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Oct 12, 2026
Kaboom
AI OverviewUkrainian drone strikes on Russian tech giant Yandex's data centers have coincided with a sharp, measurable drop in automated network traffic, leading to claims—and public debate—about a reduction in pro-Kremlin social media bots.
Key Effects and Claims
- Cloudflare Traffic Drops: Internet-monitoring data from Cloudflare Radar showed a massive decline in automated HTTP requests and bot traffic tied to Yandex networks, plunging by roughly 94% to over 99% from recent peak levels following strikes on facilities in Sasovo, Kaluga, and Vladimir.
Zelenskyy's Statements:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated during the Warsaw Security Forum that social media platforms felt "easier to breathe" on, noting a noticeable decrease in hostility, discord, and automated pro-Kremlin provocation. He attributed the shift directly to the disruption of the infrastructure behind the bots.
Tech Expert Skepticism:
- Cybersecurity analysts and researchers have urged caution, pointing out that the dropped Cloudflare metrics measure all automated traffic—including legitimate search-engine crawlers and general cloud tools—rather than directly proving that state-sponsored social media bot farms were permanently disabled.
Wider Digital Outages:
- The physical damage to Yandex infrastructure caused broad offline disruptions across Russia, affecting various digital services, cloud computing, banking apps, and media websites alongside the changes in network traffic.
It's hard for me to gauge the actual effect - if any. There are sources arguing against the assertion that the bots got taken out, and there are some saying it was almost a wipeout.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said social media had become less hostile following Kyiv's strikes on Russian technology giant Yandex's data centres, as web users report plummeting bot activity.
Ukrainian strikes on Russian technology giant Yandex's data centres have been followed by a dramatic decline in automated online activity, raising questions about whether the attacks may also have disrupted Moscow's influence operations abroad.
The sudden drop fuelled speculation in Europe and the United States about just how much of the political debate on social media might have been driven by Russian bots.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy weighed in on Monday, saying social media platforms had become noticeably less hostile.
"When we started responding to Russia's operation against our data centres and when our strikes reached Yandex data centres, it suddenly became a little easier to breathe on many social media platforms," Zelenskyy said addressing the Warsaw Security Forum.
"A lot of people, a lot of people noticed it, and there was less hate, less division and fewer provocations because there were fewer bots."
"And it's pretty clear where those bots were coming from," he added.
"If they disappeared when Yandex went offline, this proves again and again that Europe is not the source of the problems."
"Europe is not the one making everything more difficult," he said.
Three data centres targeted
Three data centres operated by Yandex, often described as Russia's equivalent of Google, were hit by Ukrainian drone strikes over the past few days.
The facilities were located in Sasovo, in the Ryazan region, the Kaluga region, south-west of Moscow and the Vladimir region, east of the Russian capital, where the latest strike was reported on Sunday.
The attacks damaged the company's infrastructure and disrupted services. Yandex confirmed that operations at its Vladimir facility had been suspended following a drone strike.
"Following a drone attack, the infrastructure of the Vladimir data centre was damaged," the company said in a statement published on Telegram.
"Operations at the data centre have been completely suspended. The remaining infrastructure resources are unstable and the platform is down."
According to an analysis of Cloudflare Radar data, automated traffic originating from Yandex's network fell by approximately 94% on Sunday compared with its average levels in the second half of September.
However, the figures also include legitimate automated traffic, such as search-engine crawlers, and do not establish whether Kremlin-linked social media bots were affected.
Political repercussions across Europe and the US
In Germany, claims of a sharp decline in online activity surrounding the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) circulated widely following the attacks, although no independently verified figures have emerged.
Czech MEP Tomáš Zdechovský questioned the apparent coincidence between the disruption and the reported decline in activity around the party.
"If confirmed, this is telling: Russian data centres get hit, and online activity around AfD suddenly plummets," he wrote on X.
Similar claims emerged in Britain, where online activity associated with Reform UK was also reported to have declined following the attacks.
In the United States, social media users reported fewer apparently automated pro-conservative responses on X, the platform owned by Elon Musk.
The speculation has attracted attention from prominent political figures and commentators, including Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist and supporter of Donald Trump, Russian opposition figure and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, and Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Russia.
The debate comes just weeks before the US congressional midterm elections in early November, amid longstanding concerns about foreign interference and the influence of automated accounts on political discourse.
The Usual Shit
The plutocrats talk shit about government waste, but their view is really: "Any tax money not going into my pocket is a waste."
They came to Washington to dismantle government. Now, they’re profiting from it.
DOGE alumni have leveraged their government experience, raising at least half a billion dollars for firms spanning cyberwarfare, AI and data centers, a Post analysis found.
Last year, billionaire Elon Musk unleashed a small army of Silicon Valley techies to drain what he called the “swamp” of Washington — wielding the U.S. DOGE Service to slash at a bureaucracy they argued was bloated and corrupt.
But today, many of his former DOGE foot soldiers have leveraged their government stints to fuel private-sector ambitions: building companies that tap government largesse or that deploy knowledge they garnered during their brief tenures in Washington.
A Washington Post analysis found that roughly two dozen former DOGE staffers have parlayed their government experience into relevant private-sector jobs or investments — becoming founders, securing CEO positions or senior executive roles, amassing large stakes in start-ups looking to win government contracts or approvals, or taking the skills developed at DOGE to the private sector. Though several of the businesses are only months old, with little public activity, at least six DOGE alumni have registered on Sam.gov, a government contracting portal examined by The Post.
