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Six Stories, One Wild Wednesday: Checks, Slides, Crypto, Maps, Measles, and a Muted Mic
Grab your coffee, because today’s rundown has a little bit of everything — a campaign promise with a trillion-dollar price tag, a presidential jet that briefly turned into an inflatable attraction, and a comedian rerouting politics straight to YouTube. Let’s get into it.
President Trump says every American adult will get a $5,000 “dividend” if Republicans hold both chambers of Congress in November, a promise that could cost roughly $1.3 trillion. He unveiled the plan at the Republican convention in Dallas, insisting recipients would have to spend the money domestically, though he never explained how that would be enforced. Vice President JD Vance has pointed to tariff revenue as the funding source, but Congress controls federal spending, and Trump hasn’t spelled out how he’d get authorization. Democrats are calling it an empty promise, and legal experts are already debating whether tying a massive payout to an election outcome is even legal. As one former GOP strategist put it, nobody’s quite sure where the money comes from — but it is campaign season. Source: BBC News
President Trump’s flight to Dallas got a strange delay this week when a military aide accidentally deployed the emergency evacuation slide on his new Qatar-gifted Air Force One. Trump sat aboard Marine One for about 20 minutes while crews dealt with the mishap, later joking that officials were just “checking the slide” and insisting he was confident the plane was safe. The slide couldn’t simply be tucked away — evacuation systems require specialized handling once deployed — so ground crews removed it entirely before the aircraft departed. The jet, a refurbished Boeing 747-8, has already drawn scrutiny over its security capabilities compared to the older presidential aircraft, and more upgrades are reportedly on the way. Source: The New York Times
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff reported $107 million in 2025 income from a holding company tied to World Liberty Financial, more than triple what he disclosed previously. Witkoff co-founded the Trump-linked crypto venture in 2024 alongside members of both families, and his overall 2025 income topped $250 million once other assets are included. The eyebrow-raising part isn’t just the money — it’s the overlap with his day job. Witkoff has met in an official diplomatic capacity with UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose backing helped fund a $500 million investment in World Liberty Financial, some of which reportedly flowed to Witkoff-family-affiliated entities. The White House insists his business dealings and diplomatic work are completely separate and says he has now fully divested from the venture. Source: The Wall Street Journal
Missouri’s congressional map fight has landed back at the U.S. Supreme Court after state and federal courts issued conflicting orders over which district lines will govern the November midterms. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled the Republican-drawn 2025 map — which could hand the GOP seven of the state’s eight House seats — couldn’t take effect without voter approval. Hours later, a federal judge ordered the opposite, requiring the new map to stay in place since it was already used in the August primaries. With the 8th Circuit declining to intervene, the fight is now back with the justices while local election officials scramble to prepare ballots for either outcome. One county clerk summed up the frustration bluntly: just tell us which map to use. Source: The Washington Post
Bangladesh is battling the world’s worst measles outbreak on record, with 999 suspected and confirmed deaths since March and more than 166,000 suspected cases. Health experts trace the crisis back to vaccination gaps created during the country’s 2024–2025 political upheaval, when a nationwide measles-rubella campaign was canceled and routine immunization stalled. Hospitals built for a fraction of their current patient load are now treating measles patients on the floor, all while a simultaneous dengue outbreak strains the system even further. An emergency vaccination campaign has reached nearly 20 million children, but as one grieving mother put it, she doesn’t want any other parent to watch a child suffer from a disease that two vaccine doses could have prevented. Source: Reuters
Jimmy Kimmel says his interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico will skip ABC entirely and go straight to YouTube, citing concerns about FCC scrutiny of local affiliates. The move comes as Disney and ABC are already suing the FCC over accelerated license reviews of eight ABC-owned stations, a fight the network calls retaliatory. Talarico has already been at the center of an FCC equal-time dispute after an appearance on “The View,” and Kimmel said keeping the interview off broadcast was “the best that we can do until November.” Whatever the courts eventually decide, one thing is already clear — a political interview that once would’ve aired on network TV is now headed straight to the internet instead. Source: TheWrap
Six stories, one very expensive campaign promise, and at least one jet that briefly tried to evacuate itself — that’s your Wednesday. We’ll see you back here tomorrow.
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