Nick Shirley and the White House Make Their Relationship Official 

A Paid Man

Nick Shirley finally got a government check. 

It’s a wonder it took so long. For the last year and a half, he’s played the role of quasi-state run media. As the Trump administration flooded a series of cities last year with federal immigration officers, Shirley was at the head of a coterie of influencers who received special access from the Department of Homeland Security while promoting the department’s enforcement operations. 

At times, these influencers received protection from federal immigration enforcement officers. In other instances, the White House suggested that Shirley, and other influencers like him, pointed the way for Trump administration operations. It may sound far-fetched, but as the operation began, Shirley released a video titled “I Investigated Minnesota’s Billion Dollar Fraud Scandal” that the White House later cited as a reason to flood Minneapolis with federal immigration agents, outnumbering local law enforcement by a factor of three to one. 

There’s a chicken-and-egg question with Shirley. His investigative videos don’t feature the kind of meticulousness, patience, or attention to detail normally associated with what it takes to uncover a complex fraud ring. In many of the videos, Shirley walks into partly empty buildings, claims that the people there are receiving government funds, and deems it all a scandal. As my colleague Derick Dirmaier noted here recently, Shirley may lack other core competencies, including spelling, color identification, and history. It’s possible that he pointed the way for the White House, but I find that unlikely. Minnesota GOP lawmakers reportedly worked with Shirley on the video; thinking of him as a useful means for the administration to direct attention makes a lot more sense. 

For many people, this raised the question: is Nick Shirley a quasi-Trump admin employee? He and his representatives (mostly his mom, also an internet influencer in her own right) have denied that they’re working at all on behalf of the Trump administration. But on Tuesday, Shirley agreed to accept a nominal fee: $10,000 for his work.

“Nick has been at the forefront of the battle to stop the horrible plague that’s happened within our country,” President Trump said of Shirley this week, adding: “And there’s never been anything like it, what’s happened, and look, it’s been going on for a long time.”

Trump used Shirley to announce a new program in which people can report fraud and receive up to $30,000 from the government if their information results in a conviction. It pales in comparison to the False Claims Act, which allows whistleblowers to receive up to 25% of money recovered if the government takes action based on their case. 

And even by Shirley-an standards, $10,000 is likely more of a symbol than anything else. The notoriety granted him by the White House drove millions of views on his YouTube channel, though that tends not to pay as well as people might assume. He has a merchandise shop going. But Shirley, like many other political influencers, is operating in the Wild West: there are no laws forcing influencers to disclose who pays them. Revelations of how this segment of the political world works have dripped out, leak by leak, but it’s opaque by nature. For Shirley, $10,000 from the White House is far more transparent than usual. 

The Big, Beautiful Bill Taketh and Giveth Away 

Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill slashed SNAP funding and may have caused as many as 1.5 million kids to lose federal nutrition benefits. The bill, now law, gutted federal health care, and more than 2 million children lost coverage between June 2025 and June 2026. It enabled the Department of Education to strip federal loan eligibility from several higher education degrees. In short, it was bad for many children and students in America.

But as with most Trump policies, the OBBA was a windfall for billionaires, especially those associated with major tech companies who cozied up to Trump at the start of his second term and were rewarded with tens of billions of dollars in federal tax cuts and significant tax breaks provided for AI research and development. It’s curious then that on the eve of the midterms, some of the billionaires that benefitted from Trump’s bill are promising new investments aimed at America’s youth.   

On Monday *trillionaire* Trump ally and ex-U.S. government dismantler Elon Musk pledged to give American children a share in his company SpaceX through Trump accounts, long-term investment and savings accounts for American children made possible by the OBBBA. Musk’s statement comes on the heels of a pledge from tech magnates Michael and Susan Dell, who have already started fulfilling their promise to throw $250 to 25 million kids via Trump’s eponymous accounts.

While the Dells made their Trump account pledge in 2025, their Oval Office event with the president announcing their plans to contribute $6.25 billion to Trump accounts came just a month out from the midterms. Musk left just two weeks between his announcement and an election that will be consequential for the GOP. 