The migration of former staffers from DOGE — short for the Department of Government Efficiency — into the private sector has prompted a burst of funding for their businesses. Start-ups founded by, or with key investment from, DOGE alumni have raised at least half a billion dollars in funding, according to an analysis of government data, investor research platforms and venture capital funding disclosures, paired with lists of confirmed DOGE members compiled by The Post, the New York Times and ProPublica. They have built a cottage industry of ambitious but largely untested businesses, often helmed by inexperienced founders, sometimes drawing initial valuations in the billions of dollars.
Despite DOGE’s shaky track record on trimming the federal budget, the private sector has come to see experience with the group as a valuable commodity, said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a nonprofit-sponsored organization that advocates for government work to serve the public interest.
“They have enormous juice,” he said of ex-DOGE members, adding that they effectively combine two coveted power centers — Silicon Valley knowledge and government connections — leading to a dynamic where technologists with intimate, albeit limited knowledge of government functions and sometimes hyper-partisan viewpoints are in demand.
“The student has become the master,” Hauser said.
The start-ups include a host of firms focused on cybersecurity and defense technology, as well as ventures dedicated to helping businesses across America deploy artificial intelligence tools. Among the largest is Cathedral, an AI-enabled cybersecurity firm, founded by Gavin Kliger and Luke Farritor. Valued by investors at $1.4 billion, Cathedral aims to sell to both corporate America and government agencies, including the Pentagon, according to a person familiar with the business, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the firm has not made its operations public.
Kliger joined the Pentagon in 2025 and served as the Defense Department’s chief data officer until April 2026, according to his LinkedIn. He began fundraising for Cathedral by May. A Pentagon instruction issued in 2020, during the first Trump administration, said senior employees are barred from seeking government contracts for up to two years after serving. But fundraising for start-ups intending to seek government work would probably fall into a gray area, Hauser said.
Cathedral declined to comment. The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
Farritor, who has since left the company but still owns shares and “remains close,” the person said, served in roles across the Energy Department, the Health and Human Services Department and the General Services Administration during DOGE’s initial six-month blitz.
The co-founders of Special, a start-up that aims to “transform critical American industries” through AI, said in a company announcement that its founders were “motivated to extend the ethos of our work at DOGE back into the private sector.”
Special did not respond to a request for comment.
A former senior government ethics official said the large investment garnered by ex-DOGE members exceeds any example of trading on government experience he’s previously seen. Before the second Trump administration, many DOGE members were relative unknowns in Silicon Valley and unlikely to draw major investment.
“It has the appearance that they found a new way to monetize government service that is far beyond anything lobbyists ever dreamed of,” said Norm Eisen, who served as a White House ethics lawyer during the Obama administration and chairs a group that has filed numerous lawsuits challenging DOGE and its authority.
The revolving door that rewards public service with private-sector windfalls is a long-running and oft-criticized facet of federal work. An entire industry of executives, advisers and K Street lobbyists has leveraged experience in government for profit.
But those former officials often bring deep subject-matter experience and long track records, far exceeding the months-long government tenures allowed for the many DOGE members serving as special government employees.
While DOGE faced widespread public disapproval and fell far short of Musk’s promised $2 trillion in cuts, alumni have pitched their government experience as an asset to investors, said four people familiar with the pitches from Cathedral and Special, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
Some investors view the founders’ time working in the tight-knit, pressurized environment of DOGE as an asset, according to one of the people, who compared it to undergoing training in efficiency.
It’s “less about what they got done in the time they had” than the mindset they developed from being part of DOGE, the person said: Looking deeply into government, “what did they see about what could be built or fixed?”
As former DOGE officials have moved into the private sector, they have formed an increasingly interconnected business network, investing in and working with one another. Two of Cathedral’s board members, venture capitalists Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia’s Shaun Maguire, are allies of President Donald Trump who helped advise DOGE.
“I believe DOGE will be looked back upon as a generationally important program, and the Cathedral founders were some of its most talented builders,” Maguire said in a text message. Andreessen Horowitz, which has also invested in Special, declined to comment.
Special — founded by former DOGE members Nate Cavanaugh and Justin Fox — has drawn investment from at least seven former DOGE staffers or associates, according to a post from Andreessen Horowitz.
One of its investors, Banner VC, was founded by former DOGE members Adam Ramada and Brooks Morgan. The venture capital firm has raised nearly $300 million to date, according to Crunchbase.
Representatives of Banner VC did not respond to requests for comment.
Blitz Industries, founded by former DOGE member Ethan Shaotran, is registered to bid for government contract awards on Sam.gov. A LinkedIn page for Shaotran says he is “Rapidly hiring!”
While some firms now helmed by DOGE alumni have existed for years, a Post analysis of investor-focused sites, including Crunchbase and Pitchbook, and fundraising data, including Crunchbase’s Heat Score, found that the companies began attracting more investment interest after their leaders’ time in DOGE, leaving them flush with capital.
After former DOGE member Stephen Ehikian was appointed CEO in September 2025 of C3 AI, an AI software company targeted to federal and private customers, its stock increased by about 20 percent in the following weeks. In December, the company announced that the Department of Health and Human Services had selected C3 to power AI enterprise software, in what Ehikian called in a news release “a major step toward a modern, AI-ready architecture for national health data.”
C3 did not respond to a request for comment.
Others were able to pivot their careers post-DOGE, taking on high-level roles in areas where they had little experience.
After Tyler Hassen, a former DOGE staffer appointed to the Department of Interior, was named CEO of a cleaning supply company in June, the business announced a shift to focus on providing infrastructure and permitting for data center buildouts. It soon unveiled a new name, Zone Frontier, and announced a $100 million public offering. Alex Spiro, who has served as Musk’s attorney, was appointed as the chairman of its board of directors.
Hassen, a former oil executive without tech experience before joining DOGE, said in an earlier interview with The Post that he was inspired by his time working with AI in the government to bring that experience to the private sector.
