Remember that open-and-shut federal criminal case where Donald Trump clearly committed serious crimes, but managed to escape justice thanks to the right-wing supermajority he built on the Supreme Court?

No, not the case over Jan. 6 and his efforts to overturn the election he lost – the other federal case, the one about how he stole a bunch of classified government documents and stored some next to his toilet at Mar-a-Lago, and refused to give them back to the U.S. government after he left office the first time. Remember? Well, the president would like to do it again, minus the part where anyone attempts to hold him accountable.

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President Trump is already angling to retain whichever currently classified or top secret government documents he wants after he leaves the White House again, two sources familiar with the matter and another two briefed on it tell Zeteo. In some cases, he’s made comments suggesting he’s already picked out files to keep.

“This one would be good!” he’s joked (or, “joked”) while holding a document up in the Oval Office within the past year, according to one of the sources who was present for it.

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Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta – three tech giants who are driving the AI and data center boom across the United States – avoided paying $49.7 billion in taxes last year, according to a new report. At the same time, last year, the companies committed to spending a combined $250 billion on AI and data centers.

The shocking figures come from a new report from the Climate and Community Institute (CCI) that details how the government is facilitating the mass proliferation of data centers across the country.

The report – titled, “AI First: How the Federal Government is Prioritizing AI Over People and Planet” – reveals how the AI boom and data center build-up is not an inevitable process, but rather the result of choices by a select group of people, with little regard for what the populace thinks.

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Between the Knicks’ championship, World Cup fervor, and effervescent atmosphere Mayor Zohran Mamdani has fostered – the city is abuzz. Following the three candidates around the city… buzz is an understatement. We couldn’t go more than a few steps without people of all ages and backgrounds stopping these three new Democratic congressional nominees.

In midtown, between constant smiles-and-waves, Lander told me the “joyful energy” Mamdani ran on is contagious. “People are pissed off and anxious, and want to fight fascism and protect our immigrant neighbors – but to do it with some joy and hope. It feels pretty special.”

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In Brooklyn, a young boy in a Messi jersey ran to Valdez, smiling from ear to ear, saying he’s seen her everywhere. A man in his 30s asked Valdez about the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), saying he was on the fence; she convinced him to consider joining.

In Harlem, as Avila Chevalier and I talked about her being arrested in the Columbia student demonstrations, a group of children, some in school uniform, squealed in delight from across the park: “DARIALIZA?!”

After years of compounding struggle – Covid-19, civil rights protests, skyrocketing prices, increasingly egregious inequality, all while people’s tax dollars have gone toward livestreamed massacres – a new politics is brewing. And the epicenter is New York City.

In the wake of Tuesday’s elections, in which Mamdani and his movement’s candidates swept the field, pundits have scrambled to cope with what’s unfolded. Watch the video above to hear directly from Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Brad Lander – straight from New York – on exactly how Tuesday happened.

This is a truly important and unique set of conversations with candidates who have been demonized by mainstream media, so we’re publishing the video without a paywall and for everyone to watch for free. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, please do consider becoming one today so we can fund more independent journalism like this, challenging the corporate media’s version of political events. If you’re already subscribed to Zeteo, thank you and please do consider donating to help us do more of this work, and to ask the questions so many ‘mainstream’ journalists fail to do.

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“People who want to kill Americans, we are less prepared to stop them than at any point since 9-11,” says Taylor, as he answers questions from John Harwood and Zeteo’s subscribers during this latest Substack live.

Watch the full video above to hear how Trump could weaponize the U.S. Postal Service to jeopardize elections, the security threats political appointees like Kash Patel pose, and a special announcement from Taylor towards the end of the discussion.

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Fox News recently published stunning poll results for the Senate race in solidly-Republican Ohio: Democrat Sherrod Brown led GOP incumbent Jon Husted, 53% to 45%.

In an era of metronomic partisan polarization, that eight-point Democratic margin in Ohio almost defies belief. But an intra-Republican fracture explains it: Only 4% of those aligned with Donald Trump’s MAGA movement backed Brown, but 31% of “non-MAGA” Republicans crossed party lines to support the Democratic candidate.

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That snapshot reflects an emerging 2026 picture that does not resemble a familiar face-off between evenly-matched Republican and Democratic two parties. Instead, the midterm elections increasingly pit the MAGA minority against the American majority of everyone else.

“This phenomenon is part of what underlies the Democrats’ overwhelming success in 30-plus special elections” during Trump 2.0, says Geoff Garin, a top Democratic pollster. And it fuels the party’s growing optimism about capturing not just the House but also the Senate by winning states like Ohio that present-day Democrats routinely lose.

