This Week in Democracy – Week 80: Musk Plans to Spend $100 Million to Help GOP in Midterms and ICE Ramps Up Airport Arrests
Zeteo’s weekly round-up, documenting the growth of authoritarianism in Trump’s second term.
We’re less than 100 days from the midterms, and things are looking worse and worse for Donald Trump and his Republican allies. The MAGA president and his cronies know it and appear increasingly desperate, as Trump kicked his effort to restrict mail-in voting ahead of the midterms to his pals on the Supreme Court this week and as Elon Musk prepared to spend big to help the GOP in November.
The president, however, doesn’t seem desperate enough to do what voters actually want. Instead of reigning in immigration enforcement, ICE began arresting people who overstayed their visits, including spouses of U.S. citizens who have active applications to stay in the country, at airports. Trump appears no closer to ending the war in Iran, even as his own base begins to sour on it. And instead of acknowledging the anxiety Americans feel about the economy, Trump’s lackeys continue to insist everything is “amazing.”
This is what ‘democracy’ looks like in Donald Trump’s America.
From hundreds of thousands of Haitians losing their legal status to be in the country to new revelations about the administration’s effort to imprison the president’s perceived enemies, here’s more of what Trump and his allies did this week that harmed democracy, undermined the Constitution, and hurt societies worldwide:
Saturday, July 25 – Brazil Accuses Trump Admin of Election System ‘Ploy’
Brazil’s Foreign Ministry confirmed it rejected visas to two senior State Department officials, whom the Trump administration said were planning to meet with “authorities involved in the election process.”
Brazilian officials told the Washington Post they suspected that the trip was part of a “ploy” to meet with election skeptics to produce a report designed to undermine the integrity of Brazil’s electronic voting systems ahead of its upcoming election in October.
Sunday, July 26 – ICE Expected to Target Haitians as TPS Ends for 300,000
CBS News reported that ICE is planning to expand operations to arrest and deport Haitians as hundreds of thousands of people from the country, which is experiencing widespread unrest, are set to lose their legal status following a Supreme Court ruling in June allowing the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status programs for Haitians and Syrians.
Monday, July 27 – Trump Asks Supreme Court to Restrict Mail-In Voting
The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal asking the Supreme Court to allow the president’s March executive order restricting mail-in voting to move forward ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The move comes two days after a federal appeals court upheld a block on the order, writing that allowing it to take effect for the midterms “would sow confusion and threaten disenfranchisement of many eligible voters.”
Tuesday, July 28 – Thousands Arrested by ICE Thanks to Office of Refugee Resettlement Tips
Reuters reported that more than 12,000 people, including children and their sponsors, have been arrested after immigration agents received tips from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Since January 2025, the office has shared more than 460,000 leads with ICE, and the amount of time unaccompanied children are spending in ORR custody has spiked from an average of 30 days in fiscal year 2024 to nearly 200 days by June 2026.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that ICE has started arresting immigrants at airports whose visas have expired, including spouses of U.S. citizens, despite many of them having active applications to stay in the country.
Wednesday, July 29 – Trump Admin Directed Law Enforcement in Comey Probe
MS Now reported that the Trump administration directed Secret Service agents to secretly surveil James Comey’s phone in the aftermath of the former FBI director’s infamous “86 47” Instagram post that led to his second indictment by the president’s Justice Department, according to records released in court filings this week.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that Secret Service agents who questioned Comey about the post were told to send details of the interview to Trump so he could review them – revealing the president’s involvement in the criminal investigation.
Thursday, July 30 – Musk Spending Big on Midterm Elections
The New York Times reported that Elon Musk’s super PAC is expected to spend between $100 million and $120 million to help elect Republicans in the midterm elections. Musk had previously been the biggest donor in the 2024 presidential election.
The nine-figure funding is expected to be spent in at least eight states, including in Senate races in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, and Ohio, as well as House races in California, Wisconsin, and Washington.
Friday, July 31 – FBI Obtained Voter’s IP Address
Axios reported that Trump’s FBI requested and received the IP address of an individual who registered online to vote in South Carolina as part of a new strategy by the administration to investigate alleged voter fraud.
A former senior Justice Department official said it’s both “not typical” and “not appropriate” for the FBI to conduct a “fishing expedition to see private voter data.”
Did you miss previous weeks of ‘This Week in Democracy’? Catch up here. And check out more of Zeteo’s reporting from this week below:
When citizens are alert & active, the Muskrat’s money can’t buy elections.
It has to be used in campaigning. Associate Musk with a Candidate loudly and clearly. He's loathed, poisonous.