Some DOGE alumni have found themselves working in spaces dependent on government approvals. Unlike other DOGE members, Elie Mishory joined the cost-cutting group with prior government experience, including nearly two years in senior roles at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to his LinkedIn profile. In June, Mishory took a job as chief regulatory and legal affairs officer for Novig, a sports prediction market company backed by start-up incubator Y Combinator and venture capital firm Lux Capital, which is also a Cathedral investor.
Novig’s regulatory approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was touted in an August news release as “among the fastest in CFTC history.” In the release, Mishory said the certification was “approved in record time.”
Novig did not respond to a request for comment.
For some investors, however, the DOGE connection carries a potential downside: It could draw scrutiny if Democrats regain control of Congress, according to two of the people familiar with DOGE investment pitches.
Investors have advised some of the founders to prepare for a potential midterm sweep by seeking to avoid the appearance of impropriety or hyper-partisanship, according to the two people.
“Everything has been done fairly, cleanly, openly, transparently and assuming that anyone could be the poster child … for congressional ethics targets,” said one of the people.
Hauser, of the Revolving Door Project, said government ethics rules were designed around long-tenured employees, without anticipating the outcomes of the temporary work arrangements afforded to many in DOGE. Though short, these stints allowed them to learn intimate details about the agencies in which they served.
“Washington is kind of vulnerable to this because a lot of our ethics laws were built in the 1970s [and] haven’t been updated since,” Hauser said. “There’s going to need to be a serial reconsideration of ethics laws.”
These people are monumentally hypocritical leeches. They are exactly the parasites they spend billions trying to convince us we need to despise.
DOGE alumni have leveraged their government experience, raising at least half a billion dollars for firms spanning cyberwarfare, AI and data centers, a Post analysis found.
Last year, billionaire Elon Musk unleashed a small army of Silicon Valley techies to drain what he called the “swamp” of Washington — wielding the U.S. DOGE Service to slash at a bureaucracy they argued was bloated and corrupt.
But today, many of his former DOGE foot soldiers have leveraged their government stints to fuel private-sector ambitions: building companies that tap government largesse or that deploy knowledge they garnered during their brief tenures in Washington.
A Washington Post analysis found that roughly two dozen former DOGE staffers have parlayed their government experience into relevant private-sector jobs or investments — becoming founders, securing CEO positions or senior executive roles, amassing large stakes in start-ups looking to win government contracts or approvals, or taking the skills developed at DOGE to the private sector. Though several of the businesses are only months old, with little public activity, at least six DOGE alumni have registered on Sam.gov, a government contracting portal examined by The Post.
The migration of former staffers from DOGE — short for the Department of Government Efficiency — into the private sector has prompted a burst of funding for their businesses. Start-ups founded by, or with key investment from, DOGE alumni have raised at least half a billion dollars in funding, according to an analysis of government data, investor research platforms and venture capital funding disclosures, paired with lists of confirmed DOGE members compiled by The Post, the New York Times and ProPublica. They have built a cottage industry of ambitious but largely untested businesses, often helmed by inexperienced founders, sometimes drawing initial valuations in the billions of dollars.
Despite DOGE’s shaky track record on trimming the federal budget, the private sector has come to see experience with the group as a valuable commodity, said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a nonprofit-sponsored organization that advocates for government work to serve the public interest.
“They have enormous juice,” he said of ex-DOGE members, adding that they effectively combine two coveted power centers — Silicon Valley knowledge and government connections — leading to a dynamic where technologists with intimate, albeit limited knowledge of government functions and sometimes hyper-partisan viewpoints are in demand.
“The student has become the master,” Hauser said.
The start-ups include a host of firms focused on cybersecurity and defense technology, as well as ventures dedicated to helping businesses across America deploy artificial intelligence tools. Among the largest is Cathedral, an AI-enabled cybersecurity firm, founded by Gavin Kliger and Luke Farritor. Valued by investors at $1.4 billion, Cathedral aims to sell to both corporate America and government agencies, including the Pentagon, according to a person familiar with the business, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the firm has not made its operations public.
Kliger joined the Pentagon in 2025 and served as the Defense Department’s chief data officer until April 2026, according to his LinkedIn. He began fundraising for Cathedral by May. A Pentagon instruction issued in 2020, during the first Trump administration, said senior employees are barred from seeking government contracts for up to two years after serving. But fundraising for start-ups intending to seek government work would probably fall into a gray area, Hauser said.
Cathedral declined to comment. The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
Farritor, who has since left the company but still owns shares and “remains close,” the person said, served in roles across the Energy Department, the Health and Human Services Department and the General Services Administration during DOGE’s initial six-month blitz.
The co-founders of Special, a start-up that aims to “transform critical American industries” through AI, said in a company announcement that its founders were “motivated to extend the ethos of our work at DOGE back into the private sector.”
Special did not respond to a request for comment.
A former senior government ethics official said the large investment garnered by ex-DOGE members exceeds any example of trading on government experience he’s previously seen. Before the second Trump administration, many DOGE members were relative unknowns in Silicon Valley and unlikely to draw major investment.
“It has the appearance that they found a new way to monetize government service that is far beyond anything lobbyists ever dreamed of,” said Norm Eisen, who served as a White House ethics lawyer during the Obama administration and chairs a group that has filed numerous lawsuits challenging DOGE and its authority.
The revolving door that rewards public service with private-sector windfalls is a long-running and oft-criticized facet of federal work. An entire industry of executives, advisers and K Street lobbyists has leveraged experience in government for profit.
But those former officials often bring deep subject-matter experience and long track records, far exceeding the months-long government tenures allowed for the many DOGE members serving as special government employees.