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Several months ago, with primary elections coming up, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the city chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America decided to make them a test of strength. Mamdani endorsed three candidates for Congress, and both he and NYC-DSA worked overtime campaigning and fundraising for them.

The election was Tuesday, and the result was a clean sweep for Mamdani’s candidates. His friend Brad Lander easily defeated incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th district, while Claire Valdez defeated Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso for an open seat in the 7th district. In a shocking upset, former Mamdani campaign volunteer Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a five-term incumbent and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in the 13th district.

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Mamdani and his DSA allies are proving to be something of local kingmakers – and fairly cutthroat ones too. Espaillat endorsed Mamdani for the general election in the mayor’s race, while Nydia Velázquez – the 7th district’s retiring incumbent, who supported Reynoso – endorsed Mamdani for the primary.

For Mamdani, playing nice with establishment Democrats is evidently not as important as building up his political power base and putting allies into key positions.

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Earlier this month, during Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs, Mayor Zohran Mamdani turned up in a Finals-themed ad alongside three candidates he’s backing for Congress: Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and Darializa Avila Chevalier.

“This is the team. This is our year,” Mamdani said in the spot, funded by all three campaigns.

With that ad, Tuesday’s primaries became a test of how much the mayor’s endorsement is worth six months into his first term, and whether he can build a political machine. In recent weeks, pro-Israel interests and dark-money groups have poured cash into the race, to try to stymie Mamdani’s ascent as a kingmaker in New York.

Lander and Avila Chevalier are challenging Democratic incumbents, Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat. Valdez is running for the open seat of retiring Democratic Rep. Nydia Velázquez, against her chosen successor, Antonio Reynoso.

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When it comes to the details, Mamdani’s “team” isn’t quite as unified as the ad might suggest. Of the three, only Valdez and Avila Chevalier have endorsed each other. (Like Mamdani, Valdez and Avila Chevalier are Democratic socialists, endorsed by the New York City Democratic Socialists of America.)

Lander – the former New York City Comptroller and a Mamdani ally from the mayoral race last year – hasn’t formally endorsed either candidate with whom he shared a court. He also cut a separate video with Reynoso, a longtime ally from their days on the City Council.

Still, if Mamdani’s candidates win on Tuesday, Mamdani won’t only be seen as a uniquely strong communicator or telegenic presence – but as a powerbroker.

Here’s who’s trying to stop him:

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I have spent the past few days looking over old notes on conversations I’ve had with senior U.S. officials, Donald Trump advisers, and other sources since January, before Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started their war on Iran. Like many of you, I am still trying to make sense of what on earth just happened – how a war so stupid, so self-defeating, so grossly nihilistic unfolded behind the scenes, orchestrated by the most pathetic, fascist dorks a collapsing American empire could ever belch out.

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In reviewing my own reporting, there’s one thing I can’t quite get past: President Trump didn’t just lose this war. He lost it within its first 72 hours, long before he made us all endure the last several months of death and destruction. And I don’t say this lightly: Trump’s Iran war is not just the most Orwellian war of our lifetimes – it is also the worst-run war in modern U.S. history, perhaps in all of our nation’s history.

“It was doomed from the very start,” one senior Trump administration official tells me. “We went in with no real mission and we all knew that. Now we have to spend the next five months hoping voters don’t bitch-slap us for it.”

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“It is very much the latter days of a dictator who is on his way out,” says CNN host turned independent journalist Jim Acosta to Zeteo’s John Harwood. The two discussed Trump’s recent embarrassing endeavors in a Substack live conversation, in which they answered questions from an audience of subscribers.

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So, will Trump call it quits? Will he throw JD Vance under the bus over Iran? How worried should we be about people like Stephen Miller and Peter Thiel? Watch the full video above to hear Acosta’s take on all that and more – and let us know what you think in the comments below.

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Donald Trump desperately wants out of the massively unpopular war he started, and appears willing to hand Iran a stunning victory in exchange. And the U.S. president is absolutely furious at the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for trying to stop him from bailing on their disastrous war of choice, by continuing to kill people in Lebanon despite the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding establishing a ceasefire there.

During the past several days, Trump has aggressively complained to administration officials and other confidants that the Israelis are trying to trick him into restarting a full-blown war with Iran, three people with direct knowledge of the matter and another person briefed on it tell Zeteo.

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“He’s swearing a lot about it,” according to a close Trump adviser. A Trump administration official adds bluntly: “At least right now, he’s definitely madder at the Israelis than the Iranians.”

