers are in crisis as a result of Trump’s tariff war. To catch you up, the crop that represents 14% of all U.S. farm exports, has been hit for the most of the year with a 34% retaliatory tariff from China. The major consumer of those soybeans btw is China, which has gotten the product at a cheaper rate from countries like Brazil and Argentina – yes, that Argentina, the one that Trump is bailing out with $20 billion. And while the Trump Admin is considering a bailout package for farmers, they’ve also been caught texting about how Argentina’s sale of soybeans to China gives China leverage over the U.S.

Coffee prices are continuing to skyrocket, with prices jumping the most in the last year in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Nevada, and Missouri. 

The U.S. government is barreling toward a government shutdown, as Republicans refuse to play ball with Democrats. Party leaders met with Trump at the White House and left with no deal to extend government funding. A few top level notes to keep in mind:

In what feels like traveling back in time to a different era, GOP Gov. Spencer Cox [UT] and Dem Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham [NM] sat down for an interview with 60 Minutes on bipartisanship, where they find common ground, and why they both find it so important that they do. 

Senator Ron Wyden [D-OR] is pushing back on Trump’s order to put 200 National Guard troops in Portland with this duck themed protest post, and on-the-ground footage of the city that Trump claims is a war zone.

Fmr VP Kamala Harris went on the House Guest show, cooking up pizza with anchovies, post-election takeaways and advice, insight into the motherfucker moment at the debate, and the deats around her new book, 107 Days. 

Mary Trump trolled her relative in the White House for his small hands and an apparent [satirical] genealogical dislike of walking up stairs.

Looming government shutdown content is popping off: Congressman Jim Himes [D-CT] filmed an explainer post run; Congresswoman Betty McCollum [D-MN] pointed out that the GOP, which claims they have a mandate, and controls the WH, the House, and the Senate, doesn’t have the votes for their own legislation; and Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari vlogged from DC where she shared the Mike Johnson hasn’t had the Republicans even come back to the cap.

Also on shutdown socials, the current president’s accounts shared a heinous deepfake AI-generated video of Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Chuck Schumer saying things they' never said in THEIR voices [what a deepfake is]. One of the lines the video’s audio has Schumer saying is “democrats have no more voters anymore because of our woke trans bu;;shit.”

MAGAs somehow won PA in 2024 but are inaccurately claiming that the Penn State football ‘white out” was “for Charlie Kirk.”

Congresswoman Janelle Bynum [D-OR] dunked on Trump for taking money from Oregonians to give to billionaires, shared how as a mom, the wool sure as shit can’t be pulled over her eyes when it comes to GOP bologna, and left no crumbs with her answer about a possible federal takeover of Portland.

Journalist Tara Palmeri explained the web of connections she uncovered between Epstein’s right-hand woman, Ghislaine Maxwell and current Senator Lisa Murkowski [R-AK]. It’s spooky ooky.

Kai Trump, granddaughter of you know how, launched a merch line with a marketing campaign apparently filmed at the White House, a TikTok shop, and a design that some fans of Travis Kelce noticed looks like a copy cat of the footballer’s American Eagle collab.

What makes Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tick? It appears to be money per ProPublica reporting that found she expedited $11M+ in federal dinero to rebuild a pier in Naples, Florida after a big-time financial donor gave her a call.

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe [R] signed a new, gerrymandered U.S. House map, done at Trump’s request and quest to rig the midterm elections in his favor by changing the maps in the GOPs favor. There are legal and referendum actions happening around the map that passed, but where either of those routes go is TBD.

Trump’s Energy Department has a banned words list, and two words/phrases have been added to it: “climate change” and “emissions.”

The Energy Department’s comms team has more to say – the department will be providing $625M to subsidize and support coal-fired plants, retrofitting and recommissioning some, and then also dropping dollars on coal power projects in rural communities. ED’s besties at the Interior Department also announced that they’re going make 13 million acres of federal lands avail for for coal mining. 

Also out of the Energy Department is a new announcement that it will claw back $13M in unspent climate funds. The money apparently wasn’t directly assigned to projects yet, but was generally slated to be used for supporting wind and solar energy endeavors.

A new report out from the CDC shows a significant rise in infection rates from what is known as drug-resistant “nightmare bacteria.” Concerns around the bacteria that can only be treated currently with two ultraexpensive antibiotics, is not just about infection, but about that many people are likely unaware that they’re carriers of the bacteria, raising red flags about community spread possibility.

RFK JR and his FDA announced that they’re reviewing the “safety” of the abortion pill aka mifepristone – a drug that’s been FDA approved since 2000.

In the land of medical conspiracy theories and QAnon, there’s a claim that there’s a “medbed” that’s a “cure for all.” The current president shared an AI-generated post/video that promoted the “medbed,” which has since been taken down.

Newsweek: Students Turn Back to Books as More School Districts Implement Phone Bans

Glamour: The Misogynistic Abuse Towards Rory McIlroy’s Wife at the Ryder Cup Is Deeper Than Gold

NPR: 3 things to know about Trump’s plans to send troops to Portland and Memphis

Roll Call: What do Congress and ‘Survivor’ have in common? Ask Alex Moore

Vogue: New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham on Her Fight to Make Childcare Free