While DOGE faced widespread public disapproval and fell far short of Musk’s promised $2 trillion in cuts, alumni have pitched their government experience as an asset to investors, said four people familiar with the pitches from Cathedral and Special, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
Some investors view the founders’ time working in the tight-knit, pressurized environment of DOGE as an asset, according to one of the people, who compared it to undergoing training in efficiency.
It’s “less about what they got done in the time they had” than the mindset they developed from being part of DOGE, the person said: Looking deeply into government, “what did they see about what could be built or fixed?”
As former DOGE officials have moved into the private sector, they have formed an increasingly interconnected business network, investing in and working with one another. Two of Cathedral’s board members, venture capitalists Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia’s Shaun Maguire, are allies of President Donald Trump who helped advise DOGE.
“I believe DOGE will be looked back upon as a generationally important program, and the Cathedral founders were some of its most talented builders,” Maguire said in a text message. Andreessen Horowitz, which has also invested in Special, declined to comment.
Special — founded by former DOGE members Nate Cavanaugh and Justin Fox — has drawn investment from at least seven former DOGE staffers or associates, according to a post from Andreessen Horowitz.
One of its investors, Banner VC, was founded by former DOGE members Adam Ramada and Brooks Morgan. The venture capital firm has raised nearly $300 million to date, according to Crunchbase.
Representatives of Banner VC did not respond to requests for comment.
Blitz Industries, founded by former DOGE member Ethan Shaotran, is registered to bid for government contract awards on Sam.gov. A LinkedIn page for Shaotran says he is “Rapidly hiring!”
While some firms now helmed by DOGE alumni have existed for years, a Post analysis of investor-focused sites, including Crunchbase and Pitchbook, and fundraising data, including Crunchbase’s Heat Score, found that the companies began attracting more investment interest after their leaders’ time in DOGE, leaving them flush with capital.
After former DOGE member Stephen Ehikian was appointed CEO in September 2025 of C3 AI, an AI software company targeted to federal and private customers, its stock increased by about 20 percent in the following weeks. In December, the company announced that the Department of Health and Human Services had selected C3 to power AI enterprise software, in what Ehikian called in a news release “a major step toward a modern, AI-ready architecture for national health data.”
C3 did not respond to a request for comment.
Others were able to pivot their careers post-DOGE, taking on high-level roles in areas where they had little experience.
After Tyler Hassen, a former DOGE staffer appointed to the Department of Interior, was named CEO of a cleaning supply company in June, the business announced a shift to focus on providing infrastructure and permitting for data center buildouts. It soon unveiled a new name, Zone Frontier, and announced a $100 million public offering. Alex Spiro, who has served as Musk’s attorney, was appointed as the chairman of its board of directors.
Hassen, a former oil executive without tech experience before joining DOGE, said in an earlier interview with The Post that he was inspired by his time working with AI in the government to bring that experience to the private sector.
Some DOGE alumni have found themselves working in spaces dependent on government approvals. Unlike other DOGE members, Elie Mishory joined the cost-cutting group with prior government experience, including nearly two years in senior roles at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to his LinkedIn profile. In June, Mishory took a job as chief regulatory and legal affairs officer for Novig, a sports prediction market company backed by start-up incubator Y Combinator and venture capital firm Lux Capital, which is also a Cathedral investor.
Novig’s regulatory approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was touted in an August news release as “among the fastest in CFTC history.” In the release, Mishory said the certification was “approved in record time.”
Novig did not respond to a request for comment.
For some investors, however, the DOGE connection carries a potential downside: It could draw scrutiny if Democrats regain control of Congress, according to two of the people familiar with DOGE investment pitches.
Investors have advised some of the founders to prepare for a potential midterm sweep by seeking to avoid the appearance of impropriety or hyper-partisanship, according to the two people.
“Everything has been done fairly, cleanly, openly, transparently and assuming that anyone could be the poster child … for congressional ethics targets,” said one of the people.
Hauser, of the Revolving Door Project, said government ethics rules were designed around long-tenured employees, without anticipating the outcomes of the temporary work arrangements afforded to many in DOGE. Though short, these stints allowed them to learn intimate details about the agencies in which they served.
“Washington is kind of vulnerable to this because a lot of our ethics laws were built in the 1970s [and] haven’t been updated since,” Hauser said. “There’s going to need to be a serial reconsideration of ethics laws.”
The Guilfoyle Thing
And now we get to wonder about the deal-making. Instead of just firing her ass like a normal administration would do, I'm betting there's a negotiation going on.
What does Guilfoyle have in her pocket in terms of shit she can spill on Don Jr (eg), and will that be enough to get Rubio to put up some bullshit cover?
Total criminalization.
If we're all guilty, then you can't hold me accountable without the risk of exposing your own culpability.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are considering firing U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle after a series of reports alleging she has engaged in improper and possibly illegal conduct before and during her tenure in Athens.
A senior U.S. official said Sunday that Trump and Rubio are “extremely pissed off” by Guilfoyle’s reported conduct and would likely decide on what action to take this week after Monday’s Columbus Day holiday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Rubio had been particularly angry, not least because he visited Athens just last week and Guilfoyle attended most, if not all, of his events and greeted him on his arrival with a bear hug as the allegations swirled.
In a series of stories, The Wall Street Journal has reported questionable conduct by Guilfoyle, including an alleged threat to a host country official, accepting improper gifts and services and offering to use her influence inside the administration in return for the payment of a large credit card bill.
Guilfoyle has not addressed the reports directly, but in a statement released late Sunday, her lawyers denied she had done anything wrong and claimed that the money she was seeking from the Trump donor was payment for services — public appearances and speaking engagements that predate her ambassadorial nomination — that had not been paid.
