Three things happened today that, on any other day in American history, would each be the only news story anyone talked about.

At the UN General Assembly, Trump addressed 130 nations with what sounded like a campaign rally, was met with silence where he expected applause, threatened to wipe Iran off the face of the earth for the sixth time during this war, and struggled visibly to read while threatening the most powerful weapon of destruction ever created. He also bragged about taking Venezuela's oil — which violates Section Two of the UN Charter, a document the United States wrote and signed — and threatened the International Criminal Court, likely because he's worried about being charged himself for the Iran war and the Caribbean fishing boat killings.

On the press ban: Trump banned CNN, MSNBC, and Politico from the White House with no written notice, no specific reason, and no time to respond — all three things required by law. The ban came after Natalie Harp showed Trump unflattering coverage from those outlets while the Vice President and Chief of Staff were both out of the building. By Monday all three outlets had joined a lawsuit. The entire White House press pool — including Fox News — boycotted in solidarity. The unveiling of the new White House helipad aired on Newsmax with no audio because there was no pool microphone within range of the President's mouth.

The judge assigned to the case is a Trump appointee who previously ruled against Trump when he tried to ban Jim Acosta from the White House during his first term.

Then the White House launched Trump TV: a 24/7 channel on the official White House website that opened with unlicensed clips from Breaking Bad, The Office, Seinfeld, Family Guy, The Dark Knight, SpongeBob, and The Simpsons — then cut to a replay of his Mount Rushmore speech. Grant explains what state media launching alongside a press ban actually means, even when the state media looks this stupid at first.

This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Fall is almost here, but summer isn't done with us yet. Cozy Earth's bamboo sheets are temperature-regulating, so you're covered whether it's cozy sweater weather or 79 degrees at midnight for no reason. Use code MIMS25 at CozyEarth.com for 21% off and when you use that code, you're supporting the show.

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CHAPTERS:

0:00 The UN General Assembly begins. Trump addresses 130 nations. It was a doozy.

2:00 Context before the speech: the Iran war, the Strait blockade, Gaza genocide charges, Greenland, Xi meeting Thursday

4:00 "Our power is expanding," said in the room built after the last guy who said that started a world war

5:30 Trump brags about taking Venezuela's oil at the UN. That violates Section Two of the UN Charter.

7:00 The ICC threat: why Trump hates it, and why he's probably worried about being charged himself

8:30 Trump tries to rebrand AI as "Super Intelligence," after polling his followers and ignoring the results

10:00 The sixth nuclear threat: threatening to wipe Iran off the earth while struggling to read at the podium

12:00 Why Grant tracks these health moments: he's the man with the nuclear codes

13:30 The press ban: CNN, MSNBC, and Politico banned with no notice, no reason, no due process

15:00 Natalie Harp's role: showing Trump bad coverage while Vance and the chief of staff were out of the building

16:30 The legal problems: Sherill v. Knight, Karem v. Trump, and why he's already told people he expects to lose

18:00 The pool boycott: Fox News joined. The helipad unveiling aired on Newsmax with no audio.

19:30 How White House press credentials actually work: day passes, hard passes, and the First Amendment

24:00 Trump compares himself to China on press freedom. Reporters Without Borders ranks China 178th out of 180.

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Only 18 of 435 House seats are genuinely competitive in 2026. That means 95% of Americans go to the polls for their House race with functionally one real option. It's not because the country is that divided; it's because politicians have been drawing their own districts in a nuclear arms race of gerrymandering that has no natural end.

Michael McNulty is the Policy Director of Issue One, the nonpartisan organization working to fix money in politics and make elections more representative. This week, a bipartisan group called the Problem Solvers Caucus introduced a four-bill framework to address gerrymandering at the federal level. It's not a full ban, but it's the most comprehensive package Congress has put forward in years, and it's the only path forward because the courts have closed every other door.

The four bills: ban mid-decade redistricting so parties can only redraw maps once per decade after a census, not whenever they feel like it; set national standards for what a valid congressional map looks like, including contiguity, compactness, and protection of communities of interest; reform who draws the maps through independent commissions rather than state legislatures drawing their own districts; and create a judicial fast-track for challenges so disputes get resolved before elections rather than after.

Michael and Grant also talk about what the president could actually do to interfere with the November election, the national emergency scenarios, ICE at polling stations, the gutting of CISA, and how prepared election officials and legal organizations are to respond. Michael's honest assessment: people should vote with confidence. The legal roadblocks to what's being threatened are real, and nine states have already passed laws specifically banning armed federal agents from polling places.

Issue One Voter Toolkit

Vote.gov

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Today is National Voter Registration Day. Go to vote.gov right now. Check your registration — if you've moved, changed your name, or missed a few elections, your status may have changed without anyone telling you. Find out your state's deadline. Make a plan for November 3rd. Vote.gov. Do it before you forget.

Last night the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration its biggest election loss in a 7-2 ruling that blocks the USPS mail-in ballot rule from going forward. The two no votes were Alito and Thomas. Kavanaugh wrote a concurrence agreeing with the ruling but, for the third time in a major case since Trump returned to office, included a roadmap for how the administration could come back and win this argument a different way. Grant explains what that roadmap is and why it matters for 2028.

Trump responded by attacking the justices he nominated, calling them "shells of the people I interviewed." For most of American history, presidents have accepted Supreme Court rulings they disliked. They have not publicly declared that their nominees were supposed to do their bidding. That is not how the law works.

On AI: the CEO of Anthropic published an essay this weekend warning that AI companies can no longer control their own creations and need government regulation. OpenAI agents recently broke out of an experiment, formed a group chat, hacked into another company to complete the task, and covered their tracks. Some predictions now say these companies could be building humanity-ending technology by 2035.

Trump's response: the only AI regulation we need is his brain. He knows this because Nvidia — the chip maker whose CEO is one of Trump's largest donors and whose stock makes up a significant chunk of the trades Trump has been illegally making while in office — doesn't want regulations. And because Trump personally needs AI to generate flattering images of himself when reality won't cooperate.

Meanwhile 65% of Americans oppose data centers in their communities, 57% say Trump is handling AI poorly, and 27% of American workers are worried about being replaced by technology — a 12-point increase in a decade.

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