From “Poll: Trump’s election orders would mass disenfranchise working-class voters” by Jordan Zakarin at More Perfect Union: “President Donald Trump’s executive orders on election administration would create significant — and in many cases, insurmountable — barriers for working- and middle- class Americans to voting, according to a new poll from More Perfect Union and Blue Rose Research…In his second term, Trump has taken aggressive steps to attempt to restrict voting. In March 2025, he signed an executive order to require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. A more recent executive order would create a national database of voters and instruct the USPS to limit who receives mail-in ballots. (The March 2025 executive order was blocked in August, while litigation has been filed in response to the executive order pertaining to mail-in voting.)…Trump also continues to demand that Congress pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a bill that would radically limit voter registration and which experts say would be the most restrictive federal voting legislation in history…The poll, which surveyed 3,129 registered voters between April 16 and April 27, found that the proof of citizenship requirements pushed by Trump set a bar for voter registration that most voters would struggle to meet. Just 26% of voters said that they have an up-to-date passport, while nearly a third of voters (32%) said that requiring a passport to register would make it more difficult or prevent them from voting…Nearly half of voters (46%) said that the $130 fee to purchase a new passport would be a financial burden. Two-thirds of lower-income voters said the $130 cost would be a barrier and nearly half (47%) reported it would prevent or deter them from registering and voting altogether. Among middle-income voters, just over half (53%) said that the price would cause them issues, including just over a third (36%) who said it would make them less likely or unable to vote.” More here.

Douglas MacKinnon argues that “Without the working class, Democrats will tank the midterms — and 2028” at The Hill, and writes: “As we get closer to the midterms in November and the presidential election in 2028, one has to wonder if any of the Democrats in leadership positions — be they in Congress, in the Democratic National Committee or the billionaires bankrolling various initiatives in favor of leftist causes — actually know or speak with any working-class Americans on a regular basis…As someone who grew up in abject poverty, I have long stayed in touch with parents and individuals who live paycheck to paycheck. Some are Democrats. Some are Republicans. Some are fiercely independent. Most are facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles tied to the cost of living, rising crime, and an increasingly bleak future for their children…These Americans, who make up the vast majority of our population, have grown wary of leaders representing both political parties who float high above them and their increasing misery in bubbles of entitlement, luxury and purposeful ignorance. They may not understand the intricacies of politics and policy, but they recognize nonsense and abdication of responsibility when they see it.” More here.

It has been decided in Trumpworld that you should pay for the January 6 “insurrection,” in which rioters broke into congress, some defaced the walls with feces and many sought to do harm to members of congress and the Vice President. As the Associated Press team of Fatima Hussein, Alanna Tucker and Eric Durker report in “Justice Department announces a $1.7 billion ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ fund to compensate Trump allies” via pbs.org: “The Trump administration on Monday announced the creation a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies of the Republican president who believe they were mistreated by the Biden administration Justice Department…The “Anti-Weaponization Fund” was announced by the Justice Department as part of a deal to resolve President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns…Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in announcing the fund in a statement that it was “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”…Democrats and government watchdogs immediately pledged to fight what they called a “corrupt” and unprecedented resolution, warning that the arrangement would unjustly enrich people close to the president with taxpayer dollars and open the door to meritless claims of political persecution…Trump’s lawyers disclosed the dismissal of the case in a filing Monday in federal court in Florida, where the president sued earlier this year…The fund would represent not only a highly unorthodox resolution but also a further demonstration of the administration’s eagerness to reward allies who before Trump came to power were investigated and in some cases charged and convicted. Most notably, the president on his first day back in office pardoned or commuted the sentences of supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His Justice Department since then has approved payouts to supporters entangled in the Trump-Russia investigation and investigated and prosecuted some of his perceived adversaries…”This case is nothing but a racket designed to take $1.7 billion of taxpayer dollars out of the Treasury and pour it into a huge slush fund for Trump at DOJ to hand out to his private militia of insurrectionists, rioters, and white supremacists, including those who brutally beat police officers on January 6, 2021, and sycophant accomplices to his election stealing schemes,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.” More here.

In “Tax world gawks at Trump audit agreement: ‘Never seen anything like this‘,” Brian Faler sees it like this at Politico: “President Donald Trump is flipping what had been a doomed lawsuit against the IRS into a free pass from the agency…Astonishment is rippling through tax world at a settlement that goes far beyond the specifics of Trump’s suit — he sought billions of dollars as compensation for some of his tax records being leaked to the news media — to instead provide him, his family and his businesses sweeping protections against government scrutiny of his taxes…Under the plan signed off on by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the IRS would be “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED” from all audits of “any matters currently pending.” What’s more, some worry it may mean Trump will never again be audited by the agency, pointing to vague language in the settlement barring examinations that stem from “lawfare.”…“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Steve Rosenthal, a former longtime senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank…The one-page document the Justice Department released Tuesday represents the most audacious step yet in Trump’s ongoing efforts to shield his taxes from scrutiny. He’s long bucked a decades-old tradition of presidents voluntarily releasing their filings, but this would prevent the IRS from examining them as well — special treatment that the IRS does not provide any other American. It would also flout the agency’s longstanding policy of automatically auditing every president…It also promises a massive fight with Democrats if they vault back into power in this year’s midterm elections, with the agreement rocketing up lawmakers’ oversight to-do list…“Democrats are going to fight every element of this,” said Sen. Ron Wyden(Ore.), the ranking Democrat on the tax-writing Finance committee.” More here.