Happy Saturday, thanks for joining me. Grab a coffee, or whatever you’re drinking, and settle in. With 10 days left until the election, I’ve got a lot to show you.
On Tuesday, Trump sat in the Oval Office and asked all of us to start reporting fraud using his new hotline. This is a man who, among many other things, paid $25 million to settle fraud claims over Trump University. Funny he brought it up. Democrats already have the receipts ready for the day they get subpoena power.
Before we jump in, hit the ❤️ like button and then restack this edition—the button with two arrows next to the heart. Trump wants the whole country talking about his tip line this weekend. Let’s talk about his record instead.
When we say we’re completely independent, we mean there is no advertiser or rich owner we have to answer to, ever, because we’re 100% powered by this amazing community. That’s why I can spend these last 10 days releasing our investigations into GOP Senate campaigns. If you’ve been on the fence, I’d love to have you with me as we sprint through the finish—and beyond. Join us here:
Trump’s Record Is Already In The Court Files
Trump said the government would start paying people 1% of the fraud they report. And he made it clear he’d be the one deciding: “I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions … You’ll get your money immediately, but I’ll make the determination.”
Before Trump judges anyone else’s fraud, his own record should count. So I went back and pulled some of his most notorious cases.
In 2010, bankruptcy lawyer Sherri Simpson attended a Trump University seminar in South Florida. She remembers Trump telling viewers in videos, “Oh, you’re going to get the best of the best.”
“I realized: ‘This is a joke.’ There’s nothing there,” she said. In November 2016, right after he won the election, Trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle the Trump University lawsuits.
In February 2024, Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump, his two oldest sons, and his business had inflated the value of Trump’s buildings for years to get better loans from banks. Engoron wrote: “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological.”
In August 2025, an appeals court threw out the penalty, which had grown past $500 million with interest. But the fraud finding stayed. Trump asked New York’s highest court to throw that out too.
This is just scratching the surface of the cases against Trump. But in every one of these, he either paid up or was found liable in court. He’s the last person in America who should decide who gets paid for reporting fraud.
Robert Garcia Wants To Know Who Called
Trump’s family has another deal that Democrats in Congress want explained. In August of 2025, 1789 Capital—the investment firm where Don Jr. is a partner—bought a stake in Vulcan Elements. The company makes magnets that the Pentagon needs.
Only a month or two later, the Pentagon’s office that makes business loans was given word that the White House wanted Vulcan’s loan done. ProPublica reported in May of this year that the request came directly from Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro, who went to prison for contempt of Congress in 2024.
“The call came from the White House: We have to get this done,” one person involved told ProPublica. They finished it in weeks. And about a week before the announcement, Navarro was a guest on Don Jr.’s podcast.
Then in November 2025, the Pentagon announced a record-setting $620 million loan commitment to Vulcan. Don Jr.’s spokesman said he “has no knowledge about how this deal came together” and claimed he didn’t speak to Navarro about Vulcan.
The Pentagon and Vulcan both said politics had no influence on the loan. Top House Democrats Robert Garcia and Jared Huffman didn’t buy it. On August 11 of this year, they wrote to Vulcan demanding 17 sets of records on how the deal happened.
If Democrats win the House, Garcia will likely chair Oversight. Which means he will have the subpoena power to move this investigation and so many others forward. We will make sure he does.
He Fired The Fraud Cops In January
Catching deals like the one Garcia is chasing is supposed to be an inspector general’s job. They are independent investigators inside every big federal agency who look for waste and fraud.
On January 24, 2025, four days after Trump was sworn in, he fired about 17 of them. The next day, a reporter on Air Force One asked him why. He said it was “because it’s a very common thing to do.” That’s a lie. The Inspector General Act (IGA) says a president has to give Congress 30 days’ notice and a reason before firing one.
Eight of the fired inspectors general took Trump to court. On September 24, 2025, Judge Ana Reyes wrote, “President Trump violated the IGA. That much is obvious.” Reyes didn’t give them their jobs back, but the case is still open.
Trump’s new fraud hotline sends you to a website called America.gov, which forwards your tip to the offices of inspectors general at agencies like Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and the Small Business Administration—Trump fired the inspectors general at all three. And the site’s own assistant says it “cannot look up a report or its status.”
Trump fired the fraud cops. A judge said that broke the law. Now he wants you to do their job, for money that may never show up. If Democrats win the House, those inspectors general could be called in to testify. Voting to make that happen has already started.
Who Actually Gets To Collect
While Trump keeps talking about paying people who catch fraud, his pardons have repeatedly let convicted fraudsters off the hook for money they owe. On August 21, Rep. Jamie Raskin released a report called “Pardons, Inc.” It goes case by case through Trump’s pardons and commutations, adding up what those people no longer have to pay. That total came to nearly $1.7 billion.
In July 2024, a jury convicted Carlos Watson of conspiracy to commit fraud. A judge ordered him and his company to pay $37 million to investors he had lied to. The following March, Watson was on a plane en route to prison when he got word Trump commuted his sentence. Raskin’s report says: “They never paid a dime.”
A jury and a judge did their jobs, and Trump wiped that out. Because under this regime, the fraudster keeps the money. “Presidential clemency is supposed to be an instrument of justice and mercy,” Raskin said, “not another MAGA Get-Rich-Quick-Scheme.”
The report also names the lobbyists who pushed for these pardons, including the one Watson hired. If we take back the House, Raskin can put every one of them under oath.
With just 10 days left, voters are already lining up in record numbers. Every hour of every day, we’re digging up what Trump’s regime wants hidden and putting it in front of millions of voters in the states that decide who controls Congress.
I haven’t felt energy like this since the fall of 2008, right before Obama won. That January, I helped run his inaugural train ride from Philadelphia to DC. People stood out in the freezing cold for hours just to wave at the train going by. That was the victory lap. The election isn’t over, and what we do now decides it.
All of our work in these last 10 days is paid for by readers like you, and we need all hands on deck. If you haven’t yet, join us as a paid subscriber today:
Then hit the ❤️ like button and restack this, so your friends see Trump’s record before they vote.
Onward!
Scott
What Trump deal do you want Congress to investigate first?
Ten days left, and Congress counts every letter it gets. Four to send before your coffee gets cold:
Hold John Roberts accountable:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-impeach-supreme-court-chief-justice-john-roberts/
Keep troops away from our polls:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stop-trump-from-sending-troops-to-our-polling-places/
Save 45 million acres of our national forests:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stop-trump-from-destroying-45-million-acres-of-our-national-forests/
Stand with Ukraine over Russia:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-congress-stand-with-ukraine-over-russia?source=watchdog
Tell me below which ones you sent.
I have my fingers and toes crossed that it does happen despite the GOP suppression