by Steve Benen | Nov 11, 2026 | Maddowblog, White House
One of the more unusual political stories to emerge in the run-up to Election Day reached the public a few weeks ago, when we learned about a $50 million contract for one of Donald Trump’s former defense attorneys. Now, that contract is no more.
The New York Times reported:
Alina Habba Mildon, one of President Trump’s former lawyers, was fired last week by the family company that gave her a $50 million contract weeks before Mr. Trump granted a pardon to the family’s patriarch.
In a letter dated Nov. 4, the company, Concord Partners, terminated Mrs. Mildon citing a “failure to perform duties,” according to a person close to the family and documents obtained by The New York Times. The person said Mrs. Mildon’s priorities appeared to shift away from Concord after she started dating Turhan Mildon, a 25-year-old Turkish investor, earlier this year.
The controversy began in earnest earlier this year, when Trump pardoned Julio Herrera Velutini. Unfortunately for the White House, it quickly became clear that Velutini had not only hired a former member of the president’s legal defense team, but also that the pardon came on the heels of generous campaign contributions Velutini’s daughter made to Trump’s super PAC.
It’s worth emphasizing that Velutini didn’t exactly need a presidential pardon: He was facing felony bribery and other charges in the United States, but his Trump-aligned defense attorney helped negotiate an unusually lenient plea deal in August 2025. Velutini ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor campaign finance violation.
But that wasn’t quite enough. Velutini still hoped to wipe the slate clean altogether.
To that end, the Times reported a few weeks ago that the
by Derek Seidman | Nov 11, 2026 | antifascism, Civil Rights Movement, Interview, labor history, Strikes, US history, US Military, Veterans, World War 2
World War II was a period of enormous mobilization in U.S. society that brought together tens of millions of “war workers” — soldiers and laborers in war-essential industries, spanning the globe. While mainstream mythologies persist of the World War II years as a period of “consensus,” Black Americans fought in a Jim Crow military while Japanese Americans were interned by the U.S. government.
Source
by Taya Graham | Nov 11, 2026 | Article, elections, midterms, Pennsylvania, Politics and Movements: US
In 2018, covering our first midterm election, we followed the ultimately unsuccessful campaign of an electoral upstart named Jess King.
King was a progressive candidate touting ideas like Medicare for All and a higher minimum wage in Pennsylvania’s deep-red 11th District. Her campaign seemed improbable at the time.
Her opponent, conservative Republican Lloyd Smucker, had won his previous race by roughly 10 points. In 2018, the district was gerrymandered to be even more Republican.
Despite the long odds, King made an argument we hadn’t heard before. Even though she was running as a Democrat, her pitch to voters was not exclusively partisan.
“I think what we see is that voters aren’t necessarily on the left-right spectrum as much as they are on a bottom-to-top spectrum,” King told us at a campaign event. “We need to talk more about two political parties that have sold out to special interests.”
Call it the inequality proposition or a power-to-the-people mantra, King made it clear that viewing politics through the prism of party was not only outdated, but destructive.
Ultimately, her pitch fell short. She lost to Smucker.
But the 2026 election may have proved that King was simply ahead of the curve. Alongside historic wins for Democrats, her message re-emerged with new potency among an electorate increasingly angry with the status quo, regardless of party.
“You hear people talking about this top-down message instead of this left-right message,” said Pennsylvania state Representative-elect Ce-Ce Gerlach. Gerlach won with the help of the Working Families Party and the progressive group Lehigh Valley Stands Up.
She said her message of economic populism trumped party politics.
“People are struggling. People don’t want to hear all this rhetoric
by Hayes Brown | Nov 11, 2026 | Opinion
Despite the historic beating Republicans took during the midterms, and much to the dismay of some White House staff, President Donald Trump has kept his focus on what truly matters to him: overlaying the nation’s capital with his overly ornate aesthetic. To that end, Trump signed a proclamation Friday naming the Oval Office a national monument. With it, he seeks to forbid future presidents from following him as project-manager-in-chief.
President Barack Obama mocked Trump’s heavily gilded makeover of the Oval Office last month when he said it looks “like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.” Even before that jab and the overwrought response from conservatives, Democrats had discussed undoing the changes Trump has made at the White House. The incoming Democratic majority may choose to halt some of Trump’s construction projects, including the giant ballroom rising where the East Wing once stood.
Trump’s executive order proclamation acknowledges that the White House and its grounds are already recognized as a National Historic Landmark but gives the Oval Office — and Cabinet Room — a special carveout. The National Park Service will now require “documentation, review, and consideration of alternatives before any action that would substantially alter or demolish the monument or its essential architectural elements.”
Trump seems not to have considered that the Democrats taking office soon will likely happily sign off on any efforts to undo to his gold-plated gussying.
As he signed the proclamation, Trump weirdly claimed he would require help from Congress to make it stick. “We’re going to be declaring it a national monument, and we’re going to send it over to Congress, have it ratified,” Trump told reporters. “If they
by Jeff McCausland | Nov 11, 2026 | Opinion, Politics, White House
On the 107th anniversary of the first Veterans Day, our nation is facing one of the most challenging national security environments in modern history. The day gives us an opportunity to reflect on how the 2.1 million Americans in uniform view their ongoing service to the nation.
Because the U.S. military reported a massive turnaround from pandemic-era lows and broadly met or exceeded its recruiting and retention goals for active-duty, National Guard and most reserve forces for fiscal 2026, the Trump administration argues that there’s a high level of satisfaction across the force. However, some of that success has been attributed to a cooling civilian job market; significant junior military pay increases, including historic 10% enlisted pay raises in recent years; expanded pre-enlistment academic and fitness preparation courses; and restructured recruiting commands. A recent poll, however, suggests many military personnel feel abandoned by politicians and society and have decided to leave the service as soon as possible.
Major overseas deployments and a high operational tempo (OPTEMPO) due to the war in Iran have increased the strain on service members and their families, with significant implications for future recruiting and retention.
Major overseas deployments and a high operational tempo (OPTEMPO) due to the war in Iran have increased the strain on service members and their families, with significant implications for future recruiting and retention. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and destroyer USS Spruance were each deployed for more than 300 days. Spruance set a post-World War II record with 342 days underway. A brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division has spent eight months in the region, and its soldiers were recently told their
