Tired of Bad News? Here's The Good News
Most vulnerable Senate Democrat now expected to win, Trump's own prosecutor blows up his Reflecting Pool lie and birthright citizenship is here to stay
Hey, Raw America family. Welcome to the Sunday Wrapup. I’m here with my cup of coffee, and I hope today’s newsletter is a fun read.
To everyone who’s already a paying subscriber: thank you. You funded a week where we watched Trump’s biggest targets slip out of his grip. That’s not luck. That’s judges, voters, and stubborn opponents refusing to fold. And it’s the story the mainstream media keeps burying.
If you’re on the free list, this is the week to change that. We don’t have an oligarch paying our bills or a corporate parent telling us what to do. We have you. And I really mean you - if I’m honest, we’re a bit behind on our fundraising goals. Join our community today and fuel the fight.
Jon Ossoff Just Got Even Harder to Beat
Let’s begin with a story you know I’ve been following.
On Friday, Jon Ossoff, the Georgia senator Trump has targeted since 2020, got a major boost. Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a respected political forecaster, moved his race from “leans Democrat” to “likely Democrat.”
Ossoff is the most vulnerable Senate Democrat up for election this year. And the guy who picks winners now says if Ossoff lost in November, it would be a huge surprise.
Here’s why. Ossoff spent this year doing the work that most Democrats only talk about. He went straight after Trump and his goons. Ossoff grilled Pete Hegseth using the defense secretary’s own words on Iran. He backed Trump’s intelligence pick, Jay Clayton, into a corner. He questioned Clayton about who won the 2020 election and refused to let go until Clayton was squirming.
“Isn’t it humiliating,” Ossoff asked, “to have to indulge the president’s delusions?”
Trump’s response was to call him “Pinky Herman.” Pee-wee Herman, maybe? Meanwhile, a CNN poll this week found Ossoff the frontrunner for the 2028 presidential nomination, ahead of Gavin Newsom.
And it isn’t just Georgia. The same forecast pushed five Republican-held House seats toward Democrats, including Trump ally Mike Lawler in NY. Twenty districts are now rated toss-ups. The man Trump most wanted to destroy is pulling away, and dragging his party’s House majority into the deep.
Trump’s Own Prosecutor Just Blew Up His Reflecting Pool Lie
This story is almost too perfect.
You remember Trump’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool saga: nearly $15 million spent to repaint it blue, followed by algae blooms and peeling paint. Rather than admit his renovation flopped, Trump theorized that vandals cut a 300-foot gash in the lining with a knife.
Former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, his U.S. Attorney, ran with it. She appeared on Fox and vowed to prosecute anyone who touched the pool. Then she indicted a 67-year-old former Olympian on a felony that carried up to ten years. His crime? Picking up a piece of lining that had already peeled loose.
On Friday, the case collapsed. Pirro filed to drop the case, conceding that the damage was “the result of flawed installation by the contractor,” not vandalism.
The pool was Trump’s fault, just as Olympian David Hearn said.
Pirro didn’t just fold, though. She blamed the Trump administration’s own Interior Department. Her filing said officials sat on evidence that the liner was botched despite “dozens and dozens” of requests from her office.
Had they been honest, she wrote, she never would have brought the case.
Brilliant.
If this news matters to you, upgrade to a paying subscription. We need your help to stay in the fight.
Birthright Citizenship Survives
Here’s a quieter win that slipped under the radar.
Back in June, the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s executive order trying to end birthright citizenship. The 6-3 vote killed his attempt to deny automatic citizenship to babies born in the U.S. to immigrant parents. Trump vowed to seek a rehearing.
This week, the deadline to file came and went. Trump’s lawyers didn’t refile.
Why? Because they know the truth: the Court hasn’t agreed to rehear an argued case in more than 50 years. The odds were against him. One of his signature policies is now settled law; the children it targeted are safe.
The Slush Fund Stays Frozen
How about the January 6 payout scheme? Still dead.
You may recall the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” Trump engineered by settling his own $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. The deal would have funneled your tax dollars to January 6 rioters, and gave Trump and his sons immunity from IRS prosecution.
Federal judge Kathleen Williams blocked it. She found that Trump and his Justice Department had colluded on the settlement to eschew court scrutiny.
This week, Trump and his sons filed their appeal. That’s the whole update. And it’s good news: the fund is still frozen; the immunity is still off the table; and the only move they’ve got left is to ask a higher court to bail them out.
It fits a pattern you might’ve noticed running through this whole newsletter.
The wall of injunctions is holding. Judges also blocked Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to fast-track deportations; blocked the National Guard deployment for law enforcement in California; and stopped his effort to strip work permits from tens of thousands of immigrants.
In addition, courts kept his mail-ballot restrictions from taking effect in 23 states. It all adds up to what NBC called the administration’s worst week in the courts in months.
Be Part of What Comes Next
I wanted to give you a hopeful newsletter this week because the hope is real, and you paid for the reporting that proves it.
But none of these wins were inevitable, and none of them are permanent. Trump’s appealing the IRS ruling. He’s still threatening the courts, still pushing on election fraud, still escalating in Iran. The wall holds because people keep showing up: a judge who won’t be rushed, an Olympian who wouldn’t take a plea, a senator who won’t stop asking the hard questions.
Raw America is part of that wall. We’re funded by readers. We’ve no owner to please, no advertiser to scare, no license for Trump to threaten. And I have to be straight: we’re behind on our goals. If just one in twenty of you reading this became a paying subscriber, we could fund our entire newsroom.
Will you be one of the twenty?
The billionaire outlets claim resistance is futile. That the fix is in. That you should give up and sit on your hands. This week proved the opposite. Ordinary people are doing their jobs and refusing to fold. Those who stood up beat the most powerful man in the world four times in five days.
We’re small. But we’re fearless, and we’re here for you. As we approach the midterms, that matters more than it has in years.
Thanks for keeping us in the fight.
— John Byrne / Founder, Raw America and Raw Story