đ© Trump 'Shits' on America
Mehdi launches Zeteo's new morning newsletter 'First Draft.' In today's inaugural edition: Trump's crazy video, 'No Kings' fallout, Gaza latest, and the return of George Santos.
Note from Zeteo: Due to some technical issues (possibly related to the AWS outage) and several subscribers telling us they havenât received our new morning newsletter yet, weâre re-sending todayâs first edition of âFirst Draft.â We apologize if youâve received it twice, but we didnât want subscribers to miss out on our first-ever morning newsletter!
Good morning! Mehdi here, writing to you in the very first edition of Zeteoâs brand-new newsletter, âFirst Draft.â
Forget those boring, âboth sides,â centrist newsletters from the legacy media outlets, because I can assure you that âFirst Draftâ will fast become your go-to morning source for American politics, especially from a progressive perspective. And if youâre not from the US, weâve also got you covered here with a roundup of world news stories straight to your inbox, every weekday at around 7 am ET.
Iâll be authoring the newsletter every Monday morning, while my new colleague Peter Rothpletz, a rising-star writer, political commentator, and a fellow MSNBC alum, will write to you Tuesday through Friday.
In todayâs inaugural âFirst Draft,â youâll hear from Donald Trump, Gavin Newsom, Eric Swalwell, Russ Vought, Robert Malley, and George Santos, among others.
Currently, anyone can read âFirst Draftâ without a paywall, but it wonât always be free. Subscribe today to ensure you always get âFirst Draft,â unpaywalled, in your inbox. If youâre already a paid subscriber, you can always support our independent journalism even further with a donation.
Pooping on Democracy

Nearly 7 million attendees. More than 2,700 rallies. Across all 50 states.
The âNo Kingsâ protests were among the biggest in American history. And yet here - I kid you not! - is how the president of the United States responded over the weekend, posting this AI-generated video to his social media:
Can you imagine the reaction if Joe Biden had posted a video of himself in a crown, in a fighter jet marked âKing Biden,â dropping literal shit on, say, a March for Life rally? Congressional Republicans would have drawn up articles of impeachment by the next morning. Fox would have been baying for his blood. Even âliberalâ media outlets would have been questioning his mental competence and writing explainer pieces on the 25th Amendment.
Yet none of the Sunday shows aired, or even mentioned to their viewers, Trumpâs insane AI slop. None of them asked any of their various Republican guests â including Senators Rand Paul and Katie Britt and House Speaker Mike Johnson â a single question about what I believe we should now be calling âPoopgate.â
Do we need any further evidence that much of our mainstream media is broken? Not fit for purpose? Unwilling to hold Trump to the standards we have held every previous president of our lifetimes to? Joe Biden mistakenly referred to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt as âthe president of Mexico,â and it dominated the headlines. Donald Trump posts a video of himself spraying human feces over American citizens and⊠crickets!
Despite parroting Republican bad-faith claims that the âNo Kingsâ rallies would be âhate rallies,â the truth is that âthe only hate anyone saw on the day of the protest was our commander in chief posting an AI video depicting himself dropping shit on millions of Americans,â Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell told âFirst Draft.â âYet mainstream media said nothing on the Sunday shows about it. Thankfully, independent media is making sure Americans know how their president feels about them.â
Indeed, we are! And to clear up any media confusion about what happened this weekend â the New York Times cautiously described Trump dumping only âbrown liquidâ on protesters â one senior Trump administration official confirmed to my Zeteo colleague Swin Suebsaeng on Sunday: âIt is shit. A lot of it ⊠What else would that be?â (The White House press office, however, did not respond to Zeteoâs multiple requests for an on-the-record comment on âPoopgateâ.)
None of this is normal. Not Trump putting out a video of him shitting on Americans. Not Trump also putting out a video of him being president of the United States forever. Not Trump telling reporters on Sunday that he âcan always use the Insurrection Actâ to get his way. We must not normalize any of this. Normalization of authoritarianism is complicity in authoritarianism.
This is why the âNo Kingsâ protests were so important, so crucial, so timely. Millions of Americans took to the streets, refusing to be complicit; refusing to normalize the abnormal. Our insecure president claimed to reporters over the weekend that the âNo Kingsâ rallies were âvery smallâ and âa joke.â He wishes. They were ginormous. They were peaceful. They had a carnival-like atmosphere, with attendees of all ages, backgrounds, and demographics. I saw it for myself when I spoke at the big âNo Kingsâ rally in sunny Washington, DC, near the Capitol, alongside the likes of Senators Chris Murphy and Bernie Sanders, and âScience Guyâ Bill Nye. This section of my speech, on Trumpâs immigrant wives, has since gone viral:
Whereâs the lie? đ
đïž What You Need to Know
Never-ending shutdown? The US has officially entered its 20th day of the government shutdown. Itâs already the third-longest funding lapse in modern history.
Military dictatorship: Trump threatened to send the National Guard to San Francisco.
Super suspicious: The FBI is investigating the origins of a hunting stand near Palm Beach International Airport with a direct sight on where Trump exits Air Force One.
Shots fired: California Governor Gavin Newsom called JD Vance ârecklessâ after moving forward with a military display that sent fragments of an artillery shell over Interstate 5, hitting a California Highway Patrol vehicle and motorcycle that were part of the vice presidentâs detail (thankfully, no one was hurt).
When Is a Ceasefire Not a Ceasefire?