The lawyers, David Schwartz and Jesse Binnall, also rejected allegations of impropriety related to Guilfoyle’s travel on private planes, saying that before every such trip she “sought, obtained and followed State Department guidance and followed the Department’s travel regulations,” they said.
“Ambassador Guilfoyle has served, and will continue to serve, with integrity, honor and distinction. We are evaluating all available legal remedies to collect this debt and any other potential causes of action,” the lawyers said.
After defending Guilfoyle following the first report, Rubio has declined to comment publicly on the growing allegations. On Wednesday, Rubio said: “Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador here.”
But after another report appeared late Wednesday, Rubio on Thursday before leaving Athens berated journalists for asking about the allegations, saying he didn’t know if they were true and that he would not respond if he could not confirm them.
“You guys walk around thinking that because some source told you something and you reported it, it’s the gospel. It’s not the gospel. It’s not the gospel for me. That’s not the way we do things,” Rubio said at the foot of his plane as Guilfoyle, who was there to see him depart, looked on.
The official said that Rubio had grown increasingly frustrated as the reports multiplied.
A second U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said the State Department’s inspector general is looking into the allegations, which first began surfacing in the Journal late last month and have since multiplied.
The second official could not say if a formal IG probe had begun. Inspectors general often conduct informal inquiries into complaints against staffers and many times those inquiries do not result in a full-on investigation, which can result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.
The State Department has declined to comment on a potential IG investigation.
IG investigation? We have IGs?
The top two Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, as well as the ranking member on the House Committee for Oversight and Government Reform, Robert Garcia, D-Calif., have already called for an investigation into Guilfoyle.
Since late September, the Journal has detailed numerous accounts of questionable conduct by Guilfoyle. Its first report said that she had told guests at a reception that the U.S. could undermine the Greek government if it chose to, promoted the business interests of one particular Greek construction and energy company, and allowed its lobbyist into private diplomatic meetings.
While Rubio was in Athens, the Journal reported — citing text messages — that Guilfoyle had asked a Trump donor and supporter to pay a $100,000 credit card bill just before her confirmation hearing, promising him access to administration officials if he did.
The Journal then reported that Guilfoyle had been enraged about not being invited to a Greek-themed event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year and demanded to attend while boasting about luxury travel to France with energy company executives.
Another report, from the British tabloid The Daily Mail, said that Guilfoyle had alienated staff at the U.S. Embassy in Athens and had pushed the bounds of behavior appropriate for the top representative of the U.S. government to Greece.
Guilfoyle is a former Fox News Channel host and California prosecutor who was once engaged to Trump’s son Donald Jr.
Oct 11, 2026
More 1A
The agency isn’t supposed to be the speech-police wing of the Trump administration, but it sure acts like it is.
Nobody unwittingly makes the case for dismantling the Federal Communications Commission better than its chairman, Brendan Carr.
Would a licensed broadcaster be allowed to air the live-streamed execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan? The FCC will defer to the Pentagon on that one, Carr said on Friday. But air unfavorable coverage that might upset President Donald Trump? Expect a legal fight.
What will happen in the 2026 midterms? Sign up for Margin of Victory
Lawyers for ABC spelled this out during a hearing last week. The broadcaster is suing the FCC, alleging that the agency’s early review of eight broadcast licenses is politically motivated retaliation against the network.
ABC said the pressure is already having a chilling effect on what it airs. “We sit with our head on the guillotine and wonder if anything we say is going to make that come down,” said Beth Wilkinson, a lawyer for ABC. “We are watching everything we do.” That includes deciding whether to air presidential speeches and which guests to book on “The View,” its popular talk show.
The FCC isn’t supposed to be the speech-police wing of the Trump administration, but it sure acts like it is. Last year, the FCC threatened to pull licenses for affiliates that aired Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show after the comedian made a distasteful comment regarding the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The FCC was open with its intimidation. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said at the time.
He has since announced that the FCC would investigate whether “The View” should be subject to equal-time rules from which the FCC granted an exemption in 2002. In March, Carr threatened ABC affiliates again, using what Trump claimed was a misleading headline as an excuse to float revoking their licenses. The following month, Carr announced the early license review.
The “public interest” justification has been used several times in FCC history to suppress speech, but the agency doesn’t have a pass to pick and choose what can be shown on television. Just ask Carr, circa 2019, who declared that serving the public interest doesn’t provide the FCC with “a roving mandate to police speech.” Since then, Carr seems to see the public interest as lining up quite closely with the Trump administration’s interests.
ABC has a strong case, and U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan seemed to agree. She asked a Justice Department lawyer during the hearing: “What is it that made this so different that you needed to call for an early license renewal?” It’s the right question, and the government doesn’t have a good answer.
The court can block Carr from strong-arming ABC in this case, but the better solution would be for Congress to abolish the FCC altogether. That way, neither Carr nor his successors, under Republican or Democratic administrations, would be tempted to abuse this power again.
1A
(via Facebook)
Activist "JoJo From Jerz" reveals how Trump and Melania tried to SILENCE her with legal threats – and the single mother REFUSED to surrender.
Joanne Carducci, the firebrand progressive blogger known to more than a million followers as JoJo From Jerz, has revealed a months-long legal ordeal that she says left her crying every day, terrified of losing her home, and desperately trying to protect her two children.
Her account begins with threatening letters from attorneys representing Donald and Melania Trump, demanding that she retract statements, apologize, and pay money over things she'd posted online. According to Carducci, the demands eventually became entirely about Melania.
According to Carducci, the Trumps' attorney initially demanded that she retract statements she'd made online, including her claim that Trump incited the deadly January 6 insurrection.