The sources who’ve spoken to President Trump in the past several days say Israel’s continued attacks in Lebanon and Israeli leaders’ efforts to pressure the Americans into abandoning the (albeit incredibly shaky) memorandum of understanding with Iran have, in fact, further driven Trump in the opposite direction.

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A Democratic socialist born in 1997 is threatening to unseat a veteran Democrat who first took office in 1997.

In Colorado’s first congressional district, 29-year-old Melat Kiros leads corporate-backed 30-year incumbent Diana DeGette by five points, according to a new poll.

The survey, by Data for Progress, finds Kiros leading DeGette 41% to 36%. The poll was conducted on behalf of Justice Democrats, a progressive super PAC backing Kiros’s campaign, and the American Priorities PAC.

The results are an enormous shift from a March poll, also conducted by Data for Progress, which showed DeGette leading Kiros 40% to 7%. Since then, there has evidently been a 38-point-swing toward Kiros.

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The poll comes as outside cash floods into the Denver race. Super PACs linked to the real estate lobby, the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, and the Democratic establishment – and some that have seemed to emerge out of nowhere – have all descended into the race in support of DeGette, and against Kiros.

Eleventh Hour Scramble

The final weeks of the primary election, which is set for June 30, have been eventful. Last week, Kiros was planning to hold a campaign rally alongside streamer Hasan Piker, as well as fellow Justice Democrats-backed candidates Donavan McKinney, who is running in Michigan, and Justin Pearson, who is running in Tennessee. However, multiple venues, including two linked to Colorado’s richest man, Philip Anschutz, canceled on organizers at the last minute.

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The trio of Justice Democrats proceeded to host a rally anyhow, attracting a crowd of hundreds in front of the Colorado State Capitol.

In the past two weeks, meanwhile, PAC spending has flooded into the district. In early June, the Mile High Accountability Project – a new Super PAC formed in April, with no public donors – began spending $350,000 in support of DeGette. This week, a PAC called Pro-Choice Majority Action – reportedly linked to AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel – dropped $459,000 in support of DeGette. Project 218, which has in the past supported more moderate and party establishment-aligned Democrats, also is spending $400,000 in support of DeGette.

DeGette has received $253,500 in corporate PAC money just in this election cycle. Kiros, meanwhile, has pledged not to accept any corporate PAC donations.

The race echoes dynamics playing out in Democratic primaries across the country: a progressive challenger, channeling pent-up voter frustration at the old-guard, pitching a momentous bid against an incumbent or party-friendly candidate.

New Jersey’s Adam Hamawy and Pennsylvania’s Chris Rabb both outlasted crowded primary fields and outside spending from similar interests to win their primaries. Kiros – backed by many of the same groups that backed Hamawy and Rabb, such as Justice Democrats, A New Policy PAC, and the Sunrise Movement – is vying to carry the momentum.

In March, Kiros became the first candidate to win over party delegates and beat DeGette at the Colorado Democratic Assembly since DeGette first joined Congress nearly 30 years ago. Kiros beat DeGette resoundingly, 67% to 33%.

Two weeks before that, Kiros beat DeGette in similarly large margins at the Denver County assembly, 63% to 35%.

And those numbers appear to extend beyond the state and local party infrastructure, as the new poll of voters show Kiros up now against her 30-year incumbent opponent.

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Israel’s largest weapons contractor, Elbit Systems, has reportedly helped carry out its genocide in Gaza, consequently attracting protests around the world. And now, per a source familiar with the matter, the company is a top contender for a massive U.S. army contract.

The U.S. subsidiary of Elbit is collaborating with the AI drone company Anduril as it appeals to Donald Trump’s Pentagon for the contract. That relationship could prove fruitful, as Trump’s own son and his son-in-law’s family each have an interest in the drone company.

Elbit America and Anduril are competing together for a U.S. army contract seeking producers for its long-awaited program to modernize its fleet of self-propelled howitzers (tank-like vehicles used for long-range fire). Anduril has said it will incorporate its AI-driven software platform into the team’s proposed system. The army aims to award the contract by July; the army hasn’t announced a full timeline yet, but development and production for a fleet of howitzers would last years.

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It would be significant for Elbit to secure the howitzer contract, former State Department official Josh Paul told Zeteo, saying there is hardly precedent for the U.S. sourcing weapons from an Israeli outfit at such a scale. “I can’t think of another Israeli co-produced system that is by itself a major defense acquisition program,” he said, adding that the Army “would be dependent on the system for a generation to come.”