On Saturday, The Guardian reported that Israel had been accused by the Gaza Media Office of violating the ceasefire with Hamas â47 times since the truce came into effect in early October, killing 38 Palestinians and wounding another 143.â By Sunday, after 45 Palestinians were killed in multiple Israeli air strikes, a Palestinian government office was telling Middle East Eye that Israeli forces had âcarried out 80 ceasefire violations since 10 October, killing 97 people and wounding 230 more.â
So what are we to make of the Associated Press reporting that âGazaâs fragile ceasefire faced its first major test Sunday as Israeli forces launched a wave of deadly strikes, saying Hamas militants had killed two soldiersâ? Or Reuters referring to Israeli strikes on Gaza âafter two soldiers killed, in gravest test of truce so farâ? What about major media outlets saying the âmajorâ or âgravestâ test of the ceasefire was two Israeli soldiers being killed on Sunday, not, say, seven Palestinian kids being killed on Friday? As ever, Palestinian lives donât count; Palestinians are âunpeopleâ for much of the mainstream media.
As for the Trump-orchestrated ceasefire now, apparently, holding again? Well, as the saying goes, in the Middle East, a ceasefire means the Palestinians cease and the Israelis fire.
đ§ Pop Quiz!
Organizers said nearly 7 million people turned out on Saturday for the âNo Kingsâ protest, an astonishing and super-impressive number. But which 1970 protest garnered nearly three times that turnout, making it the largest single-day protest in US history?
Keep your eyes out for the answer below!
đ Anywhere But America
đŹđ§đźđ± âœïž The entire British political and media class has spent the past few days up in arms over a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans attending a Europa League game at Aston Villa next month, after West Midlands police in the UK expressed concerns over the potential for violence. âAntisemitism,â they screamed in unison. And yet on Sunday, Tel Avivâs football derby between Maccabi and Hapoel was canceled, after Israeli police said âviolent riotsâ had erupted between supporters of the two teams. Are the Israeli police antisemitic, too?
đšđŽ Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the Trump administration of murder, saying a US strike on a boat in mid-September killed âlifelong fishermanâ Alejandro Carranza. Trump, of course, responded with name-calling, baselessly labeling Petro an âillegal drug dealerâ and announcing the US would cut aid payments to the South American country.
đŻđ” Japan looks set to name Sanae Takaichi, a hard-right politician who idolizes Margaret Thatcher, as its next prime minister on Tuesday. Takaichi, a China hawk, will become the countryâs first-ever female PM.
đ«đ·đ The worldâs most visited museum â the Louvre in Paris â was forced to temporarily shut its doors after four thieves armed with power tools made off with eight âpricelessâ jewels, including a tiara and brooch that belonged to Empress EugĂ©nie, the wife of Napoleon III. The daylight robbery took just seven minutes. A real-life episode of âLupinâ!
đš Donât Miss It!
I interviewed former Biden diplomat Robert Malley on the Democratsâ decades of dishonesty on the Middle East. In a remarkable conversation, Malley denounced the Biden administrationâs approach to Gaza, telling me they were âworking tirelessly for a ceasefire and kept providing the weapons that ensured that the fire would never cease.â He also debunked Bill Clintonâs lies about the Camp David summit in 2000 â Malley was there!
Keep an eye on your inbox for the full Zeteo video of that exclusive interview later today!
â Whatâs the Tea?
Trump kept trying to get his âProject 2025â architect laid!
Over the weekend, Zeteoâs newest political reporter, Swin Suebsaeng, sent me the latest scoop heâs got from inside the weird Trump administration and, well, wait for it:
By mid-2024, Donald Trump and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought were talking on the phone fairly regularly. But it often wasnât about policy. Trump â when he had downtime from campaigning and plotting his fascist presidency â appeared preoccupied with getting the recently divorced Vought laid, two knowledgeable sources tell me. Trump spoke to Vought, a self-described Christian nationalist whoâs now one of the presidentâs most hardline enforcers, about the âgorgeousâ and âbeautiful ladiesâ who roam Trumpâs club, Mar-a-Lago, so often that it âweirded outâ some of his advisers, in one sourceâs words. Trump offered to be Voughtâs wingman. And Trump spoke crudely of all the âpussyâ that Vought would surely get as the presidentâs favorite âbachelor.â
OK, now I need to go take a shower. Ugh!
Fox Watch
âCongratulations on getting out.â
Yes, thatâs how Fox â the âlaw and orderâ network â introduced none other than convicted criminal and disgraced former New York Rep. George Santos just hours after his release from prison, after Trump â the âlaw and orderâ president â shamelessly commuted his sentence and let Santos keep the nearly $400,000 he stole from his victims.
Trivia answer: The First Earth Day protest
đ Chart of the Day
Only in America do politicians get to pick their voters, rather than voters picking their politicians. Above, The Argument breaks down how bad gerrymandering could get for the Democrats next year if the Supreme Court guts Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
đïž Mark Your Calendars
Tuesday, Oct. 21: An appeals court is set to weigh the Trump administrationâs appeal of Mahmoud Khalilâs release
Wednesday, Oct. 22: The International Court of Justice will deliver its advisory opinion on Israelâs obligations regarding the UNâs presence in Palestine
Friday, Oct. 24: New York Attorney General Letitia James is scheduled to appear in court after her DOJ indictment
ICYMI From Zeteo
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Good stuff ZeteoâŠ..and Mehdiâs speech was terrific! Had watched it on Saturday but took another look todayâŠit was a moment!
On Target Zeteo!