1. Who chooses to spend $800,000+ to help Trump become the next president?

We got a peak this week when a new joint fundraising committee, Trump 47, filed its first FEC report

The filing revealed 20 people have donated $800,000 or more

Follow along for the gory details

🧵 2. Jose "Pepe" Fanjul ($814,600)

✅ Controls sugar empire, an industry that receives billions in annual subsidies from the US gov't

✅ In 2022, Dominican Republic subsidiary banned from importing goods to the US after CBP found evidence of "the use of forced labor"

✅ Employed white nationalist as an "executive assistant"

1. One of the most important Senate campaigns this year is in Ohio.

The GOP nominee, @berniemoreno, has made being "tough on China" a centerpiece of his campaign

And, on the trail, he tells a couple of stories to bolster this claim

Just one problem: the stories are lies

🧵 2. In 2011, Moreno was appointed to the board of Cleveland State University, eventually becoming chair in 2016.

Moreno claims that, as chair, he got rid of the school's Confucius Institute, an institution partially funded by the Chinese government that offered language and cultural programming

1. The Arizona Supreme Court reinstated an 1864 law banning nearly all abortions & the response by many AZ Republicans has been shameless

They are now saying a near-total abortion ban is unacceptable

The same Republicans have pushed for a complete abortion ban for years

🧵 2. The most notorious example is US Senate candidate @KariLake.

Lake said she "opposed" the ruling reinstating the 1864 law.

But in 2022, Lake called it a "great law" and said her position was that "life begins at conception"

popular.info/p/arizona-repu…

1. In 5 days, Donald Trump will report to the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse to stand trial

For more than a year, the media has told us the hush money case is flimsy and would likely benefit Trump politically

You know who doesn't believe that?

Donald Trump and his lawyers



2. If media commentary is correct, Trump should be eager for the trial to begin. The sooner the case starts, the sooner Trump wins. A victory against Bragg would give him political momentum and a powerful argument that the other pending criminal cases are also meritless.

1. More important than what Trump said yesterday about abortion is what he did not say and the questions he is refusing to answer

🧵 2. Of course, Trump did not say whether he would sign a national abortion ban if it reaches his desk, something that could happen if the GOP controls Congress

But that's not even the biggest threat to abortion rights if Trump wins in 2024

popular.info/p/what-trump-r…

1. After Citizens United, there are few restrictions on spending money in federal elections

But @tedcruz may have violated one of the last legal guardrails to secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of his reelection campaign

Follow along if interested 🧵 2. Citizens United created Super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited money for federal candidates — including corporate cash

There is one big caveat: federal candidates cannot "solicit, receive, direct, transfer, or spend funds" for Super PACs

popular.info/p/cruzs-corrup…

1. @elonmusk is promoting claims that hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants are registering to vote in the 2024 election

The "data" that Musk is sharing with tens of millions of his followers is COMPLETE BOGUS

Follow along for the full debunk 2. @elonmusk, is promoting a post from @EndWokeness, a popular account known for bigoted conspiracies

@EndWokeness uses data on the raw number of HAVV checks from the Social Security Administration

It seem very official

But the data does not support their wild claims

1. There is a fundamental disconnect between what the Biden administration is SAYING about Gaza and what they are DOING

It is untenable 2. The Biden administration rightly points out that Gaza is a humanitarian catastrophe. They say that Israel is not doing enough to protect aid workers or civilians.

None of this has prompted any change in Israel's approach

popular.info/p/a-humanitari…

1. Trump and Fox News can't stop talking about how, under Biden, America is becoming a SOCIALIST COUNTRY

But corporate profits under Biden have EXPLODED

In the last three months of 2023, corporate profits reached an all-time high of $2.8 trillion 2. The extraordinary growth in corporate profits is part of a long-term trend that began in the 1980s, picked up steam at the turn of the millennium, and increased dramatically since 2020.

popular.info/p/corporate-pr…

1. Senate Republicans tried to sink the nomination of Adeel Mangi, who would be the first Muslim American to serve on a federal appellate court, by claiming he was an anti-semitic terrorist sympathizer.

That flopped, so they pivoted to another Islamophobic smear.

This one appears to be working. 2. The new smear is that Mangi, a corporate lawyer, is a "supporter of cop killings"

It's an absurd claim that is based on Mangi's pro bono work with the Alliance of Families for Justice

Mangi's work with the group is laudable

popular.info/p/update-new-s…

1. Trump lost the 2020 election & then did anything and everything to overturn the results

3 years later, the threat to democracy has intensified

A lot of corporations are complicit

An investigation by Popular Information finds 50 companies have donated over $23 million to election deniers since 1/6/21 2. There are at least 170 federal and statewide officials and candidates who are election deniers

Some of the largest contributors to this group are also some of the country's leading companies, including @ATT, @Comcast, @Walmart, and @Microsoft

popular.info/p/these-50-com…

1. There has been a lot of recent coverage about SQUATTING. The impression is lots of people are taking over homes they don't own.

