by Ja'han Jones | May 29, 2026 | Opinion
California is taking steps to Trump-proof its elections as the president and his administration, facing widespread disapproval, float illiberal means to hijack electoral processes and ensure Republicans retain control of Congress.
Trump, who has publicly expressed concerns about facing another impeachment if Democrats retake the House in the fall, has cheered on the Justice Department after officials dubiously acquired voting records for states President Donald Trump lost in 2020, like Georgia and Arizona. The administration has acquired these records while promoting lies about Democratic fraud having cost Trump that election.
To thwart similar gambits, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed a new law that requires anyone, including federal agents, to obtain a court order before accessing voter rolls or election technology. The legislation was finalized just days before Election Day in California, where voters are selecting the two candidates to run in the general election to become Newsom’s successor.
At a press conference to announce the signing, one of its cosponsors, Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin, said pro-Trump Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s disturbing decision in March to seize around 650,000 ballots from California’s special elections last year demonstrated why the legislation was needed. Bianco, as I wrote recently, is a gubernatorial candidate who has struggled to defend his ties to the Oath Keepers, an extremist militia that was involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Newsom was “levying false attacks” at Trump.
But given that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has endorsed sending armed federal agents to the polls in defiance of the law, that Trump has suggested Republicans should “take over” elections in
by Ja'han Jones | May 29, 2026 | Opinion
Arizona congressional candidate Mark Lamb is embroiled in a new controversy involving allegations about his online activity.
Lamb, a former county sheriff, is running for outgoing Rep. Andy Biggs’ seat in Arizona’s conservative 5th District and has received President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
The Arizona Republic published a report last week on women who said Lamb had messaged them through his campaign’s official social media accounts, citing messages provided by one of his former campaign workers. One of the women alleged that he threatened her with prosecution if she shared his sexual images and messages.
According to the Republic, messages and photos allegedly sent by Lamb — who has made his Mormon faith central to his political biography — were previously shared with leaders at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
After the Republic requested comment from Lamb, who has previously denied claims of sexual impropriety, the newspaper said it was told by his campaign staff that he wasn’t available for comment. Lawyers for his campaign told the paper that many of the claims were “baseless and harmful” but did not elaborate.
The Republic published another report on Lamb on Wednesday, this time focusing on alleged Facebook exchanges with a right-wing anti-immigrant extremist. The outlet said Lamb did not respond to its interview requests.
The new messages, which the Republic said were shared by a former staffer who worked on Lamb’s first campaign, include alleged exchanges in 2016 with a man named Nick Steele, whom the newspaper identified as a member of the extremist vigilante group Border Narcotics Intelligence.
One of the messages appears to show Steele telling Lamb that he and other vigilante members supported
by Ryan Teague Beckwith | May 28, 2026 | Opinion
Since Teddy Roosevelt, American presidents have regularly given commencement addresses at this time of year.
They have used these speeches to college graduates to explain their approach to foreign policy, poke fun at themselves, offer deeply personal reflections or just share their advice on life.
But setting aside the substance of the speeches, the locations themselves are telling — and that is especially true for President Donald Trump.
Over the years, presidents have made a statement by speaking at their own alma maters, notable universities in battleground states, faith-based institutions, historically Black colleges, women’s colleges, trade schools and even community colleges, plus giving regular graduation addresses at the nation’s military service academies.
Earlier this month, Trump spoke at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy for the second time since his first term. Last year, he spoke at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, another repeat. In his first term, he also spoke at the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy.
But the only nonmilitary colleges at which Trump has given commencement addresses in both of his terms were the private, evangelical Liberty University in 2017 and the University of Alabama in 2025, both just months after taking office.
That is a striking break from his predecessors, and there are four major reasons for it.
Trump likes safe spaces
Despite his combative persona, Trump often avoids going into situations where he might be challenged publicly.
Over the years, he has prematurely ended tough interviews with journalists and even skipped some political debates, instead preferring tightly screened political rallies, softball interviews with conservative media and dinners at his private country clubs in Florida and New Jersey.
For the commander in chief,
by Joseph Cirincione | May 28, 2026 | Opinion
Using plutonium from nuclear bombs as fuel for nuclear reactors is a discredited, rejected, dangerous idea as old as the nuclear age. But it is back again, as a group of tech companies seek billions in government contracts for unproven reactor designs they claim would open up a new era of cheap nuclear energy.