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Shortly after Donald Trump’s $1.776 billion slush fund of taxpayer money was announced by the Justice Department last month, it triggered such furious backlash that the administration was forced to at least pretend it was pausing the project, with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche claiming that his department was “not moving forward with the fund, period.”

Right around that time, three sources familiar with the situation tell Zeteo, senior Trump officials immediately got to work on alternate plans for delivering public funds to the president’s allies – even if the new “fund” didn’t technically exist on paper.

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According to two of the sources, Trump himself had a succinct reply, when the topic of political or legal roadblocks to his slush fund came up in recent conversations with close advisers: “Just do it anyway.”

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Senator Susan Collins’s husband has worked for the lobbyist leading the primary super PAC supporting her re-election campaign in Maine, and he apparently worked for the lobbyist again last year, documents reviewed by Zeteo show.

According to Collins’s most recent financial disclosure, her husband, Tom Daffron, consulted last year for Chesapeake Enterprises, which appears to be the lobbying firm based in Dallas, Texas. According to the form, Daffron was paid more than $1,000. Exact figures do not have to be disclosed.

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The nature of Daffron’s work for Chesapeake Enterprises is not clear. A firm by that name is run by Scott Reed, a lobbyist and former strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Reed is one of Collins’s most important backers: He chairs Pine Tree Results PAC, a pro-Collins super PAC that spent $4 million on negative ads against Democrat Graham Platner even before primary day in Maine. (Pine Tree Results was formed on Jan. 3, 2025.)

Daffron and Reed, who led a pro-Collins outside group in 2020, worked together as lobbyists for Chesapeake Enterprises more than two decades ago, with Daffron serving as an executive vice president at the firm from 2001 to 2004.

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As it wreaks enormous damage on America and the world, Donald Trump’s second presidency has in one way performed a service.

Again and again, Trump has acted without restraint to indulge his longstanding obsessions and those of the Republican Party that empowers him. His abandon has produced real-time tests of familiar arguments they’ve offered for years.

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And in one realm after another, they’ve flunked. Let’s call the roll.

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To mark Donald Trump’s 80th birthday, here are 80 things you should know about the sitting president of the United States (who will leave office in January 2029 as the oldest president in the history of the country).

1. His father was a real estate mogul

   • Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was a prominent real estate developer who built more than 27,000 apartments and row houses across New York City.

2. His mother was an immigrant

   • Mary Anne Trump immigrated to the U.S. from Scotland in 1930, having learned English as a second language.

3. He grew up in a mansion

   • Donald Trump grew up in a 23-room brick mansion in the affluent neighborhood of Jamaica Estates, Queens.

4. He became a millionaire at just eight years old

   • According to a New York Times investigation, by the age of three, Donald Trump earned today’s equivalent of more than $200,000 a year, making him a millionaire by the age of eight.

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5. He was seen as the favorite son

   • Donald Trump was seen as the favorite of the three Trump boys, taking over his eldest brother’s position as the apparent heir to the Trump real estate empire.

6. He does not drink alcohol

   • Speaking of Trump’s eldest brother, Freddy developed alcoholism in the 1960s and died of a heart attack at the age of 42. Donald Trump cites this as the reason he doesn’t drink.

7. His late sister was a Clinton-appointed judge

   • Maryanne Trump Barry was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1999, serving in the role for 16 years before retiring amid an investigation into whether she had committed tax fraud. Guess it runs in the family.

8. He was sent to military school

   • Donald Trump was sent to the New York Military Academy at the age of 13, where he was described by many of his classmates as a “bully.” Are we surprised?

9. Yet… he dodged the Vietnam War draft

   • Despite attending military school, Trump did not, in fact, go on to serve in the military during the Vietnam War. He avoided the draft five times: the first four were to complete his college degree, and the fifth time, he was diagnosed with bone spurs that would disqualify him from service.

10. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business

    • Trump has repeatedly claimed he graduated at the top of his class in 1968, yet, Wharton’s published academic honors and deans lists for that year do not mention his name. Awkward.

11. He’s a nepo baby

    • After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Trump immediately began working for his father. He became president of the Trump Organization a whopping three years later.

    

12. He and his father were sued for discrimination

    • The Justice Department sued the Trumps in 1973 for refusing to rent apartments in predominantly white buildings to Black tenants.

13. But he did not have to admit to using discriminatory practices

    • The case ended in a settlement that did not require the Trumps to explicitly acknowledge that they used discriminatory practices. However, the government’s description of the settlement says they “failed and neglected” to comply with the Fair Housing Act.

14. Roy Cohn was one of his closest friends and mentors

    • Roy Cohn, who once worked for Sen. Joseph McCarthy as a “Red Scare” prosecutor, became one of Trump’s closest allies, and the two reportedly spoke on the phone up to five times per day.