It does happen occasionally

But is it a growing crisis?

Are the decks stacked against landlords?

We looked into it

The hysteria is baseless 2. The panic started when a provocateur named Leonel Moreno posted a video on TikTok where he purports to give instructions on how people can successfully "squat" in other people's houses.

Moreno, an undocumented immigrant who describes himself as an "artist," appears to post deliberately inflammatory content to grow his online following.

In this case, his tactics worked. He generated a lot of headlines, especially in right-wing media.

1. Trump is facing a personal and political financial crisis.

He is facing hundreds of millions in fines because he lost civil cases for fraud and defamation

He is siphoning off campaign cash to pay his legal bills

What is Trump willing to do to woo a financial savior?

🧵 2. When Trump was president, he had a very clear position on TikTok. He insisted that ByteDance, a Chinese company, divest its US operations.

Trump issues TWO executive orders mandating this.

The merits of this position are debatable, but it was consistent with his hawkish view on China

1. For many years, Republicans have been seeking to add a work requirement to Medicaid

(It's based on the discredited idea that poverty exists because people are lazy)

Georgia Republicans turned this idea into a reality

It's not going well

🧵 2. In 2018, the Trump administration issued a rule allowing states to get waivers to tie Medicaid eligibility to employment

A bunch of states tried it. Some of the plans were invalidated by courts, and then Biden revoked the waivers for the rest

But Georgia sued, saying it was a regulatory "bait and switch"

So they are the one state that ties Medicaid expansion to a work requirement

1. Today, we are launching a crowd-sourced reporting project

It involves the nomination of Adeel Mangi, who would be the first Muslim American on a federal appellate court

He's being subjected to an Islamophobic smear campaign

Details on how to participate in this thread

🧵 2. First some background

At his confirmation hearing, Republican Senators asked Mangi if he supported Hamas or celebrated 9/11

The pretext for these questions involved connecting Mangi to events he did not attend and people he had never met

popular.info/p/will-senate-…

1. Under federal law, when a federal government employee owns stock in a company, the employee is prohibited from participating in any matter that may impact the financial interests of that company.

Members of Congress have more power and access to more information than a typical member of the federal bureaucracy.

But they are EXEMPT. 2. Members of Congress reguarly trade in stocks that will be impacted by their votes. A 2022 investigation by the New York Times found "97 lawmakers or their family members bought or sold financial assets over a three-year span in industries that could be affected by their legislative committee work."

1. In November, President Biden nominated Adeel Mangi to be a federal appeals court judge in the Third Circuit.

Mangi would be the first Muslim American to serve on a federal appellate court.

But his nomination is now in jeopardy because of Islamophobic smear campaign

🧵 2. @tedcruz and others are insinuating, with absolutely no evidence, that Mangi is anti-Semitic and/or sympathizes with terrorists

These Islamophobic tropes appear to be working

popular.info/p/will-senate-…

1. The media turned Robert Hur's amateur assessment of Biden's memory into a political crisis.

Collectively, the @washingtonpost, @nytimes, and @WSJ have run 66 articles quoting Hur: a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory"

But when the transcript of the Biden interview that undercut Hur's credibility was released on Tuesday, key excerpts received scant coverage 2. While Hur said that Biden had a "poor memory" in his report, during the interview, he remarked that Biden had a "photographic understanding and... recall" of the layout and contents of his lake house in Wilmington, Delaware.

1. @RonDeSantis is waiving the white flag on "Don't Say Gay"

He just agreed to a settlement that would limit the application of the law to a narrow set of circumstances that seldom occur in K-12 public schools

LGBTQ rights groups are calling it "a landmark achievement in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights"

Follow along for details

🧵 2. With the explicit and tacit encouragement of the DeSantis administration, the "Don't Say Gay" law was broadly interpreted to mandate the banning of library books with LGBTQ characters, the cancellation of Pride Month, and the removal of rainbow flags.

popular.info/p/update-say-g…

1. Donald Trump has made the "migrant crime wave" the centerpiece of his campaign

The idea is that violent crime is skyrocketing in the United States, and undocumented immigrants are fueling the surge

New data reveals both of these claims are FALSE

Violent crime is declining significantly, particularly in border states

🧵 2. The FBI will publish a comprehensive look at violent crime in 2023 this fall

But the FBI report will be based on uniform crime reports submitted by individual states.

And, as @Crimealytics notes, 14 states have already completed their reports.

popular.info/p/new-data-exp…

1. Presidents should not have financial conflicts of interest

That's why Carter put his PEANUT FARM in a blind trust

Trump just signed an agreement that could create a massive financial conflict

And he's disclosing virtually NOTHING about it

🧵 2. In January, Trump was found liable for $83.3 million for defaming E Jean Carroll. It was based on a finding that Trump sexually assaulted Carroll in a dressing room in the mid-90s and then, when Carroll talked about it, called her a liar.

TODAY, Trump has to either pay up or post a bond guaranteeing the money pending appeal