And the price of refusing? Carducci says the lawyers eventually demanded a staggering $1 MILLION from a single mother who had once earned $16 an hour as a school paraprofessional.
“They would take my home,” she wrote in a deeply personal and powerful Substack essay.
Carducci says she kept the ordeal secret from her children, even as she struggled with the possibility that the house she'd worked so hard to provide for them could be taken away.
“She was swinging a fucking wrecking ball at a mosquito, and my children lived in the building,” Carducci wrote of Melania.
But Carducci refused to retract her criticism or issue an apology.
Former New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin stepped in to help her without charge, providing legal advice and support while she faced demands she says she could never have afforded to fight alone.
Eventually, according to Carducci, the letters stopped. She never apologized, never retracted her statements, and never agreed to the demands.
What finally persuaded her to tell the world was watching Melania Trump promote women's empowerment on television.
“She’s for women’s empowerment, and I’m a fucking natural blonde,” Carducci wrote.
The contrast is striking: a first lady publicly encouraging women to find their voices, while a woman who had used hers says she spent months fearing the consequences of refusing to be silent.
Carducci acknowledges that she's still frightened. She also insists that her work as a satirist, mocking powerful public figures, is an exercise of her right to free expression.
And after months of keeping the ordeal from even her own children, she has a message for the people she says tried to intimidate her:
“Because I am never, EVER going to stop.”
Joanne Carducci, the firebrand progressive blogger known to more than a million followers as JoJo From Jerz, has revealed a months-long legal ordeal that she says left her crying every day, terrified of losing her home, and desperately trying to protect her two children.
Her account begins with threatening letters from attorneys representing Donald and Melania Trump, demanding that she retract statements, apologize, and pay money over things she'd posted online. According to Carducci, the demands eventually became entirely about Melania.
According to Carducci, the Trumps' attorney initially demanded that she retract statements she'd made online, including her claim that Trump incited the deadly January 6 insurrection.
She was also ordered to issue a full apology, admit that she had knowingly lied, and agree to a financial payment, with just days to respond and the threat of punitive damages hanging over her.
And the price of refusing? Carducci says the lawyers eventually demanded a staggering $1 MILLION from a single mother who had once earned $16 an hour as a school paraprofessional.
“They would take my home,” she wrote in a deeply personal and powerful Substack essay.
Carducci says she kept the ordeal secret from her children, even as she struggled with the possibility that the house she'd worked so hard to provide for them could be taken away.
“She was swinging a fucking wrecking ball at a mosquito, and my children lived in the building,” Carducci wrote of Melania.
But Carducci refused to retract her criticism or issue an apology.
Former New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin stepped in to help her without charge, providing legal advice and support while she faced demands she says she could never have afforded to fight alone.
Eventually, according to Carducci, the letters stopped. She never apologized, never retracted her statements, and never agreed to the demands.
What finally persuaded her to tell the world was watching Melania Trump promote women's empowerment on television.
“She’s for women’s empowerment, and I’m a fucking natural blonde,” Carducci wrote.
The contrast is striking: a first lady publicly encouraging women to find their voices, while a woman who had used hers says she spent months fearing the consequences of refusing to be silent.
Carducci acknowledges that she's still frightened. She also insists that her work as a satirist, mocking powerful public figures, is an exercise of her right to free expression.
And after months of keeping the ordeal from even her own children, she has a message for the people she says tried to intimidate her:
“Because I am never, EVER going to stop.”
Don't let the bastards get you down
And never give them the satisfaction
of seeing you cry
Backlash
The news just gets worse for the GOP.
Republicans face midterm backlash from factory workers squeezed out of jobs by Trump’s tariffs
NEW YORK (AP) — Nelson Vandermeer voted Republican for decades but balked at supporting President Donald Trump, fearing that the Republican’s plan for tariffs on imports would hurt workers more than help.
Last year, Vandermeer’s premonition came true in a very personal way. The 62-year-old lost his job as a product designer at Howard Miller, a clockmaker that relied on parts produced overseas. After a century in business, the company in Zeeland, Michigan, closed its factory, sold off its inventory and brand name and laid off nearly 200 workers.
“So much for bringing jobs back,” Vandermeer said. Next month, he plans to vote straight Democrat in the midterms.
As if an unpopular war with Iran and persistent inflation were not enough trouble for Republicans, they are confronting a backlash over the tariffs that Trump made a cornerstone of his economic agenda. He promised that charging higher taxes on imports would spur a factory renaissance in the United States, but that has not come to pass. Although the country has added manufacturing jobs so far this year, the sector has fewer employees than when Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers insisted that a factory boom is underway, citing increases in manufacturing output and more work in certain nonresidential construction trades. “Factory construction jobs of today mean more manufacturing jobs down the road once those factories come online,” she said.
Even before the tariffs, Howard Miller struggled as Americans lost their taste for fancy timepieces such as its signature grandfather and mantel clocks. So the company broadened its offerings years ago to include bar carts, cabinets and consoles.
But those products also depended on glass and other parts from abroad, and diversification did not ensure survival.
“I could still have a job, but now I don’t because of tariffs,” Vandermeer said. “It was like taking a knife to the back.”
Job losses pile up in battleground states
Vandermeer lives in Michigan’s 4th Congressional District, which is represented by Republican Bill Huizenga, who is running for a ninth term in the Nov. 3 election.
Before Trump implemented his broadest set of tariffs last year, on what the president called “Liberation Day,” Huizenga was supportive.
“Is it going to be easy? Not necessarily. Is it the right thing to do? Absolutely it is,” he told reporters at the time.