If that promise sounds familiar, it is because nuclear power companies have been promoting that dream for decades. In the 1950s, industry executives testified to Congress that we would soon have nuclear-powered cars, airplanes and homes. Nuclear energy would be so cheap, they said, that we wouldn’t have to meter it.
Now, the Trump administration is planning to give surplus plutonium from dismantled nuclear bombs to new nuclear startup companies. Jacob DeWitte, the chief executive of one of these companies, Oklo, says he can build a new kind of small nuclear reactor that can run on plutonium. “This will help us get more nuclear power online faster,” he promises.
Play
Why Trump ‘would be lucky’ to secure Iran nuclear deal like Obama’s
May 26, 2026 / 11:37
The idea sounds fairly reasonable at first: Instead of disposing of the 50 tons of plutonium that the government produced at great expense for nuclear weapons, give it to companies who say they can use it as fuel for a new generation of reactors. Instead of nuclear waste, we would have nuclear energy.
But the entire concept is fraught with danger. At the top of the list is the obvious risk that letting private companies use and store tons of plutonium — the only material besides highly-enriched uranium that can be used in nuclear bombs —
by Hannah Holland | May 28, 2026 | Opinion
The long-running Bravo reality show “Summer House,” which chronicles a group of friends’ share house in the Hamptons, crescendoed into the first of a three-part reunion Tuesday night (the remaining episodes will air the coming consecutive Tuesdays). At the center of the episode: a salacious relationship among castmates Amanda Batula and West Wilson, a betrayal, rumors of infidelity and a friendship in ruin. Bravo fandom has christened the drama “Scamanda,” a portmanteau that unsubtly centers Batula.
Batula and Wilson confirmed online speculation in March that they were in a fledgling relationship or, as they characterized it in a joint Instagram statement, were exploring a “connection.” Both were attached to other “Summer House” cast members: Batula’s marriage to mainstay Kyle Cooke was dissolving and Wilson was in the throes of a yearslong on-again-off-again relationship with fan-favorite Ciara Miller.
The frenzy around “Scamanda” indicates something far greater than the influence and social currency of reality television.
“Scamanda” has become one of the most dominant cultural stories of the past few weeks. Incremental updates, including leaked audio from Tuesday night’s reunion, paparazzi-style photographs and fan-driven reports of the couple’s whereabouts have all but commanded internet discourse.
The frenzy around “Scamanda” indicates something far greater than the influence and social currency of reality television; rather it shows that entertainment has become the dominant framework through which Americans view culture. Here — in Batula’s and Wilson’s Instagram admission, single-camera confessionals, and Bravo producer and host Andy Cohen’s confrontation — is a shared national language, a rare semblance of monoculture and, indeed, a lens with which to understand present-day politics.
One question is, of course, why “Scamanda” so swiftly entered the
by Ja'han Jones | May 28, 2026 | Opinion
Amid the Republican Party’s ongoing assault on Black people, Democrats are borrowing a tactic from 20th-century civil rights activists and putting corporate America on notice.
On Tuesday, the Congressional Black Caucus said it sent a letter to more than 200 companies and business organizations, urging them to oppose the GOP’s push to eliminate majority-Black districts after the Supreme Court’s Callais v. Louisiana decision, which effectively permitted racist gerrymandering.
In 2021, the companies sent a letter to Congress in support of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, saying the legislation was needed to guard against racial discrimination and voter suppression. Signees on that letter included Apple, Dell and Google, whose executives have since aligned themselves with President Donald Trump’s regime.
“Many corporations spoke clearly during that moment about the importance of protecting democratic participation, defending civil rights, and advancing racial equity,” the CBC’s letter reads. “Today, those commitments are being tested.”
The letter presses the companies to issue statements condemning the GOP’s push to dilute Black voters’ power, as well as information on corporate political spending. The pressure campaign follows the CBC’s public call for student-athletes to boycott public universities in states where Republicans have taken action against majority-Black voting districts.
Meanwhile, 16 Democratic state attorneys general sent a letter last week to three donor-advised funds urging them to lift restrictions on donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an anti-racist organization known for helping law enforcement officials take down white supremacist extremist groups. The charity-based arms of Fidelity and Vanguard, as well as a company called Donor Advised Charitable Giving, imposed the restrictions after the Trump administration’s baseless indictment of the SPLC. I recently wrote