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15. He used Cohn’s mob ties to help build his real estate projects

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There are now more than 3,000 data centers operational in the United States and more than 1,500 on the way, and the rate at which they’re being built isn’t stopping anytime soon. Data centers now make up 2.3% of total U.S. construction spending, and as artificial intelligence companies race to build even more warehouses for the servers that power large language models, Americans have noticed, and they’re not particularly happy. A Gallup poll released in May found that 7 in 10 Americans oppose a data center being built near them, with nearly half strongly opposed. These complaints aren’t partisan, with a plurality of Democrats, independents, and Republicans alike opposed to their local construction.

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Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Oracle – plus the Blackstone Group, which calls itself the largest investor in AI infrastructure in the world – pitch new jobs and tax revenue to communities that instead end up getting higher electric bills, drained water, lost farmland, and a grating mechanical hum. And last summer, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to fast-track permitting, pushing agencies to ease the very rules built to protect them.

Here are seven things to know about who pays for the data-center buildout – and who’s profiting:

1. They can eat more power than an entire state.

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Friday is IPO day for SpaceX. There’s been no shortage of hype and breaking news around Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, taking SpaceX (SPCX) public. Let’s talk about what it means for retirees, investors, and everyone else.

Due to SpaceX’s current, sky-high, $1.77 trillion valuation, set to be finalized Thursday, the company’s initial public offering has broad implications for all of us, including those who don’t invest in the markets. This market entry will touch pensions, 401(k)s, and the broader economy in unpredictable ways.

Unlike traditional mega-cap IPOs, SpaceX lost billions in the year before filing to bring the company public. In fiscal year 2025, SpaceX posted a net loss of $4.94 billion, and xAI, which Musk merged with SpaceX in February 2026, lost $6.36 billion that same year.

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In terms of the company valuation Musk and his underwriting banks have arrived at, investment research firm Morningstar has shared that it would shave that down by about 56%.

Given that a 2024 Wall Street Journal story ran with the subhead, “Some executives and board members fear the billionaire’s use of drugs – including LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms and ketamine – could harm his companies,” what does it mean that this country’s financial systems are turning themselves into propulsion systems to ensure that Musk becomes a trillionaire this Friday?

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PORTLAND, Maine – Tuesday is primary day for Graham Platner, the populist Marine combat veteran and oysterman, whom Maine is expected to nominate for Senate over the objections of the U.S. political establishment, the far-right, and the corporate media class. If he wins, he will face five-term Republican Senator Susan Collins in the fall.

More than any other election in the U.S. this year, the Maine Senate race has become a test of what people think should matter: policy goals (in Platner’s case, an expressed desire to fight corporate power, end wars, and stop Donald Trump’s authoritarian blitz), or the narratives that political operatives and journalists concoct together about politics and discuss in place of any of the many problems people experience as a result of policy decisions made in Washington, DC.

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The outside observers keyed in on Platner would have voters believe the race is about morality – as if there is any to be found in the candidate’s most prominent critics, some of whom are committed genocide deniers and unrepentant war propagandists, or in a political consensus that distributes death and despair outward, and ever-more wealth upward.

The question that’s actually on the ballot in Maine is more fundamental. It is a question that politicos and journalists avoid engaging with in a serious way: “Which side are you on?”

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This story is being published in partnership between Zeteo and The Lever.

As Democrats debate how and whether to use power if they regain control of Congress and the White House, former President Barack Obama has lambasted his party for failing to more aggressively challenge or circumvent obstructions to enacting their campaign promises.

“There’s been some unwillingness on the part of Democrats in the past to break down some of the institutional barriers for us getting stuff done, just because, well, it’s always been done that way,” he lamented to a YouTube host earlier this year.

Obama said he was frustrated during his presidency with Senate filibuster rules, which require 60 votes to pass most legislation. He suggested it was a mistake for Democrats to preserve the filibuster “when it blocks us from making government effective,” arguing that it “makes people feel like government is corrupt.”

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However, amid Obama’s media tour unveiling his new $850 million presidential center, documents obtained by Zeteo and The Lever through an open records request show Obama as president scoffing at demands that he more forcefully navigate those same barriers on healthcare policy, when he and his party controlled the White House and large majorities in Congress.

The documents also show Obama’s staff cheering him on after he rebuffed a supporter who was disappointed by the president’s surrender on his promise to enact a public health insurance option – a proposal that conservative Democrats continue to tout today as an alternative to Medicare for All.

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