A spokesperson for Huizenga said last week that the congressman “sees a potential role for tariffs” for boosting domestic manufacturing “while recognizing the need to address their broader economic effects.” His Democratic opponent, state Sen. Sean McCann, has criticized the incumbent for opposing legislation that would rein in tariffs that Trump imposed unilaterally.
There are similar issues in competitive races in Kansas, Iowa and Ohio, where Republican acquiescence could hurt the party on Election Day as their constituents face factory layoffs, farm foreclosures and higher prices.
Tracy Chew, 55, voted for Trump in 2016, then for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 and Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024.
She used to work for Case, a backhoe manufacturer, but the company announced before the tariffs that it would close its plant in Burlington, Iowa. She lost her job in April, as did her daughter, followed by husband and son-in-law over the next few weeks.
Chew is leaning toward voting for Democrats again this year, feeling that Trump let them down.
“I’m furious he isn’t doing enough,” she said. “Tariffs are not targeting the right companies, the right amount.”
Layoffs in Iowa have piled up elsewhere.
Winnebago Industries, which produces recreational vehicles like campers, cut 200 jobs last year after the cost of importing aluminum, steel and electronics increased by tens of millions of dollars.
“It’s a day to day battle,” said Michael Happe, the company’s chief executive.
In the tight race for an open U.S. Senate seat in Iowa, U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson faces Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek. There is a close contest, too, in Kansas, where Democrat Adam Hamilton, the pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the U.S., is trying to unseat Republican Roger Marshall.
Cole Hoppock, chief executive of appliance maker Vornado Air in Wichita, Kansas, said Trump’s tariffs “impacted virtually everything.” The company known for its retro household fans laid off more than 70 factory workers in February, blaming higher prices for imported parts.
Trump’s trade policy could force cutbacks soon at another Kansas employer, Canadian jet manufacturer Bombardier. Trump has threatened to ban the company’s sales in the U.S. if Bombardier does not start making all its planes in the U.S. Bombardier said it buys parts from 2,800 companies in 47 states, including in Kansas, where it employs more than 1,000 people
Trump’s approach to trade is unpopular
Trump has spent years complaining that other countries are ripping off the U.S. when it comes to trade. Most economists say he is wrong and that his remedy — broad universal tariffs — would cause more pain than help.
Now most Americans disagree with Trump’s approach, according to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A September poll showed only about 3 in 10 U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of trade negotiations, compared with 4 in 10 in March.
Some of Trump’s tariffs have been haphazard.
He targeted Brazil because of political differences and he jacked up tariffs on China to levels so extreme that they risked a recession and forced the president to retreat. The Supreme Court in February ruled against Trump’s declaration of an emergency to roll out his “Liberation Day” tariffs last year, leaving foreign trade unsettled as the administration continues to adjust with new levies and threats.
Tariffs are far from the only reason for the lost of manufacturing jobs, and factories have cut workers for decades with or without them. Even some Republicans who dislike Trump’s approach will not split with the party.
Bicycle Corp. of America, which closed its factory in South Carolina last year, blamed rising prices for imported parts. Koby Bird, who retired after working in quality control, likes tariffs but was frustrated by Trump’s habit of raising and lowering them seemingly at whim.
“It was all over the place,” Bird said. “Businesses couldn’t plan.”
Next month, Bird is likely to stick with Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Darline Graham, because tariffs are only one issue and he believes Democrats would spend too much money on the wrong things.
Ernie Goss, an economist at Creighton University in Nebraska, said manufacturing woes may not convert to Democratic victories. He said some people may “think the tariffs in the long run will work.”
Some workers may be turning on Trump
Wendell Young, a union leader in Pennsylvania, where several factories have had layoffs, said he senses a backlash among workers.
Last summer, Young said he got a firestorm of angry responses to his email blaming tariffs for a decision by Post Holdings to cut 160 jobs at a local pet food factory.
“Keep politics out of this,” wrote one of workers at the plant in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. “President Trump isn’t the reason.”
“People used to beat me up for not supporting Trump. I haven’t heard that in a year,” said Young, president of Local 1776 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. “Some of these people are red Republicans and they are shocked. They expected more jobs.”
Post Holdings ultimately agreed to reduce the head count by offering severance for people to leave, but lower production had a ripple effect.
Local can manufacturer Trivium Packaging decided to cut several jobs because they were getting less orders from Post and other companies, according to Young’s union.
“I understand the mindset behind tariffs, but I just don’t know if it’s working,” said former Trivium worker Heather Kingston. She left for another company before the layoffs, and her husband is still working at Trivium. “There doesn’t seem to be many manufacturing jobs moving into the area,” she said.
Kingston said she voted for Republican Dan Meuser in the 9th District last time but is having doubts this year. Meuser’s seat is considered safe, but other races in the state are up for grabs, including in the 7th and 8th districts, which are near the Post and Trivium factories.
Last year, Vandermeer’s premonition came true in a very personal way. The 62-year-old lost his job as a product designer at Howard Miller, a clockmaker that relied on parts produced overseas. After a century in business, the company in Zeeland, Michigan, closed its factory, sold off its inventory and brand name and laid off nearly 200 workers.
“So much for bringing jobs back,” Vandermeer said. Next month, he plans to vote straight Democrat in the midterms.
As if an unpopular war with Iran and persistent inflation were not enough trouble for Republicans, they are confronting a backlash over the tariffs that Trump made a cornerstone of his economic agenda. He promised that charging higher taxes on imports would spur a factory renaissance in the United States, but that has not come to pass. Although the country has added manufacturing jobs so far this year, the sector has fewer employees than when Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers insisted that a factory boom is underway, citing increases in manufacturing output and more work in certain nonresidential construction trades. “Factory construction jobs of today mean more manufacturing jobs down the road once those factories come online,” she said.