With Trump’s open, monetary coercion of grownups failing and Musk having already failed in 2024 to win an election by lining voters’ pockets, perhaps they have decided it might be more effective to target the future financial well-being of voters’ children. The OBBBA might have taken away healthcare coverage and food from millions of children, but hey, thanks to the tax gifts to billionaires, those children can now (maybe) own a share of Space X (current value: $146.76).

“This is exactly what was envisioned,” Trump wrote on social media about Musk’s gift, “when we created TRUMP ACCOUNTS.”

LOL, OK

“If you don’t want communists controlling the US Senate, which is between JAIIIIIIT.” —Donald Trump (still president)

A Bold New Direction for 2028

Fresh off his Russian oligarch-financed Caribbean wedding extravaganza, Don Jr. is apparently having second thoughts — about his dad. For years, Daddy Trump could do no wrong in the tweets of Jr. In fact, some who are close to the matter have called Jr. the “the most MAGA of them all.” But when the president decided to skip Jr.’s wedding start a war with Iran, it seems Jr.’s rose-tinted glasses might have darkened a few shades.

According to an Atlantic exclusive based on anonymous sources close to Don Jr., the President’s son has private disagreements with his father over the Iran war. Wowzers! Private disagreements! If you’re thinking this has a whiff of a presidential run about it, you might not be wrong. There are reports that Jr.’s motivation for marrying Miami socialite Bettina Anderson was that she would make him look more presidential. There is further speculation that the president might have skipped his son’s wedding because he increasingly sees his son as political competition. And now Jr. has come out swinging — by letting some of his friends whisper secretly to the Atlantic that, in private, he disagrees with his dad on one issue. 

With the president’s approval rating hovering around 30%, this sure sounds like the kind of bold new direction the country needs for 2028.

How Much of This Week’s News Do You Remember?

1) In which state has the presence of multiple Dan Sullivan’s running for state Senate been cited as a reason the DOJ is using to take the unprecedented step of intervening to block the certification of the race to help a losing Republican?

2) What popular video game did Republican candidate for Congress in Nevada and neo-Nazi-forum-runner, Marty O’Donnell, write the music for?

3) After his overwhelming reelection in November 1936, how many additional judges did FDR plan to “pack the court” with?

Answers below

Call Their Bluff

In a bit of a ridiculous headline, Meta — the social media company formerly known as Facebook — cut a deal with Mark Zuckerberg, who of course, founded Facebook and is the CEO of Meta. Mark Zuckerberg is Meta. Meta is Mark Zuckerberg. But here’s what’s really going on: California voters will soon get to weigh in on a wealth tax on billionaires. The proposal, called Proposition 40, will be on the ballot in a few days. Zuckerberg threatened to leave California if voters approve the wealth tax. To persuade him to stay, Meta created a new class of stock that Zuckerberg can now sell to have enough cash to pay the wealth tax, while not giving up any control of the company.

Here’s the real lesson here: Don’t ever listen to anyone who says wealth taxes will backfire. This idea that rich people will just flee the country and everything will just collapse is nonsense. Zuckerberg doesn’t even want to leave California, let alone America. Remember all those people who were going to leave New York City if Mamdani won? Still here. Billionaires are not braver or tougher or smarter than you. Just call their bluff.

TPM’s Guide to the Midterms

There’s a lot to pay attention to this year. With Democrats putting up seemingly fantastical numbers in the polls, the map is expanded in ways that no one thought possible a year ago. Is Texas in play? Is Kansas? Looming over it is Trump’s cult of personality, and the lie that any election in which he or his allies run, they win.

This list is an attempt to pinpoint races that tell the story of where America is at this November, explain why, from TPM’s perspective, these races matter, and look ahead to the conversation we’ll be having in coming months.

13 Races We Think Will Define the Midterms

Well, Well, Well, Look Who It Is

Trivia answers: 1) Alaska 2) Halo 3) Six