Even before the tariffs, Howard Miller struggled as Americans lost their taste for fancy timepieces such as its signature grandfather and mantel clocks. So the company broadened its offerings years ago to include bar carts, cabinets and consoles.
But those products also depended on glass and other parts from abroad, and diversification did not ensure survival.
“I could still have a job, but now I don’t because of tariffs,” Vandermeer said. “It was like taking a knife to the back.”
Job losses pile up in battleground states
Vandermeer lives in Michigan’s 4th Congressional District, which is represented by Republican Bill Huizenga, who is running for a ninth term in the Nov. 3 election.
Before Trump implemented his broadest set of tariffs last year, on what the president called “Liberation Day,” Huizenga was supportive.
“Is it going to be easy? Not necessarily. Is it the right thing to do? Absolutely it is,” he told reporters at the time.
A spokesperson for Huizenga said last week that the congressman “sees a potential role for tariffs” for boosting domestic manufacturing “while recognizing the need to address their broader economic effects.” His Democratic opponent, state Sen. Sean McCann, has criticized the incumbent for opposing legislation that would rein in tariffs that Trump imposed unilaterally.
There are similar issues in competitive races in Kansas, Iowa and Ohio, where Republican acquiescence could hurt the party on Election Day as their constituents face factory layoffs, farm foreclosures and higher prices.
Tracy Chew, 55, voted for Trump in 2016, then for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 and Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024.
She used to work for Case, a backhoe manufacturer, but the company announced before the tariffs that it would close its plant in Burlington, Iowa. She lost her job in April, as did her daughter, followed by husband and son-in-law over the next few weeks.
Chew is leaning toward voting for Democrats again this year, feeling that Trump let them down.
“I’m furious he isn’t doing enough,” she said. “Tariffs are not targeting the right companies, the right amount.”
Layoffs in Iowa have piled up elsewhere.
Winnebago Industries, which produces recreational vehicles like campers, cut 200 jobs last year after the cost of importing aluminum, steel and electronics increased by tens of millions of dollars.
“It’s a day to day battle,” said Michael Happe, the company’s chief executive.
In the tight race for an open U.S. Senate seat in Iowa, U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson faces Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek. There is a close contest, too, in Kansas, where Democrat Adam Hamilton, the pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the U.S., is trying to unseat Republican Roger Marshall.
Cole Hoppock, chief executive of appliance maker Vornado Air in Wichita, Kansas, said Trump’s tariffs “impacted virtually everything.” The company known for its retro household fans laid off more than 70 factory workers in February, blaming higher prices for imported parts.
Trump’s trade policy could force cutbacks soon at another Kansas employer, Canadian jet manufacturer Bombardier. Trump has threatened to ban the company’s sales in the U.S. if Bombardier does not start making all its planes in the U.S. Bombardier said it buys parts from 2,800 companies in 47 states, including in Kansas, where it employs more than 1,000 people
Trump’s approach to trade is unpopular
Trump has spent years complaining that other countries are ripping off the U.S. when it comes to trade. Most economists say he is wrong and that his remedy — broad universal tariffs — would cause more pain than help.
Now most Americans disagree with Trump’s approach, according to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A September poll showed only about 3 in 10 U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of trade negotiations, compared with 4 in 10 in March.
Some of Trump’s tariffs have been haphazard.
He targeted Brazil because of political differences and he jacked up tariffs on China to levels so extreme that they risked a recession and forced the president to retreat. The Supreme Court in February ruled against Trump’s declaration of an emergency to roll out his “Liberation Day” tariffs last year, leaving foreign trade unsettled as the administration continues to adjust with new levies and threats.
Tariffs are far from the only reason for the lost of manufacturing jobs, and factories have cut workers for decades with or without them. Even some Republicans who dislike Trump’s approach will not split with the party.
Bicycle Corp. of America, which closed its factory in South Carolina last year, blamed rising prices for imported parts. Koby Bird, who retired after working in quality control, likes tariffs but was frustrated by Trump’s habit of raising and lowering them seemingly at whim.
“It was all over the place,” Bird said. “Businesses couldn’t plan.”
Next month, Bird is likely to stick with Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Darline Graham, because tariffs are only one issue and he believes Democrats would spend too much money on the wrong things.
Ernie Goss, an economist at Creighton University in Nebraska, said manufacturing woes may not convert to Democratic victories. He said some people may “think the tariffs in the long run will work.”
Some workers may be turning on Trump
Wendell Young, a union leader in Pennsylvania, where several factories have had layoffs, said he senses a backlash among workers.
Last summer, Young said he got a firestorm of angry responses to his email blaming tariffs for a decision by Post Holdings to cut 160 jobs at a local pet food factory.
“Keep politics out of this,” wrote one of workers at the plant in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. “President Trump isn’t the reason.”
“People used to beat me up for not supporting Trump. I haven’t heard that in a year,” said Young, president of Local 1776 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. “Some of these people are red Republicans and they are shocked. They expected more jobs.”
Post Holdings ultimately agreed to reduce the head count by offering severance for people to leave, but lower production had a ripple effect.
Local can manufacturer Trivium Packaging decided to cut several jobs because they were getting less orders from Post and other companies, according to Young’s union.
“I understand the mindset behind tariffs, but I just don’t know if it’s working,” said former Trivium worker Heather Kingston. She left for another company before the layoffs, and her husband is still working at Trivium. “There doesn’t seem to be many manufacturing jobs moving into the area,” she said.
Kingston said she voted for Republican Dan Meuser in the 9th District last time but is having doubts this year. Meuser’s seat is considered safe, but other races in the state are up for grabs, including in the 7th and 8th districts, which are near the Post and Trivium factories.
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